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“An heiress to a tradition of
dramatic, confessional music that explores the dark side of life and love.
She is backed by what really is an all-star Melbourne band, the Baudelaire
-quotin’ Flowers Of Evil. Her voice is smoky and sensual, wrapping itself
around her lyrics and (Matt) Green’s guitar figures like a purring cat.
Her stage presence is arresting as her voice”
Tom
Hawking, Editor Inpress
‘Madhouse’
illustrates the fine line between passion and irrational attraction,
complimented naturally by Thomas’s duet with Conway Savage to create the
lush, romantic beauty of ‘No Vacancy’. While the raw sexuality of
‘Pretty Pink Clouds’ is simply unavoidable”
Patrick Emery
CRYSTAL THOMAS & THE FLOWERS OF
EVIL@ YAH YAH’S
“Crystal Thomas is more destined for credible superstardom than anyone
I have seen since the Birthday Party. Equal parts St Kilda and Fitzroy,
darkness and humour, irony and swagger, she is beautiful, articulate,
personable and a hell of a good songwriter (I challenge anyone to
deconstruct a song like Afterthoughts and explain to me how it is not an
extraordinary example of the art form).
Thomas’ band – consisting as it does of a bit of a who’s who of the local
scene – is beyond tight, it is almost as if they are an extension of the
singer’s body. There is something very, very special about this
performance tonight: the highlight for me being the ten – minute long,
spoken word opus Tom Foolery, which held the now seething, packed-
to-the-rafters room spellbound the entire time. Rightly so, a spontaneous
frenzy of flower throwing accompanied the band’s last encore, giving
proceedings a distinctly European flavour.
I Would stop short of calling this the gig of the year so far, but not by
much. And the really frightening thing is that Thomas and her band will
only get better with time. Make sure you see this lot at intimate venues
like Yah Yah’s while you still can. It’s only a matter of time before they
are way too big.”
Tony McMahon Inpress
“Crystal Thomas’s debut album is a smash. It’s hard to believe she hasn’t
surfaced earlier, but the album shows much potential for what should
follow a debut album of this quality. The Melbourne singer – songwriter
excites on every track with a distinctive vocal and the ability to write
quirky, but poignant lyrics.
Reading like a who’s who of Melbourne’s indie scene, the band driving the
album, Flowers Of Evil deserves half the credit. Matt Green impresses on
electric guitar, mandolin, dobro and vocals, while Tim McCormack holds it
together on upright and electric bass. Special guests Conway Savage, Rui
Pereira, Jen Anderson, Matt Walker & Liz Stringer add an extra dimention,
but through it all Thomas shines, refusing to be overshadowed by the star
line-up.
Semi-spoken opener Tom Foolery makes way for the gentle, almost fragile
Madhouse. Pretty Pink Clouds and No Return show the band rocks too.”
Shannon Deery, Sunday Herald Sun, October 26, 2008
CRYSTAL THOMAS & THE FLOWERS OF EVIL
The opening shimmering slide guitar glissando shapes the Zoot Horn Rollo
(from Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band) homage of Matt Walker’s stage
setting of Crystal Thomas’ postcard from the neon edge that is Tom
Foolery. Such exquisitely crafted and produced romantic balladry is rarely
realized with such languorous élan, eschewing the formulaic and rendering
real poetry by numbers to stunning affect (sic). Following on from such
devastatingly wondrous concoctions such as Barry Adamson’s Back to the Cat
and Dave Graney & Clare Moore with The Lurid Yellow Mist’s WE WUZ CURIOUS;
the Flowers of Evil have created a scented garden of nocturnal delights.
Little Blue Flowers bloom with incense, and droned Indian tambura
atmospheres propelled by Matt Walker’s masterful delta blues that is
utterly compelling. Crystal Thomas’ soulful vocal styling and range is
endlessly seductive with a prettiness that captivates.
The album’s chief themes are romantic love and misunderstanding with the
resultant ensuing ennui as it intersects a mad maximum future that looms
with menace everywhere (Madhouse). An elegiac song cycle that obliquely
references the loss and ecto-plasmic presence of X’s late Ian Rilen and
all who valiantly sailed as his crew through the avant-rock extremis of
that particular demi-monde.
