Art Bergmann

Last updated

Art Bergmann
CM
ArtBergmannimg160.jpg
Art Bergmann performing at the 10 Day Cafe in Stratford, Ontario in 1996.
Background information
Birth nameArthur Frank Bergmann
Born (1953-02-08) February 8, 1953 (age 70)
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Genres Punk rock, alternative rock
Occupation(s)Singer, songwriter, guitarist
Instrument(s)Vocals, guitar
Years active1970s–present

Arthur Frank Bergmann CM (born February 8, 1953 in Vancouver, British Columbia) [1] is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter who was one of the key figures in Canadian punk rock in the late 1970s. [2] Bergmann was made a member of the Order of Canada in 2021. [3]

Contents

Punk bands

Art Bergmann began his musical career with an Abbotsford band called the Mount Lehman Grease Band. After Mount Lehman folded, he founded his own band called the Notorious Smorg Brothers, which he stocked with a myriad of different support artists.

Bergmann was later the lead singer and songwriter for Vancouver punk stalwarts Young Canadians (formerly The K-Tels). [4] Although the Young Canadians only recorded two independent EPs and a single before breaking up, their song "Hawaii" (co-written with Ross Carpenter) is one of the classic Canadian punk anthems. Although long out of print, the EPs, along with some unreleased live material, were reissued in 1995 as the album No Escape.

Solo career

In the 1980s, Bergmann played with Vancouver independent bands Los Popularos and Poisoned before the latter band signed to Duke Street Records in 1988. [2] Due to confusion with the popular American band Poison which had marred the band's most recent tour, however, the label decided to bill the band's releases as solo albums by Bergmann. [2]

He released his debut solo album, the John Cale-produced Crawl with Me , that year. He garnered a Juno Award nomination for Most Promising Male Vocalist at the Juno Awards of 1989, and James O'Mara and Kate Ryan were nominated for Best Music Video for Bergmann's "Our Little Secret". [5]

1990's Sexual Roulette , produced by Chris Wardman, became Bergmann's mainstream breakthrough, spawning the rock radio hit "Bound for Vegas" and garnering him a deal with Polygram Records. [6]

He followed up with a self-titled album on Polygram in 1991, again garnering significant radio airplay for the singles "Faithlessly Yours", "If She Could Sing" and "Message From Paul". In 1994 he collaborated with One Free Fall on a cover of Neil Young's "Prisoners of Rock and Roll" for the tribute album Borrowed Tunes , [7] leading to a new deal with Sony Records for 1995's What Fresh Hell Is This? . That album won the Juno Award for Best Alternative Rock Album at the Juno Awards of 1996, [8] but the album was not a strong performer on the charts and he was then dropped from the label. Bergmann quit the music business for a period following his release by Sony, performing sporadically between 1995 and 1998. [4]

The 1998 Design Flaw , produced by Peter J. Moore and released on the independent label Other People's Music, was a reworking of tracks from his first three albums, plus a cover of Gram Parsons' "Sin City". The songs featured Bergmann on acoustic guitar, with backing by Chris Spedding on electric. Bergmann then released Vultura Freeway , a compilation of unreleased demo recordings from the early 1980s, in 2000, with liner notes from Pointed Sticks front man Nick Jones.

Following Vultura Freeway, however, Bergmann withdrew from the music business for several years, due to health difficulties with degenerative arthritis. [9]

In 2009 Bergmann's bassist Ray Fulber compiled the CD Lost Art Bergmann , which featured early demo versions of most of the songs that appeared on the 1988 John Cale produced album. These demo recordings served as a tonic to many fans as they have a more guitar driven sound than the keyboard heavy Cale produced sessions.

On 26 August 2014, Bergmann released Songs for the Underclass on the independent label (weewerk). [10]

On 13 May 2016, Bergmann released The Apostate , his first full-length album of new material since 1995, on weewerk Records. [11]

On 12 May 2017, Bergmann released Remember Her Name , a remastered edition of his self-titled 1991 album. [12]

On 30 December 2020, Bergmann was made a Member of the Order of Canada, for his "indelible contributions to the Canadian punk music scene, and for his thought-provoking discourse on social, gender and racial inequalities." [13]

On 21 May 2021, Bergmann released Late Stage Empire Dementia on (weewerk) Recordings. On 29 September 2023, he followed up with ShadowWalk: Legacy of Love.

