HHead

Last updated
hHead
Origin Ajax, Ontario, Canada
Genres Alternative rock
Years active1991 (1991)–1997 (1997)
Labels I.R.S.
Handsome Boy Records
Past members Noah Mintz
Brendan Canning
Jason Ray
Mark Bartkiw
Roland Rainer
Zak Hanna

hHead were a Canadian alternative rock band, [1] formed in 1991 in Ajax. [2]

Contents

The band was originally formed by Noah Mintz and Brendan Canning [3] as an acoustic duo, [4] with a rotating succession of drummers rounding out the trio after they evolved into a harder rock band.

They were originally known as Head, but added the second h after discovering that another band was already recording as Head, although both hHead and the Vancouver band Rymes with Orange regularly joked in promotional interviews that the extra h had been traded between the bands by either donation or theft. [5]

The band's first album, Fireman, was released independently in 1992, and became popular on Canadian campus radio. [6] It received wider distribution in 1993, [7] and the band toured Canada both as a headliner in rock clubs and as an opening act for My Bloody Valentine, [7] Sloan, [7] Dinosaur Jr. [7] and Stone Temple Pilots. [8]

In 1993, the band won CFNY-FM's Discovery to Disc contest, which awarded them $100,000 toward the recording of a new album. [4] [9] The band landed a contract with IRS Records in 1994, releasing their second album, Jerk, that year. [4] The album was supported by a large-scale national tour as an opening act for Moist, [10] and by an appearance on the Edgefest bill in 1995. [11] However, IRS Records was at this point in financial trouble, and declared bankruptcy in 1996. The band then moved to the Canadian independent label Handsome Boy Records for their final album, Ozzy. [12]

The band also appeared on at least two compilation albums during their career, with a cover of Bob Snider's "They Oughta Bottle Friday Night" appearing on the 1996 tribute album Poetreason: The Songs of Bob Snider and the non-album track "Want" appearing on both the 1996 and 1998 editions of More of Our Stupid Noise . [13] In 2015, the previously unreleased track "Fempire" and a solo track by Canning titled "Born from the Ashes" appeared on Squirtgun Records' 20th anniversary Return of Our Stupid Noise compilation. [14]

The band broke up in 1997. [15]

Mintz is now a mastering engineer for artists such as Hayden and The Dears, and has recorded solo material as Noah's Arkweld. Canning joined By Divine Right for that band's third album Bless This Mess , and later formed the bands Broken Social Scene with Kevin Drew and Cookie Duster with Bernard Maiezza. [16] Broken Social Scene's album Bee Hives includes a song titled "hHallmark", alluding to the unique typography of hHead's name.

Members

Discography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sebadoh</span> American indie rock band

Sebadoh is an American indie rock band formed in 1986 in Northampton, Massachusetts, by Eric Gaffney and Lou Barlow, with multi-instrumentalist Jason Loewenstein completing the line-up in 1989. Barlow co-created Sebadoh as an outlet for his songwriting when J. Mascis gradually took over creative control of Dinosaur Jr., in which Barlow plays bass guitar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">By Divine Right</span> Canadian indie rock band

By Divine Right is a Canadian indie rock band led by guitarist and vocalist José Miguel Contreras.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric's Trip</span> Canadian indie rock band

Eric's Trip is a Canadian indie rock band from Moncton, New Brunswick. Eric's Trip achieved prominence as the first Canadian band to be signed to Seattle's flagship grunge label Sub Pop in the early 1990s. The band had a minor hit in alternative circles with the single "View Master", from the 1994 album Forever Again.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hayden (musician)</span> Canadian musician

Paul Hayden Desser, who records as Hayden, is a Canadian singer-songwriter from Thornhill, Ontario.

Change of Heart was a Canadian alternative rock band, active from 1982 to 1997. They had one Top 40 hit, "There You Go" in 1992, as well as several hits on Canada's modern rock charts, including "Trigger" and "Little Kingdoms".

Lost Dakotas was a Canadian alternative country band in the 1990s. The band originally consisted of vocalist Paul Dakota and bassist Greg McConnell, who began in 1989 as a busking duo at the corner of Yonge and Dundas Streets in Toronto, Ontario.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mass Giorgini</span> American musician and record producer

Massimiliano Adelmo Giorgini is an American bassist and record producer who rose to fame when several of the bands he produced experienced huge gains in popularity during the pop-punk boom of the mid-'90s. Among these bands was Giorgini's own Squirtgun, which received minor MTV rotation and several soundtrack appearances in major films in the 1990s. Mass Giorgini is also a linguistics scholar specializing in forensic literary analysis and is the son of renowned Italian artist Aldo Giorgini.

The New Grand were a Canadian indie rock band from London, Ontario. Known for their explosive live shows, they released two full-length albums on Sonic Unyon Records.

