The first time any of us had been in a professional recording studio, 1982, Trac Records 170 N. Maple Fresno CA. Stan Anderson was the elderly gentleman who was the proprietor and he tried to relate to our punk rock by pulling out an old Telecaster from under the Mixing Board and playing a few bars of "Raunchy" by Bill Justis 1957. Made some sense to me. He did a decent job of recording us. I think we were just a few years away from being the band we wanted to become. And although there was some angst and inspiration, this was just a stepping stone.

CP2 Advertise and Victimize

Capitol Punishment live at the Mabuhay Gardens San Francisco Jan 14, 1982. Fresno night promoted by TY of MRR fame. What a night it was! Maniax, NBJ, Toxic Shock and The Frigidettes. Big Deal was one of the 10 songs we played...and the best. We had some more way to go to get to where we wanted to be as a band. This was one of first gigs with Ralph on vocals, We had just played a gig just 5 months earlier with Eric Tsuda on vocals and here we were with a new lead singer. And playing in the premier punk club in northern cal!?  I just walked up to the sound man and asked him to record our set, handed him a few blanks and I still have the tapes. We always felt bad about this performance because we made so many mistakes as we plowed through our set. But, there were a few bright and shining moments. This song, Big Deal was one of them.  

CP2 Big Deal Live at the Mab

Capitol Punishment in the Westbeach Recorders studio, Hollywood CA, 1995.

Cp5 Under the weather 1995

Capitol Punishment 4 at Westbeach Recorders, Hollywood 1993.

CP4 tick tick tick 1993

A song about a cat recorded at Gray Gregson's Audio Image Recording Fresno.

CP3 Severin from 7-inch 1989

Outtake from the Putsch recording session at Tom Mallon Recording Studio, San Francisco 1984. A lot of punk and all sorts of rock bands recorded there in the 80s and 90s. I know several of the bands on the first Maximumrocknroll compilation recorded there and other 80s Bay area punk bands recorded there, too. The song was too inciteful and was taken out of the line-up of songs on When Putsch Comes to Shove.


CP2 Flying Fists and Vicious Kicks 1985

Capitol Punishment 2 Elephant Man recorded at Tom Mallon Recording San Francisco 1984.

CP2 Elephant man 1985

Capitol Punishment Smile recorded at Tom Mallon SF CA 1984. 

CP2 Smile 1985

Capitol Punishment1 of Fresno CA - Living is a lie boombox rehearsal recording 1981. '63 Fender Jazzmaster into a yellow DOD overdrive into a Silvertone 1484 50 watt tube amp. Jocey went through her Mustang bass and into a Bassman 135 into a JBL 15. It was pretty loud. We liked playing loud. A lot. That's why I have tinitus in my right ear, by getting too close to very loud stuff for an extended length of time.


CP1 Living is a lie 1981

Capitol Punishment 1 Live off the mixing board at the Belmont Ballroom in Fresno CA 1981.

CP1 Last laugh 1981

Capitol Punishment - Killer Cop 1983 Recorded at Tom Mallon Studio San Francisco  
Stagedive Records 4-song 7-inch EP 45RPM. Black Vinyl  
Reissued on We Bite Germany 1986 White Vinyl.

Killer Cop
He was just a child of six
He played cops to get his kicks
Plastic gun was just a toy
Killer Cop shoots little boy

Killer Cop! Killer Cop!

He was just a killer cop
Commit a murder and cover it up
Killer cop never looks for good
In a poor black neighborhood

This killing can't be justified
This wa not the dead of night
Mama lost her little boy
His plastic gun was just a toy

Wish to god that it was real
Then that cop would know how it feels to be dead
Killer Cop!  Killer Cop!

Words and music: Dale Stewart


CP2 - Killer Cop 1983

Capitol Punishment - Liquor Store from the Shredder 7-inch Compilation 1989.
Joe Leggett jr. - Vocals
Dale Stewart - Guitar
Joceylin Fedrau - Bass
Tim Biskup - Drums

Capitol Punishment Fresno

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