Rave & Drool: A Chronicle of '90s CanRock

[Guest Idioteque]

I sat from 3am till 8am writing a novel on this topic that I cared about since I was a kid, then my laptop died. So I'm going to give the longest TLDR description of this Indiegogo project I stumbled upon last night. 

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/rave-drool-a-chronicle-of-90s-canrock-music-film#/
 

In Short...
Alternative music of the 1990’s represents an incredibly vibrant and exciting period in Canadian music. With many of the bands from this era broken up and their records steadily going out of print, the music that once dominated Canadian airwaves is slowly fading into obscurity. The decade saw a multitude of bands enjoy tremendous popularity, such as The Watchmen, Crash Test Dummies and Our Lady Peace. However, success was mostly short-lived and rarely sustained. Rave & Drool follows these bands and more like them; the good, the bad, and the great.
For a more detailed outline of the story please visit: 

twitter.com/ravedrool

https://www.facebook.com/RaveDrool

I was born in 1993 & caught the very end of that generation's music by early/mid 2000's. Picking up an interest on the rise & fall of 90's CanRock movement that held it's own against Grunge & Britpop. A group of young artists from Canada come out of nowhere & within a decade: sell out hockey rinks across the Country, go gold-platinum, and ultimately hold their own & in some cases outperform/outsell UK & US acts. Canadian artists on the front cover of magazines, radio/TV time to reach mass local audiences, but what seemed like in the blink of an eye, bands fell apart while the rest of the world rejected any form of art coming out of Canada. Torn apart by labels trying to brand them into the next best marketable toy. When people make fun of Nickelback, they don't realize that the generation they come from barely exists anymore. It's not like there's a huge mortality rate like grunge, something happened where these massive Canadian bands just fell off the face of the earth and 5% was able to survive with a career in music. Only few recently started coming out of hiatus. 
 

Fact 1:Big Shiny Tunes 2 has sold more than 1.2 million copies, making it the third best selling CD in Canada, ever. Toughly one in thirty Canadians own a copy

Fact 2.The 90's saw a record number of Canadian artists sign record deals. In 1994, 95 records sold at least 50,000 copies, a Canadian record to this day.

There's an incredible story to be added to this documentary by including MGB, it would be like covering woodstock 1969 & not saying anything about Jimi Hendrix. 

Just going off of Matthew Good Band's impact alone, he was Canada's wild poster boy. Had all the same highs & lows as every other band yet survived, how? 

A quick list of accomplishments:

• MGB lead the west coast during the 90's in the CanRock movement, 
• Last Of The Ghetto Astronauts gained the title of highest-selling independent album in Canada.
• Opened for Aerosmith & The Who, 
• Won Fox Seeds (Nickelback, Bif Naked & Gob won previous seasons)
• Nominated for 14 junos & won a handful too.
• Multiple gold & platinum records.
• Headlined arena tours & shared festivals with many beloved US acts today.
• He's friends with Dale Earnhardt Jr.

The most interesting part is, his band broke up like most mainstream Canadian rock bands at the time & he survived when many didn't. The best part of this documentary is not the celebration of the accomplishments of each of these bands, but the celebration of this remarkable Canadian movement that quietly happened up North & the sacrifices that paved the way for artists to succeed like Arcade Fire & Billy Talent etc. Matthew Good is our generation's Neil Young in alot of ways. 
I think there's also a huge topic of mental illness that can be addressed too, but ultimately who knows more about economics than Matt. He sabotaged his USA career just to stay in Canada.

I'll leave everyone with this video I've watched 1000 times over the years, you could splice it in the trailer to the documentary & it would fit together perfectly, that's how badly his story needs to be added to this movie. The director has shared interest in getting Matt for an interview too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgqmp4xFvfY

Thoughts? Opinions? Im sorry for the rambling haha but when I care about something I go hard. Just remember it could have been way longer! It's 9.38am, THE END.

[Outtahere]

Just how is being friends with Dale Earnhardt Jr. an accomplishments? ;)

[foats]

Yeah the Dale thing was pretty random lol.  He also opened for Pearl Jam.  I believe it was in Calgary.   I agree though if you are mentioning Crash Test Dummies you have to mention MGB.  Hell I would also include IME and Econoline Crush.  Sloan and Tea Party too.  Growing up in NY I would often hear about these bands and would later fall in love with them and seek out any live shows, demo's, b sides I could get my hands on.  The 90's were huge for Canadian Alt-Rock. 

