“I mean, basically this is the sci-fi future,” states Clifford Dinsmore as he takes a sip of his soda water. “This is the culmination of the fictional account of what people have been warning might happen. It’s happening now.”
The singer for Santa Cruz hardcore group Seized Up is talking about the inspiration for the band’s song, “Force Fed Hate,” off their new album, Modify the Sacred, which came out Aug. 9 on Pirates Press Records. The song itself is a scathing analysis of modern America in the current election season with a chorus of “It blows my mind/when good ol’ fashioned values/strangely morph into good ol’ fascist values.”
“It used to be you’d get some screwball to form some group with a couple hundred people around the world writing stupid chain letters to each other,” Dinsmore continues. “But now with the internet you get every idiot on earth with really bad ideas to come together and spread those bad ideas.”
Despite the album’s release last month, Seized Up has been busy on their first European tour, hitting festivals like Germany’s Umsonst & Draussen and Punk Rock Holiday in Slovenia, along with opening up for the Descendents in Germany as well. Because of this they haven’t had a proper CD release party, but all that changes on Saturday, Sept. 28 as Seized Up comes home to Moe’s Alley. And this time, they’re bringing friends Slaughterhouse and local self-proclaimed “shitty music” sludge trio Barf.
“Slaughterhouse was a little bit ahead of us on tour in Europe so we kept missing them,” guitarist Danny Buzzard explains. “We really wanted to play a show with them. Plus we’re friends with the guys in Barf and they’re always really good.”
The last time we caught up with the Santa Cruz quartet was almost three years to the day, when they played another record release show at Moe’s Alley, that time for their full-length debut, Brace Yourself, which had come out during the pandemic lockdowns the year prior. The year 2021 also saw the band’s three-song EP, Marching Down the Spiral, hit online streaming and record store shelves.
Seized Up has seen their own share of setbacks over the years, first with Dinsmore’s cancer diagnosis, then drummer Andy Granelli’s severe hand injury in 2019 following a bicycle accident, to bassist Chuck Platt’s 2022 life-threatening incident when he was hit by a car while crossing Soquel Avenue in front of his restaurant, The Crepe Place.
“I got really lucky,” Granelli says.
“At the time I was still drinking a lot and as you get older you learn you have to start taking care of your body and yourself. So I quit drinking because you have to give yourself the best chance for success. You cut out the stuff you used to do as a kid that doesn’t serve you as an old man. I’m happy to be here and happy to be happy.”
For Modify the Sacred the guys take the scorched earth philosophy they adopted for Marching and pour kerosene on it. The album opens with “Deathweb”—Granelli’s favorite song—which begins with a quote by political scientist and linguist Noam Chomsky: “Of utmost importance, beyond the capacity of words to express what we all know, ‘It’s now or never. Now or never.’”
The album continues on a smoldering path through tracks like “What You Kill,” “Turn Christian and Move Inland” and “Omen of Despair.”
“That’s my favorite,” states Platt about “Omen of Despair.”
“That’s Seized Up for me. I love that driving bass–Jesus Lizard style–with Clifford talking over it and building that tension. Then there’s the heaviness of an early Helmet song with fast parts like Bad Brains and old punk.”
Modify the Sacred also sees the band diving back into some familiar territory with a re-recorded version of “Forum of Decay,” which originally appeared on Marching Down the Spiral.
“Personally I love when bands do that,” Granelli says. “That way you can have your favorite version of a song.”
Adding to the sacred is a playlist they put out before the album dropped. Requested by Pirates Press Records, the Seized Up compiled a 20-track, 62-minute playlist on Spotify called “Sacred Songs,” featuring a who’s-who of bands that inspired the sound of Modify. Everything from Black Sabbath and Slayer to the Exploited, Subhumans, Karp and even the Wipers grace the “Sacred Songs” slots.
“The Wipers have a huge influence [on Seized Up],” Buzzard says. “You can hear the Wipers in our music for sure.”
The album’s name is also a throwback of sorts, taking “modify the sacred” from lyrics off Brace Yourself. But like all good art, the meaning is interpreted by the listener.
For Dinsmore it has a much more physical, visceral meaning.
“Within the context of the song [“Human Locust” off Brace Yourself], it’s humans not acknowledging the fact that the Earth is the life source,” he says. “Humans worship god but destroy the Earth. Ultimately god is what provides for you, and for me that’s the Earth. But with all the genetic engineering we do, people are tampering around with the natural sacred thing.”
Buzzard—on the other hand—sees the album’s title to mean something a lot more idealistic and even esoteric.
“To me the ‘sacred’ is the punk rock ideal, this concept of what the scene is and how the music should be,” he says. “And I think Seized Up has tried to do away with cookie cutter punk rock. We try to do different things and modify this sacred cow.”
Regardless of how they interpret it, it’s clear Seized Up isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. The album is gaining traction with the underground punk media and made the Weekly Top 20 best seller list at Cortex Records (their European distributor). The band was also recently featured on the cover of the New Punk Now playlist on Pandora and “Forum of Decay” was highlighted on Sirius XM’s Faction Punk show.
But even more importantly for any band, all the members are close friends and even live within cycling distance of each other in the same Midtown/Live Oak neighborhood. It’s their own way of continuing to modify their own sacredness with every new thing life throws at them.
“We do this because we all love to play and we’re friends—those go hand-in-hand,” Granelli says. “I grew up as a 14-year-old kid having band practice one to four times a week. Practice is how you get good, but when bands get bigger they replace practice with playing shows. Now that my other bands aren’t touring as much, I’ve missed that regiment of practice and with Seized Up we have that. It’s a break in the week for all of us to get together and play.”
