General Rudie was a

third wave ska Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a w ...

band from

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, Canada. In their nine-year career, the band released two full-length albums on

Stomp Records Union Label Group is a record label based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was formed through the merger of the smaller labels Stomp Records, 2112 Records, and Tyrant Records. Mayday! Records was later created as a genre imprint. Stomp Records was ...

and toured extensively throughout Canada and the United States.

Career

General Rudie was founded in February 1997 and their first concert was in March 1997, as the opening act at a

Flashlight Brown Flashlight Brown is a Canadian punk rock band, originally from Guelph, who formed in 1996. Biography Bucchino, Conroy, Hughes, and Thomson formed a band, then simply called "Flashlight", out of boredom and frustration and quickly moved from the s ...

concert (who were at that time called ''Flashlight''). After playing together for three years, mostly in the Montreal area, they opened for

The Skatalites The Skatalites are a ska band from Jamaica. They played initially between 1963 and 1965, and recorded many of their best known songs in the period, including " Guns of Navarone." They also played on records by Prince Buster and backed many othe ...

in 2000. In the same year, the band performed in Toronto at ''Ska Ska Oi!'', a

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

ska Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walki ...

concert organized by the Toronto chapter of Anti Racist Action. They also performed at the Toronto International Jazz Festival. In the later part of 2000, General Rudie toured southern Ontario in support of their first EP '' The Green Light Sessions, Vol 1'', including a performance at the

Canadian Tulip Festival The Canadian Tulip Festival (french: Festival Canadien des Tulipes; nl, Canadees Festival van de Tulp) is a tulip festival, held annually in May in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The festival claims to be the world's largest tulip festival, displaying o ...

. The band had plans to tour the rest of Canada to support the EP, but according to singer

Phil Dixon Phil may refer to: * Phil (given name), a shortened version of masculine and feminine names * Phill, a given name also spelled "Phil" * Phil, Kentucky, United States * ''Phil'' (film), a 2019 film * -phil-, a lexical fragment, used as a root ter ...

, the band "exploded and we spent the summer rebuilding". Instead, the band worked on establishing a solid line-up and writing new material.

, Canada's largest ska record label, expressed an interest in signing General Rudie for a recording contract. The band began work on their first full-length release for Stomp in 2001, following a weeklong tour of the Canadian Maritimes with future label-mates and fellow Montréalers

The Planet Smashers The Planet Smashers are a Canadian ska punk band from Montreal. Since their formation in 1993, they have been a staple of the Montreal music scene. During the third wave of ska, they performed nationally and later internationally, with tours in t ...

. The album, ''Cooling the Mark'' was completed by the end of the year. The official release party was at the 2002 Ska Ska Oi! concert. They also played the same ARA benefit in 2003, sharing the stage with Closet Monster and Nightshift. The release of their second album, '' Take Your Place'', was in 2004. The album had 13 songs, including the single "Shelter", whose lyrics call for help for Montréal's homeless. The video for "Shelter" includes footage of

squeegee kids A squeegee man or squeegee woman, squeegee kid (Canada), squeegee boy (Baltimore), squeegee punk (Montreal), squeegee merchant (London), squeegee guy or squeegee bandit is a person who, using a washcloth and squeegee, wipes windshields of cars sto ...

and

panhandlers Begging (also panhandling) is the practice of imploring others to grant a favor, often a gift of money, with little or no expectation of reciprocation. A person doing such is called a beggar or panhandler. Beggars may operate in public plac ...

interspersed with shots of the band performing in an abandoned building and under a highway overpass. The band performed what was to be a final concert on September 2, 2006 at the Cafe Campus in Montréal after a brief farewell tour through southern Ontario. However, in July and August 2014, the band reunited for four shows in Oshawa, Montreal, Quebec City, and Toronto. They were joined on the reunion tour by trombonist Patty Taylor of the Planet Smashers.

Discography

* '' Take Your Place'' (2004) * '' Cooling the Mark'' (2001) * '' The Green Light Sessions, Vol 1'' (2000) EP

Compilation appearances

* ''2Tongue'' Volumes I, II, III (Disques Sapristi!/Indica Records/

) * ''Still Standing'' (

Megalith Records Megalith Records is a ska record label founded on August 22, 2002 and located in Norman, Oklahoma. It is owned by Robert "Bucket" Hingley of The Toasters and the defunct label Moon Ska Records, and managed by Jeremy Patton, current webmaster and gr ...

) * ''State of the Union Vol II'' (

) * '' The All Skanadian Club Vol. 4'' (

Union Label Group Union Label Group is a record label based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was formed through the merger of the smaller labels Stomp Records, 2112 Records, and Tyrant Records. Mayday! Records was later created as a genre imprint. Stomp Records was ...

) * ''Skannibal Party II'' (Mad Butcher Records) * ''Global Ska 3'' (Kainos Productions) * ''Boucing of Ska'' (Ska-LP Records)

External links

The official General Rudie website

General Rudie on CBC Radio 3

General Rudie on MySpace

General Rudie’s Stomp Records artist profile

* ttp://www.punknews.org/review/1474 Review of Cooling the Mark at PunkNews.org

References

{{Authority control Canadian ska groups Musical groups from Montreal Musical groups established in 1997 Musical groups disestablished in 2006 1997 establishments in Quebec 2006 disestablishments in Quebec