Since first hearing them in 1992, I have been a huge fan of the Charlotte, NC psychedelic metal band Animal Bag. At the time, Animal Bag was doing something truly unique in their sound. They were like Deadheads who played heavy metal music with hippie lyrics at times. Their debut album was, and still is, one of my all time favorite albums and it’s such a bummer to me that the band never truly got the opportunity to show the masses what they were capable of. The band released their debut album and a couple of years later followed it up with an acoustic EP called Offering. This EP is still a huge part of my life and I loved that it showed such a different side of the band. The EP had them covering such classics as “Wooden Ships” by Crosby, Stills & Nash and “Dun Ringill” by Jethro Tull. Animal Bag then announced that they were going into the studio to record their follow up full-length LP and then POOF! They were gone.
This was in the age before the internet so there was no way of me finding out what happened to Animal Bag. I remember even writing their fan club address and never hearing word one so I just assumed that they were gone with the wind. Over the years, word got out that the band indeed recording and completed an album called Image Damage but due to inner turmoil in the band’s label, the band was dropped and the album was shelved never to see the light of day officially. The album is a rare gem to find but has been floating around the internet as a download for years but just recently it seems that some unreleased Animal Bag material is starting to surface including this amazing cover of The Doors’ “Waiting for the Sun.” Lead vocalist Luke Edwards posted this on his Facebook Page:
Many thanks to my good friend Stick Elliott for posting this! He’s been helping me archive the stacks of old Animal Bag cassettes I have before the tapes deteriorate. This was recorded at Reflections Studios in Charlotte back when “Image Damage” was scheduled for release. I really dig this recording, even though we knew it spelled doom for the album’s release, and in many ways, the band. When we delivered “Image Damage” to Polygram, they listened to it then asked us to go back in the studio and record our version of a song people would recognize. We knew right then that they had no idea what to do with the album we had just delivered. “Image Damage” was shelved and never saw the light of day and our ride with Mercury/ Polygram came to an end. At least we got this killer remake out of it though!
Hopefully this means that we will be hearing some more unreleased Animal Bag gems in the not so distant future but for now, dig on this fantastic cover. Long Live Animal Bag!
Many thanks to my good friend Stick Elliott for posting this! He’s been helping me archive the stacks of old Animal Bag cassettes I have before the tapes deteriorate. This was recorded at Reflections Studios in Charlotte back when “Image Damage” was scheduled for release. I really dig this recording, even though we knew it spelled doom for the album’s release, and in many ways, the band. When we delivered “Image Damage” to Polygram, they listened to it then asked us to go back in the studio and record our version of a song people would recognize. We knew right then that they had no idea what to do with the album we had just delivered. “Image Damage” was shelved and never saw the light of day and our ride with Mercury/ Polygram came to an end. At least we got this killer remake out of it though!
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