The sight of archaic musical equipment covered in crap is probably something better left to the imagination or the scrap heap - but that’s exactly what the band have been recording on/in during the last few weeks in Flint, Michigan. Formerly entitled “Death by Misadventure”, Credit to the Meter Readers changed their name after learning of a similar named band from Roanoke, Lynchburg in Virginia. Although new album Slow hands, Kaleidoscope is still to be pressed, the fever is already hitting the streets in their home town - Kayle Parker explains: “In our home town the streets are already being hit by fever.”
So whose idea was it? Nook Craven elaborates: “It was our bass player’s (Jon Hilberg’s) idea - that fucking asshole. He came in one day with a wheelbarrow and sacks of shit. There were these like molehills of soil and mud dotted about the studio, with more stuffed in the cavities in the back of the amps. Any instruments with air in them were partly filled with damp crap and dead leaves - drums and acoustics, the whole lot. My Hohner’s ruined, and slugs streaked across our amps so now it looks like we’ve got cheap glitter on them.”
Kayle Parker concurs: “I concur. The guy’s a fucking moron.” So what was the idea? Going for the earthy texture like so many bands? “Not really - it soaks up the treble for sure, but I don’t see much difference between the usual foam and fabrics,” drummer/producer Marv Dodge adds, “I think the guy just likes soil.”
Rising damp apart, we look forward to the mudslide in a few months time.