Slow Your Role (Part Deux)

Salutations my metal head friends:

After reading Marco’s blog last week I found myself flashing way back to where it all began. It was nice to go down memory lane. I thought I would elaborate on some of Marco’s stories and expand on the whole history of Desolate Rage in the shortest possible way. So here it goes!

The Glue:

This refers to me. I am the one with ties to all the members of this group. We all met through me. First is Nelson our Guitarist. We go way back!! I met him in grade 3. we were 8 yrs old. Nelson was playing with some weird fan thingy he created from a motor and tin foil. I said “hey….what the hell is that” and we have been friends ever since.  I got my first bass at 12 yrs old. Nelson got his Guitar a year later. We jammed on our little shitty toaster amps. It was pretty cool. At this point we never played together in a band. Once I got to high school I joined up with my first band. As Marco stated we played together in music class and when my band was looking for a drummer, well it made sense to get Marco into the fold. We did that for about 2 yrs, by this time there was a serious shift in philosophies between myself, Marco and the rest of the group. Things went south fast. I quit and Marco was not too far behind. At this point Nelson was jamming here and there with a few other guys. Nothing too serious. I had written a song from top to bottom. I wanted to hear what it sounded like with a full band playing behind it. I recruited my good bud Nelson to play guitar on the track. Got another childhood buddy to drop vocals and finally I reached out to Marco (who was still playing for the previously mentioned first band) to do the drum tracks. We all clicked really well together. The song came out awesome. So of course we all kind off looked at each other and knew this was the way to go. This was the first time the 3 of us had played together.

While all this was going on, I was also playing in another band. It was a traditional Portuguese band. We would do 3 hr sets of 40 songs a night. The money was awesome !! so before you laugh at me, remember that!! The pay out was worth it. LOL of course like all bands, we had our own issues and what not. We were going through a transitional period. Our guitarist and keyboard players (brothers) had both left the band. So the remaining members begun auditioning for replacements. This is where I run into Jorge for the first time. Actually not the first time. I remembered him instantly as being a guy I use to see waiting for the trains at Bathurst station. He was always picking on some poor 9er kids. I wanted to punch him in the face. A fact that I mentioned to him at our first encounter at rehearsal, I can imagine what he was thinking? Ha-ha so long story short he joined the Portuguese band and we had a good long run doing that.

The Formation:

Now for the good stuff,

After many different singers things were looking bleak for Desolate Rage or Bleed at that time. We had a long-ish run with one singer but things went real sour. All b/c of a woman. He left us high and dry two days before a gig. It was too late to pull out. So we had to think of something fast. Jorge was playing guitar and singing in my other band. We had all hung out together and I thought why not ask him to fill in? we had most of the lyrics written down (Marco and I use to write the lyrics back in the day) so we practiced our nads off for two days. Jorge filled in on vocals and we did the show. I remember having to kick him on stage to queue him in when it was time to sing. LOL the show went well all things considered. It was determined that Jorge would be the fill in guy until we were able to find a replacement. Well that never happened. He never left. LOL

This caused a huge problem for the Portuguese band. For some reason it was ok for me to be in two bands for years with out ever having a conflict of interest, however it was now an issue for Jorge to do the same. Needless to say we were not able to keep that band together. Now it was only the 4 of us. We changed our name to Condemned and Jorge slowly begun to play guitar as well as sing for us. We have had the same line up since approx 2002. That makes 12 yrs together. Last year we thought it was a good idea to change the name and try a re brand. See the name “Condemned” showed up everywhere. There must have been 5 or 6 other bands with the same name world wide. We pre-date all of them but we were a little slow on the technology side. We never took claim to any of the social media outlets and it was impossible to find us on Google or anywhere else by the name “Condemned” the re brand of “Desolate Rage” was much more preemptive. We made damn sure that no one else had this name, and scooped up the .com domain and all other Media outlets. And here we are doing weekly blogs for you all.

Hope you enjoyed the history lesson?

Till next time.

Jeff

Slow Your Roll

Hello to all,

It's been a while since I posted a blog, just been trying to enjoy what little is left of the summer. Yes, another summer is passing us by and we're getting older (seeing the glass half empty I guess lol). At 34, I can honestly say I forget my age sometimes and I can't believe how the years pass so quickly, it seems like just yesterday I was in  grade 9-1st period drafting class where I met that long-haired kid next to the window who is now my bass player. Yup, I knew him as the dude who didn't say much but showed a me and a buddy of mine how hard his head was when a kid got mouthy with him so Jeff decided to smash his head into a sheet of wood to scare his ass, you can say that kid didn't bug him again. Jeff and I really got to know eachother in music class where he was on the bass guitar(of course) and they put me on drums (I sucked at the clarinet). He played in a band at the time and I'd always bug him about him looking for a drummer, we got so bored in music class so our teacher was cool enough let us both leave the class and go play our own music in the school auditorium, it was pretty cool. You could say that's where Jeff and I clicked so to speak, the rest is in the books. Oh, and I forgot to mention he is stubborn as fuck...…stubborn…..as……fuck!

