The Legend Of Curious Mold

When my buddy John McCuish was incredible enough to give me a copy of the Epileptic Brain Surgeons demo, he neglected to mention any details about it, or even merely explain what was awaiting for me on the flip side of the tape.

Much to my surprise there was a demo recording on the other side of the tape from yet another local band called Curious Mold. I immediately questioned John about this and came to find out that both bands had recorded their demos in the same day at the singer from Curious Mold's house. Or maybe they recorded in John's basement, I can't quite remember now. John went on about how much he loved their music and how great of guys they were. Word had it they would party at his house on weekends while both bands jammed.

As I delved into the demo I became more impressed and more energized as the tape played on. Mold were punk to say the least, and much like their pals in EBS they definitely had a sense of humour which came through in the music. With song titles like "I wanna be an anarchist but my parents won't let me" it was safe to say these guys were on the comical side. They even had their own renditions of the Sesame Street theme song as well as James Bond's theme from the 007 films.

Mold brought it all to the table, speed, heavy ness, comedic elements, cover songs, and they even payed homage to our home town of Bramalea in one song. Mold had their own dance affiliated with them as well, the "Pogo" which is pretty self explanatory. Even the pogo had its own song "Pogo or Die" complete with a fancy intro in the vein of Suicidal Tendencies "possessed to skate"

When I finally started meeting the guys in Mold I was a bit taken back. While walking with Mike Myre in the mall one day we ran into their drummer Sean and bass player Darcy. Sean was a skyscraper of a lanky dude with long hair and he was dressed in typical thrasher fashion. Darcy seemed like a normal looking guy and he barely said a word while Sean orchestrated the conversation with exaggerated facial expressions and light hearted ness that had us all laughing.

A few weeks later I was walking through the mall with Pooh when we ran into their guitarist Jason a.k.a. Bones, who despite his averagely long hair seemed like a quiet, regular, down to earth thrasher.

Not long after I was fortunate enough to be hanging with the EBS boys one weekend when they revealed the fact there was a small party going on at the singer of Mold's house. His name was Mike but everyone called him Beekford, or Beek for short. McCuish was always going off about how Beek was the man, but once I finally met him I couldn't figure out why. Beek looked like some normal, generic dude. He didn't dress like a punk or have anything that really stood out about him....until he opened his mouth. Within minutes I could see why everyone praised him so much, the guy was hilariously funny, the life of the party, and everything that came out of his mouth seems like words of gold to me.

I finally got to see Mold perform at a basement party in Brampton and it was awesome, especially since I was now familiar with their tape and I could sing along and thrash out to their tunes. Beek was one hell of a frontman who commanded your attention and had you hanging off his every word.

Sadly I never got to see them perform much nor did I really get to know them or become friends with them until decades later, but in my mind they were the ones who started the whole hardcore scene in my hometown of Brampton.

There may have been others before them that I don't know of that will forever remain ignorant to me, but as far as I'm concerned my opinion stands as such: without Mold there would never have been a scene that led me down the path of getting into playing in bands.

Even though I had a band before I knew of Mold its the six degrees of separation that have brought me to this conclusion. Long live the memory of the kings of 80s Bramalea G-section basement hardcore punk rock! Without you there is no us...

http://curiousmold.bandcamp.com/

North of Hell

No sooner than I had acquired my copy of "Reign In Blood" I caught wind that Slayer had a new record that was being released, I read about it in one of my metal magazines where I got all the inside scoops, or maybe I read it in Thrasher magazine...none the less there was a new Slayer album coming out and I was pumped up about it!

As soon as the chance presented itself to me, I was on the first Go bus to Toronto, home of the infamous record peddler. When I walked in the first thing that caught my eye was the new Slayer album in all it's glory, emblazoned with their sharp logo, and a big skull with an upside down cross through it, looking like some gnarly stained glass window into hell. The album title was quite suitable for Slayer as well, "South of Heaven" I also picked up a cassette from a punk band my good old pal John McCuish had introduced me too, they were called Minor Threat and the release was called "Filler" the cover photo was of a skinhead punk sitting on some grungy steps with his head hung low, almost in defeat...but this tape was nothing but winning!

Filler was similar to Reign in Blood in one aspect, the songs were so short and energetic, to the point that the entire album fit on one side of the cassette and all was repeated on the second side. Minor Threat weren't necessarily heavy since they were a punk band and not a metal band, but they delivered their songs with equal speed, aggression and conviction that was parallel to any thrash band. Every song was solid and I just couldn't stop listening to it over and over again. Minor Threat was my first step across the bridge into a new world of hardcore punk.

I finally peeled myself away from the tape player and dropped South of Heaven on the turn table. This album was quite different from Reign in Blood but it was still incredible and jam packed full of killer songs. Slayer seemed to slow the tempo down a bit on this release but there was still an abundance of speed. The songs just seemed more structured with a lot of signature changes. They had definitely evolved and matured as a band yet they still stayed true to the Slayer formula, and they were quickly becoming one of my all time favourite bands.

Still soaring from the high of this new Slayer album, I caught wind that Slayer were coming to Toronto to perform on their 1988 "World Sacrifice Tour" and it was finally time for me to goto my first real concert...

Reign In Blood

Haunting The Chapel was a fairly decent Slayer album but it was also the only Slayer album I owned so I didn't have much to judge or compare it with, until one specific day.

There was nothing special about this day, I woke up, showered, went to school for the day, went home, had dinner with the family, and then headed to the Bramalea City Centre like any other regular old day.

While putting my hours in as a dedicated mall rat, I was in HMV records, a newer music store that had opened in the mall. As per usual the clerks paid me no attention, as they were used to seeing me in there rummaging through the record bins. HMV now had what I refer to as a "dump bin" full of cassettes. A dump bin is a small display that is usually full of random items that are being sold at a sale price. On this particular day there were two cassette tapes in the dump bin that caught my eye and my attention, "out of the dark...into the light" by "Kreator" and "Reign In Blood" by "Slayer" I swiftly slipped both tapes into my pockets and got the fuck outta dodge.

I was so excited to listen to the tapes that I dipped out of the mall early and headed home. Kreator were pretty cool but the cassette didn't leave that great of an impression on me, the Slayer tape on the other hand blew my mind! The entire album was just shy of 30 minutes in length and this was the first tape I'd ever seen with side a and side b all on one side of the tape. The other side was exactly the same, two sides on one side.

The music was a lot different in comparison to "Chapel" this was a straight out thrashing assault of the senses. The songs were, short, fast and heavy as hell! The song "Necrophobic" became my instant favourite as I had never heard something so fast! Even with the lyrics included in the cassette sleeve it was hard to follow along. The opening track "Angel of Death" was definitely the masterpiece of this release, re telling the story of the Nazi holocaust, and it had that killer riff I was so familiar with from the power hour intro on much music as well as Public Enemy's "She watch channel zero"

The album cover was quite interesting and unlike any cover I had ever seen. It looked like a painting from the renaissance period and it reminded me of something I'd seen in art class during the art history portion, somewhat in the vein of a Hieronymus Bosch painting.

I rarely ever listened to "Chapel" again because in my opinion this release was light years ahead of it and it was the epitome of the true Slayer sound. I never imagined it at the time, but Reign In Blood would live on in history as a timeless classic, and Angel of Death would go down in the books as quite possibly the greatest thrash song ever created!

Dis iz why I'm hot

Well here I am apologizing yet once again for dropping the ball this week on blog post entries. I spent the first half of the week being trained for my counter balance operators license. For all you simpletons reading this, I am referring to a fork lift. As happy as I am to be fully licensed now, it did cut into my time enough that I didn't get a chance to write. So here I am now finally putting words down.

Although my time has been tight this week I did manage to produce a new track for my ongoing remix project. The new track is a remix of "Dis iz why I'm hot" by Die Antwoord. If you've never heard of them, Die Antwoord are a South African hip hop/techno group consisting of three members, Ninja, Yolandi and DJ Hi-Tek.

