A tour of activist resistance culture organized by Jean Smith of the band Mecca Normal, which set out to "spread the word of how to combine poetry, music and politics and have a fun time doing it."
The Black Wedge was an anti-authoritarian response to Britain's earlier Red Wedge, and began on the West Coast in 1986 before continuing across Canada in 1987. The performers included Vancouver's Mecca Normal, San Francisco's Peter Plate, Montreal's Rhythm Activism and Toronto artists Bryan James and Mourning Sickness.
To learn more, read this excerpt from Smith's essay "The Black Wedge Tours: Take Something You Care About and Make it Your Life," in Sounding Off — Music as Resistance / Rebellion / Revolution, eds. Ron Sakolsky and Fred Ho, (New York: Autonomedia, 1996).
A tour of activist resistance culture organized by Jean Smith of the band Mecca Normal, which set out to "spread the word of how to combine poetry, music and politics and have a fun time doing it."
The Black Wedge was an anti-authoritarian response to Britain's earlier Red Wedge, and began on the West Coast in 1986 before continuing across Canada in 1987. The performers included Vancouver's Mecca Normal, San Francisco's Peter Plate, Montreal's Rhythm Activism and Toronto artists Bryan James and Mourning Sickness.
To learn more, read this excerpt from Smith's essay "The Black Wedge Tours: Take Something You Care About and Make it Your Life," in Sounding Off — Music as Resistance / Rebellion / Revolution, eds. Ron Sakolsky and Fred Ho, (New York: Autonomedia, 1996).
The Black Wedge tour was an anti-authoritarian response to Britain's earlier Red Wedge, and began on the West Coast in 1986 before continuing across Canada in 1987. The performers included Vancouver's Mecca Normal, San Francisco's Peter Plate, Montreal's Rhythm Activism and Toronto artists Bryan James and Mourning Sickness.
To learn more, read this excerpt from Smith's essay "The Black Wedge Tours: Take Something You Care About and Make it Your Life," in Sounding Off — Music as Resistance / Rebellion / Revolution, eds. Ron Sakolsky and Fred Ho, (New York: Autonomedia, 1996).
]]>Mecca Normal, Mourning Sickness and Bryan James show at the Rivoli. This was a partial reunion of the Black Wedge tour lineup from the previous year.
The Black Wedge tour was an anti-authoritarian response to Britain's earlier Red Wedge, and began on the West Coast in 1986 before continuing across Canada in 1987. The performers included Vancouver's Mecca Normal, San Francisco's Peter Plate, Montreal's Rhythm Activism and Toronto artists Bryan James and Mourning Sickness.
To learn more, read this excerpt from Smith's essay "The Black Wedge Tours: Take Something You Care About and Make it Your Life," in Sounding Off — Music as Resistance / Rebellion / Revolution, eds. Ron Sakolsky and Fred Ho, (New York: Autonomedia, 1996).
Hardcore ran as part of the 1990 Toronto Fringe Festival and featured excerpts from Gwendolyn's films Prowling by Night and Out of the Blue.
Cover drawing by Mary Anne.
The video for "Strong White Male" was shot by David Lester during the 1987 Black Wedge tour. The song appears on Mecca Normal's 7" single Oh Yes You Can!, which was released on K Records in 1987.
The Black Wedge was a tour of activist resistance culture organized by Jean Smith, which set out to "spread the word of how to combine poetry, music and politics and have a fun time doing it."
The tour was an anti-authoritarian response to Britain's earlier Red Wedge, and began on the West Coast in 1986 before continuing across Canada in 1987. The performers included Vancouver's Mecca Normal, San Francisco's Peter Plate, Montreal's Rhythm Activism and Toronto artists Bryan James and Mourning Sickness.
To learn more, read this excerpt from Smith's essay "The Black Wedge Tours: Take Something You Care About and Make it Your Life," in Sounding Off — Music as Resistance / Rebellion / Revolution, eds. Ron Sakolsky and Fred Ho, (New York: Autonomedia, 1996).
The C.I.A. Tapes was recorded live at the Fallout Shelter and Ildiko's, and features poetry and musical performances by Dick Lucas (of the Subhumans), Mecca Normal, Nick Toczek, Rhythm Activism and Mourning Sickness.
The Fallout Shelter recordings are from the Toronto postscript to the Black Wedge tour on September 5, 1987.
The Fallout Shelter was a "nuclear free" performance space and coffee house run by the peace organization A.C.T. for Disarmament on Harbord Street.
The Black Wedge was a tour of activist resistance culture organized by Jean Smith of the band Mecca Normal, which set out to "spread the word of how to combine poetry, music and politics and have a fun time doing it."
The liner notes for the cassette include the following dedication:
"This tape is dedicated to all exceptionally oppressed people, but particularly to those whose entire lifestyle is being destroyed... Romany, Amerindian, Aborigine, and all other proud tribal people whose culture won't readily bow down before the all-consuming gods of western 'civilization,' social 'progress' and cash-culture."