The Story This Far... It was the winter of 1993. Jen, Steve, Calvert, and myself — Andy, got together to make some noise. There wasn´t much of a plan. We knew we wanted to use music to talk about things that were important to us, things that affected us personally, and things that affected the world at large. We wrote songs about the importance of feminism, the unimportance of organized religion, humankind´s propensity to do incredibly mean, stupid things to one another. We practiced for a while and in March of 1993 we played our first show as Insult to Injury. The show was in the basement of a big house on Broadway, in East Vancouver, and it was a benefit for the upcoming Frenzy Anarchist Gathering. It made perfect sense that we should play, this basement being our practice space, this house being the headquarters for the organizing of the gathering. What an exciting time to be in Vancouver! For the first time since the bulldozing of the Frances Street Squats a couple of years earlier there was a fun, lively, energetic, young spirit to local activism. A public squat was opened on Broadway, near Commercial Drive, and for it´s inauguration we staged a parade from the new condos on Frances Street to the new squats on Broadway. We played another Frenzy benefit and in the summer we played at the I.W.A. hall on Commercial Drive as part of the Frenzy gathering itself. The three day gathering was full of shared ideas, shared food, spontaneous demonstrations, picnics, lot´s of new friends and old, and of course a heavy presence by the goons in blue, the Vancouver Police Department. When we played on the second night of the Frenzy shows, the cops surrounded the building. Were it not for their riot gear, guns, and paramilitary training, I´m sure we would have won. In the autumn, the pressures and stresses of the soon to be bulldozed Broadway Squats that he called home, and a budding romance on Vancouver Island made Steve rethink his station in life and he quit the band. Guitarless, we put an ad up in the local record store and consequently met J. Flis. Flis stole some equipment and we were off! Our self imposed rule of playing only in spaces free from discriminatory entrance policies kept us away from the rock clubs, thankfully. The less interaction with the established music industry the better and we found ourselves playing places like the South Wall in North Vancouver, or renting halls in the city. With Steve in Victoria, we were always happy to incorporate some quality visiting time with our gigs over there and in the winter of 1993 we recorded the Insult to Injury cassette and split 7” with M.P.A. in Steve´s house. In March of 1994 we went on our first tour (apart from the infamous roadtrip with Lashback...) down the west coast to Los Angeles and back. The following September we set out on a cross continental tour that would see us go as far east as Halifax, as far south as the Grand Canyon and back again. During our stop in Chicago we met one of the many other bands calling themselves Insult to Injury and decided that when we got home a change in moniker would be prudent. Thus Insult to Injury begat Submission Hold. Yes, so we changed the name of the band. We recorded some songs, again in Steve´s basement, with Jason Flower at the helm and released The Buzz of a Buzzless Situation. The cover art for the tape and accompanying booklet would be the beginning of Jen´s journey through the world of self—taught punk rock graphic design. Previous efforts (the Insult to Injury artwork, for example) were shared amongst the other talentless hacks in the band and upon viewing Jen´s work, it was obvious that some of us should stick to making music. Songs from that session were supposed to become a 7” record on the Unite and Fight label from Greensboro, North Carolina, but alas! Our procrastination and the label´s early demise meant the record would never see the light of day. Somewhere along the way Calvert lost interest and eventually we found ourselves again looking for someone new to play with — this time a drummer. Enter Phil... I met Phil through a friend of a friend and before anybody knew what happened Phil had moved out of the bus he lived in and had moved into the big city. We taught Phil a handful of songs and hit the road for a month of shows on the west coast, the midwest, and western Canada. At the end of tour, for many reasons, Flis left the band. Would these line—up changes never end?! Guitarless and on hiatus in Victoria, guess whose band had just broken up? And so it was that Steve moved back to Vancouver and back into our lives full—time. With Steve back, songwriting became much more of a collective process. We shared lyric writing and spent more time on the music. The earlier songs were devised, it now seems, to be unbearably painful to the listener´s ear. While still maintaining a challenging sound, we now began to see the value of rhythm and melody. Is that pretentious enough for you? I hope so. Politics became more ingrained in the band as time wore on. A common sight at our shows became tables with information by and about local activist groups, a radical literature distro (namely Comrade Black Distribution, run by our very own Steve), Jen´s ever changing line of agit—prop; stickers, patches and t—shirts all hand—screened and designed by the ever more self—taught Jen. We had given songs to benefit compilations from all over the globe and our local shows were almost exclusively fund—raisers. A habit, I am proud to say, that has remained with us to this day. We put our support behind Prisoners´ Justice Day, Food Not Bombs, programs for street involved youth and like that. Individually we were also volunteering our time with groups like Food Not Bombs and CO—OP Radio (102.7 FM), who for years were the only local media, besides the underground fanzine network, to pay us any attention. There was more of the near—constant touring and our first recording with Steve. That recording, made in our