Relevant Sources - Relevant Sources (1983)

A while back, Richard Reynolds passed us some of his 80's underground electronica, and we're pleased he's pulled out an earlier recording for us, again a collaboration with Mikel (Michael?) Weicker. This is good, dark and moody stuff that makes us wish the Warehouse was still open. Except without their ridiculous "members only" policy.

Get relevant here.

Chowder Christ - Wrecktitude (1993)

We received this tape (well, a zip file of its digital version) in our inbox a couple of weeks ago from a mysterious donor. We don't remember ChoderChrist, though the anonmyous donor indicates they were a "[s]hort-lived band, played a few gigs, Republik, Black Lung, etc. The song "Searching" garnered some CJSW attention, but that's about it."

That's not too shabby a track record, really. Plus, the connection with Ben Docktor is an extra seal of some form of approval on this.

Get wrecked here.

Gïllïgan - The Originals/I flip the coin and terror fills you…Heads you die and Tails I kill you! (1987/1997)

Our quest to obsessively document all recordings by the Brothers Kushner continues with this two-for-one. Greg didn't tip us to its existence, though - you can thank Bob Keelaghan for that. Sometime last summer, he slyly suggest that we ask Greg about Gilligan and Alexander Graham Bell.

And here's the answer: at some point, Greg and Jeff decided to go metal. But in a fairly Billy and the Boingers way.

The first (“The Originals” – the title is a Kiss homage) features the original stuff Jeff and I recorded in 1987 on CJSW’s 4-track. Our Mom ("Metal Mom") was battling cancer at the time, yet bravely and gamely came in to be our tape op! Jeff plays all guitars and I’m on Bass and Drums. We both “sang”. I’d written an ‘album’s’ worth of tunes back then, but we only got three tunes down. Ten years later I recorded all but the title track on my own on a crap 4-track; wish Jeff had been available to do the guitar! “Alexander Graham Bell” was a combo tribute to Iron Maiden’s sprawling epics crossed with the instrumental (emphasis on the "mental") bits from Kiss’s “Detroit Rock City”.

We're glad we followed up on Bob's tip - "Alexander Graham Bell" is a mighty fine treat.

And, apparently - he invented the telephone.

Lucid 44 - Body Harm Sounds (2009)

It's kind of odd that we haven't yet had nay Lucid 44 on this site yet, as Mark Overland apparently has a bit of a tape fetish, putting out most of his Lucid 44 (and related band Gutterawl) material on this format.

Okay, we have to admit that we did have another tape in our possession a while back, when we were without an intern. This lack of staff meant that the communication between our archiving and digitizing departments broke down - so, when we thought we'd ripped the tape (which was a series of soundscapes, if we recall), we certainly didn't actually save whatever we had digitized.

Regardless, we're pleased to have some now - especially because this is mighty fine stuff. Not like the soundscapy tape we almost had before, this is more bedroom pop - we were struggling to figure out who it reminded us of, until we found this clip:

Yep, Sebadoh-y goodness infuses this Lorrie Matheson-produced nugget. We dig Overland's gruff delivery on this. Highly recommended.

Get Lucid here.

Mount Analogue - Gold AK (2009)

When we were over visiting with Dawn Loucks, she passed us a couple of tapes that weren't from a dusty pile in her garage. This is one of them, a great blast of spazzy noise pop from Mount Analogue. We wish our scanner was better with bright colours; the neon green of the cover really doesn't come through in the jpg above.

Maybe it's just drummer Jesse Locke's fiercely propulsive rhythms, but these guys remind us a lot of Sudden Infant Dance Syndrome, without the heartthrob frontman. And a bit weirder and muddier.

Get your gold here.

Chicken 66 - My Life Is Boring

We're not sure how to classify this, as it's from the box of tapes we got from Dawn Loucks. It sounds like that's Dawn on vocals, but we're not sure about the rest. This is much in line with the Barf Flys stuff (which we're hoping to post, once we get our hands on a 4-track - turns out a bunch of the tapers we got from Dawn are the actual 4-track recordings, which sound downright weird when played through a regular deck).

Anyways, until we sort out those details, enjoy this little ditty.

