Crass for Non-Crass Fans
Thelma F Blitz | New York, NY USA | 02/23/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I'm someone who never heard of Crass until Jeffrey Lewis made me aware of them. I sort of let the whole punk movement go by after one them punched me for no reason at a Peter Tosh concert,and I thought they were all crazy and violent. Likewise their music-- it was ear-splitting, overly aggressive and unrelentingly angry, which ultimately was boring. Listening to the Crass originals was as painful as getting punched by a punk for nothing. But if you follow their lyrics, you see they're something any righteous alternative type, even a highly acclaimed lyricist like Jeff Lewis, would be proud to write, sing or update: clever,intense, lethal. "System, system,system, death in life... " When power is threatened,life is cheap." "Well, they can f**k off cause they cuz they ain't got me,and they can't buy my dignity..." "You cup which overfloweth is just filled up with piss."
The Jeffrey Lewis reworkings start with cover art that's white with hand-drawn little colored flowers,pictures of well-known anarchists heads like Emma Goldman's on T.V., hands in a computer. How unlike the Crass albums which were were stark, black, and menacing! The righteous anger is still there , but over a likeable folk guitar with catchy rhythms, perky vocal assists by girlfriend and keyboardist Helen Schreiner, and even a mystically beautiful track like the Pearls Before Swine influenced Demoncrats. "I am not he,nor shall be warlord of nations......"
One thing we can't download is all the original Jeffrey Lewis artwork that went into the CD booklet , the story of how he got into Crass in college, and a parable about how the album is like a Trojan Horse tiger bringing wild and dangerous anarchist ideas into the culture in an acceptable toy tiger on wheels package.Quotes from the famous anarchists go along with cartoon panels A watch and its inner workings are on the CD label-- recalling Watchman, the graphic novel Jeffrey wrote about in a college paper. The watch is set to 9:09, two minutes before 9/11 or is that Revolution Number 9 , Number 9?The opening track End Result begins with a metronomic watchlike ticking......."I am a product, I am a symbol ,of endless, hopeless, fruitless, aimless games...."
Now the only problem is whether to get the CD or the vinyl. If you get the vinyl, you also get a code for digital download, and a sheet with complete lyrics (readable!) but the art work looks better on the CD , so it's nice to have both, if you can afford them."
REAL INTELLIGENCE
John HANEY | 01/31/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Jeffrey Lewis, with whose work I've been familiar for roughly a year, is one of the most talented performers I've ever seen. I forget the last time I saw an act so (almost) impossible to categorize and so difficult to dislike. What you get when you see him (and his excellent band) live is an avalanche of (gently scalding) wit, irreverence, quirkiness, upbeat melancholy, downbeat ecstasy, crazy cartoons (which he drew himself), and sheer drive. There's simply no one else remotely like him out there. I saw them live for the first time at the Mercury Lounge in NYC on January 30th and came away with the realization that I'd just witnessed one of the best five gigs I've ever been to -- and I've been going to gigs for forty years. More to the point in context: I was never much of a Crass fan, but 12 CRASS SONGS sheds new (and entirely favorable) light not only on Crass (and the continuing relevance of what they had to say) but also on the evolution of Mr. Lewis's artistry. This guy is going to be huge -- and he'll be the guy in charge of the process. He's self-managed now -- and I very much hope it stays that way forever. Ignoring Jeffrey Lewis is a very bad idea."
Excellent Reworking Allows Crass to be Heard Anew
Asphalt | NYC | 02/19/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is a terrific record. Lewis is a songwriter from the Lower East Side of New York who is both a product of the old NYC street bohemia and a key chronicler of same - one of those most likely to have grown up on Gem Spa egg creams and know the lyrics to Tuli Kupferberg songpoems. With his latest album Lewis takes the work of the groundbreaking anarcho-peacepunk-protocrustie-traveller collective Crass and transmutes it into a haunting, lovely, lo-fi folk (mostly) album in which lyrics not always easy to hear in the original recordings become powerful secular hymns to freedom. Slight lyrical updating and gentle musical shoehorning result in an album that might be enjoyed by your Grandmother (if she were a Wobbly...) but which will help a new generation of kids resist assimilation by the Spectacle. Very highly recommended."
Track Listings (12) - Disc #1