Discords

Discords was Hardcore Punk band from Montréal, Quebec in Canada. Notre Dame de Grâce (N.D.G), sarcastically referred to as "No Damn Good", is a working-class district on the west side of Montreal. It is home to Italians, Irish, Caribbean and immigrants from dozens of other countries, all well represted by ethnic restaurants, corner stores and bars on Sherbrooke St. West, which cuts right through the heart of N.D.G. If you were a kid in 1980-83 in N.D.G. you probably would have been scared by the Discords. They hung out in most of the neighbourhood parks, and spray-painted their name in all the lanes and alleys around their stomping grounds where Sherbrooke St., Côte St. Antoine and Royal Ave. meet. They had one good reason to hang out in Hampton Park: three of the band members worked at Crown Carpets just across the street. According to guitarist Dave Valente, they had a reputation as a tough band, and they could and did back it up during shows. "Yeah, most of us played sports and worked out. When we worked at Crown Carpets we'd spend the day cutting and moving heavy rolls of carpet. Knockin' a few heads together was no big deal after that." Incidentally, it was during a lunch break at Crown that Valente and singer Tim Hindley wrote the Discords' anthem "N.D.G.", one of the best known Montreal Punk songs. Valente and drummer Frank Heidt started the band sometime in 1980, and quickly recruited the Hindley brothers, whom they'd known since they were seven or eight years old. Dave had the most talent of all the members and taught Tim how to play bass. "He played upside-down, left-handed, just like a punk Hendrix." At this point Tim Hindley was 20, and the other band members were in their late teens. They started jamming in drummer Frank Heidt's basement, where Heidt's mom put up with them for about three months. In the beginning they covered mostly the Ramones and British bands such as The Clash, Sex Pistols, Sham 69, and The Business. The only Canadian band that Hindley was really enthusiastic about was the Subhumans from Vancouver. After Heidt's mom kicked them out of her basement, they rented a practice space and crash pad at Sherbrooke and Wilson in N.D.G. According to Hindley the practice space was a sweatbox - around six by eight feet - where they crammed their gear, themselves and friends. Informal jams at Punk parties became too popular, so the Discords started playing some of the local Punk dives such as the Nelson Hotel, Station 10 and the Lasalle Hotel. There was lots of violence in the scene. The shows were pretty violent, all the boys were pretty violent." Whenever they played with other bands they measured themselves against them in wildness and craziness. As more and more suburban kids joined the downtown Punk scene, the Discords had to up the ante: "When the Oi! movement came out we went in for the skinhead thing. It wasn't a racist thing at all: we all loved Ska music. We had Rasta friends in the neighbourhood who were from Jamaica and Barbados. Jimmy Cliff's film 'The Harder they Come' is one of my favourite films." The Discords cut other demos later in 1982, six months after the record was recorded. Tim often bankrolled the whole band with drug money. He was heavily into the "black" (hash). Other band members were into the "white" (heroin). That wasn't the extent of their criminal activities either. Some of the guys were doing B&Es (break and enter) and even knocking off banks. "It's just the way it was. Who's going to work for $20 an hour when you can hand the teller a note and get $2500?" By the time they opened for the Exploited in early February 1983, Hindley was fed up. He owned all the instruments and was responsible for arranging gigs, and keeping the band members motivated. "I called the guys together just before we went on and said 'Okay boys, this is it - our last show.' " Valente remembers the show well: "Timmy wanted to let our friends in free (the show cost $9) but the promoter said 'No way.' He wouldn't give in so he called S.C.U.M. (a Montreal hardcore band) and asked them to play. They didn't have their equipment handy so the promoter asked Timmy if S.C.U.M. could use our equipment. Timmy was enraged and screamed 'How many ways do you wanna die!?' The guy backed down so Timmy ran out front, threw the doors open and said 'Let's Go! Free punk show!' and all our friends ran in." The Discords played for about half an hour in front of a huge upside-down Canadian flag bearing the band name and the slogans "Kill the Rich Pigs" and "In No One We Trust." After kicking their instruments over they split, thus ending the career of undoubtedly the toughest Canadian Punk band ever. The Discords continued jamming for awhile and toyed with the idea of gigging as the D.U.D.S - Discords Under Disguise, Stupid! to avoid the notoriety that prevented them from playing most Montreal clubs. Although the EP's lyric sheet announced a forthcoming two-song single - "FTW (Fuck The World)" b/w "Pogo on a Mod" - it never came out.

The Discords 7'' (1982)

01 - R.C.M.P.
02 - Dead Cubans
03 - Kill The Rich
04 - N.D.G.

Spank It! (1999)

01 - Oh Canada
02 - 1-2-3-4
03 - Squeegee Kids
04 - Kill The Rich
05 - Spankin' The Monkey
06 - N.D.G.
07 - Licence To Steal
08 - All I Wanna Do
09 - R.C.M.P.
10 - Shut Up

pass: freepunk77