hHead were a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commerci ...

band, formed in 1991 in

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Gree ...

. The band was originally formed by

Noah Mintz Noah Mintz (born September 12, 1969) is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter, guitarist and mastering engineer. Mintz founded the band hHead with Brendan Canning in the 1990s. He released solo material under the name Noah's Arkweld following the br ...

and

Brendan Canning Brendan may refer to: People * Saint Brendan the Navigator (c. 484 – c. 577) was an Irish monastic saint. * Saint Brendan of Birr (died 573), Abbot of Birr in Co. Offaly, contemporaneous with the above * Brendan (given name), a masculine given ...

as an acoustic duo,"hHead music simple, melancholy; Disc reminiscent of 'Seattle sound'". ''

Ottawa Citizen The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. History Established as ''The Bytown Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris, it was renamed the ''Citizen'' in 1851. The new ...

'', October 20, 1994. with a rotating succession of drummers rounding out the trio after they evolved into a harder rock band. They were originally known as ''Head'', but added the second ''h'' after discovering that another band was already recording as Head, although both hHead and the Vancouver band

Rymes with Orange Rymes with Orange is a Canadian alternative rock band which formed in 1991 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. This independent band have released four albums: ''Peel'' (1992), ''Trapped in the Machine'' (1994), ''Crash'' (1999) and ''One Mor ...

regularly joked in promotional interviews that the extra h had been traded between the bands by either donation or theft."Band gets the 'H' out, hits the road". ''

'', October 20, 1994. The band's first album, ''Fireman'', was released independently in 1992, and became popular on Canadian campus radio. It received wider distribution in 1993,"T.O. trio making hHeadway". ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and pa ...

'', May 27, 1993. and the band toured Canada both as a headliner in rock clubs and as an opening act for My Bloody Valentine, Sloan,

Dinosaur Jr. Dinosaur Jr. is an American rock band formed in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1984, originally simply called Dinosaur until legal issues forced a change in name. The band was founded by J Mascis (guitar, vocals, primary songwriter), Lou Barlo ...

and

Stone Temple Pilots Stone Temple Pilots (also known by the initialism STP) is an American rock band from San Diego, California, that originally consisted of Scott Weiland (lead vocals), brothers Dean (guitar) and Robert DeLeo (bass, backing vocals), and Eric Kr ...

. In 1993, the band won

CFNY-FM CFNY-FM (''102.1 the Edge'') is a Canadian radio station, broadcasting at 102.1 MHz in the Greater Toronto Area, licensed to the suburb of Brampton. CFNY plays an alternative rock format. Owned by Corus Entertainment, its studios are in Downtown ...

's Discovery to Disc contest, which awarded them $100,000 toward the recording of a new album. The band landed a contract with

IRS Records I.R.S. Records was an American record label founded by Miles Copeland III, Jay Boberg, and Carl Grasso in 1979. I.R.S. produced some of the most popular bands of the 1980s, and was particularly known for issuing records by college rock, new wave ...

in 1994, releasing their second album, ''Jerk'', that year. The album was supported by a large-scale national tour as an opening act for Moist, and by an appearance on the

Edgefest Edgefest was an annual outdoor rock festival in Canada. It was founded by staff members of Toronto radio station CFNY-FM. From 1987 to 2015, the festival was held every year in the summer (except for 2007). The festival was most frequently hel ...

bill in 1995. However, IRS Records was at this point in financial trouble, and declared bankruptcy in 1996. The band then moved to the Canadian independent label Handsome Boy Records for their final album, ''Ozzy''. The band also appeared on at least two compilation albums during their career, with a cover of Bob Snider's "They Oughta Bottle Friday Night" appearing on the 1996 tribute album '' Poetreason: The Songs of Bob Snider'' and the non-album track "Want" appearing on both the 1996 and 1998 editions of '' More of Our Stupid Noise''. In 2015, the previously unreleased track "Fempire" and a solo track by Canning titled "Born from the Ashes" appeared on Squirtgun Records' 20th anniversary ''Return of Our Stupid Noise'' compilation. The band broke up in 1997. Mintz is now a mastering engineer for artists such as Hayden and

The Dears The Dears are a Canadian indie rock band from Montreal, Quebec. The band is led by the husband-and-wife duo of singer-guitarist Murray Lightburn and keyboardist Natalia Yanchak. History The band formed in 1995 and released their first album, ...

, and has recorded solo material as Noah's Arkweld. Canning joined By Divine Right for that band's third album '' Bless This Mess'', and later formed the bands

Broken Social Scene Broken Social Scene is a Canadian indie rock band, a musical collective including as few as six and as many as nineteen members, formed by Kevin Drew (vocals, guitar) and Brendan Canning (vocals, bass) in 1999. Alongside Drew and Canning, the oth ...

with

Kevin Drew Kevin Drew (born September 9, 1976) is a Canadian musician and songwriter who, together with Brendan Canning, founded the expansive Toronto baroque-pop collective Broken Social Scene. He was also part of the lesser-known KC Accidental, which con ...

and

Cookie Duster Cookie Duster is a Canadian indie rock band, who were briefly active in Toronto in the late 1990s before reforming with some new members in 2012. History Originally formed in the late 1990s by Brendan Canning and Bernard Maiezza after the diss ...

with Bernard Maiezza."Broken Social Scene's Brendan Canning Reviving Cookie Duster Project?"
''

Spinner Technology *Spinner (aeronautics), the aerodynamic cone at the hub of an aircraft propeller * Spinner (cell culture), laboratory equipment for cultivating plant or mammalian cells * Spinner (computing), a graphical widget in a GUI * Spinner (MIT Med ...

'', November 10, 2011. Broken Social Scene's album ''

Bee Hives A beehive is an enclosed structure in which some honey bee species of the subgenus '' Apis'' live and raise their young. Though the word ''beehive'' is commonly used to describe the nest of any bee colony, scientific and professional literature ...

'' includes a song titled "hHallmark", alluding to the unique typography of hHead's name.

Members

Guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

/Vocals (1991–1997) *

Bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

/Backing vocals (1991–1997) *Jason Ray - Drums (1996–1997) **Mark Bartkiw - Drums (1992–1995) **Roland Rainer - Drums (1991–1992) **Zak Hanna - Additional Guitar (on

Fireman A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisdictions also ...

) (1991–1992)

Discography

*1992 — ''

'' (re-released 1993) *1994 — '' Jerk'' *1996 — '' Ozzy''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hhead Musical groups established in 1991 Musical groups disestablished in 1997 Musical groups from Toronto Canadian alternative rock groups 1991 establishments in Ontario 1997 disestablishments in Ontario I.R.S. Records artists