Who the hell is Rachael’s Dead you ask? Well, it was a metal band that consisted three guys and yours truly on bass guitar with a name stolen from a Slik Toxik song (hey, Kevin.) I was a principal lyricist in the band along with writing some songs and for two years, we were a band that had huge dreams and a hard working ethic. There was just one problem… we weren’t very good.
Rachael’s Dead was a metal band around the time metal music was on it’s way out on the Greyhound Bus to never never land. This time period of 1992 – 1994 was a pretty awesome time to be in a band here in Atlanta. Atlanta boasted one of most diverse music cities. The sleaze rock sound of Smartass, the raw garage rock of Rockin’ Bones, the jazzy/bosa nova of The Jody Grind and Cicada Sings, and the metal of bands like Necrotic Dawn, Blackness, Rumblefish, and the legendary rap/metal band Stuck Mojo.
Two years seems like a very short time to be in a band but so much happened in those two years that it sometimes feels as if we were together for 10 years. We were kids on the scene and a lot of these bands took us under their wings and showed us the ropes.
Taxi Haskell of Smartass taught us the value of actually engaging your fans after a show and becoming one with them. Stuck Mojo taught us that even if you were one of the biggest bands in town, you could still be down to earth, caring, and willing to help out new bands. Hell, even Lajon Witherspoon of Rumblefish (who’s now in Sevendust) introduced himself to my parents and bought them drinks once.
In Rachael’s Dead short lived tenure as a metal band on the scene, we managed to record ONE demo tape. It was recorded on a four track recorder… but three of the tracks were fucked up so we could only use one track. We plugged in a microphone, suspended it from a ceiling beam in the storage shed we rehearsed, hit record and just tore through the songs.
This was the demo that landed us some great gigs including opening slots for Stuck Mojo, Piece Dogs, and even a slot at the legendary Masquerade. That crappy little demo did it’s job but, to my regret, when I left the band I never took one with me. Now, at the age of 46, I was feeling nostalgic and I was dying to hear this tape after all these years. I reached out to my old guitarist and surprisingly he had one. He digitized it to MP3s and sent them to me.
When I listened to this thing I just smiled. It sounds so rough and amateurish which adds to the whole magic behind it. This was long before PCs, Pro T00ls, Logic, or any of that shit. This was a raw as fuck, in mic recording of a metal band in a steel storage shed. I just smiled to myself as I listened to it. I ended up uploading it to Bandcamp and decided to share it. My my shock, some younger metal heads raved about it and told me how much they loved it and where they could get a cassette. Funny, we had a hard time giving these fuckers away and now it seems that a younger generation digs what we were doing. Life is funny like that.
So here it is. The Rachael’s Dead demo tape. Love it or hate it, it is what it is. It’s a document of a young band that had big dreams, played hard, and worked hard. Rachael’s Dead paved the way for me to become the musician I am today and for that, I will always be grateful.
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