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!!
Back in 2001, long time Halifax scene member Louie Roberts released a CD of local punk bands. This is his story. Download at the end.
Why did I do it? That’s a tough question. There were lots of reasons I suppose. The first proper answer would be to contribute to the local punk/hardcore scene. I wanted to showcase the bands that were active at the time. The idea and inspiration first came to me after a break-up with a girlfriend. I needed something to do to keep myself busy and my mind off girls at the time. There may have been more selfish reasons in there as well. Ego? Maybe... Wanting to be someone who did stuff and make things happen.... But let’s stick with the official line, I did it for the scene.
I can’t remember exactly how, but Waye Mason running his No Distro at the time got wind of the comp, and got behind it. Things would have been much different if he didn’t come along. He had I think 500 copies manufactured. I got 100, and got rid of most of them at the CD release show at The Pavilion. I set it up so that you got a copy with the price of admission to the show. Waye wasn’t happy with that, as everyone who would actually want a copy got one that night, and that didn’t help local sales. Whoops.
The bands that ended up on it were pretty much the bands in the scene that were most active, that were able to provide a song or two that sounded somewhat decent. There were a couple additions that were favours. Drunk Again by the Dynamics. Brendan, was always in a band, but never seemed to ever play shows. He helped a lot putting things together for me, digitizing most of the music, so I put them in. The Burdocks song The Chase was another favour. I don’t think anyone ever accused them of being punk or hardcore. I worked with Seth at Mikey’s at the time, and he was pushing to get the Burdocks on the CD. I told him if they wrote and recorded a punk song, I’d include them. I never expected them to actually do it, but they did. In hindsight that band always got shit done, so yeah it shouldn’t have been a surprise at all. They were the only band who wrote an original for the CD, and as far as I know never put that song on any other release either. Seth ended up helping out with the final design and artwork on the CD as well. I didn’t have the means, talent or creativity to come up with anything. Brendan and I threw something together really quick and it was just awful. I think it had a map of the east coast and a pic of a guy playing bagpipes. So bad. I brought it to Waye who thankfully convinced me how terrible it was, and suggested Seth as someone who could help come up with something. The hardest part of the whole process was coming up with the final art and design, but it turned out really nice and very much in Seth’s art style. It worked. Seth was always awesome and still is.
I haven’t listened to the comp in quite a while. In probably 10 years or more. My favourite songs on the CD are Who by Nothing to Say, and Meet me at the Drive In by The Lewinskys. Here comes The East Coast never sold a ton of copies, or got amazing reviews, but for me where it does succeed is that it captured the scene at the time, helped my ego, and got me over a breakup.
Track List:
1. By Any Means - All The Good It Holds (2:46)
2. Deep Woods - Gotta Get Out (2:21)
3. Hope - Fuck The Millenium (1:25)
4. Nothing To Say - Who (3:36)
5. Jokes Over - New School Loser (2:47)
6. Last Few Years - Out Of Breath (2:40)
7. Dry Leaf - Mind Your Own Business (3:25)
8. The Dynamics - Drunk Again (1:50)
9. Slump - In Retrospect (2:24)
10. Led By Regret - The Atmosphere Of Bombings On Airplanes (4:03)
11. The Lewinskys - Also Known As (3:24)
12. Falling Short - Highschool (3:10)
13. When All's Been Said - Troubled Youth (2:42)
14. Jokes Over - Jokes Over (2:34)
15. Hope - Victory Or Misery (2:13)
16. Led By Regret - Distraction (6:39)
17. By Any Means - Last Hug Good Bye (4:14)
18. Falling Short - Unite (1:51)
19. Last few Years - Your Need (2:44)
20. The Burdocks - The Chase (2:45)
21. The Lewinskys - Meet Me At The Drive In (2:41)
22. When All's Been Said - All Said And Done (1:51)
23. Dry Leaf - How About The Truth (2:20)
24. Deep Woods - Broken Bones (2:39)
No Class was a cassette only compilation of local bands (not just punk, but a mix of genres (pop, grunge, hip hop). There are some good songs, and not so good songs. Bunk was one of the stand out tracks and they got quite popular at Cafe Ole around this time. One of Plumtree's earlier songs as well! It was released by No Records around 1993 and compiled by Chris Trowbridge and Waye Mason. Let's hear what they have to say about it!
