Ass-Sordid Demos

***Ass-Sordid Demos 1990-1996*** is a retrospective compilation album from Canadian progressive metal musician Devin Townsend. It collects assorted demos over a six year period, hence the titular play on words. Because it was released solely through HevyDevy Records, the album is not mastered, leaving it quieter than most other Townsend albums.

All songs are attributed to Townsend solo except "Roadkill," a demo for one of his first bands, Grey Skies.

The song "Man" is included as a bonus track on the reissue of *Infinity*. As well, the opening three songs were used as Japanese bonus tracks for *Physicist*. The tracks were remastered for these releases.

This album was succeeded by another demo collection, suitably titled *Ass-Sordid Demos II*, in 2004. The iTunes release of this album contains selections from both despite using the original art and title.

## Hevydevy.com description

> *I decided to put out a self-produced disk of various demos that had existed during the Ocean Machine, Noisescapes period. Mostly re-recorded from the originals, these were mail-order only disks that are more of a curiosity than anything.*
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## Liner notes

> *Man, Promise and Red Tomorrow are all re-makes of stuff I did around 1990. I put these versions on because they sounded like they had more effort put into them and were more like what I heard in my head. Man appeared on the first Noisescapes demo that originally got the attention of Steve Vai and Relativity Records.*
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> *Ocean Machines was written in a motel room in Germany in 1995. I found it way too long to put on the actual Ocean Machine record. Unnecessarily long. The song was named after the project, not the other way around.*
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> *L.A. - I wrote the first week I moved to Los Angeles for the Steve Vai project. The vibe was lonely and overly emotive. The thing at the end is some weird Japanese propaganda thing that I tape recorded.*
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> *Morwar - I included it to show all the shit that went on behind the guitars. This was one of the songs on Infinity with the most chaos.*
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> *Amsterdam I wrote while I was in high school. Bad jazz-inspired thing. Maybe that's all jazz is...*
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> *My Girl was written in the period of time that I got the initial phone call from Relativity Records to the time I left for Los Angeles. It was a very confusing time and there were definitely some demons kicking around at that point.*
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> *Road Kill I wrote in high school with my band Grey Skies. It just seems to be the one that everybody remembered from back then. I hope I am remembered the rest of my life for it - that would be perfect...*
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> *That's Life was just me sitting on the keyboards for 3 minutes and saying "Please stop crying". Just for fun.*
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> *There you are... Please keep in mind that these are demos, meaning songs that I spend less time on than a real record to see what will work or not. Listening to demos is like picking through turds. Turds can be cool though.*
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## Track listing

All songs written by Devin Townsend.

1. "Man" (5:12)
2. "Ocean Machines" (8:24)
3. "Promise" (5:25)
4. "L.A." (3:46)
5. "Morwar" (5:52)
6. "Amsterdam" (4:35)
7. "Red Tomorrow" (4:30)
8. "My Girl" (5:59)
9. "Roadkill" (3:13)
10. "That's Life" (2:54)

### iTunes Release

1. "Ocean Machines (1995 Demo)" (8:24)
2. "Promise (1990 Demo)" (5:25)
3. "Red Tomorrow (1990 Demo)" (4:30)
4. "SunMud/Woman (1992 Noisescapes Demo)" (6:38)
5. "I Am (1992 Noisescapes Demo)" (9:59)
6. "Thick Stock (1993 Demo)" (3:10)
7. "Cold (1992 Demo)" (4:26)
8. "Soft (1992 Demo)" (4:05)
9. "Black and White (1991 Grey Skies Demo)" (6:13)
10. "Bury the Wrong (1991 Grey Skies Demo)" (3:52)
11. "Roadkill (1991 Grey Skies Demo)" (3:12)
12. "Rain (1991 Grey Skies Demo)" (5:49)
13. "Ascent to the Summit of Black Mountain (1991 Grey Skies Demo)" (5:43)

## Personnel

* Devin Townsend – guitar, vocals, keyboards, production, liner notes, engineering
* Marty Chapman – drums (tracks 1, 2, 3, 7)
* Gene Hoglan – drums (track 5)
* Greg Price – drums (track 6)
* JR Harder - bass
* Chris Meyers - keyboards/samples (tracks 6, 8)
* Matteo Caratozzolo – engineering