Genre: Moist is great, in-yer-face Canadian rock. Visit the quintessential Moist site on the Internet, home to photos, info, sound clips, links, articles, interviews and too much more to mention.

Official site: http://www.cnw.com/~moist/

Year founded: 1993

Record Label: EMI Music Canada

Creature, Moist's follow-up to the triple-platinum Silver, is a study in extremes. From the piano ballad "Disco Days" to the all-out heaviness of "Ophelia", the album takes you on a variety of highs and lows, whisper-soft at one moment, pained and aggressive the next. Moreover, the band's perpetual touring schedule over the past three years has translated to their songwriting and performance, making them far more accomplished and creative as musicians. Each in his own way, singer/lyricist David Usher, guitarist Mark Makowy, bassist Jeff Pearce, drummer Paul Wilcox and keyboardist Kevin Young have pushed themselves on Creature, using different styles, techniques and deliveries. "I think it's important as a group to want to move and change," says David.

Produced and engineered by Paul Northfield (I Mother Earth, Suicidal Tendencies) and Moist at Morin Heights and Silent Sound in Quebec, Creature is a definite progression from Silver, the album recorded independently in a matter of days and consisting of the singles "Push", "Silver", "Believe Me", "Machine Punch Through" and "Freaky Be Beautiful"--all written before Moist was even a year old. "When we wrote the songs for Silver we hadn't played 300 shows like we have now, so we didn't have a complete sense of what our band was about," says Jeff.

While proud of their first album effort, Mark admits, "There's a certain vitality that we didn't capture perfectly on the record, but as we toured for three years, we honed in on what that excitement was. And having Paul Northfield working with us, he managed to capture that vitality and energy on tape."

Careful not to dilute or wipe out any of that vitality, the majority of the album was mixed by Northfield, except for "Gasoline" and "Hate" which were handled by engineer Claus Frostell, and "Ophelia"

Produced by David Leonard (Barenaked Ladies, Wide Mouth Mason), "Mercedes Five And Dime" is a more collective and organic album than Moist's previous outings. The members of Moist have grown individually and collectively as songwriters. In the past members would bring in riffs and "we'd just jam on them for a while". For this record, they all brought in songs that were closer to being completed which allowed the band to experiment more with the arrangements and the sounds in the studio - you can here the band having more fun with the music. For "Mercedes Five And Dime", the band opted to use more acoustic guitars, percussion instruments, synthesizers, loops and "bells and whistles". The results are the instantly catchy fisrt single "Breathe", the thematic "Mike Hammer" and the eclectic "Fish", "Mandolin" and "Pleasing Falsetto".

"Breathe", recently released to radio, is off to a great start. This song will also be included in the film "Stir of Echoes" (Sept. 99 release) starring Kevin Bacon and will be included on the Nettwerk soundtrack for the film (Aug 99 release). The video, directed by Phil Harder (Esthero, The Gap ads) is currently being edited. There will be two versions with one including footage from the film for release August.

July 13 at Festival By The Bay in Sarnia, ON
July 09 at WKRL Festival in Syracuse, NY
July 08 at Waterfront Festival in Belleville, ON
July 07 at TBA in Mont Tremblant, PQ
July 03 at Friendship Festival in Fort Erie, ON
July 02 at Shakin' the Lake Festival in Neepawa, MB
July 01 at Soundwaves Waterfront Festival in Ottawa, ON
June 30 at Woodstock En Beauce in St. Ephrem, PQ
June 24 at London International Airport in London, ON
Other Info: Airshow
June 23 at Waterfront Festival in Oakville, ON

1. ChartAttack.com Feature, 2000
Kevin Young's Life With Moist