|
The Shady Blades
The Shady Blades were born in the summer of 1991 on the southside of San Antonio when guitarist Alex Aguado, drummer Johnny Hernandez and lead vocalist Harold LaFuente (formerly of Charnel) joined with bassist Ruben Sandoval and guitarist/keyboardist Rocky Moreno. The group played one gig with Harold under the new name (Rocky was a big Jane’s Addiction fan and got the name from a line in the song, “Summertime Rolls”) before picking up Miguel Contreras as lead vocalist. The band recorded a 2-song demo with the songs, “All Alone” and “’Jennys Gone”.
The band performed at various backyard and frat parties throughout that summer and fall pushing the 2-song demo. Against his parents’ wishes, Ruben secretly stayed in the band and watched his GPA plummet. Forced to leave the group to focus on school in the Spring of 1992, bassist George Lara (formerly of Glorium and later with Sexto Sol) filled in. Still trying to realize rock dreams , Ruben decided to take some time off from college after a dismal semester. Fortunately Glorium reformed that same summer and Ruben eagerly replaced the parting Lara. At this time the band opted for a harder, edgier sound, dropped their keyboards as well as their keyboard player; Rocky was out and Steve Sanchez was in.
The band eventually began to gig at venues such as Wacky’s (currently Limelight) and next door at Monroe’s (currently a tattoo parlor). Although they experimented with original music the band was mostly known for covering popular alternative songs as well as bringing some lesser-known artists to a budding young audience (it was later discovered that some fans assumed some of the more obscure covers were the band’s originals!)
In the summer of 1992, the band embarked on a second home recording session that would later serve as rehearsal for their first trip to a professional recording studio. The band had saved up enough money to record and mix 6 songs. Impressed by the quality of a demo by Passage Temple recorded there, the band booked studio time at Elephant Tracks Studio in November 1992. During their recording session, Johnny Hernandez was offered the drummer gig in his brother’s popular band, Sun-Day. After many nachos and beers, he was talked out of it and stayed in the band. When they emerged they had recorded an e.p.that would be released on cassette in May of 1993 as “Sixinone”.
“Sixinone” was well received by fans but tensions mounted in the band and yet another opportunity presented itself for Johnny to join Sun-Day. Sensing the inevitable demise, he accepted. At the same time, Ruben, dissatisfied with the direction in which his life was headed, left the troubled mainland for the utopian ideals of Honolulu, HI. On the fateful date of September 11, 1993 the band played its last gig.
Thirteen years later during an archeological dig, the2-inch master tape reel of “Sixinone” was discovered in a dusty garage. It was quickly mailed to Mr. Toad’s of San Francisco, transferred to DVD for preservation; its digital contents dumped into Pro Tools and thoroughly tampered with. The result--a remixed version of “Sixinone” aptly titled “Sixinone [Remixed]”. Excessive reverb and other various dated ear candy was nixed resulting in a more sonically-pleasing version. Hear for yourself!
|
|
