THEE VINCENT BLACK SHADOW!

Download: Thee Vincent Black Shadow - Demo
(youtube link at the bottom of the post)

Thee Vincent Black Shadow started in late 2001 or early 2002.  Though short lived, playing fewer than a dozen shows in their on-and-off/college-schedule-determined existence, they recorded this fantastic eight song must hear demo along the way.  I talked with singer PJ Shakstad and guitarist Todd Amaral.

Along with PJ and Todd, the original lineup of VBS included bassist Greg Sidman, guitarist Amir Shoucri, and drummer Alex Tauber.
PJ:

I always talked to Amir when he was in Miyagi, and I used to sing for them at practices if Luke couldn't make it or something like that, and we had always talked about making a band.  Then when they all went off to college Miyagi broke up and Amir and I wanted to do something.

Alex left shortly after the band's first show at the Manhattan Beach teen center.
Todd:

"We had Alex Tauber for one show and Alex was like [laughter] 'Man I don't know what you you guys have been smoking, but this ain't for me, I'm going to go play some straight edge...' and Peter [Mackinnon]came and played drums... Pete was in high school, I think he was a freshman, and didn't know how to play drums."

Since Amir was in school at UC Berkeley, the band was really only able to get together over summers and holidays.  After an intermittent year together, VBS went to John-Paul Caballero's garage studio in Hermosa Beach to record their 8 song demo.
PJ:

It was a lot of fun! Down in JP's dungeon... It's weird, singing in a studio. At a show there's so much feeling in it.  In the studio it was just five dudes hanging around an Astrovan.  I think that Astrovan made an appearance. 

Todd:

We were hanging out in JP's van in the garage to kill time while PJ is singing Tonight, and someone honked the horn.  In Sicilian Death, when it breaks down... you can hear this creaky door open.  The way we recorded PJ's vocals on that was just through a 15 watt amp with a mic plugged in, and then mic'ed that.  It gives it a little bit of distortion.   That's all I really remember from that, It was a long day.

PJ always had an intense approach to performing, and his enthusiasm, his rock and roll nihilism, got to be a little too much for the others.
PJ:

"I feel like a lot of people break down music differently, and some people analyze it and for some people… there's just a lot more to it.  For me its always been something to kinda run into a wall to.  I think that ended up fueling some creative differences where the rest of the band wanted to grow and I wanted to keep doing the same thing."

Todd:

"We played a show at Sacred Grounds, we had a good show.  We were drunk and afterwards PJ tossed open a trash can, opened it up and started throwing things everywhere.  It pissed off the people at Sacred, which was pretty easy to do.  It was rock and roll, man.  We were 19, we were getting drunk, we were playing rock and roll, things were good.  Six months later we played a show up in Berkeley or Oakland, some place called music.com or livemusic.com.  After that one, PJ decided to climb up the venue building, and then onto the building next to it, and from there up on to a billboard.  Greg and Amir were... not having it."

PJ:

"I always thought that playing a show and practicing was one of the best forms of expression.  For most of my life, and probably even still to this day, I don't feel comfortable expressing myself in a bunch of ways.  Music was one of the only ways where I was comfortable doing it.  There are a lot of things where I was an idiot, but I felt comfortable doing it, and it was fun.  There were some things that I did that were over the top, stupid, but it was just part of... everything, and it ended up coming off alright.  Nobody got hurt and nobody died, which was probably because of luck more than anything else.  I've always thought music was a vehicle for emotion, to get things off your chest, and playing it was the best way and most comfortable way I've been able to do that."

After parting ways with PJ, the band tried briefly to go on without him, spreading singing duties to the remaining members.
Todd:

"We had these egos, we thought 'We don't need him, we can sing.' It was horrible, and that was it."

Enjoy the demo, truly one of my favorites from that era.  Having only recently reacquired it myself, I can truly say that it has only gotten better with time.

Special thanks to Hayley Fox for taking the photos, and to Gabe Abaud for the saving/sending the SG flyer.