by JOHNSON CUMMINS

Many bands are only too glad to give a huge chunk of their money to lawyers and publishing companies in an attempt to get their songs placed in movies and commercials. The artist may be looked at as hawking product, but the product can also hawk the artist. Defunct local thrash-metal outfit DBC (Dead Brain Cells) merely answered a call and suddenly found their song “The Genesis Explosion” in a Canadian ad for Fido cell phones—despite having broken up over 10 years ago.

The original line-up of the band frayed in the early ’90s after two successful records and, despite attempts to resurrect the original band, the untimely demise of original guitarist Gerry Ouellette in 1994 squashed any such hopes. When they were also let go from their record contract shortly after that, they weren’t even able to limp on with replacements. After a one-off show with a guest guitarist on New Year’s Eve in 2003, which guitarist Eddie Shahini mentions was strictly for laughs, the band is once again playing and re-releasing their two records as well as three DVDs.

“We started getting over 100 hits a day on our Web site after the commercial started playing,” says Shahini, “and they even mentioned the name of the song and the band on the commercial more then they mentioned the cell-phone company, so I guess we were really lucky. It was really nice just to have people still remember us, and I think a lot of new people got turned on to us because of that as well.”

It may look like the band is simply capitalizing on the fact that their music is blaring in people’s living room every night, but Shahini insists that it is the fans, who’ve been writing to the Web site more then ever, who are really providing the fuel for re-releases and the occasional show. “We get such great fan mail and e-mails, and I think it’s because the music that we made back then really stands up today, and is still relevant to what is happening in the metal scene now. When we started, thrash metal was still really underground. Now I hear bands with a heavy influence all the time. People are digging back to bands like Exodus and Slayer, and occasionally they hear about us. Kids are really into the same bands we were into when we were growing up.”

Shahini is now the proud father of a baby girl and spends most of his time changing diapers and working as a freelance graphic artist and illustrator. Drummer Jeff St. Louis still plays in a plethora of bands and also works as a graphic artist, and singer/bassist Phil Dakin now lives in Toronto and earns his keep as a 3D animator for big-budget Hollywood films. With the band occasionally performing the odd show, Shahini insists they are just in it for kicks now. “We’re just having fun and I doubt anything serious will ever happen with DBC again, but we’ve been playing the old songs for this show and when we’re really warmed up, it’s just as heavy as it ever was.”

With Anonymus and Speaker Voice at the Sang Frais launch/benefit at Lion d’Or on
Saturday, June 18, 7:30 p.m., $20, all ages

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