Calgary Cassette Preservation Society

Sacred Heart of Elvis: Live

2012-02-03T16:07:00.000-07:00

Andrew Pearce (of The Now Feeling fame) found an old cassette recording of a Sacred Heart of Elvis gig. "I am pretty sure I wasn't playing drums on this recording," says Andrew. "I believe Ali gave it to me so that I could learn the songs for a few gigs I played with them in Toronto. I think this was a recording in Toronto and maybe Rodney Brent played on it, but I'm at a loss for who ever else."

Thanks a million for sending this in, Andrew!

We'll see if Rodney or someone can't shed some light on this mystery.

Songs:
Misery
Batman
Wheezing Dog on Leash
Into the Frey
City of God
Wrong Cocktail
Black Snake Moan
Elvis on Velvet
Every Neurotic Citizen
Lolita's Revenge
Walking the Floor
Alligator Death Wine

This recording is a bit rough, but absolutely worth the listen.

R+B Keepers: Live at the National Hotel

2012-02-02T15:37:00.000-07:00

We've been digging into the live tracks the past few days, so why stop now?

The R+B Keepers were a Nash fixture from 1981 until ’84 (with a six-month hiatus in there). Ex-Bee Ronnie Champagne sent in a whack of live recordings, which may have been released on cassette back in the day (history is a bit hazy on the point, it seems.)

The Band:

G.W. Montana (a.k.a. Grant Sim): vox & tele
Uncle Nicki Montana (a.k.a. Peter Clark): vox & bass
Ronnie Montana (a.k.a. Ronnie Champagne): vox & guitar
Luke Paulman (a.k.a. Paul Lukeman ): vox & sax
Rob Hate (a.k.a. Rob Hayter): skins & tubs
Buzzy Montana (a.k.a. Brad Spaz): live sound
Mr. Miles Arthur Jones: cassette recorder

Track listing:

All My Love is Lovin'
Got to Be Mine
Statesboro Blues (McTell)
Money (That's What I Want) (Strong)
Tobacco Road (Loudermilk)
You Got to Live
On Any Sunday
New Day Yesterday
Bee Who You Want to Bee
Evolution
Can't Judge a Book (Diddley)
Who Do You Love? (Diddley)

Thanks a metric tonne for sharing these songs, Ronnie!

It's the bees' knees!

Coughin' Nails: Live at the Westward Club (1988-89)

2012-01-31T15:26:00.000-07:00

Murray Greig of the Coughin' Nails sent in ten live songs, recorded at the Westward Club. The first two tracks are from 1988, the rest are from '89.

Track listing:

For the Love of Ivy (Jeffrey Lee Pierce/Kid Congo Powers)
Gears of Love
Green Door (Bob Davie/Marvin Moore)
Kaleidoscope Lobotomy
Mr X
Pandora's Sin
Ptarmigan (Gerald V. Casale)
Pumpin' for Jill (Iggy Pop/Ivan Kral)
Road Runner (Bo Diddley)
Talk About Me (Screamin' Jay Hawkins)

The band:

Bob Firmston: vocals
Murray Greig: guitar
Colin Forsyth: guitar (on 1989 tracks)
Case Caulfield: bass
K.C. Halas: drums

Thanks tonnes for digging this up, Murray! There's lots more to come from the Greig archives in coming days, too.

Get nailed here.

Th' Legendary Few: Live (1986)

2012-01-30T15:28:00.000-07:00

Another one from the Murray Greig archive/car trunk, and it's a killer: a 20-song set from Th' Legendary Few, live from the legendary-ish stage of either the Ace of Clubs or the Westward Club. (Anyone know which?)

Th' Legendary Few were:
Bill Firmston: vocals
Jon Sawyer: guitar
Rob Joyce: guitar
Brent Beatty: drums
Doug Boland: bass

Track listing:

Lute Suite in D Major (Bach)
[title unknown]
Better Days
Poo Poo Pee Pee
High School
I Know Your Name
Can't Judge a Book (Diddley)
Little Pink Dot
The Witch (The Sonics)
Diggin' the Scene on Campus
I Go to Pieces
Frenzy (Hill/Stevenson)
You're Gonna Miss Me (Erickson)
Bedlam for Boris
Christmas Cookies
She's A Little Cruel
That's Love
Thirteen Minutes to Wait
River Deep Mountain High (Spector/Barry/Greenwich)
Surfin' Bird (Frazier/White/Harris/Wilson)

Thanks, yet again, Mr. Greig!

Legendary, indeed!

The Choads: 4 Songs Live in Bill's Basement

2012-01-29T15:30:00.000-07:00

Murray Greig sent us four unreleased live Choads tracks from the band's early days (around 1991? 1992?) before the Forbidden Dimension's Jackson Phibes brought his, er, organ to the party. "There were a lot more songs on that cassette," writes Murray, "but time and the trunk of my car have not treated it well."

The Choads were largely made up of Th' Legendary Few and Color Me Psycho alums, so they're an honourary '80s band in our books. Also: They were an awesome thing to behold. (If you're not hep to the Choads' one official release, The World Ain't Round, It's Square, you'd best rectify the situation pronto.)

Tracks:

He's Waiting (The Sonics)
Money (That's What I Want) (Barrett Strong)
Tombstone Bed
Why

Choad blast!

Li 150's: "Destiny" (1989)

2012-01-28T15:53:00.000-07:00

We've been trying to get our dirty hands on the Li-150's tape for a while, and have yet to connect with a guy on a scooter who claims he has it for us. So, in the meantime, we'll re-post this track from Golden Rock.

"Destiny" appeared on the compilation Oh God, My Mom's On Channel 10!, released on 12" vinyl by Nardwuar the Human Serviette Records (CLEO1).

[Courtesy of Rocks in My Pocket.]

Get it here.

The Vindicators - The Vindicators (1989)

2012-01-27T18:24:00.000-07:00

According to the venerable Wikipedia, this 12" was the last release by Montreal's Og Music. We're also told that this was the first album cover that Tom Bagley did for a band that he wasn't in. So, for every ending, there is a new beginning.

Whatever. Here's Golden Rock's transcription of the back cover:

I
If I Were You (Carlson/Dunn/The Vindicators/PROCAN)
24 Hours Everyday (The Headstones)
Early in the Morning (Carlson/The Vindicators/PROCAN)

II
I'm Gone (The Magic Mushrooms)
No Worries (Carlson/The Vindicators/PROCAN)
Searching For My Baby (The Haunted)

Chris Carlson—Vocals, Guitar
Bryce Dunn—Drums
Daaren Boreham—Guitar, Vocals
Colin Forsyth—Organ, Guitar, Vocals
Dave Mariacci—Bass

Gerry Timmins—Drums on "Searching"

Produced & Engineered by Shane Connelly at Inear Sounds, Calgary

Thanks to: Val, Ben, Brent, Glenn, Paul, Kent, Nardwuar, Soul Shack, What Wave, TomB, Mr. & Mrs. C. Roli

Vindicate this!

Salmon Breath: "Cadillac" (1988)

2012-01-27T15:57:00.000-07:00

"Cadillac" appeared on the compilation It Came From Canada Volume 4, released on 12" vinyl by Og Music (OG17).

From the liner notes by Del Picasso:

SALMON BREATH are sort of sick country-rockabilly from Calgary. They're Sid Garbitch, vocal, guitar, and Poly, drums, but they don't sound like Deja Voodoo.

Nope, they sure don't!

The Vindicators: "Thinking of Birds," "You're Too Much" and "Hate" (1989)

2012-01-26T18:15:00.000-07:00

One of the Calgary bands we've never been able to get enough of is the Vindicators. Thankfully, Golden Rock collected their compilation-only tracks for us to enjoy.

"Thinking of Birds" (Vindicators PROCAN) appeared on the compilation Mister Garager's Neighbourhood, released on 12" vinyl by What Wave and Og Music (OG21).
From the liner notes:
A fine example of young minds warped by over-exposure to 60's punk records. Chris Carlson—vocals and guitar, Darren Borehan—guitar, Colin Forsyth—organ, Ben Sherazi—bass, Bryce Dunn—drums. In What Wave #16.
"You're Too Much" appeared on the compilation It Came From Canada 5, released on 12" vinyl by Og Music (OG25).
From the liner notes by Del Picasso:
The VINDICATORS are Canada's second-best-known 60s-garage trash teens. They formed in Calgary a couple of years back, playing farfisa-driven 60s covers and originals. They're singer-guitarist Chris Carlson, guitarist Daaren Boreham, organist Colin Forsyth, bassist Ben Sherazi, and drummer Bryce Dunn.
"Hate" appeared on the compilation Oh God, My Mom's On Channel 10!, released on 12" vinyl by Nardwuar the Human Serviette Records (CLEO1).
Chris Carlson and Ben Sherazi went on to Big Gulp, while Bryce Dunn skipped town to join the Smugglers. Daaren Boreham stayed here and formed Pussy Monster and one of Calgary's best ever garage rock cover bands, the Gaye Rage.

Get vindication here.

Color Me Psycho: "Black Corvair" (1987) and "What's Your Phobia?" (1988)

2012-01-25T18:03:00.000-07:00

In addition to releasing a bunch of amazing records by Deja Voodoo, Montreal's Og Records made a massive contribution to our country's record output with its five It Came From Canada compilations. Our pals in Colour Me Psycho were included on two of those compilations, and we're presenting the tracks here (if you want to find the full albums, they're out there - and Google is your friend (this time around (maybe))).

"Black Corvair" appeared on the compilation It Came From Canada Volume 3, released on 12" vinyl by Og Music (OG13).
From the liner notes by Del Picasso:
Calgary's Color Me Psycho play sweaty 80s-style garage rock in the tradition of such great groups as UIC and the now-defunct Enigmas. Aleister Hex (vocals/guitar), Edgar Allan Crowe (bass/vocals), John Rodent (keyboards), and S.P. Larkin (drums) recorded "Black Corvair" at R&L Studios.

"What's Your Phobia?" appeared on the compilation It Came From Canada Volume 4, released on 12" vinyl by Og Music (OG17).
From the liner notes by Del Picasso:
COLOR ME PSYCHO are one of Calgary's rockin'est bands, with a tough, sweaty sound that borrows from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. They're working on an LP. Aleister Hex, vocal, guitar; Edgar Allan Crowe, bass, vocal; John Rodent, keyboard; S.P. Larkin, drums.

We believe that it's former Golden Calgarian Dan Hayes playing keys on these two tracks. But we might be wrong.

Og!

Enemy Mind Feel - Wintermute (1988)

2012-01-23T17:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's Enemy Mind Feel post seems to have roused the sleeping giant that is Golden Rock, and prompted them to post a tape that they've been using as a pillow for the last two years. Yep, turns out Ken Kittliz sent them this tape years ago, and they've just remembered it. Their sloth is our gain, perhaps? 'Cuz now this is a CCPS post, rather than a Golden Rock post. That's the way hostile takeovers go!

This was released on cassette with customized j-card artwork (two samples above). No drums on this, which makes the version of "Church of the One Electron" on here no less compelling that that on their 7" single. Speaking of compelling, check out the liner notes:

Enemy Mind Feel is Calgary's first "cyberpunk" band. They live the "cyberpunk" lifestyle: anarchistic computer geeks by day, rock gods by night. Their twisted brand of noise/punk/no-wave rock makes even the most seasoned listener cringe with delight. The band members believe that Armageddon will come in a blast of feedback.

Enemy Mind Feel has been together for 9 months, and has placed select live dates in Calgary. The first performance occurred after the band had been together for only a week. As a means of developing new material, they regularly do improvisation performances in the studio, during gigs, and on live campus radio.

Thanks to Ken Kittlitz for sending this to Golden Rock. Next time, though, skip the middle man!

Enemy Mind Feel - Halflife 10,000 Years (1989)

2012-01-22T18:09:00.000-07:00

We're picking up a Golden Rock post that we're hoping to get some more context on shortly (in the form of a tape! Hooray!). For the interim, we'll just leave this here for you to enjoy.

Because some nights, that's just all we can pull together.

Huevos Rancheros - Live at the Night Gallery (2000)

2012-01-21T21:40:00.000-07:00

We're going to zip forward almost 20 years in the Brent Cooper story to this video, which we've, er, borrowed from Rock Is Dead.

It looks like this is video from the Huevos Rancheros (RIP) 10th Anniversary show at the Night Gallery (RIP). The video is great - a bit wobbly and kind of distorted, just like our favourite memories of Huevos shows. We weren't at this (sadly), but wish we had been - about three quarters of the way through the set, Graham Evans re-joins the band... on second guitar! Also, the Dino Martinis' Pat McGannon is on keys. We're not sure who shot the video, but clearly someone from the scene.

Here's great little clip, that ends with Coop giving the proto-douchebags in the audience a lesson in how to behave at a rock show:

Rock is Dead has the links to download the full video - all links were working at the time we posted this. It's a big download, but well worth the bandwidth.

Well, the link was working when we wrote this, at least. Since then, the American Government has decided that file sharing is bad. So you can watch Part One, Part Two and Part Three of this on Youtube. Until the American Government shuts down Youtube.

the will... - causa sui (1983)

2012-01-20T10:46:00.000-07:00

Quite possibly one of the best things about a good night at Broken City is the fine selection of tunes that Djewel Davidson plays. In fact, it's pretty noticeable the nights when he's not there - the music in between acts just isn't the same.

