Saturday 28 February 2009

Plaid Tongued Devils - The Experimental Farm (1992)

Plaid Tongued Devils

Plaid Tongued Devils (inside)

There aren't a pile of bands being captured here who are still active. The Plaid Tongued Devils have been going strong for almost 20 years - this, their first tape, finds them walking a more narrow path than they do now. Missing are the delicious klezmer touches that make them what they are today, so going back and listening to this, it does seem somewhat flat in comparison.



Grain - A Moment's Insight (1991)

The Grain - A Moment's Insight

The Grain - A Moment's Insight (inside)

The Grain played rootsy power pop, much in the vein of, say, the Grapes of Wrath. Which in 1991 was okay. Now, maybe not so much.



A-Team - Pity the Fool (1995)

The A Team - Pity the Fool

I only ever saw the A-Team in a much later phase. This tape is I think one of the first things they hit with. "I'm a Truck" is pretty fantastic - it even shows up on the slightly-flawed CJSW 20th anniversary compilation, 90.9 With a Bullet. Main A-Team guy Andy Sparacino did time with Helvis and was in FUBAR, and was most recently spotted rhyming with Blist.

Tuesday 24 February 2009

Little Canada - Have You Seen My Banjo (1994)

little canada

Which brings us to tonight's feature presentation. Just over a year ago, I was rather restrained when I posted the two Quitters tapes. Let me emphasize this now: the Fuzzball EP is one of the best recordings to ever, ever come out of this city. The Quitters are one of our most criminally overlooked bands.

So I'm pretty thrilled to have just received a batch of stuff from ex-Quitter/Joe 90/Ted Clark Five guy Christopher Truch. The most notable of which is this cassette from Little Canada, released a couple of years after Fuzzball and after the Quitters quit. This is more restrained than the Quitters (Christopher's output has become increasingly jazzy - in a Paul Weller sense), but great nonetheless. "Big-Eyed Curse" jumped out at me as channeling the Dream Syndicate, which is always a good thing. And a final track which my dog likes to bark at.

I just got this yesterday, and you should get it today.

(Thanks, Christopher!)

Stoics - Adventure (1987)

Stoics-J-Card

Phew! Another one we missed. This has been described by the donor as "hendrixy heavy modal bluesy rawk", but it's really not that bad. Why do we care about this? Pete Charuk played bass in that great band. You know the one.

Get it here.

Ted Clark Five - The Ted Clark Five (1986)

TC5_CDLP-004sm.jpg

Catching up on cross-posts before getting to something new and noteworthy tonight. The Ted Clark Five were a collection of notables who would quickly go on to bands including Huevos Rancheros, Rabbit Has Brain and the Quitters.

Christopher Truch (ex-TC5, Joe 90) put together a fantastic compilation, We Is Not The Will..., We Is The Ted Clark Five, appending a bunch of unreleased studio stuff and live tracks to the original four-song cassette. Everything's been remastered, too:

No. 10 Nirvana*
Bringin' Me Down (Darlin You're)**
Bad Boy*** (L.Williams)
No Respect to Lose**
Guilt Doesn't Belong**
[untitled fragment]
Black Cat Bone‡ (A.Collins)
Ramblin' Rose*** (Burch/Wilkin)
Come See About Me† (D.Covay)
Nothing's Worse Than Waiting‡ (B.Cooper)
Time of Day*** (The Remains)
Danny's Doing Time‡ (B.Cooper, C.Truch)
No. 10 Nirvana**
Walking Out on Love**** (Collins)

*Originally released on: Writing On Stone:The Alberta Compilation, Rubber Records 1987 Recorded at In EarAudio, Calgary, Engineered by Shane Connelly and Gary Bruckner

**Originally Released on Independent Cassette: The Ted Clark Five. Recorded at Ace Of Clubs, Calgary, 1986

***Previously Unreleased, Recorded Live to Cassette at Acoustic Ga Ga, Calgary, 1988, Taper: James "The Beef" McCaffery

†Previously Unreleased, Recorded Live, Westward Club, Calgary, 1987,Engineered by Grant Sim

‡Unfinished Sessions, Recorded to Cassette4-track, The Cooper House, Calgary, 1987

****Out-take from Independent Cassette The Ted Clark Five. Recorded at Ace Of Clubs, Calgary, 1986, Scream: Joe McCaffery



Joe 90 - Joe 90 (1990)

JOE 90

We're not sure why we didn't cross-post this from Golden Rock when our friends over there put it up a while ago. Chris Truch from the Quitters and Ted Clark Five, along with Tom Kennedy of Rabbit Has Brain and Huevos Rancheros (!) make this a must have.

