Crate [LP]

Crate - Crate [LP]

Crate is Cody Hudgins, Ezra Engler, Henry Smith, and Juan Angulo. Crate spent three years making a record before most people knew the band existed beyond a single song. That song was "Julia," a blissed-out guitar spiral the Brooklyn four-piece quietly self-released in February 2024. When "Necklace" finally arrived a year later, it moved from acoustic lo-fi-pop hush into a distorted haze of fuzz. "This one speaks a bit about being stuck in different loops in life and trying to break yourself away from it," says Ezra, one of the band's principal songwriters, of the track. "You envision your life out of the loop, you'll be way happier. You think about breaking the cycle until you realize it's just easier to fall back into the same loop. Over and over. Every fucking time." That's the register the band's self-titled debut lives in; humorous and bruised in the same breath. "Lyrically, the album as a whole is diaristic, a reflection of lived experiences between Cody and Ezra," says guitarist Juan Angulo. "Whether it's the melody, the transitions, or the arrangement, we channeled these feelings into each part of the songs. It's a time capsule of our last three years as a band, all wrapped up in a sonic bow." The record was built the way most of Crate's life has been, in pieces and on borrowed time. Guitar and vocal tracking happened in apartments and practice spaces around Brooklyn, with the bulk of the album coming together at Ethan Williams of Shower Curtain’s studio in Queens. "Julia" itself dates back further, a July 2023 session at Red Convertible Recordings in Williamsburg. Cody produced and mixed alongside TJ Freda of Gift, a partnership he credits directly. "We have a really comfortable mixing relationship, which is really important when you're making decisions about how a song sounds," Cody says of Freda. Musically, the band traces its own lineage without much hesitation: the noisier end of My Bloody Valentine, the quieter end of American Analog Set, Acetone, and Duster, with Guitar's Sunkissed cited directly as a production touchstone for its reversed vocals and chopped, rebuilt loops. Crate has played three DIY tours so far, most recently making the trek to Chicago's Aragon Ballroom for Slide Away, which Nothing personally tapped them for alongside Hum and Chapterhouse. Cody also plays in Shower Curtain, and Cody, Henry and Juan play together in Many Shining Windows, part of a wider Brooklyn crew, including their Good English labelmates, that the band credits as much as any influence. "Our friends are also massive inspirations," Juan says. "When we hear songs they're working on through rough cuts or live shows, it motivates us to keep going." None of it comes from a place of needing to be seen. "Crate, as an entity, doesn't really need to be anywhere or say anything, but we do say things," the band says. "We're pretty nonchalant when it comes to being outward about this project. We like it this way. We just want to make music and make people happy, mostly our friends at the moment, but that can change, and would be cool if it does.”