AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Moist

Artist:Moist

Song:Silver

Album:Silver

The alternative rock band Moist had success in the 90s in their native Canada. Attempts to break into the US market were unsuccessful. Keep in mind that Canadian radio stations are mandated to play CanCon and frequently the music isn't good enough to get played anywhere else. And that's probably true of Moist. All the members of Moist are originally from Ontario. Lead singer and main songwriter David Usher grew up in Kingston, ON and he moved to Burnaby, BC to study political science at Simon Fraser University. By 1992, all the members of Moist had moved to BC from Ontario. They were Mark Makoway on guitar, Kevin Young on keyboards, Jeff Pearce on bass and Paul Wilcox on drums. They recorded a demo in 1994 with recording engineer Kevin Hamilton. Their sound was heavily influenced by the Seattle grunge movement of bands like Soundgarden and Pearl Jam. They made 500 cassettes and took them to the Vancouver record store Sam the Record Man. There was enough interest in Moist that EMI Canada signed them to a record deal. Their debut album Silver was released in 1994. Singles like Silver did well in Canada. But as I said, radio stations and the video station MuchMusic are mandated to play CanCon. The album didn't do well internationally. It was released on Chrysalis in the US. My guess is Moist was too similar to the more successful bands to stand out. Typically, Moist's success in Canada was misleading due to CanCon regs. Moist wrote and produced with Hamilton. This album is available as a budget CD. Moist released three albums for EMI Canada. EMI tried to bring in different producers and released the albums on Arista and Capitol in the US. It didn't help and they split up in 2002. Usher recorded several solo albums for EMI Canada. His 2001 single Black Black Heart was a top five hit in Canada. Moist reunited in 2013. They have released two albums, most recently on their own label in 2022. They tour across Canada and I expect that to continue. Here's the video for Silver by Moist.