Artist: The Doughboys, Album: Crush, Song: Shine

"Dull and dark is how I feel and to shine would be unreal but it's really no big deal."  The Doughboys were a rock band from Montreal.  They formed in 1987 by John Kastner, following his departure from another punk band called, The Asexuals (see blog 11/18/10).  The band toiled through the indie ranks in Canada releasing 3 full lengths and 2 EPs before their major label breakthrough in 1993.  The band received a lot of critical acclaim for their earlier releases and toured the U.S. and Canada during those years.  However, they were signed to a small label out of Los Angeles called, Restless Records, and their albums were very hard to find.  In 1993, they blasted onto the scene with their major label debut, Crush, with A&M Records.  To most Canadians, this was the first time they had heard the Doughboys and their new polished power pop sound.  Their lead single, Shine, was huge and it propelled the album to gold status in Canada.  They were nominated for Best Hard Rock Album Of The Year at the Junos, alongside Rush, Wild T (see blog 4/18/11) and the Tea Party but lost out to I Mother Earth that year.  They would go on to release one more album in 1996 before calling it quits.  The line up for this album was John Kastner, John Cummins, Paul Newman and Peter Arsenault.  Kastner would go on to record a solo album as well as form a new band called, All Systems Go! with Arsenault.  Cummins would form the band Bionic which included Ian Blurton (see blogs 11/22/10, 6/30/11).  One sad fact about this pivotal album is how rare it has become.  They've restored all their indie releases for download on Itunes but Crush remains absent.  At the time of this blog, there were copies of the album trading on Amazon and Ebay between $5 and $50.  A bit of good news is that the band has decided to reform to play some shows in Toronto and Montreal as the supporting act for the Foo Fighters.  You can hear the song, Shine, on You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0nxKH0ZJ_8).  Thanks for reading and enjoy!