Crash Harmony - Nobody Asked for This
In the flurry that has erupted for NYC indie rock outfit Crash Harmony surrounding the release of their debut full-length album 'Nobody Asked For This' 30+ years on from initially forming, the quartet share their short but impactful mini-doc album trailer, filmed at Magic Door Recording in Montclair, NJ - the very studio where they recorded this long-awaited release.
Crash Harmony is made up of Dave Derby (vocals, guitars), Mike Potenza (guitars, keyboards, vocals), Jon Nighswander (bass, vocals), and Nils Nadeau (drums, percussion, vocals). Formed in 1986 in New Haven, CT while attending Yale University, the band played their last gig in May 1988. They hadn’t played together again until 2022 - a reunion that would see them rekindle the spirit of their college days and set their minds to finally releasing their earlier material.
Dave went on to The Dambuilders (and then Gramercy Arms), Mike served on The Anderson Council, Jon left for Europe, and Nils wandered north. But no matter where they went, Crash Harmony still kind of mattered. Eventually, they had to come back. They had to return to that place so, decades later, Crash Harmony reformed to make a new record of old songs - a rock-and-roll reenactment of the New Haven scene that changed them forever.
Exemplifying the 10 tracks on this record are the singles 'Velour Goddess' and 'Orange Background', the latter of which Nils Nadeau describes as "a letter from our college selves to our grown selves and also, in a way, from Generation X to what we have now in the world".
Now available on vinyl and digitally via Magic Door Record Label, this album was mixed and mastered by renowned producer Ray Ketchem (Guided by Voices, Elk City, Gramercy Arms, Luna). Recorded by Ketchem and Dave Derby in NYC, Ketchem produced it together with Crash Harmony.
Yale rock - an oxymoron too good to be dismissed, meeting as undergraduates swept up in the current of something more exciting than college – a New Haven music scene that was real. While college was for figuring out what you wanted to be, college rock was for figuring out what you wanted to sound like. Crash Harmony was absorbing everything, and trying it all on for size at house parties, frat houses, and clubs throughout New England.
Like their name, the record is an orchestrated pileup of long-ago influences that collided in the chambers of their broken young hearts and have again wriggled free from their throats and amps, pop gems humming like cicadas and dancing for the pure joy of being alive again.
If you were fortunate enough to ever be part of a vibrant music scene, then you know how intoxicating, how important, how finally cool you felt to live on this newly discovered planet. It was pulsing with energy and possibility, teeming with talent and artists and then, the jaw drop of realizing your planet was actually part of an entire galaxy of scenes vibrating around the country. A truth revealed that rock legends were not just the leather-pantsed strutters on the national stage but dishwashing oddballs strumming in your neighbor's backyard - heroes you could actually meet, try to impress, emulate and maybe one day open for, if dreams could come true. And, for Crash Harmony, they did for a while.
Crash Harmony is fortunate to get a second wind - then, as now, experiencing the exhilaration of being part of a vibrant music scene and that sense of belonging, that excitement and the possibilities that come from being surrounded by talented musicians. The realization that local scenes are connected to a larger musical universe, where rock legends could be found in unexpected places. This allure and inspiration and, ultimately, the realization of one's youthful dreams are all drivers. For Crash Harmony, these dreams have finally became a reality.
'Nobody Asked for This' is out now on vinyl and digitally on all platforms, including Apple Music, Spotify and Bandcamp.
