Artist:By Divine Right
Song:Come for a Ride
Album:Bless This Mess
The Canadian indie band By Divine Right have been around since the late 80s. The have had modest success in Canada. But the band personnel has been unstable and they have bounced around too many record labels. The likely blame for this goes to lead singer and guitarist Jose Miguel Contreras. Some band leaders treat a band like a collective and some behave like dictators and the band members get tired of that and leave. Contreras writes and produces everything so the band members are disposable. Contreras formed By Divine Right in 1989 with guitarist Steve Berman, bassist Liz Teear and drummer Mark Goldstein while attending Thornlea Secondary School in the Toronto suburb of Thornhill, ON. Goldstein stayed until 2000. But the other two were gone quickly. By Divine Right self released a 1992 cassette followed by a 1995 album on Kinetic Records. Then they released the 1997 album All Hail Discordia. Then they signed with the much larger Nettwerk label. Nettwerk picked up All Hail Discordia followed by the 1999 album Bless This Mess. Guitarist Leslie Feist and bassist Brendan Canning joined the band. Nettwerk sent By Divine Right on a North American tour opening for The Tragically Hip. They also released a video for Come for a Ride. Obviously, Nettwerk wanted to sell By Divine Right to a much larger audience. Contreras wrote and produced everything. The problem Nettwerk had with By Divine Right is they were more experimental art pop and guitar noise than Nettwerk's usual bands. They also weren't used to the tour schedule and were burned out when it was finished. The band's instability was also a factor. Leslie Feist and Brendan Canning left By Divine Right and started Broken Social Scene with Kevin Drew. That band has been very successful and of course Leslie has had a successful solo career. Bless This Mess is available on CD. Since then. By Divine Right has released albums on Linus Entertainment, Hand Drawn Dracula and Headless Owl. They released their latest album in 2022 on Fortune Stellar. They still tour but their music has a limited following and it probably always will. Here's the video for Come for a Ride by By Divine Right.
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