The history of Crawlspace begins in the punk-rock era. The singer Eddie Flowers (who grew up in Alabama) moved to Bloomington, Indiana, to play with the Gizmos, who produced three 7-inch EPs, the first in 1976. At the end of the 70s, the group split up (after a different line-up of the group recorded the only album under the Gizmos name. Flowers moved to Los Angeles and played with Steve Wynn for awhile, before Wynn began the Dream Syndicate. [Eddie's note: Actually, Steve Wynn only jammed with Bill McCarter and me twice, in 1981.]

The decisive move for Flowers was when a few of his old friends from Indiana moved out to Los Angeles: the Lazy Cowgirls. In 1985, Flowers hooked up with guitarist Keith Telligman (who played bass in the Cowgirls) and the drummer Allen Clark, and Billy Ray McCarter, and the group became Big Dad & 10 Lbs. of Swingin' Meat. (Just for the record, I feel that Clark and Telligman were one of the most spectacular rhythm sections of the period.) The group's style (which was a natural fusion of the styles of the Gizmos and the Lazy Cowgirls) marked a return to the violent rock of Detroit, similar to the sound of the MC5 and the Stooges. [Eddie's note: I had met Billy Ray in Indiana, not the Cowgirls. They were his friends, who moved to L.A. in 1981, two years after Bill and I had both coincidentally moved West.]

Flowers, however, began to experiment with a more progressive sound that was a combination of a little of everything, from free jazz  to acid-rock, from Krautrock to the avant garde. The quartet began to practice a sort of collective improvisation that had less to do with punk-rock, let alone with rock in general. The jazz component ended up taking the upper hand in 1987, with the entrance of a second guitarist, Mark McCormick, as well as a guy named Lenny who quickly left the group (in order to join the Creamers). They debuted in April of 1988 with the compilation Gimme the Keys(Trigon Records; the same label who first recorded Claw Hammer and Fearless Leader) with the songs "Time For Fun," "The Void That Slithers," and the MC5's "Black to Comm." The teachings of a libertine ideology that includes (citing from an insert) Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Sun Ra, Eric Dolphy, Miles Davis, and the Art Ensemble of Chicago were evident in their style, while they still maintained the experimental rock roots of Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa, Can, the Grateful Dead, and Yoko Ono, as well as their spiritual fathers of the hardcore scene like Black Flag, the Minutemen, and the Birthday Party.

Their first 7-inch EP, Silent Invisible Conversation(Grown Up Wrong! Records), came out in December of 1988, with the bassist Sarge (who founded Fearless Leaders with Brick Wahl) taking the place of Lenny.

Recorded between September of 1987 and June of 1988, encompassing a long stretch of their history, in April of 1989 their first album came out, entitled In the Gospel Zone(Behemoth Records). The Lazy Cowgirls still had a strong influence on them. The sound is almost punk-rock, structured in more or less regular songs. The lyrics are sinister, almost gothic. But there is also a version of a Can song, "Little Star of Bethlehem," that lasts for half an hour and leads off in other directions.

Drummer Bob Lee (who has also performed in a duo with Joe Baiza) is the principle change on the singles "August"/"Africa" (Sympathy for the Record Industry, 1989) and "Ocean = You"/"Solitude Smokestack Head" (Sympathy for the Record Industry, 1990). The group finally stabilized with the addition of Joe Dean in place of McCarter and Sarge. Flowers, McCormick, Telligman, Dean and Lee made up a trained and competent group, whose single "On the Tide"/"Hook in the Gray" (Forced Exposure, 1991) introduces two members of the Mooseheart Faith Stellar Groove Band, Todd Homer and Larry Robinson, other veterans of the punk scene in Los Angeles, Todd coming from the Angry Samoans. The improvisations on this record mark the definitive maturity of the group.

The cassette To' Up(Crawlspace, 1991) contains a live jam from the group that was recording Sphereality(Sympathy for the Record Industry, 1992). In the seventy minutes of this CD the quintet succeeds in unleashing their own instrumental libidos. The sixteen minutes of "Go-Boy's Eyes Begin Their Plunder"/"Hatch" have two themes played by interwoven guitars, one melodic and the other almost reggae; far from being completely "free," the jam maintains unity and cohesion through the entire improvisation. "You Bleed Love," on the other hand, approximates the format of a blues-rock song in the tradition of Hendrix and the Allman Brothers. With the title track, finally, the group takes on a psychedelic side: a creation of fallen accords, distinct riff and rhythm in a warlike way. And the prelude to the half hour medley of "Creek Burst Clear," a long fainting spell into nothingness for which Flowers borrows the gestures and tones of Jim Morrison and Nick Cave. The instruments refuse any rational role; they whisper in a trance, they move in a drowsy and clumsy fashion. This long ceremonial undertone represents the mature form of their psychedelic free-jazz scene. The swan song of the quintet was the 10-inch, God Zee(Behemoth Records, 1993), another receptacle of strained, disconnected improvisation.