The instrumental palette and studio production, indeed the entire
aesthetics of Matt Walker and Crystal Thomas’ vision is the fruit of an
onyx jewel and blood red roses; The Flowers of Romance by way of Rowland
S. Howard’s These Immortal Souls, The Young Charlatans, Jeff Lang,
P.J.Harvey and Patti Smith with those honky-tonk rock house blues. Wild
Horses and Dead Flowers came out of the package Crystal Thomas sent me
last night and their real perfume still lingers in the atmosphere of my
apartment.
Photo-synthetic plant life emerged on Earth after oceanic algae
proliferated to such a degree that it precipitated the spontaneous
creation of an oxygenated world some 440 million years ago, so from
carbonized life comes the crystalline jewel that is the diamond. That’s
that old black magic I suppose with petro-chemical consequences in
evolution.
Crystal Thomas & The Flowers of Evil is a truly stellar ensemble of gifted
composers and artists. Crystal Thomas, vocals, guitar, piano and clarinet.
Matt Walker, Producer, guitar,
piano, harmonica, tambura and backing vocals-wah wah wah!
Clare Moore, drums, percussion,
vibes and backing vocals.
Tim McCormack, electric and upright
bass
and backing vocals.Matt Green,guitar,mandolin and samples.
Conway Savage, vocals on No Vacancy.
Rui Pereira, sonic landscaping and
guitar on Beauty and the Magican and Pretty Pink Clouds.
Dave Manton, organ, backing vocals
and samples.
Jen Anderson
and Liz Stringer, violin, viola and cello on No Vacancy and Last Night’s
Stars.
The mysterious and spectral dimensions that sonically imbue these majestic
yet economically complex compositions fashion a uniquely astute sound and
style that chimes in with some of the bands’ antecedents and parallel
projects. The spectre of The Bad Seeds and The Lurid Yellow Mist et al are
undeniable but are decidedly not derivative; a product of mutual lived and
artistic experience(s). Conway Savage being a bona fide seed in this
luminous garden. This is a rare bloom that gloriously displays the finery
of the tropical orchid and is as obsessively and highly prized. No doubt
the
perfume is to die for.
Orchid n.
1 any usu. epiphytic plant of the family Orchidaceae, bearing flowers in
fantastic shapes and brilliant colours, usu. having one petal larger than
the others and variously spurred, lobed, pouched, etc.
2 a flower of any of these plants.
Brecon Walsh, September 2008 ©
Photo courtesy of Crystal Thomas
See Crystal Thomas & The Flowers of Evil live and visit their My Space
website for this knockout CD and more to explore.
http://www.myspace.com/breconwalsh
From Crystal Thomas & The Flowers of Evil melbournezene website:
http://www.crystalthomas.com.au
http://www.stovepiperecords.com
Crystal Thomas exudes a mysterious lyrical charm, woven through her
stories of suffering, hope, deception and desire. There is a brooding
personality behind Crystal Thomas’ haunting soundscape, eccentrically
crafted by her band The Flowers of Evil.
Crystal Thomas & The Flowers of Evil exhibit some of Melbourne’s esteemed
talents, from former Moodist and now Lurid Yellow Mist member Clare Moore,
The Broken Arrows’ Dan Brodie, to Johanna Brockman from James McCann’s
Dirty Skirt Band, The Paesano’s Matt Green and Tim McCormack of Downhills
Home.
United, Crystal Thomas & The Flowers of Evil explores nature’s darkness
and fragility while underscoring a resilient strength. To bring her
strengths to the masses, Crystal Thomas has been rugged up in the studio
for the past year immortalising her intriguing directions on disc. Matt
Walker was at the producing helm, helping Crystal Thomas to record an
emotive, delicate and, at times, rocking album. Together with guest
appearances from Conway Savage (Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds), Rui Pereira
(The Drones), Jen Anderson and Liz Stringer, Crystal Thomas’ debut is sure
to turn heads.
Crystal Thomas & The Flowers of Evil will be hitting the shelves on
October 3 through
Stovepipe Records.
Tags: australia, crystal thomas & the flowers of evil, matt walker,
melbourne, music, stovepipe records
A quote from Mark Dery's magnum opus the pyrotechnic insanitarium -
american culture on the brink, 1999 from his concluding essay in the book,
Conclusion: Last Things final page he quotes the late saxophonist and band
leader, jazz savant/avatar, Sun Ra. Mark Dery finishes his masterpiece
with: "As that millennial visionary Sun Ra so memorably put it, 'It's
after the end of the world! Don't you know that yet?'."
All this after Jean Baudrillard's '80's Future Fall predictions and before
the 9/11 - (September Eleven 2001) World Trade Center terrorist attack and
destruction.
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