If Quentin Tarantino were to pick up a guitar and start his own rock band, I’d expect he might churn out something almost as amazing as what’s been exploding from the nation’s rock ‘n roll capital – Detroit’s own – fetish hard rock band – Crud.

Imagine: Loud, crunching guitar – in your face – with hints of “Industrial” – tweaking your ears – setting the mood for a live stage performance that is twisted like the best “pulp fiction” – including gas masks, bikinis and blood. Add to it the deep and mesmerizing vocal styles of Sponge’s own Vinnie Dombroski – seducing women like the vampire Lestat, and the burlesque vamp Danielle Arsenault – who is “Death-Proof” – kicking ‘em in the ass with her bewitching vocals and grinding dance styles, leaving ‘em beggin’ for more.

Frontman Dombroski branded all of us as devoted fans in ’94, when he ignited the world with his unique musical sound on Sponge’s debut album Rotting Piñata, which included “Molly (16 Candles Down the Drain)” and “Plowed”, followed up by the evermore fabulously frenzied single “Wax Ecstatic” off their second hit album of the same name that also included the rousing grooves of the hit single “Neenah Menasha” and the track “Have You Seen Mary”, which was used in the Kevin Smith film, “Chasing Amy”.

Band mates include David Black (the guitar God from the underground hardcore metal music scene of Detroit’s own Seduce), Dana Forrester (on bass), and Eric Hoegemeyer (on drums). Together, the five core members create a wall of sheet metal, a musical machine that will have you cranking up the volume to 11. This rocker, in particular, can’t wait to catch ‘em live, where it’s sure to be balls-to-the-wall rockin’!

It’s no wonder why Crud’s super-charged pedal-to-the-metal rock is striking a seductive chord in all of us – you can find their addictive tracks all over the television, creating a dark and sexy ambience on television shows like “CSI” (CBS), “ER” (NBC), “Burn Notice” (USA Network), “KNIGHT RIDER” (NBC!), “ELEVENTH HOUR” (CBS), E!: “Emmy Awards Show”, HBO’s: “The Bunny Ranch”, VH1’s: “History of Metal and Celebrity Fit Club”, MTV’s: “Cribs”, “Live 8”, “Date My Mom”, and “Girls Gone Wild Uncovered”, Sci Fi Channel’s: “Hulk The Low Down”, Playboy Channel and video game “Test Drive 2” and Comedy Central’s “The Showbiz Show” comedian David Spade – built an entire skit around Crud’s first single “Reality.”

Crud’s debut album, DEVIL AT THE WHEEL, has been the musical red carpet for not only television: (Crud’s “Reality” (Bang, Bang, Bang!) song was used as the theme song for A&E’s “CSI Wednesdays”), but also in the movies, with the song “All Used Up”, featured in the Ray Liotta/Andy Garcia movie “La Linea”, “Reality” in the movie “Rachel’s Attic”, and “Devil at the Wheel” which was spotlighted in the TV trailer for “Sherlock Holmes” starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law.

The follow-up album, Crud on Monster Island, is another revved-up cd from this fetish core band. It’s sexy, dark, and loaded with
crunching guitars that lay the foundation for its layers of high-end industrial machinery on top. There’s more of an eclectic feel to this second album from these rockers, and Sponge fans will be delighted to experience fondly-remembered traces of Dombroski’s Sponge vocal style within some of the tracks like “We’ll Not Be Broken”.

Find out for yourself – feel the fetish, the intoxicating, downright dirty and in your face sounds of Crud DEVIL AT THE WHEEL, and their newest revved-up album, Crud on Monster Island, both available at Itunes. Turn it up to 11, and soon, you too, will be shouting “I feel like Crud!” SLV

Issue 64 featuring: Emily Addison, Carlotta Champagne & Markesa Yeager