One of Punk Core’s newest recruits, The Cropknox out of San Francisco, are making great strides. Releasing their debut album in March, ‘Rock and Rot’, twelve tracks of blisteringly energetic and spirited UK82-doused streetpunk anthems with thought-provoking socio-political commentary, and soon to be spreading the word throughout the U.S. this summer while on tour, 2004 seems to be a breakthrough year for the young band – young not only in terms of how long they’ve been together, but also in age; the guys range from 19 to early-20s.
Previously, as a four-piece, The Cropknox self-released an EP entitled ‘Just Can’t Live’ on Dave’s (guitarist/vocalist) own Glue Rot Records. This endeavor proved to have more of an impact on their career than they could have ever imagined, as it proved to be the catalyst for Punk Core’s massive interest in the band. Turns out Dave was handling distribution of the record himself, “e-mailing everywhere I knew that had a distro, sending off samples and stuff,” he relates. He got in touch with Punk Core head honcho Dave and it turns out the label owner was quickly a Cropknox convert, won over by the passion and ability of the then four-piece. Dave goes on to say that he was “shocked” at Dave Punkcore’s response. “He was just like, ‘Look, however many copies you wanna send, send.’ I know other people who have done self-released EPs and Dave doesn’t generally do that,” expounds the guitarist, “He generally asks for a specific amount, you know, ‘Well, I’ll take 10, I’ll take 20.’” The band remained in touch with Dave, and soon he said he’d pretty much just scout them, see what they could do, and then sign them in a year’s time. The guitarist says around this time they went on a Northwest tour and to his surprise, when he returned home, he had an e-mail from the label owner saying he actually wanted to sign the band now – forget the one-year “scouting” deal. “He sent the paperwork out and we talked about it, [and] signed away.”
In the meantime, the band expanded from four to five members – Dave, vocalist Marcus, bassist Taylor, drummer Mackey (though in my little follow-up chat with Marcus, it seems they have a new drummer, Isaac, coming onboard), and guitarist Nathan – and their approach to their style changed as well. One major difference Dave reveals between the EP and ‘Rock and Rot’, is that as opposed to the ‘Just Can’t Live’ EP where he and the singer both played guitar and traded vocals back and forth, on the full-length, they “wanted to have more of a unified sound.” Now, “instead of having one guitar player sing a whole song, there’s basically a lead vocalist [Marcus], and then there’s me, who’ll do trade-offs like back-ups along with everyone else.” A result of this alteration is that now both guitar players can concentrate solely on their playing rather than singing AND playing at the same time, and thus, “the guitar work is way more intricate,” reasons Dave.
And the quality of the record is a testament to these guys’ ability and the overall cohesiveness between the bandmates. Dave discloses that for some of them, like Taylor, the recording of this record marked their first time in a “real” studio. All he says is that if they could go back and change something about the LP, they’d just like to be able to “spend more time on the album, which,” he quips with a laugh, “I think everyone says.” How true.
As alluded to earlier, much of the subject matter on the album is highly socio-political in nature, dealing with important topics. The guitarist is quick to note they don’t sing about party politics, but rather issues they face everyday – “[the] politics of living…And kind of like how sometimes the way things are it seems like you don’t have any voice at all and democracy is just an illusion and nobody really cares about what you think or what you have to say.” And for how important the lyrics are to The Cropknox (they’ve been political-minded since the band was formed), don’t think they overshadow the music. On the contrary, Dave says he feels “both are equally important.” He brings up a good point, after ruminating different bands’ approaches to their music and lyrics (“The Exploited is a good band but their lyrics are just silly…but then you get a band like Crass who has great lyrics and then the music is kinda almost secondary”), that “you can get by with good music and okay lyrics, but you can’t get by the other way around.”
Some topics discussed on ‘Rock and Rot’ are – of course – injustices within the government and the system as a whole (“No Hope in Sight”), corruption (“Just Can’t Live”) rebellion (“Red and Black”, “Rebel Youth”), disillusionment (“Bleak Society”), et al, and on a less-worldly note, but still important to us punks, the current state of the scene, what with all the watered-down, lame, and tame stuff coming out from bands who are deemed “punk” but are anything but (“Rock and Rot”), a subject which educes a long, meandering discussion (tirade?) between Dave and I that I will be so kind to spare you all the tedious details…
In his songwriting, Dave’s main messages revolve around anti-consumerism and apathy. “If something’s really bothering you, get off your ass and do something,” he says, “I can’t stand apathetic people.” And about what he’d want people to know about The Cropknox, Dave replies without hesitation: “I’d really like people to look past the streetpunk image ‘cause I’ll read things written about us and they’ll talk about San Francisco spiky-toppers and stuff like that.” Sure, they have a penchant for leather jackets and spiky hair, but to be defined by their look, “is limiting…I’d like people to know that the average IQ of the band is incredibly high, adding with a laugh, “We’re not a bunch of mugs. We’re smart people and I think it shows in our music and lyrics.” Likewise, Dave wants to set those people who think they’re a huge band now straight. True, they may be signed to one of the – if not THE – biggest streetpunk labels, but they’re still a garage band. “We played in basements and garages; we still DO practice in basements and garages,” adding, “It’s like half the band’s first serious band, and I think that comes through that we don’t really care about a lot of the industry stuff…We’re just there to have fun.”
Live, Dave declares The Cropknox are “an incredibly high-energy band,” citing the differences between their performance in the studio, where they “know how to come off really solid and precise with a lot of energy,” and live, where they basically “just go nuts,” adding that they’re “generally a good, tight live band. But at the same time,” he continues, “I think that energy connection [between] the audience and the band is definitely there when we play live.”
Already, the band’s gone out on two main tours of Southern California as well as “a couple one-off gigs,” according to Dave, and they’ve been through the Northwest twice. And now everyone who’s been deprived of catching these guys live will have their chance, for when mid-June comes around, Cropknox will be heading out on their first-ever full U.S. tour and seem quite excited to bring their fiery brand of streetpunk all over the country. The tour will be taking place between June 17th and July 28th (check the band’s Website for exact dates).
Dave discloses they’ll be playing with another California band, Monster Squad, and that the prospective tour will include the Southwest, some Southern dates and Florida, then heading up the East Coast on into the Northeast and back through the Midwest to the Northwest, and back home again. And from what Marcus says they may have some dates with the mighty Midnight Creeps. Also, it’s clear the vocalist is extremely pleased to finally experience life on the East Coast (as he should be…), and that we in NYC can most likely expect them at the legendary hole-in-the-wall and perfect place for sweaty, grimy punk rock shows – CBGB’s. Sounds good.