(Sources in the know (ie Golden Rock) tell us that Gregg Cameron is actually Gregg Baekeland. You can play connect-the-dots for yourself here.)

Sunday 22 February 2009

Aqua-Sinjels - Say-La-V (1997)

Aquasinjels - say-la-v

Aquasinjels - say-la-v (inside)

There has always been a shortage of brown guys in indie rock/punk/whatever. I'm thinking back over the years in Calgary, and I'm thinking of Tariq and... well, pretty much no one else. Except these guys.

This recording hasn't aged too well. A combination of the guitar sound (I remember when I had a chorus pedal - like this, it wasn't pretty) and the muddy recording make it kind of hard to get through.

But you should still take a listen.

Splitsville - Matchbox (1996)

Splitsville - Matchbox

Splitsville - Matchbox (inside)
One of the High Bias, Low Filter columns below has a quick review of this lovely 4-tracker. This is Scott Bennie post-Rosco Pecoe, pre-Nine Miles to Morgan. And it's good. Although I remember it being better live.

Which is often the case.

Ohama - ...On the Edge of The Dream (1994)

Ohama

This is a nice pairing with the previous post. Ohama's well-produced electronica is world-class - 15 years later, this sounds surprisingly good. Tona Ohama has a fantastic youtube channel, which he's using to document the local music scene today (how's that for a nice twist, eh? I'm documenting his old stuff, while he documents new stuff!). His channel also has this gem, an interview he did with MuchMusic back in the day:



For more, Golden Rock has a few of Ohama's pre-90's vinyl releases.

Get dreamy!

Saturday 21 February 2009

Funeral Factory - Cold War Isolation Daisies (1990)

The Funeral Factory




This tape isn't formally titled, but we think (think, think, think) this is the cassette release of their Cold War Isolation Daisies CD (c. 1990?). The running order is different than both the j-card on the tape and the CD track listing. We present this as is, not re-ordered as per the documentation. Speaking of which, the documentation is completely lacking here.

Of note: what is listed as "Living With Ghosts" is in fact the five tracks from their vinyl EP with the same title (previously posted by our pals at Golden Rock).

Also - this article from the Calgary Herald explains the link between The Funeral Factory and Big Bang Theory: bassist Case Caulfield.


Get your goth on!

Edit: thanks to the sharp minds at Golden Rock for confirming that yep, this is Cold War/Isolation Daisies, from 1990. Thanks also to Grant Hutchinson for passing along a second j-card, which includes the artwork/credits for Living with Ghosts.

Thursday 19 February 2009

Brass - Shazam! (1995)

Brass-3

We have a second Brass tape. But we don't have the artwork. Why? We don't know. You should just be glad we have the tape.

We haven't been listing tracks in my postings b/c we've had pictures of the art, and we're lazy. Since we don't have the art, here's what you can expect on this:

1. Ben & Tracy
2. Untitled
3. Mountebank
4. My Summer
5. Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want

Is this their second tape? Maybe even their third? Is it the same folks playing as in the other band? Or is it Red Autumn Fall having a lark?

Who knows.

(Update: we found the artwork! But we still think this is Red Autumn Fall!)

Brass - Brass (1993)

Brass

Ah, Brass. We think we could have liked them, if it weren't for their frontman. And the unfortunate title of the second track on this cassette. Guitarist Lyle Crilly went on to do come good stuff with other local outfits including Lemonjade and Thousandsticks. Guitarist Matt Gillespie would hook up with former CJSW music director Maizun Jayoussi to form the Lux. Derek Hannah went on to, uh... we can't remember.

And we have a funny story about one of the things their lead singer went on to do, but if we mention it we'd probably get sued for libel or slander or whichever one of those it is when you slag someone in print.

Brassy!

Wednesday 11 February 2009

High Bias, Low Filter - September 1996

High Bias, Low Filter - December 1996

Hamchrist - Analverkeher

Hamchrist - Analverkeher

Here's an obscure one from our friend Les Izmoore. Hamchrist features Jonas from Field Day (on bass, maybe?) and Kris from Pris (!) on drums (?). That's about as much as I know. I don't even know the year.

Why wouldn't you include the date on your tape?

Riot .303 - Crowd Control 7" (1982)


Once in a while, we here at the CCPS are going to break from our usual focus on the cassette tape to point you to a vinyl or even (gasp!) CD source. Today, we'd like to send you back to the dawn of time... well, okay, not really. How about 1982, and the band that spawned Beyond Possession, Color Me Psycho, Forbidden Dimension, The Choads, The Primrods, The Exploding Pigs... okay, that might be stretching a bit. But you get the idea. 