The Hardship Post was a Canadian alternative rock band, that formed in St. John’s, Newfoundland in 1992 and moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia, during the Halifax Pop Explosion of the early 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Martin (British singer)</span> English heavy metal singer

Anthony Philip Harford, better known by his stage name Tony Martin, is an English heavy metal vocalist, best known for his time fronting Black Sabbath, initially from 1987 to 1991 and again from 1993 to 1997. Martin was the band's second-longest-serving vocalist after Ozzy Osbourne. He has since been involved in many other projects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brendan Canning</span> Canadian indie rock performer

Brendan Canning is a Canadian indie rock performer. He is a founding member of the band Broken Social Scene and a former member of By Divine Right, Blurtonia, Valley of the Giants, Len, and hHead.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Noah Mintz</span> Musical artist

Noah Mintz is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter, guitarist and mastering engineer. Mintz founded the band hHead with Brendan Canning in the 1990s. He released solo material under the name Noah's Arkweld following the breakup of hHead. Leslie Feist was the original bass player of Noah's Arkweld.

Poledo was a Canadian alternative rock band based in Thornhill, Ontario, consisting of vocalist and bassist Joshua Malinsky, vocalist and guitarist Mitch Roth and drummer Dave Capogna, Their music is characterized by loud, heavily distorted guitar riffs and screamed lyrics.

<i>More of Our Stupid Noise</i> 1996 compilation album by various artists

More of Our Stupid Noise is a Canadian compilation album, originally released in 1996 on Squirtgun Records. It was subsequently rereleased in 1998 on Nettwerk with the title More of Our Stupid Noise '98, with an altered track order and a few different songs.

<i>Jerk</i> (album) 1994 studio album by hHead

Jerk is the second album by Canadian alternative/indie rock band hHead, released in 1994. The prize money that hHead won from a CFNY-FM contest went towards paying the costs for making this album. Videos were made for "Answers" and "Happy". AllMusic rated the album three out of five stars. A Washington Post review compared the album to Nirvana.

<i>Fireman</i> (album) 1993 studio album by hHead

Fireman is the first album by the Canadian alternative rock band hHead. It was released in 1993. The album was a success on Canada's independent record charts, selling more than 10,000 copies.

<i>Ozzy</i> (album) 1996 studio album by hHead

Ozzy is the third album by the Canadian band hHead, released in 1996. It was released on Handsome Boy Records, due to the closure of IRS Records, and was the band's final album. It was recorded at Sound of One Hand, in Ottawa, with Jason Ray joining on drums. "Teasing" was released a single and was accompanied by a music video that received airplay on MuchMusic. The band supported the album with a Canadian tour.

Creaming Jesus were an English band, influenced by gothic rock, punk and thrash metal, who formed in London, England. Formed in 1987, their original line up was Andy (vocals) Lil (vocals) Tally (bass) Roy (drums) Lindy (drums) and Paul (guitar). Their original sound was a wall of percussive noise, Slayer type thrash metal guitars and screamed vocals.

Cookie Duster is a Canadian indie rock band, who were briefly active in Toronto in the late 1990s before reforming with some new members in 2012.

Squirtgun Records was an independent record label founded by Lee Maslin in 1994 specializing largely in releases by Canadian rock bands.

References

  1. ↑ "hHead takes another step forward". Calgary Herald , December 19, 1994.
  2. ↑ "Students' summer '91 - few jobs and low pay". Toronto Star , June 30, 1991.
  3. ↑ "Sloan party turns into a hHead trip". Toronto Star , August 13, 1992.
  4. 1 2 3 "hHead music simple, melancholy; Disc reminiscent of 'Seattle sound'". Ottawa Citizen , October 20, 1994.
  5. ↑ "Band gets the 'H' out, hits the road". Ottawa Citizen , October 20, 1994.
  6. ↑ "Power pop for flannel hHeads; Band on fan-finding tour, at Flamingo this weekend". Halifax Daily News , April 16, 1993.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "T.O. trio making hHeadway". Toronto Star , May 27, 1993.
  8. ↑ "Stone Temple Pilots stake claim to their own brand of grunge". Montreal Gazette , October 17, 1993.
  9. ↑ Larry LeBlanc (4 February 1995). "Canada: Who's Who". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. pp. 80–. ISSN   0006-2510.
  10. ↑ "Will success spoil Moist?; West Coast band finds that not everyone cheers when an indie group makes it". Montreal Gazette , December 10, 1994.
  11. ↑ "Music marathon fails to rouse teen-agers from summer haze". The Globe and Mail , July 4, 1995.
  12. ↑ "1996 was acrawl with fresh talent". Toronto Star , December 26, 1996.
  13. ↑ "The best of college rock; More of Our Stupid Noise '98 demonstrates Canada's talent". Edmonton Journal , April 11, 1998.
  14. ↑ "Squirtgun Records Celebrates 20th Anniversary with 'Return of Our Stupid Noise' Comp". Exclaim! , March 26, 2015.
  15. ↑ hHEAD CALLS IT QUITS. Archived from the original on 2003-08-18.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  16. ↑ "Broken Social Scene's Brendan Canning Reviving Cookie Duster Project?" Archived 2018-10-09 at the Wayback Machine . Spinner , November 10, 2011.
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.