Slacker Anthem

Owen - Slacker Anthem

Owen 1996 - Doug, Steve, Tom & Munchie

Slacker Anthem was originally unleashed upon the college indie music scene on May 5th 1995 as a seven inch record and a cassette single. The cassette single garnered a favorable review in Billboard Magazine on May 27th (in Pop Records) and also began its assault upon Campus Radio all across Canada, attaining its highest chart position, #8, at CCRS in Sudbury, ON. (It charted at 3 different stations) The internet as a marketing tool was still years away, and unfortunately the band didn’t have the marketing budget or technical savvy to keep the momentum for the single going. The band continued to harass campus radio DJ's and ended up playing live in the studio at two stations over the summer of 1995, but then things went dormant.

Flash Forward to February 23 2011 where Slacker Anthem gets a second life as a digital single via the internet at many great websites; both MP3 purchases and streaming. Owen is at i-Tunes! Fifteen years may have passed, but the single is now brand new to a whole new generation. Owen may even return to the stage with original members Tom Ryerson, Doug Hainer, Andrew "Munchie" Hainer and Steve Wright with super special guest Stan Vee Antone. Hell, Jeremy Chambers and John Speechley might want to jam out too!

The Owen 'Little Guy' Logo was designed by Jeanette Ryerson, who was 7 years old at the time!

Lyrics by Tom Ryerson (1994)

Recommended digital download & streaming sites for Owen & Tom’s music:

24-7

Amazon MP3

Apple i-Tunes

CD Baby

Deezer

Emusic

Lala

Last.fm

MediaNet

Muve Music

Myspace Music

Napster

Nokia

Rdio

Rhapsody

Rumblefish

Spotify

X-box Music

Owen 1996 - The Golden Line-up

Munchie Hainer - Bass   Steve Wright - Drums   Doug Hainer - Guitar  Tom Ryerson - Vocals/Lyrics

Short Bio (All Music.com)

The indie rock outfit Owen began playing music near the end of 1994 when singer/songwriter Thomas Ryerson and guitarist Jeremy Chambers dissolved their previous band, Saint Judy. Natives of Woodstock, Ontario, the members of Owen had gathered a solid stack of original material and began recording two months later.  The 7" single "Slacker Anthem," issued on May 5 1995, was critically acclaimed in Billboard and a favorite at local college radio. The band‘s second single in July ’95 was an ‘in the studio’ live version of “Guilty,” which was a regional hit in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario. 

By the spring of 1996 Owen was now a four piece band and issued their third single, “The Prophecy,” which got limited airplay in London, ON.  In August of 1996 Owen issued their fourth single, “Surreal,” which was drawn from the CD compilation, "Hard Rock Indie Comp" with several other local bands.  Owen contributed two songs to that set, the other song being “Smalltown,” which was issued as a fifth and final single after the band broke up in October 1996.  At the time both Surreal and Smalltown were ignored by radio, but to be fair the marketing plan was next to nil. 

The Owen commemorative singles release, Hit Factory 1993-1996 was issued during Christmas 1997, and this remains to be the sole full-lengther from the band. 

Owen went on hiatus at this point for the next twelve years. Ryerson worked with Stan V. Antone in several bands during that time; Cholera, Living in Fear, Fancy Dancers, Two Evils, Absolute Beginners and Witness for the Prosecution.  He has also released solo singles under the pseudonyms Thos. Christian, Thom C. Stage, and Thomas Thomas.  

As part of a fifteen year anniversary for the Slacker Anthem single, the original record was re-issued on February 21st 2011 as a digital release, including i-Tunes. The members of Owen are hope that a whole new generation of fans will appreciate the song and make it a genuine massive world-wide hit. The band plan to reform with the 1996 line-up with the addition of rhythm guitarist Stan V. Antone and play select shows based on demand. 

The 1995 vinyl 7" is now available again for $10 (including postage) by dropping Tom Ryerson an email at paganlove@traveloguebook.com 

Order a vinyl single of Slacker Anthem today! Request the song at your favorite radio station!

Read about Owen at Allmusic.com 

Tom Ryerson's Author's Blog  

 

Tom Ryerson (vocals) & Jeremy Chambers (guitar) - Owen 1995

A Tale of Two Owens

A Tale of Two Owens

You may or not be aware that there are in fact two bands named Owen in the world. We, based in Woodstock, are one, and the other is based in Chicago. Owen from Chicago is actually just one guy, namely Mike Kinsella. In November of 2001 I read a review of his debut CD, pictured below, and concerned about the fact that he used the same name as us, wrote to his label, Polyvinyl Records.

