Old Enough to Forget

A while back I'd found City Boy's second album Dinner at the Ritz and I'd made a comment about being on the lookout for more of their stuff. Well, I didn't have to look that hard or wait that long. In addition to finding Young Men Gone West I also snagged a copy of Book Early, both of which have been patiently sitting waiting. There are others out there ... it's just a matter of time, and space ... I'll need more space soon. Before the recording sessions started drummer Roger Kent left the band, and Tony Braunagel from Crawler was brought in to play on Young Men Gone West . The dual lead vocalists Lol Mason, and Steve Broughton were awesome and really worked off each other. Their voices are fairly similar but not entirely alike. Sort of like how people used to confuse Henley and Frey. Mike Slamer the band's guitarist has a lot of room to stretch throughout the album but never overplays or resorts to technical noodling for the sake of the noodle. The...

Steven Page has been quietly releasing albums since his departure from Barenaked Ladies back in 2010. I'll be upfront and admit I don't have a dog in the fight as to whether the band is better off with him or without him. Honestly I was a casual at best and while I have a few of their CDs I more or less stopped listening after their 2001 release  Disc One that collected their greatest hits from 1991 to 2001. I had no idea he had recently (dates and times are relative around here) released Excelsior . Over the last 25 years I've more or less watched from the sidelines. When Steven left Barenaked Ladies, I  watched along with millions of Canadian their reconciliation that wasn't a reconciliation for the Canadian Music Hall of Fame back in 2018. That performance absolutely silenced any doubters that this, THIS was the version of the band we needed, but wouldn't get - and that's okay. As cool as that Hall of Fame moment was it somehow manage to exclude o...

The first Police album I ever heard was Outlandos d’Amour , at my buddy Mike’s place. I heard it once. I’m pretty sure it belonged to one of his three sisters - most likely Leslie, because she was scary and cool and smoked cigarettes. Of course I liked “Roxanne" and "Message in a Bottle." Who didn’t? But the punk‑ish reggae thing never really landed with me. Sting’s habit of tossing in those yo‑yo‑yo yodels irritated me then and honestly are still irksome. Oddly enough, though, I loved “Be My Girl - Sally” from the debut, and staying true to my contrarian streak, I also really liked “Mother” from Synchronicity , which ended up being the first Police album I actually bought. I suppose this is my way of saying I was not, am not, and likely never will be a dyed‑in‑the‑wool fan of The Police - so take everything that follows as confirmation of my suspect credentials. The first time I remember hearing anything from Zenyatta Mondatta , I was on a basketball road trip and one...

From the annals of What Could Have Been I present Flesh for Lulu's 1989 release Plastic Fantastic . This wasn't my first exposure to the band. I first heard them on the radio back when CBC Radio in the dark hours would feature Brave New Waves and expose people to indie and alternative music the mainstream eschewed. I'm racking my brain trying to remember the song that caught my interest. It's probably a false memory at this point but I'm inclined to think it was "Baby Hurricane" from Big Fun City / Blue Sisters Swing . At the time when I found the CD I figured it was a collection of two releases, but there was no internet so I was never sure. It was a rough, raw and pretty cool collection. I will also admit that I thought "Laundromat Kat" was awesome ... and yes it is two of their 1985 releases repackaged in 1986. A few years later I stumbled upon Plastic Fantastic , and this time while the songs were still raw there was also a polished sheen to...

Bad Company released Straight Shooter in 1975. The album contained eight songs, and the album's two singles "Good Lovin' Gone Bad" and ""Feel Like Makin' Love" have become classic rock classics. "Shooting Star" has gone on to be an FM standard.  I've always enjoyed Bad Company, and Paul Rodgers is often cited as the penultimate rock singer. It's interesting that renowned critic Robert Christgau who had written for The Village Voice when reviewing Straight Shooter stated that Paul Rodgers wasn't suited for hard rock as he didn't have a strong voice.* I'm not embarrassed but it's sort of telling that the era I started listening to the band was their late '80s and early '90s stuff featuring Brian Howe that gave Bad Company their gold and platinum second act. I know that time has been a little less than kind to this era of Bad Company at the time they were holding their own with the new kids and kicking ass. He...

When TOTO released their massive All in In 1978 - 2018 anthology it was as a record and CD collection, and at the time I didn't want the records, but boy oh boy was I interested in getting the remastered discs. Elliot Scheiner by all accounts had worked his magic and the much maligned Turn Back in particular was supposed to sound amazing. I remember following on the band's site and there were questions about when and if the CDs would be offered as a standalone ... Short answer: Yes, and in May of 2019 I picked up the set, and when it arrived it was a good day. The box set included a bunch of stuff like Live in Tokyo 1980 as well as XX and Old is New which were all included in the box set. Of course I now have serious buyers remorse in not getting the records as I'd love to have Kingdom of Desire and Tambu on vinyl ... even though I have the original CD releases and the remastered CDs. I was scrolling on line and saw Old is New on sale and snapped it up. Which is sort o...