Adventures In Paradise - It's Just A Matter Of Time (1985)

We're closing out 2021 with a tape from Adventures in Paradise for two reasons: first, it just sort of ended up that way. But really, it's to say thanks to both Rob Bartlett and Doug Wong for sharing their rich collections and bodies of work with us. It's been amazing to have access to these archives and be able to in turn share them with you, Dear Readers. It's also give us at the CCPS a greater appreciation for the wide breadth of recordings our city has put out.

Including this one! We've featured four singles from this electro pop outfit, so it just feels right to have the full-length that spawned them. Plus, it's a nice tie-in to the Qwest tape we posted yesterday; looks like both releases were part of Quality's big push into their 35th year of operations:

That clipping from RPM magazine (via the amazing 3345.ca) is a pretty good window into our country's music industry in the mid-80's. 

As is this tape!

Qwest - Dream Zone (1984)

While we're in AOR mode, we might as well hop over to this tape, which was the second full-length from local rockers Qwest. On Quality Records! The Big Time! The good folks at CanadianBands.com have the scoop on these guys; their first record was supposed to be produced by Dan Lowe, but they ended up going with Mel Shaw (who put out their first record on his Music World Creations label). The went back to Lowe for this record, though. Listening to it, we ended up falling into a wormhole of 80's hard rock CanCon - this sits nicely alongside bands like Haywire and the like.

Start your Qwest here!  

Worrall Brothers Project - The Worrall Brothers Project (1989)

We've featured released by Steve Worrall and Rick Worrall on their own, and now we have a tape that brings the brothers together - in a delicious blend of late-80's AOR. If you've been following their releases, this tape is far more in the vein of the Steve Worrall tape that was put out on Doug Wong Music, following the path cleared by Loverboy and other CanCon greats. The brothers Worrall clearly had their eyes on the prize with this release and their work leading up to it:

This tape led to a record deal a couple of years later with an A&M Records imprint, under the name Worrall. And a video for "In The Heat Of The Night," which is also on this tape!

Phew! That's a lot of hair. Get the Worrall Brothers Project tape here.

Anne Beverly Brown - Keyhole & The Eternal Kiss (1993)

It's fun going through all of these tapes from Doug Wong and finding the points of overlap/complement with the tapes we borrowed from Rob Bartlett earlier this year. Like this tape from folk singer-songwriter Anne Beverly Brown; we had her first tape earlier in the year, and this second tape includes the tracks off that release - along with another seven expansive and ambitious songs that bring in a suite of guest musicians including Oscar Lopez, Jenny Allen, Ron Casat, and Karl Roth. It's a very arty take on folk - and you can get it via Anne Beverly Brown's bandcamp.

Oscar Lopez - Hola (1989)

If we had bothered to check wikipedia about a year ago when we posted Oscar Lopez' Sueños tape, we would have saved ourselves the gaffe of referring to its as his debut release. Today's tape, Hola, was the Chilean-born guitarist and singer's first - and it's one of those releases that shows how incredibly talented he was from the get-go. Sure, his collaborations with James Keelaghan and others helped to stretch his sound and palette. but we enjoy the purity of this tape's latin sounds.

Get it here!

Alien Rebels - Strange Feelings (1996)

It's been a long time since we heard from roots rockers the Alien Rebels, so we were super exciting to find this tape in the boxes from Doug Wong. This is a really fun listen - this band never took themselves too seriously, but they played seriously well. 

We went digging for more info on the band and almost missed the article below because, well, we got distracted by all the skate rock in the headline:

This second tape includes a few songs from their first, but if you like songs about falling in love at the laundromat, houndstooth jackets, and fillings that receive alien transmissions, this is the thing for you.

Miss Molly - Miss Molly & Ho! Ho! Ho! (1988), Penny Candy (1995)

 

As you and yours get settled in this Christmas Eve, we at the CCPS have a double dose of Miss Molly for you - and one of them is a Christmas tape! Such joy! A true holiday miracle! What's even more miraculous is that today's Christmas tape has a completely different set of tracks from the one we posted earlier this year (when it was nowhere near Christmas, we might add). We suspect that our copy of the tape was a re-press, since the j-card references the two tapes that came after it. Either that, or Miss Molly has also mastered time travel. Which, if she has, we would like to talk to her to go back in time to undo some regretful decisions (and potentially create massive issues with the fabric of space and time).

Anyways, we're posting her first Christmas tape along with what we would assume is her fourth, Penny Candy. The highlight of that tape, for us, is her cover of the Calgary classic, "Sixteen Chickens and a Tambourine."

Get Miss Molly's Christmas and/or Penny Candy.

