Crust was a musical group from Austin, Texas

Austin, Texas

Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...

 that was active during the late-1980s and 1990s and was featured on Trance Syndicate Records, a record label run by King Coffey

King Coffey

King Coffey is an American drummer, best known for being the drummer of the psychedelic/noise rock band the Butthole Surfers. He began drumming in a Fort Worth hardcore punk band called The Hugh Beaumont Experience. Around that same time he published a fanzine called Throbbing Cattle...

 from the Butthole Surfers

Butthole Surfers

Butthole Surfers is an American alternative rock band formed by Gibby Haynes and Paul Leary in San Antonio, Texas in 1981. The band has had numerous personnel changes, but its core lineup of Haynes, Leary, and drummer King Coffey has been consistent since 1983. Teresa Nervosa served as second...

. The groups members were John Hawkins (vocals and misc.), Jerry Page (bass and misc.), and Richard Smith (percussion and misc.).

History

John Hawkins, Jerry Page, and Richard Smith formed the group in 1987. Shortly after its formation, the trio (as "Mud Honey") organized and released a compilation

Compilation album

A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...

 cassette

Compact Cassette

The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...

, The Polyp Explodes. Along with Crust, the cassette featured the Austin bands Miracle Room, Ed Hall

Ed hall (band)

Ed Hall is an alternative rock band formed in Austin, Texas, USA in 1985.-Members:*Gary Chester - guitar, vocals*Larry Strub - bass guitar, vocals*Lyman Hardy - drums, vocals-History:...

, ST37, Seemen, and Thanatopsis Throne. The band's early instrumentation included tape loop

Tape loop

In music, tape loops are loops of prerecorded magnetic tape used to create repetitive, rhythmic musical patterns or dense layers of sound. Contemporary composers such as Steve Reich and Karlheinz Stockhausen used tape loops to create phase patterns and rhythms...

s, feedback devices

Audio feedback

Audio feedback is a special kind of positive feedback which occurs when a sound loop exists between an audio input and an audio output...

, spring reverberators, and drum machine

Drum machine

A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums or other percussion instruments. They are used in a variety of musical genres, not just purely electronic music...

s, but later incorporated traditional rock instruments such as drum kit

Drum kit

A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....

, electric guitar

Electric guitar

An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...

, bass

Bass guitar

The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

 and keyboard

Keyboard instrument

A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...

.

The band embarked on a concert tour

Concert

A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...

 of the West Coast

West Coast of the United States

West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...

 in December 1989. Crust achieved some notoriety for their stage antics, which frequently included live earthworms, fresh beef tongues, nudity, and fire.

On Good Friday

Good Friday

Good Friday , is a religious holiday observed primarily by Christians commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. The holiday is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday, and may coincide with the Jewish observance of...

, 1990, Trance Syndicate

Trance Syndicate

Trance Syndicate was an independent record label founded in 1990 by King Coffey, drummer of Austin, TX band the Butthole Surfers.. Its first release was Crust's The Sacred Heart of Crust EP...

 released Crust's first EP

Extended play

An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...

, Sacred Heart of Crust; it was the first release from the record label

Record label

In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

. The trio toured the East Coast of the United States

East Coast of the United States

The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...

 and Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

; songs such as "Head Lice" emerged from the group's travel experiences. Trance Syndicate released the band's first full-length album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

, Crust, in 1991, followed by a second album, Crusty Love in 1994. The band continued to tour, but scaled back its live performances following a series of mishaps (including one in which John Hawkins was stabbed), finally disbanding after an appearance at the 1997 SXSW

South by Southwest

South by Southwest is an Austin, Texas based company dedicated to planning conferences, trade shows, festivals and other events. Their current roster of annual events include: SXSW Music, SXSW Film, SXSW Interactive, SXSWedu, and SXSWeco and take place every spring in Austin, Texas, United States...

 festival. The band performed a reunion show to a sold-out crowd at Room 710 on May 22, 2004 in Austin.

Discography

• 1990: Sacred Heart of Crust(EP)
• 1991: Crust
• 1994: Crusty Love
• 1999: Food Eater (Self-Released)

External links

• Crust at Trouser Press
  Trouser Press
  Trouser Press was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow Who fan Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" ...