Moral Crux is a great band from Ephrata, Washington that has been around since 1983. The original line-up featured James Farris on vocals, Jeff Jenkins on guitar, Jody Kimmell on drums and Justin Warren on bass (today's band still features James and Jeff). Moral Crux plays medolic/pop punk with a definite political edge. Moral Crux played around the Northwest throughout the 1980's and released one album, but living in a small town in Eastern Washington definitely held them back from the levels of popularity a band of their caliber deserved. When they played shows in Seattle in the late '80s and early '90s they always had a great draw, but it wasn't really until Ben Weasel put them on the "Punk USA " compilation he put together for Lookout Records in 1994 that the rest of the nation began to notice them. Who was this killer pop punk band? I remember a bunch of people sending me letters and asking me for more info about Moral Crux when I was doing my zine. Weasel's obsession with the band led to him signing them on his own Panic Button label, which co-released with Lookout Records four Moral Crux albums between 1998 and 2003. The band toured the country and locally and got quite a decent national following. In the past couple years though things have slowed down. This photo is of lead singer James in 1999. James says on the Moral Crux MySpace page that the band is self-releasing a series of old demo and live recordings on burned CDs that will be hand-numbered a limited to 750 copies each. Moral Crux makes it to Seattle for a show once or twice a year and is definitely worth catching.Album Discography:
Moral Crux (self-titled, Velvetone, 1987)
Greatest Hits (Monitor, 1994, re-released as "I Was A Teenager" in 2001 on Coldfront )
Something More Dangerous (Lookout/Panic Button, 1998)
And Nothing But The Truth (Lookout/Panic Button, 1999)
Side Effects of Thinking (Lookout/Panic Button, 2000)
Pop Culture Assassins (Lookout/Panic Button, 2003)
Original drummer Jody relocated to Seattle a few years ago and joined The Lashes. He has since quit that band and now plays in a band called 1970.
1 comment:
They do have a new re-issue of their first s/t album that comes with "Load of Dead tracks" and a few live songs. It's a LP/CD combo on 4 colors of vinyl. "Pop Culture Assassins" is also at the pressing plant with a July release date, on vinyl only. And they hit the studio in August for all new material, and a national tour in Oct, Nov.
Anyway, I was just scoping out searches for Moral Crux, and came across you, and thought you may be interested. Any interview request or anything will also be honored if you wanted?
Here is their new label
www.jailhouse-records.com
Great zine man, been a long time since I have read.
Thanks!
Dave
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