Friday, May 31, 2019

The Sleaze / Scag Rotter - Demo (2004)


Alright, alright, I suppose it's time to stop being modest and post one of my old bands. Fuck, thinking about this band makes me really sad and happy at the same time and it's a weird mix of nostalgic longing and exhausted relief. Originally Mike (rest in piece, you sweet gentle asshole) and Pat had known each other from Schenectady and started a band with Chris Lee of the Bagabums (a band who I'd LOVE to have some recordings by but as far as I know they've all been destroyed) and his pal Jordan from Saratoga. Jordan wasn't really working out for one reason or another, Chris drunkenly asked me to try out on drums at Vive Le Punk 2003 in NYC. I agreed, for some reason or another, but have no idea why because I couldn't play drums at all. Until I did, and it sounded not terrible. I learned all their old songs, and we penned some new ones and recorded a demo only a couple weeks after I had learned how to drum. The quality is not the best.


Fast forward a couple years and Chris leaves the band, we all decide to change the name because it was his idea and we landed somehow on Scag Rotter. After a few attempts to find a bassist nothing really panned out until we tried our good friend Brendan who would go on to start Neutron Rats with me, among several other projects. The longest running lineup was born then, and we played a lot of killer gigs and even made it out of town a handful of times which was shocking with the amount of Milwaukee's Best we would suck down every fucking night. We had a handful of new songs in the works, but intended on putting out a 7" on our buddy Claw's new label Loud Blaring Punk Rock (now shortened to Loud Punk) so we figured we'd record some of the old stuff, a couple new ones, and then finish the other ones. Unfortunately the recordings never were completed, the record never came out, and all of those sessions are lost except for one song due to the engineer's computer crashing. It's drunk, and it's punk, for better or worse.


Fuck, I miss these days and I miss not knowing how fucking dumb I was. About 6 of these songs were actually on the demo but I'm including the rest which had some real stinkers on it, but also some pretty solid tunes along with the last remaining Scag Rotter session song. After Mike's passing two years ago I can't listen to most of this anymore without tearing up a little, but maybe you'll get some kind of enjoyment out of it. But seriously, don't focus on the drumming that shit is atrocious.

"You say that we'll be gone someday, you say our lives are just a phase / we've got nothing more to say, we found our place we're here to stay."

Love ya, buddy.


Tracklist:
  1. Bigger Picture
  2. Come Drink With Us Tonight
  3. Follow the Orders
  4. Heartsick
  5. Here Goes Nothing
  6. Much More Fun
  7. My Problem
  8. Old Friend
  9. Stupid Fucking Cunt
  10. Turn Your Back
  11. Vultures
  12. We're Here to Stay
  13. You're All the Same
  14. Come Drink With Us Tonight (Scag Rotter sessions)

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