Fathoms Deep is the second album from San Francisco trio The Tunnel. The album was recorded at Studio SQ in San Francisco, produced by the group and engineered by Chris Crawford (drummer for French Miami, the Downer Party) and is being by the Glorious Alchemial Co. label
Fathoms Deep was hammered out in various San Francisco dives and warehouses, but it draws its lifeblood from the darkness of the surrounding, still-remote Northern California coast. The sounds are akin to the art-damaged noise coming out of 1970s New York, 1980s London-via-Berlin, or an 1850s West Coast harbor-town damp with fog and whiskey.”The Beast-Catcher” is an epic pursuit of the wingtips-wearing, legendary Beast through the narrow back alleys of an old Mexican city. “Strange Haven” depicts a refuge from the storm in an old harbor town, now seemingly empty of all its inhabitants, except for that sensation of cold, familiar fingers on your shoulder. “Scurvye Dreames” is a late-night lament on a drunken, sea-sick ship.
The Tunnel formed in 2006 in San Francisco. Pat Crawford and Jeff Wagner had met a couple of years before at a San Francisco Punk/Goth dance club called “Death Rock Booty Call” and quickly realized they had common interests in cult B-movies and the Birthday Party. Jeff had been performing some abrasive, Foetus-eque cabaret music as the Tunnel of Love, solo and with the avant-theater group Circus Proboscis, since he moved to San Francisco in 2000. Pat had been drumming in metal and hardcore bands in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh (Aus Rotten, White Gold).
The Tunnel began as stripped-down two-piece immediately after Pat moved to SF – Jeff on guitar and voice and Pat on drums. Although Jeff had played bass in previous noise-rock bands in North Carolina and Illinois in the 90s (Sharking Teeth, Jumpknuckle), the Tunnel played bass-less for the next three years, and recorded their debut album, Carver Brothers Lullaby sans bass. In 2009, Josh Layton began contributing bass, guitar, and keyboard to Tunnel live shows as well as to three tracks on Fathoms Deep. Sam Black (previously of San Francisco dark-rock bands the Guilty Party and If Ever) joined the Tunnel in 2010 as a permanent 3rd member, playing bass, keyboards, and samples throughout Fathoms Deep.
The Tunnel has performed in San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, Long Beach, and Durango CO.
If your favorite drinking songs are fierce and darkly romantic ragged tales of lust and loss but youve already played all your Birthday Party, 16 Horsepower, and Swans records to death Fathoms Deep will be your new favored drinking music.
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