The Nils "The Back Flow"

The Nils
Now
demo tape
(self-released, 1983)

Summer, 1983; I'm just freshly 20 and it's time for our annual family trip, this time to Canada. We were due to leave on August 17, and packing had been slow. That night, one of my favorite local bands, The Faith, were playing their final show ever, and I desperately wanted to go (sure, I'd seen them 14 times already, so what?). My parents had other ideas, however. They wanted to leave that night, drive for two or three hours, then find somewhere to stay. I asked if we could please wait to leave 'til the next morning, since they only wanted to drive a short bit, anyway. Nothing doing. I was furious but powerless. When I tried to explain to my mother that they were never going to play again, she responded, "Well, if they're not going to play again, what's the big deal?"

Needless to say, I was not a happy camper on that trip.

Yes, it was a camping trip.

In order to partially make up for capriciously destroying my happiness, they let me go to several record stores. I wanted to buy Canadian punk rock stuff, since we were in Canada, so I picked up this cassette by The Nils. It ended up being really great and, as it turned out, they were playing in Montreal while we were in town, so the 'rents let me go.

Unfortunately, they didn't play until after I had to leave. I did see a pretty cool band called the American Devices, though. I kept an eye out, and they released an album not long after I returned home; it's still sitting in my collection to this day.

The Nils ended up releasing a couple of 12" EPs and an album before calling it quits.