The first punk band that ever formed in the Valley was Sawbelly. This Greenwood foursome, which consisted of vocalist Allan Morse, guitarist John Loring, bassist Alex Loring and drummer Jean-Marc, became quite popular locally with their unique brand of melodic hardcore. They released two studio-recorded DIY cassettes in 1994.
Sawbelly hadn't been together long when other groups followed their lead and started blasting out songs. These bands included Noggin, Jester, Flumen, the Lost Berry Pickers, the Vulgar Pups and Squirtgun (no relation to the Indiana punk band of the same name). Of these, Noggin and the Lost Berry Pickers were the most successful and long-lived. Noggin, fronted by Shannon Peyton and also featuring Dirk den Haan on guitar, Leah Eddy on bass and Frank den Haan drumming, were a roaring, churning retro-old-school group who covered the likes of GG Allin and the Dead Kennedys, and also wrote several solid original songs. LBP were somewhat more restrained; imagine Black Flag and Bad Religion jamming together and one begins to get the picture.
Valleypalooza, an outdoor music festival first held in 1995, gave bands an opportunity to play before a larger audience than they were accustomed to. Noggin opened the show and the Berry Pickers closed it (Sawbelly had broken up the month before). There were two other punk bands that played that day: Wolfville's Coo Coo Head and Kentville's Dumbass. Coo Coo Head started off as a semi-new-school group, but later turned to hardcore, while Dumbass played melodic old-school in the vein of the Misfits.
The Kingpins were a quartet who formed in the early fall of 1995. John Loring, who had been with Sawbelly, fronted the group on guitar and vocals. Jeremy Davidson played guitar and sung a few songs, while Paul Murray was on bass and Matt Connell drummed. The Kingpins quickly became the most popular band in the Valley, playing music that was fast and loud but still melodic. They became best known for two classic-rock covers they had punkified: Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl" and CCR's "Bad Moon Rising." But their original songs were also numerous and of good quality.
Noggin played its last show in Halifax, opening for the Chitz at Cafe Ole on November 11, 1995 with Jeremy Davidson filling the vacant position of bass-player. Coo Coo Head was plagued by personnel changes and moves, while LBP and Dumbass faded from the picture. This left the Kingpins as the only active punk band in a scene increasingly dominated by metal. The 'Pins carried on resolutely through the winter, playing whatever shows they could find, but were finally forced to break up in June of 1996 when John and Jeremy left to seek their fortunes out West. The only bright spot that summer was Coo Coo Head, who managed to get organized enough to play at the second annual Valleypalooza.
The fall of 1996, however, saw something of a re-birth of the punk scene in the Valley. Two new supergroups were formed: The ska-influenced foursome Eye for an Eye, consisting of former members of Flumen and the Lost Berry Pickers, and the retro-old-school Vincent Price, made up of former Noggin and again, Flumen players. Eye for an Eye were first to perform, making their first impressions at a show at West Kings District High. Vincent Price followed a while later.
The spring of 1997 saw signs of life in the town of Middleton, which had not had a punk band since Noggin broke up a year and a half before. John of the Trailer Park was the new group, consisting of four previously unknown musicians in their mid-teens who, like the best of Valley bands through the ages, combined force and raw power with melodic sensibility. The four were Chris "Dakota" Brown on vocals, Daniel Peyton (brother of Shannon) on guitar, Randy Coleman playing bass and Ryan Walker beating the skins. The band, as Noggin had been, was cursed by a revolving-door syndrome regarding bassists. Randy was replaced after a few weeks with Shannon Peyton, who lasted until June. Singer Dakota then took on the added duties of playing bass until late August, when a permanent solution was finally found in Lee Prall.
As JTP searched for the right mix, onto the scene came the Peytones (a group made up of the three Peyton brothers) and the surf-punk trio (later quartet) NSA. In June came the STD's, a cover band devoted mainly to the work of the Misfits, and in August the vaguely pop-punk threesome Rage Against Charlie Sheen arrived. These groups, like John of the Trailer Park, all featured musicians with no previous experience in bands. While this meant that the groups took longer to mature, it also insured that the scene would survive for another generation.
This sudden punk explosion became all the more evident in the summer of 1997, as the lineups of shows all over the Central Valley were dominated by punks. Although Coo Coo Head was the only punk band to play at Valleypalooza III, five punk bands played at the Artificial Life Records- sponsored show at the Middleton Rotary Park on August 8th (six if you consider NSA to be punk). This depth meant that when Eye for an Eye, the STD's and Vincent Price broke up in the weeks that followed, the scene still carried on strong.
