DOWN Set Sophomore Album Title, Plan Live Appearances

New Orleans supergroup DOWN, who feature in their ranks PANTERA's Philip Anselmo (vocals),C.O.C.'s Pepper Keenan (guitars),EYEHATEGOD's Jimmy Bower (drums),PANTERA's Rex Brown (bass) and CROWBAR's Kirk Windstein (guitars),have reportedly set Down II: Bustle In The Hedgerow as the title of their forthcoming sophomore effort, which is due to be issued through Elektra Records on March 26th. Described by an informed source as "swampy-bluesy-SABBATHy”, DOWN's upcoming CD was recorded during a 26-day period beginning in early November and is said to contain material that was largely conceived nearly four years ago. Brown recently had the following to say about the record in an interview published online at www.indepthzine.com:

“Most of that stuff was different jam sessions that we did in 1998. From there we took these tapes and jammed them out in an old barn down in the swamps of Louisiana. We got 15 tracks done in 26 days there. Written, arranged, lyrics and recorded all in 26 f.ckin' days! We had three cases of Ramen Noodles and $6,000 worth of booze and we didn't leave that f.ckin' place until it was finished. All of this in the damn swamp too. (laughter) We all just decided that we were all going to be off in the Fall (of 2001) and we should just put our heads down and get it done and out there. It was just some controlled goddamn chaos. No TV, no nothing. We had nothing else to do there but the music and it came out f.cking killer.

“We have a bunch of these little segue things [on the album] that are really cool that we did out there. Phil sang his ever-lovin'-baloney off on this one man! (laughter) We only took one break during Thanksgiving. We all decided that we should see our families, have some turkey and take a quick break from it. I flew back in from Dallas afterwards and he had finished up 4 tracks and I just couldn't believe my ears! He just sang his f.ckin' balls off on this one! F.ckin A, everyone is gonna be surprised… you ain't gonna believe this sh.t!

“[The material on the album is] really diverse. It's got all kinds of crazy sh.t like Pepper playing this 1930s steel guitar way out in the weeds of the swamp with Phil singing on it. We were in NJ for the last few days mixing things until yesterday when we headed here to NYC to master it all. It's unbelievable.

“Phil had a lot of sh.t on his chest and finally with this record he was able to get them out. Everyone knows he's had some problems in the past with some things and he just opens up his soul on this one and it's really healthy for him. He just sings his f.ckin' balls off on this. I actually just heard the whole thing on some little stereo here and the damn thing sounds GODLY!

“It's been six years since the first [DOWN album] and with the way things are going, this could broaden the whole f.ckin' spectrum. With what's out there now, there is NO ONE out there that is doing what we did on this album. I just hope that we can get this out there for everyone to hear because it's f.ckin' killer!! At the end of the day, whether we sell five copies or five million copies, what we have on that CD between Phil, Pepper, Kirk, Jimmy and myself is something that is really cool. Overall, I'd say expectations are not low, but they're not way out there either. We just want to make this thing work. We're getting the tour behind it and maybe a video too. There is some really classic stuff on this record. After two weeks of recording this thing out in that barn, we just all sat down and looked at each other and said 'Man, we're looking to get f.ckin' wild on this one.' I got some crazy explicit tales about stuff that happened but we had to control all that and get this record out.

While plans definitely exist to promote the upcoming album with select live appearances, Brown told Launch that Anselmo is battling an injured back that may prevent him from doing an extended tour. "[Phil's] got a serious back problem he's got to deal with this year, and we've got PANTERA as well," Rex told Launch. "They can give you a chance of he might not make it out of there. It's f.cked. He might not be able to walk again, but he's walking now. So he's put it off, and off, and off, but after a while I mean it's...he'll be walking with a cane or he's got to take care of it. At this point the most we can probably tour is a month on, month off until he gets that thing either fixed or treated. We've taken him to three specialists and they've all said the same thing."