CHASED & SMASHED - Demo - Tape - 2002

   My friend and former CHASED AND SMASHED drummer, Erin Yanke is in San Francisco this weekend. When she braved my germ-filled house for a visit today, I pulled out this tape and asked if she remembered anything about it. She looked it, put it in the stereo, pushed play and mostly drew a blank. Then, she shouted, "This is pre-epiphany CHASED AND SMASHED! Our LP was post-epiphany." You're probably just as confused as I was by that information, so we went on a walk to the park up the street and she explained it further. Erin said that before CHASED & SMASHED, she had only played in bands with people who were playing music for the first time (like THE CURSE) and she used the crash cymbal hit to signify where the chord change would be (yes, I realize that this won't be of interest to many of you non-drummers). So, she would hit the cymbal on the 4 rather than the 1 and that's just how she had played for years. After recording this demo, she was listening to THE CLASH one day and had "the epiphany" that most drummers hit the crash on the 1 count. Thus, she realized that she had to relearn how to play all of the CHASED AND SMASHED songs before they recorded their LP 6 weeks later. I think she pulled it off. That LP rules...and that's all she really remembers about this tape.

Playing a graduation party? Photo by ??

   I only got to see CHASED AND SMASHED once at a packed basement show at the Fuckpit in Portland in 2002. Their tight, quick blasts of punk made the whole basement dance with wild abandon, but that's all I really remember...hazy times here.

  Erick Lyle, who loaned this tape out to the Outpost, had this to say: "From the ruins of GOD HATES COMPUTERS came this. Josh Baker is one of the all-time masters of the "Disappointed" / "Smashed Hopes" songs and "Expired Tags" here is one of his best. So, so good! I think Jess Hilliard of THE NE'ER DO WELLS (ed. note: and JUDY AND THE LOADIES!!) and later "outsider art" fame played bass on this."

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   These days, Josh Baker lives in Maine (but I heard he is heading back to Portland) and I'm not really sure what he is up to, but I'm sure you can find out more right here. In addition to DJ-ing her weekly radio show Life During Wartime and being a general bad-ass, Erin also plays drums in two bands in Portland. After 5-6 years of existence, SOCIAL GRACES might actually put out a demo tape this year. Her other band, LIGHT BRIGADE has managed to put out two demo tapes and a 7" in the span of a year. Jess is currently making art somewhere in the US. CHASED AND SMASHED's other guitarist/singer, Doug is hard at work on the Portland music venue and bar, Slabtown, which he just bought. You can read more about that here. Congratulations, Doug!