Information by Jonathan Dixon. I was in a band called The Crooks when I was at Duluth High School in the late 1980’s. It was a really cool band but, as usual, it fizzled quickly. The band consisted of me on guitar, Derek Frost on vocals, Matt Majoili on bass and Rick Puig on drums. Derek drew all of our fliers.
We were taking Matt's vert ramp down in Norcross in the Summer of 1988. I knew three chords on a guitar and Rick had a drum set at his house down the street. I also had a bass and Matt started messing around with that. We would take the ramp down during the day (we were being careful so that we could rebuild it elsewhere) and we would play music in the evenings. We did that for about a month and then kind of forgot about it.
Derek was at some kind of out of state camp for the Governors Honors Art Program. When he got back I was telling him about the band. He was the one that got us playing again with him singing. Emmet Howle started coming around and began acting as our manager. He actually was pretty good at it. He started getting us shows at Visions and The Pit. We played with several local bands and even opened up for SNFU once. We probably played about 20-30 shows.
The Crooks two night stand at Visions; Friday, February 17th, 1989 and Saturday, February 18th, 1989. Yep, you counted right; four hand drawn fliers for the same show. 
The Crooks with Belyle at Visions; Friday, March 10th, 1989.
On Thursday, March 23, 1989 we drove to Athens and recorded six songs at Underground Sound.
On Thursday, March 23, 1989 we drove to Athens and recorded six songs at Underground Sound.
Derek called it quits the following spring in ‘89. We briefly had Chris Jennings singing for us (a metal dude from Norcross) but it didn’t work out. Rick later moved away and I went on to start Act of Faith. Derek drew early fliers for AOF, as well as the covers for our two tapes and the "Soul of One" 7".
The Crooks were a year or two before my time, and I'm still bummed that I never got to see them live, but I used to jock this demo pretty hard. Thanks for posting this, Brad.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it's nice to see pics of "The Important Man" on bass.
I was stoked that Jonathan still had some photos. He's also got lyrics but I haven't picked them up yet from him.
ReplyDeleteAnimosity, wow. I'd love someone to unearth some photos or recordings of them. I've got an old flyer for one of their shows at the Pit (maybe this one)someplace but that's it.
ReplyDelete