A quick scan of Funcrusher's self-penned bio shows that this new Lake Worth quartet has a serious taste for the obscure. There's the fact that each band member has given himself a nonsensical nickname, for instance, or the fact that each lists his role not by instrument but by element -- as in earth, air, wind, and fire.
OK, whatever -- but this kind of purposeful inanity is acceptable in the face of the band's handful of songs, which are rough still but promising. Each, so far, explores different territory, mixing electronics and organic rock to different degrees, but all displaying a good grasp of catchy structure.
"Avalanche" is the slickest and the most friendly to the Apple/commercial/indie crowd, with tinkling synth lines and a generally introspective mood. "Pantherheart," meanwhile, with its funky bass, stuttering percussion, and sung/yelped vocals, had to have been written after a Talking Heads and Gang of Four binge.
The best of the three on the band's Soundcloud page is definitely "Limelight," captured here in this video from a Funcrusher performance this past December at Propaganda. The video's by an Asheville, North Carolina-based auteur named Anthony Abraira, and the band's sound here is far more loose-limbed than in its recorded offerings on the web. This is pure power pop, with a Kinks-by-way-of-Britpop jangle that belies the staying power of the English acts on the band's list of influences.
Still, this is just a glimpse of one song out of a whole set, so how will Funcrusher's electronic influences come into play onstage? Find out at Little Munich tonight, when the band performs with Your Umbrella, a pretty twee indie act from Boynton Beach, and Kevin Popejoy, a promising bearded folkie who also hails from Lake Worth.
Limelight. Funcrusher from Anthony Abraira on Vimeo.
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