Relevant Sources - Relevant Sources (1983)

A while back, Richard Reynolds passed us some of his 80's underground electronica, and we're pleased he's pulled out an earlier recording for us, again a collaboration with Mikel (Michael?) Weicker. This is good, dark and moody stuff that makes us wish the Warehouse was still open. Except without their ridiculous "members only" policy.

Get relevant here.

Lucid 44 - Body Harm Sounds (2009)

It's kind of odd that we haven't yet had nay Lucid 44 on this site yet, as Mark Overland apparently has a bit of a tape fetish, putting out most of his Lucid 44 (and related band Gutterawl) material on this format.

Okay, we have to admit that we did have another tape in our possession a while back, when we were without an intern. This lack of staff meant that the communication between our archiving and digitizing departments broke down - so, when we thought we'd ripped the tape (which was a series of soundscapes, if we recall), we certainly didn't actually save whatever we had digitized.

Regardless, we're pleased to have some now - especially because this is mighty fine stuff. Not like the soundscapy tape we almost had before, this is more bedroom pop - we were struggling to figure out who it reminded us of, until we found this clip:

Yep, Sebadoh-y goodness infuses this Lorrie Matheson-produced nugget. We dig Overland's gruff delivery on this. Highly recommended.

Get Lucid here.

Mount Analogue - Gold AK (2009)

When we were over visiting with Dawn Loucks, she passed us a couple of tapes that weren't from a dusty pile in her garage. This is one of them, a great blast of spazzy noise pop from Mount Analogue. We wish our scanner was better with bright colours; the neon green of the cover really doesn't come through in the jpg above.

Maybe it's just drummer Jesse Locke's fiercely propulsive rhythms, but these guys remind us a lot of Sudden Infant Dance Syndrome, without the heartthrob frontman. And a bit weirder and muddier.

Get your gold here.

Chicken 66 - My Life Is Boring

We're not sure how to classify this, as it's from the box of tapes we got from Dawn Loucks. It sounds like that's Dawn on vocals, but we're not sure about the rest. This is much in line with the Barf Flys stuff (which we're hoping to post, once we get our hands on a 4-track - turns out a bunch of the tapers we got from Dawn are the actual 4-track recordings, which sound downright weird when played through a regular deck).

Anyways, until we sort out those details, enjoy this little ditty.

See Jane Play - Patrick

So, picking up on the all-girl band theme we started yesterday, here's a bit of a CJSW hit from around 1995 that's either annoying or endearing, depending on how sensitive your ears are.

See Jane Play were, well, another bunch of gals from CJSW who perhaps didn't have as much experience with their instruments as Gasp! But that didn't keep them from penning this catchy little ode to Star Trek: The Next Generation star Patrick Stewart. We're not really fans of Star Trek over here at the CCPS, so some of the nuances of the lyrics are lost on us (since we know you're curious, we're not really fans of Star Wars, either).

We don't know if See Jane Play recorded anything else. We do have this additional video, though:

Get Patrick here.

Gasp! - Gasp! (1995)

Last weekend, we scored a pile of tapes from Saved by Radio's Dawn Loucks. In the dusty box that she found in her garage was this tape, one we've been trying to find for a while.

Gasp! stood (if memory serves us correctly) for Guys Are Such Pricks! and featured not one but two former-CJSW program directors, Kerry Clarke and Maizun Jayoussi. This is pretty low-fi, Cub-inspired garage pop, which is surprising considering (a) Clarke has gone on to a very successful tenure as director of the Calgary Folk Fest and (b) Jayoussi went on to play in BritPopsters the Lux.

Two of these songs also show up on the soundtrack of the Suburbanators, which we suddenly have a hankering to see again. We might have to skip down to Bird Dog to see if they have it...

Get Gasp! here.

Red Autumn Fall - Marrow/Innocent

We're kind of embarrassed to mention how we got ahold of this. Can you believe we bought this on eBay? And that it came from California? One of our eagle-eyed (read: sleep-deprived) interweb sleuths spotted this, and we're pretty quick to bid on wacky eBay items.

