The Inbreds

In the early '90s, beloved Kingston duo The Inbreds made indie magic from the most minimal tools: a drum kit, multi-tracker, a bass guitar and a gloriously versatile fuzz pedal. Thanks to drummer Dave Ullrich's archivist tendencies, fans never gave up hope of a reunion, and now their devotion is rewarded -- at least for a night. With Ullrich going full-tilt on his download label, Zunior.com, and Mike O'Neill in Halifax dividing his time between cartoon foley work and sound for the Trailer Park Boys, there hasn't been much time to play around. But 10 years after their breakthrough Kombinator was released, Zunior.com is marking the occasion by releasing a collection of B-sides, including a hilarious lo-fi precursor to the mash-up -- their song "Prince" set to a pots-and-pans rendition of James Brown's "Funky Drummer" drumbeat. On the eve of Friday's reunion gig at Lee's Palace, Ullrich took some time out to reminisce.

Why an Inbreds reunion now?

It's the way [Santa Cruz party planner] Tyler [Clark Burke] asked, probably. She wrote us this really long letter with all kinds of good things that she remembered about the band and asked us to do a show. It was gonna happen last year but took until now because Mike was touring with Sarah Harmer. The timing was really good because we just did a bunch of things with Zunior for The Inbreds -- not necessarily to coincide with the show, it's just something I've been wanting to do for years.

You've always maintained The Inbreds' website and now you've put out reissues and a DVD -- what's the motivation?

It's almost like collecting records, trying to save the bits and pieces as we went along. I've always just been the fan -- even when I started playing, it was still more about just buying records. I had all this stuff sitting around, a lot of it on VHS tapes that were literally falling apart. It still blows my mind what we didn't save.

Why do you think people are still so obsessed with The Inbreds?

I just think music defines a time in your life. It might be the fact that we actually met a lot of these people -- there are a lot of people that we handshake/eye-to-eye knew -- and Mike is such a character that people always remember these outrageous Mike stories. The thing about Mike is that he's got a very innocent type of charm, and that connects with people.

What was it about that particular moment in Canadian music that was so special?

It was the true strength of independent music -- there really was a time when the doors were just opening and retail stores were actually starting to sell independent music. I'll always remember this one moment, going into Sam the Record Man -- they'd have the Top 10 records up as you walked in the door -- and No. 1 was Barenaked Ladies' [self-titled] yellow cassette and No. 2 was Michael Jackson. Something snapped in my head and I thought, "Wow, this can be done."

HELEN SPITZER

The Inbreds play Santa Cruz with Fox the Boombox at Lee's Palace (529 Bloor W) Mar 11. $10 from Rotate This, Soundscapes.