Sweet, shy Cruel, Cruel Moon... They formed in 1994: Carolyn Getson - locally famous as a member of Kent's beloved Betties and for her experimental short films - splits writing, singing, rhythm guitar and bass playing with Craig Martin - fine visual artist and x-Bad Crab. Tim Gilbride - sometime My Dad Is Dead member and CG's husband - discharges lean guitarwork, ringing, buzzing, or slashing at all the right moments. Drummer Mark Keffer quit and was replaced by Warren Thompson who quit and was replaced by Derek Erdman who quit and was replaced by Ian Penter...
"Cruel, Cruel Moon is a chip off the Cleveland Velvet's heritage focusing more on the common realities of Mo Tucker and her solo efforts than Lou's Dylan + Decadence + shrieking noise side -- which I like just fine -- as I do this. CCM also use an updated garage Bo Diddley folk strummany. Yo La Tengo fans would find CCM to really fit the bill...Tony says he hears some early 80s Fall in the mix here, and who am I to deny a Fall sighting?"
Craig Regala, Review of Still Life in Dec. '96 issue of Moo
"...a very organic-sounding band...um, kind of like how the Raincoats were organic sounding, do you know what I mean? Not that CCM sounds like the Raincoats. It's just very simple, kinda loose, but powerful and emotionally effective music...complex simplicity, subjective harmonies, and humble presumptiousness. Their music is so catchy, they really seem to win over people who just happen to be there to see or do something else, which is a great thing to be able to say about a band."
Jeff Curtis, Indie Digest, Jan 16th, 1995
"...Cruel, Cruel Moon played a great, loud, Velvet Underground-y, garage-punk set...They can flip-flop from folky sweetness to bone-crushing White Light/White Heat intensity in a snap."
Jim Ellis, Indie Digest, Oct 20th, 1995, review of CLE MAGAZINE Resurrection Party, Grog Shop 10-7-95
"6. Cruel, Cruel Moon "1000 Different Ways" (1995) PATTY STIRLING: New Zealand had the saddest guitars, as if they had no hope at all and had to find that pretty.
FRANK KOGAN: Patty picked these people as being from New Zealand, which makes sense, because both New Zealand and northern Ohio are immersed in the Velvet Underground tradition of mood strumming. I think the wallop in the guitar is pure Ohio. Northern Ohio has always been the most virulent part of the Velvet diaspora -- bloody destruction and raging ugly party hijinks put to music. This band is from the Cleveland-Kent-Akron axis and that's all I know..."
From Frank Kogan's Why Music Sucks (1996?) [Unreleased CCM song included in a blind mix-tape Frank sent to selected readers.]
"Faint echoes of the usual Cleveland/Akron/Kent influences - Velvet Underground, Pere Ubu, Peter Laughner, Human Switchboard - can be detected, but this is ultimately truly original music brought from the heart and marked by droning guitars, deadpan yet touching vocals, and a smart, soulful approach to music making....So there you have it...two bands who sound nothing alike, but who share an inspiring, organic attitude about music making. On the one hand I root for bands like Cruel, Cruel Moon and Fuzzhead to achieve national breakouts, to maximize their audiences and their incomes, but on the other hand, my world seems a better place because these bands are where they are, doing exactly what they want to do, making exactly the kind of music they want to make....long may they run."
Steve Hesske, Article in the Downtown Tab, 1997
"...forceful, shapely drones..." ( !! )
Free Times mag, Cle, Dec 1995
"I always kinda hope one of these unknown CD's by some band I've never heard of on a label I've never seen before will become something I listen to all the time and something I can heartily recommend. It rarely happens. Luckily, Cruel, Cruel Moon are right up my alley with their slightly Velvet Underground swagger, Chills-y dreaminess and fine songs."
Larry Crane - Review of Still Life from Summer 1997 issue of Tape OP
"(The moon reflects the light of the sun. . .) Have you ever stood out where the city melts into the country, the sidewalks ripple & bridges shrug their shoulders, and you can hear the overtones of the leaves in the trees? That's some of what I hear in "still Life"--Cruel, Cruel Moon's first album. Alphabetically, some of the other things I think of: Syd Barrett, Captain Beefheart, Can, the Everly Brothers, the Fall, Velvet Underground, Neil Young. But that's just a list, and maybe has as much meaning as the clothes on a beautiful boy or girl: they might be fine designer or thrift-store floral, but what really matters is the person inside. (A silver disc transforming the light of a laser into sound. . .) And on "still Life" you can hear the people inside. (like the furious flutterings of curious angels. . .)
Sera Ocko, CLE MAGAZINE No. 4.0, 1996
"This cd is one of the few currently tangible manifestations of the reputedly long-fertile Kent, Ohio, scene - one whose roots are so deep in the ground that you and I haven't heard its seminal bands. Elements here are familiar from other Ohio rock: Human Switchboard's wheels-spinning-in-the-mud urgency, the artful two-guitar propulsion of Prisonshake or Death of Samantha, a healthy dose of Ubu/V-3 experimentalism, and a resolutely adult lyrical attitude reminiscent of My Dad Is Dead in its willingness to undertake the hard work of differentiating false and real hope.
There's also a common Keystone State tendency to take the Velvets as founding text - chunks of this record could be keyed to the third VU album. "Flood," with its layers of buried speech and tape manipulation...could be "The Murder Mystery" with a catchy chorus, while "Jesus Turned Away" is "Jesus" minus the redemption...
CCM are blessed with two distinct songwriters: Martin is straightforwardly existentialist in his content..."Fall Onto The Pavement" (my favorite rock song of the past year) finds him hitting bottom and looking for a way further down...to a riff as resilient as "Sweet Jane."
Foil to this is Carolyn Getson's more allusive approach - "Cling" spins out loss-of-gravity imagery...in the closing "Foolish Explosions," Getson evokes a period of crisis...retaining a knowing Patti Smith-like calm in her vocal cadences. Clear-eyed, grown-up, apparently untouched by irony, Cruel, Cruel Moon have managed to find a few more ways to squeeze something meaningful (even possibly life-affirming) from the supposedly bone-dry corpse of the guitar band. It could only happen in Ohio."
Franklin Bruno, Review of Still Life from Puncture # 37
"There is a gentle psychedelic flavor to CCM's sound, reminiscent of The Church and Velvet Underground. You can take the VU comparison one step further when Carolyn Getson sings her four songs in a throaty chanteuse vocal style that recalls Nico's. The consistency in CCM's songwriting is a tribute to its ability to take these influences and create its own sound. The band rocks out on the driving, bass-heavy "Hollow Tree" and the tribal drum rhythms of "And I Want..." Check out "Stranded" for a testimonial of how dynamic the rhythms of a guitar can be. The production is dry, with each band member getting plenty of play. Good songwriting, solid musicianship, and sympathetic production: what more can you ask for on a debut?"
Tad Hendrickson, Review of Still Life in CMJ New Music Review
"The music of Cruel, Cruel Moon balances the intellectual and sonic oddities of the Fall with a near-fanatical devotion to the Velvet Underground. Strong songwriting, striking vocals from Martin and Getson, and Tom Verlaine-inspired riffs from Gilbride keep the sound anything but derivative. CCM displays a raw passion rarely exhibited by overtly Velvets-tinged bands..."
Laura DeMarco, Nov 1995 issue of Moo
"Cruel, Cruel Moon's sparse, grating, subdued sound has earned them comparisons to the Velvet Underground or Galaxie 500 on Valium..."
WRUW 15th Studio-A-Rama Guide, 1995
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