Rude Guru

One of my Swedish internet pals is a guy named Markbase (Above, dig the SG. Please tell me you weren't playing through that Peavey!). I suppose he really isn't an "internet" pal because I've actually met him (and torn up bars in Goteborg with him), and he's not really Swedish (British/Canadian), but he does live there.

In any event, he was in the Montreal band Rude Guru during the late '80s. One of the guys from the band has set up a website where you can hear some of their music- it certainly seems as if a future member of the Barenaked Ladies was in attendance at their shows, taking notes.

Mark's musings on life, the universe, and the failings of the Swedish government can be read here, and come highly recommended.

Sweetback

Matt Fields- Bass
Keith Hanlon- Drums
Mike Ogg- Vocals
John Randolph- Guitar

Hometown- Athens, Ohio

Bands in college towns are always trading members, splintering, and forming new bands and this week's group is a case in point. Sweetback formed around 1990 out of the ashes of Z-Bignew, a Chili Peppers-esque white boy funk band from the dorms of Ohio University. To be fair, Columbus' Royal Crescent Mob was pretty big in those parts back then, so the influence may have come from a little closer to home. Sweetback, however, took their cues from '70s rock and punk, a style which had yet to be named "grunge". I saw Sweetback a number of times, and they always put on a good show. Keith was a hell of a drummer, and John had a habit of jumping around and throwing himself into walls when he played.

John was a Telecommunications major at OU specializing in audio production and recorded their demo tape at the T-Com studio, probably as part of a class project. It wasn't a bad little studio, either- '70s style dead main room with a couple of closets and a second control room that could be used for isolation. They even had signal lines run through the ceiling down the hall to the bathroom so you could use it as an echo chamber at night. At the time Sweetback recorded there, the control room featured a Soundcraft Delta console and an Otari 1/2" 8 track deck. In 1992 they "upgraded" to 16 channels of ADAT. Ugh.

The band broke up around 1992 when Matt defected to join God & Texas (more on them later). I think Keith had already split to join Hector (who became Nelson's Orchestraville, later just Orchestraville), and been replaced by Junebug (later of Bargoyle). By 1993 the last I'd heard of John he'd headed up to Alaska to work on a fishing boat, and Mike was bartending at the Union.


Mau Mau.mp3
The Tao Of Toast.mp3
Frans Bike.mp3