Standing Over By The Record Machine: Crisis Actor are the cure for standard issue punk rockisms.

Los Angeles trio – two DJs and a moonlighting hip hop artist – sets punk’s rule book on fire and tosses it out the window, then writes their own instruction manual based on the language of post-punk.

CRISIS ACTOR – False Flag LP (Devour Records)

Let’s face it: However much you or I may still love punk rock in all its loud, messy glory, wasn’t Lenny Kaye correct  in his interview last week? Wasn’t this shit a lot more fun when it was not defined?

Crisis Actor: (l-r) Jonathan Ihejeto, Tony Knox and Zach Crawford (pic: Dave Fearn)

We will always enjoy a chainsaw guitar over a subterranean bass line and a pilled-up drummer whacking the shit outta two and four with abandon, as some social outcast stands up front wailing his/her/their truth about The Modern World And Why It Does Not Work at the top of his/her/their lungs. It is one of the absolute joys this life has to offer. But do we really need to hear 9,999,998th recycling of the Ramones, as great as they were? Is the umpty-umpth graduate of The Johnny Thunders School Of Trash Can Lead Guitar really adding anything to the conversation here? (And yes, The Author is including himself here in my call-out. I am as guilty of lack of vision and originality as anyone. I ain’t foolin’ myself.) 

I mean, can’t anyone find inspiration in, say, Metal Urbain for once?

Crisis Actor’s Tony Knox, live at Monty Bar, downtown L.A., May 20. (Pic: Scott Free)

So, when the rare critters come along who take the goddamned Punk Rock Rule Book, set it on fire, and toss it out the window, isn’t this a cause for huzzah-ing in the streets? Shouldn’t we be singing hosannas in the highest and anointing their feet in herb-infused olive oil? Yea verily, we should.

Meet Crisis Actor, a Los Angeles trio who've incinerated the PRRB, swept out the ashes, and written their own instruction manual in the language of post-punk. Their debut album, False Flag, is ten screams about the abuse day-to-day existence piles upon us all, perched at the intersection of T.S.O.L,.Dead Kennedys, Joy Division and Public Image Ltd.

Crisis Actor’s Jonathan Ihejeto, live at Monty Bar, downtown L.A., May 20. (Pic: Scott Free)

Singer/guitarist Tony Knox hosts KXLU radio show No More Heroes. He’s also likely the first punk guitarist completely conversant with the innovations of both Keith Levine and East Bay Ray, down to the barrages of harmonics and ample employment of an Echoplex. Bassist/singer Zach Crawford doubles as club DJ Paul Cinnamon at various L.A. punk events, when he’s not grinding out the most distorted, propulsive bass lines this side of Lemmy or Jean-Jacques Burnel. And when he’s not shoehorning manic Afro-Cuband beats into these songs, drummer/vocalist Jonathan Ihejeto is a hip-hop artist going by Jet 2. 

Crisis Actor’s Zach Crawford, live at Monty Bar, downtown L.A., May 20. (Pic: Scott Free)

What these three gents are screaming about is the claustrophobia and intense pressure we all feel: “I try to keep my days long so I can sleep,” warbles opening track "The March." “I try to say the right words so I don’t freak/I try to keep my mouth shut so I don’t speak/I try to keep my head down so I don’t break.”  Or the conversational dissection of the notoriously brutal and ruthless L.A.P.D., “What’s A Good Cop?”, with lyrical/vocal contributions from all three Crisis Actors: “Actually, I popped a tire on my way to Van Nuys and to my surprise, they pulled me over/I felt relieved but instead of offering any help, they just asked for license and registration.” “It’s two minutes to midnight but it feels like 3 AM,” screeches the paranoid “Doomsday.” “They say the bombs may fall, but it feels like 3 AM.” Every last one of these tracks is suffused with enough urgency and desperation to fuel a particularly intense session on the therapy couch. If angst were electricity, Crisis Actor could power the whole of Los Angeles.

(Pic: Scott Free)

Knox indicates via Instagram message that False Flag is the glorious result of an all-analog signal path: “The vinyl never touched a computer! We went straight from mixing on tape, sent the tape out to get lacquers cut straight off it too.” Proper old-school record making, ensuring the vinyl itself sounds loud, crisp and dynamic. “We were stoked to do it that way. We probably will do the same for the next one. Doing tape was just so easy and more our speed, so why not right?” 

Why not, indeed? Crisis Actor are fully aware of what they’re capable of, and know how to achieve the best results. The final product is the best modern punk album out there today, one that sounds truly modern and revolutionary. It makes you anticipate whatever they do next with glee.

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