The Crowd

By no stretch of the imagination, what you now hear will instantly become a bona fide piece of Southern California Punk Rock History. This is fact. The normal half-life of the aimless punk band is somewhere near 5 months, the time it takes for a band to lose 50% of its quality, before turning to complete shit within about 5 half-lives (2 years). Punk rock evolution runs on a Darwinist time clock: band forms, band writes inspired music, band records seminal album, band spends rest of its collective life trying to repeat steps 2 and 3 in futility, all the while the half-lives tick away.In my 20-some-odd years as a punk observationalist, this cycle has held true. Until now. The Crowd has somehow done what no other punk outfit has managed to pull off, lay down what will surely become a classic, a full 20 plus years after its inception. The punk rock burnouts, the in-the-day revisionists and the new crew kids would all gladly amputate their well-used middle fingers for a never-to-happen new Black Flag record, a new Germs record, or a new Weirdos record. What do you bet that it wouldn't touch The Crowd?I've said it a million times, but it bears repeating once again, this is the last true spirit, the last true sound and the last uncorrupted idea from Southern California's first punk wave. All the rest simply followed. Listen accordingly.-rickbain ..