Chris: Been awhile but as I recall it all started with an episode of Fat Albert. One of the characters says "you're like school in the summertime... no class". I used that dialogue on CKDU as the intro to the Motörhead song No Class. And suddenly I realized that I should do a compilation of high school bands called No Class. Many of these bands were dropping off tapes at CKDU at the time, my favorite of whom was Bunk from Dartmouth. Cafe Ole had just opened I think so there were already a bunch of bands around. We just asked for bands to submit songs on CKDU and word of mouth. I remember trying to talk someone into putting up some money - later found out they thought I wanted to do a compilation of high school marching bands. Waye ended up doing all the hard work.
Waye: Basically if the majority of the band was in high school we put it on there. None of it was really bad, some of it was really good. Chris T and I currated it together. I have a DAT and I have one side of the tape in mp3s, the guy who copied them didn't understand there was a 10 minute gap and then the other side started!
You may also notice there is a song on here (Track 6) by the Tim Robbins Experience that is not listed on the cassette cover. This is actually Thrush Hermit (or at least most of the band). Chris explains "As I remember it, the Thrush Hermit guys didn't want to be identified as a "high school band" at that point, even with their side projects.Or maybe it was even a contractual thing? Could they have been signed to a major already by that point? Maybe they had a publishing deal or something.
Tracklist:
1. The Monoxides - Armaround
2. Essen - Jill
3. Shingai - Blackness I Hold
4. Potbelly - Birthday (Live at LSPU Hall)
5. Liquid - Faceless
6. Tim Robbins Experience - Baby Tonight
7. Hip Club Groove - Straight Steady Swingin'
8. Bunk - Mass of Confusion
9. Burnt Black - Novocaine
10. Plumtree - Follow You
11. Madhat - Flower Picture
12. Deep Woods - Drive By Shooting (live)
Self proclaimed
Lumberjack Punks from Timberlea, Nova Scotia. Starting out in 1989 under the
name Septic Tank, the band went through some line-up changes and settled on the
name Deep Woods. If you were going to shows in Halifax in the early 1990's you
no doubt saw play more than a few times. Here we have an interview with
their singer Don Trim-Macdonald done in March 2015. It's a bit more
conversational then the other interviews I've done and has been edited to flow
better. MP3's included as per usual - you get the very rare 1994 demo tape (thank you Greg Baller!!) plus a live set from the Green Room at the Dalhousie Student Union Building
from 1992! Enjoy!
Deep Woods live @ Cafe Ole
How did Deep Woods start?
We probably
started playing late '89 or '90. I grew up with all of them. Gordie and Rob
Francis were brothers and lived down the street from me. Rob Mills who was the
bass player… he lived up the road a ways. But this was the first
go-around...this was Septic Tank. They were a bit more into metal. We were all
headbangers but the punk came from me going to St Andrews ramp. Rob listens to
a lot of punk that I don’t… like Stiff Little Fingers. I know the first time I
played the DKs for them and they laughed and laughed. They
couldn't get over Jello's voice. We had the band together but it sort
of fell apart. Then I jammed with No Offense. We never recorded anything – I
just jumped on a set they played at a party behind KOD on Blowers St. I wound
up singing for them because I knew all the words. That was pretty short lived.
Then I left because Deep Woods started jamming again.
What were your influences when you first started?
For me –
black flag, circle jerks, SNFU – seeing that first show of SNFU and seeing Chi
Pig and the way he jumped and leapt all over the place…that was a real big
influence on me. All I wanted to do was be a rubber ball. I remember Robert
screaming at me cuz I started leaping off the bass drum cuz I’d seen Chi Pig do
it…and he was losing it that I was gonna break his drum kit.
