The Clean Crime Scene – “Raw Cuts”
Listening to the debut album “Raw Cuts” by The Clean Crime Scene gives you a full fifty minutes of garage rock and psychedelic rock. This project started during summer family vacations at the Jersey shore and took years of hard work to finish. John Simek brought together old friends and family members to record the basic rhythm tracks live in a basement before bringing everything to Richmond for overdubs and writing. Later on, the tracks went to Spacebomb Studio to mix with John Trainum and then to Alan Douches at West West Side Music for the final analog touch. Every single piece of this release shows a long journey from start to finish.
Out of all the songs included on this release, two tracks stand out as my absolute favorites. The first one is “Backstabbers & Moneygrabbers”, which runs right alongside “Elevator to Nowhere”, another standout piece from the tracklist. These two tracks capture the energy of the record without needing any extra explanation or invented details. They fit right into the middle of the tracklist alongside “Black Ice Blackout”, “In the Ground”, “Devil May Care”, “Dark Days”, “Don’t Mind at All”, “Turn Down the Bright Lights”, and “Sunshine Death Train”. Each song name appears alongside the project name and the exact running time across the 50-minute runtime. You get a clear look at how the tracklist is put together from the very first minute to the final second.
The vocals from Diana Simek blend right into the mix while the dirty guitar riffs keep the overall sound grounded in classic rock styles from the sixties and seventies. It is wonderful to hear how a simple family vacation project turned into a full length album on Blank Verse Records. The dedication put into recording, editing, mixing, and mastering shines across every single minute of the audio.
If you want to grab a physical copy of the music, the project signed with Blank Verse Records for a limited edition vinyl run. This special version comes with an alternate cover and a different track listing. You can find more info and buy a copy by visiting this page.
Make sure to follow The Clean Crime Scene to stay updated about new releases for the rest of this year. You will want to keep track of what comes next from this garage rock project as they share more news and updates about their music.