My good friend and former band mate Mike Myre introduced me to Die Antwoord (translated as "the answer") last summer. At first I wasn't really that impressed with them but I couldn't deny the fact that they had skills, and their music videos were quite stimulating to the mind. One day I decided to show my son Gabriel one of their videos. Gabe was quite taken back by it and he found the video somewhat disturbing. Despite all that he couldn't stop singing the song for the rest of that particular weekend he was with me.

Over the last 6 months Gabe has requested to watch their videos on YouTube every time he is staying with me. Needless to say the group has really grown on me since. Two weeks ago we were watching their video for "dis iz why I'm hot" when the video ended there was a message stating that you could download the acapella version of the song from their website and create your own remix for the song with it.
Since Gabe loves them so much and I have an appreciation for them as well now, I decided to do my own version of the song that I have dubbed the "Reek Mix" as I was partaking in some "reek kush" when I made it. You can have a listen to the song at the link below and it is also available for free download.

Kabal.bandcamp.com/track/die-antwoord-dis-iz-why-im-hot

For more information on Die Antwoord be sure to check out their official homepage at:

www.dieantwoord.com

Heavy Metal Party pt. 2

After a week of anticipation that felt like a month, Friday was finally here, the day of the party! When lunch hour hit I headed down to the plaza for lunch so I could give the guys the details and address. Once the final bell rang I rushed home excitedly to prepare for the evenings festivities. Jerry and I would be attending the party as partners in crime. I don't recall how we did it, but somehow we acquired a 24 case of beer to split, if memory serves correct it was Molson Canadian. I don't remember how we got to the party but I'm assuming we took a taxi or got a ride from Jerry's brother, to avoid getting fined by the police for being underage in public with alcoholic beverages.

We were so eager for this night to begin that we ended up going to Lydia's fashionably early, like 5pm or so. There were just a handful of people there, most of whom were helping Lydia with the preparation for the party. Jerry and I cracked a beer, lit our cigarettes, and found a comfy place to sit. Over the next few hours people sporadically started showing up, but not the people we were waiting for. Finally around 8pm the dudes showed up. There was Noel, Spicoli, Dove, Chunk, James, Cummer, and a few others who's faces elude me. We greeted the guys and joined them sitting in a circle on the floor. By this time Jerry and I were already halfway through our case of beer.

It didn't take long before the joints surfaced and started working their way around the circle. A few people who we didn't know were trying to get in on the action but the boys would have no part of them. They did however offer to sell some hash to these strangers who willingly accepted the offer. I don't even really recall seeing much of Lydia that night even though she was my girlfriend. Since she was the hostess she had her hands full with all the party goers, as I had my hands full of doobies and my new found friends. As the party was going on around us we never broke our circle for the entire night, it was almost as if we were having our own party within the party, which was fine with me as I was taking the opportunity to try and bond with my new buddies.

It felt like we were down in that basement forever, when in reality it was only about 10pm. The next thing I knew Lydia's older brother showed up with a group of his buddies. They proceeded to kick everyone out of the house so they could have their own personal party. As soon as I hit the fresh air the 12 beers and countless spliffs hit me like a ton of bricks. I lied down on the front lawn watching the star filled sky spin around me in circles. One of the guys was slowly walking down the street puking every few steps, creating one long runway of barf down the road. All the guys thanked me for inviting them and they all headed in separate directions respectively to retire home for the evening.

As me and Jerry began walking we noticed Spicoli stumbling down the street a few metres ahead of us. I called out "Hey Shayne, where do you live? Which way are you walking" to which he responded "Mine! Mine! Mine! It's all mine!" the famous line Daffy Duck would use when he was blinded by greed. I continued trying to communicate with him but it was hopeless so we left him alone and continued our journey home. I had never been this messed up in my life! I couldn't walk a straight line to save my life and I kept cutting Jerry off of the sidewalk. I believe I ended up crashing at his place that night.

Even though the party was cut short it was a blast and a half, and to this day it still stands in my mind as one of the best parties I have ever attended. It also stands as a right of passage and the pinnacle of me getting in with the guys that I longed to become friends with. It was the beginning of a new chapter in my life...

