Crazy Town

Crazy Town
General information
origin	Los Angeles , California , USA
Genre (s)	Nu metal , crossover
founding	1999, 2007
resolution	2003
Founding members
Rap , singing	Shifty shellshock
Rap, singing, DJing, production	Epic Mazur
Current occupation
Rap, singing	Shifty shellshock
singing	Epic Mazur
bass	Nick Diiorio
guitar	Elias Tannous
Drums	Kevin Kapler
DJing	Rick dixon
former members
DJing	DJ Adam Goldstein (until 2002; † 2009)
Drums	James Bradley Jr. (until 2002)
guitar	Rust Epique (until 2000; † 2004)

Crazy Town (also known as CXT ) is an American crossover band formed in 1999 by rappers Shifty Shellshock (actually Seth Brooks Binzer) and Epic Mazur (actually Bret Mazur) in Hollywood , Los Angeles . The other band members were Rust Epique (guitar), Antonio Lorenzo “Trouble” Valli (guitar), Doug “Faydoe” Miller (bass), JBJ (actually James Bradley Jnr., Drums) and DJ AM ( Adam Goldstein , turntables). The band was best known for their hit single Butterfly .

history

The beginnings

Shifty and Epic met back in the early 1990s when they went to the same high school together. Shifty began writing and rapping their first lyrics at this time, while Epic tried his hand at DJing . Together they founded The Brimstone Sluggers project and even got a record deal. However, the band failed due to the lack of interest from the two of them.

In 1996, Shifty was serving a 90-day prison sentence at Chino State Penitentiary for robbing a drug dealer . After Shifty's imprisonment, the two decided to form a new band with real instruments and several members. The name was borrowed from the gang name of Shifty's former skater gang “Westside Crazies” and the name of the skateboard manufacturer “Dog Town”.

1999-2001: The Gift of Game

After the band had recorded a few demos, they signed a recording deal with Columbia Records . In November 1999 Crazy Town released their debut album The Gift of Game and the accompanying single Toxic , which, however, sold poorly.

Shortly after the release, guitarist Rust Epique was kicked out of the band due to drug problems. With Kraig "Squirrel" Tyler, however, the band quickly found a replacement.

2000 was a difficult year: the second single Darkside also sold poorly, bottles were pelted at the Ozzfest , and Shifty had problems with substance abuse.

At the end of 2000 Crazy Town released the song Butterfly , the instrumental of which was based on the song Pretty Little Ditty from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers album Mother's Milk . The single sold 6 million times. Parallel to the Ozzfest in summer 2001, the band released the next single Revolving Door , which did not sell well. In December 2001 the single Toxic from 1999 was re-released.

The release of the next album was announced for 2001, but was later postponed to autumn. There were some disagreements in the band, after which DJ Adam Goldstein in favor of a solo career and James Bradley Jr. left the band for family reasons. The new drummer was the then 23-year-old Kyle Hollinger from the band Shuvel . Shifty used the break to record the song Starry Eyed Surprise with the British DJ Paul Oakenfold , which was only released in England.

2002-2003: Darkhorse

On November 9, 2002, the second album Darkhorse was released with the first single Drowning . The album produced by Howard Benson sounded much harder and rockier than the debut album. Darkhorse only rose to number 120 on the American Billboard charts and only sold 28,000 times by 2009. After a short tour through California, four concerts in Japan and the MTV Winterjam, the last concert for the time being was given on March 16, 2003 in Cologne's Prime Club .

The unsuccessful single Hurt you so Bad was released in March. Another single did not appear because the band canceled their record deal.

Time out

At the end of 2003 the band announced a break. Epic and Squirrel then concentrated on producing unknown bands under their pseudonym "Bodysnatchers". Shifty acquired a stake in the Beverly Hills Pimps and Hoes clothing brand, Trouble was planning a solo project, and Faydoe and Kyle toured with Suicidal Tendencies and Hotwire .

Shifty's solo disc Happy Love Sick came out together with the single Slide Along Side in late 2004 on the Maverick Records label , but sold rather poorly. At that time Shifty announced that there would be a new Crazy Town album in the foreseeable future. Shifty's second solo single Turning me On was only released in the US.

In April 2005 Crazy Town gathered again in the studio and recorded some songs. The CD with the working title "2013" was supposed to be released in autumn, but the recordings were canceled. Shifty devoted himself instead to his new project Cherry Lane with the American singer Lance Jones . Some of the duo's songs, which were in the direction of R&B , were distributed over the Internet, but the project was quickly terminated.

When the song Hit that Switch was released on the Myspace profile in the summer of 2006 , rumors about a third album were again loud. Singer TC, who had worked on Shifty's solo album, among other things, invalidated these rumors: Hit that Switch was just one of the songs that were planned for the new album in 2005. With the Darkhorse - B-side Hard to Get Crazy Town published another song on their Myspace profile.

At the end of 2006 it was announced that Shifty had formed a new band called Porno Punks . When Epic and Squirrel, now producing unknown bands under the name The Pharmacy , gave an interview for MTV , Epic said:

"It's not like we live in the past and think about what could have been. We were lucky to have the success we had and we got to see the entire world and had a # 1 hit. If it had been handled right, maybe we'd still be together. But after going through that experience, I'm happy with where I am in my life. "

“It's not like we're still living in the past and wondering what could have been. We were lucky to have this huge success, to be able to see the whole world and to land a # 1 hit. If everything had been handled right, we might still be together. But after having had this experience, I am glad where I am in my life. "

Reunion

Since 2008 a new album called Crazy Town is Back has been announced; this should include the songs Hit That Switch and Hard To Get .

