Nomeansno (sometimes stylized as NoMeansNo or spelled No Means No) was a Canadian punk rock band formed in Victoria, British Columbia, and later relocated to Vancouver. They released 11 albums, including a collaborative album with Jello Biafra, and numerous EPs and singles. Critic Martin Popoff described their music as "the mightiest merger between the hateful aggression of punk and the discipline of heavy metal." Nomeansno's distinct hardcore punk sound, complex instrumentation, math rock, and emo.

Formed in 1979 by brothers Rob and John Wright, they began as a two-piece punk band influenced by jazz and progressive rock. They self-released their debut Mama LP in 1982, added guitarist Andy Kerr the following year, and signed with Alternative Tentacles. Kerr departed in late 1991 after five LPs with the band, and the group returned to its two-piece formation for the Why Do They Call Me Mr. Happy? album.

Guitarist Tom Holliston, and briefly second drummer Ken Kempster, joined in 1993. After three further LPs, they left Alternative Tentacles and issued their final album, All Roads Lead to Ausfahrt, in 2006. The Western Canadian Music Hall of Fame inducted them in 2015, and they retired the following year.

History

Early years as two-piece and Mama (1979–1982)

In 1979 and at age 25, Rob Wright returned to his family's home in Victoria after studying in Calgary. John, Rob's younger brother by eight years, played drums in the school jazz band, and the two were inspired to play punk rock after seeing D.O.A. perform at the University of Victoria. They began rehearsing in their parents' basement, John later reflected on their sound's development:

They self-released the Mama LP in a limited pressing in 1982. Writing for Trouser Press, critic Ira Robbins described Mama and the early 7"s as "Devo on a jazz trip, Motörhead after art school, or Wire on psychotic steroids." John also joined the Victoria punk band the Infamous Scientists. Kerr, the song's lead vocalist, increasingly became responsible for lead vocals as Rob Wright suffered from nodules on his vocal cords.

They signed with seminal punk label Alternative Tentacles, run by Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys. This, along with frequent touring in North America and Europe, helped the band gain a larger audience. In 1988, the group issued two releases recorded with producer Cecil English: The Day Everything Became Nothing EP and the Small Parts Isolated and Destroyed album. Alternative Tentacles compiled the two together on a single CD, The Day Everything Became Isolated and Destroyed. AllMusic reviewer Sean Carruthers called the experimental recordings "less aggressive" than, but nonetheless worthy of, the band's previous efforts.

Wrong, 0 + 2 = 1, and Why Do They Call Me Mr. Happy? (1989–1993)

thumb|The band's logo from [[Wrong (album)|Wrong]]

Rob Wright's vocal cords began to heal, and he resumed acting as lead vocalist. In 1989, they issued their fourth album, Wrong, to wide critical acclaim. critic Martin Popoff in writing for The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal called Wrong the band's best album and rated the album 10 out of 10 points.

Kerr departed after touring in support of the record and emigrated to the Netherlands. He went on to release two LPs with Hissanol, a collaboration with Scott Henderson of Shovlhed. He subsequently released a solo album in 1997 before forming the duo Two Pin Din with Wilf Plum of Dog Faced Hermans in 2005.

The Wright brothers focused on their side project, the Hanson Brothers. Dressing as a group of Canadian ice hockey players and fans, they derived the band's name and personae from characters in the 1977 George Roy Hill film Slap Shot starring Paul Newman. John acted as lead vocalist, and guitarist Tom Holliston of the Showbusiness Giants joined. With encouragement from Alternative Tentacles, The Wrights also released the collection Mr. Right & Mr. Wrong: One Down & Two to Go, comprising early demos, studio outtakes, and additional material.

Worldhood of the World (As Such) and Dance of the Headless Bourgeoisie (1993–1999)

Holliston joined Nomeansno for touring in support of Why Do They Call Me Mr. Happy?, and second drummer Ken Kempster joined later in 1993 to complete their first four-piece lineup. Kempster went on to tour sporadically with Nomeansno over the next four years.

Holliston and Kempster debuted on The Worldhood of the World (As Such), released in 1995. With a title from philosopher Martin Heidegger's Being and Time, the album featured simpler and more melodic songs than its predecessors while nonetheless retaining the band's "taste for blood and gristle." A critic writing for The A.V. Club, however, dismissed the album as "dull, meandering punk" and likened the band pejoratively to Rush.

One and All Roads Lead to Ausfahrt (2000–2006)

thumb|right|The band was a three-piece featuring (from left to right) [[Tom Holliston, John Wright, and Rob Wright in its final two decades.]]

The band issued its final Alternative Tentacles album, One, in 2000. Featuring a slow stoner rock cover of the Ramones's "Beat on the Brat" and a fifteen-minute version of Miles Davis's "Bitches Brew" with electric piano and congas, the album was well received. AllMusic's Schulte assessed the album as "intense and heavy collegiate punk" as praised it as the band's finest effort since Wrong. Three outtakes from the album were also issued as the Generic Shame EP on Wrong.

