With these “tracks of the day” I have many, many drafts of articles half-written as thoughts on various songs float into my mind and I jot them down. I then fill out the wording, then finish them up one by one over periods and stagger them out into the world on in this very space that you’re reading. However, the posting of this band, Sparkmarker — which was on this aforementioned shortlist — is a bit more poignant due to the recent passing away of long-time Vancouver scene veteran Kim Kinakin, who was the guitarist and then following that, guitarist/lead vocalist for this legendary Vancouver hardcore/post-hardcore band.
This loss is one that will be felt by many friends and people active in the scene that grew up in the punk and hardcore scenes happening in Vancouver and Victoria (or western Canada in general) at the time. Anyone in my general age group that came to grow into the this thriving scene in the early to mid 90s likely would have had some impact by Sparkmarker. The band members themselves emerged out of the 80s hardcore scene, where the music itself started moving into slower, mid-tempo rhythms and arguably with a latent influence of what is likely some of the original heavy metal they were also raised on from that decade. This was a style common with bands associated with “straight edge” hardcore at the time, with labels such as Victory Records or Revelation Records bringing forth releases of a lot of bands in this style.
However, to me at least — and an opinion likely held by many others — the music may have come across aggressive and “macho” to the uninitiated with that scene but the band themselves were far more liberal, progressive, community-oriented and championed a lot of causes at the time that were often not talked about: sexism, AIDs, queer-positivity (two of the members I believe, including Kinakin, were queer) and observations on male culture and politics. If anything the band under the surface had far more artistic leanings, especially in the subject matter of the lyrics of their songs. The band’s original vocalist Ryan Scott (who left the band in 1994 I think) penned some colourful, vivid and somewhat abstract lyrics, often pulling in clever observations of the capitalist landscape around him in a delivery that was emotionally powerful yet with moments of frailty as well — an approach that Kinakin took up when he took over lead vocal duties after Scott’s departure.
As I was still living in a small Vancouver Island town as a teenager, many bands such as Sparkmarker didn’t really pass through, so my initial introduction to them was through their Products And Accessories album in early 1994 — probably recommended to me by someone I knew in the “scene” I was emersing myself into at the time. This release is technically an album but also in ways a compilation album, as many of the tracks on the album were previously pressed in the preceeding 2-3 years on various 7″ vinyl releases, on a myriad of “tuned in” underground DIY labels at the time. These include Atomos as well as Scallen (see “Speaking Of Heroes” further down), which is named after the legendary Canadian DIY punk/hardcore photographer and documentarian, Shawn Scallen.
Although the band was popular in Canada, it made its most successful inroads throughout the USA, touring the country heavily in the 90s and pairing up with friends and like-minded artists including Quicksand, Undertow, Botch, Unbroken and more.
Listening to this album on occasion even in more recent years, the album’s opener, “Levi’s Deklein”, is one that makes an impression, and surely to a younger version of me that first listened to this record. Opening with what might be called a “false ending” going from F to a rung out E power chord that degenerates into some tasteful harmonic feedback, the track then becomes minimal and quiet — almost from a different recording — where the track’s main guitar passage sounds like it’s being recorded on an unplugged electric guitar from the other side of a bedroom or something. It then busts back in with that same passage in full power, where Ryan Scott’s vocal delivery comes to its full powerful display. This passage of the song then gives that feeling of the tide being pulled out before a bit wave comes in — when the full energy and rhythm of the track is finally released a couple of minutes in.
Even years later this is a great choice of an opener, with some of band’s more popular tracks such a “Sleeping With The TV On”, “Speaking Of Heroes” and “The Way She Moves” added into a consecutive, continual tracklist of amazing post-hardcore tracks. The album itself — and likely the preceding singles released previously that comprise it — were recorded by New York producer-to-the-hardcore-scene Don Fury. From what I know most of Sparkmarker‘s recordings done there were done in midst of North American tours that brought them to and from NYC.
And the album — at least the original CD — has a hidden track after the music ends, and kicks in after some period of silence. It’s spoken word, and is either written passages by Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan read by the man himself, or read by someone else. At the time I found it a bit chilling yet seductive, especially as the last word of this segment — the word “brainwashing” — was ramped up in volume with the audio suddenly concluding.
The Products And Accessories CD — original released on Kinakin’s label Final Notice Records in 1994 — was out of print for a long time I believe before it was given the full re-issue treatment on the popular US hardcore label Indecision Records in 2017 in both the original CD as well as a proper 2xLP format. The artwork for this release was done by Kinakin — a graphic designer by trade — featuring art by Vancouver-based artist Ken Gerberick, who passed away in 2021.
At that time I had some re-connection with Kinakin, as he approached me about my thoughts on the record in a series of social media posts from fellow musicians and fans about how the original release had impact on them back in the 1990s, to which I wrote the below. I had sporadic interactions with Kinakin online over the years after leaving Vancouver, but unfortunately with moving halfway around the world almost twenty years ago, the gaps of distance, culture, physical location and the changing of people over time made it more difficult to keep close ties to Vancouver as I would have envisioned in a more “perfect world” I suppose.
Following Products And Accessories, the band continued releasing material on labels such as the famous Seattle-based Sub Pop Records and Revelation Records, including a compilation of odds and ends called Treasure Chest in 1999 when the band was closing up shop so to speak.
Products And Accessories is still available through Indecision Records, but for a mildly curious you can also check out the digital version and previews on Sparkmarker‘s own BandCamp account below, along with a few other key tracks from the band and a video clip from the Vancouver punk/hardcore archival Instagram account Flex Your History when the band was featured on Canada’s music channel MuchMusic back in the 1990s.
As a final note, another connection with this band that I had was that drummer Rob Zgaljic from Sparkmarker had a brief tenure as the drummer for my old band Radio Berlin back in the early 2000s. He still plays today with the Vancouver-based post-punk group Red Vienna.
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