Sunday 31 May 2009

Non Prophet - Non Prophet (1994)

Non Prophet

The thing we most want to know about this tape is this: what's up with the creepy, disembodied head on the inside of the cover?

We need to know!

Saturday 30 May 2009

Lucas - Lucas (1997)

Lucas

More fun from the all-ages scene. At least we have a year on this; however, we returned this to Todd and our Research Assistant didn't think to make note of Lucas' membership. We're going to force him to listen to Brass as punishment.

Get Lucas here.

Friday 29 May 2009

Joule - Joule

Joule

We'd like to be able to tell you more about Joule. They're held up as one of the better hardcore from the era - but they're so hardcore that, despite the exceptional packaging of this tape (the above patch plus a chapbook) - we're still left pretty much in the dark about who these guys were. There's a Radio3 page and even a myspace for them, but, hey, if you're not even going to include a tracklisting on your tape, we're not going to be able to say too much about you.

Get it here.

Thursday 28 May 2009

Life After High School - Life After High School (2000)

Life After High School

This is another one that comes to us via Dan Izzo and Todd Harkness. In 2000, releasing a tape wasn't retro cool like it is today - it was just plain wacky.

From an old, old article in f-word:

The buzz: Andie is known to be one of the more melodic bassists in town. While the band prides itself on breaking record numbers of strings and telling bad jokes on stage, Life After High School provides a sweet mix of indie pop and emo songs. "People think that we have high energy, (are) really personable and connect really well. They sense really good energy," says Andie. "And it's hard to genre us because we're such a crazy mix."

Three quarters of this band carried on as Beija Flor.

Crazy!

Travis Davies and the Ekseptions - Travis Davies and the E.K. (1998)

Travis Davies and the Ekseptions

Okay, so we remember the Ekseptions - but we're not clear why this came out as Travis Davies and the Ekseptions (or the E.K.). Mark Rudd we've seen on bass with the under-aged indie pop of Elmo's Dream - he'd go back to bass with Kara Keith's Falconhawk (rejoining Elmo's Dream bandmate/high school buddy Dave Alcock).

Get it here.

Tuesday 26 May 2009

Delusions of Reality - Chocolate Moo (1990)

Delusions of Reality - Chocolate Moo

We don't know much about Delusions of Reality - apparently guitarist Mark Donaghy also did time in Bent on Barbi.

That's all we got tonight.

Wait! Mark got ahold of us recently, and gives this bit of background:


Here's a little history on the band - it was really one band, 3 different names as the bass players changed.

Delusions of Reality started out as The Dimension of Sound, and was formed in 1989, while we were in high school (Western Canada High).  The members were Chad Holtzman (vocals/ guitar), Rahim Gaidhar (drums), Alonso Menjivar (bass) and me on guitar.  We played originals and covers by bands like Sons of Freedom and The Cult, and gigged at parties and all ages venues, like Studio A Go Go.  Within the first year Shane Sutherland replaced Alonso on bass, and we changed our name to Delusions of Reality.

We played our first club gigs as D.O.R. in the summer of 1990.  The Westward Club was where we played most often, as well as The Republik, The White Elephant/ Night Gallery, The Warehouse/Underground, and anywhere else that would have us.  Some of the more noteworthy bands we opened for were The Melvins (Westward Club), and The Dwarves and The Supersuckers (Republik).  We were also supposed to open for Helmet, but the show was cancelled because the drummer had appendicitis!   We were still teenagers when Chocolate Moo was released in 1990.

In late '92 or early '93 Gord Adam replaced Shane on bass, and we adopted the Spy Lemon moniker, releasing the Spy Lemon One cassette in the summer of '93.  That year we also won a battle of the bands at The Republik, and our prize was opening the main stage at Infest '93, so you could say we got to open for The Ramones!  Of course we played at 3 o-clock on Friday afternoon for 30 people, and The Ramones came on a little later that night.

In late '93 Rahim and Chad decided they'd had enough of rock music, so they re-cast Spy Lemon as a jazz fusion band.  Gord and I were out.  I'm not exactly sure how things went after that, but basically the band fizzled out soon after.

What happened to everyone?  As you know, Gord is a fixture on the music scene in Calgary.  Chad is a well respected jazz/blues/pop session guitarist in Calgary.  Chad also went on to play with Bjorn Again for about 8 years...really!  Rahim moved to Vancouver in about '94.  Shane stayed in Calgary until 2010.  He played with Thomas at the Wheel, Cosmic Charlie, and most recently, Heather Blush.  I played with Bent on Barbi for a year in 95/96, moved away from Calgary for years, came back for a while and played with the reggae band Activate, and now live in Halifax.

So there you have it.

Sunday 24 May 2009

Saturday 23 May 2009

Six Feet Under - Lost (1987)

Six Feet Under - Lost

And here's our third (and final?) six. Six Feet Under have a quick write up at the venerable (but sadly neglected) Punk History Canada. We'll let you go read that, so we can get on to more important things, like recovering from the awe of having seen Jon Sawyer and Chris Temple on stage together last night.

