The Band: THE CROOKES
The Release: ‘DON'T PUT YOUR FAITH IN ME'
The Formats: DIGITAL SINGLE
The Release Date: MAY 12TH 2014
The Label: fierce panda records

THE CROOKES consist of George Waite (vocals / bass), Daniel Hopewell (guitar), Tom Dakin (guitar) and Russell Bates (drums). They live in Sheffield and infamously found (most of) each other, bleary of eye and dancing alone, on the indie dancefloor at the city’s Fuzz Club near the close of the previous decade. Five years, 40-odd songs and hundreds of live shows down the line The Crookes are now hardly lacking in fans, followers or worthwhile friends but 'Don't Put Your Faith In Me' - the second single from their ‘Soapbox’ album, itself released on fierce panda on April 14th (their third, which makes The Crookes the first band to release three albums on fierce panda since Death Cab For Cutie a decade ago) - still sees them revel in the role of loners.

"'Don't Put Your Faith In Me' is one of the most straightforward and to-the-point songs we've ever written," asserts Daniel. "It takes a long time as a songwriter to get to the point where you don't worry about what the listener might think of you and to be honest and expose your flaws is a difficult thing to do. I think it's a brave song and I'm happy to play the anti-hero in it."

Watch: Don't Put Your Faith In Me

Such is modern life with the increasingly muscular musicianship of The Crookes, the angry rebels who have barely paused for breath since 2009 and whose manic work rate has seen the original fey, nubile NewPoppers of yore beefed up by half a decade of touring and trying to make their way in a world gone hipster mad. You may well have been hooked by The Crookes before: on the BBC 6 Music playlist, perhaps. Or maybe supporting Richard Hawley or Little Comets, or at SXSW, or on one of their many gentlemanly excursions around Europe, or in your local local on one of their numerous tours of Blighty.

Having spent last November locked away in a church on top of a mountain in Italy with only their recording gear and their thoughts for company The Crookes' complete sense of isolation manifested itself in ‘Soapbox’, a fearsomely stroppy album which is littered with put downs and push offs. But if this implies that The World Of The Crookes is one of weeping woe then the terrifically cut-and-thrusting video for 'Don't Put Your Faith In Me' will put you straight, filled as it is with images of stuffed turkeys, swimming pool cocktails, desert scenes and Brit DJ cameos. These were all captured in true home video style on the band's recent tour of America, and they nail the true essence of a band who've dreamed of living the dream actually getting to live that dream.

"The whole of the US trip was incredible," Daniel beams. "It wasn't just the shows but the travelling in between the cities that really excited me. We fully lived out an adolescent 'On The Road' fantasy. The show in LA was especially heartening because you never imagine people out there will be to empathise with the kind of troubles you write about living in the north of England, but certain themes seem to transcend geography or weather and the people singing at those shows were just as lonely or heartbroken as the people you find wherever you go. It was wonderful to see such beautiful, tanned people in pain."

The stuffed turkeys and desert scenes might be scarcer, but the sentiments remain the same on this next Crookes' transcontinental tour here...

APRIL 15TH NOTTINGHAM Bodega
APRIL 16TH LEEDS The Cockpit
APRIL 17TH NEWCASTLE Cluny 2
APRIL 18TH GLASGOW King Tut's
APRIL 19TH HULL Blue Lamp
APRIL 22ND MANCHESTER Sound Control
APRIL 23RD BIRMINGHAM Hare & Hounds
APRIL 24TH STOKE Sugarmill
APRIL 25TH BATH Moles
APRIL 26TH SOUTHAMPTON Lennons
APRIL 27TH BRISTOL Thekla
APRIL 28TH BRIGHTON The Hope
APRIL 29TH LONDON CAMDEN Dingwalls
MAY 2ND PARIS La Fleche D’Or
MAY 3RD UTRECHT Ekko
MAY 4TH EINDHOVEN Effenaar
MAY 5TH GHENT Video
MAY 7TH COLOGNE Studio 672
MAY 8TH HAMBURG Molotow
MAY 9TH COPENHAGEN Loppen
MAY 11TH BERLIN Comet
MAY 12TH MUNICH Backstage Club
MAY 13TH VIENNA Chelsea
MAY 15TH TREVISO Home
MAY 16TH MARINA DI RAVENNA Hana-Bi
MAY 17TH MILAN Lofi
MAY 20TH ZURICH Exil
MAY 21ST LAUSANNE Bleu Lezard
MAY 22ND LILLE La Peniche
MAY 23RD AMSTERDAM Paradiso
MAY 31ST SHEFFIELD Leadmill (Homecoming show)

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