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TromBonus - 54 - Crack Rock Steady Primer
220 Plays7 months ago
Gay Rude Boys Unite as CP/SC digs in on the impassioned micro-genre of Crack Rock Steady. Rob, Engineer Joey and Editor Arianne open up the episode with a quick check in before diving in to the scene thats all about ACAB, recreational drug use, mental health and communal living. They go through the genres history from its origins with Choking Victim/Leftover Crack to the various side projects born of them to the many bands influenced by them. They also get in to the complexities of the scene, its controversies and the question of Art vs. The Artist.
CP/SC will be performing LIVE at SPI Fest 2 in Connecticut May 17-18! Tix at www.spifest.org
Hosts: Arianne, Rob and Joey
Engineer: Joey
Editor: Joey
Skassociate Producer: Chris Reeves of Ska Punk International
NEW MERCH: www.checkeredpast.ca/merch
Patreon: www.patreon.com/checkeredpast
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Overview
00:00:01
Speaker
It's another trombonus episode. It's just Rob, engineer Joey, editor Arianne, and a pocket full of dreams as we squat, rage, and smoke crack all the way to the bank, offering a primer to the micro genre of crack rock steady on checkered past, the SCODcast.
00:00:20
Speaker
It's
00:00:41
Speaker
What up checkered heads welcome to checkered past the Scott cast with Selene and Rob the show where a last squat on the leftover crack and Good morning. Glory nom explore the history and impact of a different band each episode Hope to bring in new fans along the way. I'm Robin This is my co-host with the most toast engineer Joey. Hi. Hey, what's up movie quotes? Yeah
00:01:05
Speaker
Slogans yeah movies and then the topic. Okay. Yeah, I didn't dig hard this time No, this was surface look good. This is all this is like year two puns. You know what though? It was it was
00:01:19
Speaker
Like the hits, like it was easy. It was, it was. It went back to the well. Yeah, totally. It was good. I'm just trying to write. Playing the classics. Yeah, play the classics. I'm just, I'm just trying to write another Sweet Home Alabama, right? I was going to say it's just like 70s AM radio. Yeah, that's it. Enjoyable, but not that deep. And here for this special episode is our editor extraordinaire, Arianne. Bonjourno. Hello, Arianne. Hello. Welcome to the show. Thank you.
00:01:45
Speaker
And this is your second official co-hosting appearance? Correct. I believe last time I was on, I said, I'm never coming on this Godforsaken podcast again, and yet here I am. And I invited myself. Yes. You've shown up in clip form since, I think, didn't you? And she's come up in the, when we do the year-end favorites, she'll record herself talking about music. Yeah, in clip form. Yeah. Clip form, clip form. But yeah, she found out what our topic of conversation was today, and she said, I want to be there for that.
00:02:15
Speaker
And I do, and I hear, and I hear. And you also said, I live that lifestyle, I believe is what you also said. I did say that, and I told you I was probably gonna tell this story about when I gave you scabies when we first started taking them. That's a, what do you want to call that? That's foreshadowing. That sounds like a pick it up. Well, we should pick it up. Let's pick it up on your laptop.
00:02:44
Speaker
Hey! It's doing it again. Wow! That's okay. I hope it does it again. Just two? Two times. Yeah, it's not a two more. Oh yeah, good one. You're welcome. I was going to do the Twix thing and say two for me, none for you. That's actually better.
Arianne's Public Radio Fundraising Concerns
00:03:06
Speaker
I was going to do like book stuff again because book talk went over so well, but I don't know Arianne you're you're new Do you have a story you wish to sell for the pick it up where we left off? I Do I have a story I'm trying to think of anything that's not
00:03:22
Speaker
Gonna get you fired? Yeah. So I work at a non-commercial sort of public radio station. And I love it. May, I will have been there for 13 years. But yeah, we have two fundraisers, twice a year, spring and fall. And usually everyone loses the goddamn mind. And it's just, by the time,
00:03:49
Speaker
How can I say this? It's stressful. We need to make some money. We are in like generally the world, definitely Canada, the cost of living crisis. There's not a lot of like
00:04:05
Speaker
extra money for things floating around. People aren't throwing money at public radio these days. Well, at anything really. Yeah. So, but our bills have gone up like an insane amount. So we're also like feeling the pinch and yeah, so it's feeling a little pinchy, but, uh, layer that on with the usual, like you wouldn't have fucking ever believe we've done this before, let alone six months ago. So, uh, yeah, but all that to say,
00:04:33
Speaker
I am planning some special fundraiser events. We're going to do some cool stuff. We're going to have some like live radio and some audiences in participation. I'm throwing like a Saturday night. Um, I'm sort of, it's going to be like a live radio show. That's also, uh, in our performance space, it's going to be an all LP dance party. We're going to invite the public in.
00:04:56
Speaker
The radio station, by the way, has a huge library of LPs. Second largest in North America. It's pretty incredible.
00:05:04
Speaker
Yeah. So it is, and it's going to be fun and I'm very excited for it and I'm going to make all of the people in this room come to it. Um, but yeah, it's also, I have a other director who, even though we like talked through these ideas out there and said, this is what we're proposing, like our team, um, fully a month ago this week decided in an events meeting to like have a bit of a,
00:05:33
Speaker
emotional breakdown about maybe like fearing that no one will come because no one wants to go out downtown on Saturday night and they live in Sherwood Park and don't come into the office. So I don't really feel like that's a valid point. Anyway, so yeah, personal life. My family's going crazy. We got stuff going on with this side of things. Work is a hellscape. Things are good. Things are good. I've never been better.
Discussion of 'Perdido Street Station'
00:06:03
Speaker
uh so so so i guess i just really want to talk about this yeah talk about the stupid book okay so i read china melville's perdido street station which is a hugo award-winning steampunk novel that is the grossest weirdest book i've ever read you were telling me a little bit about it and it sounds insane like you were just like and then this is a part of the story and then this is a part of the story and i was like
00:06:30
Speaker
what so it is some people love this shit it's kind of a tome it's kind of a doorstop uh it has some of the most like theatrical language i've ever read to describe usually the same basic stuff which is everybody's poor um
00:06:48
Speaker
All the buildings are falling down. Everything smells like shit. Everybody shits. Yeah, so there's a lot of shit. A lot of shit talk. It's absolutely crazy. It's supposed to be a parallel of London. They describe how dirty everything is, how gross everything is. It's a pretty filthy book. It's like nothing is cool in this book. Everything is just disgusting. Yeah. And the main character is just described as a dirigible, which there's also dirigibles because it's steam-hunting.
00:07:16
Speaker
He's described as a fat guy? He's a big fat guy. The main character's like a big fat guy and they bring that up multiple times. But there's also like creatures, like mutant kind of people. There's like scarab people, frog people. They punish people by remaking them quote unquote, which is like basically like they'll like glue like baby hands to their faces and stuff like it's, or they'll make them into like some kind of mechanical thing. And of course all the technology is like,
00:07:44
Speaker
steam clockwork and punch cards, like that's the whole technology. The plot is, and it takes about 250 pages to get to the plot because they have to describe the world so much. A lot of poop to describe. There's so much poop to describe. And so they get to these moths that suck, they describe this to Ariana, she needed me to repeat it a couple times, where they stick these big moths that stick their tongues down your throat and suck your brain out.
00:08:14
Speaker
Um, and they're like apex predators and like nobody can kill them. And then it becomes this whole thing about everyone trying to kill these moths. And how long is it total? The book? Yeah. 750 pages. It's like- So a third of the book is spent before like any plot happens? Before moths show up. Yeah.
