| SNFU | |
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SNFU vocalist Ken Chinn at the Starlite Room, Edmonton, Alberta |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Edmonton, Alberta, Canada |
| Genres | Punk rock |
| Years active | 1981–1989, 1991–2005, 2007–present |
| Labels | Rake Records, Alternative Tentacles, Epitaph Records, Cargo Records, BYO Records |
| Associated acts | Wheat Chiefs, Slaveco., Jakalope |
| Members | |
| Ken Chinn Jon Card Ken Fleming Denis Nowoselski Sean Colig |
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| Past members | |
| Marc Belke Brent Belke Warren Bidlock Evan C. Jones Jimmy Schmitz Dave Bacon Ted Simm Curtis Creager Dave Rees Rob Johnson Sean Stubbs Chris Thompson Matt Warhurst Trevor MacGregor Shane Smith Bryan McCallum Chad Mareels |
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SNFU is a Canadian punk rock band formed in 1981 in Edmonton, Alberta and later relocated to Vancouver, British Columbia. They have released nine full-length albums and are cited as a formative influence on the skate punk sub-genre.[1][2]
The band came to fruition amid the inchoate Canadian hardcore punk scene of the early 1980s. Coupling raw and horrific lyrical imagery with a dynamic punk sound, their 1985 debut album, ...And No One Else Wanted to Play, has remained influential.[3] The group expanded its audience and style through two further studio albums, but disbanded in 1989 due to internal tensions.
They reformed two years later, however, and wrote new material that was comparatively refined, while still iconoclastic. The reconstituted group quickly garnered a recording contract with the prominent indie label Epitaph Records,[4] which was followed by six-digit record sales[5] and touring alongside of such successful punk rock acts as Green Day,[6] Bad Religion[6] and Iggy Pop.[7] The band became independent in 1997 after a split with Epitaph and endured a second breakup in 2005 before again reforming two years later.
They are fronted by the sardonic singer, lyricist and artist Ken Chinn (known as Mr. Chi Pig), currently their only original member. The band built its melodic hardcore punk sound around dual guitar work from twin brothers Brent and Marc Belke before their respective departures in 1998 and 2005. The group is presently completed by guitarists Ken Fleming and Sean Colig, drummer Jon Card and bassist Denis Nowoselski.
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Chinn and the Belke brothers met as teenagers in Edmonton through the skateboarding subculture in the late 1970s.[8] In 1981, their shared interest in the burgeoning punk rock movement led them to form the band Live Sex Show with drummer Ed Dobek and bassist Phil Larson.[4] Live Sex Show broke up later that year, and Chinn and the Belkes began the new group Society's No Fucking Use, whose name was soon shortened to SNFU. The new band's initial lineup was completed by bassist Warren Bidlock and drummer Evan C. Jones.
Jimmy Schmitz replaced Bidlock in 1982, and the band recorded their earliest studio tracks for the It Came From Inner Space compilation LP on Rubber Records.[9] (These recordings were re-released on the Real Men Don't Watch Quincy bootleg 7" in 1990.) They gradually built an audience throughout North America on the strength of their aggressive live set, publicity in Thrasher Magazine and the inclusion of their track "Womanizer" on the Something to Believe In compilation LP on the American label BYO Records. Their debut album, ...And No One Else Wanted to Play, was recorded in 1984 and released via BYO the following year. The album is considered a classic in many circuits: it ranked, for example, on Chart Magazine's Top 100 Greatest Canadian Albums of All Time list in 2000.[3] The band has since maintained the quirk of releasing albums with seven-word titles throughout its career.
Following the success of their debut, they spent the next few years touring extensively. Bassist Dave Bacon and drummer Jon Card (previously of Personality Crisis, and later of D.O.A and the Subhumans) replaced the departing Schmitz and Jones respectively in 1985. The group's second album, If You Swear, You'll Catch No Fish, was recorded the following year and released on BYO. Card left late in 1986; with his replacement, Ted Simm, they self-released the She's Not on the Menu 7" EP, which also included recordings from 1982. Curtis Creager replaced Bacon soon thereafter.
The band enjoyed steadily-increasing popularity: in 1987, Flipside fanzine voted them Best Live Band, beating the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Fugazi, and the highly successful thrash metal band Metallica included photo inserts of lead singer James Hetfield wearing SNFU's iconic 'zombie' design t-shirt in their $5.98 E.P.: Garage Days Re-Revisited.[10] SNFU's third record, Better Than a Stick in the Eye, was released in 1988 by the large Canadian label Cargo Records. After further touring, including their first trip to Europe, the group disbanded in late 1989 due to internal tensions and general exhaustion.[4]
Chinn then relocated to Vancouver and led The Wongs, a short-lived group who released an EP. The Belke brothers began the Wheat Chiefs, a new melodic rock project who would later go on to release one record, Redeemer, in 1996.
In 1991, SNFU completed plans to release The Last of the Big Time Suspenders, an album of live material, demos, and studio outtakes from 1986 to 1989 to satisfy their contract with Cargo Records.[4] To support the album, the band reformed around the Belkes, Chinn, Creager and Card, initially planning only to complete a single tour.[4] The tour was successful, however, and they opted to continue their activities upon its completion.[4] The Belke brothers joined Chinn and Card in Vancouver early in 1992 and began a new incarnation of the group with bassist Ken Fleming (formerly of the Winnipeg-based skate punk band The Unwanted.) Card was ultimately unable to continue performing with the group, and was replaced by Dave Rees, also the drummer for the Wheat Chiefs. Fleming's tenure as bassist was brief, mainly focusing around an extended European tour, but he would go on to play a major role in SNFU fifteen years later. He was replaced by Wheat Chiefs bassist Rob Johnson.
