Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - GUH: Toronto Mike'd #1600

Episode Date: December 15, 2024

In this 1600th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike learns everything there is to no about GUH from Blake Howard, Andrew Henry, and Jason Clark. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, The Yes We Are Open podcast from Moneris and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

Welcome to milestone episode 1600 of Toronto Might. Yeah, 1600 saved it for you guys. That's amazing. 40 by 40. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta.

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Today, making their Toronto Mic debut so we can dive deep into the history of G. It's Blake Howard, Andrew Henry and Jason Clark. Welcome gentlemen. Thanks for having us all the way down in your basement at number nine, two. Am I allowed to say that? Since you said that's doc-sation. No, just you're in South Etobicoke. I at number nine two. Am I allowed to say that? Since you said- No, that's a, that's doxation. No, just you're in South Etobicoke.

I just said nine two. I didn't say the street. I have no idea what you're talking about. 22nd ad. Good to see you. That's you, Blake. I want to let the people know what voice belongs to whom.

So that's Blake Howard's voice I'm listening to right now. So say hello again, Blake. Yeah, one more time. Hello. All right, Andrew, let's hear you for a moment. Andrew Henry. I'm Andrew Henry. And you came the furthest to be here, right? You came from Guelph contingent. How long a drive was that for you, buddy? I was only an hour. Okay. It was a nice drive today. It's probably harder to get here from like

Scarborough than from Guelph, I bet you. Well, I don't know, but I do like the new HOV lanes. Okay, no, great. And then we did have a little threat, right, Andrew, that there might be some like frozen rain out there and it hasn't arrived yet. So here's hoping you get home before any frozen rain follows you. Thank you very much.

Here's hoping. That's my hopes for you, my friend. Okay, Jason Clark, how you doing, Jason? I'm doing all right. And it must be known that the voice of Andrew Henry was the spokesman for the Upper Canada Brewing Company. So you might recognize his voice from radio already. From 30 years ago. Well, no, I was listening to radio 30 years ago. Let's hear a little more. Like, would you do a, I don't know, a slogan? Like, what would you say? Well, I would have to radio 30 years ago. Let's hear a little more. Like, would you do a, uh, I don't know, a slogan?

Like, what would you say? Well, I would have said, uh, Frank Heaps on the global village. Or he was the global village or he was just honest. Buying locally, which brewery was this? I was upper Canada brewing company. And how many years did you spend in the brewery industry? 30 years. And you're no longer in the, you spend in the brewery industry? About 30 years. And you're no longer in the industry?

I am no longer in the industry. My body told me to stop. But you still drink. So you want to crack open your Great Lakes beer right on the mic there. And by the way, you have great pipes. I'm jealous of your pipes, but right on the mic. I've got a face for radio. All right, Andrew Henry has cracked open a Canuck Pale Ale. I'm gonna crack open one as well. I'm gonna join you, Andrew. What do you think as a professional brewer, cheers to you my friend, what are your thoughts on Great Lakes Brewery and their craft beer? Oh, they're legendary veteran brewers. They've been around forever.

Since 87, I think. That's not true. 87 is not forever now. Blake stop speaking like that. Same as like Golan Heights now and forever, come on. You were gonna say that Great Lakes brews the delicious fresh bread. Even when I

worked it up in Canada it was a going concern and they've survived this long and they've not only have they survived but they've thrived and they make great beer and they have very good brewers some of whom I know whose names I can't. Mike Lackey? Yeah, yeah I remember. Bowie owns the place, of course. His father started it up. He's the guy I know. Yeah, Mike Lackey. But I haven't seen him in years. But when I started working in the brewery, this is not supposed to be about me brewing.

It's a working life. This is 90 Minutes on Great Lakes. Go ahead. When I started working in the brewery industry in 91, there were six microbreweries, one of them being Great Lakes. Wow. And when I left, there were like 400. And that's just in Ontario.

Sorry. That's just in South Etobicoke, 400 breweries. All right, so that's good to know you're from the industry and you give a thumbs up to Great Lakes because whatever Great Lakes is not consumed during this recording, we'll go home with, well, you guys have to divvy it up yourselves, but it could go home to Guelph with you.

So you're in good shape there. All right, let me talk to Blake for a moment moment then we're gonna get back to you, Jason. But Blake, how far did you have to travel to get here? You know, I didn't have to travel far, just 25 minutes from around Bloor and Lansdowne. Okay, I used to... I didn't... I knew... the Galaxy Donuts at Bloor and Lansdowne is where you would go to get your drugs in the early 90s. That's right, there drugs still there not a galaxy, but there I think there are drugs still there drugs exclusively They put it in the doughnuts. Yeah Because I worked at the gallery of all we do not too far there

I remember that galaxy doughnuts that lands down and blue it you worked very near to the birthplace of go actually Okay. Okay. This is all gonna come full circle because once I check in with Jason, we're gonna get back to the Geary Street art crawl and this past summer. And that Geary Street is right there too, where the Gallery of Malice. And we're gonna get the origin story.

Here's my promise to the listenership. Everything you wanted to know about G.E.A.R. but were afraid to ask, it's gonna be all disclosed on this episode. We're gonna get the ongoing history I'm gonna you're gonna tell me everything but I want to check in with Jason Clarke whereabouts did you come from today I came from three doors down from break hey oh three doors down that's another band I think three doors or three doors

up the pit I thought it was three doors up because you're more north. Or in the numbers. Yeah, I guess. Yeah, yeah, because down is towards the lake, right? I mean, Jay has got a different idea. He's thinking it is three doors down when you are. So let's start by finding out what instruments you each play in ga, and then we're gonna get some of my ga questions answered

and get this origin story. But Jason, what instrument do you play? I play guitar. You're a guitarist. Yes. Amazing. And what about you two gentlemen, Blake and Andrew? We have ended up on the drums, drums and drums. How many drummers in ga? At least two but usually three. I think, well, three, there are three of us, but one of us is a floater. And there's also other ones that appeared.

Other drummers appear in G. And I would say that all of G plays drums too. Like there have been recordings when everybody has played a percussion instrument, if you would. And I have some recordings loaded up. So not only the new stuff, but just as we chat about guh. Because I'm going to assume there are a number of people tuning in right now where like, what the heck is a guh? Like who's guh? I'll bet you. I know you're looking at me like, no way. I'm telling you. So we're gonna play some guh. We're gonna get the origin story. Everyone's gonna know everything about guh. But because andrew got here first because he you know

He had a lot like several hours to make sure he got here on time. Andrew was telling me he enjoys Drummer episodes of toronto mike. Am I right? Great. Andrew. I do with uh, you you've had some great ones you had, uh, uh Well don pile don pile shadowy men on a shadowy planet, and more. Gene Champagne, and more. Don Pyle is a, yeah, I don't know. He's a legend. But yeah, Gene Champagne. Gene Champagne gave me these teenage head drumsticks,

if you guys haven't heard of him. My favorite one was Brian McCullough, you know? Yeah. Youth, youth, youth. He was a, he's a big one for me He's a big big one for you amazing now. I mentioned the Geary Street art crawl. So this is like a free event It's a very cool happening not very far from Dufferin and DuPont where the gallery of mall is located and where I worked at The Food City for five years. Okay. Shout out to the food

See which said I was there when it became a price chopper. And I think it's might be like a fresh code. What is that now? You're right. That is exactly gigantic. Huge building now isn't well, they're working on it. Some people are in there already. There was already a fire there.

So that's amazing. They're already doing baptism. That's like a baptism here. So I'm at the Geary Street art crawl with my wife and I don't know how many of my kids were there. I think at least one, I don't know. And then we were there with Cam Gordon, who's an FOTM Hall of Famer and his wife, MF,

I cannot disclose her true identity. And we're there to see Gah at the Geary Street, the park there, the parkette there. And you guys, did anyone in Gah see us like lollyganging around or anything like that? I did. Okay. So you, so what did you say? You said, oh, that's the guy who talked to Don Pyle. Like is that?

I said, no, that's the Toronto Mike guy. And yeah. And then he reached out to me. And he has, he has, he does a good podcast. And so I reached out. And you're like, you checked the catalog. Have I done the G the deep dive yet? And you're like, no.

