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happy new year

Of
the

... when my wife says, "see you in a bit" I always
reply, " I'm not a horse," but she's usually hung
up the phone by then ... and all my friends have
been trying to tell me " nothing weird is really happening , Ammo, it 's all in your imagination ," and
for once I'm going to agree with them , that the
truth is too horrible to tell , for the Night is young
and we don't want to scare off the innocents ...
oh , the joys of being an aging rocker-of having
this absolute need to really get out there, at the
same time as knowing you mustn't make too
much of an ass of yourself, so you tiptoe on this
precipice over the Abyss of Loneliness (don 't
laugh , I got it out of my Grade One Piano book)
aiming to Get Down and Do What 's Right and
some yahoo with his head in the shit starts yelling " faggot! " between songs, or " we wanna
rock! " or, better yet, "get off the stage! " as if his
peculiar tastes and prejudices should be accom-·
odated at all times ... no, there wasn't much headbanging going on at the 3-night INDEPENDENT
MUSIC FESTIVAL presented by COLLECTORS
RPM down at the New York Theatre. Lots of
scapegoats for that ; the snow, high ticket prices.
Christmas, the snow... must we go over this old
argument again? Van . is not a "small scene"; it's
just highly incestuous, always in need of " fresh
blood " and deathly afraid of getting AIDS from
the transfusion ... the track marks I saw on one
young girl's wrist looked amazingly like some wild
moviemaker"s impression of suppurating sores
left by Dracula's canine incisors-later that night
I woke up in a sweat, to note down the scary
dream I had in which my friends were turning
into the Living Dead. Extremely cinematic times,
these ... like, I was watching the black bits between
the frames as a bottle hurtled end over end above
the dancing fools at the BLOWOUT Nov. 30 at
the Grandview Legion , right for the cranium of
Jim Cummins, the " I" in I, BRAINEATER: if I
was on the light board I would 've thrown in the
strobes-and the old trouper didn't miss a beat.
How could he, with powerhouse drummer ANDY
GRAFFITI bashing away beside him? What an
animal! Quick as a wink up pops Jim's goon
squad from backstage, all astrut with storm
trooper boots and wrist bands atwinkle, scanning
the hushed masses for signs of struggle. Then
down the stairs they go, after the oh-so-polite
Western Front bouncers, to settle a demon back
into the dust; there's one droog who won't be
chucking empties for awhile .. .my press pass
holds no water with the Video Inn doorstaff, but
Western Front personnel are much more understanding to poverty-stricken intellectuals like my
other self ... still , I missed the JAZZMANIAN
DEVILS again! From all reports, this cross between Bolero Lava and Rhythm Mission plays

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9

cle Built For Two." A 45-minute one-woman oneact play ensued , called DIGRESSIONS, done by
Sharon Broccoli. She is a very funny woman,
entirely self-possessed, totally captivating. It was
the monologue of a "star" before her mirror,
reveling in her fantasies of all the other stars she
hangs out with and complaining about the harshness of the real world . She drinks, smokes,
dresses and makes up till you believe she could
handle the life of a star despite her evident
neuroses. At last she changes into (gasp!) a
grocery store cashier's outfit . A tour de farce ...
'PAUL PLIMLEY's OCTET finished off the evening , leaving me to wonder why I bother going to
hard core gigs. I mean , these guys can really
play! Graham Ord on alto sax is the man to
.g watch , and Plimley himself displays virtuoso
•0 technique on the vibes through some incredibly
~ complicated charts written by himself and tenor
~ saxophonist Coat Cook. With this calibre of
postpunk '50's bopjazz, if you can stand it, and
musicianship available, discriminating audioI think it would appeal to me, but there's no
philes in Vancouver need not feel they're stuck
accounting for tastes. Does Vanessa really sing
in some hick town nor anarchist ghetto; sure,
Billie's hit " Easy Livin'? " Wow, what a crossover
some places have a dress code, but what's your
.. .Though the sheer . volume of the BEVERLY
wardrobe for.. .the handbill for PSYCHOSCHISISTERS' set at the Legion knocked me off my
ZOID's performance last night at King Studio
seat and tumbled me passed-out into a corner,
said to wear black and I did, but mainly because
I had a tolerable drunk with the fellas Dec. 14
my car died. They were terrible. I guess they
at the annual Emily Carr College Christmas bash
meant to be. For cnis I missed four decent bands
in the Concourse of that fine insfitution ... ttiis· time
at the York? ... admitting you have a problem is'
the Bevs were downright funky, and I had a'
the first step towards solving it. The next is wanplaster grin plastered across my plastered
ting to cure it. Scott & Josie of HUMAN BEING
face ... quite a change from the scene at the
SONGS say " wake up, it's time to go to sleep."
WAREHOUSE BIG BASH December 11th at the
My shrink would approve. They're celebrating a
Heritage Hall , Main & 14th. I'm talk ing respecyear of togetherness, but as Josie was heard to
table here .. .these two performance nights were
sing , " I want more." To which poetess Diane
held to raise money for the hydro bill at the
Wood extemporized , "she wants more/more of
WAREHOUSE SHOW, and if you don't know
what/more of this/U cant Xtend/momentary bliss"
which warehouse I mean , go back to the beach ,
... so a lot of MINK's real friends got upset
you ostrich. The performers were prevented from
when I sniped on his false friends last THNCK.
doing shows at the Warehouse by the Fire MarWell , all I can say is, you know who you are, and
shall so organizer Eric Wyness rescheduled it ;
you know who they are, and may the twain never
the evening I attended opened up quite innocentmeet again .. .unless it's in the thick of The Night,
ly with some modern piano pieces and a solo
with no-one to watch and no-one to keep the
flute spot by Janet Brown, followed by four very
score ...Good-bye to 1984; may it remain my
amusing songs sung by alto Charlotte Kennedy,
leanest year! Happy New Year . ..
sort of music hall stuff, including ·" I'm In Love
.... . ... yours ever, the irrepressible
(With a Gay Man) " which comes off like "A Bicy-Ammo Fuzztone

