Crisis Actor tunes in, taps in, tears through. Three figures stand at the edge of reason, asking a question no one dares answer: is there such a thing as too paranoid, or is paranoia simply the first taste of truth? Tony Knox, whose No More Heroes radio transmissions rattle Los Angeles airwaves, bends six strings like a metal detector sweeping a minefield. Zach Crawford, known to the night-crawling vinyl fiends as Paul Cinnamon, thumps out basslines that pulse like an EKG at the brink of flatline. Jonathan Ihejeto – Jet 2 to those in the know – wields the sticks, a hip-hop head turned rhythmic insurgent, keeping the whole thing locked, loaded, and lethal.
The subjects are the ones you try to ignore. The ones that linger in the walls. The ones that taste like smoke in the air. Cops, chemicals, catastrophe: the things they say are coming, the things that are already here. Nervous Laughter, their latest broadcast, explores the bewilderment brought on by the absurdity of the past couple of years since their previous record.
The song lurches forward in a four-on-the-floor march, an agitated disco dirge where voices coil around each other, arguing, unhinged, unnerved. A slashing guitar carves through, sharp as a box cutter, jagged as a fever dream. Gang of Four, Chameleons, Wire – names spoken in dim-lit corners, but Crisis Actor doesn’t resurrect, doesn’t repeat. They exorcise. They provoke. They send the signal through repetitive cross-talk vocals in this paranoid anthem.
Listen to Nervous Laughter below and pre-save on Spotify here.
Crisis Actor refuse to stand still. Since False Flag hit the airwaves, they’ve stomped through 2022, 2023, and into 2024 with an unrelenting schedule, their jagged rhythms and jittery paranoia finding a home in the dim-lit basements and makeshift stages of a world teetering on the brink. A live record. A serrated take on Curtis Mayfield’s Pusherman. A restless urge to push forward. By summer 2024, the band had stepped back into House of Tomothy Studios, ten new tracks in tow, sharpening the blade for their second album, Limited Hangout – a title as cryptic as the world they dissect.
If their Mayfield cover hinted at a widening scope, this new batch of songs rips that door off its hinges. Yet for all the band’s new refinements, the bark and bile of their punk lineage remain intact, snarling beneath the surface. Singles will trickle out through early 2025, with live shows set to reignite by summer. The full album lurks on the horizon, waiting to land—late 2025, maybe early 2026.
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