Cold Water - K. Stebner's Cold Water (2011)

For those who follow us over on the facebook, you may have seen a distressing post last week. It seems the folks over at mediafire don't like to spend too much time thinking or reviewing facts when the RIAA knocks on our door, and so our account with said file sharing service has been unjustly (unjustly! we swear!) suspended. This means that, as of this writing, the 500+ recordings that we've been collecting here are in limbo. Thankfully, we have copies of our own - but we're hoping we can get things sorted out soon and get back to our usual hijinx.

In the meantime, we'd like to present this lovely tape, which we slept on until recently. Kevin Stebner is, of course, the moustachioed head of Bart Records and Stalwart Sons (as well as a pile of other projects we can't keep up with).  For this tape, he's gone country - which is a mighty fine thing indeed.

This really lives up to its name. It feels like it was recorded in the winter in the depths of a cold basement. Which is pretty much where we'll be holed up this Christmas break, re-uploading all of the gems we've been collecting for the past five and a half years.

Good thing you can get this one on bandcamp.

Browns - Gettin' Jiggy with the Browns!!! (1998)

A flood of questions started hitting us this morning, after being pointed to this tape by the a post on ye olde facebook. Like, why didn't we know there was a tape by the Browns? Why didn't Jeff Caissie give us a copy of this a few years back when we lent us a huge bin of other tapes? Why the ski masks? Why do we get a page not found error when we try to get to their Geocities page? How long until we get the same error when trying to access their myspace page?

Anyways, the Browns, or, more commonly, the Motherfucking Browns. Despite the balaclavas, we believe the band is essentially Jeff Caissie and a revolving cast of ne'er-do-wells, bringing to the stage a level of asshole-ery seldom seen since the Mants. This six-song tape looks like it came out shortly after the band formed, and just ahead of their Greatest Hits Volume One CD, and contains the two songs we love them best for, "American Werewolf in Calgary" and "Ghoulita." Heck, that puts in the mood for a little video action:



BIG, big thanks to the Museum of Canadian Music for posting this. You can read more about the Browns and listen to the tape at their amazing site.

Road Crew Orange - Cement Wall (1994)

So, carrying on with the Black Lounge theme we seem to have going here, we've got another tape from Glenn Bickham's collection.

This is a tape that Road Crew Orange recorded for a tour of the States, and it didn't get wide distribution here. Or any distribution, from what we can tell.

So, we suspect that a few of you might be interested in heading straight to the download.

SOB - Demo

Glenn Bickham got in touch with in August about a few tapes he dug out of his basement, and among them was this little beauty. This stands as THE best re-use of a tape that we've ever seen. A Canadian Tire Vic-20 tape? Heck, yes!

That said, the great idea doesn't mean that the tape has held up well over the years (we put this tape at 1993 or 1994). But the low quality tape and questionable housing mechanism gave the CCPS engineers nothing but grief when we went to play it, it was full of wow and flutter and started emitting the most amazing mechanical squealing. So, we turned to a hint we read on the interweb and threw the tape in the CCPS beer fridge overnight. And, lo and behold, it worked! Thanks to the magic of thermodynamics (or something? we're not big on physics), we managed to get this to play, worry-free.

Oh, yeah - the music. SOB was an early incarnation of Wrong Floor, and this was recorded in their basement.

So, file this formerly squeaky tape under all ages punk.

Beyond Possession - Live at the Black Lounge (1996)

Well, summer here at the CCPS has been a bit slow. We've been lazy, we admit it. But we've got a few things in the queue, as a sort of back-to-school present for the kids. We're going to start with this, a combination DVD and CD that Eraz Cohen passed to us a couple of weeks ago (it pays to go to the record shoppes, kids!).

This is a fairly legendary show - when Melodiya released the Repossessed compilation CD in 1996, Beyond Possession also played a show at the Black Lounge (one of four they did at the time, according to the Encylopaedia Metallum) We're pretty thrilled to see this, because it's a pretty crazy show. You get to see Ron Hadley losing his shit because of sound problems as the band is trying to get started. You get to see Ron Hadley losing his shit because the stage divers are taking over the stage. And you get to see Ron Hadley losing his shit because... well, because he's Ron Hadley.

