The Re-Birth of Thrash

I called Georgina the next day, and we started hanging out on a regular basis. She was a very cool, laid back, down to earth person, and she knew quite a few people from my circle of friends. She enjoyed being introduced to new music, which was a specialty of mine, so needless to say we hit it off. One day we were hanging out listening to the newest Slayer album "Seasons in the Abyss" when I made the realization that the record was now two years old and there hadn't really been much new thrash music to hit the scene. I had gotten so involved with hip hop music that I had lost touch with my roots to a certain degree. Derek was also introducing me to new music all the time as well. Perhaps the combination of the two had set me off course. But even when I flipped through the pages of M.E.A.T., Now, Eye, Maximum Rock and Roll, etc. I wasn't seeing any of the bands I was familiar with. Groups like Soundgarden, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam were getting all of the coverage. It seemed like Grunge was in and thrash was out. These were dark days for metal.

Then one day George came over and she decided to return the favour of musical introduction. She had brought a Cro-Mags cd with her, a band I was familiar with. I did not however own any of their material, so I was more than happy to dub the cd to cassette. George also brought a second cd with her that had just been released a few months back. It was called "Vulgar Display of Power" from a new band on the scene called Pantera. I popped the disc in the CD player and sat back to listen. Right from the get go I was captivated. The music was heavy, the production was great, and the song writing was brilliant. In a time when it seemed like Thrash was about to die, Pantera had breathed new life into the genre. I felt fortunate that George had opened my eyes to this band, and of course I copied the cd to tape. It would now receive endless plays in my boom box and my Walkman. I vowed to fly the thrash flag with pride, and I would strive to keep my eyes and ears to the ground so I would never lose touch with the music most important to me.

I was really starting to develop feelings for George. I was rarely in Brampton, but when I was I'd spend most of my time with her. One day I finally built up the courage to tell her how I felt about her. Much to my surprise, she didn't harbour the same feelings. She considered me a good friend and nothing more. I was baffled. I couldn't figure out why a girl would kiss me, give me her number, spend all of her time with me, and then just want to be friends. I was hurt, confused, and conflicted. Being a young man, it's hard to just be friends with a girl you have strong feelings for. It became harder and harder for me to hang out with George, so I slowly started distancing myself from her, focusing more on the band and rekindling friendships with my Brampton boys.

Grasshopper was still blowing up. We were getting more gigs and we were still playing shows regularly at the 1150. It seemed like every time William New booked an up and coming band he would give us an opening slot. This was quite exciting to us, as we were making new friends and new connections in the industry. Our songs were starting to get a bit more refined and we were writing new material. We planned on going into the studio with Dummy for June, but that was still months away. So we decided to make a new demo tape. I had been playing around with Derek's four track recorder over the last year, so I took on the production duties.

We set the gear up in our jam space in Dawn's parents basement and we were ready to roll tape. We spent the day laying down tracks and I was quite surprised by the final outcome. The recording sounded just as good, if not better, than the Slow Poke demo Alvin had recorded for us. The three of us were quite happy with the finished product, and we now had a newer, updated demo tape to shop around. 

We just had to come up with a cover concept for it...

The Songbird Connection

Things were definitely starting to look up for us as a band. We had a solid lineup, we'd played a few gigs, we did some interviews, and we were making new, great friends everywhere we turned. We started frequenting a new music store that opened called "Songbird Music" they had the coolest new and used vintage gear, instruments and accessories. Derek never liked going to "Steve's Music" as they made him feel dumbed down with their inferior knowledge. At Songbird everyone was friendly regardless of their knowledge. They also had better prices and they were amazing at repairs. It was at Songbird that we first met the best repairman Jeff, and his band mates Dallas, Bernie, and Ruston. They had a new up and coming band called "The Satanatras" 

It didn't take me long to realize Jeff had been in a Toronto hardcore band I knew from a few years back named "Guilt Parade" I had seen them open for Day-Glos, at my first punk concert ever. I also owned the Guilt Parade album on vinyl, so it felt pretty special to be hanging with someone I considered a local legend, and I made no qualms about pumping his ego up at any given chance.

