Bitter Minds

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**Bitter Minds** (early November 2013 - January 1, 2015) was a band founded by Jacob and CJ in November of 2013. This would ultimately be the most prolific band out of all the bands, releasing dozens of songs within a short time span before their last practice in December 2014. (All release dates are based on soundcloud)

https://soundcloud.com/bitter-minds

## The Early Days

The earliest foundations of the band can be traced back to mid October 2013, when Jacob first approached CJ with the idea of starting a band.

On November 2, 2013, Jacob, CJ and Peter formed a one-shot band called Linguica. Linguica practiced once in Jacob's bedroom on 11/03/2013 and they created the song "Linguica" which they filmed themselves performing and uploaded to Facebook. This band would be a proto-practice session for the band that would eventually become Bitter Minds.

The earliest known mentioning of Bitter Minds occurred on November 18, 2013. When Jacob was in California, CJ and Jacob decided that the band would be called Bitter Minds (taken from a Corrosion of Conformity song "Clean My Wounds") and their album would be called "Neuro Highway". Upon returning from California on December 1, 2013 the band had their first practice on December 7, 2013. All the various songs Bitter Minds made throughout 2013-2014 would be recorded in Pumpkinhead Studios (coined by Sabrina).

During the early days of Bitter Minds, Jacob and CJ experienced recording for the first time ever and they had to learn everything they know today from the very basics. This time period set the foundations of their musical history that still exists and advancing today. They struggled to get decent recordings by using Magix Music Maker on Jacob's old laptop, a USB microphone (placed in a shoe), the Mendini by Cecilio drum kit (soon upgraded to the 60s kit), CJ's Fender Squire, Jacob's Fender Jagstang, and his Original Fred bass. Even though the two had basically no idea what they were doing, they had a lot of fun overdubbing their instruments and recording their songs. Although legendary songs were composed and recorded during this time period, many terrible songs were made during this era as well, and they were quickly thrown out of production and into what they called The Worst of Bitter Minds EP. Although these songs were awful, they still played an important role to the learning and growing of the band. Other songs later on would also make it into this grouping of terrible songs.

Throughout December, CJ and Jacob would go on to record original classics such as "Running Through the Dark", "Sick of Jim", "Whatcha Just Say Punk?"and "Isn't it Good?." They also recorded covers of "How Do I Feel" (by Hoku), and "Chicken in the Corn" (by Brushy One String), with vocals being performed by Jacob.

On Decemeber 19, 2013, they released their music video of "Linguica" to Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eBDP0TrhB4

By January 20, the end of CJ's winter break, the band had produced enough songs for an album. By early February CJ and Jacob were talking about stealing one of Peter's songs, as of that time unnamed. Instead they decided to add Peter to the band as their third permanent member. From February on, the core Bitter Minds line up had been formed.

## Snowbound Age

Peter joined Bitter Minds in early February 2014. During his early membership, Jacob and CJ wanted Peter to re-record vocals on their early songs, and to also record Peter's songs as they had run out of material. They ended up recording the notable songs "Uncommon Enemy," "For What It Seems [version 1]", "Gloom" and "Snowbound".

Snowbound was written by CJ and Peter and is considered the most classic song of this time period, and is the origin of the now outdated term "Avalanche on my face" which was coined by Peter. The song was inspired by Peter getting his car stuck at the bottom of Jacob's driveway and CJ and Jacob had to shovel him out. The song is remembered fondly, mainly because of Peter's moment of clarity on drums and the two guitar solos during the bridge played by Peter and CJ.

During this time, the band was able to advance some technology and equipment. They upgraded from Magix to a Mixcraft 5 crack and CJ bought 2 condenser microphones and a small Alesis 4 channel mixer.

As the February Snowbound days came to an end, CJ and Jacob started to veer away from Peter and his song writing. The last track the trio tried to record during this time was the song "Untitled at the Moment" which became a huge failure as Peter was becoming extremely frustrated at his drumming and the timing of the song. CJ and Jacob decided to veer back toward their duet style of writing and thus the most legendary two week period of the band soon began.

## The Psychedelic Age

On March 7, 2014 the Psychedelic Age began, unbeknownst to both CJ and Jacob, this would be considered the most classic and most prolific two week period that Bitter Minds would have. During this two week period, CJ and Jacob acquired new instruments and experimented heavily with their sound and other things, releasing 6 original songs and 1 cover song within the next two weeks.

It all began on March 3, 2014 when Jacob acquired the classic bass Paul. Soon after, he wrote the basic chords for the Psychedelic Age's staple song "Different State of Mind" which he would record and release with CJ on March 7, 2014.

Also on March 7, 2014 Jacob and CJ recorded an attempted cover of "In a Gadda Da Vida" but never officially released it.

\*\*On March 14, 2014 "Song 5" was released. Santo briefly joined the band for a day to record his riff with CJ and Jacob. This song would later feature another short lived member Dustin on drums. His hi-hat beat was inspired by The Four Season's "December, 1963 (Oh What a Night) drum beat. This would also be the first song recorded with Carmen, CJ's newly acquired Mexican Fender Stratocaster he received in the mail the very day the song was recorded. This would also be the last song that the band used microphones to mic up the guitar amps, as they learned that they could plug the amp directly into the mixer for a cleaner sound.

On March 17th, 2014, Jacob and CJ released a video to Facebook of their cover on John Lennon's "Imagine."

Also on this date "Cowboy" was released. This song was recorded with CJ on acoustic and electric guitar and Jacob on bass and drums. This song became known for its high energy outro with distorted power chords and fast drum fills, becoming Jacob's most proud drumming in his Bitter Minds career.

On March 19, 2014 Bitter Minds released a song which had been in the works for a few months and became a classic Psychedelic Age staple, entitled "Fmaj7". It is the only song to feature Peter during the Psychedelic Age. During recording, Jacob and Peter were getting frustrated at CJ because he had the duties of playing piano and flutes (on keyboard) at the same and he kept messing up and would ruin the whole recording because they were still using a mixer to record every instrument at once. The drums and short eletric guitar solo were later overdubbed by Peter. His solo would become legendary because during his first take, CJ was slowly bringing up the guitar volume to find a good volume, and the fade-in effect mixed perfectly with Peter's guitar playing and they decided to keep the first take.

\*\*On March 21, 2014 the last song of the Psychedelic Age was recorded, entitled "Psyhcedelly," written by Jacob and CJ. It featured a long synth intro followed by a riff inspired by "In A Gadda Da Vida" by Iron Butterfly, a song whose main riff would not go a day without being played during the Psychedelic Age.

on March 21, 2014 the Psychedelic Age ended as CJ and Jacob would never record a song as a duet again until October 2015 as a new band called Delux.

Another notable song that was worked on during this time period, but was never officially released, was "Guidance," a synth driven song written by CJ and recorded on March 22 with Jacob on drums and bass. It was so annoying and cheesy that it became the laughing stock of the psychedelic age. The song can be grouped with the other laughing stocks of Bitter Minds The Worst of Bitter Minds EP.

\*\*indicates a soundcloud "re-upload" which means an earlier version of the song was once released shortly before and then deleted, so the true release date is unknown.

## The Golden Age

The band reunited on April 10, 2014 to record another classic, a Bad Voodoo song mixed with the earlier Bitter Minds version of the same song, which would be tilted "Uncommon-Common". This song arguably had Peter's most classic vocal work on it, screaming and recording his lyrics in the bathroom.

Between April 10 and April 16 the band asked ex Thieves Without Pockets members Trevor and Chris to jam with them. The first practice was a disaster and ultimately cancelled. While Trevor was never asked to jam again, the band asked Chris to join as their drummer, and on April 16, 2014 they released the first song of the golden age, titled "Bitter Minds" written by CJ and Peter.

From this point on, the quality of the bands music greatly improved. Jacob purchased his Rickenbacker 4003 and CJ was purchasing better equipment, such as a larger mixer, and then an interface by May. They had upgraded from Jacob's old laptop to a desktop computer, bought Mixcraft 6, and reorganized his room to accommodate all the recording equipment so they could construct it as much as a recording studio as possible.

On April 27, 2014 CJ and Jacob released a video to Facebook of their cover on Lorde's "Royals."

The songs of the golden age featured the line up of of CJ, Peter, Jacob and Chris. The songs were "Bitter Minds", "Song 18," and "1945."

One day during the recording and song writing of "1945" in June, Peter came to the studio with a camera and filmed that days session. The footage wasn't edited and posted to Youtube until December 7, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhvEKfpTbKs

On June 18, 2014, the band recorded the song "Bassless Song" which was composed by CJ and Peter, but was never finished because Jacob got too frustrated when trying to make a decent bassline. Legend has it that he still can't figure out a bassline to the song to this day.

All of these songs were recorded between April and early June of 2014. However, for an unknown reason in June 2014, Peter left practice suddenly and thus began the downfall of the band.

## The end of Bitter Minds

During a practice in late June or early July 2014, Peter put down the guitar he was playing and left band practice with no reason or notice. This is where the end of Bitter Minds began. The band reunited for the last time with the classic Golden Age line up on July 16 and attempted to record Peter's newest song "For What It Seem [Version 2]" otherwise known as "FWIS".

Peter was at this point disenchanted by Chris' drumming after doing a take on July 16. The entire practice was plagued with problems, mostly because Peter kept accidentally switching pick ups while playing the recently acquired Fender Mustang, causing Peter to become frustrated.

Peter made it known to the band that he wanted to play the drums on the FWIS track, and Jacob agreed. Chris was never invited back to Bitter Minds and was kicked out between July 16 and July 30.

On July 30, 2014 Bitter Minds released their last original song and did not practice again until early November. By this time Jacob and CJ had agreed that Peter was a fag but they wanted to try to salvage the band that they came to know and love.

The band released their last recording, a remake of their first song "Running Through the Dark" on November 19, 2014.

After the failed attempts to record the songs "Sad," "My Best Bud" and "King Tut's Rock" as late as mid December, it was obvious that the band was coming to and end. CJ spent this time remastering all the recorded Bitter Minds songs to prepare them for a finished album.

Peter talked about quitting the band as early as mid December 2014, and had officially quit 1/1/2015. Tensions were rising between Jacob and Peter as the year was coming to an end, such as an incident when a gathering at a friends house went awry when the friend, Pedro, threatened to beat Peter up if he didn't leave his house. Jacob was there and didn't defend Peter. This lead Peter to message Jacob on Facebook on December 20th declaring that he was quitting the band, and then again declaring it to CJ on January 1.

On 1/7/15 Peter finally bought himself his own guitar and made it clear he didn't want to jam with us anymore and by mid January, Jacob and CJ agreed that Bitter Minds was officially over.

## After the dissolution

After a brief period of hiatus, Jacob and CJ would eventually join together musically in the band Unnamed Band in February 2015.

Clearly regretting quitting the band, Peter continued to message both Jacob (up until July 2015, when Jacob blocked all communication with him) and CJ (to this day) about reforming the band.

As of 11/4/2015 both CJ and Jacob have no intention of ever playing under the name Bitter Minds again.

On 10/18/2015, after the dissolution of Unnamed Band, CJ and Jacob formed under the name Delux, which is the spiritual successor to Bitter Minds.

On 12/13/2015 Jacob discovered two lost Bitter Minds tracks they were 'Sick of Jim' with CJ's original vocals, and a lost song from The Worst of Bitter Minds EP, 'Blister'

In March 2016, there have been talks about the 3 main members of BM jamming again, although not under the Bitter Minds moniker.

On March 25, 2016, Bitter Minds preformed a reunion jam and are forming a new band.

On April 19, 2016 Jacob quit reformed band, which was going by the name Juice.

## Members

**Jacob**

* Bass (December 2013, January 2014 - January 2015)
* Guitar (December 2013)
* Drums (December 2013 - March 2014)
* Vocals (December 2013 - April 2014)

**CJ**

* Guitar (December 2013 - January 2015)
* Keyboard/Piano (December 2013 - January 2015)
* Vocals (December 2013 - January 2014, November 2014)

**Peter**

* Guitar (February 2014 - January 2015)
* Drums (February 2014 - January 2015)
* Vocals (February 2014 - January 2015)
* Bass (March 2014)

**Christian**

* Drums (April 2014 - July 2014)

**Dustin**

* Drums (March 2014)

**Santo**

* Guitar (March 2014)

**Zack**

* Nothing (March 2014)

**Trevor**

* Guitar (April 2014)

## Songs

**Running Through The Dark** (2:52)

Released December 16, 2013

* Vocals - CJ
* Rhythm Guitar - Jacob
* Lead Guitar - CJ
* Bass - Jacob
* Drums - Jacob

