"Man, you know there ain't no such thing as leftover crack!"
Hailing from New York City (specifically, Alphabet City's C-Squat), Leftover Crack formed from the ashes of Choking Victim - who recorded one album before breaking up the same day - in 1998, originally consisting solely of Stza note Crack (real name Scott Sturgeon) until about 2000 or so, when he added on Choking Victim's ex-bassist Alec Baillie, as well as Brad Logan (guitar), Mike Trujillo (guitar), and Amery Smith (drums). In that two year period, Stza had recorded several songs left over from the Choking Victim days, which the band proceeded to re-record and release as the "Rock the 40oz" EP in 2000. After the band contributed "Crack City Rockers" to a Hellcat Records compilation album, the band was signed to the label to produce three albums for them. The band began recording a series of songs for their first full-length, which was tentatively titled Shoot the Kids at School. The label found the idea of naming an album with the title to be abhorrent, since the Columbine shootings were still fresh in the average American's mind, and refused to release the album. The band then proposed to the label that they'd agree to release the album under a different title, but only if they could drop out of the contract. The label complied, and their first full length album, Mediocre Generica (a jab at the label for wanting a "mediocre, generic" album title and cover) was released on September 11, 2001.
After the release of Mediocre Generica, the band found themselves in a two year position where they couldn't leave their current label, sign to another label, or release any new material under the name Leftover Crack. The band did, however, manage to bend the rules of their contract and released a split EP with F-Minus as "The Crack Rock Steady 7" working under aliases with additional musicians. The "Baby Jesus Sliced Up In The Manger" EP that spawned from these sessions was released on November 27, 2003. In February of the same year, the band began working with record engineer Steve Albini on a follow-up to Mediocre Generica, now that they were officially off of Hellcat Records' roster. The band released a demo for what would eventually become 2004's Fuck World Trade in the winter, and were quickly scooped up by Jello Biafra's label Alternative Tentacles, where the album (and the band) quickly found a home. Fuck World Trade was released on August 30th to overwhelmingly negative response from mainstream media, due to its explicit lyrics/title and the album's cover, which depicts George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Rudy Giuliani (Tony Blair on the U.K. release) directly causing the 9/11 attacks in New York City. As a result, chain stores like Walmart and Best Buy refused to carry it. The fanbase, however, enjoyed the album and praised the changes from the previous release, including longer songs, experimentation with alternative instruments, and adding guest singers to the mix.
At the end of 2004, drummer Brandon Possible died, which sent the band into a brief state of hiatus. Stza spent the hiatus touring as an acoustic solo artist performing Choking Victim and Leftover Crack songs, and guitarist Erza spent his time writing songs for his band Morning Glory. The rest of the band's activity at the time is unknown, however, they resumed touring in 2005, and released their first song since Brandon's death in 2006 as a part of a 7" split single with Citizen Fish on Fat Mike's Fat Wreck Chords label. The label later released a full-length split with Citizen Fish, which would also include songs from Stza's alternative band, Star Fucking Hipsters, which Stza would focus on for several years following the Citizen Fish split (Erza would also focus on Morning Glory during this time, which effectively forced Leftover Crack to the back burner). In 2009, however, Erza left the band on seemingly amicable terms until Stza accused him of being a liar and a drug addict, which sparked an online feud that lasted until Leftover Crack's December 2010 tour featuring Erza on guitar. The band continued to tour for several years following the feud with no major news coming from the Leftover Crack camp until mid-2015, when Stza announced that the band had finished their third album, Constructs of the State, which was released on November 27th, 2015 via Fat Wreck Chords.
The band tends to write lyrics of a radical leftist nature, denouncing religion, capitalism, and authority (especially police), and promoting unity against racism/sexism/homophobia, anarchism, and awareness of politics in the world around the listener. Not surprisingly, the members have had a colorful history with law enforcement, including arrests (Stza in particular having a reputation for being a shoplifter, even writing about his experiences with Choking Victim) and harassment. According to Stza, the name is "an oxymoron", such named since crack cocaine addicts are so vigorous in their habit that they are extremely unlikely to have any "leftover" crack.
Leftover Crack suffered a second tragic loss when bassist Alec Baillie died on 10 November 2020.
"Born to Trope":
- Anti-Police Song: "One Dead Cop", "Gang Control", "So You Wanna Be a Cop", among others. The band hasn't hidden their feelings for the idea of police, even to the point of Stza being arrested for - no joke - throwing donuts at police officers.
- Capitalism Is Bad: The band has railed against the system since their inception - and even earlier, if you count Choking Victim songs as part of the Lo C canon.
- Cool People Rebel Against Authority: Leftover Crack isn't a band that writes checks they can't cash. The band has openly endorsed squatting, anarchism as a whole, knowing (and exercising) citizens' rights with police, etc.
- Genre Mashup: Typically, the band experiments with ska, but they've been known to dabble in death metal, classical, and crust punk, among other influences.
- Heävy Mëtal Ümlaut: The band's name is frequently rendered as "Leftöver Crack".
- Lyrical Dissonance: Even back in the Choking Victim era, the band was known to write upbeat sounding ska songs about hating the police or how badly people were being fucked under capitalism.
- Pun: "Homeo-Apathy".
- Refuge in Audacity: Many, most belonging in the realm of their merch (including anti-police slogans), but Shoot the Kids at School was so notorious, the label refused to release the album as originally intended, resulting in the album's name being changed to Mediocre Generica.
- Religion Rant Song: "Atheist Anthem".
-
Spiritual Successor: To Choking Victim. Several fans consider Leftover Crack to simply be a continuation of Choking Victim under a different name. - Take That!: "Nazi White Trash" is one towards the people who would benefit most from class warfare, according to Stza.
- Three Chords and the Truth: Subverted - while they play a style of music that's definitely derived from Hardcore Punk, they add some ska influence to the mix, which complicates things, technically speaking. The message remains the same, though.
- Ur-Example: Of the "Crack Rocksteady" genre. While ska and punk had been mixed before Leftover Crack and Choking Victim had formed, the specific mix of those two genres and lyrics about anarchism, hatred of authority, and drug use (among other topics) spawned a small branch of bands that continued in this vein, not unlike Discharge! and the "D-Beat" genre.
