cut.rate.box was founded by g.wygonik in Florida in the spring of 1989.
After playing several shows by himself with occasional guest members on stage, g. added full-time members Shred and Chuck Kelly. Their first show as a band was opening for Die Warzau (pic above), followed shortly thereafter with opening slots for Pigface, Foetus, and Alien Sex Fiend. Pigface's touring sound mixer, Jonathan Formula, convinced g. he should move to Chicago, and in the summer of 1992 g. made the move.
By this time, the band had released the "self-untitled" cassette, which grabbed the attention of Permission Magazine and Industrial Nation Magazine, who both put select c.r.b songs on their inaugural compilations. Invigorated by the new surroundings, g. put together several new tracks and was encouraged to re-release "self-untitled" in CD form. This combination of new and old tracks became the "distemper" release. Having made new connections and played shows at such legendary Chicago underground clubs like Neo, g. moved around the country, finally settling in New Orleans.
It was here that he met Clint Sand—who at the time was the guitarist for goth band Ex-Voto—and they started a dynamic and prolific collaboration that brought new success to c.r.b.
In 1999 the duo released the "blueiceblack" EP which caught the ear of labels around the globe, with the band signing to Gashed! Records before ending up with WTII (former WaxTrax! Records) in the US, and Accession Records in Europe. That same year, the band also found themselves with coveted opening spots for Nine Inch Nails, Pop Will Eat Itself, VAST, and Sheep on Drugs, as well as playing at Convergence 5 festival with Clan of Xymox and others.
Over the next several years, c.r.b released two full-length albums, "new religion" and "dataseed" with spots in the College Music Journal Top 10 albums for 10 weeks, extensive tours through Europe and North America, headlining the opening night of Infest 2003, and shows with bands such as Covenant, VNV Nation, Das Ich, Stromkern, and Assemblage 23.
In the fall of 2005, after hurricane Katrina upset the balance of time and space (and g.'s mental health), g. relocated to Austin, Texas where, once again, the band went back to being a solo project. In the immediate aftermath of Katrina, g. wrote and recorded several songs that a friend called "terribly depressing", which later became the "xenophobe" release.
Then g. took a break from c.r.b (but not music, creating a hardware music synthesizer, modular synth modules, and software synth modules for VCV Rack).
At the start of 2025, g. said to himself "it is time", and began writing and recording songs for the "luxury anxiety" release. Returning to his earliest musical roots, g. brings a punk ethos—driving minimalism and scathing lyrical takes on the current state of the world—to the electro-pop-industrial sound c.r.b is known for.