So, while the cost per track (factoring in the price of shipping) is pretty high for this, we're pleased (?) to have more RAF in the CCPS archives. There's no year on this tape, but we don't believe the two tracks herein appear on any other released by Simeon et al.

Which somehow lessens our Buy It Now remorse.

Freewill - Freewill

Along with the New Internationalists tape that Dan Singleton sent us, he also passed along this one. Dan describes Freewill as studio band from the early 90's that took its name from a Rush song. But not its musical direction.

We note that several of the songs on this tape were also on one of the New Internationalists demos that we pulled from the CJSW library, which probably shouldn't be surprising, considering the bands shared members. We also note that the lyrics to the lead track is not "Allies/in tomatoes" as we first thought it was.

We need to go for a hearing test.

Waysiders - The Five Star General (1997)

We're making a big assumption on this Waysiders tape that the membership is the same as on this one that Cam Shaft slipped us a while ago.

Hey, no j-card, no facts. That's how we roll.

Quickening - The Quickening (1992)

Early this year, Peter Gagnon from the Quickening contacted us to offer up a copy of this tape, but we never connected. So it was -as always - a treat to find this is the CJSW library. However, it does mean that we're not entirely sure who the other folks in this band were.

We had the Quickening pegged as a Metanoia band (probably because of their inclusion on the Metanoia comp), but this tape doesn't appear to be released by those good folks. Still, it has all the hallmarks of the label - heavy guitars, somewhere between metal and grunge.

Get it here.

Son of a Thousand Fathers - CJSW Demo

Following close on the heels of the tape that Allen Baekeland lent us, we were pretty excited to find another Son of a Thousand Fathers tape in the CJSW archive. This tape doesn't have any indication of band membership, but we assume it's the same folks - it certainly is the same loose, improvised fare as the first tape. Right down to a false start on track six.

But let's not dwell on their mistakes.

Great Uncle Bull - Great Uncle Bull (1998)

We were been pleased to feature the work of Shoutin' Abner Pim and the Puritans on here a while back, and now, thanks to the CJSW library, we're able to present the other piece that makes up the puzzle that is the Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir.

Great Uncle Bull was Vlad and Judd from the Agnostics, along with Julie Kerr (and maybe others?), doing some great, foot-stomping blues/bluegrass that certainly is an early indicator of the ground the Agnostics would plow.

We note that Judd appears to be taking a bit of a break from the Agnostics, which has the band playing with the great Jackson Phibes - we caught them at the Ship and Anchor, and their combination is amazing, highly recommended.

As is the tape at hand today.

Free Radicals - Self-Titled (1998)

We've got one last Free Radicals tape to share with you. We're intrigued by the idea of these guys paired with uber-perfectionist Bobby McAlister, and also the fact that they've got a track that's apparently been mixed by the infamous Whitey Kirst.

We've been clicking through a few more of the sites linked from the Free Radicals' posthumous myspace, and we're getting confused as to whether Curtain of Habit came before or after the Free Radicals. Maybe both? This is probably something we should know, but don't.

But what's new?

Free Radicals - Free Radicals (1994)

So here we have a properly yeared released from the Free Radicals. Even better, a hand-written note from the band that indicates they were considering a name change and held their cover of the Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog" ("Wanna Be Your Dog" on the tape cover and label, simply "Be Your Dog" on this note - we appreciate the economy of their re-titling) to be one of their strong inclusions on this.

Now, not to get overly picky, but we far prefer their Stooges cover to the Undertones cover that shows up on the flipside of this tape. We agree with John Peel that the original "Teenage Kicks" is worth (at least) 28 stars - we're going to give the Free Radicals' version just a fraction of that.

Anyways, we're sure these guys didn't want to be remembered for their choices of covers - though you have to admit, we've seen very few tapes thus far with many covers (we're not talking j-cards, we've seen piles of tapes without j-cards). In a lot of ways, it adds to the gritty, screw-it-all attitude that pervades this tape.

Or maybe that's just the drum machine?

