The Nils

The Nils
Origin	Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Genres	Punk
Years active	1978–Present
Labels	Psyche Industry Records, Siefried Records, Rock Hotel / Profile, Mag Wheel Records
Members	Carlos Soria Phil 'Gravedigger' Psarakos Mark Donato

The Nils was a Montreal punk rock band formed in 1978 by Alex Soria. They started to gain popularity in 1982 upon the release of a five song demo entitled Now.

In 1983, they played Montreal's legendary venue The Spectrum; once with The Ramones and later with X. During this year, they were selected to showcase their song ″Scratches and Needles″ on an L.A. based BYO compilation entitled "Something to Believe In" before next being selected to feature ″Call of The Wild″ on the "Primitive Air Raid: Montreal ‘84" compilation.

The band acquired a significant following by extensively touring North America while still managing to release two EPs back to back: Sell Out Young (1985) and Paisley (1986). Their critical success caught the attention of executives of the now defunct NYC hip hop label Profile records.

The band signed a five-year contract with Rock Hotel, a punk/rock sub-label of Profile and with the help of English songwriter Chris Spedding as producer and Phil Burnett as engineer, they released their first full length self-titled album. Upon its release, the album charted and was a critical success. Their increasing fanbase including musicians in the genre began naming them as a direct influence: Goo Goo Dolls, Superchunk, Jawbox, Meat Puppets, Down By Law, Bob Mould (Sugar, Hüsker Dü).

The band set off on their seventh North American tour and was slated to include Europe in support of the album. However, halfway through the tour in Minneapolis, the band abruptly received notice that the rest of the tour was cancelled due to the bankruptcy of Profile. The band could not release new material under The Nils name for another four years. With The Nils on a forced hiatus, Alex began working menial jobs and playing occasional solo shows around Montreal.

...
Wikipedia