BAY AREA DEMO PARADE TRILOGY 1/3: THE INCLINE

The confessional style of this post was inspired by the writing of TJ Smith of "Sea of Seed" whose handcrafted ‘zines about the rural midwest I’ve been revisiting as of late.

I stole this tape from my old radio cohort on KSCU Rob “Rock B” Jackson’s crib back in like ’93-’95 (???). It was after a show he had set up for the Sole Sides Crew, when “Melodica” was still a test-press, at like Evergreen Community College or some other classroom-style live spot. I got drunk as shit and when we got back to Rob’s lab to post-party, in an attempt to join a conversation I had no business taking part in and to play the part of asshole in general, I told either DJ Zen or Asia Born, I forget which, that I had “two sealed copies of Expansions” (a direct quote from that Beasties song). Needless to say, they weren’t too amused, and I think someone tried to son me with, “Wow, are they really sealed.” Rob shot me a look like: “I’m trying to impress these dudes [he wanted to be their road manager or something], why are you fucking me up?” But, Gab seemed oblivious to any mega-digger-posturing and more than willing to share his bammer joints with me, and thus I couldn’ta given two squirts of monkey piss about anything.

I have no idea where The Incline is from nor what year they recorded these three songs nor what their names are (Kohari the Insomniac??? Damien??). But if you will allow me to apply the science of conjecture and bullshitting, the dank fog in my brain is slowly forming letters and... I think they were either from The Town or Sac. I’d love to find out the truth. Did they ever morph into another project? Do they still rap and/or make beats? Who are they?

The tape is laid out as such:

The Incline

Side I

Frozen Cocaine

Side II

Just Listen

Sideways Poetics

The first song, "Frozen Cocaine," is regularly considered the "banger" by folks I've showed this to, because of it's furious dichotomy of drug messaging and perfectly placed EPMD sample. The other two are more your typical early-90's backpacker fair and not as dark as the jump off, but definitely worth posting, so I did.

Later that night, Rob’s hotheaded roommate Jermaine came home wasted and complaining of being shot in the thigh with a "BB gun" after tussling with some “Mexicans” outside of San Jose Live. After Rob saw the wound he urged Jermaine to allow a sober person to take him to the ER. Jermaine turned out to have a .22 slug embedded in his leg. Some BB gun. Jermaine was a division 1 defensive back and very patriotic about being from Merced. Ever since this incident I've considered people from Merced tough as nails. To commerate the evening, while everybody was taking Jermaine to the hospital, I snatched a handful of tapes off the floor of their living room in front of the stereo (remember those?) and one of them was The Incline. Rob was always a good friend to me, and I feel I’m finally doing penance to our friendship by airing this all out. Rob, if you read this and you want your tapes back, they’re yours, mane. But all you Bay Area demo fiends are lucky, ‘cause you get to listen to these old ass unreleased jams without the tinge of guilt and regret I feel from being a drunken shit-talking loser who steals from his friends the same night their roommate gets shot. Rob’s dad was a preacher on TV in Richmond to boot!