INSPIRATION: Trans Love Airways, a Toronto underground band active in the mid-’90s. At a time when grunge had gone mainstream and made the Toronto indie-rock scene a bore, Trans Love Airways fashioned a sound caught between Haight-Ashbury (West Coast psychedelia) and Max’s Kansas City (East Coast garage). Fronted by the late Steve Banks and his then-partner Kimi Tallman, they were crowned “Toronto’s Coolest Musicians” in 1996 by EYE WEEKLY. They were known for their colourful DIY silkscreened posters and their packed gigs at the El Mo (complete with 16mm projection and light shows). “Steve was a brilliant songwriter,” remembers Kimi. “No band was doing what we did.”
When Kimi first met Steve, she was a Deadhead hippie and he was a former Queen West punk. A shared influence was The Electric Chairs, headed by iconic New York drag queen Jayne County. Inevitably, Kimi’s crazily patterned bellbottoms and baby-doll dresses soon became accessorized with colourful wigs and feather boas. “I had a crazy deep [singing] voice and people always asked if I had a sex change,” she recalls.
Kimi Tallman’s vintage Patricia Fields platform boots with Electric Chairs’ Blatantly Offensive EP in custom 12-inch sleeve frame, $69.95, available at Picture It Framed (3047 Dundas W., 416-762-1221) and pink-feathered lamp, $1,300, available at Trianon (247 King E., 416-363-9851, www.trianon-online.com).
“We lived in a warehouse space with skylights on Nassau behind Paul’s Boutique,” says Kimi of the band’s shared residence. “My girlfriend and I did a weekend acid trip and [painted] the entire house [in] really super loud bright colours.” Trans Love paved the way for a local psychedelic scene that included bands like Mean Red Spiders, Poppyseed & The Love Explosion Orchestra and Speedway. Following Steve’s death in January 2006, a memorial tree and plaque were planted in Trinity-Bellwoods Park in his memory.
Steve Banks’ 1964 Hagstrom Viking and vintage Trans Love Airways poster with Panton Chair, $199, available at Morba (665-667 Queen W, 416-364-5144, morba.ca) and Bracelet Stripe printed rug, $38, available at Urban Outfitters (481 Queen W., 416-203-8633, or 235 Yonge, 416-214-1466, www.urbanoutfitters.com).