Now there's Jorge......picking on the grade 9'ers  at Bathurst subway station after school pretty much sums up my first impression of him. Although it wasn't until years later would I end up playing alongside him, destiny I guess. I met Nelson through Jeff in grade 10, back in the DKR days. He was always calm and laid back and loved his music, little did I know fast forward almost 20 years and here we are looking at the same ugly mugs we looked at back in the days. It's been a fun ride and  I'm hoping the ride doesn't end for a while. 

There you go folks, some info you may or may not care about that you never knew, just a little glimpse in the history of DR.

Enjoy the rest of the summer, before you know it we'll be freezin' our ass off again in minus 30 degree weather, up to our asses in snow, where the only sunburn we'll feel is that of the windchill smacking us in the face. I like to be positive you know.

If you were tired of this hot summer I bet your thinking twice right about now:)

Until nextime,

Marco

Road Trippin'

Hey All,

Hope everyone is having a great summer and trying to enjoy these days as they only seem to be around for a short amount of time. I just got back from a 4 day motorcycle road trip with some family and friends and had a blast. It was nice to be able to ride and just enjoy the moment and let the thoughts run through my mind without any real distractions. Life's short and you have to enjoy every minute of it while it lasts cause once it's gone you can kiss it goodbye!

We've been spending the summer working on some new material as Jeff eluded to in last weeks blog and so far it feels pretty good. It's a four-parter and theme based and to be honest that's not something we've ever done so I'm pretty excited to hear what the 4 songs together sound like. We've finished 2 and have 2 more to go so we'll soon see. As for the show front we had to pull out of the show with the Agonist which sucked but we've been able to re-tool some things and we're playing with The Catalyst and My Hollow on Sept. 6th so I can't complain. There are a couple of other shows that we're working on and we'll keep you posted as soon as we know but for now come on out to The Rockpile West on Sept. 6th and check out some killer bands that night
Cheers and more to come in the next few weeks
J

Cross Roads

Hello again,

Well there has been some mix up on who was to write the next blog for Desolate Rage. With all the summer excitement, birthdays and other shit it was totally lost on me that it was my turn. So here we go!

We were scheduled to play this Friday Aug 1st with the Agonist at The Rock pile west venue but that feel through due to some unforeseen scheduling mishaps. It’s kind of shitty as I was looking forward to seeing their new singer in action for the first time. But such are the ways of the music business.

There is a silver lining to this situation as we have been added to the Sept 6th line up for The Catalyst show featuring our friends from My Hollow as well. Also held at The Rock Pile west. We have been away from live shows since March. It has been another tough year for this group. Seems to be our calling card as of late. So we are looking to get our chops up for this gig. A few other out of town shows are in the works, to be announced once we get the details.

The short term plan is to finish a 4 song EP that we have decided to work on. It will be theme oriented, loosely based on the 4 Horseman of the apocalypse. One song for each rider. I know, it’s not the most entirely unique theme but I don’t really give a fuck. 4 more songs are all that I really care about. The theme is just that, a theme! Just looking forward to the writing process. Two songs are for the most part completed. Only some fine tuning remains. On to the next two I suppose.

Cross Roads,

I am personally at a cross roads. I only speak for myself on this part.
Recently I find myself lacking in motivation to keep going in the music business. The long story short I have been involved with bands and playing live for exactly 20 yrs now at the age of 34. I have played hundreds of shows over the years, from dives to out door venues with thousands of people. I have pretty much done it all over the last 20 years with the exception of making it big. I came to grips with that likely hood years ago. So the issue with me is why should I continue to play live shows? What is there to gain? In the end bands make no money, you’re lucky to make enough coin to cover gas, in some cases we end up paying to play. WTF is that about? So after so many years of this how much is enough? I am struggling with that answer. I love playing music with the guys and always will and I know that if I walk away from it I will regret it. But again how much is too much? We are all married, have mortgages and some of us have kids myself included. At what point do you let go? I have seen pretty much every band that started back when we did fall to the passage of time. We are the last of that era still doing what we do. Its fucked let me tell you. Every so often musicians come to this point in their lives and people in general where they dig down and look at themselves in the mirror. It happens to us all and it’s happening to me now. I remember back to when I was 19 going on 20 that year I played over 150 shows and this year we have played only 3. That is a huge contrast, could I play that many shows now at this point in my life, fuck no! That would not be possible in any way. Do I want to play more than 3? Yes I suppose. But I keep asking myself why? It’s a question that needs to be answered sooner rather than later. I can tell you this, my drive for writing and jamming with the guys has not wavered and likely wont. I just have to convince myself that playing live is still worth it. The way the market is these days that will be a tough sell.

Anyways, I did not write a blog for a few weeks and the result is I can’t shut up.


Have a nice weekend

Till next time

Jeff