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IMPROV: SCARING PEOPLE IS EASY



Irreligion "Improv" MP3

This is kind of like Irreligion 2.0. You can hear that we're using the same gear as when we were playing with Elliott. Same drums & cymbals, same amps. But in this case, Ray is on guitar, Michael is on bass & I'm on drums. This was when my drumming finally got halfway decent.

This version of Irreligion was going to be an all-improv band, playing whatever kind of music you'd call this. I mean, it's probably standard fare for any jam bands these days, but in 1990, there was no precedent. Of course, many years later I'm aware that we were never alone in our musical explorations in the basement. Anyway the hope was to find a vocalist who could be a poet & frontman so we could just concentrate on heads-down musical noodling & the would-be Perry Farrell could do his thing & be the focal point.

We might've jammed with a couple of different singer/vocal guys at various points, it's kind of hazy now & I didn't record anything. I think Brian Lewis might've come over once. I forget who else.

Can you imagine, a band that only improvises? It would've been like a heavy metal Talk Talk. Or grunge Breathless. Or, I guess, Tool?

Noodles (needless, I mean NEEDLESS) to say, the all-jamming Irreligion didn't make it out of the basement either. But it did lay the foundation for Evil Bread in April/May 1991..............
Irreligion plus Mike Gourley = Evil Bread. Evil Bread maintained a tiny bit of the improvisation/jamming & did it within the structure of grindcore songs.




FOR THOSE ABOUT TO XYCHQ January 1989, Flamingo Isle, before the only XYCHQ gig, opening for Broken Bones, Soul Scrape, and the Infants of Sin maybe? I forget who all was on the bill. Jeff Sampson, Michael Million, Ray Lilly in front and me in the back with a ponytail. Note that we're all wearing all black.
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