Hard Core Logo

Dean Reeds is a freelance journalist in St Catharines.

With no fewer than three final Canadian tours to its credit, Hard Core
Logo is coaxed out of a two-year retirement to participate in an
environmental benefit that pays $800 and a supply of soy-beer. The
acoustic reunion limps through Calgary, Regina, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, and
Edmonton until the guitarist is lured away by a fat contract.
Oxenburger, with his $50 bass, needs to get the bad taste of the last
break-up out of his mouth. Pipefitter simply needs to get some cash into
his wallet. Billy Talent feels obligated; besides, he doesn’t want
people to think that he was kicked out of the band. Joe Dick, the lead
singer, motivational force, and van driver, simply needs to be on stage,
even though the act is slowly destroying his hearing and his voice.

Turner stitches together interviews, journal entries, song lyrics,
posters, receipts, and odd photos to portray the chaotic, cynical, and
seedy world of bar bands. The result is variously illuminating, smug,
cynical, and always candid. Hard Core Logo is the paperback equivalent
of a low-budget, grainy, video verité flick that somehow works in the
end.