Sunday 20 November 2022

Lunatique - hands to yourself (2015)


We were pretty excited to snag a copy of this a the Record Collector's Show a few weeks ago - Lunatique were a pretty great band, with their scrappy, femme-forward punk kicking us in the pants each of the times we saw them. We hadn't listened to Lunatique in a long time - we'd forgotten that they also had a couple of slow-burning, neo-shoegaze tunes in this mix - which are highly worth checking out.

Get the download via the Lunatique bandcamp.

Saturday 19 November 2022

Preoccupations - Preoccupations (2016), New Material (2018), Arrangements (2022)






It's impossible to overlook the impact that Women had on the Calgary scene - and the same goes for Preoccupations. When they burst onto the scene in 2013 as Viet Cong, everyone took notice: the angular post-punk guitar of Danny Christiansen and the awe-inspiring musicianship of Scott Munro into the mix of Matt Flegel's deft bass work and Mike Wallace's staccato drum attack did some great things. 

Over the course of these three tapes, the band's songs becomes increasingly claustrophobic and dense with layers of synth and reverb enshrouding them. The chiming, angular guitarplay that characterized their Viet Cong release is largely gone - while other bands are still mining that space, Preoccupations have moved on to deeper space.

Get these tapes (or LPs, if you choose) from the good folks at Flemish Eye.

Friday 18 November 2022

Sargeant X Comrade - Magic Radio (2020)


We're super excited to have this tape in our mitts - Sargeant X Comrade, a collaboration between singer Yolanda Sargeant and producer Evgeniy Bykovets - is a quite excellent thing. They get pegged as low fi soul - but to our ears they owe more to trip hop minimalists Portishead, taking that 90's sound and updating it in a tasty, tasty way. Sargeant's voice channels a great combination of Nina Simone and Beth Gibbons while Bykovets's production is adds just enough experimental elements to not overpower the danceability of the tracks on this, their first full-length release. 

Thursday 17 November 2022

Quit It! - Spilling Out (2022)


Quit It! got our attention with their excellent 7" EP last year - it came out of nowhere and captured the rage and anger we feel at watching politics today. Their new full-length keeps that burning - and it's quite welcome. Quit It! is a continuation of the River Jacks and Rum Runner, but gone are the accordion and folk rock leanings, this is a more straight-up punk in the tradition of Knucklehead. And, as we have kind of suggested, it's quite, quite good.

Get the download from the Quit It! bandcamp, or get the tape (or LP, if you prefer - heck, they've even put this out on CD!) from Wasted Wax.

Wednesday 16 November 2022

L.T. Leif - Introducing (2022)

We caught exactly three minutes of L.T. Leif's set at Sled Island this year, so we jumped at this cassette compilation from UK label Lost Map Records. This tape is a teaser for those of us looking forward to the upcoming full-length from the now Edinburgh-based Calgarian - it brings together tracks from their 2016 LP, live cuts, and tracks from a couple of the other great projects they were part of (namely Hex Ray and OK Jazz). It's a great reminder of the gentle beauty of Leif's songs are.

Get it from Lost Map Records.

Tuesday 15 November 2022

Corta Vita - Non, Je Suis Mort! (2022)



We were pleasantly surprised a few weeks ago to hear that this was in the works - a reissue of the collected works of the legendary emo/screamo band Corta Vita by Semi Collective Records. Side A is their 2002 CD and a previously digital-only posthumous released, while the B side is their 2001 demo tape. It's a very nice package that celebrates the importance of the Corta Vita.

If you hustle over to Melodiya, they may have a couple of copies of the limited issue tape. If not, hit the Semi Collective bandcamp for the download.

Monday 14 November 2022

Prairie Crossing - Twelve Good Years (1988)


We're double-checking our notes, but we think this is the last of the Doug Wong Music-produced LPs that we have to share with you. We featured a single from Prairie Crossing earlier this year - and noted then that they were the house band at Saturday Night Special. 

Get their full-length LP here.

Friday 4 November 2022

Buckshot Show - The Buckshot Show's First Album (1983)





We're going to guess that a lot of you were wondering when we'd get around to highlighting this crucial Calgary release. For a lot of us, the Buckshot Show was a big part of growing up Calgarian - Buckshot (Ron Barge) and Benny the Bear (Jim Lewis) were right up there with Mr. Rogers and Big Bird. Their TV show launched in 1967 and ran every weekday at noon until 1997. At some point in those 30 years, it looks like the name Buckshot morphed into the more proper first and last name of Buck Shot.


This album kicks off with the song perhaps most associated with the Buckshot Show, a cover of Roy Acuff's "16 Chickens and a Tambourine," and covers a lot of fun ground after that. We always wondered why the show's theme music wasn't included on this - we JUST learned that they used Jean-Jacques Perrey's "The Elephant Never Forgets," where we had always thought it was an original piece of music. Guess we didn't stick around and watch the credits very often.


Since we've got the original production files for this, a couple of fun notes. This was produced in a run of about 5,000 copies - which is pretty substantial for a local release. And it was engineered by Jim Lewis, proving himself to be not just a good puppeteer. But more on Lewis and Barge a bit later...



Get your childhood flashback here!






Thursday 3 November 2022

Kathy Clark - Special Delivery (1982)


Kathy Clark is country/pop singer with a search-resistant name. All we can tell you about this record is that it's another produced by Hal Redekop - a guy who tended to do gospel records. This one has a few moments where it gets kind of gospel, but the selection of covers (Monkees, Barbara Mandrell) definitely skews pop. 

Get it here!

Wednesday 2 November 2022

Steve Fincham - Need The Weekend Off? (1986)



Steve Fincham is one of those artists we really can't tell you more about - from the Doug Wong files, we think he may have lived in Banff at the time this came out. His songs on this LP sit somewhere between country and blues - perhaps thanks to the production of Ron Casat and Richard Harrow, this album has a feeling that is suitably loose but also quite polished. 

Get it here.

Tuesday 1 November 2022

Calgary Hungarian Senior Citizens - Collection of Hungarian Folk Songs Volumes 1-6 (1980-1987)

 

This set of six records and one tape are from the Calgary Hungarian Senior Citizens choir - a group of, well, senior citizens singing traditional Hungarian folk songs. The first two of these were released on Aura and Westmount Records (the Aura release both on LP and cassette), while the remaining four were put out through Doug Wong Music. The choir is accompanied by a quartet of violins, bass, and hammered dulcimer. The Calgary Herald's George Lyon (hey, didn't we see a record of his recently?) gave the Westmount-released LP a quick mention in his column in 1981, but it doesn't answer the question of why/how they released a staggering six LPs over eight years:


Get all six volumes here!