Author's Notes: Well, here's the last chapter. I wanted to present in
an unusual format to make it memorable, and after screwing around with
ideas, I think this one works the best. Rather than continue yakking,
I'll save the rest of my rants for the notes at the end. You all want
to see the epilogue.
Let the Music Be Your Master
Chapter 25- When I Hear You on the Car Radio You're Gonna Be a Sensation... Rock and Roll Band, Everybody's Waiting
(Taken from the Official Damage Control Website)
History
"I have to dedicate a lot of my music to my family. Art is supposed to reflect life. Even though I really hate calling our music art because the word is just so fucking pretentious these days. Anyway, what I write is my life. My wife and kids are what really drive me to continue making music because they are my life."
-Inuyasha Morimoto
"Good music is just supposed to make you feel. It doesn't matter what. When I create music, I just want to be able to entertain our listeners by making something beautiful."
-Miroku Watanabe
"Music is just damn fun. It doesn't have to be smart or dumb. Just treat it like it's anything but a chore. When I play those drums, I don't just play htem. I beat the living piss out of them because you've got to force sound out of them, and they won't do it on their own, and it's starting to mock me. So I have fun kicking my drums' collective ass."
-Shippo Matsumoto
"I never really imagined I'd fall into this whole deal. I just enjoy playing music because it doesn't discriminate. It encourages you to have your own way. Only careers of creative expression let you have that."
-Naraku Yanagisawa
What started out as a hard rock power trio in Massachussetts slowly evolved into what is now believed to be among the most musically significant bands of all time. They have spent the past twenty-five years struggling with record labels, funding, and a market that more than once was not hospitable to their style. And yet they have persevered on through it all and given their fans volumes of unforgettable music.
It all began in the summer of 2001 when two rebellious teenagers named Inuyasha Morimoto and Miroku Watanabe decided to join forces and play in a band of their own making. Both were already accomplished musicians but it would be a full year before they found drummer Shippo Matsumoto to provide an adequate rhythm section.
Inuyasha was born into a wealthy family. His father was a successful businessman, but he took more after his mother who was a well-published novelist and songwriter who had made all of her submissions under a plethora of pennames. The young Morimoto boy was the youngest of two children, and displayed an early aptitude for music. It's hard to say how he might have developed over the years were if his mother hadn't tragically died of a brain tumor when Inuyasha was only 8 years old.
Miroku, on the other hand was born into a comfortable middle-class family. He recieved his first guitar when he was 9 years old, but switched his focus to the bass guitar a few years later.
Shippo was raised similarly to Miroku, and like his bandmates showed an early interest in music. Specifically, rhythm. Family members say that he used just about everything for percussion right from his infancy on.
The trio got together by pure circumstance. Says Shippo, "I went into the music shop to test out some new equipment. There was a backroom where you could jam. Anyway, I set up a nice drumset in that room and started playing through some of my favorites. Manic Depression, Rock and Roll, I Shot the Sherriff, that kind of stuff. And Inuyasha and Miroku must have heard my playing from behind the door because I remember them walking in, scaring the living crap out of me in the process, and asking me to continue playing."
Inuyasha and Miroku "enlisted" Shippo into the band that day. With a complete line-up, the band began writing their first set of music, wildly experimenting with a lot of their influences which ranged from heavy metal to classic rock, from progressive rock to reggae. The result was an eclectic collection of nine songs which the band continued trying to hone and perfect.
Despite it, though, they still hadn't settled on a name. That was all to change in the spring of 2003. When the trio played an exhibition for three friends who would later become their wives at the Morimoto home, Sango Nanasawa suggested the name Damage Control which was immediately adopted.
With a name at last, the trio began gigging to gain a following. It wasn't easy as the three of them had reputations in the town. Inuyasha was born with a rare genetic anomaly known as anthrozoomorphic protean syndrome, which caused his anatomy to manifest traits similar to a dog (such as his now famous golden eyes and triangular ears on the top of his head). Coupled with his violent temper, many considered him exceptionally dangerous. Miroku and Shippo also had a reputation as con artists that wasn't entirely undeserved. The have admitted many times to fast-talking, duping, and charming their way into getting what they wanted when they were young.
However they persevered and in the spring of 2004 released their self-titled debut album. It recieved almost immediate attention on the indie music scene and even got some minor radioplay with singles such as Speed Demon and A Method to My Madness. The album also contained the concert staple Otherworld which was later remixed and rereleased on the band's ninth studio album.
A year later, Inuyasha married Kagome, his high school sweetheart, and the band released their second album titled Nobody's Fool. The sales were even better on this than the previous album and allowed for much more expansive touring through New England. Memorable songs off the album include Wind and Doctor Frankenstein.
It only took six months for Damage Control to complete their next album which was written mostly on the road. They called it Firebrand. The title track was an immediate hit among the band's followers and is a concert staple even today.
