Leftover Crack

The most compelling group to emerge from the ska-core craze, Choking Victim combined crust punk, rocksteady, thrash and lived-in lyrics about smoking crack and squatting in Manhattan. Choking Victim recently reunited for several shows, but for the past six years its creative core (singer/guitarist Stza, guitarist Ezra Kire) has helmed that band’s inflammatory successor Leftover Crack. Inviting controversy from all camps, Leftover Crack used a photo illustration of Bush and Cheney celebrating in front of the collapsing Twin Towers as the cover for its 2004 album Fuck World Trade. In live performances, they’ve devoted stage-banter space to cop-killing fantasies. And the Crack branded the ska scene homophobic on the track “Gay Rude Boys Unite.” The group’s riot-inciting rhetoric has prompted bans from numerous clubs, making virgin venues such as the Record Bar especially inviting.