NFA

NFA (AKA Not From Athens AKA Not Funny Anymore) were a punk band from Hampton, NB that were around in the 1990's. They were one of the premiere bands of the time and really kicked off the scene in and around Hampton. Andrew from the band answered some questions about the band in Feb 2025...and here it is. Enjoy!

band pic!

1. Who was in NFA and how did the band come together?

Classic Trio lineup Jason Ogden (Guitar and vocals) Craig Moore (Drums) and myself (Bass and backing vocals). Later extra guitar Scott Thibodeau followed by Brett Whittaker who transitioned with Jason & I into Hospital Grade with new Drummer Mike McAloon. 

There was an earlier incarnation Not From Athens (Athens, Georgia being a hotbed of music much like Seattle later was) That had several lineups I was in and out for a while.  

It was more of a Jangly REM type thing with a little Butthole Surfers on the side. When that band ended I regrouped with Jason and we had met Craig at a show my band at the time White Minority had played and found a new drummer. Decided to keep the initials NFA but it now stood for Not Funny Anymore. Our tastes had evolved into weird math pop punk madness.

live as Not From Athens

2. So from what I can tell Hampton, NB had a fairly big scene in the early 90's, and NFA was a big part of that. Was NFA the first big band from the area, or were there band before that.

Yeah for a town of about 5k population to have 5 to 8 bands on the go it was a disproportionate number of bands. Two bands started in my neighborhood that began in my basement using some of our gear to get started. The Scapegoats were the first bigger band from Hampton starting a few years before us in the mid 80s and definitely had a huge influence on us and the scene locally in general. The Scapegoats evolved out of a Band called The Brotherhood Of Evil Mutants. Members of which formed other bands as time went on.

And I can't forget Lizard. The Hampton band that moved to Montreal and gave us all the get up and go to tour and strive for bigger things than just local shows. It was a pretty tight knit scene that couldn't be contained. I did a fanzine and had a staff party at my place and ended up forming Date Rape that night followed shortly by our sister band the Moaning Lisa's. I taught Jen how to play Bass and provided the Drums, Bass and Amp for their first jams.

Flier from a Fredericton show

3. Was the Hampton scene separate from the Saint John scene, and if why why do you think that was.

Yeah , Saint John was always more metal than punk so that separated us musically, but we played the same shows and same venues and got along quite well. It became the same scene during the boom years just before Nirvana & Green Day broke open the new age of alternative/grunge. Punk and grunge were the norm everywhere with metal taking a back seat for the decade.

from Saint John in 2000.

4. You had quite a few releases. Many cassettes and a 7". How did those come about and what was the recording process like. I have noticed that a lot of bands from the area had pretty good recordings for the time.

We got whatever gear we could assemble to record with at first. From ghetto blasters with 2 built in microphones to 4 channel Radio Shack mixers that ran off a 9 volt battery and even P.A. mixers until we got wind of a guy named Rob with a home studio. The glory years began then as far as recording went. A digital 8 track with a a 24 channel console really let us capture a lot closer to what we wanted to sound like. He ended up recording quite a few other bands after we started working there as it did sound pretty great. We tried to record the 7" EP Playing Hell With Your Faith at Rick White's place but were not happy with the results and went back to Rob's Wavelength Studios.

5. Did you tour much at all? I do know you played Halifax, but did you ever make it out of the Maritimes? 

We played PEI, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec & Ontario in Canada. In the USA we played Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island & New York. Mostly traveling by ourselves but we did a tour with CATCH 23 from Fredericton in one car together (a K-Car station wagon with a sheet metal box welded on the roof.)

The aforementioned K-Car with the welded on metal box! 

Also did a few Maritime tours in support of bigger bands like GOB and CUB after booking Saint John shows for them and forming relationships with them. They'd come back the next year and have us play Fredericton, Saint John, Moncton & Halifax with them. And we actually ended up doing a cover of a CUB song that ended up on their CD Betti-Cola. We were doing demo's of some new songs and Jason thought it would be fun to do a CUB cover so we learned one and recorded it the same day. We played a few shows with them and stayed in contact with them and Jason just sent them a copy and they liked it & asked if they could include it on the "Collection of 7" singles" AKA Betti-Cola.

