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The Spinoff
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Spinoff
‘Fallen between the cracks': The mystery of New Zealand's lost emo anthem
Alex Casey goes in search of 'Crawl' by Atlas, the beloved mid-2000s emo anthem that's 'fallen between the cracks'. It's some time in 2007 and Britomart is swarming with gloomy loiterers, their sullen faces hidden behind swooping side fringes, black eyeliner and snakebite piercings. The black jeans are so tight that they can't possibly require that many studded belts, not to mention the stacks of leather chokers limiting the flow of oxygen to the brain. Perhaps this is why the crowd soon collapses into a state of mass unconsciousness, Nokia 3315s strewn far and wide, as two brave survivors unleash a battle cry to help them claw through the morose milieu. 'I won't fall between the cracks, yeah / Just leave some space for me to learn to crawl' 'Crawl' by Atlas was the biggest New Zealand single of 2007, clinging to number one in the charts for seven weeks and eventually becoming the sixth biggest song of the year (between 'Bartender' by T-Pain ft. Akon and 'Because of You' by Ne-Yo). Nearly two decades later, the YouTube comments beneath the music video are littered with happy memories. 'I am Korean and when I was in NZ in 2007 I could hear this song everywhere,' shares one commenter. 'This was a banger in my childhood, never even knew it was a kiwi song,' adds another. But through the nostalgic haze, there's also a sense of bubbling rage from hundreds upon hundreds of New Zealanders who can't find 'Crawl' on any music streaming platforms. 'It is a crime that this song was number 1 on C4 tv for soooo long and its not even on spotty [Spotify]' someone wrote just last year, garnering 320 likes in support. 'Sucks that spotify doesn't have this song grrr' has 520 likes, and was written eight years ago. Even the relatively fresh '2025 and still waiting for this track to drop on Spotify!' has already got 77 likes. One such aggrieved New Zealander is Justine Sachs, a self-described 'Crawl' superfan. 'It's just the perfect song,' she says. Not only does Sachs enjoy the 'crazy belter' chorus and the harmonies from Beth Campbell – 'Evanescence couldn't. Hayley from Paramore couldn't' – she also resonated with the social message as a moody teen. 'It's all about people falling between the cracks, being kept down by the man. It's like the system is coming down on all of us, and all we need is space to learn to crawl,' she pauses. 'Not even walk, man, just crawl.' The timing was pertinent too. 'This was the height of My Chemical Romance after The Black Parade and Fall Out Boy, but we also had this wave of local bands like Goodnight Nurse, Elemeno P, Goodshirt and Atlas. It felt really special to have our own local version of it.' Watching the music video every afternoon on C4 also helped canonise 'Crawl'. 'Britomart was such an important spot for me and my friends. When you're 13, there are not a lot of places you can go to be contemplative and flick your emo fringe around, so we felt really seen.' But seasons change, fringes grow out, and eventually the world moved on. The futuristic fountain of Britomart, home to 'Crawl' and also 'We Gon' Ride' was removed to extend the station, and Sachs similarly turned her back on her roots. 'I tried to suppress my emo background and pretend it all never happened,' she says. That was until about a decade later, at Shadows Bar in the University of Auckland, when a few words from 'Crawl' crept back into her mind. Nobody else remembered it, insisting she was thinking of 'Crawling' by Linkin Park. Sachs took to Spotify but couldn't find any evidence of the song, and spent some time wondering if she had made it up. 'For a while I couldn't even remember it enough to find any evidence of it, but I also knew deep down that a part of me was missing,' she says. After getting into another heated discussion about 'Crawl' at a party, she went home and finally found the music video on YouTube. 'It was a real renaissance moment for me – I even made a playlist of New Zealand pop punk and emo, but I was so sad because I couldn't add 'Crawl'.' Now, 'a few times a year', Sachs is forced to load up YouTube to play 'Crawl' at parties and other assorted social situations, complete with pre-roll ads. 'It's not ideal at all, and it's actually a disservice to a very important song,' she says. 'I'm really trying my best to support artists – I don't even have Spotify and use Apple Music now – but I don't want to get YouTube Premium just for this one song.' Asked if she has a message for Atlas, Sachs is clear: 'I want to know why their song isn't on streaming services, and I also just want to know if they are OK.' Ben Campbell, founding member of Atlas, is OK. He's busy, in fact, running a restaurant in Akaroa, and doesn't have quite as much time as I do to dwell in the minutiae of 2007. But after a few days of phone tag, he is more than happy to return to the origins of Atlas. The band formed in the mid-2000s after Campbell had left Zed, and was working in Las Vegas with his sister Beth on a Robert Lamm live DVD. Sean Cunningham, the gravelly-voiced Kentucky boy who would soon be crawling dramatically through Britomart, was hired to be their driver. 