Hey, so I recently moved to the most Easternly tip of North America―St. John's, the capital of Newfoundland, a province of Canada. Around the world, my impending move was met with “Uh, where?,” or “There's a new Finland?,” or, “Are there cities there? Punks?”, or “What's that?” A few months into this residency, I'm still not sure myself. I asked local punk archivist and cassette enthusiast, Steve Dejected, who has just co-released the tape compilation “Hell Comes to Fogtown #1” if he could shed some light on my new living situation.

juls generic: Steve, what is Newfoundland?
steve dejected: Newfoundland is about the size of Pennysylvania with a twentieth of the population. It's an island surrounded by the North Atlantic off the east coast of Canada. Before its confederation into Canada in 1949, it was part of Britain, which I guess means people aged 60 and older that were born here are considered Canadians, but were born British. We have our own time zone and local gold-rich eccentric Geoff Stirling believes and promotes through his television station, NTV, that Newfoundland is the tip of the lost city of Atlantis. The capital city of Newfoundland is St. John's, which has a population of a couple hundred thousand people, apparently it’s one of the oldest cities in north America. I understand some people refer to San Fransisco as fogtown too. Whatever, 'Frisco.


JG:Are there any bands from here that outsiders may have heard of?
SD: That’s hard for me to answer. DA SLYME were pretty feared in their day. SCHIZOID, DOG MEAT BBQ. Those are all older bands, DA SLYME going back to ’76 or ‘77, they were the first punk band in newfoundland. There’s a story about the singer ending up in hospital after their first show and having to be cut out of his bloody jeans and the panty hose he was wearing over them after a confused crowd began pelting the band with beer bottles. Some collectors might know about this band and their sought-after double LP which goes for an exorbitant sum on ebay. When it came out, the band bought a bunch of dime-a-dozen albums, tossed the records, kept the sleeves, stencilled “da slyme” on the covers and that was that. There are occasional myths of someone finding one at value village or somewhere like that. There’s also a story about Damian from FUCKED UP agreeing to bring the band here if someone gives him a copy.

JG: I heard a rumor that no band from Newfoundland has ever toured in America. Is that true?
SD: No, In 2001, THE KILLING played Boston, Albany, and maybe a couple other places in the US. I’m not sure where else they went on that tour, I just remember their homecoming show. It was at a hockey arena, there was no ice and they were set up around where one of the nets would have been. One of the bands they played with covered “Eggraid on Mojo” (BEASTIE BOYS), a moment of triumph for my budding adolescent punk self.
The fact that it’s an 8-hour drive and an overnight ferry ride to Nova Scotia (the next province over) makes it a little more of a challenge for local bands that wanna tour, but people still do it, and luckily it doesn’t completely scare out of town bands away from playing shows here either. We have at least a handful of out-of-town bands every year, which people are always excited about. It’s kind of a treat when a band makes the harrowing voyage to play here and I think they’re usually well received, you’ll do well with merch if you come here. Most recently we’ve had bands like CAREER SUICIDE, GENETIC ANGRY, CRITICAL CONVICTIONS, REGULATIONS, HARD CHARGER, BRUTAL KNIGHTS, DEFECT DEFECT, and BURIED INSIDE.

