Re: schizoid reissue
OK, this is a hoot. The reissue is just the left over copies of the original pressing with new covers on them. It was NOT recorded or released in '85 it was recorded in '86 and released in '87. The other guitar player was Bob Average (nee Armstrong) he is also the one who rereleased it and we all are not quite sure where the 10th anniversary thing came from. He now lives in T.O. which explains the record label thing, he used to play for Rise as well. Rod Wills plays drums, he used to play for W.A.F.U.T., Fish n Rod, the Privateers and some other bands. The thing to watch for when buying Schizoid singles is to see if you got the mispressing which has the same two songs on each side and one of them isn't even supposed to be on the record, and isn't on the real pressing. There's something like 100 copies of the mispress around. Everything else Jeremy said was correct. HUB
Re: hardship post geography and those pesky tshirts...
I'd say Seb was aware of the fact that there are 2 Placentia's. He is kinda crafty in his songwriting, and usually has stuff pretty well thought out from what I know of him. ALthough it's very easy to read far more into his songs than he put into them as well. I remember they used to do this osng called SO SUE ME. Me and MAtt Clarke used to sit back and try and figure out what it was about, we had this whole scenario cooked up and then when we asked him it turned out to be a passage from a Book he read. Hub
THAT POSTER PROBLEM
OK, Here's the scoop on Postering in St.John's and some info on how it is similar to Halifax. The city of St.John's attempted to outlaw postering on Telephone poles in the downtown area about 3 years ago. They put up about 10 event boards for public postering around downtown. These boards are too small to hold all the posters for one weeks worth of events, let alone be large enough to let people do any real advance postering. The bords are about 24x40. Obviously, some of us don't htink the boards are any good any continue to poster on Telphone poles around the downtown area. The city doesn't bother us about it anymore. They used to send nasty letters to the venues where the shows were being held but we tended to ignore them and they have never followed through on their threats to knowledge. Now here is the reason why they are pretty much powerless, and this affects every single person in this country (incl. PQ). About 3 years ago a band in LONDON ONT. called Reverend (? can't remember his nameduh) and the LOST FOLLOWERS were fined for postering on public telephone poles. They challenged the fine in court and went all the way to the Supreme Court claiming an infringement of their freedom of speech. They won! The court found that a Municipal Government cannot put an outright ban on postering on public property, they can however put controlling by-laws into place. They can limit how long posters are allowed to be affixed to poles, enforce the removal of posters after set periods of time etc. etc. This is a basic run through of what has gone down. The freedom of speech arguement is mostly based on the idea that if you can't afford advertising in periodicals, billboards etc. then you cannot advertise your product/event or voice yor opinions/ideas/art. This creates (yet another) boundary between economic classes. If you are poor, the cheapest way to get your word out is to do some hand writtenposters or photocopies and put them up for all to see. By banning postering, a gigantic segment of the population is denied acces to an open forum. So those of you in Halifax, perhaps you should be petitioning yor municipal government for a time limit on how long posters may be up for. Suggeest that they remove posters from public property only on Sunday nights, that way you could advertise all week inadvance toa a weekend gig (I assume that most events happen on the weekend, if I'm incorrect then adjust the day). If this doesn't work, well then goddamnit, it's time for ART in the name of social and political change. Make posters that are not for an event but are political statements and plaster them with wallpaper patse over every fucking object in town and let the population know that your government blows fucking big chunks of crap over the little guy while sucking up to every middle aged, power hungry, control freak deviant who claims to be an international political leader (Gfucking7) but are really part of the reason why the world is completely fucked up for every Tom Dick Harry Jane Suzy and Jennifer who don't make 6 digit salries and have government pension plans that pay them more in one year than Ihave made this decade. Go to it folks. The time for Action is Now. You have no-one to blame but yourselves if nothing happens. The government is a pawn. A BIG BIG pawn that is hard to move that one space forward but just like everyone else the government is annoyed by pesky consitently annoying buzzes and eventually would rather fix the problem than live with the annoyance. Whoah, long post, and I didn't even get to the recycling monologue. HUB
Re: MuchEast is Fulfiment?
On Mon, 30 Oct 1995, Mark Kenneth Mullane wrote: I wish someone with some clue to what is happening, would help Mike Campbell out on this one. Later, Mark Ok, here's how YOU can help clue him in. (902)453-2844 That's his number, call him and tell what's going down in your scene that he should be paying attention to. DON'T phone him up and yell your ass off at his machine telling him how stunned he is. Phone him and just let him know everytime you rfavourite band is doing something and keep him informed. If you leave enough information on a consistent basis, hew will probably come and do something when the time and band gives him enough reasons to. He's not just going to show up and cover all the local bands from the ground up. He is broadcasting nationally and therefore has responsibilty to represent bands that will have some interest on a national level, whether it be because they just released an album nationally, made an independent video, organized a festival, came up with a cool PR stunt or because the general viewership requests the information a certain band. That said, I am not a big fan of Mike or of Much East, but once we got him to come to Newfoundland he was quite receptive to our requests for interviews slots and gig coverage, and I was quite happy with what went to air even though everybody else in my band got named except me (I guess that's what happens when you tell them your name is Smug Bastard). But the fact is, it took him 2 fucking years to get here. How can you do an Eastern Canadian Music show and not go to one of the 4 provinces for 2 fucking years. Now I fax him every press release I can get my hands on, gigs, record launches, updates on the scene, and anything I can get around to sending. Come to think of it I think I'll send one tomorrow and try and get him here for New Years Eve when Potmaster, Bung and Lizband play at the LSPU HALL. HUB
Re: madonna, sean, crispin and me
Hey, Liz Pickard (of Liz Band fame) brought Crispin to St.John's too. I saw the show. He seemed like a cool guy but the readings were not what I hoped. At moments they sort of shone and made me feel like everything was going to congeal into some big picture but it never did. Now don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the show but was also somewhat disappointed. Now the ORKLY KID film was excellent. Here in Sin City it stirred a few emotions though as Crispins character was almost the splitting image/personality of Fred Gamberg, who as some of you may know was a local St.John's freak who started Best Dressed Records with me and played in Giver and unfortunatley died earlier this summer. It was too wierd, the whole film took on some other sort of relevance here. HUB On Mon, 23 Oct 1995, Michael Damian Catano wrote: i just saw crispin glover do a reading of eight of his books at the birdland. my oh my, that boy is wacky. the movie the orkly kid was truly fuct. picture this: outcast in small town dreams of being olivia newton john impersonater. he realises his dreams at a town talent show. mike
Re: the monoxides
On Tue, 17 Oct 1995, Leanne 'Eh?' Rolston. wrote: On Tue, 17 Oct 1995, Mr. Pim wrote: In my opinion, they suck. Not only are they a boring and cheesy band, but from what I've heard they are lame asses themselves. All they do is 70's rock ripoffs. Ah, but what do I know? YES! Someone actually agrees with me on the monoxides! (and I haven't been to a gig in AGES!) Let's go for 2 for 2? Horseshoes and Handgrenades? Ugh or ick? (yeah yeah, like I said - I haven't been to a gig since the Deuce closed.. :P ) Well, the Monoxides may be generic but they don't suck. And, although at times a little juvenile, they are good people as far as I could tell. I slept in a tent in Ken's yard with Grasshopper while Potbelly was on tour. Ken set up an excellent show and gave us all the money, that makes him cool in my books. Plus Dougie Fresh, ex Potbelly guitar player does their live sound now. As for Horseshoes and Handgrenades.either you love pop too much or you haven't cleaned your ears in years. HH were the only Halifax band that I've really heard that had something other than the Halifax sound going down. I only saw them once at a Murderboozecan, but they blew my mind. They play the dopest tunes, that's halifax's problem - lack of recognition of it's dope scene. HH kicked out the motherfucking jams. Sorry if I stirred shit up by dissing your home town. Hub
Re: new Sloan album
On Sat, 30 Sep 1995, Ian MacEachern wrote: It looks like the boys in Sloan had broken up just to get out of their contract with those money whores DGC. That would be it. Shawn (at heather's computer) Perhaps, but most big record contracts sorta state that if you break up then you can't play together for a set period of time under any moniker otherwise you are still under contract. I heard that Sloan had such a clause in their contract with DGC so.I dunno, what does that mean. Either they aren't breaking up for real or they've mutually ended their contract with DGC? Just some thoughts. HUB
Re: Foo Fighters in Halifax
On Wed, 13 Sep 1995, Philip Anthony Vanulden wrote: Incidently, is there a place that will book a rock'in band from St. John's called CHED? While we're there, it would be cool to play a gig with some of our fellow east coast musicians. Fil Somebody book these guys, they're worth it just for the song called HANDCUFFS (I believe that's the name). Fil, gimme a call at 722-HULA and I'll give you some numbers to call. Believe me folks, CHED have the pop thing you love so much all twisted up into some sorta boyfriend killing tribal frenzy. Love, HUB
Re: Murder album covers
On Mon, 28 Aug 1995, Elizabeth Greenan wrote: Hi This is kinda unimportant but I have to say it. Is it just me or are all murderecords album covers the clest. Ah. actually.NO. At least not in my album art taste tolerance. I find them mostly simple and dull which pisses me off cuz sometimes the music is so good. Where is the colour, where is the info, where is the packaging that I love so much? I love album art that is exciting and visually stimulating. I find most Murder albums look like art school projects. Sorry, it's just the way I think. My favourite album art lately: WHITE ZOMBIE (excellent art, tonnes of stuff to look at) FUGAZI (simple yet entrancing very nice feeling packaging that murder sort of seems to attempt but fails IMOH) FOO FIGHTERS (not too much stuff, but cool image) MIKE WATT (the album is so fucking cool, so much stuff, colourful, yet simple) PEARL JAM (Vitalogy is very nice, retro yet cool medical, lots o' stuff) As for east coast album art, Twice Removed does look nice, as does Some of the Erics Trip stuff, but none really have a plethora of images or stuff which is what really what gives me a boner. HUB
pop EXPLOSION
I hear rumour that POTMASTER are the EXPLOSION in this year's POP EXPLOSION! :) ;) HUB
Re: Hardship Post Lyrics
On Tue, 22 Aug 1995, Andrew P. Rodenhiser wrote: PPPS I'm looking forward to seeing Potmaster and Cat Racket open for Mystery Machine. Hope Birdland fixes their ads before Kat Rocket show up for the gig :) They need to fix more than Kat Rocket's name, Potmaster ain't gonna be there. Sorry folks but finances and lack of other gigs coming together in time have cancelled our trip. But we will be up for the POP EXPLOSION. I don't think we fall under the POP part so I gues we're the EXPLOSION. The Potmaster album is finally off for manufacturing so look for it in about a month or so. My apologies to anyone who shows up for Potmaster at Birdland on Saturday, but I phoned Greg Clarke and told him we wouldn't be there, I guess he just had the posters already done. HUB
Re: War of the Unyons.
On Sun, 13 Aug 1995, Alex in Fonthill wrote: The things you have to watch out for are the superficial things about a band, like their appearance and packaging. These are the things controlled not by the people who make the music, but the people who will do anything to make the album look attractive enough for you to buy. As we have grown up being blasted in the head by advertising, we rarely realize how vulnerable we are. Any band with half a brain has almost total control over their album art. And they themselves should want to go to some lengths to make the album attractive and eyecatching to help improve sales. I'd bet every band on SU played a major part in their album design, or at least had fianl say on whether they wanted use it or not. Also, to comment on your comment on the label selling the record rather than the bands music causing the sales: Don't you think that in some cases the label can get the record in stores where the band can't afford to get (i.e. Newfoundland), and then the reputation of the label may be the only reason people look at or take an initial listen to the record? It's all very idealistic to expect a band to be able to create all the hype themselves but the reason we have record labels is to help sell records. If all bands were together enought to hype their album on national scale by themselves I'd expect you'd see many more totally independent releases as the bands could make more money that way (no middle man), assuming that if they're that together they could generate the necessary funds. Since this is not the case, one must assume that a record labels reputation must have some clout in the marketplace. Perhaps it may be a bit in your face to heavily sticker an album with the labels name or logo, but would you not buy a record because you thought the label was being to in your face even though you liked the band? Sorry this discussion is running a little long but I'm enjoying the politics. Peace, HUB
Re: War of the Unyons.
