The seeds for Eugene post-punk band The Crimes of Ambition were planted back in the late ’90s when then-University philosophy graduate student Maya Chernobyl found herself spending her days at the now defunct cafe Sandino’s Fonda.
“Something kept me in academia, but I knew it wasn’t right for me and it was keeping me stunted,” said Chernobyl. “So I went to this Marxist coffee shop where they blasted punk rock music. I would smoke, drink strong coffee out of a bottomless cup, and get exposed to all this music.”
At Sandino’s Fonda, Chernobyl met The Crimes of Ambition’s songwriter and guitarist Juan Camacho, who owned the cafe. The two started dating and eventually co-owned the next generation of the coffee shop.
“We lost that shop because we’re not good business people,” explained Chernobyl. “But everyone loved it.”
In 1999 the pair decided to form the band. At the time Chernobyl didn’t know how to play drums.
“(Camacho) taught me how to play drums, and I taught him how to write poetry,” said Chernobyl. “And I got the fuck out of Philosophy.”
The band has gone through various incarnations since its birth. “Over six years we’ve been through many singers and bass players,” said Chernobyl, adding, “we never fired anybody.”
Two years ago the band’s current singer, Lisa Blue, answered a classified ad she found in the Eugene Weekly that read “VOCALIST NEEDED for rock band.”
“I came in grabbed a microphone and something crazy came out of me,” said Blue about her audition. “And they liked it.”
Like Blue, bassist Terri Parrish, the most recent addition to the band, also responded to an ad in the Weekly.
The Crimes of Ambition’s self-release debut album “Spinning Hearts in Perpetual Orbit” is due out Friday. Parrish describes the band’s sound as melodic post-punk. “It’s got punk’s drums, but not necessarily punk’s guitars,” Parrish said. “It’s punk in spirit, but it’s not sung by a punk rocker.”
The band will be having a CD release party Friday evening at the Black Forest, located at 50. E 11th Ave. in downtown Eugene. The band will perform songs off of their album, and Station Wag and The Perverts will perform as well. The band plans on touring the Northwest and Europe to support their album.
For more information, lyrics, and MP3s, check out the band’s Web site at www.crimesofambition.us.

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