The Punk Effect: Art School Bands, Artist Collectives, and the Makings of an Alternative Culture in Downtown Toronto 1976-1978
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The Punk Effect: Art School Bands, Artist Collectives, and the Makings of an Alternative Culture in Downtown Toronto 1976-1978 By Jakub Marshall A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree Master of Arts (MA) in Music and Culture Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario © 2019 Jakub Marshall 2 Abstract This thesis aims to examine the intersections of music, art and politics in late 1970s Toronto, particularly among the artists and musicians of the nascent Queen Street West scene. My research has two intertwined goals. First, to investigate the effect that the nearby Ontario College of Art had on this scene and how local art students’ formal training may have impacted their music. Secondly, the symbiotic connection between established artists and the local punk scene will be explored, through a discussion of how artist collectives General Idea and the Centre for Experimental Arts and Communication appropriated punk aesthetics and enlisted punk groups in order to further their own artistic ends. To address these questions, pertinent theoretical models are applied, including; Birmingham School subcultural theory, theories of the avant-garde, and sociological high culture/mass culture debates. Acknowledgments I would like to thank first, William Echard, my thesis supervisor for the duration of this project, and the Faculty of Music at Carleton University for supporting this work. Special thanks go to Philip Monk and Ian Mackay for their eager willingness to be interviewed, and for their illuminating suggestions of new research avenues. I would like to thank my parents for their unconditional support of me and my strange interests and investments. Finally, this goes out to all those who extend light in the darkness. 3 Table of Contents Page Title Page i Abstract ii Table of Contents ii I. Introduction 1 - 8 II. Chapter One – 9 - 29 The Ontario College of Art and the Origins of Punk in Toronto III. Chapter Two – 30 - 52 Subcultural and Aesthetic Theories IV. Chapter Three – 53 - 68 The General Idea Crowd: Subculture, Queer Culture and Outsider Deviancy V. Chapter Four – 69 - 87 A Revolutionary Window of Opportunity: CEAC, The Diodes and Radical Behaviourism VI. Conclusion 88 - 99 Works Cited 100 - 103 Discography + Filmography 104 Figs. 1, 2 – Page 59 Figs. 3, 4 – Page 85 Fig. 5 – Page 86 1 Introduction The primary aim of this thesis is to investigate a particular moment of time in Toronto’s history when art and punk music collided, when artists and musicians shared with one another, and thus cross-pollinated each other’s practices to the point where the sensibilities of one camp became difficult to untangle from the other. In the words of one participant, Anya Varda, “in Toronto the music, the art scene, anything that was cool, hip, and fabulous, was all part and parcel of exactly the same crowd” (Worth 2011, 63). Varda’s perspective is conditioned by her own particular experience; but it is true the ties between the punk music and art scenes from 1976 to 1978 ran deep. Imagine for a moment you were there. One night you might go to a Diodes show opening for Talking Heads at A Space – a gallery run by the artist collective General Idea. Another you might attend General Idea’s Fashion Burn party, an event featuring a performance by G.I. house band The Dishes. And where else was Fashion Burn located but at the punk club Crash ‘n’ Burn, a short-lived venue that occupied the basement of the Centre for Experimental Art and Communication throughout the summer of 1977. In order to contextualize the dynamics particular to my own case study of punk/art exchanges in Toronto in the mid-1970s, I will explore how larger debates and theoretical models from musicology, art theory, and cultural studies can be used as an explanatory framework for what this nascent alternative culture might have represented at the time. My methodology for this project then, is a synthesis of information from more journalistic and (oral) historical primary sources with secondary sources from musicology, art history and cultural studies. In chapter one I focus more on history, and in chapter two I go on to flesh out a theoretical framework for my study. The majority of sources I consulted for this project were accessed via the MacOdrum Library at Carleton University, including the OCA retrospective 100 Years, which was specially 2 retrieved from the Archives and Research Collections. In chapter three and four, I use both my primary and secondary sources to build an argument about specific relationships between the music and art worlds in Toronto. Occasionally, relevant cultural artifacts from other mediums are discussed to support this argument; including musical