But one of the things we've never heard him play is this almost 30-year-old LP featuring a cover photo of very young Brent Cooper (or is that Bruce McCulloch?). There's something questionable about using William Blake poetry as lyrics, but we're going to overlook that lapse in judgement in favour of the contributions that both Davidson and Cooper have made to the scene.

Thanks again to Golden Rock for transcribing the back cover:

Side AFunky Babylon 3:39
Live in Animation 3:24 (davidson/King/Cooper)

Side 1The Empty Cabinet 3:29
The Final Reward 3:15
The Garden of Love 2:51 (Wiliam Blake/Ducky King)

the will... are:
Peter the kid Balkwill: Banging and Thomping
Brent Cooper: Rude Noises
d.jewel davidson: Painful noises
Ducky King: Low pitched noises

Don Pennington: Noise control

All songs written by d.jewel davidson and Ducky King, except where noted otherwise.

Get funky here.

The Cryin' Helicopters - "Go West Young Bee" and "Move" (c.1984)

2012-01-19T20:07:00.000-07:00

Since we've been talking Cooper, we think it's time to go back to the Golden Rock archives for this. These are two songs from Ken Kittlitz's '86 mix tape, again re-mastered by Cheeba. Big thanks to both fellows!

The Cryin' Helicopters were one in a string of bands featuring guitar whiz Brent J. Cooper (falling somewhere between his stints in The Will... and the Ted Clark Five?), best known for his work in instro outfits Huevos Rancheros and the Ramblin' Ambassadors. In fact, Huevos recycled "Go West Young Bee" on a 7" (b/w "Girl from N.A.N.A.I.M.O.," Top Drawer, 1994) and the Dig In! album (Mint Records MRD-007, 1995). More info on the Helicopters, and hopefully more tracks, to come soon. In the meantime, might we suggest you buy the fabulous new Ramblin' Ambassadors disc, Vista Cruiser Country Squire?

Update 07/30/2008: Not surprisingly, walking music encyclopedia David Veitch remembers the Helicopters roster:

Brent Cooper - guitar
Dave Stevenson - drums
Dave Hatfield - bass
Tom Wolfe - vocals

Stevenson, Veitch notes, also did time with Cooper in The Will... Hatfield and Wolfe were formerly of Grey Nun.

Go West!

Forbidden Dimension - Promotion Factory (1990)

2012-01-18T21:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we featured Bagley with Cooper on the side. Today, we've got Bagley with Cooper behind the board! Or something.

This is a big-sounding set of basement demos that Cooper recorded with Tom around the time of Mars is Heaven. But what freaks us out - and we don't freak out that easily, despite what the guys at Golden Rock may say - is the full-band treatment of songs from the same era. Although, it kind of does sound like Igglesden is doing his best drum machine impression on much of this.

This set pulls nicely from Tom's early material (he pointed out that he's now spent over half of his life in FD, which he may/may not appreciate us sharing with you). This really sounds terrific, with meaty-sounding guitars and drums. And the right amount of effects on Tom's voice to make his sound extra demented.

A potential improvement on his usual, somewhat demented-sounding voice. Potentially.

Jackson Phibes - RadioSonic Session (1998)

2012-01-17T20:57:00.000-07:00

As you've probably noticed by now, we're nothing if not obsessive - not to mention shameless about posting the same thing twice. We have little/no reason to break from our usual patterns, so here we go again.

We kind of overlooked the inclusion of this in the FD tape that Chris Zuk sent us a while back. At some point after the rest of FD quit the band to form the Daggers, Tom put out a single under the Jackson Phibes moniker and recorded this great session. That's Coop playing a nicely fuzzed-out bass and Tom's old pal Larry Van Halen keeping the beat.

What else do we like about this? "A Wolf's Gotta Learn," which doesn't see an official release until 2007's Cool Sound Out of Hell. Oh, and speaking of releases, did you get their new CD/download yet? Or are you waiting for the vinyl to drop, like we are?

If you are, grab this to tide you over.

Forbidden Dimension - CBC Session (1994)

2012-01-16T20:33:00.000-07:00

We're going to skip back to some new tape content, and give you a break from the Golden Rock reposts for a bit. But we're not going to relent with our obsessions over Tom Bagley!

Tom was good enough to invite us into his lair last month, and gave us a few things that we hadn't heard before. The first is this, a session that he and his ghoulish companions recorded for the sadly-departed Brave New Waves, shortly after the release of their first Cargo cassette.

What's amazing about this is hearing the full-band treatment of one of our absolute favourite FD tracks, "White Line Reaper," as well as Tom taking on one of his all-time favourite tracks, Blue Oyster Cult's "This Ain't the Summer of Love." There's also a previously-unreleased instrumental, "Say You Love Santa." If we'd had our crap together, we would have posted this prior to the holiday season. But, sufficient to say we did not have our crap together.

This tape also has us pondering the other Calgary bands that did sessions for the CBC. We know Huevos Rancheros did a set around this time as well - who else? If anyone out there has tapes of any other Brave New Waves sessions, we'd love to hear them.

Just like we're sure you'll love to hear this.

Color Me Psycho - H+R Block Recordings w/ Live @ The National (1985)

2012-01-15T21:32:00.000-07:00

O Canadarm! has a bunch of early Color Me Psycho recordings, collected under the rubric "H+R Block." Why? According to CMP frontman Aleister Hexxx, "We used to practice at the H+R Block in a Forest Lawn strip mall in the off-tax-season. We had to move after we practiced during work hours one day (we had a show that night at the U o' C), causing a dentist next door to file a complaint (and probably a few teeth he hadn't planned on)! The H+R Block stuff was done over the course of a weekend towards the end of the summer of '85. We had only been playing for a few months at that point, and there are lots of sucky tunes that got dropped right away after we started playing out more. Playing out is always the best way of sorting out what works and what don't."

Yes, it looks like some of these are the same version that we previously posted here. But we don't mind duplication in this case, because appended to the practice set is a live show from the National Hotel.

Aleister Hexxx thinks this show was around Halloween '85: "I'm thinking we'd played the ACA H'we'en dance the night before, which went smashingly, and I faintly recall being a bit put off by the not-so-enthusiastic National crowd." Our favourite moment in the set is their cover of Fire's "My Father's Name Was Dad."

It looks like O Canadarm!'s link is still active, so you can grab the download from them.

Color Me Psycho: Demos (1987)

2012-01-14T20:52:00.000-07:00

Direct from Aleister Hexxx, six songs recorded in the summer of '87. (Note to CMP completists: "Two Towers" doesn't show up anywhere else.) "The demo was done at the same place as the LP (exactly a year apart)," writes Hexxx. "I actually prefer a couple of the demo versions to the LP ones ("Give Ya the Gears" has more spontaneity for sure). It was all fun though." We also prefer these a bit, as well - the recordings are a bit beefier. Which makes us wonder if the LP was recorded to plywood rather than tape.

Track listing:

Sacred Valley Penetration
Mother's Worry
Two Towers
Six Foot Jane
Black Corvair
Give You the Gears

Also: thanks to Mr. Lärkin for the cover art!

Get CMP's demos here.

Color Me Psycho - Pretend I'm Your Father (1988)

2012-01-13T20:42:00.000-07:00

That last compilation has sent us into a bit of a tangent (as we're prone to), so we're going to take a detour through some Bagley-related posts over the next while (including some new stuff, rather than all these re-tread posts from Golden Rock). Tom tells us that the band was basically broken up by the time this record came out - he was already playing with Forbidden Dimension (that band's first 7" would come out in the same year as this LP).

Our favourite Punk Rock Librarian complains endlessly about the sound quality of this recording, but our own vinyl is in fairly dodgy shape, so we can't really tell. All we know is, this thing has some of our favourite Bagley tracks ("Let's Play Doktor" is an absolute treat).

From the liner notes:

Jack Keen: noise bass, background yelling
Johnny Twelvefingers: visceral organs
S__ P____ Lärkin: drumbs
Aleister Hexxx: eyesore guitar, hootin' and hollerin'

Produced and directed by Randy "Needle" Parker and Color Me Psycho at R and L Studios, Calgary 1988. All songs written by Hexxx, Keen, Larkin, Twelvefingers—except + (Haze, Hexxx, Larkin, Keen 1986) and * (Hexxx, Keen, Larkin, Dez 1985)

Because God told us to... CAPAC REG.

There was talk from Lance Rock Records a few years ago about re-mastering and re-issuing this. Until that happens, you can enjoy this rip instead.

Various - Writing-On-Stone: The Alberta Compilation (1987)

2012-01-12T14:30:00.000-07:00

This 1987 compilation brought together bands from both Edmonton and Calgary (Calgary bands marked with * below), and was given a name of a southern Alberta landmark. Highly confusing, but it does give us an excuse to post another track from one of our favourites, Color Me Psycho.

Bands and track listing:

Side One
Euthanasia: "Grub"
Color Me Psycho: "Thirteen is my Lucky Number"*
Broken Smile: "Open Up Your Heart"
Ted Clark 5: "Number Ten Nirvana"*
Disciples of Power: "Aggressor"
Liquid Light: "I'm So Glad About Dyin"*

Side Two
This Fear: "Killing Time"
No Limbo Lasso: "A Part of the Tide"*
Big House: "Nothing to Understand"
th' Legendary Few: "Bedlam for Boris"*
Shadow Project: "Desert Spirit"
Eden's End: "Heaven and Hell"*

Get it here.

Various - Tones: The Calgary Sampler Album (1988)

2012-01-11T20:15:00.000-07:00

Here's another compilation from Golden Rock Records, featuring four bands from the late 80's. Maybe this shows how far the scene had evolved. Or something.

The one band who we don't have anything else from on here is This Bicameral Mind - we remember seeing posters for them around town - does anyone know if they put out anything else?

Side One
Big Bang Theory: "The Walk"
This Bicameral Mind: "Gunning Down John"
21 Hundredz: "Now Playing"
Same Difference: "Soft in Her Silence"

Side Two
Same Difference: "Kiss of Ice"
21 Hundredz: "Today"
This Bicameral Mind: "Home"
Big Bang Theory: "Nothing"

From the back cover notes:

Big Bang Theory
Ando-Guitars
Case Caulfield-Bass
Sean McEwen-Lead Vocals
Andy Williamson-Drums, Vocals
Photo: Kate Yorga
Recording: Diz, Longshot, Caine

This Bicameral Mind
Photo: G.Boucher
Produced By T.B.M. & Cary Sadler
Recorded and Mixed At Longshot Studio, Calgary
Engineer: Cary Sadler
Special Thanks To: "Diz" who appears on "Gunning Down John"

Same Difference
Vocals-Janine Bracewell
Conga, Spoons-Dave Follett
Bass-Diane Kooch
Guitar-Chantel Vitalis
"Soft In Her Silence" Recorded at Big City Sound By Scott Willing
"Kiss of Ice" Recorded at Longshot Studio By Cary Sadler
Photos: Alexander W. Thomas
Special Thanks To: "Jumpin" Jan Turner

The 21 Hundredz
Photo: Doug Faires
Produced By: 21 Hundredz
"Now Playing" Engineered and Co-Produced by: Doug Faires, Sundae Sound
"Today" Engineered By: Jim Cretney

Executive Producer: Micheal McParland

Special Thanks To:
Ando-Jacket Design
Kate Yorga-Front Photo
Geoff Smith and The Westward Club
CJSW and VOX Magazine
James Muretich (Herald)
Dave Veech (Sun)
Ian, Paula and 'Diz' for all the assistance...!

Get it here.

Various - Calgary Compelation* (1986)

2012-01-10T15:00:00.000-07:00

Compilations are always a tricky business. But this one - which is just over 25 years old now - seems to have hit the mark, with most of our favourite bands from the era captured. We don't know how this came about - other than it was put out on Golden Rock records, the same label that put out the first Golden Calgarians releases.

Bands and track listing:

Side One
Golden Calgarians: "Party in the Sun"
Silent Terror: "Money Makes the World Go Round"
Sacred Heart of Elvis: "Black Snake Moan"
Zero Hour: "Speed Metal"
Son of a Thousand Fathers: "Shuttle"
Think About It: "John's Piano"

Side Two
Color Me Psycho: "Stiff All Over"
No Limbo Lasso: "Trees"
Eye On You: "Human Rights"
Mules: "True Love"
21 Hundreds: "Life is Eternal"
The Will...: "Nice Try. Now Quit"
Ripchords: "Living Like Gamblers"

*[sic]

Get it here.

Golden Calgarians: live at Peace Fest (1988)

2012-01-09T07:34:00.000-07:00

Golden Rock reader Buke sent in this live recording of the Golden Calgarians performing at Peace Fest--our best guess is this was the Saturday, August 6 1988 event at Prince's Island. (Also on the bill: Liquid Light, Same Difference.) If anybody begs to differ, please let us know. Particularly notable for the inclusion of two tracks ("Surfing Down the Drain," "Hog Wild") which don't appear on any of the GC's albums.

Set list (order is speculative, except for first and last tracks):

Party in the Sun
Ballad of Blood Beach
Guitar Curse
Herpes Simplex II
I Feel Alive
My Big Truck
Sex Under Missiles
Surfing Down the Drain
Vladivostok Rock
(You're Stepping on My New) Boots
Hog Wild

Thanks very much, Buke!

Get it here.

