Freakshow songlist

There has been a lot of confusion as to what songs were being worked on at that time and what songs Corey had already recorded with other bands in both Des Moines and Waterloo prior to our meeting.

As I had mentioned in my interview with Ilan over at Surgery.tk, we never got a chance to play out or record anything. Our time was spent jamming and arguing (lol).
We were working on the beginnings of “Surgery”, “Sometimes” , “Funky Milk”, “Turn Your Head”, “Mother’s Ghost”, and a couple of other things that never really came together. Corey writes so fast that a lot of times there were songs and ideas that were half done (like “Funky Milk”) and others (like “Sometimes”) that were 90% finished.
A lot of those were riffs Joel had floating around and Corey built a song around, like “Mother’s Ghost”.
Corey had writen tons over stuff before we met and had bands with Economaki and Rand. He had also written and recorded stuff up in Waterloo with a couple of bands and with Ron Nichols (sp?).
Other than what I listed above…I don’t really have specifics as to exactly who/what/when some of the older stuff was recorded.

by Denny Harvey

Taylor/Nichols

For the record, the name of the project was ‘Taylor/Nichols’, done with myself and good compadre Ron Nichols. We recorded an album on relatively no money that is brilliant in some spots, botched in others. I haven’t recorded anything with Ron during my tour of duty with Slipknot. But… you never know.
As for the acoustic songs I have written, at this date I have 200 acoustic songs, some good, some god fucking awful. Will I release them? Well, that all depends on a record company letting me do it right and not butting their money-grubbing snouts in on it. But I would love to do it. Go into a studio out in the middle of nowhere, the kind of place Morrison would have pissed in the corner, bring in a bottle of Jack and some absinthe and record for a month. See what happens.
by Corey Taylor

BJ Harrison

Concerning BJ Harrison…he was a young kid that really brought me around to playing guitar. He was an excellent player. Some of the live earlier stuff is him playing lead. He played just about all of it at first, then I began playing some. After he left, I took about a month and learned it all. That was tough and scary. I have to say that I owe him a lot. He really taught me to have confidence in myself and we spent hours playing and playing. I learned quite a bit from him. When we first decided we were going to start a band, I hardly played rhythm. Learned quite a bit listening to him play. And he was relentless in practicing…coming over to my apartment at least 3 times a week to play and show me things he wrote. He’s a cool guy and now I just wonder where the hell he is!!!
I always loved music, but his passion and perseverance really rubbed off on me. I was sorry to see him leave the band.
by Josh Rilying

Dickin’ me

Here’s a little Denny story: one time we were sitting at my Grandmother’s house, hanging out with some people. The TV was on but nobody was really watching it. Denny was reading the paper. All of a sudden, one of those Publisher’s Clearing House Sweepstakes commercials came on telly, with Ed McMahon and Dick Clark. For some reason a hush had fallen over the room, so we heard what happened next.
Now I swear to you, this is true. I’m sure Mr. McMahon meant to say, ‘win ten million dollars from Dick and I’. At least I hope that was what he was trying to say. Instead, what floated out of the Zenith’s little two-inch speakers was this.
‘Win ten million dollars from dickin’ me!’
The whole room froze. Denny, his face previously obscured by newsprint, slowly lowered the paper to reveal incredulous eyes the size of pignuts. We couldn’t believe that not only had this little epiphany come from dear ol’ Ed’s mouth, but that the fucking people who put the commercial together had MISSED IT! We laughed our asses off and waited with the VCR ready, hoping it would air again.
Needless to say, it didn’t.
by Corey Taylor

