THE INTOXICATORS

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

The whole band at some unknown venue

  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.

No Offense - Split 7" and Studio Sessions
No Offense - Practice Tape (not good quality at all)

or just take a listen here:

SNOT PARTY

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:

If you don't hate that, download MP3's of both demos here:
SNOT PARTY DISCOGRAPHY

LED BY REGRET

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:

Demo tape 1998

Self Titled CD 2000

Un-released Recording 200?

LBR DOWNLOAD HERE!!!

Or listen here:

or check out the track Distraction off the s/t EP. (Fun fact: Winsdor, ON band Searching For Chin sometimes covered this song!)

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING

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 are some never before seen video from them:

And of course here are MP3's of both demo tapes:
DOWNLOAD HERE!!

Orrrrr....listen to them online here:

ALDERKNOT

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:

DOWNLOAD IT RIGHT HERE!!

UPDATE!! Found the Tumble Bug EP which you can DOWNLOAD HERE!!

Or listen on YouTube:

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: