when sodom & gomorrah comes calling: An interview with The Crotches

As cliché as the adage is, life gets in the way of one’s priorities at times. Especially when the threat of a snap-wrist outbreak of war is a truism. Israel and Palestine are the prime example in this era. When you’re from that region of the world where frayed nerve tensions ember on the daily, a politician’s rhetoric could shift an everyday resident’s concerns from how the work commute will look, or if a checkpoint is open or closed, to whether their day will be spent in a bomb shelter, or if unlucky, out in the open. 

When asked for an unbiased take on those realities, Alonzo and Amitkes Crotch, two brothers and founders of the long-running garage punk band The Crotches, are quick to acknowledge that taking sides out of the picture is necessary to grasp the magnitude of this scenario: everyone’s life is on hold when those air-raid sirens blare. 

The Crotch brothers (Alonzo, Amitkes, Shashe’) grew up with this reality in their past lives in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and it's important to emphasize that past, given their recent immigration to Las Vegas to escape their home country’s ultra nationalist narrative and nosedive into messianic zealotry. Already holding opposite views in a country where such dissent comes with severe societal backlash, especially when making a reverse Aliyah, the brothers already accepted those realities of their choices after an early conscious awakening to the country's hypernationalism enabling the State’s flagrant actions against Palestinians throughout the Occupied Territories, in addition to shunning citizens who go against the country's political/societal grain.​

These guys have vehemently fought against such popular viewpoints there with their music and activism since forming the band in 2011. The Crotches don’t shy away from their leftist politics in their songs, and they’re notable company alongside names like Charlie Megira and Gilad Atzmon, who’ve expressed the same views in their artwork, which only bolsters their subversive outcast status within a mainstream society that holds the unshakable belief in the Israeli narrative. Outside the politics, these guys have fun and talk shit amongst themselves, not taking themselves so seriously as they do their work. What would you expect from a band whose lead singer strips onstage and crushes his dome with beer bottles? 

So how did two of the three brothers end up smack dab in the weirdness that’s current America? A few horrendous events followed. The 2022 elections took place, bringing to power a neo-Kach government- the most far-right-wing government in Israeli history. The fallout was instantaneous, with an authoritarian-esque judicial reform proposal and the appointment of ministers who would galvanize Judeo-jingoistic settler movements throughout the West Bank and amplify attacks on Palestinians and leftists while bellowing rhetorical fervor throughout the Knesset for reoccupying the Gaza Strip with Jewish settlements for the first time since 2005. 

Then October 7th, 2023.  Hamas’s kidnappings and widespread slaughter of civilians across southern Israel triggered the country’s war across the Gaza Strip, emboldening this government’s insidious, genocidal plan: clear the strip of inhabitants by any and all means necessary. Couple this ongoing state-backed settler violence surging into overdrive across the West Bank, in addition to governmental efforts to increase settlement expansion throughout Palestinian enclaves, and the brothers knew their time in the Holy Land was up. They had to make a change for their own sake; they just didn’t think it would be to the town that Bugsy Siegel helped build, trading biblical-era holy sites for Elvis impersonator marriage chapels. Jerusalem to a new world Gomorrah.  

Since landing in Las Vegas, Amitkes and Alonzo have reformed The Crotches with a lineup consisting of two Los Angeles area musicians named Moose on drums and Jakey on bass, touring throughout the West Coast of the United States to build a new audience and closing an album gap of seven years with their new unapologetic release Fuck The Crotches on their own record label Love Now! Records. 

Get to know these guys below.

From L - R: Amitkes & Alonzo - Photography by Dusty Wade. 

How old were you guys when you three first discovered punk music, and who introduced it to the family? Also, how did Alonzo’s involvement in skate culture influence that early musical awakening?

Alonzo: When I was between the ages of 13 and 16, we had the great privilege of living with our family on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. That was in the late 90s, and those were the years when my mind opened up, and I was first exposed to many important subcultures, including punk.  I was 14 when I first snuck into a Rock n' roll concert; it was The Offspring at Irving Plaza. That was obviously a shaping moment, and the love for Rock'n'roll that ignited that night naturally passed on to my brothers, who took it in other directions, and over time we refined our mutual taste. And yes, I can definitely attribute that taste and my passion for cool to the fact that during those years all I cared about was skating. This was also a time when skateboarding was still very much a crime, especially in NYC... More than once I had to walk back home with one less skateboard than what I had left the house with because it was snatched and confiscated by some asshole cop.  I think that to this day there is a lot in common between skateboarding and The Crotches’ music, which is not Punk per se, but, like skating, it shares the essence of punk in energy and intention, though not necessarily in the generic, scenic, fashion aspects. It’s more of an attitude. The Offspring never became a major musical influence on our music, but I will forever love them because they took my virginity, very respectfully, and it barely hurt.