And then this is an opportunity to do just that. There's not a lot of definitive information on on the internet. Are you guys aware of this? Yeah. Yeah, we're. Yeah. When you put in the, uh, in the bar up there,

it's sometimes you end up in Ethiopia. Sometimes you end up in Jamaica, definitely. But yeah, G doesn't often take you to information about this band, but if it does, the information is sometimes obscurational or whatever, but there's a little bit of information. Who's best of you three gentlemen to start us off with the Gah origin story,

the format, I believe we're going back to 1991 now. I think I'm at the gallery mall in 1991, but who's the best to start us off here? I guess that would be me because I was there. And you have the best pipes. Gah pipes. But, uh, there was, there's an address, a famed address, 96 Lapin Avenue, which is right, but's right up against the Galleria there in the back alley.

And a bunch of us live there. We were, some of us were in college. Some of us were in, some of us were in university. Some of us weren't even there yet, but it was just a house full of guys, mostly from Belleville, actually. There's a big Belleville connection for this band. So there was a band in Belleville called No Sad made up of a bunch of guys in which I was in just briefly. But that band kind of broke up because we were just high school kids. Everybody all went off to university and everything. We all ended up in Toronto a year later and like we got to do something. So we

started playing and it was just you know just a basic rock band with bagpipes and we were trying to be a punk rock band. I don't know if we succeeded or not but we were trying with bagpipes. Right. Are all three of you members at this time? No, at that time it was just me and a guy named Ruben. And Ruben actually was in a band called the Glu-Leg. I've done a Glu-Leg deep dive. Okay. Hold on. Well, if you've done a Glu-Leg deep dive,

you must have heard of G- before. You know like. It's funny, because my G- awareness. Hold, yeah, like my Gah awareness really kicks in when Cam Gordon and I had a long chat about Gah, like this legendary Toronto band, and I realized how little I know about Gah. And here we are today to satisfy that. What were you going to say there, Blake? I'm just going to say this.

So I played in Glue Leg, or they were called Sundog, or they were called Subject to Change in high school. Or fathom five or anything like that but Ruben Heisinga was the person that I played with in these things and he lived in this house 96 Lapin with Andrew who also played in like Pink Floyd's The Wall production by Dorian Williamson anyways I moved into the house I was 19 that's the number again, number 19. And I just moved in there after my parents bought a new house and I moved out of that one.

I lived there for a week and this is my remembrance of what the beginning of Go was because I moved into the house with these people they say are all from Belleville. Some of them are from Belleville. Some of them are in university or college. I wasn't in any of those things and didn't come from Belleville. Some of them are in university or college. I wasn't in any of those things and didn't come from Belleville. But I noticed that the music that they played

was pretty incredible. And thought after the first gig, you might be coming to the first gig, but I just had to say that the way that this house was composed was slightly like Andrew is talking and slightly like I'm talking. And Jay doesn't get to speak yet, but he's about to speak about

how the rest of it comes together. Okay, let's hear from Jay. I got, I came to the house in 91, but you guys had already played. Yeah. And you was already formed. And I came up because I was I was playing some music with one of the roommates that wasn't in the band Ron Kelly and

I how many people lived in this house. There was a bunch of us. I had no idea At one point Tom Green was living That's a fun fact what about the other because we had the Jodie more this Jodie Morris who used to be on You Can't Do That on television, if you remember that. So was Alanis Morris that was on that show? Well, yeah. And she was living in her house as a stripper. And she would go to the basement sometimes. There was, yeah, is that the stripper that looked like Roger Daltry?

That's exactly it. Okay. There was a stripper that lived in the house. But it wasn't Alanis Morris. It wasn't Alanis Morris. Because I can't, you know what, I can't have the fiction in this definitive history or no one's gonna believe that.

Okay, we're blowing that part out. That part is gone. I'll fix that one in post. But Jay, so you're there, by the way, I just searched my own little archives here to say that my episode of Glue Leg, I wanna make sure I have the right guys, okay? Cause sometimes with these bands,

I wanna get these guys, I was like, oh, that guy was just like hanging around with a band, wasn't even in the damn band. So if people want to hear the definitive history of Glue Leg, which of course, will reference Gough, 1238 is the episode number to go to it. It was Carlos Alonso and Christian Simpson. They are founding members of Glue Leg and they came on to basically bury me. Christian Simpson is not What here this is your moment is a fantastic drum is He is incredible. He played in that band before yeah, Alonzo is a is a founding member

Totally and then Christian comes later. Yeah after I flake out and say Carlos I I Can't play in this band any longer and he goes well good you want to be playing at the Cameron house when you're 28 and I was like yeah and then every time I play at the Cameron house I always think of Carlos Alonso and I go I'm 52 I'm playing what am I supposed to do? Shut up to John Bora. Okay. Okay. Who named it? Gah That would be that would be me. I guess I don't know if that's a thing to admit to Henry our bagpipe player and I both kind of co co

Own that naming the band but it's named because that because we were sitting around one day. I Don't I don't know what we were do we were probably drinking and being 19 year olds or 20 year olds Whatever we were but we were listening to Slayer which was on the Slayer was on the CD player and The you know, go go go go go go go go go go was the guitar sound. That's right. I was like, oh, that's amazing. Good, good, good, good. And then I'm going to take Jason's job if you keep that up.

Oh, it was already taken. So we're named after a Slayer riff. That's good. Amazing. It's all caps for God. Like this is important for branding, right? It goes through state. I mean, it can be written any way you like.

Electrical tape. Yeah, just not backwards. Because that is hug. Yeah and that's not us. Okay because otherwise when you see live guh or live guh then it's hug evil and then we oh you know and it's not like live evil and all of that it's just like hug evil and it's like no do not embrace evil because look around right now. So now we're capturing the origin story. I will read a couple of notes that came in when you were coming on here, but I have a question. How did you decide?

So how many members are currently in GAH, like as we speak in 2024? That's a hard one. It is hard to say. Am I gonna say 10? You guys concur? I'm just guessing. Well, there's some people that haven't been playing

with us lately that but they're by no means considered not a part of the band. So there's I mean Scott Good and Jay Baird and yeah and amongst others. When everybody shows up we swell to like a 14 or 15. How many were at that Geary Street? Yeah you bloat. How many were at the Geary Street or Kroll? How many were at that Geary Street? Yeah, you bloat. How many were at the Geary Street or Kron? Wait, was there 11? I think that day was Robin Robin was there. Okay. Yeah So a couple of notes that came. I'm just curious. So here's my question I I forgot Mike remember your questions, but how did you decide because I said I got Three mics. I got him four mics, but I wanted one for myself, but that's cool

But I said I got three mics How did you decide which three members of G.U.A. would be in the basement here today for the definitive history? Oh. It's kind of funny cause Andrew said, do you want to come? This is Blake.

And he said, do you want to come? And I said, yes. And it was going to be Henry, the bagpipe recorder, ooey player and vocalist, and Andrew, and then I was gonna come, but then I saw Jay and I was like, Jay has to come there because he can remember things. But he told me in the car he can't remember a whole bunch of stuff. You made a huge mistake then. You made a huge mistake here.

So a guy named, okay, these are handles on Blue Sky, most of of this okay, Hazardous wrote in and said, who are you having? Craig? Last I saw him was at Bill Bolton hockey rink after the Santa Claus parade. He had gone from managing to bass player at the time. So maybe we start talking about some of these people who aren't here but tell me who's Craig? Craig is our current bass player but he is also our long time manager and probably the reason why we still exist after 33 years. Um, he's kind of the heart and soul, I guess. Is, I don't know if that's the right term, but he's, he's definitely the

administrative heart and soul. He's the guy that gets the most anxiety of all of us. Yeah. That's for sure. And we thank him for taking that on. And he, like ourselves, is amazed that he has been able to do any of this stuff. When you speak. He's the buffer between us and our public. Wow. It is since 1991. Now he there's more from Craig not from Craig. Sorry. There's more from hazardous Hazardous is I remember years ago when Henry's sister would have awesome summer parties in the courtyard by Queen and Dufferin Which sister? Yeah, like Henry's whole family would have awesome courtyard parties everywhere Sometimes they weren't in courtyards, I guess but uh that's a true statement that he said. So who's Henry?

Because not to be confused with Andrew Henry. Yeah, Henry is our bagpipe player, and Henry is the, Henry and I and Julian and Ruben from Glueleg are the four original members. Yeah. Originality. Here we go. Three of us from Belleville and one of us from Glueleg.

Which is someplace up near Tottenham but maybe near Aliston but maybe out there somewhere near another place that Ruben was building log houses and stuff but Ruben you can't tell him where he's from or he can't tell you where he's from. Eventually Ruben, Glulig was getting successful so Ruben wanted to go concentrate on that we needed another guitar player and we got Jay Clark here. And Jay Clark joins the fold here. Now, Functioning in the Junction, I think that's a cool handle, Functioning in the Junction writes in, now hold up, you're not having violinist extraordinaire Fiona Stewart out of the gull of Aria? Did you not hear the Taliban rules? Like no women speaking, come on.

Functioning in the junction says her sound is so important to the whole experiment. So why is Fiona not here? Obviously that's a joke, right? The woman... No, it's not a joke. It's actually happening in part of the world. So... But it's not a joke. It's actually happening in part of the world. But it's not happening with us. Fiona's not here because she's busy. She's busy. Fiona Stewart. So tell me about Fiona. She's amazing and she does contribute. She is, right now, one of the main contributors. She's writing a lot of music. She plays fiddle. Sorry. Um, and, uh, I play with her in a couple of bands actually. And, uh, she's very good and she's very imaginative and, uh, I love playing with her. That was collective here.

Like she's new though. She's only been in the band for 20 years. She wasn't at the 10th Avenue. She's still the rookie. You're still hazing Fiona Stewart. As you can tell from all that. I did try to join her band called Reflectio Stack. One time we were playing, I was trying to remember Saigon Palace or some

certain, not that place, a Shang club Shanghai. And she refused. She said, no, you can't be in here. And then, then later went, why did I do that? And I was like, I don't know. Cause it was weird. And you didn't want me playing in your band. Yeah.

You got to know when to hold them, know when to phone them. That's right. You didn't, you played with her in the rock. Yeah. Finally she'd let me play with her, but at the first meeting, no, that was too much. So am I right that Jason Clark here joins the band in 91. So he might not be there for day one, but he's there like, he's there within the first year.

Within the first year. Yeah. I would have thought it was about a year yeah maybe about a year you know we need the details because as we speak Rosie grade to is on Wikipedia creating the definitive guppies I would say is 92 like cuz we're 92 is probably my first gig, our first gig was October 26, 1991, up at Nags Head North. Of course. Opening for Glue Leg, actually. And the police.

That's right. All right, shout out to the police. I think about a year later, when we did our first tape, our first album. Funky Baby, Mad Star. It is Fanky. Fanky. Oh my God, where's my glasses?

Okay, my apologies. So this is, yeah, so as we walk through the history, in 1992, in June, June 11th to be precise, Fanky Baby Madstar, this is a cassette you guys released. Yeah, recorded by? Brendan Maguire. Brendan Maguire at Palad Bat Studios. That's why Jay's here. He does have the details. I wasn't there. You had just joined the band.

Ruben was playing on the record but you... That's right. And Brian had Brian had just joined the band. Yeah. We have to talk about Brian now. Yeah, talk about Brian. Our bass player was going to university of Toronto, I believe for music. That's right. And he met a guy there named Brian who played trumpet and our bass player invited our bass player named Julian Brown, who is now our guitar player, but, uh, time he's playing bass. He invited Brian to come to one of our rehearsals. Uh, and he did. And then he was in the band forever and he

changed the band a little bit we got a little bit more I don't know but open minded he was yeah he had all sorts of encouragement that's what his main form of expression was, encouragement. And he wrote music and he encouraged all of us to write music. And since we're all different people, different music came out. Well, he was older than us.

He was about 10 years, maybe eight or nine years older than us. So he seemed a little bit more, well, not mature, um, but, uh, I don't know, knowledgeable or something. Was that university? What do you say about all this Jason? I met Brian at a Christmas party in August of 92. That's when you have your Christmas parties. Yeah. At Le Pen Avenue, that was the first time I'd ever been to a summer Christmas party.

been to a summer Christmas party and Brian was there and I was drawn to his combination of a tweed jacket and lime green long shorts and and he uh yeah I remember meeting him and I remember right through for the whole ride. So it was a great and fortunate luck that Julie and Brian got to meet each other at U of T, that's for sure. I think it's difficult to write music for a band that has so many different instruments, especially bagpipe, which is... Doesn't have a lot of music written for it. And Brian wrote, was able to write music for an ensemble with a bagpipe, which is difficult. And he did it, and he did it very, very, very, very well.

Okay, so in the consideration of time, because I do want the definitive history, but I don't have several hours, but I realize it's gonna be long, okay. So we are gonna, so essentially, you guys just start barking when there's something significant you wanna share, and I'll kinda jump through some milestones, and then I'll get to some music,

and then, cause I know in 93, you record the Orange Label cassette, right? So that is, that's right, that is something that's recorded maybe at Reaction Studio. Yeah, Reaction. Is that right? And there's many people that you come across now, when you're in now, that go, oh yeah, I remember Reaction.

Or I even worked at Reaction and all sorts of things. So it was a studio that maybe the Rio Statics played and recorded at, and we thought Gah can record there. And so we did that. Orange label cassette, like is that essentially to be like the yellow tape or something? I don't think we called it the orange label cassette then. I think that's been, I think it's been called that in retrospect. We made, each of us made covers, our own individual covers, a bunch of them. There's still one that I have in my house, maybe other people have them in their houses.

We don't have, none of us have a copy of that tape that I know. Is it on the band camp though, is that copy? It is, somebody gave me that to at least put up, but maybe they just gave me the files, maybe Craig Barnes has it. Well, can I ask, speaking of files, I'm not here to shame anybody, no shaming at all,

but Andrew, I was messaging with you about this visit, and I said, can you send me some MP3s? And you said you didn't know what an MP3 was. Is that true? Like, is it possible? Yeah, I know it's something to do with music, and I know it's something. Okay.

Only because I thought you were putting me on. No, you know that people when they go, I don't watch TV. Like when you were a little kid and they go, I don't watch TV and stuff. That's the same as Andrew is doing now. But he worked in TV. Here's my thing. I understand there's many people who don't know what an MP3 is, except they're not musicians for decades, right?

Like musicians typically know like what an MP3 is because they know what a CD is. Do you believe him Jason? He didn't know what mp3 is? He's putting me on. He has no clue. Do you know what this stands for mp3? Yeah it's a protocol so it's like Meg yeah I can't remember off the top my head but I used to know. Why? Cause I thought it was music player three. And I was like, why three? And then music file, but the file, like McPhile, McPhail. Well, regardless though, I got these MP3s. Shout out your band camp page.

So as you know, people can take a note now as we continue like where would we find music if we wanted to buy it? It is Bandcamp. I guess you go Bandcamp and then you just search G-U-H in capital letters and then you'll go to Ethiopia and you'll go to Jamaica and then you might find G-Music one or something on Bandcamp and all of the recordings that have been given to me I tried to put on there. And I'm gonna play some soon but in 93 you record that tape but it actually is released the orange label cassette gets released in 94. Can you tell me a little bit about 94 there's a trip to Europe here for G.

Right. Well that's, that'd be Blake and Jake. Okay who went to Europe and how was that? Brian Cram was in Europe already with a family trip with his father and his brothers. And they were climbing, is it Ben Nevis? Yeah, Ben Nevis. The mountain there and then so we decided well, let's go to Europe and we can meet up with Brian and And do some touring so Blake and myself and Henry Muth we got plane tickets and

We flew to Amsterdam. Whoo Yeah in 19 in there from travel cuts on College Street. There used to be the Travel Cuts there, right by Spadina. I remember it very well. So you go to Amsterdam and there's what? Like the Gug Quartet basically is busking in Amsterdam. Yeah, that's what happened. I mean we didn't really get a chance to busk in Amsterdam. We may have played a little bit, but we ended up in a campground that was, I keep trying to locate it and I do locate it on like Google maps, but I couldn't tell you the name of it. But sometimes I do find it. And it still looks very much the same.

There's little cabins and we stayed in one of them. We wrote letters back to Andrew that he may have or may not have. I don't know. But Wow. Okay. So here as I bring us through the mid nineties here, I'm going to play. I need, I think it's due time that we get to a little music here. Okay. So let's listen. Wow. They're like, OK, now I know what a gut is. OK, here we go. That's a great intro. What is this?

Yeah, what is this, Blake? What is this one? What is this song called? What goes like this? Chateau de Châtre. Yeah, Chateau de Châtre. Chateau de Châtre. Chateau de Châtre.

Chateau de Châtre. Chateau de Châtre. Chateau de Châtre. Chateau de Châtre. Chateau de Châtre. Chateau de Châtre. Chateau de Châtre. Chateau de Châtre. Yeah, what is this, Blake? What is this one? What is this song called? What goes like this? Chateau de Lune. Yeah, Chateau de Lune. That's it. That's right. From Triple CD number three. Jason Clarke wrote it. Jason Clarke wrote this masterpiece. Okay, so tell me about Triple CD. Tell me everything you can.

We're in 96 now. Yeah, I mean, we're in 1995 a little bit here. Okay. We recorded it over like a year and a half at a few different places, including, I think Dallas. Dallas Good did some of it. Yeah, he came into your place, so it says. July 16th, which is another amazing date

because we recorded live guh at the Pender Island Community Church on July 16th, 99, but we recorded tracks 9 to 11, of course or something July 16th 1995 in the Mowat Street Andrew's place and Dallas Good was behind I'm so sorry for your loss there losing Dallas. Yeah We all lost Dallas. We all suffered that loss. Canada did.

I had his uncle over to talk about the Good Brothers. So Brian came over. That was cool. So what a musical family that is here. Another triple... Okay, so that sound, but I got to get another... Hold on here. This is also...

This is also recorded in the same place, in Andrew's place, I think. And we would sometimes play so much music that we needed a break. And we played more music in our break, but we went to a different part of the place that had a piano in it. There was a beautiful little alcove.

I remember a candle lit and a piano was there and Andrew would play the piano and I had a dinkily little glockenspiel that's not a you know like just it's just a fake one so called. And a carrot flute. And the carrot flute is being featured here. So this is the break song when we would take a break. Am I playing piano? Yeah. That was amazing. Talented mofo over there.

What's going on here? Not just brewing delicious beer over there. Come on. So. This is a while ago. Yeah. Okay. So we're still in the triple end here.

So in 96, you guys, you mentioned live, that's at Music Gallery and also the Rivoli right? That one is yeah from a CD called L'autre nuit the other night this is this and it's way back 96 Andrew Henry decided he didn't want to play with guh anymore for a second. This is shocking to me, I'm learning. I don't have my notes telling me like the- I was in a chair when he told me, I might've tried to talk him out of it, but he didn't care. Just like I didn't care when Carlos Alonso was like,

what do you wanna play? And Andrew was like, I gotta not play for a second. I tried to leave the band. So why did you wanna leave Gah? Well, I moved to Vancouver because of a girl. My wife now. Well, that worked I moved to Vancouver because of a girl. Oh, yeah My wife now. Oh that worked out. Yeah, it did work out take that Taliban Then I moved home and I found out that you can't quit go because I it's in your blood what's going on there I don't know. I can't like the mafia like you can try that you can leave but you know, you get they pull you back in

I think it's kind of like that I Tried to leave and like in but when I moved home I was I was pulled back into the fold and And that was what 2002 or 2003 no Maybe 2005 or six or we came and saw you at the Storm Brewery in 1999 Yes, I think we realized that that you would be back sometime. Yes, yes. I failed in my leaving.

You tried. I succeeded in my staying. Yes, you did. So yeah, in Vancouver. So when did you come back to Ontario? That's what you're saying? That would have been like 2001, but then I lived up north for a little while. Not up north, but like Pawson and Bracebridge. How often do you guys get together now these days?

I mean maybe once every two months and sometimes you know I mean it varies. We have a bunch of gigs during the year that are now turning into like regular when we do it every every year you know, like Geary Street we seem to, and the 12th Jazz Festival we seem to. The 29th of December seems to always happen. Yeah we always, we are this this somewhere again we're playing at the Handlebar December 29th. Okay tell me a bit about that way before you just just let the people know so where if we want to see god like and it's i find it difficult to describe what like it's like this collective eclectic collective which is hard to

say yeah i don't know if it's a collective but it's um okay you better believe we were once involved in a collective called the collective unconscious collective which also has people who have passed away. Uh, people have moved from this plane, but, and we, they are now part of the collective unconscious collective, even though they were part of it here. But yeah, it's not a collective in the sense that we aren't, there's no mandate stuck together so much. Exactly. We haven't shot a CEO in the head with our ideas, but, but, uh, yeah, we, I'm, and I keep referencing things that are happening in the news.

That's just to put us in a, in a time period. Don't worry. I don't believe anything. Don't worry. Look, we gotta let people know we're recording in December, 2024. We'll see how all this ages. That's right. Brezhnev is the president. Brezhnev is president.

To the original question, we get together to rehearse maybe once every couple of months. Four years. And what was that date though? You said December 29th? December 29th. Yeah, we always play on December 29th. Okay, that's a big day.

That's like your Festivus or whatever. Where are you gonna play? The Handlebar. In Kensington Market. Okay, very exciting. We should kind of have like, I'm thinking Toronto Mic listener experience events at Gus shows.

That sounds pretty cool to me. Let's, okay, so a few highlights I wanna hit. So in mid 90s here still like 96. No, yeah, 96 you guys go to New York city. Like in 97, there's a New York and a Chicago trip. Like, what can you tell me about these road trips here? They are funny, that's for sure. There's a suburban maybe involved in it.

Brian Cramps family suburban. Maybe it breaks down. And it's a car on the side of the road in Indiana. Broken radiator. Yeah, that's right. That's exactly what happened. There's a postcard in my basement where I try to write my wife about it

and I draw a picture of a guy who is the tow truck driver and he asks us for an ink pan. I remember that part. He was like, Bob Dylan, I need an ink pan. And that's just a write about how disappointed he is. And we were all asleep in the suburban when the state trooper tapped on the window. Because it was six o'clock in the morning.

The sun was just coming up. And we were all asleep. We were trying to get from Chicago to New York, which apparently was harder than it sounds. And going through Indiana is a smart way to go if your car doesn't break down. And are you playing gigs on the way or what's going on with the guh component of this?

No, we played it at maybe the empty bottle, is that right, in Chicago? Yeah, that's not the bowling alley, that's the other one, right? Yeah. It was the empty bottle. The empty bottle. And Blake, who's not the bowling alley. That's the other one, right? Yeah, it was the empty bottle the empty bottle And blake who's jim blackley. Do you know that he is also passed from this plane, but he is a drum teacher many people Studied with him some people tried not to study with some people studied with him and didn't get along with him. Some people

uh Think that he is incredible He is incredible in many ways, but he teaches what he would say is he, I mean, I can't even say what he would say, but he, I started studying with him in 1997. Our friend Dave Clark was studying with him. And again, I think I am still studying with him. And I'm hopefully passing some things along to our friend Andrew here. But you know, it, yeah, basically he is a drum set teacher, but a teacher of humanity and connection When did he pass?

also, July 16th of you can believe it 2017 17. All right. Sorry to hear that to holy smoke. Yeah now flog So if the flog CD gets released in 97, but how do you pay for this? Like how are you paying for the recording of the this music this one okay does say it has the gracious assistance of Ontario Arts Council that is maybe the one time we got a grant record okay so you because I mean there are artists I've had on this program who likes basically hired people who are like grant application specialists. There's

all these grants but you need a PhD in grant application to like figure it all out. But you guys got a grant for this one. Particular recording and I think it is the only one that we did get a grant for. We did get a grant for going on the We Are Sun Burning Tour in 1999. There was also a very timely grant because I think we had no money and Craig Barnes helped us. Yeah he totally helped us. Okay and this is the play ethic am I or that another one that's just that's okay that's a Brian Cramm yeah okay so We Are Sunburning comes out in 99 as you said you release that CD and I'm like

reading about a tour out west right like is that because a member lives out there like you're in Victoria you're in Vancouver it all makes a little more sense now that I hear about the woman in Andrew's life I don't think they came out just because I was there I'm sure they enjoyed seeing me because I'm a pleasureable little chap. Incredible surprise. Yeah. And you're, and you're, uh, you, it was so surprising that your beer exploded. It's true. We had a, we had a cap off. What do you call that?

