Documenting the hardcore and punk scene in Atlantic Canada. Bands from Nova Scotia, PEI, Newfoundland and New Brunswick - from the 80's to present day. Focus will no doubt be on Halifax, NS as that's where i'm from!!
Here we have a look at "skate punk" band JokesOver (originally known as The Conformist Party). Their bass player Louie Roberts tells us a bit about the band! At the end we have a discography to download or listen to!
So, Conformist Party started I think in 96 or 97. They were a four piece “new punk” band With Thomas Boudreau and Jon McLaughlin playing guitars, Matt McNeil on drums, and Ryan White on vocals. Influenced by bands like Propaghandi, Lagwagon, and NOFX. They played a couple shows without a bassist at the Café Ole. I saw them one night I was working concessions, and saw potential, so I offered my services. After a couple jams together, I was in. We played a few more shows at Café Ole before it closed, and at least once a month at The Pavilion. We recorded a demo on cassette “Tales of the Shallow and Stupid”. I think it was done on a four track in Thomas’s basement where we jammed.
It was around the Fall of 98’ when we decided to change the name. I always thought The Conformist Party was kind of lame, and I guess the rest of them didn't love it either. We decided on JokesOver. I guess we wanted something to show we were serious about what we were doing with the band. We recorded another demo Mugshots and Fingerprints with Paco Caba of Rudies Head/Thursday’s Toads. Eventually moved our jams to the jam spots on Cunard. We were pretty active for many years, playing some greats shows, with touring bands of the time, Diesel Boy, Gob, Choke, Ten Foot Pole. The show with Propaghandi at the George Dixon Rec Centre was definitely our biggest.
In November 2001 we made the decision to kick Ryan out of the band. It sucked. It was a mess, and that sparked the end of the band. We had our reasons; mostly it was because we felt Ryan wasn't contributing his share to the band, but also because we weren't all happy with his vocals. Thomas took over on vocals and honestly his were just as bad as Ryan's but in a different way. Eventually Jon decided to leave the band, and we briefly got Chris Barnes from Dry Leaf to come on board, but soon after that we dissolved.
We all look back at those years with fondness, and it’s great to hear these songs again. None of us had a copy of these demos.
Now you can hear them too!!
Or download the whole discography which includes:
Conformist Party - 3 song demo
Conformist Party - Tales Of The Shallow & Stupid
JokesOver - Mugshots & Fingerprints JOKESOVER DISCOGRAPHY!!
False Security - A Halifax hardcore/punk best known for their song on on the Out Of The Fog compilation LP, were one of the main draws of punk shows from their start in 1984 up to 1988. Their vocalist Alfred Woolley takes us back to that time with a little more info on the band!
I think this is from the Casino Theatre...maybe.
So while the band received a fair bit of exposure through the Out Of The Fog track, they also had a little known demo. Vietnam was recorded for "Out of the Fog", so it was about 6 months earlier than the demo and at a different studio. Alfred tells us a bit about the demo and why it such a rare commodity these days. "The lineup for the demo was me singing, Jimmy MacKenzie on lead guitar, Marc MacInnis on rythm guitar, Freddie Parker on bass, & Gerard Watters playing drums. The demo was recorded at the Centre for Art Tapes. It was badly produced by Moritz Gaede. We were so unhappy with the demo that we didn't release it. We made up a few tapes and sold them to people that really wanted them. In that sense, an original False Security tape is a bit of a collectors item. We only made about 20."
I actually think the demo sounds pretty decent and have heard much worse from other local bands. But they hated it so much it ultimately led to the demise of the band. As Aflred puts it, "We broke up partly because we were so disappointed over the demo tape. We hated it and felt like the producer sand bagged us. What that did was start to kill our interest in practising and writing new songs together. We played a few more shows in '87, with a final show in '88 and a reunion in '90."
Sadly the band never toured, not even to New Brunswick which was fairly common for Halifax bands of the time. The only bigger touring band they opened up for was SNFU. It's too bad they didn't get more exposure, as they were a great band and could have had a lot more interest in them. Alfred and Jimmy went on to play in No Offense, and Gerard played in The Quahogs, both in the early to mid 1990's.
Luckily I have unearthed the demo and present it to you all, plus the comp song! You can just listen here: or download it here: FALSE SECURITY DISCOGRAPHY
Negative Trend were a hardcore/punk band from Truro, Nova Scotia in the late 1990's. Not to be confused with an early LA punk band of the same name. I got in touch with their guitar player Scott for this highly informative interview. So grab a cool glass of Dr. Pepper, sit back, read and relax to max.
