| CD REVIEW Subhumans (Canada) |
 |
|
Band : Subhumans (Canada) As mentioned in the bio we got along with our promo copy of this CD, Subhumans was one of the two pillar bands of the Vancouver based Canadian Punk Rock scene (the other being D.O.A.) which caught the attention of Alternative Tentacles president Jello Biafra…and subsequently got a spot on the influencial 1981 compilation album Let Them Eat Jellybeans (in the case of Subhumans, that was with their track “Slave To My Dick”). Formed by original members Brian Goble (vocals), Mike Graham (guitar), Gerry Hannah (bass) and Ken Montgomery (drums)…who were known simply by their surnames (respectively Wimpy Roy, Normal, Useless, and Dimwit) in 1978, the band would undergo a couple of line-up changes, but managed to bring us a couple of landmark singles, and EP, and two full-length albums before throwing in the towel in 1982. Dimwit left the band after the band’s debut 1978 7-inch single Death To Sickoids/ Oh Canaduh, and was replaced by Koichi “Jim” Imagawa [with whom the band not only recorded the band’s untitled 1979 12-inch (containing the songs “Death Was Too Kind”, “Fuck You”, “Inquisition Day”, and “Slave To My Dick”) and 7-inch single Firing Squad/ No Productivity (these both on the Quintessence Records imprint), but also the band’s 1980 Friends Records released full-length album Incorrect Thoughts]. Second to go in 1981 was Useless. Because of his involvement in an Underground activists group referred to in the alternative press as the Vancouver 5 (mainstream press would call ‘em the Squeamish 5) he eventually spent 5 years in a prison cell (time during which he wrote a column for celebrated Punk fanzine Maximum Rock ‘n’ Roll). He was replaced by Ron Allen. Then Imagawa left, and with his replacement Randy Bowman the band recorded their (temporary) epitaph album No Wishes, No Prayers, released post-mortem in 1983 on Black Flag’s label SST (frontman Brian Goble was lured away to go play bass for D.O.A., and Subhumans played its last show in the Fall of 1982)! All of which was before the days I really got interested in Punk Rock (thanks to a couple of so inclined friends), and by that time all of Subhumans’ stuff had become really hard to get. Luckily, my friends (combined) díd have the albums, so I was enabled to at least lísten to the material a couple of times during the late ‘80s. I’ve never been able to get myself any stuff from the band (both albums and the debut single – the latter originally issued in the very limited amount of 500 copies only – were illegally re-printed at various times, even in Europe, but were rather hard to get anyway), and that’s why I’m truly glad that Alternative Tentacles got permission to release this compilation of the band’s first two singles and EP! It’s interesting to know that around the same time a Scottish band by the same name was also active. To avoid confusion, the Canadians often used the affix “Canada” to their bandname. Also important to know, is that several songs from the early material was later covered by other bands, thus not only paying tribute to the highly influencial original band, but in some occasions giving the covered tracks a new history alltogether. The song most covered was “Fuck You” [by Screeching Weasel, who included the track in their 2-CD Thank You Very Little compilation; by Germany’s Jingo De Lunch, who brought the song on the 1990 various artists’ compilation Berlin Bullets; and by D.O.A., who included the track on their 1983 single Right To Be Wild, and then also used the track on their 1984 Bloodied But Unbowed compilation album (they also covered “Behind The Smile” – one of two songs exclusively available on the 1980 various artists’ compilation Vancouver Independence, until they were included as bonuses on the 1985 CD-version of the band’s Incorrect Thoughts album – for the soundtrack of the movie Terminal City Ricochet); the most infamous cover version came from Metal act Overkill, who not only brought the song on their 1987 !!!Fuck You!!! EP and included the song in their live set for a long time to come, but conveniently “forgot” to give credit where credit was due…or pay royalties, for that fact – it’s only after a lawyer went after the labels that had issue dthe album that some money was, rather grudgingly, handed over], and Punk Rock greats MDC even recorded a cover of “The Big Picture” (opening track of Incorrect Thoughts) for their 1986 album Smoke Signals…but the cover which brought a lasting imprint to my memory, even to date, is definitely NoMeansNo’sversion of“Oh Canaduh” on their 1993 single (and babe…I dó have that one…oh yeah!). In 1995 Useless and Wimpy reformed the band (with Jon Williams on guitar and David Macanulty playing drums) for a West Canadian tour, and moving on the tour’s overwhelming success the band released a “best of” CD titled Pissed Off…With Good Reason on the Essential Noise/ Virgin label [the 24-track set-list of which not only included all 10 songs on this present compilation (including bonus tracks “Look At The Dawn” and “Pissed Off…With Good Reason” – the latter albeit in a different version) but also several of the favourite songs on the band’s two albums and a total of 6 previously unreleased tracks (3 of which written by Dimwit, the others by Useless early demo songs, most probably)] the year after. In 2005 Subhumans reformed again with Wimpy Roy, Normal, and Useless being aided on the drums by Jon Card (formerly of Personality Crisis, SNFU and D.O.A.). This time however with a different reason: not only to play the old songs, but also to write and record new material. Following a 2005 Subhumans Limited Edition Demo EP, the band was signed to Alternative Tentacles and G7 Welcoming Committee Records, and issued the 2006 comeback album New Dark Age Parade…and now that we’re reminded of its existence, we (speaking first for myself) should try and get ourselves a vinyl copy of that! Meanwhile, there’s also this re-issue of the band’s earliest material (remastered from the original source material especially for this release)…which is somewhat obsolete if you’ve been able to get yourself a copy of the ’96 compilation album mentioned above. However, that was a somewhat restricted album, and you would’ve had to go through (expensive) import channels to get it…so maybe this release has sóme use for you after all! Personally, although I can’t rate the thing (website policies concerning compilations & re-issues, you know), I’m sstill putting Death Was Too Kind in my year-lists! Vinyl junkies will be pleased to find the album was also released on their favourite music carrier medium! For those among you who’ve never heard any Subhumans (Canada) music (what’s the chance of thàt?) but are interested in vintage (Canadian) Punk Rock, you can listen to several songs by the band (some off this compilation) by looking around a bit at radio3cbc.ca (no “www.” prefix required, just the usual http:// - personally, I got the link from the band’s page at Wikipedia, which IS where I got most of the above info from, and where you can read up in more details about the specifics on Useless’ prison sentence)! Tony. |