CrazyEightyEight Debut With New Single, 'Tommy's Planet'

And they get bonus points for the supposed Kill Bill reference too.

What happens when the always-powerful Red Handed Denial vocalist Lauren Babic teams up with YouTuber and comedy/parody musician Jarrod Alonge? You get CrazyEightyEight, of course!

Now, if you're not a fan of Alonge (whether it's any of his many bands, his Misheard Lyric series, or just his YouTube and comedy videos in general) then maybe his new project will be for you. See, CrazyEightyEight aren't here to take the slightest hint of piss; they're here to write and perform original music, make it in their own way without not necessarily having to make you laugh or rely on dumb memes, as well as covering some of their personal favourite bands and songs. And they do all of those aspects very well!

The independent band launched just the other week with their rocking debut single, 'Tommy's Planet', and come June 2nd (this Friday), they'll drop their first full EP of original music, 'No Words Spoken'. However, the band's first EP is technically their covers release, which dropped alongside this brand new single. But they aren't half-assed covers, as the band gives their own solid spin on My Chemical Romance's 'The Ghost Of You' and The 1975's 'The Sound', as well as two great takes on Halsey's 'Colors', and a classic tune from The Killers - 'When We Were Young'.

Basically, there are four very sweet reasons as to why you should pick up their covers EP. Here's my personal favourite of the four:

On the flipside, all of the CrazyEightyEight's original songs were written by the Babic-Alonge duo with Babic singing, of course, and Alonge programming the drums and performing guitar (yes, he actually does play the guitar, folks; that's how he started out on YouTube initially). Aside from that, longtime friend and collaborator, Johnny 'Crablord' Franck engineered, produced and mixed this new release, with mastering done by Joey Sturgis. (Oh, and the backing drums and bass guitar in the below music video by Christopher Maynard and Dalton Stucker from the metalcore outfit, The Human Condition).

Oddly enough, despite Babic's vast vocal strength - seriously, just listen to literally any Red Handed Denial song - the screaming on 'No Words Spoken' was actually performed by David Thompson of Nanashi, who also provides vocals for one of Alonge's "joke" metalcore bands, Chewed Up.

According to Alonge, this decision for this added vocalist inclusion instead of just letting Babic do it, was because her voice was apparently too much for the song, saying "since the tonality of Lauren's screams are arguably TOO heavy for the instrumental, and would be better suited for a more "metal" song". Then also adding that a melodic hardcore sound was more the goal for this track's heavier moments. But let us hope that CrazyEightyEight has at least one "metal" song tucked away on this new EP of theirs, as Babic's screams are just as good as her clean singing.

As for the whole "why" of this new project, Alonge stated over Facebook recently that writing his own original music has been on the cards for a while now, saying that, "I've been sitting on these demos for over a year now, patiently waiting for the perfect vocalist to come along (and I think Lauren KILLED it)." Which she most certainly did! He also added that "Although I love writing comedy music, I've had a recent itch to indulge in my mid-2000s nostalgia and write some ignorant post-hardcore jams (with progressive metal elements). If you like old-school Underoath and Paramore, you might enjoy these songs."

Longtime KYS readers will note that both my brother and I have been fans of Alonge's parody musical works - namely Sunrise Skater Kids and Amidst The Grave's Demons, as our respective reviews show - for quite some time and we've always said that Alonge would indeed do quite well with a project that ditched the comedy and parody elements altogether. I can tell you right now that we feel very justified in that thought. 

Now, as for this new post-hardcore track's title, I think that it may be a reference to the minor Kill Bill character, Thomas "Tommy" Plympton - the fiancé of protagonist Beatrix Kiddo who was in the film for like, one scene before getting horribly murdered and serving no purpose but to fuel Kiddo's incredibly bloody revenge against ol' Bill.

Maybe. I dunno.

Look, just listen to the bitchin' track below, yeah?

Stream/purchase CrazyEightyEight's music here.