When the Codefendants describe their upcoming Live EP with Venezuelan experimental collective Zeta, they talk about it the way most artists describe their first tour — raw, unpredictable, and alive. “We wanted to capture that live experience in the studio,” says Ceschi Ramos. “After one of our shows last year in Florida, we went to Red Lion Studios and did this whole in-studio session with them that captured the sound of what we’d been doing live. We also videotaped it — about four cameras filming. That’s what the session is.”
The result is Live From Red Lion Studio, a hybrid of punk energy, hip-hop flow, and Latin psychedelic chaos — the perfect storm of what the Codefendants have come to call Crime Wave.
Zeta’s story runs deep. Originally from Venezuela, the group relocated to the U.S. in the mid-2000s, bringing a politically charged and improvisational edge that’s become legendary within DIY circles. “Over the years, I’ve become really good friends with them,” Ramos explains. “When we started Codefendants — which was really just a recording project at first — we needed to build a live set. That was the first band I reached out to because they were one of my favorite live bands, period. To me, that was the ideal band to work with.”
The partnership evolved naturally. The two groups began touring together, building an electric chemistry that pushed Codefendants’ already genre-blurring sound into uncharted territory. “We still play together,” Ramos continues. “Unfortunately, one of the main band members, Donny, had to leave the country due to the political climate here and ICE. He was facing deportation, so he left. And then Chino can’t leave the country because, if he does, he can’t come back. So it’s complicated.”
That tension — of borders, barriers, and creativity under pressure — fuels Live From Red Lion Studio. The session was captured by videographer and visual artist Digital Cipher, who also works with A24, ensuring the film component matches the music’s intensity. “He does an amazing job,” says Ramos. “It’s going to look really cool.”
The Codefendants have always treated music like a film — each song a scene, each record a world. Their work with Zeta takes that vision further. It’s an homage to the DIY spirit of community, the immigrant punk tradition, and the pure catharsis of performing shoulder-to-shoulder in a packed, sweaty room.
As Ramos puts it, “We wanted to document what it felt like to be in that moment — no polish, no perfection. Just the truth of what we sound like when we’re alive.”