At this point, Damage Control was noticed by Columbia records and signed to a two-album contract. This gave the trio much more room to work with in the studio and allowed them a bigger budget for their tours. However, the company had one condition: they wanted Naraku Yanagisawa to continue contributing on the new albums as he had on Firebrand. The band agreed since this simply gave them a good reason to make Naraku a full-time member.
It took two years, but the result was Wide Awake Nightmare, a thematic album about the human emotion of fear. It was an instant success with radio classics such as Bad Moon, The Borgo Pass, and Something Wicked This Way Comes. Listeners were taken through a sonic revolution. Inuyasha's fierce, sharp-edged voice and aggressive lead-playing was contrasted by Miroku's smoother vocals and his inventive basslines. Shippo proved himself to be a percussionist and not just a drummer, using various unusual instruments to create atmosphere and special effects. Naraku's gritty rhythm guitar and haunting keyboards added a new character to the music along with his cinematic songwriting contributions.
Riding the success of Wide Awake Nightmare, the band released what would be their heaviest album in the December of the same year. The power metal-flavored Inner Demons immediately rocketed to #36 in the US and #13 in the UK. The cover art featured a picture of Inuyasha with his eyes blood red and dark stripes on his cheeks. It was the second of three times that a band member would have their face on an album cover (the first being on their debut which showed a group shot of the band), and it also began the trend of the band's now-famous stage persona in which they assumed the roles of characters. Much like Ian Anderson's minstrel costume or Rhapsody's poet shirts and swords, Damage Control began to take on different characters during their shows, such as Inuyasha's "demon prince" persona.
No one's quite sure when the turning point came that brought the band the strong following it has today. Many argue over the story, but the band themselves believe it was when they were asked to do a European tour opening for Blind Guardian and Iced Earth. The exposure resulted in immediate success.
Columbia renewed the band's contract for another three albums. Full of confidence, Damage Control returned to the studio and in 2009 released Eye of the Storm. Less heavy than Inner Demons, but still featuring the band's trademark edgy sound, the album hit the charts at #7 in the US and #3 in the UK. It included break-away hits such as A Desperate Gamble and Just Trying to Live.
After the tour, the band decided to take a break for a little while. Says Inuyasha, "We all needed some time off with all the hard work we'd been doing. We took a year off to let some things happen to us. Miroku and Sango finally got married that year. Kagome and I had our first child, which really changed my view of life. Yura and Naraku also got married on Halloween of all days. And not to be outdone, Shippo and Kirara got married on Christmas Eve.
"Anyway, I remember in February Miroku calling me up and saying that he had an idea. He wanted to do an acoustics album." The band pursued this project with great gusto. Rather than simply recording acoustics in a studio, the band took a loan out from the bank themselves to help fund a trip around the world so that they could record their songs in different loations. The recorded everywhere from Stonehenge to the shadows of the Great Pyramids, from an abondoned castle in Germany to the steps of a Florentine cathedral, from the beaches of Tahiti to a shrine in Kyoto. The result was a double-disc album entitled Global Rhythms. It was an immediate success.
When the tour was finished, the band returned home feeling ready to do another album. Unfortunately, things don't always work out as we plan.
In 2012 just before the band was ready to reenter the studio, they were invited to attend a gala hosted by Columbia to celebrate a very successful year for the company. This is when disaster struck.
Everything started out fine until Inuyasha was approached by up-and-coming pop idol Felicia Price. The story varies depending on who tells it, but the different view points all agree that Felicia began flirting with Inuyasha as soon as Kagome was out of earshot. He very bluntly turned her down with his typical sarcasm and abrassive attitude that had managed on the past to deter people he argued with, to which she responded with anger and indignity. In the screaming match that followed, Kagome soon joined the argument, going so far as to slap Felicia upside the head. Their three-year-old daughter, Asuka, wanting to defend her parents, actually squirmed free of Kagome's arms and bit the pop star on the leg. Things just kept going downhill from there as the other band members and their families got involved along with Price's entourage.
The press had a field day with it. After Price's failed attempt at a lawsuit, Columbia terminated its contract with both her and Damage Control. The band was now in a tough situation. It was a financial disaster and they were without a studio. The group decided they wanted nothing more from major labels. And so to nurse their bruised egos and wallets, they returned to the indie music scene to record another album. The delay kept the album, entitled Road to Ruin, from being released until 2015, and was a little lackluster. Some thought the band would break up for good.
But Damage Control were never ones to give up so easily. They instead decided to follow the example of punk rock band, The Dead Kennedys, and created their own label. Naraku, who had been studying at home for a business degree, helped straighten out all of the legal and financial complications involved. In 2016, Youkai Studio opened up under the Demon Prince label. A year later, the band released the album Fight! to reflect the attitude they felt at the time.
2017 saw the band on hiatus. The following year, each member released his own solo album. Inuyasha's was a bombastic heavy metal/hard rock production called Demonslayer. Though a fan favorite, most of his songwriting was too risque to see wide-spread distribution.
Miroku's album was more commercially successful with a keen, progressive rock sound that still managed to be radio friendly. The album was entitled Bridge to Eternity.
Shippo's solo album was the most commercially successful of the four solo projects, and was entitled Breaking Stuff For Fun and Profit. Combining his love of classic rock with ska, reggae, and old-school punk, Shippo's album managed to actually widen Damage Control's audience.
Naraku's album was called Leather and Silver. Though it didn't do as well as the others, long-time fans of the band regard it as an essential as it showcases Naraku's cinematic songwriting at its best. He decided not to release another solo album however, deciding that he did his best work with Damage Control.
Feeling much more confident upon their return, the band released their next opus in 2020 entitled Hindsight. It was a return to their earlier days of sharp energy and experimentation. The title track and You'll Never Stop Me are still concert staples for the encores.
In 2021, Damage Control released a double-disc covers album titled Muses: A Tribute to Our Inspirations. They covered songs from Led Zeppelin, Rush, Iron Maiden, Scorpions, The Michael Schenker Group, Iced Earth, Blind Guardian, The Police, Blue Oyster Cult, Jethro Tull, The Who, Manowar, Queensryche, Less Than Jake, The Beatles, and others. Though it was greeted with a rather mediocre reception, the band still takes pride in the work.
2024 marked the group's 20th anniversary and the release of their landmark album, Warriors. Regarded by many as Damage Control's finest moment, critics scrambled through their thesaurusi to find adequate superlatives. The album covered a huge spectrum of the four musicians' abilities from the soaring anthem of Courage to Die, Courage to Live and hard rockers like Summer Rain and Los Bombasticos, to atmospheric pieces such as The Streets and the heartfelt ballad Winter.
To round off their CD catalog, the group finally produced a live album and DVD. They launched a massive tour in 2024-2025 to celebrate their success, culling video clips from the best concerts of their world tour and spent months on the editing to ensure its perfection.
The result was 2026's Alive and Dangerous. The CD, along with Warriors, went multiplatinum and the DVD sold out in its first week. The group bought up all their old material and rereleased it over the course of the next year, causing their entire catalog to achieve gold status with Inner Demons and Global Rhythms going platinum.
For three years, the band went into secrecy. They maintained a public facade of managing their record label and taking in a variety of up-and-coming new artists such as The Tribe, Another Matter Entirely, Stampede, and Reggie Cole. Rumors abounded as fans tried to figure out what the four musicians were up to. Some said that they were going to split up. Others said that they were battling with drug or alcohol problems. Still others argued that the band members were struggling in their personal lives. None of these could have been further from the truth.
In 2029, Damage Control surprised the world with an unexpected release to celebrate their 25th anniversary. It was called A Feudal Fairy Tale: A Rock Opera. The album was a four disc set detailing a complicated story of magic, romance, adventure, angst, and drama nearly ten years in the making. It followed the adventures of a young girl swept through time to ancient Japan and destined to recover the shards of a magic jewel with a group of unlikely heroes against the most blackhearted villains. Says Naraku, "We'd been working on the story and the music on and off since 2019. The instant we got the idea, I was all like 'I want to be the villain. Make me the villain because evil is much more fun than good.'"
"It was a very... uh... different experience creating A Feudal Fairy Tale," Inuyasha said in an interview. "We were writing music for a full orchestra, the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, to be exact. We all took acting lessons to get the spoken word segments right. I don't think we'll ever maek something anywhere near as great as this. But we can certainly have fun trying."
Immediately following the release, a tour was announced. The concert for A Feudal Fairy Tale is now considered one of the most significant rocks shows ever along the lines of Alice Cooper's Welcome to My Nightmare and Jimmi Hendrix's performance at the Monterey Music Festival. The show included elaborate sets and lighting, beautiful costumes, a full choir and orchestra, and a set of actors who became the supporting cast in the three-act rock opera which starred the four band members and their families as main characters.
That year, Damage Control was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and are now in the studio producing a second live DVD for their landmark album. What will the future bring? Who can say. Perhaps Miroku said it best in a recent interview. "We've always been a very experimental group. We like to try new things, play with our sound. As long as we still have fans who support us, we'll continue playing."
-------------------------------------
Author's Notes: And so the story ends. I never thought I'd finish it. There were some good moments, and some bad ones. But for the most part I feel satisfied.
I may write a couple more fics. Hard to say. At the moment, I'm concentrating on my own original works. Remember that group I mentioned, the Midnight Society? Wish me luck. I've almost completed the short story that is my application into the group. Google them sometime. Hopefully, you'll soon see Nathaniel Christopher Lockhart added to the cast of characters.
