VIA PRESS RELEASE | The Hidden Cameras in collaboration with Rough Trade Records, today announce a 20th anniversary expanded deluxe reissue of their majestic debut album The Smell of Our Own to be released on April 14th 2023.
A deluxe edition will be pressed as a 2 x LP edition on yellow vinyl and features bonus demos, b-sides, and live session recordings. To mark the announcement of this reissue, both the rarely seen incendiary debut TV performance of “Ban Marriage” and a never before seen document of their first radio session performing “Boys Of Melody” are being shared. Plus newly unearthed is this very early Canadian TV news piece originally broadcast on CBC in 2002 showing Geoff Travis discovering the band in Toronto.
The Hidden Cameras burst onto the Toronto music scene in the early 2000’s boasting an irresistible combination of pop and queer sensibilities. Playing self-proclaimed “Gay Church Folk Music” a new genre of their own making and songs ranging from haunted, aching ballads to foot-stomping anthems, the band’s outrageous stage shows packed such disparate venues as sweaty dance bars, art museums, a working porn cinema as well as many churches. Fronted by lead singer-songwriter Joel Gibb, the ensemble continues its musical provocations to this day, with Berlin now as its center of gravity.
The Hidden Cameras had yet to release a note of commercially available music when, in early 2002, they became among the most discussed and celebrated unsigned bands in the history of their native Toronto. By the close of the year, they had been the subject of uncommonly sensational features in The Globe and Mail (Canada’s national newspaper) as well as in every daily and weekly in Toronto. The reasons for the reckless enthusiasm of these usually cautious journals was simple: revelatory live performances that attacked and transcended the staid, dispassionate traditions of rock nightclub culture; and the songs of band front-man and mastermind Joel Gibb, a talent of uncommon melodic and poetic gifts.
A rare documentary film Music Is My Boyfriend; a film about The Hidden Cameras recently saw its European premiere in London at The Castle Cinema in November as part of the Doc ‘n’ Roll Festival. Filmed in 2002 and only screened once before in Toronto in 2005 under a different title, Music is my Boyfriend chronicles the early days of The Hidden Cameras in Toronto. Combining interviews with original members, behind-the-scenes footage during a recording session and rarely seen 16mm film of two of their legendary live church shows, the film is at once a mash note to a beloved band and a time capsule of the raucous, vivacious queer underground scene from which it emerged. The film features stunning live performances in 16mm of several tracks from the group’s early live shows. Watch the trailer above.
The Smell of Our Own, The Hidden Cameras debut album was originally released in April 2003 on Rough Trade to tremendous critical acclaim.
