Halloween Treat #3: Montreal’s Condition

condition

Here’s a band that is so fantastically creepy, they made one of my high school girlfriends cry tears of horror when I played it for her one dark and stormy night. Back to her safety net of Richard Marx, she went, but not before telling everyone I was a Satan worshipper.

The band in question was Condition, Montreal masters of ghoulish psychobilly, horror hops and creepy dance jives. Montreal in the 90s and especially the 80s was well known for its garage and psychobilly scenes, and for some reason Condition never really stood out, at least not to my knowledge, something I fail to understand given their amazing material and, of course, singer. To this day, I have rarely met anyone in Montreal who has heard of them. They recorded three albums throughout their career, all very hard to find, and the album featured here is “Swamp Walk”, their 3rd and last one.

There is no doubt that Julia Gilmore, lead singer, was the main force behind the band. Her voice was unique and her vocal techniques hinted towards Jazz more than pop. She moved to Montreal in the 80s from New Hampshire to study art at Concordia University, and today is an accomplished painter. Other band members were Slim Lanthier and Vinny Vezina.

I first saw Condition on television at the age of 15 or 16, when I lived with my parents in St-Clin-Clin des Moeux-Moeux, PQ. My very impressionable young self was suddenly glued to my television set as I saw a creepy but beautiful Julia Gilmore sing the dramatic and, let’s face it, scary as fuck Beat my Daddy to the Grave on primetime Quebec TV, a surreal moment if there ever was one. If I remember correctly, she wore a thorned vintage dress and had fake blood dripping from her mouth as she sang.

Condition were my first taste of Montreal’s bubbling underground scene and later when I got my first radio show on CISM, I played the living daylights out of this record (which I’m sure you can tell from the very used record cover in the above photo). The album even appealed to my mother, who enjoyed their covers of “Runaway” and “Caravan”. Despite the dark undertones, some of these tracks are simply gorgeous, such as Ghost Train or the title track Swamp Walk. The album was recorded at Beat Studio, in Berlin.

For those of you who would like to discover more forgotten Montréal/Québec underground music, I would urge you to visit my friend Sébastien’s wonderful blog “Patrimoine PQ” for his series on forgotten Québec underground music.

Happy Halloween, kiddies!

Condition – Beat my Daddy to the Grave
Condition – Ghost Train
Condition – Swamp Walk
Condition – Bop or Drop




8 Responses to “Halloween Treat #3: Montreal’s Condition”

  1. S.ébastien  on November 1st, 2009

    Bravo Mimi pour cet article! On a de nouveaux chouchous de l’underground-a-billy!!! Une belle découverte en ce qui me concerne; ce duo a bon look!

    Merci pour le lien. ; p

  2. iheartneon  on November 2nd, 2009

    Ah! you can’t beat a good bit of psychobilly! Were there any psychobilly groups that sung in French? now that I’d like to hear…

    merci
    Dom (lamourelectronique.blogspot.com)

  3. Melee  on November 4th, 2009

    Wow… I thought I would be unpleasantly creeped out but actually I was quite pleasantly creeped! Her voice is very expressive, I like it!

  4. de2nys  on November 10th, 2009

    bin mieux que kiss / a far shot from kiss

  5. Catlies  on November 10th, 2009

    i hope that you weren’t talking about me… because i don’t remember this and i surely don’t remember calling you Satan Woreshipper…..!!

  6. Hodkin  on December 8th, 2009

    Bonsoir,
    Je suis très heureux de constater que Condition ne soit pas totalement tombé dans l’oubli. Je les avais découverts à Musique Plus grâce aux bons soins de Claude Rajotte et le clip de Beat My Daddy to the grave m’avait plus sur-le-champ. Je m’étais alors procuré leur 3e album, Swamp Walk, édité en disque compact chez C’est la mort records, une étiquette louisianaise. Je les ai ensuite vus à trois reprises sur scène et Julia Gilmore avait de quoi impressionner. Grâce à l’un des membres de Cha Cha and the chang gang, je suis entré en contact avec le batteur de Condition et j’ai été invité chez lui pour me procurer le premier disque, Mumbo Jumbo. Je garde un bon souvenir de cette rencontre. Ensuite, le groupe a enregistré un 4e album en 1993 sous le nom de The Pallbearers, Phantom Pain. C’est un excellent disque réalisé par Peter Moore (The cowboy junkies). J’ai assisté au lancement durant l’hiver 1994 et nous étions à peine dix personnes au Café Campus dont un type qui agaçait tellement Julia Gilmore qu’elle a préféré mettre un terme à sa prestation après 4 chansons seulement. Je vous encourage fortement à vous procurer les 4 albums: Condition (The Pallbearers)était un groupe avant-gardiste qui aurait eu un bien meilleur accueil s’il était apparu 10 ou 15 ans plus tard. Durant les années 1980, il avait même assuré la première partie du groupe Les Négresses Vertes au Spectrum de Montréal. David Lynch, s’il le connaissait, choisirait fort probablement quelques chansons pour ponctuer l’un de ses films.
    Merci et à bientôt.
    Alan H.

  7. mimi  on December 8th, 2009

    Merci Alan, pour votre commentaire, ça me fait très plaisir. Surtout que je ne savais pas qu’il y avait un vidéo pour Beat my Daddy to the Grave! Je ne savais pas non plus que Pallbearers était le même groupe!

    Alors merci, et Joyeuses Fêtes à vous!

    Mimi la twisteuse

  8. dblplus  on December 29th, 2009

    Wow! I love Condition but only knew Swamp Walk, never knew they had two prior albums. Can you post info on them? I knew of this album from C’est La Mort records in Louisiana; they licensed it for release here in US. It was a label that kind of mirrored 4AD in aesthetics and mood. I love love love this record and just pulled the CD off the shelf today to play and share.

    Thanks and what a great blog!


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