00:08:31
Speaker
and then there's and then they just but then they start to like layer all this crazy shit like the ambassador to the devil shows up and like there's this big robot that built itself out of scrap metal and there's there's a random serial killer that runs around that has a mantis claw and he just is a deus ex that shows up randomly throughout the book and it's bananas and then the last chapter is so fucking depressing like just
00:09:00
Speaker
for no reason like every character in this book is bad like there's just no redeemable person in this whole book they're all terrible people doing terrible things and then you're just depressed at the end and i guess it's a good book i'm definitely still thinking about it it's fucking fucked with my brain alive so i'm sure there's people out there that are like yeah that book's like 20 years old get with the program robin i'm like shit is that the uh what makes a book good though
00:09:30
Speaker
when it's just stuck in your brain for a bit. Like you're not, you know what I mean? Like, I do know what you mean, but I think like, yeah, I think that if, if you're still thinking about it, like not just like, Oh God, why did I do that? Why? Why did I put myself through those 750 pages? Yeah. But if you're like still thinking about it as in like kind of enmeshed in that world, you know, like I think that, yeah, that's, that's a sign of something that stuck with you. There's,
00:09:59
Speaker
Agree, I've I read a lot of sad sad books. Yeah, I know obviously the world building mattered a lot and Yeah, I was in there
00:10:10
Speaker
Did you identify what group of characters did you identify with the most? The big fat scientist? That's the main character? That's the main guy? Because he was a normal human person or what? No, I don't know. The guy named Pigeon that was kind of like the go-between to the underworld. He kind of seemed like a cool dude until he got killed. Most of the characters were killed. That's all the way it goes. Like at least all but three of the main characters and there's a big group of characters get murdered pretty brutally.
00:10:40
Speaker
Yeah. It sounds wild. It's insane. Just look up a plot synopsis. You probably don't have to read the whole thing because the first third of that book is interminable. And what's it called again? Perdido Street Station by China Mailville. Yeah. Anyway, that's Book Talk and that's Arianne Update Talk. So let's talk about what we're here for.
Introduction to Crack Rock Steady
00:10:59
Speaker
Yeah. We're here to talk Crack Rock Steady.
00:11:04
Speaker
We're so a little bit of background. So mostly this is about choking victim and leftover crack those two bands in particular, which we'll talk more about them as we get into this. They have been brought up no less than five times by people as a subject band for like a main episode.
00:11:20
Speaker
and every single time the people say, no, I don't want to talk about it, either at the last minute or beforehand. We had one person specifically that was pretty much lined up to go, then found out that we didn't really want to have it be just a shit talk fest, and was like, oh, then I don't want to do it.
00:11:38
Speaker
because this is a band that, these are bands that are super meaningful to people, highly influential, but has some, let's just say complicated individuals that are leading it, and we'll get into that more. So we thought the better way to approach this instead of,
00:11:53
Speaker
of trying to shoehorn a full episode with a guest on would be to just talk about the genre. It's a very specific niche micro genre. Talk about it from the kind of the top down, and then we can address it internally, I guess, and then we don't have to subject other people to have their coral, their mental corals as to whether or not it's right to have a talk about this band. Right, right. Arianne, how would you describe Crack Rock Steady?
00:12:22
Speaker
Don't make me do that, sorry. I wasn't prepared for this question. I would, yeah, I don't know, it's more punk rock, but definitely has ska, but some reggae in there. Yeah, I don't know, but I would say that the subject matter is a little bit more crusty? Yeah, I was gonna say it's like crust ska, basically. Yeah, kind of.
00:12:47
Speaker
Yeah, it's like so though I thought about this and I was like it's you know You get all the crusts the kind of the pseudo black metal influences the it's really gritty Like low production value is a really big part of it like on purpose Yeah, that it's all talking about
00:13:05
Speaker
Like I told Ariane yesterday, maybe we need a drinking game for every time they talk about killing the police. Because killing cops is probably the number one subject of these bands. Along with living in general squalor.
00:13:20
Speaker
Uh, or addressing mental health issues is a big one. Uh, pretty brazen recreational drug discussions like, uh, you know, just smoking crack and, and dropping Molly and doing all that stuff is just like a part of the culture. Like it's, and they're, uh, you know, it's, it's, it's not like a big deal. Like, you know, it's just part of the discussion. Um,
00:13:45
Speaker
Yeah, that's like a lot of the talk, I guess. And then it's very Ska. There's a lot of Ska in it, like when they're not being super crusty. But usually I think that they peaked. The Ska ended for these bands with Operation Ivy, sort of like that is like the number one Ska influence. And it really informs a lot of like how they approach the Ska beats. Yeah. And I feel like the Ska influences are
00:14:14
Speaker
Definitely more old school in general. Well, I mean that's it's more rock steady like it Yeah, it definitely trends closer to rock steady in its Scott influences that it does the Scott that like third wave say was pulling from if we can want to kind of talk about that time frame You know what? I mean? Yeah, like it's definitely the The influences the crack rock steady pulls from are older than everything else that was going on at the same time. I
00:14:41
Speaker
Oh yeah, third wave was not happening. They were happening independent of the third wave. Yes, totally. For sure. What years are we talking here? The term was coined in like 98. Okay. Yeah. So contemporaneous almost with ska becoming a big thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'd say the genre itself and like the bands that kind of splintered off from it, it's more of an early aughts mid aughts. Like that was kind of where in the bulk of them were kind of coming around. Sorry, you were gonna say something?
00:15:10
Speaker
Yeah. Sorry. I was going to say like, I think another sort of like theme is kind of the leftist almost libertarian style, like lyrical content, you know? Um, I feel like that's something, but progressive, if that makes sense, where it's like gay rude boys unite, but also, um,
00:15:34
Speaker
Yeah, a lot of killing cops. I told Rob last night when he was making a joke about the drinking game, and I was like, I have the leftover crack kill contract on the lyrics on the back. I was going to wear it, and I forgot all about it. But I wore that to work one day when our security guard at the front desk was, he was not pleased he was a veteran. Nice guy, really like to deeply offended.
00:16:03
Speaker
Oh well. I will say this, not for the faint of heart, this type of music. I would say it's, if you get it, you'll love it. Like the people who are in it, fucking in it. It really like click, like turns the key for like a, for certain types of people. Like I love these bands and like choking victim was huge for me when I was first getting into Ska and like definitely like all that, like, you know, being independent of the system was like a huge part of it is like not really,
00:16:33
Speaker
We do things for ourselves is kind of the ethos, right? We don't need other people to influence us or whatever. We'll grow our own food, we'll live in our own houses. We'll do our own crack. Yeah, we'll do our own crack. Some of it's leftover.
00:16:52
Speaker
Uh, but let's, Terry, no further. We have such a dearth of crack from producing our own crack because we're so good at helping one another that we have some leftover.
Musical Illustrations and Influences of Crack Rock Steady
00:17:05
Speaker
That's where they came from, right?
00:17:08
Speaker
Yeah, you got it. We'll get into that because there's a whole thing. But basically those genres started with a band called Choking Victim. We just talked about them. So let's play a song so that people can get acclimatized to what we're going to be listening to. And this is Born to Die from Squada's Paradise. Like Gangsta's Paradise, but different. The rap thing is a big part of it. Yeah. Yeah.
