HAYLEY AND THE CRUSHERS – “ALLEYWAYS”
A SPILL EXCLUSIVE VIDEO PREMIERE
Alleyways is a nostalgia trip back into my teen years in Southern California. When I was 16 I was attending Redondo Union High School and in an all-girl band called Ballroom Burlesque with my best friends. We played and attended a lot of backyard shows in Lennox, Wilmington, Lawndale, Hawthorne, and there was always someone’s abuella outside taking a dollar for the keg. This was all about crappy borrowed gear, someone sleeping on the couch, a gangster older brother running “security” and the odd police helicopter aka ghetto bird flying overhead to keep things exciting. You never knew what kind of night you were going to have, but we always ended up unscathed (for the most part).
Our first show was at the Redondo Union Teen Center and I was so nervous I think I might have blacked out from excitement. This was my first taste of performing live music (I played guitar, very quickly and very loudly), and I was entranced by the ferocity and energy of these early DIY backyard punk rock shows. It was a free-for-all! There was no money, no glory, just pure unadulterated all-ages fun. Going to Hollywood to see shows at the Knitting Factory was also a huge event for me and my friends, and we’d squeeze into the car and make the journey all decked out in fishnets, bondage belts and hairspray. You would think it was the 80s vs the early 2000s, we were SO obsessed with iconic British UK punk bands and, fatefully, that was a time when a lot of them were reuniting and playing around the US for fests and anniversary tours. Vice Squad, Anti-Nowhere League, The Lurkers, Abrasive Wheels, Motorhead, The Vibrators. You name it!
There were also iconic LA bands playing smaller shows around that time that we got to see on a whim: X at the Sunset Street Faire, Circle Jerks at a tiny venue by the beach, Blasters under the Redondo Beach Pier. There was the sense that although we had missed the first and second wave of punk, we could still catch the ball and carry it forward. The times we spent outside the venue in the alleyway were often as memorable as the shows themselves. This was where our social circle came together to share the news of the day, who liked who and what the latest drama was. Hanging out at Headline Records and checking out the imports or saving up our cash to buy boots at Posers on Melrose, all we cared about was punk rock! There were quite a few nights when we’d fall asleep in my 1968 Oldsmobile Delta 88, which could fit a comically large number of people…hence the reference to the car in the song. You’d wake up with cigarette burns on the upholstery and a strong hankering for a greasy breakfast at Norm’s. Then, we’d do it all over again!
Alleyways is meant to be self-explanatory. It’s simple innocence. A trip back in time and a way to both celebrate and say goodbye to that part of my life. We can all relate to this period when we’re just far enough removed from youth to get a clearer picture. Getting older, there is a desire to look back a little too often with rose-tinted glasses. This can be a trap. We can’t live in the past, but it’s good to remember and cherish those days for what they were. The single artwork features my dear friend Kerry Cain (no relation) who sang in my first band and Lindsay Skulls, who played bass and remains one of my closest confidants. The video hopefully captures that feeling of “the alleyway,” hanging with your buds and comparing notes before the show!
Hayley And The Crushers
[Single]
(Kitten Robot Records)
Release Date: June 10, 2024
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