Crayon
City of Origin: Bellingham, WA, USA
Period of Activity: Early-mid 1990s
Members: Jeff Fell, Brad Roberts, Sean Tollefson
Related Artists: Tullycraft
Discography:
- "Matchbox" (1991, single)
- Moominland EP (1992)
- Brick Factory (1994)
Social Media: None that I know of
If you know enough emo fans, you've probably heard of the concept of "tweemo", i.e., midwest emo with fairly twee songs. For example, Everyone Asked About You, or Pennikurvers, or even Rainer Maria (I, of course, am guilty as charged). While those bands typically take emo and make it more twee, I think Crayon seems like they came to their sound by taking twee and making it more emo. The result is one of America's more abrasive noise pop bands, full of off-key vocals (and if it's one of Brad's songs, sometimes even yelling) and guitar freakouts that wouldn't sound totally out of place on like In Utero (check out "Chutes and Ladders"). Unfortunately, nothing good can last; after the release of Brick Factory two of them went on to mostly drop the noise and start Tullycraft, possibly my all-time least favorite indiepop band.