An unstable period followed, with McCormick, Clark, and Telligman busy with the band Dizbuster; and Lee with Claw Hammer and, once again, Joe Baiza in Nastassya Filippovna (with Mike Watt and Devin Sarno, a quartet that seemed to be a super-group of post-hardcore). For the single "Lunar Fuckin' Eclipse" (Behemoth Records, 1995), Telligman and Lee were replaced by guitarist Dave Fontana and drummer Greg Hajic. This single is perhaps the most swinging of their career, and Flowers impersonates the madness of David Thomas with a rare effectiveness.

The surprise was The Exquisite Fucking Beauty of Crawlspace(Majora Records, 1995), released on vinyl in an edition of 500 copies, and the return of Allen Clark (this time in the guise of keyboardist/trumpeter/percussionist) and Bob Lee, while Hajic disappeared. This formation of six people represents a type of "summa" of their story. The title track, which takes up the entirety of the first side, begins like a soul-jazz cocktail-lounge shamble, but suddenly the guitars clamor in with a type of galactic dissonance, and when the group reorders the ranks, one seems to be listening to Tim Buckley directing the Art Ensemble of Chicago. The second side, "Slippy Slowdown Town"/"Lake Daddy Jim," is more harsh, entrenched from the beginning with adverse sounds, the vocals raving drunkenly against the disconnected sounds of the guitars.

It is therefore a bit astonishing that two years later all was redone: The Dark Folds Of Infinity Grow Pink With Desire(Majora Records, 1997) was done almost entirely by Flowers and Dean, with minor contributions from the others. There are nine tracks, and this type of fragmentation is unusual. There is the cold, calculated tone of an experimental work, very far from the unrestrained tone of the previous jams. "Then We May Speak" is practically a hyper-distorted guitar solo by Flowers. On "Mud In Yr I," an analog synthesizer's strange buzz has the main role. The ferocious, cubist instrumentals of Neu come to mind while listening to the metallic sounds of the instrumental "A Pig Is Not a Motherfuckin' Cop." There are other brief moments of what the group could play: the swinging riffs of "Splooge," the spastic blues of "Catherine & the Earthquake," the mechanical and deft composition of "Scungilli," the grotesque pow-wow of "Another Fine Mess." They are all studies of the instruments as in the recordings of Robert Fripp and the animalistic madness of Captain Beefheart. Flowers licks up even the most provocative dadaist pieces with "I Wish It Would Pour," sounds from a farm, slowed down voices from a heroin-like dream in a shapeless magma of agreements; or with "Fate Music," aleatory music with extreme frequencies of harmonica, flute, and jaw harp. In the span of nine cuts, the voice is rarely used, and even when it is, it becomes utilized like another instrument. Flowers is heading towards a type of psychedelic avant-garde music. The reference is more towards Cage than Coltrane, more like Varese than Pink Floyd. [Eddie's note: "Fate Music" actually features pennywhistle, autoharp, guitar, bass, and some drum bleed from another song, but that's great if it sounds like harmonica, flute, and jaw harp!]

Every recording of this strange avant-garde rock personality has created its own history, and Flowers (accompanied by a casual group of friends, Joe Dean among them) did not want to be unworthy of the fifth, ¿Et II Bluto?(The Lotus Sound, 1997). The preamble, "O! Sweet Songburd," is a parody of the vocal quartets of the fifties, and it is an anomaly on the record as a whole. "Universal Stars" proposes a dissonant type of disco music that is an improbable mix of Public Image and the Rolling Stones. Therefore, it is not surprising  that the next track, "Hey Cornshnapper!", is a liberal improvisation with out-of-tune guitars, a duet worthy of Derek Bailey and Fred Frith. Finally, with "Groundswell," the psychedelic experience arrives, but this is a kind of space-rock: a strong palpitation of background, a horizon of spatial feedback, the audience delirious without holding back, a sense of claustrophobic fear that would make Nick Cave envious. On the subhuman blues of "Galapagos," the influence of Captain Beefheart is evident. The long repetitions of "Fly Cycle" has a dreamy tone bordering on mantra kammerspiel, a tide of harsh sounds  and a mechanical beat. Each one of these pieces could justify its own album. There are many experimental pieces, of which the chamber music for guitar distortion of "We're Already Here" and the mood music for reverbs of "Blues For Eris" are but two examples. I would like to say a few words about two songs of the future: the guitar solo of "A Faint Recollection," maneuvered with an imperceptible sound, and the conclusive "Blooms," another guitar duet, but in which both dark and slow sounds have no intelligible quality, they simply fluctuate without weight. And with this nightmarish finale, the CD acquires the weight of a philosophical metaphor. Overall, the CD is a mine of creativity. It is shame that its "underground" production quality makes it difficult to enjoy some of the details.

Crawlspace have no easy life, partly because of the public's indifference and partly because of their commercial ineptitude. 1999 brings two new cassettes, Nectar Flows From This Chalice(Slippy Sound, 1999) and Ready for the Future(Slippy Sound, 1999), which contain long jams which Flowers improvised with Greg Hajic and/or others. These jams are the non plus ultra of psychedelic rock, but few people will hear them.
 

©1999 PIERO SCARUFFI
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