Choking Victim


Biography:
"In 1990, at Humanities high-school, in N.Y.C., Alec Shaheed Mohamed, a young politically active black youth, happened to have some of the same classes with a boy they now call the Stza (pronounced Stizza). They shared not only a love for punk & ska music, but also an intense hatred of white people and their pathetic milk-drinking, Gap-wearing, R.E.M-listening, 90210 watching culture. Alec played bass & the Stza played guitar and sang, so they decided to join-up and play some music together. Eventually they got a drummer & another singer and started the punk/ska band No Commercial Value. After a couple of years of only playing at ABC-No-Rio and C-squat several times, Alec ditched out to start the 3rd wave ska crowd-pleasers Agent 99 with ex-Slacker Dunia Best, Jay Nugent (now in Stubborn All-Stars) and the wickedest ska drummer since Jar-Jar Binks, Ara Babajian.

In the mean-time, with-out a bassist, the Stza, known as Sturgeon at the time, enlisted Sascha Dubrul, a friend of N.C.V's drummer. Of course the next logical step was to kick said drummer out of the band as the additional singer left for the west-coast. Sea monkey drummer and local Taco purveyor John Dolan was enlisted and the name Choking Victim was taken from the health department sign that loomed menacingly over John at his job, taunting him (day in and day out, etc.). Three-months and two shows later, John literally hands his drum-sticks to a guy named Skwert during a C.V. practice. A year later, and Sascha quits the group after recording the Crack Rock Steady E.P and demo.

At roughly the same time, the Biggest-boy fuck-up big-time & Agent 99 break-up as a result. So being unloved, dirty, despicable squatters, C.V. take Alec under their filthy wing to record and release the "Squatters Paradise" 7 inch. After that, Alec is kicked out and brought on is fellow C-squatter Pezent Shayne, who's just learning bass, so after a couple of mediocre shows Shayne is re-placed with Alec, who once again shows C.V. that his attentions are not with the band, but in the gutter (literally). He is replaced with the down, but not out, Shayne, whom has become a much more finely tuned and practiced bass machine. Soon the song 'Infested' from the "Squatta's Paradise" is contributed to the first "Give 'Em The Boot" compilation album, and after an overwhelming public response to the track, Tim & Brett offer C.V. a spot on the Hell-Cat roster. With no other offers on the horizon, and being broke-ass homeless/squatting panhandling bums, C.V. realised that this would probably be the only opportunity to ever make a full length record.

So after several years of pain-staking negotiations a three-record deal is hammered out, including a luxurious suite at the Olive motel and the choice to not put a U.P.C. code on their record, at this point Ezra is abroad as a second guitar player. And finally after years of anticipation, thousands of practices & hundreds of shows, on the first day of recording Choking Victim break-up, but not before laying down all the tracks that would become the break-through, smash hit 'NO GODS/NO MANAGERS'."

Discography:

Album	Year	Format
Crack Rock Steady EP	1994	EP
Squatta's Paradise	1996	EP
Victim Comes Alive	1997	EP
No Gods / No Managers	1999	CD,LP,CS
Crack Rock Steady Demo	2000	CD
Crack Rock Steady EP / Squatta's Paradise	2000	CD

Videography:

Video	Year	Format
Hellcat Video Press Kit	1999	Real Media

Live:

Venue	Date
LiveWire Festival @ Brooklyn, NY, USA	04/29/2006
Tompkins Square Park, New York, NY	06/11/2006
El Rincon De La Zona, Zona Colonial, Dominican Republic	07/27/2006
Hotel Las Caobas, San Francisco de Macoris, Dominican Republic	07/28/2006
Donde L'abuela, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic	07/29/2006
Kartuja Bar & Lounge, Santiago, Dominican Republic	07/30/2006
Past Shows	1993-2005

Media Attention: Publication Title Date The Villager Stage diving on a Sunday afternoon 09/14/2005 The Village Voice 9-11 Conspiracists Invade Ground Zero 09/12/2005