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FEATURE
Canada’s KILLER DWARFS “Stand Tall” Again! by Tom Lounges
That was just a few
years after MTV began forsaking the hard rock audience that had made the
music video network successful and began embracing the hip-hop
generation. American head-bangers
here in the Midwest will delight in knowing that the original four lads
who encompassed the band’s “classic” line-up are soon to be
sneaking across our Northern border for a three week run through a
handful heartland cities. A welcome, if unlikely
stop, for such a long-awaited and stifling short tour is South
Haven/Valparaiso, where the Dwarfs will pull out their “Dirty Weapons” and “Stand
Tall” at the two-level rock club, McCool’s.
Old school hard rock fans should have instantly recognized those
two song titles as being among the Killer Dwarfs most successful works,
along with “Big Deal” and “Hard
Luck Town.” Add to that list such
lesser known, but equally strong numbers as –– “Believe In Me” and “Union
Of Pride” –– and you have about a third of the set list that
the reunited band will be performing at McCool’s on September 19. “We’ve
got a new live CD and live DVD,” said vocalist Russ
“Dwarf” Graham during a call from his Canadian goat farm… Goat farm?
“Well, rock ‘n’ roll sure doesn’t pay the bills very well
now does it,” he laughs. Though
he loves moonlighting as a rock star, Graham’s goat farm is actually
one of the country’s leading exporters of goat’s milk products. While that’s
certainly nothing to “baaah” about, presently the singer is
“udderly” thrilled about “milking” the renewed interest in his
newly resurrected band. He is pumped up about pushing not only the new
live product, but getting tape rolling on what will be their first new
studio album in a dozen years.
“This tour is pretty short, because we’re really just testing
the waters a bit,” he said. “We’re
just wanting to reestablish ourselves, and we’ve always done very well
in your Midwest states in the past.”
Graham said that a lot of offers are starting to come in from all
over the world now that word is out about The Dwarfs really being back
in action. He expects the
band will return for a much larger, grander and all encompassing U.S.
tour once the new studio album is wrapped up and released next Spring,
followed by Europe and Japan dates.
Graham and drummer Darrell
“Dwarf” Millar formed the band in 1981 and released a
self-titled LP in 1983. The band’s lucky
break came when the late
San Antonio disc jockey, Joe Anthony took a shine to the group’s music
and started spinning them regularly. “One
of the most amazing moments for me, was on our first tour of the United
States [1986]. I’ll never forget the feeling when we stepped out on
stage in Texas and all those people were out there to greet us and they
knew our songs,” said Graham. “We were still playing little clubs
back in Canada at the time, and there we were in Texas, feeling like we
were the Rolling Stones or something...” Soon after that,
musical Dwarfism spread throughout the South.
Meeting the demands of the road and their growing success, meant
a line-up transfusion. Guitarist Mike
“Dwarf” Hall and bassist Ronald
“Bad Ronbo Dwarf” Mayer stepped in as full time members at that
point. That is the
“classic” line-up that recorded and released their 1986 breakthrough
album, Stand
Tall, via U.S. indie imprint, Grudge Records. It is that line-up that is currently back on tour and coming
to McCool’s. Radio jumped hard on
that album. The video for “Keep
The Spirit Alive,” became an MTV staple. Soon the Dwarfs were
opening for the likes of
Saxon and Accept. Epic Records – excited by the buzz being
made by this quartet of rather short Canucks (hence their name) –
wooed them away from Grudge and released their successful 1988 album, Big Deal.
That album spawned a huge hit single and video with the song,
“We Stand Alone.” That hit landed them
on the British leg of the Iron Maiden “Seventh
Son” tour, which included dates at the prestigious Wembley Arena
and Hammersmith Odeon in London. After recording their 1990 LP, Dirty Weapons, with renown
producer Andy Johns (The
Stones, Zeppelin, Rod Stewart), the musical tides began to shift. A second album --
1992’s Methods To The Madness -- was recorded and released with Johns
again at the console. The
songs “Hard Luck Town” and
“Driftin’ Back” were
embraced by radio and landed them on tours with Pantera and Skid Row. But the writing was on the wall by then,
as Nirvana and the angst-riddled Seattle consortium were pushing anyone
not like them off the charts and out of the fickle media. In 1995, the Dwarfs
gave up the ghost in front of a hometown Toronto crowd and all members
went their own way. When three of Dwarfs
albums were re-released and enjoyed brisk sales -- Killer Dwarfs, Big Deal
and Dirty
Weapons -- the four key Dwarfs got back together in 2001. After
what had been a six year hiatus, they set out to record the live album
their fans had often requested and never gotten. What better place to
roll tape for such a project than in one’s hometown. Toronto, where
they had bid farewell, became the scene of the Dwarfs rebirth. Along with the CD, the band has given their fans a companion
DVD of the performance as well. Both
are titled, Reunion of Scribes: Live 2001. “It
really feels good again for all of us,” concluded Graham.
“We’re having fun and are happy to discover so many people as
excited about hearing us play our music again as we are to be playing it
again.” KILLER DWARFS perform live on SEPTEMBER 19 @ McCool’s in South Haven, Indiana
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It’s
been over a decade since the Canadian hard rock band, Killer
Dwarfs have set foot on U.S. soil.