00:17:39
Speaker
I think he was thinking about the flag. Not a fan. Doesn't like it. Doesn't like that flag. It's funny that
00:18:24
Speaker
they really did just go like sometimes black metal sometimes just pop music
00:18:30
Speaker
Yeah, this is the choking day the leftover crack does a version of this song too, but choking victim version is fucking sick Yeah, yeah the the this very New York
00:18:44
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I think that that's a big piece of this like when you compare it to like other like Scott punk scenes This particular one is so definitively East Coast like I almost think that it's like New York is the fifth member of choking victim
00:19:02
Speaker
Yeah, it plays a big part like this is like such a it I think I was thinking about this I'm like the the world they live in is both a place I've definitely been to and a place I've never been to at the same time, right? There's like almost a fantasy but a realism to what they do like You know, I think it's about how they interpret their surroundings if that makes sense like you've been to a squat But you never been to one of these you never been a fucking sea squat, right? Right
00:19:30
Speaker
So yeah, I guess we should talk about the band. It's led by a guy named Stisa, Scott Sturgeon. He took his name from a 5% Islam naming scheme, the same one that RZA and GZA used. Okay, yeah. So I can't remember what it is. The thing where the letters mean a different thing, right? Okay. And I think the zed is zigzag zig or something. Yeah.
00:19:55
Speaker
It's a whole thing. It's a little weird for a white guy to do a 5%er thing with his name, but anyway, that's not the worst thing that he's ever done. But the hip-hop thing is such a big part of their, like, Squad is Paradise is a Gangster Paradise reference. He did the Wu-Tang in his name. That's such a part of the culture, too. Yeah, totally. And also very New York. Very New York, yeah. Absolutely.
00:20:21
Speaker
And it's like a murder, when you look at it now, like Choking Victim was like a murders row of people. So there was like Ezra was in it at the time. And you know, Arab Barbeijian came in later. But like the thing with the Crack Rock Steady bands is that they're all kind of like interconnected with like members. Like one member will go on to form another band that has then people that go on to form another band. And then it's all kind of connected that way. Yeah, like a normal scene.
00:20:50
Speaker
Everybody kinda works together until they get pissed off and they're like, ah, you're gonna do this other thing. You wanna come do this thing with me? Okay, let's go. And then they get pissed off at each other and they're like, fuck it, I'm going back over here. What are you doing? You wanna start a band?
00:21:03
Speaker
Anyway, it's like madness. It was like that time where they all went and formed a different band and they just came back together. Yeah. But I want to kind of like go to Florida for a second and let's play this song by Against All Authority. It's called I'll Fall Down. And more so, this is just to like
00:21:29
Speaker
sort of draw a line as to what the difference between like crack rock steady and like more traditional scott punk is like. Right. Because they're very tied together, like they tour a lot together and stuff but they're just different enough, right? Yeah. It's a little more skate-y. This is the second time this has come up on the pod, this song? Yeah, possibly, yeah. I think so. Wait, did this come out? 98. Okay. So contemporaneous. Yeah.
00:21:58
Speaker
And at this time, Suicide Machines' battle hymns would be out. So that would be the other kind of big Scott Punk record. This is one of my favorite Scott Punk records all the time. I'll fall down. I love it. This song rips. Is it good? No. Sorry, I've heard this album. Rawplate, as he said, he plays this a lot. Or used to. I think now we've perhaps my line in the sand of...
00:22:24
Speaker
all scar all the time has been drawn anyway yeah it's fine it's fine they also hate cops yeah that's another thing but let's okay so that's that but then let's go back to choking victim i did not pick the song crack rock steady because this is a better song
00:22:46
Speaker
of 500 channels. This is from No Gods, No Managers. This is like the beginning of what Crack Rock Steady would become, this record. But I think they also refer to their style as squat core. Yeah, just absolutely no bass in the mix at all.
00:23:09
Speaker
Which is a black metal thing. Again, like back to the black metal things, like no bass in the mix, yeah. Like, the kick drum has bass to it. The bass guitar. No bass in it at all.
00:23:45
Speaker
So anthemic. It's a great song. And then just a straight up sum 41 riff.
00:23:56
Speaker
So funny. I've never heard that before, but it's true. But I think it's because they both do the, they both play like metal. Like it's kind of like metal to you, right? Totally. Yeah. Okay. I getcha. Are you in? Yeah. I love it. Sorry. This is, yeah. Um, yeah, I don't know. I think if you compare the two of them,
00:24:18
Speaker
So yeah, I'm not a big fan of the style of singing with Against All Authority, so like I will once again just say I am a little biased, but yeah, I don't know. I hear that song and I probably know all the words still, definitely.
00:24:36
Speaker
remember literally smoking crack listening to it at the compound, a different punk house in Calgary than I used to hang out at. And anyway, my friend Joel, RIP, smoked a lot of crack. And it was one of those things where it'd be like, should we get drugs? Yeah, we should buy some coke. And he's like, well, yeah, I mean, they're all out of coke. Well, we can get us crack. So I just bought some crack and it's like,
00:25:03
Speaker
Joel, they're all out of it. And then next thing you know, it's like, well, all right. I think Joel just wanted to smoke crap anyway. So I guess we're smoking crack then. Great. Yeah. It's like when you give all your money to one person to go to the beer store and they come back with it. I get 48, but like, yeah, there's definitely sometimes where that's like at our,
00:25:31
Speaker
downtown house and like just combining all our change and like Joel took off one of his socks and just we scraped all these dimes and nickels into his sock he tied it onto his belt to bike to go and get like a 15 pack of Lucky Extra. Anyway we had good times I don't I was gonna say I don't know how we all lived through it but we didn't all live through it but I'm here and everything's great.
00:25:59
Speaker
I'm a ray of sunshine So was this like Yeah, like were these these bands like part of that growing up like or when you're in that scene, like I don't know I I wasn't a part of anything like that in Edmonton. So I can't really compare it. Yeah, like I think Yeah, because we had the CDs and there was a lot of like
00:26:24
Speaker
I don't know, like right when I lived with Stephen Ryan, like Ryan had a big binder full of CDs, but at the same time, um, you know, there's like the handful that everybody can kind of agree on that we're in constant rotation. So this was definitely part of that. So yeah, that was, that, that's a funny concept living in a community household, because when I had a bunch of roommates, we had like a stereo in the living room and we absolutely, each of us had like,
00:26:52
Speaker
our own binder or whatever of CDs, but there was like probably 25 CDs that were kind of five of everyone's favorites. Yeah. That just kind of sat by the CD player that you rotated through because that's what everyone could agree on or whatever, right? Exactly. I had like my, one time my friends from Edmonton had come down and they were like playing a show. So they came to our house after to like hang out and party.
00:27:17
Speaker
And I don't know, they had only been over like in town a couple times before and stayed at our house. And as soon as they walked in, or like squabbling, drunkenly squabbling over like what we're going to put on the stereo and we could all agree on fear. And my different friend was like, every time I fucking come here, all you guys listen to is fear. And we're just like, anyways, we're singing along. Yeah. I was like, okay, bye.
00:27:42
Speaker
You could complain or you could fucking sing along. Look, I love living in the city. Yeah, I was just doing it. I will say, like your friend Steve loved living in the city and loved singing that song. Yeah, he covered it in one of his 17 bands.
00:27:57
Speaker
Um, so choking victim have lasted long enough to get no gods, no managers out, which is a great name for a record, by the way.
Choking Victim and Leftover Crack's Scene Influence
00:28:04
Speaker
And it's fantastic artwork. The artwork is iconic. It's iconic. I urge anybody at home to Google, if you haven't seen it before, iconic artwork. Um, I will say artwork has to be black and white. That's pretty much some of the coolest, like the stuff that it cribbed from black metal for art, but it's a lot of like just high contrast. Um,
00:28:25
Speaker
Like that photocopy. Like zine style. Like it's so fucking good. It's gorgeous. I actually like the artistic style of this style of music more than the music, personally. Yeah. I like and I love that three dimensionality of it. Right. It's like it has it's not just the words, it's in the music. Often satanic. Very satanic. Yeah. That's a big part of it. Sick. Because they're very not religious and they hate God. Yeah. No gods, no managers. None. Yeah.
