The Weather Underground

By: Raymond Bowe

The Weather Underground has recorded its first CD, which will be unveiled Jan. 11 at The Foundation in Barrie

The group includes Dorsey, 23; bassist Corey McCann, 22; guitarist Chris Genier, 23; and drummer Chris Payne, 21. All our Barrie natives except Payne, who's from North Bay.

The band's earliest roots were planted 18 months ago when Payne and Dorsey started jamming some of Dorsey's songs in a university residence.

"We started out really quiet and then built from there," said Dorsey, the band's main songwriter. "There's always an evolution to making music. They are so much different from when we first began."

That process has culminated in a 13-track debut disc, Ontario The Chemical. It also includes three audio tracks from the Weather Underground documentary, not the band but a 1960s student activist group from which their band name was derived.

Many bands want to make a quick dent in the music market, but one of The Weather Underground's most endearing qualities is their lack of pomposity. They're not interested in impressing anyone other than through their music.

"We do a lot of stuff for ourselves," Dorsey said. "We're not really worried about record labels right now. We're just doing our own thing."

"Even if things don't work out, we still have the CD to remember our friendship," McCann said. We can still have another beer, right?"

The band received 500 copies of their new album three weeks ago.

"It was a pretty big buildup to get it out," said Payne, noting the colourful artwork was contributed by Barrie's Ryan Fox.

The band's eager to attract new fans. "We have to get it out to as many people as we can," said McCann, who joined the group about three months ago. "The CD is so fresh and new, we're still enjoying it ourselves."

Mutual rock influences include acts such as Foo Fighters, Nirvana and Soundgarden, but each member brings an eclectic mix to the jam room.

"Our sound is more modern than some of that stuff, but you can tell it's there," Dorsey said.

"But it's also not as polished as some of the new rock out there," Payne added. - The Barrie Examiner

Now it was time for the Weather Underground to hit the stage, and that they did. They busted out some energetic indie rock tunes that brought the majority of the audience onto the dance floor. Some sang along while others bobbed heir heads, regardless, everyone was enjoying the excitement on-stage! The lights were spastic and each member was jumping around like it was their last show. Their tunes were fun and catchy, and I regret not grabbing a copy of their new album. I can't wait until they stop by Barrie again! - Audio Blood (http://www.audioblood.com)

The Ontarion - "Ontario the Chemical, CD Review

By: Danielle Ariss

The Weather Underground is a rock band through and through. They sport a heavy rhythm section and captivating guitar riffs that draw you into the music and make it impossible for you not to tap your foot along. The instrumental aspect is phenomenal, with their drummer instituting a strong backbone for the band and the explosive guitar riffs creating a unique sound. - University of Guelph

By: Adam A. Donaldson

Mar 14, 2007 - “Always room for one more,” that’s the philosophy in Guelph when it comes to fostering a new music group no matter the genre. Enter: the Weather Underground, they hail from Barrie originally, but in just a few months they’d paved a trial of shows all around the Golden Horseshoe, playing with name bands like Idle Sons and Black Maria along the way. They’ve even released their first full-length CD called Ontario The Chemical, an album chalk full of the garage band grunge rock sound.

Sure their successful as an indie band, but they still have to get their school assignments in on time, a professor won’t take “jamming” as an excuse for missing a deadline. That’s right, three of the four members of the band, lead singer Mark Dorsey, drummer Chris Payne and guitarist Chris Genier are University of Guelph students and they love it so much that the fourth member of the band, bassist Corey McCann will join them on campus in the fall. Closing in on the end of term and feeling fine about a big show at the Albion this Friday with the Marble Index, The Weather Underground talked about indie success, building an audience and unwinding after exams.

Adam A. Donaldson: Your band has a very political name but you say on your website that you’re not a political band. So what’s the origin of the name?

Mark Dorsey: Well, there’s a really good documentary about them that we’d seen. Actually on the album, there are two clips from the movie that we got permission from the directors to use. The story just really appeals to us and it’s a tragic story. I mean, they’re not people to emulate, they did a lot of things wrong, but it’s an interesting story and just the name itself is pretty cool.

AAD: When did everybody start playing music?

Chris Genier: I guess I started playing guitar in grade 10 or 11, just sort of and on with Mark, I played my Dad’s acoustic guitar at my house. I didn’t really get into too much until we had a band called the Worms back in Barrie and we just sort of messed around in this garage band.

Corey McCann: I started playing drums just listening to old Black Sabbath stuff and I slowly worked my way over to other instruments including the bass. And I started out about the same time Chris started around grade 10 or 11. Then I started playing the bass about two or three years ago, which is what I now play in this band.

Chris Payne: I’ve only ever played the drums, started playing around grade 8, took some lessons and just kind of went from there.

AAD: And how did this band, in its current incarnation come together?

CG: These two (Chris P and Mark) were playing shows for a while and I’d drive down to play with them; I think we actually played more on stage then practicing. And then you guys played the Bovine in Toronto and I played one song with you and decided to move to Guelph and attend school.

MD: And after that we stepped it up a lot because we were in the same city.

CP: It wasn’t till maybe six months ago that Corey came along.

AAD: (To Cory) And you’re still in Barrie?

CM: Yeah, but I’m coming to school here in September.

MD: Guelph is a really great place to be a band in; it’s close to Toronto and London, we can get to St. Catherine’s and Hamilton, we can go down to the States (like we want to do this summer) for a little tour.

AAD: I was going to ask about that, because you guys are all over, and not just Guelph or Barrie, so how did you grow beyond the immediate area so fast?

CM: D-I-Y ethic man.

MD: It’s important to build up relationships with certain clubs, so you can get called back to the same place. The good thing about being in Barrie and Guelph is that we have those two centres to draw from. We have a lot of people that come with us and go together in a big caravan to do down and see our Toronto and Hamilton shows.

CM: We have a pretty good following as a travelling band, which is good for us.

MD: We don’t want to over extend ourselves either, so were trying to build up certain areas and keep going back to the same places.

AAD: You mentioned D-I-Y, that guerrilla promotion approach, is the social networking thing on MySpace and Facebook helping out with that?

CP: MySpace, for sure; it’s good for getting crowds out to our shows.

CM: And it’s quick access to thousands of people.

CG: Yeah, and you get to hook up with other bands too.

MD: People can message us and we can message them back. It’s good for us to gage how many plays were getting and what people think.

CM: It’s the only way some people find out about certain shows. You can’t get a flyer in their hand but you can at least get them looking at MySpace.

AAD: This CD is really professionally done, I mean it looks like something you’d go in and get off the shelf at HMV, so how did it come together on the production side?

CP: We recorded it at Mastermind Studios in Hamilton. Mark knew an artist from Barrie that painted the cover - www.thecannon.ca