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FULL ALBUMS
DOWNSIDE - "THE FRED VOCAL VERSIONS" (1997)
DEMO TAPE
drums
and samples by me
copyright ©1997. all rights reserved.
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my thoughts
and notes on the recordings:
The
funniest thing about Panacea, aka Downside, aka Down Inside.....
we never had one song that was over 3 and a half minutes. Most of
our songs clocked in around 2:45. Our motto was, get to the point.
If the song feels like it's over, it's over. The rapmetal band with
the punk songwriting ethic. Ha.
"Critic" & "Ice Cream Clone" are two songs
that were written entirely by me-- all guitar parts and lyrics and
the rhythm of the raps, etc. "In Crowd"'s lyrics and rap
rhythm were also by me. These three songs are my favorite, not because
I wrote them. It's because you can feel the fucking intensity...
the recordings capture it and the lyrics said so much, with such
anger. The other demos, I'm proud of, but those three songs just
take the cake for me, lyrically and musically. Overall, I am insanely
proud of this era of the band.
"Critic" is about how I hated that most music fans couldn't
form their own opinion on albums, and also critics knew nothing
about good music. It's something that bothered me ten years ago
and still does to this day. "In Crowd" is about the punk
kids who fucking HATED US, because we were doing the rap/metal thing
(this was BEFORE Limp Bizkit was even a speck on the map). I was
a punker, but I couldn't get these people into us. They just hated
us on principle, because we weren't "punk." And "Ice
Cream Clone" is about my ex-girlfriend Carinda, my first love
and the girl I lost my virginity to... after I broke up with her
(because she was in love with my bandmate), she became incredibly
phony and followed whatever trend was hot at the time... Last time
I saw her was summer 2005, and she was still the same. I don't think
she'll ever keep it real, but whatever. I don't talk to her anymore
so it doesn't matter. I really fucking love those lyrics, though.
I was furious when I wrote them.
Regarding the performances of all of these recordings-- I'm totally
proud of the bass and guitars and my drumming. But in my opinion,
our rapper Fred (later known as Kidd-B) really didn't do any of
the songs of this time period justice, as a lead vocalist/rapper.
He never articulated his words and that bothered me tremendously.
Most of his raps were just muffled and slurred together... you can
barely understand the verses in "In Crowd." I don't know
what it was but in my opinion he was a much better bass player (he
started out as the bassist in the band). He had great energy, live,
though, which is why we loved him as a frontman. But I just hate
hearing his sloppy rapping. Tight music, though. I can't not love
these recordings, as they were pretty damn good for a bunch of guys
in our late teens and early 20s, who started playing this type of
music because of Rage Against the Machine and Stuck Mojo.
I really like Scott's song "Believe of the Lies", mainly lyrically. The song is about how fucking stupid it is being a gang-banger. Scott with the hard morals. I love it. Musically, it could definitely be tighter and a little more linear, but damn those lyrics rock. Oh yeah, "Overthrow" is another fave of mine. Musically and definitely lyrically. That was so much fun to play and a definite crowd-pleaser. The last track in the player, "Enemy Beyond".... kinda cheesy, but cool. Lyrically inspired by The Crow (the movie)... I think, anyway....
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In
Crowd
(lyrics by me): style
controls you like organized religion! |
Ice
Cream Clone
(lyrics and music by me):
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Critic
(lyrics and music by me): critic!
you're not a god, you're a snob!
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