Brown Hornet- Greatest Hits (1995)

Visually reminiscent of Boris the Sprinkler, and sonically comparable to some Angry Samoans records, Brown Hornet were a cherished Essex County anomaly that i get requests for regularly. Ladies and Gentleman, Brown Hornet front man Ed LeBlanc:

"Brown Hornet got its start when JEFF (bass) and I (ED, guitar), skateboarded together back in high school in the early 1990’s. We’d skate Jeff’s mini-ramp in his backyard out in LaSalle and then jam out song ideas on his guitars. Jeff had already been playing guitar for a while and I had recently picked up a few lessons from another skate friend, Brad Matthews (RIP).

Influences around that time included many punk, indie and hardcore bands (think SST, Dischord, SUBPOP) we discovered through reading Thrasher or watching skate videos. The band name was borrowed from a character on the old Fat Albert cartoon from the 1970’s (look it up on YOUTUBE). The concept was to write short songs about random, weird topics and not take ourselves too seriously.

We eventually recruited two other L’ESSOR classmates, FRANK (vocals) and SCOTT (drums) to round out the Brown Hornet lineup. At first we played classic rock covers at school functions and assemblies. Eventually we built up the courage to play original tunes. Our first non-school show was an open-mic jam at a place in Leamington. We sat patiently through about 7 or 8 other bands. Then, right before we were about to play, a fight broke out and the place emptied out. Not an encouraging start.

The next show was at Jimmy’s Pub and it went over a bit better. It was memorable due to one band member drinking a bunch of whisky beforehand and starting off the set by puking in a bucket on stage. Despite initial worries we would not be invited back to Jimmy’s, we did go on to play there several more times between 1994 and 1995 with other bands such as The Implants, Evil Mind, Plastic Gary, and Shun. Besides Jimmy’s, we also played Windsor venues like the Coach, the Spotted Dog and the Masonic Temple.

We released one cassette towards the end of our run. It was recorded in Scott’s parents’ garage in St. Joachim, where we used to practice. It was recorded on a Ghetto Blaster style tape recorder, so the sound quality was decidedly “lo-fi.” (We had approached Leone’s about renting a 4-track machine but found their overall attitude and customer service skills unsatisfactory).

Brown Hornet pretty much dissolved after high school. Jeff and Scott left Windsor to pursue post-secondary education. Frank and I played a few more shows with JOHN on bass and GAVIN on drums before calling it quits.

Brown Hornet was great fun. Much love and respect to Jimmy’s Pub and everyone there who made that scene possible."

Related: Flying Bears of Vengeance, Way Too Gigolo, Hogfat, the Vaudevillianaires, etc.

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Holloway Roberts- S/T (2007)

In all honesty, when this band was active and this CD first came out, all i could think was 'Hot Cross'. The screamy back up vocals and some of the guitar noodling really reminded me of a mathy Philadelphia hardcore band called Hot Cross that was active in the early 2000's. Now that a few years have passed and I've listened to it with "fresh" (severely damaged) ears, the CD seems to have a lot more in common with celebrated Edmonton group Choke, with a little Drive Like Jehu lurking in the periphery. Like most young ambitious bands, they pressed way too many CD's and broke up soon after, so if you'd like a physical copy for free, contact this guy: deadmellotron@gmail.com

Related: Dinosaur Bones, Kid Brother, the Archives, Orphan Choir, Ocean Born, Radio Adelaide, etc.

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Bag- Barf (1998)

Originally 'Superbag' and quickly shortened, Bag was another Amherstburg export. This is Bag's second record 'Barf'. It's a doozy. A pummeling amalgamation of rock, metal, and grunge. I hear Tad, Jesus Lizard, some 'Bleach'. From the desk bassist of Andrew Buckie:

"Barf was our second album, it was recorded in Dan Iovino’s basement. We setup a makeshift 8’ x 8’ room with chipboard, we were experimenting with having a really live room sound and I think it gave the album a distinctive sound, you can notice the early reflections in the guitar sound. We recorded it straight up analog on to 1/2" Ampex 456 with a TEAC 80-8 reel to reel 8-track and then mixed it down to VCR tape. I made some notes below on what I can remember about some of the songs:

Bag- The vocals sound really crunchy because the song was sung through a Boss “Heavy Metal” HM-2 distortion pedal. If you listen closely at the very end after the sample you can hear us laughing our asses of because we hadn't heard the sample before, only Dan had.

