| Cor-Crane Secret | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1992 | |||
| Recorded | January 2–5, 1992 | |||
| Genre | Indie rock, noise rock, math rock | |||
| Length | 38:24 | |||
| Label | Merge Records | |||
| Polvo chronology | ||||
| ||||
Cor-Crane Secret is the debut studio album by North Carolina indie rock band Polvo. It was recorded at Duck Kee Studios in Raleigh, North Carolina, and released on Merge Records in 1992.
Different versions of "Can I Ride" and "Vibracobra" appeared on the band's first two 7-inch releases in 1991. Another version of "In the Hand, In the Sieve" appeared on the band's split 7-inch EP with Erectus Monotone.
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [1] |
| The Boston Phoenix |  [2] |
| The Great Alternative & Indie Discography | 6/10 [3] |
| Select |   [4] |
| Sputnikmusic | 3.5/5 [5] |
| Uncut | 7/10 [6] |
According to Jason Anderson of AllMusic, the "critically embraced" debut of the band "deserves notice for its scope and imaginative guitars. However, Cor-Crane Secret sounds brittle when compared to the work of more accomplished '90s guitar bands like Built to Spill, Pavement, and Sonic Youth." He notes the "band's tendency to meander through long patches of dissonant but artful guitar structures [that] vigorously challenges the average rock attention span" and that they "dare themselves into overpowering their own rich songwriting" on the album. [1] According to David Sprague of Trouser Press , the band's "lengthy, enigmatic songs have far more in common with Gentle Giant and ELP (on a budget, of course) than anything contemporary, and its disavowal of hooks is all but complete" on their debut album which "quickly laid down the clinical gauntlet", criticizing Bowie's "unsteady" vocals. [7] UK magazine Select gave the album a similarly mixed review, with critic Anrew Perry writing that it was "[s]tructurally one of the weirdest, most contorted rock LPs of the year" and a "unique aural experience" despite the lack of "singalong choruses". [4]
A retrospective piece on the album published by Tiny Mix Tapes finds it "filled with ideas. We hear guitars played like sitars (“Ox Scapula”), rubber bands (“Bend or Break”), and theremins (“The Curtain Remembers”)." It also lists a large number of influences spread across its tracks, despite noting that "all of these seemingly incongruent elements form something remarkably coherent", ending the piece by calling it "years ahead of most rock music coming out today." [8] According to The A.V. Club , the album "set a standard for post-Sonic Youth art-rock that few bands (outside of Polvo itself) could top." [9] Upon being reissued with Today's Active Lifestyles in 2020, Jon Dolan wrote an article for Rolling Stone magazine on the song "Channel Changer", describing it as "a love song, albeit a strange one. Singer-guitarist Ash Bowie mumbles about wanting you to hang around his place so bad he’ll even go get the channel changer off the stereo and pick it up and put on your favorite show: “I’ll promise to watch if it if you promise not to go,” he sings, sounding at once dreamy and needy as the music slides around and chugs and twists and takes off and the guitars distractedly buzz like stoned mosquitoes." "What emerges" he continues, "is a vague-yet-vérité version of relationship ambiguity that feels at once weird and true, embodying the world of a band whose songs always seemed to be beautifully coming and going at the same time, slipping into something and out of something else (as the Feelies once sang), making indecision feel idealistic." [10]
A different take of the song "Can I Ride" released the year before on a 7-inch single was featured, alongside the band, on the film Half-Cocked .
Sonic Youth was an American rock band based in New York City and formed in 1981. Founding members Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo remained together for the entire history of the band, while Steve Shelley (drums) followed a series of short-term drummers in 1985, rounding out the core line-up. Jim O'Rourke was also a member of the band from 1999 to 2005, and Mark Ibold was a member from 2006 to 2011.
Polvo is an American indie rock band from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The band formed in 1990 and is fronted by guitarists/vocalists Ash Bowie and Dave Brylawski, with Steve Popson playing bass guitar and Brian Quast playing drums. Eddie Watkins was the band's original drummer, but did not rejoin the band upon its reunion in 2008, after breaking up in 1998.
Codeine is an American indie rock band formed in 1989 in New York City. They released two full-length albums—Frigid Stars LP in 1990 and The White Birch in 1994. Although the group broke up in 1994 shortly after the release of The White Birch, their subdued and melancholic style helped pioneer the then-nascent slowcore subgenre of indie rock. Codeine has since reunited on two occasions: the first for a handful of shows in 2012, and a second time for a series of shows in New York City and Los Angeles in 2023.
