Sweet Crude's No Guitars Rule

The Cajun French indie rock band from New Orleans has a reason for working without guitars.

Wednesday night, Sweet Crude will play a pre-Thanksgiving show at One Eyed Jacks. Recently, My Spilt Milk's Lauren Keenan shot a video interview with the band, and here are her notes:

Sweet Crude, made up of members Jonathan Arceneaux, Sam Craft, Jack Craft, Stephen MacDonald, Alexis Marceaux, Skyler Stroup, and Marion Tortorich, is a Lousiana-bred band that puts a traditional Cajun French twist on their own inventive style of music. Their sound is based on drums and vocals, and they discuss how playing more unfamiliar instruments keeps them on their toes creatively.

They talk about the creative possibilities that singing in French and English creates for them as artists, as well as the challenge it poses for their non-French speaking fans, who sometimes make up their own words to the songs as they try to sing along. To help fans better understand their songs and maybe pick up a word or two of the language themselves, the band posts its lyrics and accompanying translations online.

For more on Sweet Crude, here's my interview with Sam Craft on learning Cajun French.