Treble Charger is a Canadian rock band formed in 1992 in

Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario Sault Ste. Marie ( ) is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is at the St. Mary's River on the Canada–US border. It is the third largest city in Northern Ontario, after Sudbury and Thunder Bay. The Ojibwe, the indigenous Anishinaabe inhabitants ...

, consisting of vocalist and guitarist

Greig Nori Greig Andrew Nori (born November 21, 1962) is a producer and musician from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, and is well known as the frontman, co-lead vocalist and guitarist of the pop punk band Treble Charger. In the late 1990s, he began working as a ...

, vocalist and guitarist

Bill Priddle Bill Priddle is a Canadian indie rock musician, currently working as co-lead vocalist and guitarist in the band Treble Charger. He has also been a member of Broken Social Scene, Don Vail and The Priddle Concern. In 1992 he formed Treble Charg ...

, bassist Rosie Martin and drummer Richard Mulligan. They began with a melodic

indie rock Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produc ...

style but evolved into more of a

pop punk Pop punk (or punk pop) is a rock music genre that combines elements of punk rock with power pop or pop. It is defined for its emphasis on classic pop songcraft, as well as adolescent and anti- suburbia themes, and is distinguished from other p ...

band after signing to a major label in 1997. They disbanded in 2006 and reunited in 2012. Between 1996 and 2016, Treble Charger was among the Top 150 selling Canadian artists in Canada.

History

Early years (1992–1996)

Originally from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, the band consisted of Nori, Priddle, Rosie Martin and Morris Palter and was named NC-17 (after the movie rating) until 1994 when an American band with the same name threatened to sue. They adopted the name Treble Charger, but named their debut album '' NC17''. ''NC17'' was released independently at first by Smokin' Worm in 1994, but it was a hit on campus radio, MuchMusic, and

CFNY 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 ...

when it was re-released by

Sonic Unyon Records Sonic Unyon Recording Company is an independent record label based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Their former retail store was located on Wilson Street near James Street North. The label has put out releases by bands including Tristan Psioni ...

in 1997. In 1995, the band released '' Self Title'', which included a CD-ROM track promoting 30 of Treble Charger's favourite Canadian indie bands, including

The Inbreds The Inbreds were a Canadian alternative rock band formed in 1992. Originally from Kingston, Ontario,"Kingston's Inbreds don't need guitars". ''Toronto Star'', July 8, 1993. the band relocated to Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1996 and remained based ther ...

, Change of Heart, By Divine Right, Hayden and

Thrush Hermit Thrush Hermit was a Canadian alternative rock band active in the 1990s, known for their "highly energetic, humorous, and unpredictable performances," as quoted by Vice News. History Thrush Hermit was formed in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1992 by Jo ...

Shift to pop punk (1997–2006)

Guitarist Bill Priddle. 1997's ''

Maybe It's Me ''Maybe It's Me'' is Treble Charger's third album, released in 1997. The album featured three hit singles: "Friend of Mine", "How She Died" and a re-recorded version of " Red" (from '' NC17''). The album was a major breakthrough for Treble Char ...

'' was the band's major label debut. Palter recorded drums for only a few tracks, and, after Nori considered recording the rest of the drums himself, session drummer Mike Levesque stepped in. The album featured a more polished, commercial sound than the band's earlier albums, and launched the hit " Friend of Mine". Soon afterward, Trevor MacGregor joined as the band's drummer. That lineup, along with several of their songs from this album, were also featured in the 1999 film ''Mr. Music''. The band played the role of an 'undiscovered' indie band that gets discovered and helps to turn fictional Tone Records around from its slump. '' Wide Awake Bored'', released in 2000, completed the band's evolution to a pop-punk style. This album also featured the hit singles " American Psycho" and "Brand New Low". In 2001, Treble Charger performed at the Snow Jam festival in Halifax. In 2002, the band released ''

Detox Detoxification or detoxication (detox for short) is the physiological or medicinal removal of toxic substances from a living organism, including the human body, which is mainly carried out by the liver. Additionally, it can refer to the period of ...

'', featuring hit single "

Hundred Million "Hundred Million" is a song by Canadian rock band Treble Charger. It was released as the lead single from the band's fourth album, ''Detox''. The song features backing vocals by Deryck Whibley and percussion by Steve Jocz, both from Sum 41. The s ...

" and "Don't Believe It All". Priddle, identified with Treble Charger's early indie rock direction rather than the later pop-punk, left the band in 2003. Initially, it was said he was taking a break from the group, but it later came out the departure was permanent, and Nori had asked him to leave sooner than Priddle had intended.

