mission freak!

I’m not big on nostalgia (okay, I totally am), but this is the guy responsible for Icky Mettle. I’m talking about the blistering 1993 record that was and is one of the best of the 90’s. Still, I always feel a little bad for Eric Bachmann, who has been trying to climb out from behind the shadow cast by that album for the rest of his career. He has recorded solo records under his own name, as well as with the “band” Crooked Fingers, which is essentially another solo project. The popular consensus on Crooked Fingers has always been a mixed bag (I suppose that doesn’t make it much of a “consensus”), but I think their four records over the last 7 years are excellent: alternately warm and raucous, tender and satiric, soft and loud. The Crooked Fingers moniker has allowed Bachmann to deviate from the genre of “indie rock” entirely, creating songs that are more reminiscent of The Pogues than Pavement. Tonight I can assume we’ll hear tracks from some of those records, as the billing at the Picador reads “Eric Bachmann (of Crooked Fingers).” But, c’mon, even if you are going to see “Eric Bachmann (of Archers of Loaf)” you’ll be in luck: they’re the same guy! Get your listen on below.

download: Crooked Fingers - You Threw a Spark (from 2003’s Red Devil Dawn)

download: Archers of Loaf - Plumb Line (from 1993’s Icky Mettle)