Crazy & The Brains – Photo Credit: Shawn Jordan

Fiercely independent, subliminal, surreal, and straight-up off their rockers in a wild dance party way, New Jersey-based band Crazy & The Brains are rooted in New York punk and antifolk, but with every guitar lead replaced by a xylophone solo.

Crazy & The Brains have drawn comparisons to the Damned, the Ramones, and New York Dolls, all while looking like they belong in a John Waters’ movie or a transgressive superhero group pulled out of a comic book, anchored somewhere in between Pee Wee Herman and Richard Hell.

The band’s lyrics confront social and political constructs, exploring the light and dark side of mental health, all while championing sexual and social freedoms, and with an extreme devotion for junk food.

Coming from North Jersey and raised at Sidewalk Cafe in New York City, Crazy & The Brains smashed into the music scene as an acoustic guitar/xylophone duo. Founding members Jesus Christoph and Jeffrey Rubin started out on the open mic scene in Lower East Side Manhattan and then released debut album Let Me Go in 2013 as a full band.

Always evolving, the act released a few singles in 2014 and 2015, adding heavy metal-charged Ernest Young on guitar to the line-up. They were joined by Jon Lango (once a member of Slacker’s Vic Ruggerio’s solo project), bassist Brett Maverick, and Jeffrey Rubin (xylophone, glockenspiel).

Crazy & The Brains opened for the Bouncing Souls in 2016, played Punk Rock Bowling in Asbury Park in 2017, and released Out in the Weedz EP, which was recorded by Bouncing Souls’ Pete Steinkopf. A tour that headed out to Las Vegas followed in 2018, along with a string of shows in support of folk punks Daze N’ Days, as well as a main stage shot at Punk Rock Bowling in Las Vegas opening for Mighty Mighty Bosstones and NOFX, and a club show opening up for the Dead Boys.

Full-length album Into the Ugly soon followed, again recorded by Steinkopf, and continued with the band’s penchant for adding cover songs to the mix. They went on tour with Negative Approach and Leftover Crack, where folk-punk crowds, ska and hardcore kids – every crowd that sees Crazy & The Brains – are won over by their raw power and energy. 2019 saw more touring from the band opening up for The Casualties, The Bronx, and The Bouncing Souls, and another string of dates with Days N’ Daze in Canada.

This year keeps the momentum going, with Crazy & The Brains’ new vibrant and dynamic EP, Where The Juice Drips, releasing on May 1st.

Big Takeover is stoked to host the premiere of the video for the tuneful and rhythmically brisk single “I Don’t Deliver Pizza Anymore,” which features Jen Fantaccione (The Front Bottoms) on cello. The retro-pop track hits the spot with its deeply reverberating guitar, low bass line push, supple cello pull, pronounced drum strikes, bright xylophone plinks, and Christoph’s passionate exclamations.

The animated music clip is part lyrics video and part sketches, with the song’s words scrawled over images of peace signs, tears, rain, and even drops of blood as a human head disconnects from his body and spins out into a tetrad of noggins. Yes, it’s a trippy mind-boggler, and open to much interpretation, especially when the aforementioned human is intact, yet carrying around a ‘mini-me’ in his hand…!

Christoph reveals some details about the EP, commenting, “We started working on these songs last August, getting ready for a Canadian tour with Days N Daze in October, and the week after tour we had studio time with Pete from the Bouncing Souls in Asbury Park. We sat boxed up working on this EP before tour and the first time anyone else heard some of these songs were the kids in the Canada and they flipped and crowd surfed to it, so we figured these songs were cool.”

About the track “I Don’t Deliver Pizza Anymore,” Chris states, “Following the style of how we rolled in the early days, this song debuted at an open mic. Ernest heard the demo and demanded we keep the song as is, simple and raw. We mainly followed that except for adding strings suggested by Jeff. We played this song for the first time as a full band to a crowd in Canada. A lot of kids out there shared their own pizza delivery job stories with us, Canadian kids are cool, Canadian pizza sucks.”

“I’d like to say I find no relation to corny pizza memes or the overly played-out goofy pizza themes beat to death by pop punk and hipster bands of late. I used to deliver for Helen’s Pizza in Jersey City, NJ. This song is a summoning of self confidence and a clear and simple fuck you to anyone who doubts me.”

Where The Juice Drips EP officially drops May 1st, on digital everywhere (Spotify, iTunes, Tidal, Rhapsody, YouTube, etc.). Physical Pre-orders HERE

Digital Pre-Order HERE and at iTunes and Amazon.

7” inch vinyl will ship early May. The vinyl is pressed on Crash Assailant Records.

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