Crooked Spine debuts with I Like People Who Dance at Shows EP

Crooked Spine | photo by Abi Reimold | www.abireimoldphoto.com

Crooked Spine is the solo project of Joey DeGrado, local musician and co-show booker at West Philly house space All Night Diner. You can find him most weekends welcoming friends and strangers into his home with a smile and a handshake, as some of the city’s best bands play in what is surely the city’s most enjoyable show basement. But with the release of his intimate I Like People Who Dance at Shows EP, we get a glimpse into a deeper, more reflective side to the multi-instrumentalist.

The record opens with the static of a home recording on “Local TV News at 10” before a bobbing guitar enters, leading in DeGrado’s somber lyrics about losing a friend. The pace picks up on “Clair 1,” with an almost folk-punk kind of fervency as the line “I felt so pretty” repeats over blown out guitars and crashing cymbals. “Three Days In” and “Snowed-In in Somerville 2015” are standouts – the respective hushed stories about meeting someone online and balancing life in an office while trying to make it with your band recall anti-folk acts like Jeffrey Lewis, their lyrics painting clear and colorful vignettes. Finally, closer “My Body is the Bull” beautifully illustrates the constant strain of feeling out of place in your own body.

Crooked Spine has a few full-band shows coming up, including this Sunday, November 6th at The Pharmacy and Saturday, November 19th at Birdhouse. Stream I Like People Who Dance at Shows below.