So, while you get to see all of that, we're not sure what's up with the CD. The recording starts about two tracks in (compared to the video), and then goes to crap after track 6. Still, we're providing it as a separate download, since the first six tracks sound great - and also in case you need some white noise to put you to sleep at night.

Chris Reimer - The Chad Tape (2012)

We'd be remiss (more so than normal) if we neglected to post this collection of posthumous recordings by former Women guitarist Chris Reimer. It's kind of old news by now, but this is a collection of ambient guitar sketches that Reimer had been working on for Chad VanGaalen to release. They've now been released as a fundraiser for the Chris Reimer Legacy Fund Society. 

Honestly, it's a bit hard not to listen to this without hearing equal parts beauty and sadness.

Get the tape (or the download) from bandcamp.

Hot Little Rocket - This Decade (2008)

Being the suckers for nostalgia that we are, we're understandably excited about tonight's Hot Little Rocket reunion show. So, what better time to dig through the CCPS library to pull out this CDR!

We think we snagged this at the band's release party for their final, self-titled CD. We think. We have a lot of things in the archives that we're not 100% sure where they came from. Anyways, this compilation spans the band's first ten years, including tracks from their first (and only) tape (previously featured here). Hot Little Rocket are one of those bands we think should had been huge. In appeal, not girth. Although it is funny to think of a 300-pound Andrew Wedderburn.

So, maybe we'll see you at Broken City tonight for the show? We'll be the ones up front in a Rayovaq t-shirt.

You Are Minez - Having Your Heart Broken Means Once Having Had Somebody To Love (2012)

The new tape onslaught continues! Much has been said about boy genius Jean Sebastien Audet and his many projects, and we've finally managed to get our mitts on a tape of his. This is a really nicely packaged - and nicely executed - affair. Audet has followed the "if it sucks, tape over it" philosophy and recycled old tapes for this (ours has been dubbed onto a copy of Stompin' Tom Connors' "A Proud Canadian," which we would argue was not worthy of this fate) and carefully reconstructed tape art from the early days of the format, when the cover would be a horribly-shrunked version of the LP.

But the standout here is the music. Audet is pretty darn talented, and this tape is full of sludgy, low-fi pop goodness. We hate it when kids are so talented - we realize that we've wasted any potential we may have ever had.

Crap. What have we done with our life? Just go to the You Are Minez bandcamp and leave us alone, okay?

No River - Swamp Days (2012)

We're a bit ashamed to admit that f-word beat us to the punch on this new tape. What can we say? The recent barrage of cassettes in this city is invigorating, but it's also a bit hard to keep up with... we're used to trawling through Recordland and thrift stores for tapes, not Sloth and Hot Wax.

Anyways, this No River tape is a nice little treat with its rambling and shambling country rock... goddam it, Josiah Hughes' mighty penmanship kind of makes whatever we might have said redundant. So we'll make sure we sucker-punch him next time we see him.

Blah blah blah bandcamp blah blah wordcount.

Gold - Gold (2012)

Like the last tape we posted, this one is another study in contrasts. When she's not playing bass in the noisy Shematomas, Rena Kozak is playing more subtle guitar pop with Gold, alongside Kaelen Ohm, Extra Happy Ghost!!! Matt Swann and the ever-present boy genius, Chris Dadge.

There's been a bit of (justified) hype around this band, as it was the project that Women's Chris Reimer was involved with when he passed away earlier this year. This is great summertime music - it reminds us in places of the Smiths and New Zealand's the Bats.



We highly recommend downloading "Losing Your Hair" from the band's bandcamp.

Shematomas - Shematomas (2012)

It wasn't until the second time that we saw the Shematomas that someone clued us in to the fact that the angsty blonde gal in the band used to be the awkward brown-haired gal in Jane Vain and the Dark Matter. The bands couldn't be more unalike, both in terms of sound and Jamie Fooks' hair colour. This tape is three quick blasts of the noisy, angry energy that the Shematomas deal in.

Oh, look! A video!



You can also hear the songs from this tape on the Shematomas' bandcamp.