35″Mudder

35″ Mudder was a band here in Des Moines fronted by two vocalists, one of them being future Lazer DJ Corey Brown. It was rumored, cough cough, that Mudder was offered a deal by Lazer to get signed to a major label if they played ball. Something that was rumored, cough cough, to have been offered to Slipknot who had declined.
Add to the fact that Sophia John, who was a DJ at Lazer’s competition KKDM, was managing Slipknot; thing got a bit strained and a lot of rumors and insults started to fly.
Somebody said some VERY rude comments about a mutual friend of ours and shit came to a head.
Oh shit. Did it come to a head.
Mudder was opening for Deadfront one night and the entire Slipknot posse walked in (each member in matching Slipknot windbreaker) and walked directly to the front of the stage. You know those times in high school when you just know there is gonna be a brawl, like it’s in the air? It was like that.
Corey Brown was in the middle of a song when a look of “oh shit” took over. Crahan started giving him a rash of shit from the front of the stage. Corey would walk to one side of the stage and Crahan would follow. It was hilarious. Finally, they stopped the show, words were said and the ENTIRE BAR and both bands ended up in front of Safari (now Hairy Mary’s) about to fight. It was a potential riot scene. My kind of shit.
Corey and Sean Elliot (now program director at Lazer) ended up with Joey in their face calling them out. Everybody was agitated and a lot of shit got resolved verbally. Things almost got ugly when Taco (now in Devil With Cheese) almost got jumped when he tried to intervene to chill everybody out. Something got said about blowing up Lazer and they threatened serious harm to anybody that talks shit. Mick threw a beer bottle at the wall and Corey and Sean bailed in a car. Deafront played and I think I got laid. Quite a night.

I think this is the incident that sparked Lazer’s rumored “Slipknot will NEVER be signed” policy. Ironically, Slipknot did get signed and you can now hear Slipknot on Lazer and 35″ Mudder are no more.
by Denny Harvey

DM brawl

Date: Runway. 1994, maybe ’95
The Stone Sour “Josh/B.J” line-up.
Stone Sour has been booked for a week to fill in for one of the touring cover bands that used to roll through town. Somebody’s van broke down or something and they get a call on a moment’s notice (or something like that) to play at the Runway.
The Runway was a refuge for metal and mullets. It was run by some not so savory folks and attracted an even more colorful bunch of jokers as customers. On this particular night, the bar was packed with bikers and their old ladies. Ever watched Springer? At least he has decent security…
At some point, somebody cracks a pool cue over some poor asshole’s head and pandemonium breaks out. Full on brawl. This is all going on as Stone Sour is playing one of their origional songs ‘Still Screaming’, which was a pretty aggressive tune. This is only making things worse. Marty Smith is working the door and screams “GUN!!!”.

Like everyone else, I’m ducking under the nearest table and trying to get the band’s attention to get the fuck down before they get shot onstage. Instead of going for cover, Corey sees the commotion and thinks the crowd is getting off on the song! Dumb ass launches the band into Pantera’s “Fucking Hostile”.
I’m thinking, fuck, we’re dead.
The bar turns into the theatre scene from “Gremlins”.
Full on fucking chaos.
Somebody went for a shotgun, some dude got dragged by his hair and thrown into a car, and I’ve got a feeling that guy’s night didn’t get any better after that.
by Denny Harvey

My involvement

I played guitar for Stone Sour for a few years, the old Stone Sour that is. I did play guitar on that tape and even wrote some of the material. The songs Surgery, Sometimes, I Can’t Believe, Funky Milk, and Voices Again had been written by Corey before I joined the band. We did rearrange Sometimes and I Can’t Believe (guitar parts) for the tape. Songs That’s Ridiculous, Tar Poo, and Bertha were a collaboration of another guitarist (BJ) and I (for guitar parts). Simple Woman was written in about 15 minutes. Joel had a drum beat he wanted me to play to. I started playing a simple 3 chord progression, Corey started writing lyrics and boom…there you have it. BJ and I actually started out as the guitar players for Stone Sour. BJ later left for personal reasons. Before us I really don’t believe there was ever a real, or established, band. I think Denny played bass here and there, another guitarist Todd played a little…Josh (Rand) played here and there to, but it was all a basement band and I don’t think they ever played out. How I became involved was BJ and I advertised at all the music shops in Des Moines for a band and Corey called. BJ and I had been writing music together for probably about a year. Corey and Joel asked us to play right there on the spot after we jammed to a couple tunes. Shawn ended up playing bass because, well, we auditioned like 15 players and they all really sucked.

