AZ judge's band with Ben Stiller gets big break on Stern

• As a teen in New York%2C Peter Swann played bass in Capital Punishment%3B Ben Stiller played drums.
• Howard Stern played clips of the music while Stiller was a guest on Wednesday.
• The record will be released by a Brooklyn-based label this fall.
• Stern asked Stiller if the band could reunite in his studio.

Before he became an Arizona appellate judge, Peter Swann was a bass guitar-playing teenager in New York who, with his friend Ben Stiller on drums, formed the rhythm section of a band called Capital Punishment.

After Stiller became a movie star, the group's 1982 album "Road Kill" became a sought-after cult classic.

So much so that a Brooklyn-based record label has plans to release the album this fall.

Swann's adolescent bass playing received national airplay on Wednesday when Stiller was a guest on the Howard Stern radio show, heard on SiriusXM satellite radio.

Stern played two of the three songs on "Road Kill" that feature Swann: "Delta Time" and "Muzak Anonymous."

"It's a complete surprise," Swann said Wednesday about the 33-year-old recording getting new life. "It's been kind of a hoot."

It was not the band's national debut. Jimmy Fallon played a 15-second clip of "Delta Time" when Stiller was a guest on "The Tonight Show" in December. But Stiller did not mention Swann by name.

He did so on Wednesday's Stern show, calling Swann by both his first and last name and saying he was a judge.

"Gee," Stern said, "I hope he's tenured."

Swann was named to the Arizona Court of Appeals in 2008, after serving five years as a Superior Court judge. He doesn't have tenure; judges in Arizona face periodic retention elections. In 2012, he kept his seat by earning 64 percent of the vote.

Swann's path to Capital Punishment was quicker. Swann said the bass player scheduled to play the session was sick. He was asked to fill in.

The first song recorded, "Muzak Anonymous," marked the first time Swann had been in a studio.

The first take, he said, is what was on the record. The track opens with Swann playing a two-note bass riff before the guitars, drums and vocals kick in. Sample lyric: "And if society is a car / Well, then I guess I'm just road kill / because I'm stuck between the tire and the truth."

The group also recorded the melodic instrumental "All Just In Passing."

And, with some extra time left in the scheduled session at Delta Studios in New York, the group improvised a tribute to their spare moments called "Delta Time." Swann contributed British-accented vocals to the experimental track.

"Bear in mind – I was 16," Swann said.

Five hundred copies of "Road Kill" were pressed. "None sold," Swann said.

At least not then. One copy was listed for sale Wednesday on a collectors' website for $325.

The price of the album should come down in a few months. A representative from Captured Tracks, a Brooklyn-based label, said the "Road Kill" album is scheduled for a fall release.

Swann said he became an official member of Capital Punishment after the recording session. The group recorded more songs that Swann said showed much improvement. He is looking to find copies of those tapes to be part of the new release.

He and Stiller also started a rap group called the Sucker MCs. It was a self-effacing parody. Their first song was titled "I'm A Coward."

Swann said the group was getting some industry interest. But then another group of White rappers, the Beastie Boys, released their debut record. "They were 600 times better than we were," Swann said.

He said he has a cassette of Sucker MCs music but doesn't expect anyone will be wanting to hear it anytime soon.

He and Stiller remained close in college. Both headed to California, but to different cities. Swann went to the University of California-Berkeley; Stiller to UCLA.

Swann joined Stiller by phone for a weekly radio show that could only be heard by radios plugged into campus electrical lines. It was a humorous talk show that didn't have much of an audience. Swann said the two offered a prize of $5 to the first caller; they never gave the money away.

Stiller went on to star in multiple movies. Swann went on to law school and the bench. He said Stiller attended his investiture ceremony when he became a judge.

Swann also kept playing bass. His last band was a country outfit called the West Texas Millionaires. He also built a home studio, where he has recorded other acts, including the David Friesen jazz trio.

But he might be picking up his own bass and getting back together with Stiller and the rest of Capital Punishment.

On Wednesday's radio show, Stern asked Stiller, "Would you do me a favor and have a reunion here?"

Stiller replied, "Definitely."