Open Channels - Open Channels (2012)

We kind of like it when people slip us tapes at shows, but only kind of because then we feel a bit self-conscious and have one of those moments where we're worried that the person giving us the tape used to play in Brass and is going to kick us in the ol' raisins. Thankfully, that didn't happen this time.

However, we're still a bit cautious about posting this, as we're not clear if this is a legit Calgary release. While their Sled Island bio lists them as a Calgary band, it also calls them "Lethbridge's newest powerhouse" (which is pure hyperbole - we've been watching the Lethbridge scene and there's hasn't been much happening there in recent years. Except for Endangered Ape, the Moby Dicks, the Radians, the Ketamines, Stressed Out, Fist City, Myelin Sheaths, the Square Waves... uh.... wait, what were we saying?). Anyways, Open Channels appear to be primarily based in Calgary, so we'll let this slide. We can say, with some degree of certainty, that the band channels (ha! get it? that was a pun! man, we're on a roll today!) the synth pop sensibilities of Jeff King's Square Waves into a slightly more lo-fi direction.

Most of these tracks are available for download from the Open Channels bandcamp.

Buicks - Thanks Coach (1995)

Here's another tape that Chris found at Recordland. Again, we don't know a thing about this band or this recording. Other than the fact that it was, apparently, recorded during a bunch of midnight sessions at Sundae Sound. We could tell you a story about another band that used one of those painful 8-hour sessions to record a song that was a minute and a half, but we won't.

Partly because you likely don't care, but mostly because we're feeling lazy.

Bug Wicked - Bug Wicked (1997)

During Sled Island, our favourite (somewhat nutty) Edmontonian, Chris Zuk, somehow got lost in Inglewood and ended up in the tape section of Recordland (which, oddly, happens to us as well on an increasingly infrequent basis). He emerged victorious with a handful of tapes and not a trace of hantavirus.

The problem is, the tapes that are left squirreled away on the shelves of Recordland are pretty obscure. Who is this band? What is that bug on the cover doing? Should we care?

We don't know. Does anyone?

Polestar - Demo (1997)

Happy Birthday to us! The CCPS miraculously survived another Sled Island and are marking our fifth anniversary today! That's five years, over 500 posts and an amazing amount of made-up junk about bands we only barely remember seeing/hearing about.

Well, our commitment to high-quality posts continues with this demo from what we think might be a band involving Big Bang Theory's Case Caulfield. Actually, we know absolutely nothing about these guys. Craig Evans gave us this tape and no context. We'd like to thank Craig, regardless of the lack of info.

So, we're going to use this as an opportunity to put a call out to anyone out there with tapes they want to lend us. We're still looking for stuff from Dixie's Death Pool, Fire Engine Red, the Li-150s, and... well, anything else interesting. Get in touch with us!

But for now, grab this and let us know if you know what we don't know.

Knucklehead - Live 98 (1998)

So, one more piece of vinyl for you, and then we're lapsing into a post-Sled Island coma. A sly Melodiya employee suggested we buy this a few years ago - we're not sure what this is or where it came from. There's no mention of this on the band's website or their wikipedia entry. We assume this is really Knucklehead from Calgary, and not another of the bajillion other bands out there with the same name.



Apologies for the rip on this - the vinyl on this thing wasn't in great shape. But maybe you don't really care because you've got Sled head.

Field Day - Enough For Two (1994)

Chances are that if you, like us, have a couple of key Calgary compilations from the mid-90's, you have "Enough for Two" in your collection already. At least a few times.

So maybe you want to see the video for it?



And then maybe you want to indulge your OCD and download this single?

Joker - Not Playing With a Full Deck 7" (1990)

Here's another single that's been sitting in the CCPS archives since ubiquitous bass master Steve Elaschuk donated it to us. Folks really like Joker (especially folks in Europe?), so here's another pack of songs from these guys.

What's news to us is that, according to the Encyclopedia Metallum (which we wish had been on the shelves of our jr. high school library), guitarist Ken Wall also spent time in White Noise/Beyond Possession.

Which certainly would explain these guys' sound.

S.P. Cerra - Sit Tease/Essence 7"

We're rousing ourselves out of our mandatory pre-Sled Island nap to get back to some posts. It's been quiet here at the CCPS - we've managed to return most of the tapes that we've recently borrowed, so we're going to turn to our vinyl collection for a few oddities.