Whose idea was the Cro Mags cover (Hard Times)?
We just
really liked the song. May have been rob mills who wanted to do that…it wasn’t
my idea. I like the Cro Mags…I never bought anything by them but I liked the
songs that I heard like Hard times or We Gotta Know. I was never into the whole
skinhead thing one side or the other.
Would you say your sound changed over the course of the band?
We
changed from the original lineup. When we first started, we had a guy playing
drums named Greg Rankin. He was a friend of Zack from Pro Skates. I met him at
Zack’s place on Morris St. and I hung out there a lot cuz I skated with Zack. I
met this guy Greg who played drums and that’s actually how the band got back
together. We got talking and this guy Greg really wanted to jam. With him we
were more…I wouldn’t want to say RHCP cuz we weren’t as skilled by any
stretch of the imagination, but the songs were a little more…jazzy….but they
certainly weren’t hardcore. They weren’t as heavy. But he went to university in
St John's…so when he left we didn’t have a drummer so that’s when Rob Francis
became the drummer for Deep Woods cuz he was off doing whatever with other
bands. And that was a big change cuz all of a sudden we got heavier cuz Greg’s
influence wasn’t there anymore….he was quite outspoken trying to keep Gord and
Rob Mills slowed down. When Robert first showed up he was just trying to learn
the songs and pretty much did what we asked him. And he is an incredible
drummer. So we got heavier and tighter.
When was your first show?
First
show was in March 1991 pub flamingo $2 Tuesday. We opened up for DPR. There
weren’t many shows, so everybody came to shows back then. There was like one
show a month. If it was metal or punk or anything remotely heavy, everybody
went. Which was cool...it was a good mix.
I know you had a demo tape? Was it ever for sale?
It came
out just as we were breaking up. We may have sold it at our last gig in 1994 at
Café Ole. We played there a lot…at least once a month. For a while there,
Donner Party Reunion and us would literally play there two times a month, maybe
three…it was a lot! We played with them a lot everywhere. The 2 bands went
together. It was fun. That's who we were with on the infamous Moncton trip.
Let's talk about that, what happened up there?
We went
up to play a show; I can't even remember the name of the place. We went up on a
Friday night. We were supposed to play Saturday night and we thought we'd go up
a night early and check the place out and just have some fun of it. So our
whole band went in a van and Jon Johnson and Reg and maybe Dean (of Donner
Party)...there were only 2 or 3 of them. Anyway we went to the bar next door to
where we were going to play. We walked in and there was a band playing and they
seemed pretty good. We are sort of walking around, I remember distinctly
pulling Reg off to the side and saying something is not right here, like we are
seriously getting stared at and he's like "no, no people don't know who we
are it's all good." Right, they're wondering who these people are. We went
in the bath room, came back out, we're standing there drinking and all of a
sudden the band on stage, starts playing a Skrewdriver song. Which
is very racist band and all these guys with shaved head stood up and started
put on bomber jackets, covered in KKK patches and nazi symbols. And John and
Reg at least were wearing bomber jackets with S.H.A.R.P patches. So you see
where this starts going. So anyway we kind of realized things weren't good. The
idea was nobody was supposed to go outside by themselves. Immediately after we
made this decision, somehow Gord Rob Mills wound up outside by themselves. And
somebody punched Rob in the back of the head and his glasses went flying off.
The police got called, we wound up in the back parking lot. There was like 8 of
us or something like that. And I think 30... but I'm assuming time making me
blow it a little out of proportion so it's probably more like 20 of these guys
squared off. The funny part was Jon Johnson had a bat that he had drawn on with
a sharpie and it said S.H.A.R.P. on it. So back to the van, Jon with a baseball
bat in his hand and this group of them wanted to pulverize us. And the police
showed up. One of those guys got arrested because he had an outstanding
warrant. We parked the van at the police station for the night and slept in the
club that we were going to play. Now the club was attached to the other club
that we had been at via one of those glass doors. And they were in there all
night drinking after the club closed, playing music. You could hear them and
we're all sleeping on the floor. And about 4 o'clock in the morning the alarm
went off, the burglar alarm. So everybody was like going around to the doors
with weapons and stuff checking to see if somebody had snuck in. It was a
bizarre situation, everybody wanted to go home.
