Jordy Birch and guitarist Todd Simko met in high school and later formed the band with bass guitarist Dave Hadley and drummer Leigh Grant. Grant was replaced in 1996 by Jim Hobbs. Mark R. Henning played keyboards, but left in 1994. Birch, Simko, and Grant had been members of the band After All, which had released one album, 1988's
How High the Moon. After All disbanded after vocalist Scott Acomba left the band in 1989, and the remaining members continued as Pure. The band was discovered at Vancouver's Music West Conference in 1991, when they went there to showcase their demo, impressing amongst others, an executive from Restless Records. They were subsequently signed by Warner/Reprise and the band's song "Greedy" was used in the
Ralph Bakshi animated movie
Cool World.
Pureafunalia In 1992, the band, now named "Pure" (named after the title of one of their songs), released their debut album,
Pureafunalia. The album was produced by
Talking Heads keyboardist
Jerry Harrison. The band's first chart success occurred with the album's lead single, "Blast", which reached No. 1 on the
RPM Canadian Content (Cancon) chart. "Blast" also charted in the United States on the
Billboard Modern Rock chart in 1993, peaking at No. 22. Another single from the album, "Blissful Kiss", also reached No. 1 on the
RPM Cancon chart. In 1993, Pure were nominated for a
Juno Award for
Most Promising Group of the Year. Later that year, the music video for "Blast" won the award for the "Best Alternative Video" at the 1993
Canadian Music Video Awards.
Generation 6 Pack Generation 6 Pack was released in August 1994 and led off with the single "Denial". The band toured relentlessly in the fall and winter of 1994. In January 1995, they played the
Big Day Out festival in Australia. Despite this, they were dropped by Warner/Reprise. Pure then started their own record label, Shag Records, and released the song "The Hammock" in the summer of 1995 and
Extra Purestrial EP. "Lemonade", the first single, was a hit. In 1996, Pure re-released
Generation 6-Pack on Mammoth as
Generation Six-Pack. The album became a Canadian Campus chart in late 1996 hit fueled by the singles "Denial" and "Anna Is A Speed Freak".
Feverish On April 14, 1998, Pure released their third full-length album,
Feverish. The song "Tennis Ball" was featured in the movie
BASEketball, though not featured on the
soundtrack. The group disbanded in 2000, citing "musical differences", and Birch embarked on a solo career with the single "Moola Moola" charting in Canada. In 2008, he formed Guilty About Girls with bassist Mark R. Henning and drummer/DJ Lucas T. Poth. In 2015, he formed a new group called The Wivez and is still releasing on new Pure material. Todd Simko played on
Bif Naked's
first album which was released in 1995, and worked as a successful record producer/engineer in Vancouver, British Columbia and made records with such artists as
Marcy Playground,
Xavier Rudd,
The Salteens,
The Organ,
Big John Bates, The Yoko Casionos,
Current Swell, Patrick Brealey, and Sean Macdonald, plus many others. Simko died at the age of 45 when he went missing and was presumed drowned on April 22, 2012. Mark R. Henning formed Vancouver PowerPop trio Blisterene in 1995 which released the full-length CD
So I Have Them in 1997 on the Poncy Rocket/IMD label. By 2007, Henning formed a new group Combine the Victorious with fashion designer Isabelle Dunlop. They released their debut CD
The World Over independently. Combine the Victorious later signed to the Boutique Empire label. ==Discography==