The reason for me leaving the band? Well, no reason to really get into that. Let’s just say that there was a 3 month lull in playing as a band while Corey went to Colorado to be in the punk scene (I’ve never figured out why he did that, nor ever will – that’s when he wrote Bother) and I discovered music theory and became focused on more technical aspects of playing. When the band got back together, we had different directions (if any direction for some) we were headed. That’s about as far as I will go with it. No sense in airing dirty laundry. The funny thing about it was I was always pestering Josh Rand to join the band. Trying to play songs that were written for 2 guitars with 1 guitar is not always fun and we also played well together. I’m finally glad he did something!!
The old Stone Sour songs were, I think, more from the heart and our souls. We didn’t have all this fancy equipment. We essentially scavenged and starved for what we could get and played whenever and wherever we could. I think we had what it took to write songs and perform them. Besides that, we loved playing out and writing songs. Unfortunately, I know that many earlier songs Corey, I, and the band (altogether) wrote will likely be lost.
There’s also another Stone Sour CD (not the 1994 demo tape) floating around with Monolith, Take A Number, and a few other songs on it. As far as I know, the CD was never really “released”. Heck, I don’t even know if it was even printed. I recorded solos for a couple of the songs, but that was the last I heard about it. Actually, I can’t say that. I remember listening to a few of the songs at a guitar show (acquaintance had it on disc) and I wasn’t impressed with the production, with the exception of a couple songs. I know that feeling is reiterated by the current band. Of the songs on the new CD, Monolith and Take A Number were written when I was still with the band and the songs were performed live. All in all, there are many good “old” songs that I can see being somewhat “updated” and recorded for upcoming CDs.
by Josh Rilying

Denny vs God

Date: 1996
Everyone I hang out with is a fucking lunatic.
I’m serious. If anybody ever thought I was crazy, you should see my friends. The amount of shit we get into is not only illegal, but it is plain out of control.

Take my best friend Denny, who’s usually the ringmaster behind the ugliness. My fondest memory of Denny is the night he ran into the middle of my street and tried to call God out for a fight.
Let me give you the background. This was six years ago. We (the bored and insane of ‘Dead Moans’) decided to throw a party. At my grandmother’s house in the suburbs. On a Thursday. Probably not the smartest idea we ever had.
But I digress.
The party was one for the books. PA speakers in the living room, lined into my CD player, ROCKING Master of Puppets as loud as we could. There were people fucking in my bathtub, fucking in my backyard, FUCKING EVERYWHERE.
Basically, a party of EXCESS.
Denny was preparing something that was called Jungle Juice. It was every kind of alcohol…PLUS. I don’t wanna KNOW what I imbibed in those days. We were slamming this shit, having a good time, when all of a sudden… Denny snapped.
I was in the backyard filming two people having a snog, when a baleful roar came from my basement. I ran around the front (making sure that someone was still videotaping) and saw Denny screaming at the heavens, shaking his mighty fist.
“Fuck you, God!!” he shouted into the nether, “I hear you laughing! Do you think I need you to survive? I will fucking KILL you! C’mon you bastard! It’s you and me!”
Well, as I was laughing my ass off, the cops arrived. Every minor in the house fled out the back, while we the legal made a human wall so the kids could escape. Denny was pulled back in the house by the three of us who could move him and I began the strained negotiations to keep us from going to jail.

To this DAY, I still don’t know what happened. Maybe Denny was fucking one of the people at the party and she puked on him. All I know is it was one chapter in the on-going saga of the Stranded. The ones who just can’t get out of this Godforsaken shithole.
We’ll talk about Denny again.
Where’s the Juice…
by Corey Taylor

Recording problems

As far as the difference between 94′ and 96′…a lot of it had to do with SR & Sean McMahon.
SR moved to Des Moines and brought in Sean McMahon to produce local bands. The idea was, they were going to scout local talent and use their “contacts” to get these bands signed and raise SR’s clout as a studio. Since they were pretty much the only game in town at that point, just about everybody went there to record.
(In my opinion…)

The problem was, McMahon couldn’t produce worth a fuck and ran up massive studio bills. I actually had the misfortune to witness this. I sat there one night as he would punch in shit for hours, miniscule shit, and then take hours more to mix…re-mix…re-mix…and mix some more. This was still in the recording phase. They hadn’t even gotten to the actual mixing phase yet. Anybody who had even a rudimentary understanding of recording would just sit there in awe watching this guy fuck up his own work.
But, it wasn’t really his work. It was his interpretation of Stone Sour. And it was on their (meaning Gram’s) dime. He actually told them, this is no shit, that ‘Monolith’ needed to sound like the band Garbage. Yes…fucking Garbage, because that was what was hot at the time. All of those songs came into the process much like how you hear them on ‘Stone Sour’ the album. He just took things and ran, all the way to the bank.
TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS LATER, there was still no album. Not even a decent demo to shop to a label. This had a lot to do with Corey’s dissatisfaction with things in general. I believe this experience had a lot to do with his leaving Stone Sour.
If you talk to anybody here in the core group of musicians, every one of them has a gripe with SR and McMahon. Just about every project he was on turned to shit one way or another…yes, even MFKR. Joey had to completely re-mix that album, twice I’m told, after McMahon got done with it. Ask any one of those guys from that era about it, what a mess.
by Denny Harvey