And what better place than this? There's no year on this record, and we're not 100% sure, but we've mostly convinced ourselves that this is a pre-Funeral Factory project - not just because of Mary-Lynn White's presence, but also because of the vocals. Greg Kushner sent us this record a couple of years ago without any explanation.

So, of course, we make up our own.

Lab Coast - Editioned Houses (2012)

Phew! Back to Calgary, just in time for POST #500!!! WOOHOO!!! In your face, other blogs!

Okay, now that we have that out of our system, we want to celebrate one of our current local faces, the low-fi pop masters that are Lab Coast. We truly appreciate Chris Dadge's commitment to the cassette format, one that he's continued with the help of Iowa's Night-People Records. This pinkalicious tape is what Dadge and Laing excel at - understated pop masterpieces in the vein of Sebadoh. Hmm. We're now picturing Laing as Lou Barlow. And somehow it's working.

Anyways, side two of this tape is a bit of a surprise - an experimental, 12-minute track that's more in keeping with Dadge's Bug Incision projects. And, yes, we know we have failed to catalog Dadge's prolific cassette output on here - but that's a rabbit hole that we know we'll never get out of if we start down it. We'll be at post #600 and just have scratched the surface of his recorded output.

You can get this tape at Hot Wax or (presumably) Night-People.

CCPS Miscellany: Pal Joey - Last Chance for Food and Drink (1994)

Okay, one last Edmonton tape, and then back to Calgary. We're going to go with something we actually can pretend we know something about. Kind of.

Pal Joey were a super-talented bunch of folks; their CD, Tennessee Angels, is one of the few Edmonton CDs in the CCPS archives (along with the Slow Fresh Oil and Twin Fangs discs). And we're always happy to have another tape in the collection - so thanks to Natalie from Depeche Ode for passing us this tape. More of the great roots rock we expect from the band on here.

Actually, this post officially makes Pal Joey the Edmonton band with the most coverage on the CCPS. Go figure.

New 1-2 - ICOE Pre-Production (1999)

Our Wagbeard/Primrods long weekend continues! A while back, Craig Evans passed us a box full of tapes and things (including a plethora of Night Gallery gig posters, which are up on our Facebook page). One of the tapes was this one, a series of early mixes of the New 1-2's second CD.

As Craig pointed out to us, the New 1-2 was a different band by this time. They had lost their original bass player and drummer, and shifted their sound from the angular math-rock to a more visceral garage rock. There are a lot of hints of future direction Coutts took with the very excellent Twin Fangs on here.

As a bonus, we also found this in the box from Craig:

It still doesn't answer some key questions (most significantly: what the hell?), but it certainly is a cool thing to have in the CCPS archive.

As is this tape, of course.

Earthquake Pills - Earthquake Pills (1997)

Well, since we're enjoying the Primrods/Wagbeard split 10" so much right now, how about this tape? This came to us via Joe McCaffery, and our pal Steve Elaschuk tells us that this was basically a promo done of a few tracks from the Earthquake Pills' first CD, the oddly-titled Audiodidactaphone. 

This gives a good reason to link to this ancient F-Word article, which includes (a) a "joke" comparing Chris Temple to Bronski Beat's lead singer, (b) a mention of a record rep (remember those strange beasts? The one in this article was clearly off his meds) and (c) Mark Igglesden's pseudonym du jour. 

This one's an easy pill to swallow.

Kids - He's No. 1/Victim of Hypocracy (1983)

We've had this sitting in the CCPS digital archive for a while, so since we found the Kids' full-length, we may as well share this with you. 

We have conflicting information about the number of singles these guys put out. MOCM says one, but JAM! says two (and RYM even has a picture of the label of the other single). So we're guessing that two is correct.

We kind of wish the cover of their records were as high-gloss at the record labels. But, as we're well aware, you should never judge a record by its cover.

Kids - The Kids (1983)

So, we managed to get out to the the Calgary Records Collector's Show last weekend - and, more importantly, we managed to leave without having to re-mortgage our house. We managed to grab a few things for the CCPS archives which we didn't have physical copies of and... this.

