Rare Bird – 10 Aug 2021
Interesting read for fans, but it could go deeper
Writing a book about a band with fans as passionate as those of Leftover Crack is pretty much an impossible task. Architects Of Self Destruction already clocks in at just over 300 pages, and it would probably have to be more than twice as long to really please everyone. The book was put together by Brad Logan (of F Minus and Leftover Crack) and John Gentile (writer for Punknews and others). It’s pretty meticulously interviewed, but its range of speakers isn’t as diverse as it could be. A lot of the book is dictated by Scott Sturgeon (aka Stza, frontman and general songwriter / impresario for Leftover Crack, Choking Victim, Star Fucking Hipsters) – which makes sense because the band is mostly his, but seeing events from multiple perspectives is more interesting. The sections in this book that tell the details of an event from a lot of different perspectives (the Phoenix riot chapter does this the best) have the most energy. There are a few chapters that only have one speaker and they tend to drag a bit. Brad Logan is obviously extremely close to the material, and I wonder if that’s a detractor. To my knowledge this is the first oral history that John Gentile has worked on, and again I’d be curious to know if the authors consulted with any oral historians or editors on this.
In the end, Architects Of Self Desctruction is recommended for real super fans of the extended Leftover Crack universe, but not really required reading for anyone else. I’m specifying that because when I think of books like Please Kill Me or Meet Me In The Bathroom, I think of books that represent the cross section of a lot of different ideas and contextualize them in a way that is important to understand historically whether or not you love The Velvet Underground or The Yeah Yeah Yeah’s or whatever.
Case in point is how little work the book does to place Leftover Crack in the context of a broader community. The thing that always jumps out to me when I listen to this band is how eclectic but cohesive the music is. The first few songs of Fuck World Trade cover hardcore, straight ahead street punk, crust punk, ska, death metal, and makes some references to classical music (again as a very broad term). Then World / Inferno Friendship Society shows up. And it all makes musical sense. That’s 2004 – the same time that Sufjan Stevens is releasing Michigan, Seven Swans, and is about to release Illinoise. In the early 2000’s Punk rock and indie rock as a broad term really go through a fascinating deconstruction of genre during this period, especially as a reaction to what might be called a homogenization of the genre in the 90’s. Leftover Crack isn’t alone in that pursuit, but they reflect that trend in a truly fascinating and unique way. But the other thing that always sticks out to me when I think about Leftover Crack is how their influence branches out in bizarre ways – again eclectic but cohesive. From the folk-punk of Days N Daze to the anarcho-punk No Cash which formed into the (extremely underrated) ska hip hop Mad Conductor. I know that putting together a book of this scope is an extremely involved process for probably not a lot of money, but when the book starts to feel like too much of Scott Sturgeon and Brad Logan (which happens quite a bit) I wonder if it would have benefited from more voices.
The organization of the book doesn’t always make sense. There are three chapters titled “Interludes,” that sometimes have little to do with the material that surrounds them. The first – and potentially most interesting part of the book – is about squats in New York City. The book as a whole tends to suffer from assuming knowledge on part of the reader, but this chapter is the most egregious example. Some work to explain how squatting works, and legalities and illegalities that surround it would be really welcome. This section of the book doesn’t really place anything in the context of Leftover Crack, a band whose general brand identity is centered on squatting. It seems like this should be how the book starts, instead of a supposed palate cleanser in the middle. I’d love to know more about how Sturgeon ends up at C-Squat (I also want to know about his name sometimes being Stza, but not always?). There’s a throwaway sentence towards the end of the chapter that references how C-Squat was eventually able to gain legal ownership of the building out of a deal with Rudy Guiliani. I want to know more about that! That sounds like a whole book in itself.
The second interlude is mostly Brad Logan talking about his experiences as a drug addict, which are fascinating (the Black Flag connection puts Brad in a totally different context than I had initially understood) and terrifying, but left me wondering why this showed up as its own chapter in the middle of the book. The third interlude is centered on mental health and reads as a round table about responsibility towards discussions of mental health awareness in the punk rock community. It’s an important topic that needs more visibility for sure, but its appearance in the book, especially by people who are at best peripherally connected to the band, is confusing.
The most interesting parts of the book are when the band starts talking about how the music is actually constructed. There’s a detail at the very end of the book when Sturgeon is talking about his love for Jawbreaker, and he specifies that holding out vowels in “One Dead Cop” was a direct homage to Blake Schwarzenbach’s vocal style. There are plenty of moments in the book that are dedicated to the anarchic, destructive, and extremely dysfunctional day to days of the band. But the parts that stay with me the most are the musicians discussing their craft. This book gave a new context to Gay Rude Boys Unite and the whole debacle with Rancid and Hellcat.
There are so many little details sprinkled throughout the book that I really loved. Sturgeon goes on an extremely weird tirade about Domino’s Pizza. I would LOVE to see how much weird shit got left on the cutting room floor. (It’s worth noting that the authors have launched a limited series podcast expanding on the book, and Rare Bird is also selling an additional zine with the book). More little tidbits that I loved: Revealing how much shit talking happens in the liner notes of Leftover Crack records, Boots Riley one-taking his Star Fucking Hipsters spot, lots of people saying that Jello Biafra doesn’t have any taste (I think they’re wrong but still).
I will say that to the books credit, they don’t pull any real punches with Sturgeon. A lot of attention is given to his often acrimonious relationship with…almost everyone. Sturgeon doesn’t do any work to paint himself in an always positive light, and the book doesn’t either. In fact, a lot of the other interviewees speak ill of Sturgeon at least a few times. If nothing else, the book paints a portrait of a deeply flawed and unique artist, misunderstood by pretty much everyone, including himself.
Musician and writer – I play in Cheap City and run Dollhouse Lightning
