Crickets — a new band featuring members of Le Tigre and Faith No More — have released a thumping new reprisal of toxic masculinity, “Elastic,” set to appear on their upcoming self-titled debut album, out July 17th via Muddguts.
The track is centered around a steady dance groove cut with a delightful and delirious screeching guitar riff. JD Samson (of Le Tigre and Men) keeps her lyrics straightforward but potent, singing, “I thought that becoming the toxic masculinity that hurt me/Would give me the power to keep on livin’/But indeed I was still toxic, yeah, I was still dangerous/Now the power I have is to heal and change and grow.”
Along with Samson, Crickets features her Men bandmate Michael O’Neill and Faith No More guitarist-keyboardist Roddy Bottum. The trio came together as a loose, ever-evolving project a few years ago, before finally recording a handful of songs in August 2019. Crickets recorded the album with Miles Robinson at a studio in the Pfizer building in Brooklyn, and it was later mixed by Ben Greenberg of the Men.
“The simplicity and the bare bones with which we afforded ourselves in the process of writing and recording were key to the overall project,” Bottum said in a statement. “We went out of our way to limit ourselves to the bare necessities of tools and voices, and then stripped it down even further to achieve a barren and isolated effect. The music is addressing a need in the three of us to simplify and creatively explore the option of making music without the excess of presence of a masculine toxicity in expression and in the studio.”