On Wed, 9 Aug 1995, Alex in Fonthill wrote: Perhaps my view of what music should be and how it should be discovered is a little idealistic, but I TOTALLY disagree with this. It's not like Sonic Unyon is some giant factory full of computers that spits out records according to some formula. I did not mean to imply that ANY label spits out records according to some formula, but each label DOES actually choose what bands to release, and you should be able to get to trust the taste of the label. I don't expect a label to put out the same sounding record by several different bands. I DO expect a label to be consistent in the quality of the music they release. If I like one band on a small label, I would hope that some of the other bands fall into my area of taste as well. I prefer to treat the music I own as music/art created by the musicians, not as a commodity or product of anyone else. I think it's dangerous to generalize about music for any reason. Why buy a record if you have no idea what it will sound like? If you pick up a Sian record expecting it to sound like heavy metal, I think you're going to be let down. Well, Buying records that I have no idea about is a favourite thing of mine when I can afford it. I buy albums because I like other bands on the label, or because I like the packaging, or because someone told me it was a good record. I buy them with no expectations and hope to be impressed or to expand my horizons. In some cases I do it to support a label or band that I believe deserves support. Perhaps if I were to buy the Sian record I would be impressed, I don't listen to solely HEAVY music, I generally like lots of styles. I don't buy anything with expectations if I have yet to hear it. Buying a recording of a band's creation because you like the other work of the people who pay to manufacture the records seems to me to be on the same level as buying an album because you like the singer's hair, or because you like music by bands that have girl bass players. It's like a less serious form of prejudice. At the record store where I shop, I can listen to the album before I buy it, so I can form my own opinion about the album BEFORE I buy it. What may have originally attracted me to the album may have been a criticism, or maybe I already know the work of the band or people associated with the band. This is no case of prejudice! If I were NOT to buy a record because it was on a certain label, or because I didn't like the singers hair or because there was a girl playing bass, THAT would be prejudice. Buying a record because you like the appearance or presentation of a band is an everyday occurrence. It is part of marketing and may actually introduce you to some bands that otherwise you would never hear (and subsequently enjoy). Until recently here in St.John's you could NOT listen to records before you bought them and I'm sure it's still that way in many smaller towns, so some people are forced to buy records without hearing them and are then forced to use other criteria for buying records. Except in the case of labels like Sappy, it's futile to expect an album to sound a certain way because it's on a certain label, ESPECIALLY in the case of such a diverse label as Sonic Unyon, which runs from the heavyhardcore of Shallow to the spacy sounds of Sian. Investigate the band, investigate the music, read the interviews, read the reviews, and throw the rest out. Fuck that, buy the record for whatever reason you like. You'll be surprised how often you are impressed or excited by what you discover. I personally enjoy buying albums for the packaging, then if you happen not to like the musci you can at least put the cover on your wall. Expand your horizons, support indie labels that release stuff you like, trust them, if they fail you then stop buying their products. Don't base all your purchases on media representation of an album. Saying that labels like SAPPY are an exception is a bit hypocritical. The only consistency in SAPPY is the production quality, on other labels the consistency is in the musical taste of the label managers (the same reason SAPPY is consistent). Sorry if I was a little long, everyone. DITTO Peace, HUB
Re: Sonic Unyons are making me cry.
On Tue, 8 Aug 1995, Alex in Fonthill wrote: (much edited out)... It's true that the label deserves credit for releasing the fine fine diverse music of lake ontario to the world, and people like Treble Charger, Hayden, and other larger acts w/ releases on SU will probably not be swallowed by the giant sticker on their releases, but it worries me that people will generalize about the music coming from Southern Ontario as it all sounds like Tristan as some people would expect all music coming from Seattle to be Nirvanableach, Olympia to be Beat Happening, North Carolina to be Superchunk, Halifax to be Sloan, when we know that none of this examples are true. Why does the label need fame when its acts are successful on their own? It especially worries me because the label has TOTALLY saturated the local indie market. The reputation of the label is such that if I were to put up posters around town that say SONIC UNYON PRESENTS: Perhaps Love, Niagara's ultimate tribute to John Denver the show would probably draw 300 skaters and glitter girls. Ok, the reason the label needs fame is to help it sell the records of the bands on that label. Sub Pop bands sell records because they are on Sub Pop, AM Bands sell records cuz they're on AM etc. etc. The fame of Sonic Unyon is allows people who have heard a band on the label to know that there is a good chance they will like something else on the label. For instance, I myself have never heard any of the bands on Sonic Unyon but I know about alot of their bands because I have seen the Sonic Unyon ads and liked the style so have read articles on the bands when I 've seen them. And now with Novacain's comment on SU being a HEAVY label with some metal influences, well then I think that Smoother record may be on my to buy list. Anyways, if the labels fame helps sell some records for a band outside of their circle of popularity then thats fucking excellent. The goal of record labels is to sell records. Whether the band or the label attracts the buyer is of little consequence. If the label has a track record for releasing good records then then you're going to trust them when they release something you've never heard of. As far as I can see, SU is the only reason most of the bands on the label are now familiar names to me, it's certainly not because the bands have gone out of their way to get to Nfld so I could see them and buy their record. Sorry about my long windedness. I seem to have gone abit overboard. Anyways, label fame = band fame = label fame. HUB
Re: hardship pst
On Fri, 4 Aug 1995, Rebecca F Snyder wrote: Hi I just received 2 of the Hardship Post Sugarcane b/w Canopy 45's on Mag Wheel Records, so if anyone would like to strike up a trade feel free as I don't really need two. ttyl reb p.s. Oh yeah, the picture on the back is credited to a HUB. I wonder who that could be : Oh, yeahthat's me. :) You should also check out the Afterforever Death of One CD if you can find it. I did all the photo's and layout and design for that. The album is pretty metal, but hey it ROCKS. I also did the Bung cover and the upcoming Drive album and the oh so soon to be released Potmaster album (it's about fucking time says I). HUB (note the similarity in name to that photo dude ;) )
RE: thee hardshippe poste
The interviewee asked which place was the worst hardship post that they've played. It was a toss up between Sydney, N.S. and Saint John's Nfld. It had more to do with the place than any particular gig. jim Well I don't know if that's necessarily the correct way to interpret it. HP played 2 shows in Sydney on one night. The All Ages show was good, then they went to their hotel room and real stoned. When they returned to the club for the Bar Show there was almost no-one there and they used the smoke machine to blot out their appearance as they were stoned and paranoid. As for St.John's, HP have played some absolutely awesome shows here, with the exception of the last time they came when at the ALL AGES show they didn't go over so hot. Some kid in the audience yelled out GO BACK TO HALIFAX!, not a great homecoming. All the kids continually yelled for SUGARCANE as well which they refused to play so that pissed of some of the people. The Bar show later that night went over much better. Anyways, that's my take on the worst HP show question. Of course maybe I got it all fucked up. Peace, HUB
ET at Memorial stadium.
Eric's Trip played at the St.John's Memorial Stadium tonight, with the rheostatics and Tragically Hip. I arrived as they began their 1st song. The sound was good, I enjoyed the show, the lighting simple yet cool. Basically I know not what songs they played but it was cool. The fans seemed to dig it, although while talking to Rick afterwards they said there were people up front yelling The Hip The Hip so had to pretend it was Erics Trip Erics Trip instead. Good time. HUB
Hardship Post Hacked Down
OooH, I got some hot H-O-T gossip. Seems something is going down in the Hardship Post camp this week. From my understanding you can expect NOT to see Matt Clarke behind the drums on the big tour. I don't have the details on why, but I have heard that Matt is no longer a member of Hardship Post. Unfortunately I have not been able to get in touch with him for the first hand story. Maybe this has been blown out of proportion by the time I heard it, but I doubt it. I got word from someone very close. Anybody in the Halifax region hear anything about this? Assuming this is true, I am sorry to hear it. I thought Matt was the rock which Seb and Mike clung to on SOMEBODY SPOKE. He was the drive and power behind that record. Now, if I can just lure him back to Newfoundland. HUB
My secret life
I find it intersting that you don't dig My Secret Life, James. I htink it's one of the best songs on the album. As a matter of fact though, I do like almost every song on the album. I don't know, I'm just happy to hear some of Mike's songs after seeing these guys play together since high school and this is the first time Mikle has written ANYTHING! Matt even wrote songs before Mike. Anyways, My Secret Life is probably my second favourite or perhaps third on the album. Also, the test pressings of the album are rarer than the promos, and they don't even have the bands name on them. All the test vinyl is is a blank white sleeve and the centre label on the Record only says Test Pressing SP-289 or whatever the catalogue # is. So do I have any offers? Ha Ha. Only joking. Also, I heard the album has a bonus track not on the promos. A Husker Du tune I beleive. How about a review of that? Also, Eric's Trip are coming to St.John's! With, get this, the Rheostatics and the Tragically Hip! Can you believe it? They're playing at the STADIUM. It holds something like 3000 people, give or take several hundred. Tickets are $26! I can't believe it! I will have to shuck out the bucks though I suppose, Too bad they're not playing at a club or something. We shoulod book them to do another show under a different name if they're not aloud (sic.) to play other venues (probably a contratual agreement for a shoiw like this). Anywaus, that's it fromt the rock for now, Bung, Liz Band and Potmaster at the loft this Fri. Sat. L-O, V-E you're my little love machine (WASP) Hub.
THE Hardship Post
I believe the THE may in reference to the movie SOUTH OF WAWA in which the characters are all talking about going to see THE DAN HILL (pronounce it THUH not THEE). I saw the movie with Matt and he really thought that was funny so I'm guessing that it's his tip of the hat to that movie. Of course I'm not certain, it's just a guess. So, are you going to THE Hardship Post tonight? I just love THE Hardship Post! I can't wait to see THE Hardship Post! etc. etc. I think it's pretty funny myself. Love, HUB
