Crime (band)

Crime
L-R: Fix, Ripper, Rank, Strike
Background information
Genres	Punk rock
Years active	1976–1982 2006–present (reformed)
Labels	B-Square Solar Lodge Swami
Associated acts	Vector Commande TVH Remote Viewers
Members
Johnny Strike Hank Rank Mickey Tractor Count Fink
Past members
Frankie Fix (deceased) Ron "The Ripper" Greco Ricky Tractor (deceased) Brittley Black (deceased) Joey D'Kaye Pat 'Mosignor' Ryan

Strike, Tractor, Fix, Ripper

Crime was an early American punk band from San Francisco. The band was formed in 1976 by Johnny Strike (vocals, guitar), Frankie Fix (vocals, guitar), Ron "The Ripper" Greco (bass; ex-Flamin' Groovies), and Ricky Tractor (Ricky Williams) (drums). Their debut, the self-financed double A-side, "Hot Wire My Heart" and "Baby You're So Repulsive", appeared at the end of 1976, and is the first single released by a U.S. punk act from the West Coast.^[1]

The band's sound was characterized by simple rock-and-roll arrangements played at intensely high volumes. Michael Goldberg, critic for New York Rocker magazine, wrote in 1978: "Crime play loud. So loud that the plate glass window at the opposite end of the club shakes, tables tremble and people hang onto their drinks. Loudness may be Crime's only musical raison d'etre. This band is a literal translation of the concept 'minimal.' Drummer Hank Rank thumps out a simple Bo Diddley beat that is only adequate in the context of the rest of the band. Bassist Ron the Ripper coaxes a thick rumble from his amp that reminds one of the thunder of a bulldozer rolling over rugged terrain. And the guitar playing of [Johnny] Strike and Frankie Fix make you feel like you've been forcefully held underwater for the full 25 minutes of the set."^[1]

Line-ups

Strike, Black, Fix, Ripper

In the following years Crime changed their line-up several times.

Ricky Tractor was fired (later appearing in groups such as Flipper, Toiling Midgets and The Sleepers) and was succeeded by Brittley Black (Larry Black) in 1977. After releasing one single, another double A-side, "Frustration" and "Murder by Guitar", Black was replaced by Hank Rank (Henry Rosenthal) that same year.

Strike, D'Kaye, Fix, Rank

In 1979, Greco left the band and was replaced by Joey D'Kaye (Joey Swails) on bass, who had been the band's sound engineer.^[2][3]

Greco and Black both returned for Crime's last release, the single "Maserati/Gangster Funk" in 1981, while D'Kaye moved to synthesizers and produced the recording.^[3][4]

The band split up the following year. Strike and D'Kaye briefly formed a synthpunk duo called Vector Commande, while Fix attempted to start a solo career. Neither produced any record releases.^[3]

Ricky Tractor died in 1992, Frankie Fix in 1996, and Brittley Black in 2004.

Recordings and media

Over the course of their career in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Crime officially only released three 7" vinyl records. But many bootleg recordings of the band's live performances and demo tapes were sporadically produced throughout the 1980s.

San Francisco's Doomed, a collection of studio recordings and rehearsal tapes, was released with the approval of the band members by Solar Lodge in the United Kingdom in 1991 on vinyl and CD. Fix, Strike and Rank played on all the songs, with Greco playing bass on side one of the LP, and D'Kaye on side two.^[5] The album was re-released as San Francisco's Still Doomed (with added tracks and remastering) in 2004 by Swami Records.

In 1979 San Francisco video company Target Video produced Crime: Live in San Quentin Prison, a documentary of a live performance by the band at San Quentin State Penitentiary in California, where they played for the prisoners wearing exact copies of the uniforms worn by the prison guards.^[6]

Sonic Youth featured a cover of "Hot Wire My Heart" on their 1987 release Sister.

In January 2010, a book of Crime's early photographs and posters, The Band Crime: Punk '77 Revisited by James Stark, was published by Last Gasp Books.^[7]

Controversy

In 1977, Strike booked the band into a leather bar called The Stud and decided to create their own poster. The idea was to do a series of war criminals, choosing a photograph of Adolf Hitler. Soon the city was covered in posters by the band, and by the next day they were canceled by the club, their records were yanked from the one store that carried them, and they were banned from the Mabuhay Gardens. Even some other punk bands felt they had crossed a line, but the prank overnight made them infamous. The band were informed that Bill Graham had announced to his staff that they would never play one of his venues. Graham’s parents had been in a concentration camp, thus likely explaining his swift action. Strike had worn a police uniform to a photo shoot and afterwards convinced the others to join him in this new look. So the band, in full San Francisco Police Department uniforms, went to Graham's office and demanded a meeting. Graham refused to see them, but sent out an apparently nervous spokesman. The band explained to him that it was an art prank, and was to be the first of many war criminals emblazoned on posters and yes, other Nazis. The spokesman promised to explain it all to Graham.

