Leslie Spit Treeo

Leslie Spit Treeo were a Canadian folk-rock band in the 1980s and 1990s.[1] The band took its name from the Leslie Street Spit area of Toronto Harbour.

History

The band originally consisted of vocalist Laura Hubert, guitarist Pat Langner, guitarist Jack Nicholsen and mascot Tag, a dog who was also listed as the band's official manager.

They began as a street busking collective, sometimes with Graeme Kirkland contributing on drums, and won a role in Bruce McDonald's 1989 film Roadkill, playing buskers in a field performing their song "The Sound" produced by Bob Wiseman. They signed to Capitol Records and released their debut album Don't Cry Too Hard in 1990, garnering airplay on rock radio stations with a cover of John Prine's "Angel From Montgomery" and with their own original song "UFO/Catch The Highway". They subsequently won a Juno Award for Most Promising Group in 1991.

For their follow-up album, 1992's Book of Rejection, the band brought in guests Jason Sniderman on keyboards, Frank Randazzo on bass and Joel Anderson on drums. That album included the band's biggest hit, "In Your Eyes", a Top 20 hit in the fall of 1992 which featured Randy Bachman on guitar. But they felt that they lost creative control of the recording process, and broke their seven-album recording contract.

Nicholsen left the band in 1993 to pursue an acting career. Also that year, the band appeared in another McDonald film, Dance Me Outside, again playing themselves in concert.

With the core of the band now down to the duo of Langner and Hubert, their 1994 indie album Hell's Kitchen was initially credited to The Spits since the band were no longer a "treeo", but when initial sales were slower than expected, it was re-released under the band's original name.

In 1996, the band released the double album Chocolate Chip Cookies in a cookie bag package that closely resembled Chips Ahoy! packaging; after Nabisco threatened the band with a lawsuit, the band burned all the packaging in a bonfire in Toronto's High Park and created a new cookie bag that did not resemble Chips Ahoy!. They re-released the album the following year in a conventional jewel case. For that album's supporting tour, Langner and Hubert were joined by guitarist Jason Reed, bassist Shaun Noronha and drummer Vince Montago.

Chocolate Chip Cookies was the band's last album. Hubert has released three solo jazz recordings and is a fixture on the Toronto jazz scene. Langner is a writer living in Canada. Nicholsen continues to act and sings with The Cameron Family Singers. Tag, the dog, died in 2000.

Discography

Film Appearances

References

  1. ↑ Kaplan, Jon (2003-11-06). "Matinee idol". NOW Magazine (NOW Communications Inc.). Retrieved 2008-04-25.

External links