We'd like to thank the individual who pointed this out to us. He had been told three things about the record: first, it's not the Belgian band of the same name. Second, it's rare. Third, it's not very good. Which explains why an allegedly rare record was going for such a reasonable price. So reasonable, that we couldn't pass up a chance to grab this.

In many ways, we weren't disappointed by our purchase. This isn't a great record - in fact, it was sounding really good until we realized our turntable was set at 45 instead of 33. But, look at the band picture on the inside! 

Wow, totally worth the price.

Anyways, the Museum of Canadian Music tells us that keyboardist Derek Bullen is still active. But that's all we know.

But don't let that stop you from grabbing the download.

Straight - 4-Track Demos (1998)

Here's something we're pretty thrilled to hear again. Years ago, we were lucky enough to hear some early demo versions of songs Joe McCaffery was kicking around for his then-new band, Straight. So when Joe surprised us by finding the very tape that we heard some 17 years ago, we were kind of over the moon.

This is a set of songs that, apart from "Devil Doll" and "Brains," Joe never gave over to Straight, finding them perhaps too dark. The songs were recorded over about three years, from late 1995 to 1998.

Thanks again to Joe for unearthing this gem.

Various - Oh Canaduh! 2 (1998)

The next in our line of compilations is one which is pretty special for a whole bunch of reasons. Lance Rock Records put out a bunch of swell records and CDs (including singles from the Mants and Chixdiggit - what a combination!), and this is perhaps the swellest.

The concept is pretty straight-forward: get a bunch of bands to cover Canadian punk rock classics. Where it gets good is the combinations on this second volume and the execution. The Von Zippers are on here with a track we didn't really realize was a cover (you have to admit, it's a common problem), Da Slyme's "Truck Stop Nun." The Puritans take on Nomeansno's "Try Not to Stutter." Those are both good tracks.

But what's gooder is the Mants doing the Sturgeons' "Punk Rock Virgins" and Forbidden Dimension doing Personality Crisis' "Vampire's Dream." We really, really like the historical tie-in implied by both of those tracks (and, can we say, the thematic synchronicity in the case of Forbidden Dimension's choice).

But what's gooderer still is how Huevos Rancheros tackles the Young Canadians' "Hawaii." Not only do the instrumentalists bring in a guest vocalist (we're pretty sure that's Chixdiggits' KJ Jansen), but they also manage to turn down the language a notch, providing junior high school students every where with a more suitable version for their school dances. Until the final chorus, that is. But they make up for it by segueing into a bit of the Hawaii 5-0 theme.

That alone is worth the price of admission.

Infernos - Working Out With the Infernos (1997)

Sunday mornings here at the CCPS tend to be filled with at least a twinge of regret. Sometimes for partying to hard the night before, other times for not partying hard enough. Well, today's tape makes we realize we pretty much never party hard enough compared to some people.

We posted the first Infernos tape almost three years ago to this day, and bassist Dave Anderson recently got in touch with us about the second tape, which he had just been reunited with. Now, you'll notice right away that this tape has a Montreal contact address - at some point, Dave and future Fubar actor Paul Spence moved to Montreal, taking their garage rock antics with them. They picked up a different drummer in Montreal, and carried on, putting out this tape.

So if you, like us (see what we did there? all those business school classes are paying off!), are feeling a bit of regret at not having partied hard enough last night, grab this tape and crank it up.

Mud Commandos - CJSW Interview (1989)

We've got another treasure from Mark Igglesden's basement, so brace yourselves. This is a radio interview (which Igglesden wasn't present for, sadly (?)) with Wes Hegg. As we'd expect, there's a significant amount of misinformation in the interview (which you'd think we'd like, since that's our usual schtick - we're kind of sensitive to others treading on our turf, though, so we're not impressed by the hijinx on here). Wes tries to reign things in, trying to get the band members to admit to having played with Steaming Mad at Dirt and A Passion Of. They don't bite, but offer the nugget, "We're friends to mud, we don't sling it".

They also sling some mean garage rock. In between the interview-y bits, Wes plays two tracks as recorded by Brent Cooper and the band offers one acoustic number. It's a great showcase for Michael Paton's guitar work, which we at the CCPS are mighty big fans of.

Get muddy here.

