Edmonton Punk Scene

Alton Ellis

Alton Ellis was one of the main voices of rocksteady. His career stretched from ska to rocksteady to reggae. These days he looks most fondly on the reggae part. I did an interview with him over the phone in Jamaica and he was too irritable to answer any of my questions.

His show in Edmonton was in a small community hall. It was attended by an interesting population of punks, skinheads, and the local Jamaican community. He didn't go on until late so I think we were there until about 4am. That's probably why he looks so tired.

Borderguards

This Calgary skinhead band is on the list of "potentially racist" Alberta bands. Probably mostly because of what their name sounds like. It has a tendency to piss off easily irritable white anti-racists.

Wish I'd gotten this picture from the other side. Oh well, nobody's made the obvious joke yet.

Chris Murray

I don't actually have a picture of Chris Murray here, just his entourage. I think these guys were with the Kingpins. Unfortunately when Chris Murray plays he bobs his head which ruins all shots I take of him.

Deadcats

These guys are one of the only western Canadian psychobilly bands. They were entertaining to watch, particularly the fire.

Dinks

I seem to remember this guy is wearing underwear still. The Dinks are a punk rock n' roll band from Vancouver. They were panned by a lot of Edmontonians simply because they sounded too much like Les Tabernacles, never minding the fact that the Dinks have been around longer. I have a 7" of theirs where they cover "Everybody wants Something" by the Zit Remedy.

DOA

DOA came through for some reason. I think this is right after Joey Shithead made some sort of really lame duet with Bif Naked.

Emergency

The lead singer of this band is an old Scottish skinhead who used to have a band in the early '80s whose name I always forget. I bet someone will e-mail me and tell me who they were. I love the Emergency.

Evaporators

Led by Nardwuar the Human Serviette, the Evaporators are a great band with comedic and inciteful lyrics. Nardwuar is quite a character and has a long history of interviewing famous people and getting in trouble at political events. Also, he has a hairy back.

I just found my own interview with him, Jon Dunbar vs Nardwuar the Human Serviette. I hit him with some of his own cliches and got a really good interview out of him.

Fishbone
These guys have come to Edmonton more times than I have. I think I've seen them twice, maybe three times. One of those times I got to interview Norwood Fisher, which turned out to be one of my best interviews.

Fishbone is a strange band. They're one of the very few bands that can play ska-punk and still be respected by people. Unfortunately during the ska-punk craze they were largely passed over by mainstream attention, because whoever heard of black people playing ska?

General Rudie

A young band out of Montreal, General Rudie missed the third-wave rush and formed when ska was being redefined again. They play fairly traditional sounding music, but in a very poppy way.

Glory Stompers

The Glory Stompers started out in Edmonton, and I think they all moved to Toronto or something. I kind of forget the story here.

Goblins

The Goblins always tour with the Evaporators. Nobody knows who they really are, but one of the guys looks sort of like Nardwuar.

Grand Buffet

These guys toured to Edmonton with Wesley Willis. They were basically a comedy group.

JFK & the Conspirators
One of the big names in Canadian ska in the '90s, JFK brought back his band later in order to support Winnipeg ska. The problem: there were way too many crap ska bands around.

On December 31, 1998, I drove to Banff with my sister and five of our friends to see a JFK show. They were playing in a small Banff bar to disinterested mountain people, until we showed up.

Kingpins

The Kingpins were another one of Canada's main ska bands. At some point everyone left except one member, and she reformed the band as a completely different incarnation. They released one CD I'm aware of that was good but had nothing in common with the old band.

Molestics

These guys were a comedy group that played jazz. Everyone loved them.

Neckers

I don't really remember these guys too well.

New Town Animals

These guys were kind of like the Toy Dolls of Canada. They were a great band but unfortunately broke up and I think might have reformed.

Operation Makeout

These guys were a mildly successful Vancouver band. I think they were booked on the night of a much bigger show in some other venue. Whatever it was, I went to this instead.

Removal

I can't remember these guys very well at all.

Riot99

These guys are from Toronto. They came to Edmonton to record an album and played a couple shows. For a Toronto band they were very good.

Anyone know what this tattoo says?

In the recording studio with my sister.

Royal Winnipeg Porn Orchestra
An example of a bad band from Winnipeg. These guys were one of the nails in the coffin of local reggae/ska band the Operators. After the guitarist saw them he was disillusioned from ever playing again.

Six String Rebels

I can't remember them at all.

Slackers

The only band I've ever seen in both Edmonton and Korea. At this show, I got backstage with the Operators. I was poor so I helped myself to as much free beer as I could. Also I snuck my 14-year-old friend Larry inside because it was a no-minors show. He was caught and kicked out immediately.

Small Brown Bike

I can't remember these guys that well.

Spinoffs

I can't remember these guys that well.

Three Inches of Blood

These guys were a metal band from Vancouver who were popular at the time because of kind of a retro thing.

Von Zippers

One of Calgary's many garage bands, the Von Zippers were a pretty cool band to see.

Wesley Willis

A schizophrenic who wrote songs to keep control of the demons in his head, Wesley Willis toured around and played shows in front of bar crowds. The big black lump on his head comes from his habit of headbutting people.