TETRUS

I wish I had more to tell you about Tetrus - Halifax punk circa 1990. I can't seem to find anyone from the band, or any information about them really. I can tell you the band comprised of Sean Kirby on bass and vocals, Andy Kim on drums and Paul Basket on guitar. As far as I know they only released one demo tape in 1990. I do recall seeing them a bunch "back in the day" especially at Pub Flamingo and they were a good, tight live band. Luckily I do have their demo and can now share it with all of you! If anyone has any more info on the band feel free to get in touch - youthcrew@gmail.com

Download the MP3s for the "Change In Mentality" demo:
TETRUS DOWNLOAD!!!

And have a listen to the full demo on Youtube!

VARIOUS - NO IN-CITY VENUE

This is a tape compilation from Saint John, NB from 1993. A good sampling of bands from the area from that time period. I'm guessing around this time there wasn't a stable venue for bands to play at. Not the greatest recordings on some of the tracks, but decent enough over all. Stand outs for me are No More and NFA. There's some weird stuff on here, that arent really songs...more like spoken word over strange music. One song inexplicably turns into a Doughboys song at the end for no particular reason. Neat!

Listen to it here:

You can download mp3s of it right here!!
NO IN-CITY VENUE DOWNLOAD

And check out No More's track here:

THE QUAHOGS

The Quahogs formed from the ashes of two of Halifax's best know 80's hardcore bands: System Overload and False Security. But they went in a different direction focusing on the poppier side of things (not unlike Montreal's The Nils) and were embraced by both the punk and indie rock scenes. During their 4 years as a band they released a demo tape and a 7" EP. I recently (Sept 2013) spoke with their guitarist Todd Calder just to find out some basics about one of my favourite Halifax bands of all time. Let us begin.

When did the band start? System Overload kinda broke up. I moved to Montreal for a year to be a visiting student at McGill. When I got back John Vine and Dave Shandel were gone. I called Len and Johnny to see if they wanted to play some music (or maybe they called me, I don't remember). Anyway, they told me that Gerard Water of False Security would be into playing some drums with us. So we began to practice in an abandoned store in Cole Harbour. That was in 1990 I believe.

What was the lineup? At first is was just Gerard, Johnny MacKenzie and Leonard Wooly. We played a party with that line up, but that was about it. Some of us wanted to have a lead singer in the band (at that point Leonard and I were singing). I asked Scott Tappen if he'd like to sing for us and he was stoked. Johnny was into it too since he and Scott were briefly in a band together. After we got Scott in the band we started play the Club Flamingo and the Double Deuce.

Did you ever play outside of Halifax? We never did put a tour together. We played Moncton at Rick's Shipyard. I think that might have been it.

How did the 7" with Cinnamon Toast Records come to be? I think the Cinnamon Toast people asked Scott if we'd like to do a single with them. Or maybe Scott told them that we were going to record. I don't remember the details.

Quahogs Glaze 7" cover

The following is from a piece my incredibly good friend Mark Black did for The Coast magazine on Halifax 7" records. Here's more info from Todd about the 7"! 

“We saved the money we made from playing shows (mostly at the Double Deuce) and decided to record some songs. At some point the Cinnamon Toast people got in touch with us and asked if we'd put it out on their label. I think this was before the recording. They said, “If you do the recording we'll do everything else including promotion.” Scott Tappen, the singer in the band, was in frequent contact with the Cinnamon Toast people, but we all knew Shawn Duggan and Walter [Forsyth]. 

Terry Pulliam did the recording at Soundmarket Recording. He was a big wacky hippy guy. He was always talking about this voodoo shit that was on the record. We never really knew what he was talking about. But he had lots of effects on his board, which really impressed us at the time. I don't think we were completely happy with the sound of the seven-inch when it came out. But then…maybe nobody is ever completely happy; especially back then when it was difficult to make a good quality record outside of a studio. He fixed the intonation on my guitar (a shitty Hondo with one good pick-up), which was good.

But it kinda sucked because we were paying so much money to be in the studio at the time. The release of the record was at the Double Deuce. I can't remember who we were playing with, but it was a good time. I remember that the Cinnamon Toast people were making cinnamon toast in the back of the bar and every time they pushed down the toaster the power went out. We didn't know what was going on for a while. It caused some chaos.

I was able to get a hold of "Songs from the Tiki Lounge"...was that ever released officially? No, that was never officially released. We recorded that just before we broke up.