On November 23rd 2001 I got an email from Mike Kinsella himself which read, "hey. my name's
mike kinsella, and i think we're in a band together called owen. it's funny how we haven't seen
each other at band practice ever, isn't it?"

  Matt Lunsford from Polyvinyl Records designed a yellow sticker for Mike's CD's, which came
into use by January 30th 2002. No idea if they still use them after 14 years. I came across the emails
from Matt and Mike a couple of days ago, and thought I'd share this cool Owen trivia.
 

This is Owen's (Chicago) debut CD, issued on Sept 18th 2001. I read a review in Exclaim! Magazine about 2 months later. How cool we both picked Owen as our band name.

This is the sticker Matt and Mike came up with in Jan 2002 to differentiate the two Owen's. People still confuse us, and usually we take the flak!

The Real Owen - Oct 2014

Owen's CD Choose Life is now at AllMusic.com

Owen's debut CD, 'Choose Life,' was submitted to AllMusic.com back in April, and we've just noticed it's now at their website. There is no picture or information about the CD, but all 18 tracks are there with samples, so you can click on the tracks and check them out. This is the first time 'Slacker Anthem' has graced a CD release. Here's the link for the CD at AllMusic...

Choose Life at AllMusic

About the blog

 

'This is Owen' the blog was created on June 30th 2013 to promote the music of Tom Ryerson & Owen. The music is all over the internet, to stream and to purchase. This blog has now had 1,277 views as of Jan 10th 2015, and has been seen in twenty four different countries; 
Armenia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Ireland, 
Lithuania, Malaysia, Philippines, Poland, Russia,  Slovakia, Sweden,  
Taiwan, Thailand, Ukraine, UK, USA, and Venezuela.  

Please share this blog with your friend and family!

Please check out Tom's YouTube Channel!

Cholera earns serious streams

I discovered today that all 8 tracks from Cholera's debut CD have been streamed at Spotify, and I thought that was pretty cool. Here is the ranking by streams;

1.   36 Streams     Princess for a day
2.   35 Streams     The Soft Cell
3.   27 Streams     Hush, you're beautiful
4.   21 Streams     Victoria Rows
5.   17 Streams     Sky Skraping
6.   16 Streams     Gideon
7.   10 Streams     Cementhead
8.     1 Stream       Barriers      

Download the CD here!

Debut video by Cholera

I've just released the debut video by Cholera, my industrial music project. Originally

recorded in February 1986 by the Dead Puppies, it was issued as a longer track on

the Pathological Profile cassette in 1993. In 2008 the music was re-issued as

the Sky Skraping CD by Cholera. The CD is now available as a download from CD Baby

while Stan Antone's special single edit can be watched at YouTube. 

Watch the video HERE!

Download the Cholera CD HERE!

I used two home movies for the visual of the video. The videos were shot

during Christmas of 1985 and 1986. I purposely went for the grainy and 

shaky look of the video. 

Against Nature by Marc Almond

It was really cool to be a part of the brand new Marc Almond album, 'Against Nature.' The funds for the recording, pressing and distribution were financed with a kick-starter campaign. I only learned of the campaign two days before it ended, so I chose an autographed black vinyl record, as all the color vinyl was gone. This record is coming out in a very limited amount. The thing that really sold me for my $136.38 (65 UK Pound) contribution was that the name of every person who gave in the campaign would have their name in the credits; a total of 657 people! Those are the die-hard fans.

 I have been a Marc Almond fan since January 1982, so this is really icing on the cake to have my name in the new album credits. And yes, it's a great album, worth every cent. 

 Against Nature - by Marc Almond with Jeremy Reed and Othon, released Nov 23rd 2015. 

 Sweet double gate-fold package, and autographed by all three artists!

 Yes, Mr. Almond is beginning to look old! 58 and still kickin' things up!

  

Two brand new Owen songs for your viewing pleasure

New songs & videos on YouTube

So Stan shows up at Tom's place a little after 7 pm with a new acoustic guitar, and they begin
to crackopen a couple cans of beer. Tom jots down two sets of lyrics while Stan sets up the 

recording equipment. They run through each song twice and then commit them to video, 

doing each song twice. Talk about fresh new songs! By the fourth take Stan's fingers were
pretty sore. We apologize for how dark the video is, we never thought of checking the
light first. We hope you enjoy these two brand new songs; cheers, Tom & Stan. 

(Recorded the evening of Saturday October 10th 2015)

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Watch Monz Venus at YouTube right now!