Shotmaker

Shotmaker's short reign as band in the early nineties, (from 1993-1996), came at a time in a major shift in the direction of punk rock. The eighties already seemed like ancient history, bands like Minor Threat and Black Flag had attained a classic status almost overnight, and paved way to new units like Fugazi, while record labels like Ebullition in Southern California were putting out important, though definitely cliquey and esoteric, independent punk rock records. Meanwhile, bands like Green Day and Blink-182 were on the cusp of making punk rock an international capitalistic success.

In Canada, three boys from Ottawa were playing raw, expressive, intense music that had been pegged as "emo", but somehow held it's own as outright hardcore music. With their fuzzy, powerful bass lines that seem to push the song closer and closer to falling apart, dingy, crushing guitar parts, and raving, cryptic, desperate vocals, they seemed to epitomize the perfect middle ground between the Ebullition sound and something new, something that you couldn't quite put your finger on. Listening to their discography, Shotmaker's hidden influence in the DIY world begins to take shape. One easily hears riffs that wouldn't seem out of place on a Pg. 99 or Majority Rule, and bands like Logs owe a large amount of their direction to Shotmaker's pivoting song structures, with crunchy riffs giving way to dissonant yet melodic verses.

Highlights here include their self titled 7", and their split with Maxmilian Colby is also widely considered one of the best emo/hardcore records of the 90's; "The Game" and "Archaeologist" contain some of their most heady riffs ever. Earlier songs like "Controller. Controller" and 10/22/94 display the group's cathartic, attention grabbing power.

These dudes went on to play in bands like Three Penny Opera.

Here's a video of the band, sorry but none of the videos of these guys are of that stellar quality.




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The Complete Discography 1993-1996 (Disc 1)

The Complete Discography 1993-1996 (Disc 2)