ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Upstart Brooklyn-based psychedelic rock band Crumb won fans with its 2019 debut album "Jinx," which melded indie rock with jazz, pop and more.
But for its third album, "Amana," released a year ago, the band already was evolving, and thought perhaps it needed to make its music a bit more accessible, keyboardist Bri Aronow said.
“I think we were trying to make a bit more lively album than ‘Ice Melt,’" its 2021 album that came out amid COVID-19, Aronow said.
"In terms of lively thinking, like audience moving their bodies. Or a bit more, like, optimistic, I think, as well.
"Looking back at the time period, it was a bit of a darker album. If ‘Ice Melt’ is kind of going into nighttime and winter, this feels a bit more like morning and going into warmer months."
Crumb, which Monday started a short tour that brings it Thursday, June 19, to Allentown's Archer Music hall. Tickets for general admission standing remain available.Archer Music Hall website
If anything, that shift in direction only won more fans to Crumb, which Monday started a short tour that brings it Thursday, June 19, to Allentown's Archer Music Hall.
Tickets, at $41.80 for general admission standing, with pop band Kassie Krut as opening, remain available at the Archer website.
The decision to shift direction, Aronow said, was natural, but also intentional.
“It was a bit of the chicken-or-the-egg situation," Aronow said.
"You know, I think the mood was lighter ... we were lifted out of the [coronavirus] pandemic. And I think we were just feeling a bit more excited in our lives a bit then, maybe.
“And then from that, also making great music from so many different places. I mean, this is more like we just felt like we were trying to embrace the fun, maybe take it a little less seriously."
'It all came together'
That started with the title song, which Aronow said is sort of an homage to singer Lila Ramani’s grandmother, who lives in Malaysia.
“She got a voice memo from a group of her family who was visiting her grandmother, and her grandmother was singing this old song," Aronow said.
"And someone recorded it and sent it to the group, and we would use that go kind of open up her song."
"An interesting thing happened. I guess the band in general started exploring the same themes — lyrically, sonically. Like everyone’s kind of on the same page."Crumb keyboardist Bri Aranow
From there, Crumb "kind of played on a lot of themes … The lyrics are not necessarily about her grandmother, but, like, I think themes about different kinds of love and distance between people.
“So I think that … even sound-wise we were very into this. Like it sounds like we were streaming almost low quality, if you listen to that song as opposed to the rest of the album."
As the album came together, it "grouped together ... themes about longing for home and family and connections to different kinds of love relationships," Aronow said.
"An interesting thing happened. I guess the band in general started exploring the same themes — lyrically, sonically. Like everyone’s kind of on the same page.
"It kind of felt like it came all together."
'We always keep things fresh'
Coming together is how Crumb has operated since its members first collaborated a decade ago at Tufts University in Massachusetts, where some of the band is from.
“We all met pretty early on when were in college, and played in different groups pretty much because it was a small music scene,” Aronow said.
But all had played in collections of different genres, Aronow said.
"I think we’ve had this push and pull — like, ‘be quieter, be louder, more distortion, less drums.' And then when we play live, I think what’s really fun is we really, like, open up the album, and we’ll be playing songs off the new album, and also old songs and, like, exploring the composition."Crumb keyboardist Bri Aronow
"I used to play, like, predominantly jazz when I was in college — saxophone," Aronow said. "I think for me, it felt like we really were taking from that and mixing it more with grooves that kind of play off that ‘60s-’70s aesthetic but are kind of psychedelic."
Ramani "is also really interested a lot in pop-rock music from around the world," Aronow said, and bassist Jesse Brotter is "into musical forms and he’s really into old-school folk and more funk." And drummer Jonathan Gilad "likes metal."
“Through Crumb, I’ve become really interested in, like, sonic explorations of films and, like, different textural elements that all kind of feel like they’re in that realm," Aronow said.
"I think we’ve overlapped with some of that. So I think we’ve had this push and pull — like, ‘be quieter, be louder, more distortion, less drums.'
"And then when we play live, I think what’s really fun is we really, like, open up the album, and we’ll be playing songs off the new album, and also old songs and, like, exploring the composition.
“Our last tour was in the fall, and having a break and then coming back in rehearsals in the past few weeks, we’re changing things up again.
"So we always keep things fresh in that sort of way.”
Allentown show 'back to home ground'
Aronow said that diversity of musical styles — especially influences from earlier eras — are what has drawn listeners to Crumb.
"I think a lot of people have said over time they think our music feels nostalgic," Aronow said.
"And I think maybe that is what I hang onto the most — this familiarity — it feels like a friend or like an old experience. Maybe it’s timeless in that quality of all being from different decades. It’s hard to say.”
"I was talking to my dad... And he said he never heard of Archer and I told them it's new. They’re going to try to come out to the show, too, for nostalgic reasons. Coming back to home ground.”Crumb keyboardist Bri Aronow
But that amalgamation has made it difficult to describe Crumb's music.
“I struggle with the genre answer," Aronow said. "I mean, I think when I have to say it’s kind like vaguely psychedelic/pop/jazz elements.
"I think those are kind of … what we agreed upon when we were writing the bio for this album.
“And that’s always shifting and changing a bit, but I think instrumentation-wise, the influences, I think it’s really cool ‘cause all four of us overlap musical interests somewhat.
"But we also have pretty varying interests, and that also kind of plays into the soft/hard way we kind of explore sounds.”
That's likely to continue. Crumb members have worked independently on song ideas recently and "our plan after this tour is to come back together in writing mode," Aronow said.
Speaking of past influences, Aronow said it will be a kind of revisiting when Crumb plays Allentown.
Aronow's parents met while both attended Lehigh University. They graduated in the mid-1980s.
"I was talking to my dad, he was asking if another venue — I don't remember the name — was still there," Aronow said. "And he said he never heard of Archer and I told them it's new.
"They’re going to try to come out to the show, too, for nostalgic reasons. Coming back to home ground.”