On August 26th, 2009 Crazy Town gave their first live concert in five years at Les Deux, Hollywood, California to celebrate the birthdays of Shifty and Epic on the one hand and to promote the upcoming new album on the other.

On August 28, 2009, former member DJ AM was found dead in his apartment.

In February 2011 a 26-second excerpt from the new single Come Inside was released on the Internet.

The release of the new album The Brimstone Sluggers , first announced for 2014 and then for spring 2015, has been postponed to August of that year. A pre-release with the title Megatron was released on January 27, 2015. In 2014, the band played concerts in Europe, including at Rock am Ring and Rock im Park . In 2015 Crazy Town is touring Canada, the USA and Mexico.

Discography

Albums

year	Title music label	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1999	The Gift of Game Columbia	DE6th gold (25 weeks)DE	AT4 (25 weeks) AT	CH11 gold (21 weeks)CH	UK15th gold (12 weeks)UK	US9 platinum (34 weeks)US	First published: November 9, 1999 Sales: + 2,500,000
2002	Darkhorse Columbia	DE52 (2 weeks) DE	-	CH90 (2 weeks) CH	-	US120 (1 week) US	First published: November 12, 2002 Sales: +28,000
2015	The Brimstone Sluggers membrane	-	-	-	-	-	First published: August 28, 2015

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
2000	Butterfly The Gift of Game	DE1 platinum (19 weeks)DE	AT1 gold (16 weeks)AT	CH1 gold (28 weeks)CH	UK3 gold (13 weeks)UK	US1 (23 weeks) US	First published: Nov 13, 2000 Sales: + 1,163,000
2001	Revolving Door The Gift of Game	DE26 (9 weeks) DE	AT29 (9 weeks) AT	CH43 (8 weeks) CH	UK23 (5 weeks) UK	-	First published: July 2, 2001
2002	Drowning Darkhorse	DE45 (7 weeks) DE	AT45 (11 weeks) AT	-	UK50 (2 weeks) UK	-	First published: August 8, 2002

More singles

• 1999: Toxic
• 1999: B-Boy 2000
• 1999: Who the Fuck Is Crazy Town
• 2000: Darkside
• 2003: Hurt You So Bad
• 2013: Lemonface
• 2015: Megatron
• 2015: Backpack
• 2015: Born to Raise Hell (feat.DJ AM and J. Angel)
• 2016: Come Inside

Awards for music sales

Golden record  Belgium 2001: for the single Butterfly  Finland 2001: for the album The Gift of Game  New Zealand 2001: for the album The Gift of Game  Norway 2019: for the album The Gift of Game

Platinum record  Denmark 2001: for the single Butterfly  Canada 2001: for the album The Gift of Game  Norway 2001: for the single Butterfly  Sweden 2001: for the single Butterfly

2 × platinum record  Australia 2001: for the single Butterfly

Note: Awards in countries from the chart tables or chart boxes can be found in these.

Country / Region	gold	platinum	Sales	swell
Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources)
Australia (ARIA)	-	2 × platinum2	140,000	aria.com.au
Belgium (BEA)	gold1	-	25,000	ultratop.be
Denmark (IFPI)	-	platinum1	8,000	musik.org ( Memento of October 5, 2002 in the Internet Archive )
Germany (BVMI)	gold1	platinum1	650,000	musikindustrie.de
Finland (IFPI)	gold1	-	20,933	ifpi.fi
Canada (MC)	-	platinum1	100,000	musiccanada.com
New Zealand (RMNZ)	gold1	-	7,500	nztop40.co.nz
Norway (IFPI)	gold1	platinum1	25,000	ifpi.no ( Memento from November 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) NO2
Austria (IFPI)	gold1	-	25,000	ifpi.at
Sweden (IFPI)	-	platinum1	30,000	sverigetopplistan.se
Switzerland (IFPI)	2 × gold2	-	50,000	hitparade.ch
United States (RIAA)	-	platinum1	1,000,000	riaa.com
United Kingdom (BPI)	2 × gold2	-	500,000	bpi.co.uk
All in all	10 × gold10	8 × platinum8th

swell

1. ↑ Rolling Stone: http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/crazytown/articles/story/5937190/excrazy_town_guitarist_dead
2. ↑ Answers.com: http://www.answers.com/topic/crazy-town
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Annette Schimanski: What became of Crazy Town? musikexpress.de, August 30, 2018, accessed December 12, 2019 . 
4. ↑ MTV: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1551815/20070207/city_high.jhtml
5. ↑ MTV.com: [1]
6. ↑ Creative Mac: Archive link ( Memento from July 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
7. ↑ LA Times: [2]
8. ↑ YouTube: [3]
9. ↑ Exclusive: Crazy Town Returns After Lengthy Hiatus with New Single Megatron
10. ↑ Tour calendar

Web links

Commons : Crazy Town  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Crazy Town on Allmusic (English)
• Crazy Town at Discogs (English)
• Crazy Town at laut.de
• Chart sources: DE / AT / CH / UK / US