Kelly Osbourne Kelly Michelle Lee Osbourne (born 27 October 1984) is an English television personality, singer, actress, model, and fashion designer. The daughter of Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne, she appeared on the reality show '' The Osbournes'' (2002–2005) w ...

guitarist

Devin Bronson Devin Bronson (born Seattle, Washington, May 15, 1983) is a guitarist, songwriter and producer based in Los Angeles, having worked with artists such as Avril Lavigne, David Cook and Sebastian Bach. Bronson's versatility on stage and in the stud ...

filled in for Priddle for the rest of the ''Detox'' tour. Priddle continued his collaborations with

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 ...

and is a member of his new band The Priddle Concern. By this time, their work with and the success of their proteges Sum 41, whom Nori produced, had started to eclipse Treble Charger's own career. In late 2004, it was reported that Treble Charger itself was on hiatus, but an animated version of the group, including Priddle, would appear, with Sum 41, on

The Comedy Network CTV Comedy Channel (often shortened to CTV Comedy and formerly known as The Comedy Network) is a Canadian English-language specialty channel owned by Bell Media which focuses primarily on comedy programming. The channel first launched on Octob ...

series '' Kevin Spencer''. However, a message posted on July 20, 2004, on their official website said they were continuing to record and the band was still together. But on September 1, 2005, Nori said in an interview: :''"Thanks for all the amazing support you have given us. It seems like we're bigger now then we have ever been. I only wish more people had caught on to our music sooner so that we could have had an easier time at being a band. I'm not saying it's over yet but I am saying that right now I need to focus on other things. Maybe in a while I will get the urge to write a new TC album but right now my heart's not in it. Thanks for enjoying our music." The hits "American Psycho" and "Brand New Low" were featured in

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network ...

Hockey game ''

NHL 2002 ''NHL 2002'' is a video game released by EA Sports in 2001. It is the predecessor to ''NHL 2003''. The game's cover man is Pittsburgh Penguins superstar and owner Mario Lemieux, who had just made a comeback after being retired for three and a half ...

'' and "Hundred Million" was used in ''

NHL 2003 ''NHL 2003'' is an ice hockey video game developed by EA Canada and published by EA Sports. It was released in 2002 as the successor to '' NHL 2002''. Jarome Iginla appears as the cover athlete and spokesperson of the game. Iginla appears in the ...

'' and in Splashdown: Rides Gone Wild. EA also used "Wear Me Down" and "Business" from the ''Wide Awake Bored'' album in Triple Play 2002. "American Psycho" was used in promotional advertisements for the

direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy wa ...

movie '' American Pie: Band Camp'' and featured in the movie ''

Dude, Where's My Car? ''Dude, Where's My Car?'' is a 2000 American stoner comedy film directed by Danny Leiner. The film stars Ashton Kutcher and Seann William Scott as two best friends who find themselves unable to remember where they parked their vehicle after a nigh ...

'' On February 3, 2006, Nori disbanded Treble Charger, ending their 14-year career.

Post-breakup activity (2006–2011)

Nori has stopped managing Canadian band Sum 41, although he now manages other bands. He is currently a "musical guru" for the Canadian reality show '' disBAND'' (since renamed ''Much Discovered'') on MuchMusic. Priddle pursues a solo career in Toronto, and released a solo album in 2008 with his new band The Priddle Concern. MacGregor currently writes music for TV and film. Palter went on to pursue degrees in contemporary percussion performance and continues to perform solo and chamber music of contemporary composers all over the world. Treble Charger was one of the inaugural inductees into the

Sault Ste. Marie Walk of Fame The Sault Ste. Marie Walk of Fame is a series of markers located throughout downtown Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada. The Walk of Fame is a joint project between the city of Sault Ste. Marie and its Downtown Association ...

on September 30, 2006 during the grand opening weekend of the Steelback Centre, the city's new sports and entertainment arena. Nori produced

Organ Thieves Organ Thieves is a southern rock, southern and soul music, soul-influenced experimental music, experimental hard rock side project by Brown Brigade guitarists Chuck Coles and Dave Baksh, formed by Coles in mid-2008. It has since become their mai ...

' first full-length studio album ''

Somewhere Between Free Men and Slaves ''Somewhere Between Free Men and Slaves'' is the first full-length studio album by Canadians, Canadian hard rock band Organ Thieves, released on April 24, 2012, through MapleMusic Recordings, through the Canada iTunes service, later followed by a ...

'', which was recorded between 2010–2012 and released on April 3, 2012.

Reunion and upcoming sixth studio album (2012–present)

On January 15, 2012, a

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account was opened for the band, with the opening tweet saying "Wow - it's been a while. Might be time to knock the dust off...", which led to speculations about the band reuniting, also following Nori's tweet "Thinking I should probably call Bill, and maybe pick up some new guitar strings, hmmmm." On January 20, 2012, it was confirmed that the band will reunite (without Martin and MacGregor) and has announced plans to play a reunion show at The Indie Awards in Toronto as part of

Canadian Music Week Canadian Music Week (or CMW) is an industry conference and music festival held over ten days in Toronto and Ontario, Canada. History Canadian Music Week began in 1981 and has grown to become one of Canada's largest and most influential media a ...

