Thursday 31 July 2014

CCPS Miscellany: Hippychick - Exile from Mainstream (1993)


Of course in the box of tapes from the basement of the Republik, we also found some Edmonton bands. Including these guys, who play the skate rock (or, if you will, the sk8t rock). To their credit, they sound not unlike our own Sheglank'd Shoulders. Except that Dan's way cuter than we assume their lead singer could ever be.

Tuesday 29 July 2014

Hook - Demo (1997)


Okay, so this is getting a bit better. At least these guys had the courtesy to include a business card with their contact info and to print the date this was recorded on the tape. AND we can confidently declare that this is an interesting, almost equal parts mix of alt.rock and Britpop.

It feels like a minor miracle.

Monday 28 July 2014

Hire Ground - Demo


This tape from the Republik gives us extra angst, because we can't even be sure of the band's name. The j-card says Hire Ground, but the sticker on the tape itself says Higher Ground.

This isn't your typical 90's alt.rock (or your typical 90s alt.rock, depending on which style guide you happen to be using). There's something more musical in this - a British influence that's not the usual Britpop.

Still, we can't get past the mystery of their name.

Saturday 26 July 2014

Liquid Sound - Demo


Our ability to tell you anything useful about the tapes from the basement of the Republik is slipping pretty quickly now. Who are Liquid Sound? Were they in anyway related to Liquid Light? Actually, we know these guys aren't related to Liquid Light - this is fairly rough pop punk, complete with a refrain that goes "oi oi oi oi!" But, getting back to questions we can't answer: what is a "Back Door Production"?

Seriously. We can't even begin to guess.

Friday 25 July 2014

Ingredients - Demo


Here's another tape from the basement of the Republik. The four guys in the Ingredients are the same four guys in Poplydia, which leads us to believe that either (a) the Ingredients changed their name to Poplydia or (b) Poplydia changed their name to the Ingredients.

Which is it? We have no idea. We suspect the former, since this is rougher than the other recording, and at least one of these songs sounds like a Tragically Hip rip off.

Now, that's tragic.

Wednesday 23 July 2014

Interstellar Root Cellar - Demo


Here's another tape from Twyla Dawn and the basement of a Concorde Group property. This three song tape from Interstellar Root Cellar appears to be a sample of three songs from their 1997 self-titled CD.

We already said everything we know about these guys about three years ago, so we'll just send you to the download.

Tuesday 22 July 2014

Lola - Demo


Just before Sled Island, we got an email from Twyla Dawn who said: "I found a box of tapes a few months ago when cleaning out the basement office of the old Whiskey - the tapes had come from press kits that people sent to the Republik a long time ago! Would you like the box?" Well, duh! Of course we did! Quite expectedly, the content of the box was a very mixed bag. So we'll start with some of the good stuff, like this one-dong demo from Brad Simm and Lola.

While the one song on here is from the tape of theirs we posted previously, this does clear up one fact: apparently Ted Latimer may have been their drummer. Maybe. 

Sunday 20 July 2014

Crosss/Unblonde - Split Lathe (2013)


Weirdo vinyl weekend continues with this (another!) split record featuring wunderkind Jean Sebastien Audet's Un Blonde and Crosss, who are from somewhere east of Alberta. We had to find a tape measure, but we can confirm that this lathe is 8" and square. And appears to be pressed on clear plexiglass. Anyways, it looks really weird going round and round (except that it's square, right?) on our turntable.

The two Un Blonde tracks on here are also ones that are on the Un Blonde tape from last year, but that doesn't make this any less fun. Wait, can you call Un Blonde fun?

Anyways, it looks like you might be able to order this from the Bruised Tongue bandcamp.


Saturday 19 July 2014

Mico/First In, Last Out - Split 8.5" (2001)



While we're looking at some of the weird vinyl in our collection, we might as well look at this one as well. This was brought to our attention at the Inner Sleeve a couple of weeks ago, and we couldn't pass it up. First, because we like Mico, but also because we like weird.

This is a 8.5", white vinyl record. So we had to create a new category in our collection. Actually, we didn't - we just threw this in with the 10" records and called it close enough.

It seems like the two Mico tracks on here might be outtakes from Standing in a Shadow. And we have no idea who was in first in, last out. It looks like they're locals, but, uh, maybe they aren't?