Golden Calgarians: live at the Ace of Clubs (circa 1986 or 1987)

2012-01-08T11:00:00.000-07:00

This Golden Calgarians set was sent to Golden Rock by Dave Degrood, bassist for the Golden Calgarians, a few years back. We think chunks of this are from the same set as this one, but there's enough difference that we're going to present it as another, separate post. Just because if we're going to overdose on Golden Calgarians posts, what's one more? Plus, Bruno's banter/rambling is priceless.

Set list:

Photograph
Sex Under Missiles
My Big Truck
Savage Love
Deviation
Happy Man
Night of Miracles
Summer of '87
Herpes Simplex II
It's Fun to Be Alive
Vladivostock Rock
I Feel Like...
Guitar Curse

Get it here.

Golden Calgarians: Brave New Waves interview (1985)

2012-01-07T11:58:00.000-07:00

Rodney Guitarsplat Brent sent in a recording of Brent Bambury interviewing the Golden Calgarians on CBC Radio Two's seminal late-night radio show, Brave New Waves. Broadcast date: October 18, 1985. The band was on the Montreal stop of their cross-country tour. No live performances, but Bambury spun tracks from It's Fun to Be Alive, Savage Love, the "New Desperados" single and the brand-new-at-the-time Guitar Curse EP. Thanks, yet again, Rodney!

The above clipping is from the August 1985 issue (vol. 1, no. 9) of Graffiti (a slick Canadian pop culture mag--and a surprisingly hip thing to find on the Mac's newsstand) features a short front-of-book piece by Alastair Sutherland about the Golden Calgarians. This article inspired the following exchange on the October 18, 1985 broadcast of Brave New Waves:

Brent Bambury: Graffiti said you were obnoxious.

Bruno: Yeah, I don’t know where he got that from. Maybe it was just from talkin’ to him.

Jeff Smith: Maybe because it’s true.

The Brave New Waves interview also elaborates on the whole landlord/$60 story. Which you can listen to here.

Golden Calgarians: Guitar Curse (1985)

2012-01-06T10:00:00.000-07:00

Here's the third and final 12" from the Golden Calgarians. And, again, the back cover transcription from Golden Rock:

Side One
Guitar Curse
Summer of '87

Side Two
Night of Miracles
I Feel Like...

Golden Calgarians are:

Doug Smith: guitar
Bruno: vocals
Jeff Smith: drums
David Degrood: bass

Songs written and arranged by Golden Calgarians
Recorded at Smooth Rock Studios, Calgary
Engineered by Steve Graupe, produced by Golden Calgarians

Get it here.

Golden Calgarians: Savage Love (1984)

2012-01-05T11:30:00.000-07:00

We're continuing to plow through the Golden Rock migration with this, the second full-length from the Golden Calgarians. Of note, this lineup trades one Sandwich for another, with Doug Smith taking over guitar duties from Tim Campbell.

Again, here's Golden Rock's back cover transcription:

Side One
Vladivostock Rock
Savage Love
Thousand Chains *
My Big Truck *
Sex Under Missiles

Side Two
Galaxina */+
It's OK *
Getting Weaker *
Ballad of Blood Beach *
Happy Man *

The Golden Calgarians are:

Jeff Smith: drums/BU
Dave Degrood: bass/BU
Doug Smith: guitar/BU
Bruno: voice
Mike Memorex: guitar/BU on *
Dan Hayes: synthesizer on +

Written and produced by the Golden Calgarians
Recorded at Smooth Rock Studios, Calgary
Engineered by Gabriel Boucher

Golden Calgarians bassist Dave Degrood was swell enough to send in two tracks recorded for the LP, but cut from the final album, "Ghost Town" and "Pink Sunday."

Get the full LP here and the outtakes here.

Golden Calgarians: New Desperados/7 Minutes to Heaven (1982)

2012-01-04T08:57:00.000-07:00

We at the CCPS are puzzled by this Golden Calgarians release, which features future-Mules Brad Paffe and Rob Hayter. We'd like to think this was recorded while the band was in transition from being the Remains to their more constant line-up (with Jeff Smith on drums and either Doug Smith or Tim Campbell on guitar). But this bears the imprint number of grrr-50001, where It's Fun to Be Alive is grrr-50000.

All we really know is that "7 Minutes to Heaven" was chosen to be the song representative of the band on the 90.9 With a Bullet comp, which we've already said enough about. So grab these two great tracks here.

Golden Calgarians: It's Fun to Be Alive (1982)

2012-01-03T09:36:00.000-07:00

Here's the first Golden Calgarian's LP, from way back in 1982. Somewhere between the Remains practice tape and this, original guitarist Scott Fawcett split and was replaced by Sandwiches/future Sacred Heart of Elvis guitarist Tim Campbell.

Since we don't have a scan of the back cover (we're too lazy to do the whole scanning a 12" in pieces thing), here's Golden Rock's transcription:

Side X
(You're Stepping on My New) Boots
Golden Calgarians
Deviation
The Dancing Floor
Herpes Simplex II

Side Y
It's Fun to Be Alive
Desert Walk
It Could Happen
The Titanic Song
Photograph

The Golden Calgarians are:

Bruno: voice
Tim Campbell: guitar
Dan Hayes: keyboard
David Degrood: bass
Jeff Smith: drums

All songs written and performed by the Golden Calgarians
Recorded at Smooth Rock Studios, Calgary
Engineered by Gabriel Boucher
Produced by the Golden Calgarians
Art Concept & Design by the Golden Calgarians
Photography by Sue Smith
Special thanks to Menno Klassen, D.B. Smith, Ken Guise, Rob Clark & Karen Thomas

Your Olympic Band for the 1980's

It's fun to be alive, but not to have herpes simplex II.

Golden Calgarians: Chicken on the Way (c. 1980)

2012-01-02T06:24:00.000-07:00

One of the driving forces behind launching Golden Rock was to find lost CalgCon classics, those songs that were never released on vinyl or cassette, but found a home on the CJSW airwaves. Songs like..."Chicken on the Way," the Golden Calgarians' ode to the Calgary fast food institution on the corner of 14th Street & Kensington Road N.W. [Since this was originally posted three years ago at Golden Rock, we've noticed another Chicken on the Way in Forest Lawn... what's that about? - CCPS]

It took a while to unearth this nugget, but here's "Chicken on the Way," in all its lo-fi glory. Dave Degrood supplied some details about the recording: That's him on bass, Bruno singing, and Jeff Smith on drums (and on the skit portion). The guitarist was probably Scott Fawcett, who left the band just before they recorded their debut, It's Fun to Be Alive, putting the recording date around 1980. Dave's not sure where the song was recorded, but it's possible it was in the CJSW studios. (We vaguely remember hearing that DJ Wah might've been involved. Walter? You out there?) The song was written by Scott Fawcett.

Big thanks to Ken Kittlitz for sending this one in. Ken played guitar in Enemy Mind Feel, and was a longtime CJSW DJ. Back in '86, he had the foresight to make a mix tape of his favourite local stuff. Even better, he kept that cassette for over 20 years. More to come from the Kittlitz Tape in future posts. Thanks to Cheeba for cleaning up the audio.

The above clipping (no byline, photo by Brodylo/Morrow) comes from the March 1986 issue of the short-lived Calgary magazine:

Golden Bruno
In 1978, when Geoff Smith and Bruno (“just Bruno”) were students at Queen Elizabeth High, their rock band was called The Remains, perhaps a not-so-coincidental bastardization of their idols, The Ramones. Two years later, morbid punk names died and The Golden Calgarians were born.
As the contradiction in their latest album title Savage Love suggests, they play to mixed reviews. They have been described as “raunchy and loud” and “tight and passionate.” Montreal loves them.
Doug Smith plays guitar and Dave DeGrood handles bass. The raunch is Bruno, 25, lead singer and lyricist. His good looks have made him successful as a nude model at Alberta College of Art.

[photo caption] Just Bruno: Golden Calgarians' raunch component from 25-year-old singer.

Get your chicken here.

The Remains: unreleased rehearsal recording (1980)

2012-01-01T10:31:00.001-07:00

As the CCPS is taking over the archives from Golden Rock, we see no better place to start than with the band that helped give that blog it's name, the Golden Calgarians. or, in this case, the band that eventually spawned the Golden Calgarians.

Before changing their name to the Golden Calgarians, The Remains were the pride/scourge of Queen Elizabeth High School (some backstory here.) Dave Degrood (Remains/GC bass-man) sent in a Remains practice recording, which includes a few songs that showed up on GC LPs. Dave notes that the session features original guitarist Scott Fawcett, "who unfortunately quit just before the first album."

The set list:

Ballad of Blood Beach
Deviation
U.I.C.
TV Clone
I'm Sick
[unknown]
Into the '80s
Send Your Children
(You're Stepping on My New) Boots
Highway

This is pretty great, raw stuff that makes a nice companion piece to the Sandwiches tape we posted last week. Where the Sandwiches are lean and angular, the Remains are raucous and fun, even in this early form.

Ship and Anchor Cocktail Series (1996-1998)

2011-12-26T07:59:00.001-07:00

Here's a Boxing Day treat for you. 15 years ago, the Ship and Anchor Pub along with the record label side of Sloth Records (not to be confused with the record store side, which we'll be hitting later this afternoon that take advantage of their krazy dealz) and the shortly-lived Crybaby imprint made a nice little investment in the Calgary scene by putting out a series of 7" records that do a remarkable job of capturing a snapshot of the city's music in the mid- to late-90's. Plus, they're vinyl records, which we know the kids are crazy for these days.

The Cocktail Series was released in pairs, with each pair on the same coloured vinyl and named for a, well, cocktail. We're trying to make sense of the numbering system on these in the hopes that they'll help sort out some of the chronology in terms of which was released first, but we're flabbergasted by the lack of consistency in their numbering scheme (we suspect Mike Bell is to blame). So we're going to go with the ad above, and suggest that the Puritans and Placebo was released first (on green vinyl - although the Placebo (or Placebo4 as they were forced to start calling themselves) is the one of these that we actually don't have in the CCPS collection, as the popularity of Feist seems to have made them a hot commodity - but thanks to said hot commodity's fans, it's pretty easy to find a rip of this on the interweb, which we've done), followed by Straight and Knucklehead (on white vinyl), Loudmouth and Huevos Rancheros (on red), and finally rounded out with Curse of Horseflesh and Forbidden Dimension (on blue). We're not clear on the year of the final release - if the last pair came out in 1997 or 1998. We could probably ask someone, but that's not how we like to operate.

Also included in these records was a series of trading cards, featuring notable folks from the Ship community. We've picked up some of our records in the years since they were originally released, so we don't have a card for each record. We believe there was even a card for Cal... if anyone has one, we'd appreciate a scan!

Also, in the interests of transparency, our main reason for posting this is so that we can share with all of you the joy that is Straight's "Vacant," penned by former Quitter Joe McCaffery. One of our absolute favourites at the CCPS and an amazing slice of anthemic rock.

Get the whole series right here.

Sandwiches - Sandwiches (1980)

2011-12-24T10:53:00.002-07:00

This is amazing. Not as if finding the complete Sturgeons demo was good enough, we've now been passed a copy of the Sandwiches demo (huge thanks to Allen Baekeland for this!). This is the best Christmas present ever! Well, except for the time Gene's dad bought him a copy of J.G. Ballard's Crash, thinking it was a cautionary tale about the dangers of speeding. Boy, did that ever backfire on him (both Gene and his dad, as it turned out).

The Sandwiches were a very shortly-lived band, featuring Doug Smith on guitar and vocals, Tim Campbell on lead guitar, Kim Solar on bass and Bill Betzler on drums. What we're posting today is a selection of their songs, hand-picked by Campbell. And they're amazing. This is great, lean punk rock that sits very nicely alongside the Sturgeons as forming an important part of our city's musical history.

Considering that members of this band went on play with Animal Kingdom, the Golden Calgarians, and Sacred Heart of Elvis, we're thinking that last summer's ffwd article about the early days of the Calgary scene missed something really important. Seriously, what did Kinsella go on to do? Share the stage with a mechanical bull, apparently (and, no, we're not talking about Chrétien).

Also: in your face, Golden Rock! We know this was on GR's most-wanted list for years, but since they haven't posted in a while... IN YOUR FACE!!! Actually, we're heading to Golden Rock's HQ next week to make them an offer they can't refuse. We think they'll be impressed by the offer. Okay, not impressed, what's the word we're looking for... maybe scared poopless is closer? Anyways, there is an offer to be made. And likely not refused, given the way it will be proposed.

But back to the Sandwiches (we had a bit too much eggnog last night (okay, not too much eggnog - too much rum) and are having trouble focusing). Turning Allen's CD into mp3s turned out to be more difficult than we ever expected, and we ended up getting to know the waveforms of these songs better than those of any band previously featured on the CCPS. But again, it's been totally worth it. So put an extra glug of rum in your eggnog, grab this amazing collection of songs and toast the season. Cheers!

Smash L.A. - Smash L.A. (1990)

2011-12-21T21:43:00.001-07:00

We're embracing our inner Jett Thunders with today's tape, which comes to us via - of all people - Airship One's Chris Zimmel.

Smash LA (i.e. Smash Law N Authority - not Smash Lawn Authority, as we initially thought, although we're now considering getting Steve Elaschuk drunk and changing his landscaping company name to the latter) was Calgary's answer to early 90's glam metal icons like Poison and, well, Guns N Roses. This a highly-underrepresented genre here at the CCPS, most because the Live Wire was in the deep south of the city and we still have a rule that prohibits us from attending rock shows south of 17th Ave SW. What interests us about this band is not the power ballads, but the involvement of future-Zuckerbabby guitarist Reed Shimozawa. We also note that three of the folks from Lanigan, SK's Age of Electric contribute backing vocals, including future-New Pornographer drummer Kurt Dahle. We also also note that several of members of both bands continue to be involved in modern versions of hair metal, proving once again that hairspray does have long-lasting effects.It looks like these guys did quite well in their time, though. This one independent tape spawned three music videos, which have been lovingly posted to the youtubes. Here's our favourite, featuring Shimozawa in a Slash-style top hat: This is the most time that all of at the CCPS have spent seriously (well, okay, not really seriously) looking at hair metal, collectively, in our lives (like, totally, no way! Dude!). So we'll just direct you and your big hair to the download.

The Grift - The Grift (1993)

2011-12-16T11:00:00.000-07:00

We at the CCPS are creatures of habit. That habit being, if we spot a pile of tapes in a retail environment, we can't help but scan through for anything local. This habit usually doesn't yield much (other than copies of Billy Joel's The Nylon Curtain), so we usually don't set our hopes to high.

So when we started picking through a small pile of used tapes at Hot Wax (where we're used to going to pick up new cassette releases), we almost abandoned the search when we found a copy of ABC's The Lexicon of Love. But the tell-tale low-budget spine of this independent release jumped out at us. And so, here it is.

The Grift feels like, in many ways, an extension of the Burners, although a bit more glossy. The band features the Burners' Mike Stack as well as Sean Maher from Joe 90/the Nex'd. Someone on Ye Olde Youtube has been so goode as to post a video of the band, from shortly before this tape was released:

So there you have it: our compulsive behaviours related to digging through strange piles of tapes have once again been rewarded.

Various - Cam's Lost Compilation

2011-12-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

After posting a lost compilation from Ian Doig a few weeks back, Cam Hayden got in touch with us and offered a half-finished, half-assed compilation of his own.

To be fair, Cam can't take the blame for this. Or so he claims. His story - which we're inclined to believe, for no reason other than we're a bit soft-headed sometimes - is that at some point in the late 1990s, some un-named party hit him up to help with releasing this compilation, and basically dumped the tracks they assembled in his lap and expected the compilation to magically appear without any form of cash being applied.

Well, thanks to the marvels of the interweb and the ability for any idiot (or, in this case, collection of idiots) with a blog to upload a file and make it available for download (with no cash being applied), we're now able to bring this compilation into your eagerly-awaiting eardrums. Except that most of the best tracks on here have already been heard.

What is kind of cool and new (to us) on here is a band called Hung Solo, which Cam tells us is a young Adam Kamis. Then there are the two tracks from the original Hot Little Rocket demo, some Rayovaq (we don't think we've every really confessed how much we loved that band - so here it is: we really loved that band), a pair of tracks from Nine Miles to Morgan's tape, a pair of Massive Ferguson tracks that we mistook for Cripple Creek Fairies tracks at first, a version of National Dust's excellent "California" (not the version from their exceptional second CD) and, well, Upshot.

What, you don't remember Upshot? Don't tell us you didn't love their amazing combination of rap, metal and... Dammit, we can't even bring ourselves to mock them.

Which makes this post just about as half-assed as today's featured compilation.

Various - CJSW Presents Calgary Cardboard Limousine '93 (1993)

2011-12-12T09:34:00.000-07:00

You're not going to believe this story. We're warning you right now, even before we begin. This is - without a word of a lie (which we know is not our usual modus operandi - and neither is putting latin in italics) - a tape we'd been trying to find for some time. And where did we find it?In Jett Thunders' living room. We're not making this up. Seriously. We were at Jett's house, and he was in the bathroom fixing his hair or something, so we were being nosey, as we are wont to do. And when we saw a small pile of tapes, we figured the best we were going to find was a copy of Appetite for Destruction, or maybe Pornograffiti. So imagine our surprise to see this tape!We know that we've lost you here. You can't fathom why this tape is so important. For us, this is one of the better Calgary compilations from the 90's, bringing together Huevos Rancheros, Agony Pipe, the Choads, Rabbit Has Brain... Sure, there are a few bands we can't seem to remember (Thomas at the Wheel? Mekong Riverboat Show?), but there's at least one song we're really excited to hear again - the Steve Wynn-esque "Carolynn" from Monster Zero, featuring Walter Porochnuk, Don McSwiney and Pat McGannon (the latter two of whom would form the Manhattan Jump Blues Revue/Dino Martinis). Oh, and more Ramada Gods. This is a well put-together compilation, despite its lack of liner notes or extra documentation. A great snapshot of a moment in time. Little touches like this are why we pledge to CJSW every year. So make sure you've paid your pledge and then grab this.

Banood - Mind That Parcel... (1986)

2011-12-10T18:45:00.000-07:00

We've learned serval important things in our many years of digging through the tapes at Recordland. First, we've already found all the good stuff. Second, you should always bring a package of wet wipes and hand sanitizer. And, third, sometimes digging and perseverance does yield something you're not expecting to find.Like this, the second tape from Banood. We don't have much to add from when we posted their first tape, having already cited the fact that their drummer was at one point married to Sarah McLachlan. So, seeing as we're obviously trying to pad out a post here, we'll also include this lovely video from the youtubes: Unlike digging through Recordland, sometimes youtube just yields plain garbage.So grab the tape here.

Kathryn Rushent - Bodycheck (1987)

2011-12-08T17:01:00.000-07:00

This is the second Kathryn Rushent tape we got from Grant Hutchinson. Grant tells us he assisted with the video that is referenced in the liner notes of our last post.It appears that Rushent is still active as an artist in the Airdrie area, while producer David Strattford is actively putting out CDs to combat migraines without drugs, among other things. Get Bodychecked.

Kathryn Rushent - The Mist

2011-12-06T16:47:00.000-07:00

This is bit of a surprise - a tape featuring Aleister Hex that isn't garage rock. In fact, this skews far closer towards Jane Siberry than Blue Oyster Cult. Actually, that Jane Siberry comparison may not be completely accurate. But certainly the distance from BOC seems correct.As usual, we're kind of grasping at straws here.

Lockwood-Clark - Coincident Dissolution

2011-12-04T14:28:00.000-07:00

In among the tapes from Grant Hutchinson was this one, which stands as a unique recording in our collection to date. We're familiar with Frank Lockwood as the engineer and producer behind recordings from CosmaNat and Tau Ceti. But rather than the new wave stylings of those bands, this tape (which is made up of two tracks, each of which clocks in at over 25 minutes apiece) is more Eno-esque in its soundscapes and themes.Lockwood is in Toronto now, and still recording - although his focus is on acoustic and classical music.Get Lockwood-Clark here.

CosmaNat - CosmaNatomy (1988)

2011-12-02T10:35:00.000-07:00

We were - at one point, anyways - very good at cross-posting/stealing tapes from our friends at Golden Rock. But we have no idea how we missed this one, which Grant Hutchinson has now also slid our way.Golden Rock originally got a copy via recording engineer and CosmaNat co-conspirator Frank Lockwood. Frank says:

"The cassette-only EP CosmaNatomy was probably our most ambitious project. 'Level this Ground' featured a lot of guitar power chords from Brenda with a complex, multi-part vocal from Pat. 'Pillow Talk' was done by first recording the original Doris Day song onto our multi-track tape, and using it as a guide. None of the original recording appears in the finished song, except for a slowed down 'There must!' from Doris Day that begins the song. The piano part proved to be too complex for either Pat or Brenda's capabilities, so we simply slowed the tape down to the point where it could be played more easily; this accounts for the somewhat "honky-tonk" quality of the result. For the final choruses there is a group of male backup singers which featured my own questionable ability, plus a rare vocal appearance from Brenda. 'What's it Like' is essentially two songs mashed together, a driving 4/4 rock song for the verses, with a very slow, spacey chorus with a lot of reverb. These two contrasting styles are at odds with each other throughout the song until it all crashes to a thundering finale of guitar feedback and noise. 'Total Recall' is the song where I probably had the most input, treating Brenda's violin with a long tape echo, burying Pat's vocal in deep reverberation, and playing some bell-like sounds from an Akai sampler. A middle section follows with a simple keyboard melody underlying Pat's whispered reading, with a lot of violin skitters. The finish recalls the opening section with a return to the heavily processed ambiance gradually overtaken by ever more complex roars of undifferentiated sound and the underwater tolling of some synthetic bell."

Thanks once again to Frank for sending in the tracks, and for Pat and Brenda for giving Golden Rock the green light to post it.

The Passion Scars - True Passion Leaves Scars (1992)

2011-11-30T20:12:00.000-07:00

If we didn't know better, and if this tape had found its way into our hands without a label, we'd swear this is another Funeral Factory recording. It has all the hallmarks of that band - but we know from other posts here that around this time, Funeral Factory were more interested in being the Cult than making etherial pop.So what is this? The label on the tape tells us it's a Mike Bezzeg-production - was he trying to create another Funeral Factory? There's a phone number of the tape, maybe we should call it and see if whoever answers can tell us more.Maybe after taking a listen, someone out there can fill in the gaps here?

The Funeral Factory - Four Song Demo

2011-11-29T10:14:00.000-07:00

The Funeral Factory is a favourite among the downloads here at the CCPS, so when Grant Hutchinson offered up a copy of this, we couldn't say no. Grant did a fair amount of photography, design and video work for bands including the Funeral Factory and Tau Ceti, so it's not surprising that he had a small, but high quality cache of tapes to offer us.We're not sure of the year of this tape - but the recordings (with the exception of "Cold War") appear to be from the same as those from their 1990 tape (which Grant has provided us with an alternate j-card for - apparently the one we had wasn't the one that went to stores?). This perhaps serves as a nice distillation of the band. We're eager to get our hands any Funeral Factory-related clippings or info. If you have anything you can lend us, drop us a line.In the meantime, grab the demo here.

Sissys - Sissys Talk (2011)

2011-11-27T09:51:00.001-07:00

We've been quite impressed by Bart Records' commitment to the cassette format, but our impressedness is doubled after seeing the amazing packaging of this new tape from former Grown-Up Darrell Hartsook. You'll forgive us for focusing on the packaging of this for a moment - because it's amazing. This thing is wrapped in a cardboard sleeve kind like the old cassette single (or "cassingle") format of the early 90's. But this takes that format to the next level by varnishing the black paper with the band name (which has confounded the CCPS office scanner). This is a sexy, sexy tape.Not to trivialize the music on here - Hartsook and his cohort (we're told this is a two-piece band, but aren't sure who #2 is - all we've been told is that we are #6) delivers the goods with pummelling drums and guitars. And the amazing "Sweater Weather," a fave here in the CCPS office.You can download this for free from Sissys bandcamp, or buy it from Bart Records.

Chicken 66 - My Life is Boring

2011-11-25T13:37:00.000-07:00

From what we remember, this is another Loucks/Poutanen joint, but we're not sure as to the year. We think it was some time around 2000, but we really have no idea. We're not sure who else is in on this... maybe some of the same folks as See Jane Play? We could probably make up a bunch of stuff (as is our standard modus operandi, or whatever), but we're kind of tapped out after seeing our main man Gene Poole run through 20 slides at 20 seconds apiece last night.

So we've got some chicken on the way for you here.

Barflies - Live at Dawn and Paul's (1995)

2011-11-24T12:30:00.000-07:00

We can't get enough of "Darby," especially since we ate that weird chocolate that one of our co-workers left in their desk drawer. So we're pleased to bring you another blast of Barflies action.

This is from the same basement show as the earlier Bob Keelaghan set. We're told, by sources who claim to have been there, that this party was a going away of sorts for Paul and Dawn, who ditched their jobs in Calgary to travel the world. The night also included set by Teens For Decency, the Parkades, Gasp and Elmo's Dream. Which makes it a night of super-obscure indie rock, even for us at the CCPS.

But we've never been ones to shy away from the trivial.

Barflies - 4-Track Recordings

2011-11-23T06:10:00.000-07:00

A few years back (literally - we're digging back over three years for this one! Time flies when you're farting around!) we had a request for some Barflies. The best we could do at the time was post the audio from a video recording we had somehow come in possession of. Until now!

Thanks to the tapes from Dawn and 4-track from Paul, we've managed to reassemble a collection of their recordings. It looks like "Darby," the track that got them a fair amount of airplay on CJSW, was the only recording they really worked up with the full treatment, as they say. So what we've gathered together are pile of the more reasonable sounding recordings of their basement practices, bringing you forgotten gems like "Poferia," "Supersad" and "Infomercial Queen." And, don't worry, there's some "Darby" action (perhaps an unfortunate turn of phrase) on here as well.

Because we certainly do indeed like Darby.

Bob Keelaghan - Live at Paul and Dawn's (1995)

2011-11-21T09:52:00.000-07:00

We've had an interesting past week of re-aquainting ourselves with 4-track recorders. A ways back, Dawn Loucks gave us a pile of tapes, and among them were a bunch that had been recorded to 4-track. Thanks now to Paul Poutannen, we have the original machine these were recorded on, and will be presenting the highlights from some of those tapes.

We're going to start - since we just had a Bob posting - with another Bob. The one who we've only recently become comfortable conversing with. Bob Keelaghan is a pretty amazing guy, and we've long been fans of his work - which is why this recording of a too-short solo performance from a show in Paul and Dawn's basement is so special. Part poetry, part guitar godliness, all "what the hell is he doing?" Sadly, there's a drop out in the middle of the sing-along "Guano."

Since this performance is so short, we're going to point you to a few more Keelaghan-related goodies. First, Bob appears to have a youtube channel for his Spam Avenger project. Here's the great track he did for the much-overlooked Stompin' Tom tribute that Saved By Radio but together about ten years ago:

In among the tapes we're sorting through, we also found a promo for... maybe a radio show that Bob used to do? We can't remember what it was from, but we swear we've heard it before (and, yes, we know the original source).

But you came here to hear Bob Keelaghan play guitar, and like the bastards we are, we've made you wait all the way down to this very, very, very last word of the post.

Bobby McAlister and the Telstars - Band of Gold (1998)

2011-11-19T09:23:00.001-07:00

We've been fairly unashamed of hiding how much we like the Film Extras tracks from the Oooh, I'm So Pretty compilation, which we now know was a Bobby McAlister project. Thanks to Aaron Booth and his secret stash of tapes, we're now in possession of a post-Film Extras McAlister band.

Aaron tells us that the Film Extras were shortly-lived, and went on to become the Accommodations (with Derek Hannah), who were also shortly lived. They then morphed into Bobby McAlister and the Telstars in 1997, and were, well, shortly-lived. The Telstars were Booth on bass, Aaron McCullogh on guitar and Calvin Becker on drums.

Bobby himself got in touch with us to fill in massive amounts of detail on all of the tracks here:

"Modern Man", "Sing Whatever You Know" - Artist: The Accommodations
Vocals: Derek Hannah
Bass & Guitar & Vocals: Bobby McAlister
Drums & Keyboard: Cal Becker
Guitar: Brooker Buckingham
Engineered: Bobby McAlister, Band of Gold
Recorded: 1996

"Amelia", "This Life" (actually named "Waking Up Someday") - Artist: Bobby McAlister and the Telstars
Vocals, Bass & Guitar: Bobby McAlister
Drums: Cal Becker
Guitar: Aaron McCullough
Keyboard: Dylan Haveron
Engineered: Rob Smith, Rocky Mountain
Recorded: 1997

"Brother, That's All There Is", "Rain Won't Get Near Me" - Artist: Bobby McAlister and the Telstars
Vocals & Bass & Guitar & Keyboard: Bobby McAlister
Drums & Keyboards: Cal Becker
Guitar & Vocals: Aaron McCullough
Engineered: Bobby McAlister, 4-track
Recorded: 1997

"Love Stings", "Sing Whatever You Know", "Do You Wanna Break Up?" - Artist: Bobby McAlister and the Telstars
Vocals & Guitar: Bobby McAlister
Drums: Cal Becker
Bass & Vocals: Aaron Booth
Guitar & Vocals: Aaron McCullough
Engineered: Bobby McAlister, 4-track
Recorded: 1997

"Something In Your Heart", "Sunshine In The Middle Of The Night", "Rain Won't Get Near Me" - Artist: Bobby McAlister and the Telstars
Vocals, Keyboards & Guitar : Bobby McAlister
Drums: Paul Robertson
Bass: Aaron Booth
Engineered: Bobby McAlister, Sundae Sound, 8-track
Recorded: 1998

"Unit 22" - Artist: Bobby McAlister and the Telstars
Vocals & Guitar : Bobby McAlister
Drums & Keyboard: Cal Becker
Bass: Aaron Booth
Engineered: Bobby McAlister, Sundae Sound, 8-track
Recorded: 1998

"Speed Of Light" - Artist: Bobby McAlister
All instruments: Bobby McAlister
Engineered: Bobby McAlister, Sundae Sound, 8-track
Recorded: 1998

This is pretty great, 70's influenced pop - beard rock, 90's style. Naturally, traces of Paul McCartney abound. We're told that after the recordings were mostly completed - and then shelved - the band imploded, but became the Hardtime Brothers for a short period.

There's some debate raging in the CCPS office about the right car to cruise around listening to this tape in. The usual CCPS chariot, our 80's BMW, is out of the question - right now, we're leaning towards a late 70's Lincoln Continental like this one:

Because Bobby also has his standards.

Sturgeons - Yellow Sea Eel Hunt (1979)

2011-11-14T13:09:00.000-07:00

The other batch of songs on the CDR from Girls from Tahiti was a set of demos from the Sturgeons. We didn't actually know this existed - and we're still somewhat questioning its authenticity. Does the Franklin Mint provide certificates of authenticity for tapes like this?

That weird French blog seemingly corroborates the existence of an early Sturgeons demo from 1979. We believe this is the same tape, but we have our doubts. While we're big fans of the Forward Disorder/Punk Rock Virgins single, this demo is a lot ballsier, brasher and... maybe even better?

We know we could ask Al about this, but instead we're going to close our eyes, picture this and keep on listening to this alleged Sturgeons demo.

Update! We've had this tape authenticated by Someone Who Was There, as well the tape and song titles confirmed:

01 Attack of the Fetus People/It's A Jock's World
02 Noise For Youth
03 Support First Strike
04 I Was A Teenage Housewife
05 Danger Zone
06 Girls on the Bus
07 Belt Up
08 A.B.U.S.I.V.E. Attitudes
10 Here Come The Injuries
09 Suburban Evacuation
11 I Wanna Die
12 Cash Factor
13 I Know, I Know
14 U of C Gestapo
15 Punk Rock Virgins
16 Forward Disorder

We're pleased that a few of our titles were reasonable close. Okay, maybe only one. Thanks to the same unnamed individual (who may or may not have saved a certain radio station we love) for passing us the cover of the original tape!

Suburban Slag - Demo

2011-11-11T12:57:00.001-07:00

This is a tape we put a call out for a while ago, and we received it last month from an unexpected source - fellow blogmeisters Girls From Tahiti. The proprietor of said blog had received a CDR with these tracks along with another Calgary band (whose tracks we'll post shortly) - and got in touch with us for more info.

Well, we don't know too much about Suburban Slag other than they included Jeff Burns on guitar, Doug Bolland on bass and future DOA/Subhumans/Personality Crisis/SNFU/who knows who else drummer Jon Card. Who's on vocals? We don't know. This demo is from either 1980 or 1981, and is a great slice of early 80's punk. There's a bit more info this weird French blog, but most of it is actually mis-information.

Which, again, is what we at the CCPS usually strive to provide.

Edit: thanks to our favourite Punk Rock Librarian for filling us in on the vocalist! It was apparently Jim Hanlon

The Fricks - Hundred Jeers

2011-11-06T09:10:00.000-07:00

We're a bit embarrassed to have been sitting on this track for a few months. It seems that our summer intern, who was supposed to be in charge of the seemingly always-overflowing CCPS email inbox (write to us at hamfisted@gmail.com! We're standing by! Because, in reality, we don't get that much email, except for notifications of lottery winnings and offers for penis enlargements) turned out to be actually preparing a painstakingly detailed catalogue of craft beers of the Pacific Northwest. For the record, the preparation of said catalogue wasn't the reason for his being fired, it was the lack of sharing of samples of said beers.

So, getting things back on track, we're pleased to now present a lost track from one of our surprise favourites from the past couple of years, the quite fantastic Fricks. "Hundred Jeers" pulls all the elements that caught our attention in the first place. Doug Bolland's melodic bass lines, guitars that remind us just enough of NiCon and some meaty hooks. Andy McLachlan tells us that this track was submitted for consideration on the Play compilation, but the "producers" went with the other submitted track instead, leaving this track to languish, unreleased.

But you can give it a home by grabbing it here.

The Quitters - Do You Know (1992)

2011-11-04T08:59:00.000-06:00

Back in September, we were thrilled to reconnect with one of our favourite guys from the 90's, Mr. joe McCaffery. Playing for a one-off Now Feeling reunion, we were reminded how amazing of a guitarist he is - while Lorrie Matheson reminded us about how crappy our mp3s of the Quitters' Fuzzball EP is.

Well, Joe tells us that a remastered version of that tape might be in the works, which should keep Lorrie slightly less grumpy than usual (certainly not happy, though). But more importantly, Joe unearthed a track that was recorded during the Fuzzball session but - for reasons that escape us, hearing it almost 20 years later - left off the tape. "Do You Know" fits perfectly with tracks like "Good Thing". Which is in itself a, er, good thing.

Grab this unreleased garage pop nugget here.

Various - Loaf Eye: The Minimal-Fidelity Calgary Compilation That Never Was

2011-11-02T18:01:00.000-06:00

Carefully stashed in a plastic bag in the box of tapes that Ian Doig leant us was a bunch of tapes that Ian had gathered in about 1996/97, in the hopes of putting together a compilation tape. For whatever reasons, that never happened, but now, thanks to the marvels of the interweb, we're giving this project a new life.Ian managed to put together a pretty swell lineup with this tape. There are plenty of our favourites on here: the Von Zippers, Jackson Phibes, Massive Ferguson, Shoutin' Abner Pim and the Puritans and solo outings by Garrett McClure (as Futures: Bionik) and Scott Bennie. But the gem on here for us is Donker, a super-smart, super-funny, super-hooky supergroup made up of Bob Keelaghan, Mark Igglesden and Pat Andrews. Bob tells us this is the only track the band ever recorded, which is a sad thing - but it makes this compilation a highly-recommended download. Get your loaf here.

Forbidden Dimension - Live at Broken City January 9, 2009 (2009)

2011-10-31T06:09:00.000-06:00

Halloween here at the CCPS Offices is, quite frankly, another excuse to spend the entire day listening to Forbidden Dimension. This year is no different, but there is an added bonus - not only are we going to spend the day listening to FD tapes and records, we're going to cap off the evening by taking in the band themselves as they celebrate the release of their new CD down at Dickens Pub.To celebrate that celebration, we're pleased to present a live show from a few years back, courtesy of Edmonton's mad show taper, Chris Zuk. Chris slid us this recording a ways back, and we almost forgot the cultural significance of the show - it was a cold January night, shortly after Jackson Phibes has marked his band's 20th anniversary. And the yobs were in full effect (ed: not us. We were there, drunk but not acting yobbish). Shortly into "The Boy Who Has Everything," a pair of nogoodniks came swinging into Broken City, throwing random punches (one of the lucky recipients of said punches was the eye of bartender Adam Kamis). We were pretty impressed by how the band picked up again (and how Kamis' eye swelled up). Anyways, you can relive the fun with this recording. Maybe you can even punch yourself to keep it real.

Beyond Possession - Demo (1989)

2011-10-29T12:44:00.000-06:00

As promised, here's the second Beyond Possession demo tape we liberated. These four songs were apparently recorded during the band's final days.

We're a bit fuzzy on the band's membership at this point - we think John Hiebert had gone on to form Never a Dull Moment... maybe? What we do know is that this band was hugely influential on a lot of other bands (and skaters) in this city and beyond. Heck, we even saw someone in a (somewhat tattered) Beyond Possession t-shirt this past summer.The four tracks on this final demo are also included on the Repossessed compilation CD, but we offer them here as they were originally intended.

Beyond Possession - Demo (1985)

2011-10-28T17:34:00.001-06:00

We went looking for something scratch a friend's Beyond Possession itch this afternoon, and by happy accident stumbled across a pair of tapes we didn't know existed. And, thanks to the international cachet of this seminal hardcore band, finding and liberating mp3s of said tapes has been a pretty easy thing.

We're not going to re-hash the history of Beyond Possession, partly because the excellent Repossessed compilation does a great job of telling their story (blah blah Riot .303 blah blah White Noise blah blah Bootsauce etc), but mostly because we've got a Halloween party to get to, and our costumes this year happen to involve wearing dresses, which is making us all a little nervous. Instead, we're going to present this great video clip from the Youtubes:

We love the idea of someone standing at the back of the hall with a giant, 80's style video camera, hoping that no one smashes into them and wrecks their dad's gear.

Grab Beyond Possession's early 3-song demo here.

Ryan Bourne - Resonate (1998)

2011-10-27T21:26:00.000-06:00

Former Sky Suspended lad Aaron Booth recently got in touch with us about a batch of tapes he re-discovered in preparations for a move (unlike the rest of us, who wonder where the hell we jettisoned that missing box of tapes to each time we move). He's teasing us a bit by sending us a couple of tapes at a time (we prefer the proven Safeway bag of tapes in a parking lot - at least then we know what we're dealing with). Anyways, we at the CCPS are beggars and not choosers (maybe?), so we're pleased to present the first tape from Aaron's collection. Which, had we known it was coming, we would have posted immediately after last week's Interstellar Root Cellar tape. So much for weaving a well-crafted narrative. So, pretend the last two posts didn't happen. Except they did, and they're both (especially the Stellazine) totally worth checking out.This tape finds Ryan Bourne trying to find his singer-songwriter voice post-IRC (that is the correct acronym, isn't it?). It feels a bit bossa nova, especially compared to his full-length CD, which is more of a VanGaalen-esque low fi pop experience. But then, we hear VanGaalen in everything these days. I guess it just resonates with us. Get it?

Stelazine - Stelazine (6 Songs)

2011-10-24T09:57:00.000-06:00

We (along with a bunch of our pals) we saddened by the news of Colin Allin's death earlier this year. So we're extra grateful to Mark Jordan for passing this gem along (for extra points, he managed to enlist the services of Jett Thunders as courier!). There's been a lot of reminiscing about Allin's talents over the past few months, and this tape furthers the evidence of those talents. This is a great set of six songs that sit nicely along the Skin Barn tapes. We're going to go out on a limb and suggest this is the full session they did that resulted in the two-song tape that we posted earlier this year, based on a comment (from Colin?) on that post.Sigh.We suggest grabbing a bottle of Garrison Imperial IPA, downloading these six songs and toasting Colin's memory.

The Wet Pinky Swears - Dripping Wrists of Girlschool Promises (2011)

2011-10-22T09:56:00.004-06:00

We're big fans of local Garage Rock revivalists (wait, Garage Rock never died, it just drank itself into a coma!) the Gooeys, so we're pleased to have in our possession a tape from their demented side project, the Wet Pinky Swears. From what we remember, this is front guy Craig Storm, drummer Darrell Hartsook and someone else on bass. These are short blasts of garage noise that provide a, well, sharp contrast to the bubblegum of the Gooeys. The band has (perhaps in error?) made mp3s of this available for free via bandcamp. We should caution you, since it's Saturday morning - this isn't exactly good music for if you have a hangover. We found this out the hard way.

Interstellar Root Cellar - CD Rough Mixes

2011-10-18T19:46:00.000-06:00

Gord Adam slid us this tape when we last met up with him. He tells us he was behind the boards for the recording of Interstellar Root Cellar's CD, and one night he made a batch of rough mixes which he things ended up being superior to the final CD. We haven't actually hear their CD, so we can't really comment - except for saying that the sunny vibes from this tape are almost making us forget that the days are growing shorter and colder.Almost.

Buddy System - REM Time/All Wrong

2011-10-16T19:46:00.002-06:00

We've got another tape from Duane Froslev and Gord Adam. This one appears to be a one-off session with a few local folks - Froslev, Joni Allen, Buddy Rick Valleau and Sandy Switzer. It's pretty fun stuff, and, uh, we don't know what else to say. Maybe it's from the mid-90's? We don't know and we're kind of tapped out right now.

So just grab the download.

Sacred Heart of Elvis - Sacred Heart of Elvis

2011-10-09T11:17:00.000-06:00

We're a bit embarrassed to be posting a tape from Sacred Heart of Elvis so late in the game here. Our pals at Golden Rock have posted several bits and pieces from the band, but this is the first of their tapes that we've had in our hands.Sacred Heart of Elvis was, at its core, Ali Riley, Rodney Brent and Tim Campbell. We haven't taken our time here at the CCPS to pay out respects to Tim, who passed away this past May - not because of a lack of respect, but because we were never fortunate enough to meet the man. We'll let this obituary from ffwd stand as our second-hand tribute to Campbell's talents and contributions to Calgary's scene.The Golden Rock posts indicate how much of a revolving door the rhythm sections of the band was - this tape finds the Mules' Duane Froslev and Rob Hayter rounding out the band (a side note: we were very lucky to catch the Sacred Heart of Elvis' reunion show at the CJSW 20th Anniversary thing six years ago - for that show, former Puritan Stephen Nykolyn filled in on drums).This is a great tape, highly recommended. We're not sure, though, if it's the same tape referenced in the article above. The recording of "Wheezing Dog on a Leash" on here sounds remarkably close to the one on the documentation-free 90.9 With a Bullet compilation, which could mean just about anything.Get it here.

The Mules - The Mules 666 (1986)

2011-10-06T21:16:00.000-06:00

We're pleased to have a second tape from the Mules. This is again a mix of studio tracks and a live show, both from 1986. We've got another recording of "True Love" (making this the third version we've heard - this, as well as the version from the last tape, sound different from the Calgary Compelation track) - which is more than okay in our books. The more we hear that track, the more we can't get it out of our heads.Which isn't to say the rest of this tape isn't as good. They lean heavily on the songs of Johnny Cash in their set - which is okay by today's standards, but you have to remember that this was recorded back when Cash hit a low point and had leant his name and likeness to a bank's ATMs.That said, Gene Poole would like to announce that he is more than welcome to lend his name (although not likeness) to anything that will bring the CCPS more cash. Or beer.

The Mules - Studio and Live!

2011-10-04T10:59:00.000-06:00

We were super excited when Duane Froslev sent this tape our way. We had only ever heard one Mules track, tucked away on the Calgary Compelation that Golden Rock posted a few years back. "True Love" is pretty great track, and we've been itching to hear more - and now that itch has been more than scratched.The Mules were Frozlev on bass, Rob Hayter on drums and vocals and Brad Paffe on guitar and vocals. Paffe went on to be part of the Daggers in the 90's (among others), as well as the very amazing Remones. Of course, they didn't use their real names in Calgary magazine's 1986 tribute to the scene.

This tape has five studio tracks (two of which we don't know the title to), and another 13 live tracks. This is great country rock, influenced by the more olde time end of the spectrum (as evidenced by the reverse side of the tape cover, above). The covers pull heavily from Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley and even Buddy Holly.

We're usually not big on two stepping, but it seems more than appropriate here.

Random Scrapings - Live at the Calgarian/National (1980)

2011-10-02T10:32:00.001-06:00

Duane Froslev passed us a few tapes a week or so ago (via Gord Adam), and they're a pretty amazing slice of early Calgariana. This tape is two (?) sets of fun from Random Scrapings, who were Grant Sim, Duane Froslev and Rob Hayter. This tape also has a set from Veiled Threats who - although we can't actually see what's happening on stage - we suspect were actually Random Scrapings playing goofy funk rock (with someone playing what sounds like a duck). There's an important link to Punk Rock History here - Duane Froslev would find his way to Winnipeg, change his last name and become Duane Eddie of the legendary Personality Crisis. The only tracks on here we can ID are the band's covers of Devo's "Freedom of Choice" and Gang of Four's "Anthrax," the latter of which features a feedback guitar onslaught that give the original a run for its money.Hear it here.

Coughin' Nails - A Bad Case of Nerves (1988)

2011-09-26T20:51:00.002-06:00

We were super happy when the defunct-like-a-certain-recently-fallen-to-earth-satellite Golden Rock forwarded us an email last week. Bob Firmston - brother of Bill E. Stew - was offering up a copy of his band's tape, which Golden Rock had been searching for. Bob's request was simple: help him convert the tape so his son could hear it. We're always happy to oblige in these situations.

While we're big fans of Bill's work, Bob's own band is nothing to sneeze at - this is more garage rock goodness, which Bob tells us was so powerful it almost got them a show in Regina. Most notable in the band is Case Caulfield, who was also doing time with Big Bang Theory at the time.

There's also a live show from the Coughin' Nails over at Golden Rock, and we've just refreshed the link.

CCPS: We digitize so you don't have to.

CCPS Miscellany: VOX 1984

2011-09-25T09:21:00.000-06:00

Here's a second round of VOXes for you. This is the last full year of the magazine that we have in our collection - funny how after 1984, it all goes to hell for us.

Highlights from these issues include articles on The Ripchords (January), The Nex'd (Feb/March), The Now Feeling (March), Walt Ohama (May), the end of Mike Bezzeg's FM Moving Pictures (June), Greg Kushner reviewing the Golden Calgarians' Savage Love (November), and Don McSwiney's glorious December cover illustration.

CCPS Miscellany: Gak

2011-09-15T19:32:00.000-06:00

We've just about burned out the office scanner over the past couple of weeks, but for good reason. Just before he skipped town, former Borken City bartender/Brenda Vaquero Adam Kamis entrusted us with his collection of Gak magazines, thinking we might enjoy them/use them to line our pet hamster's cage (have we ever told you about Fluffy, the unofficial CCPS mascot? No? Maybe another day...).

Gak was the Night Gallery 'zine, published monthly from 1998 to... well, we're not sure when. The last issue we have is from 2002. And we can't remember when the Night Gallery closed down, because we still haven't dealt with the trauma. This is a pretty sassy little publication, not surprisingly big on fun and quite surprisingly big on facts. We think that's right, anyways. Regardless, there's some good reading here.

We're not sure what's up with the numbering of these publications - we have two issue #4s here, suggesting the 'zine was re-launched at some point. Maybe? Or maybe they just rolled over the odometer, so to speak. What we are sure of is that we don't have all of these. So if you happen to have any stashed away, drop us a line so we can complete our collection.

CCPS Miscellany: VOX 1983 (Issues 1-3)

2011-09-08T14:16:00.000-06:00

Last year, our friend Greg Kushner sent us a surprise package that contained a huge pile of early VOX magazines. Some of our younger readers may not remember VOX - it was the monthly (mostly) publication that came out of CJSW, acting as a program guide and also a barometer of the scene. Plus, even from Issue #1, it had some of the best writing to ever come out of this city.

The magazine kicked off in September of 1983, and ran for about 15 years. In 1998, in one of the most disastrous management/governance moves that CJSW has ever made, the paper was sold to the Vancouver-based Georgia Straight and relaunched as the ill-fated weekly Calgary Straight. This move proved only one thing: don't mess with Ian Chiclo. The Straight could never compete with FFWD and folded... we can't even remember when.

We like to sometimes think that Beatroute carries the spirit of VOX, but then we actually read Beatroute and realize - nope. That spirit is still out there, but rather than being concentrated in one place as it was with VOX, it's diffused through all our city's publications.

Anyways, to give you a sense as to what the big deal was, we'll be scanning and posting issues over the next while, as we have the time and ability. Here are the first three issues from 1983 to get you started:

Cat Ranch - National Hotel May 5, 1988 (1988)

2011-09-05T13:44:00.002-06:00

Ever since the good (and sadly MIA) folks at Golden Rock tipped us to its existence, we've been trying (like them) to track down a copy of Cat Ranch's Song For Calgary entry.

The Song for Calgary contest was tied to the 1988 Winter Olympics (a bit of digging tells us that the national contest actually ran in 1986), and several local bands put forward their own ideas. We've already heard the Unsightly's version, but Cat Ranch's is somewhat legendary - and elusive. So when Gord told us that he had a copy of a live Cat Ranch show, we were super excited.

Cat Ranch was the house band at the National Hotel for five years, originally playing Wednesday nights and then switching to Thursdays. The four-piece - with Gord on bass, Grant Sim on vocals and guitar, Sandy Switzer on lead guitar and Ian Grant on drums - clearly enjoyed the role, if this tape is any indication. They work their way through a cover of Hendrix's "Stone Free," some Guess Who, a cover of Hendrix's "Fire," a Doors track and a cover of Hendrix's "Crosstown Traffic"... but no "Song for Calgary."

Well.

It's a bit disappointing, but this tape isn't without historical value: about two thirds of the way through the set, they formally mark Gord's birthday, which would be why he had held onto a copy of this. There is, however, a quick mention of the song in the stage banter. That's as close as we get.

This is turning out to be an ongoing search. For now, we're going to have to content ourselves with listening to the real winner of the Song for Calgary contest, "Neighhours of the World":

Good lord, no. No one should ever have to listen to that dreck. So grab this Cat Ranch show instead.

The Nex'd - In Living Colour (1985)

2011-09-03T13:30:00.002-06:00

We're continuing our journey through the 80s with this second Nex'd tape from Gord Adams. Gord tells us this tape was recorded at CFCN, though we're not certain if there was video as well as audio involved in this session. We recently found a series of videos from the Unusuals from sometime in the early 80s that raises our hopes that this might be a possibility.

We could probably ask Gord to confirm this, but we're too excited about tomorrow's post. So grab today's tape, before it's yesterday.

The Nex'd - Demo (1984)

2011-09-01T13:14:00.002-06:00

We were pretty excited when Gord Adam got ahold of us a few weeks back. Being more familiar with the Calgary scene from 1990 onwards, we know Gord as the lead guitarist from the first incarnation of Lorrie Matheson's excellent National Dust. And because we associate him with the rock side of the scene, we missed the fact that he played with early-80s new wavers The Nex'd, whose 2-song 12" our pals at Golden Rock had previously posted.

This is the demo tape is the complete 11-song session that yielded their vinyl release. We here at the CCPS are big fans of the New Wave movement, so we're really enjoying this tape. A bit too much, it appears. Gene has managed to dig out the suit he wore to his grade 12 grad, which is a nightmarish pastel blue. He insists on not wearing socks with his shoes (a well-aged pair of topsiders), which, combined with the fact that he no longer really fits the same size as when he was in grade 12 is making all of us in the CCPS office feel a bit uncomfortable.

So, while we recommend grabbing this tape, we don't suggest you follow Gene's fashion sense.

The Parkades - Life is a Series of Crushing Disappointments (1995)

2011-08-30T19:22:00.001-06:00

This is the final installation of the Parkades story. We're conscious of our previous contraventions of CCPS policy and would like to apologize to our readers for not being able to tell the full and complete story of this band. Gene Poole runs a tight ship here, and while we recognize the importance of history, we also - like the Fox News Network - believe in fair and balanced coverage of the facts.

Listening through these tapes, it's clear the band went through an odd evolution, expanding here to a five-piece (with their third drummer in three tapes!). With bassist Andrew Henry moving to second guitar, the band picked up a second Elmo's Dreamer with Mark Rudd on bass. Rounding out the lineup, Ian Doig tells us that the band grabbed another friend of the band, Stephen Nykolyn of the Barf Lies. We had heard the band's tribute to Japanese garage rock, "(You Ain't Heard) the 5-6-7-8's" on the Australian On Guard for Thee compilation, and this tape is much the same "garage pop," and Ian calls it - with, we can't help but notice, an increased focus on themes of frustration.

It makes sense. Ian tells us that despite having Nardwuar and Al Charlton as fans, the Parkades still could never get any respect in Calgary and packed it in, with members of the band going on to play with Teens for Decency, the Mants, Falconhawk, Name Redacted and Shoutin' Abner Pim and the Puritans.

A series of crushing disappointments, indeed.

The Parkades - Water Breathing Man (1995)

2011-08-29T10:49:00.001-06:00

We're picking up the story of the Parkades - and still working carefully within the bounds of the CCPS Conflict of Interest Policy - with tape number two, which, as Ian Doig points out, somewhat out of sequence. This tape of what Ian refers to as "juvenilia" was from a lengthy set of sessions with Jeff Burns that also yielded the songs off of their "Attack Me" 7" single and their contribution to the Play compilation (and the Suburbanators soundtrack).

[Content removed due to violation of CCPS Conflict of Interest Policy]

But these songs sound... well, weird compared to "Attack Me,"certainly more ramshackle. Kind of like the illustration on the cover of this tape.

The Parkades - Is This What Rock Has Become? (1994)

2011-08-28T11:40:00.002-06:00

At last weekend's CCPS AGM, the membership debated our Society's long-standing Conflict of Interest Policy. The impetus for this was the discovery of three tapes in the box which Ian Doig had lent us. We previously had these tapes in the CCPS collection, but were unable to post them due to the above-mentioned policy. But, as a result of a lively (read: bloody and ferocious) debate and the subsequent discovery of a little-know sub clause of the policy which, had we known about it earlier, could have saved us from at least two broken fingers and a bloody nose.

Anyways, process talk aside, we're now very pleased to present the first of three tapes from the Parkades. Please note that, although this text was prepared by an unbiased third party in accordance with CCPS policy, Gene Poole has - as Founding Member, Chair and El Presidente for Life - final editing rights on all CCPS posts and may choose to exercise his rights as established in the CCPS Founding Charter. Apparently we weren't finished with the process talk - we believe we are now.

Ian Doig tells us that the Parkades played their first show in 1993 with an original lineup consisting of himself on vocals, Andrew Henry on bass, Name Redacted on guitar and Dave Neufeld on drums. Ian's assertion that the band's first show - headlining on a Tuesday night at the Republik, with an already-established Chixdiggit "opening," resulting in the band playing to a quickly emptying room - set the course for the rest of their time on the scene. That bitterness comes across nice and strong in this gem from the CCPS office's stash of old VOX magazines:

We're surprised to hear that the Parkades were highly-unloved during their time, which strikes us as odd due to their inclusion as the inaugural Rotoflex single. Ian notes that, although this was recorded by Young Dave Alcock in the basement of a house in Cliff Bungalow and released in 1994, it actually followed recording of the much-heralded Rotoflex single. As a fluke of timing, the band put this tape out first after Dave Neufeld left the band and was replaced by Alcock.

[Content removed due to violation of CCPS Conflict of Interest Policy]

And if you believe that, you can the Parkades' four-song tape here.

Elmo's Dream - Elmo's Dream

2011-08-26T16:42:00.003-06:00

We were a bit surprised to find another Elmo's Dream tape in Ian Doig's collection, but we're nonetheless pleased. We always likes these kids, even when they stopped being kids - which we suppose is when this tape is from. There's no year on the minimalist j-card, but the inclusion of "Astro-Girl" (one of the stand-out tracks from the Play compilation) makes us think this is from 1995. Also, the boys seem to have graduated purely from 4-track bedroom recordings to some hybrid of 4-track bedroom recordings and others likely recorded (or re-recorded, as they appear on earlier Elmo's Dream tapes) in Jeff Burns' basement. That treatment doesn't make this any less Sebadoh-y in its goodness, though.

Grab it here.

Babe - Genderoni (1993)

2011-08-24T16:30:00.000-06:00

We have vague recollections of Babe from the early 90's, but we had never really attached names to this duo until Ian Doig slipped us their tape. We've seen Jessica Erlendson here before, with the folky Katana. And we know Dolly Sillito from her later solo recordings and Vailhalen. This is a quirky, smart collection of songs kind of reflects the intersection of those paths.

Get it here.

Curse of Horseflesh - Bad Day at Black Rock

2011-08-22T21:12:00.004-06:00

We recently received a long-awaited box of tapes from Ian Doig, who we know as one of the masterminds behind the late, lamented VOX magazine. We're going to kick of a series of posts from the aforementioned box with this, what appears to be a rough version the b-side of Curse of Horseflesh colourfully-titled Sloth/Ship and Anchor 7".

Always ahead of/behind the times, Al Charlton's four-piece pulled together psychobilly, garage rock and country well before Calgary was ready for it, but this reverb-drenched instrumental serves as the blueprint for folks like the Ramblin' Ambassadors. Plus, a stand up drummer!

And if that weren't enough, this was dubbed over top of some form of demonstration tape, so this track blends nearly seamlessly into this strange free-form jazz. The juxtaposition is highly entertaining at first, but doesn't hold up to repeated listens.

So we'll just give you the one Curse of Horseflesh song on its own.

Sturgeons - Forward Disorder/Punk Rock Virgins (1980)

2011-08-19T19:00:00.001-06:00

Yesterday's ffwd cover story about the start of the Calgary punk scene has got us feeling super nostalgic (even more than normal for us, which is kind of scary), so we're going to post a gleefully stolen rip of this classic single.

The first thing we want you to do is click this link. Done? Good. After seeing this, we believe Al has a time machine and a wig. This is, in case you didn't bother to read the article above, is one of our city's first punk bands. And we really believe this holds up today - "Punk Rock Virgins" is honestly timeless. We're still hazy on the full membership of the band - we know Igglesden was in on the action here, but not sure who else.

We suspect this rip may have actually come from the first Smash the State compilation - but you know what? We don't care. We're just happy to have this to listen to.

Shiver - Shiver

2011-08-18T17:13:00.000-06:00

To be honest, we didn't know what to expect when we popped this tape into the CCPS Digitimization-Machine. We had actually heard more disdain for this band than we'd actually heard their music. It's kind of easy to see why - their various interviews still scattered around the interweb show a pretty significant amount of ego.

And makeup. We're not sure what year this tape was made, but the above article is from 1998, and we're fairly certain that this was not okay by the standards of the day. Maybe it was lead singer Matthew Currie's way of easing into the acting career he eventually became known for. We're a bit surprised, as Jon Pynn and Joel Tobman went on to a stint as the rhythm section for the quite excellent (and mascara-less) Heat-Ray.

Once you've done your makeup as above, you can grab this three-song tape here. But only after you've done your makeup.

The Aqua-Sinjels - The Aqua-Sinjels

2011-08-17T19:11:00.004-06:00

We're not sure when this second tape from the Aqua-Sinjels is from, whether it was recorded before or after the first we featured here. We want to say after - we don't really have any evidence for this, other than this seems more polished and leaning more towards Britpop (which is likely why John Drinkwater had it in his collection). Which isn't to say that all bands go Britpop with age...

Grab it here.

Next in Line - Step in Time (1990)

2011-08-15T20:12:00.001-06:00

Here's another piece of the Red Autumn Fall story, thanks again to John Drinkwater.

John tells us that, prior to joining Red Autumn Fall, guitarist Richard Ragany's band Next In Line played shows with Simeon's band. Perhaps it was their musical tastes that brought them together - although John insinuates that it may have been their fashion sense, with both Richard and Simeon showing up at one fateful show with near-identical haircuts and clothing. Again, similar to Simeon's rapping, we'd be highly interested in visual evidence of this.

But we'll have to content ourselves with the band photo on the cover of this tape.

Red Autumn Fall - My Friend Deceiver (1994)

2011-08-13T20:01:00.001-06:00

When donor John Drinkwater handed us this tape, we thought it was one we already had. The cover art on this tape is nearly identical to that of a tape we - of all things - bought on ebay last year. However, this tape has a slightly different cover (an image very similar to the one on their first CD) and a mostly different track listing.

Until chatting with John, we forgot that sometime in the late 90's, Red Autumn Fall decided to move to Toronto to try to make it big. This led to a bit of a challenge: name a Calgary band that established itself here and then moved to Toronto/Montreal/Vancouver/Wherever and made it big. We couldn't come up with anyone - other than maybe Sara and Teegan (shudder).

Here's a Red Autumn Fall video, just because our new Marketing Consultants keep saying, "the kids like the media-rich posts, like the Facebook and the Tweetter and the Youtube."

Get more RAF here.

Red Autumn Fall - Fall of Falls EP (1991)

2011-08-11T19:47:00.001-06:00

Just when we thought we had a complete Red Autumn Fall collection, we received an email from John Drinkwater (the dollars, but not the ego, behind the Oooh, I'm So Pretty complilation) offering us a pile of great tapes - and this one.

We didn't realize that RAF ever existed without guitarist Rich Ragany or bassist Jackie Duncan. This tape was recorded live off the floor with this early lineup, and shows us that Simeon Ross at least didn't change too much over RAF's existence.

Except for one thing: John tells us that, in this early line-up, Simeon rapped during one song. While we're pleased that Simeon realized this probably wasn't the best way to be taken seriously in the early 90's Calgary music scene, we are still exceedingly curious and would kill (on a small, insect-sized scale) for a copy of the video that John claims exists of this performance. Simeon, we suspect, would kill (on a large, CCPS staff-sized scale) to ensure the same video is never seen.

Sadly for us, there's not trace of his rap abilities on this tape.

Remembering Colin Allin

2011-08-09T19:16:00.003-06:00

We received some sad news at the end of July, when we heard that Skin Barn's Colin Allin had been senselessly killed in Nicaragua. We had emailed with Colin over the past couple of years, and are still saddened by this tragedy.

So it's no surprise that those who really knew Colin (and can actually spell his name - for whatever reason, our dirt-cheap Lithuanian transcription service had recorded his name as "Collin Allen," which Colin himself found funny and had asked that we keep - but since we heard the news about his passing, we've reverted to the proper spelling) have been even more shocked, and have been recounting memories and stories in tribute on the Colin Allin Memorial Page, with stories from Colin's former bandmates and others.

Last night, four of Colin's former bandmates - Brent Gough, Craig Taborsky, Chris 'Lou' Lowry and Irv Francis - joined CJSW's The Spin Evolution to share some of their stories and spin some of Colin's music. Things got a bit crazy in the CCPS offices when we discovered that our usual method of tuning into CJSW (through the inter web) wasn't going to work (memo to Jett Thunders: spandex is okay, but playing with your servers when we're hoping to listen in isn't). We managed to find a radio of sorts, but it turns out the subterranean concrete bunker we dwell in doesn't yield the best reception. Still, we managed to wrangle a recording of passable quality for you to enjoy. There's a lot of laughter, amazing stories and memorable tunes.

Grab the tribute show here and join us in raising a glass in Colin Allin's memory.

Crow Eater - Grave Wax (2011)

2011-07-24T12:02:00.005-06:00

Here's another new release from the good folks at Bart Records. Crow Eater is straight-up hardcore, with former members of the Sharp Ends, Corta Vita and Chupacabra. The four songs on this tape - which boasts one of the most ambitious tape covers we've seen in the past 15 years (which we realize may not be saying much) - clock in at just over five minutes. Which actually gives this tape one of the highest ratios of production value to recording length that we've ever seen.

Get the tape from Hot Wax or download from Crow Eater's myspace.

tion - tion (1991)

2011-07-18T19:12:00.000-06:00

Along with the Gravity Thugs tape we featured yesterday, Ben Docktor gave us this three-song tape when we visited him.

This pre-dates Ben's more well-known work with Drench, and also features future Glider drummer Rene Chayer. We note two things about this tape: first, the j-card is backwards, perhaps tying into the Arabic-themed artwork. Second, Ben's a pretty fine guitarist.

Get it here.

Gravity Thugs - Gravity Thugs

2011-07-17T06:52:00.000-06:00

Shortly before Sled Island, we got an email from Ben Docktor telling us he had unearthed a copy of one of our Holy Grails, along with a few warnings: it was a dubbed copy, he didn't have a proper j-card, and someone had accidentally punched record in the middle of one of the tracks (apparently someone was a bit excited about recording some AC/DC for Ben).

Obviously, we didn't have to think twice. We did, however, have to get off our lazy asses and make time to ride the complex system of busses, C-Trains and sidewalks between the CCPS offices and Ben's secret hideout. After the three-hour round trip (thank you, Calgary Transit), we finally have this in our library.

Despite the lack of a j-card and the missing second towards the end of "Shotgun Love," this is a must-have. "Take You Down" has always been a favourite of ours, and the other three tracks on here are just as good. We assume this is from the recording referenced in the above VOX article, which would peg this as an artifact from 1989.

Honestly, we're just happy to hear more of Brent Cooper's amazing guitar work.

Grown-Ups - Stopped Caring (2011)

2011-07-16T08:56:00.005-06:00

We caught wind of this tape back in the spring, but operations in the CCPS offices have been a bit of a shambles this summer (we've gone through about four summer students already - no one seems to appreciate our deftly-crafted corporate culture, which is soon to be featured on Hoarders), so it's taken us a while to actually get a copy in hand.

We're somewhat glad we have - we're fans of the Grown-Ups' snotty and flippant brand of what the kids call punk rock these days. For the limited tape release of their limited vinyl release of their unlimited digital release, they've thrown in a few covers - including a nice swipe at Beat Happening's "Hey Day." Plus, instead the a hand-silskscreened (yawn) cover their record, they've got a machine-photocopied (yeah!) picture of Woody Allen. None of this recycling the CD/vinyl art for the tape business here!

We suggest you grab this from the Grown-Ups' bandcamp site, if you're so inclined.

Jeff Conolly and the Von Zippers - Live at the Boat and Trailer Show (1997)

2011-06-29T20:22:00.006-06:00

Everything was going well for us on Sunday night. Gene was in really good spirits, drinking lots of spirits to celebrate our fourth anniversary. To top things off, we were all enjoying a brand new tape from Chris Zuk - a somewhat rough but perfectly listenable recording of the legendary Jeff Conolly set from the 1997 Boat and Trailer Show, with the Von Zippers backing up the famous Lyres frontman (billed as Man or Monoman?).

Yep, things were going really well until our summer intern piped up with a little tidbit he found on the interweb.

"Did you know Jeff Conolly doesn't think much of the Von Zippers?"

A couple of us guffawed, but the withering glare from Gene immediately silenced the CCPS office.

"What did you say?"

"Yep, straight from the man himself! It says right here: 'I LIKED THEM AS PEOPLE BUT THEY DIDN'T REALLY KNOW HOW TO PLAY LYRES STUFF LIKE THEY SAID THEY DID, UNFORTUNATELY.' Wow, that's really weird!"

We've only JUST finished restoring the CCPS offices to their former state after what came next. Suffice to say, Gene didn't take too kindly to that news. After chasing our intern from the offices (actually, from the city - we'd like to apologize to our former intern, wherever he is now), Gene went on a two-day rampage, vowing to rid the city of any and all Lyres records. Thankfully, Gene turned this into a sort of pub crawl, and ended up a bit too drunk to remember exactly where in the alphabet the Lyres were placed, and so was unable to find any records in Calgary's leading retailers (we also had to break it to Gene that the Music World downtown across from the Bay is closed now - Gene's still a bit confused by the whole Fashion Central thing, though).

We've been trying to get Gene to listen to this bootleg all day - he's still refusing, and doesn't even care to find out if "Help You Ann" is on the playlist (we haven't found out either - Gene has threatened us all with bodily harm should we play this in the office).

Grab this now before Gene catches on to the fact that we've posted it!

Forbidden Dimension - Live at the Westward Club (1989)

2011-06-26T00:30:00.002-06:00

We're marking a milestone today - it was four years ago today that Gene Poole taught the band to play, had a few too many drinks and then went home and formed the Calgary Cassette Preservation Society. Gene wishes to pass along his sincerest thanks to all of you who have passed us tapes, shared your stories and - most importantly - not served us with cease and desist orders. For that especially, all of us at the CCPS whose livelihoods now depend on the significant revenue generated by this blog and its affiliated endeavours say "thank/screw you."

To show our thanks/screws, we're going to share another tape from the collection of Chris Zuk. Chris tells us he dubbed this off of record-huckster Tiemen Kuipers, who in turn got it from someone... maybe Tom himself? Who knows. All we know is that this is solid gold - this is early, early FD, pulling mostly from the band's first two singles. Tom is backed by a full band here (no drum machine!), and if we didn't know better (which we don't) we'd say this is the same damn lineup he's playing with today, only playing the songs of yesterday. Tomorrow. Sorry, we've got a bit of Sled Head, we're not sure what day it is anymore.

We're also not sure of the exact date of this show, so we're going to pretend it's the one in the ad above, which Tom has posted in his amazing archive of posters. What we are sure of is that the audio quality and performance on here is excellent and so is the song selection. All our early faves are on here, including "Meteor Girl," "Crawling Eye" and "Martian Death Sausage."

Speaking of which, we gotta hit Tubby Dog before they close! Grab this anniversary present to you and party like it's 1989!

Consumer Identity - Work. Buy. Die. (1997)

2011-06-12T09:52:00.006-06:00

Two years ago, we got a tape from (we think) Dan Izzo by Consumer Identity that we didn't know much about (mostly because we lost the j-card - it's one of those weird cases where we thought we had scanned it, but turns out we hadn't). So we were pretty happy a couple of months ago, when vocalist and guitarist Aaron Kirkham dropped us a line. He filled in the band's membership for us, and then offered up this unreleased CD from the band. Here's the full story from Aaron:

I had previously been in a band called December with Ian (Mr. Flemish Eye) Russell from about 1991 to 1993. When I moved back to Calgary from Vancouver sometime in 1996, Consumer Identity started up when Jordan [Tettensor] who I had been mates with since high school and shared my tastes for bands like Napalm Death, Brutal Truth and the whole short hair metal hardcore scene like Unbroken and Earth Crisis got around to talking to Ian about starting up a hardcore/grindcore band. Amusingly Ian was up for it and we started jamming at the Hillhurst house Ian was living in. We eventually recruited Big Dan on bass when he moved to Calgary from out east somewhere. We started playing shows with me playing guitar and singing but I was getting fed up with being the vocalist and guitarist at the same time (mostly because I really wanted to do more axe wielding jump kicks etc) so we started looking for a full time vocalist. After trying out a few different people, Aram [Arslanian] showed up at the jam spot one night as we were getting ready to record the demo tape. He fit in right from the very start as he was ultra political in his views and just wanted to scream his head off as an angry young man should.

We recorded the demo with Aram singing the 3 tracks he had learned up to that point and then we went out on a short Western Canadian Prairie tour. We got back from that tour and decided we should rerecord all the songs with Aram singing them and spend more time and money on it so that we could record some new songs we had written as well. That recording session is what makes up the "Work.Buy.Die." album. We were all really stoked about the recording which had been done over a weekend at the new house Ian had moved in to. Just as with the demo the tracking was recorded by John Swires who at that time was one of the founding members of the Catch & Release recording collective. The guitars, bass and drums were all recorded live. Some guitar overdubs were recorded on the second day. Then vocals were recorded with poor Aram completely loosing his voice at the end of the night. He finished off the last couple tracks the next day. Then Roger Sallans mixed the tracks at his own studio and burned two copies of the album to CDR.

The record was supposed to be released as one side of a split 12" that Aram was going to put out on a new record label he was just starting. I think the other side of the 12" was supposed to be Nine Iron Spit Fire but I'm not completely sure. It was one of the SXE bands from Seattle anyway. Then out of nowhere Ian quit the band when he got a scholarship to go to Scotland to study fine Arts for a year. Aram was supposed to go and pick up the master tapes of the album from Roger's studio but he never did and after like a year I think Roger recorded over them so the multi track recordings of the album were lost forever. The two CDR's that had been burnt of that evaluation mix were the only copies the album in existence at that point. I know a few copies of the CDR were made for people in the band but I don't even know if Aram or Dan ever got a copy because I never saw them again after that. I don't think the band even bothered to look for a replacement drummer it just basically died with Ian leaving the band just after recording the album.

There was one funny side note to the band breaking up which was a side project bandthat grew out of it consisting of me and Jordan on guitar, Al Isenbart (from Lucas and Commode Records) on bass, Casey Lewis on drums and none other than Paul Coutts on vocals. The band was called "Forthcoming Empire" and played only one show to open up for Napalm Death at the Republik at the behest of Wes Hegg.

The thought of that combination kind of blows our minds; Aaron has said he might have a board recording, which we're incredibly curious to hear. And Aaron also reminds us that Ian and Jordan went on to a fair amount of infamy with the Fake Cops before Ian started up Flemish Eye.

Grab this (previously) unheard disc here.

Various - Suburbanators Original Soundtrack (1995)

2011-06-11T16:39:00.002-06:00

We're trying to shake the taste left in our mouth from our last pair of posts with the best mouthwash we know: the minty-fresh Primrods. We're never ones to back off from the edge of a major obsession/compulsion, so what's wrong with one more Primrods-related post?

Okay, that'll be the last reference of our favourite band this post. On to this CD, the soundtrack to Calgary filmmaker Gary Burns' first feature film, The Suburbanators. We only ever saw this film once (in its initial run), and have been half-assedly looking for a copy ever since. We say half-assedly, because if we'd really focused and tried, we probably would have found it at Bird Dog. But we didn't bother, and now we've accidentally killed Bird Dog. Sorry.

Thankfully, the internets have the original trailer:

We only half-remember the film (those beauty shots of a pre-renovation Westbrook Mall are etched in our memory), this trailer helps us fill in a few blanks, as do plot summaries like this one.

From that half-recollection, we believe that each of the bands who had songs on this soundtrack (many of which were grabbed from the Play compilation) had one song featured in the actual film, and then selected an additional track for inclusion on the disc. This disc is packed with our faves: the band we said we wouldn't mention again in this post, Forbidden Dimension and Wagbeard (okay, what's up with the version of Alpha that's on here? We always think our tape player is eating the tape... even though we know this is a CD). Plus, Field Day, Huevos-Rancheros-in-an-alternate-reality Maud, Kerry Clarke's GASP and a quartet of hillbillies who we've got to be careful when we mention lest we break CCPS Policy HR-LR-004 (note: for ease/out of laziness, the CCPS has adopted all of the policies of the City of Calgary - if they're good enough for Nenshi, they're good enough for us!).

We're pretty big fans of Gary Burns' work - thanks to waydowntown, we kept a bottle full of marbles on our desk for years. And as inner-city snobs, we totally dug Radiant City. We haven't seen his most recent film, but now that we've watched the trailer, we're feeling REALLY guilty about killing Bird Dog.

But Blockbuster? Not so much.

Sara and Tegan - Orange Demo/Red Demo (1998)

2011-06-10T05:52:00.000-06:00

After getting a bona fide copy of Sara and Tegan's Yellow demo in our hands, we decided to see what the internets had to say about the tape. We discovered, with great excitement (read: ennui) that the Yellow demo was just one of three tapes they released before their first album. Wow. We simply had to find those other two tapes. Our lives were meaningless without them. Really oh dear lord there was no way we were going to be able to go on without them.

Thankfully, their rabid fans have made them available through a simple Google search. So, we're grabbing these from their international fan base and planting them firmly back here in Calgary, where they belong.

Quite unlike Sara and Tegan themselves, who have gone on - apparently - to live in Vancouver/California (don't blame us for that vagueness - we're just reposting parts of wikipedia) and Montreal. But, hey, they're coming back to town this summer, gracing us with their presence with two over-priced shows at the Grand. Extra-overpriced if you choose the VIP ticket, which is twice the regular $75 price tag, and which entitles you to listen to a soundcheck (which we assume Sara and Tegan themselves may or may not be present at) and will get you a signed poster.

We're not going to say much more than this: compare and contrast the Bang:Buck ratio of their return home with the FREE show the Primrods gave us last month.

Red means stop. And Orange means don't sue us.

Sara and Tegan - Yellow Demo (1998)

2011-06-08T17:41:00.003-06:00

We've been delving fairly deep into the rock for the past while, so it's time to come up for air. And to expose ourselves (?) to legal action (!).

A few weeks ago, an anonymous tipster (not to be confused with an anonymous hipster - this one drinks far better beer than that PBR shite) dropped this in our laps. This is, by all accounts, one of the first recordings of the twin sisters that would go on to be known as Tegan and Sara (wikipedia says they recorded two demos as Plunk, not to be confused with Smoosh). We count ourselves among the folks who actually saw the sisters Quin when they were called Sara and Tegan (also the name they recorded this tape under), before they were corrupted by the same Music Industry that killed the Primrods (it's been a while since we mentioned the Primrods - our editor has suggested that we drop an unnecessary reference in this post, so here you go).

We spent a bit of time on Ye Olde Google, and found this great recounting of an important part of the Sara and Tegan myth: How Two Unknown Girls Charmed the Judges at Garage Warz and Went on to Stardom. Now, we really were at Max's Cafe (cheering on another competing band, Teens for Decency, the Four Unknown Boys Who Didn't Fare So Well in Garage Warz in Fact Came in Dead Las), and we don't quite remember much other than the place being mostly empty and the judges being more than slightly inebriated. Anyways, Sara and Tegan won the overall competition - the grand prize being studio time which they used to record this tape.

To be honest, we haven't listened to this too closely. We've listened to a few snippets here and there, and we can confirm that - just as they did 14 years ago - they get the bile rising in our throats.

The Yellow bile, that is.

Forbidden Dimension - Gloria was Evil/Coffinful of Crows

2011-06-06T17:59:00.006-06:00

We're the happiest kids on the block right now - today we snagged a copy of the limited edition Forbidden Dimension flexidisc that's tucked inside random issues of Beatroute this month. This little piece of plastic represents the first FD recording in four long years, and is a really great little taster of their upcoming full-length.

Now, flexidiscs are cool and all, but we here at the CCPS are most interested in tapes. So we're going to make an awkward segueway here and talk about Graham Evans' post-Huevos life. Ev played his last show with Huevos at the end of 1995 for undisclosed reasons (to be honest, we've just never asked). You can't keep a good man from his guitar/bass/whatever, and so Ev was soon resurrected as Bloody Holly with Forbidden Dimension (Ev would also go on to play with FD skinman Paul Charlton in the Daggers... but then, didn't everyone?).

These two tracks, from another of the tapes Ev passed us, are likely from about the time of FD's Widow's Walk CD (ie 1997). "Coffinful of Crows" shows up in its drum machine form on the, um, Coffinful of Crows compilation. And we've heard a more anemic transfer of this same full band version on that weird mix tape we posted a while back. But the a-side (we like to think these two tracks were destined for an ill-fated 7" single) is new to us - we don't seem to have this anywhere in the extensive CCPS collection.

Anyways, more FD is always welcome around these parts - grab the download to hold you over until the Golden Age of Lasers comes out.