Crime - San Francisco's Doomed/Piss On Your Turntable

Norcal's snotty seminal ones. Noisy n scummy n all that good stuff. Severely underrated.

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Wikipedia: Crime was an early American punk band from San Francisco. The band 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.

In the following years Crime changed their line-up multiple times: Williams was fired (later appearing in groups such as Flipper, Toiling Midgets and The Sleepers; he is now deceased) and was succeeded by Brittly 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. In 1979, Greco left the band and was replaced by Joey D'Kaye on bass, who had been the band's sound engineer.

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. 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.

Frankie Fix died in 1996, and Brittly Black in 2004.

San Francisco's Doomed, a collection of studio recordings and rehearsal tapes, was released 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. The album was re-released as San Francisco's Still Doomed (with added tracks and remastering) in 2004 by Swami Records.

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

After reforming in 2007 to headline the Road to Ruins punk festival in Rome, Crime recorded a new album of rare, older material entitled Exalted Masters, on LP only. The album cover was done by Rex Ray. They played a half dozen shows in 2008 to support their new album, and recently collaborated with the Moroccan group the Gnawa Express. Original members Strike and Rank are joined by: Mickey Tractor on bass, and Count Fink aka Brett Stillo (The Flakes) on guitar. There has been recent activity in getting the long awaited box set ready for release, possibly in 2009.

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.

HEAR