The Crud, a Honolulu-based alternative rock, post-grunge project, is about straightforward and unpretentious ROCK music that people just so happen to be able to sing along to. With a focused and original sound, the music - think Nirvana meets Weezer and t

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The Crud, a Honolulu-based alternative rock, post-grunge project, is about straightforward and unpretentious ROCK music that people just so happen to be able to sing along to. With a focused and original sound, the music - think Nirvana meets Weezer and then gets molested by the Pixies - speaks to the angst-ridden soul.

The band's debut album, "Antidote," which was released on June 1, 2005, and was co-produced by an engineer who has worked on a Grammy Award-winning project, features radio-friendly versions of the band's first batch of songs.

The band decided early on that instead of going the cheaper, "do-it-yourself" route of album production, it would invest some money to get a quality sound.

"It certainly was not the easy way to go, as my credit card bills keep reminding me," Henry said. "We took such a huge financial risk with this project. But it will all be worth it in the end.

"At least that's what I keep telling myself."

Based on the strength of three pre-released tracks, The Crud has developed a healthy following online.

"I'm constantly getting blown away by all the positive feedback we're getting, just from those three songs," Henry said. "It truly has been a humbling experience."

"Antidote" will be available for purchase on the band's website, at www.thecrud.com.

The Crud is also featured with Jack Johnson and Pepper on a compilation album produced by Hawaiian Express Records called "Roots Rock Reggae." And the band contributed two songs to an acoustic compilation put out by Unity Crayons, which is scheduled to be released this summer.

The album was recorded at the Vibe Asylum studios and engineered and co-produced by Steve Escallier, who has worked in different capacities with several world-renown recording artists, including Tom Petty, the Grateful Dead, Santana, Fleetwood Mack, Alice Cooper, Waylon Jennings and the Gin Blossoms. Escallier was the engineer on a Grammy Award-winning project, an album by Little Joe Hernandez and La Familia.

The Crud - which also features Justin Vincler on drums and Rob Petersen on bass - was awarded $500 in mastering services after receiving the most votes among five finalists in a contest put on by Freq Mastering. The Oregon-based studio initially selected the top five written stories - anecdotal, biographical, or just funny - from bands all over the country, and put the finalists up for a vote. The Crud took the prize with a story outlining some of the difficulties it had faced putting out the album. A revised version of that story appears on the album's liner notes.

In early 2004, the band's other co-founder, bass player Jonny Croce, was processed out of the Navy and returned to his hometown, in New Jersey. He stayed there to be with his girlfriend, and eventually decided to remain there with her.

Meanwhile, original lead guitarist Matt Webb said goodbye to the band to focus on the birth of his first child, Jonah.

And just when things were looking most bleak with two of the band's original members gone, Justin, who was also in the Navy, was shipped off to Iraq to serve his country.

"I began to wonder if this band was going to make it," Henry said. "I knew in my heart that I couldn't let us go out this way. But sometimes it was hard to keep the faith."

But Justin is back, and so is The Crud. And whoever ends up in the band, Henry says he just wants to prove that a unique sound can succeed.

"We were partly created over a frustration with the vast sameness of music today," Henry said. "We want to prove to the world that rock bands don't have to sound alike to be worthy of people's attention."