The flames of Yaphet Kotto flickered out sometime around 2005, and their breakup was a hushed affair. There was no final tour. No posthumous odes to their greatness. All that is left is a tribute MySpace page, oh, and the actor of the same name.

The real Yaphet Kotto is doing fine, living in Baltimore, and voting republican.

More on Yaphet Kotto after the jump.

Based out of Santa Cruz (and eventually San Francisco), the quartet quickly signed to Ebullition Records—you might know them for the HeartattaCk zine, the single most visible icon at a hardcore show, with the exception of a “Free Mumia” patch—and unleashed a flurry of fantastic recordings that utilized their rigid interplay between hardcore breakdowns and—brace yourself—emo vocals. Mind you, this is not mall emo, but more so the hurried, and pained, yelps made famous by Rites of Spring and other reluctant founders of the now-soiled genre. Their masterwork was the fantastically titled The Killer Was In The Government Blankets, which was a brutal assortment of heart wrenching political anthems. Meanwhile, just as worthy was 2004’s We Bury Our Dead Alive, which captured the growth of a band more focused on melody than the blunt edges of their punk rock carnage.

I always grieve for smalltime punk bands when they break up. While Rob’s excellent post about Life Without Buildings reminded me how an act like that can establish such a following on so few songs, bands that live in the punk rock basement circuit are seldom so lucky. With the exception of merch tables at hardcore festivals—or devote fans of FBI Agent Alonzo Mosely from Midnight Run—how will anyone hear of bands like Yaphet Kotto? Or even to a larger extent, bands like Born Against or Heroin?

I don’t really have the answers to these questions.

I do have some MP3s, though.

MP3:
Yaphet Kotto - First Meetings Agreement

Yaphet Kotto - Torn Pictures