CCPS Miscellany: Pal Joey - Repent Sinners (1993), Demo (1996)

Last night's festivities had us listening to Wagbeard's back catalogue this morning (if you missed the show last night, word is they're playing at Bamboo ce soir), and chance led us (via the Primrods, 'natch) to Pal Joey. We already posted a demo of this great Edmonton band's last spring, although we completely goofed up most of the facts around that tape (in our defence, it did give us reason to post one of the best rock photos ever to come out of this city).

So we're going to try to make things right with a collection of another two tapes from Edmonton's great purveyors of Replacements gone roots power pop. The first is their 1993 tape, Repent Sinners, which predates Lorrie Mattheson's involvement. A comment in last year's post indicates that this their second tape, and it's pretty damn good. To our ear, it has a lot in common with Fire Engine Red's fantastic 1530 (we had to drop a Fire Engine Red reference in here somewhere - they're one of the bands we'd really like to see play again. Please take note, Mr. Jett Thunders, for the next CJSW anniversary bash).

The second tape is a demo from 1996, featuring one more song by Trent Buhler and Lorrie Mattheson's "Sadie Hawkins" (we think this is the same version that shows up on Local Band Seeks Fans). To also bring things back to Wabeard, we were pretty excited to see Lorrie joining the Beardos onstage for TNT last night. But mostly because at first we thought they playing a Primrods cover.

Also in the comments of our previous PJ post, Pal Joey Alumni Janice Frisch pointed us to some additional tunes; you can repent or get the demo here.

CCPS Miscellany: Lost and Profound - National Hotel (1989)

We're getting pretty darned excited about tomorrow night's festivities, so we're going to take a bit of a detour to Toronto for tonight. There's an interesting trend of Calgarians moving to Toronto, sometimes returning, sometimes not. We're puzzled as to why anyone would go there in the first place, but then we rarely leave the city limits.

Lost and Profound was Allen Baekeland, Terry Tompkins and Lisa Boudreau. They met in Calgary and then relocated to Toronto and, in the early 90's, released a couple of records on a major-ish Canadian label. We're interested in this tape for a few reasons. First, Baekeland is a significant player in the history of our favourite radio station. Second, he and Tompkins also played in the Now Feeling (with another of our favourites, Joe McCaffery) - and this tape includes a Now Feeling tune. Finally, this tape - though recorded in Toronto - features a Calgary landmark (which narrowly avoided being turned into crappy condos). Oh, and fourth, now that he's back in Calgary, Baekeland plays in the always entertaining Rembetika Hipsters, who will be on the bill tomorrow night.

We'll see you there.

Katana - Short Demo Recorded Live at Sparky's Diner (1988)

Back in 1988, folks didn't know what an at sign was, and accordingly used proper English grammar and punctuation. Hence the title of this cassette, we suppose.

Anyways, we've ignored the dire warning on this tape, and hope you enjoy this little slice of coffeeshop folk.

We're hoping the title of the first track is Hard Ride, and not Hand Ride, as one of our archivists insists.

G. Fournier - Random Structures (1990)

Just to prove we're not all just form and order over here at the CCPS, tonight we're bringing you a tape with a very different bent. We're not sure who Mr./Ms. Fournier is, but we found his/her tape of ambient soundscapes in the CJSW archives.

Random, to be sure.

Calspur - Food Chain (1995)

This is the second Calspur tape from the CJSW archives. It's another in a long line of recordings featuring a cartoon of the band members.We like to categorize such drawings into two groups: Tom Bagley and not Tom Bagley.

It's a crude, yet effective system, and it hasn't let us down yet.

Calspur - Calspur (1995)

We don't know much about Calspur. This tape is distinguished primarily by its unorthodox (read: batshitinsane) folding method.

They have a myspace (without songs, and only 4 friends!), but it doesn't explain why this tape folds the way it does.

Alien Rebels - C.B.C. Bee Jeebies

We don't have a j-card or any indication of year for this second Alien Rebels tape.

And we already used the word twang a few times in our last description, so we're pretty much tapped out...

Alien Rebels - Unofficial First Offering (1991)

We saw a brief appearance from the Alien Rebels on the CJSW compilation Local Band Seeks Fans, so it's nice to have unearthed this early cassette from these twangsters. This is great roots rock - fun, catchy and, uh, twangy.

The Alien Rebels have a myspace that appears to repurpose content from a long-deceased website. It reminds us of the pedigree of this band - since this tape, the band has drawn on the talents of a pretty impressive roster. Plus, members have also done turns in Jr Gone Wild and... other bands. Plus, they've been on the CBC a pile.

Did we mention the twanginess?

Interstellar Root Cellar - Interstellar Root Cellar (1995)

To be honest, we blew most of what we know about Interstellar Root Cellar with yesterday's post.

Honestly, we only saw them once, and may have had them confused with Phish.

Interstellar Root Cellar - Roots (1994)

Another chinook is upon us, so perhaps the best way to celebrate is with a dose of "freak-funk-reggae-rock" from this 6-piece band that was a regular part of the Calgary scene through the mid- to late-90's. We recommend this article from f-word, which will save us from writing too much and let us get on with enjoying the headache this weather (and a late night of garage rock at Broken City) have brought upon us.

Get funky here!

Tinderbox - Tinderbox

Before he took on the great stage name of Kris Demeanor, this songwriter/spoken word artist put out a couple of releases with his sister Monika and percussionist Ron Burland. This is a nice little preview of things to come; Kris' voice sounds younger, his delivery perhaps isn's as assured as it is now, but the songs are definitely coming from the same place - lots of quirky storytelling, driven by Kris' sometimes manic acoustic guitar.

We're not sure of the year on this - we're guessing at 1995 (their CD came out in 1996). We're pretty sure the cover art is by Ian Doig, though.

Also, our hand-delivered copy of FFWD arrived late this week. We just noticed that Tinderbox will be playing that CJSW 25th anniversary show we're so excited about.

Get it here.