Touring in the US before the internet and 911 was lots of phone calls to set up. Sneaking in without work visas was as easy as telling the boarder guards we were just heading down to a friend's camp outside Bangor, Maine to play at a party. Crowds were a mixed bag of 10 to 100 at all ages shows put on by kids and bar gigs where they didn't pay unless people showed up. Sleeping in the van and overnight drives were common. Staying with the promoter was a godsend from time to time. We did one short tour where we played Fredericton then Oldtown, Maine then drove straight from Maine all the way to Halifax overnight. Hard on the mind and body. Always well received as I recall down south from small crowds to bigger ones. We thought we were playing a club called The Garage one time in NY State but it turned out to be the Garage in this kids house with like 60 kids and a couple local bands all jazzed for a touring band all the way from Canada!

6. NFA eventually morphed into Hospital Grade - what the reason for that?

Yeah as time went on we became a little more serious lyrically and musically and Craig was graduating from UNB so he was leaving to start his professional life and wouldn't have had time for the band so we recorded what became the first Hospital Grade album as NFA, found Mike McAloon to replace Craig on drums and figured it was a good time to rebrand. An indy label owner had become aware of us and flew up from Boston to see the band and signed us to release the album Written Axe To Trigger as Hospital Grade and the transition was complete. Later Brett left & was replaced with Adam Keirstead and Mike McAloon passed away after a car accident and was replaced by his sometime fill in Sean Boyer.

7. What everyone in the band up to now?

Well Scott, Brett & Craig are just living life, haven't been active in the music scene for a long time. Jason started a Solo project called Pennyblacks before the demise of Hospital Grade that morphed into a band since the mid 2000s and he plays in Papal Visit. I took a few years off from active playing, formed Punk band KILLDEVILS for a few years, took some more time off after that went down in flames. Currently playing Bass in Thrash Metal band Beyond Eternal and Metal/Punk/Stoner Rock band Stone MadeiN.

Stone MadeiN live

Download their Almost DISCOGPAHY HERE!  
It's just missing the "Full Of (Un)Comfortable" demo.

Listen to their many releases here:

NO MORE

No More were a hardcore band from Hampton, New Brunswick in the early 1990's. I first heard them on a compilation cassette from Saint John, NB called No In-City Venue. They stood out on the comp for sounding much more on the hardcore side of things, rather than punk, which was very unusual in Atlantic Canada at the time. Until recently, I had never heard any other songs by them, but then I tracked down their demo tape from 1993 and posted it on YouTube. Then I found out about a second demo also from 1993 titled "Within" that I'll be posting for the first time today. I found out they played in Halifax and somehow I missed the show! I tracked down their singer Mark in Jan 2025 for this brief interview. You can also find all their recorded material on their Bandcamp HERE! 

Band pic from the early 90's

When did NO MORE start and who was in it?  Had any of you been in bands previous to this?

We started jamming as a group of friends in middle school in 1989/90 figuring out our instruments, piecing together a drum kit, finding a basement where we could jam, locating amps and microphones.  We would have various friends coming and going as the singer, bass player, guitar player at these sessions until we could really find out who was serious and could play as well. The band NO MORE was formed from this after school jam sessions in 1990/91 when we were 15 years old. The initial line up consisted of myself: Mark Marshall, vocals, Trevor Richard, guitar, Keith Whalen, bass guitar and Craig Jardine on drums. Chris Moore, who was 3 years older, had a driver’s license, access to a station wagon for gear, and could really play, joined the group as a second guitarist in 1993. No member of the band had really played with any other bands before we started NO MORE.  

You recorded 2 demo tapes.  Could you talk more about recording them.  How many copies did you make?

The first demo tape we recorded in 1992 when we finally had enough original material and a solid set to play live. We paid $50 to track the 8 songs on a 4-track recorder in the basement of engineer Rob Lavigne, who owned his own place at the time. It was cool to be able to sit around and drink a few beers and play some hardcore without worrying about one of the guy’s parents walking in on us.  Sounds funny now, but it was liberating feeling as a 16-year-old at the time. We laid down all the instruments live and overdubbed the vocals afterwards.  

The first demo, recorded in 1992, but released in 1993.

