Old Enough to Forget

Sloan is one of those bands who has slipped in and out of my field of vision for a long time. I went through a phase after Action Pact dropped back in 2003 and their song "The Rest of My Life" was getting a lot of play up here in the Great White North that I decided it was time to make up for lost time and pick up their albums ... all of them. Now not everything resonated with me, but there always seemed to be a standout or a spark that was enough to fan the fire and keep me engaged. When thinking about the great Canadian bands who never really got a shot outside of the country most people will usually proclaim The Tragically Hip as Canada's best kept secret. That's one answer, but there are other responses that are equally valid. To me Sloan was the band who had had the goods, and their retro feel and quirky image should have been enough. They've not so quietly crafted one power pop album after another delivering the goods. Woulda, shoulda, coulda - the classic C...

Today I'm writing about The Tenants, one of those bands who got together, released a couple of albums and then disappeared. They are a band who was new to me and  their two albums were in stark contrast to one another, and only one is available to stream. Shall we begin? Every so often I'll pop in to Krazy Bob's and see what I can knock off my wish list. I went earlier in the morning mainly because the store would likely be empty, and for me that's when Bob is at his best. I hadn't seen him since well before Christmas and he greeted me warmly and he asked me what I was looking for. I mentioned a few things and he helped me look through the bins. His filing system is organized chaos, but it is organized. Within a few minutes I had crossed a couple things off my list and then Bob did what Bob does. "Hey, have you heard of these guys?" He's done this to me many times, and generally I try to glance at the price before committing, but he seldom pulls out an...

This is the album that has "Hold Your Head Up" probably one of the greatest classic rock songs ever. It's been a staple on rock radio for as long as I can remember. Well, that's not entirely true, but it is the one song I associated with Argent, and then in later years they were the band who originally recorded "God Gave Rock and Roll to You" a song that I associate more with Petra that Argent or KISS. To be clear, the versions by Petra sucked, and sucked hard, BUT the reprise that closed out the second side of Come and Join Us with the kids singing was awesome, seriously it's still surprising to me how good it was. A couple of years ago I found Argent's In Deep from 1973, and found that I really enjoyed the early '70s rock vibe and the interplay between guitarist Russ Ballard and keyboardist Rod Argent. The two were so good together. I'll have to pull that down again at some point. Today though I'm spinning All Together Now and the alb...

I bought this album for my dad because it was supposed to be a "jazz" album. I thought he'd like it ... maybe he did, maybe he didn't. He did though keep it, and recently when my mum was packing up her place to move she asked me to go through the records and I should take anything I wanted. Years earlier when dad was still alive he'd let me pillage his collection and I "borrowed" quite a few classics from early Ray Charles to Harry Belafonte and those albums would be lost on my watch. So I went through again and picked out a bunch of stuff, mostly stuff I'd given him over the years and a few old gospel albums that looked interesting. It's kind of weird listening to More Than a Feeling now after all this time and recognizing bits and pieces of songs I'd not heard in decades. I don't think I played this more than a few times back in the early '80s but not heard it since. What drew me to the band were the players. I'd seen guitarist...

Another one of those, "I wonder what this sounds like" albums I found in a bin. It was still shrink wrapped which is always fun. The cover didn't yield a release date, but this looked mid '80s and the guys looked like they were going to sound like ABC or Depeche Mode ... or worst case Duran Duran, or worster case, they'd be a boy band.  You know what they say about judging a book by it's cover. Well, in this case I got more or less what I was hoping for. From the opening notes of "Let Her Fall" this was that dreamy blend of rock and synth-pop. It had a lot of guitars, and there were times I got hints of INXS and Simple Minds ... of course I could have easily said it sounded like a-ha and Pseudo Echo and I'd still be right. First (The Sound of Music) was the band's debut, and it came out in '87 and by this time the '80s had developed a sound and Then Jerico knew what they were doing. Now, as much as I'd like to write a love letter...

I was too young to remember The Poppy Family, although over the years some of their songs, "Which Way You Going Billy?" and "Where Evil Grows" have become part of the great Canadian musical tapestry.  To me though Susan Jacks was the lady who sang, "I Thought of You Again" a song that appeared on Canadian Mint a K-Tel compilation that also included "Where Evil Grows" and "Seasons in the Sun" songs that were connected although at the time I had no idea. I never really thought much of Susan Jacks outside of this one song. I never forgot the song, but it was just part of a memory from another time. When I heard of her passing a couple of years ago it made me sad.  A few months ago my wife and I went to Victoria to hang out for the weekend and go for the world's most expensive high tea at The Empress Hotel. It was also a weekend where an atmospheric river savaged the southern coast of BC. Vancouver was hit pretty hard and my buddies ba...