Get deep-sixed here.

Friday 22 May 2009

Six Digit Fix - Six Digit Fix (1995)

Six Digit Fix-2

Six Digit Fix

One good six deserves another. Or something. This one's from Josh, who says he rescued this from the discard pile at the public library. How great is that?

We'd only heard Six Digit Fix on the Play: 28 Tunes That Say Howdy compilation. Pete Charuk was in the stupendously good Quitters and the Stoics, Doug Collins was in Ded Soles. This doesn't quite live up to that pedigree.

Maybe we were expecting too much?

Thursday 21 May 2009

6-String Rebels - From the Barracks (2000)

6-String Rebels

6-String Rebels-2

We're really surprised to see a tape from 2000, but then, we're surprised by a lot of things. Handsome Dan tells us these guys moved to Calgary from Sudbury and loved the Clash and Knucklehead. In fact, guitarist James Gamble loved them so much, he joined them (Knucklehead, not the Clash, obviously).

Apparently, they changed their name to the more Canadian Press-correct Six-String Rebels when they put out a CD. But Dan is quick to point out that the hand-lettering on this makes it look more like their name is the G-String Rebels.

Which, we believe, is also okay by the Canadian Press stylebook.

Wednesday 20 May 2009

Everymen - Bryan Went Down to Reno (1998)

The Everymen - Bryan Went Down to Reno

The Everymen - Bryan Went Down to Reno-2

We're trying to make up for yesterday's less-than-impressive post. So here are all-ages mainstays The Everymen. Drummer Casey Lewis did a short stint with Knucklehead, before he and Colin Hess went on to the Failure.

We're still marveling at the cover art, but you might want to head straight to the download.

Tuesday 19 May 2009

Various - This is a Lame Ass Tape

This is a Lame Ass Tape

We don't know anything about this compilation or any of the bands on it. We're not going to try to find out anything about them. You would better spend your download time today checking out, say, the Quitters or maybe some Primrods.

Seriously, don't bother downloading this unless you're desperate.

Monday 18 May 2009

Rusty Nails - Rusty Nails (1992)

Rusty Nails

He wave another marginally acceptable release here on the CCPS, thanks to Josh for passing it along (and a couple of other readers for suggesting its inclusion here). Those of you whose eyes are open at whatever ungodly hour you're reading this will note that the address for these lovely lads is in Vancouver. But our research assistant has turned up a posthumous myspace (another!) which indicates these guys got their start in Calgary before moving to Vancouver in the early 90's (before this tape was released). Our research assistant also tells us that Rusty Nails drummer Pat/Paddy Duddy now plays in BC/DC.

Grow your hair and rock out!

Sunday 17 May 2009

CCPS Miscellany: Pal Joey - Demo



This one gets flagged as a questionable inclusion on this blog. Pal Joey were an Edmonton-based outfit (someone's set up a posthumous myspace that you can -and should - check out).

But a few things about this tape that Dan Izzo passed our way make us want to include it here. First, it likely has our old pal Lorrie Matheson playing on it (we believe - and memories are a bit foggy this morning after a night of Mustache Rock - that Lorrie joined Pal Joey after Fire Engine Red split). Second, Trent Buhler apparently played in Ninth Configuration (we didn't know this - we thought Ben was their bass player?). Third, the tape label (the j-card is MIA - and we're pretty fond of parenthesis this morning) has a contact phone number with a 403 area code, which while not being necessarily a Calgary number, we know one thing - it's not an Edmonton number.

And finally, it's a really good listen.

Anxious Poets - Tunes for the Fire Chief (1992)

Anxious Poets - Tunes for the Fire Chief

Anxious Poets - Tunes for the Fire Chief-2
We clearly remember an early article about Lorrie Matheson and the Anxious Poets, in which Lorrie professed to be more interested in quality than quantity when it came to songwriting. But the Poets also put on a pretty good live show (we already told our story about Lorrie throwing his guitar into the audience after playing a Pixies cover - perhaps as an act of penitence?)

Which is all fine and good, but what we want to know is this: why did so many lead guitarists in the early 90's use so much wah-pedal? The over-use of the wickywackywickywacky sound on this is regrettable.

Six songs good!

Friday 15 May 2009

Knucklehead - Keep Yer Hands Off My Sister (1994)

Knucklehead - Keep Yer Hands Off My Sister

Knucklehead - Keep Yer Hands Off My Sister-2

We like it when we get to direct you to wikipedia for info on the bands we're profiling, because (a) it means we don't have to make stuff up and (b) we can snark about other peoples' writing.

That article definitely needs some citations.

Thursday 14 May 2009

Inquisition - Parcheesi with the Antichrist (1993)

Inquisition - Parcheesi with the Anti-Christ

Inquisition - Parcheesi with the Anti-Christ-2

This one's from Dan Izzo, and he reminds us that back in 1993, to put out a full-colour insert like this would have been pretty costly. These days, we reckon it would be pretty costly to get Leslie Feist in to do backing vocals.