JG: Are there any characteristics of the punk scene here that makes it different from punk scenes in other places? One thing I am thinking of here is those Spanish sailors who were docked in St John's and showed up at the all-locals bar show the other weekend.
SD: Yeah that was pretty funny, they were stoked. Imagine discovering punk by accident in your 40s and maybe not remembering the next morning. He kept doing off-beat straight-armed hand claps above his head with his back to the band, as if he was trying to get everyone else to join in, his friend dancing next to him like David Byrne in the “Once in a Lifetime” video. I’m not sure if I’d consider it a local phenomenon or anything because I’m sure random people wander into punk shows all the time, but I have seen this happen a few times at shows here. You’ll see this drunk man wearing a fleece vest and khakis lurking around outside the all-ages show, then halfway through someone’s set, there he is, standing on the edge of the pit in disbelief. He’ll offer encouragement to the the band between each song, saying things like, “Play that funky punk rock bass drum! Play that punk rock song so loud!”
One thing that’s been happening here in the past while is there will be outdoor shows, which are always pretty fun. Once on the day of a pretty anticipated show, we were told we couldn’t use the venue anymore, it was a church hall and someone tagged the side of the building which had just undergone an expensive facelift. Everyone was hanging out on the lawn bummed out, kids were calling for rides when I heard someone shout, “Here’s the deal, everyone meet in Bannermant Park in one hour, the show’s happening there.” Someone posted a note on the door of the venue and everyone headed for the park. The whole thing was powered using extension chords running from a light pole to a small gazebo that acted as a stage. I remember kids busting open the metal box on the pole with skateboards to expose the outlet. All the bands got to play full sets and the cops didn’t show up until everything was over and the gear was being dismantled. SHIT LEGION played that park in November once, it was so cold that the bass drum skin ripped like a piece of paper. JUDGE DREAD played their last show in that same gazebo in July with the aid of a generator. These kinds of shows definitely offer us that aforementioned glimpse at the surprised reaction of the unsuspecting passer by. I look forward to the warmer weather so this can happen more regularly.

JG: I have this theory that since the invention of the internet, kids who live in super remote places often become part of this overarching monocounter-culture. Like kids who, if they lived in other places, would be too preoccupied with the amount of local punk activity to care what happens anywhere else, but instead spend a bunch of time on the bridge9 messageboard or something. What do you think? Does this apply at all to Newfoundland? If so, does St John's support or refute this theory?
SD: Well, I think there are definitely similarities in punks from place to place but I don't think it's completely as a result of the internet. Look at all the punk imagery we're bombarded with just as a result of having record collections, all the artwork we're exposed to, all the live photos, all the ideas in the zines we read. That milk crate of fanzines next to the toilet could give someone a pretty good push if they really wanted to make some contrived attempt at a punk identity. I feel like there have always been posers, only maybe the internet makes it easier to be “insta-punk” or whatever.

JG: Tell me about the “Hell Comes to Fogtown” compilation.
SD: It’s a 90-minute indictment against the belief in CD releases and a celebration of local punk/hc, focused on the past five years or so. Kyle and I got together one night with a binder of show posters and did a list of every local band we could think of within said bracket. There were like fifty-odd bands on the list and initially we were going to have one song for each band but we said “Let’s just do as many volumes as it takes to do this shit justice” and we ended up with 22 bands, each with two or three songs. A lot was taken from demos that have dwindled in availability even locally, along with some unreleased stuff. We tried to mix it up in a way that didn’t betray the overall quality of the tape, since some of the material was of a pretty questionable quality, and I think we did a good job. Some songs might be a little quieter than others but overall it’s received a pretty good response. It’s nice to see all this stuff in one place, for people who might have missed some of the bands and as a result missed the opportunity to buy the demo that sold out in one show or whatever.

JG: What are the unlisted ditties that play at the beginning and end of each side of the tape?
SD: The song at the beginning of Side A is “I’s Da B’y” as performed by local favourite of years past, HARRY HIBBS, and at the end of Side A, it’s “Black Velvet Band.” The song at the end of Side B is called “Brendan’s Favourite” and, if my memory serves me correctly, is also by HARRY HIBBS.
We put it on there because that’s the type of music people expect to hear coming from Newfoundland, fishing ballads backed by accordion. Kyle and I are both pretty into HARRY HIBBS, actually, and we both play accordion, but that’s okay because we also rage.

JG: Why should anyone order this tape?
SD: Twenty-two bands, most of which you probably haven’t heard yet. The odds suggest that you might like at least one or two songs on here and if not, you have a 90-minute tape that, with a little masking tape, is ready for some songs you actually like.

JG: How can people order it?
SD: If you want a copy your best bet is to send me an e-mail (towerofswine@hotmail.com) and we’ll work it out. Toss in a couple bucks or something neat, you like tapes? So do we, let’s trade.
Thanks a lot, stay stoked.