Audio By Carbonatix
The sprawling collective known as Pee Pee has been playing its warped blend of folk, rock, blues and noise for Denver audiences for four years. Centered around the striking songwriting of Doo Crowder, the group is finally releasing its full length debut, the cryptically titled Castile Jackine Is Vooded at Broonus Mousin: Volume 1, with volume two promised shortly. We sat down with Crowder to get the scoop on the band, its name and why it took so long to get an album out.
Westword: After four years, you’re finally releasing your first proper album, and it turns out to be two. What took so long?
Doo Crowder: We tried recording this full-length, and it was just so enormous. I was like, what’s it going to be? There’s all these songs that are like these…some of it is like really emo and dark and brutal, you know, like murder, and talking about traumatic things in detail. And then there’s stuff that’s like rainbows and fairy tales and stuff like that. We kind of split this one up into two sections because it wouldn’t fit on an eighty-minute CD. I wouldn’t say it’s a concept album, because there’s no concept, really. But we did split it up, and there are shades of each [mood] in there. [The first] one’s happier than the other.
How did you come up with the name Pee Pee? Is there some hidden meaning behind that?
Not really. Sometimes I say that we just tell people that’s what our name is, that it’s not our real name. I just thought it was funny. In some ways it’s an anti-name; in some ways it’s a name that suits us. A lot of our stuff is nonsensical. A lot of people think Pee Pee is like a lack of commitment, or a detachment, a novelty thing. To me, it’s like this distance gives us license to do whatever we want, so it’s kind of like the opposite. It’s not necessarily identifying with anything. I guess that’s a big theme. There’s a lot of different angles to it.
What are your influences as a songwriter, and how does that come out in Pee Pee?
A lot of it is huge stuff that’s just sort of floating around on the radio. There’s a lot of traditional influences, old folk songs, blues. A lot of classic-rock influence, a lot of psychedelia. We get compared to the Grateful Dead and the Velvet Underground a lot. I’ve always had this, like, really contrary feeling, and that’s part of what’s important to Pee Pee, too. I can’t help but sort of stick a monkey wrench in whatever we’re doing. If it’s a pretty song, I can’t help but stick something ugly in it, and vice-versa.
