The first incarnation of the Bonaduces (see here) broke the vinyl barrier in 1995 with this split (produced by Weakerthans bassist, John Sutton) with fellow Winnipeg pop-punks, Bucko. "The Early Ayn Rand" re-appears here, even faster than the first time. In addition we have another first-person teenage girl narrative in the ultra-catchy rocker, "Planet Claire". Enjoy!
Download the split seven inch (Bonaduces side only - I'll fix that when I rip the Bucko demo some day.)
The Bonaduces began as a bad band. Early hopes were modest for these veterans of an odd assortment of Winnipeg bands, including the Superchunk-erific Banned From Atlantis (Doug McLean (vocals, guitar), the girl-pop Buick Six (Mike Koop, guitar), the deeply quirky Garage People (Doug again plus Bob Sommers, bass). However, this two acoustic guitars plus an off-key bassist and an off-time drummer line-up failed to set the early nineties alight.
(Doug McLean, Mike Koop and Morph the cat in their unnatural habitat, circa 1995.)
Then, quite unexpectedly, the Bonaduces clicked, morphing into a stellar, if unusual, pop-punk band. Individual member's may have leaned towards indie-rock or classic rock but when crammed into a dark, moldy practice space, things picked up speed and aggression. Complicating matters of influence was the fact that chief song-writer Doug McLean's idea of pop was borne out of pure devotion for the shifting aesthetic of Top Forty radio, whether it be the Beatles or Tiffany, or Ace of Bass or as Doug once "confided" to me, “You know, since I bought the new Chynna Phillips album, Naked and Sacred, I no longer feel the need to eat.”
The newly-electrified band chidingly referred to the drastic change in sound as their, “New, More Jeff-Oriented Direction” (for this author’s notoriously narrow taste in high-speed pop). However, the band had actually just stepped up to the challenge of accompanying the increasingly sophisticated compositions Doug was firing off at a terrifying rate. While they still bounded about the stage, Koop and Bob added their own shadings to the songs, the most significant addition being their backing vocals which drove the band to new heights of choir boy brilliance. “Soy to the World” which also features Propagandhi’s (see here) Chris Hannah on background bellows was an early, striking example of this group approach.
This stronger, tighter, louder band risked obscuring Doug's lyrical voice, an unusual one in any genre. Doug had a literary bent but not so much of the poetic variety endemic to ambitious rockers but rather the bent of a short story writer. Each song is a tautly constructed narrative, with carefully delineated characters, often written from the point-of-view of a teenage girl (which back in the P.C.-minded mid-nineties was called "voice appropriation".). Their 1995 tape, Matching Socks, Missing Feet, is more cohesive and better recorded than most demos. That said, time has done its decaying work to the magnetic tape though even with the hiss, these are clearly the songs of a band that had begun badly but was fast-approaching greatness.
As a follow up, the boys released a split cassingle with la-la girl-pop band Be'hl and, as was the style at the time, they each covered one of the other's songs. The Bonaduces, with clashing guitar lines and and vocal parts, shine as a group on their cover, "Breathe You" and Doug's teen-girl conflict ("Monica and Veronica") some how feels more personal, with the characters being more like proxies. Or perhaps we're over-analyzing a sing-along pop song.
Download the cassingle(Bonaduces side only - I'll fix that one day I promise.)
For any Manitoba readers (hello?) the Bonaduces will play a reunion show at the Lo Pub on June 20th. Don't miss it!
A desperate take on John Lennon's "Cold Turkey", another stinging instrumental, "Firewater" and another raw garage rocker, "F is for Fake" make for a vicious sophomore single from the Sid Presley Experience (see here).
The Sid Presley Experience have been heavily blogged (I'm not even sure where this rip came from) for a band with so little initial success. I first heard of the band in a glowing late eighties Spin Magazine review of the Godfathers (the SPE's next incarnation) singles collection. I've always loved the Godfathers' on a track-by-tracks basis (their stirring version of "Sun Arise" or their hammering original - if you wanna call it that - "Walkin' Talkin' Johnny Cash Blues") but often felt they need stronger song-writing work. SPE's first single, from 1984, forcefully established both band's mod-meets-mafia fashion shtick and their tough, sneering rock n' roll sound. Both tracks burn bright but the relentless instrumental, "Public Enemy Number One" comes out on top.
The Jills were the consummate power-pop-punk band, the ones that got away...till now. Had they come along at any time but the mid nineties, the Jills might've played some variation of Glam Rock. Instead, they toiled in D.I.Y. obscurity in the post-Dookie Canadian pop-punk underground, in an era that is now fit to be excavated (as every decade finally gets the musical Schliemann it deserves).
For all the digging, all you'll find about the band is this web 1.0 gem from Canoe.ca,“The Jills were formed in a bug infested Winnipeg apartment in the fall of 1994 by the Seguin brothers, Dee and Justin. The band sold 1,800 copies of its first two releases, Masturbation Vacation and The Jills In Demoland. Punk-influenced amphetamine pop, fun, flavour, and a beer-spitting, Motley Crue, high-energy live show can be expected.”
The Jills Just Wanna Have Fun! demo (released in 1997 and briefly re-issued on CD-R for a one-off reunion show) is their finale; it's Cheap Trick meets Green Day meets fuckin' Abba and it does not let up for a note. You cannot fix your past mistakes but right now you can rescue the Jills from criminally undeserved obscurity.
For reasons unknown the player is not currently working...
{MRML Readers: Do not miss out - listen and then leave us a comment about the Jills!}
MRML is a blog about the devestating effects of culture: music, politics, comics plus etc. blah blah blah. At times MRML will post fine, unpurchasable three-chord obscurica (punk, pop-punk, new wave, mod, power-pop, gospel, reggae, hardcore, rockabilly, folk, country...whatever.) - - - - - - "The otherwise unavailable files in this blog are posted for a limited time and are intended for educational, non-commercial use. These files were transcribed from what are believed to be out-of-print sources. If you are aware of any of these items being readily available from commercial sources, or if any of these files infringe upon rights that you hold, please notify us so that we can quickly remove the referenced items immediately." - - - SUPPORT THE ARTISTS - BUY MUSIC!
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Re: Re-Ups
MRML does not plan to restore all of the content lost in The Great Mediafire Gutting of 2012. Polite requests may be made in the appropriate section, regular commenters will get priority.
