Take your seats everyone, class is about to begin...
Early Bands and Demos (1978-1992)The earliest recordings of Devs music come from three sources:
Ancient - A compilation released in 2016 as a cassette and included with the special edition of his autobiography, Only Half There. It contains demos from his teenage years in the late 80s, recordings from his first band Grey Skies in 88, some live Strapping Young Lad tracks from 95, and some other miscellaneous demos.
Tracklisting:
1. Demo: Age 14 with Brian Waddell and Ted Kamizato
2. Demo: Age 14
3. Demo Excerpt: Age 15 (Brian, Devin, Ted)
4. Black and White
5. Black Mountain Summit
6. Fever Dream
7. Voices in the Fan (94 Demo)
8. Come to the Edge
9. S.Y.L. (Live)
10. Home Nucleonics (Live)
11. Bodies 13 (Live)
12. Family Christmas
Ass-Sordid Demos I: 1990-1996 - Another compilation released independently in 2000 containing mostly solo demos by Dev.
Tracklisting:
1. Man
2. Ocean Machines
3. Promise
4. LA
5. Morwar
6. Amsterdam
7. Red Tomorrow
8. My Girl
9. Roadkill
10. Thats Life
Ass-Sordid Demos II: 1991-1992 - Another compilation released independently in 2004 containing primarily material from two of Devs earliest projects: Grey Skies and Noisescapes.
Tracklisting:
1. Black and White
2. Bury the Wrong
3. San Pablo Train
4. Roadkill
5. Rain
6. Ascent to the Summit of Black Mountain
7. SunMud/Woman
8. I Am
9. Ernies Room
10. Friends
11. Thick Stock
12. Cold
13. Soft
14. Amsterdam
My goal is to present Devs music in chronological order. Unfortunately the tracks from these releases arent really organized in chronological order. Thus, theres gonna be some jumping around from album to album in this part of his discography, so bear with me.
Well touch on everything released on these compilations eventually, but lets start with the first three songs on Ancient, recorded in 1986/1987:
Demo: Age 14 with Brian Waddell and Ted
Demo: Age 14
Demo Excerpt: Age 15 (Brian, Devin, Ted)These are demos featuring Dev on lead guitar, and childhood friends Brian Beav Waddell and Ted Kamizato on rhythm guitar and bass, respectively. The trio jams along to basic chord progressions with a drum machine while Dev solos overtop. The first Demo begins with a clip of Dev at age 6 on Christmas morning attempting to play a Violin.
Theres not much to say about these demos. Dev, like all guitarists during our teenage years, just wanted to shred shred and shred some more.
Theres another song on Ancient called Family Christmas(Track 12), which is credited to Strapping Young Lad, though that is definitely not correct. Its a recording of Devs family singing the Hank Williams Sr. song (I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle. No clue what year, but I would assume sometime in the 70s.
Grey SkiesDevs first real band was Grey Skies. Grey Skies was formed in 1988 after Dev submitted a demo tape of his own music as an audition for a Battle of the Bands competition. He was surprisingly accepted into the competition and scrambled to put together a band with some friends from high school to perform the material. Grey Skies did not win the Battle of the Bands, but continued to play live at parties and local venues. The band recorded a few songs at a basement studio in New Westminster called 12th Street Studios, funded by a friend of the band.
Grey Skies had a revolving lineup for live shows, featuring other classmates like Ted Kamizato, but the recorded material has this lineup:
Devin Townsend - Guitar/Vocals
Ken Flemming - Bass
Greg Price - Drums
Grey Skies music is featured on Ancient, and both Ass-Sordid Demos I & II.
Tracks 4-6 on Ancient:
Black and White
Black Mountain Summit
Fever DreamAss-Sordid Demos I contains the Grey Skies song Roadkill(Track 10). The same song is featured on Ass-Sordid Demos II, along with 6 other Grey Skies songs, including the aforementioned Black and White, and Black Mountain Summit (With a slightly different name).
