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S.C.U.M. –Santa Cruz Underground Metal

The History of S.C.U.M.

The idea to create a compilation CD which would serve to unite and build the local metal scene sprang fully formed from the infernal pits known as minds of a few local metal musicians: Oog from A Band of Orcs, David and Nathan from Fiends at Feast, Jesse from the Backup Razor and, yours unruly, Gruesom Grimp, while in the parking lot across from Cafe Pergolessi where  another local metal bands’ thunderous chug, chugs, shook the very foundations of the coffee shop.

If memory serves, that band tearing Perg down board-by-board was Kha’Nos, who subsequently went on to record the science fiction inspired death metal epic entitled “The Uncreation: Contagion Scourge” for the first ever Santa Cruz Underground Metal compilation CD.   In heaviness and theme, think of Kha’ Nos as Gojira turned to the dark side by the evil jedi master Emperor Palpatine and you get an idea of their scope and sound.

We talked about how you see all these metal heads around town, wearing their metal shirts–Slayer, Deicide, Iron Maiden, Danzig, Decrepit Birth, Pantera, Emperor, Metallica, Slipknot, just to name some of the more popular ones–but you never see all these metal heads together in one place.  In other words, even when big metal bands from out of town like Machine Head came to play the Catalyst.  No one showed up, because no one seemed to expect Santa Cruz to be a “metal” town.  But we wanted to change that.  We wanted to show Santa Cruz that metal is alive and well, and that we could draw bigger international acts to our little town to help our local acts grow if we did something to let metal heads know we’re here.

The solution: a compilation CD produced and paid for by the bands and given away for free to local metal heads.  Thus, came to be Santa Cruz Underground Metal and the first S.C.U.M. Vol.1: Dark Side of the Cross Compilation CD.  We agreed that in order to make it special for the fans, each band would have to contribute a song not previously recorded in a halfway decent format yet.

We shared this idea with other of our friends in local metal bands.  Kevin Lemon, then bass player for local stone and gloom metal band Teraton and owner of Slow Roasted Recordings offered to record the “scum” bands for a very generous rate.  His method: take his mobile recording unit to each artist’s rehearsal spot and record them in their own domain.  Kevin recorded 8 out of the 10 bands this we.  The other 2 tracks, by Disengorified and Idolater the artists had already recorded themselves, so we included them as well.

A combination of word-of-mouth and internet posts yielded up 10 bands and Kevin set to work.  With a forward written by me, the Grimp, and Curtis Courtier then music writer for the Santa Cruz Weekly and a cover designed by yours unruly, Gruesom Grimp, with ideas and suggestions from the incorrigible El Pasty Guero, we needed to throw one hell of a cd release party.  What to do.  What to do.

We would need a festival of some sort to showcase all the bands on the CD, but a festival is best held out doors and finding an outdoor, all-ages venue turned out to be a bit like getting an orc to sit still for a portrait with an elf, almost impossible.  We had already decided on an ideal date: June 19th, but still no venue.

It just so happened that Daniel from WarCorpse (originally called Cursed for Eternity) called and asked if A Band of Orcs wanted to play an outdoor show for their guitarist’s birthday party in Watsonville.  I said to Daniel, “What’s the date?”  He says, “June 19th,” and I say, “No shit.  I wanted to have S.C.U.M. Fest on that day to showcase the compilation bands.”  He responded that most of those bands he had already booked for this show along with other local and regional acts, including some of our friends from Sacramento.  I said, “Why don’t we just change the name of your party to S.C.U.M. Fest and have the CD release and the birthday party at the same time?

WarCorpse contributed the song “Cold Flesh for The Soulless Man’” so, of course, Daniel immediately liked the idea.  Daniel handled the details about getting the physical location and the logistics of the festival down; I concentrated on producing the CD and the S.C.U.M.Fest shirt, Jesse of Morketiden Productions spread the word by flying and using his email list and many of the bands led by Tony of Fiends at Feast contributed to the building of the stages for the first Annual totally free to the public S.C.U.M. Fest 2010.  Salo Sopor made a very creepy and compelling youtube commercial and KZSC, a local radio station plugged the event.

On that historic birth of the Santa Cruz Underground Metal Festival and CD compilation, 20 bands played; 350 fans turned out and stayed all day long to support their metal scene and between the fans and the bands; and we handed out 500 CDs for free to those in attendance.    The rest of the CDs we later distributed for free through Street Light Records, Comicopolis and Hot Topic.

The cops came out three times during the day–we rocked it from 11 am to 11 pm–but they found no reason to shut the festival down (until the last time, since it was well after curfiew). Looking around at all the families–2 generations of metal heads, banging heads together and enjoying music that touched their souls–a few of the officers even commented that they wished they had known about it, so they could attend.

And a good time was had by all.

So we’re gonna keep this tradition going every year: a S.C.U.M. Compilation CD and Festival every year, showcasing local metal bands.  Something to look forward to.  Something to bring all the metal heads together and support the scene.

Click the tab linking to the year of S.C.U.M. that interests you.  If it’s a past year, you’ll get so see photos and videos.  If it’s a current our future year, you’ll find announcements about details regarding the next (or current) S.C.U.M. Project.