Jammerzine has an exclusive interview with Anthony Pedone, guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, and filmmaker extraordinaire with the band Cornpone.
Cornpone has always occupied a unique place in the history of the Texas underground, earning a reputation that was built as much on fearless live performances as on uncompromising music. Emerging from Hewitt before making their mark in Austin’s thriving punk scene, the band embraced chaos with purpose, fusing noise, hardcore, dark humor, and performance art into something impossible to ignore. Decades after their abrupt ending, that legacy is finally receiving the attention it deserves as long-lost recordings are finding their way into the hands of listeners who never had the chance to experience the band during its original run.
Our interview with guitarist and vocalist Anthony Pedone looks beyond the mythology to reveal the people behind the noise. Pedone reflects on a band that constantly pushed creative boundaries while balancing friendships, artistic ambition, and the unpredictable reality of life in the underground music scene. His memories paint a vivid picture of Cornpone at its creative peak, when every performance felt like a collision between precision and total collapse, producing an energy that became legendary throughout Austin’s punk community.
That remarkable chapter is being revisited through a series of archival split releases that showcase previously unheard recordings from the band’s final studio sessions. Beginning with the split alongside Suckling and continuing with releases featuring Pocket Fishermen and Ed Hall, these songs offer a powerful glimpse into a group firing on every creative cylinder before tragedy brought everything to a halt. Rather than sounding like historical curiosities, the tracks still carry the urgency, unpredictability, and fearless attitude that defined Cornpone’s identity from the beginning.
Looking ahead, anticipation is building for ‘Cornpone’s Last Stand’, the upcoming 20-song double LP mixed by Paul Leary and scheduled for release in spring 2027. More than a collection of recovered recordings, the album stands as a long-overdue celebration of a band whose influence has quietly echoed through the Texas underground for years. Anthony Pedone shares the remarkable story of how these recordings survived against incredible odds and explains why bringing them to the public now feels less like revisiting the past and more like finally giving Cornpone the lasting document their music has always deserved.
About Cornpone and the Releases
Recorded at Sweatbox Studio between late 1996 and early 1997, the sessions capture Cornpone at the height of their chaotic energy, just before the band’s sudden collapse following the death of guitarist David “Spanky” Morrow.
Formed in the late 1980s in Hewitt, Texas, Cornpone began as a garage project before evolving into one of Austin’s most unpredictable noise-punk acts, drawing inspiration from the raw energy of underground pioneers including Big Boys, Scratch Acid, The Dicks, and Butthole Surfers. Through years of lineup changes and experimentation, the band’s defining lineup came together with Anthony Pedone (guitar, vocals), Craig Merritt (bass), David “Spanky” Morrow (guitar), Jarred Brown (drums), Coby Cardosa (drums, keys), and Jennie Armour (vocals). Together, they created the explosive mix of noise, performance, and chaos that would become synonymous with Cornpone’s live reputation. Anthony recalls: “The songs had finally caught up to the chaos. Live, the band was a wrecking ball: loud, theatrical, unpredictable, and somehow locked together tighter than ever. Offstage, we were falling apart.”
The band’s legendary Corn Pound house on Braker Lane became the center of their universe: a chaotic three-bedroom home filled with horror posters, animal bones, deer corn, and the constant movement of musicians, friends, and trouble. “Members came and went, gear got stolen, friendships exploded, and somehow the band kept getting better.”
By 1996, Cornpone had become one of Austin’s most notorious live acts, moving from house shows to performances at venues like Emo’s and releasing their first official recordings. Their shows blurred the line between punk performance, carnival spectacle, and complete collapse: “The music reflected it all: rage, dark humor, desperation, and the urge to tear down and destroy everything you ever wanted the second you got your hands on it.”
The recordings became the final document of that era. Shortly after the sessions were completed, guitarist David “Spanky” Morrow passed away, bringing Cornpone’s run to an abrupt end. The band dissolved, members moved on, and the tapes disappeared, seemingly forever.
But decades later, the original masters resurfaced, surviving a studio fire, a trip to the dumpster, and thirty years of bad luck: “What you’re hearing now is Cornpone’s last stand – the only surviving document of a band that burned hot, burned fast, and left a crater where it used to be.”
The series begins with Cornpone Split with Suckling, released on June 5, 2026, featuring two previously unreleased Cornpone tracks – “Clean and Jerk” and “Bonus Egg” – alongside Suckling’s “Southside of the Sky,” a cover of the classic Yes track.
The following splits arrive through the Summer of 2026: Cornpone Split with Pocket Fishermen, featuring Cornpone’s “Too” and “Mother’s Cough” alongside Pocket Fishermen’s “Smash the Fascist” and “Sinkhole,” and Cornpone Split with Ed Hall, featuring Cornpone’s “Ladies Room Horror Story” and Ed Hall’s previously unreleased track “Aroma” from the Gloryhole album recording sessions.
The releases serve as a preview of Cornpone’s upcoming full-length archival project, Cornpone’s Last Stand – a 20-song double LP mixed by Paul Leary and scheduled for release in spring 2027.
Images by Michael Crawford.
The Release Schedule
- Cornpone Split w/Suckling
Limited run of 300, hand numbered, 2 tone Blue Vinyl 33 RPM, color cover art by Ron English and Win Wallace. Available from now on via Cattle God Records. Cornpone Music Recorded 1996 at Sweatbox Studios. Order your copy HERE. - Cornpone Split w/Pocket Fishermen
Limited run of 300, hand numbered, Silver Nugget Vinyl with hand screen printed color cover by Lindsey Kuhn. 45 RPM. Set for release July 24 via Australian Cattle God Records. Order HERE. Cornpone Music Recorded 1996 at Sweatbox Studios. - Cornpone Split w/Ed Hall
Limited run of 300, hand numbered, 3 color Pink and Green Vinyl, reversible cover art by Kevin Whitley, 45 RPM. Coming out via Australian Cattle God Records this July 24. Order HERE. Cornpone Music Recorded 1996 at Sweatbox Studios.
LINKS:
https://linktr.ee/cornpone
https://corn-pone.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/cornpone/