00:28:54
Speaker
But yeah, they they didn't like each other too much and broke up pretty fast The band lasted all of like four years got one record out One of them Sasha went on to basically be an activist and then squirt we'll talk about squirt later and Ezra are pretty big deals in the scene, but Stizzo went on to form leftover crack that's the more famous version be and they're called leftover crack area because I
00:29:20
Speaker
Ain't no such thing as left over crap. Yeah, there we go. Ah, like Led Zeppelin. It's the same thing as Led Zeppelin. Irony. Yeah, Irony. So the first record that they got out was on Hellcat, because No Gods No Managers was on Hellcat. And the first one is called Mediocre Generica.
00:29:41
Speaker
Which is also a great title. Which was by accident because it was supposed to be called, fuck I should get this. I don't know, I remember if this was the one that was supposed to be called Fuck World Trade and they weren't allowed. And they called it Mediocre Generica because Tim said they can't call it a swear word. And so that's what they did. Yeah, so they were being funny. This is Gay Ru Boys Unite.
00:30:07
Speaker
Hey, it's a one drop. Yeah. Joey. It's good. I'm loving it. I'm dancing. If you're watching the video, I'm dancing. Yeah. So just surprises me how poppy it is every time.
00:30:34
Speaker
Yeah, they mix that like pop sensibility with the like we definitely will not let this go on the radio. Yeah, totally. And this song is specifically about Buju Bantan because he is a big homophobe and he was on... And he was on Hellcat. So I think that this is probably going to come up later, but this is also a bit of a theme with perhaps DZA being a raging asshole where
00:31:05
Speaker
got signed to a label because the music is good, just was a fucking raging asshole, did things to purposely piss people off, and then, oh, I don't have a label anymore, but then get picked up by someone else. Just self-sabotaging. Oh, because all three of their records are on different labels, because he was pissing every label off that he jumped on, yeah. Makes sense. The one thing that he did when he was on Hellcat, though, is just aggressively get all of his buddies' bands a record deal. Yeah.
00:31:32
Speaker
Those first two give him the boot records are like 50% stizza and his buddies Like right just like all of his bands like fucking f-minus is on all those record like f-minus fucking sick Yeah, but
00:31:47
Speaker
Like, we'll have a couple more, but like, in Decay and Left Over Crack, Choking Victim. Wasn't even a band at the time. Still got songs on the Give Him The Boot stuff. So, like, aggressively got a lot of label signings. For a label that wasn't even on the East Coast. Like, add that to it, right? What do I have coming up next? We have... Sorry, I gotta look at the title. This is in Decay. Here we go. This is East Coast Rising. I love this song so much. Yeah.
00:32:17
Speaker
Indique definitely was more skate-y. Already? Yeah. Yeah. They remind me of Rebel Spell a lot. I thought it was like a little bit of Scott. I love that band. That's my favorite band in the world is Rebel Spell, so. I fucking love Rebel Spell. RIP. Yeah, this is good. Yeah. I like this.
00:32:43
Speaker
What? I'm sorry. Crazy. Anthemic. And Indikey also only got one record out. Kill Whitey? Was that what the one was called? Yeah. Yeah, Kill Whitey, which is great. Sweetest. Another, again, iconic. Where's the lie?
00:33:10
Speaker
Yeah, this is real good. I like this a lot. Yeah. The whole album is... If you haven't heard it, it's worth checking out. I don't know that I have. Yeah. I'm going in order of year already, so this is 2002 that we're on. Okay. Yeah, yeah. And that was on Hellcat. That was the Hellcat signing, so yeah, another good one. This next band is Morning Glory. This is Ezra's band. Arguably...
00:33:37
Speaker
Like, really tied with leftover crack. Like, some of their songs are fucking incredible. Morning Glory rules. More Ska. Definitely if you wanted to go in the Ska direction, this is the band going. This is, you know, recreational drug use. Gimme heroin. Gimme heroin.
00:34:06
Speaker
This is good, but it sounds terrible, which is on purpose. Yeah. Again, that pop. Yeah. Yeah, like this could be like an interrupter style, like it is an interrupter style song.
00:34:33
Speaker
Fucking classic, yeah. Yeah, this is a good song. I tried to get as much Ska-y stuff as it is against Ska Podcast. Yeah. You have a brand to maintain, Robert. Yeah, gotta stick to it. Even though that slapstick episode, we played two Ska songs. Hey, it was about the family tree. Yeah. Fuck, the song's good. Morning Glory's rules. Yeah. Love them. So good.
00:35:01
Speaker
He's kind of doing the Tim Armstrong thing a little bit with this one, so. Yeah, well, again. He's got to do it a little bit. Again, off Ivy was a big deal. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true. Really lent a lot of credence to the genre. Before we break, let's listen to one more. So there's a band from the East Coast, I can't remember where, called No Cash. Where's No Cash from? Do you remember? I don't know. I assume New York, but I don't actually think I know that.
00:35:28
Speaker
Yeah, I think they're very C-Squad adjacent. They don't have any of the band overlap like the other ones. They also were one and done, did one album and then pieced out. And it is fucking flawless. This is like a crazy good record. There's only like one or two Scott songs on the whole thing.
00:35:45
Speaker
It can be hard to listen to because all the songs are like five or six minutes long. But yeah, they really leaned in on the art. But yeah, no cash. Fucking crazy record to listen to. The songs Pierce the Gates. Big fan of a pick scrape. Pick scrapes are my favorite.
00:36:11
Speaker
Jade Pudgett. He did that all the time. In those middle-aged fight records. I saw a hardcore band one time back in the day and they had a part where they did a note and the guy did like a wah for like a long time and they did a full pick scrape from the bridge all the way down the neck and then back up. It was sick. Both guitarists.
00:36:47
Speaker
So medley, the guitar. Such medley tone. Gargling battery acid. Did you get this off of a tape? No, it sounds like it's set tape though, right? Yeah, exactly. I bet it was ripped off one. Oh, probably. Yeah, yeah.
00:37:13
Speaker
Yeah. I would say like from a recording standpoint, that's probably what they were trying to do is try to be as analog as possible. Yeah. Right. I mean, I don't, I don't know if I think that wherever you legally found this, it probably originated from being ripped off. I remember having better, like a slightly better version, like that.
00:37:35
Speaker
The recording's not great, but yeah, going back to a topic you guys have touched on before on like LimeWire or something and trying to find like music to download and there's better versions of that out there. Fair enough. There's better. He failed, you guys. He didn't do a very good job. Yeah, I can't rip off Spotify. It's not a thing. If I could do it, I would do it. I just want to say that you can and I can show you how. Do we get on to here? Yeah.
00:38:05
Speaker
Okay, then yes, I would like to know that. We're not breaking them a lot, but anyway, I'm a recording professional. I'm an amateur, and I feel like I'm gonna do it at one time. All right, let's take a break. Yeah. And when we get back, more rock rock steady. More rock roasting. That's why your answer.
00:38:28
Speaker
This episode of Checkered Past is brought to you by BlendJet. Celine, you like to make smoothies? I make smoothies every single morning. Tell me about your smoothie journey. Well, it's my only way I can get vegetables in my body because I like yummy, brown, golden fried delicious things. So I often call it my scurvy juice to prevent scurvy.
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Speaker
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00:41:07
Speaker
Welcome back to Checkered Pass. The CPSC crew's here talking about Crack Rock Steady. So let's get into it. We're gonna talk now about Leftover Crack again. This is from the album Fuck World Trade, because they were super pro world trade. This is a song, Gang Control. This is a Morning Glory cover. Funny enough. And this is one of their most streamed songs. One of the most famous songs.
