AntiCurrent.com Archives Vol 14: Piss N' Blood- Treason EP

This is the fourteenth edition of the "AntiCurrent.com Archives", a collection of rare or bootleg-albums I'm releasing through this blog. Click here to view all past AntiCurrent.com Archive Albums.

Live at the Anarchy Library

I moved to California in 2005 under the guise of attending college, while in reality, all my ambitions were pointed towards starting a Punk band. Throughout the next few years, I auditioned or even briefly joined bands such as Terezodu, The Clampdown, and too many others to count. Sometimes we didn't jive, sometimes I hated their manager, and sometimes they were apeshit crazy, but ultimately, it never worked out. Around mid-2008 I responded to a Craigslist ad from two guys named Cam Mosavian and Ron Anger. They seemed to know their stuff and had just recently acquired a drummer, Brad Hicks. I auditioned on bass for Piss N' Blood* and they loved me, so I joined. What I didn't know at that moment was that by doing so, Brad and Cam's group of friends would ultimately become my family.

*The name came from Cam and Ron watching a war documentary. A soldier said something to the tune of, "We were laying there, covered only in piss and blood."

We practiced about 2-3 times a week for months before we played our first gig at The Anarchy Library on February 21st, 2009 in Downey, CA. We must have not fucked it up too badly because we were immediately asked to play a nine show residency there from April to December. We didn't just keep to Downey though, during that time we also played places such as Chain Reaction, The Palmer Room, and Alex's Bar in Long Beach. We even played the local Hot Topic for our record release show. We were having such a good time at these shows that when we were asked to play The Double Down Saloon in Las Vegas, we said yes immediately.

Flyer Collection

If you've never been to The Double Down, it is a perfect shit-hole. No barricade, no stage, and a house drink made up of the last night's leavings entitled "Assjuice". When we arrived, drunk of course, we were greeted by the bouncer who, at 7pm was already smashing bottles against the door and screaming about something of which we eventually deemed to be racially derogatory.

We opened up for a a buddy of mine's band, Wake The Dead. When we went on and the place erupted. Not only were our friends raising hell in the pit, but for the first time so was everyone else in the venue. Brad and I, being complete deviants, were having a blast while the more professional duo of Ron and Cam were upset about getting elbowed by dozens of people during our performance. The night culminated with my jumping into the pit with my bass, still connected to my dual 4x12 cabinets, and having drinks poured down my throat. It was a moment of pure beauty I will likely never experience again.

Front cover art by Ray

About the time that we got back from Vegas was just about the time everything started to fall apart. As with every band that has ever existed, factions began to form and friendships broke down. Out of respect for my friends and former bandmates I'm not going to publicly give a play by play as to what happened. Eventually I was told the band was disbanded and about a month later I was told they got back together without inviting Brad and I. Cam and Ron continued the band for another few years, eventually releasing a full album on a label and even playing Punk Rock Bowling. One hell of an accomplishment. Cam even went on to write/record the entire score for our film The Mission (which is available as a free download here).

My time in the band was everything Punk Rock was meant to be: Fast, angry, and really fucking loud. Even at it's worst, it was one of the best experiences I've had.

About The Recording:

Back Cover

In January 2009, we entered Tru-One Studios in Anaheim, CA on a Friday and by Sunday we left not only having recorded the Treason EP, but mastered it as well. That's the charm of this recording, it was recorded fast and dirty with no time for polish. We recorded it in one take as a band and then each had about 3-4 takes to get our overdub correct for the final version. Listen to the second bass note on the song Treason. It's about a 1/4 second late. That one note is totally indicative of how fast paced this entire process was. This EP consists of two songs that Ron had written previous to the band's inception, one that he had written with Cam, and one that we came up with at practice.

Right-click, download here:
Treason-MP3 ZIP File
Treason FLAC ZIP File

The Tracklist is:
01: 24 Hour Machine
02: Rebel Radio
03: Treason
04: Old Boring Rebel
05: Piss N' Blood (Demo)