The Crowd

Entrevista a The Crowd
por: Yoel Gaetan

Esta entrevista fue realizada en Mayo 2007 con el guitarrista de The Crowd,
Jim Kaa.La banda pionera del sonido surf hc-punk para 1978 en Orange County.
YG=Yoel Gaetan y JK=Jim Kaa

YG-How The Crowd started as a band?
JK-Tracy Porterfield and I were playing guitar together at home and then we added Jay Decker (bass) and Barry Miranda (drums) and began playing as “The New”. We all went to Edison High School in HB, later when Jimmy Decker (vocals) joined we became “The Crowd”. We wanted get chicks and party, not change the world. That was 1978.
 
YG-Who are the current members of The Crowd?
JK-Jimmy Decker- Vocals, Jim Kaa - Guitar, Dennis Walsh – Drums, Boz Milucky – Guitar and Corey Stretz – Bass. Jim and I are from the beginning. Dennis replaced Barry in 1980, and had played with the Flyboys and Flesh Eaters previously. Boz played bass with Youth Brigade and had his own band Curb before that. Corey has played with the Outsiders, China White, JFA and Gypsy Trash.
 
YG-What are your personal influences and as a band?
JK-Some of my favorite bands are: Mott the Hoople, The Clash, Bebop Deluxe. As a band, it would be a lot of 70’s Hard and Glam Rock, as well as the classic early punk (Ramones, Pistols, the Jam, Buzzcocks, Weirdos, X)
 
YG-What is The Crowd’s most memorable show? And worst show?
JK-We have been doing shows since 1978 except for 82 – 87, so there have been many memorable ones. We have played with or opened for: The Ramones, X, Gang of Four, the Avengers, TSOL, Fear, Dead Kennedys, the Adolescents, the Vibrators, the Germs, the Go Go’s, 999 and many, many more. But if I had to pick one, it would be 9.12.2001 opening for Stiff Little Fingers at the Galaxy Theatre in Santa Ana, CA. It was the day after 9/11, so the mood was weird, but great. We played a fantastic set that went over very well for opening. SLF was the best I had ever seen them, that night. Worst show was definitely the Roxy in LA in1982. We played the middle slot with X headlining and the Untouchables opening. The LA ska craze was just taking off and the Untouchables had a great opening set. My guitar shorted out on the first song and it was all down hill, the audience just stared and we sucked, it still hurts. We also got in a fight with people in the audience on our first trip to San Francisco, opening for Jim Carroll (people who died) at the Mabuhay Garden on Broadway. That was pretty bad too.
 

YG-Who where your favorite bands to play with back in the 70‘s & 80s?

JK-I would say three LA bands helped us a lot with shows, they were, X, the Dickies and the Weirdos. We used to do a lot of house parties in HB and the Flyboys would share our gear and play too. Over the last few years, we have been playing with the Adolescents and TSOL, who are all good friends of ours.
 
YG-What are 5 classic punk albums everybody should own?
JK-Rather than cover all the classics (pistols, etc), I will give you some classic OC/LA choices.

1. Beach Blvd Compilation – The Crowd, Rik L Rik and the Simpletones.
2. The Adolescents Blue Album
3. X- Los Angeles
4. The Dickies – Paranoid/You drive Me Ape/ Hideous 10 inch Single
5. TSOL – Abolish Government EP

YG-What is your favorite Crowd album ? and The Crowd favorite song?
JK-That is tough, but I will go with the Letter Bomb CD, it was originally released in 1995 by Flipside Records. It is out of print, but TKO Records is going to re-issue it later this summer with some bonus tracks and stuff. The favorite song is almost impossible for me, but I suppose Right Time from the A World Apart LP and Rodney on the Roq Vol 1 is one of the best songs I have written.
 
YG-What you guys do besides playing in The Crowd ?
JK-We all have families, children and real jobs.   
 

YG-How you compare the current OC punk scene to the one you where part of in the late 70s and early 80s?
JK-It has always been good, but there are ups and downs, like clubs closing and stupid trends. We were young, dumb and somewhat naive in the 70’s and that made it very new, exciting and fun.
 

YG-You guys are considered the original beach punks.What do you guys think about that?
JK-I guess it is pretty accurate, we all lived in Huntington Beach. And when we started playing backyard parties in the summer of 1978, there was certainly no one else doing it. When the song Modern Machine from the Beach Blvd Compilation in 1979 began getting significant airplay on Rodney Bingenheimer’s KROQ, the OC punk scene exploded. The lyrics to our song “Run for the Money” from Letter Bomb say it all “We kicked the door wide open, so you could walk right in”.
YG-Finally,any message to your loyal fans in Puerto Rico and around the world?
JK-Grab a guitar and start rocking! If we can do it you, you can too. We hope to release a new CD in 2008 and re-issue Punk Off on TKO Records in the fall of 2007. Come to California and visit! Visit us at www.thecrowd.com and www.myspace.com-thecrowd
 The Crowd Pictures

 

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