Crawlspace

Indiana-bred, Los Angeles-based Crawlspace is an ever-mutating art punk experiment led by singer Eddie Flowers. A mixture of guitar noise, space rock hypnosis, punk aggression, and occasionally pretentious lyrics, Crawlspace is the sort of band that can fascinate and aggravate listeners at the same time, but most folks with a taste for hard rock experimentation will find much to admire on most of their releases. Flowers was the lead singer in the Indiana-based Gizmos, the band that, along with their compatriots MX-80 Sound, pretty much defined early Midwestern new wave. Flowers moved to Los Angeles in the summer of 1979 and hooked up with guitarist Bill McCarter to form a band called the Idle Hands. By 1985, the duo's fellow Hoosiers the Lazy Cowgirls had moved to Los Angeles and looked up their old friend McCarter; Flowers and McCarter eventually formed a side project with Lazy Cowgirls bassist Keith Telligman and drummer Allen Clark, first under the name Big Dad & Ten Pounds of Swingin' Meat, then more sensibly under the name Crawlspace, derived from an early-'70s TV movie about an alienated teenager. Adding lead guitarist Mark McCormick and another Lazy Cowgirl, Lenny Keringer, to take over on bass so Telligman could also switch to guitar, Crawlspace recorded their first and most song-oriented album, In the Gospel Zone, in 1987. The sole cover on that otherwise original album was a Hawkwind-style version of Can's "Little Star of Bethlehem," a choice that foreshadowed the more improvisatory future of the band. With a couple more lineup changes (Sarge Adam took over for Keringer on bass, and Bob Lee replaced Clark on drums), the group took a decisive step away from rock-based forms on their next two singles, "August" and "Ocean = You." Live recordings from this era...