Straight Eight - Shuffle 'n' Cut

The cover to this album seemed so familiar from my teenage record store explorations, but for the life of me I had no idea who they were. I had always assumed Straight Eight were a Canadian band ... you know what they say when you assume something:

According to Merriam Webster's online dictionary, the word assume has a few different connotations based on meaning and usage, but the one I was using, which was to take as granted or true, was number four from a list of seven variations. I should probably just use the word "suppose" next time to avoid confusion. After all, I don't want to make an ass out of you or me.

Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover, or an album by its art - sometimes you can't. Whatever preconceived notions I had formulated in my developing brain would turn out to be nonsense. I suppose what supported my assertion (almost said the ass word, tch tch) that Straight Eight were Canadian was the label: El Mocambo. This was a pretty infamous Canadian Club and also a small label that was the home of Canadian underground legends MacLean And MacLean. It was a relatively small imprint and from what I can gather they weren't a subsidiary to a major for distribution - but I could be wrong.

What has this got to do with anything? I'm working my way there, just hang on. Now, if I'd spent just a little longer on the back cover I'd have noticed this was recorded in England, and while it's not unusual for a Canadian band to record there, as soon as I dropped the needle and the opening track "I'm Sorry" blared (yeah, I'd cranked it a little ... you only get one chance to make a first impression) my first thought was, "Holy shit, this.is.awesome!" Followed closely by, "These guys are.not.Canadian," and then the realization that I had totally misjudged the band based on the cover.

After playing the album through a couple of times, it was time to check these guys out. Who were they? How come I'm just hearing this now? El Mocambo got the rights to Canadian distribution for the band's first two albums, No Noise From Here and Shuffle 'n' Cut, while RCA picked up the US market for this one. The band would record a third album, but it wasn't picked up in North America. Our loss. From what I've read, it isn't even clear if it was even released until much, much later.

Shuffle 'n' Cut is a wonderful new wave album that is all swagger with bright and pulsating guitars and big hooks. There were even some little nods to progressive rock with some John Wayne canned voice over on one of the tracks. It was really good. The whole album was really good, and there were more than a couple of sparkly tunes that would have made a good single back in '81.

I suppose if there's a downside, it's that as good as it was, it was also a tad generic and despite a strong collection of songs there just wasn't that one defining "HOLY SHIT" moment that would have pushed Straight Eight to the top of the heap. This isn't meant to be dismissive, the album is great all the way through.

The album was produced by Mike Howlett who knew a thing or two about working with new wave bands. He produced the first two Flock of Seagulls records, Thompson Twins, China Crisis, Martha and the Muffins, and even a Joan Armatrading album.

The band was good too. Nothing extraordinary, but efficient and they sounded good.

Rick Cassman - lead vocals, guitar, keyboards
Boot Kingsman - lead guitar, vocals
Steve Cherry - bass, vocals, keyboards
Paul Turner, drums, percussion, keyboards

It may have been generic, but here I am decades after the fact truly loving what I'm hearing and I did go out and find the band's debut, which I still have to drop the needle on, but I am curious. If you're inclined, the band's discography has been conveniently packaged and is out there if you care to look.

You should look.

Styx - Paradise Theater

Styx was hands down one of my favourite bands as a kid. They were a strange band, even back then. They were a hard rock band, almost progressive at times, who had a penchant for sucky ballads. I know there's a tendency for people to zero in on "Babe" as the song that killed the band's credibility. The roots go way back to almost the beginning when Styx released "Lady" on their second album. It showed a side to the band that needed to be kept in check, and for the most part the band kept things on a pretty tight leash. The band had been setting a gruelling pace, releasing an album a year (two in 1972) and by the time they released Paradise Theater (if I end up writing theatre later it's because that's how we spell it here) in 1981 they'd dropped ten albums in less than a decade. I snapped this up as soon as I saw it, and it became a fixture on my turntable. Like the band had announced on "Borrowed Time" from 1979's Cornerstone , ...

David Baerwald - Bedtime Stories

The little sticker on the shrinkwrap says, "You may remember David Baerwald from David & David's Boomtown ..." You bet, I remembered David Baerwald. Back in 1986 Boomtown was an album with moments of sheer brilliance. The whole album may not have been as top shelf as the first few tracks, but that didn't matter - it is an excellent album. I waited for a follow-up ... and waited, and then in 1990 it was a solo David, David Baerwald, who dropped Bedtime Stories . I snapped it up. "All For You," the opening cut, is still my favourite song on the album. It was mesmerizing. I'm not sure if the song got any airplay, it may have, but that may have been wishful thinking on my part as it was on a lot of mix tapes at the time and I heard it a lot in the car. The CD had a great booklet with all of the musician credits and lyrics. Oddly, when I found a sealed copy of the record (a great score), it just had a plain paper insert - the picture of David walking wit...

Gary Numan - The Pleasure Principle

"Cars" was really the only song I knew by Gary Numan. I knew the name of the album the song came from. Over the years bits and pieces of trivia are accumulated, but in terms of his music it was still distilled down to one song ... It would be too easy to write Mr. Numan off as a one hit wonder, and I suppose in terms of actual chart hits this was his defining moment as a solo artist. Of course this really means nothing, as Gary Numan would drop an album a year pretty much through to the end of the '80s. He'd then slow down a little but continued to make music. While The Pleasure Principle was Gary Numan's debut solo release in '79, he actually cut his teeth on a couple of albums in a band called Tubeway Army, first with the band's self-titled release in 1978, and then on Replicas that came out in April of '79. By the end of Tubeway Army's run most of the band would follow Gary into his solo career. Paul Gardiner, who had been with Gary from the b...

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