There were a thousand reasons for the implosion of Lowest of the Low in November 1994 and 300 shows a year grinding it out in a tour van on a non stop hamster wheel of excess, self promotion and industry pressures didn’t help. At least a small part of the bell tolling could be chalked up to the song Three Penny Operator. When I wrote that song I realized that I was longing to break out from the drums, bass and two guitars format that The Low had spent years perfecting. I wanted to stretch my limbs as a writer and discover what would happen if Tom Waits, Ute Lemper and Elvis Costello had a baby.
So over the summer of 1995 I visited Andy Koyama (producer of Shakespeare My Butt) at his apartment in Toronto and we started laying down tracks for what would become The Secret Of My Excess. The full band tracks were provided by my pals Stephen Keeping and Blitz (members of the ill fated Lesiure Demons before that travelling circus came to an addiction and excess fuelled halt). On the rest of the tracks I was supported by a clutch of talented friends from bands I’d played with and seen over the early 90s including Lawrence Nichols and Christopher Plock. These partners in crime became casually known as The Rusty Nails, named after Low guru Jon Brooks’ favourite drink.
After a cross country tour supporting Excess with Christopher Plock on baritone sax and Dave Genn on Hammond organ I decided to put together a formal Rusty Nails line up to move forward with the new sound and live show.
Joined by Mark Hansen (drums) from Dig Circus, Blitz (bass) of Antimatter, Lawrence Nichols (vocals and harmonica) from Temper, Chris Plock and Robert Fenton (both on Baritone sax) we began working on a new cycle of songs with a punk, blues, soul vibe. Being a member of a successful unit like Lowest of the Low bought me no favours in the Canadian music world so we set out playing the same dives and shitholes I’d just cut my teeth on with The Low.
When it came time to record the newest batch of tunes, “mongrel music” as we referred to it, we once again enlisted Andy Koyama and this time commandeered the dance floor of then raging Toronto hotspot The Reverb Room. No nook or cranny was left un-utilised as we put the drum kit in the middle of the dance floor and the horns in the washroom (for that old school slap-back delay from the tiles). The resulting 15 song debut Greasing The Star Machine is a kaleidoscope of styles and flavours from sleazy punk swing to Rockabilly – ballads to bullets.
Though the Canadian music industry and press hardly knew what to do with us the crowds started to grow through 1998 and we started playing to packed houses in Toronto and environs.
Cross country tours ensued and the Nails began to build friendships with other like minded artists like Art Bergmann and Propagandi.
By 1999 the Nails were a razor sharp unit that could play any style I threw at them.
Jason Walters stepped in as replacement for the exiting Rob Fenton.
Back in the studio, this time Chemical Sound in Toronto with Ian Blurton producing, it became clear that it was time to lay it all on the table. We needed to capture the Rusty Nails swagger and ferocity on tape. With that energy electrifying the room and the end of the millennium fast upon us The Nails recorded a 14 song testament to love, lust and betrayal called Crackstatic. All cylinders were firing and that record stands to this day as one of my proudest moments as a songwriter and band member.
One memory that sums up the euphoric spontaneity of those days is when late into the recording process, in the midst of a heatwave, we worked late into the evening then piled into the van, raced across town and pounded up the back stairs of Ted’s Wrecking Yard and straight onto the stage for a Canadian Music Week showcase.
After raising the roof, towelling ourselves off and discussing a possible deal with Ryko Disc side stage we tore back down the stairs, into the van and back to the studio where we resumed work on the album.
Crackstatic came out in 2000 and won best indie record that year at the Canadian Indies.
After a New York City runaround trying to pursue the same Ryko rep that was so keen in Toronto and the loss of Blitz on bass the Nails started to spin our wheels a bit.
Stellar musical replacement Derrick Brady on bass helped revive the patient for another six months or so – long enough for the band to release the Airports Of The World EP ( a compilation of unreleased tracks and live numbers) – but the writing was on the wall. There were missed opportunities – a Warped Tour invitation and a Mighty Mighty Bosstones tour that we sadly couldn’t take advantage of due to conflicts within the band. The looming shadow of a Lowest of the Low reunion tour was the final nail in The Nails coffin.
As these things tend to feel The Nails seems to me like a hundred years and the blink of an eye at the same time. Mongrel music for those lost souls struggling toward the sunny side of the street.
