John Crave is a mystery. He's one of independent music's most prolific and ingenious songsmiths and yet no one knows anything about him.
Hi, my name is Carly Browning and I’ve started this fansite to share the music of John Crave with the world. I'll post a different song by Crave each day with whatever information is known about it.
Contact us: johncrave@johncrave.com
“Lion Belt”
recorded May 2006
from the album The New Butters
John Crave steps up to the mic for some lazer rap on this stunner. It was inspired by a real belt that Crave once tried on in a mall. Although he didn’t buy it, the power it gave him was stored within his being for later use.
Features Crave on harmonica and Pragero on trombone as well as samples from Ed McMahon and “The Shining”.
“Pittsburgh Sons”
recorded October 2002
from the album The Golden Rock
“Pittsburgh Sons (Power Apes version)”
recorded July 2003
from the album Party Foul!
Larch joins Crave in the studio to lay haunting vocals on this thriller about the dark magic of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Features a newscaster sample from September 11th as well as Larch keeping rhythm with a handful of coins.
The Power Apes later took this song and blasted it to it’s powerful destiny. Crave added a refrain from The Lazer Quails’ “I Was A Mighty Child” towards the end because he thought it fit with the poweful violence of the song.
Also features a melting vinyl sample of an old Guy Mitchell song.
“Deep Rising”
recorded December 2001
from the album The Golden Rock
Crave and Larch had a revelation one evening. Water is the future. The substance itself IS not NOW… it is deep in the future. When you are swimming, you are not in the present moment because you are in the future.
Crave wanted other people to share in this revelation so he recorded a song that would explain it; a gospel if you will. “Deep Rising” came out of this conversation with a title taken from a B-movie that was viewed in a group for it’s escapism on the troubling day after the attacks on The World Trade Center.
“Deep Rising” became part of a medley of Crave songs that The Power Apes used to open some sets. (The medley also featured “Beach Boys TV Movie” and “Gold Mine”) Sadly none of these gigs were taped.
“Devils And Astronauts”
recorded ?
from the album The Golden Rock
A very golden acoustic number by Crave and Thkullmaster. Features a unique back and forth trading of vocal duties. Crave has said the inspiration for the title traces all the way back to being a small child staring at a toy block that had arrows pointing up and down painted on it. His mind figured it meant if you travelled up you’d meet astronauts and if you went down you’d meet devils.
A sneaky reference to “Secret Wars” is in the lyrics.
Features a sample from a Stephen King book on tape to start it off.
“Secret Wars”
recorded November 2001
from the album The Golden Rock
“Secret Wars (Power Apes version)”
recorded July 2003
from the album Party Foul!
“Secret Wars” was an early Crave song featuring fatalist lyrics set to a cheezy 80’s sound. It references having bicycles stolen, something both him and Curt Battles experienced in the preceding years. But I’ve always thought the bicycles were more of a metaphor for any of the annoying injustices that we deal with in life.
Later, the Power Apes adapted it and it became a staple of their live set. The song took on Danzig-esque grandiosity that shook crowds to their knees.
“Nomads of Thunder”
recorded summer 2003
from the album Nomads of Thunder
John Crave and Gross Man were looking at small wooden Navajo doll (pictured above) one afternoon. From staring at it, the entire story described in the song unrolled in front of them. The lyrics clearly tell a tale of global rebirth that any listener can understand.
It was recorded in Queens with the songwriters as well as Bludgeon joining in on bass and keyboard.
“Where’s My Other Foot?”
recorded February 2002?
from the album The Golden Rock
The origins of this musical oddity trace back to a poor soul in Rhode Island. He was an alcoholic who often wound up in the emergency room of a hospital where Crave’s friend Larch’s mother worked as a nurse. On one tragic visit he asked her where his other foot was before begging to be killed.
Crave recorded this song using 716 samples cut up so short it became a fine grain of sample. He baked this digital flour into a loaf of toxic bread. Larch delivered the dialogue of the drunk with eyewitness accuracy.
