Dark Side Of The Cop

Dark Side of the Cop is a project led by San Francisco songwriter Marco Panella with a revolving supporting cast. Panella and friend Joe Weisenthal planned together -since high school in Vermont in the mid 90s -to write an alternate soundtrack to the film Beverly Hills Cop. The project was envisioned in the same vein as the Dark Side of the Moon/Wizard of Oz correlation. Panella and Weisenthal were both big Eddie Murphy fans and loved the film. Over the years they threw around the idea of actually starting the project, but never got around to it.

In 2003, after an aborted decision to live abroad left Panella between bands, he decided to start the project. Panella had experience with electronic music at the time, and began experimenting with producing in San Francisco. He and Weisenthal collaborated for a few days and co-wrote three or four songs together in the summer of 2004. Panella began working on the songs on his own and eventually assumed responsibility for the whole project. Over the next year, he wrote and recorded the rest of the album himself. Working as a truck driver on catalogue photo shoots, he wrote the album in his free time between catalogues. In early 2004 Panella contacted old friend Tyler Gibbons about singing on the album. Gibbons, who is also from southern Vermont, was then recording his debut album in his barn-studio. In May, 2005, Gibbons and Panella recorded the vocal tracks in Gibbons' studio in Marlboro, Vermont.

After completing the album, Panella realized that it worked better as an album than as an alternate soundtrack. Claire Neriem created the cut-paper artwork for the project, and Panella self-released the album in early 2006 through his website and for digital download. After receiving a few offers from small labels to release the project, Panella and friend Roger Thomasson decided to start their own label, Auger Down Records, to put out the album. They plan to release the next two installments of DSOTC on the label and plan to release other music as the label gets underway.

Dark Side of the Cop will play their record release show on July 20 at the Hotel Utah Saloon in San Francisco, with drummer Matt Hayashi and bassist Roger Thomasson joining Panella on stage.

Marco Panella bio:
Marco Panella grew up in Marlboro, Vermont. I went to school at Brown University in Rhode Island (which he hated), then moved to San Francisco with some friends in 2003. He works as a truck driver (and very occasional hand model) on catalogue photo shoots and writes and records music in his time off. He's been playing in bands of all types since high school. He played jazz guitar for years before giving it up and moving on two or three years ago. He worked as a jazz DJ in Rhode Island and has since been catching up on all the classic rock he missed in high school. His most recent project before DSOTC was playing drums in a San Francisco band called the Daytona.

Tyler Gibbons bio:
Tyler grew up in Brattleboro, Vermont. He has been playing bass and writing for various bands for the past fifteen years. He now lives in Philadephia and plays in an indie-folk duo called Red Heart the Ticker with his fiance Robin Macarthur. He also finds work as a professional bassist and composer.

Joe Weisenthal bio:
Joe was born in Detroit and lived all over the place before moving to Vermont to attend high school. He's worked as a financial analyst, blogger, and security guard for a modeling agency since moving to New York a couple years ago. Before that he lived in Austin and co-wrote two musicals.