Blank Generation

Short-lived Edmoton addition to the Canadian punk movement, Blank Generation was founded in ’79 by U of A students and chums guitarist Helmuth Sultanow and bassist Craig Fenrich. With drummer Mork Stordal and James P McQuarrie on keyboards, they were influenced by the tail end of the British punk invasion, and began playing the clubs around town, becoming regulars at the Hub at the University.

Fenrich was going by the name of Cragory Quasar, and they eventually expanded their market to Calgary, Saskatoon, and Winnipeg. Playing mostly originals Quasar and Sultanow had written themselves, they piggy backed onto others’ shows, including Personality Crisis and SNFU, among others.

By the spring of 1981 they’d talked local promoter Gus Whitney into recording some demos, culminating in the self-financed 7-track EP, LAST GENERATION later that year. Rough around the edges and full of angst and rebellion just like punk was supposed to be, McQuarrie’s keyboards in tracks like “Shoot To Kill,” the lead-off “Reaction,” and the title track made it in an interesting mix, but didn’t culminate in earth-shattering reviews for its creativity or help sell records. Still, it was a mix of unique musical elements that set them apart from the rest of the pack in a genre that was already well on its way to mutating into new wave.

They carried on to the end of the year, but eventually morphed into Dammerung. When that project failed to take off, Fenrich also tried his hand at two other similar punk and electronic fusions – Insex and Office, even getting some local TV coverage with the latter after moving to Vancouver. But nothing panned out, and like the rest of the original members of Blank Generation, he eventually got out of the business all together.