Thursday, December 6, 2012

Crumbsuckers - Life Of Demos 1983-1985




These are the early Crumbsuckers demos with David Brady on vocals. They were posted about a year ago on the band's facebook page, from David Brady's personal stash of recordings from when he was in the band, These recordings, and a couple others, have been circulating the web for a while now, but i was never happy with the quality on any of the links i've come across. Some were loaded with tape hiss and recorded at an incredibly low volume, while others were so cleaned that the sound was completely washed out. So i decided to clean the tracks myself, as i tend to listen to this stuff a lot and wanted it in decent quality. Hope you like it.

Life Of Demos

The Crumbsucker Cave demo was recorded in June of 1983 at Nino Studios in Baldwin, NY. At the time of these recordings, the band had a 15 song set (roughly), including a cover of Black Sabbath's "Sweet Leaf", Chubby Checker's "The Twist" (included on the demo), and the them to Inspector Gadget. A great mix of these songs and early versions of Life of Dreams songs can be heard on the New York Ave. 1984 Rehearsals (check out the Old, Fast & Loud blog for that). Like most high school hardcore bands, the music was pretty basic and the lyrics were kinda juvenile. The evolution of the Crumbsuckers is amazing considering that they had written some of the material for Life of Dreams less than a year later. Listening to the Cave demo you'd never think it was the Crumbsuckers, but it's worth checking out. A long-lost piece of hardcore history for sure.

1983 lineup:
Dave Brady - vocals
Dave Wynn - guitar
Gary Meskil - bass
Kevin Carroll - drums

In early 1984 Chuck Lenihan is brought in on second guitar and Dan Richardson takes over on drums. By the summer on 1985 all the band's old material is scrapped and the band records their incredible second demo. "Working the Magic" is recorded at CBGB on a 16 track. The progression from the first demo to the second is like night and day, and now the band have a super tight, metallic and very unique crossover sound. After listening to this demo about a dozen times during the past few weeks, i have a great appreciation for it. At this point i may actually prefer Dave's vocals over Notaro's. Probably just because this is new to me, so the difference in vocals sounds fresh. Dave's vocals are more of a raspy yelling, as opposed to Chris Notaro's growly, almost death metal approach (much different than his vocals on the first Krakdown demo). I'll say Working the Magic is up there with the best of the NYHC classic demos of the mid-'80s. Glad it's finally out there, and hopefully one day this stuff gets a proper release.

1985 lineup:
Dave Brady - vocals
Dave Wynn - guitar
Chuck Lenihan - guitar
Gary Meskil - bass
Dan Richardson - drums

I don't have any info on the last batch of tracks in this collection. Pretty sure they're rehearsals from sometime in 1984. Much different sounding than the New York Ave. Rehearsals. Probably some of the earliest versions you'll hear of some Life of Dreams songs. There's also a great version of an early unreleased song called The Solution. I'm guessing this is one of the last songs they cut before moving entirely in their new direction.

A few weeks after the recording of the CBGB demo, Dave splits, Chris joins, the band signs to Combat, and the rest is history.

Unfortunately i never got to see the Crumbsuckers in their prime, but i did get to see them when they played a reunuin show at BB King's in NYC on August 3rd, 2006. The show was in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Life of Dreams. I'm not much for reunion shows (although i've been to my share), but this show was amazing. The entire 1985 lineup played (plus Tom Klimchuck from Pro-Pain), and even David Brady and Dave Wynn came out for a few songs. Some of the band members even had their young children on stage, it was just a really fun show. They played LOD in its entirety and it was flawless. Seriously. If you closed your eyes you'd swear they were playing the album over the PA system. Easily the best reunion show i've ever seen, and just one of the best hardcore shows in general.

Excellent Crumbsuckers website here.

Also, i think Beast on My Back kills. Underrated ripper.

25 comments:

  1. I don't know about your BOMB opinion, perhaps it's time I gave it a second chance after all these years.

    I am a diehard Crumbsuckers fan. Life on my Dreams as a crossover classic comes second only to Animosity in my opinion. LOMD has my favorite Sean Taggart cover by far as well. I've heard the two demos before but the sound was drastically different so I'm grateful for this.

    Long time reader, first time commenter. As amazing as your archival work is. I love the lengthy exposition on each post. Especially how you relate every recording to your life in a personal way. That's what makes all the difference.

