Musician

Since 1981 I have performed and recorded in groups such as Vomit Launch, Elephant Factory, Sunbirds, Chucklehead, Pluto Mist, Foggy Notion, Flaming Box of Ants, Ziplok and The Protons. I’ve also played various instruments on albums for Jenny Lewis, The Walkabouts, Chris Eckman, Sophe Lux, Pete Krebs, Chris Tsefalas, The Minders and Harvester. I have been slowly working on an album of instrumental pieces, which I’m offering up for free in rough mixed form below.

Current Solo Work

These are songs in progress for a “solo” album that might someday be finished and will consist of 99 very short instrumentals. I played various instruments, recorded and produced the tracks and Jenna Sather played percussion on a number of the pieces and wrote “Song#5”. Tracks 1-14 were recorded at The Hangar in Sacramento, and tracks 15-20 were recorded at my Jackpot! Recording Studio in Portland, OR. Enjoy!
LC Song#1, LC Song#2, LC Song#3, LC Song#4, LC Song#5, LC Song#6, LC Song#7, LC Song#8, LC Song#9, LC Song#10, LC Song#11, LC Song#12, LC Song#13, LC Song#14, LC Song#15, LC Song#16, LC Song#17, LC Song#18, LC Song#19, LC Song#20

Solo, Past Groups and Collaborations

Free MP3s to download or listen to:

Ziplok (Larry Crane & Steve Valin – 1984) – “excerpt” from Buttecounty Free Music Society
Lawrence Crane & John Young (1984) – “What’s Your Beef” from Buttecounty Free Music Society

There are many free song downloads (1985-1992) at the Vomit Launch website

Patricia Rowland & Larry Crane – “Monkey” 4-track from early ’90s
Patricia Rowland & Larry Crane – “Suitcase Packed” 4-track from early ’90s

Idler Arms: if 2 rehearsal space jams can be called a band I guess this is the result. Released in 2012, these late 1980’s messes performed with my pals Mark Evans and Lucian Tielens have been edited and released as Kubelik Unbugged in a limited edition of 50 by the crazy folks at Tedium House. Buy one now! Check out “Strangling a Sherpa” here.

Chucklehead was a brief 1993 recording project post Vomit Launch, with Patricia Rowland from that band on vocals and our pal Keith Foust (Downsiders) on drums. We put out one 7″ but never played live. The other two songs were recorded at the same time for a possible 7″ but never released.
Chucklehead – “Muscles” from the IMP Records 7″
Chucklehead – “Pour Yourself a Dream” from the IMP Records 7″
Chucklehead – “Minefield” unreleased 7″
Chucklehead – “Beg” unreleased 7″

Larry Crane – “Burned” A 1993 solo track recorded in a Portland basement – later recorded by FBOA
Larry Crane – “Don’t Go In” A 1993 solo track recorded in a Portland basement
Larry Crane – “PDX 1” A 1993 solo track recorded in a Portland basement – pretty instrumental
Larry Crane – “She’s Insane” A 1993 solo track recorded in a Portland basement – later recorded by FBOA
Larry Crane – “Wrong” A 1993 solo track recorded in a Portland basement – later recorded by FBOA
Larry Crane – “Raymond’s Lament” A 1993 solo track recorded in a Portland basement – ever heard of Peter and Ray? NSFW.
Larry Crane – “Nothing Special” A 1993 solo track recorded in a Portland basement – a cover of a My Dad is Dead song
Larry Crane – “Admiration” A 1993 solo track recorded in a Portland basement – all sounds off vinyl, including a Vomit Launch sample
Larry Crane – “Acoustic Interlude” A 1993 solo track recorded in a Portland basement

In 1993 Marila Alvares (drums/vox) and I (guitar/vox/bass/keys) started playing music together. This turned into Flaming Box of Ants and Dewey Mahood (bass/guitar) joined up soon. We played out a lot, put out a cassette (Jinx) and eventually went through a few more bass players (Scott Simmons, John McKinley) and guest bass players for gigs (Anne Eickelberg, Jason Cassidy). Compilation is a collection of all our tracks, recorded at Laundry Rules (our basement) on 8-track. Below is a link to a .zip of these tracks..
Compilation

Larry Crane – “Casio vs. Casio” A 1996 solo track from Laundry Rules Recording
Larry Crane – “Piano Ambient” A 1996 solo track from Laundry Rules Recording
Retired Bikers (Larry Crane & Kelly Bauman) – “The Part That You Played” Around 1997 Kelly was recording stuff at Jackpot! He showed up one day and I had been working on this song so we passed instruments and mics around and sang lyrics out of the personal ads.

From 1997 to 1999 there was a band called Elephant Factory, which sort of morphed out of Flaming Box of Ants after a break – with the good sense to install Dewey on guitar. We released one album, Suspended Over Seas, and started recording a second before I had to call a halt to the band due to my increasingly busy studio schedule. The band was Dewey Mahood on guitars, keys, clarinet and vocals, Marila Alvares on drums, and me on bass, keys and vocals. Note that the Missing Album ends with a special “combo” cover of two Yo La Tengo songs – we recorded this for a tribute album that never appeared. Here are links to zips of the albums:
Suspended Over Seas
Missing Album

Larry Crane – “Drone #1” Fake Eno ambient recorded at Jackpot! 11/2000
Larry Crane – “Dub 91.22” Fake dub instrumental recorded at Jackpot! 11/2002
Larry Crane – “Song 1” Fake Pell Mell recorded at Jackpot! 9/2003 – drums by Drums on Demand
Larry Crane – “Sky Blue” More fake Pell Mell recorded at Jackpot! 7/2005 – drums stolen from a song I was mixing by the band Draw (sorry guys)
Larry Crane – “When The Levee Breaks” Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie cover song recorded at Jackpot! 7/2005 – drums by John Moen stolen from a Chris Tsefalas song I was recording
Larry Crane & Erin Sutherland – “Fast Song” a song I wrote for my Lynda.com Recording/Mixing courses. Recorded at Jackpot! & Adult Audio Megaplexxx in 2013 – drums by Bryan Fairfield of System & Station, guitars, bvox, and bass by LC, Erin on fox