Read the whole article here.Andy Kim Answering The Call
You never know how your life can change with the ring of a telephone.
And you never know what you can do to change things for others by picking it up. Andy Kim knows both.
He knows what it's like to be on the bottom and he's enjoyed the fruits of being at the top. It's the journey he savours the most.
"I never thought my life was a race with someone else's," he said yesterday.
He tells kids, "Every day is the day to do your best."
So, for the second year in a row, he's hosting The Andy Kim Christmas Show, presented by Mix, 99.9 at The Mod Club on College with proceeds going to the Children's Aid Society.
The 54-year-old Canadian rock'n'roll legend is hoping to help somebody because he believes when there is a positive action, there is always something positive that comes from it. "We want to help the kids."...
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Andy Kim Article
One day before The Andy Kim Christmas Show, Toronto Sun columnist Joe Warmington has an article on Andy Kim's career:
Singles Scene #10
Back to the Basement: Christmas music has been around since there has been Christmas. Many songs composed by Bach in the 1600's, for instance, make up our annual Christmas soundtrack. Canada itself has developed it's own Christmas songs. Before there was the celebrity Christmas album, before Diana Krall or Sarah Mclaughlin could release an album of all Christmas music (or Twisted Sister even) and still be seen to have a credible career, there was the Christmas song. The Beatles did it, as did Elvis. Bruce Springsteen made it cool, and George Throrogood showed us just how much Christmas could Rock and Roll.
Canadian Acts have always been in the game; I have spent many years looking for Murray McClaughlin's Let The Good Guys Win. Featuring the Payola$ Bob Rock and Tom Cochrane, it is among my favourite Christmas songs (along with the Pogues' Fairytale of New York and Otis Redding's Merry Christmas Baby). Marvellously sung, with the three stars sharing the vocals, this Celtic influenced guitar and mandolin piece is magical, if not actually a Christmas song:
I used to go to Encore Records in Brampton, and for years they had a copy of Johnny Bower singing Honky The Christmas Goose on the wall. It was a steeply priced at $25, and I eyed it for years but could never dust off the wallet and grab it. Of all the records through the years, it is the only one I ever regret not getting: $25.00 is probably cheap by today's standards and it would be great to pull out Honky for the family on Christmas Eve, to go with my Bob Rivers Twisted Tunes CD. Besides, as I have never heard the song, it would be a special treat to own at this stage.
Corey Hart of course did Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, but possibly the less said about that the better (although it was once explained to me that as Corey played the underdog, Rudolph was a most appropriate song for him, as Rudolph himself was the penultimate underdog).
Going Through my 45's, I actually have very few Christmas singles. The Eagles, Springsteen's Santa Claus in Coming to Town of course , but little in the way of Canadian. Except... Bryan Adams Christmas Time.
My copy, which was bought when it was a hit, is green with a red label. Kids today can't concieve how records that where almost always black, could occasionally be made alternate colour, which was considered exotic. Instead of stamping artwork on the CD, we had a small label with actual information on it. But these occasional coloured vinyl records where always a treat, and still are. My kids, who are firmly of the CD/DVD era, respond with a '"cool" when they see a coloured vinyl record. Bryan Adams, Christmas Time is one of the coolest.
The songs not bad either, A good old sing along, you can imagine the bic lighters during a concert. A reasonably simple accompaniment behind solid Christmas lyrics, this song is in the great tradition of Christmas songs. However, the song feels dated and could use a re-do, someone to modern up the sound, and if they could, cut the tripe-laden PC (circa 1985) 2nd verse.
The B side has much less of redeeming value. Reggae Christmas stands up less well. Not that it was a good song then, but now... The late seventies and eighties Reggae was stylish, The Police made a career out of playing rocked up reggae. Bryan Adams, however, made a career not playing reggae, and it shows.
Canadian Acts have always been in the game; I have spent many years looking for Murray McClaughlin's Let The Good Guys Win. Featuring the Payola$ Bob Rock and Tom Cochrane, it is among my favourite Christmas songs (along with the Pogues' Fairytale of New York and Otis Redding's Merry Christmas Baby). Marvellously sung, with the three stars sharing the vocals, this Celtic influenced guitar and mandolin piece is magical, if not actually a Christmas song:
Ring the Old Year Out
Ring the New Year in
Bring s all Good Luck
Let the Good Guys Win
I used to go to Encore Records in Brampton, and for years they had a copy of Johnny Bower singing Honky The Christmas Goose on the wall. It was a steeply priced at $25, and I eyed it for years but could never dust off the wallet and grab it. Of all the records through the years, it is the only one I ever regret not getting: $25.00 is probably cheap by today's standards and it would be great to pull out Honky for the family on Christmas Eve, to go with my Bob Rivers Twisted Tunes CD. Besides, as I have never heard the song, it would be a special treat to own at this stage.Corey Hart of course did Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, but possibly the less said about that the better (although it was once explained to me that as Corey played the underdog, Rudolph was a most appropriate song for him, as Rudolph himself was the penultimate underdog).
Going Through my 45's, I actually have very few Christmas singles. The Eagles, Springsteen's Santa Claus in Coming to Town of course , but little in the way of Canadian. Except... Bryan Adams Christmas Time.
My copy, which was bought when it was a hit, is green with a red label. Kids today can't concieve how records that where almost always black, could occasionally be made alternate colour, which was considered exotic. Instead of stamping artwork on the CD, we had a small label with actual information on it. But these occasional coloured vinyl records where always a treat, and still are. My kids, who are firmly of the CD/DVD era, respond with a '"cool" when they see a coloured vinyl record. Bryan Adams, Christmas Time is one of the coolest.
The songs not bad either, A good old sing along, you can imagine the bic lighters during a concert. A reasonably simple accompaniment behind solid Christmas lyrics, this song is in the great tradition of Christmas songs. However, the song feels dated and could use a re-do, someone to modern up the sound, and if they could, cut the tripe-laden PC (circa 1985) 2nd verse.The B side has much less of redeeming value. Reggae Christmas stands up less well. Not that it was a good song then, but now... The late seventies and eighties Reggae was stylish, The Police made a career out of playing rocked up reggae. Bryan Adams, however, made a career not playing reggae, and it shows.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Andy Kim Christmas Show
UPDATE: It appears the date is wrong on this. Actual show is Dec 20th, at the mod club - tickets available through ticketmaster. However, I found some pictures, listed as Andy Kim Christmas Show December 5th. Question is, Dec 5th of what year? All other information seems to be accurate, and I apologize for any confusion.
The Andy Kim Christmas Show will be this Saturday, December 2nd, at the Mod Club Theatre in Toronto.
The Andy Kim Christmas Show will be this Saturday, December 2nd, at the Mod Club Theatre in Toronto.
Kim, singer of Baby I love You, Rock Me Gently, and co-writer of the Archies Sugar Sugar, will be joined by guests Stabilo, Emm Gryner, Serena Ryder, Tomi Swick The Bycicles.
Proceeds will benefit the Children's Aid Foundation.
Tickets are $19.99, available at Ticketmaster.ca - although I couldn't find them when I looked.
Proceeds will benefit the Children's Aid Foundation.
Tickets are $19.99, available at Ticketmaster.ca - although I couldn't find them when I looked.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Milk Crate Classic #4 - Triumph
Triumph had a series of great, and popular albums through the 1970's and 80's. It is the first Triumph album, Triumph, that I turn to when I want to listen to them. Recorded in 1976, Triumph is still a great sounding album that carries itself well 30 years on.
Starting with the marvellous 24 Hours a Day, this album stays strong throughout. 24 Hours a Day would define Triumph for years to my mind, starting soft, with a gentle sweet lyric about playing in a band, before getting hard and hot, becoming anthemic through the chorus: "Everybody Party, 24 hours a day"; Triumph was, throughout their career, a great party band, and the theme of rock and roll life weaved its way through all their music.
Even on this album, the other great track, Side two opener What's Another DayStreet Fighter covers the same theme. But ultimately the songs that bring this album to life are the side closers, and Street Fighter Reprise, on side one and Blinding Light Show/Moonchild on side two.
Blinding Light Show/Moonchild goes to all the places Triumph would dominate in their music, hard, heavy and melodic intro, soft guitar over pitch perfect vocals for the verse, and a Spanish guitar solo in the middle. Nobody stops a song,or an album, for a Spanish guitar solo these days, and it's a pity. Blinding Light Show/Moonchild is not just a good Rock song, it is a top fight piece of music that encompasses styles, shows true musicianship while still being a good song unto itself.
Blinding Light Show/Moonchild ends the album in the same vein it begins, Offering something else modern albums never do, completion. It is not just a collection of songs, but Triumph's Triumph is a complete thought unto itself, beginning with tech singer complaining he can't sleep because the music is running through his head, "and I can't tell if it's Carnegie Hall or just some local bar." It ends with him in the centre of the rock concert, the Blinding Light Show. In between, it's taken "a long time to make it this far."
A complete, and solid collection of songs that, 30 years on, still sound good and fresh, if not just a bit to musical to be made of modern stuff.
Starting with the marvellous 24 Hours a Day, this album stays strong throughout. 24 Hours a Day would define Triumph for years to my mind, starting soft, with a gentle sweet lyric about playing in a band, before getting hard and hot, becoming anthemic through the chorus: "Everybody Party, 24 hours a day"; Triumph was, throughout their career, a great party band, and the theme of rock and roll life weaved its way through all their music.
Even on this album, the other great track, Side two opener What's Another DayStreet Fighter covers the same theme. But ultimately the songs that bring this album to life are the side closers, and Street Fighter Reprise, on side one and Blinding Light Show/Moonchild on side two.
Blinding Light Show/Moonchild goes to all the places Triumph would dominate in their music, hard, heavy and melodic intro, soft guitar over pitch perfect vocals for the verse, and a Spanish guitar solo in the middle. Nobody stops a song,or an album, for a Spanish guitar solo these days, and it's a pity. Blinding Light Show/Moonchild is not just a good Rock song, it is a top fight piece of music that encompasses styles, shows true musicianship while still being a good song unto itself.
Blinding Light Show/Moonchild ends the album in the same vein it begins, Offering something else modern albums never do, completion. It is not just a collection of songs, but Triumph's Triumph is a complete thought unto itself, beginning with tech singer complaining he can't sleep because the music is running through his head, "and I can't tell if it's Carnegie Hall or just some local bar." It ends with him in the centre of the rock concert, the Blinding Light Show. In between, it's taken "a long time to make it this far."
A complete, and solid collection of songs that, 30 years on, still sound good and fresh, if not just a bit to musical to be made of modern stuff.
Monday, November 27, 2006
Thursday, November 23, 2006
John Allen Cameron: 1938 - 2006
Born in Cape Breton in 1938, John Allen Cameron grew to become the Godfather of Celtic Music. He left a teaching career at age 30 to resume playing music. His career included playing on the Don Messer Show, opening for Anne Murray and his own CBC TV show from 1975-1981.
He is widely considered a significant influence on modern day celtic music acts such as The Rankins, Ahsley MacIssac and Natalie McMaster.
He passed away in a Toronto Hospital yesterday at 67.
He is widely considered a significant influence on modern day celtic music acts such as The Rankins, Ahsley MacIssac and Natalie McMaster.
He passed away in a Toronto Hospital yesterday at 67.
17th Annual SOCAN Awards
The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN), held the 17th annual SOCAN awards at The Carlu in Toronto last night. Awards were handed out in 16 categories including a Lifetime Achievement Award to Kate and Anna McGarrigle, and International Achievment Award to Finger Eleven and a 
National Achievement Award to Jann Arden.
Other notable winners included Michael Buble, Avril Lavigne, Leanne Rhimes and Nickelback. As well SOCAN classic awards went to the Stampeders for Devil You, Nick Gilder for Hot Child in the City, and Roxy Roller and The Powder Blues Band for Doin' It Right.
A complete list of the winners can be found here, and pictures here.
National Achievement Award to Jann Arden.Other notable winners included Michael Buble, Avril Lavigne, Leanne Rhimes and Nickelback. As well SOCAN classic awards went to the Stampeders for Devil You, Nick Gilder for Hot Child in the City, and Roxy Roller and The Powder Blues Band for Doin' It Right.
A complete list of the winners can be found here, and pictures here.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Recognition for Triumph
70's Canadian rock legend Triumph will be inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame. The band will be honoured, along with songwriter/producer David Foster, at a ceremony on March 10, 2007. Foster's induction was announced previously:
Congratulations to the Rik Emmet, Gil Moore and Mike Levine for a well deserved, though belated, honour.
My comment? How have they had a Hall of Fame this long without Triumph? Triumph is one of the best bands to ever come out of Canada, although the quality of their music far exceeded their fame. I have been listening to Triumph lately and I can assure you, their music holds up exceptionally well.TRIUMPH To Be Inducted Into CANADIAN MUSIC INDUSTRY HALL OF FAME - Nov. 21, 2006:
Canadian hard-rock trio TRIUMPH will be inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame during Rogers Wireless Canadian Music Week. Music veterans Gil Moore (drums/vocals), Mike Levine (bass/keyboards) and Rik Emmett (guitar/vocals) will accept the honor Saturday, March 10, 2007 during the Canadian Radio Music Awards at Toronto's Fairmont Royal York Hotel.
The journey for TRIUMPH began in Toronto Ontario in the summer of 1975, with their self-titled Attic Records debut "Triumph". After gaining popularity in Canada and a gold record, TRIUMPH released the double-platinum album "Rock 'N' Roll Machine" (1977).
Congratulations to the Rik Emmet, Gil Moore and Mike Levine for a well deserved, though belated, honour.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Joe Warmington on Tom Cochrane
Joe Warmington is one of my favourite writers. Yesterday he met up with Tom Cochrane in Toronto, and today we get a great article on Cochrane.
It's especially good because Cochrane has been promoting his CD, as well as the Canadian troops in Afghanistan, and the troops is one of Warmington's favourite subjects:
It's especially good because Cochrane has been promoting his CD, as well as the Canadian troops in Afghanistan, and the troops is one of Warmington's favourite subjects:
MoreThe highway has taken him a lot of amazing places in this mad world but Tom Cochrane says he's never very far from our soldiers in Afghanistan.
"A lot of people care about them deeply," the Canadian rock legend said he has noticed from travelling coast to coast.
Now more than ever, he said, is the time to show it.
"We have to be pro troops," he said yesterday. "I support the guys and gals."
In fact his backing of the Canadian troops is as solid as has been his career. Tears form in his eyes as the singer of such hits as Life is a Highway speaks of the valour our Canadian soldiers are showing in Afghanistan.
"I have seen their faces," he said. "Courage is a very quiet thing."...
Monday, October 30, 2006
Canadian CD releases this Week
Tom Cochrane - No Stranger
While I have never loved Tom Cochrane, I have always admired his work, and have a few songs on my must play list. For some reason, however, I am looking forward to this CD.
You can get a sneak preview tonight on Q107, as John Derringer is doing a premier party at 10:00. If you aren't in the Toronto area, listen in on the Q107 web site.
While I have never loved Tom Cochrane, I have always admired his work, and have a few songs on my must play list. For some reason, however, I am looking forward to this CD.You can get a sneak preview tonight on Q107, as John Derringer is doing a premier party at 10:00. If you aren't in the Toronto area, listen in on the Q107 web site.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Singles Scene # 9
Ottawa: The Capital Region. My wife has a sister who lives in Ottawa, so the kids & I decided to make a pilgrimage. It's a good trip, with many responsibilities as a tourist fulfilled: Dim Sun for breakfast, the war museum, Parliament Hill, including tours of the East Block, the Center Block and the Peace Tower.
The Parliament Hill trip is especially successful: The tours were interesting and kept the kids focus, the boy was especially interested in the East Block tour, asking a lot of questions and generally behaving well. Only two downsides: The Mounties seemed more interested in getting their pictures taken with tourists than investigating crooked politicians, and it was hot! Hot for July! Hot for July in Florida! Hot for July in Florida with Tia Leoni! 100 degrees hot!! So hot... we went for coffee afterwards!?!
My sister-in-law owns some coffee shops, P.A.M.'S. Coffee & Tea Co.. Two of them, including one in the Lincoln Fields Shopping Center. We go for some eats, some Slushies for the kids, and treats for the adults. I love their White Hot Chocolate, and subsequently their White Hot Chocolate Mocha Latte. In the summer they have an ice-cap version that I can't wait to taste. There is one other positive to the coffee shop: A record store in the mall, right across from P.A.M.'S.
Legend Records is a great shop, jam packed with anything in the music field. New and Used. LP's, DVD's videos, cassettes and 8 tracks for Christ sake. In all the time I have been hunting 45's for The Singles Scene, I have never run across 8 tracks in any measure. But here they are, boxes of them in full view, at the front of the store. Videos, taped off the TV, right at the entrance. So why can't I find 45's? I actually find a classical guitar section; take a test next time your in a record store, find a classical guitar album. I have looked and I assure you, only the good ones have any kind of classical guitar selection. This place has a pretty good one, and I grab 4( buy 3 get 1 free). But 45's? I can't see them.
A second time around the store leads to the discovery that below the displays, there is more, and different stuff. Whole sections. It is underneath one of the CD displays that I find banana boxes stuffed with 45's. No order, no placement, but 45's jammed higgledy piggledy into big boxes. A Loverboy* right on top of the first one. I'm about to dive in to that box when my eye catches a light blue Aquarius label at the top of the second box. Sure enough it's April Wine, surprisingly the first that I've found since I've been doing A Singles Scene.
Within a minute or two I've added Rock and Hyde and found another Aquarius: Teaze Sweet Misery. I remember the band, and I'm almost certain their CanCon. So, at $1.00 a piece, $2.00 for the Rock and Hyde picture cover, plus one free on the buy 3 get 1 free deal, $4.00 gets me 4 singles I'm almost certain to like.
First on the turntable after I get home is Teaze's Sweet Misery. Teaze was one of those very hard rock bands that the 70's tended to spawn. They had some modest success selling albums (which is the only sales that mattered to any self respecting 70's hard rock band): I well remembering one of there albums often got played at parties I used to go to. This song wasn't what we listened to.
Sweet Misery is standard a ballad/country rock affair. It's not bad but entirely forgettable. This is clearly a song designed to be a hit. It succeeded, but at what cost? In recent interviews I have seen the band members lament the effect this song had on their career, as fans would come to their concerts expecting more of the same. Reminds me of when BTO was starting to play the music that would be their first album under the name Brave Belt, and fans would be calling for Dunrobin's Gone; This is cited as one of the main reasons they changed the name.
Side b, On The Loose, is a) not the Loverboy song and b) more like what Teaze sounds like; a cross between Triumph & Black Sabbath - a Canadian Slade. The Problem is Moxy, another Canadian band, did it better.
I flip on the April Wine next. The b side is Gimme Love, a bad song from a good album - "The Whole World's Goin' Crazy" - and listening to it now it is dated. Yet better than the a side She's No Angel . This is not the original from the "Crazy" album, but the version from ''Live at the El Mocambo." The El Mocambo album was recorded when April Wine opened for the Stones at their famous El Mocambo gig for their "Love You Live" album. April Wine's record company decided that a recording of a famous gig might be profitable. April Wine disagreed and the album was promptly released. Problem is April Wine wasn't very good and the recording was worse. This song sounds like a bar band recording itself.
Last up is ex Payola$ members Bob Rock and Paul Hyde's band, Rock & Hyde's single Dirty Water. This album saw a lot of time in my CD player at one time. I have a lot of time for Bob Rock, and I am a Payola$ fan. Listening to this I remember it well. A lot of bands were doing songs like this, Tears for Fears come to mind, but Rock & Hyde did it better. This is, in short, a great song that I enjoy listening to now as much as ever.
It was a good trip to Ottawa: a good visit with relatives, beer in a European monastery styled pub (did I forget to mention that bit?) and at the end of the day, I came home with 3 bands I remember well, even if it's only 1 song I remember fondly!
* Since this occurred, I have written the review, had a catastrophic hard drive failure that took the initial review down with it, and re written the review. In that time the Loverboy single has been mis-placed. I don't even recall what the Loverboy single was, thus it is not reviewed here.
The Parliament Hill trip is especially successful: The tours were interesting and kept the kids focus, the boy was especially interested in the East Block tour, asking a lot of questions and generally behaving well. Only two downsides: The Mounties seemed more interested in getting their pictures taken with tourists than investigating crooked politicians, and it was hot! Hot for July! Hot for July in Florida! Hot for July in Florida with Tia Leoni! 100 degrees hot!! So hot... we went for coffee afterwards!?!
My sister-in-law owns some coffee shops, P.A.M.'S. Coffee & Tea Co.. Two of them, including one in the Lincoln Fields Shopping Center. We go for some eats, some Slushies for the kids, and treats for the adults. I love their White Hot Chocolate, and subsequently their White Hot Chocolate Mocha Latte. In the summer they have an ice-cap version that I can't wait to taste. There is one other positive to the coffee shop: A record store in the mall, right across from P.A.M.'S.
Legend Records is a great shop, jam packed with anything in the music field. New and Used. LP's, DVD's videos, cassettes and 8 tracks for Christ sake. In all the time I have been hunting 45's for The Singles Scene, I have never run across 8 tracks in any measure. But here they are, boxes of them in full view, at the front of the store. Videos, taped off the TV, right at the entrance. So why can't I find 45's? I actually find a classical guitar section; take a test next time your in a record store, find a classical guitar album. I have looked and I assure you, only the good ones have any kind of classical guitar selection. This place has a pretty good one, and I grab 4( buy 3 get 1 free). But 45's? I can't see them.A second time around the store leads to the discovery that below the displays, there is more, and different stuff. Whole sections. It is underneath one of the CD displays that I find banana boxes stuffed with 45's. No order, no placement, but 45's jammed higgledy piggledy into big boxes. A Loverboy* right on top of the first one. I'm about to dive in to that box when my eye catches a light blue Aquarius label at the top of the second box. Sure enough it's April Wine, surprisingly the first that I've found since I've been doing A Singles Scene.
Within a minute or two I've added Rock and Hyde and found another Aquarius: Teaze Sweet Misery. I remember the band, and I'm almost certain their CanCon. So, at $1.00 a piece, $2.00 for the Rock and Hyde picture cover, plus one free on the buy 3 get 1 free deal, $4.00 gets me 4 singles I'm almost certain to like.First on the turntable after I get home is Teaze's Sweet Misery. Teaze was one of those very hard rock bands that the 70's tended to spawn. They had some modest success selling albums (which is the only sales that mattered to any self respecting 70's hard rock band): I well remembering one of there albums often got played at parties I used to go to. This song wasn't what we listened to.
Sweet Misery is standard a ballad/country rock affair. It's not bad but entirely forgettable. This is clearly a song designed to be a hit. It succeeded, but at what cost? In recent interviews I have seen the band members lament the effect this song had on their career, as fans would come to their concerts expecting more of the same. Reminds me of when BTO was starting to play the music that would be their first album under the name Brave Belt, and fans would be calling for Dunrobin's Gone; This is cited as one of the main reasons they changed the name.
Side b, On The Loose, is a) not the Loverboy song and b) more like what Teaze sounds like; a cross between Triumph & Black Sabbath - a Canadian Slade. The Problem is Moxy, another Canadian band, did it better.
I flip on the April Wine next. The b side is Gimme Love, a bad song from a good album - "The Whole World's Goin' Crazy" - and listening to it now it is dated. Yet better than the a side She's No Angel . This is not the original from the "Crazy" album, but the version from ''Live at the El Mocambo." The El Mocambo album was recorded when April Wine opened for the Stones at their famous El Mocambo gig for their "Love You Live" album. April Wine's record company decided that a recording of a famous gig might be profitable. April Wine disagreed and the album was promptly released. Problem is April Wine wasn't very good and the recording was worse. This song sounds like a bar band recording itself.
Last up is ex Payola$ members Bob Rock and Paul Hyde's band, Rock & Hyde's single Dirty Water. This album saw a lot of time in my CD player at one time. I have a lot of time for Bob Rock, and I am a Payola$ fan. Listening to this I remember it well. A lot of bands were doing songs like this, Tears for Fears come to mind, but Rock & Hyde did it better. This is, in short, a great song that I enjoy listening to now as much as ever.It was a good trip to Ottawa: a good visit with relatives, beer in a European monastery styled pub (did I forget to mention that bit?) and at the end of the day, I came home with 3 bands I remember well, even if it's only 1 song I remember fondly!
* Since this occurred, I have written the review, had a catastrophic hard drive failure that took the initial review down with it, and re written the review. In that time the Loverboy single has been mis-placed. I don't even recall what the Loverboy single was, thus it is not reviewed here.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Canadian CD releases this Week
Blue Rodeo's Greg Keelor releases his third solo CD today - "Aphrodite Rose". His previous releases where 2005's "Seven Songs for Jim" and 1997's "Gone".International releases of note today:
Lindsay Buckingham - Under the Skin
Rod Stewart - Still The Same - Great Rock Classics of Our Time
Sting - Songs From The Labyrinth
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
New Canadian CD Releases
For Tuesday October 3rd, 2006
Vancouver band Delerium will release their 16th CD, Nuages Du Monde
International releases of Note:
Beck - The Information
Jet - Shine On
Vancouver band Delerium will release their 16th CD, Nuages Du Monde
International releases of Note:
Beck - The Information
Jet - Shine On
New Canadian CD Releases
For Tuesday October 3rd, 2006
Vancouver band Delerium will release their 16th CD, Nuages Du Monde
International releases of Note:
Beck - The Information
Jet - Shine On
Vancouver band Delerium will release their 16th CD, Nuages Du Monde
International releases of Note:
Beck - The Information
Jet - Shine On
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Singles Scene # 8
Just Up The Road: Cambridge in May! As romantic as it sounds, it can only really mean one thing: garage sales. First Friday in May I come home from work at 3:00, and 4 houses up the road there is a garage sale. Not Saturday mark you, Friday. Early afternoon. Yet it's reasonably busy. This can only happen in a garage sale town.
After sorting out the school bags and running to get propane, the boy and I wonder down the street. The neighbours in question are downsizing now that their kids are grown up, and are cleaning out the junk. And junk it mostly is. A box of books is all fairly high brow stuff, philosophy, German philosophy, physics and the like. Not a Clancy, King or Grisham to be found (presumably they aren't parting with the good stuff). Stuck in there, however, is a Charlie Brown Christmas. We have the video, now we have the book. The boy also likes a Skydome placemat that shows Toronto from a lake view standpoint, and we grab that. Myself, I find a pair of bookends for my desk, something I have have been looking for a while. Everything is priced fairly high, but when I ask about price, I get quoted a next to nothing price. Bookends say $20.00, he tells me $2.00. Charlie Brown book says $2.00, he says 50c. This is going well.
Then I spot the records. There where LPs I noted earlier, a lot of Gilbert & Sullivan and a Perry Como or two, but nothing I'm interested in getting. The 45's are about the same, with a few Simple Minds and that sort of thing thrown in; probably stuff that belonged to the kids back when they were kids. "A buck and a half for the whole rack"
he tells me as I start looking. There is nothing however, in Canadian music and I want Canadiana for my buck and a half. They are in the last half dozen or so records: Stompin' Tom Connors singles. Two of them: Tillsonburg b/w "Wop" May and two songs I have never heard of Luke's Guitar (Twang Twang) b/w Log Train. I opt for just the two, instead of the whole rack, and he says $4.50 for everything: I only have $4.00 but he's in the mood to make a deal so I steal away with my 4 bucks worth of goodies.
The records are in very iffy shape,
scratchy, scuffed and crayoned by the looks of it. Sound is not much better, but the music's there. Tillsonburg is everything you expect from Stompin' Tom. Basic country feel, cheesy lyrics about a smallish Canadian town: only thing missing is the stompin'. It's a familiar song and anytime I take the 401 west of here, I pass Tillsonburg signs of the highway and always sing a round of this chorus as I pass:
Tillsonburg
Tillsonburg
My back still aches when I hear that word
Hey, it ain't Shakespeare, but it's no Paul Anka either. I'll take it.Wilfred R. "Wop" May
The b side, Wop May, is a song about famed WWI Canadian fighter Pilot Wilfrid R. "Wop"
May. Without digging into too much history, Stompin' Tom seems to have is facts straight and presents them in a simple ditty style, complete with a lovely Italian sounding guitar line in the Chorus.
The other record, Luke's Guitar (Twang Twang), I've never heard before, and it's classic Stompin' Tom. More upbeat than Tillsonburg, words that make virtually no sense. He even growls in one of the choruses, which basically goes
Twang-twangadee Aratwangadeedle a twange a dang twang
my wife will be old and blind before I sell my old guitar.
Or something like that anyway.
The flip side Log Train starts off mentioning my favourite getaway place Parry Sound. Only Stompin' Tom could rhyme of tiny towns like Kirkland Lake, Owen Sound, Manatou, Mattawa, Kirkland Lake and so on and get away with it.
Funny that after listening to four Stompin' Tom songs, I never heard the old Foot stomp. I guess, all though I never noticed before, that he only does this in concert.
If there is any Can-Con more Can than Stompin' Tom Connor's, I've never heard it. It's not the greatest music, or the greatest poetry in the world (thankfully, though, it's no Nancy Millstone Jennings of Greenbridge, Essex, England), but I was looking for Canadiana: funny I should find it 4 doors from my home.
After sorting out the school bags and running to get propane, the boy and I wonder down the street. The neighbours in question are downsizing now that their kids are grown up, and are cleaning out the junk. And junk it mostly is. A box of books is all fairly high brow stuff, philosophy, German philosophy, physics and the like. Not a Clancy, King or Grisham to be found (presumably they aren't parting with the good stuff). Stuck in there, however, is a Charlie Brown Christmas. We have the video, now we have the book. The boy also likes a Skydome placemat that shows Toronto from a lake view standpoint, and we grab that. Myself, I find a pair of bookends for my desk, something I have have been looking for a while. Everything is priced fairly high, but when I ask about price, I get quoted a next to nothing price. Bookends say $20.00, he tells me $2.00. Charlie Brown book says $2.00, he says 50c. This is going well.
Then I spot the records. There where LPs I noted earlier, a lot of Gilbert & Sullivan and a Perry Como or two, but nothing I'm interested in getting. The 45's are about the same, with a few Simple Minds and that sort of thing thrown in; probably stuff that belonged to the kids back when they were kids. "A buck and a half for the whole rack"
he tells me as I start looking. There is nothing however, in Canadian music and I want Canadiana for my buck and a half. They are in the last half dozen or so records: Stompin' Tom Connors singles. Two of them: Tillsonburg b/w "Wop" May and two songs I have never heard of Luke's Guitar (Twang Twang) b/w Log Train. I opt for just the two, instead of the whole rack, and he says $4.50 for everything: I only have $4.00 but he's in the mood to make a deal so I steal away with my 4 bucks worth of goodies.The records are in very iffy shape,
scratchy, scuffed and crayoned by the looks of it. Sound is not much better, but the music's there. Tillsonburg is everything you expect from Stompin' Tom. Basic country feel, cheesy lyrics about a smallish Canadian town: only thing missing is the stompin'. It's a familiar song and anytime I take the 401 west of here, I pass Tillsonburg signs of the highway and always sing a round of this chorus as I pass:Tillsonburg
Tillsonburg
My back still aches when I hear that word
Hey, it ain't Shakespeare, but it's no Paul Anka either. I'll take it.Wilfred R. "Wop" May
The b side, Wop May, is a song about famed WWI Canadian fighter Pilot Wilfrid R. "Wop"
May. Without digging into too much history, Stompin' Tom seems to have is facts straight and presents them in a simple ditty style, complete with a lovely Italian sounding guitar line in the Chorus.The other record, Luke's Guitar (Twang Twang), I've never heard before, and it's classic Stompin' Tom. More upbeat than Tillsonburg, words that make virtually no sense. He even growls in one of the choruses, which basically goes
Twang-twangadee Aratwangadeedle a twange a dang twang
my wife will be old and blind before I sell my old guitar.
Or something like that anyway.
The flip side Log Train starts off mentioning my favourite getaway place Parry Sound. Only Stompin' Tom could rhyme of tiny towns like Kirkland Lake, Owen Sound, Manatou, Mattawa, Kirkland Lake and so on and get away with it.
Funny that after listening to four Stompin' Tom songs, I never heard the old Foot stomp. I guess, all though I never noticed before, that he only does this in concert.If there is any Can-Con more Can than Stompin' Tom Connor's, I've never heard it. It's not the greatest music, or the greatest poetry in the world (thankfully, though, it's no Nancy Millstone Jennings of Greenbridge, Essex, England), but I was looking for Canadiana: funny I should find it 4 doors from my home.
Friday, September 15, 2006
Milk Crate Classics #3: Brave Belt
Brave Belt II
Brave Belt began in the early 1970's when original Guess Who singer Chad Allen, and original Guess Who guitarist Randy Bachman decided to have a second go at forming a band. Allen left the Guess Who early on in their career when the band began to become too hard rock for him. By the time of Brave Belt's second album in 1972, he was pretty much gone from the band as well, for much the same reason.
Allen is not listed as a band member on the credits of Brave Belt II, although he writes and sings two of the songs, including Brave Belts only hit, the uber-folk Dunrobin's Gone.
The band as listed consists of C.F. Turner, Randy Bachman and Robbie Bachman.
The addition of other Bachman brother Tim would turn this band into BTO. It shows on this album, at least in terms of sound. Where it doesn't show is quality.
Brave Belt II has two or three decent songs, the very un-BTO Dunrobin's Gone being far and away the best song here. But there is no consistency, no momentum, and no showcase songs that would make you get excited about the album.
What this album is, truthfully, is a transition album between the band Brave Belt was supposed to be, a vehicle to showcase folk oriented Allen, and what they became: BTO. But in between, there is a complete lack of focus, not to mention very good songs.
Listening, it's very hard to believe the same group of musicians would put out that great first BTO album within the year, but they did. The sound is much the same, the heavy guitar, Turner's growl of a voice. Yet it is just not very coherent, not very well written and not, frankly, very good. Based on the evidence that is Brave Belt II; compared to BTO I, it appears Tim Bachman deserves much more credit than he has ever gotten before.
And that is just not saying very much about Brave Belt.
Brave Belt began in the early 1970's when original Guess Who singer Chad Allen, and original Guess Who guitarist Randy Bachman decided to have a second go at forming a band. Allen left the Guess Who early on in their career when the band began to become too hard rock for him. By the time of Brave Belt's second album in 1972, he was pretty much gone from the band as well, for much the same reason.Allen is not listed as a band member on the credits of Brave Belt II, although he writes and sings two of the songs, including Brave Belts only hit, the uber-folk Dunrobin's Gone.
The band as listed consists of C.F. Turner, Randy Bachman and Robbie Bachman.
The addition of other Bachman brother Tim would turn this band into BTO. It shows on this album, at least in terms of sound. Where it doesn't show is quality.Brave Belt II has two or three decent songs, the very un-BTO Dunrobin's Gone being far and away the best song here. But there is no consistency, no momentum, and no showcase songs that would make you get excited about the album.
What this album is, truthfully, is a transition album between the band Brave Belt was supposed to be, a vehicle to showcase folk oriented Allen, and what they became: BTO. But in between, there is a complete lack of focus, not to mention very good songs.
Listening, it's very hard to believe the same group of musicians would put out that great first BTO album within the year, but they did. The sound is much the same, the heavy guitar, Turner's growl of a voice. Yet it is just not very coherent, not very well written and not, frankly, very good. Based on the evidence that is Brave Belt II; compared to BTO I, it appears Tim Bachman deserves much more credit than he has ever gotten before.And that is just not saying very much about Brave Belt.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Dunrobin's Gone Lyrics
I get a number of hits every week for people googling the lyrics to Brave Belt’s one hit from 1972, Dunrobin’s Gone. So as a public service, and since there seems to be demand for them (and since there can’t be that many people who have this album in they're closet), here they are.
Dunrobin’s Gone
Chad Allen & Barry Erickson
Pickin’ Wild Strawberries and catchin’ the mornin’ dew,
I keep on settin’ my table for two.
Yes and I keep my eyes open for an other glimpse of you,
While a voice inside my head keeps on screamin’.
It says she’s gone and she won’t be back, you must be a happy man.
You lied and treated her bad until she ran.
You know she’s gone and she won’t be back, you must be a happy man.
You played it for a fool until she ran.
Pullin’ back the covers, turnin’ down the lights
Can’t see no use in cryin’ hurt.
Well I’d try and make some coffee, but I’d probably break the cup,
Can’t see no point in stayin’ up.
You know she’s gone and she won’t be back, you must be a happy man.
You lied and treated her bad until she ran.
You know she’s gone and she won’t be back, you must be a happy man.
You played it for a fool until she ran.
Turnin’ down the castle, warmin’ up the bed.
Can’t see no use in cryin’ hurt.
“Cause the wind is in your barrel and my heart is on the line,
Can’t see no point in wastin’ time.
You know she’s gone and she won’t be back, you must be a happy man.
You lied and treated her bad until she ran.
You know she’s gone and she won’t be back, you must be a happy man.
You played it for a fool until she ran.
You she’s gone and she won’t be back, you must be a happy man.
You lied and treated her bad until she ran.
You know she’s gone and she won’t be back, you must be a happy man.
You played it for a fool until she ran…
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
Dunrobin’s Gone
Chad Allen & Barry Erickson
Pickin’ Wild Strawberries and catchin’ the mornin’ dew,
I keep on settin’ my table for two.
Yes and I keep my eyes open for an other glimpse of you,
While a voice inside my head keeps on screamin’.
It says she’s gone and she won’t be back, you must be a happy man.
You lied and treated her bad until she ran.
You know she’s gone and she won’t be back, you must be a happy man.
You played it for a fool until she ran.
Pullin’ back the covers, turnin’ down the lights
Can’t see no use in cryin’ hurt.
Well I’d try and make some coffee, but I’d probably break the cup,
Can’t see no point in stayin’ up.
You know she’s gone and she won’t be back, you must be a happy man.
You lied and treated her bad until she ran.
You know she’s gone and she won’t be back, you must be a happy man.
You played it for a fool until she ran.
Turnin’ down the castle, warmin’ up the bed.
Can’t see no use in cryin’ hurt.
“Cause the wind is in your barrel and my heart is on the line,
Can’t see no point in wastin’ time.
You know she’s gone and she won’t be back, you must be a happy man.
You lied and treated her bad until she ran.
You know she’s gone and she won’t be back, you must be a happy man.
You played it for a fool until she ran.
You she’s gone and she won’t be back, you must be a happy man.
You lied and treated her bad until she ran.
You know she’s gone and she won’t be back, you must be a happy man.
You played it for a fool until she ran…
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
Dunrobin's Gone Lyrics
I get a number of hits every week for people googling the lyrics to Brave Belt’s one hit from 1972, Dunrobin’s Gone. So as a public service, and since there seems to be demand for them (and since there can’t be that many people who have this album in they're closet), here they are.
Dunrobin’s Gone
Chad Allen & Barry Erickson
Pickin’ Wild Strawberries and catchin’ the mornin’ dew,
I keep on settin’ my table for two.
Yes and I keep my eyes open for an other glimpse of you,
While a voice inside my head keeps on screamin’.
It says she’s gone and she won’t be back, you must be a happy man.
You lied and treated her bad until she ran.
You know she’s gone and she won’t be back, you must be a happy man.
You played it for a fool until she ran.
Pullin’ back the covers, turnin’ down the lights
Can’t see no use in cryin’ hurt.
Well I’d try and make some coffee, but I’d probably break the cup,
Can’t see no point in stayin’ up.
You know she’s gone and she won’t be back, you must be a happy man.
You lied and treated her bad until she ran.
You know she’s gone and she won’t be back, you must be a happy man.
You played it for a fool until she ran.
Turnin’ down the castle, warmin’ up the bed.
Can’t see no use in cryin’ hurt.
“Cause the wind is in your barrel and my heart is on the line,
Can’t see no point in wastin’ time.
You know she’s gone and she won’t be back, you must be a happy man.
You lied and treated her bad until she ran.
You know she’s gone and she won’t be back, you must be a happy man.
You played it for a fool until she ran.
You she’s gone and she won’t be back, you must be a happy man.
You lied and treated her bad until she ran.
You know she’s gone and she won’t be back, you must be a happy man.
You played it for a fool until she ran…
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
Dunrobin’s Gone
Chad Allen & Barry Erickson
Pickin’ Wild Strawberries and catchin’ the mornin’ dew,
I keep on settin’ my table for two.
Yes and I keep my eyes open for an other glimpse of you,
While a voice inside my head keeps on screamin’.
It says she’s gone and she won’t be back, you must be a happy man.
You lied and treated her bad until she ran.
You know she’s gone and she won’t be back, you must be a happy man.
You played it for a fool until she ran.
Pullin’ back the covers, turnin’ down the lights
Can’t see no use in cryin’ hurt.
Well I’d try and make some coffee, but I’d probably break the cup,
Can’t see no point in stayin’ up.
You know she’s gone and she won’t be back, you must be a happy man.
You lied and treated her bad until she ran.
You know she’s gone and she won’t be back, you must be a happy man.
You played it for a fool until she ran.
Turnin’ down the castle, warmin’ up the bed.
Can’t see no use in cryin’ hurt.
“Cause the wind is in your barrel and my heart is on the line,
Can’t see no point in wastin’ time.
You know she’s gone and she won’t be back, you must be a happy man.
You lied and treated her bad until she ran.
You know she’s gone and she won’t be back, you must be a happy man.
You played it for a fool until she ran.
You she’s gone and she won’t be back, you must be a happy man.
You lied and treated her bad until she ran.
You know she’s gone and she won’t be back, you must be a happy man.
You played it for a fool until she ran…
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
Monday, September 11, 2006
Canadian CD releases this Week
Tuesday Sept 12, 2006
Barenaked Ladies - Barenaked Ladies Are Me
International Releases of Note:
Bob Seger - Face The Promise
Elton John - The Captain and the Kid
Everclear - Welcome to the Drama Club
Barenaked Ladies - Barenaked Ladies Are Me
International Releases of Note:
Bob Seger - Face The Promise
Elton John - The Captain and the Kid
Everclear - Welcome to the Drama Club
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Singles Scene #7
London: A record show. What better place to find records than a record show? I go to 2 or 3 shows a year and always seem to make the 2 London ones, even though London's an hour from my house. Guelph, Hamilton, Mississauga all have good shows and all closer to home. But London it is.
If you've never been to a record show it's like a Star Trek convention without the Klingons: everybody here is a music geek. Nobody here enjoys music, they are passionate about music and, more significantly, passionate about owning music. It is loaded with albums, in good shape or bad , videos, bootleg records, CDs and DVDs, posters and assorted memorablia. Ever wanted a Beatles Lunch Box? I saw one yesterday! Autographed Picture of Jimmy Page (with bow in hand)? I know where to get one! 1969 Grateful Dead concert poster, with Janis and the Airplane on the bill? Yup!
I usually hit these shows looking for albums: my ongoing list of half dozen albums I missed when they mattered gets whittled down by 1 or 2 at each show. Sometimes I grab a bootleg video, like the SARSfest DVD I got last time out. This time, however, it is 45's I am on the prowl for. Unlike other places I have searched for 45's, there is no question of finding what I am looking for here, it is a question of which singles I will find.
I know the set up here well, as it doesn't change much year to year - the same vendors sell the same general wares. Immediately upon walking in the door I see the usual singles guy, and head straight for him. He has a huge selection, in the thousands. Thankfully, he has row entitled 'Canadian.' This shouldn't be too hard!
It isn't. Easily a few hundred Canadian singles, most priced in the $2 - 4 range, although some rarer stuff is higher priced. The records aren't cheap, but at these shows you get very good quality records. First real find is one I have had in the back of my mind since I started this project: The Jitters The Last Of The Red Hot Fools. I then find an bit of a gem, something I had never heard of before: the Sinners Go Go Trudeau. An historically interesting novelty piece from 1968, that (apparently) reached 48 on the Chum chart. 
After picking through them all, I decided one more was needed but nothing stood out as obvious the way the other 2 did. I finally settled on Glass Tiger's Don't Forget Me (When I'm Gone). I choose the last one not so much because I love the song, but because a) they were a big band at the time b) it has an original picture cover & c) The record itself is transparent! For $3.00, I'm feeling lucky and at $2.00 a piece for the other 2 there is enough change from a 10 to buy my little guy (who's trailing along with me) a kiss pin. Not a bad day, especially when you add in that I found a great condition LP of "London Calling" before heading home.
First on the turntable is the Hooters Last Of The Red Hot Fools. I picked this one because I saw this band once in one of Mississauga's larger bars, and they where good. I also remember, mostly from this night I suppose, that this was a pretty cool song. Of course, the Mullet was a cool haircut in 1987, so I my read on this could be wrong.
It is, but it's still not a bad song. It starts with the chorus, a Nylons sounding vocal part with little instrumentation:
I've been a fool, to play it dumb
should have played it smart
used my head, but not my heart
Must have been crazy to play it hot
should have played it cool
now I'm just the last of the red hot fools.
I remember doing some fun hand movements that went with it. Let's see:
Must have been Crazy circle temple with index finger
playin' it hot wipe imaginary sweat off brow,
Should have played it cool Cross arms in front of self as if cold
Now I'm just the last of the red hot fools bob index finger in front of you as if pointing at rest of table.
Did I mention it was in a bar? None the less this isn't a bad song, just not a great one. The instrumentation is simple, even basic, too basic. And other than the chorus, the words are OK, but forgettable. The last problem here is tempo, this song is neither fast, nor slow. It's not a ballad, it's not a Thorogoodian rocker, as it could be. Not so bad for drinking to, I guess, but no George Thorogood in that regard either.
The b side is a piece called Hard as Nails, which is again strongly in the camp of the Plain Jane of songs: you might date it, but you'll never fall head over heels for it. Tempo is again neither fast nor slow (actually, this song should be a whole lot quicker) I wonder if I went through the late 80's music if I'd find this tempo a lot. I'm guessing I would, and the Hooters are no worse a representation of the period as any other band, save for U2.
Speaking of Mullets, check out the cover of the Glass Tiger single! And the long coat!!
I actually wore one of those when I played in a band in '89. Guess what tempo Don't Forget Me is. Hooters speed! Why did I never notice this before? What makes this different is the players, especially the bass. Amongst musicians of the time funky slappy bass was very in, and this song is a great example of it. Still a forgettable song, but one with some good performances in it.
The b side is, simply put, abysmal. I have never had time for Duran Duran and somehow they are performing on the b side of a Glass Tiger single. Music went, at times, very very astray in the latter part of the 80's. I now present exhibit A in defense of that statement: Ancient Evenings, by Glass Tiger. Deciding to sound like Duran Duran is one of those things I'll never understand, like all those female singers who want to sound like Madonna. There's a reason Paula Abdul is Schlepping American Idol contestants, and it's the same reason Glass Tiger is not with us anymore. Ms. Abdul decided a good career move would be to sound like Madonna, Glass Tiger went for the Duran Duran sound. Both deserve the fates that have befallen them.
If you aren't overly interested on my views on Duran Duran and Madonna I recommend you don't get me started on Pierre Trudeau. However, I picked up Go Go Trudeau by the Sinners not because I want to hear someone singing Go Go Trudeau to bad surf music. It's more an interest in what they thought of PET in 1968. Can you imagine any of today's leaders, of any political stripe, of any of the major countries, inspiring a song of any kind (I fought the law jokes notwithstanding). PET was, they thought in 1968, our JFK (whether he was or not, or whether that was a good thing or not, I'll leave you to decide for yourself). This song reflects that feeling.
Lyrically they based this song on a bunch of old folk songs which they have parodied:
Hang down your head Bob Stansfield,
hang down your head and cry.
Parliament must stand this way
and you still don't know why".
Or how about "Farewell Pearson" to Farewell Eileen. And how about this for a chorus:
Go Go Trudeau don't be afraid to take your stand.
You got the nation right behind, go right ahead and blow their mind.
It's no one little, two little three Canadians I grant you, but it must have been embarrassing to sing. Interestingly, it's not nearly as bad in French. This may well be because I can't understand how bad the lyrics are.
So my trip to London netted me an interesting re-look at 1968 and 20 years later. Somehow I'm not too fussy on either right now.
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Milk Crate Classics #2 - Aldo Nova
Imagine it's the summer and you are nineteen again. You and the boys hang about: booze; women; and the sounds of summer your only worries. Remember it? Remember her name? How many hers there even were? The drink I would remember if only there were any remnants of it left (do they even make that brand of beer anymore?) It's the music, however, that I remember most of all. Records on the turntable all day - records, real vinyl with an actual smell to them. You could, if you tried hard enough, wear one out. And the singer: the guy with the leather jacket; the Jimmy Page guitar; and the faggy Peter Pan boots!?! Wait, faggy Peter Pan Boots in the middle of your most manly of summers? Well, if the summer was 1982 and the singer was Aldo Nova, then yes. The boots it is.
Twenty years later that is also exactly what Aldo Nova sounds like: A guy with a Jimmy Page guitar and faggy boots. In retrospect, it is also obvious we weren't the only drunk eighteen year olds listening to Aldo Nova that summer. Corey Hart was certainly listening, and five years later would himself kill forever the 'Montreal based pouty singers' trend. Listening to Can't Stop Lovin' You is akin to listening to a Corey Hart tribute band. It is apparent that Bryan Adams was listening too. Both Foolin' Yourself, the albums biggest single, and Heart to Heart, feature a main guitar line that can only be described as Summer of 69-ish.
The other hits from this album include Ball and Chain, Hot Love and the albums signature song Fantasy.
Aldo Nova's "Aldo Nova" was an album, like the boots, very much of it's time. Caught between the hard rockin' 70's and the slinkingly wimpish, over synthesized 80's, Aldo Nova's debut album is unfortunately, much closer to Corey Hart than Bryan Adams. Although Foolin' Yourself beats Sunglasses at Night hands down.
Twenty years later that is also exactly what Aldo Nova sounds like: A guy with a Jimmy Page guitar and faggy boots. In retrospect, it is also obvious we weren't the only drunk eighteen year olds listening to Aldo Nova that summer. Corey Hart was certainly listening, and five years later would himself kill forever the 'Montreal based pouty singers' trend. Listening to Can't Stop Lovin' You is akin to listening to a Corey Hart tribute band. It is apparent that Bryan Adams was listening too. Both Foolin' Yourself, the albums biggest single, and Heart to Heart, feature a main guitar line that can only be described as Summer of 69-ish.
The other hits from this album include Ball and Chain, Hot Love and the albums signature song Fantasy.
Aldo Nova's "Aldo Nova" was an album, like the boots, very much of it's time. Caught between the hard rockin' 70's and the slinkingly wimpish, over synthesized 80's, Aldo Nova's debut album is unfortunately, much closer to Corey Hart than Bryan Adams. Although Foolin' Yourself beats Sunglasses at Night hands down.
Milk Crate Classics
Five or six years ago I was writing for the seminal Canadian humour site CPFOG.com. After the folding of CPFOG, I continued much of the writing, including A Sophist's Saga and Singles Scene.
One other thing I wrote for them was a review of classic Canadian albums, known as Milk Crate Classics (MCC). MCC is the last of the bunch to be brought back to life in my various blogs (mostly because I only had hard copies, no files), but it is finally back. I began last week with Prism, and will continue for the foreseeable future posting the old ones, and writing some new ones.
Please enjoy, and feel free to pass along to your friends. The Milk Crate Classics. And look for a sidebar linking to each MCC as they are added:
Milk Crate Classics #1 - Prism.
Milk Crate Classics #2 - Aldo Nova.
One other thing I wrote for them was a review of classic Canadian albums, known as Milk Crate Classics (MCC). MCC is the last of the bunch to be brought back to life in my various blogs (mostly because I only had hard copies, no files), but it is finally back. I began last week with Prism, and will continue for the foreseeable future posting the old ones, and writing some new ones.
Please enjoy, and feel free to pass along to your friends. The Milk Crate Classics. And look for a sidebar linking to each MCC as they are added:
Milk Crate Classics #1 - Prism.
Milk Crate Classics #2 - Aldo Nova.
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Milk Crate Classics #1: Prism
Take a picture of this: It’s August 1978, the 1st anniversary of Elvis’s death. There’s a Chaucerian pilgrimage taking place. Thousands of devotees are walking to Graceland to have an idol before Him. Meanwhile, the Memphis police are on strike, a strike that s sometimes violent (as strikes involving people who have guns are probably want to be), and the National Guard have been called in to keep the peace. What happens when those pilgrims walk smack into the National Guard? I bet the answer your searching fro is not ‘one of the finest moments on Canadian rock history.’ Yet that’s what happened, as Vancouverites Prism happened to be helicoptering over the fuss on their way to a concert (things were apparently so hairy that a helicopter was the only way to navigate Memphis that day). The scene below struck them as Armageddon, and one of those pieces that define an era was born.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Those first couple of Prism albums in the late 70’s (“Prism” in 1977; “See Forever Eyes” in 1978; and “Armageddon” in 1979) had a sound that was fresh and alive. The heavy emphasis on keyboards, without abandoning the guitar as Gary Wright had done on “Dreamweaver”, led you to think this was what was to come. The first single from the first album, Spaceship Superstar, with it’s Won’t Get Fooled Again synthesizers and Ballroom Blitz like guitar chorus made you think they had what it was going to take to stay alive in rock and roll’s electronic future; and led you to believe they knew that themselves. Ultimately, however, they were a transition between the guitar rock of the 70’s and the guitar rock of the 90’s: Depeche Mode with attitude.
Between Spaceship Superstar in 1975 and lead singer Ron Tabak’s untimely death of police stupidity in 1984, Prism put together some of the most memorable tripe in Canadian music history. Night to Remember, It’s over, Take me to the Captain, N-N-N-No, American Music and Open Soul Surgery mark some of Canada’s better musical moments; Spaceship Superstar and Armageddon mark some of rock and roll’s.
Prism, however, deserves to be remembered for 1981’s Don’t Let Him Know, the first hit penned by the young team of Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance, a writing duo that would put Canadian music on the map over the next decade. They deserve to be remembered for that; they will be remembered for Armageddon. It was simply too good to forget.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Those first couple of Prism albums in the late 70’s (“Prism” in 1977; “See Forever Eyes” in 1978; and “Armageddon” in 1979) had a sound that was fresh and alive. The heavy emphasis on keyboards, without abandoning the guitar as Gary Wright had done on “Dreamweaver”, led you to think this was what was to come. The first single from the first album, Spaceship Superstar, with it’s Won’t Get Fooled Again synthesizers and Ballroom Blitz like guitar chorus made you think they had what it was going to take to stay alive in rock and roll’s electronic future; and led you to believe they knew that themselves. Ultimately, however, they were a transition between the guitar rock of the 70’s and the guitar rock of the 90’s: Depeche Mode with attitude.
Between Spaceship Superstar in 1975 and lead singer Ron Tabak’s untimely death of police stupidity in 1984, Prism put together some of the most memorable tripe in Canadian music history. Night to Remember, It’s over, Take me to the Captain, N-N-N-No, American Music and Open Soul Surgery mark some of Canada’s better musical moments; Spaceship Superstar and Armageddon mark some of rock and roll’s.
Prism, however, deserves to be remembered for 1981’s Don’t Let Him Know, the first hit penned by the young team of Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance, a writing duo that would put Canadian music on the map over the next decade. They deserve to be remembered for that; they will be remembered for Armageddon. It was simply too good to forget.
Friday, August 11, 2006
Blues, Brews and Barbeques
Kitchener is holding their annual Blues, Brews and Barbeques Festival this weekend at the Civic Square in Kitchener City Hall.
28 Concerts and 7 workshops take place over three days, August 11; 12; and 13th, 2006 on three stages.
Events begin at noon today (25 minutes ago) and continue until 6:30 - 7:00 Sunday night.
The concerts are free, the barbeque, I'm guessing not. As well there is a blues bizarre and sidewalk sale in downtown Kitchener all weekend long.
More here.
Schedule here.
28 Concerts and 7 workshops take place over three days, August 11; 12; and 13th, 2006 on three stages.Events begin at noon today (25 minutes ago) and continue until 6:30 - 7:00 Sunday night.
The concerts are free, the barbeque, I'm guessing not. As well there is a blues bizarre and sidewalk sale in downtown Kitchener all weekend long.
More here.
Schedule here.
Monday, August 07, 2006
Mill Race Folk Festival
I made it out to the local folk festival this past weekend, the Mill Race Folk Festival, which takes place in downtown Galt over Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the long weekend.
Here's some pictures:
Here's some pictures:
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Singles Scene #6
Elora: We're on a three day camping trip to the Elora Gorge for the Labour Day weekend. This means three things: tubing in the gorge, a new town to explore the junk shops and there's a 100% chance it rains. So what happens? Tubing is sold out by 10:00AM on the Saturday, for the first time since the cold, wet, miserable May 2-4 weekend in 1990 when I got engaged, I camp without it raining. And the town? A gorgeous old town full of antique shops and nothing I can use. I can't even find a liquor store in this damn town. What's a good Canadian boy to do when you can't watersport, you can't complain about the weather and you can't stumble upon CanCon? Without beer??
Go for a bike ride? That's what I decide and it pays off. I'm out of my campground two minutes and I spot the Elora Antique Warehouse. After spending the day examining quilts, knitting, vases and other assorted feminine knick-knacks I am not hopeful. The Antique Warehouse is one of those places with various vendors selling their wares under one roof. It has a huge Dairy Queen sign as you walk in the door, and junk from every walk of life: Official James Bond dinky cars that the son would love, if only they had a Live and Let Die car (the boat would be even better), a Cheers™ board game that's laid out like the bar, and other assorted 'collectibles.'
I'm in the door about 45 seconds when I note two piles of magazines. I lift the "Happy Gang Book of Comic Songs" off the second pile and discover it's not a pile of magazines: it's a pile of 45's. A hundred easily, maybe one-fifty: at two bucks a piece they are neither expensive nor cheap. Picking through I quickly spot Ian Thomas' I Really Love You and a Rompin' Ronnie Hawkins single High Blood Pressure. Runnaging further I note Mashmakhan's As The Years Go By: I'm not sure if they're Canadian but didn't I read something recently that suggested Mashmakhan was April Wine's minor league band? Just to be sure I grab Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi/ Woodstock. Again I'm struggling to remember if she's Canadian, although I should know. I'm wondering whether it's her or Joan Biaz that's the Canuck, so I grab it thinking that between Joni and Mashmakhan, one of them has to be Canadian.
Mashmakhan and Joni Mitchell are both Canadian! And my reading on Mashmakhan was right on as well: Jerry Mercer left in 1973 to join April Wine. Steve Lang in 1975, and in 1977 Brian Greenway joined April Wine, although he did factory work between Mashmakhan and the Wine. With that quick bit of research put to bed, I decide to start with Mashmakhan's As The Years Go By. Of course I know this song, and have never much liked it -- it's cheesy.
"A child asks it's mother do you love me?
and it really means will you protect me?
His mother answers him 'I love you,'
and it really means you've been a good boy."
Lots of keyboards, but I'm trying to imagine Jerry Mercer playing drums here and can't: the guy who brought us that bell on Ohwhatanight, the bald guy who does one handed drum rolls during his solo playing a basic bass/snare/bass/snare pattern? No wonder he left for April Wine. But even more I'm imagining this band in two years trying to contain Bryan Greenway, and I can't do it.
Next up is Joni Mitchell. This is a double 45, with Big Yellow Taxi on side A and Woodstock on side 2. Big Yellow Taxi is very familiar "They pave paradise, put up a parking lot.", a song I have always liked. Joni has this gorgeous soprano voice, one of the few that work in pop music. It has lots of 60's hippy world view type of stuff thread through the lyrics, but it's the infectious beat, the acoustic guitar driving this song that I love; happy music over sadly serious lyrics. The B side is Joni's version of Woodstock, a song she wrote but made famous by Crosby, Stills, Nash and maybe Young. I don't think I've heard Joni's version before, it's the opposite of Big Yellow Taxi; happy lyrics but sad, almost morose music. All in all I prefer the CSN (&Y?), it is just easier on the ears. This version does little for me.
Next up is a guy I know, The Hawk, Ronnie Hawkins. On Roulette Records High Blood Pressure was released in 1963, a couple of years before he was playing with The Band. The Hawk sounds like Chuck Berry, except it's slower than Chuck liked to play. A blues it reminds me a bit of Berry's Maybelline, this is one of the better songs I've bought while doing this. The B side There's a Screw Loose is more of the same, with a Spanish flavour. Hawkins is kind of shouting out some drunk Mexican-isms over a Hammond Organ based band, this is frankly as bad as High Blood Pressure is good.
Finally, Ian Thomas' I Really Love You. A relatively local boy, Ian hails from nearby Paris, Ontario, and brother of Dave Thomas of SCTV fame, Thomas is a great songwriter with a pile of top of the line music to his name. I'm a fan of this song right from the get go: a nice guitar sound, simple effective arrangement and smart lyrics well sung. These are all hallmarks of the Ian Thomas song and this one is no different.
Overall, and excepting Mashmakhan and b/ sides, this was a good haul for a quilt town!
Go for a bike ride? That's what I decide and it pays off. I'm out of my campground two minutes and I spot the Elora Antique Warehouse. After spending the day examining quilts, knitting, vases and other assorted feminine knick-knacks I am not hopeful. The Antique Warehouse is one of those places with various vendors selling their wares under one roof. It has a huge Dairy Queen sign as you walk in the door, and junk from every walk of life: Official James Bond dinky cars that the son would love, if only they had a Live and Let Die car (the boat would be even better), a Cheers™ board game that's laid out like the bar, and other assorted 'collectibles.'
I'm in the door about 45 seconds when I note two piles of magazines. I lift the "Happy Gang Book of Comic Songs" off the second pile and discover it's not a pile of magazines: it's a pile of 45's. A hundred easily, maybe one-fifty: at two bucks a piece they are neither expensive nor cheap. Picking through I quickly spot Ian Thomas' I Really Love You and a Rompin' Ronnie Hawkins single High Blood Pressure. Runnaging further I note Mashmakhan's As The Years Go By: I'm not sure if they're Canadian but didn't I read something recently that suggested Mashmakhan was April Wine's minor league band? Just to be sure I grab Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi/ Woodstock. Again I'm struggling to remember if she's Canadian, although I should know. I'm wondering whether it's her or Joan Biaz that's the Canuck, so I grab it thinking that between Joni and Mashmakhan, one of them has to be Canadian.
Mashmakhan and Joni Mitchell are both Canadian! And my reading on Mashmakhan was right on as well: Jerry Mercer left in 1973 to join April Wine. Steve Lang in 1975, and in 1977 Brian Greenway joined April Wine, although he did factory work between Mashmakhan and the Wine. With that quick bit of research put to bed, I decide to start with Mashmakhan's As The Years Go By. Of course I know this song, and have never much liked it -- it's cheesy.
"A child asks it's mother do you love me?
and it really means will you protect me?
His mother answers him 'I love you,'
and it really means you've been a good boy."
Lots of keyboards, but I'm trying to imagine Jerry Mercer playing drums here and can't: the guy who brought us that bell on Ohwhatanight, the bald guy who does one handed drum rolls during his solo playing a basic bass/snare/bass/snare pattern? No wonder he left for April Wine. But even more I'm imagining this band in two years trying to contain Bryan Greenway, and I can't do it.
Next up is Joni Mitchell. This is a double 45, with Big Yellow Taxi on side A and Woodstock on side 2. Big Yellow Taxi is very familiar "They pave paradise, put up a parking lot.", a song I have always liked. Joni has this gorgeous soprano voice, one of the few that work in pop music. It has lots of 60's hippy world view type of stuff thread through the lyrics, but it's the infectious beat, the acoustic guitar driving this song that I love; happy music over sadly serious lyrics. The B side is Joni's version of Woodstock, a song she wrote but made famous by Crosby, Stills, Nash and maybe Young. I don't think I've heard Joni's version before, it's the opposite of Big Yellow Taxi; happy lyrics but sad, almost morose music. All in all I prefer the CSN (&Y?), it is just easier on the ears. This version does little for me.
Next up is a guy I know, The Hawk, Ronnie Hawkins. On Roulette Records High Blood Pressure was released in 1963, a couple of years before he was playing with The Band. The Hawk sounds like Chuck Berry, except it's slower than Chuck liked to play. A blues it reminds me a bit of Berry's Maybelline, this is one of the better songs I've bought while doing this. The B side There's a Screw Loose is more of the same, with a Spanish flavour. Hawkins is kind of shouting out some drunk Mexican-isms over a Hammond Organ based band, this is frankly as bad as High Blood Pressure is good.
Finally, Ian Thomas' I Really Love You. A relatively local boy, Ian hails from nearby Paris, Ontario, and brother of Dave Thomas of SCTV fame, Thomas is a great songwriter with a pile of top of the line music to his name. I'm a fan of this song right from the get go: a nice guitar sound, simple effective arrangement and smart lyrics well sung. These are all hallmarks of the Ian Thomas song and this one is no different.
Overall, and excepting Mashmakhan and b/ sides, this was a good haul for a quilt town!
Friday, July 28, 2006
Ra McGuire: Here For A Good Time - Book Review
Ra McGuire, lead singer for Trooper, has for a number of years kept up a road blog. One of the first rocker bloggers that I know of, this classic rocker computer geek (mac guy) has been leading the way in terms in internet communications with his fans.
He has published a book of his blog postings from May 2002 until June 2005: Here For A Good Time: On The Road With Trooper Canada's Legendary Band.
I must admit, my first response when I read the introduction on his web site was not a good one. Then I heard a couple of radio guys who got it gratis suggesting it wasn't very good. (Although, in fairness, they didn't not outright pan it).
However, I was still curious and picked it up as my own road book, taking it with me on my holidays. The long drive from Ontario to PEI required a good book, but nothing heavy, and Here For A Good Time fit the bill.
It is fun reading about a lead singers road experiences, it is cool to read about the gigs, the traveling schedule, the other rock and rollers that Trooper hangs out with. Stories about Brian Greenway's tour ritual, "Beer Sunday," and singing with the Doobie Brothers are great. As well there is some degree of inside poop, such as Randy Bachman has few friends in the business and Myles Goodwyn in "notoriously introverted":
Here For A Good Time is, in fact, a great read. Whether you are travelling the Trans-Canada Highway, or if your just goofin' off some Saturday afternoon the stories are fun, informative and easy readin'.
Maybe it's tough to read if you got a freebie; but for twenty bucks, I was satisfied.
He has published a book of his blog postings from May 2002 until June 2005: Here For A Good Time: On The Road With Trooper Canada's Legendary Band.
I must admit, my first response when I read the introduction on his web site was not a good one. Then I heard a couple of radio guys who got it gratis suggesting it wasn't very good. (Although, in fairness, they didn't not outright pan it).However, I was still curious and picked it up as my own road book, taking it with me on my holidays. The long drive from Ontario to PEI required a good book, but nothing heavy, and Here For A Good Time fit the bill.
It is fun reading about a lead singers road experiences, it is cool to read about the gigs, the traveling schedule, the other rock and rollers that Trooper hangs out with. Stories about Brian Greenway's tour ritual, "Beer Sunday," and singing with the Doobie Brothers are great. As well there is some degree of inside poop, such as Randy Bachman has few friends in the business and Myles Goodwyn in "notoriously introverted":
...Saint John, New Brunswick, where I found myself onstage in a small bar singing and playing blues and R & B songs with Myles Goodwyn from April Wine. Myles is a notoriously introverted guy, and I've spent years trying to get to know him at backstage hangouts all over the country. I have never seen Myles anywhere but backstage, so this was a serious breakthrough of some kind and a ton of fun in the bargain.
Here For A Good Time is, in fact, a great read. Whether you are travelling the Trans-Canada Highway, or if your just goofin' off some Saturday afternoon the stories are fun, informative and easy readin'.
Maybe it's tough to read if you got a freebie; but for twenty bucks, I was satisfied.
Links Added
I read Ra McGuire's book "Here for a Good Time" over my holiday, and it occurred to me lots of guys like him are probably rockin' and bloggin'. As such, I am inspired to finally start adding some links to my sidebar.
I have added nine, plus a couple of blogs of interest that I found. If you know of any others (especially blogs), I would be glad to hear of them.
If you have an unsigned band, I will also consider putting a link if you pass it along to me.
Meanwhile, I will keep adding as I find them, and will definitely start adding a sidebar link whenever I mention a band.
I have added nine, plus a couple of blogs of interest that I found. If you know of any others (especially blogs), I would be glad to hear of them.
If you have an unsigned band, I will also consider putting a link if you pass it along to me.
Meanwhile, I will keep adding as I find them, and will definitely start adding a sidebar link whenever I mention a band.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
New Canadian CD Releases
Candaian Cd's released on Tuesday July 11, 2006
Bruce Cockburn - Life Short Call Now
Bruce Cockburn - Life Short Call Now
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
New Canadian CD Releases
Canadian CD's released today:
Nelly Furtado - Loose
Fefe Dobson - Sunday Love
CD released by significant international artist:
Velvet Revolver - Libertad
Velvet Revolver is Slash, plus other ex GNR's, plus Scott Weiland, of Stone Temple Pilots, and Dave Kushner of Wasted Youth. This album has been long talked about and anticipated in hard rock circles.
Nelly Furtado - Loose
Fefe Dobson - Sunday Love
CD released by significant international artist:
Velvet Revolver - Libertad
Velvet Revolver is Slash, plus other ex GNR's, plus Scott Weiland, of Stone Temple Pilots, and Dave Kushner of Wasted Youth. This album has been long talked about and anticipated in hard rock circles.
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Man Seeking Singles
I'm away for a week, but thought I'd leave something to read. This site was started as a place to put, and write more, singles scene's, a very particular piece of work I have done in the past, and continue to do, whereby I go to places that have 45 RPM singles for sale, I find Canadian ones, then write about them in a travelogue style. While I have used news and reviews as filler, the scenes is why I am here.
To that end, I have posted 5 scenes so far, and on this post I will link to them all:
#1 - Cambridge: ... Today I pull out The Stampeders Sweet City Woman.
Now here's a great place to start, the core of Canadian music. My three-year-old son dances happily as I play the song through. Same reaction I had when I was ten. The single looks like it was once owned by a ten-year-old too, although I'm not sure it ever really was. I remember the song, but I don't remember the single until later. The single is scratchy, as singles always were, and has a chip out of the corner, but it can be played; I can't count how many 45's I have owned with a chip out of the corner. Many have complained about the quality of vinyl records through the years, but the record players were made to play whatever you put on them. (Try playing a CD with a chip off the corner some day.) So despite the chip, the banjo comes on anyway; a few bars late perhaps but unmistakably the banjo of Sweet City Woman.
#2 - Bayfield: ... Bayfield is a small tourist trap of a town, approximately 20 minutes south of Goderich, where we were camping for a week. The main street is a series of small houses painted white, with white picket fences and gingerbread gabling all around. The houses are in reality however, shops, restaurants and B&B's. Many of the shops of the antique kind. It is really a nice little downtown, and it makes for a good summer afternoon walking through it. If you like old stuff, the antiques, this is a town that must be visited.
#3 - Cambridge: Home base...
Three good sized stacks of 45's, maybe a hundred, hundred and fifty in total. And sitting on top? Canada, the Centennial song by Bobby Gimby and the Young Canada Singers; last month's near miss. Then I was willing to pay $5.00 for it. This month it is $3.00 and I'm thinking I go to two stores and find this song in both. Maybe $3.00 is a bit pricey. However, it comes in a good cardboard sleeve and should be considered a bit of a collectible. At least it would be a collectible if the stall owner hadn't put a sticker on it that will never come off without ripping the sleeve, knocking about $2.75 of the real value of the thing. Or am I just feeling cheap today? Either way I ignore the penny-pinching voice running in my head, and pick through the rest of the singles.
#4 - Cookstown :... The Antique mall is in an old barn, about ½ a mile north of highway 89. It sits on the left just as you leave the spartan downtown and is hard to miss; I miss it. Just as I am passing the driveway, and deciding the hell with it get me to the cottage, I spot the roadside sign. Fortunately, Cookstown is not called Reallybusytown for a reason and I am able to make a quick U-turn without leaving too much destruction in my wake. Thinking how pale the family in the van behind me appear, I turn into the driveway of the Cookstown Antique Mall. The drive is maybe two hundred meters long and 5 cars seems determined to park in the 3 small spots out front. I go around back where there is tons of parking and two pick-up trucks pulling campers.
As my journey in search of 45's develops, I have learnt a couple of things: Use the Antique Showcase to look for places that sell "collectibles" and if when you walk in a store and the youngest person in the store, next to yourself, is in the neighborhood of 100, it's a good antique store. This is going to be a great antique store...
#5 - Fergus: ... You can get both new goods and used junk, as well as fresh fruit, ripe cheese and baked goods. There's a small stall that sells new baby stuff: clothes, blankets and the like. The Missus grabs a diaper bag while I buy some strawberry tarts and lemon squares. The lady at the tart stall tells me how wonderful my kids are and entertains me with stories of her own five grown children. I nibble away on a tart thinking, "five kids and she still doesn't have a clue how to bake." You can taste the dough over the berries and later I discover to my dismay that the lemon squares are also doughy...
That's it for now, although the back catalogue has 6 - 9 waiting fro me to post. For this week, it's a so I wouldn't be surprised if 10 and 11 get pieced together not long after.
Have a good week everybody, see you next week.
To that end, I have posted 5 scenes so far, and on this post I will link to them all:
#1 - Cambridge: ... Today I pull out The Stampeders Sweet City Woman.
Now here's a great place to start, the core of Canadian music. My three-year-old son dances happily as I play the song through. Same reaction I had when I was ten. The single looks like it was once owned by a ten-year-old too, although I'm not sure it ever really was. I remember the song, but I don't remember the single until later. The single is scratchy, as singles always were, and has a chip out of the corner, but it can be played; I can't count how many 45's I have owned with a chip out of the corner. Many have complained about the quality of vinyl records through the years, but the record players were made to play whatever you put on them. (Try playing a CD with a chip off the corner some day.) So despite the chip, the banjo comes on anyway; a few bars late perhaps but unmistakably the banjo of Sweet City Woman.#2 - Bayfield: ... Bayfield is a small tourist trap of a town, approximately 20 minutes south of Goderich, where we were camping for a week. The main street is a series of small houses painted white, with white picket fences and gingerbread gabling all around. The houses are in reality however, shops, restaurants and B&B's. Many of the shops of the antique kind. It is really a nice little downtown, and it makes for a good summer afternoon walking through it. If you like old stuff, the antiques, this is a town that must be visited.
On the corner of Charles St. and Main St. there is a sign for the group of 7 shoppes [sic]. The
group of seven is seven small stores all selling old stuff; two of which appear to be in business. One is "Around the Block" which sold used clothes as well as a small selection of antiques and LP records. My wife was eyeballing a dress and went in to the change room. A minute later she shouts out:
"Singles. The wall is covered in singles."
#3 - Cambridge: Home base...
Three good sized stacks of 45's, maybe a hundred, hundred and fifty in total. And sitting on top? Canada, the Centennial song by Bobby Gimby and the Young Canada Singers; last month's near miss. Then I was willing to pay $5.00 for it. This month it is $3.00 and I'm thinking I go to two stores and find this song in both. Maybe $3.00 is a bit pricey. However, it comes in a good cardboard sleeve and should be considered a bit of a collectible. At least it would be a collectible if the stall owner hadn't put a sticker on it that will never come off without ripping the sleeve, knocking about $2.75 of the real value of the thing. Or am I just feeling cheap today? Either way I ignore the penny-pinching voice running in my head, and pick through the rest of the singles.
#4 - Cookstown :... The Antique mall is in an old barn, about ½ a mile north of highway 89. It sits on the left just as you leave the spartan downtown and is hard to miss; I miss it. Just as I am passing the driveway, and deciding the hell with it get me to the cottage, I spot the roadside sign. Fortunately, Cookstown is not called Reallybusytown for a reason and I am able to make a quick U-turn without leaving too much destruction in my wake. Thinking how pale the family in the van behind me appear, I turn into the driveway of the Cookstown Antique Mall. The drive is maybe two hundred meters long and 5 cars seems determined to park in the 3 small spots out front. I go around back where there is tons of parking and two pick-up trucks pulling campers.
As my journey in search of 45's develops, I have learnt a couple of things: Use the Antique Showcase to look for places that sell "collectibles" and if when you walk in a store and the youngest person in the store, next to yourself, is in the neighborhood of 100, it's a good antique store. This is going to be a great antique store...
#5 - Fergus: ... You can get both new goods and used junk, as well as fresh fruit, ripe cheese and baked goods. There's a small stall that sells new baby stuff: clothes, blankets and the like. The Missus grabs a diaper bag while I buy some strawberry tarts and lemon squares. The lady at the tart stall tells me how wonderful my kids are and entertains me with stories of her own five grown children. I nibble away on a tart thinking, "five kids and she still doesn't have a clue how to bake." You can taste the dough over the berries and later I discover to my dismay that the lemon squares are also doughy...
There are four piles of records here, 50 maybe 75 records per pile; it's hard to tell as small piles hold a deceptively large number of singles. I quickly find a Paul Anka section and toss the idea of tossing this idea. After (Your) Havin' my Baby I am not sure I ever want to hear Paul Anka again. But a gig is a gig and he is Canadian. None the less I decide on one I have never heard before, As Long As We Keep Believing, thinking maybe it won't be so bad. Next up is Blood Sweat and Tears, again a song I never heard of: You'’re The One. The choice here is fairly good, but I'm in a gambling mood so I decide to risk it all on these two songs I don't know. Of course the price is three for a buck, and my last one is an old favorite from my very early youth, Edward Bear's Last Song. I'm in and out in about three minutes with a dollars worth of Canadiana. Nope, nothing disappointing but the baked goods...
That's it for now, although the back catalogue has 6 - 9 waiting fro me to post. For this week, it's a so I wouldn't be surprised if 10 and 11 get pieced together not long after.
Have a good week everybody, see you next week.
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Another Music Blog by a Canadian
As I stumble and Bumble my way around the internet, I occasionally fall upon a site worth noting.
Deuce's Stay Wild is a music Blog by a fellow Canadian, although not about Canadian music. It features news, reviews, opinions and the usual non-sequiters that occur on all blogs, that make the genre so interesting in fact.
A nice site to which I will be returning, and adding a sidebar link.
Deuce's Stay Wild is a music Blog by a fellow Canadian, although not about Canadian music. It features news, reviews, opinions and the usual non-sequiters that occur on all blogs, that make the genre so interesting in fact.
A nice site to which I will be returning, and adding a sidebar link.
Another Music Blog by a Canadian
As I stumble and Bumble my way around the internet, I occasionally fall upon a site worth noting.
Deuce's Stay Wild is a music Blog by a fellow Canadian, although not about Canadian music. It features news, reviews, opinions and the usual non-sequiters that occur on all blogs, that make the genre so interesting in fact.
A nice site to which I will be returning, and adding a sidebar link.
Deuce's Stay Wild is a music Blog by a fellow Canadian, although not about Canadian music. It features news, reviews, opinions and the usual non-sequiters that occur on all blogs, that make the genre so interesting in fact.
A nice site to which I will be returning, and adding a sidebar link.
Saturday, June 03, 2006
Singles Scene #5
Fergus: This month I go on another road trip. A friend in Owen Sound has just had a baby so we pack the kids into the Caravan and head for a fall colours tour of the Beaver Valley, before settling in Owen Sound for the evening. Fortunately, we haven't had time to pick up a baby gift; that means a stop at the Fergus Market is in order.
I say fortunately for a couple of reasons: First, it's a long trip and the kids are sure to get restless. One or two stops along the way would be a good thing. Second, because the Fergus Market is a great place to continue my search. If you have never been, it's a fairly large market with 20 or so stalls and a few small cave-like stores. You can get both new goods and used junk, as well as fresh fruit, ripe cheese and baked goods. There's a small stall that sells new baby stuff: clothes, blankets and the like. The Missus grabs a diaper bag while I buy some strawberry tarts and lemon squares. The lady at the tart stall tells me how wonderful my kids are and entertains me with stories of her own five grown children. I nibble away on a tart thinking, "five kids and she still doesn't have a clue how to bake." You can taste the dough over the berries and later I discover to my dismay that the lemon squares are also doughy.
The baked goods are, however, the only disappointment on this stop. After spending far too long at the used tool guy's stall we buy the kids a few small toys. A sword for the boy, his second in as many months, and some Indian figures for the wee miss. As soon as they are quiet, I stumble upon my treasure. A music stall: records, CD's, bootleg videos and . . . 45's. A big pile of 45's! 3 for $1.00!! In alphabetical order!!! Of all the places I've stumbled across in the last six months, this is the first to bother putting the singles in alphabetical order. And 33 cents apiece is dirt-cheap. The Missus wants to walk ahead and I yell for her to leave me a couple of loony's. She leaves me the kids and I think, what the hell, I should get one or two records out of the guy for them.
There are four piles of records here, 50 maybe 75 records per pile; it's hard to tell as small piles hold a deceptively large number of singles. I quickly find a Paul Anka section and toss the idea of tossing this idea. After (Your) Havin' my Baby I am not sure I ever want to hear Paul Anka again. But a gig is a gig and he is Canadian. None the less I decide on one I have never heard before, As Long As We Keep Believing, thinking maybe it won’t be so bad. Next up is Blood Sweat and Tears, again a song I never heard of: You’re The One. The choice here is fairly good, but I'm in a gambling mood so I decide to risk it all on these two songs I don't know. Of course the price is three for a buck, and my last one is an old favorite from my very early youth, Edward Bear's Last Song. I'm in and out in about three minutes with a dollars worth of Canadiana. Nope, nothing disappointing but the baked goods.
The rest of the day and evening is nice if uneventful. We picked the perfect weekend for fall colours and the Beaver Valley is stunning. The kids and I drop a fishing line in the water at Meaford, then we pick up Chinese take out before visiting the new Mom and Dad. The baby is a beauty, as all baby's invariably are, and the missus is all a glow from holding her. By midnight we are back on highway 6, this time heading south; her grinning away and me nervously quizzing her about whether she is serious in wanting another one. We arrive home too late to worry about my new found Canadian gold, and I put them away until tomorrow.
Next day, first thing (as early as a wife and two kids allow first thing to mean) I begin. Somewhere I Heard that Paul Anka has done some Albums in Italian; Listening to As Long As We Keep Believing I wish he would take out citizenship, then I wouldn’t have to listen to this crap ever again. Truly horrible music, and believe me it hurts me to call it music. If Air Supply was boring, they wouldn’t be this bad. One thing I have learnt, My Way was not an accident. It’s like an industry with this guy!
Next up is Blood Sweat and Tears You’re The One. One of the most respected bands in Canadian Music, loved by the critics, tolerated by the fans, Blood Sweat and Tears is one of those bands that did everything with an eye towards quality instead of the charts. David Clayton Thomas is one of those high end Canadian art types that the CBC love. I am not sure which side is really the A side, but it turns out I know this song. Quality soft rock, nice jazzy backbone to it this is, none the less, not to my taste. Not a bad song, mind you, just not what I listen to. Soft slow and comfortable; a man could screw to this song.
We end where my music memories begin, with Edward Bear’s Last Song. Ahhh. Canada. The Canada I knew and was a pre-teen in. On Friday nights in grade 8 a group of us got together at one house or another and had little parties. This was always the song at the end of the night, the song you broke up to, or got together to. We played spin the bottle and basically had a life like we would never know again. In the next year our social circles would grow so large, and never again would we all get together again, in some cases I never really socialized at all with a lot of these people. Yet here they are, so up front in my memory.
That said, it’s amazing what perspective brings to the table. This really is one of those horrible bits of tripe that I so rail against, yet I can’t hear it enough. To me it’s a gem, the creme de la creme of tripe, if you will. Like a cold day reminds me of Christmas, I swear I am 12 and falling in and out of love again when I hear this song. I want to say it’s beautiful, but a modicum of objectivity won’t let me; it is the memories that are beautiful. This is just the one recollection in the soundtrack of my puberty, but I’ll take it.
I say fortunately for a couple of reasons: First, it's a long trip and the kids are sure to get restless. One or two stops along the way would be a good thing. Second, because the Fergus Market is a great place to continue my search. If you have never been, it's a fairly large market with 20 or so stalls and a few small cave-like stores. You can get both new goods and used junk, as well as fresh fruit, ripe cheese and baked goods. There's a small stall that sells new baby stuff: clothes, blankets and the like. The Missus grabs a diaper bag while I buy some strawberry tarts and lemon squares. The lady at the tart stall tells me how wonderful my kids are and entertains me with stories of her own five grown children. I nibble away on a tart thinking, "five kids and she still doesn't have a clue how to bake." You can taste the dough over the berries and later I discover to my dismay that the lemon squares are also doughy.
The baked goods are, however, the only disappointment on this stop. After spending far too long at the used tool guy's stall we buy the kids a few small toys. A sword for the boy, his second in as many months, and some Indian figures for the wee miss. As soon as they are quiet, I stumble upon my treasure. A music stall: records, CD's, bootleg videos and . . . 45's. A big pile of 45's! 3 for $1.00!! In alphabetical order!!! Of all the places I've stumbled across in the last six months, this is the first to bother putting the singles in alphabetical order. And 33 cents apiece is dirt-cheap. The Missus wants to walk ahead and I yell for her to leave me a couple of loony's. She leaves me the kids and I think, what the hell, I should get one or two records out of the guy for them.
There are four piles of records here, 50 maybe 75 records per pile; it's hard to tell as small piles hold a deceptively large number of singles. I quickly find a Paul Anka section and toss the idea of tossing this idea. After (Your) Havin' my Baby I am not sure I ever want to hear Paul Anka again. But a gig is a gig and he is Canadian. None the less I decide on one I have never heard before, As Long As We Keep Believing, thinking maybe it won’t be so bad. Next up is Blood Sweat and Tears, again a song I never heard of: You’re The One. The choice here is fairly good, but I'm in a gambling mood so I decide to risk it all on these two songs I don't know. Of course the price is three for a buck, and my last one is an old favorite from my very early youth, Edward Bear's Last Song. I'm in and out in about three minutes with a dollars worth of Canadiana. Nope, nothing disappointing but the baked goods.
The rest of the day and evening is nice if uneventful. We picked the perfect weekend for fall colours and the Beaver Valley is stunning. The kids and I drop a fishing line in the water at Meaford, then we pick up Chinese take out before visiting the new Mom and Dad. The baby is a beauty, as all baby's invariably are, and the missus is all a glow from holding her. By midnight we are back on highway 6, this time heading south; her grinning away and me nervously quizzing her about whether she is serious in wanting another one. We arrive home too late to worry about my new found Canadian gold, and I put them away until tomorrow.
Next day, first thing (as early as a wife and two kids allow first thing to mean) I begin. Somewhere I Heard that Paul Anka has done some Albums in Italian; Listening to As Long As We Keep Believing I wish he would take out citizenship, then I wouldn’t have to listen to this crap ever again. Truly horrible music, and believe me it hurts me to call it music. If Air Supply was boring, they wouldn’t be this bad. One thing I have learnt, My Way was not an accident. It’s like an industry with this guy!
Next up is Blood Sweat and Tears You’re The One. One of the most respected bands in Canadian Music, loved by the critics, tolerated by the fans, Blood Sweat and Tears is one of those bands that did everything with an eye towards quality instead of the charts. David Clayton Thomas is one of those high end Canadian art types that the CBC love. I am not sure which side is really the A side, but it turns out I know this song. Quality soft rock, nice jazzy backbone to it this is, none the less, not to my taste. Not a bad song, mind you, just not what I listen to. Soft slow and comfortable; a man could screw to this song.
We end where my music memories begin, with Edward Bear’s Last Song. Ahhh. Canada. The Canada I knew and was a pre-teen in. On Friday nights in grade 8 a group of us got together at one house or another and had little parties. This was always the song at the end of the night, the song you broke up to, or got together to. We played spin the bottle and basically had a life like we would never know again. In the next year our social circles would grow so large, and never again would we all get together again, in some cases I never really socialized at all with a lot of these people. Yet here they are, so up front in my memory.
That said, it’s amazing what perspective brings to the table. This really is one of those horrible bits of tripe that I so rail against, yet I can’t hear it enough. To me it’s a gem, the creme de la creme of tripe, if you will. Like a cold day reminds me of Christmas, I swear I am 12 and falling in and out of love again when I hear this song. I want to say it’s beautiful, but a modicum of objectivity won’t let me; it is the memories that are beautiful. This is just the one recollection in the soundtrack of my puberty, but I’ll take it.
Friday, May 19, 2006
Bachman Cummings Songbook: A Review
Bachman Cummings Songbook is an interesting idea: a greatest hits collection from three different, yet related, acts: The Guess Who, Bachman Turner Overdrive (BTO) and Burton Cummings solo career. This has some pluses and minuses.
From the plus perspective, it never gets boring. You have 30 or so minutes of Guess Who, then the CD switches gears and you have 20 minutes of BTO
before the CD finishes off with 20 minutes of Burton Cummings. The three different sets are unique enough that you don't get bored listening for 70 minutes, yet similar enough that the collection doesn't seem disjointed.
The negative has more to do with what's not here than what is. The Randy Bachman set is incomplete to say the least. As a long time Randy Bachman fan I would have loved to see Brave Belt's Dunrobins Gone, his solo Prairie Town, and Union's Mainstreet U.S.A. on this collection. And all that is without the obvious BTO that's missing: Take it Like a Man, Rock is My Life and this is My Song, Roll On Down The Highway, Blue Collar, Down To The Line, Gimme Your Money Please &tc...
While we are discussing what's missing, some of the more obscure Guess Who hits, such as Rain
Dance, or some more Burton Cummings, the gorgeous Dream of a Child being the obvious choice, would have been a nice addition. Again the list could get lengthy, and what it boils down to is the negative aspects of this CD is that it's not CD's. It would have been nice to special edition this set, with a 2 CD option for those of us who want more.
All that said, this is a great collection that will hopefully make that trek to the cottage this long weekend a little better. My complaints are mere quibbles, and it is clear that what this CD represents is a setlist for the Bachman Cummings live show. It does the job well, as one listen makes me think it's time I caught these two live again.
The packaging is also very good, with Burton Cummings commenting on every song, plus words to the songs. The only thing missing is Bachman's commentary on the BTO songs. Instead Cummings directly comments on all songs, his and Bachman's. Again, that is mere quibbling, and more than made up by the CD itself (right), which looks like an old record: a great touch.
Song list:
Guess Who Songs
Laughing
These Eyes
Undun
American Woman
Albert Flasher
No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature
No Time
Share The Land
Sour Suite (a commercial for the Wheatfield Soul Album)
BTO Songs
Let It Ride
Takin' Care Of Business
You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet
Hey You
Lookin' Out For No. 1
Burton Cummings Songs
Stand Tall
My Own Way To Rock
I'm Scared
Break It To Them Gently
I Will Play A Rhapsody
From the plus perspective, it never gets boring. You have 30 or so minutes of Guess Who, then the CD switches gears and you have 20 minutes of BTO
before the CD finishes off with 20 minutes of Burton Cummings. The three different sets are unique enough that you don't get bored listening for 70 minutes, yet similar enough that the collection doesn't seem disjointed.The negative has more to do with what's not here than what is. The Randy Bachman set is incomplete to say the least. As a long time Randy Bachman fan I would have loved to see Brave Belt's Dunrobins Gone, his solo Prairie Town, and Union's Mainstreet U.S.A. on this collection. And all that is without the obvious BTO that's missing: Take it Like a Man, Rock is My Life and this is My Song, Roll On Down The Highway, Blue Collar, Down To The Line, Gimme Your Money Please &tc...
While we are discussing what's missing, some of the more obscure Guess Who hits, such as Rain
Dance, or some more Burton Cummings, the gorgeous Dream of a Child being the obvious choice, would have been a nice addition. Again the list could get lengthy, and what it boils down to is the negative aspects of this CD is that it's not CD's. It would have been nice to special edition this set, with a 2 CD option for those of us who want more.All that said, this is a great collection that will hopefully make that trek to the cottage this long weekend a little better. My complaints are mere quibbles, and it is clear that what this CD represents is a setlist for the Bachman Cummings live show. It does the job well, as one listen makes me think it's time I caught these two live again.
The packaging is also very good, with Burton Cummings commenting on every song, plus words to the songs. The only thing missing is Bachman's commentary on the BTO songs. Instead Cummings directly comments on all songs, his and Bachman's. Again, that is mere quibbling, and more than made up by the CD itself (right), which looks like an old record: a great touch.Song list:
Guess Who Songs
LaughingThese Eyes
Undun
American Woman
Albert Flasher
No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature
No Time
Share The Land
Sour Suite (a commercial for the Wheatfield Soul Album)
BTO Songs
Let It Ride
Takin' Care Of Business
You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet
Hey You
Lookin' Out For No. 1
Burton Cummings Songs
Stand Tall
My Own Way To Rock
I'm Scared
Break It To Them Gently
I Will Play A Rhapsody
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Pearl Jam in Toronto
Veteran Seattle rockers Pearl Jam open their world tour in support of their new, self titled CD tonight in Toronto.
Pearl Jam w/ Robert Plant : Chicago House of Blues 10-5-05 - Fool in the Rain.
If I had a wish, it would be for those in attendance tonight to get a repeat performance of this:Starting tonight, Toronto gets a big, personal thank you from Pearl Jam as they kick off their 2006 world tour with two dates this week at the Air Canada Centre...
The Seattle quintet, rounded out by vocalist/guitarist Eddie Vedder, guitarist Stone Gossard, drummer Matt Cameron and guitarist Mike McCready, are touring in support of their eighth studio album, a self-titled, 13-track project released last week.
They have been selective about where they will play on this tour. Ament says they're not playing "places they should be," such as Texas, Florida, and parts of Northern Europe.
It seems pretty weighty then, that they've not only committed themselves to two Toronto shows (the only Canadian dates), but have decided to launch the entire tour here...
Pearl Jam w/ Robert Plant : Chicago House of Blues 10-5-05 - Fool in the Rain.
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Neil Young's Living With War In Stores Now
Neil Young's newest effort, Living with War, was released initially on teh internet. Recorded in a matter of weeks, and quick-released due to it's timely political subject matter, Living WIth War was never given an authoritative release date. Instead we were told that it would be released "...as soon as they can be manufactured with a retail release estimated to be sometime between May 5th and May 15th."I can now verify that it is available in stores, as it was at HMV at Cambridge mall this morning.
Canadian CD's: This weeks releases
In stores today:
The Salads - The Big Picture
Neil Young - Living With War
International CDs of note:
Paul Simon - Surprise
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium.
The Salads - The Big Picture
Neil Young - Living With War
International CDs of note:
Paul Simon - Surprise
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium.
Monday, May 08, 2006
Canadian CD's: This weeks releases
In stores today:
The Salads - The Big Picture
Neil Young - Living With War
International CDs of note:
Paul Simon - Surprise
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium.
The Salads - The Big Picture
Neil Young - Living With War
International CDs of note:
Paul Simon - Surprise
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium.
Neil Young - Living With War: Review
Neil Young's anti-Iraq/ anti-Bush CD Living With War was first made available on the internet. It's an interesting idea releasing a CD as streaming audio. 
It is, in a way, like releasing a whole album to radio. You can't save it, can't skip through the tracks. What you can do is listen to it in order. It is a nice way to offer fans and potential fans a listen to your CD, without giving it to them. The only complaint I have about the system, and it's a brand new idea so it's fair that something won't work that well, is you can't forward or rewind. Especially forwarding through tracks I don't particularly like would be a nice option. Rewind would be a treat, especially to us amateur reviewers who may want to re-hear something
1 After The Garden - Like this song a lot. It's typical Neil the Grungemaster.
2. Living With War - Another piece that's not bad, typical Neil sounding. Has a drone sound to itthat I know Neil likes, me less so. Not bad, not a classic.
3. Restless Consumer - Yawn! The first song I flat out don't like, the basic sound of the album hasn't changed.
4. Shock and Awe - Hey, I can understand the lyrics. Ohh, biting satire:
Our chief was landing on the deck
The sun was setting on a golden photo op
Back in the days of "mission accomplished"
Thousands of bodies in the ground
Brought home in a boxes to a trumpet's sound
Lyrics available here, to those who want to read them.
The plan was to song by song review this, but I'm having a hard time saying much except, sounds like the last song. Thus, I'm going to stop here and give more general impressions. Every song reminds me of an older Neil Young song but I can't quite place it. It's in the dirty guitar sound and tempo, which is the same for each song.
It ends, however, with a nice, acappella, gospel version of America The Beautiful. Unfortunately it is song ten before a gear change happens, too late to salvage the work as a whole.
Bottom line is if you are a big enough Neil Young fan, you will probably love this. If you are a marginal fan, but are strongly anti-Iraq/anti-Bush, this CD is probably for you. The rest would, I think, want to leave it alone. It's not that it's bad, it's that it is tiresomely repetitive.
For that, God Bless Neil Young. I am an avid complainer of celebrities and their political rants, a charter member of the shut up and sing club. But Young, by releasing such a highly political and controversial album, has put his money where his mouth is. I have a lot more patience for that than celebrities who speak where and when it's safe to do so, then do work that is also safe from backlash.
Track list:
1 After The Garden
2. Living With War
3. Restless Consumer
4. Shock and Awe
5. Families
6. Flags of Freedom
7. Let's Impeach the President
8. Lookin' For A Leader
9. Roger and Out
10. America The Beautiful
The hardcopy CD will be available in stores "...as soon as they can be manufactured with a retail release estimated to be sometime between May 5th and May 15th." Possibly it is in stores near you now, if not wait a week and it will be.
It is, in a way, like releasing a whole album to radio. You can't save it, can't skip through the tracks. What you can do is listen to it in order. It is a nice way to offer fans and potential fans a listen to your CD, without giving it to them. The only complaint I have about the system, and it's a brand new idea so it's fair that something won't work that well, is you can't forward or rewind. Especially forwarding through tracks I don't particularly like would be a nice option. Rewind would be a treat, especially to us amateur reviewers who may want to re-hear something1 After The Garden - Like this song a lot. It's typical Neil the Grungemaster.
2. Living With War - Another piece that's not bad, typical Neil sounding. Has a drone sound to it
that I know Neil likes, me less so. Not bad, not a classic.3. Restless Consumer - Yawn! The first song I flat out don't like, the basic sound of the album hasn't changed.
4. Shock and Awe - Hey, I can understand the lyrics. Ohh, biting satire:
Our chief was landing on the deck
The sun was setting on a golden photo op
Back in the days of "mission accomplished"
Thousands of bodies in the ground
Brought home in a boxes to a trumpet's sound
Lyrics available here, to those who want to read them.
The plan was to song by song review this, but I'm having a hard time saying much except, sounds like the last song. Thus, I'm going to stop here and give more general impressions. Every song reminds me of an older Neil Young song but I can't quite place it. It's in the dirty guitar sound and tempo, which is the same for each song.
It ends, however, with a nice, acappella, gospel version of America The Beautiful. Unfortunately it is song ten before a gear change happens, too late to salvage the work as a whole.
Bottom line is if you are a big enough Neil Young fan, you will probably love this. If you are a marginal fan, but are strongly anti-Iraq/anti-Bush, this CD is probably for you. The rest would, I think, want to leave it alone. It's not that it's bad, it's that it is tiresomely repetitive.
For that, God Bless Neil Young. I am an avid complainer of celebrities and their political rants, a charter member of the shut up and sing club. But Young, by releasing such a highly political and controversial album, has put his money where his mouth is. I have a lot more patience for that than celebrities who speak where and when it's safe to do so, then do work that is also safe from backlash.
Track list:
1 After The Garden
2. Living With War
3. Restless Consumer
4. Shock and Awe
5. Families
6. Flags of Freedom
7. Let's Impeach the President
8. Lookin' For A Leader
9. Roger and Out
10. America The Beautiful
The hardcopy CD will be available in stores "...as soon as they can be manufactured with a retail release estimated to be sometime between May 5th and May 15th." Possibly it is in stores near you now, if not wait a week and it will be.
Monday, April 24, 2006
Canadian CD's: This weeks releases
Caanaidian Releases set for Tuesday April 25th, 2006Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings: Songbook
K.D. Lang: Reintarnation
Pilate: Sell Control For Life's Speed (cover shown)
Mobile: Tomorrow Starts Today
International Releases of Note
Bruce Springsteen: We Shall Overcome (the Seeger Sessions) - Dual Disc CD/DVD
Goo Goo Dolls: Let Love In
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