Forbidden Dimension - Live at Broken City January 9, 2009 (2009)

Halloween here at the CCPS Offices is, quite frankly, another excuse to spend the entire day listening to Forbidden Dimension. This year is no different, but there is an added bonus - not only are we going to spend the day listening to FD tapes and records, we're going to cap off the evening by taking in the band themselves as they celebrate the release of their new CD down at Dickens Pub.To celebrate that celebration, we're pleased to present a live show from a few years back, courtesy of Edmonton's mad show taper, Chris Zuk. Chris slid us this recording a ways back, and we almost forgot the cultural significance of the show - it was a cold January night, shortly after Jackson Phibes has marked his band's 20th anniversary. And the yobs were in full effect (ed: not us. We were there, drunk but not acting yobbish). Shortly into "The Boy Who Has Everything," a pair of nogoodniks came swinging into Broken City, throwing random punches (one of the lucky recipients of said punches was the eye of bartender Adam Kamis). We were pretty impressed by how the band picked up again (and how Kamis' eye swelled up). Anyways, you can relive the fun with this recording. Maybe you can even punch yourself to keep it real.

Beyond Possession - Demo (1989)

As promised, here's the second Beyond Possession demo tape we liberated. These four songs were apparently recorded during the band's final days. 

We're a bit fuzzy on the band's membership at this point - we think John Hiebert had gone on to form Never a Dull Moment... maybe? What we do know is that this band was hugely influential on a lot of other bands (and skaters) in this city and beyond. Heck, we even saw someone in a (somewhat tattered) Beyond Possession t-shirt this past summer.The four tracks on this final demo are also included on the Repossessed compilation CD, but we offer them here as they were originally intended. 

Beyond Possession - Demo (1985)

We went looking for something scratch a friend's Beyond Possession itch this afternoon, and by happy accident stumbled across a pair of tapes we didn't know existed. And, thanks to the international cachet of this seminal hardcore band, finding and liberating mp3s of said tapes has been a pretty easy thing.

We're not going to re-hash the history of Beyond Possession, partly because the excellent Repossessed compilation does a great job of telling their story (blah blah Riot .303 blah blah White Noise blah blah Bootsauce etc), but mostly because we've got a Halloween party to get to, and our costumes this year happen to involve wearing dresses, which is making us all a little nervous. Instead, we're going to present this great video clip from the Youtubes:



We love the idea of someone standing at the back of the hall with a giant, 80's style video camera, hoping that no one smashes into them and wrecks their dad's gear.

Grab Beyond Possession's early 3-song demo here.

Ryan Bourne - Resonate (1998)

Former Sky Suspended lad Aaron Booth recently got in touch with us about a batch of tapes he re-discovered in preparations for a move (unlike the rest of us, who wonder where the hell we jettisoned that missing box of tapes to each time we move). He's teasing us a bit by sending us a couple of tapes at a time (we prefer the proven Safeway bag of tapes in a parking lot - at least then we know what we're dealing with). Anyways, we at the CCPS are beggars and not choosers (maybe?), so we're pleased to present the first tape from Aaron's collection. Which, had we known it was coming, we would have posted immediately after last week's Interstellar Root Cellar tape. So much for weaving a well-crafted narrative. So, pretend the last two posts didn't happen. Except they did, and they're both (especially the Stellazine) totally worth checking out.This tape finds Ryan Bourne trying to find his singer-songwriter voice post-IRC (that is the correct acronym, isn't it?). It feels a bit bossa nova, especially compared to his full-length CD, which is more of a VanGaalen-esque low fi pop experience. But then, we hear VanGaalen in everything these days. I guess it just resonates with us. Get it?

Stelazine - Stelazine (6 Songs)

We (along with a bunch of our pals) we saddened by the news of Colin Allin's death earlier this year. So we're extra grateful to Mark Jordan for passing this gem along (for extra points, he managed to enlist the services of Jett Thunders as courier!). There's been a lot of reminiscing about Allin's talents over the past few months, and this tape furthers the evidence of those talents. This is a great set of six songs that sit nicely along the Skin Barn tapes. We're going to go out on a limb and suggest this is the full session they did that resulted in the two-song tape that we posted earlier this year, based on a comment (from Colin?) on that post.Sigh.We suggest grabbing a bottle of Garrison Imperial IPA, downloading these six songs and toasting Colin's memory. 

Wet Pinky Swears - Dripping Wrists of Girlschool Promises (2011)

We're big fans of local Garage Rock revivalists (wait, Garage Rock never died, it just drank itself into a coma!) the Gooeys, so we're pleased to have in our possession a tape from their demented side project, the Wet Pinky Swears. From what we remember, this is front guy Craig Storm, drummer Darrell Hartsook and someone else on bass. These are short blasts of garage noise that provide a, well, sharp contrast to the bubblegum of the Gooeys. The band has (perhaps in error?) made mp3s of this available for free via bandcamp. We should caution you, since it's Saturday morning - this isn't exactly good music for if you have a hangover. We found this out the hard way.

