Artist - Song - Album (Label) * indicates Canadian Content
Listen to Do Not Touch This Amp every Friday 8-9 PM Pacific at www.thex.ca
--
Lying Light in the Quiet - Hydra* - Recovery (Permanent Touch)
Le Fly Pan Am - Arcades-Pamelor* - Cuex qui Inventent N'Ont Jamais Vecu (Constellation)
Big Mamma Tough Love - Things Left Behind* - Demo (Independent)
Plants and Animals - We Were One* - Waltzing in from the Rumbling (Secret City)
Sunday, June 26, 2016
Thursday, June 23, 2016
On Parry Gripp
Admittedly, I had a hard time coming up with a topic to write about this week. I have a few half formed ideas in the back of my head that might pan out for next week, but nothing really jumped out as something I should write about.
I'm a fan of cute animals. What does this have to do with music though? Well, two things kind of came together for this week's blog post. First, I've been digging deep into my Weird Al collection this week, listening to every album 2-3 times so far this week. Second, an old friend said that she's introducing her young son to Parry Gripp, so we got to sharing Parry Gripp songs this week.
I'm a fan of what you would call "novelty music". I like music that doesn't take itself too seriously, or, rather, music that takes emotion and fun seriously. Most music is serious, but self-righteous musicians, virtuosos who take their craft way too seriously bug me. I have most of Weird Al Yankovic's albums. I have almost every They Might Be Giants album. I have albums from musical pranksters like Negativland, Longmont Potion Castle, Devo, The Dead Milkmen. I have compilations of comedic covers. I collect albums simply because they're weird. But, as Frank Zappa once said, Does Humour Belong in Music?
I'd argue that it does. A good joke in the form of a song can go a long way to making a point. The Dead Kennedy's skewering of the music industry with "Pull My Strings", brilliantly performed live at the Bay Area Music Awards in front of industry big-wigs, was a coup for punk music. Negativland's controversial use of Casey Kasem quotes and U2 samples in "These Guys Are From England and Who Gives a Shit" got them sued but it made a point about cultural appropriation, copyright use and the right of artists to parody and criticize. Weird Al's rework of "Blurred Lines" to "Word Crimes" made a subtle point of using music to educate instead of reinforcing sexist stereotypes, and made the song a bit more punchy to boot.
Which brings us to Parry Gripp. I can't remember exactly when I discovered his music, or exactly which video of his I watched first (It might have been "Hamster on a Piano".) Parry Gripp writes very short songs, usually around a minute in length, and usually about cute animals or absurd things like tacos or Rupert Grint. He's also a member of the comedic pop punk band Nerf Herder, writes theme songs for TV and jingles for commercials. He's even been nominated for an Emmy for his musical work.
His cute animal songs aren't that serious, nor should they be treated that seriously. But, it does take some talent to write something catchy and memorable in just a minute. And his music is definitely memorable. It's insanely catchy and the songs stick in your head for months, and you'll find yourself going back to the videos. Music is meant to make you feel. Even to have fun. While some might enjoy a 12 minute, intricate guitar solo, I prefer a fun song that's going to make me smile or move me in some other way.
A few more Parry Gripp videos:
Baby Monkey (Going Backwards on a Pig)
Turtle
Cat Flushing a Toilet
At the Bunny Festival
Sumimasen
Dog with a Box on His Head
That Skunk is Mad
I'm a fan of cute animals. What does this have to do with music though? Well, two things kind of came together for this week's blog post. First, I've been digging deep into my Weird Al collection this week, listening to every album 2-3 times so far this week. Second, an old friend said that she's introducing her young son to Parry Gripp, so we got to sharing Parry Gripp songs this week.
I'm a fan of what you would call "novelty music". I like music that doesn't take itself too seriously, or, rather, music that takes emotion and fun seriously. Most music is serious, but self-righteous musicians, virtuosos who take their craft way too seriously bug me. I have most of Weird Al Yankovic's albums. I have almost every They Might Be Giants album. I have albums from musical pranksters like Negativland, Longmont Potion Castle, Devo, The Dead Milkmen. I have compilations of comedic covers. I collect albums simply because they're weird. But, as Frank Zappa once said, Does Humour Belong in Music?
I'd argue that it does. A good joke in the form of a song can go a long way to making a point. The Dead Kennedy's skewering of the music industry with "Pull My Strings", brilliantly performed live at the Bay Area Music Awards in front of industry big-wigs, was a coup for punk music. Negativland's controversial use of Casey Kasem quotes and U2 samples in "These Guys Are From England and Who Gives a Shit" got them sued but it made a point about cultural appropriation, copyright use and the right of artists to parody and criticize. Weird Al's rework of "Blurred Lines" to "Word Crimes" made a subtle point of using music to educate instead of reinforcing sexist stereotypes, and made the song a bit more punchy to boot.
