The Subhumans Are Home!

There's no place like home. Finally I'm well enough to write here again. We all got brutally ill on the New Dark Age Parade tour and I'm only just starting to recover. This is gonna be short. I'll talk about the tour and other stuff later. I just wanted to say thanks to all of the excellent people that helped us out on the tour and thanks to all of our dedicated fans that braved all sorts of weather to come out and see us. You people made it worthwhile and are greatly appreciated. We'll talk more soon.

Subhumans (Canada) "New Dark Age Parade" Tour

Well here we are, merely a few days away from heading out on our cross-Canuckistan tour in support of out new CD, New Dark Age Parade. We'll be starting the tour with a show this Friday, October 13th (how fitting) at the Lamplighter in Vancouver. From there, it will be over to Victoria for a show the following night and then it's off to points east, eventually going as far as Montreal. The tour will be 3 weeks long ending on November 4th with a show in Calgary. Jeez, it'll pretty much be winter by then. Good thing we gotten ourselves some good transportation lined up!

Yep, solid, reliable and good on gas too. Of course, we would've liked to have played all of the great urban centers of this vast land, but time constraints just wouldn't allow it (we couldn't pry Jon away from his new job as beer taster for Big Rock Brewery for any longer than 3 weeks). But hopefully we'll be coming to either your town, or a town near you. This will be the first time the Subhumans (Canada) have played Toronto in 25 years and our very first time ever to play Montreal! Needless to say, we'll be playing only the finest rock and roll establishments on our journey, such as this happening joint in Duck Ass Lake, AB.

Looks like a good place to empty out our Stephen Harper porta-potty. It should be pretty near full by then. Yes indeed. For a detailed list of our tour dates, check out our website at www.subhumanscanada.com.

So we're working really hard, getting ready for this tour. We've spent many long and hard hours locked in our dingy, dirty rehearsal space denying ourselves life's little pleasures so that we would be prepared for this tour (and we practised a couple of songs while we were in there as well). Besides playing many of our old favourites, we'll being playing quite a few new tunes from New Dark Age Parade as well. And of course, Brian will be doing his much loved and widely celebrated, fully flatulented rendition of "Having My Baby" while riding unicycle and eating tapioca pudding in the nude. A sight and sound extravaganza not to be missed! So all and all it promises to be a series of delightful shows you simply won't want to miss. And besides, at our age, who knows if we'll make it back to your town again; it gets tougher and tougher to haul around those wheelchairs, I.V. bags and bedpans everytime! So come on out and see the show!!

We're All Subhumans Now

"We're all Americans now." (French magazine Le Monde, September 2001,
in aftermath of 9/11 attacks)






"You're either with us or against us...." (George W. Bush, November 2001)

"We're all subhumans now." (myself, September 2006, in the aftermath of Israel's attacks on Lebanon)

New Dark Age Parade

Well, seeing as how this is my first entry I'd better get right to the important stuff. My name is Gerry Hannah aka "Gerry Useless". I'm the bass player and one of the three song writers for the original Subhumans from Vancouver, Canada. We've just released a new, 14 song CD titled New Dark Age Parade on G7 Welcoming Committee Records in Canada and on Alternative Tentacles Records in the rest of the world. It's the first time the band has released brand new material since 1982!

I think this record is really, really good. Now, of course you'd expect me to say that, me being a member of the band and what not, but the truth is, I don't plug records I don't like. In fact, shortly after our first album, Incorrect Thoughts came out in 1981, I was asked what I thought of the album on a live radio interview in Texas. My response was, "I wouldn't buy it" (of course, that comment was very popular with the rest of the band!). I only really liked about 3/4 of the songs on the album and I was really disappointed with most of the production. I actually like that album now, but back then I didn't and I said so. So when I say that I think New Dark Age Parade is really, really good, I do mean it.

From a musical standpoint, New Dark Age Parade is for the most part, mid tempo with a few faster punk rock forays here and there, as well as a couple of slightly slower tunes too. It's mostly hard driving rock (without the posturing and without trying to be slick) and there's a bit of a garage pop sound in there too. I would say the album draws on influences as diverse as the Clash (circa Complete Control days), to the New York Dolls (circa their first album), to Steppenwolf (Monster), to Bowie (Man Who Sold the World), to Stereolab (circa Refried Ectoplasm, without the keyboards and Latietia Sadier's angelic vocals). Now of course, that's just my opinion. You may disagree and indeed, my bandmates may disagree, but I'm just trying to give you an idea of the sound of the damned thing.

Lyrically, the album speaks on topics ranging from poverty and drug addiction, to alienation from one's self and society, to unity and a sense of belonging, to psychological healing, to macho posturing, to religious fanaticism (both christian and muslim) and last, but not least, to war! (how could there not be songs about war on a Subhumans album, when clearly, we live in a world at war?). I guess you could say that the record from a lyrical standpoint is just a tad "political", which will come as no surprise to those of you that are familiar with our earlier stuff. None of the songs are anti-American in content though (as has been suggested by some reviewers), but a few of them critique American foreign policy, both current and past (how could any sane person not critique 60 years of madness?).

Anyways, if this CD sounds interesting to you, I urge you to go out and buy it from your favourite record store or order it from G7 or Alternative Tentacles. If you like us and/or like the record, please don't pirate the damn thing. Honestly, how do you expect indie bands and labels to keep on going if they can't make any money from record sales? More about that on another posting perhaps.... I guess that's all for now.