I dug out some of mix tapes a few months back and got thinking about some of the more obscure bands I had put on the mixes. One band I fell in love with back in my first sting in college radio at CKUL in Lethbridge was Curious George. They were a punk band from Vancouver with a classic sound. Hard hitting, snotty and political. My memories are vague about the band. I can't even remember what the cover of the album looked like, or what the album was even called. Since then, this band has fallen into total obscurity.
As you can imagine, searching for Curious George on the internet doesn't bring back results about Canadian punk bands, but the beloved mischievous monkey from children's books. YouTube searches are likewise pointless. Searching for "Curious George band" starts to bring up results, but not much info. It also looks like a goofy cover band in Calgary has taken on the name too. And, I can also imagine, the band was likely given a cease-and-desist letter at some point, forcing them to change their name.
Here's what I know. Their only album came out in 1989, called Children of a Common Mother, on the tiny Nemesis record label. They broke up soon afterwards. One member, Kurt Robertson, went on to become a prominent member of Celtic punk greats The Real McKenzies, playing guitar for them. Robertson was also part of a one-off grrl-punk project called JP5, who put out a great album called Hot Box on Joe Keithley's Sudden Death Records.
Most of the rest of the band formed Aging Youth Gang with ex-members of seminal punk band The Spores. They've also been joined by members of The Insipids and Dog Eat Dog. This again shows how incestual local scenes can be, with members going from band to band over the series of several years. AYG are still together and playing live shows in Vancouver.
The bands political stance appealed to me when I first heard them. Being from BC and living in Alberta, I found the political climate there stifling. In BC, politics were a blood-sport. In Alberta, everyone was PC and there was little debate on the left-wing. Also, in my mind, and at the time being a neophyte punk fan, punk should be political. Curious George fit the bill. Two songs on the album that caught my ear were "Canadian National Front" and "Better Dead than SoCred."
Tracking down the album is tough too. As a veteran digger in vinyl bins in Vancouver, I have yet to find the album. As far as I know, it was only released on vinyl. And, unless the band want to change their name for a re-release, I can't see Sudden Death or Neptoon Records picking it up and putting it out again.
CBC Music has a stream of their only album (curiously, it doesn't mention the name of the album on the stream, just the songs). I also found a silent video of the band touring through Alberta in 1989. Check out those old cars and the easily recognizable landmarks going through the Rockies!
Thanks for writing this up.
ReplyDeleteI search for these guys every 8-10 years.
More and more information has been popping up over the decades.
I discovered Curious George around 1991 after picking up Children of a Common Mother while in Zulu Records. I remember seeing a stack of vinyl copies but I purchased the album on cassette.
It received heavy use during my early teenage years and is probably still around here somewhere...
Just out of curiosity, have you heard of a band called "Impaired" or "The Impaired"? No relation at all to CG but I thought you'd been the one to ask. They were a Vancouver skate punk band. Early 2000s maybe. They had a song which I think was called "Learn to Skate or Lose the Shoes."
Thanks again.
Never heard of The Impared. I have a few comps from that era, but never ran into that band. If you can, try asking Nardwuar. He knows everything obscure about the Vancouver indy and punk scene!
Delete