NC-17 - "Cubicle"
...Not if I Smell You First
Song released in 1993. Compilation released in 1994.
Indie Rock
NC-17, who later switched their name to Treble Charger for legal reasons, are one of those long-beloved and popular rock bands from Canada that hardly anyone outside of the country seems to know about. Maybe you would've seen them if you're an American who watched the MuchMusic channel when it was a fixture of lots of US cable packages back in the mid-90s to early 2000s, but other than that, they weren't very accessible outside of the Land of Maple. In their later years they transitioned into a pop-punk band and seemed to sell some of their souls in the process, but before that, they were just more straight-up indie/alt. Sum 41 were also their protégés at one point, and in his 2024 memoir, Sum 41 frontman Deryck Whibley alleged some shocking stuff about being groomed and both sexually and psychologically abused by Treble Charger frontman Greig Nori, when Deryck was only 16 and Greig was in his 30s and also Sum 41's manager. And while Nori insists that it was an entirely consensual relationship that Deryck actually initiated himself when he was 18, these allegations have obviously tarnished Treble Charger's legacy; not to mention the brutal irony of a band whose former name meant 'no child under 17;' fuckin' yikes 😬.
But anyway, separating the art from the artist and all that, Treble Charger were a good band in their early days. They employed this neat guitar sound that kind of felt like an elephant trumpeting its own trunk, and Canucks went nuts for it. In '93, they paid their way towards their debut album, NC-17, on their own Smokin' Worm Records, and it managed to top the country's indie charts that year. A rising label in Ontario called Sonic Unyon was responsible for distributing it, and then in early '94, SU released their own v/a comp called ...Not if I Smell You First that included NC-17's "Cubicle" on it too. The success of that comp would then help transform SU from being a fledgling Canadian indie label into a formidable one, and following that, they then scooped up Treble Charger for themselves.
So, here's that NC-17/Treble Charger song from the Sonic Unyon comp that would change the fates and fortunes of both the label and then the band. The beginning of "Cubicle" presages the group's later transition towards punk, but that peppy intro peters out and then the song turns into a satisfyingly hypnotic mid-90s watery-jangly beaut. The choruses surge a bit harder than the verses, but the tune proceeds to soar on the extended outro, as the fuzzy elephantine sound manifests itself and drones psychedelically to the finish line. Excepting its brief, punky intro, this is one of those pretty damn good simmer-then-boil indie songs, I think.
And while it's not the signature tune of their pre-pop-punk era—that honor belongs to a ballad-anthem called "Red," which maxes so fully out on the elephantism that it became one of the single-most played songs on all of Canadian alt rock radio in the 90s—"Cubicle" is still evidently both a quality and important tune in the band's canon; because if these then-unsigned-hype darlings don't highlight that Sonic Unyon comp with this, then maybe Sonic Unyon's trajectory lowers to a point in which signing Treble Charger becomes infeasible for them, and then, considering just how big of an act the band went on to become, maybe both the timeline and landscape of Canadian alterna-and-indie rock is fundamentally altered and represents something completely different from how Canadians know it today too. Like, what even is early-to-mid-2000s Canada without Sum 41? It could all very well hinge on this song right here, couldn't it? 🤔
