The Cribs are an English
4-piece
indie rock band from Wakefield
, West
Yorkshire. The band consist of
twins Gary and
Ryan Jarman and their younger brother
Ross Jarman. Recently they have been joined by
ex-
The Smiths guitarist
Johnny Marr who has been made a formal member of
the group since 2008. The band, who first became active on the
concert circuit in 2002, were initially tied to other like-minded
UK bands of that time, most notably
The
Libertines, by a British music press that were looking for a
'British rearguard' to the wave of popular US indie rock bands of
the time. In 2008,
Q magazine described the band as "The biggest cult
band in the UK".
Recordings
Formed in 2001, The Cribs began gigging locally and caught the eye
of Leeds based indie
Squirrel
Records, and a handshake deal to release a one off 7" was
agreed soon after. Primarily a punk/garage/riot grrrl based label,
Squirrel was still in its infancy at this point, and the single
"Baby Don't Sweat/You & I" (a split 7" with
Jen Schande) didn't materialise until 2002. It
was recorded by the band at their own Springtime Studios, a lo-fi
all analogue set up in an ancient mill.
The band have released four albums on the
Wichita label - self titled debut
The Cribs in 2004,
The New Fellas in 2005,
Men's Needs,
Women's Needs, Whatever in 2007 and
Ignore The Ignorant in 2009. Known
for their staunchly purist approach to recording, the band have
often been labeled as 'Lo-Fi'. Significantly, their debut album was
recorded in 7 days at London's
Toe Rag
Studio, onto 8-track.
Toe Rag
Studio is known for its vintage set up which is as authentic to
an original 1960s studio as is possible in the modern day. Parts of
this record were taken from the original sessions the band recorded
with Chicago based avant-garde musician
Bobby
Conn.
The New Fellas, the band's second
album release, was recorded with
Edwyn
Collins, the singer/songwriter and guitarist from Glasgow's
influential
Orange Juice in London at
his own studio. Again, a comparatively unpolished record sonically,
as both the producer Collins and the band themselves were achieving
sounds similar to those heard on the
Orange
Juice records. This was, however, the intention and the reason
the band and producer were put together. B-sides from this period
were self-produced by the band at their Springtime Studios.
Men's
Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever saw the band finally take steps
to progress forth from their 'lo-fi' roots being recorded in
Canada
with Alex Kapranos of
Franz Ferdinand as
producer. The album was mixed by
Andy Wallace (
Nirvana,
Foo Fighters).
The album was released on 21 May 2007 and was preceded by a single,
Men's Needs, on 7 May, which
reached #17.
Currently, the bands last 7 chart-eligible single releases have
charted inside the UK Top 40.
Their song "Martell" from
The New
Fellas release was featured in the Canadian
Telus Commercial, a series of commercials known for
consistently featuring less mainstream yet iconic music ranging
from
Daft Punk to
Supergrass.
The band appeared on
Later
with Jools Holland in May 2007, prior to the release of
Men's Needs,
Women's Needs, Whatever, where they played the songs
Men's Needs,
Our Bovine Public and I'm a Realist.
Men's Needs is the bands
biggest hit to date, reaching number 17 in the UK charts. The track
has also picked up many accolades, including being named 3rd best
track of 2007 by NME, Track of the Year 2007 by the Metro paper and
finishing in the 100 best tracks in
Rolling Stone magazine in the USA.
Their song
Hey Scenesters!
was listed in
NME's "50 Greatest Indie Anthems
Of All Time". The band were one of only a few contemporary bands
included in the list.
They appeared on the
Late Night with Conan
O'Brien on
July 18,
2007,
The Late Late Show with
Craig Ferguson on 27 July 2007 and
The Late Show with David
Letterman on 18 March 2008.
Recently,
the band were personally invited to support the Sex Pistols at four of their five comeback
concerts in Brixton
in
November. In November 2007, The Cribs were named as the
headlining act of the 2008
NME Awards Tour. They
were nominated for four NME awards; Best British Band, Best Live
Act, Best Track ("Men's Needs") and Hero Of The Year (
Ryan Jarman), but won none of these awards.In
February 2008, they released "I'm A Realist"/"Bastards of Young",
the latter a
cover of a song by
The Replacements.
The band's
forth album Ignore The
Ignorant was recorded with legendary post-punk producer
Nick Launay at Los Angeles
's Seedy Underbelly studios and released in the
United
Kingdom
on 7 September 2009, preceded by first single
"Cheat On Me".
Two tracks from this album were recorded at
The Fly's In The Courtyard sessions on 14
September 2009.
