CROWSDELL Within the Curve of an Arm 1997

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[+] by Steve Huey

Hailing from the unlikely locale of Jacksonville, FL, Crowsdell are today best known for launching the career of indie singer/songwriter Shannon Wright. Far from the quiet folk of Wright's early solo material or the dissonant catharsis of the follow-ups, Crowsdell offered more traditional, guitar-driven indie rock in the vein of a janglier Pavement, whose Stephen Malkmus produced their lone official album. Wright formed Crowsdell in 1991 with friends Paul Howell (bass) and Laurie Anne Wall (drums); although she'd never before played guitar, the band was performing live within six months of its formation. Soon they were touring up and down the East Coast, and recorded 7" singles for small indie labels like Jettison ("Meany," "Lickity Split") and Figurehead ("Darren," "Down" b/w "Bubbles"). In 1994, they signed with Big Cat and delivered another single, "Sugar-Coated" b/w "Trunk." The group subsequently entered the studio with Malkmus and completed its debut full-length, Dreamette. Released in 1995, it won complimentary reviews in the alternative media, and seemingly marked the band as one to watch. In its wake, Crowsdell toured Europe and relocated to New York City, where they completed a further EP, The End of Another Summer, by the end of the year. Crowsdell spent much of 1996 working on their sophomore album, but unfortunately, Big Cat was swallowed up by V2 in the great label mergers of the era. After handing in the record, Within the Curve of an Arm, in 1997, Crowsdell found themselves unceremoniously dropped, the album never to be released. This proved a crippling blow; cellist Sibel Firat, who'd appeared on Dreamette, briefly took over for Howell on bass when he left, but the group simply could not recover from the disappointment, and broke up. Wright was so distraught that she sold nearly all her possessions and moved to a farm guesthouse in Pittsboro, NC, intending to quit music for good. However, she eventually rediscovered her muse and completed the material that would become her acclaimed 1999 solo debut, Flightsafety.

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Tracklist

1	Popsick	2:48
2	Five Stars	3:37
3	Mooncalf	4:02
4	Lurking In Sagas	3:40
5	You Want Me Dead	2:54
6	Floridian Lamb	4:22
7	W.C. Haley	4:10
8	Pharmaceutical Fingers	2:30
9	Patches	4:18
10	Sunny Sparkle	2:25
11	Cut And Paste	3:22
12	Wake The Lass	5:01
13	Foul	5:24