photos by Yan K at COEO (check out their blog HERE)

Church Crush must have one of those refrigerator poetry magnet sets in the kitchen of their lavish Monkees-style band-pad-cum-meth-lab (just kidding about that last part!) because church and crush are two words not often found in close proximity except for on refrigerators and when fused together into a single phrase the meaning is more than a little ambiguous cuz, I mean, a "church crush" could be anything from romantic infatuation with a minister to Godzilla stomping all over a Shinto temple to forming a crush on an actual place of worship…

…but in reality Church Crush are neither a sexy Christian boy band nor a church-burning black metal band as you may think from their name but instead a Brooklyn-based indie combo with a talent for writing songs that are at once both stripped-down and expansive, or at least that’s the vibe we’re getting based on the first two singles and attending a live show…

…with prickly post-punk textures wedded to flowing, mellifluous melodies and hypnotic in-the-pocket rhythms—just check out that sweet hi-hat work on their debut “calyer” when it comes to the latter—and here’s where the name Church Crush starts to make sense cuz the name aligns with their sound given the band’s minimalist panache (three syllables for a three-piece band!) and their use of stark juxtaposition to open up new sonic worlds…
  

…all of which applies directly to the their second single "shark island" whose title sounds like another one of those fridge-magnet phrases or maybe more like a Z-grade horror flick riding the seemingly endless wave of cinematic shark tales where bad acting, cheap digital effects, and winking self-awareness are practically apropos especially in a post-Sharknado universe and it’s a bit odd isn’t it how shark movies are now an entire sub-genre of film despite them posing practically zero threat to the vast expanse of humanity, I mean, you’re statistically more likely to die from an errant champaign cork than a shark attack but I digress…

…and that’s the cool thing about "shark attack" is how it’s more Jaws than Sharknado with the taut plotting of Spielberg’s OG blockbuster as its model (minus the musical equivalent of CGI splatter or winking self-aware shlockiness) built on a straight-forward-but-highly-effective, herky-jerky-but-locked-in-tight dirty overdriven riff played in waltz time with a forward momentum as relentless as a never-napping Great White named Bruce…

…but be forewarned if you ever actually tried to waltz to the song you’ll likely tear a ligament or two cuz this is one of the heavier (and herky-jerkier!) waltz-time rockers since the Beatles’ "I Want You (She’s So Heavy)" that is until it gets to the safe-and-stable-sounding chorus section with its chorus-effects-pedal sustained Andy Summers-esque guitar chords played over a steady, symmetrical 4/4 rhythm with the vocals exalting the safe refuge provided by "SHARK!…iiiiissssllllaaannndddd"…

…that is until about the 2:30 mark where the whole things sounds like it’s being sucked into the ever-hungry vengeful maws of Jaws with all the instruments throbbing in unison and I’d happily listen to an extended version of "Shark Island" with this blink-and-you-miss-it part expanded to a full minute or two hint hint before paddling off into the sunset with a brief, nearly a cappella coda…

…but hey maybe the song has nothing to do with sharks at all in which case mea culpa so I got in touch with the members of Church Crush (ames o, paulie v, adam e) to pose a few shark-and-non-shark-related questions about “shark island” to these three lower-case-loving gentlemen and all you have to do is to continue reading after the jump to see what they had to say… (Jason Lee)

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photo by Bob Greco

From three-act dramatic structure to verse-chorus-bridge song structure. From "morning, afternoon, and night" to "red, rosé, and white." From "solid, liquid, and gas" to “ass, gas, or grass.” Not to mention Three Blind Mice. Three Little Pigs. Goldilocks and the Three Bears. From classic fairy-tales to Hollywood blockbusters to religious belief systems—good things often come in threes, but so do some bad things too, just ask Star Wars fans they totally get it.