    I don't know if there was a difference in pressings between the Combat core and Cobra Core variations but I was looking at my cause for alarm and Life of my Dreams on Cobra Core and they are hands down the cheapest, thinnest LPs in my collection of 1000+ LPs.

    My friend bought a reissue CD of LOMD on Century Media in the late 90s. It might have even claimed it was "remastered". Anyways, it was ripped directly off the vinyl and if you listened closely you could hear needle pops and surface noise. The cover was also just a lousy photo of the LP cover. Hope the masters to this aren't lost or something.

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    1. When I was in Rome last spring, I found a CD reissue of LOD that definitely sounds remastered. It was co-released by Street Justice and Dead City Records in 2006.

      http://www.discogs.com/Crumbsuckers-Life-Of-Dreams/release/3515106

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  2. Thanks for sharing these recordings. Look forward to hearing the early demos. Cheers.

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  3. "quote" already been done son! blah blah blah bullshit "quote"

    Mikey P. you're a dick!!!

    oldschoolDan









    sorry Vin,but not really ;-0



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  4. I went to Webster Hall in NYC last night to see DRI. One of the opening bands had a merch table with a box of CDs. Within said box was the Dead City Re-issue of LOD. I asked if the quality was better than the Combat "Remaster" which has a record skip in Hubrun. The seller was unsure. I wish I read this post yesterday before I went. I would've picked up this recent re-issue for sure. On a side note, Webster Hall was once the Ritz. Around 86 I saw the Crumbsuckers open for Megadeth there. That was the first time I saw them but I saw them quite a few times after that. I was also at the Reunion at BB Kings which was great too. Too bad the Ludichri$t re-union that followed 6 months later wasn't as good.

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  5. I had no idea about these reissue problems. Glad i still have my original CD from when it came out. I know way back there was a CD that had both LPs on it. Probably one of those now expensive Profile CDs.
    Vin

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  6. AWESOME to see this blog up, running, and dropping KILLER collections of rarities again. It's been one of the best .blogspot hookups and I can't wait to see what you have in store for us next.

    I'm sure you've been asked this before, but are you considering an Occupied Territory collection?

    -K!

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  7. Nice post, cool to hear the unreleased song in the rehearsal.

    The CD with both albums on is the European pressing of Life of Dreams on rough justice records. Sounds decent and shouldn't cost much to pick up, same with the rough justice vinyl

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  8. hey Vin

    glad to see B&Q up and running, i bumped here by chance and what a nice surprise! well, since i'm here, i'd have to be a pain in the butt and ask if you will be posting Emotive Drive EP (you promised back there in Bad Trip post! :) )

    if it's not too much of a hassle, of course, and if you think there's enough interest or whatever.

    anyway, great the blog is in full effect again, keep it up!

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    1. Emotive Drive 1989 demo digitized for free download at

      http://emotivedrive.bandcamp.com/

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  9. Great Stuff. thanks Vinnie. Claude/brooklyn

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  10. A new year, and a new blog find. I really like how you cleaned up these gems.

    Equally nice reading.

    Dave B.
    'suckers Vox Emeritus 1982-1985

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  11. Nice! You got a compliment from Dave Brady himself! What's up Dave?

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  12. Just discovered this incredible "garden of hardcore delights" and I'm really happy. Thanx pal! Hi 5 and keep on!
    cheers from ne of Italy

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  13. Great site! Just discovered it. This is good stuff, thanks.

    Anybody know anything about the Bl'ast! Boner sessions? I've heard the low volume mp3 version out there but I'd love to hear a better version.

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  14. awesome site! you really do a great job in compiling these HC-discography albums! cheers from The Netherlands, corehead666

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  15. Nice Blog! Brings back some great memories. As a resident of the Netherlands, I saw the Crumbsuckers in my original home town Heemskerk. Great to see some pictures of this concert :-)

    Best regards from the Netherlands,

    Paul

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  16. Dude, I need some info about Psycho Sin, totally forgot about them until church of zer posted their LP. It rules. Classic NJ style hc meets noisecore.

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  18. Thanks so much !

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  19. Giulio The Bastard just released old Crumbsuckers on colored vinyl on his FOAD label.

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  20. I remember When I saw the Crumbsuckers live. On the way to the show my buddy and I picked up one of the guitarist at a gas station. We took him to the show and the band was talking about breaking up. What happened? I saw Pro-Pain on their Contents under Pressure tour.

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