Crippling Alcoholism is the sound of tragedy disguised as euphoria. Emerging from the bleak New England underground, the group creates gothic noise rock that feels devotional, theatrical, and uncomfortably human. Their songs shimmer with melody while rotting from the inside, capturing the simultaneous rush of transcendence and the nausea of collapse. The band is known for smuggling grotesque lyrics into infectious pop forms. Obsession, addiction, and body horror unfold through choruses that could almost pass for radio hits, creating a constant friction between beauty and revulsion. Their music channels the doomed grandeur of Scott Walker and Nick Cave, filtered through pulsing club electronics and the bruised tenderness of post industrial romanticism.
Crippling Alcoholism began in 2022, founded by Tony Castrati in the aftermath of a particularly destructive episode of alcoholism. The name is not metaphor or provocation but a plain statement of origin, marking sobriety not as redemption, but as an ongoing confrontation with damage already done. The project emerged as a way to externalize that experience without sanitizing it, allowing shame, desire, and self destruction to remain visible rather than resolved. After a period of shifting lineups, the band settled into its current form. The core lineup consists of Tony Clark, Stefan Iglesias Lopez, Danny Sher, and Jonathan Jasperse, along with newcomers Aki McCullough and Brenna Rey.
In September of 2025, Crippling Alcoholism reached new highs with their Camgirl LP, released on Portrayal of Guilt Records. The album follows a sex worker moving through cycles of exploitation and endurance, treating intimacy as spectacle and visibility as threat. Songs flicker between desire and despair, confession and performance, flooded with artificial light. It refuses nihilism— its closing turn is quietly triumphant, not because the world improves, but because survival itself becomes defiance.
A new edition of Camgirl is planned for release in early 2026 from The Flenser, and the band is currently deep at work on a follow up LP that continues their pursuit of pop music that stares directly into the abyss and refuses to blink. More information coming soon.
Crippling Alcoholism, tour dates:
Jan 31 Cambridge, MA – First Church Food Not Bombs benefit
Feb 07 Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall with Latter
Apr 16 Tilburg, NL – Roadburn festival
Aug 05 Jarom??, CZ – Brutal Assault festival
Additional tour dates to be announced.