World's Fastest Car - Demo Recordings

 

Label: bootleg
Year: 1998

Lot's of Walter lately...what's going on?
Well, I'll tell you.
At the risk of revealing the proverbial "how sausage is made", or "inside baseball", or what the fuck ever phrase is correct, I'll grant you a sneak peek into the inner workings of this very blog. This one, right here. See, since this (the blog) has gone from a sweaty orgy of it's heyday (relatively speaking...the heyday, not the orgy...that part was happening on the regs) to a one man champagne jam of today (champagne of beers mainly) it can be difficult to stay motivated or productive when dealing with this (again, talking about the blog...the beers are not a problem, hence my quadruple chin). Sometimes I need a kick in the pants to stay on task and keep this ship afloat until our captain (oh captain, my captain) returns from his exile to regain control of the rudder.
Sometimes that inspiration can come from unlikely sources, as it did in this case. A short pep talk and the kernel of an idea has now blossomed into a blog related project (as nerdy as that sounds) of me compiling a list of favorite records to post. Specifically, in this case, I'm going for NYHC 7"s, since it's a particular sweet spot for me. More on that soon (I'm almost done pulling all the shit together).
Point being, I've been balls deep in a NYHC rabbit hole of late, and naturally that involves a whole heaping helping of Walter Schreifels related ephemera. Including his not so NYHC mid-late 90's post-Quicksand project, World's Fastest Car.

After a hasty break-up with Quicksand, Walter called on Arthur from Mind Over Matter/Bad Trip, Alex from Chain Of Strength/Inside Out/Against the Wall and drummer Erik Stams, and went about fleshing out a new batch of songs that broke away from the chugging staccato of Quicksand and went into a more melodic direction. It didn't last very long though, and while in retrospect Walter has said he gives this period and material much more credit than he did at the time, the band never really congealed into a working unit. Plus, a lucrative Quicksand reunion offer was offered...and taken (briefly), so World's Fastest Car came and went.

Two demo recording sessions are culled together here representing the whole of the World's Fastest Car demo repertoire (I think). A good amount of these songs were reanimated into Rival Schools numbers, but some were jettisoned and never heard from again. Which is a shame, as they are great songs. As you would expect. There is a whole album recorded that features some of these songs (different versions), but that was never released. Island and Revelation Records passed on it once the band broke up before it's release date was even set.

*originally posted 08.27.15, reposted 08.28.22

DL