Razorcake #140. 

Crisis Actor interview by Martin Wong and Daryl

I wanted to learn more about Crisis Actor as soon as I found out about them. Their debut album, False Flag, infuses the dark, slashing, pre-hardcore sounds of L.A. punk like Dangerhouse and Slash with the first-person, working-class undercurrents of The Clash or Sham 69. Rise above, indeed! I also immediately loved how they not only address friends and listeners as “comrades” with zero irony, but they also take turns singing lead vocals like a true collective in the struggle against the rat race, global warming, bad cops, and doomsday. And as a regular listener to guitarist Tony’s radio show on L.A.’s only punk college radio station, KXLU, I saw that the band’s not only part of the city’s tradition of noisy underground rock, but they’re grounded in its history. Plus their live shows are as fun as they are intense—perfect for slamming, pogoing, or just surviving another day in this often shitty world.

Because Daryl had arranged to have Tony, Zach, and Jon play his birthday party show/benefit for Food Not Bombs by the time I set up the interview, I figured we should interview them together. –Martin Wong 

Félix Partoutatix interview by Tim Brooks

Félix Partoutatix is a young multi-instrumentalist from France who’s knee deep over there in the punk/oi world. We first met him when he came through California with Lion’s Law and later when his band Claimed Choice used the old school rolodex of connections to book their own successful tour in the U.S.A. Playing in Claimed Choice, Récidive, Cran, and Prisoner Du Temps as well as filling in wherever needed with Lion’s Law from Paris, Félix gets a lot done for a kid in his twenties. It was inspiring to meet such a down-to-earth, driven person who has his fingers in a bunch of pies. We found some time in between his work as stagehand and roadie and his constant tour schedule to talk global punk rock, skinheads, France, Europe, and beyond. He’s a testament to the expression, “where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

Erin Link of EB Ranch Farmstead interview by Emma Alice Johnson

EB Ranch Farmstead is not what most people think about when they think about a farm. Tucked away on a beautiful chunk of land in northern Dunn County, Wisc., EB Ranch’s focus is on protecting and preserving the critically endangered San Clemente Island goats.

These goats are a heritage breed that was dropped off on San Clemente Island off the coast of California by San Diego in the late 1800s and left to go feral. The US Navy took over care of the island in the 1930s, allowing people to hunt and trap goats. In the ’70s, someone noticed the damage the goats were causing to the environment on the island, at which point the Navy got more aggressive, eventually proposing to shoot all the goats by helicopter in the ’80s. An animal welfare group prevented that, but by then there were only a few thousand goats left. Thankfully, some were allowed to be trapped and moved to the mainland for domestic farm use.

Today, EB Ranch is one of the few farms that provide a safe harbor for this rare breed. This isn’t a livestock sanctuary, though. This is a working farm. Among other things, the goat’s milk is used for handmade soap and the goats are rented out to clear brush and cut grass.

I met Erin Link, the proprietor of EB Ranch, while going to punk rock shows in Western Wisconsin, probably in the late ’90s/early 2000s. My memory is hazy, but it was before either of us had any idea we would end up on farms, let alone be country neighbors. Years later, when I decided I wanted to live the farm life, she was the first person I talked to. She pointed me toward the farm I eventually bought and introduced me to the community here. She’s taken care of my critters while I’m away and I’ve helped her with random projects, including wrangling one of her goats, a little guy named Luigi, at a farmers market where she not only sold soap and farm products, but educated people about this nearly lost livestock breed. I’m constantly in awe of how she folds punk ethics into farming and into rural living in general, defying stereotypes about small-town life and taking an approach to protecting endangered animals that’s often overlooked.

Clapton Community Football Club: Against Modern Football by Angus Wonder Of It All

Football (soccer in the United States) is one of the most mainstream, capitalist, and patriarchal industries in all of Western culture, so why write about a football club in a punk zine? Working off the assumption that the readership would be more into skateboarding than football, I want to compare some thoughts on the two sports. Football is necessarily competitive and the leagues and tournaments are all about hierarchy and structure; the English football leagues (FA) are literally organized in a pyramid. Wins, draws, and losses get chalked up in tables, which are basically spreadsheets. A skateboarder can have a moment of success by using stairs, rails, curbs, or walls to pull off tricks.

This urban architecture, overlaid as it is with capitalist interests and control, is being subverted. This often gets filmed and set to music, becoming more of an aesthetic piece of subculture. Although both sports in fact reward innovation and creativity, football is ubiquitous, of the establishment, and your dad would watch it down the pub. Skateboarding is about fucking with security guards and getting stoned in a car park—little pockets of rebellion….


“What makes the Punk Rock Museum so amusing is because it’s simultaneously elevating and debasing the counterculture we all hold so dear.” –Donna Ramone (instagram)

“Sedona, Arizona is an unserious place deserving of scorn… Junk science plus modern technology equals bullshit.” –Jim Ruland (instagram)

“Every relationship we’re in, romantic or not, is a learning experience. We are mirrors for each other.” –Lorde Destroyer

“It’s as if we have a cultural Alzheimer’s and are unable to make new memories… let’s all listen to The Soviettes and dream of a better world.” –Sean Carswell (instagram)

“Punk rock sometimes brings us back to exactly the same type of psychic torment that punk rock was supposed to be our ticket out of…” –Rev. Nørb (instagram)

No offense to pigs, but the halo being put over Trump’s head is nothing more than an illuminated, open asshole. –Art Fuentes. (instagram)

“Like you breathe, I yo-yo… As far as yo-yo rock goes Moving Targets’ Burning in Water is an all-time classic.” –Rhythm Chicken (instagram)

In the end, Ricky Vigil’s dog saved high-school-age Ricky from Dropkick Murphys cosplay. –Ricky Vigil (instagram)

And photos from the lovely and talented:

Chris Boarts Larson

Mari Tamura

Albert Licano