THINGY Songs About Angels, Evil, And Running Around On Fire 1997

Discogs

Artist Biography by Steve Huey

Following the 1995 dissolution of the quirky art-pop band Heavy Vegetable, guitarist/singer/songwriter Rob Crow and lead singer Eléa Tenuta regrouped in Thingy, which turned into one of the restless and prolific Crow's main creative outlets. Both natives of the San Diego area, Crow and Tenuta added bassist Jason Soares (formerly of Loader, Rice, and Stacatto Reads) and quickly cut a seven-song EP, Staring Contest, which was released on Heavy Vegetable's old label Headhunter/Cargo in 1996. Its drummerless, mostly acoustic approach was a marked departure from Heavy Vegetable's short, fractured, progressive compositions and punk roots. It was only temporary, though, as drummer Mario Rubalcaba -- also of the Black Heart Procession and formerly of cult emo faves Clikatat Ikatowi -- subsequently came on board. The band plugged their instruments back in for their first full-length effort, 1997's Songs About Angels, Evil, and Running Around on Fire, which bore a stronger resemblance to Heavy Vegetable's work. Meanwhile, Crow and Soares both moonlighted as part of synth minimalists Physics; Crow also made some solo recordings, both under his own name and as Snotnose, and worked with punkers Fantasy Mission Force and indie popsters Optiganally Yours.
With all the side projects going on, it took Thingy awhile to craft its second album. The same quartet lineup finally released To the Innocent in 2000, this time on the Absolutely Kosher label. Rubalcaba subsequently left the band to move to Chicago, while Soares also departed to focus on Physics and its posthumous offshoot, Aspects of Physics. Rubalcaba's replacement was Brent Asbury, while Soares was replaced at first by Physics bandmate Cameron Jones, who also doubled as the drummer for Crow's other main band of the time, Pinback. Jones moved to Portland in 2001, where he founded Two Guys with his brother Ryan; he was replaced in Thingy by Kenseth Thibideau. Crow concentrated mainly on Pinback for the next several years, but continued to work on new material with Thingy, with a third album slated for some indefinite future date. 

Tracklist

1	Destroy All Music
2	SK5
3	Olive Drab
4	Thins
5	Honest
6	Fake
7	Numb
8	Cottingley Fairies
9	Nosebleed
10	Evil Shadow
11	Revolution In A Box
12	Homework
13	Drugs
14	Fine
15	Window
16	Hit Bottom
17	Semolina / Kessel Run
18	Cutest Baby
19	Wave Of Depression
20	Rental
21	Cut
22	Already Ivy
23	Nod
24	Light Drizzle

 

ROB CROW Lactose Adept 1996

by request

 

Artist Biography by Stewart Mason

San Diego-based singer and multi-instrumentalist Rob Crow is an exceptionally prolific and eclectic musician who splits his time among a variety of projects, including Pinback, Thingy, Goblin Cock, Optiganally Yours, Alpha Males, Physics, and Snotnose, among others. Along the way, Crow has released a few solo CDs that are distinctly odd even for this quirky indie rock/math rock musician.
Crow began his public career as one-fourth of Heavy Vegetable, whose first EP, A Bunch of Stuff by Heavy Vegetable, came out in 1993. When that group split in 1995, Crow and Heavy Vegetable singer Elea Tenuta started a new band, Thingy, almost immediately. At the same time, Crow released his first solo project, half of a split CD with the art noise electronica artist Lesser. Crow's half of the disc consists of 25 ultra-short tracks, mostly instrumentals, including three tracks recorded with the side project Fantasy Mission Force. (Fantasy Mission Force released their own EP, Circus Atari, in 1997.)

Crow's first full solo album, Lactose Adept, came out in 1996. Even more fragmented than his half of the split CD with Lesser, Lactose Adept consists of 30 bizarre song fragments ranging from seven seconds to seven minutes, well over half of them coming in at under the two-minute mark. Crow's scribbled liner notes explain that the songs were recorded with a four-track cassette deck in the apartment next door to his and Tenuta's, on equipment belonging to Heavy Vegetable bassist Travis Nelson. There is no element of Lactose Adept that is not totally strange, from the music to the bizarre cover art featuring a hacked Ernest Shepard drawing stolen from a Winnie the Pooh book.

Crow followed his solo sojourn with the duo Optiganally Yours, a duo of Crow on vocals and Optigan (an inexpensive home keyboard instrument from the '60s that plays sounds stored on discs) player Pea Hix. The duo released two albums, 1997's Optigan-only Spotlight on Optiganally Yours and 2000's Optiganally Yours Presents Exclusively Talentmaker, an album built around the sounds of other obsolete home keyboard instruments. Three more Crow solo projects followed, 2003's My Room Is a Mess, 2007's Living Well, and the I Hate You Rob Crow EP. 

HEAVY VEGETABLE The Amazing Undersea Adventures of Aqua Kitty and Friends 1994

Discogs

Tracklist

1	Thingy	0:57
2	Saloon	1:43
3	Eggy In A Bready II	1:18
4	Doesn't Mean Shit	1:24
5	Myliebetz	0:46
6	Couch	3:11
7	Head Rush	1:57
8	Listen To This Song, Kill Pigs, And Try To Sue Me	2:31
9	Eight	1:41
10	Dutch	2:12
11	Termites	1:45
12	Calling The Toads	1:57
13	Krishna On The Ledge	2:44
14	Black Suit	2:16
15	Junior	4:03
16	Johnny Pig	1:44
17	Means Less	1:47