Interstellar Root Cellar - CD Rough Mixes

Gord Adam slid us this tape when we last met up with him. He tells us he was behind the boards for the recording of Interstellar Root Cellar's CD, and one night he made a batch of rough mixes which he thinks ended up being superior to the final CD. We haven't actually heard their CD, so we can't really comment - except for saying that the sunny vibes from this tape are almost making us forget that the days are growing shorter and colder.Almost.

Buddy System - REM Time/All Wrong

We've got another tape from Duane Froslev and Gord Adam. This one appears to be a one-off session with a few local folks - Froslev, Joni Allen, Buddy Rick Valleau and Sandy Switzer. It's pretty fun stuff, and, uh, we don't know what else to say. Maybe it's from the mid-90's? We don't know and we're kind of tapped out right now.

So just grab the download.

Sacred Heart of Elvis - Sacred Heart of Elvis

We're a bit embarrassed to be posting a tape from Sacred Heart of Elvis so late in the game here. Our pals at Golden Rock have posted several bits and pieces from the band, but this is the first of their tapes that we've had in our hands.Sacred Heart of Elvis was, at its core, Ali Riley, Rodney Brent and Tim Campbell. We haven't taken our time here at the CCPS to pay out respects to Tim, who passed away this past May - not because of a lack of respect, but because we were never fortunate enough to meet the man. We'll let this obituary from ffwd stand as our second-hand tribute to Campbell's talents and contributions to Calgary's scene.The Golden Rock posts indicate how much of a revolving door the rhythm sections of the band was - this tape finds the Mules' Duane Froslev and Rob Hayter rounding out the band (a side note: we were very lucky to catch the Sacred Heart of Elvis' reunion show at the CJSW 20th Anniversary thing six years ago - for that show, former Puritan Stephen Nykolyn filled in on drums).This is a great tape, highly recommended. We're not sure, though, if it's the same tape referenced in the article above. The recording of "Wheezing Dog on a Leash" on here sounds remarkably close to the one on the documentation-free 90.9 With a Bullet compilation, which could mean just about anything.Get it here.

Mules - The Mules 666 (1986)

We're pleased to have a second tape from the Mules. This is again a mix of studio tracks and a live show, both from 1986. We've got another recording of "True Love" (making this the third version we've heard - this, as well as the version from the last tape, sound different from the Calgary Compelation track) - which is more than okay in our books. The more we hear that track, the more we can't get it out of our heads.Which isn't to say the rest of this tape isn't as good. They lean heavily on the songs of Johnny Cash in their set - which is okay by today's standards, but you have to remember that this was recorded back when Cash hit a low point and had leant his name and likeness to a bank's ATMs.That said, Gene Poole would like to announce that he is more than welcome to lend his name (although not likeness) to anything that will bring the CCPS more cash. Or beer. 

Mules - Studio and Live!

We were super excited when Duane Froslev sent this tape our way. We had only ever heard one Mules track, tucked away on the Calgary Compelation that Golden Rock posted a few years back. "True Love" is pretty great track, and we've been itching to hear more - and now that itch has been more than scratched.The Mules were Frozlev on bass, Rob Hayter on drums and vocals and Brad Paffe on guitar and vocals. Paffe went on to be part of the Daggers in the 90's (among others), as well as the very amazing Remones. Of course, they didn't use their real names in Calgary magazine's 1986 tribute to the scene.

This tape has five studio tracks (two of which we don't know the title to), and another 13 live tracks. This is great country rock, influenced by the more olde time end of the spectrum (as evidenced by the reverse side of the tape cover, above). The covers pull heavily from Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley and even Buddy Holly.

We're usually not big on two stepping, but it seems more than appropriate here.

Random Scrapings - Live at the Calgarian/National (1980)

Duane Froslev passed us a few tapes a week or so ago (via Gord Adam), and they're a pretty amazing slice of early Calgariana. This tape is two (?) sets of fun from Random Scrapings, who were Grant Sim, Duane Froslev and Rob Hayter. This tape also has a set from Veiled Threats who - although we can't actually see what's happening on stage - we suspect were actually Random Scrapings playing goofy funk rock (with someone playing what sounds like a duck). There's an important link to Punk Rock History here - Duane Froslev would find his way to Winnipeg, change his last name and become Duane Eddie of the legendary Personality Crisis. The only tracks on here we can ID are the band's covers of Devo's "Freedom of Choice" and Gang of Four's "Anthrax," the latter of which features a feedback guitar onslaught that give the original a run for its money.Hear it here.