See Jane Play - Patrick

So, picking up on the all-girl band theme we started yesterday, here's a bit of a CJSW hit from around 1995 that's either annoying or endearing, depending on how sensitive your ears are.

See Jane Play were, well, another bunch of gals from CJSW who perhaps didn't have as much experience with their instruments as Gasp! But that didn't keep them from penning this catchy little ode to Star Trek: The Next Generation star Patrick Stewart. We're not really fans of Star Trek over here at the CCPS, so some of the nuances of the lyrics are lost on us (since we know you're curious, we're not really fans of Star Wars, either).

We don't know if See Jane Play recorded anything else. We do have this additional video, though:

Get Patrick here.

Gasp! - Gasp! (1995)

Last weekend, we scored a pile of tapes from Saved by Radio's Dawn Loucks. In the dusty box that she found in her garage was this tape, one we've been trying to find for a while.

Gasp! stood (if memory serves us correctly) for Guys Are Such Pricks! and featured not one but two former-CJSW program directors, Kerry Clarke and Maizun Jayoussi. This is pretty low-fi, Cub-inspired garage pop, which is surprising considering (a) Clarke has gone on to a very successful tenure as director of the Calgary Folk Fest and (b) Jayoussi went on to play in BritPopsters the Lux.

Two of these songs also show up on the soundtrack of the Suburbanators, which we suddenly have a hankering to see again. We might have to skip down to Bird Dog to see if they have it...

Get Gasp! here.

Various - Oooh, I'm So Pretty (1996)

We had a request from someone yesterday, they were looking for "Brooklyn Bridge," a Glider track that isn't on either of the two tapes of theirs we've posted thus far. Thankfully, our Master of Metadata has done his good work, and we were quickly pointed to this compilation of Britpop-inspired tracks.

For whatever reason, we have this pegged in our memory as a RAF-led compilation, although the strongest tracks on here (in our not-very-damn-humble opinion) come from Glider and the Film Extras. Sadly, our copy of this CD is missing the cover booklet (we stole this picture - we think - from an orphaned Canada Disc and Tape page) so we're left guessing as to who was in the fabulous Film Extras. Part of our group remembers them as a post-Soft Tips thing, the other half of us can't remember a thing past last Friday night.

Other bands on this include Lotus Galaxy (who kind of turned into the quite spectacular Heat-Ray, who are playing their last show in a couple of weeks at the Republik, you should go), Zuckerbabby and the Lux. We're interested in tracking down a copy of more Lux stuff, but mostly for blackmail purposes.

Oooh, we're so petty!

Red Autumn Fall - Marrow/Innocent

We're kind of embarrassed to mention how we got ahold of this. Can you believe we bought this on eBay? And that it came from California? One of our eagle-eyed (read: sleep-deprived) interweb sleuths spotted this, and we're pretty quick to bid on wacky eBay items.

So, while the cost per track (factoring in the price of shipping) is pretty high for this, we're pleased (?) to have more RAF in the CCPS archives. There's no year on this tape, but we don't believe the two tracks herein appear on any other released by Simeon et al.

Which somehow lessens our Buy It Now remorse.

Innocent III - Innocent III

Yes, we know, we've been slack for the past couple of months. Between our crippling addiction to ebay and, well, not having anything to post, we've know we've been lax.

So we're going to dip back into the Miscellany for a moment with this great CD, which we didn't know existed until a year and a half ago. As you well know, we at the CCPS like our Primrods. And our Wagbeard. So what do you get when you mix the two? We don't know. But when you mix parts of the two, you get this.

Innocent III was Calgay ex-pats (at the time) Chris Temple, Jon Sawyer and Trevor McGregor. It's probably not what you'd expect - this sways more towards good, solid power pop than the punkier, current Temple-Sawyer pairing, the Great Evil (also known as Innocent IV to certain smart-assed bass players (Steve Elaschuk)). Since Cam Hayden slid us a copy a while back, this has been on rotation a lot in the CCPS offices. Highly catchy, highly likeable.

Get it here.

Various - Rosesmp.com Tape #1 (2010)

We forgot that we had picked this tape up a couple of weeks ago, because we were listening to it on our car, and then it fell under the seat. You know how it goes...

