Pete Droge and Stone Gossard (Mother Love Bone / Pearl Jam) Played with the band for a short time. Steve Nelson (The Accused) and Jon Evison remained associated with the band through out its existence. As for the line up in the pictures (and in the recordings)
(written by Jen Grover)
March of Crimes formed in Bainbridge Island, WA in 1982. The lineup was founder John Evison (nickname Monkeyseeker): vocals, Pete Droge: guitar, Andy Veterrani: bass, vocals, and Steve Nelson: drums. Ben Shepherd later replaced Pete Droge on guitar, and Andy Carrow replaced Andy Veterrani on bass. Stone Gossard had a passing association with the band, but never joined as a regular member and to my knowledge never played any gigs with them.
Kim Neely in her book "Five Against One" reports, "Stone joined eagerly. Not only were the guys in March of Crimes keeping company with the much-admired Melvins, they were gigging regularly. 'We played a lot of shows at the Metropolis,' Shepherd recalled. 'And we played the very first show at Gorilla Gardens, where Soundgarden played their second show ever. That was like the place where all the out of town bands would play all-ages shows. A total rip-off joint.' Stone's stint in March of Crimes lasted about a nanosecond. Although he and Shepherd got along fine, he clashed with the other band members ("I was trying to have my second-rate Van Halen licks involved," Stone said later), and they fired him the first chance they got."
The band released a self-produced demo cassette which included the songs "Soup Kitchen" and "Shades of Grey." To hear songs from this tape, visit the March of Crimes page on MySpace, created and maintained by Jon Evison's nephew. Ben Shepherd has described their music as "speedcore" and some have compared their sound to Soundgarden's "HIV Baby," Ben's first recording with Soundgarden, to which he wrote the music. The guitar riff is one he had been kicking around for years. Matt Cameron, in an interview in Goldmine, described them as "fucking awesome! They sounded extremely raw, inspired punk rock. It was high-school-kid punk rock that's on to something. They were very abrasive sounding." Their most important gig was opening for GBH at Mountaineers Hall.
------------------ (A Kitsap Sun article on Jonathan's award winning book and March of Crimes. article by Tristan Baurick) I recently wrote about island son Jonathan Evison’s fast rise in the Northwest literary world. See my story here for more on Evison winning the Washington State Book Award last month and the couple decades he spent skateboarding, earning poor grades and working some pretty odd odd jobs (i.e. “road kill cutter-upper”).
In the story, I mentioned in passing that one of his “jobs” was as singer/screamer of the pre-grunge band March of Crimes. The band is noted in several histories of the grunge genre as a launch pad for the likes of fellow islander Ben Shepherd, who went on to play bass for Soundgarden, and Stone Gossard, who remains a guitarist for Pearl Jam.
“I kicked Stoney out of the band,” Evison said with a tinge of pride when I interviewed him late last month.
March of Crimes’ songs were simple and fast. Gossard, according to Evison, was a fan of layered guitar-work and the complicated fret-board stylings popular with heavy metal bands. Basically, Gossard was too skilled for the March of Crimes, Evison said.
The band, which lasted for about three years in the early to mid-1980s, never scored a record deal, but strong showings in Seattle’s underground clubs left a mark on a music scene that would take over MTV and Top-40 radio in the early 1990s.
---------------March of Crimes is also mention in the book Grunge Is Dead by Greg Prato.
Thank you so much for putting your music here! It's been 2 dozen years waiting. Such a sweet sound to my ears. One time I met Ben backstage @ a Hater show & gave him photos from the famed Mountaineers gig w/ GBH & the Fastbacks. Trying to talk him into mailing me a tape of MOC. He probably thought I was crazy! I met Jon @ a pasta bar in Columbia Center once. He was so humble as I gushed about the greatness of MOC. Gorilla Gardens, Metropolis...so many great memories. I always try to get Mike H. from Bainbridge to hassel any of you guys for MOC music..he reports tapes lost/stolen!? I hope not. I hope to hear more & would do anything for a copy of your songs (hint, hint)! If any of you guys need those Metropolis photos...I'll forever have them. And any of the young folks creating punk nowadays..take note not only of the music, but Jon's vocals. That's how it's done! You'll always be my favorite Seattle punk band...and you're truly on par w/ 7 Seconds, Circle Jerks, Rebel Truth, etc. Thank you so much. Possibly your biggest fan, Steve Knouse
haha. okay, so the names of those songs really are (i think); 1. crying evil 2. soup line 3. no excuse and 4. empty promises . . . thanks for the trip down memory lane . . . man, i was young . . .
