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01/02/08 :: URB 151

They say that in business, location is everything. This is especially true in the music business, where being in the right scene at the right time can mean the difference between instant record deal or endless obscurity. Majesty Crush was definitely not in the right place. This genius four piece from Detroit was a satellite planet in the dreampop solar system, too far out to be picked up on radar, despite being as musically astute as UK counterparts like Lush and Chapterhouse. Sure, bassist Hobey Echlin and drummer Odell Nails had played in the seminally obscure Spahn Ranch, while guitarist Michael Segal manned the counter at Play It Again Records and along with his brother David published the You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever fanzine— two bastion of Midwest obsession with AR Kane and Spaceman 3. But being plugged-in to the Midwest underground was still a long ways away from the London Underground.
    
Had Majesty Crush been from England, there’s zero doubt their sonic dreamscapes, driven by Echlin and Nails’ grooving rhythms (a Detroit thang) and Segal’s wall-of-guitar-pedal-sound would have granted them easy access to the music weeklies, while singer David Stroughter’s awkwardly self-aware personal fixations on songs like “Uma” (about the actress), “No. 1 Fan” (about Reagan assassin John Hinkley Jr.) and “Seles” (the tennis star) would have made incredible fodder for the tabloids. A brief dalliance with Elektra subsidiary Dali-Chameleon granted the foursome one summer abroad, playing the sort of European festivals they might have headlined in another life, but the label went kaput upon the release of their sole album, Love 15, and it was back to Detroit where the group’s delay pedal slowly faded out.

But location has also given a coda to the Majesty Crush story, as Detroit DJ Darren Revell’s recent relocation to Los Angeles has allowed him to reinvent his nu-gaze focused “Big Sonic Heaven” radio broadcast for a much larger and more attentive audience. And the issuance of Majesty Crush’s best of compilation on Detroit retro label Full Effect has given the jock all the reason he needs to play the group’s classic catalog. There’s even talk of a reunion show, which seems perfectly timed given My Bloody Valentine’s impending return to the stage. Again, the Crush won’t get the same hysteric accolades as their UK contemporaries. But for those who know, the band remains the best sort of secret, one that stays kept.