Anyways, we're glad we found this again (we were looking for something else under the front seat, kind of like Homer in Who Shot Mr. Burns?), because it's got some might fine garage rock. And we like mighty fine garage rock. We also like the work of the folks at Roses - the curly-haired duo (also the members of Jeremy Clarkson) do mighty fine work. And we like mighty fine work, as you may have already guessed.

Sure, the compilation leads off with Lethbridge wunderkids Fist City, but it's all Calgary after that. Les Drauges Mothers (we think they're now called the Weird Shits?) offer up some sloppy goodness, while the Poly Shores get trippy. And Jeremy Clarkson are, well, Jeremy Clarkson.

And, like the last tape we bought, this one has a weird issue that we didn't notice when we were listening in our car (obviously our stereo - or our ears - has issues) - there's only a left channel. No right channel. It's garage rock, so we assume we're not missing anything too significant in the production.

We're not sure where you can get this - maybe ask the Roses guys?

Freewill - Freewill

Along with the New Internationalists tape that Dan Singleton sent us, he also passed along this one. Dan describes Freewill as studio band from the early 90's that took its name from a Rush song. But not its musical direction.

We note that several of the songs on this tape were also on one of the New Internationalists demos that we pulled from the CJSW library, which probably shouldn't be surprising, considering the bands shared members. We also note that the lyrics to the lead track is not "Allies/in tomatoes" as we first thought it was.

We need to go for a hearing test.

New Internationalists - 1992 (1992)

The first time we were lucky enough to raid CJSW's tape library, we scored a pile of demos from the New Internationalists, which we threw into one post. It turns out that Dan Singleton of AWOL spent some time with the band, and he's sent us a second complete tape which includes a couple of tracks from the demos, plus a bunch of others.

We like the New Internationalists - they remind us at times of early U2 or the Police, if either of those bands didn't have complete and utter twats as lead singers (we honestly didn't know about that link until our intern Googled what we'd just written).

Get it (the NIs tape, not the twats') here.

Waysiders - The Five Star General (1997)

We're making a big assumption on this Waysiders tape that the membership is the same as on this one that Cam Shaft slipped us a while ago.

Hey, no j-card, no facts. That's how we roll.

Justin Curtis and Outerlimits - Banned From Nashville (1992)

We kind of wondered whatever happened to Justin Curtis - he was a regular on the Calgary scene in the early-to-mid-90s, sometimes it felt like you couldn't swing a cat without hitting a club he was playing at.

A little bit of digging has helped us to fill in his story - seems he left Calgary for Nashville in the late 8os, and then returned to Calgary because there were more places to play (really? is that possible?). While in Calgary, he released this tape, and then the tape/CD Rock-a-Billy in 3-D (does anyone have a copy of this second release they can lend us?). And then sometime after that, he split town back for the states. It looks like he's now in LA, based on his myspace. Who knew?

Here's a bit of video of Justin doing a track from this tape. Not sure of the year of the performance:

Get more of your well-groomed rockabilly here.

Quickening - The Quickening (1992)

Early this year, Peter Gagnon from the Quickening contacted us to offer up a copy of this tape, but we never connected. So it was -as always - a treat to find this is the CJSW library. However, it does mean that we're not entirely sure who the other folks in this band were.

We had the Quickening pegged as a Metanoia band (probably because of their inclusion on the Metanoia comp), but this tape doesn't appear to be released by those good folks. Still, it has all the hallmarks of the label - heavy guitars, somewhere between metal and grunge.

Get it here.

Menno Klassen - Asharpi Happi (1993)

Alongside the Son of a Thousand Fathers tape we borrowed from our pals at CJSW, we also managed to grab this solo offering from Menno Klassen. While we've got a year, we don't have any indication as to who else was involved with this thing. We're doubting the same cast as the Fathers, mostly because of, well... really, we don't have a valid reason.

Do we?

Son of a Thousand Fathers - CJSW Demo

Following close on the heels of the tape that Allen Baekeland lent us, we were pretty excited to find another Son of a Thousand Fathers tape in the CJSW archive. This tape doesn't have any indication of band membership, but we assume it's the same folks - it certainly is the same loose, improvised fare as the first tape. Right down to a false start on track six.

But let's not dwell on their mistakes.

Great Uncle Bull - Great Uncle Bull (1998)

We were been pleased to feature the work of Shoutin' Abner Pim and the Puritans on here a while back, and now, thanks to the CJSW library, we're able to present the other piece that makes up the puzzle that is the Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir.

Great Uncle Bull was Vlad and Judd from the Agnostics, along with Julie Kerr (and maybe others?), doing some great, foot-stomping blues/bluegrass that certainly is an early indicator of the ground the Agnostics would plow.

We note that Judd appears to be taking a bit of a break from the Agnostics, which has the band playing with the great Jackson Phibes - we caught them at the Ship and Anchor, and their combination is amazing, highly recommended.

As is the tape at hand today.

Free Radicals - Self-Titled (1998)

We've got one last Free Radicals tape to share with you. We're intrigued by the idea of these guys paired with uber-perfectionist Bobby McAlister, and also the fact that they've got a track that's apparently been mixed by the infamous Whitey Kirst.

We've been clicking through a few more of the sites linked from the Free Radicals' posthumous myspace, and we're getting confused as to whether Curtain of Habit came before or after the Free Radicals. Maybe both? This is probably something we should know, but don't.

But what's new?

Free Radicals - Free Radicals (1994)

So here we have a properly yeared released from the Free Radicals. Even better, a hand-written note from the band that indicates they were considering a name change and held their cover of the Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog" ("Wanna Be Your Dog" on the tape cover and label, simply "Be Your Dog" on this note - we appreciate the economy of their re-titling) to be one of their strong inclusions on this.

Now, not to get overly picky, but we far prefer their Stooges cover to the Undertones cover that shows up on the flipside of this tape. We agree with John Peel that the original "Teenage Kicks" is worth (at least) 28 stars - we're going to give the Free Radicals' version just a fraction of that.

Anyways, we're sure these guys didn't want to be remembered for their choices of covers - though you have to admit, we've seen very few tapes thus far with many covers (we're not talking j-cards, we've seen piles of tapes without j-cards). In a lot of ways, it adds to the gritty, screw-it-all attitude that pervades this tape.

Or maybe that's just the drum machine?

Free Radicals - Just Another Day/Choker

We're going to take a quick tour, starting with this year-less, Letraset-emblazoned tape from the CJSW library. The Free Radicals apparently sprang at least partially from the ashes of Curtain of Habit. We don't think we ever saw these guys in action - it appears, from reviews of their live shows, that we would have remembered them. Although, honestly, there's a lot we've burned out of our memory.

This tape is pretty rough - side one is your basic 4/4 garage punk (we wish more bands would play 3/4 garage punk), and side two - apparently a Yardbirds cover - is, well, really, really rough.

Rough, rough, rough.

Weep, O' Mine Eyes - A Beautiful Memory Lingers (1989)

A while back, Richard Reynolds was kind enough to slide us some 80's underground electronica, which has helped us to get a fix on this tape that we found in the CJSW archives. We're enjoying the dark, dark atmosphere of this - and wishing the Warehouse was still open.

Well, okay, maybe that's going too far...

A-Team - Futurehop: Moustache 2051 AD (1995)

We've always enjoyed the A-Team (their show at CJSW's 225th Anniversary Party last January was a highlight for us), so we're equally thrilled to find this tape in the CJSW archives. Sure, these seven songs also show up on their compilation CD, Non Merci, but... the fact that this is an unlabelled tape with a makeshift j-card (so long and pink!) make this a pretty special find.

Get it here.

Inquisition - Rise and Shine

We're not sure why the CCPS Posting Committee has selected this tape, one of the recent ones we borrowed from the good folks at CJSW, as the first to post from said batch of borrowed tapes. We have yet to find anything definitive about the membership of the Inquisition - and since this tape is missing its j-card, we're still stuck.

Get it here.

Exceptions - The Exceptions (1996)

This tape helps us clear up some of the mystery surrounding these two posts. We're guessing that somewhere along the line, the Exceptions discovered that their name wasn't all that unique, and then also decided that their front man was hot shit.

Of course, that's only a guess.

