alternative rock
Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...
band formed in 1994 in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...
, Ontario, Canada. The band earned a 1996
Juno Award
The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall o ...
nomination in the category Best Alternative Album for ''Fluke''.
History
Rusty's origins are in One Free Fall, a band from
Wolfville
Wolfville is a Canadian town in the Annapolis Valley, Kings County, Nova Scotia, located about northwest of the provincial capital, Halifax. The town is home to Acadia University and Landmark East School.
The town is a tourist destination du ...
,
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland".
Most of the population are native En ...
who moved to Toronto in 1988. That band's core members were vocalist Ken MacNeil, guitarist Sandy Graham, bassist Jim Moore and drummer Bob Vespaziani. That band signed to independent label
Handsome Boy Records
Handsome Boy Records was a Canadian independent record label founded in 1994 in Toronto.Art Bergmann on a cover of "Prisoners of Rock 'n Roll" for the
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Fu ...
tribute album '' Borrowed Tunes: A Tribute to Neil Young'', but broke up in 1994 before achieving any notable success.
Following their breakup, MacNeil, Moore and Vespaziani joined with former
Doughboys
Doughboy was a popular nickname for the American infantryman during World War I. Though the origins of the term are not certain, the nickname was still in use as of the early 1940s. Examples include the 1942 song "Johnny Doughboy Found a Rose in ...
member Scott McCullough to form Rusty, and recorded the EP ''Wake Me'' in 1994. A video for the song "Wake Me" would become a minor hit on
MuchMusic
Much (an abbreviation for its full name MuchMusic) is a Canadian English language specialty channel owned by BCE Inc. through its Bell Media subsidiary that airs programming aimed at teenagers and young adults.
MuchMusic launched on August 31, ...
. Released on Handsome Boy Records, the EP was popular on Canadian
campus radio
Campus radio (also known as college radio, university radio or student radio) is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively created or produc ...
, and led to a major label distribution deal with
BMG Records
Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) was a division of a German media company Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Sony Corporation of America on 1 October 2008. Although it was established in 1987, the music co ...
for their full-length album ''Fluke'' in July 1995. Vespaziani left the group and was replaced by Mitch Perkins.
Led by the hit single "Misogyny", which featured a video consisting of clips from Canadian filmmaker
Bruce LaBruce
Bruce LaBruce (born January 3, 1964) is a Canadian artist, writer, filmmaker, photographer, and underground director based in Toronto.
Life and career
LaBruce was born in Tiverton, Ontario. He has claimed both Justin Stewart and Bryan Bruce as ...
's film '' Hustler White'' as well as Canadian singer
Danko Jones
Danko Jones is a Canadian Rock music, hard rock trio from Toronto. The band consists of Danko Jones (musician), Danko Jones (vocals/guitar), John 'JC' Calabrese (bass), and Rich Knox (drums).Fluke
Fluke may refer to:
Biology
* Fluke (fish), a species of marine flatfish
* Fluke (tail), the lobes of the tail of a cetacean, such as dolphins or whales, ichthyosaurs, mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, and metriorhynchids.
* Fluke (flatworm), parasitic ...
'' was the band's commercial breakthrough, also spawning the single "California", and earning a
Juno Award
The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall o ...
nomination for Best Alternative Album. The album was produced by Chris Wardman, who also played guitar on the tracks "Groovy Dead" and "California".
In 1996, the band contributed a cover of "Let's Break Robert Out of Jail" to the compilation album '' A Tribute to Hard Core Logo''. Also in 1996 the song "Punk" was included on soundtrack to Chris Farley's movie ''
Black Sheep
In the English language, black sheep is an idiom that describes a member of a group who is different from the rest, especially a family member who does not fit in. The term stems from sheep whose fleece is colored black rather than the more comm ...
''.
The band's follow-up album, ''Sophomoric'', was released in February 1997, including the singles "Empty Cell" and "Oh No Joe". Perkins left the band that year and was replaced by former
Bootsauce
Bootsauce was a Juno Award-winning Canadian rock band based in Montreal. The band was composed of Drew Ling (real name Drew Thorpe) (vocals), Pere Fume (real name Perry Johnson) (guitar), Sonny Greenwich Jr. (guitar), Alan Baculis (bass guitar), ...
drummer John Lalley. Perkins left the group due to creative differences and released an electronic album independently with Andrew Massey under the name "Blu Pernu". This year the band also contributed a cover of "Scratches And Needles" by The Nils to the compilation album "Scratches & Needles - A Tribute to the Nils" from Magwheel Records.
In 1998, Rusty released their third full-length album, ''Out of Their Heads''. In May 1999, it was revealed that the band had broken up. The band played their farewell show on November 25, 2000 at The Opera House in Toronto.
Reunion, new album
In 2011, Rusty reunited for the 2011
NXNE
North by Northeast (or NXNE) is an annual music and arts festival held each June in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The festival's main focus is live music, but it also includes an eSports gaming tournament, comedy, a conversations series, a flea mark ...
festival. The band continued to perform occasional shows in the following years.
In December 2017, the band launched a crowdfunding for a new album through
PledgeMusic
PledgeMusic was an online direct-to-fan music platform, launched in August 2009. It was started to facilitate musicians looking to pre-sell, market, and distribute projects; such as recordings and concerts. It bore similarities to other artist p ...
Exclaim!
''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly Exclaim! print magazine publishes 7 ...
'', June 29, 2018.
Discography
Albums
* ''
Fluke
Fluke may refer to:
Biology
* Fluke (fish), a species of marine flatfish
* Fluke (tail), the lobes of the tail of a cetacean, such as dolphins or whales, ichthyosaurs, mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, and metriorhynchids.
* Fluke (flatworm), parasitic ...
'' (1995)
* ''Sophomoric'' (1997)
* ''Out of Their Heads'' (1998)
* ''Dogs of Canada'' (2018)