Crowns
Finding their raucous sound in a combo of traditional folk music and their own pop-punk youth, Crowns stand apart from the pack.
Rolling out their incendiary live show over the festival season, with appearances at Reading and Leeds, Bestival and a support slot with Blink 182, the band have emerged triumphant, leaving beer-soaked tents and arenas in their wake.
Following on from the boozy, shout-a-long songs that made up their self-titled EP (released March 5th), Crowns are proud to announce the release of their debut album 'Stitches In The Flag’ on November 5th, through their own Ship Wreckords label.
Hailing from Launceston, Cornwall the band relocated to London and entered the legendary RAK Studios for the second time following a UK tour in April.
Wearing their influences on their sleeve, Crowns sound emerges from early years playing in punk bands, and attending St Piran's sessions, where punters sing and play traditional Cornish music to celebrate the country’s patron saint.
The blistering opening track ‘Stitches In The Flag’ is as close to a mission statement you’re going to get from the band. With the leading question ‘It’s too late to raise those voices some may say, but who are they to make those choices anyway?’ and visions of streets ‘paved with black, white and gold’ Crowns make clear their main influence: growing up in Cornwall and its traditions.
‘Four Walls’ follows urgently on, complete with rabble-rousing call and response verses that have become the bands signature. The snarled lyric ‘People live here, more than once a year’ on ‘China Clay’ is a dig at the second-home culture that troubles their home land.
With ‘My London’ a love-letter to the city in which they recorded the album, Crowns display a previously unseen tenderness. Similarly the new single ‘Parting in the Porch’ (released October 29th) is a bittersweet, coming of age tale; moving seamlessly from boisterous to heartfelt alongside a thumping rhythm and jangly mandolin.
It wouldn’t be a Crowns record if the boys didn’t borrow something from the traditional Cornish cannon. ‘Boscastle Breakdown’ tells of dancing on gravestones and steals a riff of the same, albeit played at four times the speed. They close the album, as they do their live set, with ‘Little Eyes’ - originally an American doo-wop song but now a staple of the traditional pub-sessions where songwriter Bill Jefferson cut his teeth.
Continuing to work with the engineering talent at RAK Studios, the band recorded the 11-track album with Tim Goalen (Mark Ronson, Crowns EP) and Richard Woodcraft (The Vaccines, Arctic Monkeys).
In addition to the album, Crowns are excited to announce two of their largest shows. Friday October 26 sees the boys play the Lexington, London - just up the road from the infamous Filthy MacNasty’s where they used to host their ‘Noisy Boysies’ club night.
On Saturday November 3rd the band will headline Falmouth Princess Pavilions - and are curating a line-up of fellow Cornish talent to complete the bill.
Live Dates
Fri 21 Sep 2012 Salisbury Six Penny Handley Village Hall
Sat 22 Sep 2012 Looe Looe Music Festival
Sat 20 Oct 2012 Perranporth Lowender Peran
Fri 26 Oct 2012 London Lexington (album release show)
Sat 03 Nov 2012 Falmouth Pavillion (album release show)