Some of you may recall that I promised you all a bonus. Well, in a few days I'll have it up in place of that note I put in telling you all I was on hiatus. And I might just add another one just to make up for 7 months of silence.
I'd like to take this moment to give a shout out to some of my reviewers (in no particular order). A writer is nothing without readers.
Saro- Thanks for all of your positive reinforcement right from day 1.
Ama (Shades of Oblivion- You were the one who got me started on this whether you realize it or not. Good to have you backing me up throughout. And, see? I did use Rock and Roll band eventually. Just not in the way I had originally planned when you gave me the idea.
Nyx- Remind me never to cross you if we meet in person. You give some rather... interesting incentives for continuing.
dragontamer9741- You once said that you wish you were me. The hell you do! I'm just a step below a white jacket and a padded cell. Any gift you have has to have a balancing act. And unfortunately, for whatever skills I may possess, I'm only capable of spending about 10% of my conscious time somewhere other than 2 exits south of Neverland.
murky-lurky- Thank you for the kind words every chapter. Your compliments on Shippo's characterizatio in chapter 3 gave me confidence that I was onto something.
Spada Ken- You didn't expect me to actually do Naraku/Yura did you? The really wierd thing is that people liked it.
lynnxlady- Writers need people like you to keep us grounded in reality. I'd rather not end up like Joss Whedon or other similar writers who are used ot people telling them that they're geniuses. So constructive criticism is the baseball bat that knocks my head out of the clouds and back into the pages where it should be. Yes, there were some plot holes and some mistakes. Not too happy with that. Chapter 18 in particular made me want to take a large blunt instrument, and smack myself in the face with it. But by pointing it out, you've helped me figure out how to avoid screwing up again. And your praise of what I did right was also helpful.
Jurei- Thanks for all the positive feedback. It really helped me to learn and play up my strengths. Which in turn helped me get much closer to finding my voice as a writer.
Areine- I should be thanking you, not the other way around. There are few things more gratifying than hearing someone say that something you created touched them or made them think. It's what I try to accomplish every time I write a story.
BlueEyes7- To answer the question you asked in your review for Chatper 7, yes I took a semester of Psych. I bombed. I was feeling influenced by Orson Scott Card at the time.
GothicElf- If you're ever worried about babbling during a review, don't be. It's good for my ego. :D
YaHi- I can understand where you're coming from in that review for Chapter 9 and I know other people have the same issue, but I have a confession to make. Until my sophomore year in highschool, I may not have been part of the "in-crowd" and was very much a misfit, but I was one of the most stuck up, snotty, insufferable little brats you'd ever have the misfortune of meeting. And now I'm a good-humored, overly self-concious Mr. Nice Guy type. People can change. Looking back on what I used to be I feel a strong urge to repeatedly apply forehead to the nearest wall.
bluefuzzyelf- Sounds like you and I would get along pretty good in real life. By the way, if you're wallet hates me, there's always piracy or (if you wanna go legit) those new "$.99 per download" programs.
foureyedbookworm- Thank you for all your support. And since you were the first to comment on it, yes, I was rather pleased with the band name I came up with. I'm considering my own band either Idols of Fortune, The Loreweavers, or The Tribe.
Aurelia Lothlorien- I'm going to have to get off my lazy ass and leave some reviews for Let Sleeping Dogs Lie since I've been following it for a while. All these people being so nice to me and I procrastinate too much. Oh, god the guilt trip! Anyway, thanks for that compliment about the Monopoly Guy line. I wish I could write dialogue like that all the time.
Kenkaya- Thanks for the compliments. In case you're all wondering, I got the idea for the Cult Classics restaurant from a webcomic called Joe Average. I think you guys would like it.
Thessalian- Thanks for all of your feedback and that picture which a lot of my other readers clearly appreciated. It was great corresponding with you, and I apologize for my silence as of late. Real life is a real kick in the throat, isn't it?
Bubbles- Your worship combined the lynnxlady's harsh, but very necessary, criticism balances out to keep me from getting too much of an inflated of deflated ego over this story.
AA-Chan- Though your suggestion about solving the Koga problem was a logical one, I didn't go with it for the same reason that Gandalf didn't tell the eagle Gwaihir to take him straight to Frodo and airlift the One Ring straight to Mount Doom. It doesn't have the same dramatic effect and stretching it out would be a lot harder.
Fanny T- Thanks for the kind words. Shippo's little game, by the way, is Three Card Monte. Basically, the con artist puts three cards face down and shows you that one is a queen. He then rearranges the cards, you place a bet or pay to play, and have to guess which one is the queen. The thing is, it's all a scam. You can't win. The guy behind the cards always cheats. It's a classic grift. And I thought it would be very much like Shippo to do that.
Em Starcatcher- Given the number of other fics out there with such a similar setting to mine, I'm very grateful that you liked mine enough to stick with it. Like I've repeated many time, I was striving to be different and it looks like I succeeded.
starrynight323- I'm flattered to be considered good enough for the Inu smiley.
blondechik736- I would be honored to accept. Just let me go back and clean up my mistakes first.