Band Members: Martin (vocals), Scott (guitar), Josh (drums), and Richard (bass)
About the band's humble beginnings: We had been in other bands previously but in a small town like Truro it can be a bit difficult to really find like-minded people to play with. So we were all in a situation where we were in bands we didn't really like because the alternative was 'do nothing'. And when the weird small town phenomenon of in-congruent popularity began to take effect (i.e. becoming very popular locally because there are only like, 3 bands to choose from, it started to get a bit uncomfortable and/or embarrassing to be playing stuff we weren't interested in and thought was pretty lame in general. Anyway, before practices with the lame band began, three of us started playing stuff we actually liked just for fun. Then met Martin who said he was in a similar predicament so he joined as the singer and we formed NT shortly thereafter.
Band name: I had no idea about the LA band at the time, it was just a general phrase that sounded good for a band name. No grief about it outside of some website comments by confused altavista users.
Scott's take on their muzak and demo tape: Musically most of it was put together by myself and the drummer Josh, as we were both into similar stuff at the time, ie spazzy fast hardcore...like older stuff spanning from Void to euro or japanese stuff or whatever.
The songs on the demo were our first batch of songs as a band and were put together quite quickly then the demo was recorded in like, less than 2 hours by J. Lapointe in his bedroom. It was actually recorded before we had a full time bass player so I had to do all that too, but then Richard joined despite having to play upside down as a lefty. The demo was really basic but I guess we were happy with it? the fact that it was mostly one-take helped the energy level I think. The guitar tone was actually mostly a DOD GRUNGE pedal of all things, played through a hefty Yamaha bass amp with the mids scooped. And a set of hot pickups. The pedal was surprisingly great tho.
Punk rock gigz: Memorable shows were many even though it was a relatively short lived band we were just out of high school and had a band VAN and everything so took shows anywhere. We played in Cape Breton a lot at a time when shows were drawing really big crowds of kids from all walks of life, and played some crazy shows in the Valley of all places. And of course punkfests and the usual Halifax shows. Our focus was generally Halifax though for obvious reasons. Condon (from Cafe Ole) really gave us some nice spots and I should also thank D.rock for being the first person to really take an interest when the band was brand new and doing a zine write-up. And of course that sexy Ian (*blush*) fellow who invited us to play in his room on his birthday ;( which was one of the most fun shows I've been to before or since.
The end: I think the band broke up just due to life moving on and members all moving away to different locations physically. As for what everyone is up to now I'm not sure. I am studying at Dalhousie after having lived in the US for several years. I know Josh/drummer is in Truro married with a bunch of kids. Richard and Martin I'm not sure about at all.
Final thoughts:With Negative Trend we just wanted to do something that wasn't too serious but wasn't outright lamesauce too, and it was a good experience that let me meet a lot of good folks as a result just the one demo, although a follow up was partially recorded but never finished. I hadn't thought about that band for a loooong time so thanks for the trip down memory lane~.
This Halifax band didn't play any shows and really only had 2 members - D-Rock and Mike Freeborn. DRock played bass and guitar, Mike sang, and a drum machine took care of the beats. They did record a demo in the early 1990's called Another Typical Day that gained some notoriety around the city. I got in touch with D-Rock and Mike to get their take on it! On the band's formation: D: We started the band because mikes bother had really cool recording toys,i could barely play guitar but was good on bass this was in highschool at P.A. Darmouth was boring so this is what we did to pass time. M:I just wanted to piss people off. It's my pastime...My brother had a 4 track, a cheap drum machine and a small rack unit,with some shit in it. A good little set up for 1987. Trying too record your band was impossible unless you had a lot of fuckin money. Many bands where never recorded, and therefore forgotten in the 80's in Halifax. The 4 track changed all that. On the band members: D: Me and Mike mostly. John Vine and Kenny at times. M:If you came by my place with beer or wine and a riff, you could be in the Intoxicators! On the demo: D: We recorded allot of stuff as the Dregs of Humanity the we changed into the Intoxicators. I have released the demo couple of times but just gave it away. On playing shows (or lack thereof): D: We jut drank a lot of Golden Glow, beers and wine and started to get fat. I blew up pretty badly. We even wrote song about getting fat. We were too fat to play live and too drunk plus it really wasn't a