by Stephen Thomas Erlewine Perhaps it was inevitable that 30 Odd Foot of Grunts would always be seen through the prism of Russell Crowe, since anytime celebrities (particularly ones that famous) front a rock band, it is forever seen as their band. In Crowe's case, he is the group's lead singer and chief songwriter, but calling the band simply his implies that they are a vanity project, when the group had been active for a decade prior to the 2003 release of their third album, Other Ways of Speaking, and Crowe had been recording for even longer. If anything, his status as a superstar and Oscar-winning actor hurts the band, because it makes it much harder for the group to be taken seriously, which is something they do deserve. They're an interesting band with big ambitions in the vein of U2, but tethered to the … » Read more