Let the Music Be Your Master
Chapter 25- When I Hear You on the Car Radio You're Gonna Be a Sensation... Rock and Roll Band, Everybody's Waiting
(Taken from the Official Damage Control Website)
History
"I have to dedicate a lot of my music to my family. Art is supposed to reflect life. Even though I really hate calling our music art because the word is just so fucking pretentious these days. Anyway, what I write is my life. My wife and kids are what really drive me to continue making music because they are my life."
-Inuyasha Morimoto
"Good music is just supposed to make you feel. It doesn't matter what. When I create music, I just want to be able to entertain our listeners by making something beautiful."
-Miroku Watanabe
"Music is just damn fun. It doesn't have to be smart or dumb. Just treat it like it's anything but a chore. When I play those drums, I don't just play htem. I beat the living piss out of them because you've got to force sound out of them, and they won't do it on their own, and it's starting to mock me. So I have fun kicking my drums' collective ass."
-Shippo Matsumoto
"I never really imagined I'd fall into this whole deal. I just enjoy playing music because it doesn't discriminate. It encourages you to have your own way. Only careers of creative expression let you have that."
-Naraku Yanagisawa
What started out as a hard rock power trio in Massachussetts slowly evolved into what is now believed to be among the most musically significant bands of all time. They have spent the past twenty-five years struggling with record labels, funding, and a market that more than once was not hospitable to their style. And yet they have persevered on through it all and given their fans volumes of unforgettable music.
It all began in the summer of 2001 when two rebellious teenagers named Inuyasha Morimoto and Miroku Watanabe decided to join forces and play in a band of their own making. Both were already accomplished musicians but it would be a full year before they found drummer Shippo Matsumoto to provide an adequate rhythm section.
Inuyasha was born into a wealthy family. His father was a successful businessman, but he took more after his mother who was a well-published novelist and songwriter who had made all of her submissions under a plethora of pennames. The young Morimoto boy was the youngest of two children, and displayed an early aptitude for music. It's hard to say how he might have developed over the years were if his mother hadn't tragically died of a brain tumor when Inuyasha was only 8 years old.
Miroku, on the other hand was born into a comfortable middle-class family. He recieved his first guitar when he was 9 years old, but switched his focus to the bass guitar a few years later.
Shippo was raised similarly to Miroku, and like his bandmates showed an early interest in music. Specifically, rhythm. Family members say that he used just about everything for percussion right from his infancy on.
The trio got together by pure circumstance. Says Shippo, "I went into the music shop to test out some new equipment. There was a backroom where you could jam. Anyway, I set up a nice drumset in that room and started playing through some of my favorites. Manic Depression, Rock and Roll, I Shot the Sherriff, that kind of stuff. And Inuyasha and Miroku must have heard my playing from behind the door because I remember them walking in, scaring the living crap out of me in the process, and asking me to continue playing."
Inuyasha and Miroku "enlisted" Shippo into the band that day. With a complete line-up, the band began writing their first set of music, wildly experimenting with a lot of their influences which ranged from heavy metal to classic rock, from progressive rock to reggae. The result was an eclectic collection of nine songs which the band continued trying to hone and perfect.
Despite it, though, they still hadn't settled on a name. That was all to change in the spring of 2003. When the trio played an exhibition for three friends who would later become their wives at the Morimoto home, Sango Nanasawa suggested the name Damage Control which was immediately adopted.
With a name at last, the trio began gigging to gain a following. It wasn't easy as the three of them had reputations in the town. Inuyasha was born with a rare genetic anomaly known as anthrozoomorphic protean syndrome, which caused his anatomy to manifest traits similar to a dog (such as his now famous golden eyes and triangular ears on the top of his head). Coupled with his violent temper, many considered him exceptionally dangerous. Miroku and Shippo also had a reputation as con artists that wasn't entirely undeserved. The have admitted many times to fast-talking, duping, and charming their way into getting what they wanted when they were young.
However they persevered and in the spring of 2004 released their self-titled debut album. It recieved almost immediate attention on the indie music scene and even got some minor radioplay with singles such as Speed Demon and A Method to My Madness. The album also contained the concert staple Otherworld which was later remixed and rereleased on the band's ninth studio album.
A year later, Inuyasha married Kagome, his high school sweetheart, and the band released their second album titled Nobody's Fool. The sales were even better on this than the previous album and allowed for much more expansive touring through New England. Memorable songs off the album include Wind and Doctor Frankenstein.
It only took six months for Damage Control to complete their next album which was written mostly on the road. They called it Firebrand. The title track was an immediate hit among the band's followers and is a concert staple even today.
