Hook - Demo (1997)

Okay, so this is getting a bit better. At least these guys had the courtesy to include a business card with their contact info and to print the date this was recorded on the tape. AND we can confidently declare that this is an interesting, almost equal parts mix of alt.rock and Britpop.

It feels like a minor miracle.

Hire Ground - Demo

This tape from the Republik gives us extra angst, because we can't even be sure of the band's name. The j-card says Hire Ground, but the sticker on the tape itself says Higher Ground.

This isn't your typical 90's alt.rock (or your typical 90s alt.rock, depending on which style guide you happen to be using). There's something more musical in this - a British influence that's not the usual Britpop.

Still, we can't get past the mystery of their name.

Liquid Sound - Demo

Our ability to tell you anything useful about the tapes from the basement of the Republik is slipping pretty quickly now. Who are Liquid Sound? Were they in anyway related to Liquid Light? Actually, we know these guys aren't related to Liquid Light - this is fairly rough pop punk, complete with a refrain that goes "oi oi oi oi!" But, getting back to questions we can't answer: what is a "Back Door Production"?

Seriously. We can't even begin to guess.

Ingredients - Demo

Here's another tape from the basement of the Republik. The four guys in the Ingredients are the same four guys in Poplydia, which leads us to believe that either (a) the Ingredients changed their name to Poplydia or (b) Poplydia changed their name to the Ingredients.

Which is it? We have no idea. We suspect the former, since this is rougher than the other recording, and at least one of these songs sounds like a Tragically Hip rip off.

Now, that's tragic.

Interstellar Root Cellar - Demo

Here's another tape from Twyla Dawn and the basement of a Concorde Group property. This three song tape from Interstellar Root Cellar appears to be a sample of three songs from their 1997 self-titled CD.

We already said everything we know about these guys about three years ago, so we'll just send you to the download.

Lola - Demo

Just before Sled Island, we got an email from Twyla Dawn who said: "I found a box of tapes a few months ago when cleaning out the basement office of the old Whiskey - the tapes had come from press kits that people sent to the Republik a long time ago! Would you like the box?" Well, duh! Of course we did! Quite expectedly, the content of the box was a very mixed bag. So we'll start with some of the good stuff, like this one-dong demo from Brad Simm and Lola.

While the one song on here is from the tape of theirs we posted previously, this does clear up one fact: apparently Ted Latimer may have been their drummer. Maybe. 

Dammit, this clears up nothing.

Crosss/Unblonde - Split Lathe (2013)

Weirdo vinyl weekend continues with this (another!) split record featuring wunderkind Jean Sebastien Audet's Un Blonde and Crosss, who are from somewhere east of Alberta. We had to find a tape measure, but we can confirm that this lathe is 8" and square. And appears to be pressed on clear plexiglass. Anyways, it looks really weird going round and round (except that it's square, right?) on our turntable.

The two Un Blonde tracks on here are also ones that are on the Un Blonde tape from last year, but that doesn't make this any less fun. Wait, can you call Un Blonde fun?

Anyways, it looks like you might be able to order this from the Bruised Tongue bandcamp.

Martin Fulton Overkill - Devil's Advocates (2010)

We're almost over the shock and awe that is Stampede (also: the streets are slightly less slick with puke, but only because the heat has baked it to a cement-like consistency), so we're realizing that we took the easy out by posting a bunch of Dudes CDs over the weekend. Cooler heads have prevailed, and so we're going to focus on this special little record.

This one checks one of our favourite boxes, in that it's a 10-inch record. But then it jumps the shark - it's a freakin' picture disc! We're mostly certain that this is the only picture disc to come out of this city. MOSTLY certain. Because, hell, when are we completely certain?

Martin Fulton Overkill was a monster of two-piece metal, with Breakfast at Rock Central filmmaker Lock Fulton on guitar and big, hairy guy Dean Martin on drums. Did we mention they're metal?



There's a key rule here at the CCPS - we don't post links to download stuff that's less than five years old. Which this is. But we're pretty sure we've seen copies of this at Hot Wax, Sloth and/or Melodiya, so hopefully you can grab this lovely piece of van art metal from one of those fine establishments.

Update: it's been so long since we posted this that whatever that video above was, the link is dead now. So have the download to this EP!

Dudes - This Guy's the Limit (2002)

We always forget how loooong Calgary's annual Cowboy Halloween is. It feels like it's about the bazillionth day of Stampede, so our last post has prompted us to dig into a CD which hopefully will act as a bit of a balance to the bad behaviour that seems to have beset our modern, metropolitan city.

Or maybe not. We always forget the slightly (or, sometimes more than slightly) ramshackle quality to the early recordings from The Dudes. We prefer the version of "Dropkick Queen of the Weekend" on here to the later one on Brain Heart Guitar, mostly because of its hyperactive feel.

Grab this and take solace in the fact that there are only a few days left of Stampede.

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.