The Planet Smashers

The Planet Smashers
The Planet Smashers in concert
Background information
Origin	Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Genres	Ska punk
Years active	1994–present
Labels	Stomp
Website	theplanetsmashers.bandpage.com
Members	Matt Collyer Dave Cooper Scott Russell Alexandre Fecteau Patrick Taylor
Past members	Fred Brenton Leon Kingstone Tim Doyle Kurt Ruchinsky Ceco Munaretto Travis Wilkinson Andrew Skowronski Andrew Lattoni J.O. Bégin Neil "Lonestar" Johnson

The Planet Smashers are a Canadian ska punk band from Montreal. Since their formation in 1994, they have been a staple of the Montreal music scene. During the third wave of ska, they performed nationally and later internationally, with tours in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Founding member Matt Collyer helped establish Stomp Records in 1994, which featured many ska and ska punk bands, including Montreal's The Kingpins, The Flatliners, The Know How, and Bedouin Soundclash. Their music has been used in the Japanese flash series Catman, Canadian show Radio Free Roscoe, and MTV's Undergrads (shown on Teletoon in Canada). Lyrics by The Planet Smashers often deal with topics such as love, partying and good times, and sometimes use tongue-in-cheek innuendo.

The name "The Planet Smashers" was first used in 1992 for a band including Matt Collyer, Ceco Munaretto, Andrew Conway and Dave Jones. The original group played punk, ska, and rock inspired by the "Manchester sound." The group primarily focused on live shows although it did record one demo ("The Road Song") at a Montreal studio, and one live performance (Station 10 in Montreal, October 1992). The songs "Coolest Guy" and "Vampire," among others, come from this period. The group briefly disbanded in 1993 - largely because its drummer had vanished.

The band was reformed in late 1993 by original members, Collyer and Munaretto. The two decided to introduce horns into the band and focus on ska. Travis Wilkinson (Trombone) was attracted to the band by a misleading poster that read "Its' your big break, goofball trombone player needed for ska band that's huge in Belgium with confirmed European tour." The other original members were Dave Cooper (Drums) and Andrew Skowronski (Tenor Saxophone). They practiced in the McGill University music department until kicked out and their first gig was at the now defunct "Station 10" on March 17, 1994.

The band played small Montreal venues, including "Purple Haze" and "Jailhouse" and at ska festivals. All the band members contributed original material and sets included some ska/punk cover tunes. A first demo of three songs was recorded in Cooper's apartment but not released. Later the band recorded their first cassette in a weekend session, using studio time won by one of Collyer's defunct former bands "The Thrill Killers". The quality of this recording was not very high, but it helped get the band more gigs and visibility, including shows outside of Montreal. Popular destinations for the band included the Toucan in Kingston, The Pit in Ottawa and Sneaky Dees in Toronto. The band was an important part of the vibrant local ska scene that existed in Montreal in the mid-90s.