Aaaaand finally...any favourite memories?? Lots of great memories. We used to break strings and not have back up guitars. That made for some interesting shows. I remember Johnny getting really pissed off and throwing his bass around. Luckly he was able to borrow someone else's bass. I'm a lefty, so when I broke a string they had to play songs without me till I put a new one on. I wrote a song about that happening one night at the Café Ole. We got to play with some great bands which was super awesome, e.g. Eric's Trip, Sloan, Hardship Post. I think I'll stop there before I incriminate anyone.

Demo tape cover

The Quahogs broke up in 1994...though not officially, they just stopped playing together. Members went on to form the band Trike. Sadly vocalist Scott Tappen passed away in early 2000 from cancer, but his memory lives on in the music and his artwork. In fact there is a retrospective of his art happening Oct 19th, 2013 in Halifax. Check out more info HERE.

And of course you get what I believe to be a complete discography of The Quayhogs. It includes:
"Raw" demo tape, 1992
"Glaze" EP, 1993
"Songs From The Tiki Lounge" unreleased 4 song EP, 1994
"Back To The None" live song from Cod Can't Hear, 1992
"Back To The None" early version from Mass Turbulence comp, 1991
DOWNLOAD HERE!!

Listen to their demo tape here:



And the unreleased "Songs From The Tiki Lounge" here:

VARIOUS - COD CAN'T HEAR

Here's a compilation of Halifax bands circa 1992 recorded live at The Double Deuce as part of The Halifax Independent Music Festival (whatever that was). It was released on CD and cassette in 1993 on DTK Records. There's some pretty good stuff on here and some stuff I really hate. An interesting mix of punk, metal, rock, grunge and who knows what the fuck Weasel Faced Judge gets classified as. Pretty good recording quality on here as well.

 DOWNLOAD THE FUCKING THING RIGHT HERE!

Cod Can't Hear cassette cover

THE MOANING LISAS

Hampton, New Brunswick may not be the first town that comes to mind when you think about maritime punk bands, but during the early 90's there was a good little scene there and one of the best bands to come out of this era were The Moaning Lisas. Not only were they from small town New Brunswick but they were 4 teenage girls in a male dominated scene. During their time as a band they put out a 17 song demo tape and a split 7" with Halifax punk band The Chitz. Here is their story with some help from their singer Charlene.

Moaning Lisas live in Hampton, NB

The band consisted of Charlene on vocals, Janita on drums, Angie on guitar, and Jen on bass. They started out around 1993, not with the intention of starting an all girl band but as Charlene put it "We were friends. We were girls. Started a band." Simple as that. Hampton was close to Saint John, a city which had a pretty thriving scene at the time with bands like NFA, Dead Corps, Lizard, Society's Fault, NYD. They mostly played Hampton, Saint John, Halifax and Moncton. Cafe Ole (Halifax) and The Local (Saint John) were the two hot spots.

In the stairwell at Cafe Ole in Halifax

They put out a demo tape in 1994 consisiting of 17 songs, including 4 covers - Pushed Around by Screeching Weasel, 1,2,3,4 by The Putrid Girls, This Is Serious by The Lunachicks and The Crowd by the Circle Jerks (I think their Circle Jerks cover may be better than the original!) There is a distinct sound to the band, with the melodic vocals really making the songs stand out.

After receiving positive feedback from their demo tape they connected with Richard from the Chitz who helped make the split 7" come out. It was released in 1995 on Montreal label EnGuard and featured 4 songs by The Moaning Lisas, this time throwing in a Dayglo Abortions cover in along with the originals. The record sold out fairly quickly and they even got fan mail all way from Germany.

The band never offically broke up, they just stopped playing shows. As Charlene said "...life happened and we sort of went our separate ways. We all still keep in touch. I don't see a reunion happening though".

Fun fact - the cover art was based on an actual photo where the 2 bands fought to the death.

And of course...here is the demo and split 7":

MOANING LISAS DOWNLOAD!!!!

VARIOUS - OUT OF THE FOG - HALIFAX UNDERGROUND 1986

This compilation LP came out in 1986 and was an interesting sampling of Halifax bands from that era. A couple punk bands, some folk, synth pop and rock. I suppose I should point out that The October Game song features a young Sarah McLachlan. It was put out by the local college radio station CKDU FM. You can read more about it from an article The Coast did about it here - OUT OF THE FOG

Even though this is an important piece of Halifax's music scene there's really only a few good songs on here. Most notable is the False Security song Vietnam, followed by the Jellyfishbabies and to a lesser extent Dogfood.. Worth checking out the mp3's right friggin here:

DOWNLOAD OUT OF THE FOG!!!