. Another show was confirmed for March 21, 2012 in Toronto, with the band playing alongside

. The band played three more Canadian festival shows, in June, July and November. In 2013, the band played one headlining show on July 12, in

Windsor, Ontario Windsor is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from Detroit, Michigan, United States. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Essex County, it is the southe ...

, with support from

The Trews The Trews are a Canadians, Canadian rock music, rock band from Antigonish, Nova Scotia, consisting of vocalist Colin MacDonald, guitarist John-Angus MacDonald, bassist Jack Syperek, and drummer Chris Gormley. The band is currently based in Hamil ...

and

Neverending White Lights Daniel Victor (born September 20, 1979) is a Canadian recording artist and producer from Windsor, Ontario, best known for the collaborative music project Neverending White Lights, which features instrumentation performed mostly by Victor, with ...

. Nori and Priddle entered the studio to record new music in September 2014. During a 2018 headlining of the Rotaryfest, the band mentioned the possibility of a new album.

Band members

Current line-up

– lead vocals,

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 ...

(1992–2006, 2012–) *

–

, co-lead vocals (1992–2003, 2012–) *Rosie Martin – bass (1992–2006, 2018-) *Richard Mulligan – drums (2013-)

Former members

Jason Pierce Jason Andrew Pierce (born 19 November 1965 in Rugby) is an English musician. Currently the frontman and sole permanent member of the band Spiritualized, he previously co-fronted the alternative rock band Spacemen 3 with Peter Kember from 1982 ...

– drums (2012–2013) * Morris Palter – drums,

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

(1992–1997) * Mike Levesque – drums,

(1997) * Trevor MacGregor – drums,

(1997–2006) *

–

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are ...

(2003–2004) * Dave McMillan – bass (touring) (January – July 2012) * Darcy Yates – bass (touring) (2012–2018)

Timeline

ImageSize = width:800 height:200 PlotArea = left:100 bottom:60 top:0 right:50 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1992 till:01/01/2023 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy Colors = id:Vocals value:red legend:Vocals id:Bass value:blue legend:Bass id:Guitar value:green legend:Guitar id:Drums value:purple legend:Drums id:Lines value:black legend:Releases Legend = orientation:horizontal position:bottom ScaleMajor = increment:2 start:1992 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1 start:1992 LineData = at:07/04/1994 color:black layer:back at:01/01/1995 color:black layer:back at:05/13/1997 color:black layer:back at:07/25/2000 color:black layer:back at:08/20/2002 color:black layer:back BarData = bar:Nori text:"Greig Nori" bar:Priddle text:"Bill Priddle" bar:Bronson text:"Devin Bronson" bar:Martin text:"Rosie Martin" bar:MacMillan text:"Dave MacMillan" bar:Yates text:"Darcy Yates" bar:Palter text:"Morris Palter" bar:MacGregor text:"Trevor MacGregor" bar:Pierce text:"Jason Pierce" bar:Mulligan text:"Richard Mulligan" PlotData= width:10 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4) bar:Nori from:01/01/1992 till:02/03/2006 color:Vocals bar:Nori from:01/01/1992 till:02/03/2006 color:Guitar width:3 bar:Nori from:01/14/2012 till:end color:Vocals bar:Nori from:01/14/2012 till:end color:Guitar width:3 bar:Martin from:01/01/1992 till:02/03/2006 color:Bass bar:Martin from:06/16/2018 till:end color:Bass bar:MacGregor from:05/13/1997 till:02/03/2006 color:Drums bar:Priddle from:01/01/1992 till:01/01/2003 color:Guitar bar:Priddle from:01/01/1992 till:01/01/2003 color:Vocals width:3 bar:Priddle from:01/14/2012 till:end color:Guitar bar:Priddle from:01/14/2012 till:end color:Vocals width:3 bar:Bronson from:01/01/2003 till:01/01/2004 color:Guitar bar:Palter from:01/01/1992 till:05/13/1997 color:Drums bar:MacMillan from:03/01/2012 till:07/17/2012 color:Bass bar:Yates from:07/18/2012 till:06/16/2018 color:Bass bar:Pierce from:01/14/2012 till:08/10/2013 color:Drums bar:Mulligan from:08/10/2013 till:end color:Drums

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

References

Citations

External links

Treble Charger
Official website
Treble Charger
at

ViK. Recordings In 1998, ViK. Recordings was established as a Canadian record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publish ...

Treble Charger
at urArtist Network * {{DEFAULTSORT:Treble Charger Canadian indie rock groups Canadian pop punk groups Canadian punk rock groups Musical groups established in 1992 Musical groups disestablished in 2006 Musical groups reestablished in 2012 Musical groups from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario 1992 establishments in Ontario 2006 disestablishments in Ontario 2012 establishments in Ontario Sonic Unyon artists Nettwerk Records artists