Saturday, January 19, 2008
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Chapter Twenty-Two: Are You Ready for the Cow-Punk?
“There’s no such thing as cow-punk.” Did I say that? Yes, though in my defense I was sixteen, standing in the basement of Wellington’s (a sleazeball bar) after having just witnessed a spectacular set by Soul Asylum and it was 1985. Now Soul Asylum had just finished refusing to play anything from their first e.p. (Say What You Will) and had focussed exclusively on the less thrashy (and perhaps a touch more country) material from the stunning Made to be Broken album. Some earnest fellow-traveler claimed that Soul Asylum and this “this band from Edmonton called Jr. Gone Wild are cow-punk”. I begged to differ since back in the 80’s I, as narrow-minded music fans always have, disavowed all country music.
By this time the roots-rock sound (one of the more flagrantly critic-created genres) was in full swing. When faced with an enemy as ugly as the soulless and gutless synth-pop a million bands (often older punks) went back in time. Eighties bands exhumed garage rock, folk-rock and psychedelia with glee. Then of course there was country-rock, which almost every single recording artists of the 60’s is credited with having invented (by the way it’s all about Buck Owens, the death-deifying Mr. Parsons aside). The less commercial bands (Jason and the Scorchers etc.) got called cow-punk and the ones who made beer commercials (Del Fuegos etc.) got labeled roots-rock. But they all loved Gram, Bolo ties and that twang and they all got wiped out as the 80‘s bled into the 90’s. However by then Uncle Tupelo managed to steal every ounce of credit leaving Jason and the Scorchers et al cruelly empty-handed.
And there in the midst of the action was Mike McDonald, criminally neglected also-ran and linchpin of Jr. Gone Wild. “They've been called "the Sex Pistols meet Hank Williams." Lead singer and songwriter Mike McDonald once joked that the band had progressed: they were now a cross between the Clash and George Jones” says an article on their excellent (and ten-year old!) web site. The first album Less Art, More Pop has an R.E.M. angle (though they claimed in old interviews that BYO Records made them wear the twee-hippy gear) then they added some Neil Young, maybe a bit of Bob and (if Mike is to be believed) gallons of alcohol. They moved to Canadian indie (and “rootsy”) label Stony Plain for their excellent second album Too Dumb To Quit (nice Ramones reference). Mike sobered up for what may be their strongest album Simple Little Wish (which like it’s predecessor Pull the Goalie is still available from Stony Plain Records). Mike and JGW wrote empathetic, intelligent and ringing songs, such as “Slept all Afternoon" and “In Contempt of Me" which must be heard. Enjoy it, even if cow-punk was just a dumb label.
P.S. C-60 Low Noise has lots of what passed for cow-punk (and especially the thundering Jason and the Scorchers! Maybe more on them later.)
Too Dumb to Quit
In Canada, almost like some sorta Watchmen parallel universe, roots-rock flourished and became mainstream. In the late 80’s Steve Earle filled stadium in north and bands like The Tragically Hip and Blue Rodeo became staples of Canadian rock and even, to a degree, country radio. Of course under the radar flew the breathtakingly beautiful Lost Durangos and the achingly melodic Skydiggers.
I first heard the Skydiggers (Andy Maize, Josh Finlayson, Peter Cash, Wayne Stokes and Ron Macey) on the floor at a Vancouver record store named A + B Sound. In the early 1990’s mainstream record store employees were not yet anachronisms-waiting-to-happen but we suffered a strict dress and sound code, no loud hair or loud guitars. So before Nirvana gave the hammer blow to those regulations folkish-rock was a Great Escape from the enforced blandness. In that context the second Skydiggers album, Restless, pealed like a great bell: with those sad harmonies and chiming guitars meshing just so. True you can hear that Byrds via R.E.M. sound in songs like Accusation but the aching lyrics of This Old Town has the lope of gut-bucket country plus a perfect accapella break-it down part. Just Listen; there's much to hear.
As per usual, research has revealed that only the current Skydiggers album to be in print. So we will try to salve that injustice with these mp3’s, which will only be available temporarily in the hopes that soon the real thing will come along.
Skydiggers - Debut
Skydiggers - RestlessMonday, December 31, 2007
Chapter Twenty-One: Reflecting
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Chapter Twenty: Singles Going Crazy
The e.p. let the band show off more then a couple of songs, often allowing cover tunes and odd tangents to escape. And they played at 33 r.p.m. so if was “too slow” you could speeditfuckingup. The 7” e.p. was that transition between the lowly demo tape and the more rarefied album. Sadly it was also a wall. Bands that produced some crystalline e.p.’s when faced with the daunting task of a full album fell apart (i.e Cringer discussed in the last chapter). Even the vaunted Misfits album (Walk Among Us) was considered a let-down after all those blistering e.p.’s (Bullet, Three Hits from Hell).
