UPhold was formed around a solid core of instruments, the first 'official export' of Defiance (the so-called "Nightmare City"). The group rode the new wave of mythology regarding the city's existance; they hob-nobbed with Dr. Rattan (tea, poetry readings, and an impromptu 'jam' at the then-fashionable "9th Wave," which began the so-called "10th wave" of historical speculation). UPhold made their beliefs known on the 48th anniversary of the birth of the "Popular Singer" (November 15, 1945), beginning their release (and rehash) of a series of "GREENman" tapes, the first of which was Ernesto (LupA, 90m). Previously, their recorded output had consisted of the soundtrack for Golden Grant's lesbian-scientist-fiction cult film Mouse Tears (60m, out of circulation), and some of UPhold's instruments were used by the experimental noise group, Mindsculpture.

      It would not be wise to gloss over the experience gained from volunteering at CKMS, the University of Waterloo campus radio station.  Many pre-dawn hours were spent with Revox reel-to-reel recorders, many records were skipped to a discordant beat, many CD players were used and abused.  It was discovered that the squeaky wheels of chairs can sound like seagulls, and that an extensive vinyl library is a blessing.  The CKMS shortwave setup brought back memories of shortwaves past...it could be (and still can be) coaxed into making beautiful sounds like "zup-zup, zup-zup, zup-zup."  An guy named Sean went to British Columbia, and left behind a curious keyboard/sampler and a little drum machine.

      Around this time Philler, a weekly half-hour sketch-comedy program began to take shape.  It was a curious shape, bulging here and there, but brought The Instruments into contact with Eli McIlveen, then of Spastic Attack Dogs.  Eli played guitar, made tape loops, and built machines that said "meow."  Much of the resulting collaborations were broadcast on CKMS, and when mere broadcast was insufficient they were recorded to 4-track.  Neb Rakic (Mindsculpture, AER) contributed his own brand of chaos, as did Detlef Burghardt (guitar and bass in between trips around the globe), and other unsavoury characters.  Jim DeJong (The Infant Cycle) was always around to help out and offer advice.  "Feedback!" he said, and it was good.  Philler dissolved in '94, and Mindsculpture continued on without The Instruments (using different Instruments, now), but UPhold forged ahead alone.

      Meanwhile, Jim's label DDT (now The Ceiling) released a compilation cassette with a GREENman track on it in 1994, and next year came out with a split cassette with T.U.O.B entitled (enigmatically) A Split Cassette. The GREENman side ("L'il Debbil") gave insight into Samantha's crimes against humankind...and city officials (especially the Reverend Ward) were shocked to hear Chuck (her creator) justifying what she'd done.  It was proposed at this time to record an epic release, documenting the ongoing story of the City of Defiance -- the beauty queens, Audrey's ghost parties, the songs of the crocodiles, the yearly parade and Samantha's story, of course -- but this has never been realized.  Bits and pieces have shown up in diverse places (Drabbletales and Mission Control, in particular).

      The UPhold base of operations moved from the "Blackhead/Whitehead Bedroom" to "The Grey Yonder" in 1996, around the time that GREENman played a one-off show with AER at "The Beat," where they serve really rotten bar lime.  Another change of studios ("The Abbxcess Bedroom") brought a tour of The Radiator House, entitled Drabbletales (LupF, 60m, early '97), a more ambitious undertaking than the previous releases. Effigy Magazine reviewed it and asked "Is this music?", claiming it to be a security risk, and Reverend Ward wholeheartedly agreed...it placed #22 in CKMS's 'Hot 100 of '97,' however, and UPhold celebrated by compiling -- at long last -- The True Story of Muffy St. Jacques (LupG, 60m, early '98). A collection of remixings, reworkings, and rethinkings, it attempted to document The Parade in as honest a way as possible. Mr. Bones said "...at last, the true story needs to be told!" and as usual, everyone agreed with him...hence, LupG came with a handy read-along booklet.

      At last, completing the cycle of original GREENman tapes...Saturn (DMentH, 60m) was released, both in CD and cassette format. It was an exploration of UPhold's home town, Defiance, and an attempt at reconciliation with Violent Daisy. It was decided that the cycle was finished; UPhold would record as UPhold again, and work on a number of backlogged projects: a greatest hits package entitled The Colour of Snakes On Ice ('99) and the eventual re-release of the Mouse Tears soundtrack. Carl Wright said some mighty grand things about UPhold, as did some other wonderful people, but since the distribution of their product employed the "Hermann Approach" -- that is, the cassettes being spontaneously, as opposed to systematically, available -- not many people knew about the band, or knew how to get the recordings. You had to be very persistant, very lucky, or both.
 

      So this brings us finally to the letter "U," and a professor once explained to me that the letter "U" is more or less cursed, alphabetically, so close to the end of the book shelves and CD racks that people are fatigued and satiated by the time they get there, but not so close that somebody who starts from the end of the alphabet (to be weird) finds the stuff right away.  Still it doesn't seem to me that the artists in "U, V, W, X, Y and Z" care much about their product and maybe are irresponsible, deliberately obscure, or born in Czechoslovakia.
      And first of all, after thinking of what my professor said, I can't help thinking about the "U" names and why they came up in the first place.  "Uphold" makes me think of a robbery, or a moral stoicism, or a bra, depending on what I'm looking at when I hear the word.  Like most of what ends up coming from Defiance, this stuff is not so much linear or ear-sweet as I would appreciate, you can sometimes hear the flames in what must be a tiny recording studio surrounded by burnt stuffed animals.  Well hey, thanks Bruno, your legacy lives on!
      "Uphold" has made two CDs so far, both a bit similar in sound and also sharing some songs, the first CD "Leopard Betty (SW?)" a sort of 20-minute single, and the subsequent "Pony Tale" which is full-length and a bit diverse.  You can buy "Pony Tale" from The Ceiling if you like and it even comes with a hidden picture.  It all takes some getting used to and sounds like a collection of songs instead of what might be a concept album or at least a cohesive plan in the way earlier "Greenman" sounded sometimes.
      If you do like the concept sound, though, and are less picky in terms of how interesting things can be, "Uphold" helps make things called "Frequent Mutilations" (or "Mutes") which are played on CKMS on Saturday evenings, and these 60 minute recordings are also available on CDs directly from the People, and maybe eventually from CKMS itself.  This stuff keeps everybody very busy obviously, but it sounds like "Uphold" likes the digital editing format very much.
      "Who inspired Uphold?" I asked awhile ago, and I was told: Mike Oldfield, Laurie Anderson, Pink Floyd, Thomas Dolby, Mindsculpture, Negativland, The Institute of Invisible Language, The Residents, The Legendary Pink Dots, Skinny Puppy, Hindi film music, 50's Hollywood musicals, Meat Beat Manifesto, and everybody else, not necessarily in that order.  When I asked "why?" there wasn't an answer except something vague about fun and being driven.
      Maybe I give a lot of attention to "Uphold" because they are the only "U" in local art that I can think of right now.  But maybe also "Uphold" is good (for being bad), and not so many can make that claim.

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