Artist description we just enjoy playing music together and if other people enjoy the music we make all the better... FIGHT THE MONSTER: THE BEGINNING As the coffee brews, as the runners run and the sneakers sneak; the priests pick up kids and the kids pick up guns. As the rich throw out food and the poor throw out hope the Monster grows, the Monster changes and the Monster thinks it has won. The Monster thinks it has won. Our destiny chose us, we did not choose it. May 10th, 1983, the headline read, "Three young boys trampled by rampaging bison herd 13 KM north of Regina. One dead, others recovering in hospital." I remember the months spent in intensive care recovering from various broken bones, cuts and bruises. My name is Kenton and May 10th changed everything. In the room next to me lay my best friend Kirk who's injuries were slightly worse than my own, he was in a coma for two months, whereas I regained consciousness after only three weeks. Mike wasn't so lucky. I was told some years later that his head had been completely smashed in by the stampeding buffalo. His body was no longer recognizable, his death crushed his family as the bison crushed his skull. At the age of 13 I was released from the hospital and regained the ability to walk. I lost contact with Kirk after that, I guess we couldn't really deal with Mikes death at the time and thought it best to go our separate ways. At least that is how I remember it. For all the years to follow I was reminded of the incident nightly through dreams and nightmares. They were generally all the same, just a rerun of that one moment; the three of us playing cowboys and Indians in the open prairie and seeing a huge dust cloud headed our way. The next thing I know, all I see is bison, all I hear is thunder and all I feel is pain. These dreams remained unchanged. That is, until my 25th birthday. I was celebrating with friends at a place near Craven, Saskatchewan called the Buffalo Jump. Ironically, this is a place where aboriginal peoples once chased buffalo off the cliff as a hunting method. I knew everyone at the get together, Jereme, Angela, Rob, Colin, Tanys, Kenny, and a handful of other friends and acquaintances. I was not expecting to meet the stranger whom had wondered near our camp fire asking for tobacco. We were more than happy to oblige and the stranger joined us for a drink and a smoke. He was quiet and polite, never really saying much to anyone until he asked me to go to the top of the cliff. Normally I am not socialable enough to go on journeys with strangers, but at this point the drink and the smoke had caught up with me and a trek up a cliff seemed like the right thing to do. Others showed interest as well, but the stranger insisted on a one on one experience. And so we set out. Away from the fire, down the valley to the front of the cliff and up, and up, and up we went thought eh narrow crevasse created by rain and past trips up the cliff. None of which, it would turn out, had the importance or significance of this journey. At the top the two of us peered down to the tiny fire where we once sat . At this moment I realized that I did not even know the strangers name. As I turned to ask him, before I could get the words out, he spoke..."M-4" is all he said. "Excuse me,"I replied, once again he spoke, and "M-4" was all he said. he handed me a piece of paper, turned, and walked away. As I watched him slowly get further and further away I thought to myself, "how strange," folded the piece of paper, placed it in my pocket and hiked down the cliff. That night I had the strangest dream, it began the same as all the others, cowboys and Indians, dust cloud, thunder, stampede; then it happened. As I lay on the ground feeling my bones turn to mush I look to my left and see Mike being lifted up by what seems to be a white buffalo. I immediately wake up. The first thing that enters my mind is that piece of paper M-4 had given me. I had not looked at it yet, I actually forgot about it completely which is quite strange for me considering my unquenchable curiosity. I reach for my pants, blue cargo pants, and grab the folded up, partially rained on piece of paper. As I slowly unfold it I hear the sound of thunder, stampeding bison, I can smell the dust, and taste the blood. My stomach tenses up, my palms begin to sweat, and I start to read. It only says, "find Kirk and fight the monster." Find Kirk! How does M-4 know of Kirk and what does fight the monster mean? Well, there was only one thing to do, I had to talk to Kirk and get to the bottom of this very bizarre situation. The last I had heard Kirk was traveling across the country singing songs and playing the guitar in small clubs and coffee shops. Just as I was beginning to think of how I could track him down the phone rang. "Hello," I say, there is silence. "Hello," I say a second time, the voice on the other side