THE CHITZ

The Chitz were a punk/hardcore band from Halifax, Nova Scotia and were around from 1994-1998. Drawing influence from a wide range of bands such as The Exploited, Agnostic Front and even Ramones-y pop punk, the band released an LP, split LP, 2 split 7″s and appeared on many compilations. They were considered one of the premier bands from Atlantic Canada at the time. As with most bands from that area, touring was difficult and they never received too much international exposure. Here is their story.

In the far off time of 1994, Derrick Hiltz and Mike Brygyder wanted to start a new band after the break up of their previous band The Shitheads. They enlisted the help of Cara Macdonald who had been in a band called Gorgonzola. They rounded up the lineup with Richard Lafortune who had never been in a band before but had done a zine and accompanying cassette compilation called Mass Turbulence. The band existed in this form for a year with Derrick on drums, Cara on vocals, Mike on bass and Richard on guitar. Richard was known for never having a D string on guitar which forced him to slide up and down the fretboard more the usual which you can hear on the recordings. Stubbornness can be seen as the main reason for this!

With this lineup, they recorded a 15 song demo tape which they self released. Playing mostly in Halifax, particularly at the new all ages venue, Cafe Ole. They started to gain popularity with their back to basics punk sound and strong female vocals. Then Mike quit the band to be replaced with Ian Hart who was also in a band called No Offense at the time.

After playing shows in Halifax with Submission Hold from Vancouver, they met Jason Flower (who was touring with Submission Hold) who did a record label. He liked what he heard and offered to do a split LP with The Chitz and a ska/punk band from Oregon called The Readymen. This split LP had re-recorded demo tracks on it, plus several new songs. Around the same time En Guarde records from Montreal agreed to put out a split 7″. Richard had worked with En Gaurde before in releasing a Shitheads/No Offense split 7″ (which is perhaps the first Nova Scotian punk 7″). This split would be with The Moaning Lisas – an all female band from Hampton, New Brunswick.

After having some vinyl releases under their belt the band expanded their touring to include other near by provinces such as New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. There was also the only “tour” they ever embarked on which was basically just Montreal and Toronto. There was also a show in Burlington, Ontario where the band played with suburban emo bands that were popular at the time. Needless to say, the band did not go over so well at that show. The other shows went much better. Also, around this time Ian moved out west and Louis Roberts filled in on bass. During this time, the band was featured as a cover story on local weekly mag The Coast.

They also put out an LP entitled Break The Cycle, this time on Richard’s own label Sub Profit. 11 songs that showcased their evolving sound with a little more hardcore influence to it. A better recording also helped this to be what many would say is their best work. After some memorable shows around Halifax, including the final show at Cafe Ole, the band decided to call it quits, but not before putting out a final 7″…this time a split with Halifax’s grind/crust band Existench. 3 songs, recorded on a 4 track were definitely the most intense and abrasive songs the band recorded. The Chitz “last” show was in May of 1998 and was quite an event for the local scene.

It took a few years but in 2001 the band played a reunion…basically at the request of their friend Meghan who was moving away. They actually wrote 2 new songs for this show but alas they were never recorded (except on the video of the show). Richard did not play this show as he pretty much quit playing guitar after the last show in 1998, so Ian switched over to guitar and Louie played bass. And then nothing for 10 years. But on May 21st, 2011…yet another reunion show in Halifax, this time with friend Greg Hatt on bass. So with that in mind check out their entire discography:

Demo – Feb. 94Split 7″ with Moaning Lisas – Oct. 95Split LP with The Readymen – Oct. 95Break The Cycle LP – March 97Split 7″ w/ Existench – sept. 98

Download their DISCOGRAPHY HERE!!

Listen to the LP here:

http://www.myspace.com/thechitz
http://www.facebook.com/thechitz

NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH

Neighbourhood Watch were from Fredericton, New Brunswick and existed between 1985 and 1988. They released a 7″ EP called Death At The Hands Of Time on Real World Records based in Durham, UK. There were a few other bands with the same name, though these guys used the Canadian spelling of neighbour with the “U” in there. It was no small feat for a band from eastern Canada to have a record out during this time period. In fact I would say this is the first punk 7″ from this entire area. The following is an interview I did in Febuary 2011 with their vocalist Grant Forsythe. Enjoy! MP3′s at the end as usual!

