New Canadian CD Releases

Canadian CD releases for this week are:



Our Lady Peace - Decade

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.

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.

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:

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).

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.

Congratulations to the Rik Emmet, Gil Moore and Mike Levine for a well deserved, though belated, honour.

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:

The 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."...

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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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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…

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…

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.