Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Tyranna



Existing during the Second Wave of the Toronto punk rock scene, Tyranna (female for "Tyrant", although it sounds close enough to "Torranna", which , aparently was the Hogtown pronunciation for Toronto) lasted for about 19 months, between June of 1978 to January, 1980.  Vera Skye (a.k.a. Rabies) gathered all the musicians and wrote all the lyrics.  Through a rotating cast of musicians, Vera Rabies was the one constant.  Other members included John Ziegler and Dave Porter on guitars and drums, respectively in 1978; guitarist Ron Partridge, Gerry "Johnny Bubblegum" Smith on bass, and drummer Cleave Anderson who had just left the Battered Wives


Because two members went by the "Johnny" moniker, it's thought that Rabies might have been singing about them.  Naturally, it created some friction/paranoia among the band. 

Unfortunately, that's all I know. 

By the way, the song "Back Off Baby" appeared on a compilation called "No Pedestrians", a contemporary history of the Toronto punk rock scene.  IF ANYONE HAS THIS, PLEASE MP3 IT FOR ME AND I'LL POST IT UP HERE! 

Thanks! 

Tyranna - Back Off Baby (1980):

1TyrannaBack Off Baby2:23






2TyrannaShock Face0:40






3TyrannaJohnny2:44






4TyrannaRevenge3:19






5TyrannaNeighbour2:32








2 comments:

John "the uprise" Kedini said...

thank you for posting this album, 'am currently trying to find us much as i can about all old-school canadian punk. if you you can help me hit me up on the_uprise@hotmail.com

MIDNIGHT RAMBLER said...

Thanks for the hard work ! An awesome place !
It seems that the link is dead for this post... if you have some time to re-up ...