Get it here.

Thursday 17 July 2014

Martin Fulton Overkill - Devil's Advocates (2010)



We're almost over the shock and awe that is Stampede (also: the streets are slightly less slick with puke, but only because the heat has baked it to a cement-like consistency), so we're realizing that we took the easy out by posting a bunch of Dudes CDs over the weekend. Cooler heads have prevailed, and so we're going to focus on this special little record.

This one checks one of our favourite boxes, in that it's a 10-inch record. But then it jumps the shark - it's a freakin' picture disc! We're mostly certain that this is the only picture disc to come out of this city. MOSTLY certain. Because, hell, when are we completely certain?

Martin Fulton Overkill was a monster of two-piece metal, with Breakfast at Rock Central filmmaker Lock Fulton on guitar and big, hairy guy Dean Martin on drums. Did we mention they're metal?



There's a key rule here at the CCPS - we don't post links to download stuff that's less than five years old. Which this is. But we're pretty sure we've seen copies of this at Hot Wax, Sloth and/or Melodiya, so hopefully you can grab this lovely piece of van art metal from one of those fine establishments.

Update: it's been so long since we posted this that whatever that video above was, the link is dead now. So have the download to this EP!

Sunday 13 July 2014

Dudes - Bee Puncher EP (2003)


The problem with the Stampede is that sometimes you end up at the Palomino in the middle of the Stampede and you end up getting caught up in the tomfoolery of the Stampede and all you can think is maybe the Stampede is okay because there is beer and if you go to the right place like the Palomino at the right time like at 10pm there actually is good music like Art Bergmann and not just that crappy autotuned Stampede country pop and you end up getting into what may be called the spirit of the Stampede which may also be called the booze and you end up having too much of the spirit of the Stampede and you wake up very late the next morning and the best you can do is grab the next CD from the band you posted last on your blog and you think is this the best we can do we can't even add anything reasonable about the band or this recording or why it matters today because oh the Stampede spirit was strong with us last night my friends and we wish we had seen the Dudes at Rock Central because that would have been awesome unlike today's post which is not very awesome but the Dude's Bee Puncher EP is so you can get it here.

Saturday 12 July 2014

Dudes - This Guy's the Limit (2002)


We always forget how loooong Calgary's annual Cowboy Halloween is. It feels like it's about the bazillionth day of Stampede, so our last post has prompted us to dig into a CD which hopefully will act as a bit of a balance to the bad behaviour that seems to have beset our modern, metropolitan city.

Or maybe not. We always forget the slightly (or, sometimes more than slightly) ramshackle quality to the early recordings from The Dudes. We prefer the version of "Dropkick Queen of the Weekend" on here to the later one on Brain Heart Guitar, mostly because of its hyperactive feel.

Grab this and take solace in the fact that there are only a few days left of Stampede.

Friday 4 July 2014

Breakfast at Rock Central (ca. 2006)


We're at the start of what for a lot of folks is the single best reason to leave Calgary during July, so we'd like to provide a small bit of respite with a couple of clips from this great documentary from director Lock Fulton. We'd been looking for a way to see Breakfast at Rock Central for a while (we missed the few screenings when it originally came out), so we were happily surprised to find a copy bundled with the Dudes' Blood Guts Bruises and Cuts CD a few weeks ago.



This is short, low-budget film tells the story of the legendary Victoria Park party, from the days when the cops were kicking down doors and trying to shut it down to when they'd show up to make sure everyone was safe and having a good time - and let the Dude Bomb get away with being the Dude Bomb. If features all of the folks you'd expect - The Dudes, Matt Masters, Paul Spence and the Infernos/Creep'r, as well as Andy Sparacino and the A Team. We never were cool enough to get to a Rock Central party, so it's a treat to have this to document a time gone by.



The version we got turns out to be one of three versions, according to Fulton. This one was edited by a studio in Vancouver, and focused on the Dudes - and happened largely because of their championing the project. An first, extended cut was done for CIFF (Fulton says it was "rushed to the screen to tie in with the building being knocked down"). A third version was done for the 2008 Stampede. Fulton says he has been talking with former A-Team member Dan McKinnon about doing a fresh cut and re-release, which we would certainly welcome.