Pre-Save Now: Gas Panic Grudge- Remastered Version
10-Year anniversary remastered release
It’s really hard for me to believe but one must accept the reality of time. This is the 10-year anniversary of the original studio recording release of Gas Panic Grudge that was originally recorded with The Rum & The Sea in 2013. Just like a good bottle of Scotch; songs age very well.
I’m releasing a newly mastered version on April 18, 2023 and you can pre-save it now so it automatically ends up in your library on Spotify. PRE-SAVE HERE
This song is probably one of my all-time best studio recordings. It was produced by Chris Youngers with band The Rum & The Sea and recorded in Bend, Oregon at Clay Smith Studios. It features “Big Red” Jason Schweitzer on back up vocals and lead picker, Brent Barnett on drums and Ricky Meyers on bass.
We were very tight with the song by the time we got in the studio the band had plenty of live performances featuring the song. Our band was very popular in the Bend, Oregon music scene with a nice following and performing on the best stages in the area.
I was going to record the scratch track vocals and guitar (a track you usually build off of for the band then re-record after the instrumentation is there), but we all liked the scratch track and rolled with it. The session went really smooth as each artist laid down their part and it opened the door for more studio time to record other songs in The Rum and The Sea song list.
About the Song:
The song was written about an unfortunate situation while I was in the US Navy in Tokyo, Japan in the Roppongi Hills during the mid-1990’s. I made it a practice to hunt down visiting celebrities in the bars and buy them a beer. The motive was to impress the others in the bar and to be perceived to be a “friend” of the celebrity. For the most part, the beer-buying gesture worked and my nights out partying were enhanced by gleaning the starlight.
My last night in Japan before I was to go on a cruise back to the Persian Gulf I was particularly interested to track down who a celebrity who was said to be in town and in the party district at the famous bar named Gas Panic. He was a rock star in a band that I admired but when I did my beer-purchase maneuver he grabbed the beer, shook it up and then sprayed my face. His entourage then shoved me toward security and they dragged me into the elevator (with my wallet still on the bar) and kicked me out. I some how got back to my ship which was 40 miles away, but I persisted to have a grudge about the night and told the story many times to my new acquaintances. I eventually decided to make the story a song and this is the result.
I use to be very specific on who was the rock star - but not so much any longer. I was a punk ass kid and the celebrity knew exactly what I was doing and I deserved what I got and he doesn’t deserve the continuous credit for the action of the beer-spray-rejection.