One day while chatting with the boys, Ruston asked Derek and I if we could drop him off at home, to which we agreed without question. We piled in the van and Ruston handed me a blank cassette tape followed by the statement "You guys like rap right? Check this out" the tape opened with an aggressive beat, loud gunshots, and samples of Al Pacino from the film Scarface. This shit was loud, heavy, and angry....just how I liked my rap. "Who the fuck is this?" I asked. Ruston replied with two words: Geto Boys.

I had never heard of the Geto Boys, but this shit was heavy! What made it even cooler was the fact it was produced by Rick Rubin on Def American, the same record label that Slayer was on. Rubin had started Def American as the metal offshoot of Def Jam. I always thought it was so cool that Slayer was the only metal band on a rap label, now Geto Boys were the only rap band on a metal label. I instantly fell in love with Geto Boys, so naturally I rushed out to buy the cd. I was quite taken back to learn one of the rappers, Bushwhick Bill, was actually a midget, a term that isn't no politically correct by today's standards. I thought it was the coolest thing. This gangster little person who looked like he'd fuck you up in two shakes of a rattlesnakes tail.

Growing up I had a knack for discovering new, unheard music, and I couldn't wait to get back to Brampton to spread the gospel of the Geto Boys. I hadn't seen Shayne or many of the old thrasher crew in ages, so I stopped by his place to catch up and expose him to some new music. I was surprised to see he had cut his hair off, was working a suit job, and he had no interest in hearing the Geto Boys. In fact he wouldn't stop going on about how the new Guns & Roses double album was the best thing going in music. I was speechless....guns n fucking poseurs as I used to call them. I hated them. I hated Axel's winey voice. I hated the fact this hardcore thrasher was praising them. I really couldn't figure out what had happened to Shayne. All I knew was I had to get out of here and find someone else who would appreciate the Geto Boys, which I eventually did. The majority of my friends loved it, and went out of their way to track any material down from the boys.

Somewhere along the line I had become a single man again. I honestly for the life of me cannot remember how or why it ended, but Sue and I went our separate ways and I was on the prowl once again. I didn't spend much time in Brampton these days, but when I did, I'd usually goto Ci-Ci's bar&grill with Jerry, Foxy Bano, and James. It was here one night, not long after breaking up with Sue, that a very attractive young lady randomly came up to me out of the blue and kissed me. By the time I was done seeing fireworks she had handed me a piece of paper and walked out of the bar for the night. I opened it to see a phone number and a name....Georgina...

Grass Hopping

Mike C agreed to help us out and fill the bass player position for Grasshopper at the zero hour before our next gig. We would be playing with Goat Dance and MudFish, 2 bands from the Pickering area we had met at our first gig. Mike learned the songs in no time and we put on a pretty damn good show, better than our first performance. Mike was intended to be a hired gun, but he ended up staying with us and now Grasshopper was set in stone. We had the itch to play more gigs, but we were still getting turned down by promoters. Derek caught wind of an event called "Elvis Mondays" at a club called 1150 (named after it's address 1150 queen street west) Elvis Monday was a free event that gave up and coming bands a chance to showcase their talents. It was ran by a fellow named William New, a tall lanky white guy with dreads. Rumour had it he was an ex heroine junkie. We set up a meeting with Will and went by the club to meet him. He seemed to enjoy our demo and he was more than happy to give us a spot on the next Elvis Monday. 

The following Monday we played and won the crowd over. Prior to the show Derek had made some stickers up for us using iconic images such as Sesame Street characters and comic book heroes like Spider-Man. We spent an hour or so before the show cutting out the stickers we had printed at Kinkos. The crowd seemed to love our free merch, and everybody wanted to get their hands on some stickers. By springtime we had played many Elvis Mondays and people were now half heartedly joking about how we had became the house band for the 1150.

Everywhere I went in the city now it was common to see Grasshopper stickers. Our name was growing and spreading as was our reputation. Derek and his girlfriend had closed their store down due to financial issues, so now Derek and I spent our days on the corner as vendors, trying to sell off the leftover stock from the shop. You could find us in front of the Black Bull on any given day, peddling our wares with no permit to do such. The streetcar stop at that corner was now littered with Grasshopper stickers. People knew this as our "turf" and everyday we'd meet interesting people, spot the odd celebrity, and catch up with any friends who happened to pass by.

