King Cobb Steelie is 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 ...

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, 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 mu ...

band formed in 1991 from

Guelph Guelph ( ; 2021 Canadian Census population 143,740) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Known as "The Royal City", Guelph is roughly east of Kitchener and west of Downtown Toronto, at the intersection of Highway 6, Highway 7 and Wel ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

,"Sonuvafreakin' Eh!"
''Dropd'', Review by Darren Kerr of July 18, 1997 concert in Vancouver. and later based in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

. The band's most successful single was 1997's "Rational", from the album '' Junior Relaxer''. Their music fuses elements of

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 ...

grunge Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle sound) is an alternative rock genre and subculture that emerged during the in the American Pacific Northwest state of Washington, particularly in Seattle and nearby towns. Grunge fuses elements of p ...

,Barclay, Michael; Schneider, Jason; Jack, Ian. ''Have Not Been the Same: The CanRock Renaissance, 1985-1995''. ECW Press, 2011

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

and

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

. The core of the band is singer/songwriter Kevan Byrne and bassist Kevin Lynn. A variety of other collaborators, including Sam Cino, Al Okada, Gary Dutch, Geoff Walton, Steve Clarkson, Mike Armstrong, Nathan Lawr, Don Pyle and Michelle McAdorey, have contributed to individual albums.

History

In 1993 the band, named for a special kind of toy

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...

, released its self-titled album, which fused

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

with dubstep sampling. In 1994 the band was signed to the EMI label, and released the followup album '' Project Twinkle''. The album received 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 of ...

nomination for Alternative Album of the Year at the

Juno Awards of 1995 The Juno Awards of 1995, representing Canadian music industry achievements of the previous year, were awarded on 26 March 1995 in Hamilton, Ontario at a ceremony in the Copps Coliseum. Mary Walsh, Rick Mercer and other regulars of the television ...

. Following ''Project Twinkle'', the band also performed a number of

improvisation Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...

al shows under the pseudonym Junior Relaxer, which would become the title of their third album in 1997. The album's lead single, "Rational", was the band's biggest hit, and garnered the band a

MuchMusic Video Award The iHeartRadio MMVAs were an annual awards show broadcast on Much to honour the year's best music videos that was last held in 2018. Originally debuting in 1990 as the Canadian Music Video Awards, the awards were renamed in 1995 to the MuchMu ...

nomination for Best Video at the 1997 MMVAs. In 1999, as Junior Relaxer, the band gave a number of performances at Rancho Relaxo in Toronto. Percussionist Robin Easton participated as drummer 14 in the

Boredoms Boredoms () (later known as V∞redoms) is a rock band from Osaka, Japan formed in 1986. The band's sound is often referred to as noise rock, or sometimes Japanoise (Japan’s noise music scene), though their more recent records have moved towar ...

77 Boadrum performance which occurred on July 7, 2007 at the

Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park Brooklyn Bridge Park is an park on the Brooklyn side of the East River in New York City. Designed by landscape architecture firm Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, the park is located on a plot of land from Atlantic Avenue in the south, und ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. That year King Cobb Steelie released an album, ''Destroy All Codes''. After several years of only occasional activity, the band played a 20th anniversary benefit show at

Lee's Palace Lee's Palace is a rock concert hall located on the south side of Bloor Street West east of Lippincott Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The two-floor facility in The Annex neighbourhood has a long history prior to being adapted in September 198 ...

in Toronto, Ontario on April 16, 2011 with proceeds going towards Ontario Hands & Voices, an organisation dedicated to supporting families with children who are deaf or hard of hearing. In the fall of 2012, the band re-released '' Project Twinkle'' on

Pheromone Recordings Cadence Music Group, formerly MapleCore Ltd., is a music company founded in 1999 and located in Toronto, Canada. Cadence Music Group has multiple divisions, five record labels Cadence Recordings, Open Road Recordings, Pheromone Recordings, Physi ...

and performed the album live in its entirety at the

Horseshoe Tavern The Horseshoe Tavern (known as ''The Horseshoe'', ''The 'Shoe'', The 'Toronto Tavern' and The 'Triple T' to Toronto locals) is a concert venue at 370 Queen Street West (northeast corner of Queen at Spadina) in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and ...

and at Van Gogh's Ear in Guelph as part of the Stay Out Of The Mall XI festival. On December 12, 2013 King Cobb Steelie released ''Goodbye Arcadia'', a four-track EP. This was their first new material in nine years. That year they performed a concert in Toronto as part of the Long Winter concert series. In April 2022, member Mike Armstrong passed away from a cardiac event.

Discography

* ''One's a Heifer b/w Duotang'' (1991) * ''

King Cobb Steelie King Cobb Steelie is a Canadian indie rock band formed in 1991 from Guelph, Ontario,"Sonuvafreakin' Eh!"

'' (1993) * '' Project Twinkle'' (1994) * '' Junior Relaxer'' (1997) * ''

Mayday Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice-procedure radio communications. It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency primarily by aviators and mariners, but in some countries local organiza ...

'' (2000)"10 Albums That Are Perfect For A Rainy Day!!!"
''Bloody Disgusting'', By Jonathan Barkan on August 28, 2013 * ''

Destroy All Codes Destroy may refer to: * Destroy (album), ''Destroy'' (album), a 2004 album by Ektomorf * Destroy!, a Minneapolis Crust punk band * ''Destroy!!'', a comic book by Scott McCloud See also

* Destroyer (disambiguation) * Destruction (disambiguat ...

'' (2004) * '' Goodbye Arcadia EP'' (2013)

References

External links

* *http://www.kingcobbsteelie.net/ {{DEFAULTSORT:King Cobb Steelie Musical groups established in 1991 Canadian indie rock groups Musical groups from Guelph 1991 establishments in Ontario Canadian grunge groups