Where did you go to see shows during your formative years? Is there one specific gig you remember that really shaped the humanistic views and beliefs you express in your music today?

Amitkes: When I was finishing high school, I used to go to a place called The Patiphone (later Rogatka, then Koro). That’s where I first saw a real DIY venue in operation. It was a tiny room with a tiny bar, and some of the best bands in town used to play there. In the adjacent room, they ran a DIY label named Fast Music, and I ended up trying to get my hands on every release they put out. The shows I saw there definitely made me wanna sink deeper into the underground, and that might have helped shape our resistance instinct. If you want to further your knowledge about this rock'n'roll niche, you can look up the doc Furious and Fast: The Story of Fast Music and the Patiphone. Regardless of our worldviews, in 2008, Alonzo and I went to see a band we didn’t know at a small basement club called Levontin 7 in South Tel Aviv. They kept breaking guitar strings, and by the middle of the set they had gone through all of their guitars and those of the opening bands, and the show had to end. However, we’d seen more than enough, and I think that after this show we officially decided we’re gonna do this Crotches thing for real. That band was called The Black Lips, and a few years later we opened their show when they came back to town. That was a cool full circle. 

When you were living there, which neighborhoods in Tel Aviv-Jaffa were the epicenters for punk culture? What were the go-to venues for local and international acts, and which record stores were the best at stocking local releases?

Amitkes: Jaffa and South Tel Aviv are definitely where you'll find the cooler venues and record shops. The scummy areas around the central bus station were home to some underground clubs and venues we used to frequent and later on play at, like The Barzilay Club for parties and The Zimmer for shows. Street punks used to hang out at Dizengoff Square, but to be honest, we were always more garagey rock' n’ rollers and never truly part of that scene. We often interacted with the punk scene, but we liked other shit too. When I was a young teenager, I used to get records at The Third Ear and Hor Beshachor (Hole in Black); other cool shops in the city include Uganda, Neweiba, and Holit, all of which have their own local labels.

How did the concept for The Crotches first come about? Was it always intended to be a family affair?

Alonzo: This was always the intention for sure, and the original band consisted of just us three brothers - Amitkes, myself, and our baby brother Shashé who played drums with us for the first 4 years until he moved to Amsterdam to pursue a successful Jazz career. At least 3 years before we wrote our first song, we were already telling everybody that we were in a band called The Crotches, and by the time we played our first show on March 11th 2011, the word was out. We didn’t play that great, obviously, but it was packed, and we knew we had to keep doing this.

Amitkes: Yeah. The crowd’s reaction was so addictive it introduced me to a high I knew I couldn’t get anywhere else. A high that felt constructive in comparison to others on the more destructive side. And what better way to do it than with your own brothers? It had to go on, and it did every day since that first show…

Leaving your home country is never easy, and you recently made the massive move from Tel Aviv to Las Vegas. What drove that decision, and how are you adapting to life in the States? Did you face any backlash back home for making the move, or did you have a strong support system?

Amitkes: Definitely not easy, but at the same time trippy, enlightening, and, in our case, necessary. In our immediate circle, there was no backlash at all for this decision. If anything, the people close to us who obviously hold the same values and ideals as us sympathize with our choice and agree that it has become unbearable to live and make art in Israel, especially in the past decade and especially if your art is political and not just oblivious mind-numbing crap.

In your experience, how does mainstream Israeli society view the ethos of punk rock—especially when it intersects with politics and the dominant Zionist narrative?

Alonzo: There is most definitely an Israeli Punk scene, and it has had some impactful moments culturally over the years. Socially speaking, I think mainstream society in Israel is pretty unbothered by the punk scene or any other good indie music in Israel, really. That’s another reason we decided to expand to the US: it felt like we’d been preaching to the choir for a long time, and that, as an uncompromising independent band, we’d reached something of a glass ceiling. 

Amitkes: With that, we have an amazing audience back there whom we adore, and that many freaks and punks in that scene are fighting every day for a change in the Israeli status quo. They are the sane minority, and in my view, that does have something to do with their musical preferences.