Name changes

PROJECT X was the name for the songs/project that Corey and Josh were working on alone. These were 4-track demos and demos recorded at SR Audio. Corey and Josh did most of the recording themselves, with help from various friends. These were rough demos of songs that ended up on the Stone Sour album.
Somewhere along the way they found out that there was already another band named PROJECT X so they could not use that name.

SUPEREGO was the next name idea. Same demos, different name.
During the recording process Shawn, Joel, and Jim join the band so they can play out. Parts were tweaked on the demos, re-recorded, etc.
Somewhere along the line they found out SUPEREGO was taken as well.
CLOSURE was the next name idea. Same demos, different name.
Is everybody with me so far?
They record the actual album while they are doing the “name check” for CLOSURE. It turns out that, again, that name is taken as well…
So…looks like the only name that fits is the name STONE SOUR.
ALL OF THE DEMOS ARE, JUST THAT, DEMOS…
IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT YOU CALL IT…THEY ARE JUST DEMOS.

I have seen all this bullshit online about the difference of this to that…the only real change was it went from a two piece studio project to a five piece live band.
by Denny Harvey

Competition in Iowa

Date: 1996

What people don’t really understand is that Stone Sour and Modifidious had probably the best band to band relationship in Des Moines at that time. There was a lot of animosity between bands but they really got along great. When the two bands got to know each other they played quite a few shows together. We would go out to the Sinclair gas station (a company I was also working for at the time) at the edge of town that Joey worked at and hang out for hours just talking.
When Modifidious broke up we were stunned. We would hear rumors about the new band, we didn’t really know Paul, Donnie or Shawn all that well so we really didn’t know what to expect. We had seen Body Pit a few times but the only person I had met from that was Andy. We had word from (Joe’s best friend) Issac that their new band would be even better.
I used to go over to Craig’s house and hang out. He would have parties on the weekend and we would all trash his house and try not to get arrested. He had a studio room set up with a computer and had this amazing collection of MP3 sound bites that they were working on. That’s how I met Shawn. He would be camped out in this room while chaos was going on in the rest of the house. He would pop out the door like Laslow from Real Genius and wouldn’t talk to anybody. Then he would disappear into that room again. Little did we know he was working on Slipknot.
Before the first show, Craig told me they wanted everyone to wear a mask to the show. He wouldn’t say why, but he just kept saying, wear a mask. Corey looked at me like I was nuts when i passed that on. A mask?!

We went to the first Slipknot show – April 4th 1996 – the day before my 24th birthday. Every member of Stone Sour at the time was there to support them. Corey and I were standing in front next to the stage, with Mick behind us bitching about “I used to play with these guys, they’re not that great…” I remember asking him if he was so fucking good why he wasn’t he on stage with them?
Well, we found out what the mask thing was about!
After the show we were invited to a “House Destruction Party” and I spent my birthday in jail with half the people from the show, that’s another story…
Slipknot had a much more controlled and secretive side than Modifidious. Shawn and Andy did most of the business, whereas Joey used to do that for Modifidious. If there was any kind of bad vibes, it was do to that control. Suddenly, we weren’t in the loop anymore. Slipknot became more like the CIA (lol).
I had turned Sophia John onto Slipknot and she became friends with them [Despite other's accounts, it's the truth]. When 107.5 had the battle of the bands, she invited both bands to participate. It was pretty much a given that it was between those two to win it, talent wise. If anything, neither band really wanted to do it because they didn’t want to cause hard feelings between them. It was a very cautious thing. The phrase of the day was “If we lose, I’m glad we lost to you.”
To this day, I don’t know who was better that night. Slipknot pulled a lot of gimmicks like balloons and Clown coming in a fucking BARNEY costume. It worked. There are those who believe Stone Sour really won. Who knows? When it was over, Joe and Josh were giving handshakes and hugs to Stone Sour, so it really was a win/lose situation. You are happy for them but disappointed at the same time.
by Denny Harvey

Credit: surgery.tk