Occupied Territory (DMS: The Prequel.)

When I posted about Dmize awhile back all of the comments that came in got me digging around and I was actually able to track down a demo and a live set from Occupied Territory, who was cited in those comments as having truly been the first DMS band, a few years prior to Dmize. The band was fairly short-lived (I'd estimate somewhere within the span of 1986—1988 based on what facts I've acquired, but I'm not entirely sure of a specific timeframe) and recorded three demos, none of which were widely circulated, and two of which weren't technically "released" at all. The first demo was recorded boombox-in-a-basement style and was basically only distributed through friends, while the third and final demo was completely unreleased. The second demo, from 1987, was called "A Start", and that's what I was able to track down, though I don't know any recording details. I spent hours splicing this into separate tracks and cleaning them up as best I could (and that all goes for the live tracks as well, which actually seem slightly more balanced), but it's still quite raw. Hey, what can you do, you know? (Note: I took all of the song titles from the live set, so the opening demo track, "Intro", may be improperly titled. Edit: The song titles below are correct, though both the demo and live set mp3 tags will need minor corrections if you're as picky as I am!

1. "Intro"
2. "Number 1"
3. "We Ain't Complaining (N.Y.C.H.C.K.)"
4. "Peace One Day"
5. "Things That Are Real"
6. "Grandma's Angry Garage"
7. "Nothin' But Lies"
8. "Babylon"

The live set was recorded on WNYU radio, and I'm guessing it was sometime in 1988 since the band sends shout outs to Raw Deal and Outburst before the second track ("Number 1"). I believe Outburst started in 1987 and Raw Deal started in 1988, though it's possible that this was before Raw Deal had recorded their demo, so there's a chance the live set could be from sometime in 1987 as well. Again, I'm not entirely sure. In that same segment of the set, vocalist Eddie Mergan (aka Gyro, who also sang on the "A Start" demo above and was the band's second frontman) mentions "the crew at 145", which is an early reference to what became the DMS crew, as 145 refers to the school park at IS145 in Jackson Heights, NY where they would all hang out at the time.

1. "Peace One Day"
2. "Number 1"
3. "Nothin' But Lies"
4. "We Ain't Complaining (N.Y.C.H.C.K.)"
5. "Babylon"
6. "Things That Are Real"
7. "Grandma's Angry Garage"
8. "Eightball"
9. "Blunt"

Apparently most of the former members of Occupied Territory have been relatively hard to come by since the late-80's, so I don't think they were involved in any other bands afterwards.

I don't know the name of the kid who hooked me up with these tracks, but many thanks to him for helping me out, and thanks to Al DMS for taking the time to hit me with some background information. If anyone by any chance in hell has the cover art for this demo and can send me a scan, please let me know. Thanks. Edit: Huge thanks to Hilary Neloms for the cover scan!

Enjoy... I'm not posting again until Monday because I just threw over 30 minutes of music up here and I don't want my bandwidth to absolutely die!