These Arms Are Snakes Release Rarities Collection, Duct Tape & Shivering Crows
The band’s career-spanning compendium is out today on Suicide Squeeze. // Watch a trippy new music video for the demo version of “The Blue Rose” now.
Photo by: Shayla Martin.
Over the course of their seven-year run in the early aughts, These Arms Are Snakes covered a lot of territory, both in terms of actual miles spent on the road and in terms of their creative bandwidth. Though the band was often mistaken for a typical non sequitur-named screamo outfit or another “animal” indie band, the Seattle group quickly defied expectations and garnered a reputation for subverting the popular underground sounds of time. These Arms Are Snakes cultivated a small but fervent fanbase across multiple continents with their signature combination of synth-infused noise rock, bad-trip psychedelia, flamboyant proto-metal boogie, and unhinged basement-show hardcore before imploding at the end of 2009. And while These Arms Are Snakes’ full-length albums remain fitting testaments to the band’s frantic urgency and stylistic fluidity, there is a treasure trove of deep cuts buried on b-sides and split releases that further reinforce their position as one of the weirdest and wildest acts of the decade. For the first time, those rarities and one-offs have been compiled into a cohesive overview of These Arms Are Snakes’ lifespan on the double LP Duct Tape & Shivering Crows, which is out today on Suicide Squeeze Records
In celebration of its release, These Arms Are Snakes have unveiled a visualizer for the album’s propulsive third single “The Blue Rose (Demo).” This never-before-heard version of the song that originally appeared on 2003’s This Is Meant to Hurt You, “The Blue Rose (Demo)” offers a snapshot of the band at their apex and stands the test of time with a new video treatment by Documavision.
Taken as an overview of These Arms Are Snakes’ career, Duct Tape & Shivering Crows is an exhilarating study of the band’s sonic evolution, varied musical approaches, and consistent quality. Taken without the historical context or typical considerations for a compilation album, it’s still a cohesive and enthralling record with an arc that takes you from the razor-sharp refinement of their final years through the adrenalized prog-punk explorations of their mid-career work and ultimately ramps up to the narcotic frenzy of their earliest material. If you were a These Arms Are Snakes fan back in the day, this is a crucial addition to your library. And even if you were a dilettante or a naysayer, this collection serves as an exciting recontextualization of a band that was often misunderstood and misrepresented by the media. Suicide Squeeze Records is proud to release Duct Tape & Shivering Crows to the world on CD, cassette, digital formats, and 2xLP today.
Don’t miss These Arms Are Snakes on tour this summer:
June 15 Denver, CO @ Marquis Theater
June 16 Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
June 18 Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw
July 7 Oakland, CA @ Crybaby
July 8 Los Angeles, CA @ Echoplex
Duct Tape & Shivering Crows track listing:
1. Meet Your Mayor
2. Camera Shy
3. Trix
4. Energy Drink and the Long Walk Home
5. Heart Shaped Box
6. Washburn
7. Old Paradise
8. Payday Loans
9. Hook on This
10. Riding the Grape Dragon (Demo)
11. Run It Through the Dog (Demo)
12. Diggers of Ditches Everywhere (Demo)
