In 1998, a post-hardcore band called North of America released Elements of an Incomplete Map on Matlock Records. It was a heavy, acerbic indie-rock CD put together on a four-track recorder in a dank Halifax basement. The members of North of America—Mark Mullane, Michael Catano, Mark Colavecchia and J. LaPointe—had various pedigrees in punk and hardcore bands, and met when Mullane and Catano made quick fans out of Colavecchia and LaPointe by playing shit like Fugazi, Big Black, Polvo and Pavement on their local campus radio show. Eventually, they started a band, and for the next few years North of America would attain some notoriety in Canada and Europe for loud live shows, more solid albums and EPs, production credits for Buck 65, and writing music for CBC’s Street Cents.
More importantly, North of America reinvigorated Halifax’s drooping post-Sloan, post-Thrush Hermit indie scene on the tail of punk bands like The Chitz. NOA played angular, abrasive but pop-inspired music, and today, Noyes Records reissues Elements of an Incomplete Map on 180-gram black vinyl.
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Released via North North Records, the reissue includes digital bonuses and fresh artwork by YoRodeo. It’s regal treatment for a band few remember, but the legacy of North of America runs deep. Elements of an Incomplete Map shaped a generation. NOA bridged the all-ages and bar crowds while introducing logical but melody-driven, almost-screamo math-rock to a bunch of rowdy teens. Some of those teens grew up to play in bands like Dog Day, The Stolen Minks, Each Other, Special Noise and Heaven for Real. It’s not really coincidental that challenging pop music is Halifax’s biggest export.
“We were in a great spot in the scene because we were loud enough to play with hardcore and punk bands, but also with pop bands. Actually one time at a club in Europe, a sound-guy said we were louder than Mogwai. And we didn’t invent a sound. It was noisy guitar-rock,” says drummer Catano, now one of Chicago’s most popular bicycle makers, “The weird time signatures, atonal spunky guitars, the tight rhythm sections. That’s a generic description of music from the era but we had a unique take on it. This sounds like 1998 to me: tinny four-track drums, straight-up, blown-out and mid-range.”
Re-mastered by the band’s own LaPointe, the reissue is packed with nostalgia for NOA and their diehards: shows at Halifax’s Cafe Ole and The Marquee, opening for Fugazi and Q and Not U, swapping in Jim McAlpine (VKNGS), signing with Level Plane Records and tales from epic Euro-shows. There was a tour in 2005 with Ted Leo and the Pharmacists and a reunion release in 2010. While it feels like time-dated post-punk at the height of emo-popularity, Elements of an Incomplete Map is pretty fucking complete.
“Guitar-based rock music falls in and out of fashion all the time. But there’s a place for it in the larger spectrum of what people are into,” says Catano, “Cool songs are cool songs. There are enough bands that are now discovering the same influences we were playing off of so it’s interesting. The band existed before digital recording, and nothing has to be perfect or super-polished to be good. That’s its character.”
Listening now, Elements has the same kind of integrity as Slanted and Enchanted or early Built to Spill. The record doesn’t rely at all on your tender memories, and it might actually sound better without them. “As a music fan, I’ve really been touched by many records. It means a lot to me that someone might have that relationship to a band I was in,” says Catano. “This reissue is just generally flat-out rad. It’s exactly how a scrappy indie rock record should sound, and it holds up.”
Adria Young is a writer living in Halifax. Thanks Nathan. She’s on Twitter – @adriayoung
