Friday 25 August 2017

Interstellar Root Cellar - Interstellar Root Cellar (1997)




Almost six years ago, we posted a tape of alternate mixes of this, Interstellar Root Cellar's first CD. Good things come to those who wait - we've got the actual CD now!

And, as is becoming de rigueur, a VOX article from December 1997!


And, as (almost) always, a download link!

Thursday 24 August 2017

Curse of Horseflesh - Burning Up the Jade (1997)




We were listening to thee fantastic (yet, terrifying!) sounds of Baron Mark Von Frankenstine and his exceptional Radio Free Transylvania on CJSW a couple of weeks ago, and couldn't quite place a very familiar song. Was it Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet? The Ramblin' Ambassadors? The Sadies? Nope, it was the one and only Curse of Horseflesh.

In its lifetime, Roto-Flex put out two CDs. We already posted Nothing Beats a Royal Flush, and considering our love of all things Al Charlton, it's weird that we didn't post this as well.

Hey, would you believe we have a VOX article to go with this post? From March 1997, even!

Yeeha! Or something.

Wednesday 23 August 2017

Forbidden Dimension - Widow's Walk (1997)




Today's narrative continuity is being provided by another band we've covered ad nauseum. So, off to the March 1997 issue of VOX!


Huh. Looks like VOX was all Forbidden Dimensioned out as well.

And like our last CD, we're going to point you elsewhere for the download. FD has joined the 21st century and got themselves a bandcamp!

Tuesday 22 August 2017

Puritans - Marquee Themes (1997)




We might as well hop from a soundtrack to a band whose members have recently gone on to making soundtracks of their own. Yeah, we're grasping at straws for some sort of narrative continuity here, but earlier this year Bob Keelaghan put out a set of tracks from his score to the films Intersection and Inside the Ku Klux Klan.

We've talked about the Puritans (formerly Shoutin' Abner Pim and the Puritans) a lot here at the CCPS (most recently on what is probably the final installment of our Unspooled podcast), so we'll hand things over to the September 1997 issue of VOX:



We're skipping the usual download link for this one, since you can still get this via the Shoutin' Abner Pim website and CDBaby.

Sunday 20 August 2017

Various - Kitchen Party (1997)


We've been sitting on this CD for a while - it originally came to us via the former proprietor of Golden Rock. It's been years since we saw Kitchen Party - our memories of Gary Burns' second feature-length movie are super sketchy - and we barely remember the soundtrack.



The soundtrack is an interesting mix of bands - Calgarians like the Soft Tips, Bittermen and Knucklehead mix with some of our favourite non-Calgary bands from the 90s, including Sianspheric, Tristan Psionic and the Posies' Ken Stringfellow.

Get it here.

Saturday 19 August 2017

Earthquake Pills - Autodidactaphone (1997)



It kind of makes sense to follow up a post that invokes the Primrods with one that invokes Wagbeard. In our minds, anyways. Oh, yeah. We basically already posted this thing,albeit in cassette format. So what? Here we go - although this one takes us back to the days when VOX was its larger newsprint format.


Pop the pill!

Friday 18 August 2017

New 1-2 - Infully Visible (1997)



Oh boy! An excuse for us to invoke the name of the Primrods! The double-guitar attack-ack-ack-ack of the New 1-2 was a pretty special thing. Especially when the lead track gleefully steals lyrics from Public Enemy (for no apparent reason).



That said, we're still puzzled by the final track and its electronic loops.

It should be noted that this was released in an era when VOX had not only dropped down to the smaller format that would ultimately lead to its ruin transforming into the Calgary Straight, but also when the paper doubled down on including both a cover story AND a lead record review from local bands:



Not that we're complaining, though.

Thursday 17 August 2017

Jigsaw - Dial Tone (1997)



We made the mistake of digging into our VOX archives to pad out some posts, which means we lost a week to ridiculous waves of nostalgia. But we found what we needed, which means YOU get to also potentially get lost in waves of nostalgia. Or not.

Anyways, 1997 was a pretty fine year for Melodiya in terms of CD releases. As evidenced by this release from Jigsaw. We're going to let the fine words of Mr. Sean Marchetto from the February 98 edition of VOX describe the release (we're also going to let you pore over a vintage Melodiya ad - nice placement! - and another album review):


Dial J for Jigsaw!

Thursday 10 August 2017

Knucklehead - Another Neurotic Episode (1997)



We're going to stick with Melodiya CDs for a bit, since there were a few that came out in 1997. We sometimes forget how many releases the guys from Knucklehead put out in their time.

We hoped to pad this post out with an article from our VOX archives, but VOX had a bit of a blind eye to stuff from the all ages scene, being run by a group of 80-year-old alcoholics.

Edit: we found a Knucklehead article from the Sept 97 issue of  VOX. It was across the page from an article on the Puritans, so, uh, we missed it. Like VOX, the CCPS sometimes has a bit of a blind eye to stuff from the all ages scene, being run by a group of 80-year-old alcoholics.


Still, just grab the download.


Wednesday 9 August 2017

Beyond Possession - Repossessed (1996)


While we're into CDs, it seems like a good time to revisit some others that were released over 20 years ago, and therefore (according to CCPS rules) okay for posting.

We'll start with this compilation of Beyond Possession's recordings. It includes their LP, single, and some demos from 1989, released to coincide with the series of reunion shows the band did in 1996. Yup, we've posted all of the material on this at one point or another. But we love the chase of completion.


Don't you?

Tuesday 8 August 2017

Nerbus Rex - Nerbus Rex (1995)



In the box we got from Frank Slide was this CD from Metanoia Records - which was surprising, since we had no idea that Metanoia had put out CDs. Huh. We learned something!

Nerbus Rex play a big rock and roll that somehow sidestepped grunge, with a sense of humour in some places.

Get Rex'd.

Monday 7 August 2017

Rogue Pope - Rogue Pope



Well, hot damn! Sometimes you give up on ever finding a tape, and then it lands in your lap, completely unexpectedly. This Rogue Pope tape has been on our increasingly small list of holy grails for a while, so we were overjoyed when a rip of it showed up in a box of tapes and CDs from the legendary Frank Slide/Shane Connelly. We've wondered if this thing really existed - we only have a CD and an index card with notes, but we'll take it (the photo of Cal is stolen from Lorrie Matheson's facebook, and may or may not be part of the original j-card).

The only Rogue Pope we had heard prior to this was "Castles in Spain" from the Play compilation - these songs maybe have a little less of the psych influence of that track, leaning more towards the big, two-guitar rock of the Daggers, the band Brad Paffe would start shortly after this. We like how much Gregg Baekeland's vocals remind us of Djewel Davidson in places.

Go Rogue!