Biography
Within Canada's garage punk realm, Mark Sultan stands out as a key presence, delivering high-octane rock & roll through several notable groups while also establishing a distinct solo identity. His range spans ferocious garage punk via the Spaceshits and Les Sexareenos, one-man blues-punk under the BBQ moniker with the 2005 album Tie Your Noose, garage-inflected booty-shaking R&B alongside King Khan including the 2006 release What's for Dinner?, pure garage revivalism on 2019's Let Me Out, and broader eclectic experiments such as the ambitious 2011 set Whatever, Whenever.
Raised in Montreal, Sultan embraced metal as a preteen through Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden, encountered hardcore punk at age 12, and shifted toward raw 1960s sounds and garage punk by 16. His earliest performances came as drummer for Powersquat, yet his profile grew sharply after co-founding the Spaceshits in 1995, where he switched from drums to lead vocals. The Spaceshits gained notoriety across Canada for their chaotic, sometimes violent live shows that prompted bans from numerous venues, and they issued their debut 7" EP "I'm Dead" in 1996.
The next year brought their first full-length Winter Dance Party on the respected American indie imprint Sympathy for the Record Industry, followed by two additional LPs before the group disbanded in 1999. In 2000 Sultan, occasionally credited as Mark Spaceshit or Bridge Mixture, started Les Sexareenos with several ex-Spaceshits members; this rowdier yet less aggressive outfit released its debut Les Live! In the Bed that same year. While drumming and singing in Les Sexareenos, Sultan also launched the indie label Sultan Records, which handled releases by fellow Canadian acts including the Deadly Snakes, the Scat Rag Boosters, and the Daylight Lovers.
Les Sexareenos concluded by 2003, prompting Sultan to adopt the one-man-band format of BBQ, simultaneously managing guitar, drums, and vocals, with the self-titled debut appearing on Alien Snatch Records that year. The year 2005 kept Sultan occupied as Bomp Records put out BBQ's second LP Tie Your Noose, the Mind Controls project featuring Mark on guitar and vocals issued its first single, and he began touring and recording with former Spaceshits bassist King Khan as the King Khan & BBQ Show.
A follow-up King Khan & BBQ Show album arrived in 2006, while 2007 saw Sultan's first proper solo outing The Sultanic Verses and continued performances both solo and with King Khan. Two years later Sultan joined members of the Black Lips and the King Khan & BBQ Show to create Almighty Defenders, a gospel-tinged garage rock supergroup. On the solo side, 2010's $ delved into noisier and more expansive territory, a direction extended in 2011 with Whatever I Want and Whenever I Want (plus the compilation Whatever, Whenever drawing from both), where Sultan moved away from one-man recordings toward a full band that included Dan Kroha of the Gories, Bradford Cox of Deerhunter, and Erin Wood of the Spits.
Sultan reverted to his original one-man-band approach and the BBQ name on the 2017 album BBQ - Mark Sultan. The 2019 release Let Me Out revisited lo-fi 1960s garage rock with Farfisa organ, Sultan again handling every instrument himself.
Raised in Montreal, Sultan embraced metal as a preteen through Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden, encountered hardcore punk at age 12, and shifted toward raw 1960s sounds and garage punk by 16. His earliest performances came as drummer for Powersquat, yet his profile grew sharply after co-founding the Spaceshits in 1995, where he switched from drums to lead vocals. The Spaceshits gained notoriety across Canada for their chaotic, sometimes violent live shows that prompted bans from numerous venues, and they issued their debut 7" EP "I'm Dead" in 1996.
The next year brought their first full-length Winter Dance Party on the respected American indie imprint Sympathy for the Record Industry, followed by two additional LPs before the group disbanded in 1999. In 2000 Sultan, occasionally credited as Mark Spaceshit or Bridge Mixture, started Les Sexareenos with several ex-Spaceshits members; this rowdier yet less aggressive outfit released its debut Les Live! In the Bed that same year. While drumming and singing in Les Sexareenos, Sultan also launched the indie label Sultan Records, which handled releases by fellow Canadian acts including the Deadly Snakes, the Scat Rag Boosters, and the Daylight Lovers.
Les Sexareenos concluded by 2003, prompting Sultan to adopt the one-man-band format of BBQ, simultaneously managing guitar, drums, and vocals, with the self-titled debut appearing on Alien Snatch Records that year. The year 2005 kept Sultan occupied as Bomp Records put out BBQ's second LP Tie Your Noose, the Mind Controls project featuring Mark on guitar and vocals issued its first single, and he began touring and recording with former Spaceshits bassist King Khan as the King Khan & BBQ Show.
A follow-up King Khan & BBQ Show album arrived in 2006, while 2007 saw Sultan's first proper solo outing The Sultanic Verses and continued performances both solo and with King Khan. Two years later Sultan joined members of the Black Lips and the King Khan & BBQ Show to create Almighty Defenders, a gospel-tinged garage rock supergroup. On the solo side, 2010's $ delved into noisier and more expansive territory, a direction extended in 2011 with Whatever I Want and Whenever I Want (plus the compilation Whatever, Whenever drawing from both), where Sultan moved away from one-man recordings toward a full band that included Dan Kroha of the Gories, Bradford Cox of Deerhunter, and Erin Wood of the Spits.
Sultan reverted to his original one-man-band approach and the BBQ name on the 2017 album BBQ - Mark Sultan. The 2019 release Let Me Out revisited lo-fi 1960s garage rock with Farfisa organ, Sultan again handling every instrument himself.
Albums
Singles