After a few months they were allowed back at the Mabuhay to support the English punk outfit The Damned. Crime accepted the show but decided since it was their turf, and since they could fill the club on their own, they should be the headliner. They did another poster with individual pictures of themselves, and their name at the top, but with The Damned lettering the same size below. Club manager Dirk Dirksen took them off the bill for the stunt, but it didn’t stop the band from attending the show wearing the police uniforms that they’d taken to wearing offstage as well. Next, word came to them that a San Francisco police officer had told San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen that if Crime were spotted on the street in uniform they would be arrested. Acting as spokesman, Johnny Strike openly challenged the police, and Caen wrote about it in his column, but nothing ever came of it.

Of Note

Various bootlegs have appeared over the years, and a number of Crime tunes have been covered by other bands besides Sonic Youth. Clinic featured a photo of Hank Rank in a collage on their first release. Noise punks the Hot Wires who merged into Black Time acknowledged their debt. Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist of The Hives in Rolling Stone included Crime along with them, Devo and Muddy Waters as the best dressers in rock. Swami Records reissued and re-mastered the 1991 Solar Lodge LP San Francisco’s Doomed, calling it San Francisco’s Still Doomed, including two alternative tracks from the first single’s recording session. Spirit Records reissued the first single with liner notes by Thurston Moore. The record was included in Mojo magazine’s list of the best punk rock singles of all time. K-Swiss sneakers negotiated a deal to use Gangster Funk in their EU and Japanese TV ads finally giving the remaining original band members a righteous paycheck.

Reformation

In 2001, Strike formed a new band, The Johnsons, with Jimmy Crucifix (bass/vocals) and Biff O'Hara (drums).^[8] They changed their name later that year to The Venus Hunters and eventually shortened it to TVH. In 2002 they released the album Night Raid on Lisbon Street on Flapping Jet Records.^[9] The unofficial Crime fan site, San Francisco's FIRST and ONLY Rock & Roll Band, reported that Hank Rank had joined TVH in late 2002, replacing O'Hara on drums.^[10]

Crime was re-formed in 2007 to headline the Road to Ruins punk festival in Rome. Original members Strike and Rank were joined by: Mickey Tractor on bass, and Pat 'Monsignor' Ryan (formerly of The Nuns) on guitar. In 2008, Crime recorded a new album of rare, older material entitled Exalted Masters, available on LP only, after Ryan was replaced by Count Fink (Brett Stillo of The Flakes) on guitar. They played a half dozen shows in 2008 to support their new album, and recently collaborated with the Moroccan group the Gnawa Express.^[11] In an interview Johnny Strike claimed a boxed set of Crime recordings would possibly be released in 2009.^[12] A new EP is due out in Jan-Feb 2010 from F.Y.B.S. Records, featuring two new songs along with a featured collaboration with Gnawa Express.^[13]

The current members of Crime have also performed in San Francisco under the band name "Remote Viewers".^[14]

Strike has published two works of fiction in recent years: Ports of Hell, and A Loud Humming Sound Came from Above. Rank has produced numerous films (under his real name, Henry Rosenthal) including the hit The Devil and Daniel Johnston. D'Kaye (under his real name, Joey Swails) continued to work as a Bay Area recording engineer and producer.^[15]

Discography

• 1976 (7") "Hot Wire My Heart" / "Baby You're So Repulsive"
• 1977 (7") "Murder by Guitar" / "Frustration"
• 1980 (7") "Maserati" / "Gangster Funk"
• 1991 (CD/LP) San Francisco's Doomed
• 1993 (LP) Terminal Boredom (live bootleg)
• 1994 (LP) Hate Us or Love Us, We Don't Give a Fuck (legitimate reissue of live bootleg)
• 2003 (CDR) Cadillac Faggot (legtimate release of live bootleg) 100 numbered copies
• 2004 (CD/LP) San Francisco's Still Doomed (reissue with bonus, alternate takes of both songs from the 1976 single)
• 2007 (LP) Exalted Masters
• 2010 (7") "Extortion" / "Crazy Beat"

References

1. ^ ^{a b} New York Rocker magazine (1978) Issue #30
2. ^ Damage magazine, (1980) Issue #8
3. ^ ^{a b c} Ugly Things Magazine, (1999) Issue #14
4. ^ "Maserati/Gangster Funk" single, liner notes.
5. ^ "San Francisco's STILL Doomed", LP and CD, liner notes
6. ^ L.A. Record magazine. April 30, 2009 issue.
7. ^ The Band Crime: Punk '77 Revisited, Last Gasp, (2010) ISBN 978-0867197150
8. ^ Ugly Things Magazine, Issue #22 (June 2002)
9. ^ TVH at CD Baby
10. ^ Crime fan site, retrieved January 2010
11. ^ hardcoremusic.com
12. ^ Resonance Magazine, Issue #49
13. ^ FYBS Records website
14. ^ Remote Viewers performance in San Francisco. retrieved 1/16/2010
15. ^ Producer/engineer credits for Joey Swails at music.msn.com retrieved January 10, 2010

External links

• Official Crime website
• Official Crime page at MySpace
• Crime page at Swami Records
• CRIME page at punkrockers.com
• Crime page at Dementlieu Punk Archive
• Unofficial Crime fan site (personnel, equipment lists, discography, photos, posters)