"We don't want to be big time stars,

(No) cocaine dreams or fancy cars,

We like things the way they are,

Out in our garage"

 

While the garage was where they originally started it was actually a basement where they cut their teeth. They were pretty awful in the beginning but they had the passion and desire to get better...and they did.

 

Five young men from a small town in S-W Ontario who were bored out of their minds.

 

It was 1982 and they all knew each other, how couldn't they in a town of 3500 people. They played hockey and baseball together, their older siblings knew each other, even their parents knew one another, and all shared a love of rock & roll.

 

They grew up an hour and a half from Detroit and if they found the right spot on FM hill they could get late night Detroit rock radio, exposing them to the likes of The Stooges, MC5 and Alice Cooper. Then punk rock finally made its way to Huron county and the boys discovered the Ramones, Pistols, Teenage Head, etc., and realized that anything was possible and away they went.

 

They did a number of shows in the Exeter-London area, then in 1984 they made the move to Toronto never having even played a show there. They rented a house (the infamous 13 Grenadier Road) where they proceeded to practice 5 nights a week, got laser tight and started to gig. The rest you can say is history.

 

The line up stayed together for the recording of 3 albums, Our Garage, (Fringe - 1986), Live Like 90 (OG - 1989) and inclusions on several of the underground garage classic compilation albums "It Came From Canada" (Og Records).

 

In-between they recorded the Wiseman Sessions (Recorded in 1988) but the Wiseman Sessions was never released, not until 2016 when the tapes from the session where found.

 

1990 saw Ted and Murray leave the band to chase other musical pursuits and the band added Kevin Kelly and Joey Bechta and UIC carried on for several more years before finally disbanding in 1995 after having recorded one more record, Witches Incredible (Drog Records).

 

Members of the band continued playing, some did rock & roll things (el Speedo), some did rootsy rock things (Possum), some did outlaw country things (Positively Stompin), and then in 1998 four UIC members, along with friend Ken Mikalauskas (el Speedo), formed The Chickens, and released 2 great Chicken records between 1998 and 2005.

 

The best thing is that they never really stopped doing the "friend thing".

 

Fast forward to 2016 and after talking about getting together to see if there was still anything in the collective tank they agreed to play at a tribute for local rock & roll promoter and Star Records founder Mike Shulga. Ted was not available and needing a 2nd guitar to complete the unit, in comes a very able friend from tours gone by, Dave Dysart (Supreme Bagg Team) to round out "UIC 2016". Thanks to Mr. Dysart, the Wiseman Sessions gets remastered, this web site gets launched, and most importantly, thanks to Mr. Dysart's infectious enthusiasm, they all feel newly energized and ready for another chapter, and they still rock like 90!