real band anyway. The Plundering Sons (Derek and Mike's later band) were going to do a whole Intoxicators set once. I think we played a song live. I cant remember. On the hit song Bootfuck: D: The song Bootfuck got popular on the Mass Turbulence comp later on. That's how MRR heard it, yet they heard our Dregs Of Humanity demo reviewed in a 1989 issue they said we sounded like The Neos and maybe old Circle Jerks. M: Bootfuck was a big hit...at least bigger than we thought. But when it really comes down to it, Bootfuck is just a rip off of a Zero Boys song. Final thoughts: M: People always steal your beer....no one can be trusted.You're thinking about it now......Bastard! Here is the 9 song demo in MP3 format: https://www.mediafire.com/?fzq42lfk8b1a84k And sample a song here:
No Offense was my first real band. I can't really remember when we first started, sometime in the early 90's and played until 1995. It all started when me (Ian) and my two friends Pat and Jon started jamming together. We all basically bought instruments right after high school in 1990 and starting playing in Pat's attic. I played guitar, Jon slapped the bass and Pat could already play drums so that was his instrument of choice. Our first attempt at recording was an instrumental cassette we made for the local college station under the name Street Lethal. It was not good. Then we recorded 6 songs, this time with vocals under the name Total Confusion. It was slightly better. We never released anything or played a show. Jon decided he didn't really want to perform live so we got a guy named Jake Dambergs who we knew from shows to play bass. I'm thinking we played a few open mic nights with this lineup as well as recording a song for a local tape compilation called Mass Turbulence. It was then decided that we should get a an actual singer so Alfred Wooley from the 80's hardcore band False Security was recruited. Then he suggested getting Jimmy MacKenzie also of False Security for 2nd guitar. We agreed and that became the lineup!
Our first real show. And my first gig poster!
We started playing shows around Halifax, the first being at The Green Room at Dalhousie University. Having 2 older scene vets in the band helped us get some local popularity. We ended up playing quite a few shows around town at venues such as The Double Deuce & Pub Flamingo, but the all ages venue Cafe Ole became our regular spot! Then our friend Richard who had released the Mass Turbulance compilation asked us if we wanted to do a split 7" with local punks The Shitheads. We did. It was actually going to be released by EnGuard Records out of Montreal who were a fairly established label at the time. We recorded 3 songs for it and unfortunately I don't think the ended up sounding very good at all. It was my first time in any kind of real studio and we didn't really know what we were doing. And in retrospect, I don't think the song were particularly well written. We had better songs, but for some reason we didn't use those. I can't remember who recorded this but the un-matching dual vocals on the song Riot should not have been allowed. I always cringe when I hear that song. Luckily, The Shitheads side of the record was much better and people ended up buying it. It got a decent review in Maximum Rock'n'Roll as well. 1000 copies were pressed. It is actually somewhat difficult to find these days but I'm sure if you really tried you could track one down.
So maybe our recordings weren't so hot, but there is one thing about this band that I look back at fondly and that is going on a small tour. This would have been my first time doing anything like this. It was in 1994 and we played in Saint John, Montreal, St Catherines, and ended it off at Spiderland Punkfest in Ontario which was a fairly big deal at the time. We played with bands like Blanks 77, Toxic Narcotic, Submachine, Mob Action and tons more. Pat couldn't do the tour so we got Gerard Waters from The Quayhogs to fill in for him. We rented a mini van and hit the road for a week. We played at Foufs in Montreal with the Local Rabbits and got paid $13. The Spiderland Punkfest was the highlight as we played near the end of the night with the bigger bands for some unknown reason. It was definitely a learning experience and first of many tours I would eventually embark on.
We played around a bit more after that, but eventually it just fizzled out. We played our last show at Punk Fest 95 at Cafe Ole. I had joined The Chitz before that, so that became more of a focus. Pat moved to Switzerland but now lives in Ottawa with his wife and 2 kids. Jake played in a few bands after such as Relic but his whereabouts are currently unknown. Alfred and Jimmy both still live in Halifax but I don't believe they are actively musically. There you have it! The first of many bands for me. Again I don't think the songs were that good, but it was a fun introduction to playing in a punk band.
Cafe Ole poster by me!
So now here are some MP3's of our recordings! I would suggest only getting the split 7" and studio sessions, but I put the other one up just in case you wanted to hear some other songs for whatever reason.