Hitting a Cow in the Head with a Sledgehammer Until it's Dead- Apparently this song is about a traumatic experience Dan had while he was a kid.

The Last Song Ever- We had a mix-down party and invited a bunch of friends over. We hid a mic in the room where everyone was partying and that is where we got the sample at the beginning. For the end of that song when we were mixing it down we had a mic recording us smashing beer bottles, I think we broke about 2 cases. When we went back to listen to the results we realized that hadn’t pressed record and had to smash another 2 cases of bottles.

Sloth- This song was never released because we did some crazy mix down of it with laser and space ship sound effects or something like that and weren't happy with it. I dug the reel out a year or two later and mixed it down so we could have a decent copy of it."

Related: Ton, Blastphemy, Blackbarn, etc.

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Why Be Something That You're Not

Windsor and Detroit are forever synonymous, both geographically and musically. Fans of early 80's hardcore from both sides of the border would be wise to pick up last years book by Tony Rettman published by Revelation Records. 'Why Be Something That You're Not' focuses on the American side of the river, but a legendary Windsor venue gets a brief but worthy mention. Hardcore history in our back yard. From the book:

"Sleazy dive bar across the border into Windsor, Ontario infamous for its skillet swinging proprietor and lax attitude towards underage patrons."

-5/23/1981 D.O.A/Necros
-8/2/1981 Minor Threat/Necros/Meatmen
-9/5/1981 the Fix/Meatmen
-10/17/1981 Necros/Negative Approach/Youth Patrol/SA

the Wrestlers- "Plantasia" Demos (1994)

When first approaching people about getting material to post on this blog, my first request was usually the Implants. I'm not gonna kiss their asses too much, but suffice to say I'm excited to bring you unreleased music recorded shortly before they disbanded (by then, renamed 'the Wrestlers'). What we have here is a quick mix by Andrew Buckie of 8-track recordings intended for an unreleased album (presumably titled 'Plantasia' which is embedded in the tracks). Below is a brief history of the band by vocalist Shane Knapp:

"I think we started around 1992. I was about 17? These guys we know were putting on a show at a church, we wanted to play, so we started a band. I used to scream about high school shit. Girls, school buses, etc. I was just discovering death metal, but remember being mostly into stuff like the misfits, red hot chili peppers, descendents, sick of it all, MOD, black flag, etc, because that was what skateboarders listened to then. Anyway, I used to bug Kevin to play faster all the time. To me, every riff he wrote sounded like it was stolen from the first danzig LP. I swear Jamie played a different bass line every time, but it usually worked. Tom was just a solid as fuck drummer and a solid guy, period. I was young and naive. People told me I was a good singer, and I started to believe them. I used to try to "sing" after a while, of course it sounded terrible. We played our second show, and just about every one after that at Jimmy's pub in Amherstburg. People started to show up in droves. I cant help but think that it was only out of small town boredom, but who cares. It was great being able to skate the curbs across the street, then go in and play. Someone told us there was another band called the IMplants, so we changed our name to the wrestlers. LAME! For a while, Kevin used to play our tape at every party, or get together. I hated it, I was so embarrassed and hated the sound of my own voice. I really got sick of, and couldn't stand these songs for years. There were a lot of fights and bullshit; of course it wouldn't last. I'm glad it didn't. The jocks showed up, and beat up my friends. The skinheads came, and beat up my friends. The bikers that were already there didn't really say too much. Here are a few highlights:

-played a frat party, ten minutes in were told that all our equipment will be smashed if we don't stop.
-opened for the murder junkies in Detroit, they didn't show up. the Detroit punkers hated us.
-played Spinners, everyone stood and stared, we got paid 200 dollars!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Related: the Implants, Godinaheadlock, the Best, Val Killmore, Booga Nose Funk MC's, etc.

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