One day the Goat Dance boys were in the city and they asked us if we'd be into playing a gig up in Pickering with them, to which we eagerly agreed. We figured some out of town exposure couldn't hurt. The day of the gig arrived and we packed up the van and headed east. We were a bit taken back when we arrived at the venue to discover it was a community rec centre. We were to play in a gymnasium, which seemed odd to us. The place ended up being packed with kids, and we got great reception. The highlight of the day for us however was one of the acts we played with. They were called Y.A.P. (Yet Another Posse) a white suburban rap group with two MCs, a guitar player, and a DJ. It was really cool to see some other white boys rapping and doing their thing, much like Three And Pass was trying to do.

We chatted the guys up after the show and gave them our respects. We liked their band, they liked our band, so naturally we all clicked really well. We spoke of doing more shows together in the future, until a young lady approached us asking if she could interview us for her fanzine. Our first interview! I was starting to get a taste of what the rockstar lifestyle was all about. After the interview we were approached by the fellow who was the sound man for the gig. He was a tough looking guy with long hair and he was decked out in black. The guy introduced himself as Marc, but people called him "Dummy" Dummy showed great interest in us. He told us of how he recorded the Y.A.P. demo tape, then went onto express how he would like to work with us in the studio. We exchanged numbers and called it a day.

The next week the Y.A.P. boys invited us up to their neck of the woods to party, so we graciously accepted. We painted the town, then retreated to a house party, where we continued on with the pot and booze while listening to a new rap album that had just been released by a new group called Cypress Hill. I instantly fell in love with them. We headed back home in the wee hours of the morning and retreated to bed. A few days passed and we received a phone call from Dummy. He had secured us some studio time in the city with a producer named Pete Hudson, who was somewhat of a high figure in the production world.

We were all quite excited to be heading into a real recording studio for the first time...

Update 3/30/2014

I just wanted to take a quick minute and apologize for the lack of posts as of late. I came down with some sort of nasty virus and was bed ridden for the week, so needless to say I didn't really have the creative juices flowing to write some entries. Fear not, I'm back to 100% and ready to tackle more stories with a vengeance. 

It also looks like myself and Mach Spitz will be heading into BWC studios ASAP to lay some vocals down for the new Godzilla Monsoon project. I'll be sure to keep you posted!

It looks like winter may finally be over now too after a long six months of sucky ness, I sure as hell hope so! I hope everyone can finally enjoy the weather and get back to comfortable living! Cheers!

Bleaching Killer Bees

Before I jump feet first into the year 1992, there are a couple of important musical happenings I've overlooked from 1991. The first being in June of that year, the band Anthrax put out a new release entitled "Attack of the Killer B's" a collection of b sides, singles, and cover songs the band had recorded. There were some pretty cool gems on this record, and a few not so desirable songs, but there were two songs in particular that did it for me. The first was a 91' redux of "I'm The Man" the rap/metal song Anthrax did in 1987... The one song that essentially changed me as a person. The new version was done with actual drum machine beats instead of their singer Joey on drums. The vocals were all re done and they even added in some new extra lyrics. It was pretty exciting hearing a new version of such a beloved classic.

The second song in question really got me excited. It was a cover of Public Enemy's "Bring Tha Noise" and it was heavy! Guitarist Scott Ian did the rapping for the last two verses and Chuck D from P.E. did the first two verses. This song was absolute perfection to me. The proper mixture of rap and metal brought together in harmony. They even ended up putting out a music video for the song, which I watched countless times. It always pumped me up and had me wanting to throw down in the mosh pit.

The second happening didn't seem like that big of a deal at the time, to me it was just another concert. But now looking back, I realize exactly how fortunate I was to have been in attendance. Derek, much like myself, had a knack for discovering new unheard bands before the mass media and public got their hands all over them. He was the first guy who introduced me to grunge music before the scene blew up, and he had also introduced me to all these new bands I had never heard of such as Steel Pole Bathtub, The Melvins, MudHoney, Temple of the Dog and Nirvana, just to name a few.

Nirvana however, was the band Derek liked the most. He played me their first album "Bleach" and I absolutely loved it. I quickly showed it to my friends, and my buddy James and I concluded they were kind of like a Motörhead Jr. Derek told me of how the first time they played Toronto only 7-20 people showed up. That's how low key they were at the time. Now he had informed me they were coming to play Toronto in September, so naturally we went out and got tickets. The Melvin's would be the opening act and the show would take place at The Opera House.

The day of the show I actually had a rehearsal for my Uncle's wedding that I was to be a groomsmen in. It was in Toronto, so as soon as things wrapped up, I hopped on the subway and was off to meet D. We headed to the show and found a comfy spot in the upper balcony area to watch The Melvins. I was somewhat familiar with their music, but on this particular night nothing was recognizable to me. For their entire set it felt like they would hit a note, let it ring on for as long as possible, then repeat the process. It seemed as if the whole performance was just droning noise, but they actually played the entire Eggnog EP. I dug it.

Nirvana finally hit the stage, so D and I hit the floor, positioning ourselves to the right of the stage in front of the speaker stacks.  We had acquired a demo sometime back of their newest album "Nevermind" which had just hit stores, so we were more than familiar with all of the material they played. As we rocked out in the pit things were getting congested and uncomfortable, so Derek started head banging wildly, his chunky dreadlocks smacking  people in the face, causing them to back out of our personal bubble. What a great guy to be at a concert with I thought to myself. Nirvana put on one hell of a performance, and we were right there the whole time giving them all of our energy.

At the end of their last song, their frontman Kurt Cobain dove onto the drums, causing the kit to dismantle. From there the band started trashing all of their gear. Kurt swung his guitar around, smashing it off speakers, the drums, and the stage. I had never seen a band do something like this with the exception of Pete Townshend from The Who, who was famous for smashing his guitar, which I had only ever seen on tv. It was wild to witness such carnage in person, and according to Derek they did this at the end of every gig. I couldn't figure out how an unknown band could afford to wreck their gear every time they performed.

I left the show that night in absolute awe and bliss. I chalked it up as another concert ticket stub to add to the collection in my wallet, but I had no idea exactly how special the night was. Nirvana's "Nevermind" would soon blow up, bringing the band into the spotlight of the media, creating stars of the Seattle Boys, one of whom would go on to take his own life and become an icon in the music world...

3 n' Pass & Hopping Grass

Somewhere along the line, Derek managed to pick up a small four track recorder, so we could now record our own songs and jams. He let me borrow it for awhile and I ended up recording some raps over live jams Mike, Mike, and myself had done. We had recently started writing some rap songs, and now we had an opportunity to try and record some stuff. I used my dads trusted jvc tape deck to loop the opening beat from Led Zeppelin's "immigrant song" and dumped it in the four track. Myers brought his Casio keyboard so we could add some synths, and Mike C provided the scratching via an old 70s turntable I had. It was so cheaply designed that we had to tape a few pennies to the arm so the needle wouldn't jump when Chapman was cutting up the records. 

We spent an afternoon messing around and we had our first official song. We sat down and wrote the lyrics together so we coincided with each other, then we recorded those too. We now had our very first song "The Immigrant Rhyme" and we came up with a band name, "3 n' Pass" which had dual meaning, one referencing joint smoking etiquette, the other meaning 3 guys passing a microphone around all the Beastie Boys, who were clearly our biggest influence. We were all stoked and I immediately designed us a logo based off the new explicit warning labels that were slapped on most rap and metal albums.

Meanwhile on the band front, we had our second gig booked for the end of February at a small club called the Niagara Cafe, which was at Queen street and Niagara st. I can't quite recall if it was before this gig or after it, when Derek thought we needed a name change for the band. Since this band was his baby I left it in his hands. D ended up coming back to me with a list of slang words for a pothead. As we scoured the list together, one name really stuck out to us.... Grasshopper. We both decided it was a great name, so from now on there would be no Slow Poke, just Grasshopper.

