God Family Country – The Concept

Later in 1989 SCW – having shed it’s recent disco-jazz-funk-punk live band identity – returned to our experimental roots and embarked on a new project, with the band now based on the musical trio of Roba, DwM and Jeff-0, with PnrH providing graphic design and Cathie Whittaker doing costume design. Also around this time SCW began our video collaboration with Bruce Becker (aka bdb) and Catherine Willson, who were experimenting with Amiga Computer graphics at that time.

We chose the name of our next project based on something we stumbled across at our local electronics surplus store (R.I.P. Active Surplus). There we found a bunch of plastic fold-out 3-cassette packages titled God Family Country, by Zig Ziglar, an early self-help guru.

We knew – then and there – that our next project would be a 3-part album called God Family Country and we bought up all of the available packages, to insert our own cassettes as a deluxe limited-edition release.

Having figured out the concept and the packaging, we then realized we had to actually create some music to fill those 3-cassette packages! Having also recently acquired a couple of Ensoniq EPS samplers we set about our musical task. And in the typical SCW way of doing things we decided to first present God Family Country as a live show, and then release the deluxe cassette package a year later. And the CD would be released even later!

More to come

dWM has departed this planet…

Masters of Love and Sound 2016

We are devastated to announce that dWM (d Wayne Morris) has passed from this world to a new dimension of consciousness. Our condolences go out to his family, particularly his wonderful children, Avery and Baxter.

dWM approached everything with an intensity and creative vision that was truly unique. He was always interested in looking beyond the consensus or accepted ‘truths’ to discover the real dope on things, including politics, health and much more. It can’t be denied that this took him to some weird – although always interesting – places, but it was always with the utmost sincerity and sense of social justice. Most importantly to us, he never stopped playing music – being not only a core member of SCW but also of many other bands over the years, including Tanz Pest, Orchestra Paavola, Dub Enforcement Agency and Masters of Love and Sound. He could play any musical instrument and was always looking for something new to try – musically and otherwise…

Another key interest was community radio, which he loved as a democratic means for people to hear one another and be heard, regardless of their socioeconomic status or geographic location. He also used radio as a vehicle for art – we encourage you to check out his ground-breaking experiential radio projects.

He was an incredibly generous individual, always inviting people over for dinner, handing out homemade chocolates and hot sauces, and hosting many band rehearsals and recording sessions.

We’ll miss you brotherman…

Here’s a gallery of some rarely-seen dWM photos!

Stop Fakin’ the Funk!

In 1989 SCW as a five-piece disco-jazz-punk-funk live band ceased to exist. Scott left the band, and PnrH – while no longer an active musical member – continued on as SCW’s graphic designer and artist-in-residence. These photos from April 21, 1989 mark the last live show of this funky-ass version of SCW.

Here’s the flyer from the show

New Year’s 1988

On December 31 1988 SCW hosted their second annual New Year’s party, once again at ARC on Queen St. West in Toronto. This time they topped the previous year’s show by having four different costume changes, all created by official SCW wardrobe designer Cathie Whittaker.

Here’s a photo gallery highlighting some of the costume changes.

Newspaper Ad for the Show

Here’s some video featuring MCs Eddie Fast and Old Lang supervising the limbo contest!

Band Photo Session

Sometime in 1988, the 5-piece version of SCW posed for photographs at their Queen St. rehearsal space. The band were rocking their silver lamé jackets (custom-made by Cathie Whittaker) plus matching silver helmets. In the background are sculptures by our friend and collaborator William T. “Bill” Francis.

Photos by Karen Young aka DJ FunKY

Cassette Culture #4 – The Band with An International Reputation

In 1988 SCW put out their fourth and final cassette-only release, The Band with an International Reputation. Side A of the cassette was titled Crush Grind and Swallow, and contained tracks recorded and overdubbed on multi-track and then mixed down. Side B was titled Disco Dancing With the Best and was recorded direct to cassette, live off the floor at SCW’s Queen St. West studio/rehearsal/living space.

The Band with an International Reputation – cassette insert

The first track is classic SCW, mixing live instrumentation with samples, tape loops, effects etc.

A Pretty Uncomfortable Area

For this cassette release, each band member was invited to write and record their own tracks – here’s one of Roba’s prime cuts.

America Wake Up!

This last track is the live band with overdubs and was recorded and engineered by our friend GBH at his studio. It was also sampled and regurgitated on SCW’s next release, God Family Country.

Speaking of Heavy Metal

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New Year’s 1987

On Dec 31 1987 SCW presented their first annual New Year’s show at a gallery space on Queen St. West in Toronto. With DJs, MCs, limbo dancing and more! Why? Because!

This show provided SCW with an opportunity to showcase their new five-piece lineup and new disco-punk-funk sound.

Here’s some video!

And here’s a photo gallery…

1987 – Come Taste the Band!

In the fall of 1987 Sucking Chest Wound expanded into a five piece live disco-jazz-funk-punk band with the addition of guitar hero Scott ‘Skill’ Casey. We weren’t doing this ironically – we really loved to listen to vintage funk and disco, and to spin it at our parties! Here’s a photo gallery of the band members playing live at our 1987 New Year’s Eve show. In the background is one of PnrH’s big paintings – the same one you can see in the previous post’s studio panorama video…

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Funky Good Time

In 1987 dWM and Jeff-o rented a warehouse space off Queen St. West in Toronto. This space provided a proper rehersal studio and production facility for SCW, and also served as a space for other art and music side projects.

SCW added a new member for playing live shows: guitarist Scott “Skill” Casey, specialist in all styles. SCW at this point moved away from the free improvisational style for playing live that they’d adopted since moving to Toronto, and towards a groovy disco-funk thang. In the studio, SCW continued on in the same style as the first two cassette tape releases and the more recent side projects of PnrH and dWM.

Around this time SCW also purchased an Ensoniq EPS sampler. Although it didn’t have much of an impact on SCW’s live disco-funk music, sampling was essential to SCW’s studio recordings, and would define their style throughout the 90’s.

Here’s a panorama of the SCW warehouse space originally recorded on 8mm film

Saturday In The Park

In July of 1987 SCW was invited to play a show in a park back in Waterloo, Ontario where SCW started out from. The city fathers wouldn’t allow SCW to perform as Sucking Chest Wound so the band temporarily changed their name back to Sweet Children of the West, which had been used previously.

The lineup for the show consisted of legendary Waterloo band X-cessive Rancidity, followed by SCW, and finishing with Abstress – the organizers of the show.

This performance marked SCW’s final gig as a free improvisation ensemble. After this show SCW saw the light and was reborn – at least for live shows – as a disco-funk-punk-jazz band.

On the way to the show the band stopped by the local St. Vincent de Paul charity shop to buy their stage outfits. Check it out…

Here’s a gallery of photos from the show taken by Cathie Whittaker

SCW’s cover version of a fabulous Arthur Jones composition called Sad Eyes