The Crumbs were a band with a close history between the bands members by the time they began their relationship with Lookout Records. The Miami band had spent many years together in the local skateboard and hardcore scene throughout the 1980’s prior to the bands inception and first release – the ‘I Fell In Love With An Alien Girl’ 7” for Todd Congelliere’s Recess Records. The band – after an initial aborted line up of half male half female – was comprised of ex ‘Cavity’ members ‘Johnny B’ on guitar and ‘Raf Classic’ on guitar and lead vocals – the founder of The Crumbs who had wanted to branch out into a more pop, Ramones oriented band rather than the hardcore stylings Cavity were laying out. The drum position was filled by ‘Chuck Loose’ who had played in the band ‘Chickenhead’, while bass was was handled by ‘Emil Busse’, who had put records out on his own ‘4 and ½ Fingers Records’ as well as playing roadie for both Cavity and Chickenhead. Raf and Emil were the only members of the original practicing line up, with Busse coming up of the bands name on the last practice of guy/girl version.
Emil Busse (The Crumbs) : “We practiced for a while and eventually made a demo tape. We played alot of shows after that and always got a good reception. I was still doing my label and had started to trade records with Todd and I sent him the demo and he was interested in putting something out. When his band FYP came down to South Florida we put them up and eventually played a three week tour across the South with them. We all got along well and our record came out shortly after that.”
Following The Crumbs debut on Recess, the band also teamed up with ‘Far Out Records’ – ran by Tim Pagones of the band ‘Against All Authority’, a band that had been sharing shows with The Crumbs many times, as well as a rehearsal space. The resulting release from the partnership was the “Get All Tangled Up’ 10”/CD, a record that would cause some disappointment with Congelliere, hoping – unaware by the band – that Recess Records would be working on the next Crumbs record. However by the time the 10” was released and the band were would gear up for a full length album, The Crumbs had already been spotted by Lookout though the labels past relationship with Chickenhead.
Chris Appelgren : “We hung out with The Crumbs when they were in the Bay Area on tour, and just really liked them. I guess you could say we were charmed by them. Raf was especially hilarious and fun but really all of them were great personalities, they had a great classic cool 1950’s greaser twist on the Ramones type look. Raf was a really funny frontman, kind of drunkenly flirting with the audience. I remember how great their live show was, how fun it was to hang out with them and drink beer. The Peechees played a really fun show with the Crumbs in Santa Cruz, California, in a punk house basement. They were just great guys who you could easily hang with.”
Emil Busse (The Crumbs) : “We knew a lot of the Lookout people from when Chickenhead had toured out to the Bay Area. I had also written with Molly a few times from when I was doing my label. I used to go to DC alot at that time so Molly and I had mutual friends in that area too. I wasn't really friends with her at that point, but we weren't strangers to each other. Chuck was the unoffical manager at this point so he actually had alot to do with us ending up on Lookout. We went to California to play the Recess fest in Mt Shasta, and the Lookout folks came up to see us. It was really obvious to us that if we played good we would get on Lookout, if we sucked we probably wouldn't. I guess we played well enough as they eventually signed us, and we ended up recording with Mass Giorgini in Indiana.”
The result of the Indiana sessions were the releases LK 161 – The Crumbs self titled album and the ‘Shakespeare’ 7” - LK 166. Both releases were fine examples of the buzzsaw punk the The Crumbs had been working on since inception. A good deal of melodic snarling attitude was present giving the album a genuine garage punk kick, along with tight musicianship that proved the band were onto a winning formula. The 7” release would also be a ‘make up’ to Recess Records, with it being handled as a split release.
Emil Busse (The Crumbs) : “ We didn’t realize it at the time, but the Far Out record kind of bummed out Todd at Recess. We were just doing fun things with our friends and it didn't hurt our relationship with Todd, but that ended up causing us to want to make the Lookout single a Recess Lookout split to make it up to him. Todd didn't really have anything to do with it - it was basically a Lookout release that they let us put the Recess logo on and Todd got a break on the price. We did that to make up for bumming him out when we did the Far Out record, we wanted to do something nice for our friend.”
Todd Congelliere (Recess Records) : “The split label release was essentially just them slapping the Recess logo on the back. I don't even think we talked about it even. If I remember right Molly just asked for the logo and I gave it to her.”
Emil Busse (The Crumbs) : “The album was recorded over the 4th of July in Indiana with Mass Giorgini. It took five days to record and it went smoothly - we had practiced alot before we got there, but ‘Come Home’ was played for the first time all the way through at the studio and song on the B side of the single – Gonna Like It - was practiced and written at the studio. We had a framed out idea for it, but no lyrics and handn't played it before then”
Settling into the relationship with Lookout, The Crumbs went on tour in support of their debut album, spending time on tour with The Queers and the Swingin’ Utters. However it wasn’t long before drummer Chuck Loose quit the band – while touring with The Queers – although it didn’t take long before the band was back in action with new sticksman Grim from fellow Miami locals ‘The Basicks’ – who themselves went on to release a 7" as LK 228.
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