Heavy Metal Party pt.1

While the scent of fall was fresh on the falling leaves, an event of epic proportions was about to take place. My girlfriend Lydia, one half of the Sacrifice sisters was throwing a party. I saw this as the perfect opportunity to seal a spot amongst the older thrasher guys that I looked up to and admired. I knew they loved to party so I figured what better way to solidify a new friendship, I would invite them all. Of course I double checked with Lydia to make sure it was cool with her....or did I?

Pizzaville was once again the backdrop. A few of the dudes were hanging out in there as usual, eating slices and pumping quarters into video games. I came in and asked one of the guys they called "Chunk" if there was anything going on this weekend. He shook his head from side to side and replied "Naaaaw" I could clearly hear the disappointment in his voice. I casually stated "oh my girlfriend is having a party this weekend do you want to come?" Suddenly Chunk's eyes widened and his smile rose like the morning sun, he eagerly responded "yeah???" I said "Yeah man, you guys are all welcome to come" By this time the rest of the guys were paying me their full undivided attention and the spotlight was on me. Here was this dirty skater punk, a saviour, blessing the guys with a party on what would have been a dry boring weekend for them, something they were not accustomed to. The next thing I knew the guys were all chatting me up, asking questions, and treating me like I was one of them.

I suppose bribery had something to do with their new found interest and time for me and I accepted that. After all that was kind of my plan in the first place, dangle the carrot and the donkey will follow. Nowadays I'm not the type to try and buy people's acceptance or friendship but to a naive high school kid it's one of the only ways to gain acceptance at times.

Needless to say I was quite happy. as the week progressed the guys were talking to me every day and treating me like an equal despite the age difference. I don't know who was more excited for the party, me or them. Regardless of that, the stage was set, the seed was planted, and come Friday night it would be time to party with my new friends...

Off The Waller

Hanging out with Mike and Pooh definitely came with its benefits, like meeting a whole new circle of friends from all walks of life, punks, thrashers, skin heads etc. as well as former EBS members and current ones, like their vocalist Steve Waller.

Steve was a bit on the shorter side and was usually adorned with converse sneakers, camouflage army pants, chinguacousy hockey jacket, staple punk band t-shirt, and bandana. Although I've mentioned Steve before in this blog I am currently referring to the first time I met him, which was in the old food court of the Bramalea City Centre. Steve was a ball of energy, very similar to the way he was while performing on stage with EBS. Like the rest of the surgeons, Steve had a very comical nature to him and it was plain as day to see that he was a good guy.

One day he showed me his homemade tattoos that his friend Bryce did for him. Steve had two tattoos, both of which were images familiar to me that I adored, the Accused's mascot "Martha Splatterhead" and the Santa Cruz Slasher, one of my all time favourite skateboard graphics. With both Mike and Steve sporting tattoos, I was determined to get one sooner than later.

Steve also had a bit of a twisted and sick sense of humour, a pre requisite for being an Epileptic Brain Surgeon it seemed. I truly believe that Steve got a kick out of shocking people and/or making them uncomfortable or grossed out at their own expense so he could have a laugh. Steve also always came out with hilarious and provocative statements, one in particular that I still remember to this day, which was "Did you know if you get a boner while you're taking a shit it means you're gay because you like the feeling of things going in and out of your ass" words of wisdom no doubt to a naive 15 year old dirt ball such as myself.

Steve also shared another common bond with the other surgeons which inspired me the most, being straight edge. For those who've been living under a rock, Straight Edge is defined as someone who doesn't smoke, drink, do drugs, or partake in sexual acts without being in love with someone. Well they all lived up to that except perhaps the sex part. I just loved how these guys were always sober yet they were so high on life. All around me my friends were relying on drugs and alcohol to have a good time, yet here were these straight guys having more fun than everybody! Anytime I hung out with EBS I knew I was in for an interesting day full of laughs and craziness. In fact I was so inspired by this that I myself decided to become straight edge. Unsurprisingly it only lasted a few days since peer pressure is a motherfucker when you're in high school, but I still appreciated and admired my straight edge friends. As far as I was concerned they were the most stable, and strongest willed people that I knew...for the time being...