Young Canadians were a Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

 punk rock

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...

 band active for just under two years. The YC's were influenced not only by the other punk bands in town at that time such as D.O.A.

D.O.A. (band)

D.O.A. is a hardcore punk band from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. They are often referred to as the "founders" of hardcore punk, along with Black Flag, Bad Brains, Teen Idles, and Minor Threat. Their second album Hardcore '81 was thought by many to have been the first actual reference to...

 and the Pointed Sticks, but also by the Dolls

New York Dolls

The New York Dolls is an American rock band, formed in New York in 1971. The band's protopunk sound prefigured much of what was to come in the punk rock era; their visual style influenced the look of many new wave and 1980s-era glam metal groups, and they began the local New York scene that later...

, the Stooges

The Stooges

The Stooges are an American rock band from Ann Arbor, Michigan first active from 1967 to 1974, and later reformed in 2003...

, and 1960s garage rock

Garage rock

Garage rock is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in the United States and Canada from about 1963 to 1967. During the 1960s, it was not recognized as a separate music genre and had no specific name...

. Although the band only recorded two EP

Extended play

An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...

s and a single

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

  before breaking up, their single "Hawaii" is one of the classic Canadian punk anthems.

Historically significant (at least to the Vancouver scene) The K-Tels were the first punk band to play the Smilin' Buddha. They also supported the Boomtown Rats

The Boomtown Rats

The Boomtown Rats were an Irish punk rock band that had a series of Irish and UK hits between 1977 and 1985. They were led by vocalist Bob Geldof.-Biography:All six members were originally from Dún Laoghaire, Ireland...

 on a tour across Canada.

Just before the release of Hawaii, they were forced to changed their name when threatened with legal action by the K-Tel

K-tel

K-tel International is an "As-Seen-On-TV" company, which is most noted for its compilation music albums, such as "The Super Hits" series, "The Dynamic Hits" series and "The Number One Hits" series...

 corporation.

The band's leader and songwriter was Art Bergmann

Art Bergmann

Art Bergmann is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter who was one of the key figures in Canadian punk rock in the late 1970s.-Punk bands:...

, who went on to become one of the key figures in Canadian alternative rock

Alternative rock

Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...

 in the 1980s and 1990s. Founding member and bassist Jim Bescott died in an accident in Vancouver on August 31, 2005 at the age of 52.

Their two EPs and single, plus unreleased live tracks, were re-released in 1995 on the album No Escape, with liner notes written by Buck Cherry. Joyride on the Western Front, a live album documenting a 1980 concert at Mabuhay Gardens

Mabuhay Gardens

The Mabuhay Gardens was a San Francisco nightclub located at , on the Broadway strip of North Beach, an area best known for its strip clubs....

, was released in 2001.

Discography

• Hawaii 4-song 12" EP
• "Automan" 3-song 7" single (available only as a bonus single inside the first pressing of Hawaii EP)
• This Is Your Life 4-song 12" EP (produced by Bob Rock
  Bob Rock
  Robert Jens Rock, , is a Canadian musician, sound engineer, and record producer best known for producing bands such as Aerosmith, The Cult, Bon Jovi, Mötley Crüe, 311, Metallica, Our Lady Peace, The Offspring and most recently Bush.-Payola$ and Rock and Hyde:Rock began his music career in Langford,...
  
  )
• No Escape (CD compilation of studio and live tracks)
• Joyride on the Western Front (live concert recording from 1980)

External links

• Sudden Death Records - Publishers of No Escape
• K-Tels at Pacific Northwest Bands site
• Canuckistan Music - review of Hawaii EP
• Canuckistan Music - review of Automan EP