Rob Benvie

Rob Benvie (born Halifax, Nova Scotia) is a Canadian musician and writer who has performed with alternative rock acts Thrush Hermit, Camouflage Nights, The Tennis Injury, and The Dears. He also records and occasionally performs live as Tigre Benvie.

Benvie first gained notoriety as the guitarist, singer and songwriter in Halifax rock band Thrush Hermit. Thrush Hermit also included Joel Plaskett, Ian McGettigan and Cliff Gibb. Touring extensively throughout North America, Thrush Hermit released two EPs on Murderecords: Smart Bomb and The Great Pacific Ocean. Their first full-length Sweet Homewrecker was released on the American label Elektra Records. In 1999, Thrush Hermit released Clayton Park on Sonic Unyon Records.

Prior to the Thrush Hermit era, Benvie distributed numerous home recordings under such names as The Tennis Injury, The Benvies, Yammer, and Day Pass. After Thrush Hermit's 1999 break-up, Benvie wrote and produced two solo albums as Tigre Benvie: Year of the Mutt and Bankruptcy.

In 2001, he joined The Dears as bass/guitar player, and in years following continued to perform and record with the band in various faculties, most actively for 2008's Missiles and 2011's Degeneration Street. He has also intermittently released music digitally under the pseudonym Drug Dog. In 2010, Thrush Hermit briefly reunited for a successful reunion tour.

In May 2001 literature and humour website McSweeney's Internet Tendency featured an essay by Benvie titled "The Porn I Like". Benvie's first novel, Safety of War, was published by Coach House Books. He has admitted to over ten years of work on another lengthy novel titled Barefoot Teenagers, possibly about the history of CGI, heli-skiing, and the life and death of Shannon Hoon.

Benvie and McGettigan have recorded and performed as Camouflage Nights. After a string of tour dates and limited edition audio and video releases, the band's long-delayed debut LP was released in April 2012 by Sonic Unyon Records. Camouflage Nights has remixed artists such as Stars, Every Move a Picture, Pony Da Look, along with scoring numerous film and television projects.

In 2011, Benvie published a second novel, titled Maintenance, along with a full-length instrumental 'audio companion' available via download through the publisher Coach House.

In 2012, a third Tigre Benvie full-length appeared: Mistiness, a limited-edition vinyl release alongside a digital version available via iTunes, Bandcamp and other digital avenues. This album, like other Tigre Benvie releases, was produced and mainly performed by Benvie, featuring contributions from friends including Murray Lightburn (from The Dears), Matt Murphy, Ian McGettigan, and others. Another self-released Tigre Benvie album, Stuplimity, or The Nova Scotia Book of The Dead, was released in early 2013.

Discography

• 2000 - Year of the Mutt
• 2002 - Bankruptcy
• 2010 - 2003 (Tigre Benvie EP)
• 2011 - Maintenance: The Original Soundtrack (Tigre Benvie album)
• 2012 - Mistiness
• 2013 - Stuplimity, or The Nova Scotia Book of The Dead

Bibliography

• 2004 - Safety of War (Coach House Books)
• 2011 - Maintenance (Coach House Books)