New Fixation EP - Crush Fund: Review
Review by Lav:
Crush Fund are a New York punk trio who have become a fixture of the East Coast queer and trans scene in the past few years. If you haven't heard of them yet, start asking around and I promise it won't take long. After a three-track EP in 2022 flashed what they were capable of and they built up a reputation for pummeling live performances, I've been incredibly excited for their next move. Now the trio's next move is here, a 5-track EP whose ferocity is capable of turning them from a curiosity into a full-on obsession.
New Fixation was led off by the release of its final track W.W.Y.D as a single and I absolutely loved it. The song shifts its speed faster and slower constantly while the vocals are passed back and forth making for a chaotic sonic experience of cognitive dissonance. That combined with the vicious repetition of "what would you do" feels like every member of Crush Fund is interrogating you all at once, and they're all three playing the bad cop. Somehow the track is even better on the EP with the addition of the spoken word interlude Thoughts which drives headfirst into the jittery opening notes of W.W.Y.D perfectly.
The entire EP kicks off with Womanhood whose industrial-tinged lead guitar line feels like the perfect way to introduce the record. The song bends speedy verses around an instrumental that may sound thrash and bash at first, but has more going for it than meets the eye. I love the way the band comes out of the gate swinging lyrically. In particular, the shots at being told we can be "anything we wanna be" are delivered with even more punch than usual. That slips well into Tender Is The Night, the most vintage punk song of the bunch with snarling vocals that let you know the track is meant to spit venom before you even know what it says. It manages an impressive rise in intensity and instrumental reprise all in under 90 thrilling seconds.
My favorite of the EPs "deep cuts," if you can call them that, is Unwanted Attention. It channels a riot-grrrl attitude perfectly in line with the lyrics about, well, being paid unwanted attention. Despite the compositional shifting throughout the song is packed to the brim with catchy refrains in a way that many other punk songs of its ilk wouldn't even bother trying for in the first place.
No up-and-coming band likes hearing about their "potential," especially not one that delivers the sonic immediacy of Crush Fund. Luckily on New Fixation the band graduates beyond the need to discuss their potential. Now don't get me wrong, they do have a TON of potential, but Crush Fund is plenty good enough right now to show why they belong. There's no shortage of excitement across these 11 minutes of music and the band does a spectacular job of walking the line between raw fury and pointed anger, serving up one song after another whose snarling grit feels well earned. Two years of honing their craft has done nothing but make the band more explosive, evocative, intense, and irresistible. 8/10
For more femme punk check out my review of Mannequin Pussy's I Got Heaven
