The Cribs Biography

The Cribs In-depth Biography

Yorkshire, England's the Cribs feature three brothers: vocalists/guitarist Ryan Jarman, bassist/vocalist Gary, and drummer Ross. The trio began playing together at an early age, making their debut at a family party in the late '80s when twins Gary and Ryan were nine years old and Ross was just five. The brothers grew up with similar musical tastes, blending quintessentially British influences like the Beatles, Sex Pistols, and Smiths with American indie rock like Beat Happening and Bobby Conn. Eventually, the Cribs got to play with both Beat Happening's Calvin Johnson and Conn; Conn liked the band so much that he invited them to record with him in his Chicago studio. The Cribs released three singles, Another Number, What About Me, and You Were Always the One, before signing to Wichita Records in late 2003. The band spent 2004 readying their self-titled debut album, which was recorded in London's famed Toerag Studios, touring with the Datsuns and performing at that year's CMJ Festival. Late that year they began working on their second album with Orange Juice's Edwyn Collins as producer. The Cribs was released in the U.S. in early 2005. Later in the year, the band issued their second album, The New Fellas. Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever, which boasted production by Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos, arrived in 2007. That same year, Gary met Johnny Marr, an admitted fan of the band. They began collaborating on some songs, with Marr joing the band on-stage throughout the 2008 NME awards tour. By August 2008, Marr had officially joined the band and the resulting album, Ignore the Ignorant, arrived late in 2009. ~ Heather Phares, Rovi