DAN BOUDREAU - Drums
MIKE FEUERSTACK - Vocals
CHRIS FORAN - Guitar
RICK WHITE - Bass

I started my first actual band in 1986 with my best friends Dan and Chris. We were 15 years old and lived all within a block of each other in a mellow neighborhood of Moncton called Lewisville. We were metalheads for the last couple years but were now getting really into hardcore punk and skateboarding. Our band was called T.C.I.B. Chris sang and played guitar, i played guitar too and Dan played the drums. In the summer of 87 we added another friend to the group, his name was Mike and he was a year younger than the rest of us, we all went to the same school and skated together all the time. Mike was energetic, funny and would be the new singer. I pawned my cheap electric guitar and got a bass.

We started rehearsing all the time and writing lots of songs. Our home base was Dan's folks basement which is where we recorded our first nine song cassette demo tape later that summer. Dan had a little Realistic six channel mixer and a bunch of cheap mics, we recorded everything live to cassette through that mixer. We sold copies of the tape to friends and even had some on consignment at a local record store called LeDisque. The songs appear here as tracks 1-8 and the funny improvised acoustic blues closer track 26.

We kept writing tunes and playing in Dan's basement that autumn, even hosting occasional parties down there with 40+ kids jumping around. Much thanks to Dan's parents who actually sat upstairs during all this. Ha. We played one actual gig on Dec. 5th 1987 (my 17th birthday) at the Dieppe boy's and girl's club. On new year's day 1988 we recorded another live session, this time through a powered PA mixer we had rented. Putting down some new songs and a 7seconds cover with the guitar and bass plugged directly into the board, giving a bit of a different sound. Those songs can be heard here as tracks 9-13.

We played some more parties and recorded a bunch more during the winter and spring of 88. We went back to recording with the Realistic mixer but started overdubbing the vocals after the live guitar, bass and drums were done. Sometimes also adding a 2nd guitar or backing vocals. We did this by playing the first cassette through the mixer with Mike singing along and taping it on another cassette deck. This technique made the end result hissy and muddier than before but i've tried to clean it up as much as possible. Some of the best stuff from those sessions is here as tracks 14-20.

The last new song recordings we did with Mike on vocals were done live to cassette in June 1988, Mike was moving to Ottawa at the end of the summer so we had a big party at Dan's and recorded the whole set as well. The three session songs are tracks 21-23 and two live songs from the party are tracks 24-25. Mike's freshly written sing-along "Punk Rocker" and a wild version of "Iron Maiden" we half-learned just for that night.

Thanks for listening, still proud of all these tunes.
Newly remastered in March 2020.
*All songs written by The Underdogs except where noted.