In my never ending effort to contact people from punk bands of the past, I figure it was due time to start to prepare some entries for some of the Nardcore bands, such as Dr. Know and Ill Repute. So I went on the nardcore website, which is where these old timers gather. I found their message board and after being assaulted by popup ads, I posted to it asking for members of Dr. Know and Ill Repute to please get in touch as I’d like to do some features on them for this site.
The first person to respond was some kid who I assume has never felt the touch of a woman and was sitting at his computer with a bottle of lotion and his pants around his ankles. He instanty posted to “watch out for this guy, he works for Doug Moody”. Then someone else tried to defend me, and then Brandon Cruz chimed in asking who the hell I was.
Completely annoyed, I responded to the message and layed out the facts. I do indeed do some work for Doug which is no secret, I do not have anything to do with whatever problem they have with him, I was not in the room, the town or the state when they signed whatever contracts they sign, and where I earn some side money has no bearing on this whatsover. I also assured them I was not working on a Mystic project regarding them and my interest was soley related to the Selections from The Punk Vault series.
The same annonymous guy challenged me to come to the 805, which I assume is some sort of club in Oxnard, if I was brave and get the story in person, which I would do, if it wasn’t a couple thousand miles away. Then Brandon Cruz chimed in how he won’t tell another journalist the stories about his beef with Mystic ever again, how he’s a media whore and its all well documented and how I was smug but if I was looking for memories that would be ok or something to that effect.
Throughout the years I have read plenty of stories by bands about how they got ripped off by Mystic. Now they could be true, or they could not be, I don’t know. There is two sides to every story and I’m not passing judgment on either side. What I do know is all I remember ever reading was the vague “he ripped us off” with no detail given to what they signed, what they received, etc. It would be nice to hear a detailed account of how they remember things going down. I have also heard a few stories about how the band was told up front they were not getting a royalty, and that they would be provided with copies of the records as payment and were given as much, if not more than they were promised. So the story is different depending on who you ask and 20+ year old booze and drug damaged memories sometimes can get fuzzy and lost as time continues to pass by.
What would be nicer still, is if they don’t judge someone based soley on who they do some side work for, and that they share some of their band memories for the readers here to enjoy. Whether that will happen now or not remains to be seen.
If one were to follow this flawed logic of not associating with anyone who has ties to Mystic, then they by right should be against any record store who sells their records as well as these bands’ non-Mystic Records, any distributor who sells both their Mystic and non-Mystic releases, and any fan who bought those records, because in some way, they all have a tie.
Seems pretty silly if you ask me.
Come to think of it, I’ve never heard any specific stories about Mystic relations either but I’ve heard lots of vague ones.
Mike, i’ve sent you 2 emails in the past couple days. Are you getting them? I think something is wrong…..
You need to get in touch with Joe Rivas when Daghouse comes back on-line. He should be able to help get you in touch with people to get their memories of the scene, and not of Mystic records.
weird, I was just listening to “revenge is a beautiful feeling” cd last night and was thinking about asking you about your dealings with doug moody. From the vague talk I’ve heard over the years it seems there should be some middle ground given up on both sides of the story. This obviously has nothing to do with whatever work you are doing for him.
I checked out that site after reading about your experience. It seems it is a Brandon-Butt-Kissathon. What’s up with Oxnard, anyhow? I live in Orange County and never knew a scene existed there, hmm. I thought only steers and queers came from there. Do steers type?
I think some of those people are forgetting what’s important here. There’s a chance for their music to be heard by tons more people. And, there’s a chance for people who don’t know any of the stories to hear it. It’s really easy to say, “Fuck Doug Moody.” But why are people saying it? It’s a slogan that’s tied to hardcore almost as much as saying “Fuck Reagan.” “Dude let’s write a song about El Salvador and how Reagan sucks.” “Dude, I was never in a band on Mystic and I’ve never dealt with Doug Moody, but fuck that guy.”
Brandon Cruz? He can say whatever he wants…his opinion means nothing to anyone who isn’t from Oxnard. The whole DKs fiasco is a little too much for me to take.
D’oh!!! I just found the website and noticed that Brandon was the nice guy in the discussion. To quote Emo Phillips, “Boy is my face red.”
Brandon mentions how the board is a family. It seems like he’s the father, because everyone’s looking to him for answers.
If you want first-person evidence, if you ask him, I’m sure Dave Markey will happily spill the beans about how Doug Moody fleeced him over Party or Go Home…
What’s up with Brandon’s posts? In one post he’s being totally cool. But in the other post he’s being a dick. Those Nardcore people are ridiculous.