'We got along really well, and one night Sean came back to the hotel room, we got the guitars out, and we had this amazing two-hour session where we wrote three songs,' says Campbell. They decided then and there to start a band together – working name Tall Poppies – and brought Sean back to Christchurch to keep making demos. While they stayed independent by setting up their own label structure, the band eventually signed with Warner Music to help with the production and distribution of their first (and only) album, Reasons For Voyaging. As for 'Crawl', Campbell remembers writing it in a flurry in their flat in Addington. They didn't know initially that it would be their big hit, but Campbell recalls a moment where the whole band were standing in an elevator together and they realised the melody of the song was going through all of their heads simultaneously. 'That's when I thought, OK, there's something really catchy here,' he says. The song was released in March 2007, entering the charts at number nine and shooting straight to number one, where it would stay for nearly two months. 'That first week that it charted at number one, we just absolutely lost it,' says Campbell. 'Each week we'd sit there at that same spot at Andy's flat [Andy Lynch, guitarist for Zed and Atlas] and refresh it. We just could not believe that it would keep coming back at number one. It almost became a joke, it was just amazing.' Next came the music video, which was shot in a single day outside Britomart train station. 'It felt like such a big budget production for us, because all of a sudden, here we were in Auckland's CBD with full film crews, run sheets, actors,' says Campbell. 'It was a huge level up for us, although I still remember there is that scene with a couple of Japanese school girls with wigs on. At the time I remember thinking, oh those wigs look pretty cheesy, but they must look alright on film. And now every time I watch it, I still go, nope, those wigs just look cheesy.' Cheesy wigs aside, Campbell says 'Crawl' was still a highlight of his career. 'Zed actually never had a number one single, so for me and Andy, that was a huge thing to tick off – it just happened to be on a different project,' he laughs. Although their next single 'Magic 8' peaked at number 27 in the charts, Atlas rode the momentum of 'Crawl' into tours with Silverchair and Stereophonics, before getting stuck into their second album. 'The new material was really exciting and strong, we had really matured as a band and we were really ready,' says Campbell. But when Cunningham returned to the studio to put his signature gravelly vocals down on their new demos, the band knew that something was off. 'He had this kind of ball bearing rattling in his voice,' says Campbell. 'The man's always had a bit of a growl, but something was really wrong with his voice – it sounded broken.' They tried resting and repeating over a series of days and weeks, eventually sending him to a top vocal clinic in Nashville for a month. 'Nobody could get to the bottom of it,' says Campbell. 'His voice just didn't bounce back.' With Cunningham's voice being such a big part of the band's identity, they all agreed that there was no point trying to take Atlas any further without him. 'It was really sad, because it felt like we were so ready for the next chapter and we had already invested four or five years into it,' Campbell says. 'So Sean ended up staying in the States, we moved back from Auckland to Christchurch, the quakes hit just a few months later, and that was the end of Atlas.' Campbell stayed involved in the local music scene after the quakes, helping put on live shows on portable stages around the city, before eventually moving into hospitality. Spotify arrived in New Zealand in 2012, Apple Music in 2015, and members of the band have periodically noticed that Atlas's back catalogue is nowhere to be found on any of the digital streamers. 'I believe it's because the licensing agreement with Warners expired and no one took ownership of the digital onboarding,' says Campbell. 'Spotify didn't exist when Crawl was released, so it has effectively fallen between the cracks.' Making things even more difficult is the fact that nobody knows where the original masters are for the album. 'Andy's going to have a search through his barn and see if there's a dusty old Atlas box somewhere,' Campbell laughs. In the meantime, they have a high quality ripped version of the CD waiting in the wings to be uploaded, but nobody knows quite how to proceed. 'Everything in the industry has changed completely from when I was in it,' says Campbell. 'I don't even know what the process is for setting up an Atlas Spotify account.' Warner Music are yet to respond to The Spinoff's inquiries about 'Crawl', but Campbell is hopeful they can bring the smash hit of 2007 to streaming platforms soon. 'It's actually been really motivating for us, because it was a really sad ending for Atlas. We had to just give up the dream and move on, so it's cool to know that people want to hear it.' Cunningham, whose voice has since recovered, even returned to Christchurch earlier this year and performed an acoustic version of 'Crawl'. Time for an Atlas reunion, perhaps? 'Now, wouldn't that be fun,' says Campbell. As for reformed emo Sachs, news of a 'Crawl' comeback couldn't come sooner. 'Look, we're back in an economic depression, and people are feeling just as emo as they were in 2007,' she says.
