The NYC band Crazy Eddie is a hardcore punk group known for its raw, fast, and loud "to the point" sound, aiming to evoke the simple, fun spirit of old-school hardcore. The band is a notable part of the New York Hardcore (NYHC) scene, featuring members who have played in other established NYHC groups, including Fahrenheit 451, District 9, Abject, and Downlow. Their formation brought together seasoned veterans of the scene, contributing to their no-frills, aggressive style. Their track titles often reflect the genre's typical themes with a tongue-in-cheek sensibility, such as "The Prices Are Insane" and "Go Home You're Drunk."

Crazy Eddie has released music and maintains an active presence in the local New York City scene, frequently playing at venues like The Bowery Electric. They promote their music through platforms like Bandcamp and Instagram, embodying a DIY (Do It Yourself) ethos typical of the punk and hardcore genres. The band continues to contribute to the legacy of New York Hardcore, upholding a tradition of intense, energetic live performances and straightforward, impactful songwriting that appeals to fans who value the genre's classic roots.

How did the members of Crazy Eddie originally meet, and what was the catalyst for starting a punk band in the New York City scene?

Lenny Bednarz (guitar): Basically everyone has known each other for years. We've all played in so many bands such as Fahrenheit 451, District 9, Downlow, Adject and so many more. But what really started the spark was Lenny had a bunch of old VHS tapes that he wanted transferred and Chucky has a Youtube channel called Chucky Brown's Hood TV. So met up with him with the intention of getting tapes digitally transferred and also have him post some to his channel. Started talking during that meeting and decided to do a project/band together. Originally Chuck was going to play bass. That was September 2016 when the idea came about. We started looking for members and at that time Chucky said that he wanted to sing, he had never fronted a band before. So within. a couple of months along came Jason Madrock (drums) and Kevin Smith (bass) to round out the lineup. I believe it took Lenny about a week to write the first 12 songs. And the first official rehearsal with the full line up happened in late spring 2017. Sometime later that year we started recording our full length and by January 2018 we finally did our first show. Basically started the band to have some fun and for us to keep creative. We are all veterans of the NYHC scene and wanted to still get up there but do it in a way that wouldn't interfere with everyone's lives, jobs and families. I guess be an adult about it.

What is the story behind the name "Crazy Eddie", beyond the obvious reference? What did that name represent about the band’s ethos?

Is it the brand of dust or the local chain of now defunct electronic stores, to be honest I don't think even we know. And if we did we would still leave it up to the listener to decide. We didn't have a name for the first couple of rehearsals and started throwing around things as you do. From the beginning we knew we wanted to play straight up hardcore punk music, the same music that got us hooked in the first place. wanted to keep the metal influence as far away as possible and just go old school. The name Crazy Eddie to us represents old New York. The vibe and flavor that we grew up in. It screamed Old New York.

We're sure a lot of people came up to you saying some version of the line "our prices are insaaaane!" Guesstimate how many times you heard that.

Honestly not as much as you would think, Chucky would end every show we played with "We are Crazy Eddie and the prices are insane" I mean we wrote a song called “The Prices Are Insane”, so we embraced it. The thing is we had fun as a band and didn't try to take ourselves too seriously. Once we hit that stage the next 30 minutes was ours and we gave it 100%. We were the older guys at the party and were happy to have a seat at the table. We did our thing and stayed in our lane.

Who were your main musical influences when the band first started, and how did you try to carve out a unique sound compared to other bands?

As stated before we wanted to keep it OG as much as we could. It always bothered some of us when a band that was playing more metal riffs were calling themselves hardcore. Like NO MOTHERFUCKER, THIS IS HARDCORE. So we took our influences when we all started with HC and wore them on our sleeves. We pulled from Circle Jerks, Black Flag, Old Suicidal Tendeces, Minor Threat also Keith Morris' band OFF! was a bit of an inspiration. Just fast to the point no frills hardcore punk. We didn't care if that was what people wanted or didn't want to hear, that's what they were getting. I guess we were waving the flag for us older guys. It;s like here you go 14 songs in your face for 30 minutes.

Describe the moment you felt the band truly found its voice - a specific song, a chaotic gig, a rehearsal?

I think we knew early on before we played in front of anyone, we had what we wanted. Fun was not the F word with us, too many bands put on an act and become a caricature of hardcore. Like that's what is expected of them. First and foremost we had a good time playing music together that was very important to us. As long as we "got it" who cares what people really think. We did this for ourselves first, if you came along the ride with us, awesome. If not that's cool too, not everyone liked what we did and we were fine with that. Do you playa, we'll stay in our lane.

