FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1997. All Rights Reserved.


Headstones with Kybosh
Wednesday, June 11
at the Republik

It's amazing what a couple of gold albums can do for your acceptance in the music business. When the Headstones released their debut CD, Picture of Health, in 1993, radio and video outlets in Canada weren't too eager to give the Toronto act much exposure. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing. It helped the band - especially Bad Boy frontman Hugh R. Dillon - cultivate their rock 'n' roll outsider, we-don't-give-a-good-goddamn image. They seemed to revel in the fact that they weren't a part of the Canadian majors' status quo (or the Status Quo, I'm guessing).

But all of that has changed. The Headstones are now one of a small handful of national bands that have survived long enough and been successful enough to have some clout in the industry. "Cubically Contained," the first single off their third album Smile & Wave, was added almost immediately to most of Canada's commercial rock stations as well as put into heavy rotation on MuchMusic.

"I'd like to think that we're thought of in the same breath as the top five good bands in Canada," says guitarist Trent Carr during the Headstones' recent stop in Calgary for the Red River Relief concert.

"Everything gets a little easier," Dillon admits about their inclusion in the upper ranks. "There is a sense - especially with a band like us - of proving yourself because people think that you'll explode or implode or simply go away.

"It just got easier just from the simple fact that we're consistent. We play all the time, we keep comin' back. We hammered away at it and kind of earned our acceptance. You still have to play well and be a good band, you can't get by on your rep."

Not that the Headstones' - and again specifically Dillon's - reputation has hindered their climb. Their songs about rock 'n' drugs 'n' vitriol, which are once more a common theme on Smile & Wave, are a lot easier to swallow (or mainline) with their ex-junkie lead singer's rebel yell and dancing-with-his-self snarl. It also made it easier to believe him in the part of a hard livin' old punker in Bruce McDonald's Hard Core Logo. (People Magazine update: Rumors are true, Hugh did in fact meet with Quentin Tarantino, who is negotiating to release Hard Core Logo in the US, and who asked Dillon to read for a part in an upcoming film.)

"I don't think it's worked for us," Dillon says in denial. "Ultimately you live or die by the records you make. If you suck live or your records suck, I don't think you'll be around too much. It wouldn't matter what your rep was or how you were received in the past, if you can't do it, you can't do it.

"And anyway, with any reputation, half of it is true and half of it isn't. If you piss off one one person and they tell 10 people, your side of the story is rarely reported."

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