Crust Vs Cops

Photo by Ben Rayner

Annihilation Time hate cops as much as Black Flag Did. This is appropriate because no-one deserves their place in the LA hardcore punk rock “dynasty” as much as AT, as anyone who saw them on their recent UK tour will attest to. Vice: When was your first brush with the law? Graham Clise (guitarist): When I was 11, there was this kid in school who was a total shitbag. My friend had this bottle of laxatives. So I crushed up like 30 of them all good and tossed them in a Coke and gave it to him. I was stupid and said something like: “Have fun shitting your guts out”. I should have just kept my mouth shut. I guess he got way sick and couldn't stop shitting and puking. He ended up having to go to the hospital, so the cops came to my house and made this big scene about how they were going to nail me big time. It flipped me out but I didn’t end up getting busted. So you kind of brought that on yourself. Isn’t it the cops’ job to protect society from people like you? Ahh, fuck them. I grew up with this kid whose dad was a cop, and he was a total asshole. He was also a nudist. I used to show up at their house and he would always be naked every time. Think what that would do to you if your dad was constantly naked and a cop. It’d be like living in a Raymond Pettibon cartoon. What’s the worst shit Annihilation Time have had to deal with cop-wise? We were on tour driving through West Texas at like 3 AM lost in some shitty little town in the middle of nowhere. We had just scored an ounce of weed in Austin. We had an out tail-light, but foolishly took bong rips in the van despite knowing how shitty West Texas cops are. Sure enough we get pulled over, and the second he sticks his head in the car he can smell the grass. He asks us whose weed it is, and of course no one says shit. He then says he's going to impound the van and throw all of us in jail unless someone claims it. Our bro Noel takes the hit for everyone and gets arrested. We bailed him out the next day for $900. The lawyers fees were like $2,000. What a rip-off. Are the police in Europe worse or were you happy to get back to LAPD's finest? Euro cops are cooler than LA cops. The cops in Holland are a joke. You can fuck with them and they don’t do shit. It rules. Serbian cops are assholes. They have machine guns and make you pay them 40 euros. LA cops will Rodney King your ass. JAMIE THOMSON
Annihilation Time’s latest album II is out now on Six Weeks. You can get it on orange vinyl if you’re into that kind of thing.