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The Dundrells
Nothing on TV / Still, I Run - 7"
Nasty - 1986
Michael Panontin
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The Dundrells were probably Toronto's ultimate garage-rock band in their day. They formed as far back as 1983 as the Living End, eventually solidifying as a four-piece, with singer Garry Welsh fronting Ashley Thomas (guitar), Richard Higham (bass) and Terry Kelly (drums). The guys were regulars at that cramped mid-eighties shrine, the Cabana Room (in The Spadina Hotel), plying their tunes with equal parts verve, wit and humour.
The Dundrells fired their first salvo in 1985. The 11-song The Dundrells cassette was produced and engineered by neophyte Peter Hudson and would serve to net the group a bit of much-needed attention around town. Hudson had met the gang through Vortex Records owner Bert Myers, and it was Myers who first suggested that he record them. "I was already familiar with the band," Hudson told CM, "but Bert thought I would be a good fit to record them in my basement studio, which was underneath a beauty salon in the Credit Woodlands neighbourhood of Mississauga."
One thing led to another. Or as Hudson tells it, "One of the nights turned into a bit of a party where I also played guitar and we all seemed to get along. Next thing I knew..." And so, with Hudson added on second guitar, the Dundrells went on a marathon songwriting spree, pumping out twenty-odd songs in a relatively short period of time. After Hudson had relocated his studio to Hallam Street in Toronto's west end, the group decided that it was time for a proper piece of seven-inch wax. The result, the gloriously amateurish 'Nothing on TV', would become one of the classic Canrock singles of the decade.
"'Nothing on TV' was written about a then-friend of mine whose life revolved around TV...no big reveal there," Hudson explained. "It was written pretty fast and I am pretty sure we rehearsed it and basically finished the song at that evening's practice. From that point, it never changed. We recorded both songs in one evening and sent it out for manufacturing a few days later. It came back and we assembled it with the yellow covers in my kitchen and ended up selling a lot of them."
These days 'Nothing on TV' is a criminally forgotten record, with copies floating around Toronto record bins for under ten bucks. A shame, really, as the song has all the ingredients of an enduring classic. I mean, with those sloppy guitars, crashing drums and that whiny chorus of "There's nothing on TV / Would you rather be with me?", Television Personalities would definitely have been proud.
If anything, 'Nothing on TV' kept the Dundrells busy for the next couple of years. They added a sixth to the fold, saxophonist Andy Thorndyke, shortly after the record's release. They managed to land a song ('Mr. Nasty') on the swell Og compilation It Came from Canada Vol. 2 and even scored a few high-profile gigs along the way with the likes of the Chesterfield Kings, the Fleshtones and the Replacements. And then there were the numerous nights with Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, especially upstairs in The Cabana Room. "I think we were probably the quintessential Cabana Room band. I cannot count the number of times that the Dundrells played there, but it was home ice and [booking manager] Jimmy Scopes looked after us. It didn't take much to fill the place, so almost every show there was a hot sweaty mess."
They followed up with a second seven-inch ('Sock It to Me' b/w 'Black and Blue') in 1987, as well as a choice slot on CityTV's Toronto Rocks program the following spring (where "we wore hockey sweaters on a steamy June day"). But by then it was pretty well all academic as the Dundrells played their final show just five days later on June 11, 1988 at the Rivoli.
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