This past September, “Fat” Mike Burkett stunned the punk rock world when he announced NOFX’s next tour would be their last. Not long afterward, he also revealed that he was working on a new music project with Sam King of Get Dead, and rapper Ceschi Ramos, calling the new endeavor Codefendants. Initially, Burkett was on board as producer only but later said he was “joining the band.”
Codefendants came together “forged out of a desire to make an album that sounded like nothing else; a completely genre-fluid album, a cross between hip hop, new-wave, flamenco, and the Beatles.” They gave this genre the name “crime wave” and it promises to be something completely different than anything Burkett has been involved with in the past.
Their debut album had been dubbed “This is Crime Wave” and is out now on Burkett’s new imprint label, Bottles to the Ground. A series of five episodic videos have been released from songs off the album so far. Beginning with episode one, a poignant masterpiece called “Suicide by Pigs,” each video is a small chapter in a continuing story of a hard life of drugs, bad cops, and the institution that puts you away.
The most recently released video is for the heavy song “Fast Ones,” which has a dope breakdown and features a rap by legend The D.O.C. It’s punk rock meets hip hop in a unique way.
The Codefendants are playing on several dates of NOFX’s final tour and are headlining a number of club dates before joining the tour in Austin. Southern California shows are at The Knitting Factory in Los Angeles on April 16th, and Chain Reaction in Anaheim on April 17th. It remains to be seen if Burkett will be joining King and Ramos onstage at any of these club dates, but one can hope so.
Sometimes when one door closes, another opens. The South American rock group Zeta will be opening these shows in support of their new CD “Todo Bailarlo” which blends traditional Latin American instruments and an experimental punk sound.
See Codefendants now before they blow up in a big way.
