Holliston also cuts a dapper figure in a starchy, dark grey suit
For the past 20 years Tom Holliston has been recording and touring with the likes of Can-punk legends NoMeansNo, The Hanson Brothers and the Show Business Giants. And as if he’s not busy enough, he is working on his fifth solo record, tentatively titled Anterior Child.
Oh yeah, and he’s hosting what is likely the first night of Punk Rock Jeopardy to land at Amigos in Saskatoon.
No idea exactly how it’s going to go down – rumours have it at least one member of Ominocity will be a contestant – but it’s going to be a sight to behold. And weird.
And Holliston has seen plenty of weird both on and off stage, including punk rock human pyramids – a practice he highly encourages his audiences to do.
“I like human pyramids. I think they’re funny,” says Holliston. “We started doing it years ago with Show Business Giants because we realized that no one else was. And there was a dour, doom-and-gloom face on hardcore. So rather than tell everyone what an asshole Dick Cheney is, we thought we would try a human pyramid instead.”
Joining NoMeansNo in 1993 after the departure of original guitarist Andy Kerr, Holliston is currently road-testing his latest batch of songs, including a jaunt to Europe early next year, before heading back to the studio.
“I don’t like going into a studio for a week straight and recording a bunch of songs and then doing overdubs. The last album I did was done over the course of eight or nine months.”
As for his other projects, Holliston says that fans shouldn’t expect any of his bands to hit the road again at any point this year.
“As far as the Hanson Brothers are concerned, unless one day we come up with 14 new songs and put out a new album, it’s pretty much run its course,” he says.
“For Nomeansno we have some new songs nearly done but we wanted to take a break for a little while. We won’t do any touring until we have a bunch of new material to play live. We can’t go on tour again just playing old stuff because otherwise we may as well just become a cabaret act and do those punk rock style casino festivals.
“We won’t do anything until next spring, and that’s only if we have enough material that we really like instead of just playing a bunch of stuff from Wrong.”
– Make sure to check out Holliston this Thursday, May 8 at Amigos.