It’s the obscure bands from the fag-end of the vinyl era (are we still there yet?) that offer a heartbreaking truth: most bands only have a few good songs and that later attempts to diversify or recapture the original sound are only the grasping of straws. Bands have a Moment: one time where history and their particular talents align and if they grab it – Bam! - we end up with, at the least, a single. After a few more star-crossed attempts they end up careerists, crack addicts or computer programmers. Writers are the same: think Nick Hornby. Hornby had a rock n’ roll career trajectory; that album of early demos (Fever Pitch) the Moment (High Fidelity) the similar-sounding sophomore album (About a Boy) the Mature album (How to Be Good) and the album that tries to reach old and new fans (Long Way Down).
Glibness aside, this Theory of Moments applies especially well to pop-punk bands. So let me present a series; Single Moments of Unfettered Brilliance - bands who fizzed out and quickly faded away. The series will be expanded in times to come.
Radon (Bill Clower - drums, Dave Rohm - guitar, vocals, Brent Wilson - bass, vocals) released this exceptional four song e.p. of emo-pop-punk-hardcore mash-up on No Idea Records back in 1992.The four tracks from this single are available on a retrospective CD from No Idea records.
The Invalids (Tony on bass guitar, Sean on drums and Scott on guitar and vocals) wanted to be Green Day and we can enjoy their failure. Failing imitators have a history of serendipitous innovation, though in this case the band ended up sounding like another amazing East Bay punk band – Sewer Trout – maybe I’ll throw in that band's ten-inch Moment to cap things off. This however is the 'Punker Than Me" single from the mid 90's and it's jam packed with sing-along chorus, off-kilter lyrics and stripped-down chord progressions. Insubordination Records has put out an Invalids comp - though not with these songs.
Kamala and the Karnivores (according to the Lookout catalogue, "East Bay pop band that featured Ivy, later of Sweet Baby, Kamala, later in Cringer, the Gr'ups, and Naked Aggression, and Todd, of Spitboy. Sweet songs about being in love, killing boys, and black thumbs") sounded a little indie-rock in their tempos and melodies but they pulled it off with a punkish swagger.Kamala got name-checked by both Screeching Weasel and Sewer Trout! The vinyl is still available and this single got tacked onto to a gargantuan CD of Lookout also-rans so if you like it - buy it.
Monsula (Paul Lee on vocals, Chuck Goshert on guitar, Bill Schnieder on bass and Jeff Stofanon drums) got tagged 'D.C." a lot in their time. There seemed to be a doppelganger District of Columbia hidden in the East Bay with bands like Fuel, Jawbreaker and Monsula playing a raspy, angular punk that Ian Mackaye could love. Lookout still has a Monsula album in print but it does not contain all the tracks from this single.
The Operation Ivy Energy CD pictures singer Jesse Michael’s in his favourite Clash shirt. Hence charges of Clash-revivalism dogged Op Ivy, then Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman’s Rancid and even Jesse's last band Common Rider.
However, a legend has built around Jesse’s post Op Ivy disappearance (despite briefly leading Big Rig) and rumoured vanishing into a Buddhist Monastery. In this novel-in-progress that haunts me Jesse has served as an inspiration (alongside Brian Wilson and Californian music in general) for an unseen singer named Rob Crook.
Jesse’s lyrics combine that Dylan-via-Strummer explosive chains of images with a literary economy his novelist father (Leonard Michaels) was famed for. Jesse tossed off stinging aphorisms like, “Sympathy is only friendship’s whore” in a way few punk lyricist’s ever did.
Common Rider broke up a few years back and Jesse’s creating art now. He’ll reappear one day and be re-appraised for more than just his Clash t-shirt.
The e.p’s that follow are: Jesse’s band Big Rig (out-of-print but available digitally in far better quality on Amazon) and the Common Rider single (out-of-print but I just scored a copy at a local store, named War on Music) plus a rarities single.
Common Rider Rarities
Cringer, as mentioned often, released a series of great e.p.s in the early 90's. To bolster the argument for Lance's strength as a sprinter I've posted the "Rain" e.p which also happens to feature a Kamala song. The original Peanuts cover cannot be located
Cringer - Rain
Also from the East Bay in the early 1990's ('93 to be specific) were Dogs on Ice. Definitely almost-rans they had a nice LP on Allied Records but they never surpassed the magnificent "On a String" from the "Housefly" E.P. Joe Popp has made all the Dogs on Ice material available on line - so go hear more.