Tell me about the start of the band. When was it and who was in the band? Why did you start it?
Ciaron Lewis and I had talked on and off about starting a band because really, there was fuckall else to do. Although there was a very early version involving Pat Oanicia (who went on to sing for S.C.U.M.) and Rich Ivey, we didn’t really come into our own until late ’85 when Ciaron brought Nick Oliver into the fold. For quite a while we had no bassist. In fact our first show, we had to bring in my room mate to fill in. Finally we settled on Rob Melvin for bass. That was pretty much the first solid line-up we had. It’s the line-up you hear on the 7″ EP and on the No Frontiers compilation EP. It was also the line-up that was on the first tour.
By the time we got back we were plagued with a line up that slowly kept changing. Other former members included:
Bill Brown, Tim Gorman, James Hamilton, Daren Greene, Steve Vienot, Johnny Whalen, Al Muir, Steve Duggan, and a few others who’s names I can’t remember at this time.

Neighbourhood Watch live in Fredericton, Dec 30th, 1986. Photo by Chris Vautour.

What was the scene in NB like at the time? Was there any sort of rivalry between Fredericton and other cities in NB or with Halifax?

I know there was a difference of opinion with the SJ (Saint John, NB) crew, but a rivalry? Fuck no. The scenes were just too small to warrant that kind of foolishness. I don’t recall any rivalry with HFX either. The HFX kids were always awesome when we hit there. I think we were somewhat tight with System Overload and Shane from Early Warning Syndrome is still a pal of mine to this day.

Did you do much touring? Any cool show/tour stories?
We only did two tours which went up to Ontario and back and that was in the summers of ’86 and ’87. I think even some of the shittier gigs were cool. We, along with The Jellyfish Babies and Florida’s No Fraud totally got screwed by a promoter in Ottawa and he pretty much had to be threatened with a baseball bat to get any money from him, but it was a wicked fun show. Ironically it wasn’t until two years ago when I was drinking with Colleen that we realised that we were both on that same bill and didn’t know it! We made friends with some bands like Problem Children, SCUM, etc…Cool tour stories? Not sure how cool, but some definitely memorable ones. We were staying at a punk house in MTL and I forgot exactly what was so funny but I fell backwards into a door and it flew open and there was this guy with his lady friend and his bare ass up in the air for all of us and SUDDEN IMPACT to see. There was much hilarity. Some loon in HFX tried to convince us that the street we parked on outside the YWCA was his property.

Montreal 1987 w/ SCUM

How did you get hooked up Real World Records in the UK?
I ordered a copy of a zine called 10 Years On and mentioned in my letter I was in a band. He asked for a copy of our Coming Of Age demo for review. He liked it and interviewed us. Then told us he was starting a lable and would we be interested in releasing the demo on vinyl. Naturally we jumped at the chance.




What about Guilt Parade – were they an influence or were you around about the same time?

Guilt Parade and NW were both around at the same time and would share bills from time to time. I don’t think either band had an influence on the other to be honest. If you can find it, get their “Animals That Talk Like Men” demo. It’s hands down the best thing they ever did and a total barn burner! (Ian – Oh you can find it on this blog!! – http://howcantheyintendtoheal.wordpress.com/2010/12/26/guilt-parade/ )

Dec 30th, 1986

When and why did the band break up?
I think our last show was in the summer of ’88. The band had gone through so many member changes that we spent more time teaching people the old songs than doing anything new. Nick was tired of doing it I think. Our last show resulted in a flooded building and some very pissed off people (I was channeling my inner Lee Ving that night.)
Other than Rob Melvin I still stay in contact with most of the former members.

Check out their Death At The Hands Of Time 7″ plus 2 live sets (Hamilton, ON 1986, Fredericton, NB 1988) and the song Time To Care off the No Frontiers comp 7″. The Coming Of Age demo is nowhere to be found just yet, but I have just found the Rage demo from 1986 and is now included!

NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH MP3′s

Listen to the 7:


Or listen to the Rage demo here:

More photos:

The band also did some reunion shows in 2015 and have actually gotten back to together to record some new songs. Keep an eye out for that on the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/NeighbourhoodWatchBand/

Here is some footage from that tour:

SLOW DEATH

Slow Death were a punk/hardcore band from Summerside, Prince Edward Island circa 1984. Arguably, they were the first straight edge band in Canada and certainly the first punk or hardcore band from PEI. They released one demo tape in 1985 and did a small amount of local touring, gaining some moderate attention at the time. I tracked down drummer Dale Hussey for a look back almost 30 years in the past.