00:41:38
Speaker
What are we talking? Buh? Buh? Hundreds of thousands? Something like that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Eh, they're probably pushing a million. Maybe not. I might be overthinking of their... Whoa. That's very, very dim-esque. Oh yeah, seven million. Seven million? Wow, that's pretty good. 7.7. Yeah.
00:42:09
Speaker
It's because of this part. Skate part. Just the catchy bop hook about fucking the police. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, that about describes it. How do you feel about fuck world trade? That's the one, right?
00:42:35
Speaker
What do you mean that's the one? I feel like when I talk to people who are big fans of Left Over Crack, that's the record they always talk about. Yeah, I don't know. I am quite partial to Mediocre Generica, but I think that that's because it was the first one that I bought. This one, we were all excited for when it came out, and the CD fold out had the big poster, and it had the two towers on it flaming just on the front. Anyway, it was great.
00:43:02
Speaker
I had this hoodie at one point in time and wore it when I had to get my wisdom teeth out and yeah the dentist didn't seem too happy about it and then I was all fucked up on anesthesia when I got out of there and
00:43:19
Speaker
Didn't realize until like I got home or the next day that I didn't have it and I don't know what happened to it But I never saw it again. So he took it he's like So mad that's a sick hoodie, I want it Goes home. He's got like a crack rock steady collection of merch. Yeah
00:43:41
Speaker
Yeah, when it came out, so I started working at H&B in 2005, I know we talked about it for patrons, and I worked with a guy named Crackhead Rob, and he sold Crack. You were Rob Classic. And I was Rob Classic, yeah. And Crackhead Rob sold Crack, and he only played this record. Like, this was the only record he played.
00:44:02
Speaker
Like over and over and over again. It was his theme record Yeah, it just was on all the time. So I it got a little overplayed for me Um, it's way more on the nose than mediocre generica. I'd say there's like there's no subtext But this this is on alternative tentacles. Yeah, so Able to get away with a little bit more maybe yeah, I think so. I think yeah Yeah, so like hellcat. I don't yeah, I was gonna say I don't feel like
00:44:29
Speaker
Jell-O would tell you you weren't allowed to do something the way Tim might tell you. You weren't allowed to do something. I feel like of all the labels Leftover Crack was on, you know, Stiz and Jell-O probably vibed probably the most together. Yeah, the leftist libertarian thing. Definitely, it's both of them. Yeah, that's for people who don't know, Alternative Tentacles is... Jell-O be off his record label.
00:44:56
Speaker
Yeah, and it has like if you ever look it up and we probably have to do a label She's the bomb on that at some point, but it hasn't loaded up the song. I don't have time It's it's a wild fucking yeah, that's that label is a weird shit. Yeah a lot of yeah that as far as like vanity labels are concerned that one is fucking out there like jello has
00:45:17
Speaker
Buried tastes they seem to change constantly Can't can't pin that guy down This this record has a full-blown black metal song on it The one about the move 9 is like like just straight black metal like that. It's just they just went for it Yeah, I think so
00:45:38
Speaker
You didn't get that? Or do you think it's just straight up crust? I would say it's more crusty than black metal. But I always think, because you played a lot of Amoebics when we started dating. And I always heard a huge, I was like, this is pretty black metal when I was listening
Comparison of Crust Punk and Black Metal
00:45:52
Speaker
to that. I feel like this is a game that you could play. You could play like, yeah, like 15 seconds of a song, and then it's crust or black metal. But cut off before the DB gives it away. Yeah. That's the key. That is the key. Was there any DB in it? And then you know it's crust.
00:46:08
Speaker
Yeah. I feel like Cresta's usually a little faster. I know there's some slow songs. I'm gonna think about this. It's a puzzle. I'm gonna come back for trombonas. I'm gonna prep the game. And we're gonna do the, is this D beautiful? I vow to return. I love it. Okay, let's go on to the next song. This is the infested. Keep droppin' about Molly.
00:46:35
Speaker
And I did look it up, but I forgot, but this has some crossover with leftover crack and I can't remember where. One of the members is in there.
00:46:54
Speaker
So happy. I guess if you're doing a bunch of Molly, you're having a good time.
00:47:17
Speaker
I can't understand a goddamn word he's saying. Is it in his head? I caught that heart. Yeah, there's rocks.
00:47:42
Speaker
Oh yeah, that's right. This would have been at a time when it was still called ecstasy. Yeah. So I have a story. Sorry, this is less about the music. That's fine. That's why you're here. I need the dirtbag stories because we're going to talk about something kind of depressing
Storytime: Punk House Drug Sales
00:47:53
Speaker
towards the end. So we might as well do this. Okay. So yeah, my friend's house, Joel Jared and Ian live there, the compound. Um,
00:48:03
Speaker
They got in and then promptly Ian was the only one with the job. They strategically got their power cut off in the winter so they had the regulator so they could still have electricity. In Canada they won't completely cut your power off in the winter so you don't freeze to death or the pipes in your landlord's house don't explode.
00:48:23
Speaker
Excuse me. And yeah, so they could either jam a full band in the basement or use like their hot plate, but not both at the same time. Awesome. But yeah, so Jared, Jared was great. Love Jared. He moved to Toronto. Joel, dear friend, love him. Ian's gone off the rails, but at the time he sort of had it together. And for a while,
00:48:54
Speaker
Joel decided, he had someone who was an anonymous backer and he was gonna start selling coke, which was a good idea because everyone was doing a lot of coke all the time, except for he didn't have a car or a phone, so he was sort of a roping coke. He's the world's worst coke dealer. He did great, he was raking in the money on his bike and we had a whole network of like, who'd a call to find out where Joel was at, but he was always there when he needed him.
00:49:21
Speaker
So he was doing quite well. So a bunch of degenerates. And then Jared was, he was kind of like hopping between dishwashing jobs, but he would randomly get like government checks sent to him, not with any regularity, but I don't know why he didn't know why. But all of a sudden, instead of getting like an $80 check, he got a $700 check from the government. So fucking.
00:49:46
Speaker
Payday party time. Well, so he was seeing the success that Joel was having and decided that he also was going to start selling drugs Except for instead of like stepping on his roommate and friends territory. He was like, yeah, I'll buy some ecstasy. So he bought Yeah, but the seven or eight hundred dollars worth of ecstasy. I
00:50:05
Speaker
not nothing that's quite a bit yeah that's a solid amount of x two weeks it lasted two weeks no one wanted to buy it and well i don't know i certainly didn't want to anyway they basically just did it all themselves and we're just don't
00:50:22
Speaker
And for two weeks straight, every time I went over there, just like laying on a couch, just... Touching something nice and fuzzy or like... Yeah, it was blown to the wind. Listening to the most boring music and loving it. Yeah, so... You think, you think like, Spoken Crack, Doing Ecstasy don't really seem like the same like market crowd, but yeah, I've seen it, I've seen it happen.
00:50:48
Speaker
Yeah, I guess so I mean to be honest I feel like it's safer than this crack smoking crowd and give me heroin going together At least the ecstasy and and the cracker both ups. Yeah, you know, yeah If you mix your ups, it's not as bad as if you're mixing up Yeah, you don't need to speedball. No. Yeah
00:51:09
Speaker
It doesn't go well. Most of what I've heard is that it doesn't go well. Not a great one. Even purple drank is an up and a down, right? Yeah, it is. It's also killed some people. Yeah. Yeah. Pimp C. Yeah. Yeah. RIP. Yeah. Others. Yeah, many others. Yeah. Oh, yeah. This is one that Arianne suggested to
Introduction to Anti-Venom
00:51:28
Speaker
me. This is Satan versus Cops by Anti-Venom, which is just a great name. Satan versus Cops is fantastic.
