Honor Titus - Vocals

Melvin Honore - Bass

Crazy Abe - Drums

Jason & Mason - Guitars

 

Cerebral Ballzy is a punk band from Brooklyn, New York, United States.  The band was formed in 2008 and released their debut, self titled, album on 26 July 2011. The album was released in full as an online preview on the Revolver Magazine website.

 

Rudy Giuliani, New York City’s former Mayor, likes to brag about how he ended crime and cleaned up the city, but he’s a liar. He didn’t end crime – he just moved it. If you read the fine print there’s still a murder a day in the Big Apple, but it’s in East New York where all the junkies, murderers and perverts from the old Times Square now hide. In the centre of this rotten part of town, a gang of teenage punks calling themselves CEREBRAL BALLZY have emerged to start a band that sound exactly like their surroundings. Obsessed with skating, pizza, beer and Beavis & Butthead re-runs, these aren’t college kids who think “the slums got so much soul.” CEREBRAL BALLZY were born and raised in New York’s asshole and instead of crying about it, they scream their way through a sprawling mess of 80s-hardcore and punk rock, sounding like the Beastie Boys doing drunk-covers of Bad Brains (which is pretty much exactly how the Beastie Boys started).

Led by frontman Honor Titus and bassist Melvin Honore, the band work to restore something golden to New York’s Punk Rock history – BALLS! – blasting through 12 tracks in under 20 minutes on their self-titled debut album. Recorded in LA with producer Joby J. Ford (The Bronx, Trash Talk), the album tells the story of broken homes and broken bones with tracks like INSUFFICIANT FARE and DON’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO. Already dubbed “New York’s next great band” by UK music-bible NME, BALLZY have toured the UK and Europe twice, performing with Anthrax, Fucked Up and OFF! and continue their never-ending tour of America, jumping headfirst off every monitor and into every pit while puking. 

I booked them for a party at SXSW, knowing they never fail to turn an okay party into a completely balls out fucking riot. They showed up an hour late after spending the previous night in the Emergency Room when a fight broke out on stage after a group of rednecks attacked them. Their drummer, Crazy Abe’s eye was still swollen shut but he was laughing and drinking a beer. “You guys are the opposite of ‘youth is wasted on the young’,” I told him. “Yeah,” he said, “I love getting wasted.”

Cerebral Ballzy are known for their love of 80s punk, along with a keen interest in drinking, girls, pizza and skateboarding.  The band has received praise for their debut single Insufficient Fare and their energetic live performances. According to the lead singer, Honor Titus, the name Cerebral Ballzy came from a friend who dropped a slice of pizza on a train track and picked it up. Honor said “That was ballsy” and his friend replied “Cerebral Ballsy!”.

The band has completed a tour of the US and played major UK festivals including Hevy Music, Sonisphere and Latitude.  They played at the Summer Sonic Festival in Japan and the Reading and Leeds festivals in the UK in August 2011.  They have played CMJ this year, in addition to opening on tour with Off!.