A mere week or two before our second gig, we were approached by Nav, who decided he didn't want to be in the band anymore. I think he was still really bummed out about our first sloppy performance and he didn't think we were ready to play live shows. Nav was a pretty talented player, and deep down I honestly believe he felt embarrassed or held back having to dumb down to our level of musicianship. But hell, we were a "grunge" band on the cusp of a new genre, a genre that was basically slowed down punk rock, and in my opinion sloppiness was apart of punk, which carried over into the sloppy, loose grooves of grunge music.

Needless to say we were in a bit of a pickle. The show was coming up, we had no bass player, and even if we found one they would still have to learn all of our songs in a short period of time. We ran an ad, made some calls, networked with our friends, but we kept coming up short. Then one night while hanging in D's basement, I was telling him about our 3 n' Pass project when he had an epiphany "Why don't we ask Chapman?" he blurted out. Mike and Derek had played in The Stiffs together previously, Mike and I were now working on music, so we figured it was worth a shot.

Now our future was in the hands of the one and only Mike C...

On With The Body Count...

1992 had definitely started out with a bang, and I had a feeling this year was going to be even more incredible than 1991 had been, and based on the course of my life it seemed like each year had got better, so naturally this HAD to be an epic year. February was already upon us, and the first big show of the year was days away. Ice T was coming to play the Concert Hall. One of my favourite rappers at one of my favourite venues, I was amped. If that wasn't cool enough, his thrash band Body Count would be opening the show. They had played a few songs at Lollapalooza the previous summer, and one of their songs was featured on the newest Ice T album "O.G.", but I was really curious to see these guys perform a full set.

When the show arrived I was there with Sue and Derek, I can't remember if Derek's girlfriend came with us but that's besides the point, and if I remember correctly Mike Chapman and Mike Myre were there as well. The opening act was a new up and coming band called "Hard Corps" they were also an all black group that played heavy rock/rap type music. They were all decked out in militant camoflauge and their energy was quite high. Nothing about the band was extremely amazing but they were definitely entertaining. The highlight of their performance was a rendition of AC/DC's "Back in Black" which was really cool, but now it was time for Body Count.... Or so I thought!

I assumed Ice T, being a big name rapper, would headline his own show, but instead Ice T performed first and would be followed by Body Count. I can remember thinking this was so odd, but now as a singer/vocalist looking back, it makes sense. If Ice performed with BC first, he would be blown out physically and he probably wouldn't be able to rap as smooth as he did with that golden voice of his. So here we were watching Ice T open for his own band, and he was killing it! He busted out all the big hits and his performance lasted roughly 60-90 minutes, which in my opinion was amazing for a rapper to perform that long. 

At some point towards the end of the set, the performance transmogrified into Body Count. The BC boys slipped on their instruments, Ice T let his hair out of its ponytail, and they commenced with the thrashing. I found it odd, seeing Ice in a metal shirt with cut off sleeves, his long hair flailing as he head banged... It was almost surreal. I was definitely in heaven. If you've half heartedly followed this story then you are aware of my love affair between rap and metal, and now here I was in the middle of the two as they became one. It was pretty magical seeing Ice work the crowd once again. He had an uncanny knack for demanding your attention and keeping it, as everyone was in his hand and hanging on his every word.

At one point between bands, my girlfriend Sue approached me with a few guys and said "I'd like you to meet a few of my friends" I turned and looked to discover it was those guys from Demon Barf again! Everywhere I went they seemed to be. Clearly we had the same tastes in music. Being your typical jealous, angry, controlling 19 year old angst ridden man, I naturally assumed any guy friend of a girl was merely just trying to get in bed with them, but as I talked with the DB boys for my first time, I quickly discovered such was not the case. The guys were very nice and respectful, and they put in effort to converse despite me having an attitude and being stand off-ish. As much as I didn't like these guys (for no reason) they had earned my respect in the past as a band, and now they had earned my respect as people. I left it at that, although in my mind I figured I'd probably never hang out with them or even talk to them again... Boy was I wrong!