City

Artist:

I came back from the UK in a confused and hostile frame of mind. My period with Vai had left me with a distain for the music industry in general, my time with The Wildhearts had left me with many questions and anger. Side projects with Jason Newsted (among others) had failed to live up to what I had expected of them. The first SYL record had done very poorly and Adrian had went on with Frontline Assembly.

We had one jam of the City material that was not really a success, and I felt it was time to make a move away from Vancouver again to seek new opportunities for the music.

I was infatuated with the ugly nature and relative inconspicuousness of cities, and thought the quasi industrial wasteland of Los Angeles would be a good place to find inspiration, so I moved in with a few friends in Marina Del Rey and began writing.

I felt compelled by certain albums at the time, (including ‘Domination’ by Morbid Angel, ‘Gash’ by Foetus, as well as Old Lady Drivers ‘Formula’ and Cop Shoot Cop albums). I worked occasionally at Century Media records filling orders in the mail room, and for the most part, just wrote a series of much darker SYL songs.

I finished the album and had full demos when I met Gene Hoglan at a show in Hollywood…and when he told me he liked the first album, I rooked him into doing City. He hadn’t played in months, and was unfamiliar with blasting etc, so we were a little rough out the gate. (The demos were very specific) obviously about 3 days into rehearsal I realized what an incredible talent he was and in the end, we recorded at Steve Vai’s studio in Hollywood. I invited my old friends Byron and Jed down to LA to join in on the recording for a more ‘band-like’ experience, and we ultimately got on well. This first actual recording experience became the genesis of what we later became as an entity.

Tracklisting

1.“Velvet Kevorkian”1:17
2.“All Hail the New Flesh”5:24
3.“Oh My Fucking God”3:34
4.“Detox”5:37
5.“Home Nucleonics”2:31
6.“AAA”5:21
7.“Underneath the Waves”3:40
8.“Room 429” (Tod Ashley) (Cop Shoot Cop cover)5:21
9.“Spirituality”6:34

BONUS TRACKS

No.TitleLength
10.“Centipede” ( 2007 remaster)7:55
11.“Home Nucleonics” ( 2007 remaster)3:02
12.“Headrhoid” ( 2007 remaster)1:38
13.“Detox” (2007 remaster)5:48
14.“AAA” (2007 remaster)5:22