Dik Van Dykes

Websites:  No
Origin: Hamilton, Ontario, 🇨🇦
Biography:

The Dik Van Dykes: Hamilton’s Garage Punk Pranksters
The Dik Van Dykes were a comedic, high-energy garage punk band from Hamilton, Ontario, active from 1985 to 1989. Known as "Hamilton’s Ambassadors of Tackiness to the World," they embraced a low-budget, three-chord primitivism fused with satirical wit, absurd humor, and a complete disregard for musical convention. Their sound—often described as The Ramones meets The B-52’s—was loud, fast, and irreverent, with quirky harmonies and offbeat, highly Canadian lyrical references.

Lyrically, The Dik Van Dykes celebrated and skewered Canadian pop culture, suburban life, and sports heroes in equal measure. Their songs touched on everything from Harold Snepsts (the fan-favorite Vancouver Canucks defenseman) to The Beachcombers, monster trucks, Niagara Falls honeymoons, and flying saucers. Their raw, unpolished sound and chaotic live shows made them an unforgettable fixture in Canada’s underground punk scene—equal parts rock band and performance art prank.

Formation and Members
Formed in 1985, the band’s lineup included:

Sarah Hodgson: vocals
Steve Hoy: guitar (famously using a three-string guitar)
Mike "Dik" Johnson: bass, vocals
Stu Smith: drums (notably playing without a kick pedal)
Frank Viola: backing vocals
Blurt Van Dyke: backing vocals
Renee Wetselaar: backing vocals

With deliberately shoddy instrumentation, they managed to turn their musical limitations into a signature style. Their satirical and absurdist lyrics were enhanced by their infectious energy, bizarre harmonies, and chaotic live performances.

Musical Output and Legacy
The Dik Van Dykes released two full-length albums on Og Records, the Montreal-based label run by cult legends Deja Voodoo, which specialized in Canada’s weirdest and most offbeat underground acts:

Nobody Likes... The Dik Van Dykes (1987)
Waste Mor Vinyl (1989)
Before these, they also put out a limited-edition cassette:

Live At the Gown and Gavel
Their songs appeared on multiple compilations, most notably the It Came From Canada series, which celebrated the country’s most eccentric and original indie bands.

Themes and Lyrics
The Dik Van Dykes embraced absurdity, poking fun at Canadian culture, suburban life, and pop culture clichés. Their song topics were wildly unpredictable, covering everything from The Beachcombers TV show, cubic zirconia, law’n’ornaments, and Klaus Barbie to flying saucers, Disneyland, cow pies, and pterodactyls. Their lyrics were surreal, nonsensical, and often completely ridiculous, making them one of Canada’s most unique underground acts of the 1980s.

Their songs—like Curling, Birthday Song, and Adult Gumby—were absurdist, fast-paced, and catchy, earning them airplay on university radio stations such as McMaster University's CFMU-FM 93.3 and Memorial University’s CHMR 93.5. Fans and critics often compared their sound to The Ramones battling The B-52s, with others drawing parallels to The Rezillos due to their mix of quirky humor and fast, punk-driven melodies.

Live Performances and Tours
The band was a fixture in the late-’80s Canadian indie scene, playing alongside notable acts such as: The Ramones (opening for them on three occasions in 1988), Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet
UIC, Wetspots, and Deja Voodoo.

Their 1989 "Waste Mor Gas" tour was a chaotic road trip promoting their second album, but the band dissolved before completing the full run.

Production and Recording Style
The first album was engineered and produced in Hamilton’s S.U.D. Studio, giving it what the band referred to as a "Live Blurt Sound." Their second album, Waste Mor Vinyl, was recorded at The Laboratory in Hamilton, a well-respected studio used by “real bands,” not just the Dik Van Dykes, as they put it in their own liner notes. Peter Moore—who later won a Grammy for his work with Bob Dylan—played a key role in the production of the second album. Jocelyn Lanois (brother of famed producer Daniel Lanois) handled engineering duties. The DIY ethic and rough, unpolished sound of their recordings perfectly matched their chaotic and unpredictable stage presence.

Post-Band Activities
Following their breakup, Sarah Hodgson invited Mike "Dik" Johnson to join her new band, Sinister Dude Ranch. Johnson agreed—on the condition that they rename the band "I Love My Shih Tzu." Their first song was a reworked version of a Dik Van Dykes track, "Too Much Like Fun." This project lasted into the early 2000s.

Cult Status and Influence
The Dik Van Dykes never aimed for mainstream success, yet their music has endured as a cult favorite. Their satirical punk style, absurd humor, and mocking of commercial rock clichés set them apart. The band’s legacy is one of joyful defiance, celebrating the weird, the tacky, and the proudly unprofessional.

Their albums remain highly sought-after collectibles, and their music still resurfaces in punk and underground Canadian rock circles.

They may have once joked that their music was destined to be “totally insignificant,” but their unique brand of chaotic, hilarious, and proudly offbeat punk has made them anything but forgotten.

Final Thoughts
If there was ever a band that embodied the Canadian underground music scene’s love for irreverence, absurdity, and DIY insanity, it was The Dik Van Dykes. They may have once joked that their albums were meant to be thrown like flying saucers, but their legacy has landed squarely in Canadian punk history.
-Robert Williston