Permacrush: Rocking You On The Sunset Strip

Permacrush: Rocking You On The Sunset Strip

Although Permacrush is based out of the San Diego area, the band is really making a name for themselves on the Sunset Strip, opening for the likes of LA Guns, Stephen Pearcy, Dokken, Rough Cutt, and a whole lot more!  On this particular night at the world famous Whisky A Go-Go, Permacrush found themselves providing direct support for the one and only Bang Tango. Prior to their standout show at the Whisky, we caught up with lead vocalist Chris Crush to find out more about the the rocking Permacrush, their should-be hit singles Baby and Dirty Looks From Six Foot Models, various support slots with iconic headlining bands, and a whole lot more!  Read on…

Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Permacrush and how long the band has been together.
My name is Chris Crush and I run the band Permacrush and we’ve been together about 12 years. We started the band in 2005.

Where are you based out of and what’s your music scene like there?
Based out of San Diego. The music scene isn’t really geared towards my band necessarily. So that’s kind of why we travel to LA and do these Hollywood shows a lot because the reception is better.  And it seems like the people that have obviously seen this type of music, your 80s rock, arena rock, that type of stuff, there is still that built in crowd here in Hollywood. Those people haven’t let go of the music and it’s kind of what we do. It just seems like those people are still here for us to get our music out to. It works out pretty good.

For people who aren’t here, what can someone expect from your live show?
Big guitars, big drums. It’s straightforward rock and roll. We have a couple ballads I guess, but mostly kind of straightforward rock band.

You’re opening for Bang Tango tonight. Have you met them or gotten to hang out with them?
Joe (from Bang Tango) was in earlier and it was my first time getting to talk to him. I met him at Irvine at the Hair Nation show and I was out there with Jerry from Metal Sludge. So basically he was busy doing other things, but I finally got to catch up today and (he’s a) really cool dude. Always good when you meet people that were like your heroes when they are cool. I’ve encountered both sides.

You’ve opened for quite a few bands here at The Whisky and elsewhere. What’s one of the best experiences you’ve had opening for a band?
Best experience probably was LA Guns. LA Guns here in LA at The Whisky was a good evening. Sold out show. Enjoyed that one a lot. Basically we’ve run the gamut. This is our tenth gig tonight. And we’ve done LA Guns, we did Stephen Pearcy twice, Faster Pussycat on Halloween which was really fun. We did Don Dokken and I don’t really like to slag anyone when I’m talking about other bands, but Don Dokken made the night difficult. I guess we should leave it at that. See I grew up a huge Dokken fan but then I kind of saw he was one of the dudes that hate to say it, kind of disappointed me.

If you could open for any band either now or from the past, who would it be and why?
Guns N’ Roses.

I don’t think I need to ask why.
I mean, the Whisky A GoGo, this is the place I want to play. They started here. Motley Crue, Doors, any of these LA bands, it’s just I kind of grew up in the midwest idolizing them. And I came out here a little later in life I guess you would say. Most people get this out of their system by their 20’s –  and here I am, let’s just say a little older. But yeah, so I’m still just getting it done and I’m having the time of my life, really.

Dirty Looks From Six Foot Models. Is that from true experience?
Of course. Yes. Obviously it’s just the general reaction. I’d like to say it’s the general reaction we get from women in Hollywood pretty much. The expectations here are high. They are around models, other male models and actors. I think the gene pool is better out here in LA, right? But yeah, so it’s kind of my reaction to that experience. Just women being standoffish, and that kind of thing. But I had fun with it. I think people kind of appreciate that too. It’s one of my more catchy tunes. It’s got a nice hook and I think it goes over well live. Dirty Looks, man.

You have a new song called “Baby” that just came out. Tell me about it.
That’s the new single, Baby. It’s my take on being an older male in a younger dating scene. [laughs] I don’t know if you’ve seen the video or not.  I don’t know if you’re familiar with the story of Lolita, but the women in our video are young. Let’s put it that way. I’m trying to reinforce what the tune is about with the visual. So, you’ll probably like the video.

Select any other song that Permacrush does, what inspired the lyrics?
Only Friend, that’s actually considered our most popular song to date because it was picked up by Microsoft for use in their playlist contest. So it would have been Microsoft Windows 7 or whatever. They had this thing called Playlist Seven and basically it started getting downloads early, so I think more people caught on and were like, what is this? But by the time it was all said and done, that song had 430,000 downloads and Microsoft ended up paying us $600 to use the song. So, if I would have had 99 cents for every one of those downloads, then I might have done better. Wouldn’t have been able to have dinner with Bill Gates or something, but – yeah man. That was the thing – that was probably the song that was better for us. But lyrically that’s about a long lost friend. Someone from high school that you don’t really speak to anymore because of certain circumstances. One time you may have been really close, you speak to that person every day and it’s like, now no communication. And the theme is, I guess, I’ll be your only friend. It’s like, I’ll still be there long after the fact. Just a good “you can count on me” kind of tune.

Can we expect any new music coming up? Album?
Yeah, we’re gonna try and collect the songs that we’ve done recently as singles and put them on a comp. Then, like I said, we have got twelve years of music and the idea is to do a Permacrush “greatest hits” Which, I guess you can call it a retrospect at this point instead of me using some ego and being like, we’ve got a “greatest hits.”  I’ve always said I’d rather be a one hit wonder than no hit wonder. But I’m still residing in the no hit wonder category, so we’ll see how these song shake down man.

If the music of Permacrush was a donut, what kind and why?
Probably one of those pink ones with the sprinkles, man. Do you get that answer a lot?  They’re unique and they’re tasty.

What’s up next for you guys after?
We’re coming back in November to open up for Quiet Riot here at the Whisky A Go Go. That’s going to be one of our bigger gigs. LA Guns obviously do well here but Quiet Riot just played down at The Rainbow. I’m excited to see them. I haven’t seen them with James Durbin yet and obviously the attendance was stellar at The Rainbow, so I’m hoping if we could get a portion of that to come to the Whisky A Go Go. We’ll have a sellout night.

If anyone has to contact Permacrush, where do they go?
Permacrush.com is our whole catalog. That will take you to our Bandcamp page. Then you can reach us at <a href=”mailto:permacrush@aol.com”>permacrush@aol.com</a>  – we still use the AOL email. That’s old school, right? [laughs] And we’ve got the new video up on YouTube. I think now it has over 20k plays in the first week. So I mean, our last video had almost 50k but this one has some traction early, so that’s encouraging. But YouTube, we’re on Instagram, Facebook all of your traditional social media. Twitter as well. Then Reverbnation, which I think more bands go there to check out other bands than people who just want to check out music. But it’s a competition thing and one time we were one on the charts, now we’re at #2 for the rock bands in San Diego. We’ve got a little bit of bragging rights…

Permacrush is:
Chris Crush – Vocals, Guitars
Alex Tuccio – Drums, Vocals
Brett Baugh – Lead Guitar
Tony Tonite – Bass Guitar

(Interview by Ken Morton – Photos by Jack Lue)

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