This mid to late 90's Halifax band was more known for their live show then recordings. They mixed sloppy hardcore and powerviolence with goofy lyrics about pie and wrestling. They released 2 demos and played a few shows around the Maritimes. The band comprised of Morgan Carpenter on vocals, Gerry Hubley on bass, Lance Purcell on drums & Steve Manette on guitar. Morgan and Gerry filled us on the inner workings of this often duplicated, but never imitated band (minus the often duplicated part which no one ever bothered to do.)
When? Who?
Morgan - The band started in mid to late '96 if I remember correctly. Steve and I were coming out of playing in Ritlan, which was more of a pop punk thing. Steve wanted to move to playing guitar, I wanted to just sing, and we wanted to do something more straight forward and goofy. Lance was a friend of ours from school and we had met Gerry from shows. We maintained the same lineup from start to finish.
Why? Where?
Morgan - When we started the band we knew we wanted it to just be completely juvenile and funny. We started doing costumes for shows right from the get-go and it eventually became part of (read: all of) the allure. Snot Party was really sloppy and kind of hard to listen to, so the shows were our only redeeming quality. I think the majority of our following were just there to witness what might happen each time. We'd dress up and plan pranks, get antagonistic and playfully violent with the crowd, and generally things would usually pleasantly fall apart at the end. We never got to play outside of Maritime Canada, but had a lot of memorable shows. Ones that top it for me was playing the final Cafe Ole show and the last Chitz show. There were plenty of great ones at Cafe Ole, the Arts Guild in PEI and random ones in Bridgewater. There were plenty of stinkers too, like when we were chased out of Fredericton by rednecks after Gerry got naked on stage and worked on his GG steez, or when we played a wedding in the rural eastern shore. That was awkward. The costume to top all costumes was at our last show when Gerry wore Rollins style shorts and covered his whole body in Vaseline. That was going out on a high note.
Snot Party @ Cafe Ole
Talk about demos. Begin.
Morgan - We did two official demos, "Please Hammer Don't Hurt Us" and "627 Days". The first was recorded by Brendan Stabenow in several houses and apartments. In lieu of a lyric sheet we put in an obnoxiously long thanks lists. That one was the "cleaner" sounding of the two. The second was recorded by Ian Dares kind of quick and dirty at the Cornwallis Street practice spaces. It sounds like shit, but at the same time, sounds raw and accurate. I still love the bass sound on that one. Ian had apparently taken a bunch to Toronto once and left them at Who's Emma - the fact that the cover just had the 80's SPEED METAL logo on it I guess made it sell well. I assume those people were met with disappointment though.
We did a couple live recordings in addition to the demos. One of which was our set in Woodlawn at a birthday party show with The Bombscares, and another at a show in Charlottetown PEI. The Charlottetown show was recorded with a small interview style tape recorder that Gerry was toting around at the time doing interviews and such for Incoherent Crap Zine. The Woodlawn show I don't remember if it was recorded the same way or with Derrick Hiltz' 4-track (it was around this time that he was recording a lot of bands for the Incoherent Comp). A few of the Woodlawn tracks became our two contributions to the Incoherent Comp. The PEI one became nothing, but I actually still have the tape, but am afraid to listen to it. Snot Party fucking sucked.
I want to know what 21 pies is about. Tell me. Also, why is the 2nd demo called 627 Days?
Morgan - The 21 Pies thing, I don't know. Gerry wrote that one. I think it would be funniest if it was completely fictional. 627 Days was the exact amount of time we were together from start to finish. We already had our last show planned before we released the second demo.
Gerry - 21 Pies is about a fat kid from my high school. This guy "Matty" used to always pick on him because he was fat and would say "That boy. Look at that boy. That boy eat 21 pies." So I wrote a song about it. That fat kid was bullied and that is serious.
live in PEI...i think
Why not?
Morgan - We broke up in mid '98 I think. I'd like to say it was because our maturity grew out of that of 8 year olds, but to be honest I think it was because Steve and I didn't get along anymore. Gerry and I were wanting to start something heavier, and started doing Useless Solution shortly before SP was officially done. After that, Steve went on to play bass for By Any Means for a short while and I'm not sure if he did anything musically after that. Lance did Falling Out - the worlds worst straight edge band - with Steve and I also, but I believe that ended before SP did. He joined Led By Regret and saw that to the end, and of course started The Plan the following year and achieved more success with that than the rest of us combined. Gerry did Useless Solution with me, as well as CEO'd Incoherent Crap Zine, and eventually went on to extensively roadie for The Plan, North Of America, etc. I immediately did Useless Solution and started Envision with Ian, Shrine Of American Martyr, joined Existench and others.
reunion show @ TKO. Gerry had this to say about this show "We shouldn't have done that. It was a dumb idea that Ian Dares pressured us into by leveraging it as a benefit for animals or something, which Morgan cared about. By then it was a whole different scene, and only about a quarter of the crowd was in on the joke. The other 75% didn't get it, or care, and rightfully so. It was self-indulgent and dumb."
