CRIMINAL CODE

I first heard CRIMINAL CODE in Seattle, they opened the NO STATIK/MARTYRDÖD show and I was suitably impressed. Driving and urgent punk, but drenched in flanged '80s guitars, like ADOLESCENTS gone hopelessly goth and awkwardly reigned in, I thought. And I liked it.  I bought a tape, figuring that the 3$ investment would bring boundless enjoyment to my ears...but it was blank. I saw them again in SF a few months later, sharing the stage with the equally awesome BIG CRUX - CRIMINAL CODE had a new drummer (a Reno denizen) who suited their style even better, and who played a less laid back and more ferocious role in the band, and all of a sudden I heard HÜSKER DÜ in their songs and I liked them even more. I bought their new EP and a second copy of the demo. The EP was good, but the demo...was blank. So naturally it was with much hesitation that I pressed play on this second cassette release, but thankfully my ears were rewarded by the leap of faith taken by my digits, and I was greeted with analog versions of the sounds that made me dig this band in the first place (and the second, for that matter) - call it shoegazing punk gone hardcore, or EFFIGIES and ARTICLES OF FAITH gone new wave, but these jams are a perfect combination of many of the styles that personified my adolescence and they are delivered with gusto. I eagerly await their forthcoming 12" slab, but let this blast tide you over.

LIVE ON SONIC REDUCER

Courtesy of the fine fellows in CRIMINAL CODE, here is their first demo which I have dutifully downloaded and then taped onto my previously purchased blank cassette for enjoyment during a future time when computers are understood to be the enemy to the world that they really are. 

2011 DEMO