Crusty

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Crusty has several meanings:

• the most common meaning is as an adjective to describe an object that has a crust, for example, crusty bread rolls
• it is a word used to describe a stereotype
• it is a genre of popular music. See Crust punk
• it is also a word used to describe a homeless or tramp-like person
• it also a slang for eye mucus

[edit] Stereotype

Crusty may be used to help describe a type of person, such as in the phrase "crusty old colonel". Typically such a crusty person would have the following attributes, either in part or wholly:

• inflexible
• out-dated
• conservative in their opinions
• a firm believer in the value of institutions important to them personally, such as a village fete organising committee, their gentlemen's club

In almost all situations crusty people are old and male.

[edit] Popular music genre

This term was coined by the band Hellbastard, after a song they wrote. Often fans of Crust punk music are called crusty, the genre is also called crustcore or stenchcore. Though the term crusty was only ever used half seriously by the British music press, as it is a very vague term relating to the dilatory personal hygiene habits of the crusties themselves, it is referred to by this term by the majority of the indie community. The scene came in part from the free-festival scene, itself a descendant from the Counterculture of the 1960s, and is as tied into the New Age movement as Grunge was tied into Alternative culture. The scene began forming in the late '70s, cementing itself throughout the '80s and achieving a small level of commercial success in the very early '90s.

The very first band considered crust was Amebix from England, who are considered to have created the genre of music. One of the first bands that displayed elements of crust was English Anarcho punks Crass. Their uncompromising political stance as well as their communal life style had a large impact on a small number of people, especially in the south of England. From this scene, expanded an entire international community of "crust" punk, which employed the Anarcho-punk political stance of Crass, eventually creating a DIY punk network around the world that stays intact to this day, mainly focusing on collectives, tape-trades, basement distros, etc. This punk genre is most noticeable for its mixing of the traditional Anarcho-punk musical aesthetic of bands like Crass, Conflict, and Flux of Pink Indians, with more metallic and metal influences, to create a musical genre that is the most metal sounding punk. Generally, Amebix, an English band from the early 1980s are considered the pioneers of this sound. Nausea was the first North American Crust Punk band and Black Kronstadt was the first Canadian Crust Punk band.

Another usage of crusty is somewhat incorrect. It applies to poppy, indie rock bands that achieved a small level of success at about the same time as the 'true' crusty bands. These bands were labelled crusty, the strictly correct term being grebo, because of their image and its similarity to the 'true' Crusties and are often thought of negatively by both fans and critics. Many of the bands had grungy, ratty hair (usually dreadlocks) and wore grungy, dirty clothes. Live, they were not showmen, instead concentrating on the quality of their playing. In this way they were similar to the shoegazing bands of the time. They also toured in transit vans, playing literally hundreds of gigs each year but selling few records apart from the rare Top 20 hit single. For example, Stourbridge band Ned's Atomic Dustbin, were dropped by their label due to a lack of interest. Pop Will Eat Itself gave the term "grebo" its first widespread airing with their single "Grebo Guru". Other crusty bands included Zodiac Mindwarp, who shared certain image elements with the parallel Filthcore, death metal and Industrial scene. The Crusty scene also found fertile expression in the dance scene, with such bands as the Psychick Warriors of Gaia and clubs such as Planet Dog, whose zenith was market by the release of the Feed Your Head compilation.

Both strands of crusty achieved a brief period of chart success during the very early '90s. The so called 'true' crusty bands achieved their success mainly because of their devoted following. However, the success of the so called 'fake' crusty bands like Senseless Things was mainly due to much coverage (some would say hype) in the NME and the Melody Maker.

Due to the 'fake' crusty scene and the shoegazing scene emerging at almost exactly the same time, the Melody Maker referred to both scenes as "The Scene That Celebrates Itself", typified by bands such show-gazers as Lush, Slowdive and Ride. This is because many of the London based shoegazing and 'fake' crusty bands (as well as London based proto Brit-pop bands like Blur) went to each others gigs.

[edit] See also

• List of crust punk bands