Free Radicals - Just Another Day/Choker

We're going to take a quick tour, starting with this year-less, Letraset-emblazoned tape from the CJSW library. The Free Radicals apparently sprang at least partially from the ashes of Curtain of Habit. We don't think we ever saw these guys in action - it appears, from reviews of their live shows, that we would have remembered them. Although, honestly, there's a lot we've burned out of our memory.

This tape is pretty rough - side one is your basic 4/4 garage punk (we wish more bands would play 3/4 garage punk), and side two - apparently a Yardbirds cover - is, well, really, really rough.

Rough, rough, rough.

Weep, O' Mine Eyes - A Beautiful Memory Lingers (1989)

A while back, Richard Reynolds was kind enough to slide us some 80's underground electronica, which has helped us to get a fix on this tape that we found in the CJSW archives. We're enjoying the dark, dark atmosphere of this - and wishing the Warehouse was still open.

Well, okay, maybe that's going too far...

A-Team - Futurehop: Moustache 2051 AD (1995)

We've always enjoyed the A-Team (their show at CJSW's 225th Anniversary Party last January was a highlight for us), so we're equally thrilled to find this tape in the CJSW archives. Sure, these seven songs also show up on their compilation CD, Non Merci, but... the fact that this is an unlabelled tape with a makeshift j-card (so long and pink!) make this a pretty special find.

Get it here.

Inquisition - Rise and Shine

We're not sure why the CCPS Posting Committee has selected this tape, one of the recent ones we borrowed from the good folks at CJSW, as the first to post from said batch of borrowed tapes. We have yet to find anything definitive about the membership of the Inquisition - and since this tape is missing its j-card, we're still stuck.

Get it here.

Exceptions - The Exceptions (1996)

This tape helps us clear up some of the mystery surrounding these two posts. We're guessing that somewhere along the line, the Exceptions discovered that their name wasn't all that unique, and then also decided that their front man was hot shit.

Of course, that's only a guess.

Danno - Is This Life? (1990)

We're not sure who Danno is, or how he amassed the collection of motel keys on the cover of this tape. Listening to this tape, we imagine him driving around in a t-top Firebird, shirt unbuttoned and hair blowing in the breeze. Romancing the ladies, breaking hearts with his oh-so-sauve style. Yeah, this is pretty '80s.

But not without its charm.

Friendo - Friendo (2009)

We woke up this morning, and we were wearing skinny jeans. We're worried that if we keep this up, we're going to want to buy a fixie. So one last post from Bart Records, then we've got some of the old, questionable tapes that you've come to expect from us.

We're not sure what to say about Friendo, other than that they're good. Um, yeah.

Sorry, we got distracted by this really sweet fixie that someone just rode by on... can we maybe talk tomorrow?

Get this from Bart.

Update: Looks like these tracks (and more) are available at the Friendo bandcamp.

Topless Mongos - Topless Mongos (2010)

We don't know quite how this has happened, but suddenly we're bought into this whole tape-buying-hipster-movement. Actually, we do know why - Topless Mongos are one of our favourite local acts (full disclosure: we've only seen them once - but apparently they're playing Calgary's upcoming menstruation celebration, so we're looking forward to seeing them again there), and... hell, look at that illustration on the inner cover. Dilbart! Violating Garchie! This is better than Dig!

Well, almost. The cover of this tape claims to have four songs on side one. Ours only has two. But still, that's better than what we're giving you. Which is none, because you need to go buy this for yourselves.

Okay, since we've had a request.... here it is!

Grown-Ups - I Can't Win (2010)

We're being slightly revisionary and splitting last week's Grown-Ups post in two. Why? Mostly to increase our post count.

But also because one of our operatives accidentally bought this tape last night, when he should have been at home getting a good night's sleep on a school night.

We were laughing at him this morning, but after seeing the amazing ET-themed inside photo on this, no one's laughing.

Phone home!

Update: these tracks (and more) are available from the Grown-Ups bandcamp on a free compilation of their entire recorded output.