Monika With A "K" - Monika With A "K"s Best (1993)

We're headed back into all the tapes we got from Doug Wong, many of which were produced at Canada Cassette. Today's is the second tape we've seen from Monika Vetter (the first was from Rob Bartlett's collection, almost a year ago). This tape - whose artwork isn't as fancy the first's - basically repeats the first tape's track listing, but appends three covers. And it's the last, her version of "Silent Night," which is why we're posting it today. We figure we should try to post seasonal material at the right time of year at least part of the time. 

Right?

Smokin' Joes - Smokin' Joes (1993)

Thanks to Eddie at Melodiya for keeping an eye out for weird stuff for us... this is a tape he pulled out of Hot Wax a few weeks ago, and we didn't have high hopes for it - until we noticed it's on Metanoia Records! The home of the Anxious Poets and Agony Pipe! I Care! Ramada Gods! And... Smokin' Joes???

Okay, this a band that we can't quite reconcile with the rest of the Metanoia roster. Instead of the usual alt.rock fare that label specialized in, Smokin' Joes are middle-of-the-road bar-circuit rock. Sure, it's well-executed, but it's, well, bar-circuit rock. And we can't find anything about the band to help fill in the gaps.

But the download is here.

Fear Of Flight - Fear Of Flight (1990)

Okay, we're pretty excited about today's tape - for purely nostalgic reasons. We probably could have asked more directly and found a copy years ago, but we stumbled across a copy at the flea market yesterday and squealed with all the teenage excitement that our old man bodies could muster. 

If you've been following us for a while, you might remember a post from 12 years ago, featuring the Soft Tips.  We were huge fans of that band, even before we realized that the band was related to Fear of Flight - who we clearly remember from back in our teen years at Western Canada High School. Fear of Flight played a battle of the bands thing on afternoon, with a set of tight late-80's college rock (and maybe a cover of the Cult's "She Sells Sanctuary"? That's where the memory gets fuzzy).

So, we've finally got the tape, and it's pretty reasonable - but we're comparing it to the Soft Tips, and that's a lofty bar. There are a handful of covers tacked on at the end of the tape, and it's their last, 54-40's "I Go Blind" that's probably the best hint to their sound (definitely more so that their slightly anemic cover of the Clash's "Should I Stay Or Should I Go").

Relive our high school days here!

Poltergiest - Yesterday Fades (2020)

Another great thing about live music being back is that we get to discover new things; we spotted Poltergeist's name on the poster for the annual Alpha House fundraiser at the Palomino, and decided to check out their tape in advance. We're glad we did - this tape is a one-person show featuring Kalen Baker's forays into dark wave, traditional metal, and shoegaze. It's a pretty compelling mix that gets us in all the right places - dark, sweeping pads and chiming Jazzmasters give way to heavy riffage at just the right time. We're really looking forward to seeing the band live next weekend.

It looks like the tape is sold out, but you can grab the download from the Poltergeist bandcamp. 

Harsh - Live On CJSW (2018)

 

One of the joys of the return of live music is that we can pick up tapes at shows again! This is one we got at Dickens last month - we'd seen Harsh pre-pandemic, and we've always enjoyed their unapologetically political gender punk. This tape (in a one-of-a-kind wraparound sleeve) is a bunch of tracks from a CJSW session they did three years ago. It's scrappy and fun - just the type of thing we like.

The download is over at the Harsh bandcamp.

Les Partridge (Lesley Schatz) - Hand Sown (1988)

Well, this is a sad day - we're at the end of the Doug Wong Music cassettes. And worse yet, we've discovered that the archives are missing a few tapes that Wong produced under the DWM(C) imprint. So if you come across any of these, can you please let us know?

DWMC 3346: Sue McKay -In Tune With Krafts For Kids

DWMC 3347: Rotary Club: Norine Burgess and Gordon Gietz - Open Our Eyes

DWMC 3348: Jana and Danny - Jana and Danny

DWMC 3350: The Singing Hills - You Don't Have To Wait

DWMC 3373: Words Alive - Presents Roald Dahl

DWMC 3376: Lesley Schatz - Flyin' High

Yup, even though we're featuring another tape by Lesley Schatz today (albeit under the name Les Partridge - she also put out an LP under that name), Doug's files indicate she put out a third tape. We're still hopeful we overlooked one or two of these in the boxes of non-DWM tapes we got from Doug - we'll certainly keep you posted as we find them and fill in these holes.

Doug's files go up to an empty, otherwise unlabeled folder marked DWM-3380; we suspect that around the release marked DWM-3378 he stopped using the DWM imprint for the tapes he was duplicating. If we were to guess why (which is basically a guess on top of a guess), we'd say it was because of the sheer volume as tape duplication became more affordable. 