Final thoughts? I promise to never mention Snot Party again after this.
Morgan - Thinking back, the thought of a bunch of teenagers dressing up in shittty costumes and rolling around is one thing, but doing it in our 20's probably looked ridiculous and lame. The thought of another reunion now with us well into our 30's is just flat out cringe worthy. Snot Party had a time and place, and that was pretty much at Cafe Ole. The Neptune Theatre killed Snot Party.
Gerry - The only thing I think I need to say about snot party is that it is the only time I really, really had fun in a band. I know for my part I had no idea what the fuck I was doing so the concept of having a three hour practice where we wrote 11 songs wasn't foreign to me. It was just stupid and fun and pretty much every band I've started or tried to start in the last ten years was a failing attempt to recapture that. But it shouldn't matter to anyone but us. I think if snot party were together for 1 more year we would have put out something amazing. Unfortunately, we didn't, and everything we put out was 80% shit.
And now here are some videos:
Check out a couple songs (1980/Theme from the 627 Days demo) first here:
In the late 90's the Halifax scene took a bit of turn towards hardcore, venturing off from the long standing punk scene. One of the bands behind that was Led By Regret who started of in January of 1998. The released a demo tape and a CD EP on Sub-Profit Records. There was also a 4-song EP that was recorded but never released. I got in touch with their vocalist Tim Goodaire to get some details, peel back the layers, and finally get to know the real Led By Regret.
Update: Sad news to report...vocalist Tim Goodaire passed away in July 2018 after battling cancer. A tragic loss.
LBR @ TKO, Halifax
When and how did the band start?
Originally it was me, Nick Oxner, Spencer Cantley, and Keith Porter jamming at Nick's place some time in 1998. We were just messing around playing Bold and Youth of Today covers. This wasn't anything too serious and I don't think we even had a name. Then somehow Mackenzie Ogilvie joined - I don't remember if we asked him or he asked us or whatever. He took over bass from Keith, Keith moved to guitar, and Nick was out. This is the lineup that we had for our demo cassette that we recorded with Phil Clark.
The songs that we wrote after we'd released the demo were becoming more complex, which led to us bringing in Lance to play drums. This was the lineup that we had for the rest of our existence.
Tell me about shows you played out of town.
We played a few shows around the Maritimes but didn't venture out any further than that. We played in PEI, NB, and Cape Breton. On our way to our Fredericton, NB show, we had to stop for Keith to pee for the 10th time and found that Lance's car wouldn't start. We had to get the guys who were putting on the show to pick us up and drive us to the show. At the show, people were offering us money to cover Ramones and Misfits songs. Mac cut his finger on his bass and he was bleeding all over the place.
We had another really fun show at Mark Black's place. We played the show and then went swimming with all of our Cape Breton friends. Then Mark's Mom made us delicious pancakes for breakfast.
Led By Regret live @ The Box, Cole Harbour, NS
Why don't you tell the good folks about the recordings that you did? The demo - Our first demo was recorded by Phil Clark in Keith's basement. I don't remember too much about it. We had enough songs to record a demo so we did it. Mac came up with the design for the cover. It was a picture that he found in an old book that he liked, so he messed around with it a bit and tada. We were more of a straight forward hardcore band back then, but you can still hear elements of our later sound.
S/T CD - It was Mac that spoke with Richard about recording a CD. I think Richard approached Mac and wanted to put out a CD, but I don't really know how that went down. We recorded with Jon Hutt. He was great to work with and it was a pretty stress free experience. I think we got the whole thing done in two sessions, but my memory is fading due to my advanced age. Oh. Jon had me record the vocals in his closet,
which was kind of strange. I was too tall to stand upright so I was kind of hunched over trying to scream into a mic in the dark. It was mixed by J. Lapointe. We got him to listen to the Anomie self-titled record to get an idea of the kind of sound that we wanted. We were all really happy with how it turned out.