Tracks 1-6, and 12 on Ass-Sordid Demos II, labeled as Preproduction Demos 1991:
Black and White
Bury the Wrong
San Pablo Train
Roadkill
Rain
Ascent to the Summit of Black Mountain
ColdGrey Skies was very much inspired by alternative metal bands of the time, like Mr. Bungle, Faith No More, and Janes Addiction, with some juvenile humor added in here and there. Most notably on tracks like Roadkill and San Pablo Train. Dev claims Ascent to the Summit of Black Mountain is one of his favorite songs that hes ever done. The songs are fun, despite their immaturity, and they show that Dev was very accomplished guitar player from a young age. My favorite of these songs has to be Cold, which features an awesome solo by Dev.
Caustic ThoughtAround this time, Dev became friends with fellow Canadian band Caustic Thought, featuring future SYL members Byron Stroud and Jed Simon on bass and guitar respectively. Dev replaced Jed in Caustic Thought for a few minor tours, though he never appeared on any recorded material from the band. Caustic Thought and Grey Skies would both fizzle out by the early 90s.
Dev appears in a couple of Caustic Thought videos
Planet Claire (B-52's cover):
https://youtu.be/IIHjdxPbLmkTender Prey:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgFKl6AJZCsThe longest hair I have ever seen on this man.
NoisescapesAfter the dissolution of Grey Skies and leaving Caustic Thought, Dev began to work on a demo tape entitled Noisescapes. These demos include Greg Price on drums (Formerly of Grey Skies). From this point on, Dev started using Open C tuning (CGCGCE) on his guitar almost exclusively, rather than standard tuning (EADGBE). He was inspired to use Open C tuning after learning the Led Zeppelin song, Friends, which he covers on the Noisescapes demo.
Tracks 7-10 on Ass-Sordid Demos II, labeled as Womp Womp Womp - 1992
SunMud/Woman
I Am
Ernies Room
FriendsNoisescapes is noticeably darker sounding than Grey Skies, and the songs lack the juvenile humor of Grey Skies. The same influences were still there, but the songwriting and had matured and the guitar playing had improved.
The intro to SunMud/Woman is an early version of Velvet Kevorkian, the opening track to the 1997 SYL album, City. But well talk about that album later.
If youre a Led Zeppelin fan, youre gonna hate his cover of Friends. Just warning you now. It features a bunch of tongue-in-cheek voicemails from his friends, coworkers, and even his father.
Other Noisescapes songs can be found on both Ass-Sordid Demos
Man (Track 1 on Ass-Sordid Demos I)
Amsterdam (Track 6 on Ass-Sordid Demos I, and Track 14 on Ass-Sordid Demos II)Man is a reworked version of the Woman section of SunMud/Woman.
There are two versions of Amsterdam, one on either edition of Ass-Sordid Demos.
The version from ASD I features Greg Price on drums. No year is given for the recording of this version, but it was likely recorded in 91/92 with the other Noisescapes demos. The other version from ASD II is an acoustic version of the song recorded in 1996. This version features some orchestration and is intercut with excerpts from an interview with Dev circa 1992.
Some pics of Dev recording demos at Fiasco Bros. Studio with engineer Michelle Garuik
Dev and Michelle with Leonard Osanic, owner of Fiasco Bros. Studio
Dev's state of the art guitar rig
Other songs that were written for Noisescapes but NOT included on the Ass-Sordid Demos were:
Goat
Skin Me
Filler
Funeral
The Death of Music
Thing Beyond ThingsThese songs would find their way onto other albums.
Copies of the Noisescapes demos were packaged in old pairs of Devs underwear, and sent out to labels such as Roadrunner and Metal Blade. The demo was rejected by almost everyone he sent it to. Everyone except Relativity Records. Cliff Cultreri from Relativity Records met with Dev and offered him a 7-album deal. Devin accepted the deal and began working on a Noisescapes album, which he planned on calling Promise. Not long after, Cliff introduced Dev to Steve Vai, who was putting together a new band and needed a vocalist