S.N.F.U. Live

What did S.N.F.U. (more here) stand for anyway? It's pretty clear that near the beginning it was Situation Normal - all Fucked Up but the band was always cagey about its exact meaning. Sometimes you heard it meant Society's No Fucking Use or Sobriety's No Fucking Use, Stupid Name For Us or even Sally Never Fucks Us. At bare minimum that F had to be some permutation of the verb to fuck. Other than that, as the Chi says at the start of this ferocious 1985 San Diego show, the exact meaning always remained TBA.



S.N.F.U. Live CD

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S.N.F.U. - The Last of the Big Time Suspenders

When first I witnessed him, I thought Chi Pig a marvel: an acrobatic punk rock front-man, possessed of a wild head-dress of hair with a life of its own and the most ghoulish sense of humour. Mr. Chi Pig (Kevin Chinn) has led a version of S.N.F.U. for over a quarter of century of lows and highs; lost friendships, break-ups, disappointing albums and one horrifying descent into addiction.



Alongside the brothers Belke, Marc and Brent, on guitar and an ever-changing rhythm section Edmonton's S.N.F.U's hit their glory years after the (north) American hardcore scene had peaked in 1983. After so many left to play speed-metal or college-rock, those who remained in the punk underground (mostly skater kids and freaky nerds) grabbed onto this band who played as tight as a metal band but whose front-man channeled the skull-rattling energy (and unusual singing style) of vocalists like Keith Morris and Iggy Pop into some demented form of martial art.

My first witness of S.N.F.U. occurred upstairs at Wellington's (Teenage Head were playing downstairs) back in 1985, where I met the first girl who'd break my heart (Damn you Chi Pig!) It was my first real punk show, y'know, the first one where I slammed, the first one where I met my fellow misfits, and, consumerism alert!, the first one where I bought an album AND a T-shirt. The album, And No One Else Wanted To Play would dominate my listening over the coming months and I'd eventually wear the Berni Wrightson inspired T-shirt down to the threads.

Today's offering is a rarities collection from 1989 called The Last of the Big Time Suspenders but it's a minor addendum to their major work of the eighties and their inconsistent but worthwhile work since their frequent returns to action.


MRML Reader: Leave us a comment with your take on the works of S.N.F.U.

The Last of the Big Time Suspenders CD

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iTunes

V.A. It Came From Inner Space

It Came From Inner Space: The Edmonton Compilation continues a long line of regionalsitic punk compilations, really vinyl coalitions of different factions of underground music pressed to ensure their survival apart from the major label mafia.



The bands included are an an odd lot and the results sound a bit schizophrenic, like an obscurity-laden iPod on shuffle. The pre-Jr. Gone wild (more here) Malibu Kens rough out their cow-punk style, Down Syndrome thrash out a brittle, metallic hardcore, the pre-Pursuit of Happiness band facecrime ply a lo-fi power-pop, The Touch and the Thieves gun for a more rough-edged eighties pop sound, Route 66 get their kicks in the garage and The Standards carry the mod-punk banner. And then there's S.N.F.U. In 1984, S.N.F.U. were the shit and these two-and-a-half ragers justify the legend. Fuck, I didn't know till I tried to end this that an S.N.F.U. post is needed toute fuckin' suite!


It Came From Inner Space L.P.

V.A. Hard Core Logo OST

So, two years after the movie and the tribute album (see here), the Hard Core Logo camp finally got around to releasing the songs we heard and saw, imperfectly mimed, in the film. In these versions, a grizzled rock band named Swamp Dog in collaboration with Headstones lead singer Hugh Dillon (who plays singer Joe Dick in the film) take novelist Michael Turner's lyrics and rock the hell out of them. Their covers, Dead Boys, Young Canadians, along with the non-HCL songs by Teenage Head, The Ramones and Chris Spedding pretty much define the film's idea of punk.



More so than the material from tribute album, these songs represent the scuzzy heart of the film, which one of the best faux-punk movies since Ladies and Gentlemen the Fabulous Stains, which can't be too far away now...


Hardcore Logo OST CD

V.A. A Tribute to Hardcore Logo

It's tough to novelize rock n' roll. Great music, even when rehearsed and stylized, hits with an unrelenting immediacy of volume and tempo that the carefully considered words of fiction struggle to re-create. (I know it all too well, my own novel, What Went Wrong, the story of a struggling manager who tries to help a disintegrating feminist folk-punk band through their first tour, remains one draft away from completion...)


While no one book has, or likely will, completely capture rock's visceral power, much excellent literature has been written in the attempt. This massive-yet-missing list covers ones I've meant to read like Don DeLillo's Great Jones Street and Salman Rushdie's The Ground Beneath Her Feet, ones I've loved like Nick Hornby's High Fidelity, Frank Portman's King Dork and Roddy Doyle's The Commitments, dozens I've never heard of and manages to miss the very-recently-departed Paul Quarrington's Whale Music, which is a brutal omission. It also leaves off, as it must due to it's jazz-era origins, Catcher in the Rye by the even-more-recently-departed J.D. Salinger, even though that book influenced more musicians than The Velvet Underground and Nico.
Thankfully, the list does not neglect the other Canadian addition to the rock literature canon, Michael Turner's Hardcore Logo. By telling the story via set lists, phone interviews, lyrics, poems etc. Turner sets a furious tempo but his characters still ring true. The book was turned into a good, if not a truly great movie by script-writer Noel Baker and director Bruce McDonald. For an art-house movie (even a Quentin Tarrantino approved one) HCL had a lot of tie-ins including a comic book, a screenwriter's diary and two soundtrack albums. The first one is a mock-tribute album featuring The Pursuit of Happiness, Fishbone, The Doughboys (see here), Chris Spedding, Cub (soon!) and, oddly, Canada's De La Soul, The Dream Warriors and others adapting Turner's words in their own way, unrelated to the versions heard in the movie.


All lyrics by Michael Turner, music by the credited bands.

1. The Headstones, "Son of a Bitch to the Core"
2. The Pursuit of Happiness, "Edmonton Block Heater"
3. Rusty, "Let's Break Robert Out of Jail"
4. Dream Warriors, "Edmonton Block Heater"
5. Fishbone, "Words and Music"
6. The Super Friendz, "Blue Tattoo"
7. The Lugen Brothers, "Son of a Bitch to the Core"
8. 54-40, "Rock and Roll is Fat and Ugly"
9. Sol, "Blue Tattoo"
10. Doughboys, "Something's Gonna Die Tonight"
11. Chris Spedding, "China White"
12. Kinnie Starr, "Canadian Bush Party"
13. Odds, "Pipefitter's Clubhouse"
14. cub, "Who the Hell Do You Think You Are?"
15. Son, "Blue Tattoo"

A Tribute to Hardcore Logo CD