First Class Champ - Demo (1996)

    First Class Champ was a band from my hometown of Calgary, Alberta. Members of the classic Calgary all ages hardcore band All Rights Reserved started this band around 95' or 96'. 

    This band sounds like it could be on Vermin Scum back in the golden days; political, pissed off and chaotic as hell. I love the live video where Aram rips his guitar off and starts going crazy. This is another incredible Calgary band that I am so happy to showcase, they are incredibly solid all around and compete with the best I have heard out of the American and French scenes.

    Edit: from a member of Consumer Identity

    Oh hey - saw your First Class Champ post on your blog. Not sure if you were aware but First Class Champ's singer was Aram Arslanian, who later played in Champion and Betrayed and currently sings for CHANGE (and was in Consumer Identity with me and some of the Fake Cops guys for a bit after FCC ended)(also the founder of REACT! records). Also, FCC's drummer was Jeff Trawick who was later the original drummer for Three Inches Of Blood but left that band around the time they signed to a major label. Just a little more info if you were interested.

Thanks to the Calgary Cassette Archive for these tracks! The work they do is incredibly valuable!

First Class Champ seems to have a couple more demos that I am trying to track down!

Demo 1996

Joule - Discography (1994-2005)

    Joule was a hardcore band from Calgary, Alberta that existed from around 1994-1998 and then again from 2001-2005. At their earliest stages Joule was influenced by the D.I.Y hardcore scene in the states and France, with Devin citing bands like Julia and Finger Print as major influences. They captured the heart of the scene so perfectly; their handmade demo release contained a poignant political zine and patch with every copy.  

Heartattack #9 Zine Review

    In the later stage of the band Joule took on a keyboard player and a lot more influence from the ever popular white-belt scene at the time (Wolfnote etc), which shines through most clearly in the CDEP and unreleased sessions. Joule is a picture perfect encapsulation of the Calgary D.I.Y scene in the 90s and I am so very glad to have discovered them. I will link their Demo, CDEP and split tape with Dillinger here; but there is a lot more unreleased material that they have. Its going to be a bit of a WIP but hopefully I will also have that stuff linked here (or finally released!) soon. 

    P.S. Last night I had a great time chatting with Devin from Joule about his time in the 90s Calgary hardcore scene. It looks like Devin kept a lot of pictures, posters, zines and other memorabilia from the scene! He said he would be more than happy to let me dig though this stuff, so I might have a lot of cool things to archive down the line here!

Discography (So Far)

It Is Always A Pleasure If Always Means Never CDEP 2003 (Core-Upt)

Demo Tape 1996

Dillinger Vs. Joul Split Tape

Core Upt Records Sampler

Atticus (Edmonton) - Discography (1997)

 

    Atticus was a emo-hardcore band from Edmonton Alberta, they where probably kicking from 97'-98'. I only learned about Atticus a little while ago when Trevor the guitarist hit me up on instagram and asked if I was apart of the old scene in Calgary. I'm only 21 at this point so its safe to say I wasn't... But I was pretty ecstatic to discover that there was a fairly large D.I.Y hardcore scene in Calgary/Alberta from 95'-98'. Atticus lead me down a rabbit hole and I can't wait to showcase some more of this Alberta stuff, its really incredible.

    Atticus really tried everything, although they only have one "properly" recorded song; the demo tape and live show really showcase the breadth of their experimentation. There is obvious influences from bands across the board like The Promise Ring, Uranus and Maximillian Colby.

Discography (with demo and live set split into tracks)

Bandcamp

The Corta Vita - Non, Je Suis Mort!/Discography (2022)

(The Corta Vita playing at local Calgary bar The Ship & Anchor)

    The Corta Vita was a hardcore band from Calgary, Alberta. They sounded similar to Ten Grand and had some great influences from across the board. There is an endless energy to their songs that really gets your blood pumping. I was so surprised, way back when, to have found a "screamo" band that is this good and also from my hometown. Their CDEP "Communication Means Nothing Without Feedback" is a completely classic Calgary punk release that still stands up to this day.

TCV Discography

    Also, recently I have stumbled across a wealth on information regarding the Hardcore scene in Calgary in the mid 90s. I'll be making some extensive posts about the bands when I have collected as much information and music as possible!

Check out these great resources:

Calgarypunk.ca

Calgary Cassette Archive

90s All Ages Calgary Punk & Hardcore

    I had the pleasure of working with Tyson to put out the new discography cassette! The Corta Vita might just be my favourite Calgary band! Thanks to Maya and Brett (thisendlessbreath) for helping out as well. 

Big no thanks to Semi-Collective for doing nothing to help with this release aside from advertising and distributing 15 tapes that I gave them as a freebie. (In retrospect I should have just released this under the CanadianWasteland name)

Non Je Suis Mort! 2022 (Semi Collective)

Communication Is Nothing Without Feedback CDEP 2001 (Farway)