BRING IN THIS AD FOR A 10% DISCOUNT UNTIL JAN. 31, 1985

January 1985

11

2
R

Rhy1hm is their method, Mission is what they're on . Up until now they
were Vancouver's best kept musical secret. A dance band . A band of
contradictions. A band with a big beat. A beat with a big band . A band
apart. Six members with diverse backgrounds and tastes. Take four parts
AKA, two parts Exxotone, one part Payola$. Stir occasionally. The
resulting mix yields six servings of Jazzmanian Devils, Rockin' Fools,
and until recently, Naked Edge. It's actually much more involved than
that, but you're probably confused enough already. So we now move
on to the matter at hand .

{R

Rhy1hm Mission are, in no particular order: Dennis Mills, ex of AKA
and now also leading the Jazzmanian'Devils, who sings, writes, and plays
a brutal alto sax . He is iilso a pastry chef at a "politically correct"
restaurant. The amazing beat brothers are Warren and Warren-Ash on
drums, Hunter on bass. Both are also ex of AKA and Exxotone and of
Trevor Jones' recent outfit, Naked Edge. Scott Harding and Lee Kelsey
(ex Payola$) are the real live musicians of the group. Scott on guitar,
Lee on the dancing keys. Not to end it there, we have the amazing Andy
Graffiti, also ex of AKA and currently with the Rockin' Fools. Andy sprays
the icing on the cake with some of the tastiest percussion heard this
side of Deep Cove. The North Van pop mafia strikes again!

h

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Formed in late 1981, Rhy1hm Mission played some forty gigs before
disappearing in late 1982. They resurfaced this past summer with renewed enthusiasm and a new member, Andy Graffiti. Gigs are somewhat
sporadic due to the number of ongoing band commitments on the side.
Things look good however...

i

I

s
n s
0

I

0

n ---------Dennis Mills

~

~

... *

*

li ttle while after the New York Dolls split up, their guitarist, Johnny
A Thunders
did a vers ion of th e Shangri-La's hit " Give Him a Great
Big Kiss ." This is perhaps the best example ever of a song that is so
bad that it is very good indeed. Thunders, in general , is a good example
of a guitarist who was usually great live or, on occasion , out of control
and sloppy, but still great because of the energy and the attitude. This
brings us to a new Vancouver Group, My Three Sons, who took third
place in the recent SHiNdig finals. They 're one of a number of great new
bands, like Out of Proportion, or the Reptiles, whose energy and live
performances more than make up for the fact that their songs could ,
at any time, crash headlong into chaos.

While Lee and Scott have had the "formal" training, Dennis proudly
proclaims himself and the "Beat Brothers" as "authentic punk musicians! " As well as being extremely dynamic live, Rhy1hm Mission are
tight and well orchestrated . One is hard pressed to separate the "punks"
from the virtuosos. A dance band they definitely are. Delight and dilirium
ensue at each and every gig, the musical integrity and thoughtful, clever
lyrics raising this band far above the norm .

