CCPS 2.0 is Live!

After a few months of hard work and sticktoitiveness, the CCPS is back and slightly improved. This old blogger-based site will be decommissioned in the coming months as content is migrated over to our fancy new website at calgarycassettes.org.

The new site is way more searchable, way more linked, and... just the beginning. We're going to be adding in new features, including our much dreamed of gig poster archive.

Huge thanks to Tom Atkinson and Aaron Booth for their help with migrating posts - we've brought over just under half of the content from this site as of this date. Phew! If you want to volunteer to help migrate content - or create new content (like adding in artist details), email us at info@calgarycassettes.org.

Ian Tyson - Beverly (1977), Alberta's Child (1980), Ol' Alberta Moon (1981), Alberta's Child (1983)

So, here's that other Highwood single - from the legendary Ian Tyson! We had to go back a revisit the timeline of his career to figure out how he ended up releasing this piece of vinyl (along with another) on such a small label. The duo of Ian & Sylvia called it quits in 1975, around the same time The Ian Tyson Show - and in 1980 Tyson signed on with a new manager that helped to reinvigorate his career. 

In that interim period between 1975 and 1980, he put out a few recordings on smaller labels (Gary Buck's Broadland imprint, the Hitchner's Highwood, and Stompin' Tom's Boot Records). We've got a selection of singles (mostly) from that era of his career, including three singles that are Alberta-themed. Oh, and two of which are the same song. That second, major-label version of "Alberta's Child" is in here also because it was mixed by Richard Harrow in his Living Room Studios.

Get 'em here!

CCPS Miscellany: Favour - Everything Remains To Be Done (2019)

Here's a bit of a blast from the (southern) past. Recorded in 2000 and shelved until now, this tape is a great blast of guitar rock from Lethbridge's Favour that sits somewhere between Thrush Hermit and the Inbreds. After sitting on the tapes and/or computer files for 18 years, guitarist Jeff King Kickstartered a physical release of the album - and we're pretty pleased that he did, this is quality stuff.



Get it from the Favour bandcamp.

CCPS Miscellany: Various - Cups N Cakes Compilation Vol 1

Okay, here's a good thing. Not just for the packaging (we're suckers for well-conceived packaging, and this is right up there with Th' Legendary Few's Smokes), but the selection of bands that Edmonton's Cups N Cakes has pulled together, which includes three Calgary faves.

This is a pretty rock-focused tape, so the inclusion of Valiska is a great breather, with their trademark atmospherics closing out side one. But instead of giving folks a breather at the end of side two, Night Committee and Napalmpom double down on the rock with both bands joining forces on a rave up of the Supremes' "You Keep Me Hanging On," throwing in novelty song "Captain Groovy and His Bubblegum Army" for shits and giggles. Hearing Andrew Wedderburn trade vocals with PJ Lavergne is amazing - it sounds like the best party ever.

The rest of the tape is packed with some heavy-weight non-Calgary content, too: Edmonton's Screaming Targets, Lethbridge's Body Lens, Vancouver's Dumb, and Ottawa's Expanda Fuzz. Come for the packaging, stay for the great tunes.

Looks like you might still be able to get a copy of this limited-edition tape if you act fast - copies are still available via the Cups N Cakes bandcamp.

Chad VanGaalen - Raw Operator/No Dust (2011/2015)

We picked up a couple more tapes from Chad Vangaalen's cassette series at his show here in Calgary a couple of months ago (editor: man, are we out of practice. There must be a better way to phrase that...). There's nothing better than seeing a suitcase full of tapes from one of your favourites... except when you realize you don't have enough cash for all of them.

We grabbed two tapes, anyways: Raw Operator, a tape of infectious, electronic-based musics; and No Dust, b-sides/demos from Shrink Dust (including a version of the amazing "Primative (sic) Brain."

These pretty much cement our belief that Vangaalen is an other-worldly genius.

CCPS Miscellany: Jil - Masked Avenger (1995)

Here's another Lethbridge tape, courtesy of David Tighe. We didn't expect to find anything about this band (whose name at first we thought was Jiz, thanks to the typography on the j-card), but, lo and behold, they have a facebook page!

Which means you have something to browse while you grab this tape.

CCPS Miscellany: Grandpa's Magick Pinecone - Old Lady Ozzy Fist (1992)

We're going to ease back into the posts, and what better place to start than with something completely random from Chris Zuk? We can't remember what Chris told us about this Red Deer band, other than that they were from Red Deer (to be clear: we can't even remember who was more drunk, Gene Poole or Zuk, so lots of details around this exchange are clearly lost to the aether). Which makes this a fairly unique post for the CCPS - we honestly can't think of another band that claimed to be from Red Deer. Really, who would?

Breakfast at Rock Central (ca. 2006)

We're at the start of what for a lot of folks is the single best reason to leave Calgary during July, so we'd like to provide a small bit of respite with a couple of clips from this great documentary from director Lock Fulton. We'd been looking for a way to see Breakfast at Rock Central for a while (we missed the few screenings when it originally came out), so we were happily surprised to find a copy bundled with the Dudes' Blood Guts Bruises and Cuts CD a few weeks ago.



This is short, low-budget film tells the story of the legendary Victoria Park party, from the days when the cops were kicking down doors and trying to shut it down to when they'd show up to make sure everyone was safe and having a good time - and let the Dude Bomb get away with being the Dude Bomb. If features all of the folks you'd expect - The Dudes, Matt Masters, Paul Spence and the Infernos/Creep'r, as well as Andy Sparacino and the A Team. We never were cool enough to get to a Rock Central party, so it's a treat to have this to document a time gone by.



The version we got turns out to be one of three versions, according to Fulton. This one was edited by a studio in Vancouver, and focused on the Dudes - and happened largely because of their championing the project. An first, extended cut was done for CIFF (Fulton says it was "rushed to the screen to tie in with the building being knocked down"). A third version was done for the 2008 Stampede. Fulton says he has been talking with former A-Team member Dan McKinnon about doing a fresh cut and re-release, which we would certainly welcome.

Rambin' Ambassadors - Live at the Marquee Room

Here's some more video from Coyote Will, this time of the mighty Ramblin' Ambassadors, accompanied by what we think is the Kabuki Guns Burlesque. He didn't tell us what year this was taken, but we're pretty sure this is from some time around 2008 - the Golden Age of Burlesque in this fine city of ours, before the Government outlawed such horrible displays of fun.

This video reminds us of two things. First, how much fun it is to watch Brent Cooper play guitar. And, second, what a great venue the Marquee Room was.

Chad VanGaalen - Cassette Series (2011)

Now, we at the CCPS aren't the most "with it" or "on top of things" (as you can tell by the lack of posts from the past few weeks, as well as by Gene's choices in clothing), so maybe you can excuse us for having completely slept on the cassette series that local wunderkind Chad VanGaalen put out, uh, three years ago. We're pretty sure that every blog and music zine has already written about this ad nauseum, but for the official CCPS record, we'll quickly restate that this was a series of eight tapes of home recordings that VanGaalen put out as a charity thang.

Amazingly, there are still a few in the Flemish Eye webstore, so we snagged some. We're also going to buy Gene a pair of skinny jeans and a new haircut, to further catch up.