The Crypt Kicker 5 was a band formed in the early 80’s in Seattle with the core members being Chip Doring on guitar, Jack Endino on drums and Jaime Caffery on bass and vocals. The band was first featured on The Sound of Young Seattle compilation put together by D. A. Kulczyk in 1984. The song was called Ya Ya Love Song.
Next, in 1986, the band released their only full length album, a self-released and self-titled tape that was reissued by Endgame Records in ’87. I was finally able to purchase this tape via Discogs a couple of years back and I was lucky enough as I don’t see it popping up too often. The tape has 8 songs on side A recorded at the Reciprocal Studio. One of the songs is Shoot To Kill which was also featured on the Secretions Compilation LP released in 1988 on C/Z Records. Also on this side is the track 4th Hole that was released as a single in 1990 also by C/Z Records with the song Bedouin Stomp on side B.
The B side of the ’87 tape also contains 8 songs, but recorded live and probably mixed and mastered at Reciprocal Studio as well. The graphic designer Rhonda Pelikan appears on this release on vocals and guitar. I am not sure if, by this time, she had become a full time member of the band, but if you have any info please let me know.
As mentioned on the cover, the photo was taken by M. Garrison and this is a great detail, as one of my favorite bands to come out of Seattle is the band Vexed, in which M. Garrison played guitar and vocals. Vexed also played a lot of shows with Crypt Kicker 5 and, while each band has an unique sound, both of them approach a quirky post-punk sound.
Listening to the tape, I got the impression that musically the sound would fit more in the mid 80’s SST band portfolio rather than the dark heavy post-punk that was evolving in the Seattle area – bands like Feast of Friends, Clay Alien, Life in General etc. The artsy structure of the songs reminds me of the band 100 Flowers, but with surf-influenced guitars or, as mentioned by Jack Endino on his website, a Mediterranean Techno-Surf sound.
I have uploaded the tape on youtube, as I did with most of the music posted here, enjoy!
The Sonic Mosquito Soup 
Just found out about this band by looking up their name blindly, Crypt Kicker 5 was a fictitious band name dropped in the famous novelty Halloween song Monster Mash by Bobby Pickett, thanks for sharing the album on youtube.
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