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zotzI've just bought a ticket to see NoMeansNo in Glasgow on Wednesday. This is an odder process than it sounds. In fact, it's got to be the oddest way to get a ticket that I've ever come across. Some people have too much time on their hands.
I first came across NoMeansNo back in the late Eighties when I used to share a place with Glen. I had - as we all had, back then - been listening to an awful lot of Dead Kennedys, closely followed by Biafra's spoken word and his records with Ministry (as "Lard", of course - one of about eight or nine Ministry side-projects - Acid Horse, Pailhead, PTP, The Revolting Cocks, 1000 Homo DJs and a couple of others, including Buck Satan and his 666-shooters, a country band than I'm not sure released anything). So when the Alternative tentacles compilation "Oops - wrong stereotype" came out, of course I bought a copy. Right at the beginning of this was the NMN contribution, No Fucking/Love Thang, two short songs with enormous poke. We thought that was terrific, of course, and went looking for their records. We also went looking for recrds by another band on the compilation, Alice Donut, but we had no luck there for quite some time.
I eventually found some NMN and a couple of years later found out that they were playing Edinburgh - Moray House Union, for those of you old enough to remember the place - so of course Glen and I went down to pay homage. Fine stuff. We did notice that the bass player - who looked nearly forty, incredibly old to be playing in a punk band to our eyes - was periodically leaping while playing, and not only was he not missing a note, he seemed to be clearing the mike stand. Not bad. In fact, the bit about not missing a note applied to all of them. They were a particularly tight band. They were a particularly good band. Glen reckoned they were the best he'd seen since Hüsker Dü.
A year or two later they were back, and so were we. Lara was along this time, and the first band on were the Probes. Astonishingly, Lara didnt realise this time that she knew both of the guitarists, and what we mainly remembered was the singer's sunhat, and a song called "Three cheers for Her Majesty the Queen". They were also terrific fun, and we chased them all over town for the next few years, until they eventually found other ways to pass their evenings. We got them to play our favourite song again, too. Once. It turned out they didn't like it as much as we did. Life is hard. "Bet you can't dance like Iggy Pop", of course, made up for it.
NoMeansNo rocked a morbidly obese one that night, as usual. Wrong had just been released, so they played Two Lips Two Lungs And One Tongue, and dragged a wisecracing smartarse (no, not me) out of the audience to play the guitar break for them. Fine stuff. Rob (bass) took the piss out of his brother John (drums) for being late for the set ("We're all here, I think . . . hang on, where's the smelly one?")
They soldiered on, releasing several more albums, playing more terrific concerts, until things seemed (to me at least) to go a little quiet in the late nineties. The last time I saw them was a bit before I left Edinburgh. They played half their set with an extra drummer, and Alex from the Probes was in the front row - the last time I saw him, actually. I missed them at least once when they played in London, and there were a couple more albums (including, of course, "Dance of the Headless Bourgeoisie"). And then, a couple of months back, I noticed or had it pointed out to me that they were appearing in Glasgow soon.
And here it got a bit odd.
The venue (King Tut's) has a website. The entry for the concert has a picture of three well-scrubbed yet casually-dressed young people in their twenties, loooking cheery, and the words
hi my name is jon from the band no means no. a few months ago psalm (my girlfriend) asked me if i would teach her to play drums. thus no means no was born. since then i have been writing pop rock songs for us to play and to help psalm learn. recently abe has been playing bass and singing with us. in the can are songs for a full-length album, plus an ep. here are two songs that will be on the full-length, "we're virgins." a website will be up soon at www.nomeansnoiscool.com. see you later.
Does this sound like the Canuck Punk Demigods we know and love? No, not particularly. So what do we find at the website? Well, go and see. It's all a bit twee, but roughly what you'd expect. There are comments that they're going to have to change their name because there's some Canadian band already using it, and links to other sites. Sites which actually exist, like http://artists.iuma.com/IUMA/Bands/no_means_no/,
where you can download mp3s and everything. Very nice sweet mp3s they are, too.
So, are we really dealing with a studenty New York band on tour being accidentally taken for a venerable punk combo? Well, they're being supported by Alice Donut in London, and the tour's mentioned by Southern records and other places besides, so I don't think so (I've bought a ticket, of course, which I probably wouldn't have otherwise). Perhaps the whole "Nomeansno is cool" site and everything linked off it has been cooked up by three Canadians with too much time on their hands?
I expect I'll find out on Wednesday.
Addendum:
They're touring after releasing a retrospective compilation called "The People's Choice", which can is described on this AT page. Have a look at the cover picture if you do go there. Tour dates are here or here. For most of you, the important bit is that it's Lodnod tonight, Leeds tomorrow, Glasgow Wednesday, then Letterkenny, Belfast, Dublin and Cork (Four gigs in Ireland? There are only six million of you. You lucky lucky buggers!).
