U.S. Crush

Blasting out of Newport Beach, CA with a melodic roar, U.S. Crush hopes to make it’s mark with a familiar yet original rock sound. On their self-titled Immortal debut, the Orange County five piece band mixes larger than life rock riffs with in your face punk sensibilities and a strong sense of melody and harmony.

The road to a record deal with Immortal/Virgin was rocky and long. Band leader Denny Lake honed his chops in the band Atomic Boy, releasing a five song EP on his vanity label, Hypnotic Records in 1992. College and specialty show radio airplay generated a lot of interest and Lake feverishly promoted the record out of his house until the phone was shut off. The band’s follow-up nationwide tour exposed the band’s music to the rest of the country, but resulting debt left Lake living in his car. Finally, Atomic Boy hit paydirt and hooked up with a major label.

But 3 months after Sonic Cocktail was released, Victory Records folded. After 9 months of touring Atomic Boy had no label, a van with a blown engine and a $6,000 credit card debt. The band fell apart, and the resulting stress caused one member to have a nervous breakdown.

In March 1997 Lake started up Kickball with guitarist Hodgie Haynes, who had done the last few Atomic Boy tours. Initially conceived as a Fat Wreck Chord-1977 style punk band, the group quickly became popular in O.C. and received some airplay and some nibbles from the music industry.

Enter producer/guru Jim Pratt, who’d been a fan of Atomic Boy while a DJ at KOME. Pratt helped hone the bands sound. “We sounded like a lot of other punk pop bands,” says Lake. “Jim pushed me to emphasize my strengths as a writer, to not be scared to use a lot of harmony or do songs that weren’t 200 beats per minute.” The first song Pratt worked on with Kickball, “Jimmie Crack Rock”, was quickly picked up by KROQ’s local show Zeke’s Backyard, and suddenly people were sitting up and taking notice.

At this time (April 1998) the band began evolving and the sound that would become US Crush was developing. Scores of songs were written and rejected, and as the stakes became higher, the band lost some members. Lake and Haynes met bassist Ky Lambert when his band opened for US Crush at a club in OC The next piece in the puzzle was drummer Dennis Wolfe.

A recent Florida transplant, Dennis’ best friend from high school worked for the band’s management. Although not picked in the original audition, the band called Wolfe back two months later, and along with guitarist Dave Hanson the line-up was complete. Months of recording and writing sessions culminated with Lake getting fired from his waiter job, after which he immediately wrote “Same Old Story.” Six months later KROQ was playing the song and a whole album had been written.