Yeah, first he was all hostile and “who are you and why should I give you the time of day”, then hostile about my having any tie to mystic, then he flat out admits that it probably wasn’t so bad seeing as how a million labels weren’t beating down their doors to put out records.
At least his mom didn’t email me and try and berate me like when I wrote some stuff in this blog about how ridiculous the DK’s “reunion” was.
A couple people did contact me direct so hopefully they will share their stories. No one on that board bothered to mention that when they did some nardcore reunion show, that Doug gave them a whole bunch of CDs of the Nardcore comp for their show.
ha ha ha, we are a warm place, it just takes getting used to. to dan celebrity, thank you for reading back and changing your obvious open mind about me. if jello himself can get over the last three years and talk to me as a human being, i hope the rest of the people can. i want to talk about the beginnings of dr know, but your mr mxv came on a bit harsh, so did i, and then it seemed cool. now he posts this. i am puzzled. does he want info or an internet fight? i am willing to go either way. i hope he chooses to get the info and share it. it nice to know that someone actually cares about an old band of 40+ year old punks. it soothes this old mans bones.
don’t argue with idiots. they will only drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
brandon cruz
NARDCORE FOR LIFE
p.s. yes, we have a scene here. 24 years old and growing. how’s OC?
At least his mom didn’t email me and try and berate me like when I wrote some stuff in this blog about how ridiculous the DK’s “reunion” was.
you might like to know that the person defending you IS my mom.
also, the cd’s big bob had did not come from doug. bob bootlregged them himself.
anyways, i’ll talk about the scene and the band, not moody. email me.
drknow@dr.com
brandon
NARDCORE FOR LIFE
Brandon,
If you look at the date of this post, you’d see it was written during the time all the shit slinging was going down over on yr msg board. I had since posted on yr msg board there that I would love nothing more than to hear the history of these bands from the members such as yrself. I left my contact info there and have not heard from you since. If you’d like to share the Dr. Know history, I’d love to share it in a future vault entry here when I cover Dr. Know.
Brandon, Doug told me he gave CDs for the Nardcore gig when someone asked him for some, which I now assume was Big Bob as I know those guys still talk to each other. I’ll drop you an email so we can converse about the back story of the band, thanks.
MXV, Lewwdd was right, I would have conencted you to whoever you wanted to be connected to, and could have done it in a fashion that none of the old nard guys would have taken badly. I know them all very well and know how to approach them about things.
No matter what Doug may say, The bands got fucked. And he can toute a record contract that has signatures on it all he wants. it dosent change the fact that he robbed a bunch of little kids that didnt know any better, becasue they were all teenagers when the were on Mystic..except Agression. Doug promised records…off the first pressing…what about the 2nd press and 3rd and 4th and so on. What about how he decide to take songs and out them on Comps with out the knowledge of the bands. there was a lot of other things that I am not really clear on either.
and Brandon Cruz is an upstanding guy. I am not sure where any one gets the idea that we all look to him for answers. That seems rather silly to me. Brandon is often just as lost and confused as the rest of us. He may post on the Nard Board more often than anyone else…maybe that is why you guys have gotten this perception. I dont know. You also have to understand about Brandon is that he has a right to be pissed off about Doug and Mystic. So when someoen comes to his home and approaches him with stuff about Mystic, of course he is goin gto take it maybe a little badly. wouldnt you if the rolls were reversed?
Not one of the old nard guys would mind if there old music was heard by fresh ears. I know for a fact that it would bring a smile to their faces. But you have to understand that the Mystic factor is always there for them. Even Fat mike talks about getting jacked by Doug. Its not a fantasy that years have made into legend. Those bands were really affected by what happen.
I have a Dr Know record, “This Island Earth” which was released on Metal Blade records. The last line in the Specail thanks reads “No thanks to Doug Moody”. This was released in 86′. So, it was real then…and is still real now.
And Don from the OC, If you really have never heard of Agression, Ill Repute, Stalag 13 or Dr Know, then you really need to look them up. I hope that you were just trying to be funny though and you know these bands already.
Joe R
First, I don’t remember writing to you about Brandon’s stint with the DK’s, but if you were a total dick about it I probably did in a flash of anger. I saw them for myself and was thinking, this could suck, but guess what? It didn’t! The fans in both Lisbon and Coimbra went NUTS and at first they were upset Jello wasn’t there, but after Brandon hit the stage he had them, as well as me.