At this point, Damage Control was noticed by Columbia records and signed to a two-album contract. This gave the trio much more room to work with in the studio and allowed them a bigger budget for their tours. However, the company had one condition: they wanted Naraku Yanagisawa to continue contributing on the new albums as he had on Firebrand. The band agreed since this simply gave them a good reason to make Naraku a full-time member.
It took two years, but the result was Wide Awake Nightmare, a thematic album about the human emotion of fear. It was an instant success with radio classics such as Bad Moon, The Borgo Pass, and Something Wicked This Way Comes. Listeners were taken through a sonic revolution. Inuyasha's fierce, sharp-edged voice and aggressive lead-playing was contrasted by Miroku's smoother vocals and his inventive basslines. Shippo proved himself to be a percussionist and not just a drummer, using various unusual instruments to create atmosphere and special effects. Naraku's gritty rhythm guitar and haunting keyboards added a new character to the music along with his cinematic songwriting contributions.
Riding the success of Wide Awake Nightmare, the band released what would be their heaviest album in the December of the same year. The power metal-flavored Inner Demons immediately rocketed to #36 in the US and #13 in the UK. The cover art featured a picture of Inuyasha with his eyes blood red and dark stripes on his cheeks. It was the second of three times that a band member would have their face on an album cover (the first being on their debut which showed a group shot of the band), and it also began the trend of the band's now-famous stage persona in which they assumed the roles of characters. Much like Ian Anderson's minstrel costume or Rhapsody's poet shirts and swords, Damage Control began to take on different characters during their shows, such as Inuyasha's "demon prince" persona.
No one's quite sure when the turning point came that brought the band the strong following it has today. Many argue over the story, but the band themselves believe it was when they were asked to do a European tour opening for Blind Guardian and Iced Earth. The exposure resulted in immediate success.
Columbia renewed the band's contract for another three albums. Full of confidence, Damage Control returned to the studio and in 2009 released Eye of the Storm. Less heavy than Inner Demons, but still featuring the band's trademark edgy sound, the album hit the charts at #7 in the US and #3 in the UK. It included break-away hits such as A Desperate Gamble and Just Trying to Live.
After the tour, the band decided to take a break for a little while. Says Inuyasha, "We all needed some time off with all the hard work we'd been doing. We took a year off to let some things happen to us. Miroku and Sango finally got married that year. Kagome and I had our first child, which really changed my view of life. Yura and Naraku also got married on Halloween of all days. And not to be outdone, Shippo and Kirara got married on Christmas Eve.
"Anyway, I remember in February Miroku calling me up and saying that he had an idea. He wanted to do an acoustics album." The band pursued this project with great gusto. Rather than simply recording acoustics in a studio, the band took a loan out from the bank themselves to help fund a trip around the world so that they could record their songs in different loations. The recorded everywhere from Stonehenge to the shadows of the Great Pyramids, from an abondoned castle in Germany to the steps of a Florentine cathedral, from the beaches of Tahiti to a shrine in Kyoto. The result was a double-disc album entitled Global Rhythms. It was an immediate success.
When the tour was finished, the band returned home feeling ready to do another album. Unfortunately, things don't always work out as we plan.
In 2012 just before the band was ready to reenter the studio, they were invited to attend a gala hosted by Columbia to celebrate a very successful year for the company. This is when disaster struck.
Everything started out fine until Inuyasha was approached by up-and-coming pop idol Felicia Price. The story varies depending on who tells it, but the different view points all agree that Felicia began flirting with Inuyasha as soon as Kagome was out of earshot. He very bluntly turned her down with his typical sarcasm and abrassive attitude that had managed on the past to deter people he argued with, to which she responded with anger and indignity. In the screaming match that followed, Kagome soon joined the argument, going so far as to slap Felicia upside the head. Their three-year-old daughter, Asuka, wanting to defend her parents, actually squirmed free of Kagome's arms and bit the pop star on the leg. Things just kept going downhill from there as the other band members and their families got involved along with Price's entourage.
The press had a field day with it. After Price's failed attempt at a lawsuit, Columbia terminated its contract with both her and Damage Control. The band was now in a tough situation. It was a financial disaster and they were without a studio. The group decided they wanted nothing more from major labels. And so to nurse their bruised egos and wallets, they returned to the indie music scene to record another album. The delay kept the album, entitled Road to Ruin, from being released until 2015, and was a little lackluster. Some thought the band would break up for good.
But Damage Control were never ones to give up so easily. They instead decided to follow the example of punk rock band, The Dead Kennedys, and created their own label. Naraku, who had been studying at home for a business degree, helped straighten out all of the legal and financial complications involved. In 2016, Youkai Studio opened up under the Demon Prince label. A year later, the band released the album Fight! to reflect the attitude they felt at the time.
2017 saw the band on hiatus. The following year, each member released his own solo album. Inuyasha's was a bombastic heavy metal/hard rock production called Demonslayer. Though a fan favorite, most of his songwriting was too risque to see wide-spread distribution.