The band left Alternative Tentacles in 2002, mainly due to concerns about record distribution in Europe where their most devoted fan base lived. They began slowly reissuing their back catalogue through Wrong and distributors Southern Records. With new drummer Ernie Hawkins, the Hanson Brothers released their third album, My Game, later that year. Nomeansno continued touring extensively, but ultimately took six years to release their next album. In the meantime, they issued the best-of compilation The People's Choice.

Their tenth studio album, All Roads Lead to Ausfahrt, was released on August 22, 2006, by AntAcidAudio in the United States and Southern in Europe. AllMusic critic Jo-Ann Greene praised the album's exhausting diversity as befitting of the band's legacy and career-spanning accomplishments. Greene wrote that with the record Nomeansno travel "yet again through the undergrowth and underbelly of the rock realm, and with all the piss and vinegar that they started out with a quarter century ago."

Post-retirement

Wrong was named the public vote winner of the Polaris Heritage Prize at the 2021 Polaris Music Prize. In December 2023, PM Press released the band's authorized biography, NoMeansNo: From Obscurity to Oblivion: An Oral History, written by radio host Jason Lamb. The book features interviews with all five band members, as well as friends, family, fellow musicians, and fans.

In 2023 John Wright's solo project Dead Bob issued the album Life Like and toured in its support with a live band featuring Ford Pier and other musicians.

In 2024, Nomeansno returned to Alternative Tentacles for distribution of their recording, along with remastered editions of Wrong and the 1987 single "Dad/Revenge".

Band members

  • Rob Wright – bass, vocals, guitar (1979–2016)
  • John Wright – drums, vocals, keyboards (1979–2016)
  • Andy Kerr – guitar, vocals, bass (1982–1991)
  • Tom Holliston – guitar, vocals (1993–2016)
  • Ken Kempster – drums (1993–1997)

Timeline

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Discography

Studio albums

  • Mama (1982)
  • Sex Mad (1986)
  • Small Parts Isolated and Destroyed (1988)
  • Wrong (1989)
  • 0 + 2 = 1 (1991)
  • Why Do They Call Me Mr. Happy? (1993)
  • The Worldhood of the World (As Such) (1995)
  • Dance of the Headless Bourgeoisie (1998)
  • One (2000)
  • All Roads Lead to Ausfahrt (2006)

Collaborative albums

  • The Sky Is Falling and I Want My Mommy (with Jello Biafra) (1991)

Live albums

  • Live + Cuddly (1991)

EPs

  • Betrayal, Fear, Anger, Hatred (1981)
  • You Kill Me (1985)
  • The Day Everything Became Nothing (1988)
  • The Power of Positive Thinking (1990)
  • Would We Be Alive? (1996)
  • In the Fishtank 1 (1996)
  • Generic Shame (2001)
  • Tour EP 1 (2010)
  • Tour EP 2 (2010)
  • Butchering The Sacred Cows (2012)

Singles

  • "Look, Here Come the Wormies / SS Social Service" (split with Mass Appeal) (1980)
  • "Dad/Revenge" (1987)
  • "Oh, Canaduh" (1991)

Compilations

  • The Day Everything Became Isolated and Destroyed (1988)
  • Sex Mad/You Kill Me (1991)
  • Mr. Right & Mr. Wrong: One Down & Two to Go (1994)
  • The People's Choice (2004)
  • 0 + 2 = 1 ½ (2010)

Bootlegs

  • Live at the Paradiso Amsterdam – bootleg – VPRO Radio station recording (1988)
  • Live in Warsaw – bootleg cassette (1990)
  • Sasquatch – The Man, The Myth, The Compilation – includes cover tracks "I Don't Care" and "Glad All Over" (1991)
  • Where are they now file - live compilation, includes "I Want it All" (1991)
  • The Infamous Scientist 45" – bootleg 7" (1993)
  • Leave the Seaside – live bootleg 7" (1994)

Compilation appearances

  • It Came from the Pit (1986)
  • Random Thought: A Victoria Sampler (Volumes 1 & 2) – includes, "Getting Colder", "Burn" and "Love Thang" (1986)
  • Oops! Wrong Stereotype (Alternative Tentacles compilation) (1988)
  • Terminal City Ricochet (soundtrack Terminal City Ricochet movie) (1990)
  • Clam Chowder & Ice Vs. Big Macs and Bombers (1992)
  • Virus 100 (a cappella version of Dead Kennedys song, "Forward to Death") (1992)
  • Over a Century of Vivisection and Anti-Vivisection (How Much Longer?) – Includes the 1981 Mama outtake, "No Means No" (1992)
  • The Making of Allied One Two Three (1995)
  • Basement Tapes: A KSPC Compilation of Live Recordings – includes "I Don't Want To Go Down To The Basement" (1995)
  • Short Music for Short People (1999)
  • Sex With Nothing (2002)
  • Fubar: The Album (2002)
  • All Your Ears Can Hear (2007)

Videography

  • Would We Be...Live? (Live footage of Nomeansno and the Hanson Brothers, filmed in London, on DVD) (2004)
  • We Played At Squats (Portrait about Nomeansno and the Hanson Brothers, produced in Austria, on DVD) (2014)

See also

  • List of bands from Canada

References

  • Nomeansno discography