Well, it's just one of the tanks, uh, blew, uh, while you were there and you had beer everywhere. It was very exciting. It was exciting. But, uh, the main thing was that you guys toured around the islands, and I think you guys had a good time, and maybe somebody lost their trumpet. Somebody did lose their trumpet. Who lost their trumpet?

Well. Probably the trumpet player. Was it me? One of you drummers lost your trumpet. Yeah, we lost our trumpet. You're doing it wrong, that explains it all. Okay, we are sunburning, so you were sunburning in the Victoria Qualicum Beach in the Vancouver area.

And then all the, like, Galeano Island, Pender Island, where the live guh was recorded, Pender Island, and Salt Spring Island, maybe Denman Island. We played a show on the rocks in Nanaimo on the, when the tide was coming in. There was two girls there for that show. And there's some few naked shots, naked photography from Wreck Beach, I believe.

Wreck Beach, that's right. Working blue here, what's going on here? Holy smokes here, okay. And again, you guys are the experts, I'm like just guiding us along here, but you got that live Gus CD that gets released celebrating the magic of this tour. If I got the right tour, this is in 1999. Okay. And then I think it's kind of neat that you, there's this New

York City bike tour. Do I have this right? 2001? This is right because- Craig Barnes wrote this, I think. Okay. Yeah. Cause I was biking earlier today. I need to know what's a New York City bike month tour. biking earlier today. I need to know what's a New York City Bike Month. Craig Barnes worked for an organization called Transportation Alternatives in New York. Maybe based in Brooklyn, but maybe based in Manhattan. They can tell us via the internet if we're totally wrong, but Transportation Alternatives still exists. And he got Guh to come down and play the bike races underneath the Williamsburg Bridge.

It was in a bar. They had stationary bicycles and they were racing them. Craig Barnes was the bicycle ambassador to New York. Love it so much. Okay, now it's funny because recently I turned 50 and I had an event for my 50th at that Great Lakes Brewery actually. So it was TMLX. What number was that?

15 I think. And I can see here that Brian had a 50th birthday party that coincided as a CD release party for G. What does it say? What does it say? La Trenerie. That's my French accent. Oh yeah, right, that's good. And that was at like Mitzi Sisters. Yeah, Mitzi Sisters. Okay, good. Yes, we had, we released this one, which was, you know, old recordings from 1996 that were just found on a cassette and then mastered.

So yeah, one night at the Music Gallery, May 16th,, it says, and Rivoli the next night, May 17th. So we got that mastered and made into a CD. And I guess had a release party at Mitzi's sister and Brian turned 50. Brian turned 50, you know, killing all the birds of one stone. Can I play more guh? Yeah. I love hearing this reaction to the guh I play. The bagpipe drone. How can radio not be playing this?

Yeah. Just playing it to me. Come on. What? Oh, time. Yeah. They like Mary Tyler more. Come on.

Why wouldn't you like this? Is that Didgeridoo? Is that Colin? Yeah sounds like it. The sound of Dick Van Dyken. No I think it's Julian on a bowed bass along with the drone. That must be Bird of Hell. Oh I like this one. Is that true from the Unearthed record? We should play this song.

Wow. My son, one of my sons, my older son, said it sounds like the mud pit. The mud pit. That's when I played this in the car once and he's like, sounds like the mud pit. And it was. MP3. What's an MP3?

Okay. Let me actually go to another one. I mean, I love it, but Stick into the same era here ABA That's recorded in Hornings Mills Community Center again by Brendan McQuire. He had one day off in 2014 and we got up north of Shelburne, Ontario in Hornings Mills and he somehow recorded it in the, you know, community halls are very reverb. He managed to separate all of us somehow and there is reverb, but that's natural reverb, but he,

we sat up in there and my parents live just south of there and they showed up, which was a surprise because they never showed up for anything I've ever done in my entire life. That's not true, sorry mom and dad. Yeah, be careful what you say. This is definitive record stuff here. Now,

like if this is your cup of tea, the album you want on Bandcamp is Hotel Gah. Yes, that's right. That's right. All right, now, this song, who wrote this song? Remember? Brian. Brian Cram. Okay, can we talk about Brian, please?

That, sad to... Colin Couch is playing the tuba back there. Yeah. July 2022. There's some sadness to report from July 2022. Is that when Brian passed? Yeah, that was a blow that sucked. I guess. Yeah. And I mean, we again still getting used to it because Brian would sometimes show up out

of nowhere. So you keep thinking he might do the same, but he's not going to do that. And as Jason Baird's child said, he was supposed to come to my birthday. And I said, yeah, I know what you're feeling right now, kid. But yeah, Brian, of course never leaves, but. We found him once on the escalator in Prague. We were on an escalator in a subway station in Prague and Henry and Blake and I were together and we were going on the opposite escalator going the other direction was Brian Goosepies.

Yeah. And we managed to find them because on our tour we would break up and meet up in the next city. This is Europe 1994. So at that time if I'd never seen Brian again that would have been more uh yeah I wouldn't have been as surprised as when as now. We had been in Prague and we were supposed to all meet there and we would go every day to the train station and Brian would not show up at the train station. We're like where is that guy? So Henry and Jay and I would go every day to the train station and Brian would not show up at the train station. We're like, where is that guy? So Henry and Jay and I would just be doing things all day long in Prague and no Brian. But as we were leaving, because eventually we thought we have to leave Prague,

that's when Brian showed up. And we went to Lago, how do you say it? Lago de Como, Italy, which George Clooney, come on, we know about you, but you didn't know about it back then. That's right. Ever since we lost Brian though, I feel, I can't speak for everybody, but I feel like when we play, he's often with us.

Brian is there. His spirit or his, I don't know what you want to call it. Overtones. His overtones or whatever. He's off in there. And both with Brian and with losing Brian and with losing Dallas, both of them, it did inspire me to try to play music as well as I can. I'm gonna try to play good music and I'm gonna try to love and be happy doing it. So that's what they've left me and I cherish that and I use it all the time. Did you guys see that Prime Tragically Hip documentary? Did anyone here see that? I didn't, but I see behind you it says, and to me it says,

the tragically help, which I really like that. My eyes are deceiving me, but I don't mind how they're doing it. The tragically help. Well, there's a scene at the end where they're talking to Gord Downie's mom, and it's really kind of an interesting sad scene then where she talks about how she's used to her son going away on these long tours where she wouldn't see him and for a long time and she said she just sort of like told herself that he's on another long tour like he'll be back and I always wonder like you just feel like Brian's gonna show up at some point like Brian's just on one of his point like Brian's just on one of his uh, it's about. I don't know if you've heard it, but uh, there's a Gordon Downey was playing at the CBC, maybe live on CBC. And uh,

maybe some of the real statics were playing behind them and they got in Brian. They play a Mary Margaret O'Hara song and it's gorgeous. And Brian ends up playing a Mary Margaret O'Hara song, and it's gorgeous, and Brian ends up playing, is the trumpet player on this Gordon Downey version. Well, because Dallas Good did a lot of stuff with Gordon when he was doing his solo. So Dallas probably grabbed Brian and got him to come in, and I didn't know he'd done that. And I think when Gordon Downey passed,

they played it on the radio, and it's a beautiful song, Gordon sings beautifully, but then this trumpet starts playing, and I, and you know, it's a beautiful song, Gordon, Gordon sings beautifully. But then this trumpet starts playing and I'm like, oh, oh. And then he's picking notes that aren't maybe what everybody else would have picked. And I'm like, my goodness, that sounds like Brian. And by the end of it, I was like, certain it was Brian.