Gas - Wheat is Your Mantra (1994)

We think we were looking for GASP, and somehow ended up finding this tape by Gas. We have no idea who was in this band, whose sound fits pretty much exactly what you'd expect from the early 90's Calgary alt-rock scene.

Pretty much.

Update! Thanks to Lorrie Matheson and Brooker Buckingham for filling out the membership. Looks like this was a continuation of Gaudhed.

Grown-Ups -Grown-Ups (2009)

We're trying to find time to get down to Ye Olde Tubbye Dogge this evening for one of their rock and roll spectaculars (and mayhaps one of our favourite things, the Sumo Dog), so it's probably fitting that we give this first little tape from one of tonight's bands a bit of a nod. For those who haven't seen the snotty punk rock of Grown-Ups, we highly recommend grabbing this, which the band has made available for download via their myspace (you might have to skim the page to find the link).

We like these guys so much, we bought a weird, frisbee-like piece of plastic of theirs.

Update: you can also get these tracks from a free compilation of their full recordings on bandcamp.

Son of a Thousand Fathers - Son of a Thousand Fathers

We're not sure of the year of this tape, nor of the exact circumstances that brought this about. We note that Son of a Thousand Fathers make an appearance on the 1986 Calgary Compelation, which makes us re-consider our initial impression that this was a one-off recording.

Get it here.

Animal Kingdom - Animal Kingdom (1981)

We're really pleased that Allen Baekeland passed us this tape the other week. We'd had a request for this on our facebook group a ways back by former VOX guru Lee Hill. Lee's request (which we're pleased to fill today) indicates that this tape is circa 1980/81. We're sticking with 1981 until told otherwise, because we really like arbitrary decisions.

We also really like this tape, which features future Golden Calgarian Doug Smith. We're not sure what the other folks in the band went on to, music-wise, at least. Anyways, there's an odd mix of covers on here, but for us the shining points are the Smith originals, which point the way somewhat to where the Golden Calgarians would end up.

Or maybe not. Decide for yourself!

Eternal Now - Mystification Highway (1989)

A few months ago, at the annual Record Collectors Show, CJSW had set up a little table. On the edge of the table, they had a little box full of tapes they were giving away. And we found this! Which, with the inclusion of Allen Baekeland, closes the gap with Lost and Profound.

For sooth!

Eternal Now - Animal Graces (1990)

We're not quite sure how we missed posting this tape that we borrowed from the CJSW archives a while back. Eternal Now started off as a Calgary-based band, but at some point at least three of the group moved on to Toronto. We're wondering if there's any link between these folks' move and the similar move that Allen Baekeland made with Lost and Profound. There's a few points of connection between the players in both bands (CJSW/VOX, The Now Feeling, probably countless others that we're not aware of...). Anyways, since these guys started off here in Calgary, we're calling this a legit Calgary release.

Get it hereabouts.

Shinolas - Demos

We're trying really hard to get back on track with postings (which has recently been trumped by our interest in sitting in the sun drinking beer). If we can ignore the Siren's call of the bottle for the next while, we've got some gold to share.

We'll start by finishing off the great box of goodness from Conrad Montana. Nestled within said box were about four tapes of various Shinolas demos (some of which sound pretty finished, by Shinolas standards) - so we've collected them into one easy-to-grab package for your enjoyment. And we're pretty sure you'll enjoy the sound of Pete Link mumbling the verses to such Shinolas classics as "Kotex Kids."

Shine on!

Anxious Poets - Drug I'm Under

We're trying to get back on track with some of the tapes we've been sitting on. Deep within the box of tapes from Conrad Montana, we found this: an unreleased Anxious Poets track!

Which really smashes Lorrie's whole Six Songs Good myth, but we're going to seek solace in the added bonus of a Fire Engine Red station promo for CJSW.

We really wish we'd kept a copy of the Lorrie Matheson mask that f-word published a few years back...

CCPS Miscellany: Billy Cowsill - Live from the Crystal Ballroom (1985)

If you're like us at the CCPS, you might need a break from the fake country and usual random music (Loverboy! Glass Tiger! Uh, Kid Rock?) that the Stampede season brings to this city. We like to cleanse our palate with events like tonight's Bucket of Blood (see you up front for the Exploding Pigs!), but we realize that some of you might lie something more authentic.

