Music critics, while notoriously fussy, are charged with a daunting task: Objectively describing a purely nonobjective subject. Of course this also opens the floodgates for nearly anyone to pass themselves off as serious press. This is something that Johnny Bell, frontman for psych-punk band Crystal Antlers, is all too familiar with — though he doesn’t believe in what he reads, or more precisely, what he doesn’t read. “Everyone has their right to pontificate, but why listen to anyone else when now you have access to any music anywhere, anytime,” Bell said. “You think some 19-year-old intern writing two-sentence reviews has a better record collection than you?” If Bell were paying attention, he would see a mob of writers falling over each other to fawn about his band. Crystal Antlers first caught attention with its stunning self-titled debut EP. Off the strength of the recording and their growing following, they were picked up by Touch N Go Records. Crystal Antlers’s first full-length, “Tentacles,” would be the last record the label would put out, closing shortly before its release. The band got the news while on its first European tour. “It was a snowy morning in Berlin … pretty somber news in a somber setting,” Bell recalled. “It was really hard to sort out the details of what to do next, not exactly what we signed up for, but you have to roll with the punches.” The band finished the tour and returned to the States, where they began working on the next record and finding a new label. They were picked up by Recreation Ltd., who released the band’s 2011 “Two-Way Mirror” and limited vinyl pressing “Son of Mirror.” To write the record the band rented a secluded place in Mexico, something that offered the band something new and enabled a more collaborative situation to work in, according to Bell. “Being isolated gave everyone an opportunity to bring something to the table,” he said. “We were able to just play all night uninterrupted, which was something we’d never really had the opportunity to do before.” Bell seems to be happy with this method of writing. He’s currently working on building a studio in his home to facilitate late-night jam sessions. Following the upcoming North American tour the band plans to go back into the studio to record its next album. Showing a bit of humility, Bell explained that the band has performed more than a handful of terrible shows, something that he says comes with the territory. Among the worst was a bill they split with Donita Sparks from L7. “It was when we first started and we didn’t really talk to her, but her band were a bunch of dicks,” Bell said. “It seems like there’s a basic unspoken code of ethics among bands that they completely disregarded.” Of course with the bad also comes the good. Bell recalled the set the band played at the Lowlands Festival in the Netherlands. The band drove all night to make it to the show, though they were about 15 minutes late. When they arrived, the promoters had all their gear set up, so they jumped from the van to the stage and began their set. But first, they were introduced to the crowd by “the Ryan Seacrest of Holland” — who, said Bell, “introduced us as his favorite band at the fest.” When they come through Northeast Ohio Crystal Antlers usually appears at Cleveland’s Now That’s Class, a venue recommended by The Strange Boys. “They serve MD-20/20, have half-off drink specials for pregnant women and you can order a paper bag to huff tape-head cleaner during halftime of Browns games,” Bell said. “Yeah, Now That’s Class is the best.” Crystal Antlers will be once again playing at Cleveland’s bastion of punk rock, Now That’s Class, with Shoreway and Scarcity of Tanks on November 13.