Tracker - Eyes of a Child (1992)

You'd probably expect this to be a whole lot more new age-y than it is, given the lyric sheet, song titles, cover art and hair. We'd really like to know why this was put out on Metanoia. This isn't actually bad - it's maybe a bit 1980's Canadian new wave in places, but it's hard to figure out where this would have fit on the landscape at the time.

Get it here.

Defoliator - Life in Chains (1993)

Getta load of that logo! Woo! We saw these guys at Sparky's once. Remember that place? No?

Get a Life!

Krul Hul - Harsh (1991)

We've obviously misremembered Krul Hul as a Metanoia band, but this tape certainly has many of the sounds that label was known for. We have no records of band membership - if you know anything, please let us know.

Update: Thanks to Krul Hul drummer Gary Gurr for filling us in on the band membership!

Darkside!

Waysiders - Good Lord on a Bun (1996)

Another from the Cam Hayden Archives. We don't remember much about the Waysiders, other than the fact that Mark McCaul went on to great things with the Bionic 6 and Trickl Act.

Get it here.

Various - Bloodbath at the Chinese Disco (1994)

Another compilation, this one's for the snow-sick folks out there. We're cheating a bit with this one. Although this was released on tape, the source for these mp3s is CD (thanks to the Clutterer for holding on to this gem).

And, since we don't have the full artwork, here's the tracklisting:

1. EDEN - Field Day
2. HUMP YOU - Chixdiggit
3. PUSSY MACHINE - Pussy Monster
4. I'M ON GLUE - El Caminos
5. I HOPE YOU DIE - Squat
6. CAN'T REMEMBER NAMES - Wagbeard
7. MOON PATROL - Huevos Rancheros
8. (THEME FROM) SUMMER LOVE CLOWN - Primrods
9. NANTE SHUFFLE - Kentucky Fried Children
10. E - El Caminos
11. MILA, CAROLINE, AND ME - Chixdiggit
12. HELLUVA WAY TO DIE - Wagbeard
13. FISH - Squat
14. I WANNA LIVE IN THE WOODS - Kentucky Fried Children
15. CONTEMPLATION - Field Day
16. HOTEL LONLINESS - Huevos Rancheros
17. HONEY WHILE YOU'RE DOWN THERE - Pussy Monster
18. (EVERYONE LOVES AN) ARMY PICNIC - Primrods

We know you can't get enough of the El Caminos. Get it here!

Update: we got the artwork! And a real copy of the tape! In shrinkwrap! Well, not anymore...

Various - Local Band Seeks Fans (1997)

Straight outta CJSW! Every once in a while, CJSW would put out a compilation of sorts. This one is great, because it gives us an excuse to post more Joe McCaffery ("The Obvious Things" shows up, we believe, on Straight's first CD, Happy Club)! And some Lorrie Matheson, too ("Sadie Hawkins" shows up on the first National Dust CD). Plus, more Chris Temple in the form of the Earthquake Pills and yet more of the Shinolas... We need to go lie down in a cool place somewheres!

And a few others we haven't heard from yet. The twang of the Alien Rebels, the power pop of the Brown Eyed Susans, and two other bands we can't remember a thing about.

This is a pretty solid little release - thanks to Colonel Cam Hayden for passing it over to us. Get it here!

Push - Loop (1993)

We had dug this little tape out before Steve Elaschuk contacted us and offered up his little treasure trove of tapes. How many bands has Steve played bass with? All of them?

Get it here.

Jeff Kushner - Praise/Exorcism (1993)

Jeff Kushner represents a pretty small demographic in the Calgary scene - well-written, well-produced, neo-psychedelic pop (with religious themes, nonetheless). Side 1 of this tape is pretty pop, side 2 is much more rock. We like side 2 a fair amount. Jeff Kushner has most recently been playing with Steve Bandola in the Beagle Ranch.

Thanks again to Steve Elaschuk for this!

Get it here.

Joker - Laff and a Half (1990)

Here's another addition from the Steve Elaschuk collection. Why do we care about this? Hint: it's not their cover of Black Sabbath's Paranoid. James Hayden played drums with these guys, assumedly before he went on to Fire Engine Red. This pretty much provides the missing link between his FER days and his current gig, playing with the legendary DOA.

Get it here.

Ninth Configuration - Ninth Configuration (1987)

Big thanks again to the good folks at Making Time for Thoughcrime, who have just posted the first tape from Calgary legends Ninth Configuration. There's some question as to the exact date of this tape, since the j-card is MIA (another! where do these things go?). If you can add any details to this, please let us know. We're assuming this is the same membership as what we've got for their Vegas tape.

(Update: thanks to our Sherlock Fox-y friends at Golden Rock for giving us a fix on this tape's date! - and extra thanks to Trev from Saturday Morning Poke for finding a cover for us!)

In the meantime, grab the download.

Ded. Souls - Too (1993)

Thanks to Steve Elaschuk for hooking us up with some pre-Wagbeard/Earthquake Pills/Great Evil Chris Temple. We can't remember much/anything about Ded. Souls. And we're tired, so we're going to dispense with the usual makingstuffup schtick.