I first came across NoMeansNo back in the late Eighties when I used to share a place with Glen. I had - as we all had, back then - been listening to an awful lot of Dead Kennedys, closely followed by Biafra's spoken word and his records with Ministry (as "Lard", of course - one of about eight or nine Ministry side-projects - Acid Horse, Pailhead, PTP, The Revolting Cocks, 1000 Homo DJs and a couple of others, including Buck Satan and his 666-shooters, a country band than I'm not sure released anything). So when the Alternative tentacles compilation "Oops - wrong stereotype" came out, of course I bought a copy. Right at the beginning of this was the NMN contribution, No Fucking/Love Thang, two short songs with enormous poke. We thought that was terrific, of course, and went looking for their records. We also went looking for recrds by another band on the compilation, Alice Donut, but we had no luck there for quite some time.
I eventually found some NMN and a couple of years later found out that they were playing Edinburgh - Moray House Union, for those of you old enough to remember the place - so of course Glen and I went down to pay homage. Fine stuff. We did notice that the bass player - who looked nearly forty, incredibly old to be playing in a punk band to our eyes - was periodically leaping while playing, and not only was he not missing a note, he seemed to be clearing the mike stand. Not bad. In fact, the bit about not missing a note applied to all of them. They were a particularly tight band. They were a particularly good band. Glen reckoned they were the best he'd seen since Hüsker Dü.
A year or two later they were back, and so were we. Lara was along this time, and the first band on were the Probes. Astonishingly, Lara didnt realise this time that she knew both of the guitarists, and what we mainly remembered was the singer's sunhat, and a song called "Three cheers for Her Majesty the Queen". They were also terrific fun, and we chased them all over town for the next few years, until they eventually found other ways to pass their evenings. We got them to play our favourite song again, too. Once. It turned out they didn't like it as much as we did. Life is hard. "Bet you can't dance like Iggy Pop", of course, made up for it.
NoMeansNo rocked a morbidly obese one that night, as usual. Wrong had just been released, so they played Two Lips Two Lungs And One Tongue, and dragged a wisecracing smartarse (no, not me) out of the audience to play the guitar break for them. Fine stuff. Rob (bass) took the piss out of his brother John (drums) for being late for the set ("We're all here, I think . . . hang on, where's the smelly one?")
They soldiered on, releasing several more albums, playing more terrific concerts, until things seemed (to me at least) to go a little quiet in the late nineties. The last time I saw them was a bit before I left Edinburgh. They played half their set with an extra drummer, and Alex from the Probes was in the front row - the last time I saw him, actually. I missed them at least once when they played in London, and there were a couple more albums (including, of course, "Dance of the Headless Bourgeoisie"). And then, a couple of months back, I noticed or had it pointed out to me that they were appearing in Glasgow soon.
And here it got a bit odd.
The venue (King Tut's) has a website. The entry for the concert has a picture of three well-scrubbed yet casually-dressed young people in their twenties, loooking cheery, and the words
hi my name is jon from the band no means no. a few months ago psalm (my girlfriend) asked me if i would teach her to play drums. thus no means no was born. since then i have been writing pop rock songs for us to play and to help psalm learn. recently abe has been playing bass and singing with us. in the can are songs for a full-length album, plus an ep. here are two songs that will be on the full-length, "we're virgins." a website will be up soon at www.nomeansnoiscool.com. see you later.
Does this sound like the Canuck Punk Demigods we know and love? No, not particularly. So what do we find at the website? Well, go and see. It's all a bit twee, but roughly what you'd expect. There are comments that they're going to have to change their name because there's some Canadian band already using it, and links to other sites. Sites which actually exist, like http://artists.iuma.com/IUMA/Bands/no_means_no/,
where you can download mp3s and everything. Very nice sweet mp3s they are, too.
So, are we really dealing with a studenty New York band on tour being accidentally taken for a venerable punk combo? Well, they're being supported by Alice Donut in London, and the tour's mentioned by Southern records and other places besides, so I don't think so (I've bought a ticket, of course, which I probably wouldn't have otherwise). Perhaps the whole "Nomeansno is cool" site and everything linked off it has been cooked up by three Canadians with too much time on their hands?
I expect I'll find out on Wednesday.
Addendum:
They're touring after releasing a retrospective compilation called "The People's Choice", which can is described on this AT page. Have a look at the cover picture if you do go there. Tour dates are here or here. For most of you, the important bit is that it's Lodnod tonight, Leeds tomorrow, Glasgow Wednesday, then Letterkenny, Belfast, Dublin and Cork (Four gigs in Ireland? There are only six million of you. You lucky lucky buggers!).