Black America Web
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Black America Web
Chris Brown Gives T-Pain His "Flowers" Amid Drake Drama
Source: Getty Images Chris Brown is giving credit where it's due and this time, it's all about T-Pain. But, was it to spite Drake? The R&B star took to his Instagram stories to praise the artist behind hits like 'Bartender,' calling him 'one of the GOATs' of their generation. 'RANDOM THOUGHT… @Tpain is one of the goats of my generation!!!' Brown wrote on his Instagram Story over the weekend. He followed it with another story that read: 'GIVING YOU YOUR FLOWERS!!! PIONEER. LOVE YOU MY BROTHER.' The shoutout comes at an interesting time, as T-Pain's name has been circulating following comments he made about Drake… and Drake's clapback. RELATED: Drake Hits Back At T-Pain Critiquing His Inability To 'Gracefully Bow Out' & Retire, Social Media Piles On In a recent episode of the Crash Dummies podcast, T-Pain reflected on something Drake once said about wanting to bow out of the game gracefully, 'The one thing I learned from Drake — and the one thing he hasn't followed — is his own words. Drake said, 'I want to be one of those people that gracefully bows out and not get kicked out.'' That criticism didn't sit well with Drizzy, of course, who responded by calling out Pain directly. 'This guy always had resentment for me,' Drake posted in an IG comment. 'You can hear it every time he speaks on my name.' While Breezy didn't mention the Drake situation directly, fans were quick to connect the dots. Especially considering his long-running musical history with T-Pain. RELATED: Chris Brown Breezy Bowl: Setlist Still, it hasn't always been all love. Some fans pointed out that T-Pain once called out Chris Brown during a 2022 interview with DJ Akademiks, saying the singer had what he referred to as a 'princess complex.' 'That is my motherf–kin' n—a, but I know what his faults are,' T-Pain said at the time. 'Chris Brown has the princess complex… not only when you get what you want, but when you get accolades for doing absolutely f–king nothing and just being pretty.' Despite that moment of tough love, it's clear Brown holds no grudges. As the back-and-forth between T-Pain and Drake continues to stir opinions, Breezy's IG two cents adds some fuel to the fire. Chris Brown Gives T-Pain His 'Flowers' Amid Drake Drama was originally published on
USA Today
14-03-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
T-Pain hilariously acknowledged his Giants lookalike with a perfect tweet
T-Pain hilariously acknowledged his Giants lookalike with a perfect tweet It is free agency time in the NFL, meaning a lot of teams -- not you, Cowboys -- are making moves to improve their rosters in the offseason. The New York Giants added James Hudson III on Thursday, hoping the offensive tackle will serve as a much-needed boost on the offensive line. When the Giants posted the signing graphic featuring the former Cleveland Brown, people online started noticing something. Hudson bears a resemblance to singer/rapper/songwriter T-Pain, made famous for songs like "Buy You a Drank (Shawty Snappin')" and "Bartender," as well as numerous features and his iconic NPR Tiny Desk concert. The replies to the post quoted T-Pain lyrics, but the singer himself got involved. "I'm finna turn this franchise around," T-Pain said in a perfectly hilarious quote tweet. Excited to see where T-Pain takes the Giants next season.
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Iowa State Fair adds T-PAIN to Grandstand concert lineup
DES MOINES, Iowa – The start of the 2025 Iowa State Fair is 182 days away and fair organizers have revealed another musical act for the Grandstand stage. After dropping a photo hint on Facebook Tuesday and asking for guesses – the fair announced Wednesday morning that T-PAIN will perform on Saturday, August 16th. The pop, hip-hop, and R&B artist is known for hits 'Buy U a Drank,' 'I'm N Luv,' and 'Bartender.' Tickets for the show range from $40 to $77 and go on sale Friday, February 7th at 10:00 a.m. at The 2025 Iowa State Fair runs August 7-17. The Grandstand acts that have been announced so far are: Thursday, August 7 — Forrest Frank with special guest Lecrae Friday, August 8 — Parker McCollum with special guest Josh Abbott Band Saturday, August 9 — Megan Moroney with special guest Kameron Marlowe Wednesday, August 13 — Hairball's Silver Anniversary Tour Thursday, August 14 — Def Leppard Saturday, August 16 — T-PAIN Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