Eric's Trip is a Canadian indie rock band from Moncton, New Brunswick. Eric's Trip achieved prominence as the first Canadian band to be signed to Seattle's flagship grunge label Sub Pop in the early 1990s. The band had a minor hit in alternative circles with the single "View Master", from the 1994 album Forever Again.
The Young Gods are a Swiss industrial rock band from Fribourg, formed in 1985. The original lineup of the band featured singer Franz Treichler, sampler player Cesare Pizzi and drummer Frank Bagnoud. For most of their history, the band maintained a trio format with a singer, a sampler player and a drummer, albeit with multiple line-up changes. Treichler is the band's sole consistent member; the current line-up also features Pizzi and drummer Bernard Trontin. During their career, the band have extensively collaborated with producer Roli Mosimann.
Cinéma Vérité is the first album by the alternative rock group Dramarama, released in 1985. Although Dramarama was an American group, from New Jersey, the album was originally released by New Rose Records of France, and in America on Question Mark Records. It was later picked up for release by Chameleon Records, a small independent record label based in California.
Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! is the debut studio album by the American new wave band Devo. It was originally released in August 1978 on Warner Bros. in the North America and Virgin Records in Europe. Produced by Brian Eno, the album was recorded between October 1977 and February 1978, primarily in Cologne, West Germany.
Duty Now for the Future is the second studio album by American new wave band Devo, released on June 1, 1979, by Warner Bros. Records. Produced by Ken Scott, the album was recorded between September 1978 and early 1979 at Chateau Recorders in Hollywood. The majority of the songs on the album had been performed in Devo's live set as early as 1976.
Helium was an American alternative rock band fronted by Mary Timony. The band formed during the summer of 1992. Between 1992 and 1997, they released two full-length albums, three EPs and several singles.
Treepeople was an alternative rock band from Boise, Idaho, although its members were officially based in Seattle, Washington. The band was originally composed of vocalist/guitarist Scott Schmaljohn, drummer Wayne Flower, guitarist/vocalist Doug Martsch, and bassist Pat Brown. After six albums and various lineup changes, the band disbanded in 1994. The band's original lineup reformed in 2018, sans Brown due to his death in 1999. They eventually concluded their final tour in 2023.
Home is an experimental pop band formed in Tampa, Florida in the early-1990s, before relocating to New York in 1996. The band released eight self-produced, sequentially numbered, ultra-low-distribution albums on cheap Radio Shack cassettes before signing to Sony's Relativity Records label, which distributed its ninth album in 1995. This album, Home's only release on a major label, received favorable reviews in publications such as Spin, The Village Voice and Magnet. Subsequent Home albums have appeared on independent record labels, also to generally positive reviews. Dave Fridmann of The Flaming Lips was the producer behind at least two of Home's albums.
Exploded Drawing is the third studio album by the rock band Polvo. It was released in 1996 as a CD and double-LP on Touch and Go Records. The album was engineered by Bob Weston.
Defunkt is an American musical group founded by the trombonist and singer Joseph Bowie in 1978 in New York City. Their music touches on elements of punk rock, funk, and jazz.
Today's Active Lifestyles is Polvo's second studio album. It was produced by Bob Weston and released on Merge Records in 1993.
Celebrate the New Dark Age is an EP by Polvo.
Ashley Hideyo "Ash" Bowie is an American musician.
The It's My Life Tour was a concert tour by the Anglo-American hard rock band Tin Machine. The tour commenced on 5 October 1991 after two warm-up shows, one press show and three trade-industry shows, visiting twelve countries and concluding after seven months and sixty-nine performances, a larger outing than their first tour in 1989.
Aural Guerrilla is the 1988 studio album by Dutch anarchist post-punk band The Ex, co-released by American indie label Homestead Records.
Siberia is Polvo's sixth studio album. It was released on Merge Records on September 30, 2013. Unlike its predecessor, 2009's In Prism, the album was not accompanied with a tour.
Lived to Tell is an album by the American alternative rock band Eleventh Dream Day, released in 1991. Like the band's other two Atlantic Records albums, Lived to Tell was a commercial disappointment. The band supported the album with a North American tour.
