It’s probably safe to say that every major city in the world had its own unifying punk/hardcore band in the 90’s. Washington, DC had Fugazi. Richmond, VA had Avail. Olympia, WA had Bikini Kill. Gainseville, FL had (and still has) Hot Water Music. It goes on and on. And for Vancouver, BC, during the early- to mid-‘90s, that unifying band was Sparkmarker. Products and Accessories, the band’s first full-length album (with 7” and compilation tracks tacked on for good measure), was more than just a cleverly packaged, gatefold-style compact disc; it brought the Vancouver punk scene together and gave birth to the idea that your friends could become your heroes. And that’s not in a “hey, look, there’s so and so from that amazing band” way. It’s meant in a deep and meaningful way that has kept the music made by four Vancouver hardcore kids close to my heart over the past 20 years. These were the same kids that I elbowed up against at all-ages shows featuring the West Coast touring punk bands of the day (we’re talking Neurosis, Rocket from the Crypt, Drive Like Jehu, Seaweed, Undertow, Rancid…). And when I do get the pleasure of seeing those same guys now, like at their 2012 reunion show, I’m greeted with the same beaming smiles that welcomed me and many others into Vancouver’s all-ages punk/hardcore scene in the ‘90s.The members of Sparkmarker would have been the first ones to tell you in 1990 that they were influenced by Fugazi, Quicksand, The Jesus Lizard, Helmet and a lot of the other bands that toured through Vancouver and altered the world of underground music before that whole Nirvana thing happened. Vocalist Ryan Scott and guitarist/vocalist Kim Kinakin spent their Saturday nights hosting a cable FM radio show called Blueprint, obviously named after the Fugazi song. I happened to do my own radio show right after them and it wasn’t long before I was being invited to their unforgettable all-ages shows (bodies flailing, voices ringing, these were things of legend), then eventually, after demos, 7”s and compilation tracks were released, being handed a copy of the self-released Products and Accessories in 1994.Produced by the band and remixed by New York producer Don Fury, the 13-song CD (including five previously released tracks) was unreasonably mature and contemplative for how young a band they were. Scott’s lyrics were at times confounding, but always made you want to scream them in whoever’s face was next to you. His crackly, harrowed voice and unpredictable stage presence inspired many Vancouver hardcore kids to take their own stab at creative expression. The guitar work of Kinakin was melodic hardcore at its finest, all palm-mutes and crazed strumming, and his graphic designs for the band celebrated ‘zine culture’, bassist Jason Craig’s low, distorted rumble and dark, repetitive lines would be heard in a whole new generation of northwest hardcore and drummer Rob Zgaljic was the octopus-armed pounder of Vancouver’s punk scene. Everything and everyone came together on Products and Accessories. As for the album’s individual songs, well, that’s kind of like skipping ahead and reading the last chapter of a really good book. I could suggest plowing into the groove-heavy “Speaking of Heroes,” with its falling-apart-at-the-seams riff and chaotic mid-song bass run, which leads into one of the album’s most definitive cries of “father said!” Or I could hook-line you into “So Long,” where Scott’s echoing screams trade off with a Kinakin swagger-and-shout, and then Scott is back and in full freak-out mode, raving about “those dirty pigs.” You could even dive into the non-album tracks and meet halfway in “Kansas,” or hit Vancouver’s metro-mall and contemplate rampant commercialism together with “Tamarack.” But the absolute best way to listen to Sparkmarker’s Products and Accessories is to start at the beginning. Pummeling riffs trail into the plucked strings of a guitar, like a warped children’s music box, while introducing Jason, Kim, Rob, Ryan and their “Levi’s Deklein,” warped blue-jean revolution. And when Scott screamed his own “revolution” cry just before the two-minute mark of the album, everyone listening in Vancouver’s punk scene at the time knew our unifying band was Sparkmarker. Two decades later, Products and Accessories still gives me all kinds of goosebumps.
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