Michael Ford (vocals, guitar, percussion)
David Matheson (vocals, guitar, accordion)
Murray Foster (vocals, guitar, bass)
Jian "Jean" Ghomeshi (vocals, percussion, drums)
Four-part a cappella/instrumental act from Toronto who met on an unlikely school trip that featured, among other things a hog-calling contest in Flesherton, Ontario. After splitting the prize for winning 'Most Promising Pig-Caller' the members met for the first time on the winners podium -- legend has it that the winning pigs were named "Moxy" and "Fruvous" (but the members of the band are just as likely to give a different definition of the band's name when asked).
Back at school they found common musical interests and began hanging out and writing material together. Two of the future members wrote 3 full length musicals for a nearby School Of The Arts and the other two future members created pop-funk act Tall New Buildings. TNB were signed to Sommersault Records and released the seminal MuchMusic hit "Breaking Down Her Walls".
Later the four would re-convene as neighbourhood buskers and eventually made their way down to Toronto's Harbourfront in 1990. In the fall of 1990 a CBC radio executive spotted them and brought them into the studio to appear on the prime-time drive show 'Later The Same Day'. The CBC brass were impressed with their penchant for political satire and commissioned the act to write 25 satirical tunes for such shows as 'Sunday Morning', Gzowski's 'Morningside' and CBC-TV's 'The Journal'.
By 1991 the four singers decided to make this comedy/satire routine a legitimate act. Their eponymous debut release was an independent 6 song cassette featuring the indie video "King Of Spain" in 1992. With their cassette topping the independent charts at HMV stores across Canada on a trend created by successful indie act The Barenaked Ladies (who signed to Warner) the band began getting interest from major labels who were impressed with the sale of 15,000 cassettes without the benefit of promotion. The cassette lasted on the national charts for over a year and by mid 1992 were opening for such acts as Bryan Adams and Bob Dylan. By the fall they won a CFNY-FM CASBY Award for 'Best New Central Canadian Group' and began a cross Canada tour. By the end of the year the tape had sold gold (50,000 copies) almost half of which were sold from the stage.
Warners soon signed Fruvous and their debut album for the label, 'Bargainville', contained remakes of the act's best live favourites and 5 songs from the cassette including "King Of Spain". The first single from the album was the slice-of-life "Stuck In The '90's" which put Moxy Fruvous on radio stations nationwide.
Their sophomore effort, 'Wood', was released in 1995.
Ghomeshi has gone on to some prominance as a TV journalist on CBC Newsworld and CBC TV.
Singles
1992 King Of Spain (independent)
1993 Stuck In The '90's (Warner Music)
1995 Down From Above (Warner Music)
1997 Get In The Car (Warner Music)
Albums
1992 Moxy Fruvous [cassette] (independent)
1993 Bargainville (Warner Music)
1995 Wood (Warner Music)
1996 The B Album (Warner Music)
1997 You Will Go To The Moon (Warner Music)
1998 Live Noise (Warner Music)
1999 Thornhill (Warner Music)
Video
Compilation Tracks
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