From The Charon Collective: "From the moment I heard "Coupleskate," I knew I loved Joe Christmas. I remembered my buddy and bandmate, Neil "Oatmeal" Thompson, sharing their cassette demos with me in 1992 while hanging out at his apartment in Houston, TX. They had named a demo after him ("The Oatmeal EP").

 

But I didn't LOVE them until I heard "Upstairs Overlooking" and could completely wrap my head around their raw "off-the-cuff" controlled compositions. I really don't know how a band can sound both arranged and spontaneous at the same time, but these kids figured it out. And thousands of indie and alternative rock fans were the better for it.

 

The band faced a lot of controversy when they first hit the "scene" and Tooth & Nail Records dropped their debut album on us. Were they a Christian band? Were they Christians in a band? Were they even Christians?

 

Here's what I think. Joe Christmas were a group of youth group kids who enjoyed making music together and found themselves with opportunities they probably didn't understand at the time. They happened to be writing music as they were "discovering" themselves and questioning life.

 

Either way, we were the ones that benefited from it. And we should all be thankful for it because Joe Christmas gave us two masterpieces we can go back to anytime we want.

 

"Burnt Ends And Crisp Remainders" is a collection (hopefully, the first) of early recordings done under the name Crayon, as well as other songs captured on tape at different times after the band took on the moniker of Joe Christmas.

 

Is the sound quality perfect? Not even remotely. Some recordings sound way better than other ones. Some sound like they were captured on a cassette recorder in somebody's bedroom. That's probably because it was! Another one might sound like it was transferred directly off a 7-inch record. Again, it was!

 

We did what we had to in order to get these gems into your hands. Enjoy! It was our pleasure to bring them to you. And I know that it was cathartic and therapeutic for Russell and the rest of the J.C. guys to get it out into the world."