Four Thirty

Since their formation in 1998, lead singer/guitarist Brian Krumm has played every show as a member of The Great Crusades. Krumm, a former member of The Suede Chain, put together the band in his adopted hometown of Chicago along with fellow The Suede Chain member bassist Brian Hunt. The duo recruited long-time friend Christian Moder to play his unique style of drums. Rounding out the quartet, the band enlisted multi-instrumentalist Brian Leach (Autoliner, Sugarbuzz, Last Gentlemen), a longtime friend and a great songwriter in his own right, to play piano, organ and guitars. The Great Crusades' debut release The First Spilled Drink of the Evening was issued by Parasol/Mud Records in North America and landed a European deal with Trocadero. The band garnered great press in the U.S. and overseas. Rolling Stone's David Fricke wrote that Krumm was 'Tom Waits and Axl Rose's love child.' The band's 1999 tour of Germany and Austria was a success, as it introduced the band's powerful brand of lyrical and heartfelt rock and roll to European audiences. For their second release Damaged Goods, The Great Crusades found a home with German label Glitterhouse Records. Chicago's Checkered Past Records released the CD in North America in November 2000, and a U.S. tour followed. A self-produced third CD, Never Go Home, followed in August 2002, again with the support of Glitterhouse. This album spawned the band's most successful European tour at the time, which was sponsored by Musikexpress magazine and German television channel SAT-1. The band also went on to play the Crossroads festival on Germany's "Rockpalast" television program. After the band's fourth release, Welcome to the Hiawatha Inn, The Great Crusades recorded their fifth full-length Four Thirty, a dark and gritty effort that will be released by Innocent Words Records in the U.S. and Canada on August 22, 2006. Four Thirty personifies The Great Crusades by infusing their trademark determined raw energy into a collection of tracks that winds listeners through the depths of Chicago, New Orleans and other cities with the stories they've created. The band's goal for Four Thirty was to create the warmest reflection of their ability while harnessing their raucous energy. The outcome reveals boisterous, yet well-balanced vocals and colorful harmonies coupled with guitar playing reminiscent of rock and roll's storied past. And while all this is happening, the driving drums and bass hold the band on a course somewhere between the shoulder of the road and it's median, but by no means strictly along the dotted line.