DecoyMusic.com

The Crumbs - Last Exit

Rating

RIYL

-

Label

TKO

Tracklist

1. Hobos
2. All Chocked Up
3. Drunken Call
4. Teenage Con Artist
5. Trouble on My Trail
6. The Anticipation
7. Nasty Child
8. One Last Score
9. Overload
10. Wrong Hand Again
11. Dead Guy Boogie
12. Dangerous Distractions
13. Tonight We Bleed
14. Till Next Day

The Crumbs are a punk revival band from Miami, Florida who formed in 1993. They released two full length albums for the Lookout label in 1997 and 1998 (The Crumbs and Low and Behold, respectively) and one for Recess Records (Out of Range) in 2000 before sort of falling off the face of the earth. Their two full-length records for Lookout were far superior to their original three EP's (I Fell in Love With an Alien Girl and I Think I'm Goin' to Mars With Her (1993), Get All Tangled Up (1995), and Shakespeare (1996)). The Crumbs' sound is most easily compared to bands like The Stooges, MC5, and The Pagans, except The Crumbs throw in a lot more melody than their peers. Both of their Lookout full-lengths were complete pieces of joy, especially thanks to singer Raf Classic, who has one of the most distinctive voices in punk rock today (and at the time as well). But while they were riding high on their tour with The Donnas in the late 90s, an exodus of members derailed the band and sent them into a closet, not to be heard from for nearly three years.

Thankfully, 2004 saw the resurgance of The Crumbs, and on their seventh release (fourth full-length), Last Exit, they continue on their seemingly tumultuous journey as if nothing ever happened to derail them. However, it must be said right now that Last Exit isn't exactly the ideal reunion album. First off, it lacks the urgency that their two previous full-lengths had, and the immediate presence the band had half-a-decade before is nearly non-existent here. Raf classic still sounds tight, but the rest of the band sounds bored and contrived. They never seem to reach their full energy capacity, and the otherwise great songs suffer greatly because of it.

Of course, there are some great moments here -- "All Chocked Up" and "Drunken Call" easily rank with The Crumbs older work and give the album a great opening. "Dead Guy Boogie" is an alright track as well, but it could be a lot better with a driving force behind it. And that's the really sad part about this album -- The Crumbs proved themselves as viable musicians with their Lookout records, so it seems like no one felt the need to question or speak up about their shit this time around, which is not the case. The guys had five years off, but it sounds like this record was written in a week.

Despite it's flaws, this is still one of the better punk releases of 2004. Note: Recess Records, aside from releasing this album on vinyl, released Hold That Shit Right, a collection of rarities and such in 2004 to coincide with the release of this album.

--Timothy Golden

Author

tim

Last updated: 09/29/2009 09:02PM