Shins’ Marty Crandall Winces the Weekend Away in Jail for Domestic Violence
The blogs are a-buzzin’ about the domestic violence arrest and brief incarceration of Shins multi-instrumentalist Marty Crandall. You know Marty—the Shin that was seemingly everyone’s favorite stand-up comic up until, say, this weekend, when his now ex-girlfriend (and former America’s Next Top Model contestant) Elyse Sewell posted an entry accusing him of battery on her ever-popular LiveJournal.com site.
According to her now-locked LiveJournal post, entitled “worst weekend olympics,” Crandall’s boozing led to a battery inside a Sacramento hotel room on the 4th. A bulleted list and photos document the ordeal, beginning the the entry’s biggest pull quote, “I escaped from the room through a blitzkrieg of violence.” Sewell posted a photo of her heavily bruised arm while also noting her bloody knuckles—and apparently Crandall bares bite marks. Both were arrested and booked after Sewell fled to hotel security. More details about the fight should come to light after their scheduled court hearing on Tuesday, Jan. 8.
Sewell was released Saturday, after one night in lockdown, while an inmate search on the website of the Sacramento County Sheriff reveals Crandall remained in jail until being released yesterday.
Sewell’s original LiveJournal entry set the internet alight from local blogs Pampelmoose, PDX Pipeline and Blogtown to national sites such as The Modern Age and Oh No They Didn’t (and even UK music mag NME’s blog).
Crandall and Sewell were a couple for over five years. Before the Shins reached the level of national exposure that they now enjoy, Crandall was introduced to the world at large via a brief cameo on the first season of America’s Next Top Model, when Sewell won a challenge and was rewarded with a visit from someone from home.
Never did I think domestic violence would put a Shin behind bars. Even rapper Ma$e has “never been arrested for nothing domestic,” according to his 1997 hit, “Feel So Good.”
Links:
Original Elyse Sewell Livejournal post (cached)
Follow-up Elyse Sewell Livejournal post
“Shins keyboardist arrested for assaulting girlfriend” via NME
Photo care of Elyse Sewell’s livejournal
ryan
says:although i ultimately understand why, it somehow saddens me that this is considered music news. it just seems inappropriately invasive and exploitative & unnecessarily sensational to me.
Posted @ January 7th, 2008 at 6:25 am (January 7th, 2008) | Flag this Comment | permalinkhozer
says:Trust me if you new Marty, this is not the first time he’s goten in a druken rage. And he’s not 5′9 145.lbs,he’s more like 5′5 165, Elyse is about 6′ 100.lbs
Posted @ January 7th, 2008 at 1:21 pm (January 7th, 2008) | Flag this Comment | permalinkWhat a example Marty what a nice guy.
d
says:there are 2 sides to everything. she is clearly a nut job for blogging about this, tres Jerry Springer of her, they both sound like they need some help. people should mind their own buiz. lame of you Local Cut for following the gossip blog chain.
Posted @ January 7th, 2008 at 1:50 pm (January 7th, 2008) | Flag this Comment | permalinkah come on
says:this is not music related, and i find it terribly inappropriate for a website that prides itself in being ‘portland’s music journal’. stay out of people’s personal lives. just because pitchfork writes about it, you have to as well? shame on them and shame on you.
Posted @ January 7th, 2008 at 4:40 pm (January 7th, 2008) | Flag this Comment | permalinktravis
says:don’t hit women.
Posted @ January 7th, 2008 at 5:17 pm (January 7th, 2008) | Flag this Comment | permalinkTravel Light
says:Lame? Really? Something happened to one of Portland’s biggest music exports that could–nay likely will–seriously eff up the Shins for a long time to come, and Local Cut shouldn’t post about it? Sorry dude (just guessing on the dude thing), but no.
And if LC posting on this IS lame, then, please, tell me what beating on your girlfriend is.
Posted @ January 7th, 2008 at 5:22 pm (January 7th, 2008) | Flag this Comment | permalinkCASEY JARMAN
says:While I certainly don’t want to make this a site that focuses on musicians’ personal problems over their music, it’s going to be extremely interesting to see how this affects the sales/publicity/reputation of one of the biggest bands in America (that happens to reside in Portland), and how it affects the band itself. I thought Nilina gave the story some context (where most sites gave it two sentences) and explained it in a clear and fair way—she even found some info that other sites hadn’t really reported (that he had already been released). So we went with it. I’ll admit that the Ma$e reference put it over the top.
