Canadian Punk Rises From The Dead
Last week and slightly beyond, in a series of small, dark venues, Canadian punk was dragged out from its burial place and praised.
Toronto indie bar The Garrison saw the launch of Dirty, Drunk and Punk, a lavish visual/text study of Toronto’s punk band BFG and its still-smashing leader, Steve Goof. Author Daniel Jones’s great punk novella 1978, reissued by Three O’Clock Press, was feted in Parkdale bar-restaurant Parts and Labour’s basement, along with Jones’s vile and luminous poetry collection The Brave Never Write Poetry, recently rereleased by Coach House Press. And last Tuesday night, Hard Core Logo II was quietly screened for film promoters, cast and crew members at The Royal cinema on College Street.
A small group of movie advertising strategists sat eating popcorn among the chipped-plaster goddesses in the blood-red room, waiting for what should surely be the Canadian movie event of the fall. (A commercial release date has not yet been set.)
Having been screened just once, to rave reviews, in Whistler, B.C., last December, the buzz about Hard Core Logo II is still slowly gathering momentum. The original 1996 mockumentary was director Bruce McDonald’s biggest commercial and artistic success, appearing in all taxonomies of classic or great Canadian films.