That's why we're pleased to have received this in the mail earlier this week from our friends at Golden Rock. A nice following to our last post, and timely for those who want something more authentic for the Stampede. This recording of Billy Cowsill (opening for kd lang!) was released a few years back by the same folks that put out the Co-Dependents' records.

We challenge you not to two-step to this.

(Oops! This is still available commercially, so we've pulled the link - you can get it from Indelible Music - though their purchase link takes you to the soon-to-be-shuttered Megatunes.)

Burners - Low Tech/High Torque (1988)

We'd like to thank Spider Bishop for this great tape, even though it caused us a world of anguish. We hadn't yet hit a tape that we had to disassemble to get it to play until this one.

Of course, the work was worth it. This is slice of late 80's Americana features Tim Leacock and Ross Watson, who would go on to play with the producer of this tape - the late, great Billy Cowsill - in the Co-Dependents. We suspect - but can't confirm - that Cowsill's production of this is somehow linked to his landing in Calgary after his work with the Blue Shadows.

Get it here. Especially since we went through all that trouble.

Placebo - Don't Drink the Bathwater (1996)

When Stuart slipped a few tapes, he also included a rip of this CD from the now-celebrated Leslie Feist. We don't have too much to say about this, especially after watching this:

Wow. That's really all we can say.

Eight Miles High - Animal (1990)

A few weeks ago, we met up with former Drench drummer Stuart de Vries, who passed us a couple notable little things, including this. We're not sure exactly who all of the folks in this little pop band are - with the exception of Corey Worsnop, who went on to play in the superbly named Toledo Speedway. This is jangly, early-90's alt-pop.

Get it here.

Funeral Factory - Nerves

The story of the Funeral Factory ends here (we think), with this odd demo. So odd, we thought Greg had sent us a mis-labelled tape, until we read his notes:

Mary Lynn and Greg oddly got big into Guns’n’Roses and tried to become a metal band. The “Nerves” demo dates from this time. Then they broke up. Mary Lynn later fronted the god-awful Mother Theresa (featuring James Muretich on drums); dunno what happened to Greg. I have no idea what the titles are on this tape.

Greg is maybe being a bit unfair here. To us, this sounds more like the Cult than Guns'n'Roses.

What do you think?

Funeral Factory - Nursery Rhymes for Children

We're not sure of the exact year of this Funeral Factory recording, but Greg Kushner tells us that it predates their 12" (which is over at Golden Rock - and parts of which are repeated on the tape we've posted previously). Greg tells the full story (well, not the full story, but certainly more than we know):

The Funeral Factory were two BFFs who eventually fell out. They played in a cover band called the Wait and meanwhile created “Nursery Rhymes for Children” on a 4-track. Mary-Lynn (Religion White) was voice and keyboards and Greg (Religion Darc) was voice and guitar. “Nursery Rhymes for Children” predates the “Living With Ghosts” EP. They recorded it for themselves, and I was grateful to receive a copy. Why did I? They sent a demo to CJSW and I carted it, but couldn’t remember the song title so called it “Existence/Decay” because I remembered there was a slash in the title. Mary Lynn called me and said she loved the new title (phew!) and sent me this tape plus the lyrics.

Mike Bezzeg took them under his wing and they produced the EP and a CD; both are really good prog goth rock. Their CD release show at the Westward was incredible – the highlight for me was the opera singer in full clown regalia singing an aria (without a mike) at the end of “Abduction” then sadly walking offstage and out the door of the club. Absolutely surreal!

Get yr goth on!

Jonathan MC - DSM IV (1998)

To be fully honest, we're not sure if this tape is by Jonathan MC or DSM IV. We're hoping it's the former, because naming your band after that thing we kind of learned about (we weren't really paying attention, and we're too lazy to Google it to confirm if it's a scale or a text or what) in first year Pysc is, well, questionable.

