BIOGRAPHY
Formed in Los Angeles in early 2007, Crushes are a duo featuring Smith and Jones, who may or may not be humanoid. While not certain they're humanoids, that nonetheless is how they feel. Neither can recall having arrived via standard human process.
Smith screams as he distorts the purple instrument hung around his neck, a no-strings-attached wood/steel device he affectionately refers to as "the Albatross." Jones sings and adds random noise textures as she attacks the rubber pads of her electronic drum kit, a trigger-happy contraption she affectionately refers to as her "electronic drum kit."
Described as "Suicide, the Pixies, and Wolf Eyes in a blender," and "the middle ground between Kraftwerk and the Cramps," Crushes transcend guitar, bass, and keyboards. Free-form noise, abstract lyrics, male/female vocals, and an electro-dub backbeat converge, resulting in brief blasts of day-glo splatter spiked with black pop-art humor.
Smith and Jones are inspired by the notion that we're all alike. If not at the end of the day, then at least at the start as no human can recall being born.
Crushes' 16-song debut, Hyperirony, was recorded with Pete Lyman at Infrasonic Sound, Los Angeles, summer/fall 2007, and was released fall 2008 via the band's imprint, Dendrite.
In 2009, Crushes shot a video for "Reach Out of the Darkness," directed by Lori 16mm [Butthole Surfers], featuring a cover of the 1968 hit by Friend & Lover.
Following brief forays into Austin and Boston, Smith and Jones are returning home to L.A. The band is working on a new record slated for a late 2010 release.
Two Crushes songs ["What's Wrong?" and "Terminal Identity"] are featured on Decades of Decay, a limited-edition, experimental-noise compilation from Nihil Underground.