File under: TLDR Note to the reader. First sorry, second not really, but I am sorry I don't have the ability to edit. Oh happy Valentine's day.  To celebrate let's take a gander at Meat Loaf's 1977 Bat Out of Hell. Over forty three million people disagree with me but for decades I thought this album was, and continues to be, one giant disappointment. I'll be the first to admit that despite decades of baggage the overwhelming power of nostalgia managed to erode even the hardest of convictions and I found that Bat Out of Hell was one of those albums I wanted to have in my collection, but I wasn't looking all that hard. It was an album I knew more about than I actually knew about. So at this moment in time I'm still holding firm on my long held opinion. But before I get into things, it's time for some meanderambling blurbage ... I remember seeing the cover when I was a kid and thinking it was the single greatest cover I had ever seen. What wonders were to b...

A shorter entry this time. I figured since I've done a couple entries featuring Goose Creek Symphony I didn't need to rehash a lot of stuff and repeat myself.  After I'd streamed the band's debut I was intrigued by the alchemy of hippy dippy rock and roots so I set out to find their albums and in short order I'd picked up the four records they released in the '70s. I didn't listen to them in chronological order I initially skipped this one in favour of hearing Words of Earnest because that one had "Mercedes Benz" and "Guitars Pickin', Fiddles Playin'" the song my aunt told me about. I was flipping through my records, and I realized I'd not listened to all of my Goose Creek Symphony albums. I was in the mood for something a little different and I had an image in my head about Welcome to Goose Creek would sound like, and ... I ... was ... wrong.  It wasn't a bad surprise at all ... just not what I was expecting. The album ...

This was new to me. I had heard about them from my buddy Dave back in the day, but never actually heard them. Dave was pretty dialed into what was happening in Christian music and generally had decent taste. By '86 my interest in a lot (not all) of CCM (for the unwashed in the secular world that stands for Contemporary Christian Music) because most of what I was hearing was inferior. I know Larry Norman asked, "Why should the devil have all the good music." He wasn't entirely right, but he was close enough to bury a good chunk of what passed for music being sold in Christian Bookstores. One of the hallmarks of being a Christian artist was trying to copy what was popular in "secular" music. The problem was there was a lag of about five or more years. Of course I'm generalizing, there were a handful of bands that were just plain good, but for me most of what I heard was borderline awful.  Around this time some smaller rock oriented labels started to pop up...

Opus' Solo was one of those albums I found while looking through the online store of a little brick and mortar I liked to pop into every now and again. They used to have a few locations and over the last couple of years the other stores have shuttered, and the last survivor is a little father away and is a special trip. Anyway, they have a really solid online store, and the navigation is awesome and honestly they have a decent selection. One of the things I like to do is check for still sealed items and if they're cheap enough I'll load a cart and then go pick it up. This last time there were a couple of items that looked intriguing enough to take a chance on. Solo was a German import that was still sealed, although over the years something spilled on the cover and seeped into the packaging. It's a small stain only visible on the back top right. When I went to clean the record there was a fair bit of PVC mist which was irritating but it is what it is. The things been in...

1983 was a weird year. While Culture Club and Duran Duran were taking over the world with their videos, Genesis managed to sneak in under the radar and launch a sneak attack that took everyone by surprise. Okay, maybe not everyone, but it took me by surprise. What I knew about the band would have fit on the head of a pin. A large pin mind you, but other than a couple of songs I'd heard from Duke or Abacab I had never really listened to Genesis. I knew this was the band Phil Collins was in when he wasn't making solo records. You know, the "In the Air Tonight" guy who had the cool drum sound that everyone drummed on the dashboard when the song came on if you were in the car. With respect to this album, the song that first got my attention was "That's All" and it was catchy but didn't really make me want to rush out and buy the record, but I looked forward to hearing it on the radio. It was "Mama" that got me right in the feels. The evil laugh...

Haywire were nearly the shit through the late '80s to the early '90s. They dropped their debut in '86 and the two singles from Bad Boys seemed to be everywhere. Haywire were suddenly in the mix with the big Canadian acts: Corey Hart, Gowan (yeah before Styx he was the real deal baby) Glass Tiger and of course the king himself Bryan Adams. Then the band really broke with their second album, and "Dance Desire" was a huge hit. The whole album was rock deliciousness with some spectacular guitar work from Marvin Birt and Paul MacAusland's soaring vocals. The power ballad "Thinkin' About the Years" features some jaw dropping work by Marvin. Marvin was (still is) a monster player. I love Marvin. Then the band seemed to disappear right when they were red hot. Three years later they emerged with Nuthouse in 1990, right when Haywire's bread and butter musical style was about to be flushed down the toilet. Which was a shame as the guys went all in on be...