Dogs on Ice
Let us not neglect the nobly perverse double-seven inch comp e.p. It's advantages over the LP are small - but hey you can have a mini-gatefold like Frampton Comes Alive.
Turn it Around is one of those vinylized moments of history. The Gilman Street Project is better rhapsodized by actual participants (for which you can always count on Larry Livermore). I can tell you tracking this down in the apartment of a pen pal in Chicago (I still have the tape I made of her seven inch singles) back in 1990 was a tiny triumph. This comp includes Operation Ivy, Crimpshrine, Isocracy, (See here), Sweet Baby, Sewer Trout, No Use for a Name and many others.
Turn it Around
Sasquatch was also bought by a friend and committed to tape. It's much less cohesive historically, though with a clear jazz-punk bias, including such bands as NoMeansNo, Victim's Family and Schlong. As well there are the pop-punk bands such as Cringer (again!), Moral Crux (more later) and Nuisance.
Sasquatch Pt. 1
Sasquatch pt 2
Then there is the ten inch e.p., which occupies the space between single and album.
We begin with the shockingly obscure Blundermen. Four guys from Toronto who got compared to Stiff Little Fingers but who sounded like Minor Threat had grown up on Steady Diet of Johny Cash. This e.p is great throughout and "My Train's Still at the Station of the Crass" is a standout punk shit-kicker with deft lyrics. Plus it made for great post-break-up listening just like those country hurtin' tunes did. The latest Blundermen-related project is The Blastcaps.
The Blundermen Blunder on Bikini Island
Sewer Trout (from Sacramento from 1985-1990 and included Jim MacLean, bass, vocals Hal MacLean, drums Keith Lehtinen, guitar Erik Benson) were a Gilman Street era punk band who, like the Blundermen, made use of acoustic guitars and loved (in a more obvious way) country music - even stopping to cover "Foolin' Around at the end of this e.p. Their discography was briefly released on CD only to disappear again. I sold my copy (bought at this basement record shop who let the band I was touring with, the Paperbacks, sleep in their storage room) since like so many punk odds n' sods comp it was stuffed with muddy demoish material. I kept the aptly named Flawless 10" though.
Sewer Trout Flawles
Mutant Pop was a label hopelessly devoted to pop-punk. Between 1995 and 2000 Timbo released (or re-released) dozens and dozens of singles from "The" bands with three chord songs about girls. His hit ratio was pretty good. Someday someone will compile a Mutant Pop Nuggets comp to showcase the high points. In the meantime Music Ruined My Life is gob-smackingly proud to present a grab bag of seven rocking Mutant Pop singles. While the label is on long-term hiatus many of these singles can, and should be, be ordered at a modest price (especially if you're in America) from Mutant Pop. The bands herein are: Moral Crux, Cletus, The Hissyfits, The Kung-Fu Monkeys, Darlington and the Wannabe's.
Download Mutant Pop Hits
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Chapter Fifteen: Jazz Punk is my Tangent.
The Sarcastic Mannequins were obscure, Canadian, Clash-loving punks but since they weren’t three chord bashers they do break one of the promises of my mission statement. They’d like that. They used to hand out lyric sheets before their shows just to make sure that even the inattentive could be offended by their words. As well the (remaining) dogmatic punk punters were probably enraged by their forays into ragas, ska, spy, and tricky, jazzy instrumental sections. Never wanky (and usually catchy) the Mannequins would have been a good opener for NoMeansNo but with less “Kill Everyone Now” and more “Everything Pisses Me Off”.
The Sarcastic Mannequins (Beez on bass/vocals, Bradford Lambert on drums Andrew Shyman on guitar/vocals) played a tight, blistering set on a Tuesday in October of 1989 at the U of M’s pub. The assembled crowd wasn’t - so they let us hang out backstage and showered me with quotes (I was reviewing the show for the university paper). Their demo tape (still their peak) was a disconcerting yet fun jazz-punk fusion and though this album came a bit too late in their career (less propulsive) it too gave CBC Radio’s late night bizzarro programs more wild content in the dullest era of modern musical history.
Yeah, I dropped the name of the Bad Brains and my band (see ch 14) into the review. Shamless. The band members kept in touch for while and Beez was always friendly – even when I hinted that they should’ve tacked the demo onto the CD. He went on man the bass for the most-excellent Smugglers and plays in a band called the Beauticians.
This album will not be everyone’s cup of meat (hey what here is?) but to those who get it – you’ll return to it for those WTF moments spread throughout the album and if you just download for a quick look-hear don’t stop till you hit their reloaded version of Sandanista’s “Charlie Don’t Surf”.
