Amidst Archers Of Loaf’s late-’90s shamble into long, deathlike hibernation, guitarist/vocalist Eric Bachmann “nearly set his dick on fire with a soldering iron” while “building robots to play music along with.” This wonderful anecdote comes courtesy of the liner notes accompanying the exquisite reissue of the self-titled 2000 debut of Bachmann’s subsequent band, Crooked Fingers, a gorgeous pastiche of deftly executed Americana, lilting strings and Neil-Diamond-gazing-into-the-void snarly croon accented (too) occasionally with just enough intriguing loops and faint New Order-isms—see standout opener “Crowned In Chrome”—to make one wonder what might have been if Bachmann hadn’t been forced to choose between lo-fi RoboIndie and penile skin grafts.
While hardly a stylistic departure, Bring On The Snakes, released a mere year later, is a considerably more confident, fully actualized, affecting rendition of Bachmann’s idiosyncratic vision, bolder in its sonic mash-ups and containing—on “The Rotting Strip” and “Doctors Of Deliverance”—perhaps two of the greatest up-from-the-gutter anthems ever recorded. An essential modern-day classic.
—Shawn Macomber