Which brings us to Parry Gripp. I can't remember exactly when I discovered his music, or exactly which video of his I watched first (It might have been "Hamster on a Piano".) Parry Gripp writes very short songs, usually around a minute in length, and usually about cute animals or absurd things like tacos or Rupert Grint. He's also a member of the comedic pop punk band Nerf Herder, writes theme songs for TV and jingles for commercials. He's even been nominated for an Emmy for his musical work.
His cute animal songs aren't that serious, nor should they be treated that seriously. But, it does take some talent to write something catchy and memorable in just a minute. And his music is definitely memorable. It's insanely catchy and the songs stick in your head for months, and you'll find yourself going back to the videos. Music is meant to make you feel. Even to have fun. While some might enjoy a 12 minute, intricate guitar solo, I prefer a fun song that's going to make me smile or move me in some other way.
A few more Parry Gripp videos:
Baby Monkey (Going Backwards on a Pig)
Turtle
Cat Flushing a Toilet
At the Bunny Festival
Sumimasen
Dog with a Box on His Head
That Skunk is Mad
Sunday, June 19, 2016
DNTTA Playlist for June 3, 2016
Artist - Song - Album (Label) * indicates Canadian Content
Listen to Do Not Touch This Amp every Friday 8-9 PM Pacific at www.thex.ca--
UBT - John the Painter* - Ego Orientation (Psychic Handshake)
Solids - Blank Stare* - Else (Dine Alone)
Plants and Animals - Off the Water* - Waltzed in from the Rumbling (Secret City)
Little Scream - Wishing Well* - Cult Following (Dine Alone)
Kubla Khan - Messed About* - Kubla Khan (Independent)
The Horrors - Crawdaddy Simone - The Horrors EP (Stolen Transmission)
<3 (Less Than Three) - Black Angel* - Clairaudience (Independent)
Nickodemus - Funky in the Middle (Haaksman and Haaksman edit) - Endangered Species Remixed (ESL)
Humans - Follow* - Noontide (Hybridity)
Sabota - Stumble* - Sabota (Hybridity)
Longwalkshortdock - Dark Matter* - Squashing Machine (East Van Digital)
Thursday, June 16, 2016
Forgotten Music #20: Caterwaul - Manna and Quail (1990)
A bit behind in blogging this week, due to the purchase of a new computer. I desperately needed one, with my old computer almost 8 years old, still running Windows XP and running on a Pentium 4. It could barely run video anymore. Migrating over my bookmarks went smoothly, but, unfortunately, the migration I used didn't save all my passwords like it said it would, so I've been resetting some and hoping I remember others.
We did a cover last month, so this month we'll be doing a Forgotten Music entry.
What I love about doing Forgotten Music is not so much revisiting some of my favourite obscure bands, but highlighting what I would call a "no-hit wonder". It would be fun to trot out a true "one hit wonder" like Boys Don't Cry or M, but I love focusing on bands that literally had no time in the sun, so to speak, outside of an obscure track that someone maybe heard once on college radio or on a deep cut session on CityLimits on Much or 120 Minutes on MTV. It also amazes me that, with enough digging, one can find so many bands that recorded something, hoping to be noticed, and then were forgotten. You can find them all the way back into the 1930s and into today. Caterwaul are one of those bands.
Caterwaul are a late 80s/early 90s band that were part of the burgeoning college rock scene that was starting to get huge in the States and in Canada. From Phoenix, Arizona, Caterwaul were a four-piece band that blended the college rock of the time with a vaguely rootsy bent, with lead singer Betsy Martin doing a decent job of aping Johnette Napoliatano and her band Concrete Blonde. Their first break came in 1988, with a record deal with influential taste-makers I.R.S. Records. They put out their first album for I.R.S in 1989, called Pin and Web, which spawned a minor college radio hit, "The Sheep's a Wolf".
1990's Portent Hue was another album that garnered a minor hit, "Manna and Quail". Portent Hue is probably the best the band could create. It's a fair-to-middling college rock album, with just a couple of great songs in a mess of listenable stuff. "Manna and Quail" sees the band more fully formed than the rest of the album, with a gutsy and gritty two-guitar attack, with Martin's voice melodic and brusk.
The band hung around til 1996, putting out their last album on the Lost Arts label, before hanging up their instruments.
We did a cover last month, so this month we'll be doing a Forgotten Music entry.
