Water On The Moon by Crazy Mary, 2009
Website: Crazy Mary
Home Base: New York, NY
Genre: Rock, Alternative, ProgRock, Underground
Compared To: The Rolling Stones , Jefferson Airplane, The Velvet Underground, The Mekons, The Doors, Zappa, Blondie, The Cramps
Influenced By: The Rolling Stones , Jefferson Airplane, The Clash, The Velvet Underground
Bio.: Anyone who experienced New York’s gritty, exciting, and gloriously vibrant music scene in the 1970s, ’80s, or ’90s will tell you the same thing: Their city is gone. Wiped out by a Stalin-esque, Disney-driven coup and replaced with a staid world of theme restaurants and karaoke bars. It’s as if when the soul was sucked out of Manhattan by real estate developers the music went along with it. Or so it would seem, however, until you’ve heard the music of New York band Crazy Mary.
Formed by veteran Lower East Side guitarist and songwriter Charles Kibel and drummer Nick Raisz, Crazy Mary has been conjuring its refreshingly oddball avant-garage rock since 1998. A bubbling cauldron of chiming and scraping guitars, creepy organ, spacey, experimental sounds, Dada-ish pranksterism, and absurdly danceable rhythms, the band distills it all into a surreal cocktail of post-punk/psychedelic weirdness. And now, with the recent additions of legendary underground violinist Walter Steding and expatriate Australian vocalist Em Z, things have gotten even weirder. In a good way, of course.
Over its six studio and two dub/remix albums, the group has racked up rabid praise from such disparate sources as the Village Voice and NBC newsman Brian Williams-who namechecked the band in his online blog-showing that while the intrepid spirit would seem to have vanished from the New York scene, it’s alive and well in Crazy Mary. And for evidence one need look no farther than the outfit’s newest release, Water on the Moon. Oozing with alternately rocking and trippy gems like the outsider anthem “Eyes Above the Clouds,” the strangely loping “Gravity,” and the angular, organ-drenched “Way Too Freaky,” the disc furthers Crazy Mary’s longstanding reputation as one of Gotham’s most adventurous acts.
“Being a working band here nowadays is a lot different than when we started,” says Kibel. “Most of our fans and the clubs we play at are in Brooklyn, rather than downtown [Manhattan]. But we’ve been able to build up a good core following, and our shows are always fun. And New York’s still the best market in the world.”
With a lineup that now also includes bassist Armand “The Wizard” Milletari, who took over for his late friend George Kerezmen, and keyboardist Parker Reilly, Crazy Mary has been collaborating with Steding since 2002 but welcomed him as a permanent member in 2009. A mythic downtown fixture, the violinist is a former assistant to Andy Warhol—who was also his producer and manager—and regularly performed at Max’s Kansas City and CBGB with acts like Blondie and the Ramones, and has recorded with Jim Carroll and Robert Fripp. “Playing with Crazy Mary has been a resurgence of creativity for me,” says Steding, who was introduced to Kibel and Raisz by Blondie guitarist Chris Stein. “Our shows are very much about sharing the music, making the audience part of the experience, too.”
“Our music is very transporting, that’s how I describe it, ” says Em Z, the group’s third vocalist. “It takes you somewhere else. As long as we get people dancing, we’re happy.”
Getting people dancing while challenging them artistically. A New York tradition perhaps thought lost. But one that Crazy Mary continues to uphold-and take straight into the next dimension.
My Review: I think we’ve all known of or seen a “Crazy Mary” in our lives. You know, the old lady who wears 6 layers of clothes on a 95 degree day, pushes a shopping cart and is usually mumbling to herself! You say to yourself, “I wonder what made her that way”. I guess the same thing happens to aging musicians! I couldn’t think of a better name for this group than Crazy Mary! Hell, they even forget what genre they’re supposed to be playing!
All kidding aside, though, Crazy Mary does offer a unique blend of styles and genre that you are not likely to see on one single CD. To say it borders on being post-Dada, or post-RIO music would probably be fairly accurate. Frank Zappa would probably be proud of them and who knows, if he were alive today he might even name a child “Gravity” or “Way Too Freaky” after them! Of course, he might name her “Orgasmic Annie”, too!
Crazy Mary is sorta like a childs top. As the top slows down it starts to wobble. When it wobbles one way it touches on rock, when it wobbles another it touches on punk/goth, than it wobbles again and touches, dare I say it, country! You just don’t know what to expect from them! Their music is catchy and full of good hooks to keep you wanting more. Em Z says their music is “transporting” and that’s true. They remind me a lot of Cream, Donovon, early Jeff Airplane and some of the other groups from the 60s. If you had something to smoke, you lit up, put something like this on and let the music carry you away to a better place, “73 men sailed out from San Francisco Bay”, Oh!, sorry, flash back to Blues Image!
The playing is superb! “Water on the Moon” adequately showcases everyone’s talent. It has some great drum fills by Raisz, great lead guitar work from Kibel, brilliant keyboarding from Parker Reilly and solid bass lines by “The Wizard”. Violinist Steding adds a dimension to Crazy Mary which, unfortunately, is seldom seen in rock bands today. It’s things like this which help make a group’s music unique.
Em Z does a terrific job on vocals. Her voice is strong and clear with more than enough range. She does a terrific job on “Another Dollar”, you’d swear she was from the deep South instead of Oz!
So, if you’re tired of sitting in your “white room”, jump on board the “magic bus”, smoke it if you got it, take along a “ee-lek-tric-kle banana” and some “incense and peppermint” for lunch and let “Crazy Mary” transport you to a “land others may have missed”!
Man, I gotta rate Crazy Mary a 10 and a “thumbs up”. Hey, they’re crazy, what can I say?
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This video is “Nuclear Lipstick” from Crazy Mary’s album by the same name. It is extremely creative and well done!
This Amazon.com applet has both the Nuclear Lipstick and Water on the Moon albums.
