Crooked Fingers

Crooked Fingers at Saint Vitus

On January 29, 2027, Dignity and Shame, the fourth full length album by Eric Bachmann’s beloved outfit Crooked Fingers, returns to vinyl via Merge Records. Out-of-print on the format since 2005, the remastered 2xLP set comes complete with two vinyl-exclusive bonus tracks and is housed in a gatefold jacket with expanded artwork, treatment befitting an album that has, in the quarter century since its release, been recognized as one of the brightest jewels in Bachmann’s considerable catalog.

This wasn’t always the case. After 2003’s Red Devil Dawn — not just the third Crooked Fingers album, but the third released in four years — Bachmann had successfully forged a new identity for himself and established a sonic signature for his band that was entirely different from what he had done with Archers of Loaf, becoming a raconteur of forlorn, desperate lives spelled out in pained, exacting detail. While the collaborators who made that sound possible returned to make Dignity and Shame, the sound itself changed, embracing the bright, cinematic sweep of the American southwest, a sprawling vista Bachmann and his band eagerly galloped across. The soaring, joyful abandon of this album signaled a change, not just for Crooked Fingers, but for Bachmann, who today views Dignity and Shame as part of a broader attempt at moving past bad habits.