Post by Fuggle on Mar 30, 2007 15:46:53 GMT -5
Pointed Sticks Find The Real Thing, Even If It's Just A Hobby Now
Thursday March 29, 2007
By: ChartAttack.com Staff
The Pointed Sticks seemed to have a good thing going at the dawn of the '80s. They sold out of a combined 11,000 copies of their first three seven-inch singles, they drew more than 1,000 people to the Commodore Ballroom in their hometown of Vancouver and had a solid live following across Canada and down the U.S. west coast, and they were the first Canadian band signed to England's infamous Stiff Records label.
But things quickly unravelled for the hard-luck power-pop group. Stiff never released their album. Their Canadian label, Quintessence, didn't pay the pressing company for the manufacturing of their re-recorded debut LP, and 5,000 of the 10,000 copies ended up being destroyed. Not surprisingly, low morale and uncertainty led to the band calling it quits in June 1981.
But after demand from rabid Japanese fans led to the reissue of the Pointed Sticks' sole studio album, 1980's Bob Rock-produced Perfect Youth, the group reunited for three shows in the land of the rising sun last year. They went so well that the band played twice more in Vancouver after Christmas and, on Friday, they'll play the sixth show of their comeback — and first in Toronto in more than 25 years — when they take the stage at the Horseshoe Tavern.
It's been an interesting ride, according to lead singer Nick Jones.
"No-one was expecting this to happen. I had pretty much forgotten that the band even existed for the longest period of time. It's only been in the last three or four years that it's started to come back up again. But it's been a lot of fun for us.
"Everybody went in different ways and, while we didn't see a lot of each other, we all remained friends. There really wasn't any animosity between us when we broke up."
Jones now spends a lot of time on the road working for a company that provides tour merchandising for major bands, including The Rolling Stones. Guitarist Bill Hemy is a music teacher. Bassist Tony Bardach is an exhibiting artist who just completed his university degree in the field. Drummer Ian Tiles is the office manager for the Radical Entertainment video game company. And keyboardist Gord Nicholl runs a recording studio.
"Everyone in the band has jobs, so we don't have to do music for the money," says Jones. "Not that we were doing it for the money beforehand, but when you don't have an alternate source of income, it inevitably becomes about money."
Jones credits online file-sharing and MySpace for the Pointed Sticks' unexpected renewed popularity, and last year it led to D.O.A. main man Joe "Shithead" Keithley's Sudden Death Records label releasing a 24-song compilation titled Waiting For The Real Thing. The disc features the band's first three singles ("What Do You Want Me To Do?," "The Real Thing" and "Lies"), their B-sides, radio sessions, demo recordings, live material and cuts from the unreleased Stiff album. The album's lack of consistency is more than made up for by the quality of the band's best songs. You can hear the energetic infusion of the punk scene that the Sticks were on the periphery of, as well as the classic pop that the members grew up on.
"We were a bubblegum band," Jones explains. "We never used The Sex Pistols or The Clash as our template.
"We loved those bands and loved the attitude of the time and shoving it up the noses of the Genesises and Bostons of the world, but our music was always much more poppy and influenced by the '60s and Phil Spector and Motown and The Beatles. That had more influence on us than The Sex Pistols ever did musically.
"When we were going in and making records, we weren't thinking about making political statements, we were thinking about getting hit singles. The radio stations never agreed with us, but that's what we were trying to do. Our lyrics were never the most profound, but that's OK."
Now that the Sticks see their music as a hobby and not a career, they're not striving for the top 40 charts. But they have started writing songs. The first, "My Japanese Fan" (backed with a re-recorded version of one of their old numbers, "Found Another Boy"), should be available as a seven-inch single from Sudden Death later this spring. It won't be the last either, according to Jones.
"Our plan now for eventual Pointed Sticks world domination, since we don't want to get in a van and lug equipment around and do a full-scale tour, is to release a seven-inch record every three or four months. It will give people who are into the band something to look for, and Ian's a very good graphic artist so we'll put a lot into presentation. Music today is almost worthless because of file-sharing, so owning a thing can be just as important as the music that's on it.
