When it comes to Canadian Bands from that were big in the 1990s, everybody thinks of The Tragically Hip. Others that might come to mind are Our Lady Peace, Moist, The Odds, Barenaked Ladies, Big Sugar, The Tea Party, and so on. It was a pretty good time for Canadian Rock and Alternative music, wasn’t it?
The Canadian band that been living rent-free in my brain since they first I first heard them back then is the Headstones. This band, along with Nine Inch Nails, created the music that helped me survive the (mostly self-inflicted) trials and tribulations of teenagedom.
I remember first hearing the Headstones music when my parents got a 24 pack of Labatts beer, and it had a compact disc inside. The song on the CD was the Headstones’ first single: When Something Stands For Nothing. I was hooked on that song from the first play.
And this one’s for nothing
And this one’s for fun
And this one’s about rock n’ roll
And comic books and bubble gum
Based on the article linked above – and not just on my own faulty memory – I would have listened to this sampler CD back in late 1994 and/or early 1995. I do remember going to West Edmonton Mall during a family trip in the summer of ’95, and picking up both Headstones CDs available at the time: their first album, titled Picture of Health, and the then-newly released Teeth and Tissue.
Picture of Health is a great album as well. It contains the song When Something Stands for Nothing and a cover of the Travelling Wilburys‘ Tweeter and the Monkey Man – the song that the Headstones are probably most famous for.
Teeth and Tissue is the album that sticks with me the most, though. Tracks 3 to 10 just absolutely kill. Marigold, Hearts, Love & Honour, Million Days in May, Swinging, Let It Go, Say Goodbye, and Burning give a tumultuous sprint through a plethora of emotions. They go from introspective to self-destructive to angry at the world to somehow ironically suicidal, and they are kept lively with the grinding guitar and growling vocals of great anarchist pub rock and punk.
I do hope that the band eventually does a cleaned-up remaster of this album at some point. The heavy drums and electric guitars get a touch muddy and distorted on a few of the songs. Even with that slight issue, the music still sounds heavy and great.
The Headstones eventually broke up in 2003, after releasing another great album titled The Oracle of Hi-Fi. Hugh Dillon – the lead singer – got rid of his iconic black punk hair and started rocking the bald look, as other amazing Canadian musicians have done in the second part of their career. Dillon got into acting and ended up in lead and co-starring roles on a duo of hit Canadian TV Shows. The Headstones got the band back together in 2011, and have been releasing new material since.
Teeth and Tissue is still my favourite album of theirs, though. Even after all these years.
Cheers,
Evan
Talk, talk and dream what exactly to do you believe
Looking for a thing that never wavers
The sum of a trillion parts
A third water and the rest is Scotch
You believe in god and green lifesavers