Film appearances

Art Bergmann has appeared in two Bruce McDonald films, Highway 61 as Otto and Hard Core Logo as himself, and as a musician in Conjurer of Monikers. Additionally, he was featured in Bloodied but Unbowed , a film featured at the 2010 Vancouver Documentary Film Festival.

Discography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sloan (band)</span> Canadian rock band

Sloan is a Canadian rock band based in Toronto and originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Sloan have released thirteen full-length albums and have received nine Juno Award nominations, winning one. Between 1996 and 2016, Sloan was among the top 75 best-selling Canadian artists in Canada and among the top 25 best-selling Canadian bands in Canada. The band is known for their sharing of songwriting and lead vocals from each member of the group and their unaltered line-up throughout their career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Men Without Hats</span> Canadian synthpop and new wave band

Men Without Hats are a Canadian new wave and synth-pop band, originally from Montreal, Quebec. Their music is characterized by the baritone voice of their lead singer Ivan Doroschuk, as well as their elaborate use of synthesizers and electronic processing. They achieved their greatest popularity in the 1980s with "The Safety Dance", a worldwide top ten hit, and "Pop Goes the World". After a hiatus for most of the 1990s and 2000s, Doroschuk reformed the band in 2010, and released Love in the Age of War (2012). The group, based in Vancouver, has continued to perform, including tour dates announced in support of the release of two studio albums, Men Without Hats Again , in 2021 and 2022 respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bootsauce</span> Canadian rock band

Bootsauce was a Juno Award-winning Canadian rock band based in Montreal. The band was composed of Drew Ling (vocals), Pere Fume (guitar), Sonny Greenwich Jr. (guitar), Alan Baculis, and John "Fatboy" Lalley (drums). Their style combined soul, funk and metal sounds. Two of their albums, The Brown Album and Bull achieved Gold status in Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spirit of the West</span> Canadian rock band

Spirit of the West were a Canadian folk rock band from North Vancouver, active from 1983 to 2016. They were popular on the Canadian folk music scene in the 1980s before evolving a blend of hard rock, Britpop, and Celtic folk influences which made them one of Canada's most successful alternative rock acts in the 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew Good</span> Canadian musician (born 1971)

Matthew Frederick Robert Good is a Canadian musician. He was the lead singer and songwriter for the Matthew Good Band, one of the most successful alternative rock bands in Canada during the 1990s and early 2000s. Since the band disbanded in 2002, Good has pursued a solo career and established himself as a political commentator and mental health activist. Between 1996 and 2016, with sales by Matthew Good Band included, Good was the 25th best-selling Canadian artist in Canada. Good has been nominated for 21 Juno Awards during his career, winning four.

Young Canadians were a Canadian punk rock band formed in Vancouver in 1978 and active for just under two years. The YC's were influenced not only by the other punk bands in town at that time such as D.O.A. and the Pointed Sticks, but also by the New York Dolls, the Stooges, and 1960s garage rock. Although the band only released a small amount of material before breaking up, their single "Hawaii" is one of the classic Canadian punk anthems.

Mint Records is a Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada-based independent record label founded in 1991, by friends and campus radio enthusiasts Randy Iwata and Bill Baker. Mint has put out over 150 releases, several of which have won Juno Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gob (band)</span> Canadian punk rock band

Gob is a Canadian punk rock band from Langley, British Columbia, formed in 1993. The band consists of Tom Thacker, Theo Goutzinakis, Gabe Mantle and Steven Fairweather. They were nominated for a Juno Award for best new group in 2000, and received another Juno nomination for best video in 2002. Gob's most successful album is World According to Gob. Their best-selling songs to date are "I Hear You Calling", "Soda", and "Banshee Song". They have been featured in movies, TV shows, and many sporting video games such as NHL 2002, NHL 2003, NHL 2004 and Madden NFL 2003 with songs such as "Oh! Ellin", "I've Been Up These Steps", "Sick With You", "I Hear You Calling" and "Give Up the Grudge". The band has appeared at several music festivals, the most well-known being the Vans Warped Tour. Thacker is also a lead and rhythm guitarist for fellow Canadian rock band Sum 41.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black Mountain (band)</span> Canadian psychedelic-rock band

Black Mountain is a Canadian psychedelic rock band from Vancouver, British Columbia. The band is composed of Stephen McBean, Jeremy Schmidt, Adam Bulgasem, Amber Webber, Arjan Miranda. Since forming in 2004, Black Mountain has released five LPs, Black Mountain (2005), In the Future (2008), Wilderness Heart (2010), IV (2016) and Destroyer (2019); two EPs and a number of singles, mostly on the Jagjaguwar label.

