Crawlspace - Ignorance is Bliss

Here is yet another record that I have meant to write about for ages but just never got to though I was reminded again after the Gizmos' weekender. Crawlspace is Gizmo Eddie Flowers' brainchild and has

gone through many incarnations, but here Eddie plays some guitar as well as lead vocals, and Greg Hajic and Joe Dean are mainly guitar and bass respectively, though they switch at times and the terrific Bob Lee is on drums throughout most of the record.

Eddie and I used to prowl through used comic book stores when we first moved to LA, as is evidenced in "(I Am) The Watcher" - although I'm sure it is about more than just the Marvel character. It is a solid rock tune with a great, noisy break and "Blame It on the Universe" reminds me a bit of the Lazy Cowgirls, especially in rhythmic, clapping bridge. "Whatever Happened to Gloria?" is a good stomper that ends abruptly and then there's a vaguely dissonant, cymbal-crashin' "(Here Come) Them Sexy 60's" with some hep dual guitar duels. I always wanted to do "First I Look at the Purse", but Eddie really did with this swingin', fuzz-tastic version.

Sounding a lot more like the psycho-noise Crawlspace is "Vote Yes on 69" - a cool piece of Velvet-y drone-y repetitiveness that gives Eddie a chance to talk in tongues over the proceedings. A Beefhartian title "Women in Cemetaries (Throwin' Monkeys)" is a cacophonous rocker, as is "The Girl's Gettin' Lower". A little slower and groovy is the jazzy blues of "Rt. 1 Box 22N" with Hajic playing some cool licks behind Eddie's stream-of-Crawlspace monologue. "Mark of Death" is a short'n'heavy cover (though I don't know the original) that ends is guitar cord (not chord) noise that is followed by an MC5-ish fast rocker "Sara Jane!". Don't know if he would agree with me, but "Not a Heartache" reminds me of "Clash City Rocker" mixed with Chuck Berry! Bob Lee provides a Bo Diddley-ish backbeat for the aural bedlam that makes up "Some Shitty Girls", giving a groove to the pandemonium.

All-in-all, this Crawlspace outing is probably more accessible than some (like Spirit of '76, which I will get to soon) and is a damn cool piece of squawk'n'roll! On Gulcher Records, man!