Friday 30 May 2014

Rambin' Ambassadors - Live at the Marquee Room



Here's some more video from Coyote Will, this time of the mighty Ramblin' Ambassadors, accompanied by what we think is the Kabuki Guns Burlesque. He didn't tell us what year this was taken, but we're pretty sure this is from some time around 2008 - the Golden Age of Burlesque in this fine city of ours, before the Government outlawed such horrible displays of fun.

This video reminds us of two things. First, how much fun it is to watch Brent Cooper play guitar. And, second, what a great venue the Marquee Room was.

Thursday 29 May 2014

Von Zippers - Live at Broken City (2007)



So, we get all sorts of cool stuff coming through the CCPS offices, and this is no exception. After finding out that we had pilfered his video of Huevos Rancheros' anniversary show, Coyote Will got in touch with us and subsequently sent us a few other videos.

So, we'll start with this one, which was shot from the back of Broken City but still manages to capture the energy (and volume) of the Von Zippers. We like the modern day Von Zippers quite a lot (in fact, we're pretty sure that's Gene's head nodding along in the front row), as we may have mentioned before. Chris Neville's organ noodling has brought a lot to the band (he's also brought a great cowbell technique). And, Al is still one of our favourite people ever.

Uh, the video's up there. You can - and should - watch it.

Wednesday 28 May 2014

Racket - Racket (2014)


Alright, here's a tape we DIDN'T sleep on, but on that has still instilled a significant amount of regret around the CCPS offices. We decided not to go to Racket's cassette release show at Tubby Dog earlier this month, and thought we were being all smart and everything when ordered a physical copy of their tape from bandcamp. See, Gene though he was being smart and rewarding the band for actually selling their tape, and not just their mp3s.

Instead, we may have inadvertently added to the losing battle that is garage rock. When the tape arrived, it shows that the postage cost, uh, more than we paid for the tape AND postage. So, uh, chalk up another loss leader. We'd like to take this opportunity to formally apologize to Racket for contributing to their downfall.

That said, we're very happy with our purchase. This is a really well-packaged bunch of garage rock, the kind that makes Gene reach for the volume knob (and turn it clockwise, instead of anti-clockwise). It looks like the Racket guys are playing PMMA's tour kick off in a few weeks, so Gene has vowed to possibly sleep through that show as well.

In the meantime, we urge you to pick a copy of this tape up from Sloth or Hot Wax, and to buy their mp3s off bandcamp. But please think twice about buying a copy of the tape off bandcamp.


Tuesday 27 May 2014

Chad VanGaalen - Cassette Series (2011)


Now, we at the CCPS aren't the most "with it" or "on top of things" (as you can tell by the lack of posts from the past few weeks, as well as by Gene's choices in clothing), so maybe you can excuse us for having completely slept on the cassette series that local wunderkind Chad VanGaalen put out, uh, three years ago. We're pretty sure that every blog and music zine has already written about this ad nauseum, but for the official CCPS record, we'll quickly restate that this was a series of eight tapes of home recordings that VanGaalen put out as a charity thang.

Amazingly, there are still a few in the Flemish Eye webstore, so we snagged some. We're also going to buy Gene a pair of skinny jeans and a new haircut, to further catch up.

Wednesday 7 May 2014

Modern Aquatics/The Backhomes - Crace Mountain (2014)


Another tape from Shake! This one is a split, which means that - well, it means that we haven't listened to the a-side, quite frankly. We fast-forwarded straight to side two to hear the dreamy pysch-pop of Modern Aquatics.

These guys bring together players from a bunch of our recent faves: Gold, Seahorse, Faux Fur and... uh, La Luna. Okay, that last one is a weird fit, but we can totally get behind what they're doing. We can also get behind this tape, which is a passable recording of a basement show they played in Nanaimo (along with the other band featured on here, Victoria's The Backhomes).

And, yes, it looks like you can get this from Shake's webstore.

Monday 5 May 2014

Ex-Boyfriends - Too Much, Too Late: Hits 2003-2010 (2014)



We still find it weird that a label from Victoria keeps putting out tapes from Calgary bands. Still, as long as those tapes are like this one, we're pretty happy for them to keep doing so.

The Ex-Boyfriends have long been one of our local favourites, and only partly because of Gene's man crush on Djewel. This tape is a great testament to why - collecting tracks from their four non-cassette releases, this best of is full of heavy hitters, fueled by Michael Paton's ear-shattering guitar and Djewel's... whatever it is that Djewel does.



These guys are known for their live show (and Djewel's propensity for shedding clothes during said shows), but we think their recordings are among some of the best our city has put out. Get this tape from Shake's webstore.

Saturday 3 May 2014

Hag Face - Rag Face (2014)



Hag Face. Where do we begin? We featured their first tape sometime last year, and since then this foursome has been remarkably active, both in Calgary and around western Canada. So it's probably not surprising to get a second tape from them.

This one treads much the same ground as their first, which honestly isn't a bad thing. Equal parts garage rock, riot grrl spit, and straight-up sass. It's hard to take this too seriously - despite all the angst, Hag Face always look like they're having fun.


Get it via the Hag Face bandcamp.

Friday 2 May 2014

Mark Mills - Triple Fire Sign (2014)



We're trying to get back on track, after getting lost in the CCPS CD collection for a spell. We forgot we had a paid of Rayovaq CDs in there and were getting our quiet-loud-quiet-loud-quiet on for a bit too long.

So anyways, we've pulled ourselves out of the CD-encrusted rock of the late 90's, and are happily re-familiarizing ourselves with the cassette resurgence of our current times. This is a happy little tape that Mark Mills put out a couple of weeks ago - it's a continuation of his celebration of love through dance (or is that his celebration of dance through love?).



Apparently this is a limited edition cassette available at his shows which may no longer be available. But you can grab it from the Mark Mills bandcamp.