00:51:36
Speaker
And Auntie Venom. It's a good band name. Yes. One-man band from Mexico City. And I mean, if you've ever listened to the band Venom, this is about the opposite of it. Venom probably was a huge influence on these bands, honestly. Probably, yeah. And that's probably the metal bands they were listening to. It was certainly the one that Propaganda was listening to.
00:52:06
Speaker
We love Phantom. This is one guy? Yeah. He's a better drummer than he is a guitarist, that's for sure. But it's good. Hell yeah. That's a good one. Yeah, that was a good pick. And a wild Gidget has come into the play. We love it.
00:52:35
Speaker
Next on the, okay, so StarFuckingHipsters, this is a fat wreck band that was a super group of, I actually had it pulled up. It's Stiza, ArabArbajian, who is in Left Over Crack and The Slackers.
00:52:50
Speaker
And then people from the Ergs. It's basically like the band. And it's leftover crack adjacent. A little poppier. Yeah, I think a little bit more accessible. This and they have an album called From the Dumpster to the Grave, which is just a fantastic fucking name for a record. And they do a cover of Anna Ng by They Might Be Giants. And it's fucking rad as shit. It's like one of my favorite covers ever. And so, yeah, that's what I got next. Nice. 2011 run now.
00:53:21
Speaker
Oh, and Yula from the World Inferno Friendship Society is also in this band. I'm glad that Fat Mike had someone good produce it, because this is the best sounding thing we've listened to. Yes, that makes, you know, okay, wait, I have this pulled up. Take a guess who produced this.
00:53:41
Speaker
It's gonna be one of the ones we hear about all the time. Is it Filly? Stiza. Oh really? Really? Maybe they just gave him a good studio. Probably. Maybe that was the thing.
00:53:54
Speaker
Well, this is like pretty later though. Yes. This is their third record. Oh, okay. So it has been an upward trajectory. That second album did sound a lot better than the first one. Yeah. What year did this? 2011. Yeah. So, I mean, compared to what, like 2005 to 2011. Yeah. The recording technology in the timeframe got a lot better real fast. Yeah. I also think like, again, noted asshole, but perhaps less of a like,
00:54:23
Speaker
drug-induced stupor to cope with life, maybe more, like, we're actually doing this, maybe we should make it sound good. Again, speculation. I would say by this point, he's a rock star. By 2011, Stuza is a full-blown rock star, right? In his circle and the people that know him, he's crept off from being an underground sensation. He's not having trouble affording his crack at this point, is what you're saying.
00:54:53
Speaker
I mean, I feel like you're always having trouble affording it. Right. By definition. By definition, yeah, yeah. Oh, here's another one. This is another one that Arianne suggested by a band called Gang Control that took their name from the leftover crack song. And this is a song called Impale the Rich. 2014. Big fan of the sentiment.
00:55:15
Speaker
This is probably the poppiest song we'll have so far. Yeah, it's pretty hooky. Yeah, this sounds like an Aussie skate punk band kind of already just off the bat. Yeah, there's a lot more skate influence on this.
00:55:34
Speaker
That was sweet. Yeah it was good.
00:56:06
Speaker
This is pretty sweet. It's fun, right? Yeah. It has a little hooky part coming up that's kind of fun. It's really three different leftover crack songs smashed in. Oh yeah, absolutely.
00:56:27
Speaker
What's the joy the genre has reached its critical critical mass or they just put all of the song plots together into every song? Yeah, this is this is the like Avengers of right. Yeah Yeah, it's good gang control they're fun. Yeah So yeah what you picked a few different bands like where did those come up into your radar? I've never actually heard of them before
00:56:52
Speaker
well so rob created a spotify playlist and sent it to me and i was like it's pretty sparse so i did a little homework for you the roasting continues robert um it was basic no it was basic so because i think i think where it was sort of like the original part but because
00:57:12
Speaker
I think these bands are pretty influential and they have a lot of, um, I don't want to say bands that are like emulating them, but like are sort of continuing on the style where like, I think the message is hitting home and like they're wanting to, you know, you hear something that you like and you're like, I want to do that too. I want to like do that style. So, um, there's a lot out there and like these two, I think sort of are more
00:57:39
Speaker
in line with the original, but there's lots of stuff where you can definitely hear the influence as it goes on, right? Yeah. Totally. Yeah. It's awesome. So here's one more leftover crack song from the most recent record that was on fat. It was on fat records, right? If I remember correctly.
00:57:55
Speaker
Um, yeah, yeah, I don't think that's their more most recent anymore though Well, there's got a new record coming out this year. So the timing is pretty good But this is a song called system fucked and it has Jesse Michaels of op ivy on it. Oh, yeah I think you mean common rider? Yeah This record was good. Yeah. Yeah, I liked it a lot
00:58:29
Speaker
I mean, it's a lot to live up to. They hadn't released a record in like a decade. Yeah. Yeah. That's him right there. Yeah. There he is. Yeah. Yeah, he's not like he's going to hide, you know? They didn't save him for the second verse. They're not right up front. That's what they did. That's what when he was on that Bruce Lee band song, it was the same, just like right up front. Yeah. Yeah. Get him in. It's almost like they got excited that Jesse Michaels was here. He put down the paintbrush for a second.
00:58:59
Speaker
Yeah, this is a fucking good song. I've definitely heard this one quite a few times, and this is very good.
Evolution of Leftover Crack's Music
00:59:05
Speaker
Yeah, this whole album, I think it really did sort of live up to what it needed to. But I heard the new single, and I was kind of surprised. I didn't know if they were going to do anything after Alex passed away, because he was sort of a formative member. But yeah, I was like, oh, new single. And then I listened to it, and I was like, oh.
00:59:28
Speaker
I don't think I'm gonna buy that one. Yeah. Yeah, it wasn't great. It just came out like this year, I think? Like a couple weeks ago, I think. Like a couple weeks ago, yeah. And then they announced like basically while I was writing this, they announced that there's a whole album coming out. So it ended up working out that it was all kind of timed, but... Went on. Yeah, formative member of the band, bass player, I believe. Yeah, passed away in 2020. Oh yeah, he's like a priest. Yeah. Big part of the sound.
00:59:53
Speaker
So, we got a couple more tracks on here, but we might as well get the elephant out of the room, but yeah, so between that and then, Arianne, you read the book, Brad Logan's book, right? How was it? I didn't read it. Of Rancid Song Fame, yes. They wrote a song about Brad Logan, yes.
01:00:11
Speaker
Yes, I did read the book, and it was good, it was really good, and I think like they do, so it's like the telling of the bands, the various bands, and I think it starts with like Brad finding Stiza like bleeding from his nose as they were recording the morning, no, the first one, sorry.
01:00:35
Speaker
Meat over generica. Uh, no, the not leftover crack. Yeah. Yeah. Choking. I think I'm going to get this wrong. Doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. No one's going to fact check you. I'm not going to. That's okay. Here is going to fact check. Anyway, book opens.
01:00:52
Speaker
And Stiza, they were recording and got in such a fight that like somebody punched him in the face and he like wandered off to like lay in a park bench and take some pills and was just like bleeding all over the fucking place. And yeah, basically like the band broke up while they were recording that debut album, solo only singular album.
01:01:10
Speaker
And yeah, I don't know, it's a good book, it's a good read. And then sort of at the tail end, they do a bunch of interviews with people that have worked with them. It's sort of like an oral biography in some parts where they're kind of checking in and having people talk about their involvement or what happened here or there. And then at the end, they talk to, I'm gonna blank on her name, the Casa de Chihuahua lady from
01:01:40
Speaker
uh the hipster band and she was you know they anyway all these people that have worked with him in various bands various capacities and they're all just like yeah he's like a good songwriter and a good musician and just like a fucking asshole and um yeah i like know some people that have worked with him my friend wade like managed two tours with leftover crack and i don't think they're ever going to talk again um but it's like it's all good and fun you kind of
01:02:10
Speaker
work with the person and the personality until something happens where it's just like, you know what? Fuck this shit. So, yeah.