Danno - Is This Life? (1990)

We're not sure who Danno is, or how he amassed the collection of motel keys on the cover of this tape. Listening to this tape, we imagine him driving around in a t-top Firebird, shirt unbuttoned and hair blowing in the breeze. Romancing the ladies, breaking hearts with his oh-so-sauve style. Yeah, this is pretty '80s.

But not without its charm.

Friendo - Friendo (2009)

We woke up this morning, and we were wearing skinny jeans. We're worried that if we keep this up, we're going to want to buy a fixie. So one last post from Bart Records, then we've got some of the old, questionable tapes that you've come to expect from us.

We're not sure what to say about Friendo, other than that they're good. Um, yeah.

Sorry, we got distracted by this really sweet fixie that someone just rode by on... can we maybe talk tomorrow?

Get this from Bart.

Update: Looks like these tracks (and more) are available at the Friendo bandcamp.

Topless Mongos - Topless Mongos (2010)

We don't know quite how this has happened, but suddenly we're bought into this whole tape-buying-hipster-movement. Actually, we do know why - Topless Mongos are one of our favourite local acts (full disclosure: we've only seen them once - but apparently they're playing Calgary's upcoming menstruation celebration, so we're looking forward to seeing them again there), and... hell, look at that illustration on the inner cover. Dilbart! Violating Garchie! This is better than Dig!

Well, almost. The cover of this tape claims to have four songs on side one. Ours only has two. But still, that's better than what we're giving you. Which is none, because you need to go buy this for yourselves.

Okay, since we've had a request.... here it is!

Grown-Ups - I Can't Win (2010)

We're being slightly revisionary and splitting last week's Grown-Ups post in two. Why? Mostly to increase our post count.

But also because one of our operatives accidentally bought this tape last night, when he should have been at home getting a good night's sleep on a school night.

We were laughing at him this morning, but after seeing the amazing ET-themed inside photo on this, no one's laughing.

Phone home!

Update: these tracks (and more) are available from the Grown-Ups bandcamp on a free compilation of their entire recorded output.

End Orphans - End Orphans (1988)

In among all of the Golden Calgarians-related tapes that Allen Baekeland lent us was this oddity, a band that was the brainchild of Matthew DiCastri. File this one under bedroom goth, and put it next to your Funeral Factory tapes.

Speaking of which genre, if anyone has the first Dixie's Death Pool tape, can you lend it to us? That's one of the ones we lost in a move somewhere among the years...

Give this Orphan a home!

Gas - Wheat is Your Mantra (1994)

We think we were looking for GASP, and somehow ended up finding this tape by Gas. We have no idea who was in this band, whose sound fits pretty much exactly what you'd expect from the early 90's Calgary alt-rock scene.

Pretty much.

Update! Thanks to Lorrie Matheson and Brooker Buckingham for filling out the membership. Looks like this was a continuation of Gaudhed.

Grown-Ups -Grown-Ups (2009)

We're trying to find time to get down to Ye Olde Tubbye Dogge this evening for one of their rock and roll spectaculars (and mayhaps one of our favourite things, the Sumo Dog), so it's probably fitting that we give this first little tape from one of tonight's bands a bit of a nod. For those who haven't seen the snotty punk rock of Grown-Ups, we highly recommend grabbing this, which the band has made available for download via their myspace (you might have to skim the page to find the link).

We like these guys so much, we bought a weird, frisbee-like piece of plastic of theirs.

Update: you can also get these tracks from a free compilation of their full recordings on bandcamp.

Son of a Thousand Fathers - Son of a Thousand Fathers

We're not sure of the year of this tape, nor of the exact circumstances that brought this about. We note that Son of a Thousand Fathers make an appearance on the 1986 Calgary Compelation, which makes us re-consider our initial impression that this was a one-off recording.

Get it here.

Golden Calgarians - Live at the Ace of Clubs May 21, 1986 (1986)

Yes, we know that Golden Rock beat us to the punch on this one, but there was in the bag of goodness from Allen Baekeland, so we're thrilled to finally have a reason to feature some Golden Calgarians at the CCPS. We're a big fan of these guys, and this is a pretty great show (Golden Rock suggests it was the start of a residency at the Ace of Clubs, and Color Me Psycho may have also been on the bill that night). Alls we know is, this set is pretty much stacked with all their greats, so it's worth grabbing.