And in case you didn't notice - buddy on the cover is playing chess, not Parcheesi.

Sheesh.

Wednesday 13 May 2009

Ramada Gods - ...and Then There Was Velvet (1993)

Ramada Gods - ...and then there was velvet

Ramada Gods - ...and then there was velvet-2
We actually prefer this Ramada Gods tape to the one we just posted. The Sesame Street counting song is fun and all, but it's crazy stuff like "Squirrel" or the non-veiled Red Fisher jabs that make this work for us. And no one chronicled the early-90s, epic struggle between ravers and rockers than these guys.

If you enjoy this, you may enjoy Kirk Billon's more recent work, over at 12dok.com.

Or you might just want to download this.

Ramada Gods - Slave to Polyester (1991)

Ramada Gods - Slave to Polyester

Awright. Okay.

How you feeling?

We're feeling alright. We finally got us some Ramada Gods.

Thanks to Josh for passing this to us. We remember being chased off stage at one of the Ramada Gods' open mic/jam nights at the Republik. These guys were kind of the jesters of the scene, in some ways. They fit right in with that whole funk metal scene (Skin Barn, Jonestown, High Rollers - hey, does anyone out there have some High Rollers?) - kind of.

Hey, look what we found, from Jan/93's VOX...



Why did we keep that issue and so few others?

Ah, well. We're not going to let it worry us.

As they said back in the '70s, have a nice day.

Tuesday 12 May 2009

Fricks - The Fricks (1993)

The Fricks

We're pretty excited to finally have our hands on this tape. So excited, that we want you to pop right to the download link NOW. Don't bother reading what we're about to write.

The Fricks bring together pretty much all of our favourite bands from Calgary, past and present. Riot 303, Wagbeard, Ninth Configuration, the Von Zippers... the biggest giveaway is Tom Horvath's great, great guitar work on this. Does anyone know what happened to Horvath?

Lead singer Andy McLachlan has kept up a little shrine to his former band - you can go read some reviews and stuff, if you're that interested.

We don't mean to suggest it's not interesting, it's just, well - really, you should just download this and listen to it.

Monday 11 May 2009

Simon's Pet Iguana - Simon Says (1994)

Simon's Pet Iguana - Simon Says

Dan Izzo has passed this one onto us. Handsome Dan confirms our suspicions by noting, "I used to see them about three times a month at the Black Lung."

Dan also says one or more of these guys went on to form Downway. We have no idea what he's talking about.

And if you don't know where the Black Lung was, you weren't there.

Simon's Pet Iguana - Free

Simon's Pet Iguana - Free

We mentioned two piles of tapes; the second has come to us courtesy of Josh Etherington, who had the good fortune to score this free, 4-track tape from Simon's Pet Iguana at a show they did.

We remember Simon's Pet Iguana playing lots of all ages shows, but there's no mention of them in Todd Harkness and Spencer Brown's Beatroute article.

Get it here.

Sunday 10 May 2009

Porter Hall - Porter Hall (1998)

Porter Hall

We're pretty excited over here at the CCPS. The sun is shining, and we've got not one but TWO big piles of tapes in front of us. So we're going to do one quick post, and then head out and enjoy the weather while it lasts.

The first big pile, which this comes from, is courtesy of Dan Izzo and Todd Harkness. Being active in the scene for as long as they have, they've passed on a great selection of stuff from the all ages scene - and beyond!

We're going to start with Porter Hall, which is one which Jeff Caissie didn't pass on to us. Which is weird, 'cos this was his band after Showdown '76. This three-song demo is pretty solid.

Jeff has recently revived Porter Hall. We may have mentioned that already.

Fact is, we just want to post this and then get outside.

Sunday 3 May 2009

Tractorhead - On the Run

Tractorhead

Tractorhead-2
Former Arm and Hammer/Wagbeard guy Pat Andrews was good enough to pass this along to us. He tells us that Tractorhead was a Jay Kreway band both before and after Ninth Configuration. Though it doesn't have a date, we believe this is a post-NiCon release (our reasons? it was recorded with Jeff Burns, and the tape itself says it was a Sloth release - how Shylock Fox of us!).

Pat says Tractorhead was Jay plus Irv Francis (Skinbarn) on bass, Rob Beaulieu on guitar and Adam Kadri on vocals. Those latter three would go on to play with Pat in Arm and Hammer. Pat also says he doesn't have any arm and hammer to pass along to us.

So enjoy this in the meantime.

Friday 1 May 2009

Wrong Floor - Hope (1994)

Wrong Floor - Hope

Sadly, this is the last of our tapes from Jeff Caissie. We here at CCPS don't know much about Wrong Floor. But we heartily agree with the slogan on the inside of this j-card.

Support Your Scene!