Stiza's Personal Issues and Art vs. Artist Debate
01:02:19
Speaker
He's an asshole, but this, I think, to a point gets into like the separate the art from the artist piece, which
01:02:29
Speaker
I think there is a line to that. And when the, um, so Stiza was dating, God, I'm sorry. I'm yeah. Whitney from days and days. And, uh, then when they broke up, um, there, she basically like just kind of came out and said, what a horrible relationship it was and made some like pretty serious. I don't even know if I can even call them like allegations, but you know, she was pretty open about like what she went through in that relationship and.
01:03:00
Speaker
people respect her and have listened to her and i think like if this happened in yeah 2005 it wouldn't i don't think it would have happened but it happened like within the last i would say five years and you know we still fucking hate cops and there's still a lot of the lyrics in the song that are true and hold over but i think like generally the reality that we live in has uh changed a little bit and yeah so she's
01:03:25
Speaker
uh, not isolated and alone. And it's definitely had a lot of blowback and Stisa definitely spent some time talking about like cancel culture on Instagram. So, but I mean, I don't know if he's still out there and I think he joined Reagan youth for a little while, which I remember that people were not happy. Yeah. Yeah. So, and I guess that's the thing, right? And if it's turning into like, I don't want to like,
01:03:53
Speaker
what is the line for still appreciating the art, but not supporting financial or otherwise, uh, the person, you know, like, I don't, I don't want to give someone shitty my money. I've already like obviously talked about all the shit that I bought here, but you've already given someone shitty money. You don't want to give them more money. Well, that's the thing, right? And also there's a, I feel like there's,
01:04:22
Speaker
this might be overthinking it a little bit but like there's a little bit of a difference between appreciating stuff that you grew up with and being like this person sucks but I still love these songs but also I'm not going to
01:04:35
Speaker
help that person continue to do whatever they're currently doing. You know what I mean? You can kind of set a hard, well, now that I know that this person's an asshole, I can't forget that I loved what they did before and that holds a certain amount of nostalgic value. And like you said, a lot of the lyrics are still, fuck the cops and whatnot. You know, like the cops do cocaine. Like it's like, it's all right there. It's all right there. Right. So it's like a lot of it is, I wouldn't say maybe specifically his personal, like it's not,
01:05:05
Speaker
It's fine. You know what I mean? It's fine to go back and be like, I still love this stuff and I'm not going to financially support this person anymore. You know what I mean? Plus, knowing that the new version of Leftover Crack is basically just Stizz's Gun for Hires. There's no carry forward from the previous iterations of the band anymore.
01:05:23
Speaker
And like so any any respect you have for Arab or Beijing and Brad Logan Ezra Any of those people who are in the bands previously like that? There's still some merit to what they were there for now. It's you know his buddies I guess anybody who still wants to also to his to his to his credit or to to those musicians credit as well we have said that the guys that asshole and
01:05:48
Speaker
but he's a great musician and songwriter. So I don't want to shit on those musicians too badly either for taking that job other than the fact that they're working with someone they know who's a piece of shit. You know what I mean? So there's a little bit of like, ah, you can kind of appreciate their work that they put into it as like,
01:06:05
Speaker
a collaborative artistic thing, but you're still working for a fuckhead. And I listen, I stream that spot, the new single, the new leftover crack single. So if they got .1 cents for me, like, yeah. I just want to say before we move too far from it, like, I don't really like the, oh, it's just for like guns for hire. It's like, I don't know, they're working musicians. Like we didn't know who these people were when they were the first ones in the band either. And like, I think we started this episode by saying like,
01:06:32
Speaker
It's a scene and everybody sort of trades bands whatever and I think like that's still valid Even if like I don't recognize the name of the person doing it, you know But I think what I'm trying to say is it's it feels more like now since it's people who are in the band knowing Where he's at. It's yeah, but yeah, I get he's sort of in line with what Joey's saying like There's assholes everywhere and if you're hearing someone say oh
01:06:57
Speaker
what this person is saying and telling everyone is not like my version of what happened in my reality, then, uh, and like you have a better relationship with them. Like, I don't know, I, I would be more skeptical, but I don't think, I think that we see this all the time in real life with people who aren't musicians where it's like, you know,
01:07:16
Speaker
Do you have to pick a side or do you just kind of keep going? I don't know. I don't want to say there's a right side and a wrong side. I think he is an asshole and it's not really that shocking that some of the stuff came out. And like, I believe what Whitney said, but I also believe that if someone has sort of gone through their life treating people like this all the way through, they would be like, what's the problem now? That's not that big of a deal. You know what I mean? Yeah, that's a good point.
01:07:44
Speaker
Well, so if he's got friends that he's been like playing music with and he's like, we're going to go on tour and do this thing and record this album. And they're like, okay, I don't, I don't know. I mean, it's kind of hard to blame someone taking it. Yeah, it's a good point. Yeah.
01:08:00
Speaker
Great glad I'm here. No, that's good. That's why we have to have this discussion Like this had to come up eventually and this is one of the most ultimate art versus the artist conversations in the SCA scene Totally because they get brought up a lot and people have a complicated feeling about it because yeah music It is a very it's it's a hard thing to say. Well, this is the correct way to look at it like it's kind of one of those things where every person has to
01:08:25
Speaker
have their own individual choice of how far they wanna support an artist like that. You know what I mean? Like, personally, as soon as I hear someone's done some shitty stuff, that's it for me, and I just, I, like a light switch, I just stop consuming their media, generally speaking. Aside from, you know,
01:08:43
Speaker
I'm
01:09:03
Speaker
I think the way you make that decision depends a lot on how involved you are in the music industry and what side of the music industry and what you know about it or how little you know about it. My boss is the absolute opposite of that. My boss does not give a single shit how fucking shitty an artist is. You will, oh, they're a rock and roll band and they're awesome. I'm like, those guys are all shitheads who like,
01:09:27
Speaker
we're like statutorily raping teenagers for the entire seventies and it'll be like, Oh, but they rocked. And the women in their videos had great tits, you know, like, it's just stuff like that. It's like some people don't give a shit. So it's, it's all an individual choice, right? Yeah. I mean, not ska, but like the whole Buffy say Marie thing, like that, sorry, I'm just bringing this up in terms of like, I don't know if there's,
01:09:54
Speaker
a right or wrong way to view it. Cause like the, there's so many different conversations where it's like, Nope, hard. No. Like the fact that there's any like evidence that she has put herself forward as an indigenous person, but is in fact Italian and taken Juneau's and like done.
Buffy Sainte-Marie's Identity Controversy
01:10:15
Speaker
all like decades of this pretend Ian bullshit and people are like hard no and I get that there's a lot of people who are like well but look at what she's done to like bring up other indigenous artists and like create that path forward and I think
01:10:32
Speaker
yeah it's like maybe sure yeah i'm sure it's encouraged a lot of people like so many people sort of in my world where it's like we're talking to indigenous artists and they said like she's someone that they've like idolized and looked up to because she's like sort of paved the way so whether it's like anyway then there's a whole other conversation where it's like well she took a juno like i don't know what year that was 2010 something like that and that kind
01:10:58
Speaker
as an indigenous artist and that could have gone to a different indigenous artist that probably needed it more than, you know, or like, cause there's recognition that comes with that and it leads to like other opportunities. And I think that. And in Canada grants and stuff too, that doesn't really happen in the States so much, but Juneau's a lot of times, if you win a Juneau, you'll.
