Blowin' Indie Wind 'Red Devil Dawn' Sizzles with Bittersweet Emotion

Author: Erika Mercer

It is four o'clock in the morning and all of your party guests have retired, leaving you sitting alone in your room to view the mess of spilt drinks, strewn streamers, pretzel crumbs and deflated balloons.
You reflect on the successful party -- its extravagance, its hilarity, its noise -- with an increased sense of loneliness and solitude now that it has ended.
Music still beats softly from your stereo, but it seems distant, belonging to another world of raised, laughing voices and festive banter.
Crooked Fingers, the newest project from underground music guru Eric Bachman, evokes just such a bittersweet mood in its newest album, "Red Devil Dawn."
The album, released on Jan. 21, 2003 under Merge Records label, marks Crooked Fingers' fourth release since the band's formation in early 2000.
Bachman, formerly the frontman in the now defunct Archers of Loaf -- a mid-to-late 1990s indie rock band known for its noisy, raw sound -- has established a reputation for his unique career, which, besides his work with Archers of Loaf and Crooked Fingers, includes performing as the neoclassical artist, Barry Black, and scoring the instrumental soundtrack, "Short Careers," to the film, "Ball of Wax."
Crooked Fingers -- Bachman plus a rotating cast of other musicians -- released its first album in January 2000 on WARM.
Recorded in Seattle, Wash., the self-titled debut shocked fans who had come to know Bachman as the loud, belting vocalist in Archers of Loaf.
Subdued, melancholy songs characterized his new project, showing a much more private, reserved side of the indie artist. As opposed to the messy, discordant, Pavement-esque music of Archers of Loaf, Crooked Fingers adopted a folksy, poetic sound and showed a tendency for narrative lyrics -- features which prompted references to Bachman as the new Bob Dylan. Critics lauded the release as a mature and significant step forward for Bachman.
In February 2001, Crooked Fingers released its sophomore album, "Bring On the Snakes," also on WARM, then several months later, in May 2002, its third album, a collection of cover songs -- from Prince to Bowie to Springsteen -- entitled "Reservoir Songs."
Both albums found immediate success, and the band continued working toward its fourth and most recent release, "Red Devil Dawn."
"Red Devil Dawn," released on Merge Records, continues in the tradition of Crooked Fingers' previous albums, featuring Bachman's raspy, coarse voice -- a voice that has provoked numerous comparisons to Tom Waits -- catchy melodies, eccentric, slightly off-balance instrumentation and dark, melancholy lyrics.
The album diverges somewhat from the band's previous efforts, though, in its more noticeable and persistent beat of optimism, which forces its way out from beneath the album's sad, pessimistic overtones.
On "Red Devil Dawn," Bachman incorporates intricate horn and string arrangements, along with increased mandolin music, giving the album a warmer, and sometimes even markedly Mexican, feel.
In addition, many of the songs enjoy a quicker, more pop-sounding beat, which, rather than paralleling the heart-wrenching lyrics, effectively juxtaposes them.
On the first song, "Big Darkness," Bachman sings in his husky, tender voice of desperation and woe, of a hero who belatedly arrives in a town where "even the vultures have moved on," while the music bounces, upbeat, at times mimicking gentle carousel music.
The listener cannot resist tapping their foot to the beat, at the same time hearing, astounded, the dark, morbid lyrics: "I saw a vulture swarming up above a dying crowd / above the villains and the heroes and the down and out."
Other songs are slower and mellower, often approaching lullabies or ballads in their quietness and tenderness. Bachman complements the soft tone of these songs by flavoring them with faint hope and bittersweet dream. In "Disappear," the ninth song on the album, he sings, "There's beauty in an ugly thing / redemption in demise."
"Red Devil Dawn" is a poignant mix of faith and despair, loneliness and contentedness. It is an album for any mood -- it will make you realize that you are alone, then it will make you realize that you are not. It will upset you and content you. It will remind you of happiness and glorify sadness. "Red Devil Dawn" is not to be missed.
Tune in to WRMC 91.1 this Thursday from 8-10 p.m. to hear Crooked Fingers featured, and make sure to check them out next Tuesday, March 11, at Higher Ground in Burlington. For more information, check out www. highergroundmusic.com.