Stressors - Demo Tape

http://www.mediafire.com/?g2rrg8jn89jqbjc

This was Stressors very first release, and the only to feature our first bassist, Eagret. We recorded two sessions and used the second. "Dr. Edquard's Lair" is Collin's (Zero Progress/Skull Stomp) garage. I can't remember where the name came from. Unfortunately, the only copies of the tape's J-card that I have are photocopied from a photocopy, so they're faded. I guess the kinkos guy didn't know how to do what I wanted.



I do, however, have the original J-Card with the words cut and glued that we used to make all the copies, so here's that.



We thanked Collin for recording us, Ed and Neil for driving us around in the beginning, Bill (Strung Up/Instant Asshole) and Sadaf (she lives/d(?) at Burnt Ramen, a venue in Richmond) for getting us shows, Malignus Youth for inspiring us (though that's only apparent in one song), and Kendar (our friend Kendra) for....I guess nothing, I just decided to put her name on there.

While the standard edition has that creepy lady on the front, the "tour edition" features an alternate cover. The same thing applies for this one, I only have the original J-Card used to print all the copies.



We hastily assembled ten copies for Ecoli and Migraine's 2010 summer tour. We gave them to Sean (Ecoli's drummer/Migraine's bassist) in hopes that he would distribute them. Instead, he sold 3 and lost the rest in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The person that had them emailed Noah and offered to re-turn them, but our follow up email received no response. So they're probably lost forever. The thanks on the tour version is shorter, and we took off Ecoli in the standard edition. I guess we were thinking of Sean when we added it, as it was him alone that tried to help us on tour. The only picture of the tour version i've ever seen is from Harry, a Pennsylvania resident. He ran/runs a really great blog but at the moment has has deleted it and left a message explaining why. You can view that here




30 copies of this tape exist, 10 of the green tour cover and 20 of the standard edition (10 with red covers and 10 with blue). We originally planned on printing two J-Cards on one page, but had to scrap ten of them when photocopying the photocopy caused the covers to appear faded. That's when, at the last minute, we decide to print ten of them on blue paper. The unexpected color change caused some confusion when we were numbering them, as already having sold some caused us to forget which number corresponded with which particular tape. I think Neil just started putting infinity signs after a while.

On the tour version, the word at the bottom of the track list means "fuck off" in polish. On the standard edition, the phrase in the same place means "may the worms eat you" in gaelic.

Now on to the songs. This particular release doesn't have a lyric sheet. I can, however, tell you about the songs I wrote, and a little about the ones I didn't. "Public Transportation" features a sound clip from The Toxic Avenger, which was Collin's idea. Noah wrote the lyrics for it. This is also one of the only songs that John wrote the music for. The song itself is about a woman that Noah and I used to see on the bus (though we were never on the bus at the same time when we saw her). She was always mumbling to herself and sometimes yelled at the bus drivers and other passengers. In fact, one day I decided to jot down the words she was saying in my school notebook. My terrible handwriting probably adds to the creepiness.



I wrote most of the lyrics for "Mind Death" in school one day. Noah wrote the chorus. The song goes:

Dull throbbing pain
in the back of my brain
A push pin is pushed in
the back of my head

Mind death
It comes and goes
It stops and slows
and then we know
that we are damned

It gets stronger
as the day goes on
Until i see everything
Through a filter of red

Someday you'll see the same way
Someday you'll feel it too
It starts creeping
up the back of your skull
And you won't know
what the fuck to do

the chorus chops what was originally a single verse in half, losing some of the rhyming pattern, but oh well. I'm also pretty sure some of the chorus is incorrect, but it's probably close.

In the beginning, Noah and I wrote the lyrics to "To Serve Man" line by line, alternating back and forth. It's about cannibalism, and named after an old Twilight Zone episode. Originally I wrote the verse guitar part as kind of an intro song with no lyrics, but we added them later anyway. I wrote the first line and it went on from there until the second verse, at which point Noah finished the lyrics on his own.

Corpse locker
Eating away
Pangs of hunger
An arm and a leg

My creation
(?)
Feeding on flesh
No salvation
Proliferation
On my dish

"Stuck In The Desert" is our one and only political song. I believe it's about the Israeli Palestinian conflict. It's also the only song where Noah actually sings a little. This song is the one inspired by Malignus Youth, because it's sort of melodic. Noah wrote all the lyrics, and I can only make out the chorus.

This is your home
You are stuck in the desert
Fighting for your life
You'll be safe with me

"Impostor's" general message is that we can all be ugly on the inside, and what would happen if that fact was physically exposed. You see your true ugly inner self in the form of mutilation. A car crash victim stares back at you from within the mirror. It's about the things we do and things that happen and how it changes us without us realizing it.

One day looking in the mirror
Someones staring back at you
Cut up, bloodied, mangled face
Not the one you thought you knew

Then you start to realize
It was back then when you died
Going on but no one knew
Now you don't know what to do

Saw something
Walking down the street
Broken arms, twisted feet
Half man, half beast
Aren't we all?

Noah, John, Collin, Josh (Collin's brother/Zero Progress) and I provided the back up vocals to "Impostor." We did them twice and layered them on top of each other. I like the rough sound they have, though it was achieved unintentionally by standing too close to the microphone.

The untitled B-Side to the tape is an instrumental. One day Noah, John and I were sitting around and thought we might make a song for the B-Side since we had some room left over. I recorded our conversation discussing that and other stuff. Then Noah started playing a bass riff he made up, and I joined in on my electric guitar. John played my acoustic guitar. After that we put some echo on everything and I added some short wave radio chatter on top. We've definitely grown as a band since this tape but we still play some of these songs occasionally.

As you might have guessed, this tape is sold out and has been for a long time. I don't even have any.