Reviews...Captain vs. Crew
Sometimes Up Is the Only Direction
(Jealous Butcher Records)
The panhandling punk rockers on Southwest Fifth Avenue would do well to gather up their loose change and plug into Portland’s Captain vs. Crew, and give those crusty Misfits and Subhumans tapes a break. The guys and gal in CVC brandish plenty of teeth-gnashing wrath and frustration, but one gets the idea it doesn’t follow them home or keep them awake at night. Best to leave stormy feelings at the office.
The band’s debut record opens with “Finest in Italian Metal Pt. 1,” an eruption of spring-loaded guitars and wig-flipping vocals that refreshingly call to mind one of Portland’s punk patron saints, Greg Sage. Like Sage’s band, the Wipers, CVC generally keeps everything urgent and cathartic, such as on the furious caterwauls “Brutal Path of Destruction” and “Under the Rock Rock.”
Yet the Crew isn’t shy about introducing a few melodic tidbits. The expansive curves on songs such as “Downtime” deliver needed diversion from all the mouth-foaming rage. “Warn the Duke” sounds like a catchy Grant Hart song from Hüsker Dü’s productive years.
CVC is a band capable of maintaining a full head of scream while peppering the listener with a few timely asides, as if to say: “Remember your blood pressure, kids. Find your happy place.” We can definitely use more examples of intelligent aggression.
John Chandler 04/18/03
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Chaos on Deck
Captain vs. Crew mutinies against expectations.
Captain vs. Crew's website describes the 4-year-old Portland band as "an amalgam of aging personalities." What are they, the Rat Pack?
Not quite--it's just that rock and roll imposes such weird notions of what age means. A punk band full of stroppy teenagers--like Seattle's Catheters, say--is tagged as young. But if you're old enough to run for Congress and you're campaigning for an opening gig at Satyricon instead, prepare for someone to question your judgment.
And if, like members of Captain vs. Crew, you're in your late 20s or early 30s, with babies on the way and full-time professional jobs--a life that only rarely involves stealing cars and snorting coke off hookers' chests at dawn--forget it. There's no model for your rock-and-roll dream, so you might as well invent your own.
Captain vs. Crew has done exactly that with its new album, Sometimes Up Is the Only Direction. Released on CvC guitarist Rob Jones' Jealous Butcher label, Sometimes could be described as mature, if only that word sounded any fun at all. Rampant guitars and Shawna Ervin-Gore's blustery drums suggest Sonic Youth before SY settled for elder-statesmanhood. Captain vs. Crew indulges a taste for uncontrolled, brainy, angry-nerd rock epics--"Warn the Duke!" chronicles the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in four explosive minutes. Remember when indie rockers wrote songs before deciding what haircuts to get and which Devo records to rip off? Captain vs. Crew does.
"We don't really feel like we have a 'sound,'" says Shawna Ervin-Gore, whose husband, Tim, makes up the other half of the quartet's guitar firm. "It seems like it's really important to have a 'sound' now. There doesn't seem to be a lot of bands willing to experiment, throw things together and have a really good time doing it."
"Bands do seem more calculated," says Jones. "Everything needs an image--'we want to be a power-pop band, so we'll write a bunch of power-pop songs.' We don't really take that approach."
"And that's what's wrong with us," says Tim Ervin-Gore.
Wrong, or so wrong, it's right? Captain vs. Crew may not know the answer, but at least its smart enough to ask the question. Call it the wisdom of the ages. (Zach Dundas)
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CAPTAIN VS. CREW
Sometimes Up is the Only Direction
(Jealous Butcher)
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There's an easily identifiable sound of regret I'm picking up on the new record from locals Captain vs. Crew. Their guitars have a cute lo-fi pop sound, but their singer Tim Ervin has a sort of goth boldness about him, like maybe Robert Smith on the sniff. Their rock is extremely full--they've got tons of shit going on, speak-screaming, guitar battling feedback, and quick drums--so they come somewhere near chaotic. But of course, there is always a method to the indierock madness; unless of course it's complete crap. Anyway, the disc is good, fun, vehement, and pretty. Fans will be happy. KATIE SHIMER
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Sometimes Up Is the Only Direction
Captain vs. Crew
Jealous Butcher Records
By John W. Young
Portland-relocated Chicoans and indie rockers Tim and Shawna Ervin-Gore have released a compelling set of new music with their band, Captain vs. Crew: Shawna plays drums while Tim plays guitar and sings, everything rounded out nicely by bassist Brunson Moody and guitarist Rob Jones.
With its frantic opening drums and edgy vocals, “The Finest in Italian Metal, Pt. 1” rapidly becomes enveloped in crudely recorded power chords, Tim’s voice becoming a screech. What’s interesting is the almost amateur sound quality of the recording: trebly, stark, devoid of effects like echo or chorus--it could have been literally captured in somebody’s garage. However, the playing is tight and spotless, belying any suggestions of incompetence.
Other standout tracks include: “Skeletons,” with its staggered drum riff and its strained-yet-still-attractive melody; the volatile guitar line roiling through “It’s a Brutal Path of Destruction”; the edgy jazz ambience of “Downtime,” with its sometimes dissonant background scales; and set-closer “The Strawberries of Spain,” with its moody musical accents, naked electric guitar, and earnest admission, “I don’t think I’ll ever know/ Another sweeter than that.”
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