Nardwuar The Human Serviette

Nardwuar the Human Serviette
By Nathan Stafford

Who is Nardwuar?
Radio host, print journalist, label-owner, punk rock front man, Much Music contributor, live music promoter, movie extra, songwriter, one-time paperboy, plus a whole lot more.

Many recognize the name, many more recognize his work. If you remember back, chances are you heard a certain quote from Jean Chretien regarding pepper spray at the 1997 APEC protests in Vancouver. That moment wouldn’t have been possible without Nardwuar the Human Serviette, but this is just one example of his work.

Nardwuar has dutifully recorded nearly every moment of his professional life, and the list of accomplishments is a mile long. His is a highly-spontaneous, storied career, and it seems like he’s just getting warmed up. I had the opportunity to catch up with Nardwuar just before his band, The Evaporators hit the stage at The Victory Square Block Party, a free concert in Vancouver with proceeds going to the downtown east side’s downtrodden citizens. I hoped to gain some perspective on how Nardwuar sees his career so far.

“The first twenty years are definitely the hardest.” (Nardwuar the Human Serviette)


Background
Nardwuar has always called the Lower Mainland home, so I asked him about his favourite places to see live music over the years. Perhaps he’d share a memory of some long-forgotten beer hall or punk venue where he first cut his teeth in the local music scene.

“The club that I met Courtney Love at was the Cruel Elephant, and that was in the early 90’s on Granville Street in the bottom of the Hotel California where Hole played. It’s really interesting because of the old liquor laws that existed in Vancouver at the time, when you went there, you had to buy a meal, but nobody wanted to buy a meal, so they gave you a little ticket, and it was called a mystery meal ticket. So you’d go to the bar and hand it in and it was some sort of weird lasagna or whatever. Not everybody did, but it was just kinda cool.”
**This interview with Courtney Love, along with other encounters, is available at www.Nardwuar.com

“Paul Moes, the guy that started the Cruel Elephant, later on started the gigs at the Croatian Cultural Center. The Commodore was shut down for a while, there were no venues in town. Paul Moes, he is Croatian, he got the Croatian Cultural Center starting up, and look at the giant mess that started now, tons of gigs there. So the Commodore had to close for the Croatian Cultural Center to start up. The Cruel Elephant, Paul Moes, that’s what I’m gonna say is one of my favourite venues in Vancouver, aside from all the cool, indie, all-ages do-it-yourself type gigs.”


Intrepid Journalist
The Nardwuar The Human Serviette Radio Show has been ruling the campus airwaves for more than 20 years, providing a tasteful mix of current interviews with politicians to punk rockers. The show also exposes new or forgotten music to the masses, and features listeners calling in to ask questions or plug their gigs that week.

In celebration of the 20 year milestone, the show aired for 20 straight hours (wow!) on CiTR 101.9 FM in Vancouver, UBC’s Campus Radio station. The marathon featured interviews with everyone from James Brown to Beck to Pierre Burton. Listen to the way Nardwuar poses his questions and finds strange connections with his inane research skills and you’ll see how he even manages to wow his subjects from time to time. Who were some of Nardwuar’s earliest interviews?

“The first interview I pretty much did was with D.O.A or the band The Rheostatics. Those are some of the earlier ones that have been captured. I guess I didn’t tape all of them. The reason I didn’t tape them, is because, again, anybody can do a radio show, I just kind of showed up, throw my records everywhere, I wouldn’t know what was going on – actually it’s still kinda like that on my radio show, every Friday on CiTR, 3:30 to 5.”

You might recognize Nardwuar from Much Music’s Going Coastal, or from his 2 hit specials Nard Wars and Nard Wars II. He also worked for Shaw Cable in the early days, home of the hit music program Soundproof. Nardwuar aired a pair of tv specials in his time at Community Access TV. He is by all means a veteran of Canadian airwaves and television.

The DVD’s
Nardwuar the Human Serviette has released 2 DVD collections recently:
Doot Doola Doot Doo… Doot Doo!
This 2-disk DVD includes Nard Wars I & II, plus unseen bonus footage, music videos from Nardwuar’s bands The Evaporators and Thee Goblins, and a special Nardwuar vs Nardwuar segment. This DVD is a must for anyone who is curious about Nardwuar.

Welcome to My Castle
Nardwuar’s 2007 DVD release includes the original TV specials he ran on public access television, plus more bonus interview footage with the likes of Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love, Tommy Chong and Pierre Trudeau! This collection is more of a look back at earlier Nardwuar interviews and footage. Also includes music videos and audio-commentary for the ahem, more nerdly types like yours truly.