 

I always like to hear from Canadian's what they think of the bands I listed.  I know what we hear about them in the states but how big were Econoline Crush in Canada?  Same with IME and the Headstones?  I'd love opinions on these bands.  Treble Charger also.

[Guest Idioteque]

This is everyone involved in the film so far showing the huge lineup of support backing this project:
 

Daniel Greaves/Ken Tizzard (The Watchmen)
, James Black/Rick Jackett (Finger Eleven), 
Reed Shimozawa (Zuckerbaby)
, Gordie Johnson (Big Sugar)
, Jeremy Taggart/Duncan Coutts/Mike Turner (Our Lady Peace), 
Edwin (I Mother Earth), 
Jeff Burrows (The Tea Party), 
Brad Roberts (Crash Test Dummies), Sky Onosson (The New Meanies), Jason Plumb (The Waltons), Sarah Harmer (Weeping Tile), Todd Kerns (Age of Electric), Bruce McDonald (Filmmaker)
, Gerry Krochak (Journalist), Kevin Walters (Promoter).

VS people he hopes to also include in the film:
 

The Gandharvas, Rusty, The Tragically Hip, Barenaked Ladies, Moist, Sloan, Holly McNarland, Record Producers, MuchMusic VJ’s, Managers, Photographers, Denise Donlon (former General Manager of MuchMusic and former Sony Music President), Edward Skira (co-founder of Chart Magazine), Jeff Cohen (Booking Agent, Horseshoe Tavern), Terry McBride (Co-Founder Nettwerk music, Manager), Michael Barclay (Journalist), Alan Cross (Radio Broadcaster).

Some of the remaining benchmark "rockstars" like Ian Thornley & Jeff Martin usually do interviews, so I'm sure they will agree to this. The problem is this project went under everyone's eyes & unfortunately didn't meet the final goal on Indiegogo, but instead of giving up this fan is still pressing on to make his movie. So the least I can do, is extend my hand by sharing this project in hopes we all can watch it someday. Realistically too, if MTV & Much Music let him dive into their library, who knows what lost or unreleased footage of bands we all loved from the 90's come to light.

 

Haha I figured anyone who has followed Matt for a long time would've gotten that bit of 7AM delirious humor. I've always found their weird bromance in the early 2000's hilarious. I considered putting Warne Livesey's name but actually started to think about how his opinion would probably be great for the documentary as well. Holly McNarland is the one I'm looking most forward to.

Warne's perspective on economics with bands like Midnight Oil in Australia & Canadian bands would be interesting to see compared his thoughts on the music scene in London. I also know the drummer for Bif Naked/Static In Stereo, there's just this vast collection of people who all experienced this fascinating new wave that went from 0MPH to 100MPH in such a short burst. It's exciting! 

Edited June 5, 2017 by Idioteque

[Guest Idioteque]

New trailer is up.

https://www.facebook.com/RaveDrool/videos/673489176183062/

[Outtahere]

Nice one! It's a shame you couldn't Matt in there (or is he just not in the trailer) because he's had a lot to say about the Canadian music scene and what we hear in this trailer pretty much sums up what he says. 

 

The MuchMusic bit hit a nerve with me because that's really when I started getting into Canadian bands including Matthew Good (whom I seemed to be the only one in bloody Quebec who was a fan... 'Matthew who?'). 

 

I hope the full thing gets released soon!

[Guest Idioteque]

Matt's probably the last one out of the 90's bands the director needs.

 

Hopefully some sort of interview can get put together by the end of the year.

[Outtahere]

Matt's probably the last one out of the 90's bands the director needs.

 

What do you mean?

[Guest Idioteque]

The movie contains interviews from most major bands from the 90's but Matt. If you actually look at the long list of artists involved in this project it's practically every major voice that had a part in Canadian rock.

 

my hope is the Bored can somehow get Matt involved because the director of the film wants to interview him.

 

I think Dave Genn even has a part in the film, not sure.

Edited August 8, 2017 by Idioteque

[finboy]

FYI, Alan cross posted this, I asked why no Matt good and the creator of the doc (it seems) does want to talk with him. I guess it's a waiting game?

[Outtahere]

FYI, Alan cross posted this, I asked why no Matt good and the creator of the doc (it seems) does want to talk with him. I guess it's a waiting game?

 

Ha ha ha! I read "Does NOT want to talk with him". I was like "What?!!"  :lol: