The Buttless Chaps were a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 indie rock

Indie rock

Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...

 band formed in 1998 from Victoria

Victoria, British Columbia

Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...

, British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. The group played a hybrid of punk

Punk rock

Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

, new wave

New Wave music

New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...

 and alternative country

Alternative country

Alternative country is a loosely defined sub-genre of country music, which includes acts that differ significantly in style from mainstream or pop country music...

 music.

History

Band members included Dave Gowans on vocals, guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

 and banjo

Banjo

In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...

, Morgan McDonald on keyboards, Lasse Lutick on guitar and synthesizer

Synthesizer

A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...

, Torben Wilson on drum

Drum

The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...

s and Ida Nilsen

Ida Nilsen

Ida Nilsen is a Canadian indie pop singer-songwriter and musician. She has been a member of the bands Radiogram, The Violet Archers, The Beans, The Gay, The Buttless Chaps and The Choir Practice, and has appeared as a guest musician on albums by P:ano, Jerk With a Bomb, Montag and Veda Hille.She...

 on vocals, accordion

Accordion

The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....

, synthesizer and euphonium

Euphonium

The euphonium is a conical-bore, tenor-voiced brass instrument. It derives its name from the Greek word euphonos, meaning "well-sounding" or "sweet-voiced"...

.

They were featured on CBC Radio 3

CBC Radio 3

CBC Radio 3 is a radio station that consists of two parts devoted to Canadian arts and music: a radio service which is available on Sirius Satellite Radio and streaming audio, and several daily and weekly podcasts from the CBC Radio 3 website...

's Sessions

CBC Radio 3 Sessions

CBC Radio 3 Sessions is a Canadian radio program, which airs on the satellite radio network CBC Radio 3. Hosted by Tariq Hussain, the program airs in-studio sessions by Canadian musicians in the Radio 3 studios, including both live song performances and interview segments...

in June 2007.

In an interview on CBC Radio 3 on January 7, 2009, Dave Gowans announced that the band would be breaking up after completing their remaining touring commitments. The band members moved on to other projects: McDonald on his band Fond of Tigers

Fond of Tigers

Fond of Tigers is a seven-piece instrumental band from Vancouver, British Columbia. The group began in 2000 as a solo project of guitarist Stephen Lyons, and became a full band in 2003. An article states that "the origins of Fond of Tigers' process lies in the group's beginnings. After the demise...

, Nilsen on Great Aunt Ida and The Violet Archers

The Violet Archers

The Violet Archers is a Canadian indie pop band. Led by former Rheostatics bassist Tim Vesely, the band consists of Vesely on vocals, Yawd Sylvester on guitar, drummer Camille Giroux, bassist Scott Remila, Ida Nilsen on piano...

, and Gowans on Cloudsplitter. Today, Gowans and Lutick also own and operate Red Cat Records, a record store in Vancouver.

Discography

• The Buttless Chaps (1998)
• Tumblewire (1999)
• Death Country Live (2000)
• Death Scenes I II III (2001)
• Experiments (2002)
• Love This Time (2003)
• Where Night Holds Light (2006)
• Cartography (2008)

See also

• Canadian rock
  Canadian rock
  Canadian rock describes a wide and diverse variety of music produced by Canadians, beginning with American style rock 'n' roll in the mid-20th century. Since then Canada has had a considerable impact on the development of the modern popular music called rock...
  
  
• List of bands from Canada
• List of Canadian musicians
• :Category:Canadian musical groups

External links

• The Buttless Chaps at CBC radio 3