We recorded the second demo in 1993 after we added Chris as a second guitarist and had a new block of original songs. These recordings sound much better as engineer now had an 8-track recorder and we were able to separate the mixes a bit, plus we were also a better live band at that point as well. I don’t recall too much of this session other than we laid the musical tracks first and I cut class in grade 11 to record the vocals, as the engineer was working shift work and school day was the only time he was available.  

I think we made about 30 copies of the first demo and 50 copies of the second demo. I would make the demo from my Sony tape to tape component.  

Within demo tape from 1993

Did you ever play shows outside of New Brunswick? 

I also recall playing in Halifax at a venue on Barrington Street in Halifax called Café Ole.  I do not recall the other bands on the bill but we have a few pictures of the gig. I remember setting up and then sitting in the grass on Citadel Hill drinking a few beer in the dark before the show started. We had 5 guys loaded in a station wagon with all our gear for the trip to Nova Scotia. It was a tight squeeze, but I do recall it being a ton of fun.  

Flier from Sept 10, 1993 at Cafe Ole in Halifax!

I do remember our moms having a meeting to discuss if they were going to allow us to drive down and play the gig.  Five moms sitting around the kitchen table drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes debating if they should let their punk teens pile into a station wagon to play a hardcore show in a city 5 hours from their hometown. Of course they let us! 

Live at Cafe Ole in Halifax. Diggin that Gorilla Biscuits shirt!

Can you talk more about the scene in Hampton?  What was it about Hampton that there were so many bands from there, and not from right in Saint John? 

The scene in Hampton was fun.  All the kids in the area attended the same middle school and high school, and there was a big crowd of kids who were skaters (me included), listened to thrash metal or early Metallica, punk and hardcore music.  Any time there was an all-ages show most everyone attended. Bands like the Scapegoats, White Minority, NFA, Dead Corps, Lizard, anytime they would perform everyone would come out to support. Everyone wanted to be at the show and/or a part of the show, so bands started to pop up in Hampton, including No More, Unorthodox, Stay, and NYD.  Hampton seemed to be a breeding ground for punk/rock bands – we were all just having a blast hanging out and playing music.  

Flier from July 2, 1992 in Hampton, NB opening up for Random Killing

Most bands from New Brunswick were very punk influenced, or even early hardcore (Minor Threat, Bad Brains etc) but No More seemed to have more of an influence by second wave hardcore (Revelation Records bands) as evidence by your Youth of Today and Inside Out Covers.  Where did the influence come from?  How were you hearing stuff like that at the time.  Also I assume the band is named after a Youth of Today song!

NO MORE was heavily influenced by Revelation Record artists, like Youth of Today and the Gorilla Biscuits. I think it was the vibe and the messaging. We were not a straight edge band, like Youth of Today, but I know I personally liked the positive messages, stand up and unite around what you believe in no matter the cause. We were also influenced by bands like Agnostic Front and the Cro-Mags, the heavy edgy sound. Like most kids discovering music before the internet, we did it at your friend’s place listening to records or at the local independent record shop. My older cousin had a huge vinyl collection of everything from Black Flag, GBH, Agnostic Front, Exploited, early Iron Maiden, you name it he had a copy, and I would spend hours poring over his collection anytime I was at his place. Mail order was also huge. I would order many of the Revelation artists like Youth of Today, Inside Out, Judge directly through the Revelation Mail Order catalogue. Yes NO MORE band name was borrowed from a Youth of Today song.    

The drummer rockin a BOLD shirt at Cafe Ole in Halifax

When and why did the band break up?  Did members go on to play in any other bands after?

The band broke up in 1994 when the core of the group was its final year of high school. Girls, life, jobs, secondary education plans all kinds of different reasons, got in the way of the band continuing after everyone started to go their own way after high school. We never played a show after 1994 but most of us have remained friends over the last 30+ years and still communicate regularly, visit with each other, have stood up in each other’s wedding and all that fun stuff along the way.  

Thanks for allowing me to reflect on our short-lived hardcore career.  It was fun to dive back into the memory bank after all these years.  

Recent photo of the band!

Check out their 2 demo tapes on YouTube here:

DOWNLOAD THEIR DEMOS HERE!