Theresa's World (EP)

Modern Minds were a fast, melodic power pop trio from St. Albert, Alberta, the suburb just north of Edmonton. Moe Berg sang and played guitar, Bob Drysdale played bass and sang harmony, and Kim Upright played drums. They came together in January 1979, and before long they were billing themselves as Edmonton's best-known underground band.

Upright and Graham Brown started playing together in Grade 4. By Grade 7 they had found a bass player in Drysdale, and at their first practice, in Upright's house, the three ran through Black Sabbath and a few songs Brown had written. For the variety night at Sir George Simpson Junior High they called themselves Stones and had the name put on the bass drum. At Paul Kane High School the band became Hot Toddy, and around 1975 they started jamming with Moe Berg, a grade ahead of them. Upright remembered Berg already playing Neil Young while he and Drysdale were still on 'Smoke on the Water'.

Over the Christmas break of 1978, Upright called everyone together at Drysdale's place to talk about starting something new. Drysdale had just come back from Berklee College of Music in Boston, Upright had become a solid drummer, and Berg had a stack of songs. They loved the Buzzcocks, The Jam and the Undertones, and they agreed to play every song as fast as they could. They spent the first half of 1979 rehearsing and arguing out what kind of band they wanted to be, made their debut at Borden Park in June 1979 as The News, and became Modern Minds in January 1980. Their press bio called rock and roll "teenage glory" and made a teenager's case for it: "To someone who truly believes, there is no divisible line between one's music and one's very life."

Edmonton had almost nowhere for a band like this to play. Bars were attached to hotels, and the few that booked punk or new wave did it on a slow weeknight, knowing the whole scene would turn up. One early gig was at a disco that had started putting on a live band one night a week, and the audience was already waiting: kids thrilled to hear a local band playing the music of their new heroes. The Corona Hotel became a regular stop. The band also played twice at the short-lived, all-ages room everyone called the Suicide Club, one night on a bill with the Modernettes and the Subhumans from Vancouver. Among the kids at their shows was a 14-year-old Ken Chinn, later Chi Pig of SNFU, in what looked like his junior prom suit.

The band's first big purchase was a vehicle for the gear. The car dealer took some convincing, and they drove away in a Chrysler Cordoba, a big family car. All three were still 19. They rode it to Vancouver on a trip set up by Randy Boyd, whose Obscure Alternatives record shop was the hub of the Edmonton scene, and opened for the Modernettes and No Fun at the Smilin' Buddha on East Hastings. The walk to the club rattled the St. Albert kids, but the Modernettes' set made a lasting impression, and songs by the Modernettes and the Pointed Sticks found a place in the Modern Minds set.

Larry Wanagas, who owned Homestead Recorders, became the band's manager. On July 24, 1980, Modern Minds opened for the Pointed Sticks at Edmonton's Riviera Rock Room. Reviewing the show in the following day's Edmonton Sun, Steve King counted 16 songs in 40 minutes, all Berg originals running under three minutes. He heard echoes of mid-1960s pop, particularly in 'Holly', which reminded him of a rougher Hollies. King criticized Berg's thin live vocals and the band's breakneck tempos, but praised Drysdale's harmonies and recognized their potential. His verdict was hopeful: "Some time and polish, and straight thinking and Modern Minds will go a long way."

Ahead of a Dinwoodie Lounge show at the University of Alberta, sponsored by the Bears ski team, a profile titled Modern Minds Struggle to Succeed described a city where hotel bookers, agencies and liquor laws left little room for original bands. Berg called the Alberta bar scene hopeless and rated the Riv Rock Room the least horrible of the lot. Upright said the band was "going all the way on our feelings about what we do," and Berg dismissed the agents who sold young bands a formula for stardom: "these people have a zero success rate." Drysdale put it simply: "We want to communicate something."

In 1980 they recorded four songs at Homestead, Wanagas's 8-track studio, with Jerry Woolsey engineering. Three of them made up a 7" on Wanagas's own Bumstead label: 'Theresa's World', backed with 'Bungalow Rock', Berg's song about St. Albert, and 'It's Gone'. It sold modestly at the time and is now one of the more sought-after Canadian punk-era singles. Wanagas went on to manage k.d. lang.

The punk scene was changing around them. At a University of Alberta show on a stage six inches high, a fan stood in front of Berg and spat on him through most of the set, until someone in the crowd knocked the man out cold. As the shows filled with hardcore crowds, Berg began leaning toward his melodic side.

The band's best weekend came at the end. Modern Minds were booked for three nights at the Riviera Rock Room in the Riviera Hotel and sold out all three, and K-97 broadcast the show. Drysdale had already told the others he was leaving, so the Riv shows were their last. Home tapes of the broadcast still circulate in Edmonton, covers of the Modernettes and the Pointed Sticks included.

Upright, who paid his bills as a graphic designer, left for England in 1981 and spent a year seeing bands at night and museums by day. Back home in 1982, he reconnected with Graham Brown and Mike McDonald. Brown was renting a house on Sheridan Crescent with bassist Mark Brostrom, and its basement rumpus room, known as the Sheridan Club, ran weekend parties and became the rehearsal room where Jr. Gone Wild got started. Their first show, at Scandals in the basement of the Sheraton Hotel, was opening for Berg's new band, Ramage & The Belts. Upright moved to Vancouver in 1983 and later came home to St. Albert, where his drums stayed packed away for about 25 years until McDonald and bassist Duane Alias brought him into A Bunch of Marys around 2009.

Drysdale went on to play with the Rock 'n' Roll Bitches. Robert Bain Drysdale was born January 10, 1960, and died May 4, 2003, at 43.

Berg also played in Troc '59 and Facecrime before moving to Toronto with little more than the money in his pocket. There he formed The Pursuit of Happiness in 1985, and 'I'm an Adult Now' made him a national name the following year.

The single kept finding listeners, especially in Japan. Record Shop Base asked to press a CD, and since the single was the band's only release from their own time, they filled it out with demos, most of them cut live to 8-track at Homestead, vocals and all. The Modern Minds came out on Base in 2007. In 2018 Toronto's Ugly Pop issued the same recordings on vinyl as Go, 11 tracks with new liner notes by label owner Simon Harvey, the first 300 copies pressed on red vinyl.

-Robert Williston