“This is Only a Test” - Crooked Cranes
Photo Credit: Artist EPK
Crooked Cranes—three lifelong best friends and a younger brother from Fuquay Varina, North Carolina— channel chaos into their debut EP, “This Is Only A Test,” a garage-rock Molotov cocktail with a stoner soul.
Released May 9, 2025, “This Is Only a Test” feels less like a polished studio project and more like a rite of passage. These aren’t tracks carefully mapped out on a whiteboard. They’re lived-in, laughed-through, possibly improvised moments of real, raw, ridiculous life.
It’s grungy, lo-fi, sometimes hilarious, sometimes weirdly deep, and 100% full of soul.
"GF" kicks the whole thing off like a shot of tequila to the face. An unhinged riff-fest with a soap-opera storyline: “my dad slept with my girlfriend”. Do you fight the man or shake his hand? Honestly, it’s so absurd it borders on philosophical.
"Dolfin" is hazy, and weirdly tender. There’s a girl who won’t tell her name — mysterious, distant, probably smarter than the narrator. It’s the kind of track that makes you squint at the ceiling and sigh, even if you don’t know why.
"Met a Gurl" brings the heartbreak — post-divorce blues, but not in a sad boy way. More like: she left, I’m still here, and my amp still works.
"Interstate Song" slows things down just enough to let you catch your breath, like coasting down the freeway with no destination, just feelings.
"NeWay" closes the EP with a perfect stoner anthem. You’re baked, your favorite track’s on repeat, and life makes just enough sense to feel okay again.
You can feel the DNA of Dinosaur Jr., Built to Spill, The White Stripes, and The Who baked into this — but not in a copycat way. Crooked Cranes don’t emulate, they absorb. It's like they swallowed a bunch of 90s alt-rock records whole and spit them back out through blown-out speakers with a southern drawl.
There’s that stoner rock fuzz, a bit of punky looseness, guitar noodling that somehow sounds both lazy and genius, and lyrics that oscillate between completely unhinged and strangely poignant.
This EP wasn’t recorded in some fancy studio. It was born and raised in the same basement. That’s not just lore — it sounds like it. There’s an honesty to the whole thing. No overproduction. No industry polish. Just four dudes, some instruments, and a hell of a lot of memories.
And while they say they don’t take themselves too seriously, there’s serious heart buried in the haze. These songs might be about getting high and telling dumb stories, but underneath it all is a group of friends who’ve grown up together and are using music to figure themselves out — or at least laugh about it.
“This Is Only a Test” is the kind of record that feels like a love letter to being young, messy, and alive, made by a band that somehow knows they’ll be laughing about this for decades to come. It’s scuzzy, funny, weirdly deep in spots, and undeniably Crooked Cranes.
If you’re into stoner rock with heart, basement party nostalgia, or you just want to hear a band that sounds like your drunk friends started making shockingly good music out of nowhere — give this a spin.
And remember: It’s only a test... but it might just be the beginning of something brilliant.
“This is Only a Test” is available now on all major streaming platforms
Follow Crooked Cranes - Bandlab | Bandcamp
Listen to Crooked Cranes and other similar artists on our Spotify Playlist ‘New Music Spotlight - Indie & Alternative’
