Absolute Whores
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| Absolute Whores | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Genre(s) | Indie rock, Cowpunk |
| Years active | 1984–1990? |
| Former members | |
| Greg McConnell Vaughan Passmore Albert Saxby Michael Lavery Johnny Trash The Cursed Gerald Brent Ruddy "Hot Fingers" McWhinnie Meanus De Vilo |
|
Absolute Whores were a Canadian indie rock/Cowpunk band in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The band consisted of Greg McConnell as Ugly Dick Adonis, Vaughan Passmore as Blind Pig Neuton, Albert Saxby as Clint Rude. Michael Lavery as Sven Campbell and Johnny Trash as himself. The band played their first show at Toronto's musical landmark Isabella Hotel in 1984, after Johnny convinced hotel manager Joe Freid that Absolute Whores was an artistic reference, and not a sexual one. After many bass players - The Cursed Gerald, Brent Ruddy - and more guitarists - "Hot Fingers" McWhinnie, Meanus De Vilo, the band settled into the above line-up.
Their debut recording was a 1985 demo cassette entitled Killing An Elvis Song For You. (The song was "Heartbreak Hotel".) The accompanying poster has been referred to as "One of the greatest pieces of pop art of all time" on numerous occasions. And not just by band members.
The band continued to host jam nights at Toronto's Hotel Isabella to fund the printing of their newspaper, The Whore's Rag. The first edition earned them instant notoriety as it satirized and ridiculed many of the local sacred cows that no one was prepared to criticise for fear of career-damaging reprisal. Singer Johnny Trash commented that any such move of that nature would be considered redundant as no one could wreck the band's career better than he could himself.
The band also recorded a single, "I'm An Asshole (For Your Love)", in 1986. In 1989, the band recorded its only full-length album, an eponymous effort which featured another Elvis cover, "All Shook Up" (with the verb replaced with something more artistically accurate), and a Replacements cover, "Here Comes a Regular".
The band currently plays once a year, generally on Halloween.
In 1997, Trash and Passmore joined McConnell in his new band, Stratochief. That band released its debut, Turbines for Speed in 1998 and their subsequent CD, In Search of the Seven Foot Woman, as a posthumous tribute to McConnell in 2000.
McConnell died suddenly on Easter Sunday 1999. However, Stratochief continued to perform and record, and are still active in Toronto's music scene as of 2006.
