Written by: Dave Cantrell

The indefatigable Andy Meyers is not one to let a legacy lie in its own dust. While, yes, many would be satisfied with having helped, with band-cofounder Ken Badger, usher in the Torontonian punk scene in the mid-to-late 70’s (quick shout-outs to Teenage Head, Simply Saucer and others who also led the wave), thereby assuring the band’s place in their country’s pantheon of musical pioneers – as odd as it sounds perhaps, the Scenics indeed belong in a group that includes Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Gordon Lightfoot, and Oscar Peterson (that last, we imagine, given what we know of his jazz obsession, Meyers is especially pleased about) – the guy’s spirit proved too restless to let it simply moulder like that. So last summer Meyers, along with fellow guitarist and co-songwriter Badger and drummer Mark Perkell, hit the road, the Scenics burning up the boards again from Buffalo to Cleveland to Montréal and a half-dozen points between. And now, continuing on that relentless tip, the band offer up a concise, punching live account of that journey, available as a free download via the band’s own label Dream Tower Records, which you can grab here. In the meantime, while that loads, here’s a sneak preview of what’s in store, the trio’s still-vital take on “So Fine,” the studio version of which can also be found on the 2015 compilation In The Summer (Studio Recordings 1977-1978). This, my friends, is proto-punk timelessness, defined.