Full length Compact Disc "Ouais":
(say "Waaa", NOT "Wah" or, God forbid, "Oasis")

Ouais
Brrrwah Records, 1996

*achieved triple teflon sale status

Track List:
Wednesday, In Your Ear, Kurt, Footsteps, So It Goes, 30, Confident One, Dreams, Heaven, Billy Pilgrim, Apology

Comments:
Recorded at Reaction Studios, Toronto, September 1994. Nick Blagona produced, engineered and shook, among other things, his booty. Tom Heron assisted Nick with tapes, wires and assorted electro-hobgoblinry. Mary Jane Russell sang backups on "In Your Ear" and fed the unwashed masses. Mastered several times, ultimately at Pizzazudio...tip to aspiring rockers: your master CD should NOT be used as a coaster atop the telly. Praise be to the grape wizards at Dornfelder and their fine, fine elixir.

The record was not released until August 1996, during a gala performance at Stratenger's, Toronto. As Hero Roland points out, this occasion marked the first and only performance of a libretto penned by the Heroes under their real names; of course, the music performed by the Heroes on that evening was strongly influenced (as indeed are all Heroes compositions) by the work of Trauserkov. Efforts are being made to locate a copy of the libretto as we speak, but those knuckleheads at the Smithsonian won't return our calls.

NEW !! DOWNLOAD FREE Ouais MP3s !!

On February 10, 2002 Heroes in Rehab approved the release of 1994'S "Ouais" in MP3 format on an "if you wants it, like that's a beauty, go ahead and download it eh?" basis. It's kind of a bummer for the people who actually bought the damn CD, but dude that was like six years ago and you got the really cool Peter Ferguson cover art and all. The record was produced by Nick Blagona with the able assistance of Tom Heron at Reaction Studios. Below, download the tracks that we think are the best ones on the record...

Download Smash Hit Single "Wednesday"

...okay, not sure if you WANT to know this, but hey, humour us and besides, you need SOMETHING to read while the freakin' thing is downloading.

"Wednesday" is a song about philosophy. Originally conceived as a suicide note, the lyric considers the objective problem of physical humans conceived as the mental construct of an all-knowing supreme being, with each individual inherently flawed and bent on its own destruction. It attempts to describe the subjective pain experienced by each "instance" of that Thought at the moment that the individual becomes fully conscious of its own limitations. Beyond that, it also contains a WAY righteous guitar solo.

The song is, believe it or not, ultimately hopeful, which explains why "Wednesday" or "Humpday" was chosen as the title. It is the only Heroes song to ever be performed in sign language, for the hearing impaired. It is also the first Heroes song to be played on Q-107 FM radio, Toronto.

The lyrics for "Wednesday" are posted in the

Lyrics Department

Listen to Billy Pilgrim in Real Audio format

The lyric for "Billy Pilgrim" was written with Michael Williams, over more than a few beers at the "Grad House", University of Windsor hangout frequented by Heroes Ed, Dave, Darin and Roland in the early '90s.

"Billy Pilgrim" attempts to describe the mental adventure of the main character in Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five" (a way excellent book that all Heroes fans should read immediately, even before peeing tomorrow morning). The main character in Vonnegut's book, Billy Pilgrim, is a survivor of the Allied bombing of Dresden in World War II. He is so horrified by the atrocities of war that he time travels to Tralfamadore. Heroes attempted to represent the time travel portions of the book in two ways: first, with the refrain "this time tomorrow," and second with the final instrumental minutes of the song. This "Tralfamadore Instrumental", is melodically, chromatically and rhythmically unrelated to the initial composition and is intended to express a hope for transcendence. Vonnegut's book is a lot funnier in places than our description seems to permit. Oh well, so it goes. Our song has a way better guitar solo than his book any day.

Rich Textures of Heaven in mp3 format

Hmmm, how to explain the song "Heaven" without embarrassing folk who might even now be browsing this site? I guess the point is to imagine that you WERE one of the two main characters in this "break-up" song...ever notice how you break up with someone, but remain "friends", then the next thing you know (s)he is complaining to you about the way your replacement is treating him/her ? Anyway, if you really felt something for that person, you're torn between the need to hate their guts to make yourself feel better and whatever that thing is that you felt for them ...and you can remember every goddam detailed millisecond of the moment, right down to the red she wore. Then you become the kind of "friends" that don't speak to each other at all and your mutual friends disavow knowledge of either of your existences, depending upon who is present. Or not. Ain't life grand?

As far as the music, this song as originally conceived was inspired by the sound and lyrical flow of the Tragically Hip's "At the Hundredth Meridian" from their most excellent album "Fully Completely". Of course, it ended up sounding really nothing like that or anything else that the Hip ever recorded. This version of the song appeared in part over the closing credits of the film "Anchors".

Download Apology in mp3 format

Like "Heaven", "Apology" deals with the duality and general insanity of post-breakup emotions. The word "apology" is used not only in the common, but also the classic Socratic sense, signifying both remorse and the concept of "explanation". Think "what if Socrates, Burt Bacharach and Pearl Jam got together to write a hurtin' song?" It was first performed in a warehouse filled with aluminum siding.

It's intended to be ultimately positive, suggesting that through thought and reason, one can arrive at a level of peace and comfort with disappointments in affairs of the heart, and indeed gain an appreciation of the grandeur of life. It is rather obviously a work of fiction.

There's also some stuff in there that obliquely refers to the race of giants in the "Thomas Covenant Unbeliever" series of books...if you READ them and STILL missed it, e-mail us 'cause we need to use more words like "baby, baby baby" in our songs. If you DID get it, don't e-mail us because no one is going to believe you anyway.

Additional useless piece of trivia: a muzak version of this song was recorded by the Heroes for a supermarket sequence in the film "Anchors". Rui played keyboards, while everybody else laughed their ass off.

Sweet Anticipation of "In Your Ear".mp3

There are SOME uplifting songs in the catalogue! "In Your Ear" is the first song Ed ever wrote, originally under the title of "By the Way" and featuring a completely unrelated lyric. On the very first occasion that version of the song was performed by Heroes (then Billy Pilgrim), the crowd at the Dominion House sang along as they danced. The lyrics and title were promptly changed. Maybe someday, we'll post the early demo recordings of these songs, and you can hear how they evolved. On the other hand, maybe you don't really care.

It's another "moment" song, but a song about the joy in that delicious moment that exists only in between the start of the relationship and the time that somebody takes the risk and decides to say "I love you". Of course, what happens after that moment varies dramatically, and the idea of someone "laughing" as they whisper the words is left purposely unexplained....

What's the Deal With "So It Goes".mp3 ?

The refrain "So It Goes" is drawn again from Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five". The song was written in the early '90s during a time when there was a pretty notorious and very evil pair of sex-killers about to go on trial here in Ontario. The song is supposed to anticipate the moment of such a person's death, and the lyric represents a conversation in the last moments of life between such a killer and the devil, who taunts his soon-to-be victim with visions of ignominy and eternal nothingness. In the middle eight, there's an aside by the devil, who asks the author, the band, and the listener whether they have prepared themselves in life for the ultimate existential crisis..."have you prepared for the long dark night of the soul"? This portion of the lyric was partly inspired by a dinnertime conversation with David's father, Tom.

Observers of Vonnegut's writings with anything more than a third-grade education will likely inquire as to whether it is appropriate to ask moral questions like these by making reference to fatalistic characters like Billy Pilgrim. Buy us a beer sometime and we'll chat about it...