Alta Moda

Alta Moda were a Canadian funk rock band formed in 1979 in Toronto. It originally consisted of singer Molly Johnson and guitarist Norman Orenstein. Drummer Steven Gelineau and bassist Etric Lyons were added in 1982 and 1983 respectively.After performing for several years in Toronto and releasing a demo cassette, the band eventually signed to CBS Records and released their debut album in 1987. Although the album spawned the single "Julian", radio stations criticized them for sounding like "generic American funk" and going as far as saying they sounded "too black", with the result that the song was only a modest hit, peaking at #53 in the RPM Hot 100 chart the week of January 30, 1988. The album's other singles, "Notown (In Particular)" and "Cool Love", did not chart. The band also contributed a non-album track, "American Chaser", to the soundtrack of the 1986 television film Popeye Doyle.The band declined a Juno Award nomination in the R&B category for "Julian", because they felt it was a mislabelling of the song.Although the band had originally signed a six-album deal with CBS, they were dropped from the label after the album's poor sales. The band continued to perform live, on the lookout for another deal. Orenstein wrote and produced material for other artists, and Johnson performed as well with a band who later became known as Big Sugar.Johnson and Orenstein reunited in 1990 as Infidels, who had a similar sound to Alta Moda's but were more successful on the charts.