And then I looked it up and it was definitely Brian. Yeah, but if you should, I don't know the name of the song. It's by Mary Margaret O'Hara and it's on CBC, Gordon Downey. So what's it like recording with O'Brien? I mean, GoTV, is that the next recording, is that the first recording with O'Brien? Yeah, and GoTV was interesting because we tried to play songs.

Like songs with like lyrics. Finally gonna get on the radio. Yeah, it was our pop record. Time to sell out. As you can see now, we're benefiting from that. Yeah, Julian wrote a bunch, Julian, our guitar player, wrote a bunch of songs and a bunch of the band backed him up and played it.

It was the first time we kind of recorded not all at once. You know, the bass and drums were first, and then I think vocals and then guitar, and then it was all separate. It was kind of Julian's little pet project, and I think it sounds great, and he wrote some great songs. But it was different for us, because it was kind of a vocal song based as opposed to instrumental,

which we normally do. Alright, I'm going to give you guys some gifts. You've all collected in my basement here in South Etobicoke for the definitive ongoing history of guh, which is long overdue. Like I'm glad you're here. Yeah, thank you for having us here. And we're gonna close of course, well, we're gonna play some out of frame

and talk about the new music of course, 2024, this music in 2024. But here, this is just three of you. This is gonna be a lot here, okay? So some of you drink, some of you don't, but you guys have some fresh craft beer from Great Lakes Brewery to take with you when you leave here today. There's been some talk of loss.

We've, you know, we talked about Dallas Good. And of course we talked about Brian Cram and great loss. But I'm here to give you measuring tapes. Okay, this can't make up for the loss. Okay, but you wouldn't believe how many times this is necessary. Okay, you should. There should be three on the table. And that's courtesy of Ridley Funeral Home.

So Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of this community since 1921, so. Oh, I saw that in a movie once. Wow. They shot a movie once. Yeah. That's amazing. Everybody gets a wireless speaker from Minaris.

So there's this brown box here, Blake. You got one there. gets a wireless speaker from Minaris. So there's this brown box here, blank. You got one there. Jay, you should have one. I thought that was candy. Nope. That's a quality Bluetooth speaker. You can take home with you.

Box and speaking to the police who opened for you right now. Yeah, that's right. Way back, way back. I got my next guest, I believe was heavily involved in the police picnic that the Gary's were putting on. Jay Clark's side. Yeah, he was there. The second one. Okay, the second one.

Talking heads. In the spoons, because I talk to Rob Prus all the time and the spoons are on that bill. The first one, so this guy anyway, I just did, I moderated a panel discussion. This is the most recent episode. So before this one, I dropped one on Friday

where I moderated a panel discussion at the Red Room, which is part of the most recent episode. So before this one I dropped one on Friday where I moderated a panel discussion at the the the Red Room which is part of the Masonic temple and It was the Gary Topp put out a new book and it was really all about the life of the Gary Topp and his work Of the Gary's and of course police picnic was a big part of that. So it was really rememberable because when Joan Jett came out the audience started throwing things at her. And they were just ripping like oranges and apples out of cooler. Because you could take a cooler back to into the exhibition grounds. Right. And then so she had to leave the stage because she was going to get killed.

Wow. And her band. And then Scruff Connors from Q107 came out. The last ownership. He gets on the mic and he goes, he goes, he goes, the next person, if you see somebody throwing something at the stage, I want you to turn and punch him in the face. And if it's you throwing stuff at this stage, I want you to punch yourself in the face. Scruff's son has been on this program just to basically do imitations of his dad passed

away TJ Connors. And nobody threw anything after that. But can I, I have this, I just, so I was a bit young, I missed out on these police picnics, but I've been talking to guys like Gary Topp and Gary Cormier, and then I got a guy coming on, and you know, Rob Pruse, who played the second one, it sounds like you were there.

Scruff Connors is a Q guy, but I would think that this would be a CFNY presentation, like. That's why Joan Jett got it so bad, because she was cute. Right, and Scruff is cute. So how does Scruff even be there to, like I said, I am just learning now that there's a Q107.

Because police, they wouldn't play police on, I mean they had a term for it, which is a homophobic term I won't use on this program. But Q107 wouldn't play the police, and CFNY would play the police like that's how it was and neither of them would play G. Yeah you know what that's bullshit too. Although we were on Q107. No CFNY was. Do you have any insight into how you got on? Blue and Bathurst. Yeah we were on we were on with Bookman. Dave Bookman. That's right. Well if anyone's gonna get you on CFNY it's Dave Bookman. That's right. Well, if anyone's gonna get you on CFMY, it's Dave Bookman.

That's true. We were in the studio. It's like a shout out to CFRU, 93.3 and Quellf, who's been playing us regularly these days. That's incredible. They played flog, the whole thing one time. Okay, so, but this is amazing to me to hear now that you did get played on,

I think his show was called Live in Toronto with Dave Bookman, probably. That's right. from the storefront. Yeah, Bloor Bathurst. Near Lees Palace there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, they were there and then they moved to Young Street, Young and Shooter and they had a storefront there.

But Bookie got you on Live in Toronto, that's amazing. That is kind of good. Bookie was a great help for everybody. You mentioned ReelStatics a couple of times and Badini, dear friend of bookie from the Bookman. The Reels were very supportive of us in the early days. They gave us, we opened for the Reels a bunch. Not so much any longer. We played at their Christmas party at the Cabana room in the Spadina Hotel.

Yeah that was fun. It was us and like the Real Statics and the Bare Naked Ladies and like... Little Green Men or something? Yeah maybe the uh... Maybe Wooden Stars or something yeah maybe uh maybe wooden stars or something maybe it was early too early for that but that they were very the reels were very very supportive Dave I mean Dave Clark has written music for guh we have songs by Dave uh and he was he's played a bunch of gigs with us David's played with us okay now we gotta capture all this right now this is the moment okay finally you've arrived. Here you are in my basement.

Okay, but I, so I gave you, oh yeah, why did I give you wireless speakers? You must be wondering why the hell is this guy giving me wireless speakers? Because you're going to listen to season seven of Yes We Are Open, which is an award winning podcast from Monaris where Al Grego went to Winnipeg and had conversations with small business owners about their triumphs, their tribulations, you know, triumphing over adversity. Small business is tough. God has been around since 91. It's amazing.

It's amazing. You guys pat yourselves on the back. 91. Don't punch ourselves in the face. That's right. Yes. Scruff, Connor, I've got scruff stories. My goodness gracious.

I can't imagine. When that Listeria crisis came out from Maple Leaf, he found himself a way to get paid. It's already funny and I don't even know anything about it. But I've said too much. Okay. The late grade. And he always had this term and I borrowed it for this program. He called the listeners, the listenership.

That was a Scruff Connors thing and I've stolen it. Thank you Scruff. And again, shout out to FOTM TJ Connors. But okay, so season seven, yes, we are open. Great podcast. Subscribe, listen, you guys have the wireless speaker to do it. Just to wrap up, Palma pasta.

Does anyone here in guh like Italian food? The answer is yes. I think yes. Okay, two, what about Jay? Yes. Three for three, okay. You know what, I can't believe I did this because I only can fit four in my freezer at a time

and now I realize I'm kind of fucked because I got a guest tomorrow and then a guest Tuesday. I got to put in- Wait a minute, you're allowed to say fuck on this show? What the hell? Start this, hey! Much like guh, we're not on the radio, okay. So.

But I do have in my freezer, you're each leaving with a large frozen lasagna from Palma Pasta. That's incredible. It's amazing. Love it. I don't have hundreds of dollars of, wow. So you got the lasagna, you're each leaving with a large frozen lasagna from Palma Pasta. That's incredible. It's amazing. I don't know. Love it. Hundreds of dollars of, wow.

So you got the lasagna, you got the beer, you got the measuring tape, you got the speaker, a piece of advice on the way out. So it is too much. I'm taking some of it back. That's way too much. Blake, you talked about it, okay? I had. Piece of advice, and then we're going to get to still out of frame.

