Crime In Stereo
Crime in Stereo is a Long Island-based hardcore punk/melodic hardcore band,… Read Full Bio ↴Crime in Stereo is a Long Island-based hardcore punk/melodic hardcore band, formed in 2002. On August 9, 2010 they announced that Crime In Stereo was no more. On October 3, 2012 they announced the end of their hiatus, saying they will be writing new music.
“It was a strange year,” says Alex Dunne, Crime in Stereo’s songwriter and guitarist.
This is in reference to the twelve months between the 2006 release of their critically acclaimed The Troubled Stateside and the beginning of recording "Crime in Stereo Is Dead." “Strange” might be an understatement. Crime in Stereo (Dunne, singer Kristian Hallbert, bassist Mike Musilli, drummer Scotty Giffin and guitarist Gary Cioni) thought they had seen the end of the road. After coming home from six straight months of touring promoting Stateside, a release that All Music Guide praised as “As ambitious as modern hardcore is likely to get,” and hitting the road on tours ranging from support slots for Brand New and the Warped Tour, Crime in Stereo had made a name for themselves. With sharply intelligent critiques of the current social and economic landscape set to a backdrop of music that breaks out of the standard hardcore mold, Crime in Stereo was moving into the forefront of the underground.
But time was taking its toll. Following almost three consecutive years of touring non-stop in support of Troubled Stateside and their debut full-length Explosives and The Will To Use Them, in 2004 the band felt disconnected from their label and, put simply, lost. Dunne went to work as a political consultant, managing successful judicial campaigns on Long Island, New York for the state's Democratic Party. “It was a bizarre thing to have happen; driving around the country playing shows all summer with your hardcore band, and then within a week of coming home from tour, working as a paid consultant.” Further complicating the situation was Dunne’s diabetes reaching a new severity. His situation worsened to the point where he now has to self-administer injections to his stomach every day to maintain himself. Being on the road, for Alex Dunne, suddenly became more complex and possibly life-threatening.
It wasn’t just Dunne that found his home life evolving in strange ways, however. Co-founder and bassist Mike Musilli, on the verge of earning his masters degree in education, gained employment as a teacher in his hometown high school; the same institution he and Dunne had graduated from years before. With the band spending continually less time together and steadily more working in their respective fields, the future of the band looked grim. “For a minute there,” said Musilli “it really looked like Crime in Stereo was dead.”
After spending a few months at home, the band reemerged from a de-facto hiatus to tour the East Coast and Midwest in a whirlwind run with Glassjaw. And as Dunne, along with drummer Scotty Giffin, began spending time back in Dunne’s basement working on songs, vocalist Kristian Hallbert was taking vocal training. At the same time, Bridge Nine Records entered the fold for a very apt partnership. “Initially, the ‘Is Dead’ thing was about the literal end of the band, but then I think it became something else. It was about starting out one way, and then growing into an entirely new beginning,” Dunne explained. “Kristian was really the catalyst in our evolving sound. I think once we heard how he was singing, we realized we had to make this record.” From screams and shouts to the occasional falsetto, Hallbert’s vocal performance on Crime in Stereo Is Dead is exceptional. “We’re a hardcore band because we’re hardcore kids, that’ll never change,” Hallbert explains. “But musically, we know what we’re capable of, and we wanted to challenge ourselves and show everyone.”
Crime in Stereo Is Dead is unlike any record that the band, or Bridge Nine Records has ever produced. It’s a punk record, it’s a hardcore record, and it is an intricately written album start to finish. But it doesn’t really fit into the “melodic hardcore” or “punk” category without having to further qualify the description. With longtime collaborator Mike Sapone (Brand New, Straylight Run, Taking Back Sunday, MC Lars) in tow, Crime in Stereo were able to focus on making their most musically and lyrically ambitious record to date. The result is a record that features the familiar Crime In Stereo sound (“Nixon”), but it also showcases the band at their most explosive and discordant (“XXXX-The First Thousand Years of Solitude”), their catchiest (“Animal Pharm”) and their most ambient and experimental (“Small Skeletal” and “Unfortunate Tourist”). Crime in Stereo Is Dead ends with “Orbiter” and “Choker”- two songs that are almost identical chord progressions played at an entirely different tempo. They culminate in the songs’ respective bridges that are lyrical mirror images. Crime in Stereo Is Dead is a wakeup call to a scene that sees melody as taboo, and a world that sees catchy music as safe and lyrically passive. It is an enigmatic release--it’s hardcore, it’s punk, but it’s a difficult record to preface with bands that have come before because this record surpasses the echoes of its influence in an entirely new mold.
Crime In Stereo Is Dead is in stores October 23rd 2007, and it is a release that guarantees 2008 will be another crazy year for the whole band.