**Linguica** (2:06)

Released December 19, 2013

* Guitar - CJ
* Bass - Unknown
* Drums - Jacob

**Whatcha Just Say, Punk?** (2:25)

Released January 5, 2014

* Vocals - CJ and Jacob

* Guitar - CJ
* Bass - CJ
* Drums - Jacob

**Isn't it Good?** (2:37)

Released January 9, 2014

* Vocals - CJ
* Guitar - CJ
* Keyboards - CJ
* Bass - Jacob
* Drums - Jacob

**Chicken in the Corn** (Brushy One String Cover) (2:19)

Released January 9, 2014

* Vocals - Jacob
* Guitar - CJ
* Bass - Jacob
* Drums - Jacob

**Sick of Jim** (re-release) (2:53)

Released February 10, 2014

* Vocals - Peter
* Guitar - CJ
* Bass - CJ
* Drums - Jacob

**Running Through The Dark** (re-release) (2:52)

Released February 10, 2014

* Vocals - CJ
* Rhythm Guitar - Jacob
* Lead Guitar - CJ
* Bass - Jacob
* Drums - Jacob

**Uncommon Enemy** (2:08)

Released February 11, 2014

* Vocals - Peter
* Guitar - Peter
* Bass - Peter
* Drums - Peter

**For What It Seems** (Version 1) (4:31)

Released February 14, 2014

* Vocals - Peter
* Additional Vocals - CJ and Jacob
* Lead Guitar - CJ
* Rhythm Guitar - Peter
* Bass - Jacob
* Drums - Peter

**Untitled at the Moment** (3:04)

Released February 27, 2014

* Guitar - CJ
* Bass - Jacob
* Drums - Peter

**Different State of Mind** (4:13)

Released March 7, 2014

* Guitar - CJ
* Bass - Jacob
* Piano - CJ
* Drums - Jacob

**Song 5** (2:29)

Released March 14, 2014

* Rhythm Guitar - Santo
* Lead Guitar - CJ
* Piano - CJ
* Bass - Jacob
* Dustin - Drums

**Cowboy** (3:22)

Released March 15, 2014

* Guitar - CJ
* Bass - Jacob
* Drums - Jacob

**Fmaj7** (4:20)

Released March 19, 2014

* Electric Guitar - Peter
* Acoustic Guitar - Peter
* Piano - CJ
* Bass - Jacob
* Drums - Peter

**Snowbound** (re-release) (2:29)

Released March 20, 2014

* Vocals - Peter
* Additional Vocals - CJ and Jacob
* Guitar - CJ
* Guitar Solo - CJ and Peter
* Bass - Jacob
* Drums - Peter

**Psychedelly** (2:48)

Released March 24, 2014

* Guitar - CJ
* Synths - CJ
* Bass - CJ
* Drums - Jacob

**Gloom** (3:24)

Released April 9, 2014

* Vocals - Peter
* Guitar - CJ and Peter
* Bass - Jacob
* Drums - Peter
* Noise/FX - Peter

**Uncommon-Common** (3:25)

Released April 10, 2014

* Vocals - Peter
* Guitar - CJ
* Bass - Jacob
* Drums - Peter

**Bitter Minds** (3:54)

Released April 16, 2014

* Vocals - Peter
* Guitar - CJ and Peter
* Bass - Jacob
* Drums - Chris

**Song 18** (3:35)

Released May 14, 2014

* Guitar - CJ
* Piano - CJ
* Bass - Jacob
* Drums - Chris

**1945** (3:30)

Released June 11, 2014

* Guitars - Peter
* Piano - CJ
* Bass - Jacob
* Drums - Chris

**Bassless Song** (4:30)

Released June 18, 2014

* Guitar - Peter
* Piano - CJ
* Drums - Chris

**A Song (FWIS2 Demo)** (4:32)

Released July 15, 2014

* Guitars - Peter and CJ
* Bass - Jacob
* Drums - Chris

**FWIS Final** (4:40)

Released July 29, 2014

* Guitars - Peter and CJ
* Bass - Jacob
* Drums - Peter

**Running Through The Dark version 2** (2:18)

Released November 19, 2014

* Vocals - Peter and CJ

* Guitar - CJ
* Bass - Jacob
* Drums - Peter
* Claps - Jacob