Down on inland beach

As I'm still getting settled in here in the land of the brain-eating amoeba, I thought I'd cheat a little and recycle something I wrote and originally posted over on waxidermy last year. It's not much, but I truly hope this meager repast finds favor in both in your ears and your innards.

DAVID CRAWFORD, 'CEMENT CITY' b/w 'HARD TIMES' (Phase Two Music, 197?/198?)

Waxidermy BRAVE OLD WAVES READERS likes to rock; there’s no denying it. Aerosmith, AC/DC, maybe even a little Queen – it is still Rock ‘N’ Roll to them! So let’s keep on rockin’ in the US of A! From the Frisco Bay to Nags Head, VA, all the way down to Lake Charles, LA with David Crawford & Phase II!!

Times are hard in Lake Charles – the Cement City – if the a 'n' b-side to this record and Dave’s strikingly homemade t-shirt are to be believed. And I do (believe). In fact, I didn’t know they issued nicknames to towns this lousy. I thought they were just called dumps. Dave and Phase II aren’t exactly local boosters overflowing with civic pride either. There’s nothing on the street or in the record store, the night time’s shining, but the daytime’s blinding and even the phone is out (which is just as well as there’s no next of kin or friends to call). So sequestered in the cellar Dave and the Phase stay and – happily – have a taut and tasteless rocker to show for it.

The guitar rampage on ’Cement City’ reeks of Motor City residue; the gymnastic histrionics of Sonic’s Rendezvous most particularly. …which is likely just an off-target result of aiming for Ted Nugent. A bleak take on bleak living. The A-side’s good too, but ’Cement City’ is the real star. …well, co-star, if you count the photo insert. Phase II is Fortune Teller sick! And I don't even want to guess what Phase I must have looked like.

'CEMENT CITY'


'HARD TIMES'