Miroku's album was more commercially successful with a keen, progressive rock sound that still managed to be radio friendly. The album was entitled Bridge to Eternity.
Shippo's solo album was the most commercially successful of the four solo projects, and was entitled Breaking Stuff For Fun and Profit. Combining his love of classic rock with ska, reggae, and old-school punk, Shippo's album managed to actually widen Damage Control's audience.
Naraku's album was called Leather and Silver. Though it didn't do as well as the others, long-time fans of the band regard it as an essential as it showcases Naraku's cinematic songwriting at its best. He decided not to release another solo album however, deciding that he did his best work with Damage Control.
Feeling much more confident upon their return, the band released their next opus in 2020 entitled Hindsight. It was a return to their earlier days of sharp energy and experimentation. The title track and You'll Never Stop Me are still concert staples for the encores.
In 2021, Damage Control released a double-disc covers album titled Muses: A Tribute to Our Inspirations. They covered songs from Led Zeppelin, Rush, Iron Maiden, Scorpions, The Michael Schenker Group, Iced Earth, Blind Guardian, The Police, Blue Oyster Cult, Jethro Tull, The Who, Manowar, Queensryche, Less Than Jake, The Beatles, and others. Though it was greeted with a rather mediocre reception, the band still takes pride in the work.
2024 marked the group's 20th anniversary and the release of their landmark album, Warriors. Regarded by many as Damage Control's finest moment, critics scrambled through their thesaurusi to find adequate superlatives. The album covered a huge spectrum of the four musicians' abilities from the soaring anthem of Courage to Die, Courage to Live and hard rockers like Summer Rain and Los Bombasticos, to atmospheric pieces such as The Streets and the heartfelt ballad Winter.
To round off their CD catalog, the group finally produced a live album and DVD. They launched a massive tour in 2024-2025 to celebrate their success, culling video clips from the best concerts of their world tour and spent months on the editing to ensure its perfection.
The result was 2026's Alive and Dangerous. The CD, along with Warriors, went multiplatinum and the DVD sold out in its first week. The group bought up all their old material and rereleased it over the course of the next year, causing their entire catalog to achieve gold status with Inner Demons and Global Rhythms going platinum.
For three years, the band went into secrecy. They maintained a public facade of managing their record label and taking in a variety of up-and-coming new artists such as The Tribe, Another Matter Entirely, Stampede, and Reggie Cole. Rumors abounded as fans tried to figure out what the four musicians were up to. Some said that they were going to split up. Others said that they were battling with drug or alcohol problems. Still others argued that the band members were struggling in their personal lives. None of these could have been further from the truth.
In 2029, Damage Control surprised the world with an unexpected release to celebrate their 25th anniversary. It was called A Feudal Fairy Tale: A Rock Opera. The album was a four disc set detailing a complicated story of magic, romance, adventure, angst, and drama nearly ten years in the making. It followed the adventures of a young girl swept through time to ancient Japan and destined to recover the shards of a magic jewel with a group of unlikely heroes against the most blackhearted villains. Says Naraku, "We'd been working on the story and the music on and off since 2019. The instant we got the idea, I was all like 'I want to be the villain. Make me the villain because evil is much more fun than good.'"
"It was a very... uh... different experience creating A Feudal Fairy Tale," Inuyasha said in an interview. "We were writing music for a full orchestra, the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, to be exact. We all took acting lessons to get the spoken word segments right. I don't think we'll ever maek something anywhere near as great as this. But we can certainly have fun trying."
Immediately following the release, a tour was announced. The concert for A Feudal Fairy Tale is now considered one of the most significant rocks shows ever along the lines of Alice Cooper's Welcome to My Nightmare and Jimmi Hendrix's performance at the Monterey Music Festival. The show included elaborate sets and lighting, beautiful costumes, a full choir and orchestra, and a set of actors who became the supporting cast in the three-act rock opera which starred the four band members and their families as main characters.
That year, Damage Control was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and are now in the studio producing a second live DVD for their landmark album. What will the future bring? Who can say. Perhaps Miroku said it best in a recent interview. "We've always been a very experimental group. We like to try new things, play with our sound. As long as we still have fans who support us, we'll continue playing."
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Author's Notes: And so the story ends. I never thought I'd finish it. There were some good moments, and some bad ones. But for the most part I feel satisfied.
I may write a couple more fics. Hard to say. At the moment, I'm concentrating on my own original works. Remember that group I mentioned, the Midnight Society? Wish me luck. I've almost completed the short story that is my application into the group. Google them sometime. Hopefully, you'll soon see Nathaniel Christopher Lockhart added to the cast of characters.
Some of you may recall that I promised you all a bonus. Well, in a few days I'll have it up in place of that note I put in telling you all I was on hiatus. And I might just add another one just to make up for 7 months of silence.