Anyways, this tape is a bit more band-oriented that the thing we posted yesterday. It's still a pretty cool slab of indie rock, recorded in the Rat's Nest Studio, which we seem to remember was kind of collective recording space. Maybe.

Get your analysis here.

Jonathan MC - Shelf Rot (1997)

This is one from the big box of tapes Conrad Montana passed our way a few weeks ago. We're not sure who Jonathan MC is, but we dig this low-fi sprawl. And not only because it features the assistance of two Shinolas.

Get it here.

Mark David Stewart - She Can't Cook or Sew and She Won't Scrub Your Floors (1994)

We almost didn't leave the house today, what with all the unseasonable snow and all, but we eventually did, lured by the promise of garage sales and the prospect of pints and tunes from Mark David Stewart down at the Ship and Anchor. MD Stewart released his CD from his new project, Prairie of Prax, but when we went to buy a copy, he slid us something else - a tape!

Back in 1994, after Rabbit Has Brain had called it a day, Mark David Stewart released a CD with the unwieldy title of "She Can't Cook or Sew and She Won't Scrub Your Floors." We'd lost our copy in a move (the usual story), but had no idea this thing had come out on tape as well until Mark passed one to us today.

We had also forgotten about the stellar cast that he pulled together for this - alumni of Big Bang Theory, the Quitters, Monster Zero (!), Gravity Thugs... and song fragments courtesy of one of Calgary's most pseudonym-ed drummers. Yes, it's quirky - but that's pretty much what you'd expect.

Get it here.

Pete Link - The Pete Link Experience

One of the questions you may have is, if the Shinolas were stripped of their garage rock goodness, what would they sound like? You can wonder no more and download this, twelve tracks of head Shinola Pete Link and his acoustic guitar. Since he packed up and left Calgary, Link has been busy recording more demented meisterworks - there are at least two CDs (each a trilogy?) floating around the CCPS offices.

Get it here.

Shinolas - Live at the Horsemans Club/Live at the Night Gallery

For us here at the CCPS, the Shinolas are one of the most criminally overlookeded of Calgary bands - their garage rock via Guided by Voices rubs us in all the right places. That's why we were quite delighted to find a couple of live shows in the big box of tapes from Conrad Montana. We're not sure what year these two recordings are from - but they're a might fine testament to the talent and snottiness of these guys.

Shine on!

Mants - Live at the Republik

Well, we're hanging our heads in shame from getting yesterday's post so wrong. So we're going to make it up to you, and go back to what we know and love the best - garage rock.

Somewhere, circa 1996/97, David Wisdom and his amazing Brave New Waves broadcasted a night of music from the Republik. Greg Kushner taped the Mants' set, but lost to the winds of time (or at least not in out possession) are the sets from Curse of Horseflesh and Huevos Rancheros.

If you missed the Mants' reunion at the CJSW 25th anniversary party, you missed a really good thing. But we're pleased to see the Mants have somehow wrangled their way onto the Sled Island roster for this year.

Oddly, we're stuck for a good Mants pun tonight...

CCPS Miscellany: The Animal Slaves - Live at 10 Foot Henry's

On the flipside of the Cryin' Helicopters tape that Greg sent us is a live set from another mid-80's band, the Animal Slaves. We don't know much about these folks, other than they were an (early?) Allen Baekeland outfit. We've got these folks pegged as a Calgary band, but our iTunes collection is also pointing to an Animal Slaves track off the Last Call Vancouver indie compilation.

Does that mean Animal Slaves moved to Calgary, or did they do time in Vancouver? If you know, can you let us know?

Update: we've just fired our fact-checker, who misread Animal Slaves for Animal Kingdom. Kingdom was the Baekeland band, Slaves were a different band from Vancouver. Thanks to the folks at the facebook page for steering us straight-ish.

Cryin' Helicopters - Live at 10 Foot Henry's

One of our favourite things about the big boxes of tapes we recently scored from Greg Kushner and Conrad Montana is the number of unlabelled/j-card-less mystery tapes. Many of these are on regular blank tapes, like the ones you'd buy from London Drugs (we're not sure why London Drugs was the choice place to buy blanks - price? location? selection? lack of any real reason?), and many of them contain some real gems.

