Halloween Treat #3: Montreal’s 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