Cleveland post-rock/post-hardcore band Craw put out three albums in the '90s (all recorded with Steve Albini) and then their final album, 2002's Bodies for Strontium, which came out on Hydra Head. Those three '90s albums have been out of print since that decade, but on December 11 Northern Spy will reissue them as the 1993-1997 box set. Music writer (and STATS member) Hank Shteamer helped fund the project on Kickstarter, where he wrote:



In 2014, I launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a vinyl box-set reissue of some of my favorite albums ever made: the first three full-lengths by the Cleveland post-hardcore band Craw, all out of print for roughly two decades. Each of these records--1993's Craw, 1994's Lost Nation Road and 1997's Map, Monitor, Surge--is a masterpiece of aggressive, unsettling, forward-thinking underground rock. Of these three, only Lost Nation Road has ever been issued on vinyl previously, in a subpar limited-edition pressing. Now, in 2015, we're resurrecting this effort with a more manageable funding goal and a sturdier team of experts committed to making this project a success.

On behalf of all seven ex-members of Craw, who have lent their full support to this reissue effort, I'm relaunching the campaign with the help of esteemed Brooklyn indie label Northern Spy, which for the past decade has issued a steady stream of vital, challenging releases in the fields of avant-rock, free jazz and experimental music.

...Simply put, Craw, Lost Nation Road and Map, Monitor, Surge are my favorite albums of all time. The songs they contain are explosive, eerie and downright riveting, combining the visceral rush of metallic post-hardcore, the compositional majesty of progressive rock and the purposeful abstraction of experimental improv, while at the same time achieving a rare, insular coherence all their own. These records aren't special merely because they're obscure; they're not second best to everything you've already heard from their era. I truly believe that these three LPs--each recorded or co-recorded by Steve Albini--stand alongside acknowledged '90s classics such as Slint's Spiderland, the Jesus Lizard's Goat and Shellac's At Action Park.

You can stream a five-song sampler of the reissue below.

Craw have reunited before, and they'll do so again to celebrate the release with two shows. One is in their hometown on December 18 at Grog Shop (tickets) and the other is in NYC on December 19 at Saint Vitus (tickets).

UPDATE: The shows were postponed until March 11 at Grog Shop and March 12 at Saint Vitus due to "unforeseen medical circumstances." All tickets purchased for the December dates will be honored.

According to the press release, "All band members that played on the albums included in 1993-1997 will be on hand at each show, participating in career-spanning performances drawn from these releases as well as Bodies for Strontium 90."



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