"The seven-inch single is like an egg, you can't improve on it. It has two songs, it has a little cover and it's just beautiful."
—Steve McLean
Thursday March 29, 2007
By: ChartAttack.com Staff
The Pointed Sticks seemed to have a good thing going at the dawn of the '80s. They sold out of a combined 11,000 copies of their first three seven-inch singles, they drew more than 1,000 people to the Commodore Ballroom in their hometown of Vancouver and had a solid live following across Canada and down the U.S. west coast, and they were the first Canadian band signed to England's infamous Stiff Records label.
But things quickly unravelled for the hard-luck power-pop group. Stiff never released their album. Their Canadian label, Quintessence, didn't pay the pressing company for the manufacturing of their re-recorded debut LP, and 5,000 of the 10,000 copies ended up being destroyed. Not surprisingly, low morale and uncertainty led to the band calling it quits in June 1981.
But after demand from rabid Japanese fans led to the reissue of the Pointed Sticks' sole studio album, 1980's Bob Rock-produced Perfect Youth, the group reunited for three shows in the land of the rising sun last year. They went so well that the band played twice more in Vancouver after Christmas and, on Friday, they'll play the sixth show of their comeback — and first in Toronto in more than 25 years — when they take the stage at the Horseshoe Tavern.
It's been an interesting ride, according to lead singer Nick Jones.
"No-one was expecting this to happen. I had pretty much forgotten that the band even existed for the longest period of time. It's only been in the last three or four years that it's started to come back up again. But it's been a lot of fun for us.
"Everybody went in different ways and, while we didn't see a lot of each other, we all remained friends. There really wasn't any animosity between us when we broke up."
Jones now spends a lot of time on the road working for a company that provides tour merchandising for major bands, including The Rolling Stones. Guitarist Bill Hemy is a music teacher. Bassist Tony Bardach is an exhibiting artist who just completed his university degree in the field. Drummer Ian Tiles is the office manager for the Radical Entertainment video game company. And keyboardist Gord Nicholl runs a recording studio.
"Everyone in the band has jobs, so we don't have to do music for the money," says Jones. "Not that we were doing it for the money beforehand, but when you don't have an alternate source of income, it inevitably becomes about money."
Jones credits online file-sharing and MySpace for the Pointed Sticks' unexpected renewed popularity, and last year it led to D.O.A. main man Joe "Shithead" Keithley's Sudden Death Records label releasing a 24-song compilation titled Waiting For The Real Thing. The disc features the band's first three singles ("What Do You Want Me To Do?," "The Real Thing" and "Lies"), their B-sides, radio sessions, demo recordings, live material and cuts from the unreleased Stiff album. The album's lack of consistency is more than made up for by the quality of the band's best songs. You can hear the energetic infusion of the punk scene that the Sticks were on the periphery of, as well as the classic pop that the members grew up on.
"We were a bubblegum band," Jones explains. "We never used The Sex Pistols or The Clash as our template.
"We loved those bands and loved the attitude of the time and shoving it up the noses of the Genesises and Bostons of the world, but our music was always much more poppy and influenced by the '60s and Phil Spector and Motown and The Beatles. That had more influence on us than The Sex Pistols ever did musically.
"When we were going in and making records, we weren't thinking about making political statements, we were thinking about getting hit singles. The radio stations never agreed with us, but that's what we were trying to do. Our lyrics were never the most profound, but that's OK."
Now that the Sticks see their music as a hobby and not a career, they're not striving for the top 40 charts. But they have started writing songs. The first, "My Japanese Fan" (backed with a re-recorded version of one of their old numbers, "Found Another Boy"), should be available as a seven-inch single from Sudden Death later this spring. It won't be the last either, according to Jones.
"Our plan now for eventual Pointed Sticks world domination, since we don't want to get in a van and lug equipment around and do a full-scale tour, is to release a seven-inch record every three or four months. It will give people who are into the band something to look for, and Ian's a very good graphic artist so we'll put a lot into presentation. Music today is almost worthless because of file-sharing, so owning a thing can be just as important as the music that's on it.
"The seven-inch single is like an egg, you can't improve on it. It has two songs, it has a little cover and it's just beautiful."
—Steve McLean