Sturgeons - Yellow Sea Eel Hunt (Complete, 1979)

Well, since we posted a more complete Suburban Slag recoding yesterday, it seems only right (again, we have very poor judgement, so this is up for debate) that we post a more complete Sturgeons recording. We found this tape in Mark Igglesden's basement, tucked neatly in behind a massive pile of boxes of model Panzerkampfwagens.

Based on the j-card that we rounded up for our original Sturgeons post, we're thinking this is more original as it includes the two covers that were omitted from the original (are you confused yet? we are), the non-originals Nancy Sinatra's"These Boots are Made for Walking" and Petula Clark's "Downtown" (and before you write in, we know those songs weren't written by Sinatra and/or Clark - we're being lazy and not hitting wikipedia, except that we did, because we had one of those moments of panic where we suddenly weren't sure if the Petula Clark version was the canonical version, we began to worry that we had slipped into some bizzaro world where everything was topsy turvy, like for example, maybe Lou Reed was a woman, which actually would make more sense, wouldn't it? maybe we're in the bizzaro world, and... oh, we need to go lie down for a bit).

As with yesterday's post, we're going to leave our original Sturgeons demo posting up for posterity, and add this to the mix, since we're pretty shameless about posting the same thing twice (or more).

Suburban Slag - Late 79-80 (1980)

Late last year, we posted a strange demo of the fabled band Suburban Slag that came to us via another blog. The always smiling and soft-spoken Doug Boland (whose name we've been misspelling on this blog for the past four years) passed us this CD of basement demos from, uh, late 1979 and 1980. Hence the title, we suppose.

We're still not sure what the original demo was - maybe a random selection of the tracks from this, as chosen by a tape trader somewhere along the way? That sounds plausible, so we'll go with it. What we do know if that this full batch of demos is a great improvement over the sound quality of our original posting. Plus, covers of punk rock standards "Holiday in the Sun" and "Blitzkrieg Bop" - although our favourite thing on here it the original "New Improved."

Also since our original Suburban Slag post we picked up and read (all Oprah's Book Club-like and everything!) Chris Walters' Personality Crisis bio. We've been meaning to read us some Walters, and this book seemed like the perfect excuse - although Personality Crisis were from Winnipeg, they spent enough time in Calgary (...and Vancouver, and California) to be sometimes mistaken as a Calgary band. Plus, Suburban Slag is the band that drummer Jon Card ditched to join PC. The book is filled with gems related to the Calgary scene (if we can get our stuff together, we'll put a book review up on our Facebook page), such as "a youth named Al Charlton turn[ing] Jon on to punk rock" after Card played in a metal band called Stonehenge (which sounds too good to be true).

According to Walters' book, Jon and Al "jammed regularly", but by the time Card got around to wanting to form a band, Al was in the Sturgeons. So, Jon hooked up instead with Doug Boland (you think it's bad we misspelled Doug's name? Walters calls him "Bolen"!), Jeff Burns ("who went on to a career producing music") and Jim Hanlon. Walters drops a comment about suggests that Suburban Slag had a lead singer before Hanlon, but then says something about Hanlon (maybe? Walters' wording is vague here) having fronted Silicone Injection, which doesn't line up with what we know.

What Walters isn't vague about is that Card arrived late at Personality Crisis' Calgarian Hotel show, where they announced their drummer was quitting. "After the show, [Card] gave [Personlity Crisis'] Mitch [Funk} a Suburban Slag demo tape" - likely the very recordings we're posting today.

The rest, as they say, is history.

CCPS Miscellany - Far, Far Out: Calgary Magazine (1986)

We've included a few of the pages of this feature with various posts about the bands, but we figure we'd put this piece up in its entirety to meet our minimum monthly post count for posterity. 


The January 1986 issue of Calgary magazine devoted six pages to a feature on the Calgary underground music scene. Text by John Portwood, photos by Ellen Brodylo and Mike Morrow.

