Crumbsuckers

Not sure why I all of a sudden thought of the Crumbsuckers but I did, and since I did all the old songs started popping in my head. Like New York City contemporaries such as Agnostic Front and the Cro-Mags, the Crumbsuckers were one of the original founders of 1980’s crossover scene: the bridging of metal, hardcore, and punk that temporarily united the two divergent tribes of metalheads and punks into one, bloody, unified mosh pit. Ah, the good ole days.

Getting their start in 1983, the band recorded a demo unofficially called “The Crumbsucker Cave” at Nino Studio in Baldwin with five songs, including a cover of Chubby Checker’s “The Twist”.It was with this demo that they landed their first CBGBs showcase, and subsequent Hardcore Matinees.
The band were soon an integral part of New York’s Lower East Side-based hardcore scene, cutting their teeth at the legendary dive A7 before moving on to CBGB’s famed Sunday matinees, as they and the movement gained strength. Come 1986, the Crumbsuckers consisted of vocalist Chris Notaro (ex-Krackdown), guitarists Dave Wynn and Chuck Lenihan, bassist Gary Meskil and drummer Dan Richardson, and delivered their “Life of Dreams” debut into a peeking crossover craze. A strong if rather conventional example of the genre, Life of Dreams featured a wall of razor-sharp thrash guitars, manic drum-work, and punk-grown social and political criticism, culminating in the standout “Super Tuesday,” which criticizes the 1984 presidential election. Unfortunately, the Crumbsuckers would soon fall afoul of their fans (as did Agnostic Front, around the same time) by delving too deeply in heavy metal with their second and final release in 1988 entitled B.O.M.B. - Beast on My Back, featuring shred-happy new guitarist Robert Koebler. This effort, with its longer songs and more metallish sounds, wound up disappointing most of their longtime hardcore followers and the band was frankly dead on arrival by the time they hit the road with yet another new guitarist in former Carnivore’s Marc Piovanetti. The Crumbsuckers’ lasting legacy may well have been the numerous bands which later sprung up from their ruin. Meskil and Richardson went on to found post-hardcore metallers Pro-Pain, and Richardson eventually also did time with Life of Agony and Stereomud, while Lenihan ended up with the S&M crew of the Genitorturers, a few years later.

Written by Beezlebubba on May 16th, 2008 with 1 comment.
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