Thursday 30 December 2010

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.

Tuesday 28 December 2010

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.



Tuesday 21 December 2010

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.

Monday 20 December 2010

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.



Sunday 19 December 2010

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.

Friday 17 December 2010

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.

Saturday 4 December 2010

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:


Friday 3 December 2010

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...