Far, Far Out
Calgary’s elusive underground rock scene is easy to miss and harder to find. Like, dig it if you can

There is no money and even less attention to be had by an underground rock’n’roll band in a Top-40 town. These uncompromising groups have few venues to play. Ten Foot Henry’s was alternative music’s focal point, but poor attendance and LRT construction put an end to that. At this point, it’s not clear what nightclub might emerge to fill the void. Local musicians are wondering how the underground scene will survive. This sampling of dedicated and unusual bands, however, makes it clear that it will take more than a C-Train to stop the music.Tau Cetileft to right: Barry Calnan, Dan Klauss, Alice Gauthier
Tau Ceti knows you can’t force anyone to think, and approaches its music with that in mind. The group’s front man, guitarist Dan Klauss, writes the lyrics he sings. Alice Gauthier sits on keyboard, alongside drummer Barry Calnan. Together 18 months, Tau Ceti recently released its first single, a love song entitled Radiation. The group’s members agree that there is no way to make a living in Calgary. For the most part, Tau Ceti is a dance band. They’ve made the natural progression from punk-rock cover band (covering material) to composing their own tunes. Upbeat and “pop” one moment, the trio can be dark and bizarre the next. The group takes its name from a Robert Heinlein novel. Tau Ceti is a distant solar system that desperate earthlings mistakenly travel to in search of refuge. By the time they get there, however, earth technology catches up to them in a very literal sense. An album should be ready for release this month. In a symbolic gesture, it will be entitled The Miracle Will Pass: disappearing ink on the record jacket will render the band’s name invisible right before your stereophonic eyes.
Beyond Possession
Beyond Possession is a band of conviction, and its members refuse to have their names published. Their leader fears it would detract from the group’s identity. The group’s name is taken by man to imply an association with Satan and the demonic hype with which heavy-metal bands often flirt. Not so, say the members of Beyond Possession: rather, they claim they are beyond being possessed by ego and material goods. An American and a Soviet flag hang in the band’s house. “We don’t lick anyone’s boots,” says one. A skateboarding tune they wrote and recorded has been distributed on a Skaterock album, a K-Tel-type record for skateboarders. Band members say they oppose both the neo-Nazi sentiments of punk and the blatant commercialism of heavy metal; their music is a hard-core-punk-and-heavy-metal fusion, a compromise that can be appreciated by both the thrashers and the headbangers. Their nameless and energetic leader works hard to keep alternative music alive in community halls around town. They’ve got day jobs and sink all their money back into the band. They travel. They just got back from an 18-state tour on which they peddled a few home-spun records and made a few waves. Insulted by a condescending announcer on a San Francisco radio show—the DJ had had the audacity to ask inane questions about Canadian weather—the band was forced to fill the mike with rude noises. Beyond Possession confide that “he didn’t ask us about our music.”

The Will...left to right: Ducky King, D. Jewel Davidson, Joe McCaffery, Ted Clark Latimer
The Will… are vocalist D. Jewel Davidson, part-time astronaut and bassist Ducky King, guitarist Joe McCaffery, and drummer and U of C student Ted Clark Latimer. The band’s nucleus has been together for years. The band refused to put a label on its music. Their various influences range from Jimi Hendrix to James Brown’s shoe builder. In a moment of weakness, they admit that their music is “everything rock ‘n’ roll was meant to be but isn’t.” The Will… say Calgary doesn’t treat them badly: They just ignore use, so we ignore them.” A CBC-produced EP was released in 1983. One of the tunes, Funky Babylon, made it to No. 1 on the CJSW charts. While they are skeptical about the band’s future, they’d have no objection to making money if a record label came looking for them. Lyricist, poet and short story writer D. Jewel Davidson has another career in mind: he fancies himself a new recruit in the bag lady corps. And one last thing: they’re not happy about the above photo. Firstly, the photographer wouldn’t allow their fifth member, Happy the Clown, to pose. Secondly, they feel the whole concept reeks of “pouring the band into a glass bottle with formaldehyde.” They’re afraid of the “dissecting middle-class gaze,” so have a good look.

