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![[Image of apple]](../graphics/apple1.gif) GARDEN VARIETY BIO
The Leslie Spit Treeo were signed, sealed, and delivered by Capitol Records in the fall of 1990. Prior to that they
were busking in the streets of Toronto to augment their acting and playwrighting habits. "Don't Cry Too Hard" took them
across Canada four times, was released in the states on I.R.S. Records and launched them on a seven week tour of America
with The Alarm. Winners of the Juno that year for Canada's most promising band their future indeed looked bright. "Book of
Rejection" was released in 1992 - a prophetic tale of industry schmoozing and broken promises, an industry the band never
quite felt they fit into, an album they had become superfluous to. Someone else's "product." The album spawned a critically
received play of the same name that explored their relationship with the record company. A relationship that slowly began to
deteriorate. Jack Nicholsen was jonesing for a steady acting fix and left The Spits in the Spring of '93 to pursue one. The
band had reached an impasse with EMI and neither party was having any more fun. After some pleading and reasoning,
Capitol granted Laura and Pat their wish and said good-bye, leaving them free to write songs about whatever they wanted to
write songs about and to perform them. They sent a self-produced demo to Joe Hardy, a Memphis based producer of note,
who had worked with everyone from Tom Cochrane to ZZ Top. Joe dug the tunes, worked for free, put the band up and fed
them. They formed their own record label named after and run by their dog -- Tag Records. And the rest is Hell's Kitchen.
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