Live performances
Known for their raucous, unpredictable live shows the band have
built-up a fanatical following due to a heavy touring schedule
since the release of the first record. Their DIY ethic also led to
them touring independently, when they were supposed to be off the
road writing. Although this contributed to the bands success, and
much larger venues, the band have always claimed to be more at home
doing things in that way. On their first tour back after recording
the third record in early 2007 the band returned to their roots and
held some gigs in very small, intimate venues, including a show in
their hometown at the Wakefield Escobar and another at the
Brudenell Social Club in Leeds (a venue they used to play at when
they first started out). In June, they returned to Leeds at the
climax of their full-size UK tour with two consecutive sold out
nights at the University Refectory (the first band to do this since
Ian Dury and the
Blockheads 30 years ago). They subsequently came back and
accomplished the same feat in 2008, after the show being presented
with an award by the University for being the first band in its
history to have '2 consecutive years of 2 consecutive nights of
sell-out shows at Leeds University Refectory'. In 2007 the band
spoke out against the mainstreaming of
Indie in the
NME.
In
November 2007, they were invited by The
Sex Pistols to support them for 4 nights at the Brixton Academy
to mark the 30th anniversary of their Never Mind The Bollocks
album.
In 2008, The Cribs headlined the Radio1/NME stage at the
Leeds Festival, and the
Reading Festival. The Cribs, along with
The Subways are also the only bands in
the festivals history to progress through all the festivals stages
in consecutive years, Carling Stage (2004), Radio1/NME Stage
(2005), Main Stage (2006) - though The Cribs would trump them due
to a performance they made on the Comedy Stage in 2002 and a
headlining set on the Radio1/NME Stage in 2008.
On 8
December 2008, NME announced that the
band would be playing a short UK tour to
promote their latest album, due to be recorded shortly
after. The tour visits a number of small intimate
venues, including The Ritz
in Manchester
, London
's Heaven, the ABC in
Glasgow
and St George's
Hall
in Bradford
.
The band have announced a UK tour to support the new album. It runs
from 24 September 2009 to 15 October 2009 and takes in 14 venues.
Afterwards, they have dates planned in Japan, New York, Los
Angeles, and Europe (supporting Franz Ferdinand in the latter)
before another four UK gigs in December. More U.S. dates are
pending.
Collaborations
In 2007
Lee Ranaldo from
Sonic Youth collaborated with the band on their
third album. The track "
Be Safe" is a
Ranaldo
spoken word piece performed by
the artist, and backed with The Cribs' music. They have a history
of collaborations with artists such as
Edwyn Collins (
Orange
Juice),
Jon Slade (
Huggy Bear,
Comet
Gain),
Bobby Conn (Bobby Conn and The
Glass Gypsies),
Bernard Butler
(
Suede,
McAlmont and Butler),
Joe Plummer (
Modest
Mouse), the aforementioned
Lee
Ranaldo (
Sonic Youth) and
Alex Kapranos (
Franz Ferdinand). The band are
currently collaborating with
Johnny Marr
(
The Smiths) who has recently confirmed
himself as a full time member of the band. In an interview with
Baeblemusic.com Ross Jarman said they met Marr at "the Glastonbury
Festival and have been jamming together for the last couple
years".
Discography
Albums
Singles
Non-album tracks
The Wakefield band are known for writing and releasing many
non-album tracks for b-sides or stand alone singles, like "You're
Gonna Lose Us" (2006) and "Don't You Wanna Be Relevant?"
(2007).
- "You're Gonna Lose Us"
- "Don't You Wanna Be Relevant?"
- "On The Floor"
- "Death To the Dead Bodies"
- "Feelin' It!"
- "I Gotta Go To LA"
- "Song From Practice 1"
- "Happy's Just a State Of Mind And A State Of Mind Is Just
Electrical Impulses"
- "It Happened So Fast"
- "North Of England"
- "Im Still Blaming You"
- "Saturday Night Facts Of Life"
- "To Jackson"
- "I Was Her Man But I Done Her Wrong"
- "Advice From A Roving Artist"
- "Kind Words From The Broken Hearted"
- "Fairer Sex"
- "Tonight"
- "My Adolescent Dreams"
- "Run A Mile"
- "Get Yr Hands Out Of My Grave"
- "Bastards Of Young"
- "Is Anybody There?"
- "Curse This English Rain"
- "So Hot Now"
DVDs
- Live At The Brudenell Social Club (15 December 2008),
which includes an intimate live version of every Cribs song to
date, excluding tracks from 'Ignore The Ignorant'.
References
- Franz Ferdinand and The Cribs team up | News |
NME.COM
- NME.COM -
Shockwaves NME Awards 2008
- Teletext Music News
- "Interview With Nick Launay",
HitQuarters, 16 November 2009.
- An Interview With Ross Jarman of The Cribs
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