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CRASH HARMONY Reunites After 30+ Years Releasing Debut Album ‘No One Asked For This’

CRASH HARMONY reunites after 30+ years, releasing debut album ‘No One Asked for This’

“A blast of youthful exuberance, raw energy, and unbridled optimism… both nostalgic and fresh. There’s the Replacements’ raw, garage-rock spirit, the Northern Pikes’ innocence and purity, and hooks like a cross between Husker Du and The Go-Betweens, blended into a harmonious concoction that is undeniably their own” The Spill Magazine 

“This is pop at its finest, with hints of The Go-Betweens, REM and The Replacements floating through it… woven from deft electric guitar lines and pop infectiousness, rock adjacent energies and indie sentiments” Big Takeover Magazine

“Delights the ears… Unassuming yet rich in sound, this is a solid work of musical craftmanship… leaves you wanting more” ~ Black Noise Zine

Crash Harmony

NYC indie rock outfit Crash Harmony presents their debut record ‘No One Asked For This’, released via New Jersey’s Magic Door Record Label. After a 30+ year hiatus, the quartet are back with a full-length album of 10 songs and video for ‘Orange Background’, 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”, following the earlier-released video for ‘Velour Goddess’.

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 at Yale University in New Haven, CT, the band played its last gig in May 1988 and hadn’t played together again until beginning to record this album in 2022.  

Mixed and mastered by Ray Ketchem (Guided by Voices, Elk City, Gramercy Arms, Luna) at Magic Door Recording in Montclair, NJ, this album was recorded by Ketchem and Dave Derby in NYC, and produced by Ketchem together with Crash Harmony.  

Crash Harmony "Orange Background" [OFFICIAL VIDEO]

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.

Crash Harmony

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.

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.

For these musical dreamers, it’s all so clear now – how lucky they were to have been part of a scene and to have met and grown up in ideal conditions to make music that would somehow find a way to live forever… Everybody, kiss your ghost.

On October 18, ‘No One Asked for This’ will be released on vinyl and digitally everywhere, including Apple Music and Spotify. In all formats, it can be ordered directly from the label via Bandcamp.

Crash Harmony

TRACK LIST             

01  Velour Goddess
02  Last Night’s Girl
03  Building Blocks
04  Under Your Skin
05  German Camp
06  Dancing With Joan
07  Orange Background
08  WrIting You Out Of My Scene
09  Floating
10  Cymbelline

CREDITS

Dave Derby – vocals, guitars
Mike Potenza – guitars, keyboards, vocals
Jon Nighswander – bass, vocals
Nils Nadeau – drums, percussion, vocals

Guests:
Mike Schreiber – organ
Peter Hess – saxophone
Ray Ketchem – percussion

Produced by Ray Ketchem and Crash Harmony
Recorded by Ray Ketchem at Magic Door Studios in Montclair, NJ
and Dave Derby at Missile Shells Sound Studios in NYC
Mixed & mastered by Ray Ketchem
All songs written by Crash Harmony
except ‘Dancing With Joan’ written by Dave Derby and Eric Masunaga
All songs ASCAP / BMI
Artist photos and single cover artwork by Jon Drake
Released by Magic Door Record Label
Publicity by Shameless Promotion PR
Video directed & filmed by Dan Karlok at Magic Door Recording

FOR FANS OF:
Big Star, The Replacements, Hoodoo Gurus, Miracle Legion, REM, Camper Van Beethoven, Young Fresh Fellows, Husker Du, The Barenaked Ladies

Keep up with Crash Harmony
Website | Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter Apple Music | Spotify

Keep up with Magic Door Record Label
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Soundcloud | YouTube

Shameless Promotion
Website | Facebook Twitter Instagram | Soundcloud

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