If I was to tell you that a band of NYC teenagers who met in 1979 decided to form a band influenced by Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle, Eno, Chrome and all sorts of proto-industrial music, it would be enough to peak your interest. If you learned they went to the lengths of recording an album while in high school without a label or distribution and actually pressed a couple hundred copies, even weirder. Now those records sell for between $200-$500, which perhaps isn’t unusual for such a rare record. You would expect the unlikely story of Capital Punishment’s Roadkill to end there — which would be cool enough. Except it doesn’t.
You then find out the band consisted of a future Supreme Court Justice for Arizona, a Professor of Slavic Studies, an Musician/Documentarian whose family built the Brooklyn Bridge and an A-list world-famous actor. The story goes from being about another rare, privately pressed recording that’s been re-discovered, into something that’s pretty incredible.
Hot on the heels of Captured Tracks’ reissue of Capital Punishment’s 1982 album Roadkill, the quartet of Kriss Roebling, Ben Stiller, Peter Zusi, and Peter Swann return with This Is Captial Punishment an EP of new material recorded almost 35 years after the group disbanded. When asked for bonus material for the Roadkill reissue, the original members got back together and did a remake of their track “Confusion.” A blistering, motorik take on the original, the new version reimagines “Confusion” as a much louder and sinister track. It was so loved by the label - and the band had so much fun recording it – that they decided to record new material.
With the “Confusion” remake leading off the EP, Capital Punishment burn through four other tracks that all explore the darker edges of rock ‘n’ roll. From the strangely sultry “Drumming Out Time Inside Me” and “Grey And Illuminate” to the band’s favorite “Hot Love,” Capital Punishment may not be teenage punks anymore, but they certainly haven’t lost their edge.
TRACK LISTING
1. Confusion (2018)
2. Drumming Out Time Inside Me
3. Hot Love
4. Grey And Illuminate
5. Shannon Rose
Please note that This Is Capital Punishment is currently not in store but is an imported title from an overseas supplier.
Most of the time it takes around 2-3 weeks for the item to arrive here and be sent out but it can take longer if there are any delays.