Exclusive: Grey Daze - Scott Crowley Sessions

Summary

After months of behind the scenes work by our staff member LESTAT, on June 5th, 2015, LPLive was able to release the first full-show recording of Grey Daze (Chester's band before Linkin Park) live in Phoenix, AZ in 1994. The band surprisingly played 19 songs over the course of about 85 minutes. With the recording came the discovery of quite a few songs that we had not known about previously, like My Bluest Day, Everybody's Falling To Pieces, etc. While snippets of the show had been released here and there online for years (as far back as 2006 and 2010), this was the first time we were able to uncover the full recording and setlist. We took quite a few days to compile as much information on the songs as possible for the show page, so we recommend checking that out if you want to know more about the songs.

A few days later, on June 14th, 2015, LESTAT was able to provide an unreleased 6 track demo of Grey Daze from 1994. On it were several songs played at this 1994 show recording, as well as demos of several songs that made the Wake Me album, which was recorded later that year. This was the first release of Grey Daze demos since 2006 (see the bottom of the page for info on the 2005-2006 demos).

One track of interest is Smoke Mouth. The live version from the Phoenix show was released in 2010, and until that point, it was the only known live track that we didn't have a studio version of for Grey Daze. This puzzled us for years until we were able to obtain the demo, of which we learned there were actually MORE tracks than that one which had been recorded for Wake Me but that did not make the cut.

We give a rundown of the tracks below, as well as the full tracklisting and a brief back story. For the release, [AndOne] was able to take the files, remaster them and fix the humming and extra noise in the tracks. Since they were recorded at a home studio and due to the age and transfer of the tape, a modern day "fix" of the audio was necessary (normalization, etc) and made the tracks sound quite a bit better. Nevertheless, the original file is included in the release as well.

From our forum post:

"A little back story the recording sessions for the Grey Daze Wake Me album began in October 1994. These demos, titled the Scott Crowley Sessions predate that and were recorded sometime in the middle of the year.

None of these demos have been released. The existence of Smoke Mouth was not discovered until 2010 when a live video was uploaded, and we have finally obtained a studio recording of the song. (Side note: Quite a few other songs were discovered from the 1994 show recording, so dont miss that) The existence of My Bluest Day was not known until that live show as well, and its another song that didnt make it to Wake Me. Unfortunately, there is a short 5 second gap in My Bluest Day mid-song, due to the tape being over 20 years old.

For the other demos, Morei Sky has a completely different song structure than the version that made the album and Shouting Out features Mindy from the band Lemon Krayola instead of Kimberly Rogers.

The recordings were done at Scott Crowleys apartment studio. He was from a band called Nihil. Jonathan Krause said, He had a digital recording studio. I thought the drums sounded cheesy they were way to electronic. But it was free so who's complaining? Sean Dowdell adds, It wasn't a studio. It was his apartment and he and I recorded it on a very small recording program on a computer. Home recording though, not studio."

Grey Daze: "Scott Crowley Sessions" Tracklisting

01. My Bluest Day (Demo)

02. Smoke Mouth (Demo)

03. Starting To Fly (Demo)

04. Believe Me (Demo)

05. Morei Sky (Demo)

06. Shouting Out (Demo) (w/ Mindy from Lemon Krayola)

Track-by-Track Rundown

A track-by-track brief overview by LESTAT:

* My Bluest Day - structure wise sounds identical to the live version we have.

* Smoke Mouth - different longer intro comparing to the Rally Kap recording. The vocalization parts from the Rally Kap version are missing .

* Starting To Fly - additional backing vocals during the verses. Longer space between the first chorus and the second verse.

* Believe Me - different background guitar throughout the song.

* Morei Sky - completely different song structure. Much longer intro. No "Power Chorus" as I call the part when Chester explodes.

Album version: 30 sec Intro -> 1st Verse -> Chorus -> 2nd verse - > Chorus -> 1st Solo - > Power Chorus - > 2nd Solo -> 1st Verse refrain

Demo version: 66 sec Intro -> 1st Verse -> Chorus -> 1st Solo -> 2nd verse -> Chorus -> 2nd Solo - > Fade Out Outro

* Shouting Out - Mindy from Lemon Krayola instead of Kimberly Rogers. The order of lines during the first and second chorus is swapped.

Album version: "I didn't mean to let you down/I didn't mean to run from you" during the first chorus and "I didn't mean to run from you/I didn't mean to let you down" during the second one.

Demo version : "I didn't mean to run from you/I didn't mean to let you down" during the first chorus and "I didn't mean to let you down/I didn't mean to run from you" during the second one.

Also, extended fade out outro.

Download

mp3 (.zip)

Release notes:

Unfortunately the demos were only supplied in mp3 form.

The tracks were remastered, the humming and part of the noise were filtered and all tracks normalized.

The original mp3 file is included in the release as well.

Older Grey Daze Demos

Now, for a little history on the other Grey Daze demos, since these haven't been covered on the LPLive wiki yet.

On August 23rd, 2005, nkramar (a staff member here, but before LPLive was created) obtained two Grey Daze demos entitled Come On and Commit and released them in a coordinate release with LPFuse, LPAssociation, and LPCollectors.

The LPFuse release said, "LPcollectors.com, LPAssociation.com and LPFuse.co.uk proudly present 3 previously unreleased tracks to all Linkin Park fans. It is with great pleasure that we offer these tracks, recorded between 1992 and 1994 by the band that would be come to be known as Grey Daze - Kill The Flies, a track released on the 'Sean Dowdell and His Friends' 3 track cassette; Commit and Come On, 2 previously unreleased demo tracks which were never completed."

Along with these two demos came Kill The Flies, a Sean Dowdell And His Friends track (from before Grey Daze). The full three-track demo of the SDAHF tape would then surface years later. Next, in March 2006, LPFuse posted a demo of Grey Daze's Here, Nearby.

These three Grey Daze demos (Come On, Commit, and Here, Nearby) were allegedly taken from a recording session for the Wake Me album, and were alternate takes than what finally appeared on the album. Combining the Scott Crowley Sessions with these three Wake Me Sessions tracks, there are now nine Grey Daze demos in circulation. The full story of the band, including more information on these demos, can be found in the Grey Daze Story, written by LESTAT and posted on LPLive in 2010.