Space Project - Conquest of the Stars

This was a total surprise. I bought it thinking it was likely a trippy prog rock album, maybe something like Starcastle, although the art wasn't as good. It was a little better than a high school mural, but then again it was kind of cool in a way too. I don't know why I thought of GNIDROLOG and their Lady Lake album but I was only thinking, "long songs, spacey cover, gotta be prog."

You what they say when you assume.

This ... was ... disco.

I suppose the thought was, "If Meco can have a disco hit with a Star Wars song, just think what we could achieve with a whole album of space disco!" So Dominic Sciscente, Michel Daigle and J. Lafleche sat around brainstorming, and after a few beers, it was decided they'd need to have a spectacular cover. There needed to be space boobs, and oh and an astronaut, but he needed to have a video camera, and be holding a space shovel and then some other goofy shit. It didn't have to make sense, but it needed to look like something you could spray paint on the side of a van. Oh, yeah it needs to come out on translucent yellow vinyl. The songs needed to be long, long enough to work up a sweat on the dance floor. This was going to be awesome.

The album was recorded in Quebec, and I'm guessing the songwriting team were also French Canadian and rather than sing with an accent they opted to go the instrumental route. I've got to hand it to disco, people weren't above just dancing to the music. Honestly, this is like four little mini soundtracks that run like an overly long credit sequence. I wish I knew why my brain starts making up voice over parts to go with the music when I hear this kind of stuff. It's entertaining to me, but also a little distracting, that and the voice in my head sounds like Bill Swisher the guy who did the speaking part in Boney M.'s "Rasputen" which was also from 1978, but that's just a coincidence ... or is it.

Considering that in 1978 shows like Buck Rogers (Erin Gray in a spandex one-piece, good lord) and even the beloved (to me) Battlestar Galactica weren't exactly ratings juggernaut (did I mention Eric Gray?) it's kind of weird that they figured there was an audience for this. Although it did remind me more of Quark and the bikini twins with the twins ... yeah, I was 14, that's the stuff you remember.

If you can park the "WTF is this?" reaction and just listen to it for the sake of kitsch this really is a lot of fun. I'm not suggesting you play this at a house party unless you want to clear the floor. I actually got more enjoyment out of this than I expected. Which surprised me as after the first song, did I need more of this ... apparently the answer was yes, yes I did and the little Swisher voice concurred and made up a story about the advances in technology that would one day make space-mail a reality. Oh of course there were space twins and Eric Gray.

There's not a lot out there on these guys, and apparently outside of Canada the album was fittingly titled, Disco From Another Galaxy, with a different cover which nicely side stepped anyone thinking this was a prog rock album. If you're curious, and you should be you can stream it.

Go on, do it..

Better yet, look for the record, it's worth it, and it's on yellow vinyl, which make it's totally more betterer. There's gold in them there grooves, baby!

6 Cylinder

As a kid we had one radio station, not counting CBC, and generally there was very little that was worth listening to, although there were times something would come on that would make you pay attention. It was 1979 and on a couple of occasions I heard "There Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens" and it cracked me up, and I always wanted to get a copy for myself. A few years ago when my niece was dancing, they did a performance to this song, and now I can't separate my niece from a bunch of dancing chicks in chicken suits. Such is life. When I found this in the dollar bin I actually let out a little chirp, my goodness could it be? It was, and it was in great shape - including the inner sleeve. Score. I had no idea what to expect, for all I knew there was only one song worth listening to, and if that was the case it was still a dollar well spent. If I could buy an album by Showdown and enjoy it, odds are I'll find something to enjoy here to. Before I put this on I...

Garfield - Strange Streets

I'd seen this before in the bin, but kept flipping through the stacks. I'd see it a few more times, each time stopping to look at it a little more. There was something kind of cool about the cover where the stylized Celtic knot had the dotted yellow line - it was a strange street for sure. I pulled the record out of the jacket and I was struck by the centre image. There was the familiar Mercury label, the same one I'd seen a thousand times on BTOs Head On album. Well, I'd bought things based on odd associations before - like when I had to buy anything that Solid Rock Records released (this was generally a good thing) who knows maybe this was a hidden gem. There weren't any real scratches or rash, just a lot of dirt and dust - it seemed to clean up okay, but we'll see how it goes. The album opens with the title track, and this wasn't straight ahead pop, or rock. It was leaning to the progressive, but with a pop bent. Oddly enough the vocals reminded me of Mi...

Hoodoo Gurus - Mars Needs Guitars!

The first time I got this album it was a gift from my old roommate Otto. For a goofy little nebbish he would occasionally surprise me with some left of field musical treasures. Although, I still think he was reaching a little when he brought home the new "Led Zeppelin" album by Kingdom Come and forced me to listen to "Get it On" over and over again. I'd not listened to Mars Needs Guitars in a long, long, long time. The first thing that I jumped out at me was how David Faulkner's vocals reminded me of his fellow countryman Peter Garrett from Midnight Oil. I think the reason this never occurred to me was at the time I didn't have any Midnight Oil until Diesel and Dust in 1987. I'm not saying it was all the time, but there were a couple of songs where it stood out. Not a bad thing, just a thing. Even at the time this felt slightly out of step with what was going on in 1985. It seemed like everyone was using drum machines and synthesizers and having t...

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