Sacred Heart of Elvisleft to right: Ali, Bartok Guitarsplat, Tim Campbell
Vocalist Ali came up with the band's name when she saw a black-velvet painting of Elvis Presley on a jean-jacket. She saw it as the "mixing of trash culture with trashier culture." Any connection with the King ends there. Tim Campbell's guitar and Bartok Guitarsplat's lap steel have been on the Calgary music scene for some time. Both musicians' roots are in folk: Tim in Irish folk and Bartok in bluegrass. They like the guts inherent in traditional lyrics and call the sound of Sacred Heart of Elvis, "urban folk." Themes of "turning over rocks of one sort or another" recur throughout their material. Tim discovered that when he dropped all the clichés from his guitar playing, he no longer knew how to play. Tim and Ali are students at the U of C, and Bartok sweats it out with a day job. Tim and Bartok point to the Golden Calgarians as a group that best exemplifies the Calgary underground scene. Currently touring out east, the Golden Calgarians are experiencing success without compromising ideas. Sacred Heart of Elvis has a country drinking song called Walking the Floor that's getting some play on CJSW. A cassette tape produced by the band (complete with lyrics and photos) is available in some record stores. All of their lyrics centre on the "trinity of urban life: sex, violence, and drugs." In reality, they say, they're "happy people" who only think horrible thoughts in their songs. They hope to tour once school is out in the spring.
The Mulesleft to right: Bradley Frank, Clive Mansfield, Duane Douglas
The Mules have been together less than a year, but guitarist Bradley Frank, vocalist and drummer Clive Mansfield, and bass player Duane Douglas have known each other for years. They’ve played everything from pop to punk rock. The Mules often play the university and get considerable airplay on CJSW-FM 91. Other venues include the National Hotel and Slack Jack’s. Their roughed-up country sound has opened for the Good Brothers at the Glenmore Banquet Centre. The band is happy to play anywhere. Old-time country stars influence The Mules’ music. They describe their style as “traditional pepped-up country.” Keeping alive the idea of simple country music is their main goal. As a result, classic country covers make up 50 per cent of their song list. The Mules have recorded a cassette, but have had trouble finding airplay on commercial radio. Some country stations have expressed interest, but they won’t touch anything that’s not on vinyl. Cash flow is their biggest obstacle at the moment, and their musical style makes it difficult to find financial backing. They hope to record an independent album in the spring and, in the meantime, are keeping their collective eyes open for a distributor.
Age of Reasonleft to right: Darren “Meat” Robertson, Michel Dukic, Bernd Kessler, Derek Forman
Vocalist Michel Dukic and drummer Darren Robertson are students at the Alberta College of Art. Guitarist Bernd Kessler and bass player Derek Forman round out the group. They take pride in the fact that they seldom play a piece the same way twice. It’s their assertion that most bands overrehearse. The members of Age of Reason consider themselves individuals and use the group as a vehicle for self-expression. Still, there is melodic interplay between Yugoslavian-born singer Dukic and German-born guitarist Kessler. The band’s members describe their music as total nervous breakdown: “If you didn’t face reality after hearing us, you wasted reality.” They have no money and no recording prospects. However, a number of their tunes, Hollow Smiles and Lady of the Rainbow in particular, are full of potential and emotion. The group’s style can be both chaotically hard-core and poetically stinging. Dukic began his musical career in Germany in 1979 with a church basement group called Rabies. He calls his material “Gothic Christian dance music.” He compares his voice to that of Elvis Presley with a cold, and he avoids writing “stupid love ballads.” Musically, the group hangs on Kessler’s guitar playing. A hairdresser by trade, he detests being a slave to the system: “I don’t smile unless I have to.”

Thanks to Rodney Brent (a.k.a. Bartok Guitarsplat of Sacred Heart of Elvis fame) for sending in these clippings!

Crying Hope - Crying Hope (1986)

We didn't know this record existed until this past weekend, and we were lucky enough to score a copy more easily than we expected. And, hot damn! What a record!

Of course, we're talking about the band's membership, which provides a link to the Primrods via Ninth Configuration. While there are no last names given, we're pretty sure that's Tom Horvath on guitar and Ben Falconer on bass and vocals.

And the music! The music is pretty, well... eclectic. "Labotomy Rock" is kind of white boy funk, "I Will Survive" has stronger ties to NiCon, and "Small Town Girl" borrows liberally from "Hotel California" and features more whistling than we would have liked.

And... aw, who are we kidding. The cover is pretty excellent. So good, in fact, that we've framed this and put it up on the wall here at the CCPS office, right beside that wicked poster of a Ferrari Testarossa that Gene's been holding on to since junior high.