01:11:18
Speaker
you put your shoe in to get a grant for your next record for sure. Oh yeah. The Polaris prize is better than the June, but still like it, it is, it does even, um, you know, getting grants, like if you get
01:11:37
Speaker
charting like all this stuff sort of it because the granting system sort of has different tiers so like even if you are doing relatively well you can still apply for like Canada arts funding and get but like they put you in a higher tier so yeah like you can still get a lot of funding and support and now they've like included touring as part of that and it's so it's touring along with like recording and producing yeah that's a big good good thing for Canadian artists
01:12:05
Speaker
And I think just to like wind this down, I have two songs queued up, but I actually just want to play the last one, because I think it's very relevant to what we just talked about. This is Days and Days, so why don't we listen to them? Number 14. Number 14? Joey, nah. Speak of which.
01:12:31
Speaker
They're like little train hoppin' punks, you know? So they played here in Edmonton, and my friend was putting them on, we got guest listed, but it was this whole
01:12:50
Speaker
convoluted thing as deviate when it was at mama's pizza and oh yes i remember mama's pizza anyway it was a bad scene but we were walking up and there was this group of like 18 to 20 year olds like
01:13:09
Speaker
just real crusty, but not like crust crust, just like little guttery punks. And anyway, it's all fine, but we are fully adults. And I had on like a green, like bomber style jacket and I had, it was in the summer, I had like white high top bands on and black pants, I don't know. Anyway, I'm describing this only to say,
01:13:36
Speaker
It wasn't anything crazy, a normal day to day outfit, but nothing like, anyway, so we walk up and these little fucking scabby assholes are sitting on the fucking curb. And literally as I walked by, I think I had, I either had blue hair or purple hair. Um,
01:13:56
Speaker
and this one kid looks me in the eyes, spits on the ground, he's like, oh great, the fashion punks are here and I remain mad because I was like, are you okay?
01:14:09
Speaker
are
01:14:27
Speaker
fashion. Get the fuck out of here. Yeah, that shit drives me crazy. But I used to get that all the time too because I dressed like nothing. Like I would wear a hoodie and a band t-shirt and jeans. That's how I dressed and it was not fucking enough. I will say Edmonton was way more
01:14:46
Speaker
concerned by how I looked than Calgary was. When I went to Calgary, I felt like people gave no shit about what I was dressed like or what I listened to. But Edmonton, if I said the wrong band name, I basically was shunned for the rest of my life. I think one of the biggest detriments to my band's early first three years of our career was that we did not look cool.
01:15:06
Speaker
We eventually we leaned into it and then people stopped caring because we were like a good band But there was like two or three years there where like people didn't give a shit about what we sounded like because we didn't look very cool It was hard to book good shows because we didn't look cool enough. Yeah, it's really dumb It can be it can be tough. But that's uh, that's the croc rock steady episode. We did it Ariane's got something to say She's got a little comment face going
01:15:30
Speaker
I looked cool. I just want you all to know. There was a time. You looked fantastic. I'm talking about before I met you. No, you looked best when we were dating. And now that we're married? Now that we're married for almost 10 years? Better than ever, babe. Perfect.
01:15:51
Speaker
Some honorable mentions, some bands I didn't discuss, Molotov Compromise. I did talk about F-Minus, didn't play a song. Listen to F-Minus, F-Minus Rules. Escape from the Zoo, which is the Days and Days ska spinoff, Citizen Fish. We didn't even talk about the Citizen Fish leftover crack split, which is fucking incredible. Top down, the best of both bands. It says the fish is the ska band of subhumans, correct? That's right. That's the ska version of subhumans.
01:16:16
Speaker
And the leftover crack side of that starts with MDC and Stiza doing this, like, fucking incredible thing about cops that's... You gotta listen to it. Just find it and listen to it. It's not streaming. It's the best. Me and Arianne both own a copy of the final. It's kind of ridiculous, yeah.
01:16:34
Speaker
Daycare, Swindlers, The Orphans, Atrocity Solution, The Nobodies, Nightgaunts not playing for obvious reasons, Upfucks and the Noise Complaint, someone on Discogs said that we should, or on our Discord said we should talk about that. Yeah, that latest Upfucks album I believe was on Bad Time and it was fucking ripping.
01:16:53
Speaker
And only touched on it, but the World Inferno Friendship Society, R.I.P., was very, very close with the Crack Rock Steady folks and, you know, they're fucking incredible. I want to do an episode on them. I think that they're like Ska's friend, you know? Like, even though they never played a Ska song. Ska-esque? Hint of Ska? Not even, just like they were just hanging out with Ska bands all the time.
01:17:19
Speaker
I find that singing style is sort of, yeah, in the same happy land as Ska. Yeah. And they're the happiest band that talked about the most depressing shit ever. But yeah, that'll do it. Oh, also what? Public servants. Oh, I was going to play public servants. Shout out to you. Yeah, so there are mofos on, I know the mofo, but I like to say mofo on Twitter.
01:17:45
Speaker
I have a question. Will you be adding these bands to your Spotify playlist that you shared with people? That is a great idea, and I shall. Some of them are already on there, but I will add a few more to expand it a little bit, make it not so small. If you're going to tell people to listen to things, you should probably give them an option to share, just as your former producer. Thank you. You're welcome. We're learning. Check it out on Spotify. There's a playlist for this episode.
01:18:10
Speaker
Thanks for listening to Checkered Pass. Hit us up on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok at checkeredpasspod, or send us an email at checkeredpasspod at gmail.com. To support the podcast, you can sign up for the Checkerhead Patreon to get the episodes uncut in both audio or video format. Or you can buy some merch at checkeredpass.ca. Tell me about the merch. Yum yum morseka, yum yum morseka. I did it. I made yum yum morseka merch and you can get it. And hoodies. Zip up and pullover and colored tees.
Live Performance Announcement and Reminiscing
01:18:35
Speaker
Yep. Colored tees.
01:18:36
Speaker
And the CPSC crew will be performing live at SPI Fest 2 in ConnectiCut. We will be on day one, May 17th, so come and check us out. Get your tickets so up early. We're going to open the shit. Who do we get? I don't remember. Last time we got to open for FRS. Yeah, and the toasters. The toasters, yeah.
01:18:56
Speaker
We haven't had a pretty good day. So yeah, who do we get? Do you know who's playing first date? I don't even know. I don't know if we can even say. It doesn't matter. Yeah, I think we can say. But it's going to be a good show. Both days will be good. And the best part of doing the first date is that means we get to just party and get drunk the second date because our work is done. We're just there to hang out. And we'll just be talking to people in the alley. And yell at Chris. I'm going to yell at Chris. Oh, we're all going to yell at Chris and Craig. And Craig. Craig's going to be there. So many people, so many friends, so many listeners are going to be there. So if you can be there,
01:19:25
Speaker
Come hang out with us. It'll be fun.
Credits and Next Episode Preview
01:19:27
Speaker
Our trombonuses are engineered and edited by El Hoey. That's me. And our trombonus theme was provided by Keelan, who will play a very important part on an upcoming episode. Very excited. Indeedly doodly. Next week on the show, next week on the show, we have Mutiny to talk about the Flaming Tsunami's TFT, one of our most requested bands to listen to. And it was fucking sweet. It was very good. Episodes recorded already in bag. Hey, sign up for the Patreon. You can listen to it early. You can. Until next time, I'm Rob. I'm Joey.
01:19:57
Speaker
I'm Arianne, I'm not usually here, but next time we're gonna listen to Crest. Okay, enjoy. In immortal words of choking victim, crack rock steady, are you ready to pod?