very own basement practice space, became the Veterans of the Cola Wars cassette and the Garlic For Victory 7”, thus beginning our partnership with Mikey and his Hopscotch Records...much more a little—brother—like friend than record company boss. Those were followed quickly by our first foray into a “real” recording studio, Profile Studios, to make the Kamikaze Quagga 7”. This record was recorded with the man responsible for some noteworthy early Vancouver punk records by the likes of D.O.A. and NoMeansNo, Cecil English. We released Kamikaze Quagga by ourselves, no label, and distributed it all over the world by way of D.I.Y. distribution channels — trading mostly. More touring and when we were getting set to do the next recording we met Kirsten. This six foot tall, blue haired woman with the friendly dog would eventually get us banned from the pages of the biggest punk magazine in the U.S., perhaps the world, Maximumrocknroll. How could she do this, you ask? Simple. She plays the flute. Kirsten´s flute added a whole new dimension to the music and the songs we recorded, again at Profile, were our best yet. We released the Progress (as if survival mattered) cassette from this session. Also from this recording came the Flag + Flame = Fun 7” on the Farmhouse label from SanJose, California which was run by our pals Rob and Kaz, and the split LP with our friends from Humbolt County, California, Sake, again with Mikey and Hopscotch. These were the first releases that came with translations of the lyrics into French and Spanish. Our meeting with Kirsten opened a whole new chapter in the book of Submission Hold, I think. With the support of MRR in our past and also, perhaps, the tag of “punk band” we began to incorporate different things into the live performances. There could be flute, violin, acappella rounds of shouting, poetry or guest speakers in addition to ever lengthening between song dialogue. On some occasions conversation with the audience has turned our shows into something more resembling a round table discussion than a punk—rock show. It´s been our goal to blur the lines between performer and audience as, in our opinion, neither is more valid than the other. We got involved in the campaign to seek justice for Wolverine and the other T´speten defenders, or what the press labeled, “Renegade Indians at Gustafsen Lake”. One of our most memorable shows was a benefit we planned in North Vancouver with the likes of the Lil´wat Drummers, an inspirational man from many front lines named Splitting the Sky, as well as our friends from Winnipeg, Propaghandi and local agitators, Manner Farm. At some point we released our first CD containing both of the Profile sessions, and called it Progress (as if survival mattered). This time we released it under the masthead of Allium Records. Isn´t it ironic that the only release our record label would put out wasn´t a record at all, but a compact disc? Even though there hasn´t been a second Allium release I can safely say that maybe there might be... if we want there to be. Vague enough for you? I hope so. This brings us to 1997 and the most disastrous tour yet. Floods, blizzards, ice storms, a very, very crappy van, illness, cancelled shows galore, and lots of great friends. Back home we hosted our friends´ (and soon to be friends´) bands from all over when they came to Vancouver and played in our basement. Sure all the local all—ages venues died, but we would not give in! Still adverse to the bar scene we would not play much locally, basements mostly. Our next recording would be made in a basement as well — Why quit when you´re on a roll? Marc L´Esperance at Lemonloaf Studio recorded Waiting For Another Monkey to Throw the First Brick,to be released by Ebullition, in the same room that had seen the likes of Veda Hille and the modern day NoMeansNo. Jen would later create the original artwork as well as lay out the covers for the CD and LP, the 32 page booklet with French, Spanish and German translations, design a sticker and a poster all in three stress filled days. Imagine! This record would mark the beginning of a beautiful friendship between the lay—about surfbum, Kent McClard and us Submission Holders. Before the record came out we went on our biggest tour ever, going to the southern states for the first time. Talk about culture shock! Stopped by police every time we turned around (they even set up our own personal roadblock in rural Oklahoma!), rebel flags, southern hospitality, and the clearest separation between those with privilege and those without that we had yet seen. We dealt with our blown up van in Philadelphia and Nazi Skinheads in Jen´s hometown, Fredericton, New Brunswick. We fixed the van and thwarted the skinheads, by the way. After a short break we were away again for a six week tour of Europe. Sned of Flat Earth and Jon of Active Distribution got together and re—released the Progress CD for our tour of Europe. We played squats and Youth Centres all over western Europe, Poland, Czech Republic and the UK as well as Belfast and Dublin. Our last show of 1998 was on Hallowe´en in Amsterdam at the Entrepotdok squat with Andy and Terrie from the Ex and one of the wildest bands I´ve seen, Stinksisters. Steve stayed for a while in Europe, traveled to Asia, and Submission Hold took a vacation. 1999 was slow. Phil moved out to the country on Vancouver Island, Steve went back to school, me and Jen worked on our garden and played with the dogs. We went on our first tour with Kirsten, she having finally cleared two weeks for us in her very busy schedule, down the west coast (our home away from home!). Early in 2000 we recorded some songs with Colin Stewart at a guy named Ernie´s studio, Big Midget. These songs will be released on various projects this year. So there you have it, at this point you know as much any of us do. Now go start your own band, or record label, or all—ages gig collective, or fanzine, or print shop, or.... In solidarity, the Hold