You’ve all been paying attention to Boston’s The Rupert Selection, right? Well, you should! We’ll be honest: we only just recently ourselves have been tuned into what The Rupert Selection is laying down and feel that it’s safe to say this: “Holy crap!”
A FOR SURE late entry into the contenders for our “Best of ’23′” list and kind of like when The Endorphins dropped their last banger late last year (Actually around the same time now that we think about it), Crumbs for the Sun is something else. Coming back from seeing Quicksand perform Slip in full with this lingering in the back of our heads, especially opener “Astronauts”, and it’s mostly more of a refreshing thing to know that there are artists out there right this instant channeling the spirit of those Post-Hardcore giants as well as doling out the teachings of Catherine Wheel and Hum regularly.
But I digress.
“Astronauts” is spacious with some massive Hum-like feels as mentioned but then “I Saw God” comes in next and is a different animal altogether. A fuzzed out track that’s raucous and robust, “I Saw God” delivers a quick blast of Reilly Somach’s signature soulful rasp with Sam Bouve’s bass and Peter Bartash’s drumming constantly careening towards one another like two speeding trains coming from opposite ends that just narrowly miss each other at the last second. Following all that, “Taking Turns” is a righteous stomper led on by Somach’s riffin’ that makes up some grungy, grimy RAWK.
Then you get a real barn burner with a seven minute ditty right in the middle of it all which also happens to completely change the sonic landscape. Like, Extreme-style mega ballad here with Somach singing “I’ll see you all in Hell/So please excuse myself/Or Come Along/Come Along With Me” so gorgeously amidst lush string arrangements. How can you not be hooked yet? “What You Said”, in contrast, is a little more grounded as this laid back Rawker goes big on the grooves and sing-a-long choruses for a soft reset to the back half of the record.
“Then Again”, which previously dropped in February with “Astronauts”, hits just as hard nine months removed for a quirky little ditty that’s reminiscent of Primus’ harder moments or Toadies’ Alternative mastery and precedes another long one in “Unbroken” which closes up Crumbs… and clocks in at almost 8 minutes total. A vibrant Tool-like Alt meets Prog playful jam with Bartash bringing some licks and the start/stop prowess, Bouve’s rolling rumbles that definitely bring to mind Justin Chancellor’s bass work, and then Somash adds to it all with some razor sharp riffage and an almost Bluesy/Soulful vocal delivery that offsets the whole shebang making for one phenomenal finale.
Crumbs for the Sun drops on November 14th. You can find out about all the pre-save and pre-order options along with where to catch the band live in support by jumping onto the information superhighway and clicking here, here, or here. Or skip the middleman for the Spotify pre-save here.