I'd like to take this moment to give a shout out to some of my reviewers (in no particular order). A writer is nothing without readers.
Saro- Thanks for all of your positive reinforcement right from day 1.
Ama (Shades of Oblivion- You were the one who got me started on this whether you realize it or not. Good to have you backing me up throughout. And, see? I did use Rock and Roll band eventually. Just not in the way I had originally planned when you gave me the idea.
Nyx- Remind me never to cross you if we meet in person. You give some rather... interesting incentives for continuing.
dragontamer9741- You once said that you wish you were me. The hell you do! I'm just a step below a white jacket and a padded cell. Any gift you have has to have a balancing act. And unfortunately, for whatever skills I may possess, I'm only capable of spending about 10% of my conscious time somewhere other than 2 exits south of Neverland.
murky-lurky- Thank you for the kind words every chapter. Your compliments on Shippo's characterizatio in chapter 3 gave me confidence that I was onto something.
Spada Ken- You didn't expect me to actually do Naraku/Yura did you? The really wierd thing is that people liked it.
lynnxlady- Writers need people like you to keep us grounded in reality. I'd rather not end up like Joss Whedon or other similar writers who are used ot people telling them that they're geniuses. So constructive criticism is the baseball bat that knocks my head out of the clouds and back into the pages where it should be. Yes, there were some plot holes and some mistakes. Not too happy with that. Chapter 18 in particular made me want to take a large blunt instrument, and smack myself in the face with it. But by pointing it out, you've helped me figure out how to avoid screwing up again. And your praise of what I did right was also helpful.
Jurei- Thanks for all the positive feedback. It really helped me to learn and play up my strengths. Which in turn helped me get much closer to finding my voice as a writer.
Areine- I should be thanking you, not the other way around. There are few things more gratifying than hearing someone say that something you created touched them or made them think. It's what I try to accomplish every time I write a story.
BlueEyes7- To answer the question you asked in your review for Chatper 7, yes I took a semester of Psych. I bombed. I was feeling influenced by Orson Scott Card at the time.
GothicElf- If you're ever worried about babbling during a review, don't be. It's good for my ego. :D
YaHi- I can understand where you're coming from in that review for Chapter 9 and I know other people have the same issue, but I have a confession to make. Until my sophomore year in highschool, I may not have been part of the "in-crowd" and was very much a misfit, but I was one of the most stuck up, snotty, insufferable little brats you'd ever have the misfortune of meeting. And now I'm a good-humored, overly self-concious Mr. Nice Guy type. People can change. Looking back on what I used to be I feel a strong urge to repeatedly apply forehead to the nearest wall.
bluefuzzyelf- Sounds like you and I would get along pretty good in real life. By the way, if you're wallet hates me, there's always piracy or (if you wanna go legit) those new "$.99 per download" programs.
foureyedbookworm- Thank you for all your support. And since you were the first to comment on it, yes, I was rather pleased with the band name I came up with. I'm considering my own band either Idols of Fortune, The Loreweavers, or The Tribe.
Aurelia Lothlorien- I'm going to have to get off my lazy ass and leave some reviews for Let Sleeping Dogs Lie since I've been following it for a while. All these people being so nice to me and I procrastinate too much. Oh, god the guilt trip! Anyway, thanks for that compliment about the Monopoly Guy line. I wish I could write dialogue like that all the time.
Kenkaya- Thanks for the compliments. In case you're all wondering, I got the idea for the Cult Classics restaurant from a webcomic called Joe Average. I think you guys would like it.
Thessalian- Thanks for all of your feedback and that picture which a lot of my other readers clearly appreciated. It was great corresponding with you, and I apologize for my silence as of late. Real life is a real kick in the throat, isn't it?
Bubbles- Your worship combined the lynnxlady's harsh, but very necessary, criticism balances out to keep me from getting too much of an inflated of deflated ego over this story.
AA-Chan- Though your suggestion about solving the Koga problem was a logical one, I didn't go with it for the same reason that Gandalf didn't tell the eagle Gwaihir to take him straight to Frodo and airlift the One Ring straight to Mount Doom. It doesn't have the same dramatic effect and stretching it out would be a lot harder.
Fanny T- Thanks for the kind words. Shippo's little game, by the way, is Three Card Monte. Basically, the con artist puts three cards face down and shows you that one is a queen. He then rearranges the cards, you place a bet or pay to play, and have to guess which one is the queen. The thing is, it's all a scam. You can't win. The guy behind the cards always cheats. It's a classic grift. And I thought it would be very much like Shippo to do that.
Em Starcatcher- Given the number of other fics out there with such a similar setting to mine, I'm very grateful that you liked mine enough to stick with it. Like I've repeated many time, I was striving to be different and it looks like I succeeded.
starrynight323- I'm flattered to be considered good enough for the Inu smiley.
blondechik736- I would be honored to accept. Just let me go back and clean up my mistakes first.