Paste - Paste (1993)

One of the gems in our oft-mentioned box of awesome from Greg Kushner includes this, an early tape from the trio who would go on to become the Merkins. Greg notes that he was Andy and Jeff's homeroom teacher in their Jr. High.

We wonder if it's Greg who suggested the name change.

Banood - Find a Penny (1985)

Here's an odd one; we didn't expect to find out anything about Banood more than "Ashwin Sood once-played-drums-for-and-was-also-married-to Sarah McLaughlin," which is in itself a pretty, uh, exciting thing. But a little poking (seriously: a very minimal amount) around tells us that Banood are the subject of a 2007 documentary (albeit one that was put together by two of the band members).

This is the first of two tapes they put out. This is a curious mix of new wave, jazz and world music influences.

Before, we should note, world music was even a genre.

Rodney Brent - Christmas Tape 1985 (1985)

There was significant debate in the CCPS offices as to whether to post this now or wait until Christmas. We're using the fact that the last week brought snow to our fair city as an excuse to go ahead now.

We've seen a lot of Rodney Brent's work on here, in various forms. This tape fits in nicely with the other Bartok Guitarsplat recordings we've featured, it's a good collection of little guitar doodles.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

No LImbo Lasso - My Heart Sings for You... Sort of (1986)

This is the second No Limbo Lasso tape that Greg Kushner sent us. Birds Walk South was the band's first demo with Rodney filling in the gaps. My Heart Sings for You…Sort Of is a different guitarist and drummer, and so's the sound. This is more punky, less twangy.

"Compare the early 'Hunger' with the later 'Sally in the Garden' to chart Sue’s descent into rock’n’roll hell," says Greg. "You’d swear you were listening to 'Raw Power'-era Iggy!"









Rodney Brent has sent along scans of the booklet that came with this tape, upping the awesome factor here.

Fantastic stuff. Get it here.

No Limbo Lasso - Birds Walk South (1985)

We're digging back into the non-Kushner related materials that Greg sent us the other week. This is a gem we were pretty excited to hear - we'd only previously heard the one song on the Calgary Compelation. We've been pretty heavily-reliant on Greg's descriptions, so here's what he has to say about this four-piece:

NO LIMBO LASSO were crazy! Easily Calgary’s sexiest band ever, featuring Sue Smith (sister of Golden Calgarians Geoff and Doug) and Joni Brent (sister of Rodney). By the end, their shows were wildly unpredictable with Sue climbing PA stacks and screaming incoherently whilst Joni held down the bassline with a bemused Cheshire cat smile. Oh – and there may have been other band members too.

The other band members on this are Rodney Brent, and, well... Rodney Brent? There's a lot to like about this tape - beyond the points of connection to most of our favourite bands from the 80's. For those who like the myspace, there's a tribute page over here. Thanks also to Rodney for the full cover art!



Rodney also sent us the above review, which looks like it was from VOX.

Everybody limbo!

Das Nichtige - Das Nichtige (1989)

So, it's the summer of 1989, and while Greg Kusher is working on his Skinny Puppy gone Ween schtick, his brother Jeff is goofing around with the same 4-track (and reverb). Jeff is headed in a much different direction, despite what the name may imply.

The scanner we use here in the CCPS office doesn't do the day-glo orange of this j-card justice. But then, our write-ups never do the music justice. So we'll turn to Greg's description of happening on the recordings...

[O]ne night I decided to snoop on Jeff’s recordings. I put one of his tapes and set up a rough mix. The song was “Truth” and when the multiple harmonies kicked in, my jaw dropped. Here I was messing about with my silly fake Goth band and meanwhile Jeff is recording a masterpiece! He soon put it out credited to Das Nichtige. The song “Free” got a lot of play on CJSW.

This tape mines the same place as the other material of Jeff's that we've posted. This hits us right in the Nuggets, a place we kind of like to be hit (or touched, at least).

Von Zippers - Still No Name... (1995)

Since you folks like the Riot .303 so much, we're pleased to offer this great gem, fresh from a box full of awesome that Unsightly/Zoo Story guitar hero Greg Kushner has sent us. This is early Von Zippers, pre-name (and German helmets, assumedly). Greg tells us that he made the shortlist for the band's keyboardist, and so Al passed him this great tape to practise to. Five songs, including a vocal-less version of "Megavolt."

Greg says that the keyboard gig ended up going to Tom Bagley (we think the contest was rigged), but he's okay with that. "I woulda been such a lame fanboy – 'Wow – I’m in a band with Al from Color Me Psycho!'."

Riot .303 - Al's Basement (1981)

A few weeks ago, at a certain punch-up infested Von Zippers show, the lovely and talented Al Charlton came up to us, and handed us a CD.

"Hey, I've had this for a while, and I've thought about putting this out, but... do you want to put this on your site?"

Well, it took us a bit to pick our jaws off the ground (plus we had to figure out how to hold two beers and a CD a the same time...). We managed to ask a few questions, but of course we have even more now. We'll ask Al next time we see him, but for now, here's what we know.

Riot .303 evolved from the celebrated Sturgeons, and members of this legendary skate rock band would go on to further exploits in White Noise/Beyond Possession, Colour Me Psycho, the Primrods, the Von Zippers, the Choads and, uh, the Exploding Pigs. Riot .303's Crowd Control record is one of the most sought-after Calgary 7-inchers, and they also appeared on the celebrated Thrasher Skate Rock Volume One cassette.

One of the things we've been trying to track down since we found out about it a few years ago is the 23-song tape that they reportedly put together. One of the questions we asked Al was whether this is that same tape. Al says it isn't - he says it's better than that tape.

So we don't know when this was recorded - we're using 1981 as an educated guess. This session includes two of the songs off their Crowd Control single, "Drugs" and the completely amazing "(There's) Something Living Under My Bed." The first version on here, with "multuple FU's" is pure gold. The second version is truncated, but still pretty amazing. For something almost 30 years old (!), this holds up today. In fact, we've been listening to this while putting together this post. Between this and the sunny sky outside, we're in the mood now to hit Millennium Skate Park.

You'll probably see us being carried out of there by ambulance later this afternoon.

Wings + Heaven (brokenpaws and Weep O Mine Eyes) - The Ropes That Bind (1988)

Richard Reynolds got ahold of us via our facebook (is that correct? maybe Facebook should be capitalized? Our editor is doing a liquor run, so we can't check with him right now) page, and has sent us some 80's electronica. We're pretty impressed by this stuff - Calgary's always been a rawk town, so this really is a part of the underground.

This tape is a collaboration of sorts between Reynolds (brokenpaws) and Mikel Weicker (Weep O Mine Eyes). Reynolds tells us that the tape was recorded in both of their home studios; they got to use two tracks each on a 4-track machine, combining them together to form one track. It's kid of hard to fathom how this would have come together over 20 years ago.

Reynolds has pointed us to some reviews of the tape from back in the day, and also some of his and Weicker's more recent (relatively) involvement in the local electronica scene.

Get Ropes here.