The Medusa Snare – Zum Henker: The Cinderella Demos

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Cath n Dad is proud to announce the release of Zum Henker: The Cinderella Demos, a collection of demos recorded by The Medusa Snare before the release of “Cinderella” . Fuzzier and faster than the roomy production Oli “Samsa” Samsa put on the album – a welcome companion to the album proper. They’re seriously awesome. And Free.

Liner Notes

The Medusa Snare, those were the days, aye? Feedback and noise and pubs and gigs in work clothes and kicking a ball around in a park and sitting around drinking and… It was the summer of 2008 and I had just returned from Japan. Adam John Miller was forming a new band, same as the old band, Shaun had flaked, was I in? You bet I was!

So there began The Meduse Snare Mark 2 – Mark 1 had already played a gig as a two piece; Eddy Lines drumming, Adam screeching, squalling and shredding his guitar. It was great but they needed more, more, more…

So the bolstered MS Mk2 played it’s first gig back in those heady days, the band comprising Adam, Eddy, Max and myself – 3/4 of The Wednesday Club, 3/5 of the line up of the (almost) original Leo Trout and half of The Manhattan Love Suicides. It was a strange, heady brew.

We played a couple of gigs, half rehearsed, the chords for songs in front of me, feedback way up, changing chords maybe a little uncertainly but we had something – whatever that thing was.

Fast forward a short while, we continued this way for about 6 months; playing and practicing sporadically, a few hit and run gigs wowing punters. Max’s  squealing, hooky leads, Adam’s powerful bass, my roaring rhythm and Eddy’s rock solid drumming. We were good but something had to change.

Eddy, a busy man, was out Moz and Rachel were in.  The Medusa Snare Mk 3 had begun. Still half of the Manhattan Love Suicides, the unit began rocking harder and playing farther and wider, ripping holes in walls with their blasts of noise. Whilst not quite the player Eddy was Moz and Rachel more than made up for it by being two people and looking GREAT on stage.

But alas something in a unit as volatile as this, combustible as MS Mk3 was, had to explode and those things were Max’s ears. And so the 4 piece Medusa Snare began.Could they be as powerful as before? You bet, Adam and myself turned up their guitars and turned down their restraint and the bright lights beckoned.

The Brudenell, The Cardigan Arms, The Library Pub, OPorto. We played them all.

And like all good things it had to come to an end. Adam and Moz saw the bright lights of London, were enthralled and then swallowed whole; John was lost at sea, taking in the coast at Brighton and as for Rachel? Well that’s a story best told elsewhere.

As for the future who knows? Medusa Snare Mark 5 may come and kick a few doors in, hit and run style, dressed in leathers, guitars roaring and sunglasses bedonned. Stranger things have happened.

But for now we have have these recordings, raw fast, hard and powerful. Best gum up your ears ‘fore they bleed.

John Perry, August 2011