Rock & Roller
Nardwuar is frontman/keyboardist in the power-pop/garage-punk band The Evaporators. A mainstay in the Vancouver scene, the band is made up of punk veterans from The New Pornographers, The Smugglers, Slow, & Canned Hamm. There are very few current bands in the Vancouver Scene who have outlasted these lads. Their live show leaves you speechless, aside from a few Woo-hoo’s, and maybe some dance moves. Fun fun fun.

Nardwuar is also part of an interesting side project known as Thee Goblins. As far as costumed-keyboard rock bands go, this one is tops. The band changes names occasionally for themed shows. Thee Ska-blins, Thee Disco-blins, Thee Dub-lins, etc. It’s definitely odd, but so much fun it’s almost addictive!

The Evaporators have just released a new full-length album “Gassy Jack and Other Tales”; a collection of musical gems and a Canadian History lesson or two, thanks to Nardwuar’s love of that subject, and anything retro or Canadiana for that matter.

Writing credits on the disc are also given to new Evaporator Stephen Hamm, and the production team of JC/DC - John Collins and David Carswell. The record may contain traces of a new, mature direction, at times getting downright political.

“Social Housing for the needy, not lofts for the greedy!” (from “Gassy Jack”, by The Evaporators)

Not to worry, lovers of classically-silly Evaporators tunes like “I Got A Rash” and “I’m Going to France” will love the new romps like “Shakin with the Shaggy Shaker” and “Where’s the Butterknife”. Obscure references abound, like in “Do, the Eggbeater”, the title taken from stage banter from who else, but The Pointed Sticks.

In a nod to old punk influences, Nardwuar and co. have fashioned the new album cover after an’81 Subhumans record Incorrect Thoughts. If you look closely at the cover, you’ll see photographer Bev Davies in the background, with whom Nardwuar released a 2007 Punk Rock Calendar, featuring a who’s who of the live punk scene in Vancouver.

The Subhumans reformed in 2005 to release New Dark Age Parade. This may have set off a cluster-bomb, as other Vancouver bands from the late-70’s/early-80’s started re-forming, like The Dishrags, The Furies, and one of Nardwuar’s favourites, The Pointed Sticks.

“It’s amazing that they’re back together (Pointed Sticks), because they’re like my favourite band of all time. You can never get enough of the Pointed Sticks. It’s just so amazing that they’re back together and happening and rocking.”

“They were the band, pretty much, that inspired The Evaporators to come to be, because their records came out on Zulu Records, before that it was called Quintessence Records. Grant from Zulu Records was the guy that said, Hey Nardwuar you can put out a record.”

Record Executive
Of sorts. Nardwuar The Human Serviette Records started out releasing Compilation Albums featuring bands like The Gruesomes, No Means No, Mudhoney, and Beat Happening. The label also released discs by The Smugglers, Thee Goblins, and of course, The Evaporators.

Nardwuar’s music has also been released on Vancouver’s Mint Records, and it seems he’s impressed the likes of punk pioneer Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys, Lard) enough to release The Evaporators on his label Alternative Tentacles.

I wondered if Nardwuar would take his label full-circle, and release another compilation album.

“I’m hoping that in the next couple of months we’re going to be able to do a split record series, like The Evaporators on one side and a band on the other. Yes, there will be some more excitement coming up hopefully, touch wood.”

He Loves a Good Tidbit
Nardwuar is a champion of the undiscovered. No journalist out there digs deeper than he does. Those great interview moments are a combined product of thorough in-depth research with high energy, charisma, and a passion for discovering hidden treasure troves of information.

Rather than list Nardwuar’s resume, I invite you to visit his phenomenally detailed website www.Nardwuar.com

This article is just barely scratching the surface, but hopefully it will encourage you to watch a few of his videos or tune into his weekly radio show. In my brief meeting with Nardwuar, I got the impression that he is very passionate about music, has a bottomless pit of energy, a photographic memory, and a constantly-expanding To-Do List.

The best part about Nardwuar is probably how modestly unselfish he is. Living by the Do-It-Yourself ethos, Nardwuar believes that anyone can do what he does. In fact, he encourages it!


“If you would like to become Nardwuar the Human Serviette, you know how you do that? You can join CiTR (Campus) Radio, that’s where I started, you can do Community Access television, you can do tons of interviews and you can play in a band. It’s that easy!”


Whatever it is you’re doing Nardwuar, keep it up!