After this configuration debuted with a small-run EP, Beautiful, Unlike You and I, on the Hom Wreckerds Music imprint, they were signed to a three album deal by the high-profile punk label Epitaph Records. They began a five-year period of heavy activity, releasing Something Green and Leafy This Way Comes in 1993, The One Voted Most Likely to Succeed in 1995, and FYULABA (the compromised version of the band's intended title, Fuck You Up Like a Bad Accident) in 1996. This era found them playing increasingly melodic music, displaying bi-conditional influence from the third-wave punk sound of the early '90s that also owed a debt to the band's own previous innovations.[4] Their time with Epitaph marked the most commercially successful activity of their career, as the band shared touring bills with many of the era's punk rock luminaries, performed with opening support from up-and-coming bands like Korn and Tool,[8] and sold over 100,000 albums.[5]
Despite this success, Epitaph opted against renewing the band's contract after its expiration in late 1997.[4] Shortly thereafter, the band announced the departure of Brent Belke and Dave Rees, both of whom were leaving to pursue careers in film and television. Let's Get It Right the First Time, a live album recorded during one of the final shows with this lineup, was co-released by Megaforce Records and the band's new, self-run label Rake Records the following year.
SNFU hired drummer Sean Stubbs (of Numb, Jakalope, and Bif Naked's band) to replace Rees, marking the first four-piece lineup in their career. They continued to tour and began sporadic work on a new record, a process that ultimately took six years. As a stopgap between albums, they released The Ping Pong EP, featuring five songs culled from an aborted 1997 recording session with the Epitaph-era lineup and producer Dave Ogilvie. The EP was issued in 2000 on CD and 10" vinyl by the Alternative Tentacles label.
Stubbs was replaced by Chris Thompson (known as Corporal Ninny) later that year. In 2002, Johnson left the band after a ten-year tenure to pursue new projects, including a solo rap album under the name Freshbread called Big Boss Battle and the new rock band Air Raid Siren. With Thompson also departing and Marc Belke relocating to Toronto, the band went on hiatus,[4] discarding the new material they had recorded. Chinn formed the side project Slaveco. with members of the band Ocean 3.
SNFU resumed activity in 2003 with a new rhythm section composed of drummer Trevor MacGregor (of Treble Charger) and bassist Matt Warhurst (of Slaveco. and Jakalope). In the Meantime and In-Between Time, SNFU's long-awaited ninth album, was completed and released on Rake Records in 2004. MacGregor left shortly thereafter and Shane Smith (also of Slaveco. and Jakalope) replaced him, playing their 2004 and 2005 tours. In August 2005, the group announced that they had again decided to disband, due to frustrations with the music industry and further exhaustion.[8]
Chinn, Warhurst and Smith continued sporadic activity with Slaveco., but the group was short lived. Belke began working in radio, hosting his own show.[11] During this time, Chinn suffered from ill health and drug-related problems, and became homeless.[4]
In July 2007, a party for SNFU's 25th anniversary was staged. Chinn and former member Fleming, now playing guitar, were joined by bassist Bryan McCallum and drummer Chad Mareels to play a set "as SNFU" (alternately "asSNFU") to celebrate the occasion. The Belkes, along with all other former members, were invited to participate but declined.[4][8] The unrehearsed concert was intended as a one-off, but the four musicians also played a set to celebrate Chinn's 45th birthday in October. They eventually decided that they had properly reunited the band and continued as such, embarking on a six-day tour in early 2008. McCallum was replaced thereafter by Denis Nowoselski.
There was a mild amount of controversy surrounding the continuation of the band in the absence of founding member and primary songwriter Marc Belke, who initially renounced the new lineup.[8] On the subject, Chinn stated, "As far as I’m concerned it’s SNFU. The band has changed all throughout the years, and this is just another change. That’s exactly how I see it ... Those songs are my life. I’ll fucking play them ‘til I die.”[12] Belke and the band later made peace.[13] In early 2009, Smith returned to the drum kit, replacing Mareels, and the group embarked on extensive Canadian and European tours.
Open Your Mouth and Say...Mr. Chi Pig, a biographical documentary film about Chinn, was released in March 2010. Produced by the Canadian company Prairie Coast Films, the film focused on Chinn's life, including his drug abuse and schizophrenia,[4][14][15] and featured interview footage with such notables as Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys, Brendan Canning of Broken Social Scene, Corb Lund of the Corb Lund and the Hurtin' Albertans and The Smalls, and Joey Keithley of D.O.A. citing SNFU's influence on themselves personally and the rock scene at large.[1]
In April 2010, Jon Card rejoined the band, replacing Smith on good terms[16] in time for further touring. Card thus became the only musician other than Chinn to play in SNFU during all three periods of their career (being before, between and after the two breakups.) Shortly thereafter, the band completed their first five-piece lineup in 12 years with the addition of second guitarist Sean Colig (of Savannah and Minority), who also became responsible for the harmony vocals previously sung by Marc Belke. They announced plans to re-enter the recording studio for the first time in six years to track new material for a possible tenth album.[17] Additionally, punk rock historian and author Ty Stranglehold announced his work on the band's forthcoming official biography.[8]
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