What I love about doing Forgotten Music is not so much revisiting some of my favourite obscure bands, but highlighting what I would call a "no-hit wonder". It would be fun to trot out a true "one hit wonder" like Boys Don't Cry or M, but I love focusing on bands that literally had no time in the sun, so to speak, outside of an obscure track that someone maybe heard once on college radio or on a deep cut session on CityLimits on Much or 120 Minutes on MTV. It also amazes me that, with enough digging, one can find so many bands that recorded something, hoping to be noticed, and then were forgotten. You can find them all the way back into the 1930s and into today. Caterwaul are one of those bands.
Caterwaul are a late 80s/early 90s band that were part of the burgeoning college rock scene that was starting to get huge in the States and in Canada. From Phoenix, Arizona, Caterwaul were a four-piece band that blended the college rock of the time with a vaguely rootsy bent, with lead singer Betsy Martin doing a decent job of aping Johnette Napoliatano and her band Concrete Blonde. Their first break came in 1988, with a record deal with influential taste-makers I.R.S. Records. They put out their first album for I.R.S in 1989, called Pin and Web, which spawned a minor college radio hit, "The Sheep's a Wolf".
1990's Portent Hue was another album that garnered a minor hit, "Manna and Quail". Portent Hue is probably the best the band could create. It's a fair-to-middling college rock album, with just a couple of great songs in a mess of listenable stuff. "Manna and Quail" sees the band more fully formed than the rest of the album, with a gutsy and gritty two-guitar attack, with Martin's voice melodic and brusk.
The band hung around til 1996, putting out their last album on the Lost Arts label, before hanging up their instruments.
Thursday, June 9, 2016
Obscure Canadian Music: Curious George
I dug out some of mix tapes a few months back and got thinking about some of the more obscure bands I had put on the mixes. One band I fell in love with back in my first sting in college radio at CKUL in Lethbridge was Curious George. They were a punk band from Vancouver with a classic sound. Hard hitting, snotty and political. My memories are vague about the band. I can't even remember what the cover of the album looked like, or what the album was even called. Since then, this band has fallen into total obscurity.
As you can imagine, searching for Curious George on the internet doesn't bring back results about Canadian punk bands, but the beloved mischievous monkey from children's books. YouTube searches are likewise pointless. Searching for "Curious George band" starts to bring up results, but not much info. It also looks like a goofy cover band in Calgary has taken on the name too. And, I can also imagine, the band was likely given a cease-and-desist letter at some point, forcing them to change their name.
Here's what I know. Their only album came out in 1989, called Children of a Common Mother, on the tiny Nemesis record label. They broke up soon afterwards. One member, Kurt Robertson, went on to become a prominent member of Celtic punk greats The Real McKenzies, playing guitar for them. Robertson was also part of a one-off grrl-punk project called JP5, who put out a great album called Hot Box on Joe Keithley's Sudden Death Records.
Most of the rest of the band formed Aging Youth Gang with ex-members of seminal punk band The Spores. They've also been joined by members of The Insipids and Dog Eat Dog. This again shows how incestual local scenes can be, with members going from band to band over the series of several years. AYG are still together and playing live shows in Vancouver.
The bands political stance appealed to me when I first heard them. Being from BC and living in Alberta, I found the political climate there stifling. In BC, politics were a blood-sport. In Alberta, everyone was PC and there was little debate on the left-wing. Also, in my mind, and at the time being a neophyte punk fan, punk should be political. Curious George fit the bill. Two songs on the album that caught my ear were "Canadian National Front" and "Better Dead than SoCred."
Tracking down the album is tough too. As a veteran digger in vinyl bins in Vancouver, I have yet to find the album. As far as I know, it was only released on vinyl. And, unless the band want to change their name for a re-release, I can't see Sudden Death or Neptoon Records picking it up and putting it out again.
CBC Music has a stream of their only album (curiously, it doesn't mention the name of the album on the stream, just the songs). I also found a silent video of the band touring through Alberta in 1989. Check out those old cars and the easily recognizable landmarks going through the Rockies!
As you can imagine, searching for Curious George on the internet doesn't bring back results about Canadian punk bands, but the beloved mischievous monkey from children's books. YouTube searches are likewise pointless. Searching for "Curious George band" starts to bring up results, but not much info. It also looks like a goofy cover band in Calgary has taken on the name too. And, I can also imagine, the band was likely given a cease-and-desist letter at some point, forcing them to change their name.
Here's what I know. Their only album came out in 1989, called Children of a Common Mother, on the tiny Nemesis record label. They broke up soon afterwards. One member, Kurt Robertson, went on to become a prominent member of Celtic punk greats The Real McKenzies, playing guitar for them. Robertson was also part of a one-off grrl-punk project called JP5, who put out a great album called Hot Box on Joe Keithley's Sudden Death Records.
Most of the rest of the band formed Aging Youth Gang with ex-members of seminal punk band The Spores. They've also been joined by members of The Insipids and Dog Eat Dog. This again shows how incestual local scenes can be, with members going from band to band over the series of several years. AYG are still together and playing live shows in Vancouver.
The bands political stance appealed to me when I first heard them. Being from BC and living in Alberta, I found the political climate there stifling. In BC, politics were a blood-sport. In Alberta, everyone was PC and there was little debate on the left-wing. Also, in my mind, and at the time being a neophyte punk fan, punk should be political. Curious George fit the bill. Two songs on the album that caught my ear were "Canadian National Front" and "Better Dead than SoCred."
Tracking down the album is tough too. As a veteran digger in vinyl bins in Vancouver, I have yet to find the album. As far as I know, it was only released on vinyl. And, unless the band want to change their name for a re-release, I can't see Sudden Death or Neptoon Records picking it up and putting it out again.
CBC Music has a stream of their only album (curiously, it doesn't mention the name of the album on the stream, just the songs). I also found a silent video of the band touring through Alberta in 1989. Check out those old cars and the easily recognizable landmarks going through the Rockies!
Sunday, June 5, 2016
DNTTA Playlist for June 3, 2016
Artist - Song - Album (Label) * indicates Canadian Content
Listen to Do Not Touch This Amp every Friday 8-9 PM Pacific at www.thex.ca
--
Suuns - Translate* - Hold/Still (Jagjaguwar)
Shockflesh - Eyes in the Back of My Head* - Night Music (Independent)
Ultra Gash - Caligula* - Demo (Independent)
The Accused - Lipstick - Something's Gone Wrong Again (C/Z)
Softess - Prophetic Void* - Absolute Power (Thankless)
Hooded Fang - Plastic Love* - Venus on Edge (DAPS)
Chairface - Mental Picture* - What is This (Independent)
Pink Street Boys - Sleazus - All Tic'd Out (Independent)
Pig - Painiac (Nothing Touches Me) - Sinsation (Nothing)
Fergus and Geronimo - Michael Kelly - Unlearn (Hardly Art)
Polysics - For Young Electric Pop - Polysics or Die! (MySpace)
Timing X - All the Way to Solar City* - Timing is Xverything (Shake!)
Listen to Do Not Touch This Amp every Friday 8-9 PM Pacific at www.thex.ca
--
Suuns - Translate* - Hold/Still (Jagjaguwar)
Shockflesh - Eyes in the Back of My Head* - Night Music (Independent)
Ultra Gash - Caligula* - Demo (Independent)
The Accused - Lipstick - Something's Gone Wrong Again (C/Z)
Softess - Prophetic Void* - Absolute Power (Thankless)
Hooded Fang - Plastic Love* - Venus on Edge (DAPS)
Chairface - Mental Picture* - What is This (Independent)
Pink Street Boys - Sleazus - All Tic'd Out (Independent)
Pig - Painiac (Nothing Touches Me) - Sinsation (Nothing)
Fergus and Geronimo - Michael Kelly - Unlearn (Hardly Art)
Polysics - For Young Electric Pop - Polysics or Die! (MySpace)
Timing X - All the Way to Solar City* - Timing is Xverything (Shake!)
Thursday, June 2, 2016
Video Playlist #5: Three Letter Words
Here's June's thematic playlist, all bands named after three letter words. Let me tell you, trying to search for these bands on Youtube wasn't that fun!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0QOmyo1JgZf80J95TPP5X57JRBis9vpF
1) Can - Vitamin C
2) Neu! - Seeland
3) Air - All I Need
4) Pig - Infinite Shame
5) Wax - California
6) Mew - Why Are You Looking Grave?
7) cub* - My Flaming Red Bobsled
8) Eat - Mr. and Mrs. Smack
9) gob* - Radio Hell
10) Low - Monkey
11) Yaz - Situation
12) Tad - Jack Pepsi
13) Off! - Learn to Obey
14) moe. - Happy Hour Hero
15) Hum - Sundress
16) Poe - Trigger Happy Jack
17) The Orb - Little Fluffy Clouds
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0QOmyo1JgZf80J95TPP5X57JRBis9vpF
1) Can - Vitamin C
2) Neu! - Seeland
3) Air - All I Need
4) Pig - Infinite Shame
5) Wax - California
6) Mew - Why Are You Looking Grave?
7) cub* - My Flaming Red Bobsled
8) Eat - Mr. and Mrs. Smack
9) gob* - Radio Hell
10) Low - Monkey
11) Yaz - Situation
12) Tad - Jack Pepsi
13) Off! - Learn to Obey
14) moe. - Happy Hour Hero
15) Hum - Sundress
16) Poe - Trigger Happy Jack
17) The Orb - Little Fluffy Clouds
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