1 of 2 2 of 2 Get the best of Vancouver in your inbox, every Tuesday and Thursday. Sign up for our free newsletter . Thanks to a chapter that started with an unlikely cult following in Japan, the story has become an inspirational and enduring one that we’re lucky to call our own.
Back in the beginning—long before Green Day, NOFX, or A Simple Plan—Vancouver's first-wave punk scene was as vibrant as any city’s in North America. You want an embarrassment of riches? Start with D.O.
A, the Subhumans, and Modernettes, all responsible for records ( Disco Sucks , Incorrect Thoughts , Teen City) that today sound as fresh and revolutionary today as they did upon their release. Right there on the front lines? That would be Pointed Sticks, the band that a young Nardwuar the Human Serviette was nothing short of obsessed with. The band was responsible for some of the greatest singles— “Somebody’s Mom”, “Out of Luck”, “The Real Thing”, “The Marching Song”—this one-time coastal backwater has ever seen.
The band was the first to attract attention from a cooler-than-fuck record label—Stiff Records—not named Zulu, Friends, or Mo-Da-Mu. From the late ’70s to the early ’80s, Pointed Sticks were gods if you were into underground music on the West Coast—the kind of rock stars (or anti rock stars) you couldn’t believe you just saw on the bus, coming out of the Manhattan Apartments on Robson, or hanging out at Baghead in Gastown. Then, after the release of one.