CRASHING WAYWARD – LISTEN! album review

LISTEN! Is the first album from Crashing Wayward.

Crashing Wayward is a group uniting several talented musicians, perhaps most notably former LA Guns guitarist Stacey Blades. The band, also featuring singer Peter Summit, guitarist David Harris, bassist Carl Raether, and drummer Shon McKee (who has played in countless Vegas bands including Count’s 77), has been performing regularly and building traction with a sound drawn from a myriad of musical influences. Many performances and advance releases of tracks from the record have been getting fans of these musicians excited.

One unusual attribute about Crashing Wayward is the sheer amount of musical directions its members come from. While I’ll admit I’m not familiar with every single musician in the group, the ones I’ve known are some of the most talented the Las Vegas Valley has to offer, many of whom have extensive musical experience in several bands. Recently, the group did an album release party at The Viper Room on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood to an enthusiastic audience, showing that their appeal certainly won’t be limited to Sin City.

You’re probably wondering what you’ll get on LISTEN!, particularly if you’re a fan of any of these musicians. This is much more a modern rock/alternative rock album than what you might be expecting, especially considering Stacey Blades’ longtime position with LA Guns. So if you’re looking for 80s glam/sleaze rock, take your business elsewhere – this is not that album. What you’ll find here is certainly more akin to the rock of later eras; Stone Temple Pilots and Foo Fighters were likely influences on the music you’ll hear here. But if you’re willing to listen with an open mind and embrace the modern rock sound the group delivers here, you’re likely to be impressed with what you hear. I for one am especially impressed to see that someone like Stacey Blades isn’t content to be a cover/tribute band musician for the rest of his life, branching out musically in his post-LA Guns career and creating music that’s widely appealing, modern, and most importantly of all, good. That’s more than I can say for a lot of people.

Running for 11 tracks, LISTEN! is one of those albums that manage to have diversity among its tracks, and nothing feels out of place either. While plenty of the songs rock hard with some killer modern rock riffs, the band isn’t above slowing things down and going in a more melodic rock direction when it’s called for, either. These tracks are short and to the point; I think only one song on the album clocks in at over four minutes. It never feels derivative or repetitive, standing as a strong slice of modern-flavored rock. I’d love to see these guys try their hand at some longer, more epic tracks in the future, but this album’s a damn fine start to what should be a promising band.

LISTEN! Is the long-awaited first album from Crashing Wayward, and this fan truly hopes it’s not their last effort. Strongly recommended, as are the band’s live shows.