Ass-Sordid Demos II

***Ass-Sordid Demos II*** is a retrospective compilation album from Canadian progressive metal musician Devin Townsend. It collects assorted demos over a two year period, hence the titular play on words, and is subtitled "The Ugly Early Necessary Stuff" on the rear sleeve.

Tracks 1-6 and 12 are attributed to Grey Skies, while 7-10 and 12 are Noisescapes, and 11, 13-14 are Townsend solo.

This album was preceded by another demo collection, suitably titled *Ass-Sordid Demos*, in 2000.

## 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

> **Grey Skies pre-production, 1991**
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> *(this demo was never sent out, although we were offered a poopy little deal from a Vancouver record label)*
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> * *Black and White - Starts with a chicken bone reading that I got at a psychic fair when I was about 15 or 16 'Your master bone is in a helluva position...' Black and white pretty much summed me up then as it do today.*
> * *Bury the Wrong - Fumbling attempt at looking at AIDS. Had my friend do the spoken intro. I liked the chords and melodies though...*
> * *San Pablo Train - Dumb...aaaand...(can anyone say Primus?)*
> * *Roadkill - Dumber. (Can anyone say Weird Al Yankovic??)*
> * *Rain - Cool midsection. I heard it bigger than it ended up, but was still pretty happy with this version at the time.*
> * *Ascent to the Summit of Black Mountain - Hail Zeppelin! This is still one of my favorite songs I've done. Someone do a cover of it! Please make it sound right, it's in standard tuning.*
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> **Noisescapes – *Womp Womp Womp*, 1992**
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> * *SunMud/Woman - Welp... this is the demo that started it all off for me, in all its hissy glory! Sunmud became Velvet Kevorkian, the breathy... "I'm so dramatic" part of Woman got redone (as heard on Ass-Sordid 1). I sent this demo out attached to the crotch of my old underpants.*
> * *I Am - Rudimentary layering stuff. A dead ringer for King's X's "Pleadies" in the midsection. (gotta luv Gretchen!) I dug the first breakdown... it sounded rainy.*
> * *Ernie's Room - As with the rest of this demo, this was in open C tuning. Those first experiments laid the fountation for continuing to jam in C. Oh, and by the way... someone take the sampler away from the Dev. Helloooo S-900... just put those anywhere...*
> * *Friends - I loved the Led Zeppelin song "Friends" (Zep 3...) And wanted to do a real heavy version of it. But when I tried it out in the studio, the results were pretty retarded. Instead of abandoning it, One day at work I got all the other staff to phone my roommates house and had them leave all sorts of messages like the ones you hear in this version. That's really my Dad in the midsection by the way... The act became a bit too natural I thought!*
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> * *Thick Stock - The best of a few versions of this one. This would be "Funky Dev." Yuuup... funky. What else... TM played bass on this to give it an extra dose of funk. Yuuup, that would be funk... Recorded in LA somewhere.*
> * *Cold - From the first Noisescapes sessions. I kinda liked the guitar solo in this one, but it was never really distributed anywhere.*
> * *Soft - I always liked this one. It was recorded at Mushroom studios right when I got back from LA... "Forlorn Dev"... Taken from a cassette.*
> * *Amsterdam - One of my more mediocre songs DONE AGAIN... hey!!! Wuttaconcept. Reason? Will Riley did some cool shit to it, and it was a one take from me. Good deal.*
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> *Make music boys and girls, and don't let the dark days get you down... we all feel 'em. Stick together! - Dev/out.*
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## Track listing

All Grey Skies songs written by Devin Townsend, Ken Fleming, Greg Price. Noisescapes written by Townsend and Price. Remainder by Townsend except "Thick Stock" (Townsend, Price, Chris Meyers, Jon Taschuk).

**Grey Skies pre-production, 1991**
1. "Black and White" (6:13)
2. "Bury the Wrong" (3:52)
3. "San Pablo Train" (4:31)
4. "Roadkill" (3:12)
5. "Rain" (5:49)
6. "Ascent to the Summit of Black Mountain" (5:43)
**Noisescapes – *Womp Womp Womp*, 1992**
7. "SunMud/Woman" (6:39)
8. "I Am" (9:59)
9. "Ernie's Room" (5:38)
10. "Friends" (3:57)
11. "Thick Stock" (3:10)
12. "Cold" (4:26) (Noisescapes)
13. "Soft" (4:05)
14. "Amsterdam" (4:39)

## Personnel

* Devin Townsend – guitar, vocals, keyboards, production, liner notes, engineering
* Greg Price – drums (Grey Skies)
* Ken Fleming – bass (Grey Skies)
* TM Stevens – bass ("Thick Stock")
* Will Riley – additional orchestration ("Amsterdam")
* Michelle Garuik – engineering (Noisescapes)
* Dan Madget – engineering (Grey Skies pre-production)
* Blair Calibaba – engineering ("Soft")
* Chris Meyers -keyboards/samples (“Soft”, “Thick Stock”)