Remember b/w This Winter

Moonquake came together in Montréal at the start of the 1970s, but bassist and singer Jack August had been part of the city's rock scene for most of a decade by then. Born Jakob August Geisinger in Czechoslovakia in March 1945, he came up in the early 1960s alongside guitarist Walter Rossi and pianist Bob Parkins in Bob & the Messengers and the Soul Mates, and later played with the Buddy Miles Quartet. In 1967 he became a founding member of Influence, the ambitious, satirical Montréal band that recorded its only album for ABC at Bell Studios in New York, opened for the Doors at Toronto's CNE and supported Procol Harum and Steppenwolf in the American Midwest before breaking up in early 1969. August sat in on Milkwood's unreleased Polydor sessions, joined Luke & the Apostles in February 1970 and brought Rossi in after him, and the two carried on as the power trio Charlee, whose lone RCA album appeared in 1972.

That same year August played bass on Michel Pagliaro's album PAG, credited as "Thunder Bass" J. August Gessinger. Guitarist Hovaness Hagopian was in the same circle and co-wrote 'Fou de toi' with Pagliaro for the record. August, Hagopian and drummer Derek Kendrick are said to have worked together as Pagliaro's backing band before striking out as a trio of their own.

Hagopian played acoustic and electric guitars, electric sitar and synthesizer and produced the band's records, August sang most of the leads, and Kendrick played drums and percussion and sang harmony. They called themselves Earthquake, and in 1973 Gamma Records issued their first single, 'Remember' backed with 'This Winter' (GA 5038), in a picture sleeve introducing "a new group from Montreal." The sleeve pitched 'Remember' as a song about instant nostalgia, about fashions and pop heroes turning over so quickly that the young could look back fondly on 1971, 1972 or last week.

Within months the band learned that a California group was already using the Earthquake name, and the Montréal trio became Moonquake. In October 1973 Gamma's Dan Lazare struck a deal with Ralph Kaffel of Fantasy Records to release 'Remember' in the United States at the end of the month, with Fantasy also taking the band's first album.

The self-titled Moonquake LP followed on Gamma (GS 510) in 1973. Hagopian produced it, with Pete Tessier, Claude Demers, Nick Blagona, Terry Brown and Brian Gardner among the engineers. 'Remember' returned at 5:40, nearly twice the length of the single, with Germain Gauthier on keyboards for it and 'This Winter', while Ozzie Ahlers sat in on 'It's My Life' and 'Seasons'. Hagopian took the lead vocal on three songs, and the album closed with 'Crazy Situations', a ten-minute, six-part suite that opens and ends with 'Pack Up My Fender'. Ottawa Citizen writer Bill Provick heard echoes of the Yardbirds and Lennon and McCartney and called it "the finest debut album I've heard in some time." 'Pack Up My Fender' backed with 'It's My Life' (GA 5044) followed as a single in the spring of 1974.

By the spring of 1975 Moonquake had signed with Aquarius Records, home of April Wine, and were opening for April Wine on a cross-country tour that sold out rooms from Winnipeg through Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Edmonton, Red Deer, North Battleford, Saskatoon and Regina before moving into British Columbia in late April and May. Their first Aquarius single, 'Star Struck', was picking up airplay as the tour went west.

The album Star Struck was a far bigger production than the debut. Paul Leka and Billy Rose produced it, with Hagopian assisting, at Fantasy Recording Studio, Connecticut Recording Studio and Los Angeles Sound Studio, and David Axelrod wrote and conducted the string and horn arrangements. Ahlers and Leka played keyboards, and Frank Simms, George Simms and Dave Kondziela added vocals. Kendrick shared writing credit with August and Hagopian on 'Babylon Revisited' and 'C'mon (I'm Not A Link On Your Chain)'.

'Wild Little Story' (Aquarius AQ 5042) became their breakthrough. By early August it was on playlists across the country and had just been added at CHUM, and it entered the RPM 100 at No. 89 the week of August 9, with Fantasy issuing it in the United States. It reached No. 69 that October. Creem's November 1975 review heard the country side of the Rolling Stones, Love It To Death era Alice Cooper, Motown and 1965 Los Angeles pop in the album, and likened the band's magpie approach to the Raspberries.

Moonquake's last single, 'Bang Bang Baby' backed with 'Main Man', came out on Aquarius in 1976. No later Moonquake recordings are known, and the trio appears to have broken up soon afterward. Jack August went on to record with the Bombers.

-Robert Williston