strange coyotes

2013-2014

S A U L T   S T E   M A R I E ,   O N


Mike Haggith - Percussion, Vocals

James Watterworth - Bass, Vocals, Saxophone

Chase Wigmore - Guitar, Vocals, Violin

 

    Strange Coyotes was inadvertently formed on the night of 30 October 2013, after Haggith and Wigmore joined fellow musician Watterworth on stage for a performance mainly comprised of Watterworth's original music, at the Oddfellows Hall in downtown Sault Ste Marie. An instant favorite with a very niche crowd within the Sault Ste Marie music scene, the group performed a handful of concerts- mainly appearing for obscure public shows, and private house parties. While the majority of the Coyotes' live sets featured Watterworth on bass and Wigmore on guitar, there were a handful of occasions when the two would take up secondary instruments instead. The two strongest examples of this were the popular Sax Jam, featuring Watterworth playing the bass and saxophone simultaneously, and the infamous performance of The Sapphoerotic Asphyxiations Of Shannon And Linda, which has attained cult notoriety amongst those in attendance for the entirely improvised performance, featuring Wigmore squealing away on a violin, playing with a mannequin head, and providing a dramatic reading of a Penthouse magazine story.

     The group's initial run was short-lived. While they went into the studio with ample material for their debut album, they instead decided at the last minute to improvise the entire record, which ended up becoming a seven-track, 27-minute mix of genres, with varying amounts of sarcasm throughout. On 13 November 2013, the band's self-titled debut album was released. None of the seven album tracks would ever be performed live, as the group entered hiatus during the spring and summer of 2014. While the band made a comeback on 30 October 2014 to commemorate the one-year anniversary of their initial show, a handful of sporadic concerts throughout the winter months eventually culminated in the group's effective disbanding in early 2015. A second album, Strange Coyotes II, was largely comprised of live audio from a Coyotes concert on 21 November 2014, and was released posthumously.

 


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