Did you end up playing the next night?
Yeah we
stayed, we played and absolutely nobody showed up. There might have been 15
people. That's pretty terrible. We made no money, it cost us money to go there.
The guy couldn't pay us anything because he didn't bring in anything at the
door. He gave us some free subs for supper.
Back to the recordings you did. Was there anything else besides
the demo?
There
was another recording done by Jake Evans when he was in the band briefly. It
was done on a reel to reel at Jake's place. I haven't seen it in a while
but I did have the reel. I think there were 2 reels actually. Guessing
there were 15 to 20 songs on it. Everything we ever did or could think of
including possibly a cover of beat it by Michael Jackson. Jake
could play it on the guitar; it seemed funny at the time. I looked into getting
it transferred onto cassette or CD, and there was something to do
with the machine he had used a thinner, tape like was quarter inch to half inch
or something and nobody had anything that would play it or you could get it off
of. And I know because he had a small studio in his basement for a while when
he was living in Spryfield. He's living in this little house across from all
these ghetto apartments. Anyway somebody broke in and stole all the gear,
including his instruments I think. So yeah that went missing, so we could never
get the actual and nothing ever became of it. I may have even thrown it out a few
years ago.
I also have recording of the green room show.
Oh
yeah, yeah I've heard that we've played a few shows at the green room, I like
that place. Yeah it was neat with the sunken floor. We play a few
shows there; Gord's got one on VHS somewhere. He lent me a tape that we
had of us playing. It was a different one at the green room. We probably had 3
or 4.
How did you get on the "Punk, The Next Generation" CD
compilation?
Yeah
that's the one out of Thunder Bay or maybe one of the bands was out of Thunder
Bay. I don't
know, I got a letter in the mail? Yeah....letter in the mail because D Rock had
done a thing I think, a story on Halifax scene from Maximum Rock N Roll. We got
letters from like Hungary and stuff like that. We are looking for tapes, looking
for music and I never sent anybody anything. So terrible, I wrote a couple of
people back but we really didn't ever get anything out. We did have the stuff
that was live to the floor for cab can hear. That was at the Double Deuce,
we're told not to use it but we did. Obviously I mean Greg hands me, here's a
tape, master tape for your show, pick a song and one other compilation. He's
like and I want the tape back, you can't keep all those other songs, obviously
we did.
Did you play outside of Halifax besides that Moncton show?
We
played Kentville. There was a small venue in Kentville for a short period of
time, but Donner Party had been up the week before us and I not exactly sure
what went down. The people that owned the place weren't overly pleased with
them and when we got there, there weren't a lot of people. And all they kept
saying was like somebody handed them a script. I was like "so why don't
you guys like Donner Party - they're great we play with them all the
time." They left the bad taste in our mouth is what every kid said, almost
word for word. It had something to do with Jon smoking something in the
basement. But I mean really that's not that big of a deal. And I was there
skateboarding out in front and stuff and it was crazy .They said we had to stop
skateboarding on the sidewalk or the police are going to come and they're going
to take it. It was funny, it was very strict. We probably played
Truro maybe, played Bridgewater a few times. Yeah we played a show with Hip
Club Groove at the Exhibition in Lunenberg once, yeah we played a few shows
around I can't remember where they all were now.
Were there ever shows in Timberlea?
There
was one in Timberlea at the fire hall. Septic Tank played and Adrenalin played,
Adrenalin was the headliner. When we were in Septic Tank we got to play at the
Dartmouth Sportsplex show in that little room. The place was packed; it got
destroyed that's why there was never another show there again. Holes in the
roof, in the walls, it was crazy. Actually Zavin’s band was there too - Poke.
That was probably 88, 89 something like that.