Alonzo Over Jerusalem - Photography by Itamar Ginsburg

You’ve noted before that there is immense pressure on Israeli artists to stay silent and not criticize the government's agenda—and that people are more afraid to speak their minds now than ever. Was that censorship and pressure already palpable before the 2022 elections, or did it exponentially increase following the outbreak of the war on Gaza?

Alonzo: Generally, and with a few exceptions, I think that artists in the mainstream have always been too silent and complacent; it’s part of the reason they become mainstream - they don’t go against the grain and never provoke critical thinking or socio-political awareness. For those reasons, the lukewarm, biased mainstream media embraces them, and they become household names. That has always been the case, though we agree that the shock and after-shock of October 7th and the war on Gaza have deepened this silence amongst Israeli artists. We attribute this to the Israeli government’s poison machine, which immediately politicized and propagandized the horrific attacks of October 7th, unifying Israelis around their victimhood and fear of annihilation, and it worked better than ever, to the point where that fear and hatred spread even to more alternative scenes as well, again, with many exceptions. Moreover, the world’s justified criticism of Israel's genocidal war in Gaza isolated many left-wing artists who are peace seekers, vocal anti-occupationists, and sometimes even declared anti-zionists. A lot of them started to feel that their like-minded partners around the world turned their backs on them purely for being born Israelis, and that sadly resulted in even more silence. They were forced to turn inward and cater to those around them, who were less receptive to that criticism. This is a very discouraging and dangerous process that unfortunately benefits the Israeli government and plays straight into their hands, who actively work at minimizing any criticism for their actions, whether from within Israeli society or from the rest of the world.

Let’s dive into Fuck The Crotches. First off, what’s the story behind that title? Secondly, what were your main goals with this record, and how does it set itself apart from your previous two albums?

Amitkes: Our first album was basically raw, youthful emotion that reflected our loves and losses, laughs and lusts of that time; it was pure DIY rock n’ roll songwriting, in a good way, for the most part, I think. The second album showcased more of our political awareness, with songs like Love Now, an anti religious anthem, "Good Night Prejudice," an anti-racist song that was aimed at the Israeli up-and-coming settler regime which is by now in power creating havoc, and "Ya Shabab," a song in Arabic we co-wrote with our friend Buddha (shout out!) that calls for joined resistance between Palestinian and Israeli youth. After these two albums, we released a bunch of EPs and many singles that consisted of a few love songs and some more politically involved materials like Zarat Hatarbut, Israel Hayom and Dancing on Blood, all aimed at this relentless, deadly, populist administration, and our three-song EP ACAB, which includes the song "Prisoner of Zion, our most explicitly anti-zionist song.

Alonzo: Our new album Fuck The Crotches is our first attempt at recording music in English and somewhat rewinds to our early era of pure emotion; we basically just said: “fuck it, we’re outta here and we need to write a cool album that we can have fun playing and which people can understand the lyrics and catch our vibe right away.” Fuck The Crotches is kinda like our business card for this current adventure in the States, and its title seemed fitting for the time and the place - Fuck everything, even us.

Amitkes: Luckily, that title resonates with our fans and haters alike.

How did the current lineup come together? What connections brought everyone into the fold for this version of the band?

Amitkes: When we decided to move to the States, we knew that Nimshi and Gadi (our amazing rhythm section and stepbrothers) wouldn’t be able to come along for the ride, and that we needed to find a new drummer and bass player. We put that word out, and Roy, a mutual friend who plays drums on the song "Procrastination," mentioned a young and wild drummer from LA who goes by the name Moose. We reached out to him, and he brought Jakey to play Bass; the rest is history. We dearly love all these aforementioned people and consider them all Crotches for life.

For readers looking to dive deeper, which three notable bands in the Israeli punk scene do more people need to hear, and why are they essential?

Alonzo: All you really need in life, dear readers, is… The Crotches. But if you insist, here are three fundamental bands that were influential for us — Subway Suckers, Noseei Hamigbaat (The Top-Hat Carriers), Charlie Megira and Monotonix… And to name one more — Hashakranim (The Liars). None of them are active today, unfortunately, but they’re all fucking amazing. Enjoy, and see you all at the shows!

Fuck The Crotches will be available on vinyl via Love Now! Records, and on Spotify. You can follow The Crotches online on Instagram and Facebook.