Black Market Farts

The Black Market Farts, formed in the fall of 1988, consisted of four friends from Regina, SK, Canada: lead vocalist "Hema" Stulberg, guitarist Gil Beck, bassist Colin Reid, and drummer John Bidochka. They had all been friends since elementary school, and brought with them diverse musical influences that would fuel the sound of BMF and subsequent projects. The BMF is really the first "steady" band they put together. Early in '88, the Licorice Kittys, with a revolving door of 8 or so participants were having regular jams at John's mother's house. But when school reconvened in September, they split into two non-competitive factions, seemingly separated by a street: the BMF on the west side of Broad Street, Breach Of Trust on the east. This split appeared not to have affected any of their friendships (despite the fact that the song "Margaret" was a composite parody of some of Breach Of Trust's material). In December of 1989, two things happened. First, they were joined by Rory Mitchell on keyboards, expanding their sonic "palette" somewhat; second, the introduction of a Tascam 4-track recording system at their high school was a turning point for the band. They were permitted to use the equipment on a regular basis to record their songs, but it also planted the seeds for an interest in production that would help with future projects. Often accused of being "completely loaded all the time", they were actually vehemently anti-drug, did not drink or even smoke cigarettes. Some people at the time refused to believe this. The BMF ceased to be in the fall of 1990, when they added more musical genres to the quasi-punk they had been playing until that time, as well as adding horns to the group. They became The Donuts, and remained that way until after graduation, and after the recording of "You Know You Like It" in 1991. The boys entered the workforce and/or went to university (sometimes out of province), so they never played together in this configuration again.