Canadian Punk and Hardcore appreciation
 

Hey people, for those who do not know I am the poster formerly known as BastardofYoung... took a long break you can say from this place, and decided to start anew... I see some of the people who remember are still here, not sure how many.. but yeah.

As a Canadian who likes to see how much Canadian music is known outside of here, and being a person whose main loves are Punk and Metal.. I wanted to start a thread dedicated strictly to this very topic.

Make a random post about a band and see where it goes.

Interested to see what bands people know, from any era of Punk... .my main interests are more 70s - 90s... and all styles.

No Means No is a good one.

Think the first band I will have to go with though, as I think they are sadly one of the most unknown.


SLOW


Out of Vancouver, BC they started in the early 80s and put out a single and an EP as well as a few contributions to comps.

Their most beloved album to me is the "Against the Glass" EP from 1985.


A ripping and great EP that was not only influential in their home town, but also on the Seattle scene, such people as Mark Arm praised them, and even I feel took some notice for Green River.

Have Not Been the Same is a song that certainly fits in with the Seattle sound, and is known in Canada, even has made lists of best Canadian songs, which is great for a band with little exposure.



Another fun thing was Expo 86 when they played the indie music part and got the entire thing shut down when it went pretty crazy.


Their first single is also a pretty fun listen (this from the remastered version of their EP with included the songs from the single.



I highly recommend picking up their CD or vinyl released a couple years ago.

Oh yes, rest assured I could not forget them.. One of the best bands to come out of Canada, not just in the punk world.

D.O.A. is a good one.

You ever hear of the band The Nun****ers?

I was into them for a bit back in the day.

Slow has great energy, I remember hearing about them from you a while back.

Ought kicks ass on that one album

Easily. One of the most known for sure... though i think they in recent years are just okay, their early years are important to Punk and especially Hardcore, even they were included on the soundtrack to American Hardcore.

This is one of my favorite performances


Jon Card on drums, he played in Personality Crisis, and on a couple SNFU albums as well, and is one of my favorite drummers.

Not an easy task to take Chuck Biscuits drum stool, but he is worthy, Chuck is great

Slow even reunited in 2017 to play some shows for the reissue of ATG, wish somebody captured it for release, though user uploads are not bad... be cool to see pro shot footage.

a few songs from bands who I really love, but not sure if i could make a whole post about them because they are pretty short lived

Genetic Control (Montreal, QC)


Beyond Possession (Calgary, AB)


Stretch Marks (Winnipeg, MB)

I will do early on, my favorite band from Canada, going to do this one in a few parts.. this is part 1, focusing on the early years and BYO releases.

SNFU

Formed in 1981 in Edmonton, AB... one of their first songs being a critique of Quincy, an episode called "Next Stop, Nowhere" about the dangers of punk rock.

"Don't be Fooled by the Media hype, actors on coke don't know what its like, so don't come to our gigs looking for fights, go grab a brain, the medias insane!"


can watch the episode here if so inclined
https://vimeo.com/11340437

Another song soon after, being from the BYO compilation, Something to Believe in, called "Womanizer", a song that fought macho sexism and its culture, one of the first songs written by the band to tackle this...



another few compiltion songs (such as Poor Poor Pitiful Me, a Warren Zevon cover, from the It Came from the Pit comp) they released their debut album "And No One Else Wanted to Play" on BYO Records, the original cover featuring Grenade Boy from a picture by Diane Arbus, who would send a cease and desist, causing them to change it a few times, a total of about 4 covers are available, the last one being most famous now.


Next album for BYO was "If You Swear You'll Catch No Fish", the title coming from a fortune cookie that Ken "Mr. Chi Pig" got while eating at an Edmonton chinese restaurant, and after this started the seven word title for full length albums. The album was a departure from the first, being more experimental, but featured some of their best moments for me, Dave Bacon and Jon Card in the line up was great. They released a video for "Black Cloud", but I would go with this song as my favorite cut


This would be their last album for BYO, before moving to Cargo Records on the next few releases.


Also known for ther amazingly energetic and crazy live shows, here are a few things to view




and an audio only performance with a few songs played live, not on albums

I first heard these guys on a compilation album back in 1981 or 82. Can't remember the title of the album or the song (or songs) but they stuck in my mind for some reason...

Propagandhi were well-respected in the “scene” during my punk days.

ah yes, out of Hamilton, Ont, maybe the most well known after Teenage Head.

I like them as time went on, How to Clean... was my introduction, liked it at the time, but kinda seems like they were going for a NOFX sound, while aftert that they came into their own.

This song makes some reference to my city though, Parkland Mall is a mall here..

Another big name band, obvious

Dayglo Abortions

Formed in Victoria, BC.. they released their first "Out of the Womb" in 1980


This song later covered by Guttermouth as well, under the title I Used to be 20


From there they played around, before releasing their maybe most famous album, "Feed Us a Fetus"


Soon after they would release "Here Today, Guano Tomorrow" which added a more metal approach to their previous album, longer songs and different production, though stull having some of their trademark lyrics, also had some more serious stuff as well..

Then even made a video for the title track


This album also lead them to have their records seen as obscene, and a local story came out, where they tried to have it banned, record siezed and obscenity charges were filed against the label and band


Their next album "Two Dogs ****ing" followed and they even lampooned this on the track "Isnt this Disgusting"


This song also covered by GWAR for a tribute album




From here they would release a fair bit more of material, Murray leaving the band for a time and being replaced by Gymbo, who released a few albums with the band, and carried it on, I liked his era, but not as much as Murray


They put out a few albums and then Murray returned to the band, even doing one album with Gymbo as well. They still continue to tour and record.

Easily one of my favorite bands as well to come out of Canadian Punk.

I got to see Dayglo Abortions live once

They are good guys, Murray took me outside to smoke bubble hash once and was really friendly and cool. He is a smarter guy than some give him credit for.

I was gonna mention Dayglo

Curious George

Not really a lot to say about them, they were short lived, and put out one album, but oh man what an album! a super fun Punk album with good humor and interesting lyrics (though I can live without the Pink Floyd cover tbh).

Dirty Kurt was a member of this band, he would go onto playing with The JP5, The Real McKenzies and SNFU, though he never appeared on any studio recordings for the latter.

Well worth the time to listen to this one, the opening track "Pitbull Attack" is one of the classics, as well as the song "Safe Sex", which is a fun song with some hilarious lyrics. Give it a listen and see how it treats you.






Bonus of Kurt from his SNFU days, playing the guitar here


and a couple Real McKenzies song for good measure

Such a classic. Murray has been involved in other projects as well. Probably not going to make a post about this one, but a worthy side note, is Lummox, which he played on... name taken from a Ren and Stimpy character, and they kinda did a Country Punk album with the type of lyrics you would expect from him, a piss take on the genre.

Death Sentence

a band who only released a couple of EPs worth of material, but were pretty amazing.

Not a Pretty Sight is one of the essential Canadian Punk releases, that one should hear.. if you like stuff like GBH and the likes, it is a classic.



also one music video was made for this one



Next album Stop Killing Me was more a departure, more focus on longer songs, and even some metal influences, original drummer Doug Donut (one of my favorites) was pretty much out after this release, and not much a fan, but it had a few moments.



a video also made for this album:



their demo is actual a good listen: