The Canadian charts have been updating about once every 3-4 weeks, thus the delays in these...
Cancon Roundup: Simple Plan (top Canuck at #10), Anjulie, Marianas Trench, Mia Martina, Martin Solveig and Dragonette, The New Cities, Kristina Maria, Drake, Alyssa Reid, Karl Wolf (9/40=23%, still well below the CRTC mandated 35%).
Random Thought: Does anyone else hope that the new Kelly Clarkson single "Mr. Know it All" is about Bullwinkle the Moose?
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
The Fall Neptoon Record Fair
Last weekend, a friend and I made a day trip down to Vancouver for the Neptoon Record Fair. Neptoon Records hosts this used music sale twice a year, once in April and once in September. For this fair, I mainly look for bargains, and for vinyl on the Wax Trax or Nettwerk label. There were plenty of bargains, especially a guy with 4-5 boxes of sealed vinyl from the 70s to the 90s. I did see some nice collectible stuff, but a bit out of my range for price. The first Devo EP on Stiff Records for $75 and a Japanese pressing of Brian Eno's Before and After Science for $35. I passed on both. I also ran into the guy from Krazy Bob's again. I asked if he remembered me. He said that I had a different haircut than last time (I didn't). Then I told him we talked about Katrina and the Waves, then he remembered me.
Here's what I got (in alphabetical order):
Appliance - D4 (2000, 4 song remix EP from this band, minimalist electro-pop. Remixes by Kreider, Pole, Tarwater and To Rococo Rot)
The Bongos - Drums Along the Hudson (1982, one of only two releases from this excellent and overlooked new wave band. Notable for launching the solo career of Richard Barone.)
http://youtu.be/E-0ukoYwnwI
David Bowie - Lodger (one of the three seminal pop/electronic "Berlin Trilogy". I just need Low and my collection is complete for the trilogy)
Clock DVA - Sound Mirror (12") (nice vinyl on Wax Trax. Clock DVA are legendary drone/industrialists. Also notable for being Jeffrey Dahmer's favourite band.)
http://youtu.be/qfMlbZqRQX0
Elvis Costello and the Attractions - The Best of: The First Ten Years (got this for $5 and it was the only album I bought on CD. It's a track for track reprint of the Ryko best of, but released on the Hip-O label. A guy was selling sealed best ofs for cheap, so what the heck...)
Dead or Alive - Youthquake (Pete Burns band, got it for a buck.)
The Drivers - Short Cuts (1983, UK new wave band, only put out two albums, eventually became known as the Cutting Crew.)
Dave Edmunds - Rockpile (his second album from 1974.)
http://youtu.be/Ry2td7q5ZMc
The Fleshtones - Roman Gods (1981, their debut on IRS Records. Underrated New York based new wave band. This band is still recording today!)
The Godfathers - Birth, School, Work, Death (1988, driving indy rock from the UK. Sentimental favourite from my early days in college radio.)
http://youtu.be/QO5dcW0P75M
Greater Than One - G-Force (a real score! $5 for this album, UK electro-industriallists on Wax Trax Records.)
http://youtu.be/aPR7-sttLOo
Joe Jackson - Big World (1986, double album, sealed, for $2)
Jazz Butcher - Big Planet, Scarey Planet (1989, one of the first bands I got into when I first got into college radio)
Judas Priest - The Best of Judas Priest (1978, import on the Gull Label)
Katrina and the Waves - 2 and Waves (I'm a fan, sue me...)
Moev - Yeah Whatever (1988, Vancouver industrial rockers on the Nettwerk label.)
Nash the Slash - American Band-ages (1984, Canadian electro-violinist. All covers.)
Neon Judgement - Horny as Hell (1988, Belgian industrial band, on the PIAS label.)
Nu Shooz - Told U So (electro-pop from the mid 80s. $1)
The Pumps - Gotta Move (1980, only album from this Canadian new wave band from Winnipeg)
Scritti Politti - Cupid and Psyche 85 (best album from these UK working class new wavers.)
Squeeze - Squeeze (1978, their debut album. This copy pressed on red vinyl!)
Tin Huey - Contents Dislodged During Shipping (1979, Akron OH new wave band, rubbed elbows with Devo and the Rubber City Rebels)
http://youtu.be/Ud11xA6b_9Y
Wiseblood - Somebody Drowning in My Pool (12") (alter-ego of Jim Thirwell of Foetus, on the PIAS label)
Here's what I got (in alphabetical order):
Appliance - D4 (2000, 4 song remix EP from this band, minimalist electro-pop. Remixes by Kreider, Pole, Tarwater and To Rococo Rot)
The Bongos - Drums Along the Hudson (1982, one of only two releases from this excellent and overlooked new wave band. Notable for launching the solo career of Richard Barone.)
http://youtu.be/E-0ukoYwnwI
David Bowie - Lodger (one of the three seminal pop/electronic "Berlin Trilogy". I just need Low and my collection is complete for the trilogy)
Clock DVA - Sound Mirror (12") (nice vinyl on Wax Trax. Clock DVA are legendary drone/industrialists. Also notable for being Jeffrey Dahmer's favourite band.)
http://youtu.be/qfMlbZqRQX0
Elvis Costello and the Attractions - The Best of: The First Ten Years (got this for $5 and it was the only album I bought on CD. It's a track for track reprint of the Ryko best of, but released on the Hip-O label. A guy was selling sealed best ofs for cheap, so what the heck...)
Dead or Alive - Youthquake (Pete Burns band, got it for a buck.)
The Drivers - Short Cuts (1983, UK new wave band, only put out two albums, eventually became known as the Cutting Crew.)
Dave Edmunds - Rockpile (his second album from 1974.)
http://youtu.be/Ry2td7q5ZMc
The Fleshtones - Roman Gods (1981, their debut on IRS Records. Underrated New York based new wave band. This band is still recording today!)
The Godfathers - Birth, School, Work, Death (1988, driving indy rock from the UK. Sentimental favourite from my early days in college radio.)
http://youtu.be/QO5dcW0P75M
Greater Than One - G-Force (a real score! $5 for this album, UK electro-industriallists on Wax Trax Records.)
http://youtu.be/aPR7-sttLOo
Joe Jackson - Big World (1986, double album, sealed, for $2)
Jazz Butcher - Big Planet, Scarey Planet (1989, one of the first bands I got into when I first got into college radio)
Judas Priest - The Best of Judas Priest (1978, import on the Gull Label)
Katrina and the Waves - 2 and Waves (I'm a fan, sue me...)
Moev - Yeah Whatever (1988, Vancouver industrial rockers on the Nettwerk label.)
Nash the Slash - American Band-ages (1984, Canadian electro-violinist. All covers.)
Neon Judgement - Horny as Hell (1988, Belgian industrial band, on the PIAS label.)
Nu Shooz - Told U So (electro-pop from the mid 80s. $1)
The Pumps - Gotta Move (1980, only album from this Canadian new wave band from Winnipeg)
Scritti Politti - Cupid and Psyche 85 (best album from these UK working class new wavers.)
Squeeze - Squeeze (1978, their debut album. This copy pressed on red vinyl!)
Tin Huey - Contents Dislodged During Shipping (1979, Akron OH new wave band, rubbed elbows with Devo and the Rubber City Rebels)
http://youtu.be/Ud11xA6b_9Y
Wiseblood - Somebody Drowning in My Pool (12") (alter-ego of Jim Thirwell of Foetus, on the PIAS label)
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Goodbye R.E.M.
Yes, the venerable college rock band that made it big has called it quits after 30 years in the music industry.
R.E.M. were one of the first bands championed by college radio to really make it big. Started in 1980 in Athens, Georgia, R.E.M. were a very melodic, roosty and quirky little band, the type of band that could only be formed in a small college town like Athens. Formed by two music fans (Michael Stipe and Peter Buck) and two college students (Mike Mills and Bill Berry), R.E.M. recorded their first single "Radio Free Europe" on the tiny Hib-Tone record label. This song made it on to the band first retrospective, Eponymous, and was re-recorded for the first album. The Hib-Tone single has a much raucous feel to it than the rerecorded version, partly because the band was forced to change their sound early in their career. It's one of my favourite "folktales" of indy rock. Bassist Mike Mills had lots his bass guitar (or it was stolen) and was forced to find another bass for a gig that night. The only thing he could find was a Rickenbacker bass, the type that Paul McCartney played. He used the bass and the band liked the rootsier, jangly sound it had, so he stuck with it. Without that serendipidous find, R.E.M. may have sounded like a very different band...
http://youtu.be/tyH7NEHfYIo
In 1982, R.E.M. released their first EP, Chronic Town, on IRS Records, then a very small label. R.E.M.'s debut album Murmur helped establish the label as one of the more important ones in independent music. They followed this up in 1984 with Reckoning, which featured their first wellknown single "South Central Rain", which got them some MTV play.
http://youtu.be/msWi0c4tHV8
The early work of R.E.M. had a mysterious quality to it. The music was rootsy, driving and melodic, but singer Michael Stipe had a tendency to mumble, making his lyrics hard to understand. At the time, there were rabid fans desperately trying to decipher Stipe's lyrics. This was long before the internet, so no information was out there. Their 1985 album, Fables of the Reconstruction, was indicative of this, with murky lyrics and a gloomy musical feel. 1986's Life's Rich Pageant saw the band lightening up a bit, with their first commercial radio play from the song "Fall on Me" (one of my favourite R.E.M. songs, coincidentally).
http://youtu.be/lf6vCjtaV1k
1987 saw R.E.M.'s first big breakthrough into mainstream radio with Document (this was preceded by 1986's B-sides collection Dead Letter Office). The album went platinum on the strength of "The One I Love", which hit the Top 20 in the USA and Canada. Document also saw the band becoming more political, which Stipe railing against the current Reagan administration.
http://youtu.be/j7oQEPfe-O8
In 1988, R.E.M. left IRS Records for Warner Brothers, where they would spend the rest of their career. IRS released Eponymous, a singles collection shortly after the band left the label. Their first album for Warner, Green, was a tighter, more raucous effort from the band, and spawned two big singles, "Orange Crush" and "Stand", as well as the popular tune "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" and the controversial video for "Pop Song '89", featuring three topless dancers (who were friends of the band) and a topless Michael Stipe. Stipe said that if he could go shirtless, why not women in the video? Of course, the video was rarely shown at the time, and banned from MTV.
http://youtu.be/xjMwfDFypa4
1991 saw Out of Time, a more laid back album, come out. This album featured the huge hit "Losing My Religion" and the upbeat "Shiny Happy People", featuring the vocals of Kate Pearson of fellow Athens' band The B-52s, as well as a tune featuring rapper KRS-One. A surreal moment saw the band playing on Sesame Street doing "Smiling Happy Monsters".
http://youtu.be/xpqGvYN5p-I
in 1992, R.E.M. released Automatic for the People, which turned into the big breakout commercial success for the band, with singles "Drive", "Everybody Hurts" and the sublime "Man in the Moon", a tribute of sorts to doomed comedian Andy Kaufman. This album has a much more sombre tone than their last two albums, but hangs together very well.
http://youtu.be/1hKSYgOGtos
R.E.M.'s next album, Monster, was a start departure to their previous two, dominated by driving, fuzzed out guitars and a more primal look from Michael Stipe, who had begun shaving his head. "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?", a brutal rocker about a disturbed fan who confronted Dan Rather, and "Bang and Blame" hit the Top 40, the first perfomed live on David Letterman with Dan Rather on vocals. "Kenneth" is one of another one of my favourite trivia songs, since it has an uncencored swear word in it that's aired on commercial radio without complaint.
http://youtu.be/lVJ2dT34dg8
During the tour for Monster, Bill Berry suffered a brain aneurysm on stage in Switzerland and collapsed. Mills and Stipe both had surgery on the tour as well. They wrote their next album, New Adventures in Hi-Fi, while on tour, but the album saw the band slipping out of the public consciousness. EMI bought the IRS catalogue in the late 90s, releasing all their albums in remastered form, plus three compilations.
Bill left the band in 1997 and the remaining band members continued as a trio, using session players to fill Bill's role on studio recordings. Their first album as a trio, Up, came out in 1998 to a mixed reception. Their single "Daysleeper" was underwhelming. The album did very well in Europe, where the band was much more popular than in the US. They recorded the soundtrack to the Andy Kaufman biopic, Man in the Moon, in 1999, bouyed by the single "The Great Beyond".
http://youtu.be/k_JnCWT-_O8
In 2001, the band released Reveal and Around the Sun followed in 2004. Neither album received much notice in the US, but the single "Imitation of Life" reached the Top 10 in the UK. It also has a wonderfully trippy video to go along with it. Warner also release the label spanning compilation, In Time, in 2003.
http://youtu.be/0vqgdSsfqPs
The bands fourteenth album, Accelerate, came out in 2008. The album saw the band sounding much more focused and tight, which a more rock-based sound. In 2011, the band's last full length album came out, called Collapse Into Now. While both sold well, it was clear that R.E.M.'s time on the radio was long gone.
The band just announced a career spanning retrospective called Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage will be released on November 15th.
R.E.M.'s success paved the way for countless bands from Athens. The B-52s owe a debt of gratitude. They were famous during the late 70s, but their late 80s resurgence was helped in part to R.E.M.'s interest in their music. The scene was chronicled in the documentary Athens, Georgia Inside/Out. Other great bands of the era include the Flat Duo Jets, Pylon, Oh-OK, Matthew Sweet. Dreams So Real and Love Tractor. Athens also had a pop resurgence in the 1990s with the so-called Elephant Six collective, featuring bands like Neutral Milk Hotel and Olivia Tremor Control.
As for side projects, Mike Mills formed the skewed pop act The Minus 5 with Scott McCaughey of the Young Fresh Fellows. One of the more interesting project was the Hindu Love Gods, formed by the band (minus Michael Stipe) and Warren Zevon, doing classic R&B tracks. The album they released was out of print for a long time, but was re-released in the mid 200s.
http://youtu.be/_4A-kuqn2Bs
R.E.M. were one of the first bands championed by college radio to really make it big. Started in 1980 in Athens, Georgia, R.E.M. were a very melodic, roosty and quirky little band, the type of band that could only be formed in a small college town like Athens. Formed by two music fans (Michael Stipe and Peter Buck) and two college students (Mike Mills and Bill Berry), R.E.M. recorded their first single "Radio Free Europe" on the tiny Hib-Tone record label. This song made it on to the band first retrospective, Eponymous, and was re-recorded for the first album. The Hib-Tone single has a much raucous feel to it than the rerecorded version, partly because the band was forced to change their sound early in their career. It's one of my favourite "folktales" of indy rock. Bassist Mike Mills had lots his bass guitar (or it was stolen) and was forced to find another bass for a gig that night. The only thing he could find was a Rickenbacker bass, the type that Paul McCartney played. He used the bass and the band liked the rootsier, jangly sound it had, so he stuck with it. Without that serendipidous find, R.E.M. may have sounded like a very different band...
http://youtu.be/tyH7NEHfYIo
In 1982, R.E.M. released their first EP, Chronic Town, on IRS Records, then a very small label. R.E.M.'s debut album Murmur helped establish the label as one of the more important ones in independent music. They followed this up in 1984 with Reckoning, which featured their first wellknown single "South Central Rain", which got them some MTV play.
http://youtu.be/msWi0c4tHV8
The early work of R.E.M. had a mysterious quality to it. The music was rootsy, driving and melodic, but singer Michael Stipe had a tendency to mumble, making his lyrics hard to understand. At the time, there were rabid fans desperately trying to decipher Stipe's lyrics. This was long before the internet, so no information was out there. Their 1985 album, Fables of the Reconstruction, was indicative of this, with murky lyrics and a gloomy musical feel. 1986's Life's Rich Pageant saw the band lightening up a bit, with their first commercial radio play from the song "Fall on Me" (one of my favourite R.E.M. songs, coincidentally).
http://youtu.be/lf6vCjtaV1k
1987 saw R.E.M.'s first big breakthrough into mainstream radio with Document (this was preceded by 1986's B-sides collection Dead Letter Office). The album went platinum on the strength of "The One I Love", which hit the Top 20 in the USA and Canada. Document also saw the band becoming more political, which Stipe railing against the current Reagan administration.
http://youtu.be/j7oQEPfe-O8
In 1988, R.E.M. left IRS Records for Warner Brothers, where they would spend the rest of their career. IRS released Eponymous, a singles collection shortly after the band left the label. Their first album for Warner, Green, was a tighter, more raucous effort from the band, and spawned two big singles, "Orange Crush" and "Stand", as well as the popular tune "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" and the controversial video for "Pop Song '89", featuring three topless dancers (who were friends of the band) and a topless Michael Stipe. Stipe said that if he could go shirtless, why not women in the video? Of course, the video was rarely shown at the time, and banned from MTV.
http://youtu.be/xjMwfDFypa4
1991 saw Out of Time, a more laid back album, come out. This album featured the huge hit "Losing My Religion" and the upbeat "Shiny Happy People", featuring the vocals of Kate Pearson of fellow Athens' band The B-52s, as well as a tune featuring rapper KRS-One. A surreal moment saw the band playing on Sesame Street doing "Smiling Happy Monsters".
http://youtu.be/xpqGvYN5p-I
in 1992, R.E.M. released Automatic for the People, which turned into the big breakout commercial success for the band, with singles "Drive", "Everybody Hurts" and the sublime "Man in the Moon", a tribute of sorts to doomed comedian Andy Kaufman. This album has a much more sombre tone than their last two albums, but hangs together very well.
http://youtu.be/1hKSYgOGtos
R.E.M.'s next album, Monster, was a start departure to their previous two, dominated by driving, fuzzed out guitars and a more primal look from Michael Stipe, who had begun shaving his head. "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?", a brutal rocker about a disturbed fan who confronted Dan Rather, and "Bang and Blame" hit the Top 40, the first perfomed live on David Letterman with Dan Rather on vocals. "Kenneth" is one of another one of my favourite trivia songs, since it has an uncencored swear word in it that's aired on commercial radio without complaint.
http://youtu.be/lVJ2dT34dg8
During the tour for Monster, Bill Berry suffered a brain aneurysm on stage in Switzerland and collapsed. Mills and Stipe both had surgery on the tour as well. They wrote their next album, New Adventures in Hi-Fi, while on tour, but the album saw the band slipping out of the public consciousness. EMI bought the IRS catalogue in the late 90s, releasing all their albums in remastered form, plus three compilations.
Bill left the band in 1997 and the remaining band members continued as a trio, using session players to fill Bill's role on studio recordings. Their first album as a trio, Up, came out in 1998 to a mixed reception. Their single "Daysleeper" was underwhelming. The album did very well in Europe, where the band was much more popular than in the US. They recorded the soundtrack to the Andy Kaufman biopic, Man in the Moon, in 1999, bouyed by the single "The Great Beyond".
http://youtu.be/k_JnCWT-_O8
In 2001, the band released Reveal and Around the Sun followed in 2004. Neither album received much notice in the US, but the single "Imitation of Life" reached the Top 10 in the UK. It also has a wonderfully trippy video to go along with it. Warner also release the label spanning compilation, In Time, in 2003.
http://youtu.be/0vqgdSsfqPs
The bands fourteenth album, Accelerate, came out in 2008. The album saw the band sounding much more focused and tight, which a more rock-based sound. In 2011, the band's last full length album came out, called Collapse Into Now. While both sold well, it was clear that R.E.M.'s time on the radio was long gone.
The band just announced a career spanning retrospective called Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage will be released on November 15th.
R.E.M.'s success paved the way for countless bands from Athens. The B-52s owe a debt of gratitude. They were famous during the late 70s, but their late 80s resurgence was helped in part to R.E.M.'s interest in their music. The scene was chronicled in the documentary Athens, Georgia Inside/Out. Other great bands of the era include the Flat Duo Jets, Pylon, Oh-OK, Matthew Sweet. Dreams So Real and Love Tractor. Athens also had a pop resurgence in the 1990s with the so-called Elephant Six collective, featuring bands like Neutral Milk Hotel and Olivia Tremor Control.
As for side projects, Mike Mills formed the skewed pop act The Minus 5 with Scott McCaughey of the Young Fresh Fellows. One of the more interesting project was the Hindu Love Gods, formed by the band (minus Michael Stipe) and Warren Zevon, doing classic R&B tracks. The album they released was out of print for a long time, but was re-released in the mid 200s.
http://youtu.be/_4A-kuqn2Bs
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Forgotten Music #9: Grapes of Wrath - "Peace of Mind"
From the Livejournal vaults:
I recently rediscovered The Grapes of Wrath, a fantastically underrated Canadian band that merged roots with the radio friendly rock of the time, kind of a folkier version of R.E.M. They are arguably the biggest band to come out of the BC interior (The Odds might make a claim to that title too). They got their start in 1984 with a ground-breaking EP on the Nettwerk label, before releasing their first full length in 1985 with September Bowl of Green. Their next album, 1987's Treehouse put them on the Canadian music map, spawning three minor hits, "Peace of Mind", "O Lucky Man" and "Backward Town". By the late 80s, they were the darlings of the then fledgling MuchMusic channel, propelling songs like "All the Things I Wasn't" and "I Am Here" into the mainstream Top 40. The band had broken up by 1992, but most of the members reformed as Ginger in the mid 90s to some success. Now, each member of the band is active in solo careers.
"Peace of Mind" was an early favourite of mind in my first days in college radio. They sounded only tangentally related to some of the rock I was listening to at the time. There was something so earnest about what they sang about, and something very Canadian about the soul-bearing subject matter they handled with a sort of futile fatigue. "Peace of Mind" is a bittersweet song, showing the struggles of a type of person who strives to be pure and honest in a world that isn't very nice to them. Recently, as I rediscovered this song, the bits about a father not acting the role of a father have hit home to me, and the bits about the pure of heart having so much trouble living in a dirty world also resonated with me. It's a beautiful song and overlooked in their catalogue for those that only know their songs that got played on the radio.
http://youtu.be/w7dB8lEW2iY
I recently rediscovered The Grapes of Wrath, a fantastically underrated Canadian band that merged roots with the radio friendly rock of the time, kind of a folkier version of R.E.M. They are arguably the biggest band to come out of the BC interior (The Odds might make a claim to that title too). They got their start in 1984 with a ground-breaking EP on the Nettwerk label, before releasing their first full length in 1985 with September Bowl of Green. Their next album, 1987's Treehouse put them on the Canadian music map, spawning three minor hits, "Peace of Mind", "O Lucky Man" and "Backward Town". By the late 80s, they were the darlings of the then fledgling MuchMusic channel, propelling songs like "All the Things I Wasn't" and "I Am Here" into the mainstream Top 40. The band had broken up by 1992, but most of the members reformed as Ginger in the mid 90s to some success. Now, each member of the band is active in solo careers.
"Peace of Mind" was an early favourite of mind in my first days in college radio. They sounded only tangentally related to some of the rock I was listening to at the time. There was something so earnest about what they sang about, and something very Canadian about the soul-bearing subject matter they handled with a sort of futile fatigue. "Peace of Mind" is a bittersweet song, showing the struggles of a type of person who strives to be pure and honest in a world that isn't very nice to them. Recently, as I rediscovered this song, the bits about a father not acting the role of a father have hit home to me, and the bits about the pure of heart having so much trouble living in a dirty world also resonated with me. It's a beautiful song and overlooked in their catalogue for those that only know their songs that got played on the radio.
http://youtu.be/w7dB8lEW2iY
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Cuddlecore: The Genius of cub
When I saw the title of the new single and album from Florence and the Machine, I got excited. Unfortunately, it turned out that "What the Water Gave Me" wasn't a cover of the cub song of the same name... (no video but check the second song in)
http://youtu.be/HYnaEBiHisY
I have three bands I'm obsessive about and collect about everything I can get my hands on. The first is Elvis Costello, the second is Devo. The third is Vancouver's cub. Yes, the band is so cute that their name is spelled in lowercase. cub was a band from Vancouver, a trio of girls who came together to make a style of music called "cuddlecore", kind of a giddy, lo-fi garage rock style. Think The Ramones crossed with Hello Kitty and you get some of the idea. The two constants in the band were bassist and vocalist Lisa Marr and guitarist Robyn Iwata. They shifted drummers a few times, including a very young Neko Case, who is featured in the video for "Nicolas Bragg"
http://youtu.be/gUCdJHP_6Bg
Why cub? I suppose a couple of things attracted me to the band. At the time I heard them, music was very dark and gritty and angry. In 1992, the grunge movement was in full force and everything was loud and sludgy. cub was the anti-grunge band: cute, light, amateurish but not childish. They sounded like nothing else being made at the time. The band has the lo-fi garage aesthetic too. In fact, Robyn performed several early shows sitting on the stage, reading cheat sheets for the chords she needed to play. In the video for "My Chinchilla", you get a sense of what the band was doing. Very cute, very lo-fi, very real.
http://youtu.be/-u3fG2eJvCc
It also didn't hurt that the girls in the band were as cute as buttons. I still have an innocent dream of marrying one of them some day.
The band's first full-length album came out in 1993, Betti-Cola collected some of their earlier work, released on 7" vinyl, on the Mint label, where they spent their whole career and added some new tracks. The cover was illustrated by Archie Comics artist Don DeCarlo, which perfectly captured the bands playful nature.
Come Out, Come Out came out in 1994 and cemented their sound and their reputation in Canadian college radio, featuring their singles "Flaming Red Bobsled" and "New York City", which was later covered by legendary nerd-rockers They Might Be Giants.
http://youtu.be/jlx-pvUfuk0
http://youtu.be/lRL9C5cttcI
By 1996, the band had started to lose it's way a bit. Box of Hair wasn't a bad album by any stretch of the imagination, but it didn't exactly sound like cub. Check out the video for "Freaky" and see the change in look for the band. Lots of hairspray and dark makeup, a heavier approach to the music and a bit too much sexuality. The album does feature one of my favourite tracks though with "Pillow Queen"
http://youtu.be/lrTxV5eMB20
cub broke up in 1996, but Lisa and Robyn went on to other projects. Lisa Marr formed a band called Buck that put out one album, then she moved to Los Angeles and released music under the Lisa Marr Experiment, as well as recording an album with Kim Shattuck of the Muffs under the name The Beards. Robyn Iwata changed her stage name to Cup and formed a San Francisco/Vancouver based electronic band called I am Spoonbender, who have released several well-received albums. Drummer Lisa G is still retired from music as far as I know. The band's last release as cub came as a b-sides compilation in 1997 called Mauler, which was released on a small Australian label called Au-Go-Go Records.
http://youtu.be/dQxox6OS_Vc
http://youtu.be/HYnaEBiHisY
I have three bands I'm obsessive about and collect about everything I can get my hands on. The first is Elvis Costello, the second is Devo. The third is Vancouver's cub. Yes, the band is so cute that their name is spelled in lowercase. cub was a band from Vancouver, a trio of girls who came together to make a style of music called "cuddlecore", kind of a giddy, lo-fi garage rock style. Think The Ramones crossed with Hello Kitty and you get some of the idea. The two constants in the band were bassist and vocalist Lisa Marr and guitarist Robyn Iwata. They shifted drummers a few times, including a very young Neko Case, who is featured in the video for "Nicolas Bragg"
http://youtu.be/gUCdJHP_6Bg
Why cub? I suppose a couple of things attracted me to the band. At the time I heard them, music was very dark and gritty and angry. In 1992, the grunge movement was in full force and everything was loud and sludgy. cub was the anti-grunge band: cute, light, amateurish but not childish. They sounded like nothing else being made at the time. The band has the lo-fi garage aesthetic too. In fact, Robyn performed several early shows sitting on the stage, reading cheat sheets for the chords she needed to play. In the video for "My Chinchilla", you get a sense of what the band was doing. Very cute, very lo-fi, very real.
http://youtu.be/-u3fG2eJvCc
It also didn't hurt that the girls in the band were as cute as buttons. I still have an innocent dream of marrying one of them some day.
The band's first full-length album came out in 1993, Betti-Cola collected some of their earlier work, released on 7" vinyl, on the Mint label, where they spent their whole career and added some new tracks. The cover was illustrated by Archie Comics artist Don DeCarlo, which perfectly captured the bands playful nature.
Come Out, Come Out came out in 1994 and cemented their sound and their reputation in Canadian college radio, featuring their singles "Flaming Red Bobsled" and "New York City", which was later covered by legendary nerd-rockers They Might Be Giants.
http://youtu.be/jlx-pvUfuk0
http://youtu.be/lRL9C5cttcI
By 1996, the band had started to lose it's way a bit. Box of Hair wasn't a bad album by any stretch of the imagination, but it didn't exactly sound like cub. Check out the video for "Freaky" and see the change in look for the band. Lots of hairspray and dark makeup, a heavier approach to the music and a bit too much sexuality. The album does feature one of my favourite tracks though with "Pillow Queen"
http://youtu.be/lrTxV5eMB20
cub broke up in 1996, but Lisa and Robyn went on to other projects. Lisa Marr formed a band called Buck that put out one album, then she moved to Los Angeles and released music under the Lisa Marr Experiment, as well as recording an album with Kim Shattuck of the Muffs under the name The Beards. Robyn Iwata changed her stage name to Cup and formed a San Francisco/Vancouver based electronic band called I am Spoonbender, who have released several well-received albums. Drummer Lisa G is still retired from music as far as I know. The band's last release as cub came as a b-sides compilation in 1997 called Mauler, which was released on a small Australian label called Au-Go-Go Records.
http://youtu.be/dQxox6OS_Vc
Monday, September 12, 2011
Musicworks Magazine
"For Oh, it all comes down to the way people listen. Most people listen to be comforted; they listen passively. Oh cites Canadian composer John Beckwith's idea of active listening. The listener should be engaged, possibly uncomfortable, and that experience is ultimately more rewarding." - from Matthew Pioro's interview with Toronto-based classical composer Gregory Oh from Musicworks #110
Musicworks Magazine, where have you been all my life? That quote (and a few others from the same article) encapsulate why I listen to the music I do. Musicworks, a Canadian magazine focusing on experimental and avant-garde music, mostly on the classical end, is a wonderfully esoteric read. There are interviews with Gregory Oh, neo-classical recorder player Terri Hron, Canadian pop/electronic artists Braids, Grimes and Doldrums, compoer Christopher Mayo and the Vegetable Orchestra of Vienna (complete with instructions on how to make your own instruments out of vegetables). This magazine isn't for everyone. In fact, I doubt it's even for me. I have an interest in neo-classical music, but probably not enough to get a subscription to it. While there are bits on bands like Braids and Grimes, whom I both like, the focus is on oddball classical. But, if you want a different perspective on music, this is a great magazine for it.
Musicworks Magazine, where have you been all my life? That quote (and a few others from the same article) encapsulate why I listen to the music I do. Musicworks, a Canadian magazine focusing on experimental and avant-garde music, mostly on the classical end, is a wonderfully esoteric read. There are interviews with Gregory Oh, neo-classical recorder player Terri Hron, Canadian pop/electronic artists Braids, Grimes and Doldrums, compoer Christopher Mayo and the Vegetable Orchestra of Vienna (complete with instructions on how to make your own instruments out of vegetables). This magazine isn't for everyone. In fact, I doubt it's even for me. I have an interest in neo-classical music, but probably not enough to get a subscription to it. While there are bits on bands like Braids and Grimes, whom I both like, the focus is on oddball classical. But, if you want a different perspective on music, this is a great magazine for it.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Cancon Roundup for September 8, 2011
This week's Cancon Roundup: Simple Plan (top Canadian at #8), Anjulie, The New Cities, Martin Solveig and Dragonette, Karl Wolf, Alyssa Reid, Marianas Trench, JRDN, These Kids Wear Crowns, Mia Martina, The Sheepdogs (11/40=28%, still below the national Cancon law)
Chart chat: Adele has her second #1 in the US with "Someone Like You". The Sheepdogs ride their Rolling Stone cover to fame with their first Top 40 Canadian single "I Don't Know". I actually like the Sheepdogs a bit. They have a classic rock sound (not something I'm a fan of), but also have a garage rock ethic that brings a grittiness to their work.
And now a rant that's been simmering for a while. I've been noticing how stagnant the Top 40 charts have been lately. Not to say that Top 40 radio hasn't usually been stagnant, but it seems more so lately. This rise of shitty, insufferable, "party party" frat-rock bands has really ticked me off lately. Bands like LMFAO, Foster the People, Gym Class Heroes, Cobra Starship and the like. It seems that Top 40 bands can be narrowed down to four main categories: 1) Your obnoxious frat-rockers 2) Rockers that try to act dangerous but are as safe as foam rubber (Nickelback, Maroon 5, OneRepublic, Marianas Trench) 3) Good looking guys with cowboy hats that forgot to shave this morning (Jason Aldean, Zac Brown, Jake Owen, Blake Shelton) and 4) R&B and rappers, who again try to act dangerous but are as lukewarm as bathwater (Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Lil Wayne, Britney Spears). The Canadian chart is just as bad for this, but there are a few less "country pop singers" and a few more "rockers"
Looking at both charts, here's a line up of artists that actually have artistic merit, IMO: Adele, Bruno Mars, Dragonette, Foo Fighters, The Sheepdogs. That's 5 out of 80 songs (some songs doubled up on the charts). That's pretty sad.
Chart chat: Adele has her second #1 in the US with "Someone Like You". The Sheepdogs ride their Rolling Stone cover to fame with their first Top 40 Canadian single "I Don't Know". I actually like the Sheepdogs a bit. They have a classic rock sound (not something I'm a fan of), but also have a garage rock ethic that brings a grittiness to their work.
And now a rant that's been simmering for a while. I've been noticing how stagnant the Top 40 charts have been lately. Not to say that Top 40 radio hasn't usually been stagnant, but it seems more so lately. This rise of shitty, insufferable, "party party" frat-rock bands has really ticked me off lately. Bands like LMFAO, Foster the People, Gym Class Heroes, Cobra Starship and the like. It seems that Top 40 bands can be narrowed down to four main categories: 1) Your obnoxious frat-rockers 2) Rockers that try to act dangerous but are as safe as foam rubber (Nickelback, Maroon 5, OneRepublic, Marianas Trench) 3) Good looking guys with cowboy hats that forgot to shave this morning (Jason Aldean, Zac Brown, Jake Owen, Blake Shelton) and 4) R&B and rappers, who again try to act dangerous but are as lukewarm as bathwater (Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Lil Wayne, Britney Spears). The Canadian chart is just as bad for this, but there are a few less "country pop singers" and a few more "rockers"
Looking at both charts, here's a line up of artists that actually have artistic merit, IMO: Adele, Bruno Mars, Dragonette, Foo Fighters, The Sheepdogs. That's 5 out of 80 songs (some songs doubled up on the charts). That's pretty sad.
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