responds, "Kenton, is that you? This is Kirk." Just when I thought I was beyond being surprised, my mind gets blown once again. I can not believe what I am hearing. After the initial "Hi's and how you been's," Kirk explained to me an encounter at a night club with someone known as Vinny Gore. This Vinny Gore person was playing in a band called Moral Panic who had been performing the same night as Kirk. Anyway, Vinny Gore handed Kirk a piece of paper that night which read, "find Kenton and fight the monster." Needless to say, Kirk found me, I found Kirk...what of this monster and how are we supposed to fight it? Both of us were equally confused, bewildered, and very curious as to what to do next. We decided to meet for coffee the following Tuesday because Kirk was performing in Regina. What we expected to get out of this meeting was unknown, I guess we both thought at worst we would get a chance to catch up with each other and have a nice visit. As I entered the coffee shop my stomach felt the same way it did when I first read M-4's letter, my heart rate rose and my palms began to sweat. I wondered, 'what the hell is going on with me?" That is the last thing I remember. When I opened my eyes all I could see was sky, I moved my hand and felt a sharp pain as I pressed into a small cactus. I found myself laying in the middle of a very familiar field miles away from the club where I hoped to meet up with Kirk. The sun was beating down relentlessly on my dusty, aching body when I realized I was alone. I began to walk. In the distance I saw a person coming up on the horizon and heard a voice yelling, "Kenton, Kenton!" over and over. Even though I could not make out the figure I knew it was Kirk. We continued to walk towards one another. As he came into view we began to hear the sounds of thunder and saw a dust cloud forming to the east of us. All of a sudden it all stopped. Everything stopped, it was as though the earth stopped moving all together. At that moment I looked at Kirk, he looked at me, we both turned and were face to face with the one I knew only as M-4. Simultaneously I yelled out, "M-4!" and Kirk called out, "Vinny Gore!" Two were actually one and things began to take shape. He spoke, "You know me as M-4, you know me as Vinny Gore, therefore I am M-4 Vinny Gore. I knew you both when you were very young. We were all together the day of May 10th, 1983 on the prairie. I was thought to be dead, in reality, I was born on that day, as were you two. You both saw the white buffalo, the same white buffalo that carried me away to another place far from here. When you were in the hospital unconscious I was with you, we were together, training for the day when we would be reunited. That day is now, the time is here, the journey is about to begin." "Is this where the monster comes in?" I ask. M-4 replies, "The Monster came in thousands of years ago, the Monster has been around for as long as time. Only now is the Monster strong enough to truly win the fight it has struggled with for eternity." He continued, "first you must understand that the monster comes in as many forms as there is stars in the sky. It is an abusive husband, it is a military death squad, it is the suffering of animals made to be fast food, it is your boss, your government, your priest, and your teacher. It is children in sweatshops, it is addiction, it is poverty, it is homelessness, and it is television. It is your neighbor who sprays pesticides which blow into your yard, it is the company dumping hazardous waste into the rivers. It is here, it is now, and it is very real." Kirk speaks up, "so how are two prairie boys supposed to fight the monster?" "You cannot fight it alone, I will be joining you." replied M-4 Vinny Gore. "The only way to fight the monster is with music, it is the only thing that can hurt and defeat the monster. "It can not be seen by others, only us, only the survivors of the Bison stampede. The day that gave us all the power of the creature despised by the monster." "The monster has tried to rid the world of this animal and has failed, this upsets the monster, it undermines its power." "From this day on it is our responsibility to write songs and travel from city to city, country to country, following the monster till it is defeated by the music of the great buffalo." This is our story, we did not choose our destiny, it chose us. We will sing and create music till the monster has disappeared from within us and from around us...Float like ice-cubes, off to war.

Music Style alternative/country/folk/canadiana

Musical Influences Dan Bern, Will Oldham, Steve Earle, Bruce Springsteen,

Similar Artists does it really matter

Group Members Kirk Neil, Robin McIntyre, Kenton Hall

Instruments bass guitar, guitar, drums

Albums Buffao EP, Meat Hotel

Location Regina, Saskatchewan - Canada

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