Final Recording - The last recording that we did was with Mike Catano in his basement. I remember that we recorded on an analog 8 track. Two of these songs ended up on the "The Street Enters the House" compilation by "Fans of Bad Productions". We were really happy to be on that, along with bands like Countdown to Oblivion who we had played with and were just a great band and all-around cool guys. (Hi Bubby) You can download the whole thing here: http://abridgedpause.com/various-artists-compilations.
When we broke up, there was another recording in the works. We were supposed to be doing a split 7" with Useless Solution. Neither of us recorded though, which is kind of essential to doing a record...
Live @ The Pavilion
Why did it end?
Basically, I think we just kind of burned out on the band. Mac and Lance were playing with The Plan and a lot of their creative energy was going there. The song writing was taking longer and longer, which was frustrating all of us. One day we all went to jam and we just weren't feeling it. Instead we had an impromptu band meeting and decided to take a break. After being on a break for a little while, Keith had decided that he didn't want to do the band anymore so we just stopped. I was pretty bummed out at the time. I felt that we had a lot more songs to write and a lot more shows to play. Looking back now though, I have nothing but fond memories. For a little while there, we were having tons of fun rocking out and playing with our friends. Every show was fun and we never had any kind of arguments or drama. It was just an awesome experience.
How about throwing out other random memories in point form.
- Playing a show for "Food Not Bombs Hat Girl"'s birthday. This was strange because we didn't really know her. I think she wanted a punk show for her birthday so her parents let her have one.
- Playing Ian Hart's basement. This was pretty early on. I think this was the show where we covered "Positive Dental Outlook" by Crucial Youth. One of only two covers that we ever played.
- Keith handing out oranges with motivational quotes on them at one of our shows. He was always doing positive stuff like that.
- The show at the Khyber where an underage Nathan and Morgan snuck in and hid behind our amps so they could see the show. That show was awesome and tons of people were there. We played a second show there later and less than five people showed up. We treated it like a band practice and asked people what they wanted us to play.
- Covering "Number of the Beast", even though we had it cut short. Bad Luck 13 were on next and we were out of time.
Bonus LBR interview from 1999 HERE! Courtesy of Timmy X
And for the first time...video of LBR's last show at The Pavilion:
And now here is the LBR complete discography in MP3 format for download featuring:
Absolutely Nothing were a side project of a well known indie rock band called Plumtree. When not recording, releasing records and doing extensive touring with Plumtree, sisters Carla and Lynette Gillis started up AN with their friend Lisa Verge in the mid 1990's. They released 2 demo tapes and played a handful of shows, almost all of which were at Cafe Ole - Halifax's all ages club. Closer to the end of the band Lisa quit and Derrick (of The Chitz, Bombscares, etc) joined up. I recently got in touch with Carla Gillis (CG) and Lynette Gillis (LG), who now live in Toronto and have a newer band called Sister on the go. Let's see what they had to say about Absolutely Nothing!!
Why did you decide to do Absolutely Nothing when you already had a full time band on the go? LG: At the time Carla and I were really into punk and needed an outlet to make music different than what we were doing in Plumtree. Also, part of the motivation definitely came from wanting to play music solely for fun, be carefree and silly, not worry about things like touring, videos, etc., which we were immersed in with Plumtree at the time. CG: I remember also talking about wanting to be a little bit more "obnoxious" than we usually were. We were super-reserved and shy and polite, always on the sidelines at shows (unless we were onstage). Absolutely Nothing was kind of like our freedom band. Songwriting-wise, too. We had a rule that any song we wrote had to be started and finished in one practice.
When did the band start? LG: I'm going to say 1995 but don't know ABSOLUTELY. CG: Yeah, maybe 95. Possibly 94.
Tell me, if you will, about recording the 2 demo tapes. LG: They were recorded on two 4-track recorders in the basement of our parents' suburban home in Fairview. We were figuring out how to record ourselves, with Carla acting as "producer/engineer." We recorded drums first on one 4-track machine, Carla in the room air-guitaring and singing because I didn't have headphones or ghost tracks to follow along with. Carla took the four tracks and compiled them onto one track, using the other 3 remaining tracks for everything else. High-tech! And to make it even more so, we duplicated dozens off copies onto the cheapest cassette tapes we could buy. I remember making many trips to Halifax Shopping Centre to colour copy our album cover, cutting and pasting the thing together in my bedroom. We sold them for $2. CG: I remember hooking up the two four-tracks together through the headphone jack. Years later, I mentioned that in an article in The Coast, and some guy wrote a letter to the paper scolding me about how you should never, ever do that or you'll break the machines! I also remember a thousand trips to the Sony Store in Halifax Shopping Centre because they sold the 30-minute blank tapes that we used for dubbing.
