Zine - Full Blast #1

Full Blast was the second zine that Louanne started doing. Louanne used to do a zine called Tunga Tunga and the editorial pages of this issue explain the new zine and Louanne's newfound love for the garage inspired scene of punk that was happening in the early 90's. Full Blast became one of her expressions for this scene. Louanne also started up a record store at Bloor and Bathurst by the same name. I bought many great records here.

Something unique about this zine was that Louanne started the issue off with record reviews, whereas most zines buried them in the back. Louanne landed an interview with the New Bomb Turks who were just getting known at the time and inspired a lot of people to garage inspired hardcore. Louanne also did an interview with Screeching Weasel when they played hat the Silver Shack on March 14th, 1993. There is also a piece on the Cult of Camille Paglia that was a reprint of a letter from the Village Voice. there was also some zine reviews which show a snapshot of the time and includes a review of the Smash the State book that had just come out and is arguably the most important Canadian punk book to have come out.

Flyer - Friday, December 10th, 1993

DOA "The Only Thing Green" ep

This was a benefit single for the "Friends of Clayquot Sound" done by Alternative Tentacles. My brother was out there around this time and said the deforestation was just unbelievable. He sent me an arial postcard which looks like someone had shaved the earth. It was aweful because they were clear cutting. The B-Side had a cover of Jhnny cash's "Folsom Prison Blues".

Propagandhi "How to Clean a Couple 'o Things" ep

This came out on Fat Wreck Chords. The songs on here are:

1. All Cops are bad, You Know...

2. Stick the Fucking Flag up your Ass, you Skinhead Creep

Flyer - Saturday, November 27th, 1993

Blundermen "Blunder on Bikini Island" 10"

This is a record I put out on my label Ragamuffin Soldier Records. The band featured Pat Laso on bass, who used to sing in Kops for Christ, Niall Carsons on vocals and guitar, and Jon Harvie on drums and vocals. Jon and Niall went on to play in the Blastcaps and Warface and a few other side projects. They released a demo before this and recorded this at Rumenal studio, which had more to do with knowing Mike Pedrow from the Soup Club. Rumenal was his next venture. The songs on here are:

1. Don't Wanna Hear

2. Wasted Days

3. Atrophy

4. My Train's (Still at the Station of the Crass)

5. Objector

6. Fears of Yesterday

7. Greedy Hands Reaching

Flyer - Friday, November 26th, 1993

Flyer - Saturday November 20, 1993

Release - SNFU “Something Green and Leafy This Way Comes” LP

Taken from excerpts in Chris Walter's "SNFU...What No One Else Wanted to Say".

"Something Green and Leafy this Way Comes" was recorded in August 1993.The album was recorded at Westbeach Recorders which is Epitaph's studio.

The band had waited months for Donnell Cameron to produce the record who after one day of recording checked himself into rehab. The band defaulted to using Joe Peccerillo who was Cameron's engineer. In hindsight the band feels that they should have waited on recording this.

The record was not the furious blast of old school punk that earlier albums had been, it capably demonstrated that SNFU was not ready to call it quits. Unfortunately fans did not immediately grasp the experimental tone of the album, and it would never get the props it desrved.

The band would shot a promotional video for "Reality is a Ride on the Bus" back in Vancouver. The band hired Dave Rees` brother-in-law who took live footage and random scenes of people riding the bus and blended them together. the video also has band members sitting in a bar wearing bus driver uniforms. In the last scene the band members chase a bus down the street and it fails to stop.

"Something Green and Leafy this Way Comes" was released in Mid-November by Epitaph Records. This was the first release on this label.

Although "Something Green and Leafy this Way Comes" wasn't what some people expected, the release is not without charm. The album opens with the catchy "Àll Those Opposed" in which Chi Pig thanks his parents for the support they offered him as a kid. Rob Johnson's bass leads the track.

"Reality is a Ride on the Bus" was written by the singer on his way to practise while riding the bus. The song starts off slow and then picks up to what folks are use to hearing form this band.

"Joni Mitchell Tapes" was inspired by a man who survived a bad car accident only to be trapped in the wrecked vehicle while Joni Mitchell played endlessly on the tape deck. This is one of Chi's favourite on the album.

"A Bomb" is not a song about nuclear war. It is a song about AIDS, which has killed mor people.
"Tin Fish" recalls subversive  submarine that fails to save the song's protagonist.

"Painful Reminder" concerns a crush the singer had on his grade eight teacher. He changed the sex of the singer from male to female to make it more palatable to the hetero world.

"Costume Trunk" refers to Chi's box of props, which he would dip into when the band performed live. The song is a metaphor for his sexual orientation.

"Gladly in Gloom" is about Chi's mom, but seems to reflect his own reclusive lifestyle.

"This is Goodbye" was written for Jon Card who the songer had all but given up for lost.

"Strangely Strange" is a song about Chi's mental state in which he declares being "Happier than a shit covered fly".

"X-Creep" is a revenge story in which an abused woman turn the table on her tormentor and sounds inspired by his mom's experience.