3 My Three Sons

My Three Sons is Jay O'Keefe on bass, Scruff on guitar, Eric Smith
on drums, Steve Richards on lead vocals, Jody MacDonald and Angela
Horsfall on backing vocals, and Fabrice Rauhue on rhythm guitar. The
band started in the late summer of 1983, when Jay and Scruff started
jamming together with Fab and Steve. After auditioning countless drummers, Jay bumped into an old friend , Eric.
" I walked into the Comic Shop," says Eric, " where Jay worked , hocking all my cymbals and figuring I'll never play drums again and Jay saw
me and said 'Wow, a cymbal. Do you play drums? Why don't you join
our band , we're gonna play Iggy Pop and Lou Reed songs.' So I joined."
By February of '84 the band decided to add backing vocals, in order
to augment Steve's singing and fill out the overall sound . Both Jay and
Steve were big fans of the '60's girl-group sound , and wanted to add
that element to the band, both musically and for onstage excitement.
The band has been playing live and working on original material ever
since, drawing on a lot of influences, from early Elvis to '60's American
pop to the New York Dolls. The group is, of course, often compared to
the Dolls, as well as the Velvet Underground, early Blondie and "a bad
high-school band ," but when asked to describe themselves, Jay says,
" If Motown had a Heavy Metal band , we'd probably be it."
Heavy Metal?
" Yes," says Scruff, "Jay and I started off doing AC/DC covers." Jay
adds, ':.Judas Priest are great. ..everyone should see them live. It's hilarious
watching all those heavy metal greaseballs punching air to 'Hellbent on
Leather.' Especially when you consider that they'd freak out if they knew
half the band was homosexual.''

For the third place in the SHiNdig finals My Three Sons won 24 hours
of recording time at Profile Sound Studios, which fits perfectly with the
band's future plans. The band get along really well with !Bill Barker (owner
of Profile and, incidentally, former singer for The Scissors) and were
going to record at Profile anyway. Time and money permitting, the band
will release an EP
" Being realistic about it all ," says Jay, "I just consider this a hobby.
I'd like to be successful enough to pay our expenses, tour and make
records, but we don't expect to be super-duper rich and famous."
" I," says Steve, "just want to be on the cover of Teen Beat magazine.''
-Gord Badanic

72

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~~~bl,
Imagine yourself:
you're in a swamp
the water is bubbling and boiling alt around you
your blood is boiling inside you
Because of the constantly changing nature of the song structures, you
can never come away from a Rhythm Mission show humming the tunes
you just sweated to. Beware though!! Once inside, YOU 'RE HOOKED!!
YOU'RE HOOKED!! Dennis goes on to explain: "Entertainment. To me
it's the bottom line. People are there to be entertained and you can entertain them in a way that is thoughtful, a way that makes them look at things
Just a little bit differently, to make some sort of connections in an honest
way."
"Stick it Out," " Life's Level ," " Blood Beach," " Hip Alone," "Medulaoblongadda Davida," and a song that strikes fear into the hearts of those
living in B.C.'s perverted little beehive....!'The wild , wild, wild, wild WEST
END! " Many of the songs have a peculiarly local feel to them and are
often laden with Dennis' sardonic sense ot humour. " I think I'm one of
the few writers in Vancouver that tries to write satire. The lyrics are quite
satirical. It's not sloganeering or going tor the quick laugh. Sometimes
there's some intricate word play and sometimes it's for word play alone."
And what of social commentary? "I consider myself to be a humanist .
Some of the songs may be sexual, but they're not sexist. There are certain power relationships between and within the sexes and I explore them
in some of the songs I've written. I've written some songs that I think
were sexist, in retrospect, and I've written songs that I feel were racist,
in retrospect. I don't sing those songs anymore. That's just part of your
ongoing personal and political education ."
As well as the interesting lyrical concerns, there is the question of the
blending of accessability and experimentation. The danceability of their
music almost belies their diverse musical interests. Mind you, this isn't
standard dance music by any stretch of the imagination. Speaking oi

THE REGGAE
WINTERFEST '85
with
Ini Kamoze•Freddie McGregor
John Holt
and The Studio One Band

JANUARY 11 • 8:30PM
Commodore
Ballroom ~
--':"-.