Like this - both we and our pals over at Golden Rock have been looking for any pre-Huevos Brent Cooper projects, the Cryin' Helicopters being one, and the Gravity Thugs being the other. Well, thanks to Greg Kushner, we have a live, straight off the mixing board tape of one of their 10 Foot Henry's sets. The volume level drops through the floorboards for the middle of the recording, but we're still able to provide 10 tracks of untitled, mid-80's garage rock for your listening pleasure.

We're doubly pleased to be able to present this VOX clipping, featuring a 12-year old Brent Cooper.

Big Blue Fish - Wirehead

We're talking stock of the "Big" bands we've already featured here. Big Bang Theory, Big Daddy Ritter, Big Dog, Big Gulp... well, here's one more. To be honest, we're really just listing other bands because don't know who these guys were.

Fishy.

CCPS Miscellany: Local Band Seeks Fan

We posted this in a drunken stupor last night on the old F***book page. We forgot that F***book hates photos and likes to make them as tiny and useless as possible. So here it is in all it's moderate-resolution glory.

For those who are wondering from whence this came, it was the CJSW ad in the January 2007 Beatroute.

Doris Day Film Festival - Die Elf Scharfrichter (The Eleven Executioners) (1985)

This is one from Greg Kushner's collection; we don't know who was responsible for this, so we'll turn the narrative over to Greg:

This is probably my fave Canadian cassette release ever, and the track “100 Drugs a Day” is one of my favorite songs EVER – the intro still gives me chills, the slightly out of tune guitar and bass when it all kicks in GRRRR!…a hot guitar solo and one of the best crash’n’burn endings EVER! I’ve heard this band was both Calgary and Edmonton based and that the drummer may have been Mark from Color Me Psycho. They were one of the many bands that opened for the Dead Kennedy’s when they played Mac Hall. The tape had at least 3 different covers, but this one was my favorite. BTW, the guy who recorded this (please note the amazing and powerful mix) was Shane C. who recorded “Crawling” and “Insignificant” on Jeff’s “Praise/Exorcism” tape which is why those tracks sound so good.

Having listened to this a few times now, we're joining Greg's general enthusiasm for this tape, but... fave Canadian cassette release ever? The CCPS office isn't even willing to touch that one tonight: we've had enough Quitters vs. Primrods throwdowns here over the past few years.

Film at eleven!

Geek Beet - Daffodildo (1994)

Well, here's an odd/fun one. This is a collection of bedroom lo-fi genre-bending pop from former Fire Engine Red bassist Lee Shedden. Mr. Shedden is, apparently, a big fan of playing with tape speeds. Which is all okay by us - that's one of the luxuries that a real 4-track provides over, say, Garageband.

We saw Mr. Shedden fronting a fun 4-piece band a few years ago (mostly covers, if we remember - but well-chosen). We're not sure what he's up to these days.

Get it here.

CCPS Miscellany: The Lucy Show

Tucked into the box of great tapes we got this week from Conrad Montana, we were pretty excited to find the two tapes from the Lucy Show, a band featuring two ex-Calgarians, Mark Bandola (brother of Steve Bandola from Citrus Park) and Rob Vandeven. We've always been big fans of this stuff, so we've got an excuse to post this now. Plus, Greg Kushner's second salvo included an old VOX with an interview with the band. We're taking that as more than ample reason for tonight's post.

We're not going to retread the history - we're going to let you read the article above and the Wikipedia entry. There's been a bit of debate in the CCPS office tonight about the comparisons to the Cure that seem to be prevalent in both of these sources. The majority of us think they comparisons are neither well-founded nor well-informed. So we've been wandering the interwebs, and discovered this extensive band history at the website of the label that's recently reissued both of these tapes. It hasn't helped the debate, but it did distract us for a bit. But we're very easily distracted, so that's really not such a big deal.

We're not sure how available these re-releases are in our parts of the world, so we're crossing our fingers that we don't get sued again.