"Trudging" describes the need for the singer to get away from his band mates.

"The Great Mind Eraser" is a song about a man who had the power to wipe his mind of unpleasant thoughts.

"Limping Away" deals with the physical and emotional pain.

"Seven Minutes Closer to Death" is a 30 second piece about smoking.

"The Watering Hole" ends the album and is an ode to community bars.

The album is well written with loads of songs but lacks a stand alone hit. With exception of "All Those Opposed", the album does not have a song like "Time to Buy a Futon" or "Victim of a Womanizer". The gems on this record tend to blend in with the rest.

This was the band's first album in five years, it was the band's fifth album and their first on Epitaph Records.

01. All Those Opposed
02. Reality Is a Ride on the Bus
03. Joni Mitchell Tapes
04. A Bomb
05. Tin Fish
06. Painful Reminder
07. Costume Trunk
08. Gladly In Gloom
09. This Is a Goodbye
10. Strangely Strange
11. X-Creep
12. Trudging
13. The Great Mind Eraser
14. Limping Away
15. Seven Minutes Closer to Death
16. The Watering Hole

Flyer - Saturday October 30, 1993

Chokehold "A Window in a Prison of Hope" LP

Different packaging for the "Prison of Hope" LP that was recorded in April 1993. This was released on Conquer the World records. The songs on here are:

1. Turn the Page

2. Depopulation

3. Deaf to Reason

4. Lies

5. More Than Ever

6. Deception

7. Existance

8. On Fire

9. To Kill A Coward

Flyer - Sunday, October 24th, 1993

MPA "Strang from Endville" ep

This was a split release between Scratch Records which is a record store in Vancouver and Break Even Records. There was 1,000 pressed.  Clarinet and recorder warning. The songs on here are:

1. angry sock puppet (1:38)
2. trampolintophobe (0:32)
3. ketch (0:52)
4. om (part one) (0;06)
5. om (part two) (1:05)
6. hydrwurm (0:36)
7. dreden/10:01 h/13.2.45 (0:21)
8. jazzbo (0:45)
9. vigesimal reckoning (0:47)
10. human hornette hybrid, variations 1-3 (1:33)

Kops for Christ ep

Kops for Christ were a hardcore band that started up after the brake up of One Blood and Crisis of Faith. Paul Abrash got the band together and played drums in this band as well. Pat Laso sang in the band and this was before the Blundermen started up. Shawn Blondin was a promoter and animal rights activist in peterbrorough and he moved down to the city and played bass in this band. And a guy named Pete was the guitarist. The name of the band comes from a real christian cop group that exists within the force. An aside note is that the acronym was a reinterpretation of the chicken chain, which most of these guys were vegetarians. This recording happened on December 6, 1992 by Glen Talsky and was released a year later. The record was released by Gusher Records. Songs on here are:

1. No Bras, No Choices

2. Serve to Oppress

3. The Nuclear Nightmare

4. Receds for Our Children

5. A Fascist by Any Other Name ...

6. Free Palestine

7. Conspiracy in Action

8. One That Worked

Flyer - Tuesday, October 5th, 1993

Phallocracy "The Vulva Crunch" 10"

Lyric Sheet

The "Vulva Crunch" was recorded back in 1993. This was self-released on the band's own label called At Your Servicks. Phallocracy was the contrinuation of members of BSL. The songs on this are:

1. Power 30
2. I Saw Elvis and He's a Pig
3. Religion Shouldn't be this Way Either

4. What Goes Around Comes Back Again
5. Don't Treat Me Bad

6. Outside Looking In

7. One Good Reason

8. Eat My Caviar
9. Gap

10. The Pain

11. Love is Murder

12. Hair Shirt

13. Suck Me Dry and Call Me Dusty

14. Sermon on the Mount
15. In Between

Chicken Milk ep

This was Chicken Milk's first official release. Dale Morningstar recorded this at the Gas Station. The band featured Lisa Myers on guiat and vocals, Sara Montgomery on guitar and vocals, Sally Lee on bass and vocals, and Laura lee Petty on drums and vocals. The first pressing was 1,000 copies on green/blue marble vinyl and a second pressing was done. Side A was 45 RPMs and features the song "You Get Nothing". Side B is at 33 RPMs and features "Outside My Window" and "Sink". This record was released by Fans of Bad Productions and was the label's sixth release. This was co-released with Whiskey Sour Records.

Problem Children "The Kids Next Door" CD

 

The last release by Problem Children was the "More Noize from the Playpen" cassette which came out last year.
Since then the band has been writing and touring and with that comes personnel changes.
This recording represents almost a completely new line up with the exception of the principal song writing Jamie.
Joining Jamie is Craig from Mr. Nobody who has replaced Barney Rebel on bass and Dan from Babies with Rabies has replaced Greg from Brontocurchrock on drums.
Jamie's wife Jen and Christina from HOCKEY TEETH join in on the gang vocals and the back ups are the best I have heard from this trio, which is more like a quintet now.

