The Cribs

The Cribs, brothers Ryan, Gary and Ross Jarman, with new recruit Johnny Marr, the ex-Smiths guitarist and songwriter, are about to release their fourth album, ‘Ignore The Ignorant’, the follow up to 2007’s Alex Kapranos produced ‘Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever’. The album, written in Manchester and Portland, recorded and produced in LA with Nick Launay (PiL, Nick Cave, Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and mixed in London is undeniably their most exciting yet.

The band met Johnny Marr back in 2006, Johnny had heard the group’s single ‘Hey Scenesters’ on his car radio and was captivated, and when Ryan suggested they record an EP together and play some gigs, it led to Johnny becoming a permanent Crib.

For Johnny, joining the group wasn’t a hard decision to make: “They’ve got the brains of the Buzzcocks, the guts of Nirvana, the fizz of the Ramones. I know how to be in a really good group and that’s what this is. Despite who I am and my history, what really counts is the way it sounds when we write songs together and when we’re in front of an audience and we have really high hopes, we’re cutting it on this album and I don’t think anyone is going to disagree. I surprise myself that I’m back in a band, but I haven’t had to second guess it, because it feels like they’re the right band for me.”

The original three-piece formed back in 2002. Twin brothers Gary and Ryan had spent their early teens listening to Nirvana and Sonic Youth, and through them they learned about Beat Happening! The Pastels, Comet Gain and the importance of music sustenance. Remembers Gary, “A pivotal moment was buying the Ramones’ It’s Alive. We were still at school and it cost £15 and me and Ry saved us £1.50 dinner money for the full week and bought it at the weekend. It was such a good record, going without a week’s dinner was totally justified.”

After dropping out of music college, Ryan and Gary founded Spring Time Studios in their home town, kitted it out with cheap gear and started putting on gigs and throwing parties there. At the same time the fledgling Cribs were playing squats and basements, and Gary helped out with the sound at Ladyfest. The Cribs’ own music was informed by the punk and riot grrrl scenes’ DIY and indie ethic.

Their 2003 debut single, the exquisite ‘You & I’, a love song that beats with a gender politically aware heart (“You should always feel empowered,” Ryan sings), was a split release with Jen Schande on Leeds based indie Squirrel records. After signing to Wichita, they teamed with friend and Chicago singer Bobby Conn, and recorded demos for their 2004 eponymous debut. The album was recorded in a week at London’s Toe-Rag and engineered by Ed Deegan captured their sound live: songs such as ‘Another Number’,  ‘The Lights Went Out’ and the aforementioned ‘You & I’  meld delicious pop with a lo-fi sensibility.

Their second album, 2005’s ‘The New Fellas’ showcased a more boisterous, raw sound: produced by Edwyn Collins, songs railed against the indie scene surrounding them, against those at their concerts only interested in looking cool and the bands coming up in their wake in it for the money and glory. ‘Hey Scenesters’, the album’s first single, a poke at the former, gave them a Number 27 hit, the equally spiky ‘Mirror Kissers’ and ‘Martell’ went Top 40 too.
“None of our contemporaries seemed to want to say anything,” says Gary, “and yet they had this platform to do things from, they had a chance to try at least and change things but instead they were coming across as misogynist in how they were behaving and what they were singing. ”It was something the band felt they needed to speak out against when it came to record their third album ‘Men’s Needs Women’s Needs Whatever’. “It’s appalling that we would be the exception rather than the rule thinking like this,” says Gary. “It seems so crazy how people can be so ignorant. The lads mags are the worst, it seems like an easy target, but they espouse a very casual sexism, it’s done with such a breezy, smiley, laidback way it makes it like it’s acceptable, they’re just messing about, but they’re the most dangerous because those views manifest in people. I’m appalled at the casual sexism and homophobia that’s thrown around in the UK, because lads mags poke casual fun, it’s like, this is just the way the English are, it’s our sense of humour, and that’s peculiar. ”

The album was full of blood, spit and anger; they attacked MTV on ‘Major’s Titling Victory’ and collaborated with Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo on the volatile spoken word piece ‘Be Safe’. But producer Alex Kapranos was keen to bring out another side. “In 2006,” says Alex, “it felt there was this Radio 1 indie rock sound developing and we were keen to react as much as we could against that and I wanted to concentrate on their melodies, that’s where I think a lot of their strength lies in their melodies and counter melodies, people forget what great songwriters they are because they hide them behind their guitars. I didn’t want to lose the anger and spit but I wanted people to get their beauty.”  The album captured exactly that and made Number 13, their biggest placing to date.

“The band’s developing all the time,” says Ross. “It’s very exciting, the first record sounds a lot different to the second and third and we’re learning constantly and the new record, it’s different again and that’s a good thing. You don’t want to be writing the same thing over and over again, and with this record, with Johnny in the band, it almost feels like a new beginning, the start of something really special.” And so to the result of working with Johnny and 2009’s ‘Ignore The Ignorant’.

Musically it’s their most diverse and accomplished album. There is still plenty of spontaneous punk and thought-provoking lyrics; see the exhilarating “We Were Aborted’, ‘Hari Kari’and ‘Cheat On Me’, the first single to be culled from the album; also innovation and experimentation on the breathtaking ‘City Of Bugs’ and some unashamedly pretty pop too; ‘Save Your Secrets’  and ‘Last Year’s Snow’ see Gary open his heart over beautifully crafted melodies.
Gary: “I enjoy writing pop songs, pop is still one of the best and most expressive types of music, you can really tug on the old heart strings, and not to compare ourselves to this, but look at Motown, they were pure pop songs but they were way more powerful than any punk song or any rock song.”

“To live up to what’s possible takes some doing,” says Johnny about the band and the music, “but that’s what we want to do, to live up to the possibilities on this record, and no one has higher hopes for the music than we do, we’re pretty fearless.”

“As far as expectation goes,” says Gary, “I know this is our best record, and I say it every time, but every time we make a record I hope we make a better one than the last one and if we ever make a record that’s not then that’s when we’ll call it quits. I’m not one of these people determined to take on the world, I hope the record gets out there to the people who want it, that people are exposed to it, and hopefully people will discover it, and finally understand what this band is about. “