“Gold Buick”
recorded May 2005
from the album The New Butters
John Crave’s R&B anthem was a tribute to R. Kelly that took on a life of it’s own. Only Crave could sing about Laguardia Airport, The New Jersey Turnpike, and public transportation and make it sound so sexxxy. He is the man who “pornifies the situation”, a lyric he recalls again from the earlier sex-anthem “Properly”.
Features the stunning saxophone work of Barry Riffs.
“East River Winds”
recorded September 2001
from the album The Golden Rock
One of the very first songs that John Crave recorded upon moving to Queens and beginning work on The Golden Rock album. He bought a Radio Shack microphone, pressed record and this song happened. It was a true story; there was a very unpleasant smell in the air of a Queens summer.
Martin Bainbridge was inspired by the song enough to film this video of John Crave singing it:
“You’re So Good 2 Me”
recorded January 2003
from the album Superbuildings
John Crave’s obsession with the Beach Boys continues with this robotic cover of the underrated 1965 B-side.
There is not much else to be said about it other than the fact that it ends with a brief piece of melody from another Beach Boys song of that era, “Good To My Baby”. This was originally meant to be a segway into a cover of that song as well, but Crave felt it was more interesting on it’s own.
“Hungry For Thirst”
recorded September 2002
from the album Hot
“Hungry For Thirst (Power Apes version)”
recorded July 2003
from the album Party Foul!
A John Crave signature song… a collage of life itself for the man, “Hungry For Thirst” has anecdotes and experiences all pasted together with that digital glue that only he has a jar of.
Crave has been careful not to reveal too much about these lyrics, saying it would ruin the very essence of it’s message. It’s up for any listener to reflect on his his or her own life when listening.
Features electric guitar by Curt Battles and drums sampled from Tommy Roe’s “Sweet Pea”. The scene at the very end was candidly recorded by Crave on a New York City subway train having no luck getting to Queens.
Later, the Power Apes recorded their smashing version. Even stripped of all the song’s computerized collage elements, the song retains an urgent desire to burn.
“On The Breadline”
recorded January 2002
from the album The Golden Rock
After 9/11, Larch stood up in a crowded room and performed an off-the-cuff rendition of a Al Jolson-esque ragtime number regarding the coming depression. John Crave thought it would make a good song.
He told Larch to flesh out all the lyrics and recorded him singing it. Next Crave cut up some songs from Louis Armstrong’s first record and matched it to the vocals, This abnormally backwards process somehow worked perfectly in giving the illusion of a Depression-era song.
Unfortunately, times have called for the hopeful irony of “On The Breadline” to be played once again.
“Robots In Neckties”
recorded January 1993
from the album Of Dogma and Discipline
The teenage John Crave and Curt Battles recorded this dystopic vision of the future on a dark snowy day. It describes a world of “androids who have no souls” going about their daily routine of commuting and work. It takes place in a sci-fi future… or does it?
The obvious and heavy-handed metaphors used here could only be the product of an adolescent poet learning to look at the world with youthful skepticism.
The wavering pitch of Crave’s singing voice is just as much a clue as to his age.
“Properly”
recorded 2001
from the album The Golden Rock
John Crave “pornifies the situation” with this rare slow jam for the ladies. What kind of woman desires sex with the soundtrack to the 1995 thriller “Congo” playing to set the mood? A John Crave groupie (like me) that’s who.
Features some samples from Japanese anime movies, female orgasms, Steely Dan drum hits, and Crave’s cohort Snake delivering the first line of the song. Sharffmaster plays some seductive guitar in the opening scene.
“Jackie’s In Trouble”
recorded August 2003
from the album Superbuildings
One summer day, John Crave was sent a trailer for a ridiculous low-budget indie movie called “Jackie’s In Trouble”. That evening he showed it to Sharffmaster and they decided to write a song based on the movie. From what little they had seen in the trailer, they were able to correctly predict what the entire movie was about. The next day they sent the song to the director and he loved it.
Months later, they asked the director to film them playing the song in the same Queens locations that “Jackie’s In Trouble” had been made… and featuring the same actors. It was all filmed with the same black and white camera and so the clips blended together perfectly. Crave and Sharffmaster had, in effect, forced themselves into the movie… Here is the video.