"The Kids Next Door" is the fith release on Problem Children Wrekords, but this one has some additional help from En Guard out of Montreal.
I think En Guard was an Entertainment newspaper with a punk focus.
Mike Pedro from the old Slither Club recorded this at his Mississauga Studio known as Rumenal, which quite a few people have used.
The subject mater hasn't veered straddling social issues with having fun.

The songs on here include:

1. Beer for Breakfast - A light hearted drinking song which fits in with other songs like "Plastic Liver" and "Beer and Guitars"
2. Fed Only Lies - This is more of a ripper which is pointed the failure of elected politicians to deliver on their promises
3. Bitter - This is a song that Jamie wrote about Barney and how they came to part ways. The middle has a dub part that Problem Children can pull off.
4. What's going On? - This is a song about cops and was inspired by a real life incident where Jamie got busted for drinking in someone's apartment who lived above a short lived show space knwon as the Fallout Shelter. He was there for a food bank benefit and jamie got into it with them and this song expresses some of what happened.
5. Hunters - A great animal rights song written about hunting
6. Borderline - a song about learning your limits specifically when it comes to anger
7. Left for Dead - Another rager where the band feels that people may have thought they broke up but they didn't. I often wondered if this became the namesake for the band from Hamilton that came out in the late 90's but members in Left for Dead didn't know about the song.

8. Fly - A song about getting away.
9. The Enemy - Judging by the liner notes, this looks to have been a favourite of the band Rabid Defiance. It does remind me a little of DOA's song by the same name.
10. Ugly - This is a song about being on the road and the toll touring takes on you.
11. You Got No Heart -
12. World Full of Assholes - Sums up eveything with a playful take on the Dr. Pepper jingo at the end
13. Believe -
14. Havin' a Good Time -
15. We Won't Go Home -
16. The Kids Next Door - Another great outsider anthem, which sounds autobographical about living in a house full of punks.

 

Here is the lyric sheet in pieces:

 

Stumble Records has put this up on i-tunes which is the only place I have ben able to find it. Go to https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/the-kids-next-door/id559587480

 

Flyer - Friday, August 27th, 1993

Sparkmarker

Sparkmarker were from Vancouver. Kim Kinakin used to be in Fratricide and started up this emo inspired straight edge band. Shawn Scallen did the cover photo hence the name of the ep. There is a very Dischord house a la "Salad Days" looking photo on the back cover. Heart First released the ep. The songs on here are:

1. Character 1

2. Speaking of Heroes

3. Instrumental

Flyer - Saturday, August 21st, 1993

Shiner "Slightly Polished" ep

They were from Victoria. this self-titled ep was released on Slow to Burn Records. Dave and Wade who ran this label were in Shiner. Afterwards they joined forces with Chris Iler of Fans of Bad productions to start 10 Dead Men. The songs on here are:

1. Burnt
2. Later
3. Lost at P's
4. Six Minus Three

Shotmaker ep

This is one of Shotmaker's first releases. A close friend of theirs, Daragh Hayes, released this on a label he did that only released this one record. The label was called Kung Fu Enterprises and was named after Daragh's love of the Kung Fu series as a kid. This is my favourite Shotmaker release. The record had the following songs on it:

1. I Say

2. Nick's Question

3. In Betweens

Resin Scraper "Rally Round the Fun with..." ep

Resin Scraper were from Ottawa. I think someone in the band was involved in Birdman Sound, which is alegendary record store in Ottawa. Birdman Sound is the label that released this ep and it was limited to 300 copies. The songs on here are:

1. Crash Course

2. Losin' Your Mind (Lazy Cowgirls cover)

3. Starship (MC5 cover)

M-Blanket "Seen It Coming" ep

Slow to Burn released a bunch of BC based bands. M-Blanket was one of them. I think there was six releases in total. The M-Blanket record contained :

1. Pyjama Song

2. Mayonnaise

3. Doubt It

4. Pillbug Arena

5. Jaywalker

Flyer - Saturday July 17th, 1993

Flyer - Saturday, July 17th, 1993

Flyer - Thursday July 15, 1993

Zine - Rivet #1

This is the first issue of Rivet fanzine. This fanzine was produced by Stacey Case who would go on to be a DJ at CIUT hosting a show called About Town. Stacey would go on to do many things for this city like Cut and Paste and sing in Spittle, but this project preceeded all of that. There are a lot of great reviews of local demos. This came out in the Summer of 1993. Click on the image to download a copy of this issue.

Strain were a straight edge band from Vancouver. Most of their records got released on Heart First records in Germany. The songs on here are:

1. Driven

2. Second Coming

Flyer - Friday, July 9th, 1993

Flyer - Friday, June 18th, 1993

Flyer - Tuesday June 8, 1993

Flyer - Saturday, June 5th, 1993

Flyer - Saturday June 5, 1993

This was the first set of reunion shows that One Blood played. Charles Maggio of Rorschach came in from New York to see the show. This was a benefit for Rock Against Racism.