UPDATE 04/06/09: We're still alive and seem to be more active lately.
UPDATE 11/11/08: We alive!
Back in 2001, Kevin Cherney and brothers Dan and Zack Poole picked up every forgotten pawn shop keyboard they could get their hands on, and became the All Purpose Voltage Heroes. Dan hopped on the mic and pinned down a sampler, Kevin and Zack grabbed the keyboards, and drummer Connor Mayer was brought in to fill out the rhythm. There were no guitars and no turning back.
The music is all their own. It's pop tinged, rock styled, rap touched, dance minded, and punk sprited. It has made constant appearances on campus radio across Canada, peaking at a number far to small to count on the Earshot-Online charts in 2004.
Their first album, Decorate Your Monster Shirt, was made with fifty dollars and Dan's limited recording knowledge. It's raw and confrontational, yet was surprisingly embraced by the people. There's another one, The End Of Daniel Johnathan Poole, and it's a little different. It's a damaged pop album, a tiny epic. It's a record of the APVH finding their sound. The new EP is called "Already Haunted". It's the band's strongest and most shortest release to date. There's five songs, with the fifth being a cover of the music from classic Nintendo game "Mike Tyson's Punch Out".
The live shows, with costumes, stage props, theatrics and the like, are an integral part of the APVH experience. It's all energy, all the time. Legend says they once performed in pink pants, rocked shirtless with lighting bolts scrawled across their skinny chests, turned the stage into a breakfast nook, beat up fake versions of themselves, transformed a record store into a tropical island in the dead of winter, and lead the crowd to victory as a soccer team.
On the strength of these live shows, All Purpose Voltage Heroes have been invited to share the stage with bands like Metric, The Unicorns, The Hidden Cameras, Feist, Little Wings, P:ano, Aids Wolf, The Doers, Run Chico Run, Name Drop, Name Drop, and Name Drop. In January of 2005 they taped two songs for CBC's "ZeD" program, which if they had the ability to travel back in time and make it happen, should be aired at the start of the 2005-2006 season. They do not have this ability.
The Already Haunted EP is available on CD from Rectangle Records (distributed by Maple Nationwide / Universal), and on screenprinted 12" vinyl from Reluctant Recordings. (Distributed by Scratch)
To purchase Already Haunted on CD from Rectangle Records, click this button:
Photos of the CD and Vinyl:
http://www.allpurposevoltageheroes.com/apvh1.jpg
http://www.allpurposevoltageheroes.com/haunted1.jpg
