Canada’s NoMeansNo: A Reject by Choice

Not fitting in.

That’s all it took for Rob and John Wright, brothers who grew up restless and disillusioned in Victoria, British Columbia, to start a punk-rock band. The misfits decided to make some semi-serious racket, and, after recruiting a lead guitarist, they formed NoMeansNo in 1981. Still cranking, the group has enjoyed a long and eventful run, having released nine albums and numerous EPs and singles, most for San Francisco-based Alternative Tentacles Records.

“Forming our band, and the name we gave it, served as a rejection of the unbearably tedious,” Rob Wright said by phone from a tour stop in Olympia, Wash. “I needed a release from the phoniness that defined all the characters and careers deemed proper by society.”

*

Playing music, he added, “is my way of being human. . . . It’s always been a positive in a world full of so many negatives.”

To the group’s singer-songwriter and bassist, NoMeansNo is not about seeking fortune and fame. (The Wright brothers decline to appear in the band’s publicity photos.) The music and the attitude that informs it drive the power trio, which plays at the Foothill in Signal Hill on Saturday night.

“What happened to the ‘alternative’ in alternative music?” Rob Wright asked. “We’ve always been about making music that takes a few risks. We try things that may not work, like putting lyrics and music together that may not mesh, and sometimes they don’t. But that’s OK.”

For NoMeansNo, complacency is the enemy. The band’s philosophy is to give fans “something they can’t handle once in awhile,” Wright said. “If they can predict what our next record will sound like, we’re in trouble.”

The band, now based in Vancouver, also features drummer-vocalist John Wright and guitarist Tom Holliston; sometimes drummer Ken Kempster tours as well. The musicians deliver equal parts aggressive music and irreverent silliness. Past album titles mirror ever-shifting concerns and moods, from the socially aware “Betrayal Fear Anger Hatred” (1992) and “Wrong” (1989) to the cartoonish “The Sky Is Falling & I Want My Mommy” (1991) and “Look! Here Come the Wormies!” (1984).

*

Sonically, NoMeansNo is hard-edged and bass-heavy, pummeling all in its path with a frenzied attack of ever-changing, often-jarring tempos. A catchy melody surfaces on occasion, but accessible, hummable music this is not.

The band just released a four-song EP, “Would We Be Alive?,” which includes songs previously available as import singles. On its heels is “Lifelike,” a full-length LP due in June. It’s “an oddball record that’s a little more complex lyrically and experiments with different rhythms,” Wright said.

*

NoMeansNo and label mate D.O.A. are among Canada’s original punk bands. Wright says he’s proud to be a part of his country’s musical legacy, which now includes such upstarts as Facepuller and Another White Male. Still, he views his band as an individual.

“At its most basic, our music is rhythm and noise . . . that’s all it is, really,” said Wright, 40, without a hint of sarcasm. “But I think it works because it’s intrinsic and visceral. Music is one of the very few things of the here-and-now.

“I don’t look at our songs in terms of progressing. We’re still doing what we’ve always done, with the only goal being to do it better. The real progression is in the craft itself. I don’t think you necessarily have to get somewhere to succeed.”

In enduring more than 15 years, NoMeansNo has become more than a footnote in the history of punk. Without day jobs, its members have carved out a modest living making unfiltered, not-for-everyone music.

“Isn’t there something to be said for that?” Wright asked. “We’re very independent-minded. We avoid pursuing major labels. We know we’re not gonna be the next R.E.M. Our music is too demanding--or at least too weird.”

Fans respect the band for not flirting with the mainstream, he added. “We just keep our focus on the music, on writing songs that we like, and that seems to keep our audience happy.”

*

Does hailing from Canada give NoMeansNo an edge that its neighbors to the south lack?

“All punks are disconnected from the status quo in some way,” said Wright, who also plays in two side bands, Mr. Wrong and the Hanson Brothers (no, not them). “But being Canadians, we do share a serene sense of alienation. I mean, we buy your products and get your TV shows. Yet we’re not Americans, and we’re not French or British, either. So who the hell are we?”

* NoMeansNo, Royal Grand Prix and Action League perform Saturday at the Foothill, 1922 Cherry Ave., Signal Hill. 9 p.m. $10 (562) 494-5196.