Oh, and we have these VOX clippings, which predate the show by a good three years.

It is fun to be alive!

Animal Kingdom - Animal Kingdom (1981)

We're really pleased that Allen Baekeland passed us this tape the other week. We'd had a request for this on our facebook group a ways back by former VOX guru Lee Hill. Lee's request (which we're pleased to fill today) indicates that this tape is circa 1980/81. We're sticking with 1981 until told otherwise, because we really like arbitrary decisions.

We also really like this tape, which features future Golden Calgarian Doug Smith. We're not sure what the other folks in the band went on to, music-wise, at least. Anyways, there's an odd mix of covers on here, but for us the shining points are the Smith originals, which point the way somewhat to where the Golden Calgarians would end up.

Or maybe not. Decide for yourself!

Eternal Now - Mystification Highway (1989)

A few months ago, at the annual Record Collectors Show, CJSW had set up a little table. On the edge of the table, they had a little box full of tapes they were giving away. And we found this! Which, with the inclusion of Allen Baekeland, closes the gap with Lost and Profound.

For sooth!

Eternal Now - Animal Graces (1990)

We're not quite sure how we missed posting this tape that we borrowed from the CJSW archives a while back. Eternal Now started off as a Calgary-based band, but at some point at least three of the group moved on to Toronto. We're wondering if there's any link between these folks' move and the similar move that Allen Baekeland made with Lost and Profound. There's a few points of connection between the players in both bands (CJSW/VOX, The Now Feeling, probably countless others that we're not aware of...). Anyways, since these guys started off here in Calgary, we're calling this a legit Calgary release.

Get it hereabouts.

Shinolas - Demos

We're trying really hard to get back on track with postings (which has recently been trumped by our interest in sitting in the sun drinking beer). If we can ignore the Siren's call of the bottle for the next while, we've got some gold to share.

We'll start by finishing off the great box of goodness from Conrad Montana. Nestled within said box were about four tapes of various Shinolas demos (some of which sound pretty finished, by Shinolas standards) - so we've collected them into one easy-to-grab package for your enjoyment. And we're pretty sure you'll enjoy the sound of Pete Link mumbling the verses to such Shinolas classics as "Kotex Kids."

Shine on!

Anxious Poets - Drug I'm Under

We're trying to get back on track with some of the tapes we've been sitting on. Deep within the box of tapes from Conrad Montana, we found this: an unreleased Anxious Poets track!

Which really smashes Lorrie's whole Six Songs Good myth, but we're going to seek solace in the added bonus of a Fire Engine Red station promo for CJSW.

We really wish we'd kept a copy of the Lorrie Matheson mask that f-word published a few years back...

CCPS Miscellany: Billy Cowsill - Live from the Crystal Ballroom (1985)

If you're like us at the CCPS, you might need a break from the fake country and usual random music (Loverboy! Glass Tiger! Uh, Kid Rock?) that the Stampede season brings to this city. We like to cleanse our palate with events like tonight's Bucket of Blood (see you up front for the Exploding Pigs!), but we realize that some of you might lie something more authentic.

That's why we're pleased to have received this in the mail earlier this week from our friends at Golden Rock. A nice following to our last post, and timely for those who want something more authentic for the Stampede. This recording of Billy Cowsill (opening for kd lang!) was released a few years back by the same folks that put out the Co-Dependents' records.

We challenge you not to two-step to this.

(Oops! This is still available commercially, so we've pulled the link - you can get it from Indelible Music - though their purchase link takes you to the soon-to-be-shuttered Megatunes.)

Burners - Low Tech/High Torque (1988)

We'd like to thank Spider Bishop for this great tape, even though it caused us a world of anguish. We hadn't yet hit a tape that we had to disassemble to get it to play until this one.

Of course, the work was worth it. This is slice of late 80's Americana features Tim Leacock and Ross Watson, who would go on to play with the producer of this tape - the late, great Billy Cowsill - in the Co-Dependents. We suspect - but can't confirm - that Cowsill's production of this is somehow linked to his landing in Calgary after his work with the Blue Shadows.

Get it here. Especially since we went through all that trouble.