.....
;,

~

Tickets: Zulu,Odyss
VTC/CBO and
./.
all Usual Outlets.
.,,,
Info: 280-4411 Charge by
Phone: 280 •4444
PRODUCED BY PERRYSCOPE

January 1985

imagination, it's something you need a lot of when dancing to Rhythm
Mission (besides an unfathomable amount of energy). Where does the
groove stop and conscious limb-climbing come into play? " My favorite
thing is creating melody from dissonance as much as possible!" states
Warren Hunter gleefully. Ash adds a counter point: "Not having any training, we don't know, really, what is standard. We know when we're right
on the mark and sometimes not . I'm not that big on doing wild , experimental things. I have very mainstream tastes." Dennis adds, "It can be
really fun to be self-indulgent. We all have our pre-arranged parts but
sometimes we set out certain sections of a song where some of us can
go totally wild. Some people think we've sold out! Rhythm Mission SOLD
OUT! I mean ..." laughter abounds ".. .if they think Rhythm Mission solp
out, they must think that the Jazzmanian Devils are the Devil's music.. ."
more laughter "...and they're right, it is the Devil's music." Dead silence .. .
The Jazzmanian Devils are comprised of two-thirds of Rhythm Mission. Scott, Lee, Andy, and Dennis. Scott's brother Brian adds trombone
and Finn Manniche plays cello. Basically, the JDs are representative of
Dennis' pop explorations of jazz and he emphasizes the independent
nature of the project. "They're two really separate bands and there are
two totally different focuses of where they're both going. The JDs started,
basically to fill a void because Rhythm Mission had broken up, though
I had been doing a few different things, sort of pseudo-poetry readings
and performances, just trying to do something, because I always like
to p-erform ."
Why did Rhythm Mission break up in the first place? Warren Hunter
offers one of several reasons: "It seemed that we were in a rut. Because
we hadn't recorded, because we hadn't taken the time to get serious
about recording, because we hadn't travelled. We were playing to the same
audiences constantly." Dennis elaborates. " It wasn't that we were bored
with the music necessarily, it's just that everybody grciws, musically, at
different rates and as you start to progress and come up with individual
ideas that you want to work into a group context, you see things going
one way and somebody else sees them going in another. It's really hard
to find a group concensus." Warren Ash adds his perspective: "It's good
that we're all playing in different bands. I wanted to play more mainstream
rock and roll, which I started to do in Naked Edge, whereas some of the
others wanted to pursue a more jazzy sound and they're able to do that
with the JDs. You get it out of your system to a certain extent." So with
all of that presumably out of their collective systems, I offer that it should
therefore be easier for a group sound to gel when Rhythm Mission get
together. Ash continues: "No. Actually it was Warren and I that used to
argue the most over arrangements and we were the ones that went to
play together in Naked Edge. I think the biggest problem Rhythm Mission have had is that we are in Vancouver and the audience is just really
small. It doesn't take much to lose your head of steam."
Of course, this gets.back to the question of having a record out that
would enable the group to get out on tour in its support. Dennis feels
he's simplifying matters but.. .' '11 seems to me that those bands that have
records out do one of two things. Either somebody in the band, or a
parent, has money, or they all don't work and are on welfare or whatever,
and that (the band) is all their life is. We've never had that sort of dedication ." The last statement obviously rules out choice number one in
Rhythm Mission's circumstance. " If we had started recording a couple
of years ago.. ." states Ash , "...we would either have realized the hopelessness of playing live, original music or else we would have realized the
brilliant success of it and have moved on to bigger and better things.
I think not doing it a while ago was a mistake."
Without a record, the only way a band can grow in Vancouver is to
gig constantly and garner support from the " alternative" media. r.onstant gigging is difficult for Rhythm Mission because of the obvious diver
sions. The media aspect still needs resolving . Dennis comments on the
group's problem in this area. "Self-promotion has never been our strong
point. Our strong point is performance. It limits our audience and it'
a limiting attitude but it's a matter of being able to connect with people
you ~an bring_in_to help yourself_out. I think that's starting to help us
now. So what Is 11 that Rhythm Mission are trying to accomplish? Ash:
" We want it to be a dance band!" Dennis: "We want to make people
move, we want to move people. That's the idea behind Rhythm and Mission . It's the RHYTHM that makes ya move and it's the MISSION that
moves ya!" All chime in: ''AMEN!! HALLELUJAH!!" Ash takes to the floor:
"Let's all bow now and pray.. .to the BIG BEAT!"

r~~USHET