Simply Saucer was a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 rock band, active in the 1970s. Based in Hamilton

Hamilton, Ontario

Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, the band consisted of guitarist and vocalist Edgar Breau

Edgar Breau

Edgar Breau is a musician in Ontario, Canada. He was a member of the Hamilton-based band Simply Saucer in the 1970s, and has explored a solo career in recent years....

, keyboardist John LaPlante (billed by the stage name

Stage name

A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...

 Ping Romany), bass guitarist Kevin Christoff and drummer Neil DeMarchant. The band's style has been described as a hybrid of proto-punk and psychedelia and they form a "Rust-belt punk" style, along with The Stooges

The Stooges

The Stooges are an American rock band from Ann Arbor, Michigan first active from 1967 to 1974, and later reformed in 2003...

, MC5

MC5

The MC5 is an American rock band formed in Lincoln Park, Michigan and originally active from 1964 to 1972. The original band line-up consisted of vocalist Rob Tyner, guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred "Sonic" Smith, bassist Michael Davis, and drummer Dennis Thompson...

 and Alice Cooper

Alice Cooper

Alice Cooper is an American rock singer, songwriter and musician whose career spans more than four decades...

. The group's references also included German progressive rock

Progressive rock

Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...

, or Krautrock

Krautrock

Krautrock is a generic name for the experimental music scenes that appeared in Germany in the late 1960s and gained popularity throughout the 1970s, especially in Britain. The term is a result of the English-speaking world's reception of the music at the time and not a reference to any one...

, and early electronic music

Electronic music

Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...

 pioneers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen

Karlheinz Stockhausen

Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...

. According to Matt Carlson at Allmusic, "Though Simply Saucer had the guts to bring together tremendous influences from rock's past, including the Velvet Underground, early Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...

, and the Stooges, the band was hardly noticed outside of its local area."

Band history

Formed in 1973, the band was originally a six -piece, largely improvisational, outfit featuring Dave Byers and Paul Collili.

By October 1973, the band contracted into a four-piece. In its lifetime, the band only released one 7" single, "She's a Dog/I Can Change My Mind" in 1978 on fanzine magnate Gary Pig Gold

Gary Pig Gold

Gary Pig Gold is a singer-songwriter, record producer, filmmaker and author. His fanzine was Canada’s first independently-published music magazine, and among the recording artists he has worked with are Pat Boone, Dave Rave, Endless Summer, Simply Saucer and Shane Faubert.-History:He formed his...

's Pig Label, before breaking up in July 1979. However, an abortive recording session with producers Daniel Lanois

Daniel Lanois

Daniel Lanois born September 19, 1951 in Hull, Quebec) is a Canadian record producer, guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. He has released a number of albums of his own work and has produced albums for a wide variety of artists, including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Emmylou Harris, Willie...

 and Bob Lanois

Bob Lanois

Bob Lanois is a Canadian sound engineer, music producer, and harmonica player. He released released his first album in 2006, Snake Road, with his brother Daniel Lanois...

 from 1974 and a June 28, 1975 concert performance on the roof of Jackson Square were later compiled for the 1989 album Cyborgs Revisited

Cyborgs Revisited

Cyborgs Revisited is an album by Simply Saucer, released in 1989 on Mole Sound Records and Cargo Records. It was compiled from various archival recordings by the band, who had only ever released one 7" single before breaking up in 1979...

.

Cyborgs quickly came to be regarded as a lost classic of Canadian music, being named one of the greatest Canadian albums of all time by the magazines Chart

Chart (magazine)

ChartAttack is a Canadian online music publication. Formerly a monthly print magazine called Chart, which was published from 1991 to 2009, the web version continues operation....

, Forced Exposure

Forced Exposure

Forced Exposure was an independent music magazine published sporadically out of Massachusetts from the early-'80s to 1993, edited by Jimmy Johnson and Byron Coley. It was printed on cheap newsprint with plain design and filled with corrosive yet humorous writing...

, Pop Matters and Alternative Press

Alternative Press (music magazine)

Alternative Press is an American music magazine based in Cleveland, Ohio. It generally provides readers with band interviews, photos, information on upcoming releases, and music charts. It was founded in 1985 by Mike Shea, who is the current president....

, as well as the appearing as the 36th best Canadian album in Bob Mersereau

Bob Mersereau

Bob Mersereau is a Canadian arts journalist.Mersereau is a music columnist and longtime arts reporter for CBC Television in New Brunswick. Since 1982, he has been a reporter on the East Coast music scene for CBC Radio, CBC Television, and the Telegraph-Journal...

's 2007 book The Top 100 Canadian Albums

The Top 100 Canadian Albums

The Top 100 Canadian Albums is a book by Bob Mersereau, published in 2007 by Goose Lane Editions.Mersereau acknowledged that the list will cause heated debate among music fans across the country. "The important part is to talk about Canadian music and enjoy it", he said...

.

DeMarchant left the band in 1975, and was replaced by Tony Cutaia, who in turn left in 1976 and was replaced by Don Cramer. Romany left the band in 1976, and was replaced by Steve Park of Teenage Head

Teenage Head (band)

Teenage Head is a Canadian rock group from Hamilton, Ontario and was one of the most popular Canadian punk rock bands during the early 1980s....

.

Following the band's breakup, Breau continued as a solo artist, while other band members went on to form The Other One. Breau later ran as a candidate for the Family Coalition Party of Ontario

Family Coalition Party of Ontario

The Family Coalition Party is a small political party in Ontario, Canada that promotes a socially conservative ideology. It was formed in 1987 by members of the pro-life organization Campaign Life Coalition, and has fielded candidates in every provincial election since then...

 in the 1999 provincial election

Ontario general election, 1999

An Ontario general election was held on June 3, 1999, to elect members of the 37th Legislative Assembly of the Province of Ontario, Canada....

.

Cyborgs was subsequently reissued on Sonic Unyon

Sonic Unyon

Sonic Unyon Recording Company is an independent record label based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The retail store is located on Wilson Street near James Street North)...

 in 2003, with several bonus tracks including the 1978 single.

Breau and Christoff reunited for a show at Hamilton's Corktown Tavern on September 17, 2006, with Steve "Sparky" Park and Joe Csontos on drums. Park works in Montreal, and - as such - could not commit to a full-blown reunion, so new members Steve Foster on guitar and Dan Wintermans on guitar, keyboard and theremin, were brought in. The group released a new album, Half Human, Half Live, in April 2008.

After a short tour of the U.S.A, which included a June 15 appearance at Terrastock, drummer Csontos left the line-up, followed by Dan Winterman and original bassist Kevin Christoff in August 2009. Still, a version of Simply Saucer featuring drummer Peter Lacey and bassist Chris Jamieson performed a couple of live dates in October 2009, including the Scion Garage Festival.

Discography

• She's A Dog/I Can Change My Mind (1978)
• Cyborgs Revisited
  Cyborgs Revisited
  Cyborgs Revisited is an album by Simply Saucer, released in 1989 on Mole Sound Records and Cargo Records. It was compiled from various archival recordings by the band, who had only ever released one 7" single before breaking up in 1979...
  
  (1989; reissued on CD by Fistpuppet/Cargo 1991)
• Cyborgs Revisted (2003; expanded to include 45 and post 1976 demos)
• Half Human, Half Live (2008)
• Saucerland (2009)