What are some of your favourite memories of playing shows in Halifax?
My
first flamingo show opened up for DPR was incredible, just cause we had, I've
been trying, I've been talking everybody knew cause I knew you, I do a lot of
people in the scene from skate boarding. And I was trying to get shows but
shows were few and far between and the bands that were well liked. It was hard
to break in when you were new back then cause like I said there might have one
show a month or one every two months. And I mean it was always going to be
moral support system over load right. And I'm not knocking those bands because
they were great I love seeing them play and stuff but it made it hard to get
your foot in the door. And then you know Reg and I were out skating and
drinking or both. I was complaining to him about it, he's like we got to two
back Tuesday, we've only got so many songs. So an opening band would be good
and the place was freaking packed. We postered for like a month and a half
leading up to it. I was sticking posters up in the buses, like where the little
ads went, all over the universe like everywhere; my parents had a photo copier,
a black and white photocopier, so I made hundreds of copies.
Why did Deep Woods break up?
I think
we really just got on each other’s nerves after a while. Towards the end,
we were showing up, we were jamming at Rob Mill's place and this could
have been another reincarnation cause that band got back together several
times. But yeah we basically were just getting on each other's nerves, I mean
it happens. Relationships are hard enough when there are two people, let alone
5. That was in 1994, but them of course like I said there were reunions. We got
back together in probably 2000. We played a show at the Pavilion; we had
written a couple of new songs. A friend of mine came out dressed like leader
face with a chain saw, cut me up on stage. We played with the Dayglo Abortions
there and got in a bit of a rowel. Not with them per say but with Jacquie She booked
the show and the band she was in. It was her and Mike, nice guy. I know a few
people who know him, the guy who worked with off shore knows him pretty well.
Yeah they were playing way over into our time slot, like 4 songs or staring the
5th or something like that. And I got kind of mad and I walked out on stage
when they finished the song, shot off all the amps, grabbed the mike and said
thank you good night, which didn't go over very well. We also opened for Chixdiggit at
the Marquee and they were really cool..
And what have people from the band gone on to since then?
Yeah I
went on and did Slitch, I was in Butter Side Down for a while...that was a
little more rock and roll. I know Rob still does cover
bands... he's sort of like a hired guy, he'll play for whoever when their
drummer is sick and out. But yeah he does The Persuaders quite a bit. Rob Mills
plays bass in a band I don't know what they're called. It might be sort of
jazzy or something like that. But yeah he still plays a lot. Gord doesn't play
at all, I don't play at all anymore.
Do you think you'll ever play another show?
Oh for
sure, if we could get like No Offense or The Shitheads or Donner Party. If we
could make a night of it and get three or 4 bands from the day, that would be
neat. A couple of years ago, Gord wanted to get back together again,
but then trying to organize time that we'd all show up... They jammed without
me one night and I got kind of mad because it turned out I was actually home.
They were like, well we just assumed you were at work and I was like well you
could have called and asked but whatever.
Any other final thoughts on the legacy of Deep Woods?
I don't
know.... I've had a lot of fun, met a lot of cool people. I met some people who
weren't so cool, like MDC - Millions of Dead Cops. What a bunch of asses. Yeah
they sort of seemed nice at first, but they were staying at Jakes house. Jake
Evans was in Deep Woods for MDC. They ate him out of house and home, made all
kinds of collect calls when he wasn't around. And they went and did an
interview with Richard and then started slagging us because they didn't like
the name Deep Woods cause lumberjacks are evil cause it cut down trees. They
missed the whole fact that it was a joke. Well compared to like some other
bands I've met, like yeah they were just a bunch of burn outs. That drummer
reminded me of Jim Ignatowski from Taxi. He was literally across the street
from Jake's house trying to score crack. But I mean you know people have
problems. Yeah that's it, lots of fun, lots' of cool people, lots of fun shows.
Play the double deuce when it first started. We got in on that before
there was a stage or anything, before it was cool. It was nice to be there to
start and to finish.
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.
