Bio
The Craftmen Club is a heavy garage rock band. Their mega garage sound is boosted by a sampler stacked with heavy sixties to eighties guitar riffs. The blues base of their songs is taken apart and re-worked but remains the hub of their compositions. This is a real live act and with the exuberant and charismatic Steeve to the fore, they generate a colossal energy, whether it be on a small stage or at a festival.
Their set list is inspired by American bands whether it be Gun Club, or Violent Femmes.
The bands first maxi single released in 2001 was a forerunner for their appearances at the festival Vieilles Charrues and Transmusicales (some of Frances main festivals) followed by an eight track album Jesus is a Hit and run Driver which enabled the band to figure on several different compilations.
Their meeting in 2004 with Jon Spencer was the catalyst to their making contact with Matt Verta Ray an engineer and musician with several New York groups, including Heavy Trash, and resulted in their recording their first full album I Gave You orders Never To Play That Record Again released in March 2005. The album received critical press acclaim and resulted in their appearance at the Printemps de Bourges Festival and a subsequent fifty date French tour.
In 2006 they called a halt to touring in order to work on their new album based around an imaginary character Gary Blood who had a mental breakdown after his family was assassinated. By way of a first ,two of the songs were recorded in French!
The album was recorded live at La Chappelle Gam in Belgium, and in their studio in Brittany, and kicks off with the hypnotic To The Surface followed by Desert Land, Goodbye Mother and Hold Out Your Hands with their banjo driven folk rock, and a selection of wild trash tracks finishing off with the enhancing Death Song which evokes memories of a Sergio Leone western .
Thirty Six Minutes released February 2nd 2009 is an in the face kick you in the balls rock album which proves that France is not just a home for electronic music and that Craftmen Club is a new light on the French rock scene.
Their brand new album Eternal Life will be released, on February the 3rd 2014. And a 7 inches including the song Vampires and an incredible cover of These Shoes Are Made For Walikng is already available in the good record stores.
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