The Crew (gang)

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The Crew is a mostly middle class American youth/punk street gang from Truckee, California.

Started in 2001 by students at Truckee High School, The Crew soon emerged as a tight knit gang (although the word gang is rarely used by Crew members to describe themselves.) The Crew began as a small group of friends but has emerged as one of the only punk rock youth crews in Truckee. The Crew is not to be confused with Kings Beach Hardcore, another North Lake Tahoe youth crew.

The Crew Symbol is a mixture of the letters C,R,E and W. Created by Chase McClain in 2001, it has since become the symbol for the group and can also be loosely associated with the Truckee punk scene. Some members of the group are known to have tattoos of the symbol.

The Crew Symbol, often drawn in a circle as shown.

Most of the original Crew members have moved out of the Truckee area and converge in small factions in San Francisco, Chico, and San Diego California. However, a resurgance of The Crew is occurring in Truckee among the small punk scene of students from Truckee High School.

Crew has now become synonymous with the Truckee punk scene although not all Crew members listen to or support punk rock.

[edit] History

Early Years/Magnifcent Seven

The origins of Crew began during the summer of 2000 when founders Owen Dart, Spencer McCall, Jesse Heaton, and Mac Barton were engaged in the building of a massive treefort in Glenshire. The fort had been twice destroyed and the four began preparations for the formation of an organized front by which to combat the assailants. To train, massive rubberband gun offensives transpired against young children, ranging in age from 9 to 12. Among such youth was Spencer McCall's younger brother (Wyatt) who Owen had pinned down and forced to be licked by the K9 known best as "Pepper."

Enough was enough and Spencer (enraged with anger) took up his fists against his brethren, Senor Dart. This sparked a bitter rivalry between the two that would last all the way into freshman year. The two went separate ways. Spencer shotgunned Jesse, Mac sought refuge with the stupe kids and Owen formed alliances with Joshua Edward White (later known as JEW), Dustin Valcalda, and Chase Mclane.

By the time the different factions made up and stopped acting like a bunch of little bitches, it was decided that this alliance would have to become official, should it survive.

The Crew began in early 2001 with a group of seven freshman students at Truckee High School. Initially just a group of friends led by Owen Dart, the seven began to hang out in a tight knit group in a certain upstairs hallway of Truckee High School (this hallway would later be called "Crew hallway" by most of Truckee High, even those not associated with The Crew.) These initial members were known as The Magnificent Seven by later Crew members. The Magnificent Seven consisted of Owen Dart, Spencer McCall, Jesse Heaton, Nick Watson, Mac Barton,Josh White, and Chase McClain.McClain left Crew shortly after and was replaced by Dustin ValCalda.

' The Might of Crew '

In 2002 a series of other members joined the ranks of Crew. These members include Cameron Harry, Joshua "Beaker" Williams, Eric Cuffney, Josh "Chaz" Atkinson and "Beaven." A shared love of bands such as NOFX, Guttermouth, the Misfits, Dead Kennedys, Adolescents,Dropkick Murphys, and other skate/punk bands gave The Crew a reputation as the first punk related gang in Truckee for years. Because of an insurgence of new members, the group then came into power, often going on what were called "Crewsades." These small acts of destruction and vandalism gave The Crew a reputation of rowdiness and nihilism that caused a hatred for The Crew by most other students of Truckee High School.Shortly after, a short lived set or rules and guidelines known as The Crewstitution was created to regulate the initiation of new members but was abolished soon after. The early Crew was often referred to as Straight Edge by non members. This is untrue; although early members refrained from alcohol and drugs, Crew members never considered themselves straight edge or embraced straight edge culture.

' The 601'ers'

In the 2003/2004 school year most of the original Crew members graduated, leaving s small but dedicated group of "punk rock kids". In early 2003 Cuffney and Atkinson recruited new members including Glenn Reeve and Andrew Dahlen to form the most destructive and street punk related faction of Crew known as the 601'ers. Named after a violent vigilante group from 19th century Truckee, the 601ers were known to dress more like the street punks of inner cities with patches, mohawks, and scally caps.This faction of Crew would become heavily influenced by the form of ska punk known as Crack Rock Steady, sometimes refer to themselves as Rude Boys.

