THE JUVENILES

Hailing from Dartmouth, NS, The Juveniles played fast, sloppy punk/hardcore. Starting off under the name Phun, the band switched names and became a staple at Cafe Ole in Halifax. They released 2 demo tapes in the mid 1990's (as was the case with most bands of this era, the recording quality leaves much to be desired). I got in touch with their singer Khanhthuan to find out more about this short-lived but great band!

The Juveniles from their reunion show at The Pavilion

When did the band form and who was in it?

Around 1993, Dave Hiltz (guitarist) and I started jamming out shitty acoustic punk songs. We started playing shows with a rotating roster of bassists and drummers, until Kevin Dupuis (drummer) came on board after a chance meeting at a house party. On paper Chris Neville was our bassist, but the joke was that he never jammed or played shows. Really we were a 3-piece. That’s how we jammed. That’s how we jellowed.  

What were your musical influences?

Dave Hiltz’s brother Derrick Hiltz would always be willing to make me mix tapes of all these punk records he had. He picked out lots of the classics, but also he chose local bands, and more specifically bands that did not play anymore. It was a history lesson on the local punk scene. “People on the street all goddamn day. with nothing to do and nothing to say”

The Upchucks and The Boluga Group. There is no scene without other bands and these were the bands that motivated us to keep playing especially in the early days, when we had no fucking idea how much we shat.

Obscene Jesture. This was Dave Hiltz and Chris Neville’s other band. They were the better band. Hands down. No question. Chris Neville actually played bass in this band.



Tell me about some shows you played. Did you play any where other than Café Ole? I think you did play the Pavilion at least once. Did you tour outside of the Halifax area?

I vaguely remember shows, because my modus operandi was to get drunk. The band’s shtick for shows became how fast we could play our entire catalogue of songs without stopping. In the end we were playing a typical 30 minute set in 13 minutes. When you try to play this fast you are fortunate when your drummer is a competitive swimmer.

We just played at Cafe Ole. Except once out of town with a bunch of other Halifax bands. We did play at the pavilion, but it was a reunion type of show and it was shit. We should have never “reunioned”. There are reasons why shit gets buried deep under ground so it doesn’t stink up the place anymore.

What can you tell me about recording the 2 demo tapes?

The first was recorded live at the top level of an old barn in Kevin Dupuis’ backyard. This was where we would practice. The recording was shit. We were shit. Very forgettable.

The second was recorded by Derrick Hiltz. At the time he was recording bands with his four track and offered to record us. Carla Gillis from Absolutely Nothing/Plumtree had tried to record us before Derrick, but she didn’t realize how shitty we were under natural lighting and desirable acoustics, so that never panned out. No fault to her. Somehow Derrick Hiltz made it happen.

When and why did the band break up?

Dave Hiltz left for agricultural college and Kevin Dupuis left to the USA on a swimming scholarship. Typical band break up story. University. Distance.

What are you up to these days? How about other band members?

I own & operate a small business. I ran into Dave Hiltz 5 years ago while he was in town with his girlfriend. If I remember correctly, they were living in Thunderbay. I ran into Kevin Dupuis more recently, he coaches competitive swimmers.


DOWNLOAD OR LISTEN TO THE DEMOS HERE:

The Juveniles - Both Demo Tapes DOWNLOAD!






Discogs Info

USELESS SOLUTION

Next up on the old blog we have Useless Solution - late 90's metal/hardcore/grind hybrid. I was briefly in this band, but I'm just going to let Morgan Carpenter tell the story of the band. Downloads and streams at the end!

Useless Solution at the Pavilion

Useless Solution started in mid 1998 following the break ups of two notable Halifax bands - Snot Party and Falling Out.  As was many of the punk and hardcore bands during this time, these two bands were inbred, sharing several members between them.  On the heels of the joke just not being funny anymore, Snot Party members Gerry Hubley and myself (Morgan Carpenter) came together with Falling Out members Nathan Doucet and Keith Porter.  The intent was to form a hardcore band that stood apart from what Halifax had seen already - drawing influences from the heaviness of bands like His Hero Is Gone and Acrid, to the intensity of emotional hardcore bands like Frail and Portraits Of Past, to the speed and precision of grindcore units like Despise You.

