Search - Crain :: Speed

In the late 1980s, Louisville, KY was a breeding ground for a new, complex, art-damaged form of punk rock that ultimately changed the face of underground rock forever. The two bands that were, unquestionably, the driving forces behind this movement were Slint and Crain. The former needs no introduction. The latter?s story is far more complicated ? and seems even more cursed. Crain formed in early 1989 from the ashes of Cerebellum, an art-punk ensemble that featured a then-teenaged Drew Daniel (Matmos). Picking up where the nervy Cerebellum had left off, Crain made frantic, impassioned music that resonated with audiences who were bemused by contemporary punk rock. Now, twelve years after its original LP-only release, we reissue Speed on CD for the first time, with four bonus tracks of rare and unreleased material. Recorded by Steve Albini in 1991 ? and remastered from the original tapes by John Golden in 2004 ? Speed fits somewhere between the positive punk anthems of Fugazi and the gritty wall-of-noise melodicism of Nirvana. Throw in the occasional spoken-word vocals à la The Minutemen, and you have an album that was every bit as important as Spiderland in directing the quick evolution of underground American rock music.