A really great girl named Dezaray used to live in our basement apartment. One day she asked my wife and I if we wanted to go see her brother’s band play. I was thinking, you’ve lived in my house for three years and never told me you had a brother who was a musician? Gee, you think you know a person. It turned out her brother was the singer for a band called The 3 Tards. The show was really good and her brother John seemed like a cool guy. I became friends with him, (at least on facebook) and was entertained daily by his photos, comments and politically incorrect status posts. I loved how active he was on facebook-that seems to be the point. (I mean, what is it with some people? You’re too cool to post your status but clearly not too cool to BE on facebook)?

When we were looking for bands for the second round of Master Tracks, I suggested The 3 Tards, knowing they might be a bit of a wild card. Most people don’t know that I began my musical career in the punk/new wave world opening for bands like DOA, The Subhumans and The Modernettes. The day we did pre production for Punk Rock Girl, John and the boys picked me up in their road warrior and, as we left Toronto for some distant suburb I thought about some of the sketchy punk band houses I used to go to back in the day and wondered what I was getting myself into. I hope I’m not blowing their image when I say, The 3 Tards were one of the nicest, most professional groups we had on the show. They also ate more than any other band this season, practically blowing the craft budget for the week. That’s all right; it takes a lot of fuel to get a rocket like The 3 Tards off the launching pad. As of this writing, I haven’t seen this episode but I’m fairly confident it will be uniquely awesome. The band knew why they were at Metalworks that day and what to do when they got there. They embody a spirit of rock and roll and show business that you don’t see much of these days. So, thanks Dez for introducing me to your brother and I hope everyone enjoys the show.