Tiny Ruins releases new single ‘The Crab /Waterbaby’ via Marathon Artists
“She is always looking uneasily toward the next line, or moving toward mysticism. In sentimental contexts, she generates lines of wicked ambition.” — The New York Times
“Fullbrook’s hushed yet forceful songs, packed with obsessives and resilient loners, demand your full attention.”— Q Magazine
Tiny Ruins Releases New Music – ‘The Crab / Waterbaby’
Today, New Zealand’s Tiny Ruins releases a new single, ‘The Crab / Waterbaby’. This is the band’s first musical offering since 2019’s much lauded album, Olympic Girls.
“Part of the charm of Olympic Girls lies in the layers of mystery in each song. Inspired by literature, science, nature and human experience, these mysteries lie waiting to be carefully unfolded…” – God Is In the TV – 9/10
“… songs that change sound and mood during their duration, never meandering and always captivating.” – BUST – 5/5
The songs of Tiny Ruins often gift a rich visual and emotive narrative. ’The Crab / Waterbaby’ is drawn from a time-honoured walk around the coves of Little Muddy Creek aside the Mānukau Harbour. A Crab is found upturned, showing its soft belly. The songwriter sees in the Crab an experience of suffering – it’s as though everyone can see right through you, into your very innards – ‘you cannot help but speak about it’. A song about the transcendent comfort of ritual and ceremony that ‘returns you the right way’, to ‘give this day a chance’. Shimmering electric firebird guitar and minimalist verse arrangements give way to striking Philip Glass-esque strings & a bass solo resembling a scuttling crab that fluidly connects the song’s lyrical narrative.
Lyrics For “The Crab / Waterbaby”
Around the cove, walking, that’s where I found him
Upside down in the leaving tide
Spun out and prone, the crab lay there reaching
Casting off his hardened shell
I said dude, I think I know how you’re feeling
You know it’s plain for all to see
You can’t help but speak about it
It’s our insides and now
We’re translucent see
Goddamn permeable
We’re translucent see
Goddamn permeable
I need a ceremony
I need a ritual
I need a ceremony
I need a ritual
I returned my friend the right way
He took off with a sideways glance
So glad to meet you waterbaby
Now let’s go give this day a chance
We’re translucent see
Goddamn permeable
We’re translucent see
Goddamn permeable
I need a ceremony
I need a ritual
I need a ceremony
I need a ritual
I need a ceremony
I need a ritual
written by Hollie Fullbrook
performed by Hollie Fullbrook, Cass Basil, Alex Freer & Tom Healy
recorded at Paquin Studios, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, with Tom Healy
released by: Ba Da Bing Records in North America, Milk! Records in Australia, Marathon Artists in Europe, and via Tiny Ruins’ own imprint label, Ursa Minor, in New Zealand.
vocals, gibson firebird electric guitar, cello – Hollie Fullbrook
fretless fender jazz bass – Cass Basil
fender jag electric guitar, mellotron, minimoog, oberheim xpander – Tom Healy
recorded at paquin studios, engineered by Tom Healy
ABOUT TINY RUINS
A rare blend of eloquent lyrical craft and explorative musicianship, the songs of Tiny Ruins have been treasured by crowds and critics for over a decade. Traversing influences that cross genre and era, the artistry of Hollie Fullbrook and her band spans delicate folk, lustrous dream pop and ebullient psychedelia. Founded in 2009 by songwriter Hollie Fullbrook to describe her solo output, the group has included Cass Basil on bass, Alex Freer on drums and Tom Healy on electric guitar since 2013. A group renowned for their electric dynamic live on stage, Tiny Ruins have played stages in solo and varied group formations across countless cities and states with Sharon van Etten, Aldous Harding, Calexico, the Handsome Family and more. Fullbrook has collaborated with both Robert Scott and Hamish Kilgour of seminal Flying Nun band The Clean; on song ‘Dream Wave’ with filmmaker David Lynch, and on a recent project with novelist David Mitchell.
Photo credit Si Moore
Tiny Ruins online
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