Film + TV

Ben Stiller's '80s punk album is getting reissued

by Mark Teo

If you’re a living, breathing human being, chances are, you’ve gone through a teenage punk phase.

Before they became teen-drama-soundtrack stars, Death Cab For Cutie were punks, with Ben Gibbard playing in a band called Post Nasal Drip. Liberal Party consultant Warren Kinsella, before he was masterminding Olivia Chow mayoral campaigns, was in a first-wave Calgary punk band called the Hot Nasties. And Ben Stiller? He had Capital Punishment, a faux-British three-piece he formed with current Arizona appellate judge Peter Swann.

We’re not kidding.

Stiller says he drummed for the band when he was 15 or 16, and they recorded an album called Roadkill. He told Howard Stern that an “outsider label” was releasing the album, although he was referring to one of the biggest indie labels on the planet—namely, Captured Tracks, the label behind Mac DeMarco, Perfect Pussy, Diiv, Craft Spells, and Wild Nothing.

The label tweeted out Stiller’s announcement on the Howard Stern Show.

Though they haven’t announced when Roadkill will see a reissue, one thing’s for certain: Capital Punishment joins a very impressive stable of re-released fare. Captured Tracks has been reissuing influential independent music, and have cut out-of-print work from New Zealand indie-pop label Flying Nun, a shoegaze archive, and even hard-to-find Turkish psych.

So, is Capital Punishment any good? Judge for yourself. [H/T Stereogum]