Crisman are an indie pop band based in Denton, TX, comprising of Madeline Dowd, Boone Patrello (of Dead Sullivan) and Grahm Robinson (MAH KEE OH). Dowd used the moniker to put out a series of pretty much solo home-recorded releases before getting the band together for their debut EP Crisman Tape in 2018. They have since signed with Topshelf Records, and earlier this year put out the debut self-titled album.
The Crisman aesthetic is captured nicely by Dowd’s work as a visual artist, which you can see on the cover. Combining acrylics and spray paint in playful primary colours, she explores the anxieties of a young adult through the lens of a child, capturing emotion and unease through blocks of colour and frowning blob figures. But there’s something heartwarming about the paintings too, a sense of direct and unashamed naivety that sidesteps the sour irony that hangs in the air around much “juvenile” art.
Which brings us on to the music. Building on the foundations of bedroom pop heavyweights like Florist and Frankie Cosmos, Crisman’s songs are sweet and unfussy but still get to the heart of some pretty deep feelings. Sometimes lazily languid and others perky and upbeat, the band use sound like Dowd uses colour, ostensibly bright compositions with an inconspicuous complexity. Ultimately, as Topshelf put it, music is just “yet another medium for masking emotional turmoil with innocence.”
Take opener ‘Portrait’, which starts all wistful and delicate as Dowd sings “wisdom comes with time, grandma says we’re all fine,” before ambling into a reassuringly positive-sounding chorus. It’s a song about both hope and fear of the unknown, about trying to stop and appreciate the present before rushing into the future.
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Crisman also have more than enough idiosyncrasies to carve out a niche of their own. For every moment of gently melodic indie pop there’s something a little off-kilter. Perhaps the best example are the staccato riffs on lead single ‘Surprise’, but the album is littered with such moments. Like the end of ‘Cya’, which pairs Dowd’s soft vocals with squealing guitar distortion and thudding percussion, or the second half of ‘Go’ which takes the intimate bedroom pop vibe and expands it widescreen with crashing drums.
This theme continues right through to finale ‘Pawn’, which begins quiet and hesitant before blooming into perhaps the closest thing to an indie rock song on the record. Clocking in at over five minutes, it’s the longest and maybe the loudest track too, closing with an outro that’s every bit as colourful and energetic as Dowd’s paintings.
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Crisman is out now and you can get it via Topshelf Records and the Crisman Bandcamp page.
