In a recent email from Chris Bernat, guitarist and vocalist for Quad Cities band Chrash, said, “We are all very pleased with the cover shot featuring a big shiner on my right eye.”
The week the band was scheduled to do the photoshoot for the album artwork for their latest album, Bernat had a pretty bad bicycle accident. “The return of the Chrash clip-on magnifier (also featured on the 2011 EP See Through Music) to enhance the cosmetic damage seemed to fit any theme that was emerging.”
Music For The Next Scene is the first album from the band since 2017 The Music which was rushed to release in time for the 2018 midterm election, and targeted the political landscape and headlines following the 2016 election. While the new album doesn’t have as sharp a focus on the dumpster fire that is U.S. politics, it doesn’t completely avoid it either. “Billionaire Breeding Ground” from 2017 returns with its marching drum and bass rhythm, but with a much improved clarity in its production.
Listening to both versions back-to-back, the new recording has less of the crowded, muffled sound of the original, as if a cloud was lifted. Sadly, the song’s message is as pertinent now as it was then.
There it goes with the weight of the country / On the back of the poor and the hungry / Standing by and decide when to sell or buy those / 10 more thousand summer homes
“Fox Fear” might be my favorite track on the new album, and is the thematic antithesis of “Thank You Late Night” from the previous album. The lyrics are a scathing takedown of the dog whistle/echo chamber that is Rupert Murdoch’s lasting legacy: Fox News.
Own the narrative by any means / Divide the people into separate teams / Instill the fear into their nightmare dreams / Put doubt into the heads of everyone.
The song has an early ‘80s post-punk sound reminiscent of New Order’s post-Joy Division sound — single note buzzy guitar lines with a slinky walking bass snaking around the melody. I find myself replaying this song quite a bit. (BRB, I’m going to play this again.)
The band is a tight trio made up of bass, drums, guitars and vocals. This simple architecture, which affords the bass and guitars to trade off melody duty, makes for deceptively complex arrangements. The songs where bass player Kim Murray takes the lead recall similarly minimal bands like the aforementioned New Order as well as The Pixies and Guided By Voices. It’s a formula with a long history, and Chrash’s seasoned approach shines on Music For The Next Scene.
Speaking of long history, the album closer “To Those Who’ve Passed” was co-written with Tripmaster Monkey guitarist Jamie Toal. In an email, Bernat said the song “has become the best closer we have ever written and for now is always the last song in our set. It is hard to follow that up with anything.” The clean arpeggiated guitar and bass trading lines lifts Bernat’s sweetly sung vocals, eulogizing friends passed. The song wraps up with distorted guitars and a rallying cry.
Come on we’re down here coming to the light right now / We have to get this to you all somehow / I can’t be talking to myself this loud / We honor you right now but you’re gone
A fitting end to the album. As the adage goes, you can’t get out of this life unscathed. We all end up with bruises to prove it. Sometimes they’re literal.
This article was originally published in Little Village’s September 2024 issue.