601'ers were known to wear bright green bandannas around the neck which had to be stolen from a local shop. Because of these bandannas 601er's were sometimes referred to as "The Leprechaun Clan."

The 601'ers became a fixture of the Skeeno (Reno/Sparks/Tahoe) punk scene, although this may be disputed by others of the scene who did not know of the groups existence.

Other notable members who were loosely associated include Diana Oropeza, Jaclyn Cavanaugh and Jeff Roznos.

[edit] Bands

A series of punk bands were born out of various Crew members, most notably The Diabetix. In 2001 Harry, Heaton, Cuffney, Atkinson and friends Nick Echols and Michael Sheldon started a series of punk/thrash bands. Members of each band were relatively uniform but with changing names starting with the Kilt Lifters. Other band names include The Red Scare and Suspension of Disbelief and the infamous "Disturbing Peace" which consisted of Dart, Heaton, and McCall before Crew was officially established.

The group settled on the name The Diabetix and played various shows in Truckee, Reno, Kings Beach, and Chico. The Diabetix played their final show in Veterans Day 2005 at the Proxy House in Reno, NV, although a reunion show is in the works for Summer 2007. Bands that have played with The Diabetix include Secret Weapon Eight, X-Wing,Voice in the Wire, and The Vecks.

Nick Echols, Josh Atkinson, Jeffrey Roznos, and Jesse Heaton, formed the Band Crush Puppys. Even though Heaton rarley practiced. The band eventually split, "due to an impending state-wide divide. Atkinson, and Roznos, then formed a new banded resulting in Optimus Crime. Roznos soon left the band due to conflicts with Atkinson.

Members through the years:

Cameron Harry (vocals,guitar) Nick Echols (guitar) Jesse Heaton (bass) Chaz Atkinson (drums) Eric Cuffney (bagpipes, vocals) Allyson Ahlert (drums) Micheal Sheldon (vocals for Kilt Lifters) Brian York (drums for Disturbing Peace/Kilt Lifters)

Atkinson now plays in the Kings Beach Hardcore band Optimus Crime.

Recently, two new bands, Baby Dumpster and The Fundead have emerged out of new Crew members from Truckee High School. BD was formed by Crew members Paul Bansen (vocals,guitar) Kyle "Who's a Faggit?" Kessler (drums) and Kari "Mooseknuckle Jackson" Johnson (bass). The Fundead consists of Chris Patzke(Guitar/Vocals), Valerie Jaeger (bass) and the ever present Kyle Kessler (drums). Both bands are just getting on their feet and are on their way to local fandom.

[edit] Crew Today

Although all original members have moved out of the Truckee area, a small group of punks based around Truckee High School has established itself. All other Crew members continue to sport the Crew symbol, attitude, and unity in their respected areas.

The Crew lives on in a small group of punks based at Truckee High school. The current list: Wyatt McCall, Chris Patzke, Kyle Johnson, Paul Bansen, Evan Jacobson, Kyle Kessler, Valerie Jaeger, Miles Berger, Matt Aaron, Ryan Newland, and Jackie Cavanaugh.

A more recent and completely coincidental rise of The Crew has began in a small town known as Chesterton in Indiana a group of friends growing up together and listening to punk rock, grunge, ska, metal,and other kinds of music , began calling themselves the crew after a few years of being together and soon found out that a similar gang was created in California around the time two Indiana original crew members met, Bo and Tyler in 6th grade. The Indian crew is currently composed of about 15-20 friends that grew up together and know each other well. The Indiana crew can be seen in all parts of town on hot days, and on cold days they are almost never seen; they retreat to the basement of a fellow crew members home to bullshit and fuck around pointlessly for hours. Crew members include Bo, Tyler, Drew, Josh, Kelsey, Haley, Richard, Maria, Marco, Matt, David, Joel, Alec, Graham, Brandon, and others.

The Indiana crew has chaos nights similar to the crewsades. The Indiana crew is known highly for stealing from every store in walking distance of their homes and are no longer aloud in most. The Indiana crew is made up of skateboarders and musicians so the similarities between the two crews is very strange.

Also, the Indiana Crew now proudly supports what their brothers are doing on the other side of this shit hole country.

A meeting of these two crews would be not only legendary , but so chaotic and destructive it would be remembered for many years