“It was a strange year,” says Alex Dunne, Crime in Stereo’s songwriter and guitarist.
This is in reference to the twelve months between the 2006 release of their critically acclaimed The Troubled Stateside and the beginning of recording "Crime in Stereo Is Dead." “Strange” might be an understatement. Crime in Stereo (Dunne, singer Kristian Hallbert, bassist Mike Musilli, drummer Scotty Giffin and guitarist Gary Cioni) thought they had seen the end of the road. After coming home from six straight months of touring promoting Stateside, a release that All Music Guide praised as “As ambitious as modern hardcore is likely to get,” and hitting the road on tours ranging from support slots for Brand New and the Warped Tour, Crime in Stereo had made a name for themselves. With sharply intelligent critiques of the current social and economic landscape set to a backdrop of music that breaks out of the standard hardcore mold, Crime in Stereo was moving into the forefront of the underground.
But time was taking its toll. Following almost three consecutive years of touring non-stop in support of Troubled Stateside and their debut full-length Explosives and The Will To Use Them, in 2004 the band felt disconnected from their label and, put simply, lost. Dunne went to work as a political consultant, managing successful judicial campaigns on Long Island, New York for the state's Democratic Party. “It was a bizarre thing to have happen; driving around the country playing shows all summer with your hardcore band, and then within a week of coming home from tour, working as a paid consultant.” Further complicating the situation was Dunne’s diabetes reaching a new severity. His situation worsened to the point where he now has to self-administer injections to his stomach every day to maintain himself. Being on the road, for Alex Dunne, suddenly became more complex and possibly life-threatening.
It wasn’t just Dunne that found his home life evolving in strange ways, however. Co-founder and bassist Mike Musilli, on the verge of earning his masters degree in education, gained employment as a teacher in his hometown high school; the same institution he and Dunne had graduated from years before. With the band spending continually less time together and steadily more working in their respective fields, the future of the band looked grim. “For a minute there,” said Musilli “it really looked like Crime in Stereo was dead.”
After spending a few months at home, the band reemerged from a de-facto hiatus to tour the East Coast and Midwest in a whirlwind run with Glassjaw. And as Dunne, along with drummer Scotty Giffin, began spending time back in Dunne’s basement working on songs, vocalist Kristian Hallbert was taking vocal training. At the same time, Bridge Nine Records entered the fold for a very apt partnership. “Initially, the ‘Is Dead’ thing was about the literal end of the band, but then I think it became something else. It was about starting out one way, and then growing into an entirely new beginning,” Dunne explained. “Kristian was really the catalyst in our evolving sound. I think once we heard how he was singing, we realized we had to make this record.” From screams and shouts to the occasional falsetto, Hallbert’s vocal performance on Crime in Stereo Is Dead is exceptional. “We’re a hardcore band because we’re hardcore kids, that’ll never change,” Hallbert explains. “But musically, we know what we’re capable of, and we wanted to challenge ourselves and show everyone.”
Crime in Stereo Is Dead is unlike any record that the band, or Bridge Nine Records has ever produced. It’s a punk record, it’s a hardcore record, and it is an intricately written album start to finish. But it doesn’t really fit into the “melodic hardcore” or “punk” category without having to further qualify the description. With longtime collaborator Mike Sapone (Brand New, Straylight Run, Taking Back Sunday, MC Lars) in tow, Crime in Stereo were able to focus on making their most musically and lyrically ambitious record to date. The result is a record that features the familiar Crime In Stereo sound (“Nixon”), but it also showcases the band at their most explosive and discordant (“XXXX-The First Thousand Years of Solitude”), their catchiest (“Animal Pharm”) and their most ambient and experimental (“Small Skeletal” and “Unfortunate Tourist”). Crime in Stereo Is Dead ends with “Orbiter” and “Choker”- two songs that are almost identical chord progressions played at an entirely different tempo. They culminate in the songs’ respective bridges that are lyrical mirror images. Crime in Stereo Is Dead is a wakeup call to a scene that sees melody as taboo, and a world that sees catchy music as safe and lyrically passive. It is an enigmatic release--it’s hardcore, it’s punk, but it’s a difficult record to preface with bands that have come before because this record surpasses the echoes of its influence in an entirely new mold.
Crime In Stereo Is Dead is in stores October 23rd 2007, and it is a release that guarantees 2008 will be another crazy year for the whole band.