recordings, independent films, art zines, and performance pieces. Recordings that are referenced directly include The Diodes self-titled album The Diodes and Action/Reaction, which were purchased on vinyl from Ottawa record stores. The zines that are most relevant to my case study are FILE Megazine from General Idea, and Art Communication Edition/STRIKE from CEAC. These publications were consulted directly via copies stored in the Toronto Reference Library Archives. Other resources I accessed through the reference library included the film The Last Pogo Jumps Again (Brunton 2013), The Diodes first album on CBS records Released, and the P. Suddon Collection of telephone pole posters from the period in Toronto. This portion of my research was conducted entirely over the summer of 2018 when I lived and worked in the city for four months. Much of the trajectory for this project was solidified over this period, and I feel indebted to the experiences I had, including many concerts (I even caught a Teenage Head show at Horseshoe Tavern), and the people that I met1 in that time in shaping my current direction. In chapter four I undertake a longer musical analysis of the Raw/War recording, the 7” record released by the CEAC group with musical support from The Diodes and Mickey Skin of the Curse, and possibly the rarest piece of punk ephemera in Toronto’s history.2 An online 1 I must have met about half a dozen separate individuals over the age of 50 who were interested and knowledgeable in my topic. These included a couple who were family friends, several librarians at the Toronto Reference Library, and a group of punk dads outside of a friend’s gig at the Gladstone Hotel in Parkdale. I found it interesting how well-known this otherwise obscure chapter in Canadian music history was in Toronto, as well as how much nostalgia and pride these folks have attached to the old scene. 2 As of January 23, 2019, a copy of the Raw/War record was being sold on discogs.com – a popular online vinyl marketplace – for £399.99 pounds, equivalent of approximately $690.89 in Canadian dollars. See: https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/3682420?ev=rb 3 archive of this recording was linked to me by Philip Monk,3 whose book Is Toronto Burning? forms a prominent backbone to my argument in chapters three and four. I met with Philip Monk in Toronto as a part of another aspect of my research; a series of ethics approved informal interviews with members of the communities in question, and those with closely related affiliations. I also interviewed Ian Mackay, an artist and musician who performed with The Eels and The Diodes. These interviews have been helpful in understanding the insider’s perspective on the events I am referencing, and to clarify conflicting accounts between sources. In places where I quote these individuals directly, I have attributed their words as appropriate, but much of the interview material served primarily as background and context for my broader arguments. I am fortunate to be undertaking this study in a decade that has seen a renewed interest in the topic; two illuminating books on Toronto punk were released in 2011 and 2012 respectively. My main source of primary material for this thesis has been Treat Me Like Dirt by Liz Worth, an oral history that tells the story from the perspective of the participants themselves. The second source is Perfect Youth by Sam Sutherland, a journalistic account of Canadian punk which dedicates roughly one third of its chapters to covering Toronto groups.4 Both of these books have been useful in sketching out historical background details that would have been relatively obscure prior to their publications. In the academic literature, it has been noted that certain limitations are inherent in the format of oral history (Turrini 2013), a genre of music biography that has been increasingly 3 RAW/WAR can be listened to on an archive of a Los Angeles radio show titled “Evidence of Movement”. The recording is the introduction to program number 92, and can be accessed at the following link: http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/evidence_movement/close_radio.html 4 To be exact, there are five chapters that cover Toronto groups, seven if you include Hamiltonian bands – although often considered part of the Toronto scene, it has been argued that the cultural context of working-class Hamilton gave these groups a unique sound and perspective (Pevere 2014). In Sutherland, the eight chapters relevant to my case study are chapters one, five, seven, ten, thirteen, fifteen, and nineteen (Sutherland 2012, 20-42, 94-108, 126- 142, 178-194, 232-248, 268-286, 328-348). 4 popular since the mid-1990s.5 Aging punk rockers see these texts as a continuation of the DIY ethos, which has always privileged direct production, dissemination, and consumption of cultural products without reliance on an intermediary.