Oh, right - this Les Partridge tape. You can get the download here!

National Music - Première Performance Series - Volume 3 88-89 (1988)

This Doug Wong Music cassette is just one of a series of four that were produced for Calgary-based National Music, who we assume were a local company that produced sheet music for school bands. These tapes sound like they were a promo/guide to the music, so music teachers (and students?) could get a better feel for what they were supposed to be playing. They were produced without j-cards - assumedly because they were bundled with the sheet music or other materials.

If you want to re-live your junior high school band days, this is the thing for you.

Lesley Schatz - Run To The Wind (1988)

We're getting close to the end of the pile of cassettes from Doug Wong Music, which is kind of sad for us. But don't despair - there are MANY boxes of non-DWM tapes that we still have to work through.

We've featured a couple of Lesley Schatz 7" singles previously on here, and two of the tracks from one of them provide bookends to this tape. It's honest and unadorned country, skewing more folk than rock.

Get it here.

Guild - Christmas Album (1987)

More Christmas music! We swear we didn't plan this, it's just how things are unravelling here in our CCPS offices as we sort through the Doug Wong Music cassettes. Sadly, since the j-card for this is MIA, we can't really tell you anything about Guild - other than if you want a good fix of a cappella Christmas tunes, this is the tape for you! Oh, and apparently Jim Lewis was the engineer on the project.

Get it here.

Jacqueline Dolan - The Second Time (1987)

Here's the last of the Doug Wong Music tapes that had a co-release on vinyl, and the second from harpist and singer Jacqueline Dolan. The liner notes that this is a selection of Dolan's personal favourites, and it's a lush selection of covers of folk, pop, and musical numbers. 

Sadly, like the previous tape of Dolan's, there's no file for this one. But the download is here!

Barry & Lyn Luft - Flower In The Snow (1987)

Here's a second tape from Barry and Lyn Luft on Doug Wong Music; this one was also released on LP. It's another great selection of folk tunes, this time recorded at Richard Harrow's Living Room Studios, rather than the duo's basement.

The contents of Doug Wong's file on this suggest that the tape of theirs that we featured earlier may have been a re-press (so to speak) of the original LP. But it looks like Flower In The Snow was a true double-media release.

Get it here!

Calgary Glenmore Temple Band Of The Salvation Army - Christmas Praise (1987)

We're really proud of ourselves today; we're managing to post a Christmas tape at the correct time of year! If you're, like us, sticking close to home and avoiding the malls, this might be the thing you need to put you in the Christmas spirit - a selection of seasonal tunes performed by the Calgary Glenmore Temple Band Of The Salvation Army! 

Get these seasonal delights here!

Wild Colonial Boys - Come As A Stranger, Leave As A Friend (1987)

The Wild Colonials are back with another tape! This one didn't have an accompanying LP release, and we kind of blew everything we could tell you about them on our last post... 

So all you get today is the obligatory file shot and the download!

John Cunningham & The Caledonians - This Land Is Your Land (1987)

We've got another tape full of dance tunes (i.e.: waltzes, polkas, etc) for you, this time from accordionist John Cunningham and the Caledonians. We have an LP by Cunningham kicking around the CCPS offices, so it was fun to get this tape - which also features local country musician Ron Paxton. We tried to find out more about Cunningham, but could only find a news article about another accordionist with the same name whose playing was banned by the town of Comox, BC. So we'll have to be content with the glossy 8x10 of Cunningham - in full Scottish garb - in the file for the project.

Get the tape here!

Steve Worrall - 10 Emotions (1987)

Alright! Back into the 80's rock! Steve Worrall is the brother of Rick Worrall, who put out a single on Doug Wong Music that we posted a few months back. 

Where brother Rick skews more a bit more folk, Steve is headed for the big rock sound - well, the big 80's rock sound. The title track, "Ten Emotions" is a pretty great track and a good sample of what this is about - yeah, it's rock, but since it's 80's rock it's guitars are swathed in synthesizer tones and rooted by what we suspect is a drum machine. There's lot of really great, classic synth sounds on here, which led to a game of "guess-the-synthesizer" in the CCPS offices. 

If you want to play along, grab the download here!

Various - Canada, A Land & Its Songs (1987)

DWMC-60 is today's tape and it's a compilation much like Alberta Dreams -  not surprisingly, it was produced by the same folks. The Canada, A Land & Its Songs compilation sees the folks from Canadian Heritage Songs giving us a song-by-song trip across the country. With some odd choices along the way - likely due to licensing issues. 

Like so many things Canadian, we imagine there was a lot of give and take with putting together this one.