Moon Kissed get it too. For one thing, there’s three of them. Leah (drums/guitar), Emily (keys, vibes), and Khaya (mic/voice). And there’s three songs included on their latest EP, I’m On My Way, from earlier this year. In other words, they got this whole "Game of Threes" thing locked down. Not to mention how three years ago the Brooklyn-based threesome held their first CAN’T DENY THE CHEMISTRY three-part residency with “Sex, Drugs, and Rock ’n’ Roll” as the chosen theme.

Then, last December they hit us with CAN’T DENY THE CHEMISTRY part two a.k.a. “Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice” as 2021’s tripartite theme spread over three nights with attendees on "Sugar" night encouraged to wear pastel pasties and candy underwear whereas Spice night it was leather and assless chaps and on Everything Nice night it was poodle skirts, slicked-back hair, and suburban ‘50s working husbands working a thong so yeah you get the idea.

And much like the neopagan goddess trinities of yore, Moon Kissed summon the magical, mystical chemistry of the number three with three-part parties aiming for more than your average rock show where “the purpose of these residencies isn’t just about seeing a show, it’s about having a night…going somewhere with your close friends that feels new and different, making new friends that feel old and familiar” with the help of a rotating cavalcade of hand-selected guest bands joining them at each installment.

And here we are in December 2022 which means that Khaya, Leah, and Emily are hosting their third three-part Chemistry residency with “Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell” as the theme this time around, and having already attended the first act of the third trilogy on 12/6/22 a.k.a. the Heaven Session our "force" was certainly awakened thanks to high-octane sets by Moon Kissed and very special guest Sir Chloe blowing the roof off God’s House (a.k.a. Baby’s All Right) with the overall divine party vibes only amplified by the amped-up audience dressed to the nines in heavenly garb…

…as witnessed above in a series of exclusive audience “vox pops” recorded at the show last week—with The Deli posing probing questions along the lines of “what is heaven to you?” and “what is sin to you?” and “what is the afterlife to you?” to attendees—and as witnessed also in the video at the top of this page, a Deli-exclusive film montage of Moon Kissed on stage last Tuesday as filmed and edited by Daniel Moore with more "Deli Magazine Films" to come no doubt…

…and as you may have already guessed “Purgatory” is up next this Thursday (12/15) with fashion ideas including “mesh, glitter, messy eye makeup, a realistic robot arm, SO much hair gel, and condoms as earrings,” and with Raavi opening the night and Amber Valentine DJing, it’s guaranteed to be another barn burner filled to the rafters with highly combustible good vibrations…

…and when it comes to the whole Purgatory theme it’s admittedly a bit more ambiguous than either Heaven or Hell but that’s cool cuz here at the Deli we’re all about complexity and nuance and being mildly confused by life plus it feels apropos to Moon Kissed’s latest release, i.e. I’m On My Way, which after all was recorded during the purgatory-like period of the last major NYC lockdown about a year ago…

with songs “centered around a theme of stuckness and…different angles of breaking free” and with the EP overall being “one step along the way to telling a longer story that is our 3rd album, which is looking like it’s gonna be a story landing…somewhere” so take that George Lucas and stick it up your Disney Plus 🙂

And, finally, just for kicks we asked the members of Moon Kissed which one of their songs outside of the EP (too obvious!) best put across being in a Purgatory-like state and they replied with “‘Cavalier’, a song about existential dread [and] the repetitive nature of sinking and pulling yourself back up, and ‘Cycles’, a song about the loop of dating shitty guys," a live performance of which can be witnessed below…

…with Moon Kissed going on to explain that “our take on Purgatory is like early 2000s indie sleaze DJ culture meets mysticism. Like Paris Hilton giving a psychic reading at the red room in Twin Peaks. DJ Pauly D sitting in a hot tub, music pumping, talking aloud to himself about what happens after death" so now you know the vibes.

And these are vibes you def won’t wanna miss if you’re anywhere near Brooklyn this Thursday night at which point you’ll wanna gussy yourself up in mesh and glitter and runny mascara and screw on that robot arm tight in prep for the strange satisfaction of Purgatory. (Jason Lee)