The original lineup of U.S. was unlike anything I had experienced as a musician to that point, nor during the subsequent 20 years of playing bringing us up to now.  The four of us gelled so unbelievably well.  There was an immediate connection when we came together, and a shared understanding of where we were going and how to get there.  Each member played a nearly equal roll in writing the music - so much so that in listening back to the first two cassette releases, I can easily tell which is a Morgan song, a Gerry song, a Nathan song, etc.

Shortly after getting our first batch of shows under our belts, we colluded with Jon Hut (of Equation Of State, Sebutones, Recyclone) to record our first demo.  Like both of our releases, it was nearly a full length of material, but because the only format that was affordable to us was cassette, the releases have largely always been referred to as demos.  The material was recorded via analog 4-track in our 5’x8’ practice room and released by Ant Records, our sound adding to their thorough roster of black sheep.  Upon listening back to the material now, merging influences of grindcore, emo, and experimental noise was a tasteful feat for a bunch of 15 year olds.

Later we would team up with Jon Hut again to record two compilation tracks on the borrowed equipment of famed hip hop artist Sixtoo, recording in several closets, apartments and basements around Halifax.  One of these tracks ended up on the Violent Core Attack Part 2 compilation 7” released by Simon Pare out of Montreal, and the second to an unreleased compilation out of North Carolina.

"March" demo cover

What would come to be the last official release of U.S. was the ‘March’ cassette, again recorded by Hut and released through Ant Records.  This time around we were heavily incorporating more metallic guitar playing, controlled oscillating noise, as well as experimenting with melody - as evidenced in covering a song by Halifax band By Any Means (originally written by Doucet, U.S. drummer).  The night after completing the tracking for ‘March’, the band performed a full live set on the long running CKDU radio show, 7200 Sloppy Seconds.  By the following morning, I had shredded my vocal chords so badly doing what was nearly a full day of screaming that it took the better part of a month for me to get my voice back.









After playing several great shows with both local and touring bands, the original era of U.S. quickly came to a close.  This coincided with an undeniable shift in the Halifax punk scene - arguably rooted in the growing popularity of Christianity throughout the scene, there was a noticeable divide that took place between bands and friends.  Keith decided to leave the band to focus his musical efforts of Led By Regret, whom he was currently playing guitar for, and was replaced by scene veteran Ian Hart.  With the addition of Ian, the song writing began leaning more metallic with songs getting longer and more complex.  With this lineup we made several small accomplishments, including having the opportunity to play Halifax On Music festival (which is what the Halifax Pop Explosion was known as briefly during that period).

Not long after Nathan also decided to leave and the band entered a long hiatus of trying to find a replacement. Eventually one was found in Gerald Smith (of Existench, System Shit, Sloth, etc).  I switched singing only, and Mike Day (of The Build Ups) came aboard on second guitar.  This lineup stayed active for the better part of a year, now fully incorporating much heavier grindcore, black metal and death metal riffing and song structure.

Eventually in 2001, Gerry and I (the lone two original members) admitted that the spark had gone out and the band had become to much work to keep tight and active.  We played our last show in March of that year and dubbed it “The Funeral” encouraging the audience to wear all black (a feat which now seems laughably second nature).  We opened our final set with a hap-hazard rendition of For Whom The Bell Tolls and included songs from the entirety of our existence, many of which that hadn’t ever been played by the current line up.  There were plans for a reunion show a year or two later but that never actually took shape.

Last show at The Pavilion

Following the demise of U.S., Gerry went on to start The Shotgun Solution and Oh God, Ian kept up long running Envision and eventually started Risky Business, Gerald started Thy Flesh Consumed and I started Flesh Made To Suffer, as well as drummed for Envision.

As per usual, you can listen to the demos or download them!!





DOWNLOAD BOTH DEMOS - HERE!!
DOWNLOAD the live CKDU set - HERE!

