Band Details

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RUSTY

Rusty is a Canadian alternative rock band formed in 1994 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The band earned a 1996 Juno Award nomination in the category Best Alternative Album for Fluke.

Rusty was formed from the ashes of One Free Fall. That band's bassist Jim Moore (ex-Misery Goat’s drummer), drummer Bob Vespaziani and fellow singer Ken MacNeil continued rehearsing together in Toronto's Kensington Market area. After teaming with ex-Doughboys member Scott McCullough -- Rusty was born. When it was clear they were going to be signed to Atlantic records in the U.S. Vespaziani was unable to carry on with the band and he was replaced by Mitch Perkins. They soon released a an eponymous 5 song E.P. which was recorded in a single day. The EP did well on the indie and college charts.

The band's debut album, cleverly titled 'Fluke', found the Handsome Boy – TAG (US label) release distributed by BMG in Canada and through Atlantic Records in the States.. On the heels of the album's first single, "Misogyny", gay porn filmmaker Bruce La Bruce liked the song so much he used it in his film 'Hustler White'. The result of that association led to a Much Music award-winning video for the song (a collage of scenes from the movie) and pushing 'Fluke' to gold status in Canada.

The disc sold just a hair short of Gold Status in Canada, reaching the modern rock Top 40 in the U.S., and yielded four radio hits -- "Wake Me", "Groovy Dead", "Misogyny", and "California". It also earned them a Juno nomination for 'Best Alternative Album'; losing to Art Bergman (Jim Moore played bass on some of Art’s album).

Their follow-up album was titled 'Sophomoric', and was produced by GGGarth Richardson (Rage Against The Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers, L7). The first single, "Empty Cell", featured the return of Bruce La Bruce -- this time as the video's director.

In 1996, during the recording of "Let's Break Robert Out Of Jail" for the soundtrack of Bruce MacDonald's movie 'Hard Core Logo', the band began experimenting with 1960's and 1970's garage styles. This style mutation resulted in the 1998 album 'Out Of Their Heads' featuring Rusty originals plus covers of the Velvet Underground's "Sunday Morning" and The Kinks' "Till The End Of The Day" produced produced by Matt DeMatteo (Big Wreck, Brass Bikini, Ashley MacIsaac). It would also be the full-length debut for new drummer John Lalley who joined the band in 1997 to record their Christmas song "It's Christmas Time (And I'm Poor

The band subsequently broke up, playing their final show on November 25, 2000.

A rumour emerged in November 2010 that the band will reform for a series of reunion shows for the summer of 2011; the band has played sporadically since, including this, their first Ottawa show in years!

MAD ONES

Rock band from Toronto.

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