This won’t become an O.J. type thing here on the site. Not saying we’ll never mention it again, but it’s not gonna be a thing. But, to me, I had no idea what the other sites were talking about with the Model thing and all, so this was helpful to me to at least understand the he said/she said.
Despite my distaste for gossip, though: If a Trail Blazer was involved in something like this, WW would be all over it and I don’t think people would question linking to the blog. So why the double-standard for a different kind of entertainer?
Posted @ January 7th, 2008 at 5:41 pm (January 7th, 2008) | Flag this Comment | permalinkCASEY JARMAN
says:Oh, and I read about thirty of Elyse’s blog entries last night, which were awesome. I totally want to be a model now. So farewell, LocalCut, hello New York City!
P.S. Somebody give that girl some cream cheese or something, those arms are TINY!
Posted @ January 7th, 2008 at 5:45 pm (January 7th, 2008) | Flag this Comment | permalinkNILINA MASON-CAMPBELL
(post author) says:Ma$e has a new religious show with his wife and XXL Magazine had just posted a preview on their site so I had Ma$e in my head and couldn’t stop myself from attaching that line. Harlem World was so good.
Posted @ January 7th, 2008 at 5:50 pm (January 7th, 2008) | Flag this Comment | permalinkStatutory Ray
says:It’s great news. Someone in a horrible-yet-recognized pussy rock band, who is known for “sensitivity blah blah blah” like the rest of PDX music, BEATS HIS BITCH UP. Wow, real fuckin emo there. Then you have bands like, oh… Wombstretcha, who openly discuss beating up women in their music but have never once taken aggression out on women in the real world. This is proving a point I’ve been trying to make for years: Like it or not, violence against women is a seller!
Posted @ January 8th, 2008 at 2:32 pm (January 7th, 2008) | Flag this Comment | permalinkfact check
says:uh, check your facts. They were together 7 years, not 5.
Posted @ January 8th, 2008 at 2:54 pm (January 7th, 2008) | Flag this Comment | permalinkLiam
says:Write about music
Posted @ January 8th, 2008 at 9:40 pm (January 7th, 2008) | Flag this Comment | permalinkCari
says:I’m really sick of that arm.
Posted @ January 9th, 2008 at 12:44 pm (January 7th, 2008) | Flag this Comment | permalinkJason Simms
says:Just because you wish it wasn’t true, doesn’t mean it’s not news. I don’t know how this website could dream of being a record of a music scene and NOT cover something like this.
Posted @ January 10th, 2008 at 2:08 pm (January 7th, 2008) | Flag this Comment | permalinkDave Allen
says:The comments such as “write about music” here are depressing. Although many of us use music as an escape from the everyday mundanity of life things come crashing back to earth real quick when our favorite musicians step over certain boundaries. In a fast-paced media world where stories such as this one shoot around the world in seconds, and where the story involves a local musician of international renown, I would fully expect Local Cut to cover it. Yes we bloggers are part of the media circus, but violence upon women by drunk men is way beyond the pail and is totally unacceptable so I for one felt obliged to cover the story as did Nilina obviously.
Posted @ January 10th, 2008 at 11:39 pm (January 7th, 2008) | Flag this Comment | permalinkCASEY JARMAN
says:Thanks for the support, Dave, Jason, etc.. I do think this is a healthy conversation to have, though. There are lines to be drawn somewhere when talking about music vs. people’s stories/trials/tribulations (having been in an epic band, I’m sure Dave has probably seen that line crossed a few times), so I am always glad to get feedback when it rubs people the wrong way. That’s perfectly valid. I feel in the right about reporting on this the way we did, but I’m glad it started a conversation, as well. And just so it’s posted here, all charges were dropped. That doesn’t erase whatever happened that night, but it is certainly worth noting.
Posted @ January 11th, 2008 at 4:30 pm (January 7th, 2008) | Flag this Comment | permalinkDen K
says:all this rock-n-roll filth should be forbidden.
Posted @ January 25th, 2008 at 7:01 pm (January 7th, 2008) | Flag this Comment | permalink