Treble Charger is a rock band from Ontario, Canada. The band was formed in 1992 by Greig Nori and Bill Priddle (both guitarists and vocalists), originally under the name NC17, before another band with the same name threatened to sue (they, however, used it for the debut album). Apart from Priddle and Nori, the first known line-up featured bass guitarist Rosie Martin and drummer Morris Palter. During their earlier years, the band played melodic Indie Rock.
Their second album Self Title featured a bonus CD-ROM track promoting some of their favorite Canadian indie bands.
Palter left the band during the recording of their third album Maybe It's Me, only appearing on four songs. After the rest of the album was finished with session musician Mike Levesque, Trevor MacGregor joined as the new drummer, and was also listed in the booklet, although he did not perform on the record itself. While Maybe It's Me was stylistically still rooted in indie rock, it had a more commercial sound and showed some hints at the band's subsequent switch to Pop Punk.
With their fourth album, Wide Awake Bored, Treble Charger really came into it's own, commercially and artistically, completing their transition to pop punk and scoring hit singles "Brand New Low" and their undisputed masterpiece, "American Psycho"note . This was followed by Detox, which featured another hit "Hundred Million". The music video for this song featured some other musicians, such as Gob, AvrilLavigne and Sum41. Nori was at that point largely involved with Sum 41 as their manager and producer. Priddle, dissatisfied with the band's pop punk direction, left the band in 2003. He was replaced by Devin Bronson. However, the band gradually ceased their activities and eventually broke up in 2006.
Bill and Greig reunited the band in 2012, initially without anybody else from the original run, though Rosie Martin re-joined the band in 2018. While the activities have been rather sparse, they're set to record and release a new album in 2019.
Discography:
- NC17 (1994)
- Self=Title (1995)
- Maybe It's Me (1997)
- Wide Awake Bored (2000)
- Detox (2002)
Tropes associated with the band:
- Album Title Drop: Maybe It's Me is dropped in "Stupid Thing to Say", while Detox appears in "Hundred Million".
- Played with in "American Psycho" from Wide Awake Bored, which features the lyric "wide awake and never bored."
- Careful with That Axe: From "Hundred Million""A hundred million people seing my way... LOOOOUUD!"
- Genre Shift: From Indie Rock to Pop Punk, starting to show up on Maybe It's Me and eventually completed with Wide Awake Bored. However, even their later albums still had some indie rock songs, particularly the ones sung by Bill.
- I Am the Band / The Band Minus the Face: After Bill left, Grieg briefly continued the band without him, although it didn't really go anywhere.
- The Glasses Gotta Go: Bill switched to contant lenses during Wide Awake Bored / Detox era.
- Longest Song Goes Last: "Drive" from Detox, lasting over 7 minutes. Also a case of Epic Rocking.
- Mooning: Tom Thacker of Gob does this towards the end of music video for "Hundred Million", although some people mistakingly assumed it was Avril Lavigne.
- Perishing Alt-Rock Voice: Bill. Greig also on older albums.
- Soprano and Gravel: While Bill continued to sing in his soft, relaxed voice, Greig started using much more louder and slightly aggressive voice.
- Take That!: "American Psycho" isn't just a dig at shallow and vapid celebrities, as well as people willing to stab others in the back for personal gain, it's also a personal statement about the band itself.Prima donna, self absorbedWide awake and never boredParty binge and purge and seeResults of plastic surgerySpotted at the hottest showsInterview on Charlie RoseThey all want a piece of you
- Uncommon Time: "Tired of It Anyway" drops some 3/4 measures towards the end.
- Vocal Tag Team: Older albums are more in Bill's favor, while later releases have more songs by Greig, both of them are however featured as vocalists on all albums.
