WILD ONES
Marietta, Georgia, in the quiet, school-time heat of the Deep South spring, isn’t the most obvious place for a rock’n’roll comeback. Chris and Rich Robinson of the Black Crowes were born here, but otherwise it feels rather like the low-rent cousin of Atlanta ‘proper’.
Our hosts Crobot have spent the past month in this patch of American suburbia with producer/Seether guitarist Corey Lowery, recording their third album, Motherbrain. Although technically the band have never split, the word ‘comeback’ seems appropriate.
Based chiefly in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, Crobot first came to our attention in 2014 with a facesmash of vibrant, funky hard rock, banshee shrieks and songs about ‘spaceborne killers’, ‘skulls of geronimo’ and other freaky things, all of which seemed to be running on a powerful bull-shot of pot and adrenalin. It felt fresh, even though they’d clearly inhaled a fuck-ton of Zeppelin, Sabbath and Purple.
Crobot’s UK debut, in London, was an almighty summation of all this; guitars were thrown, long hair was helicoptered, punters were converted immediately. It was like seeing Clutch fronted by Ronnie Dio, with Funkadelic on back-up. And they weren’t even headlining.
“Oddly enough he’s only ever hit me once, swinging his guitar,” singer Brandon Yeagley says of Crobot’s guitarist Chris Bishop. “I still have a scar on the back of my head. He got me with the headstock. He fully connected, and there was blood…”
A second album, the bluesier , followed in 2016. Then in April 2017 they announced that
