Crime In Stereo

Posted by Steven Robertshaw on 13-Feb-08 @ 05:25 PM

HQ: Levittown, NY
NOW PLAYING: Is Dead (BRIDGE NINE; bridge9.com)

WHY YOU SHOULD KNOW 'EM: These Long Island, New York, genre-bending punk rockers take old school, D.C.-influenced melodic hardcore and spike it with a healthy dose of progressive aggression.
YOU LIKE? YOU'LL LIKE? A Wilhelm Scream / Dag Nasty / Set Your Goals

STORY: Matt Pullman
PHOTO: Shane McCauley

There are bands who claim to live the punk and hardcore lifestyle and then there are bands like Crime In Stereo, who not only live it, but eat, sleep and dream the culture. While they've expectedly earned their stripes in the VFW halls of Strong Island, don't confuse them for your prototypical hardcore band because with melodies as huge as their breakdowns, Crime In Stereo have managed to fit on a bill with bands like Brand New, Shipwreck and Blacklisted. "The truth to the matter is as long as we've been a band, we've been that band who played hardcore shows," explains guitarist Alex Dunne. "People would be like, 'Why are you in this scene?' We never really seemed to fit in [because] we're never going to sound like a traditional hardcore band."

Conforming is for suckers, and after two frustrating experiences with Blackout! and Nitro Records, the band have returned with their boldly titled third album Is Dead for Bridge Nine. The move could be seen as somewhat confusing, based on the fact the label has made a name for itself for breeding the type of modern day hardcore Crime In Stereo seem to challenge-more specifically, that of the straight-edge variety. But this doesn't seem to phase the band, which include Dunne, bassist Mike Musilli, drummer Scotty Giffin and vocalist Kristian Hallbert. "We love touring in the hardcore scene," says Dunne, "[because] we are hardcore kids. Musically, we have a different aesthetic to the way we approach our music. So we're never going to sound like a traditional hardcore band. It really doesn't bother us; we're kind of excited by it." Although undeniably strong-willed, a lack of record promotion and a plethora of patience-testing tours was causing the band to start succumbing to the day-to-day pressure. "My health is always somewhat in question," reveals Dunne. "I'm a Type 1 diabetic, so I have to take a half dozen shots a day just to survive. Staying on the road all the time while trying to maintain things like health insurance became a real struggle. [The title] Is Dead [alluded to the fact] that yeah, this band might be over. [But] once we started demoing and seeing where the record was coming, Is Dead became somewhat tongue-and-cheek."

So with Is Dead, Crime In Stereo are far from going 6 feet under. Along with the new tunes, they have a completely different outlook on each other and their music. "We don't care if people like it or don't like it because we know we made the best record possible," says Dunne, adamantly. "It blows away anything we've ever done by far. I don't think it's even close." ALT