Let's focus on the EP, "Eddie Goes To Night School." What was the inspiration behind the title, and what were the central lyrical themes you were exploring on that release?

Well except for our last release Eddie was always up to something, like dropping out of college, or Ruining fun. in our mind we had the masot Cholo Eddie . and what could we do with him next? Well he already dropped out of college, what if he goes back to school. Hey what about night school? I mean we went for the low hanging fruit, low brow humor, That's why I think we got along so well, we are all just goofy like that. Now as far as lyrical themes, to be honest we weren't thinking like let's write some real deep lyrics here. Is What It Is/New York lyrics were written by Rev Nicky from the Carbomb Parade, he wanted to do it so we said sure. It is about hanging around the LES, also a favorite of ours in the set. Bored with Life basically says what it is, Who's to Blame and Welcome to the show more or less the same, we were not that deep with the lyrics here, i felt we kept it real straight forward. A lot of times we were writing lyrics all the way up to and during recording. The Ballad of Cheech and Chong is basically a cover of Mexican American from Cheech and Chong's Next Movie. I will say this much though a lot of these songs stayed in the sets for years after. We recorded this EP in about 5 hours, soup to nuts. It was a lot of fun. Then a week later the world shutdown because of COVID.

Which track from your entire catalog, do you feel best encapsulated the essence of Crazy Eddie, and why?

Everyone in the band will have a different choice here, but if I had to come up with one. A Toda Madre O Un Desmadre. it combined some of what we were about in one song, Chucky sang in in spanlish it also has the pure essence of what made Crazy Eddie what it was. A good hook and great breakdown at the end. it also stayed in our set til the end, we couldn't leave it out if we wanted to.

In an era before widespread digital distribution, how did Crazy Eddie manage to get their records and tapes into the hands of fans within and outside of the NYC area?

Well the band started releasing stuff in 2018 we were already in the digital age and embraced it. It started on bandcamp and then spotify and every other streaming service out there. We just used social media because we are in that age where it's a necessary evil. I mean you could go underground and go only in a hard format. We had some hard format stuff we were on over the years from Vinyl comps, tape comps, a flexi then finally our own 7 inch. We never asked for money on our bandcamp, We always kept our shirts cheap and the 1000s of buttons and the 18,000 stickers we made were always free. That was part of how we did things. This wasn't a job for us. It was some we loved doing, and we gave back as much as we could.

Did you ever feel pressure to refine or change your sound to achieve more mainstream visibility, or did you always prioritize your distinct punk aesthetic?

We never gave a shit what other people were doing, bottom line. We stayed in our lane, it wasn't about getting famous or getting big or some touring. Lenny and Kevin had been in Fahrenheit 451 and did the whole trying to make it a career. 3 out of the 4 of us toured a lot. It was more about expressing ourselves playing local and doing what we loved. We were people with jobs and lives outside of this. We didn't care what some band was doing or what some rules were. Most of us have been at this since the early 90s. We've been there and done that. We never concerned ourselves with what people expected for us. Our goal was fun, playing a show once a month locally and just enjoying life. I use to say to people we are not competing with anyone because we don't care, just get on stage and play.

Are there any finished but unreleased songs or demos from the Crazy Eddie era that you wish the public could have eventually heard?

So we have 35 songs in our catalog. Everything we ever wrote came out, We'll be the first to admit not all of them are winners but there it is warts and all. I mean I don't think any of them sucks but some are better than others. We played just about everything we ever wrote out at least once, with the exception of a handful of tunes. We didn't waste songs or time, in fact most of our recordings took only hours. We just went in and did them.

What was the day-to-day experience of being a punk band in NYC during your most active years? What venues were most important to you?

Well with the exception of the COVID years, we tried to play every month or every other month, life would get in the way. We only played 45 shows in total. The worst thing you can do sometimes is over play. People will get sick of seeing you real fast. We didn't travel very far in general. The last thing we wanted to do was waste time and money to travel a few hours to play a crap show to travel 5 hours back. So the furthest we got was one show in Philly in 2019 and Middletown NY in 2024. Only did Long island once and NJ a couple of times we stayed local because that's what we viewed ourselves as, a local band.

I would say as far as important venues go I gotta give props to Drew Stone, we got to play a bunch of his shows first at A7 then the Bowery Electric. That's where we felt the most comfortable. The audience was always great to us there plus it's our backyard. Those shows just had the vibe we were looking for. Also anything the NYHC Comics guys did. They always looked out and the shows they put on were always fun.

Which bands did you consider your peers, and what was the sense of community—or perhaps rivalry—among the various groups at the time?

