Choking Victim

Choking Victim was an influential ska punk/hardcore punk (what they call "crack rock steady," a slight satire on rocksteady) band from New York City in the 1990s.

The band became hometown (C-squat in the Lower East Side of Manhattan where they squatted and continue to inhabit and organize shows) legends for their innovative music and highly political, often Anarcho-Communistic lyrics. At the same time they also became infamous for their Satanic imagery and numerous references to the vagrant lifestyle such as crack-smoking, shoplifting, and squatting. They also, like many other bands in the punk scene, have strong anti-police sentiments in their songs. The band prides itself on its Atheism, often making sardonic references to Satan, for the sole purpose of being offensive, rather than any sort of actual worship of the alleged deity. Stza, in fact, was quoted in a rare interview as saying that the sole reason the band included Satan as a graphic reference in so many songs was for its direct opposition to the typical Christian status quo.

Choking Victim broke up after the first day of recording for their one and only album, but the recordings from that one day were enough to make a solid album. After they broke up, Stza and Ezra Crack formed the band Leftöver Crack, and Skwert and Ezra formed INDK. Sascha has spent the last several years organically farming in upstate NY.