David Keyes, my best friend for a while in high school and beyond, replied to a poster from two (Rick and Soon) who were looking for a drummer, and who somehow made it clear that they were on the experimental side of things. Dave hates when people do this, but they had a bit of Beefheart in them, and a bit of hardcore, and a bit of funk, and a bit of Zappa, and probably a lot of influences I wouldn’t recognize. Mostly, though , they were just the Polkaholics. They played the usual places - Cabana Room, Cameron House, maybe Larry’s, etc. - they hung out with (and performed on the same bill with) Fifth Column, Believer’s Voice of Victory (BelVoxVicto - aka Spontaneous Human Combustion/SponHumCombo). They were intense, kind of scary (Rick was anyhow), and not always what I wanted to hear. But I was thrilled to see David so swiftly prove his creative abilities and make a mark on the Toronto music scene (and beyond). They had a cassette (K is Kate Who Was Struck by an Axe), which I think they disowned because it sounded so terrible (admittedly, I was the one who put it out). They had an EP and and LP, both produced by Toronto’s prolific and exacting Michael-Philip Wojewoda, and recorded at the Music Gallery (when It was an actual place where that sort of thing happened).