Paul Reginald Nelson, known by the stage name Paul Hyde, is a British-born Canadian singer-songwriter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Lake Swimmers</span> Canadian folk rock band

Great Lake Swimmers is a Canadian folk rock band from Wainfleet, Ontario, and currently based in Toronto.

Rusty is a Canadian alternative rock band formed in 1994 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The band earned a 1996 Juno Award nomination in the category of "Best Alternative Album" for Fluke.

<i>What Fresh Hell Is This?</i> 1995 studio album by Art Bergmann

What Fresh Hell is This? is the fourth studio album by Art Bergmann, released in 1995 on Epic Records. The album gets its name from a quotation by American wit Dorothy Parker.

Outside Music is a Canadian record label and distributor founded by Lloyd Nishimura in 2001. In 2007, it expanded to include an artist management division which includes Jill Barber, Matthew Barber, Aidan Knight, Justin Rutledge as management clients.

<i>Vultura Freeway</i> 2000 studio album by Art Bergmann

Vultura Freeway is the sixth studio album by Art Bergmann, released in 2000 on the Audio Monster record label. The album consisted of previously unreleased demo recordings Bergmann made in 1984 before releasing his debut album Crawl with Me in 1988. Several of the songs were rerecorded for the independent EPs he released with the band Poisoned before signing to Duke Street Records, or for his later solo albums.

<i>Design Flaw</i> 1998 studio album by Art Bergmann

Design Flaw is the fifth studio album by Art Bergmann, released on the Other People's Music record label in 1998. The album featured acoustic recordings of songs, primarily from Bergmann's prior albums but also including a new Gram Parsons cover.

<i>Crawl with Me</i> 1988 studio album by Art Bergmann

Crawl with Me is the debut solo studio album by Art Bergmann, released July 5, 1988 on Duke Street Records.

<i>Lost Art Bergmann</i> 2009 studio album by Art Bergmann

Lost Art Bergmann is the seventh studio album by Art Bergmann, released in 2009 on the Bearwood Music record label. The album comprises early recordings which Bergmann and his band had made with producers Bob Rock and Paul Hyde prior to completing his debut album, Crawl with Me, with producer John Cale.

<i>Songs for the Underclass</i> 2014 studio album by Art Bergmann

Songs for the Underclass is an EP by Art Bergmann, released August 26, 2014 on weewerk.

<i>The Apostate</i> (album) 2016 studio album by Art Bergmann

The Apostate is the eighth studio album by Art Bergmann, released in 2016 on weewerk records. It is his first new full-length album since 1998's Design Flaw. The digital release date was April 8, 2016 and the CD / LP release date was May 13, 2016.

References

  1. ↑ "Background at Art Bergmann". Archived from the original on September 15, 2014. Retrieved September 15, 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 Michael Barclay, Ian A.D. Jack and Jason Schneider, Have Not Been the Same: The Can-Rock Renaissance 1985-1995 . ECW Press. ISBN   978-1-55022-992-9.
  3. ↑ "Governor General Announces 61 New Appointments to the Order of Canada". December 14, 2020. Retrieved December 30, 2020.
  4. 1 2 Ben Rayner, "Bergmann living down his reputation". Toronto Star , October 15, 1998: G4.
  5. ↑ "Bergmann rocks on explosive edge". Toronto Star , March 29, 1990.
  6. ↑ "Bergmann, Art". The Canadian Pop Encyclopedia. Jam!. Archived from the original on January 15, 2013. Retrieved June 24, 2008.{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  7. ↑ "Bergmann on his way to some Fresh Hell: Sony was impressed enough with Vancouver rocker to back album". The Province , February 17, 1995.
  8. ↑ "Alanis owns Junos: Five more awards cap singer's fabulous year". The Province , March 11, 1996.
  9. ↑ "Bergmann still kicking the chair away; Arthritis can't dampen spirit of punk". Victoria Times-Colonist , September 4, 2014.
  10. ↑ Hudson, Alex. "Art Bergmann 'Songs for the Underclass' (EP stream)". Exclaim! . Retrieved October 1, 2014.
  11. ↑ "Art Bergmann Returns with 'The Apostate,' Premieres New Track". Exclaim! , February 11, 2016.
  12. ↑ "First Play: Art Bergmann, Remember Her Name". CBC Music, May 4, 2017.
  13. ↑ Allie Gregory, "Art Bergmann Appointed to the Order of Canada". Exclaim! , December 30, 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.