Big thanks to all the people who helped us: James and Melanie who booked and publicized, Nora and Marie and David and Monk and Fred who put us up, all the club staff and soundpeople, and especially all the bands who did us the favour of playing with us: Coffincheater, Unbelievers, Skullians, Delinquents, October Crisis, Diskonected, Evil Boys, Omegas, Whiskeyshits, Snatchback, Four-Stroke, Striver, Gerbia, and Buddha Bulldozer. I got to watch everybody’s sets from the merch table (highlight of the touring day), and there wasn’t anyone who wasn’t worth a listen.

Next up: Saturday, October 16 at the Rickshaw Theatre, right in the heart of the picturesque Hastings and Main area of beautiful downtown Vancouver, with Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine, and Fuel Injected .45.

Last time we played with Mr. Jello B. in Vancouver was 1979, which is 31 years ago if you’re counting.

We’re going to play a few shows:

Thu. Sept. 9, This Ain’t Hollywood, Hamilton, Ontario
Fri. Sept. 10, Lee’s Palace, Toronto, Ontario
Sat. Sept. 11, Call The Office, London, Ontario
Thu. Sept. 16, Katacombes, Montreal, Quebec
Fri. Sept 17, Mavericks, Ottawa, Ontario
Sat. Sept 18, Café Bar L’Agitée, Quebec City, Quebec

Further details to be posted if we ever figure them out.

On April 13, 2010, our new album, Same Thoughts, Different Day, will be released on Alernative Tentacles Records, in practically every format known to humanity: as a CD, as a two-disc 12″ vinyl LP/EP set with included digital download card, and as a digital download direct from all the usual locations.

This project is a bit unusual, so maybe we should explain. Way back in 1980 we released our first album, called Incorrect Thoughts, on an independent Vancouver record label called Friends Records. A few years later, after the original version of the band had broken up, and after some mysterious dealings that we were not party to, a version of that same record was released by a San Francisco record label. We were not pleased, considering that they re-mixed our songs without our involvement, re-ordered our album, added material we hadn’t included, slapped together one of ugliest covers ever seen, never contacted us for permission or input, and (of course) never payed us a single penny for the privilege. The label quickly swirled down the drainhole of history, however, so we thought that ugly little episode was over and done.

Shortly after we got back together in 2005 and recorded New Dark Age Parade, we started trying to organize some re-releases of our older recorded material. We released Death Was Too Kind, a collection of early single and EP material, and we were looking forward to being able to re-release Incorrect Thoughts. Then we found out that the person who ran that San Francisco label was attempting to claim that he owned the record. We didn’t agree; we don’t agree; but we decided in the end that we’d rather spend our time and money in a recording studio than a court room. Because fuck him. Because we own our songs and we own us.

So we recorded every song on the original album, plus two other songs that we’d laid down at the same sessions and which had only been released by us on an obscure compilation album (“Out of Line” and “Behind the Smile”), plus four others that we were playing back in the day that we’d never recorded in a studio (“Escalator to Hell,” “I Gotta Move,” “21st Century,” and “Out of Place”), and here they all are in a big slab of Subhumany goodness, just like the original album only more betterer. With Jesse Gander at the Hive Studios ably twisting the knobs and watching the dials, we think it ended up pretty good. We put everything we had into it, anyway. The original record just isn’t around anymore (it certainly isn’t present in any altered and manipulated version untouched by Subhuman hands, no matter what you’re told), so try this out. It’s what we think you should hear.

Thirty wonderful years later, you’ll have to tell us if this stuff holds up. Lot of water under the bridge, time waits for no one, and lots of other proverbs about the onrushing unrelenting passage of time, and it may be too much to expect that any of our rants and screeds and ravings resonate today. But then the mud in the river is different every day, plus ca change plus la same thing, and lots of other proverbs about the persistence of everything dreary, and maybe a few rays from some old fires can still cast a smidgen of light. Which brings us to the title: same shit, different day; same incorrect thoughts, different damn day.

“Does this button say ‘Subhumans’?  I’m lost without my reading glasses.”

Dearest Subhumans fans, please note the following venue change: Our May 15th show in Vancouver, Canada has been moved from the Anza Club to the Ukrainian Hall (near Hawkes and Pender in Strathcona).  All gigs being put on by Low Down Dirty Productions that were scheduled for the Anza Club are being likewise moved.  We are sorry for any inconvenience this venue change may cause.  

Actually, it’s a bit of a “return to the scene of the crime” for the Subhumans; we played a benefit concert titled “Rock Against Prisons” with the Zellots, Rabid, AKA and others at the Ukrainian Hall way back in 1979.  Yes, and another interesting bit of Subhumans trivia: Mike tells me that we had none other than the ledgendary Chuck Biscuits on drums for that gig, as Dimwit had just defected to the Pointed Sticks.  Perhaps Chuck will grace us by sitting in on a song at this gig as well.  One never knows….  Suzanne, could you make it happen?  Anyways, be there or be triangular!

July 28, 1979

Also, we’re doing a show May 15th at the Anza Club in Vancouver.  It should be a lot of fun.  We haven’t done a show for almost a year now, so hopefully peoples’ ears have stopped ringing from the last one and they’ll get their asses out to this extravaganza.  Maybe we’ll see you there.

Oops.  Seems Alternative Tentacles got caught out when their usual CD pressing outfit closed down.  They had to take their schedule apart and reassemble it, and the new release date for “Death Was Too Kind” is November 11.  For sure.  Really.  No kidding.  You can take that to the bank, which will probably be out of business by the time you get there.

Stay tuned for further updates.

We are pleased to announce that, after only three years of people coming up to us at every gig and asking how come we didn’t have any of our old music available, that we will soon have a batch of our old music available. “Death Was Too Kind” will be released September 30, in both CD and LP formats, on Alternative Tentacles (VIRUS 391) world wide.

Included are our first single from 1978, our self-titled EP from 1979, our second single from 1979, and two bonus tracks that were retrieved from a 1981 demo session to round out the history of the original band’s first era and first lineups.

Here’s the track list:
1. Death to the Sickoids
2. Oh Canaduh
3. Death Was Too Kind
4. Fuck You
5. Inquisition Day
6. Slave to My Dick
7. Firing Squad
8. No Productivity
9. Look At The Dawn
10. Pissed Off … With Good Reason

All the tracks were lovingly retrieved from the best sources we had, and painstakingly remastered for your listening pleasure. The last two tracks were previously released on our 1996 CD collection “Pissed Off … With Good Reason” (which has long been unavailable), but these versions were remixed from the original multi-track tapes, and might almost qualify as “previously unreleased” if you’re generous. Which we assume you are.

We should also point out that unlike the various unauthorized bootleg releases that have surfaced over the years, the CD version is guaranteed not to contain any hidden viruses that might transmit your credit card numbers to a website in Belarus, and the vinyl version is guaranteed not to harbour any rogue transients that might cause your speaker cones to shoot out and embed themselves in the opposite wall. Just sayin’.