Roadkill: The Story of Ben Stiller’s Teenage Punk Band Capital Punishment

Before Ben Stiller was Derek Zoolander or Greg Focker, he was just another high school student messing around in a garage band. In the late Seventies, Stiller and a few of his New York City friends, including frontman Kriss Roebling, who formed the band Capital Punishment with the future Tropic Thunder actor serving as the group's drummer.

They self-released one LP, 1982's Roadkill, that was all but forgotten until Brooklyn record label Captured Tracks announced the album's reissue this fall. In a recent interview with Howard Stern, Stiller talked about Capital Punishment and seemed somewhat amazed that "a real company" would reissue Roadkill. Stiller told Stern, "I was in a ridiculously weird band. I was like 15, 16, and my friend in high school, Kriss, started this band. He was the one who had the talent, he wrote the songs, I was the drummer". / Wochit Entertainment 2015/27/03

Pitchfork is proud to present Roadkill, a new documentary film telling the surprising and often hilarious story of the band Capital Punishment. Formed when its members were teenagers, Capital Punishment self-released a blistering post-punk/industrial album in 1982 before going their separate ways upon graduation from high school. Frontman Kriss Roebling’s ancestors built the Brooklyn Bridge. Bassist Peter Swann went on to become a judge for the Arizona Court of Appeals. Guitarist Peter Zusi became a professor of Slavic languages. And drummer Ben Stiller became... Ben Stiller. / Pitchfork 2019/01/07