The piece of advice is if you guys have old electronics, old cables, old devices, don't throw it in the garbage because the chemicals end up in our landfill. Go to recyclemyelectronics.ca and you can find out. Watch your head when you stand up there. Okay. Knocking over your camera here. It's okay. That's going to be unprofessional. You know why? You know why? That's why there's three of you to carry the load when one of you has to take a whiz or whatever here. Okay, who can tell me about recording out of frame? Is it still out of frame? Well, there's another one that will come out. Don't give it away, but you just did, but it is out of frame.

Spoiler alert. So there's two things going on. There's out of frame, and there's still out of frame. That's right. Pretty clever. So where did you record out of frame? So where did you record Out of Frame? So yeah, that's out on a farm north of Guelph that Andrew, since he's gone to the washroom, we can say anything, but he is the guy that's out there. It's on County Road 49 out there. He's out there and with Jason Lane, that's the person that we know, but there's two other guys and Andrew knows them. But yeah, yeah he's like let's record there and

so we got took one day we basically set up and then we took one day with all of us and we went through a bunch of tunes that haven't made it onto any other record and then yeah on the advice of Julian Brown who said he was taking advice from kids or something like that we We're releasing it in two parts. So, yeah, out of frame is one part still out of frame. What do you mean kids? Well, he kept saying, well, the people out there and stuff like that. It was like, who watch people?

It's like kids say that. And no one is making very much sense in this day and age, as they say, and right now, kids these days or whatever it is. But no one is making sense But so we're doing the nonsensical as David Byrne told us to do stop making sense. We have stopped it Nobody is doing it. Everyone is mad. Everyone's crazy. The world is piece of an oyster Everybody is there. Nobody is there all of that is true Yeah, still out of frame

there, nobody is there, all of that is true, yeah, still out of frame. You said kid a few times and I thought maybe he are talking about Distro Kid. That's another thing Julian is like, do put it on all the streaming outfits. I was like I hate all this, I hate those and I and again I love everything but I really can't stand it you know what I mean and then yeah so that's on that's the voice of the devil and so anyways there we are we're out there available to stream and camp and through distro kid not. I think the streaming services, yeah, yeah, you can get that on the regular. We wanted to make a record that sounded like us live. You can divide it up into as many records as you like. Yeah, there's

about 20 billion records now if you want it to be just like, just little bits and pieces of each. And you recorded this in Guelph? Is that what I heard? Yeah, outside of Guelph at Turtle Shell Studios. There we go. Which is a really great studio. Breslau, they say. Well, shout out to Ian Service, good friend of mine in Guelph, who helps us out with the program. Okay, so Turtle Shell, you recorded this in late July.

It was very hot. Yeah, that's true. It was very sweaty. It could have been hotter. And there was bugs. And we wanted to capture what we said. We've done a lot of recordings over 30 years, but we wanted something that sounded like us live. There's a certain...

Which is insane because every one of our records sounds exactly like us live. I think this one captures the... Well, let's listen a little bit here. Does this sound more like us live or... Who wrote this song? That's Fiona. Too busy for me, Fiona. Ah! Do you know the name of this song? Uh...

The Thousandth Night. Thousandth Night. Yeah. Thousandth Night. Okay. One thousandth night it could be. The one thousandth night. The thousandth night. One thousandth night it could be. The one thousandth night. The thousandth night. Okay, so I'm gonna bring her down because I want to actually hear one more cut here. This one's by Brian Cran.

Ostumus. Ostumus release. I'm going to do my best here. So we've already established that. By the way, is it Breslawu, is that what you're calling this? Yeah, that's the name of the town. It's barely a town, it's like a region. It's out near the, it's out by the airport in Kitchener. For two years, my son went to Laurier.

There's my connection to the neighborhood. Yeah. And there is a Breslau in Europe that you will be astounded by when you go to make the connections in your own mind about what the hell is Breslau. So here's what I believe, in my crack research, here's what I believe we'll hear on this album here, which by the way, again, people can go to Bandcamp and search G-U-H, and then you can grab Out of Frame, which is a recent release, and you can see G-Live on December 29th.

That's right. I'm keeping notes over here. You are? Every year. I'm a professional. Every year, December 29th, everybody will show up somewhere. Okay, Henry Muth. Yeah, Muth, maybe?

How do you say it, Muth? There's a Gary Muth that I recently came up on an episode of Toronto Mike, that I think Jeff Silverman mentioned it but maybe they're related but he's a Bagpipes is that what Highland Warpipes? I think yeah Cool shout out to groundskeeper Willie, okay Fiona Stewart, I mean I see violin but the fiddle basically I suppose

What is the difference who can tell me the difference between violin and fiddle? Can you do it? Do you know how to do that? I don't know, does a fiddle play country? Can we call Fiona? I don't know, I feel like- People get upset, that's all we know, is there's some upsettedness.

So yeah, if you wanna get into a fight, talk about it. Shout out to, yeah, we got Ashley McKisick, I think. Okay. Jason Clark. He's in the room right now. Guitar. That's you, buddy. Born in the guitars.

Yeah, because Julian Brown. I'm not finishing. I'm not finished yet. Julian Brown. Guitar. I feel like I'm doing the... Julian started as our bass player and then was away for a while and is back now as guitar.

Love this so much. Mark Rainey! Can you believe it? He's got like the Rob Proust role. He's on keyboards. Yeah, he's done it. I mean he was originally in the chorus of the flog, that song, so-called song, flog. He was one of the choral members. He was the lead. Yeah, yeah Yeah also from U of T, but then suddenly Decided he's got to be in gas still and wants to play keyboards and sing as as well Just singing in God just for the record here. Okay now Craig Barnes bass guitar And still managing the still management. That's right. okay big barnes is an anchor so send all your complaints it's a funny job for a

bicycle okay Colin couch yeah that guy can build things and play didgeridoo but then he's on tuba in this tuba and he's an anchor and he's a good for coming he's a good idea guy we did a a bunch of movies. We did music for movies, like soundtracks, and that was because of Colin. What movies? We did a movie about bugs. Microcosmos was one that already had a soundtrack, but we redid the soundtrack against the law. The Battleship Potemkin?

Battleship Potemkin, La Voyage dans la Lune. Georges Moulier? Yeah, we did it. We did it at CineCycle maybe. What was that Kenneth Anger movie? I don't know that one. No, The Traveling Eye of the Cat. Oh yeah, that's right.

Now I'm remembering it, The Traveling Eye of the Cat. That's Colin. Tuba and ideas. And Rick Paladwaur would do things called a Super 8 Festival at the Hart House and we did music for many Super 8 films through Rick Paladwaur. Love this definitive ongoing history of G.

Okay, John Jowett. Jowett. Jowett, JJ they call him sometimes. He's the newest member. He's the newest member of G. How new is he as a member? Pretty new. a couple years Yeah without a doubt I would play with him in Sandro Perry's band sometimes but now he's seems to be good

What's euphonium? Like it looks like a small tuba Yeah, it is held in the same fashion, but it's Brian used to play it as well It's a brass a lot of the brass players. Can't help but notice on the list that Jason Baird is missing. Yes. He wasn't on this record. Oh, this is who's on the record?

Yeah, because I got this from Bandcamp for the album. Yeah. Sorry, I missed it. I can't help me. That's OK. We're missing him too. How dare you question my crack research? Nick Clayton's probably not on there.

How dare you? This is an award-nominated podcast probably how dare you this is a four nominated podcast how dare you ever pop andrew henry do we know this guy drums yeah yeah we know how our drums okay wrap it all up here yeah wow okay is there anything we haven't put on the definitive record here because that we should hear anything this is you guys all your mics are open are open. Is there anything we should know? The listenership should know. Shout out to Scruff Connors. I mean there's so many things we can't even begin to say them. That's the whole problem where we would be a busking band. Sometimes we play down on Queen Street. Sometimes sometimes we would be a band at the prop house sometimes we

would be at this place called the prop house that John Bentley on the Toronto Island we would be on the ferry on the Toronto Island ferry sometimes we'd be in the Toronto Airport when somebody who has also gone Ethel Muth is gone from this plane where she was coming back from Korea and there would be Gah there somehow in the Pearson International Airport. We played on the Chief in Squamish, BC. Yeah, yeah, we hauled instruments up there. Very difficult ascent and played there and then people were like, I don't you guys shut up That's an incredible Like when we look back at guh and I'm hoping we educate, you know

You know thousands of Torontonians that this is happening in your own backyard Like if you lack awareness about it because you only know music because it was played on the radio or it was on much music, there are a lot of people who if it doesn't make, and again I'm kind of dating myself for the Gen Xers, but if it didn't make much music or it wasn't played on terrestrial radio, it's completely off their radar. And let's face it, G.U.A. is unlike some of the bands we've talked about like Real Statics or whatever, didn't have a lot of radio play or much music exposure Right, so we're gonna educate a lot of people that guy exists So if you want to leave people here before I play another great Toronto band lowest of the low or a cover anyways of lowest

Hello, what is the legacy of guh? Like maybe we'll close with each of you telling me like what you want people to know and remember about guh. I will close with each of you telling me what you want people to know and remember about guh. I like that when you go see a guh show, you're not, when you go play a guh show, for me, you don't know what's going to happen. You don't know how this, like, we have a bunch of songs, but guaranteed we play them differently every night.

