Chesapeake – Deep in the creek (haha) I find myself at a home-away-from-home for hooligans and miscreants.  It could have been any punk house in New York circa ‘79 or San Fran in ’81: drunk punks, beer bottles, miscellaneous debris, and, of course, the inevitable cache of beat-up guitars, amplifiers, and a well-worn drum kit.  Around me in a semi-circle on the few miscellaneous chairs of indeterminate origin and one ugly-as-sin couch sit the various members of one of the hardline of Seven Cities punk – Capital Crisis.

We have Liam, laconic but well-spoken when he chooses to add his two-cents and one of the two singers of the band; Joe, the guitarist, with his mile high mohawk, visceral guitar chops and subtle bluegrass/country influences; Jake (he beats the skins); Jewey, the dreadlock demon of their pounding bass-lines; and Nick, quiet here but guttural fury unleashed on an unsuspecting audience any other time. 

So where to begin?   Ah yes…

Step 1: Introduce Yourself.

33: Alright, so how did this all begin?  How’d y’all get started?
Jewey: Let’s not go there actually…

33: Oh but we must, we must…
Jewey: Joe is technically the only original member.
Joe: I am the only original member.
Jewey: It’s been a long hard road for Capital Crisis…
Joe: The band has gone through a buttload of name changes and lineup changes.

33: What did you start out as?
Joe: I don’t even remember.  Too long…this was about three years ago.
Liam: I’ve been in the band for about 11 months.  I think I joined in April so, yeah, no!  Over a year!  Holy shit…
Jewey: You joined after we did like five or six good shows.
Liam: I joined after the underground, uh, “noise release.”
Nick: I showed up right after the Agent Orange show.
Jewey: Yeah, when we kicked out our old vocalist.

33: What happened with the old vocalist?
Jewey: We’d rather not get into the whole detail...things just didn’t work out.
Joe: Creative differences…

33: What are your biggest influences in how you play, how you sing…?
Nick: Midgets.
Liam: Midgets.
Joe: Hank Williams III.

33: Hank 3 is awesome. 
Jewey: I don’t know, I mean, I play everything, listen to everything, except, like, gangsta rap.
Nick: I’m down with the crunk rap.
Jake: The whole band has influences from the Unseen to the Casualties.
Liam: Honestly, we have a lot of different creative differences.  Joe listens to a lot of country.  If you listen close there’s a lot of country rhythm I guess you would say involved.
Joe: In my strumming pattern.  Johnny Cash for sure.
Liam: You got Nick who his background is all grunge; Nirvana, the Melvins, Mudhoney…you know, all the old shit…

33: That whole Seattle story…
Liam: Exactly.
Nick: I actually lived in Seattle for a little bit, too.
Liam: Then we got Jewey… this dude just listens to a lot of different shit.
Jewey: Me and Jake started out playing a lot of indie [rock].
Jake: Yeah, we did a lot of indie.  Punk just has more of that kick ass in your face feel.

33: Well, with this myriad of different influences coming together what would you define your style as or do you prefer to use a definition at all?
Liam: Sheer fucking chaos.
Jake: We have songs that sound completely different on our album that we have out.  You listen to one song…
Jewey: And it sounds the same as the next one.
Liam/Joe/Nick: [laughs]
Jake: Not really.  You take songs like “Now’s the Time” to “Heist” or “Scum of the City”.  It’s two different feels…
Joe: I guess we’re like street punk and thrash punk.
Jake: A good mixture.

33: And what would you say separates your sound from the herd of copycat insta-punks, that “I Got my t-shirt at Hot Topic” shit?
Jake: We haven’t sold our shit at Hot Topic yet.
Jewey: Not yet.
Jake: We get paid in subs.
Jewey: We get paid in subs!
Jake: Those are fun shows.
Joe: We’re planning a Zero’s Sub Tour.
Jewey: We’re playing every Zero’s on the east coast…
Jake: I’d buy a sub if I saw some kick-ass punk band standing there eating it on a poster.  I’d be like, “Sure, why not?”

33: Fuck Jared.  Fuck Subway.  Zero’s: the true punk rock sub.  Awesome.
Jewey: We play what we want to play.
Joe: Well we play what we can, and it just happens to turn out like this.

33: All you need is three strings and two fingers and you got it…
Joe: He doesn’t even really play bass…it’s just like…spoons…
Jake: Are we supposed to tell the truth?
Jewey: They can’t handle the truth!

Step 2: Leave Something for the Kids.

33: Alright, speaking of Hot Topic and all the fashionably punk aesthetic kinda thing…back in the origins of punk rock, it wasn’t just a fashion statement, it had a meaning.  It was a call to arms for a young generation who felt disenfranchised, who felt the generation gap was a lot wider than it had been ever before, so…
Jewey: He’s not reading this off a script by the way…hope nobody’s thinking that at home…

33: Does any of that still exist in the scene or is it just a place for posturing or the “punker than thou” mentality?
Joe: Can you repeat the question?
Everyone: [laughing]
Jake: There’s a lot of DIY stuff going on…
Liam: I mean honestly, the scene is as strong as you make it.  If you got splits in scenes then obviously you’re going to have your different sects, and you’re gonna have this crew beefing with this crew.  It’s kind of a shame, ya know?

33: Is there anything to it or is it just posturing, like wearing the clothes just for the look…
Jewey: You got a few people like that but…
Joe: I just wear what’s comfortable.
Jewey: As you see, some of us don’t look really too punk rock.
Joe: Jake rocks Pumas and basketball shorts…
Jake: Damn right, dude, I wear Pumas and basketball shorts every fucking show we go to.  I look like a kid who gets out of the chess club…I’m a bro man, “What’s up bro?”
Jewey: Brohemian rhapsody…
Joe: Marilyn Mon-bro…
Jewey: Bro-ver Cleveland…
Jake: It’s definitely not like, “I’m gonna wear this because everyone else is wearing this.”
Nick: It’s kinda like the clothes just appeared at my house.
Jewey: (to Nick) Are you wearing an Obama shirt, dude?
Nick: Yeah.

33: Alright, a question that kinda leads out of this talking about the older generation of punk to the newer punks: How do you think your kids are gonna come up?  Let’s say, for example, how do they rebel against their parents?  What do you do when your daddy’s a punk rocker?  When your dad’s got fucking piercings and tattoos and…
Joe: I think they’re going to be half-Satan.
Liam: Yeah, I got a little boy of my own.
Joe: I mean, apparently each generation is worse and worse, and if I had a kid worse than me...
Jake: I’m scared, my kids going to jail for sure then…
Jewey: I’m not a bad person…
Jake: I don’t think you have to pound it into the kids you have to be, you have to do this.
Joe: I rebelled against my dad, that's why I don't live with him anymore.
Jake: This is true...
Joe: My mom is a punk rocker at heart, she just don't know it...

Step 3: Find a place to play.

33: Let's move on to venues you like to play...
Jake: Half Shell!

33: That's just what I was going to say, the Half Shell died, what happened?  Even Gil's…
Jake: Gil didn't want to buckle before the Half Shell, so when the Half Shell shut its doors, Gil threw the towel in.  Now, from what I’m understanding, probably later in the summer, Gil's gonna open another place up, probably a smaller venue but still do the same thing.
Joe: Gil's was my first place I ever played a show.
Jake: All the places we had when we first came out are dead...Phil's, dead...Gil's, dead...the most historic shows we ever played besides when we played at the NorVa with Jello Biafra.

33: Nice.
Jake: That dude was cool…
Jake: Half Shell with Murder Junkies...we played that...we played with DRI at Gil's n' shit…
Joe: Besides the Regal Beagle and the Jewish Mother we only can play...
Jake: Underneath a bridge and at Zero's subs.
Jewey We'll work for subs...
Joe: It's getting cooler...everything is getting more underground.

33: So yeah, it is kinda reliant on the scene to reinvent itself with the venues.  I mean, I remember back when I was going to shows back in the mid-90s, I went to a lot of hardcore shows at stuff like Moose Lodges and Ruritan Clubs.
Joe: I actually played a show at the Moose Lodge.
Jake: We played the Kempsville Ruritan Club.
Liam: Adam was a pretty cool dude...
Jake: We got like, we were playing the American Legion Hall with Long Drop in Connecticut, so everywhere is doing that.

33: So where is your favorite place to play other than Zero's?
Joe: The Bridge.
Jewey: The Bridge.
Jake: The Bridge...
Liam: Before the Half Shell closed I'd probably say the Half Shell.  That was our favorite place.

33: There's something about it, it had horrible sound and it was cramped and...
Joe: They let you do whatever the fuck you want...
Jake: Brian's a cool dude.

33: It really had a good ambiance.
Liam: It was a fuckin’ dive bar - that's what was so awesome about it.
Joe: We got to play with what the Murder Junkies and Agent Orange there.
Jake: Gil's was good when you could mosh...they got too strict there.  Playing with DRI no one could move because nothing could get broken.
Jewey: That place was gonna get trashed if we weren't allowed to move.
Jake: Oh yeah, we were fuckin' pissed when Jason from Stuck Backwards broke the monitor...fuckin elbow dropped that shit...but like the Bridge, definitely in Virginia Beach...but we can't tell you the exact location…

33: It's top secret.
Jake: We get a lot of bands coming through, ya know, big bands that need a place to play instead of going through a venue...free show at the Bridge donations accepted, but, ya know what I mean, we brought the PA with the generator.
Joe: It's broken.
Jake: Yeah, but still...Wolf's Tavern man, yeah.  It’s a name dude, no one knows about that…

33: Speaking of the bands you played out with, any favorite bands that you played with?
Joe: DRI was probably our favorite.
Jake: Green Jello was fun, those guys…
Jewey: Street Dogs!  Fuck!
Joe: Agnostic Front, too.

33: You mentioned earlier you have an album out?  EP?  Full length?
Jake: EP.

33: Tell me a little bit about it...
Joe: It's called Scum of the City.
Liam: Talking about the idea behind it?

33: Yeah, what’s the concept behind it?
Liam: Honestly, I don't think there really was a concept behind it.  The Scum of the City was basically written about Pat Robertson, this is like his backyard where he has his little grubby hands on everything.  You know with the censorship down at the oceanfront…

33: Any favorite songs? Any crowd favorites?
Everyone: "Heist!"
Jake: It's our hit single.  Everytime we play that song…
Jewey: You make everything we do sound so gay!
Joe: Uh, we're looking for a drummer...
Jake: Fuck you guys...
Joe: That isn't homosexual...nothing against homosexuals, just against this particular one...

Step 4:  Insert Tab A into slot…huh?  Oh yeah!  The Lightning Round!

33: We'll close this up with just a quick Lightning Round, free association kind of questions, just quick, spit out the first thing that comes to your mind...Frankenberry or Count Chocula?
Jake: Count Chocula.
Jewey: Count Chocula.
Joe: Count Chocula.
Liam: Count Chocula.
Nick: Count Chocula.

33: Black Flag or Minor Threat?
EVERYONE but Joe: Minor Threat!
Joe: I'd say Black Flag.

33: A little diversity in the band there...
L: I do not see how you can't stand Fugazi...
Jake: Fugazi is great man…

33: Favorite Ramone?
Jewey: Joey
Liam: Joey...no!  Fuck it.  Dee Dee!

33: And one final question: how many straight edge kids does it take to drink a six pack?
Everyone: [Silence]

33: Only one as long as his friends aren't looking…

Whether playing under a bridge or rocking you local sub shop, these guys deliver the goods.  So beware Jared!  Subway ain’t the only game in town.  There’s a new elite of sub-shop chic…we call it Capital Crisis.

Capital Crisis on MySpace

By Director, Genre Lead, and Editor: Andrew Wolfe

The Wolfe was born to a small litter in the mountains of West Virginia and transplanted to suburban Virginia Beach in the iconic year of 1984.  Left to the public school system, he soon became immersed in the varied subcultures of suburbia. Quickly he became a connoisseur of the rich substrata of disaffected youth in post-Reagan America.  Having to leave corporate tool-hood behind, the Wolfe prowls the silent alleyways in search of the next great spark of local music - the incendiary device that will reignite creativity in a music world gone wrong (apparently in the throes of Bieber Fever).

And other fun facts ...

Age: 33
Place of Birth: Parkersburg, West Virginia
Gender: Raoul Duke
Religion: Gonzo
Likes: Good music.  Drinking.  Smoking.
Dislikes: Ignorance.  People who take themselves too seriously.  People who say "I just wanted to touch bases with you."  It's "base" asshole, not a baseball reference.

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