Preview
NOMEANSNO
Saturday, May 8
Night Gallery
The people have spoken – and NoMeansNo are the people’s choice.
Appropriately enough, this is also the name of their freshly released compilation CD People’s Choice. The long-lived and much-loved band’s back-catalogue has gone out of print, and thus, has become hard to come across. But with their new distribution deal through Southern Records, that will soon change. Celebrating this mass re-release, NoMeansNo has assembled 15 of their greatest songs onto one tempting appetizer platter of old-school punk. Guitarist John Wright explains the band’s uniquely democratic approach to planning People’s Choice.
"Our record library has been hard to find since (our former record label) Alternative Tentacles went tits up," says Wright. "We thought we’d put out a best-of with songs plucked off of our releases. We asked people to e-mail us their wish lists of the set they’d most like to hear compiled. The most requested songs made it on to the CD – everything except for material from our first and last albums, ’cause a CD can only be so long. It’s great touring in promotion of the new compilation because it leaves us free to draw on material that’s often requested, but we haven’t performed live for a long time. We can really get into the obscure stuff."
Selling briskly off the stage at their recent concerts, the new compilation CD is sure to serve as the perfect means of introduction for the band’s younger fans. Combine Rob Wright’s signature bass-heavy beats and heart-wrenching poetry with John Wright’s deadly jazz syncopation and you have Victoria’s Wright brothers. Two independent career troubadours who have truly distinguished themselves as one of Canada’s finest and most versatile musical acts. With a list of aliases that also includes Mr. Wright and Mr. Wrong, The Hanson Brothers and Show Business Giants, NoMeansNo has come to symbolize longevity through diversity. To their longtime fans, they are legends. To those just finding them, they are shining beacons of virtue in a sea of mediocrity and darkness.
John acknowledges that his audience has aged with the band (he’s 42 and his brother just celebrated his 50th birthday in March). They only hope that the up-and-coming generation of music lovers will have soured on the passing trends and will be seeking out something with a little more substance. To that end, the band is currently embarking on another piece of shameless self-promotion – their debut DVD Would We Be…Live? In an unprecedented move, NoMeansNo and their Ramones-lovin’, puck-slappin’ alter egos The Hanson Brothers share the bill over the course of two deafening nights at London’s Camden Underworld. Ah, together at last.
"Punkervision, an independent production company, approached us and said they wanted to make a DVD of us," says Wright." So we agreed. They set up five cameras and patched into the soundboard while we played live in London. It went so well they asked if they could film us again when we played the same spot as The Hanson Brothers. They are just a fledgling company, but the results were good and people are finding it everywhere."
No strangers to relentless tour schedules, having just returned from a tour of the southern Mediterranean, Italy, Spain and France, NoMeansNo plan to return to Germany and Holland following their run of Canadian dates, then on to Scandinavia and The Netherlands. Phew!
"We’ve been all over the place," says Wright laughing. "We played some pretty big shows back in the ’90s. German shows that brought 1,000 people or more. Those aren’t so prevalent these days, but we still play to crowds of 600 to 800 in some countries. Smaller shows are more intimate, but the big shows bring more money. It’s a nice balance for us. In this little media world of ours it’s hard to be noticed. It’s about time." |
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