Saturday 7 February 2009

Massive Ferguson - The Stettler EP (1995)

Massive Ferguson - The Stettler EP

Here's another new find. This tape pulled material from MF's CD, Tractivore, into a special edition for a show the Hofer boys played in their hometown of Stettler. They made up 50 of these tapes for that show, about 14 years ago. They were pretty excited, the big show in their hometown! These tapes were going to go fast!

Since I have one now, they just have 49 left. Hurry, act fast and get one!

Hot Little Rocket - Hot Little Rocket (1998)

Hot Little Rocket

A friend of ours passed me us few tapes this week (thanks, Les!), and the first one we're posting doesn't have the art. Sadness. Anyways, since we've posted Rosco Pecoe and Sky Suspended, the next logical step is... Hot Little Rocket. Here's the first tape they put out, just over 10 years ago - with a female lead singer! Something makes us also wants to say that they also had a different drummer. But we think we're wrong on that one.

The boys put together a nice little compilation CD for their 10th anniversary last year, and these two tracks were on it, so we don't think it's a dirty secret.

Tuesday 3 February 2009

Glider - Umbrella EP (1995)

Glider

Glider were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1982. Based on the songwriting partnership of John Beatty (vocals, guitar) and Rob Virdis (guitar), the band also included Gary Vickers (bass) and Rene Chayer (drums). Critics have called them one of the most important alternative rock bands to emerge from the British independent music scene of the 1980s, and the group has had major influence on subsequent artists. Beatty's lovelorn tales of alienation found an audience amongst youth culture bored by the ubiquitous synthesizer-pop bands of the early 1980s, while Virdis' complex melodies helped return guitar-based music to popularity.

We're not kidding!

Shinolas - Poisson (1996)

The Shinolas - Poisson

Here's the third Shinolas tape we have. Pete Link is a machine when it comes to songwriting. A crazy, malfunctioning machine that shortcircuits and then goes on a killing spree. Apparently there's another out there somewhere (or maybe a CD? or also a CD?) that features the very fantastic "Passed Out at the Door to Your Heart." But this tape has lots of good stuff too, like, uh, "Human Being Submarine Machine."

Trivia, something we just discovered by accident this weekend when digging through a box of random junk: bass player Conrad Montana played with local grump Lorrie Matheson in the tragically-named Anxious Poets. Did anyone else see them at one of those early-90s music festivals, when they played a Pixies cover and then Lorrie threw his guitar into the audience? No? Maybe we imagined it. And really, Lorrie's not that much of a grump. On Fridays.

Really.

Shinolas - Ptarmageddon (1998)

The Shinolas - Ptarmageddon

I don't know how I forgot to post these. Not one, but two more tapes from the ultrafantastic Shinolas! These guys were fantastic, sloppy, fun power pop. Plus, this tape sees two of my local faves contributing: Joe McCaffery (again!) and Djewel Davidson.

Speaking of whom, I saw Djewel in the library last week. How uncool is that?

Don't answer.

Sunday 1 February 2009

Rayovaq - Ray-O-Vaq (1998)

Ray-O-Vaq - Ray-O-Vaq

I need to do a bit of quality control over on the old blog, here. It seems I neglected to post this, the first recording from the very, very fantastic Rayovaq. Or Ray-o-Vaq. or something. This is an early recording, I have a feeling Rusty is on drums here (Jay Wooley played on their CD, Tendency to Sway). Derek McEwen is a fantastic guitarist - and Rayovaq were probably one of my favourite live bands in the late 90's.

There was a rumour that Rayovaq were going to be playing a one-off reunion show last fall, at the Hot Little Rocket 10th anniversary party. Too bad that didn't happen. What you should do instead is go visit Derek over at his new venture, the Milk Tiger Lounge, and tell him he needs to pull out the Rickenbacker and make some more feedback-infused pop.

Here's an f-word article, just around the time of their CD release. CDs, man, who needs 'em?

Really.

Soft Tips - The Soft Tips (1996)

The Soft Tips

The box of tapes in the basement has yielded this. I'm not sure where it came from. I'm not sure what it is (other than really, really good) - it's probably not an official release (then how the hell did I get it?!?!). I remember the Soft Tips as being made up of twin heartthrobs Steve and Mark Schroeder. But a little googling seems to indicate that Derek McEwen (later of Rayovaq) was also involved here. This is great, shoegaze-inspired pop.

Tip!