UIC kicks out the jams on new FM Hill album out Friday

UIC's long-awaited new studio album FM Hill captures the group at their raw rockin' best.

Growing up during the 70s in the rural South Western Ontario town of Exeter, there wasn't much in the way of legal entertainment. Bored teens had to get their kicks where they could find them. For Fred Robinson and fellow UIC founding member Murray Heywood, that meant piling into Fred's '68 Chevelle Malibu 6-banger – outfitted with a tree-shaking Craig Powerplay stereo 8-track – and heading west on Highway 83 and then north on the Babylon Line to a place they called "FM hill."

Underneath the stars on FM hill, just about a mile from the Hay Swamp home of the mysterious Green Lady, the higher elevation meant that on a clear night they could pick up near by Detroit radio stations blasting The Stooges, The MC5 and Alice Cooper. The rush that Fred and his younger brother Dave Robinson had hearing that explosive Motor City music for the first time is what they were after on their long overdue new album, FM Hill. 

Of course, with anytime a band  returns to the studio after a lengthy hiatus, there are naturally going to be questions, number one being, "have they still got it?" Anyone who saw UIC's opening spots for L.A. punk legends X in 2017, and that amped-up show with a horn section celebrating the 50th anniversary of Kick Out The Jams with The MC5's Wayne Kramer at the Danforth Music Hall in 2018, should have reason to be optimistic. See for yourself – here's a clip from UIC's performance of the title track from FM Hill below. 

At every step along the way back to full-throttle action, UIC has met or exceeded expectations. Just as now, many UIC fans back in early 2016 were wondering what kind of shape the band would be in when they first reconvened for a one-off tribute concert in Oshawa honouring the late Star Records owner, Mike Shulga. By then, 21 years had passed since UIC played their final show at Lee's Palace. And although the members had continued to perform and record in different capacities over the ensuing years – Ted Triebnor and drummer Murray "Hounddog" Heywood in Positively Stompin' and the others became The Chickens –  there were some still wondering whether they would be the same full-tilt rock 'n' roll party band they remembered. 

With rhythm guitarist Ted Triebnor living in Saskatchewan and unable to rehearse, Dave Dysart from their old Og Music labelmates Supreme Bagg Team was deputized and proved to be a worthy replacement. Dysart also lent his production skills to the task of remixing the cassette-quality tape that UIC recorded in 1988 with former Blue Rodeo keyboardist Bob Wiseman into what became the unanticipated 2016 delight of The Wiseman Sessions album. 

Even though Oshawa had been a UIC stronghold, headlining the Mike Star Tribute at the jam-packed Royal Canadian Legion on April 2, 2016 wouldn't be a cakewalk. UIC would have to follow a rousing set from Peter Zaremba's Rock Delegation featuring The Fleshtones' Keith Streng and the Purple Toads' Rob Sweeney and member of his band Crummy Stuff. But any lingering doubts about the current state of UIC were quickly quashed when the group's rubber-legged frontman Dave Robinson came strutting onto stage and hyperactively bounced his way through songs from their 1986 debut album Our Garage (Fringe Product) much like he did 30 years earlier. A few more gems from their whumpin' 1988 classic Live / Like Ninety (Og Music) left the well-lubed crowd hollering for more which they kindly obliged by roaring through The Stooges' "No Fun" and The Ramones' "Rockaway Beach." 

As impressive as the UIC performance was, the half-joking jabs of "play something new" from greying fans who'd followed the group from the start had hit home. After the 30th anniversary performance of Our Garage in Toronto and the 2017 release party for The Wiseman Sessions, they knew it was time to stop looking backwards. That fall, as the band returned to their rehearsal space to work on new material, bassist Dan "Hack" Preszcator suddenly fell ill. While Dan took time off to recover, El Speedo bassist Andy Hauber was asked to fill in on a temporary basis. Sadly, Dan passed away from an auto-immune disorder on March 29, 2018. Knowing how much Dan wanted UIC to record again, the surviving members were now even more determined to see the FM Hill album through to completion.        

In June 2019, the UIC crew assembled at Canterbury Music in Toronto with a fresh set of tunes and a few from the past that were never fully realized. While the songs of FM Hill still feel like classic UIC, there's a new sense of self-assuredness to the performances that only comes with playing together for decades. Canuck rock legend Ian Blurton (Public Animal, C'Mon, Cursed, etc) who'd seen UIC firing on all cylinders at their peak was wisely brought in for the mixdown before the tracks were sent off to Noah Mintz at Lacquer Channel for proper mastering.

The album opens with the crankin' lead single "Superstar"(listen below) followed by the mighty riff from "Mystery Train" which sounds more than a bit like the one Kurt Cobain used for "Smells Like Teen Spirit." But as UIC fans know, a live version of "Mystery Train" appeared on their Live / Like Ninety, recorded at Lee's Palace in November 1988 and released in early 1989 – a year before Kurt came up with "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Nirvana  didn't perform the song in public until April 17th, 1991 and it was recorded in the studio in May of that year. Hmmm...

The "Mystery Train" story for UIC began sometime in 1988 when Fred Robinson was approached by Richard Carstens, then singer/guitarist of Toronto rock 'n' roll trio The Wammee, with a tape of a song he'd written and demoed acoustically which he thought was right for UIC. Sadly, Carstens passed away in 2014 at the age of 53 but Robinson well remembers the day Richard dropped by with a cassette in hand.

"Back in 1987/88 we had a band house in Toronto at 13 Grenadier," remembers Robinson. "Lonnie James was living there and was playing with The Wammie. Richard (Carstens) was also with Wammie and would stop over on occasion. He presented a cassette with an acoustic version of this song and asked if we would take a crack at learning it. We loved the song and rocked it up with a key change and restructuring. Richard wrote many great songs." Watch a clip of The Wammee playing "Mystery Train" right here. 

The new studio version of "Mystery Train" sounds like nothing other than primo UIC with a sound and structure more in line with The Haunted's Montreal garage classic "1-2-5" than anything to come out of Seattle. Loyal UIC supporters will be relieved to know that the group have remained true to their rock 'n' roll roots on FM Hill. 

There are no cheesy orchestral strings added, no choral backing vocals, no syrupy synth washes, no programmed drums, no guest rappers, no plaintive piano ballads – no baloney. And although they've each become better musicians in the years between studio sessions, their musical maturity hasn't gotten in the way of the go-for-broke attitude with which they still approach every tune. And really, you shouldn't expect anything less from dudes who took their marching orders from The Stooges, The MC5, The Ramones, Teenage Head and Radio Birdman. Yeah hup!

Like UIC at their top-dollar best on stage, the fat-free 10 track album is a straight up ripper from start to finish. In fact, FM Hill is probably the closest they've ever come to capturing that sweaty UIC small club experience in a studio setting. You'll hear it when FM Hill is released digitally on UIC's own Like Ninety Records via Warner Music Canada on Friday (October 23) followed by a vinyl release Friday, October 30 wherever rock 'n' roll records are still sold. 

UIC hosts a release partty for FM Hill at Toronto's venerable Horseshoe Tavern on Saturday, November 21 at 8:30 pm – get tickets right here. In the meantime, watch UIC perform "Mystery Train" at The Horseshoe back in 2017 followed by "Superstar" off the new album below.