Purveyors of: Goonies never say die

Permanent Stains are venerable legends of Ottawa punk rock. The band was founded “hypothetically” in 1987 and actually got instruments a few years later. That means that 2007 is the Stains’ hypothetical anniversary and they’re marking it with a rare reunion appearance at Wavelength. Expect bizzare, sexually charged antics and brain-melting, ball-crusting, soul-jostling punk/noise/art anthems. Evan Dickson was indelibly marked after interviewing the Fraser bros, Nick and Malcolm, as well as Fraser Robinson and Adam Traynor.
 
The Permanent Stains are 20 years old! You must be the Rolling Stones of underground Ottawa Punk. How do you do it? 

Adam Traynor: By starting very, very young and henceforth clinging stubbornly to pre-pubescent ideals.

Nick Fraser: We don't do it. We leave "doing it" to others. We play once a year at most.

Malcolm Fraser: Well, Nick and I are brothers, and three of the other Stains have known each other since kindergarten, so we're very close. But truthfully, the long periods of separation are probably the key to our longevity.

Fraser Robinson: Going with the Stones analogy, I'm kind of like the Darryl Jones of the band, having only joined recently -- well seven years ago, anyway. Except, I didn't replace anybody, I don't play bass, and I think I'm a full-status band member so I'm really nothing like Darryl Jones. How do we do it?  We keep the people of Ottawa wanting more.

How many albums have you released in your career?

Fraser: In my tenure with the band, I've only been involved in recording one album, "Essential Jazz", our current release.

Nick: I'll let the historians of the band tackle that one, but I should mention that Bruford T. Justice's solo album "Six Stomachs of Stupidity" has never recieved its due, possibly because of the fact that it was released in a limited edition of one copy.

Malcolm: Loud and Untalented cassette (1989), Bratwurst for Bubba cassette (1990), Scour The Earth And Find...Permanent Stains cassette (1996), Nothing Can Stop the Permanent Stains CD EP (2000), Essential Jazz 3" mini-CD EP (2006).
 
Tell us about the Ottawa punk scene in the 90’s. What were the crowds, bands, and venues like? Surely you must have some excellent stories.

Nick: I thought the punk scene in the 90's was great. It seemed like one of the more open-minded music scenes around. All the audiences seemed to want was high energy and as long as you gave them that, style was not a concern. My favorite band that we opened for was from Quebec. They were called Shitfit.

Adam: There were lots of really serious young hardcore and/or straight-edge bands, even some quite good ones, but the smallness of the scene meant they had to share the scraps with the bands more interested in prancing around with Superman dolls impaled on their cocks and showering the crowd with mashed potatoes and gravy while worshipping an effigy of Barney Rubble in the middle of a candlelit pentagram on wheels (I refer here to the Stains, of course, but there were other emergent Ottawa neo-dadaists punks at the time, especially Leatherassbuttfuck).  To the "real" punks, we were always "the worst band in Ottawa", which was a compliment in so many ways.  When I spent some time in Ottawa in the later 90s, I got the feeling that the scene had become an outpost for Dischord/emo-core bands and had lost its taste for the absurd.

Malcolm: Believe it or not (and I barely believe it myself when I play there today), at that time it was a very healthy scene in which it wasn't uncommon for a bill of local bands to get out hundreds of enthusiastic kids. We would play all-ages punk shows with local bands like FurnaceFace, Neanderthal Sponge, Anal Chinook (whose members later went on to form Vice magazine), Black Triangle and Grave Concern. We opened up for Nation of Ulysses, Screeching Weasel, and countless other punk bands. We were the goofy comic relief of the punk scene until we started getting into avant-noise and onstage homoeroticism.

Fraser: The one story that comes to mind right away is at one of the gigs we held in my parents' basement - this was back when I was a fan - and people actually turned up, specifically a handful of really hard-core looking punks.  I was getting a little worried about what I'd gotten myself into, but at one point before the show started I walked past my family's really austere dining room (which featured a large china cabinet and really severe looking portraits of long-dead relatives) and four of them were sitting around the table, discussing vegetarianism and activism.   It was a really friendly night in the end, the band (or, at least, certain elements of the band) got drunker than the crowd. There are more fine recollections available in our autobiography/oral history, which is being marketed at the merch table at our Toronto show...get 'em while you can...
 
What do you guys do when you are not reuniting this band for milestone anniversaries? 

Malcolm: I am a writer, filmmaker and musical entertainer (The World Provider).

Nick: I am a musician here in Toronto. I play with Drumheller, Deep Dark United and many other groups.

Adam: I'm a puppet MC

Fraser: Seems when we're not reuniting, we're planning the next opportunity to reunite
 
Give me an example of some of your “homoerotic stage antics.” I’m not gay. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Adam: A hollowed-out cucumber worn like a condom and then bitten off; a wedgie-off between two portly men in diapers made from the Australian flag as we performed a cover of Men At Work's "Down Under"; real-life brothers kissing brothers.

Malcolm: Two of our members in the early-90s era used to make out and simulate sex onstage, on one memorable occasion incorporating chocolate sauce and peanut butter into the routine. It was quite the scandal for a high-school cafeteria show.

Nick: I put a squeeze bottle of chocolate sauce in my pants and "pissed" the sauce all over the Mighty Moose of Ages, after which he slathered me with peanut butter. I also verbally humiliated him once by making him tell the audience that he was shit. Regular WL audiences know that I haven't completely abandoned those antics, as I did drink my own urine not too long ago.

Was there ever a time when you thought the Permanent Stains were permanently over?

Fraser: Not at all.  A lot of shit comes and goes in this life, but I've never had any doubt that the Permanent Stains will be forever.

Malcolm: Never! The use of the word "permanent" was always intentional.

Nick: Nope.

Adam: No, never, but in the early days we made a radiophonic play about us breaking up because of our conflicting personalities, and how we were all now doing solo projects. The play was interrupted by a news flash that took listeners straight to a press conference announcing a reunion tour. Detractors called it a "publicity stunt".