Biography:

Corrupt Citizen formed in 1994, after three friends from Moon Valley High School, Charles Duffy, Kevin Bentz, and Jeff Hauser, started jamming together after school, playing cover songs from their favorite punk bands like Bad Religion, Operation Ivy, The Vandals, and The Offspring.

After playing together for several weeks, the trio decided to start looking for a lead vocalist to join the band, and began writing original music. While working at a telemarketing office in Phoenix, drummer Charles Duffy was introduced to a student from Greenway High School named Larry Grigg. The two co-workers started talking about music and Charles invited Larry to check out his band practice later that same week.

While at practice, Larry got along well with the other members of the band, and picked up the mic and sang vocals for a few of the cover songs that the band was playing. By the end of the practice, Larry had become a part of the group, and the band chose to name themselves Corrupt Citizen, and started writing more original material.

A few months later, Corrupt Citizen started performing live shows, and the band quickly developed a strong following. They entered the recording studio and laid down tracks for a demo cassette, hoping to use the demo to get the band signed onto a record label.

In 1994, drummer Charles Duffy quit his other project, Dirty Laundry, in order to focus more on Corrupt Citizen, and the group began playing more shows and once again entered the studio to record a second demo cassette in 1995. Corrupt Citizen saw their fans increase greatly over the next few months, and the band started to become more respected by their peers.

During the members senior year of high school, Corrupt Citizen signed a single album contract with Bad Stain Records, a newly formed record label that was owned and operated by the bassist of Dirty Laundry. Stain was also a classmate who attended Moon Valley High School, as well as a fan of the band, who had attended dozens of shows in the past.

In 1996, Corrupt Citizen released their debut full length album, “Phat a Phuck”, on Bad Stain Records. The cassette did very well, and the band soon found themselves performing as the opening act for several popular national touring acts in Phoenix, Tempe, and Mesa, Arizona.

Over the next two years, Corrupt Citizen began to gradually change their sound, and their melodic pop punk style was mixed with a blend of emo, hardcore, and alternative rock. In 1998 the group started planning to release a follow-up to “Phat as Phuck”, and began looking for a label to put out the album.

In late 1998, Corrupt Citizen signed to Sunset Alliance Records, a new label that had recently signed a few other local bands that Corrupt Citizen were friends with. In 1999, the band released their second full length album, “Uninvited”. The bands sophomore release was a huge success, and caught the attention of many people in the music industry, including the popular local band, Jimmy Eat World, and Fearless Records founder and owner, Bob Becker.

In the spring of 2000, Bob Becker contacted Chase Stain from Bad Stain Records, inquiring his opinion on Corrupt Citizen, as he had been debating on trying to sign the band with Fearless Records. Stain informed Becker that he felt that the band had a solid future, although he had heard rumors that members had been going through some internal conflicts, and Corrupt Citizen had not performed any live shows in several weeks. Becker decided to give the band some time to see what happened before approaching them, but unfortunately, Corrupt Citizen split up just a few weeks after Becker and Stain’s conversation.