[So at this point I've graduated from college and moved into an apartment in Hollywood with my girlfriend, Thora. Although this page has very little to do with me as a musician, it has quite a bit to do with me personally. I look back fondly on those portions of the early 90's that pertained to Crux and the Redlands "music scene." I drove out from Hollywood on many a weekend to check out the friend rock . . .]

I'm not sure I have the chronology 100% correct, but I'll do my best. In the Fall of 1989 Tom, Sim, and a guy named Craig Koozer (also from the U of R) started playing together. They had a working name for the project, but I'm not sure what it was. Tom tried to sing from the drum kit, but it wasn't really panning out, so Paul Petross (sp.?) was added on guitar and voice. The group was now called "Thursday's Next," and it's crowning moment was essentially a gig at the BSU (Black Student Union) talent show. Craig went back to Portland for the following summer, at which point Tom and Sim started Crux with Glenn Ziepke on bass, and Tom's high-school buddy, Bob Penn, on drums. (At some point Glenn and Bob were both in this speed-metal band called Sinister Fiend along with Terry Corso from Alien Ant Farm). Also, I'm pretty sure that the name "Crux" was directly influenced by a line from "Trip Away" by Jane's Addiction.

[I think somewhere in here Tom was playing drums for an L.A. or Orange County metal band called Black Dove, but this was a short lived arrangement.] So it's 1990 at this point, and with Bob on drums, Tom moved to the front and started singin'. Crux began playing a number of shows in the greater San Bernardino and Riverside area and recorded their first cassette, Harvest, at David Tweed's Lollipop Factory in Riverside. The cost of the project was $175 (an important statistic given in the liner notes since Nirvana had boasted recording their Bleach album for $600). The tape was released the following year on X/S Records in Orange, CA. (After the recording of Harvest, Val Wolf [another U of R student] replaced Glenn on bass.) Later in 1991 Crux recorded their first "full-length" entitled Slump at SRO studios (which I think was located in Cucamonga). For Slump's release Tom started up Thick Records, which became a vehicle for recordings by Milton's Cafe and The Dullards, as well.

The band was now performing regularly, with venues including (but not limited to) Spanky's and Monopoly's in Riverside; Club With No Name and the Whisky in Hollywood; and the (old) Casbah and Ché Cafe in San Diego. (For a brief stint somewhere along in here a guy named Kurt replaced Val on bass while he was in Thailand.) Eventually Sim was replaced by Trevor Montgomery (from The Dullards), and Tom began playing a second guitar whilst singing. This incarnation of Crux did some great demo stuff for Columbia Records, but nothing ever really happened with that.

Frustrated with the "brick wall" of the Inland Empire music scene, Tom decided in 1993 that it was time to explore Portland, Oregon and see what was happenin' there. The story now continues with Skiploader.

Since the technical evolution of Crux has been covered, you're now free to follow the Skiploader link above, and get on with the story. If you want to be bored to tears with my own wistfull recollections of that magical time period, CLICK HERE.