It's like jazz. It's kinda like that, I don't like to call it that, because that immediately puts put you say that word and then now you know, well, you're not, you're not as good as that guy or that guy. I think we're influenced by all sorts of different music. I still consider us punk rock, but. That's interesting, right? Because it's as eat the punk rock is an attitude, right? We're just doing what we want to do. You do it yourself.

We're doing a lot of it ourselves. And we're a band that's not afraid of mistakes, I think. Again, I'm speaking for a lot of other people here. But I think the mistakes, not the mistakes, but obviously we learn from a lot of mistakes, but we're not afraid to try things. I think the mistakes, not the mistakes, but obviously we learn from a lot of mistakes, but we're not afraid to try things. And we're not afraid to try them live. We would, we don't do it as much anymore,

but we would often, like people would bring in music to a show and sheet music and say, okay, we're gonna play this tonight. And like you have, the first time you're playing it is on stage at the ultrasound. And so you had to be able to read music at least kind of and quickly. So and sometimes that would work and sometimes that would fail miserably. And you, you just have to be ready that who knows what's going to happen.

The workshop and what, but it's funny because the word punk rock I find interesting because there are some people out there who think that's a sound, right? Like, oh, it's fast, hard, whatever, you know, it's a sound, that's the sound of punk rock. But really punk rock is an action. I think I had this chat with Don Pyle, actually speaking of great drummers

and you know, shadowy men on a shadowy planet with like a surf rocky type outfit or whatever, but it's had a very punk rock ethos or whatever and guz got cut from similar similar cloth Yeah, that's I mean It if you want to talk about it like that It is punk rock, right? Yeah, I mean we're not obviously punk rock but we I grew up That word punk. It is, yeah. I mean we're not obviously punk rock, but we, I grew up, you know, that was the music

that that that really affected me and I know it affected Henry and you know, you know, the rest of you guys, I don't know. Did you like the raving mojos? Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, I had a player. Did you like the raving mojos? Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, Richard Martin on the program. There's not enough, similar to you actually, there's not enough out there on the raving mojos. They don't, they don't, unlike you though, I can listen to, you don't know what an mp3 is. I can listen, like I just played a whole whack mp3, we can hear you guys. Good luck finding a whole whack of MP3s

of the Raving Mojos, good luck. I play with Lopez, Michael Phillips, who was the bass player in the second iteration of the Raving Mojos. And he was in Jughead and he was in all sorts of old bands. So yeah, we know the Raving Mojos. We distributed records for Jughead in Europe. Yeah, that's true. We did. This is the moment like where you can just spit something out and to blow some minds on the way

out. I really liked in the early days we we are the bills that we play on would be uh you know very very weird because it would be us and like political incorrect or say, you know, or the bunch of fucking goose or, and... Project nine. Project nine. And so it'd be like a funk band and the weird bagpipe instrumental band and a hardcore band.

And you know, what's going on? But I loved that. You got to see a lot of different kind of music you're exposed to. So how long will guh run? Like are we gonna be hearing guh in 15, 20 years? That was the question a while ago and I think it was forever, like not forever,

but for the lifetime, that is what it is. And we may fall apart. Perhaps somebody younger will play guh music, but the idea was until we draw the last breath there is guh that is the idea and the other thing that has to be said is guh is inside of every band and anyone we play with I tell them later after I've played with them for a while it's like you're secretly in guh and they're like I knew it, I knew it, I knew it, I knew it! But uh, that's the secret.

I love closing on that sentiment. There's a little guh in all of us. All right, go see a doctor. That's what Danny Wilde used to say to Brian Cram at the Winchester street, or the bar there, it's like if you're sick go to the hospital. That's what he kept saying to Brian andram at the Winchester Street or the bar there is like if you're sick go to the hospital that's what he kept saying to Brian and it was true both Danny Wilde Brian gone but they knew each other intimately and yeah if you are sick go to the hospital. Andrew Henry gets great advice for everybody if you're hungry get yourself some to eat and if you're dirty then get yourself some to eat. And if you're dirty, then go take a bath. Right? Balls itch scratch.

Sorry. That's all. No, listen, I'll fix that in post. Okay. No ball scratching on this very esteemed program. We're not on this radio either. That's it. Yeah.

So Andrew Henry, thanks for reaching out and making this happen. Thanks for spotting me at the Geary street art crawl. I'll be back there next year. I think that's a very cool vibe there, man. Yeah. We love playing. It's amazing. Now that I know you, can I cool vibe there, man. Yeah. We love playing.

It's a lot of fun. It is amazing. Now that I know you, can I just play with you? Like, I don't know. I don't have any instrumentation. We have no say over it. Yeah, you have to just come and do it. It is a public space.

Like you can't stop me. That's right. We cannot stop you. No. And I would also like to say, if you are sick and go to the hospital, don't expect them to help you anymore. That's the other sad part about December.

I'm not co-signing that one. December 15th, 2024. Don't expect anyone to help you. That's the other part. It depends how sick you are, actually. It depends if you're really sick, they'll still help you. No, it isn't true. People want to help you.

That's the problem is that there are many beautiful, compassionate people who want to help you. But there are others who would try people who want to help you, but there are others who would try to stop you and laugh in your face because you are actually in a terrible position and they will laugh and laugh and keep laughing. Well, fuck those people. So Andrew Henry, Andrew Henry, I hope it's not gonna be freezing rain

on your way back to Guelph. Blake Howard, I like the cut of your jib. Anyone told you that before? Yes. Just Mr. Burns, okay. Jason Clark, like I feel like you're the strong silent type, but you have all the details. So it's great to meet you buddy.

Great to meet you. Thank you. He's got a good look to him, right? He's the handsome one. I was gonna say, how come he's so much better looking than you guys? Yeah, we don't really like to talk about that. It's not the luck of the draw.

And that, and that. Shout out to Stu Stone. And that brings us to the end of our, this is a milestone episode. Are you honored? 1600. 1600, yeah. I love that, I love it.

I love this square root. You noticed 1619, you noticed those numbers showing up, didn't you? I saved this episode for you, that's for sure. And that brings us to the end of our 1600th show. Go to torontomike.com for all your Toronto Mike needs. I'm on blue sky at Toronto Mike. Go to band camp and search for guh, G-U-H, and then buy everything. Just whip out the credit card and go nuts.

In every country. In every country. In every country. Much love to all who made this possible. That's Great Lakes Brewery. That's Palm Opasta. That's RecycleMyElectronics.ca. That's Minaris.

And Redleaf Funeral Home. See you all tomorrow when my guest is Jeff Farberman. Is that right? Is that the right name? I would hate to get that wrong. I'm actually gonna check in real time while our new closing theme wraps up. It's not Jeff Farberman.

It's so fucking embarrassing. Wow, that is embarrassing. Paul Farberman, okay? Jeff's must be his cousin or something. Fuck that guy. Paul Farberman, okay? Jeff's must be his cousin or something. Fuck that guy. Paul Farberman is my guest tomorrow. See you all then. Don Pyle.

I love it. This is Don Pyle. Yes, shall we? Yeah. I have Don Pyle's hardware case in my garage that Laura Pitkin gave me. It's amazing. Old reed diamond artwork on it that I get to look at every day.