Three or four years ago, I went to Montreal a few days before New Year’s, and lucked out to catch a special show at Les Foufones Electriques that was basically a giant party for Quebec’s heavy music scene. Voivod played nothing but Sex Pistols covers in their headlining slot. The excellent (and sadly aptly-named) thrash band Anonymous did a killer set of early Metallica and Slayer songs, true to the ragged spirit of zits and denim, and the room went crazy. Somewhere in the middle of the night, the maestros of Groovy Aardvark played basically Jane’s Addiction’s entire Nothing’s Shocking album–I’m sure with more power than Jane’s Addiction ever did themselves. I was floored, and probably had dreams that night of arriving late to a college exam naked or something.
Turns out Groovy Aardvark has carved out a big name for themselves playing genre-bending hard-edged progressive alternative punk metal in French-speaking Canada for the past two decades. (I guess on a limited level they succeeded in creating the post-metal career Death Angel wanted when they changed their name to The Organization and started wearing paisley and John Lennon glasses.) That was all news to me; I knew them as the clean-sounding but blazing crossover act captured on this classic flawlessly executed hyperspeed funky metallic hardcore demo. Especially for fans of Spazztic Blurr, Old Lady Drivers, and similar craziness, this is the stuff–hey, Jim Plotkin’s demo stack don’t lie!
GROOVY AARDVARK * 4-Song Promo Demo 1989 [35.1MB .rar]
Histories of the band are pretty elusive, but it seems they formed in 1986 under the name Schizophrenic Muff Divers. Currently, the band’s sole remaining founding member Vincent Peake has been moonlighting on bass for Voivod when their famous ex-Metallica bassist can’t make shows.
See also: Sound of the Beast: L’Histoire Definitive du Heavy Metal
Hello my friend,
Just thought I would give you an update on my friend Vince.
He has been playing bass for Grim Skunk for a while, he recorded the last album.
He is also in a stoner band called Floating Widget
He is also in Kosmos, along side Away from Voivod, they signed a 3 album deal on the End records
He also plays on Sabbath Cafe
He also plays with Lucien Francoeur
He used to fill in on bass for Voivod, but befor Jason joined the band..
There you go!
I’ve listen this album so many times when I was a little fellow. It reminds me so mush souvenirs. Yeah, I’ve steal it from my sister Klara, shame on me. But after couple of years of playing it on cheap tape decks, almost the whole magnetic stripe was covered with Scotch Tape… and it just broke.
Thank you very much for sharing this demo!
A repented brother, Jan.
You liked Groovy Aardvark! here’s the good news: there is an after life!!!
Come see General KO February 5th at Café de Paris, 4536 St-Denis, Montreal. Same band, same sound but different name!
Dobre 🙂