In October, mock-Britpunks the Scuds banded together, though they did not perform live until January of the next year. Also in October, Hectic was formed from the ashes of Eye for an Eye and Vincent Price. A fivepiece, Hectic is the first Valley group to devote itself entirely to ska-punk. They played their first show on November 29th at Wolfville's doomed Front Street Cafe, supporting Rage Against Charlie Sheen, who were playing their third and final show.
November 27th saw the formation of the Young Offenders, who included members of Rage Against Charlie Sheen and John of the Trailer Park. This group is the poppiest of all punk bands the Valley has seen, and the most prolific regarding original songs.
In the past few months things have been quietly but steadily progressing, with the demise of John of the Trailer Park on December 31, 1997 and the subsequent formation of Stinkfinger, fronted by former JTPers Randy Coleman and Daniel Peyton. February 5th saw a Battle of the Bands at Middleton Regional High School that was the first show for the Young Offenders and Stinkfinger, and where the Peytones, NSA and Hectic also played. On February 27th the Louder than Loud show at the Greenwood Community Centre featured the Scuds, the Young Offenders, Hectic, Stinkfinger and Truro's hardcore mavens Negative Trend as well as a few and alternative bands. Stinkfinger broke up after playing two shows and the Scuds disbanded on March 9 after the same number. On March 14 the Young Offenders travelled to Sound Market Studio in Halifax and recorded a demo, the 14-song "First Offence", which was released on cassette nine days later on the now-defunct Artificial Life Records.
The next few months were perhaps the greatest in the history of the scene, as there are more bands and more frequent shows than ever before. March 26th was the date of the first West Kings show in about two years, with the Young Offenders, the Peytones and Hectic representing the punks. On April 17th a show at the Nictaux Fire Hall also included these three bands among others. May 2nd saw the Young Offenders travel to Wolfville and spontaneously play at a benefit for Youth for Social Justice along with Negative Trend, Better Off Dead (another Truro hardcore group) and a punk band from Wolfville, All Promises Broken. (That band broke up not much later). On May 30th the Young Offenders played their first show outside the Valley, travelling to Dartmouth.
The Scuds re-formed with a slightly altered lineup on May 4th, then a few weeks later reverted back to the original trio. These same three musicians formed a side project called Animal Vegetable or Mineral after being inspired by a Bombscares show in Halifax. More consumed with AVM than the Scuds, they put that band on hold indefinitely, and it eventually dissolved. The Scuds formally broke up on November 16 when drummer Master Bates quit the kit to devote more time to singing in his new band, the Lewinskys. To replace him in Animal Vegetable or Mineral, the two remaining members brought in Young Offenders guitarist the Egyptian Magician on drums.
The Lewinskys had started up in late September of 1998 when two former members of Rage Against Charlie Sheen teamed with the ex-drummer and ex-bassist of alternative band Intensity. Adding a second guitarist, they became the first five-piece punk band to be based in Middleton. Their first show was October 26th in Brickton, which was also the first gig for the Bambinos. That pop-punk band consists of three ex-members of John of the Trailer Park.
Other new bands have also appeared. The Local Losers went through several incarnations during 1998, with the only connecting link being bassist Gordie Bezanson. Skate Mafia is another Bezanson project, a band begun in the fall consisting entirely of Middleton skateboarders. The Teen Slashers, like the Local Losers, experienced several lineup changes before they had even played a gig. Neither band ever did: the Losers eventually disintigrated out of apathy while the Teen Slashers became simply the Slashers, then finally mutated into Slumber Party Massacre.
In the meantime, the Young Offenders began to travel more often to Halifax. They played at the Pavilion at least once each month from July '98 through to January '99, missing a gig in February due to car trouble. They played at Punkfest '98, the first time a Valley band had played at a Punkfest since the spring of 1996. They recorded their first CD on December 5th at Deep Nine Studios in Halifax. The CD was put out on the Magnetic Record Label, the successor to Artificial Life Records. This label was started in October of 1998.
Things are also rolling quite well in the Eastern end of the Valley. Coo Coo Head remains the key band in the scene, and are now back on top of their amazing form, playing more shows than ever and writing more new songs. Their show in Halifax in November of 1998 was the first time they had played there in a long, long time, but they got a good response from the crowd. nUn-4-U are another band from eastern Kings. They've been around since the spring of 1998 and have made good progress, playing the Pavilion several times and releasing a good quality demo tape. A show organized by Coo Coo Head at the Wolfville Curling Club in October of 1998 was a big success, proving that punk rock was still alive and well in that part of the world.
By the time the spring of '99 had rolled around, the Young Offenders, the Lewinskys and the Middletons were all playing shows on a fairly regular basis, and SK8 Mafia and Slumber Party Massacre were working on sets. The Centipedes, the first true hardcore band to hit the Valley, also started up. They featured brief, incoherent and creatively-titled songs, along with a deranged attitude. Last updated: March 24th 1999
- Dan Magnetic
