Little Green Planet | Turbo-Charged Interstallar Rock'N Roll

Rising from the dregs of the Seymour Street strip in the summer of 2004, Little Green Planet staggered past Vancouver's "elite new bands" to take its rightful place among those at the top. A resurrection of sorts, LGP was born out of what has now become the legendary implosion of downtown hard rockers AntHill (it is worth noting that in recent years Anthill has been recharged by lead vocalist Mark Osachoff and, with a new lineup, kicks some serious ass! You can check them out at www.anthill.ca). LGP is the brainchild of vocalist and rhythm guitarist Tim Plommer, who set about writing for this project in September 2001.

Early in AntHill's decline, well-known local drumming prodigy Pat Aldous and award winning bass god Judd Cochrane left the band to pursue more stable projects. After being apart musically for over two years, Plommer approached his old friends with some new songs and the idea for a new project. Both were enthusiastic to join, well aware that the sharp lyrics and tasty riffs would have A&R reps from Seattle to Sarasota burning up the phone lines in no time.

Aldous, whose musical history includes the likes of Boston bad boys "Powerman 5000", local legends "Rymes with Orange" and hip hop wiz "Kyprios", brings intensity and a distinctive creativity to everything he is involved with. Drawing on his prowess as a hard-hitting drummer with finesse only rivaled by Stewart Copeland, LGP was the perfect fit.

After signing a record deal at the age of 19 the future looked bright for bassist Judd Cochrane and his band, Rose Chronicles. A few records and a Juno Award later, the charm had worn thin and Cochrane was left to watch his band disintegrate in front of his eyes. Bent by his cynicism, Cochrane left music behind and moved on. On a lark, he showed up at an Anthill practice 3 years later and stuck around not only to help transform the band, but to watch it disintegrate in front of his eyes. Was he cursed? Plommer's thick skin and brown-nosing finally prodded Cochrane to step up to the bass chair in LGP. Which he did, and Plommer now had his rhythm section. Plommer knew that with Aldous and Cochrane as LGP's foundation, no one would question that this band would rock.

The tireless energy and workhorse fluency of misfit lead guitarist Kevin Coles was still missing from the Little Green Planet mix. Testament to his brilliance, Coles' brief status as AntHill lead guitarist punctuated the period of the band's highest level of success. Despite the band's undeniable momentum at the time, the personality conflicts with AntHill lead vocalist Mark Osachoff, combined with the petty territoriality of guitarist Plommer, constrained the impatient Coles. One fateful night after band practice, a very convincing psychic gave Coles a vision of his future in the spotlight as both lead vocalist and lead guitarist of his own band. This was all he needed and Coles left AntHill forever. After extracting guarantees from Plommer regarding unlimited harmony vocals, occasional lead vocal duties, total artistic freedom in composing his guitar parts, and no more severe brow beatings from the rhythm section, Coles joined LGP and brought the project a giant step closer to completion.

There was still one thing missing. Although Plommer had assembled a cast of world-class musicians, he still needed a world-class producer to bring it all together. Early in the summer of 2004, Plommer (possibly drunk) met Canadian legend John Webster, at Aldous' stag party. Familiar with Webster's work for Motley Crew, Metallica, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith and Tom Cochrane (but secretly most impressed with what he did with Rymes with Orange's second release) Plommer approached Webster and basically begged him. Figuring that Aldous, Coles and Cochrane wouldn't be involved if it lacked quality, and aware that Plommer's incessant pleading was becoming annoying, Webster aquiesced and took on the project.

So there you have it. The complete story of a band whose tenure is so limited that their history could fit on the tip of a drumstick. Hopefully, with hard work, gritty determination, consistent songwriting, lots of money, an identifiable image, input and active project development from the producer, a healthy dose of luck and a cheap attention-grabbing stunt, this illustrious start will foreshadow a great future.