I was contacted by someone called either John or Greybush (I’m not sure which) about a band called The CRY! who are from Portland, Oregon. I need to specify that they’re from Oregon because they’re not from Portland, Victoria or Portland, England.
Anyway, John/Greybush (or maybe he’s “Greybush John”, like a pirate) stated quite unequivocably:
“We are The CRY! out of Portland Oregon. WE ARE THE BEST NEW POWER POP BAND IN THE WORLD!! No kidding!! Let us prove it then give us some love!”
Greybush John provided me with some songs (thanks, GJ!) so I put on my listening ears.
The CRY’s music reminds me of those British punk bands that endeavoured to write pop songs while retaining their punkiness – bands like The Undertones and the Buzzcocks and plenty of others I can’t think of at the moment.
I must admit that I find the band name (The CRY!) slightly confusing, because the word “CRY” is quite deliberately in capital letters. That makes me think it’s an acronym. If it is, do the letters mean something like “Combustible Rancorous Yeti” or “Carnival Ridin’ Yams” or “Can’t Really Yell”?
But you’re not interested in rhetorical questions – you’re interested in music. I’ll play you the first four tracks I received. I won’t play you all the songs I was presented with because I wouldn’t want the boys in the band to send me emails along the lines of: “Why are you giving away all our songs??? We’ve only just put them on an album!!!”
I’ll comment on the songs as they play, and I’ll leave it up to you whether you want to read them or not. (I don’t blame you if you don’t.)
1. “Think I’m In Love”
Link
When I heard this, the first word that came to mind was “fun!”. And the title reminded me of:
Eddie Money – “Think I’m In Love“ (1982)*
But back to The CRY!…
2. “I Wanna Know”
Link
I’d love to know what on Earth possessed the band to play parts of the song at double-speed. For me it doesn’t quite work. I usually don’t mind “OK, now let’s play it twice as fast!” songs, but here I think it results in the song having too much of a split personality. I didn’t mind the slow part, and I didn’t mind the fast part, but I wasn’t keen on them being together in the same song. Ah well. C’est la vie.
3. “Sleeping Alone”
Link
Oh-oh. The song starts with a not-terribly-well-disguised lift from “Lust For Life“, but once that’s out of the way it settles into its own (enjoyable) song.
4. “Be True”
Link
I was surprised when the song started at the instant musical coincidence here:
Paul McCartney & Wings – “Jet“ (1974) (excerpt)
But that’s only a small part of the song. The rest of “Be True” doesn’t mention Paul McCartney at all.
The other songs I heard are pretty much par for the course. (The course being British-punk-inspired power pop). I reckon those four songs will give you a decent idea of the band’s raison d’être. Some of the other songs are more melodic (i.e., have better tunes), but I think the tracks presented here today are representative of the band’s oeuvre.
And sorry about the needlessly French phrases in this post.
The CRY! official website
The CRY! on Twitter
The CRY! on Facebook
The CRY! on MySpace
The CRY! on YouTube (playing “I’m Henery The Eight, I Am“, believe it or not)
The CRY! on ReverbNation
(*Believe it or not, I’ve been wanting to put that Eddie Money song on the blog for ages but never thought it was a good time because either: a) readers would wonder what a non-Australian song from 1982 is doing on an up-to-date and hip-n-happening blog; or b) readers would think that song is nowhere near ‘cool’ enough to go on a blog – any blog. Thanks to The CRY!, I have the perfect excuse to play it. Thanks, guys!)
Peter's Power Pop 