Discogs page: https://www.discogs.com/artist/1264801-Useless-Solution

MADHAT

Madhat were a pop punk band from Lunenburg, Nova Scotia from the early 1990's. We sat down with singer/guitarist Kirk Comstock and had an in-depth discussion about life. And by that I mean I sent him a couple questions on Facebook and he answered them. In any case...read about MADHAT!! MP3 Discography at the end! 

When did the band start and who was in it?

Technically Madhat started in 1988 under the name "Smash". Then became "Downfall" and then finally settled as "Madhat" around 1992. The members at that point were Phil Zwicker (Guitar), Hughie Morris (Bass), Jordi Comstock (Drums) and me Kirk Comstock (vocals & rhythm Guitar).

What was happening on the South Shore music wise at the time?

At the time there wasn't really a music scene on the South Shore. We started playing the local bars with special papers at age 11 and rented out halls and put on our own all ages shows. Then Nirvana and Sloan happened. At that point all ages clubs popped up and we could tour all over Nova Scotia.

When did you first start playing in Halifax?
Were you able to tour outside the province at all?

We first started playing Halifax in the Cafe Ole and didn't really fit perfectly with any of the genres. We would play with bands like "Deep Woods", "The Shitheads" and "Bad Luck #13" but weren't as hardcore as those guys; then we would also play with bands like "The Super Friends" and we would be a little too hard for that crowd.

We managed to do tours through Quebec and Ontario once every summer when we were off on school break and toured around the Maritimes during the winter. We did manage to give our label president "Waye Mason" a lift from Toronto back to Halifax in a crazy snowstorm with birthday candles keeping the windshield from freezing cause the heater was broken. We loved that he could be there with us. We did do a two month tour out to BC and back by van. That was the longest tour we ever did.



What were your musical influences?

Our musical influences at the time were "The Misfits", "The Sex Pistols", "The Dead Kennedys", "The Doors", "The Damned", "The Descendents", "The Doughboys" (Who we got to tour with a bit) and "The Ramones".

Can you tell me more about that tour with The Doughboys?

When I was 17 I signed a contract with the Doughboys agent to bring the band to play a date in Lunenburg at the school gym. I had a scary guarantee but went for it. The week before the show the gym pulled the venue from me cause of insurance, so at the last minute were able to move the show to the curling club ice-shed. After that we got to play with them at the old UPEI barn, the Marquee Club in Halifax and a high school somewhere in New Brunswick. We played another show in Bridgewater in some old warehouse that Mike Grey (east coast punk legend and a hell of a nice guy) set up.

Monk their road manager and tech saw how I struggled with keeping my guitar in tune and showed me how to properly string my guitar. He also told Jonathan Cummins where to go if he got a little to sassy with us. John Kastner on the other hand was the most amazingly nice guy I think I have ever met and was the closest thing I ever had to a musical mentor. He would show up at our shows in the Horseshoe tavern in Toronto and places and bring his industry friends to try and help us out. Brock Pytel was really nice too. Great guys and a great band.

There were some lineup changes....when did that happen? What are the members up to now?

The band changed members a while before we recorded "Full Length" in 1998. Hughie was living an hour away and we were playing just about everyday with Simon Rienhardt just for fun. When Simon joined the band Phil left. So we became a three piece. Jordi, Simon and myself. We recorded "Full Length" with Laurence Currie at "Idea of East Studios". Laurence had recorded "Hardhitters" for us in 1995 as well.

Hayz Fisher played on "To the World" but moved to BC. He ended up doing the art layout for the first "Air Traffic Control" record from out west. Simon found the late night club gigs too much after awhile and that`s when we recruited our cousin Luke Comstock to join the band. When we were about to release our next record we all decided it would be a good Idea to change the name of the band, so we became "Air Traffic Control" and released our first self titled record. Air Traffic Control is working on our 5th record right now and has added guitar player Shawn Bent. The guys from ATC all play in Electric City Underground with me as well.

Enjoy a couple Madhat video courtesy of Much Music!






DOWNLOAD THE MADHAT DISCOGRAPHY:
(Since there is a lot I have separated it in to eras for easier download)
S/T Demo (1992) + Freak (1993)
Hardhitters (1995) + Full Length (1998)
From The Outside (2000) + To The World (2002)