"The First Day Of Spring" : Remembering The Gandharvas

1994 was a big year for me as far as music was concerned. I learned about the alternative rock and grunge sound. Before 1994 I loved almost strictly GN'R, Motley Crue, Poison, Aerosmith and Metallica, and while I still love 60% of those bands it was time for something new.

Shortly after my grandfather passed away I started spending more time with cousin Michael. Some of you know him as Mike, some as BDK and some simply as Kash. Mike liked a lot of music I had never been exposed to, so early in 1994 I really got a lot to take in. Everything Primus to Ministry or The Fu-Shnickens and Biohazzard. Not of all of it was good but what I did eventually acquire a taste for was Stone Temple Pilots, Alice In Chains and Nirvana amongst a great deal of others. Little did I know it was that just as I was getting in to this style of music it would be shaken with the loss of Kurt Cobain of Nirvana. I am proud to say like most of my friends I became a fan before this happened... even if it was two or so weeks.

During this time Much Music was what I feel the time when it was at it's peak. There were phenomenal TV shows like "Combat Des Clips", "Spotlight" and "Countdown". When "Much" was still a for the vast majority a music station. During this time "Countdown" was phenomenal. The biggest videos I remember from that time were STP's "Vaseline", Beck's "Loser" and my favorite video of all time The Gandharva's "First Day Of Spring"

The Gandharvas were a Canadian band based out of London Ontario. They were originally called "The Droogs" and later "The London Droogs" (side note, doesn't putting London in front of your band name automatically make it cooler?). It was with their first album "A Soap Bubble and Inertia" that they released their debut single "The First Day Of Spring". "The First Day Of Spring" received a great deal of acclaim when it was nominated for Much Music's Video Of The Year and got Best Song Of The Year from Toronto's Edge 102.1. The band would see some success with 1995's record "Sold For A Smile" with the song "Downtime", a song in which was a great track of the 90's but would not see the same ratings of older brother "The First Day Of Spring".

"The First Day Of Spring" to me is a mixture of the 90's as a whole. It's the weirdness Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun" meeting the happiness of "No Rain" by Blind Melon with a slight darkness of Tool's "Sober".

Without further ado, my favorite video ever...

"The First Day Of Spring"



Thanks to JJ Ramone for inspiration for this blog. Check out his and Chris Real's "The Real/Ramone Review" at http://4rmusic.blogspot.com for more awesomeness!

Cheers Rockers!