Get it here.

Primrods - Encourage Citizen Advocacy plus three more plus two others also (1994)

We were just trying to figure out why we have so much Primrods in our collection. It's at the point where it's getting out of hand - we just digitized the amazing, amazing Wagbeard/Primrods split 10", plus this tape, and we already have the songs on the aforementioned Shit Side Story. We're asking, do we really need six copies of "Barbet Lad" in iTunes? (YES!)

Why do we love the Primrods so much? Here are five reasons:
1. We didn't love them enough in life. In fact, we didn't like them at all the first time we saw them.
2. "Santa Lucia": "My orange key like an olive branch opens up the locker door."
3. The title of this tape.
4. The artwork on their first tape.
5. The showed up for a photoshoot with vintage GI Joe dolls, and demanded that the dolls be photographed, not them.

What more do you need?

Primrods - Electrosity (1992)

Speaking of which, let's break this down quickly:

P1 - Mark Igglesden (drums)

P2 - Jon Sawyer (guitar - and a freakin' amazing guitar, we should add)

P3 - Ben Falconer (bass)

P4 - ? (vocals)

P5 - Paul Coutts (vocals)

P6 - Pat Andrews (bass - honourary status, assumedly for his part in the amazing Dr. Caligari show)

P7 - Garrett McLure (vocals, guitar)

P8 - Chris Faulkner (drums)

Is that right? Who was P4? Who cares? Why do we have so stinkin' much Primrods in our collection?

The eight tracks on this tape are also on the Primrods' compilation CD, Shit Side Story, which you can get from Catch and Release.

And here, for a limited time.

El Caminos - Ergo Drunken Sluts (1992)

This marks the first Porn Star Records release on this blog. And the first appearance of Kamil Krulis, here in the guise of Bobby Torpedo.

The El Caminos were really, really hard to take live. Abrasive in a kind of Fall/Mark E. Smith way. We had forgotten they released a tape, until Steve Elaschuk passed it our way.

We had also forgotten how much bravado Bobby Torpedo could muster, until we found this 1994 article by James Muretich:

You might enjoy their cover of "Tainted Love."

But then again, you might not.

Fire Engine Red - Good Coffee Burns (1994)

How happy are we to have this? Pretty damn happy. We've listened to "Black Day" about five times today.

By the time FER called it a day, they were quite a different band than what's on this tape. Lee Shedden bowed out shortly after the recording of their CD, 1530 (which we've played many, many times in the past 14 years). Brooker Buckingham stepped in on bass, then moved to guitar and brought in Steve Elaschuk on bass. And then at some point, Brooker stepped out and Pat Andrews stepped in, creating Fire Engine Wagbeard.

Anyways, this is from before all of that. So why did we bother telling you all that if it's not relevant? Because that's what we do best.

Thanks again to Steve Elaschuk for digging this out!

Sit in you bedroom and stare at the wall.

Skin Barn - Two Words for Cool (1990)

Sadly, we don't have a cover for this one, which comes to us from the secret stash of Steve Elaschuk. Steve says this predates the Skin Barn tape over at Making Time for Thoughtcrime, but since we don't have the art... we're going to guess this is from 1989 or 1990. It's a complete, wild-ass guess. That's what we do when we don't have the j-card. We make stuff up. To fill space. Like this.

Get your slap-bass on!

Update: Josh Etherington passed the art for this on to us. Turns out it's the famously-titled Two Words for Cool. We should have known. But we didn't. Thanks, Josh!

Skin Barn - Love Snack (1991)

We're going to point you over to the lovely folks at Making Time for Thoughtcrime, who have recently posted this tape from Skin Barn. We'll have more Skin Barn shortly, so don't you fret if you can't get enough of the bass-slappin' action!

Get it from MTFT!

Update: Never ones to leave good enough alone, we've re-mp3ed this from Josh Etherington's tape. And re-scanned the j-card. And given each other manicures. Get the new (improved?) version here.

Wagbeard - Ice Station Debra (1995)

We really didn't know this gem existed on tape until a couple of weeks ago, when Steve Elaschuk dropped the CCPS a note to let us know he had a bunch of tapes he wanted to share. We're not sure what more we can say about Wagbeard that hasn't been said before (other than, of course, they were no Brass!).

Oh, we can say this: somewhere between the first tape we posted and this, Chris Faulkner split to join the Primrods and the drummer's seat was taken over by Trevor MacGregor, who would go on to play in Treble Charger.

Hell, while we're at it, we'll say one more thing. Steve Elaschuk is the Kevin Bacon of the Calgary scene. I'm pretty sure any band can trace themselves to two or three steps removed from Steve. And that includes you, Brass.

We're not done! One more thing! The physical tape lists the date as 1995, the sleeve says 1995. We're going with '95.

We're not going to include a download link for this, because if you didn't get the CD when it came out, you can pop onto iTunes to download it.