UPDATE July 2016 - The Slow Death demo tape as now been released on 7" vinyl by Unknown Coast Records. Pick up a copy here: Unknown Coast Records

Basic starter question – who was in the band and how did it all start? What year would this have been?

The band was my brother Dan on vocals, Jeff Tarka on guitar, Steve Ellis on bass and myself on drums. Jeff was a longtime military base-rat buddy of ours and he was pretty good on guitar and Dan was playing some guitar too and writing songs. One day Dan decided to buy some drums and put me to work and that was the beginning I guess…we met Steve at high school and hit it off. This would be say 1984 or 83…fuzzy.

Tell me about what was going on musically in PEI at the time…were there any other punk bands around?

We were in our own world musically for sure…I guess there were shit cover bands and stuff around as well as school bands but we were the only punk band around…hell if it wasn’t for our military base friends we were the only punks around.

In Kill The Posers #1 zine (included in the demo download!) you say you were a straight edge band. How did you even find out about straight edge in PEI? Were there any other straight edge bands in Canada that you knew of? Were you the first??

We were born of boredom and frustration with what was going on around us…the booze guzzling townfolk and jocks were just doing their thing and so were we, but they really didn’t dig what we were doing so we tried to separate ourselves from them as much as possible. We were aware of bands like Minor Threat etc. but it was more a personal choice thing than anything…clear your mind. I had my fair share of alcohol and experimental drugs at a very young age.

You also mentioned in that zine you hadn’t made up your mind about anarchy…how do you feel about it now? Haha

Anarchy…hmmm well i’m not one to preach politics but i know when something is fucked. At the time, for myself, anarchy was more about being responsible for your actions and trusting people to make good decisions…didn’t always work out but i still try to live that way.

How important was the link between skateboarding and punk rock at this time?

Skateboarding was my link to punk rock and vise versa…no rules and no limits…just yourself. When I started skating I didn’t know what I was doing but it felt right…same with music.

You released a demo tape. Do you remember anything about recording it. Once it was done, how did you get it out to the masses? Any idea how many copies of it you made?

A guy named Jim Streight recorded the demo with us. He worked at the post office and had some gear…he had recorded bands before and seemed interested in doing something different…Steve and Dan made the connection and so we recorded it out at the military base in place called the teen club which was just a hang out for the underage crew on the base…I’m pretty sure it all went down in a day and live off the floor…I dont remember overdubs of any sort…we were just stoked to hear ourselves because we really had no idea what we sounded like. I think i had been playing drums for like a few weeks at this point…haha
Dan was our distributor…any band we knew of and all the mags at the time were sent a copy as well as any radio show we thought might pay a listen. We use to stay up late listening to Brave New Waves on CBC and catch some cool bands being played and one night there we were going out across the airwaves…it was a trip. I do remember one review from MRR comparing us to the Minutemen and that was crazy to me…I loved the Minutemen! I forget how many copies we made – I think 500 rings a bell but Dan would know for sure. My only copy was stolen at a party at my place one night…still trying to get my hands on an OG version.

Did you get to tour around much?

Shows were mainly our basement parties or at friends’ houses…we did play a show at University Of New Brunswick with a band from the Boston area called Cancerous Growth and some local bands that we came to be good friends with. Steve our bass player had to bail very last minute and one of the bass players from an opening band that had heard our tape filled in on the spot…that’s punk! We also played a show at Veith House in Halifax as a 3 piece with Dan playing guitar and singing…everything else was random…we did get a call to play a show in Montreal opening for the Circle Jerks but our guitar player at the time was bound for the military and he bailed…ah well.

I know you went on to many other bands like Rebecca West…what else have you and the other guys been up to?

Dan and I also had a band here in Halifax later called Merge along with Kevin Lewis and longtime base buddy Paul “The Wookie” Murray which led me to Rebecca West and now I still jam with The Art Department(AndyMiller/Peter Boileau).Dan had a 2pc. band called Sanisoft for sometime here in halfax after Merge parted ways. I believe Jeff went on to his military career and I kinda lost touch with Steve…perhaps he is on facecrack somewhere…he was super smart and way more political than the rest of us…who knows!

That about sums up my life in high school and the first year I lived in Halifax with Slow Death. Maybe a 30 year reunion gig at the bowl should go down…I will keep you posted!!!

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And of course you can download the demo (plus a show flyer and old zine interview) here:

SLOW DEATH

or listen here: