Reunited states

>>Montreal hardcore pioneers Genetic Control
still have the old punk spirit in their blood

REBOOTED: Genetic Control

By JOHNSON CUMMINS

The early Montreal hardcore scene that erupted in the early ’80s has definitely left an indelible imprint on the DIY underground movement of today. Bands like Unruled, No Policy, Asexuals. S.C.U.M. and Fair Warning would play at places like the Cargo Club, Foufounes Électriques, Rising Sun and various church basements and rehearsal spaces—and any other place that would accept the unwashed masses. Record labels like Psyche Industries made sure that the sounds of Montreal would be heard on a global level, wax shacks like Dutchy’s imported the latest hardcore releases and independent promoters made sure that Montreal would always be a regular stop for international punk bands like Bad Brains, Black Flag and Dead Kennedys.

At the centre of the close-knit hardcore community of the day was Genetic Control. Arguably the most musically accomplished of the local tribe due to a strict rehearsal regimen, Genetic Control’s 1984 seven-inch, of which 500 were pressed, is still considered one of hardcore’s holiest grails amongst collectors and hardcore historians.

“When we would look at that MTLHC logo that was scrawled all over the city, we really had a lot of pride in that,” says Genetic Control singer Mike “Zabo” Price over the phone from Toronto. “There was no Internet then, so if you really wanted to find out about hardcore, you had to almost be a researcher. It was just a great time for discovery, but you really had to work at it because it was so underground, it wasn’t just going to come to you.”

Genetic Control started off in their bleak Bleury rehearsal space in 1983, but due to the volatile mixture of its members and the resulting fistfights and blowouts probably brought on by the band’s young age, they would call it quits before hardcore’s first true day in the sun in 1985.

“There is no doubt in my mind if we had just been a little bit more mature and had a bit more vision to stick it out just a little bit longer, we would’ve been one of the more successful hardcore bands of the time. It was just really stressful then—you never knew what was going to happen at practice.”

Gen Con have since reunited, in 1998 and again in 2005, and now that the band’s members are either on the wrong side of 30 or getting comfortable in their 40s, and coming up on their sliver anniversary this year, the urge to pull it off again proved to be just too strong.

“I think we are by far better now than we ever were back then, and are thankfully still able to play, but this time to a completely new audience who were too young to see us in the early ’80s. I think it’s cool that kids are now rediscovering the first wave of hardcore and have developed this urge to seek it out. Punk has become this really safe style of music now, and I think that there was a certain aspect of uniqueness and a real sense that something truly special was happening that was coming out of that period of music. Unfortunately, it just hasn’t been captured since.”

With the Restarts, G-Men and
the Ruffianz at Katacombes
on Friday, May 30, 9 p.m., $10