Steady, Garcia.

Luis Cardoso and Carman LeBel have rarely been in the same place at the same time for very long, so the band's inception was always more concept than entity, more what if than what is. But that didn’t make it any less real, nor did it stop it from becoming reality in 2006.

Cardoso and LeBel started to jam together circa 1988 in Fredericton, NB, Canada. This culminated in the formation of the reggae band Small Axe, and eventually the larger reggae band Ujamaa, which enjoyed some popular and critical success throughout the Maritime provinces between ’89 and ’92. Carm bailed early to do yet more school, while Lou rode out the reggae wave until it broke in 1992.

As it turned out, both came ashore in Toronto shortly thereafter, and the collaboration began anew, though the reggae rhythms were nowhere to be found. They put together a three piece power pop unit and started working on Luis' original material (turns out the guy writes songs in his sleep!). By 1995 or so, they were putting together a solid set list of original, hard-driving power pop tunes under the name of Superball (briefly), then Lovable Truly, and it seemed like gigs were just around the corner. Then the drummer vanished, as drummers do. Over and out for this incarnation.

Carm left Toronto for awhile, but when he returned, the collaboration began yet again. Luis had, of course, a thousand new songs, so there was no shortage of material. They gigged informally for the next few years, performing Luis' material and a raft of covers, including The Who, Matthew Sweet, Neil Young, The Buzzcocks and Frank Black.

Time passes. Both are involved in brief, ill-fated musical ventures of various types. Luis then moves to the Blue Mountains near Collingwood, ON, where the majority of "Bring me the head of Steady, Garcia" is recorded. The new Blue Mountain studio, a woodstove-heated, 600 sq. ft. cabin at the edge of 22 acres of forest, becomes Crow Raid 19 Studio -- an incredible place to create and record. It’s here the two play and record sporadically for a couple of years to put together material for the album. Carman arrives every few months with new bass lines, and Luis handles the daunting task of recording, editing, and mixing the whole thing.