The Carbomb Parade, Enziguri, Incendiary Device, Kings Never Die, Overstand - that's the ones I can think of off the top of my head. We all talked and got along for the most part and enjoyed each other's company as well as each other's music. I never saw or considered a rivalry with any band we played with. We got up there and played and did our thing. We didn't have the same goal as others. Our goal was writing music then playing that music and as long as we had a good time that's all that matters. There was a sense of freedom to just play and not give a fuck what people really thought of you. If someone slaged us off online we wouldn't argue with them they are entitled to their opinion. We were not of the mind set to please everyone, we just stayed true to what we wanted to do and I think it served us well.

What were the biggest non-musical challenges Crazy Eddie faced while trying to maintain momentum?

When the band started most of us were already in our mid 40s. So we had jobs, careers and family to us that came first. Your life and it's trappings needed to be dealt with there was never oh I can't do the gig so get someone to fill in for me at the show. No. it was the 4 of us or nothing. When I was in other bands back in the 90s I put everything after the band, music came first always. That's fine when you are young and hungry but bills need to be paid, kids need to go to school, in fact we had a rule for a long time we didn't play in August because each one of us would go on vacation sometime it that month, so instead of trying to figure out that one weekend we were all here it was easier to say we have august off do even bother asking us. We made it all work with everyone’s schedule. We had too. There was sometime about the 4 of us doing it that can't be explained. We just worked well together.

If Crazy Eddie is primarily remembered for one thing in the NYC scene, what do you hope that would be?

We did things our way. We never begged, we would ask. We stuck to our beliefs til the end and stood on business. We stayed in our lane.

Looking back at the reviews and fan reactions, what do you feel was the greatest misconception people had about the band's music or motivations?

Most people thank god they got us from jump. They understood what we were about and why we did things the way we did. If we got a bad review we'd share it in the group text and have a good laugh at it. In the early days some people would comment about Chucky's luchador mask, mind you he didn't always wear it but that was his thing so we ran with it. But some comments went along the lines of I would enjoy this more if he wasn't wearing that mask. Like really so you like the music but we are going to judge on looks, fuck outta here. That's why we did us, we did not try to please anybody, we were not changing sounds or styles to fit in, again we did it our way from day one till the last show.

What were the primary factors—creative, logistical, or personal—that ultimately led to the members of Crazy Eddie deciding to move on?

We never had fights as a band, we would disagree at times sure. But we got along from the beginning till the end. Basically what it came down to was I, Me, Lenny wanted to leave NYC my home for 52 years, just needed a change in life. I knew this several months before our last show. Spoke to the guys about it at the same time Kevin Smith was thinking of traveling and seeing the world. We talked about maybe using replacements but there was some chemistry that the 4 of us had and the last thing any of us wanted was to let this band fizzle or not be as good. Sometimes when you have that thing that makes it special you need to keep it to those 4 ingredients. again what we created was special to us and we didn't wanna cheap out and use replacement players.. We want people to remember us and speak fondly of the time we were around. We all still talk, the group chat is still going to this day, we still have love and respect for one another. We shared some unforgettable moments that we can be proud of.

Have you been surprised by the continuing interest in the band?

I hope we will continue to be that band someone discovers in passing, the "I wish I would have known about these guys back in the day". All we have is the music and the reputation, we hope that people will continue to find out about us in years to come. We are proud of what legacy we left behind and maybe it might inspire someone to do things their way.

What projects have the individual members pursued since the breakup, both musically and outside of music?

Kevin is in Europe taking time for himself, Jason is dealing with family stuff, Lenny is settling into Florida life and Chucky has returned to playing bass.. everyone will play in something again when life isn't getting in the way. Music isn't something you just stop, it's in your blood, your DNA. it's what makes you, it's passion.

In a hypothetical scenario, if Crazy Eddie were to play a single, one-off reunion show today, what three songs would be absolutely essential to the setlist, and what venue would you choose for it?

That's Easy, Is What It Is/New York... The Prices Are Insane... and Runnin' just because that song since the beginning has always ended our shows it would be weird for it now to be there.

It would have to be at A7 because there is something about that room that has some much history and soul, so many that came before to lay the foundation for what so many of us do now.

Links:

Bandcamp: https://crazyeddie.bandcamp.com/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@cbhoodtv

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1HSmPx8nKwqKBdXTeOsXzB?si=7H6D3t99ROCH9ZBW1kL-wA

Instagram: Crazy Eddie NYHC

Facebook: Crazy Eddie NYHC

Crazy Eddie Can’t Be Beat: The Interview

Astoria’s Polite Punk: An Interview With Meghan Taylor of GIFTSHOP

A Long Road: An Interview With Nashville’s Mourning Joy