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Crime In Stereo Lyrics
...but you are vast You're no good for me. My formulated drug. An acquired…
Abre Los Ojos It's safe to say there are darker things in the…
Almost Ghostless / Above The Gathering Oceans We wade out into it, Dawn of the century. We're way…
Almost Ghostless/Above The Gathering Oceans We wade out into it. Dawn of the century. We're…
Amsterdamned! We're all going to hell, And I mean that in the…
Animal Pharm Once, this garden grew just light. Just like an ivy,…
Arson At 563 I guess it wasn't as bad as it sounds. We wore…
Barfight On Bedford Ave I've noticed that you like to live your life On borrowed…
Bicycles For Afghanistan So I wanted goals. I saw all I needed was: -a…
Choker While you were taking sides, I was shaking the world…
Compass And Square What began as a poem is now just a burden, A…
Dark Island City I only have a single photograph of me and you.…
Desertbed It's like we're in a bad dream Bolt upright at night Tryin…
Drugwolf You called to say you're going away Speak in code, our…
Everything Changes / Nothing Is Ever Truly Lost Home: Embrace the concept, can't afford the place. As the…
Everywhere and all the time This empty space becomes the lines inside your face It makes…
Exit Halo Brave the cold Unholy Atlantic froze the rings of smoke Li…
For Exes Hey I know it's getting pretty late, but I was…
Four X's That's some art you've got there, talk shit on all…
Gravity / Grace You should have left, well enough alone. Think of all…
Here With nitroglycerine dripping off our chins And elbows slidin…
I Am Everything I Am Not Forget the lesser parts of me You and I are everything…
I Cannot Answer You Tonight God bless the shape your goddamn body makes You move across…
I Stateside If I apologize for the swift and sudden rise in…
I Stole This For You Dusk hits and the whole world gets to be, "knock…
I'm On The Guestlist Motherfucker Incapable of holding down real jobs And can't make rent, So …
If You Think We're Talking About You We Are Without a broken heart you've got nothing to sing about. Wit…
If You Think Were Talking About You We Are WITHOUT A BROKEN HEART, YOU'VE GOT NOTHING TO SING ABOUT!…
If You Think We´re Talking About You We Are Without a broken heart you've got nothing to sing about. Wit…
It Ain't All Hugs and Handshakes If Saturdays end sadder days, Pay stubs should bring salvati…
Jesus is my Ride Home Sin first through the madness, Glass and Ash. Rooftop Perche…
Long Song Titles I can't believe you kids are still on this eyeliner and…
Long Song Titles Aren't Cool Anymore Because The Rest Of You Fuckers Are No Good At It I can't believe you kids Are still on this eyeliner and…
Love So wise, so young to never live long It seems like…
My Own Private South Oaks The weight's been slipping away for days. Sleeping on the fl…
New Harlem Shuffle It's not the end! Forget what I said that fucking Letter…
Nixon So it came to pass that I'd stayed with you…
No Gold Stars For Nationalism Catastrophe! Now all my happiest memories Bear distance rese…
Not Dead It begins within our drinks I relent and let you in Signal…
Odalisque It starts in the unbearable dark Throw your body on the…
Orbiter Tired stars navigate the tiny storms teeming on the far…
Play It Loud Fucker I hope you find what you've been looking for Before I…
Queue Moderns Nothing is safe Nothing is safe If we get caught we'll b…
Republica My Republican Jesus is hiding beneath the streets My starvi…
Sleeping Androids do Dream Electric Sheep Everywhere in vans and behind garage doors, a hospice Ward o…
Slow Math Unhinge all hearts with speed. If you need something to beli…
Small Skeletal As they laid my bones down at the crossroads, I…
Sudan ...Vanished in fury of smoke. Before she left she spoke…
Takbir I am the twenty-two year war Of the third Intifada I am,…
Terribly Softly This is the start of the second part Of a song…
The Bride I heard you spent the last six months At an unpaid…
The Impending Glory Of American Adulthood If it seems as of late, I've stopped sitting around…
These People Ought To Know Who We Are And That We Are Here I'm still down here Drowning in caffeine Carbonated and caus…
Third Atlantic Our grave danger built of lights and motors strikes the…
Twice Daily to Prevent Nausea Who are you to say Young bodies can't fill full sized…
Type One You lost it all, fading in the wire Believe that I…
Unfortunate Tourists I am the unfortunate tourist, stranded at the edge of…
Vicious Teeth Complicate all the things you say. What tiny lives each…
Warning: Perfect Sideburns Do Not Make You Dangerous So this is what we've all been waiting for? And…
What A Strang Turn of Events While we were getting up and breaking down and building…
When The Women Come Out To Dance Boy, you've been staring some... Consumed in the science of …
XXXX And we returned to heaven to confront our resurrected horror…
Young Veering off your greedy heart I can't understand your pain …
…But You Are Vast You're no good for me My formulated drug an acquired taste A…