(Photo by The Jeneral)My good friend, Ack, and I worshiped Karp and The Melvins, and we wanted to form a band where we could make a lot of noise, do a lot of feedback and scream in goblin voices, a la Chris and Jared from Karp. I called a drummer, Alex Bytnar, who I knew from a band called Zipper Kitty. He said he'd be totally into it, but he knew some other guys who wanted to do something similar and we should all get together and see what happens.
Ack and I met Alex down at a rehearsal space in Reseda, CA where we met the other guys, Sacha Dunable - the other guitarist - and Kevin Henson - the would-be vocalist. The rehearsal went really well, although it wasn't anywhere near what Ack and I wanted to do. Plus, we both thought that Kevin completely sucked as a vocalist.
After the first or second practice, we decided to come up with a band name. Sacha suggested something he really wanted to use. I looked in the LA Weekly and, lo and behold, there was a band with that exact name playing at The Whiskey that Friday. Hilarious. So we went with the name I came up with, Anubis Rising.
We continued practicing and Ack and I quickly lost interest. We weren't getting to do our noisy goblin metal and Kevin was turning out to be a douchebag on top of being a shitty vocalist. Ironically, I got along really well with Sacha, both musically and personally.
After our first show at Cobalt Cafe, Ack and I bailed to pursue our weirdo improv group, Pope Goat VII, who, incidentally, opened the show with our first live performance (or mass, as we called it).
I remained friends with Alex until I got too heavy into drugs. He's a good guy, not to mention an excellent drummer, and I'd like to talk to him again. I never heard from the other guys again. Of course they went on to get somewhat of a following and release a few CDs.
So here's the document of what the band sounded like in the very beginning. It was recorded by a guy named Tom (I think) from a band called Kung Fu Chicken. He did a great job and he was supercool. My guitar is in the right speaker. Ack plays bass. Sacha is in the left speaker. Alex rocks the drums. Kevin and I shared vocals, to a certain extent.
About the songs:
(note: songs that are linked can be downloaded as samples)
01. Torn Apart - I orignally wrote this to sound like Hammerhead, not what it is here. I far prefer my original four-track recording of this song and I'll be posting it in the future. I'm the main vocalist, with annoying flourishes from Kevin. His solo vocals at the end really irritate me. I never agreed to them.
02. Behold the Future - A great example of Sacha's epic songwriting. Too bad it's not what Ack and I wanted to do. I bust into a crazy Greg Ginn-style solo at the end.
03. Bleeding Heart - A Sacha song. For some reason, this is the song I always associate with my bad memories of Kevin. I kinda feel bad picking on the guy like this, but I really, genuinely did not like him.
04. Emptiness - Sacha's fast song. Cool bass/drums intro by Ack and Alex - sounds a little like Karp.
05. I Hope - One of mine. Black Flag influence here. Why did Kevin insist on blabbering over my vocals?
06. Eternal - Another Sacha song. I don't remember much about this one except the cool riff.
07. Untitled - I wrote this song, but never came up with any lyrics, so Kevin gets to ruin it. I think I'll end up using the music I wrote for my second black metal album.
08. Boiling Pot - Epic instrumental courtesy of Sacha. Some of it reminds me of "Good Natured Emma" by The Amboy Dukes.
09. Laughter - The band in in a good mood.
10. Hippie Drum Circle - I'm not sure what was going on with this. Were we trying to be Neurosis?
11. Xolotl - This semi-improvised track was the closest Ack and I came to our original vision. I wrote the riffs and we basically jammed them out. I think I'm playing trumpet in there at one point. I ended up reworking this song for my spacerock album, Songs About Girls Who Never Existed by Messier 7, which will be posted here in the future. Thankfully, Kevin's vocals are buried in the mix.
(Photo by The Jeneral)Anubis Rising
Demo 99 CS
(n/a)
1999
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1999
Listening to this I felt like I was back in the cassettee era, and I don't even own a tape deck anymore! This tape has groovy psychedelic jamming that I really go into along with drum circle stuff that reminded me too much of the hippie potheads that used to meander by the Venice Boardwalk spare-changing passerby. But hey, to each his own.
ReplyDeleteShit I sang lead improvised vocals on Xolotl along with everyone throwing in their randomness. Most of what I did was vocal noise, which is what I was really getting into while we were doin Pope Goat and my own Ackronomicon Sessions.
ReplyDelete-Ackronomicon