Mark Sultan has become one of the leading figures on the Canadian garage punk scene, cranking out high-test rock & roll with a handful of memorable bands as well as making a name for himself as a solo act. Hailing from Montreal, Sultan was a preteen metal fan with a taste for Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden before he was introduced to hardcore punk at the age of 12, and moved on to raw '60s sounds and garage punk when he was 16. Sultan first began playing out when he signed on as drummer for a band called Powersquat, but his reputation really took off when he helped form the Spaceshits in 1995, moving from the drum kit to the lead vocal mike. The Spaceshits were infamous in Canada for their raucous, over the top live shows that sometimes turned violent, leading to them being banned from many clubs, and they released their first 7" EP, "I'm Dead," in 1996. In 1997 they dropped their first full-length album, Winter Dance Party, through the celebrated American indie label Sympathy for the Record Industry, and they recorded two more LPs before the band called it quits in 1999.