Can I talk about making the album artwork for the first tape? Lisa, Lynette and I wrapped ourselves in garbage bags and put banana peels on our heads and sat at the curb in front of Lisa's house while her mom snapped some photos. But they didn't turn out so we ended up using the photo of us throwing devil horns while standing in the flatbed of our dad's Dodge Ram. Then we used burgundy nail polish to paint "Absolutely Nothing" onto a piece of Saran Wrap, which we carefully placed on top of the photo and then colour-photocopied. I think we sold the tapes for $3. There was always this subtle competition between Cafe Ole bands about who could/would sell their tape the cheapest. Definitely cost us more than that to make.
When did Lisa quit and Derrick join? LG: I'd say something like 1996 was when Lisa quit and Derrick Generic (sp?) joined. He was so excited, it was great.
You mostly played at Cafe Ole....but I seem to recall you played in eastern passage. Did you play anywhere else around town? Or outside of Halifax?? LG: I don't think so. We were practically Cafe Ole-exclusive. That was our scene. CG: We took a road trip to Fredericton once. Derrick did most of the driving, and I think it was autumn because the drive was really scenic. I remember listening to The Dickies on repeat. The show itself was disappointing – freezing cold venue and a hostile crowd.
We also played the Marquee for a Pop Explosion and a couple of Cafe Ole jerks basically accused us of selling out, which is and was hilarious. We often got the feeling that some people also felt that way about Abs No because Lynette and I played in Plumtree. There was a massive divide in Halifax back then between the "alternative" scene and the punk scene. Lynette and I didn't keep Plumtree a secret, but we didn't say much about it around our punk friends. We definitely felt like no one in that scene thought Plumtree was cool. (Except Louie Roberts, who sometimes called Lynette and Lisa's radio show to request Dog Gone Crazy.)
Why did the band come to an end? LG: I have no idea. CG: I remember feeling very clearly that it was time to end the band. That it had served its purpose. I was proud of the songs we'd made and didn't want to add any stinkers to the discography. Plus Derrick was leaving for Saskatoon to study cancer cells. I think I also felt like I was getting too old for it all.
Looking back...do you have any fond memories of the band?? LG: Oh yes... dressing up in garbage bags in our practice room and on Rosedale Avenue, Derrick's guitar absolutely blaring all the way down our street, playing an entire set of Ramones covers dressed in drag (as the Ramones), yelling "I'm a liberated woman" through our house (and street), hanging garbage bags off of Lisa's guitar in practice while laughing hysterically, having what were probably some of our first drinks one night before a show - 99 cent draft at a dive bar up the street from Cafe Ole, playing a show in high heels (as a drummer)... CG: Punk prom! We found the ugliest dresses in Halifax, and made our hair and makeup really gross. Lynette's dress was shiny and brown. I also remember getting hit in the face with a pinata during one of our Cafe Ole sets. Lisa, Lynette and I had filled it with flour and pickles beforehand, and then during the first song I dangled it over the crowd, who immediately lunged for it and it swung back and almost knocked out my teeth. Very embarrassing! I remember spending hours in Kinkos photocopying fanzines with Lynette and Lisa, and hanging out with them at CKDU till all hours of Saturday night/morning. Mostly I remember that spinning disco ball throwing cat eyes on the walls, and the black-and-white tiled floor, and the sweetness of Condon MacLeod. Cafe Ole forever.
Big thanks to Lynette and Carla for this! And here is a never before seen video from them:
And of course here are MP3's of both demo tapes: DOWNLOAD HERE!!
This band hailed from Fredericton, NB in the early 90's. They were more on the pop punk side of things. The band consisted of Andrew Morrison on bass, Mike Brophy doing vocals and guitar, & Merle on drums. Matt Carter took over drum duties around 1996 They put out a cassette demo called Tumblebug which I have not been able to find a copy of so far. Around 1997 some of the band moved to Vancouver and continued the band out there. They also had a 2nd guitarist named Pietro Lovisa for a while in there.
But what really stands out for this band is the LP they released on Italian label Break Even Point Records. It is called Barn Overload and was released in 1996. It is still available with a quick online search but it shall now be available to you here:
