Band : The Crowd

Album title : Letter Bomb

Label : TKO Records

Distributor : Sonic Rendezvous

Release date : 22/01/2008 (USA) – April 2008.

Release : Re-issue CD with bonus tracks

Well people, as you can see above this is nót a new album from the now legendary Huntington Beach Punks! Legendary? Well yeah...they've been around since the Summer of 1978. Originally known as The New , they took their name when Jim " Trash " Decker took is place as lead singer to join his bass playing brother Jay , second singer Tracy Porterfield , guitarist/ backing singer Jim Kaa , and drummer Barry " Cuda " Miranda (replaced in 1980 by Dennis Walsh , formerly of Flyboys and The Flesheaters ).

They started off by playing house and backyard parties, but soon these became só crowded with fans that the locations had to be kept secret. The Crowd plays its first club shows in 1979, and it's at one of their first gigs in LA that they meet up with Robbie Fields of Posh Boy Records , with whom they stike a deal. Come the early '80s, and the rise and shine period of Orange County Punk scene (especially around Huntington Beach and Fullerton) with such bands as Agent Orange , D.I. , Social Distortion , The Adolescents , The Vandals , and TSOL getting away with most of the fame and fortune. Regretfully, after delivering their 1979 debut album Beach Boulevard , their contibution to the 1979 Rodney On The Roq compilation, and their sophomore 1980 album A World Apart , the original line-up starts all its activities in late 1982 (partly because of all the rising level of violence at their gigs), thus failing to rise from out of the circle of hot local bands in that period.

In 1987 (after a period during which the individual members were involved with other projects) the two Decker brothers re-unite with Kaa and Walsh for a show in Huntington Beach, which completely sells out. This success convinces the guys that there is indeed again a future for the band, and they re-start playing gigs on a regular basis. In 1989 they strike a deal with Flipside Records for the release of their come-back album Big Fish Stories , and album which generates some reasonable college radio airplay. The '90 sees the band members gigging on a regular basis, but also holding down the necessary daytime jobs (the Decker boys in the family's cement business, Kaa working as finance director for a major restaurant chain, Walsh delivering mail in Long Beach). During 1991 the band also records the 4-track Dig Yourself EP, but this is not released until 1995 (as a 7-inch on Lethal Records , out of Long Beach). That same year the band's debut album is re-issued on CD, and their Modern Machine single is re-released on vinyl. Upon the release of the Dig Yourself EP the band does a series of shows, and during one of 'em they strike a deal with Flipside to record the Letter Bomb CD, which will be released in 1996.

The album was the beginning of a new era of popularity and recognition for the band, which however did not mark itself by an increase in The Crowd releases or live activity. In fact, in the following period until 2000, the line-up goes through a number of changes, with Jay 's exit marking the start of events. In his stead (from July '97 to end of May '98) came Mike Rouse (formerly with ADZ , The Bleeders , and Fuel ) and Jeff "Boz " Milucky (joined in 1999) Joining the band for a few months in late '97 to early '98 was rhythm guitarist Brad Logan , his place taken by Mark Lee (ex- Humper ) who'd stay with the band 'til August 2000, when he left to join Dwayne Peters & The Huns full-time. When he wasn't available in between he was occasionally replaced by Jim Kaa 's brother Jeff . In August 2000, a new line-up was forged with original members Jim Decker and Jim Kaa plus long-time drummer Dennis Walsh being joined by bassist Cory Stretz (formerly of the equally legendary China White ), and with Milucky now turned into rhythm guitarist/ backing singer. Release-wize, The Crowd first released the $kad EP in 1998, followed that up with contributions to compilation albums in 1998 ( Old Skars And Upstarts ), 2000 ( The Hostage Situation ) and 2001 ( Old Skars And Upstarts 2001 ) before releasing their 2001 7-inch single I'm Not Happy Here and last album Punk Off . Since then, the boys have contributed to the Tower 13 compilation in 2003 and the Crank soundtrack compilation of 2006.

Which brings us back to this re-issue of their 1996 album. As you might expect from a band having started way back in '78, and with most of its original line-up, the material is very much in the (melodic) '76 Punk Rock style. Of course, the band hailing from sunny California the lyrical part has very little texts about worker libaration etc, which was so typical for the UK branch of Punk Rock in those early days...which does not mean that the band is therefore less enjoyable, or that they do not have àny socio-politically aware lyrics. On the musical side, averything is indeed thoroughly enjoyable, as you will be able to hear from surfing to their Myspace page (sorry, no exact url available, but play around with google some, and you'll find it quickly enough), where you will nót find any mp3-files for songs off this album. You wíll however find samples of each track on the album (and more) at great-mp3-2008.com/the_crowd_letter_bomb (on geocities.com you'll even find samples of some of their other material, as well as some videos...and find a link to artistsdirect.com to hear the complete set-list of both the I'm Not Happy Here single and the Punk Off album).

What with the addition of bonus tracks " Tim e's Up" , "Life's A Pill" and "Booze Blues" (non-album tracks from the vinyl-only Dig Yourself EP), the total length of the CD (apparently also available on LP for all us vinyl addict out there) comes to just under 48 minutes, which is a very fair length for any Punk product in this genre. And while I was reviewing the album, it was given a couple of extra spins in the cd-player on top of my initial listeneing sessions, and suddenly the material crept into my heart and mind to stay. Pity the original release was in 1996, or I could've added Letter Bomb to my year-list of 2008.

95/100

Tony.