Edmonton cowpunks Jr. Gone Wild are back together.
“We took about an 18 year hiatus and got back together two years ago,” said frontman Mike McDonald.
“It’s been a whirlwind two years,” he said, adding pressure from a persistent superfan encouraged him to reform the band.
“ A couple of years ago a guy asked me if I’d be interested in reforming the band. I said ‘No way, I’m not interested in doing that.’ A couple of months later he asked me if I’d given any thought to what I said and told him, ‘dude, I said no.’ He came back a few months later and asked again, so I quoted him an outrageous amount. Or what I thought was outrageous amount and he said ‘no problem,’” he continued, so he contacted former band members, bassist Dave ‘Dove’ Brown, drummer Larry Shelast and multi-instrumentalist and producer Steve Loree to play steel guitar and lead guitar.
“So we got together and rehearsed for like eight months for the reunion show, May 31, 2013, which we thought was going to be a one time thing. We played a three hour set,” he reminisced.
He was pleasantly surprised with how many people remembered Jr. Gone Wild.
“When we started there was no social media or smart-phones or Facebook. If you wanted to do a newsletter, it would cost you like $300. You’d have to print it up, then buy envelopes and stamps and send it out. Now you can write a note and post it on Facebook and everyone knows about it in two seconds,” he continued.
A variety of well known artists have covered Jr. Gone Wild songs including folk musicians Carolyn Mark and NQ Arbuckle and going back a few years, ’90s rockers the Doughboys who recorded a Jr. Gone Wild song on their first EP.
“ That was before they became a Much Music band and became famous,” he said.
More recently, Calgary rockers Napalmpom recorded their song “Cosmos.”
“ I actually like what they did with the song. There's guitar harmonies and vocal melodies we never thought of,” he said, adding he is honoured when other musicians record his songs.
“As someone who knows how much work it is to put out a record, I’m flattered. It’s like we’re part of folklore,” he said.
“As a songwriter probably the highest compliment you can get is for someone to cover your song,” he said.
Jr. Gone Wild got to cover a song by one of their idols/ friends — Edmonton born Canadian punk icons SNFU.
They just released a video for SNFU's “ Cannibal Cafe.”
“I used to work with Ken Chin (SNFU frontman Chi Pig) in the same restaurant which inspired the songs. So I was probably one of the first people he showed it too,” he said.
SNFU were part of the same music scene as Jr. Gone Wild, and other well known Canadian musicians like Moe Berg, who went on to form ’80s pop band the Pursuit of Happiness as well as country star kd lang.
“ There were 13 of us who were part of this bizarre social group,” he said.
He noted at the time, Jr. Gone Wild never realized they had formed their own music scene in Edmonton.
“We’d read about places like CBGB's in New York and the scenes there and other places, we never thought we were part of a scene. But looking back, we had a pretty great scene. We had Moe Berg and kd lang and SNFU and us,” he said adding he and Chin have remained close and mutual fans.
“ There’s a lot of naysayers who only want to see the original line up. But SNFU is all Ken's got. He’d probably be dead otherwise,” McDonald observed.
“ I’d rather he was playing with SNFU than have him dead,” he said, crediting him for Jr. Gone Wild’s brand of cowpunk.
“ He actually gave me my first Rank and File album (Austin cowpunk pioneers who formed in 1981 with members of punk rock band the Dils) So that kind of gave me permission to go do this,” he said.
McDonald has been splitting time between jobs (running a record store), domestic life and a solo career sing Jr. Gone Wild parted ways 25 years ago.
“I’m a lazy, crusty old f--k now,” he laughed, adding Jr. Gone Wild is working on new material, though don’t have official plans to release a new album in the near future.
They made a video for a new song “Barricades” about hockey riots in Edmonton.
“That is one of Steve Loree’s songs. He was in Edmonton and trying to get to work but there was a hockey riot on Whyte Avenue. I forget about what, whether they won or lost. So he talks about all the things he saw walking from Whyte Avenue to Strathcona,” he said.
He said the band is working on new music, though have not planned a new CD. They will be recording singles like “Barricades” and videos.
“When Jr. Gone Wild broke up everyone kept playing music, so when we got back together, we had kept our musical chops up,” he said.
They play the Slice, Sept. 5 — their first time in Lethbridge since the early ’90s.
Tickets cost $20. Ryalnd Moranz will be opening the show at 9 p.m.
