Crumpler Photo credit: Jim Newberry
LA engineer and musician Jacob Floyd Ross has been releasing music as Crumpler since the 90s, and he continues his roll with his next album Evolution Is For Lovers. The album’s lead single “The Cowboy Taliban Took My Daddy Away” riffs on the title of a Ramones song while Ross builds his own desert-like soundscape, featuring Tim Rutili from Califone. The Big Takeover today is proud to announce Crumpler’s new album with a premiere of the new single, “The Cowboy Taliban Took My Daddy Away.”
Ross’ guitar and vocals and Rutili’s keys and backing vocals paint a picture of a desert backdrop, while Ross’ lyrics about religious fervor and fear fill in the foreground. After growing up in Dallas, Ross got his hands on books and art despite the efforts to ban and quell them. The result is Crumpler sounding like Nick Cave after a stint in the desert and shows how Ross arrived at his own truths.
In his own words, Ross said,
“The title of this song is an homage to a Ramones’ song, but there are also references to Horton Hears a Who! and the Holy Bible. And that trifecta is an homage to growing up in Texas, where banning books is a proud tradition, leaving me with very little to work with growing up. Nevertheless, art and music have a magical way of slipping through the cracks, and I learned love is how we survive and thrive. The more I committed myself to love, the more I was rejected by the Southern Baptist community I was born into, because they’re just like the Taliban (or any number of other authoritarian groups) but with different outfits.”
Ross’ message rings clearly through the song’s spacious atmosphere: the answer isn’t fear and division but love and community. Crumpler will be releasing Evolution Is For Lovers on September 18th.
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