If you put on the new Exbats album without any advance knowledge of what the band had been cooking up the last couple years, you were probably shocked out of your shoes. The Exbats falling in love with synthesizers and drum machines is something literally no one could have seen coming. But of course this bold departure is an unequivocal success. It’s the freaking Exbats! Anything they touch turns to gold!
So here’s the story behind My Dinner With Crumar. The Exbats became massively inspired by Sweeping Promises a few years back, and a close friendship between the bands was formed. The Exbats were intrigued by the idea of recording in Sweeping Promises’ house studio, and Caufield Schnug kindly agreed to record them. So the band trekked from Bisbee, Arizona to Lawrence, Kansas four different times between the summer of 2024 and the spring of this year and made a record. I love the idea of bands inspiring and pushing each other to grow and evolve. The Exbats would not have been able to make this exact record in any other studio. The band discovered the Crumar Orchestrator (an Italian string synth from the ’70s) in the studio and realized it perfectly fit the mood they were going for. And hence we have the name of the album. Yes, it’s really, really different. But it’s also really, really great. The McLains took a really huge swing with this album, and they knocked it out of the park.
What I love about My Dinner With Crumar is that all those electronic instruments (there are also a Moog Grandmother, Oberheim DMX, and Pulsar 23 in the mix) aren’t just there for show. They serve a purpose and fit a more modern, atmospheric wall of sound. The programming here is beautiful and very intentional. You can still hear the band’s love for ’60s pop and girl groups coming through, but on this record, the McLains advance their time machine into the heyday of new wave and synth-pop. A five minute, 31-second slow-burning epic is an interesting choice for a lead track, but “Will You See Me in the Morning” really is the perfect table-setter for this album. It’s a bold, emphatic statement. If “I Only See You When I’m Dancing” sounds like classic Exbats turned electronic dance band, I suppose that’s exactly what it is! “Back Where You Belong” is picture-perfect new wave pop. “Come and Get Me” is funky, punky disco-pop and a certified earworm. “Call Me An Idiot One More Time” ought to be a smash hit on every continent. Songs like “Falling Into Something” and “Nobody Told Me I Was Dead” aren’t that far off from The Exbats of old, yet they sound perfectly in place on this record. “Hide My Baby,” which Franksteins together The Shangri-Las and Velvet Underground, will be the track of choice for those who always like a punkier Exbats. And how about a synth-pop reprise of the band’s old favorite “Hercules” to remind us that what’s old can always be new?
I will admit that I was a little dubious when I started listening to My Dinner With Crumar. I’d been waiting a long time for the band to release music, and I wasn’t sure I was ready for a synth-pop Exbats. But my skepticism was very short-lived since the songs are just so undeniable. Given that this band had been so long known for a traditional guitar-based rock style, it was a gutsy move to embrace synthetic sounds. But whatever instincts were guiding Inez, Kenny, and friends as they conceived, wrote, and recorded this album must have been deemed by the music gods. They knew what kind of album they wanted to make. And with a lot of help from their friends, they made it. This record turned out to be everything I was hoping for and then some.
I don’t think there’s anything better for a band than catching that jolt of inspiration and finding yourself super-excited about a new direction. The first rule of making music is that you have to love what you’re doing. Whether or not anyone else loves what you’re doing is largely out of your hands, but I don’t think My Dinner With Crumar will have many people hopping off the Exbats train. If anything, more people will be jumping on. Any time I talk about the best bands out there right now, The Exbats are always in the conversation. They are a reminder that new, exciting music is still out there if you care to look for it. That remains truer than ever. As this band, now 16 years into its story, enters its self-described “middle period,” I can’t help but be pumped about what’s still to come.