Since I am older than the bands that got screwed by Moody, I was able to see what he was doing. I went to Mystic. I saw the old fart in his bathrobe and slippers promising everything to these kids. Brandon isn’t the only one in the family that got screwed. Blake, the youngest brother was in Stalag 13 and holds the copyrights to all the songs. He was only THIRTEEN then. I let them go for it. I wasn’t about to kill their dreams, but I did warn them about him.
Blake hasn’t gotten over it to this day. Yet you once again oh-so-smugly cloud this with your own doubts about the real truth.
I’m glad Joe R. posted what he did. He’s the logical and level headed one of the board. There’s something about those Cruz’s, eh? I’m not a Cruz, not for a LONG time, but I am their leader. I’m a musician, too, in case you’re thinking, ohgod, the mother had to step into this. I was as much a part of early Nardore as anyone. I only played punk venues. Age means nothing.
Ask Brandon who introduced him to punk.
Mama Cruz – I lost you on the thing about Blake, you said in the same sentence he owns his own songs yet got screwed? I don’t get what you meant there.
I repect yr opinion on the whole DK’s thing but regardless of what it was, what it wasn’t was the true band. And winning over a crowd that was probably mostly high school kids and people that weren’t around isn’t that hard to do, just ask Jerry Only, as his pathetic version of “the misfits” still continues to draw some sort of crowd, sad as that may seem. I’m sure Brandon did a fine job and that was a tough role to be in. I’ll say this, it took a lot of sac to go up there and do it. We’re I a singer, I’d never attempt it in a million years.
Joe R is a fine upstanding fellow. I had the pleasure to meet him in person before that crappy Black Flag show in 2003 and as a fellow Daghouser, he will always be a good guy in my book.
We can argue the Mystic thing until we are all blue in the face and it won’t solve anything. The fact is though that in most cases there wasn’t a line of record lables back then beating down these bands’ doors wanting to put out their music. I for one am thankful these records got made. These records were an important part of my growing up and they still mean a great deal to me today. I don’t know the exact details per each band’s deal and I’m quite sure that Doug is not without fault either in some cases, but I can tell you he didn’t get rich off that label. For every Dr. Know record that sold a few thousand copies, there was something like Rabid Fetus that he’s still probably sitting on a big box of from the first 500 pressing that he couldn’t give away. The guy did keep using incoming funds to keep putting out more and more music by a bunch of unknown bands.
If you’d be so kind to ask Blake to contact me at punkvault[at]gmail[dot]com, I would love to get the Stalag 13 history straight from the source for a future feature here on their record.
I don’t have much time. Yes, Blake has a thing with either ASCAP or BMI. All the songs are in his name. It’s been so long since we talked about taking some action, I don’t remember details and it’s confusing to me, too.
Getting ahold of Blake will be easy, but getting him to reply won’t. His computer is kaput again, so he can’t go through the cybergate and interact or react. I’ll tell you this, he’s a trip — charasmatic and he loves to talk about Stalag. He’s a jokester, too. You’d have fun interviewing him.
I hear the key in the door….gotta go.
Ps Never call me Cruz. Thanks
“I repect yr opinion on the whole DK’s thing but regardless of what it was, what it wasn’t was the true band.”????????????
this is getting to taste as bad as the moody crap. not the true band? ray, klaus and DH were and still are the band. they just didn’t sing. bands change singers all the time. remember al barr? black flag had 4 singers…….it goes on all the time. the punkest thing DKs ever did was to piss off the punks. “nazi punks, fuck off” didn’t make a lot of boneheads happy, their albums were always different sounding. things change, constantly. for a while there, the singer changed. that pissed people off. good. it made them think, didn’t it? wasn’t that the DK message all along? think for yourself? or should you listen to what one person says and believe it as the truth? go see things and experience them on your own and make your own decisions. i never wanted everyone to like what i do. if they did i would be bored out of my skull. so, things changed. so what? look at dr. know, first me, then another 3 or 4 guys, then kyle, then me again. as i asked before, so what? by the way, i quit the band over 2 years ago. i did get bored.
i thought there were no rules.
brandon
NARDCORE FOR LIFE
Guilty as charged. I was just making fun of the whole Oxnard scene. The OC scene is happening. There are alot of young bands and some places for them to play. Although. I am a little old to go out Punkin anymore. Brandon, can I hang at your site? Promise to be nice. PEACE
Blake, you’re the man, Hope it’s all good rt now,. Live it up in the best way you know how and remember that there’s noone who cares for you more than those who are behind you now. Be eazy and hook it up with one o’ them Green T-shirt alright, Alright..
_andrew p