The Asexuals were a Montreal punk band that started in 1983. They went on to release several records but due to personal bias were are just going to talk about their good stuff. The original line up was John Kaster, Sean Friesen, T.J. Collins and Paul Remington. They released an EP entitled Featuring: The Asexuals in 1984. The next year they put out what most would say is their best record – Be What You Want – on Pysche Industries (originally on First Strike Records who didn’t what to repress it). Later in 1985 they released another LP called Contemporary World. They toured extensively in support of this record inclusing many shows in the US. After that, John Kaster quit and formed The Doughboys. And that’s where we are gonna leave it because even though the band went on the release several more records, they were not very good.
So let’s go back and talk about the Be What You Want LP. Much of my early experience with punk was hearing this record on the local college station so it has been one of my favorites ever since. I did get to see the band in the early 90’s, far passed their prime and it was quite disappointing. The only time the crowd reacted was when they played the title track off Be What You Want. One other interesting note about this LP was that the title track extolled the virtues of “being what you want” yet in other songs there would be lyrics like “fuck all you longhairs”. Kinda of funny. And the band went on to have long hair of course.
Anyway, the main reason for this post was that the band will be playing a reunion show in Toronto, March 4th & 5th @ The Bovine Sex Club. All original members and just playing Be What You Want. Needless to say, I am excited! Check out some mp3’s and if you like what you hear…check out the show!
Asexuals EP, Be What You Want & Contemporary World mp3s
