Chilliwack - Breakdown in Paradise

Breakdown in Paradise was aptly titled. When Chilliwack signed to Mushroom Records, the little label that signed Heart and put out their first two records (although Heart would later write "Barracuda" as a diss track to their former label), their first two records for the label, Dreams, Dreams, Dreams and Lights in the Valley would go platinum in Canada. After Mushroom Records head Shelly Siegel died in '79 the label started to flounder, and Chilliwack kept plugging away hoping for the best. When the album finally dropped in December of 1979 the label no longer seemed to be capable of marketing or pushing singles to radio.

There must have been some word of mouth, no doubt, as I remember the album and I liked "Communication Breakdown" and always thought it was a hit. There were enough copies printed that it's not a hard album to find. Who knows how many copies, maybe the record keeping sucked and the album actually did better than what was reported on the charts. Regardless, Chilliwack's bad luck in labels would continue and when Solid Gold Records went tits up in 1985 it ended the careers of more than a few Canadian bands.

Anyway, Breakdown in Paradise was one of those records that mostly worked. The opening track is probably still my favourite song on the album, and the second track "Trial By Fire" was a ballsy rocker that was a taste of things to come on the band's later albums. The blistering solo is pure "Too Loud" and the groove is pretty infectious. The weirdly clunky "148 Heavy" is a song I remembered from back in the day. The almost disco-like groove with Bill's near falsetto is really engaging. It's a song that shouldn't work, but it's really cool. Go figure.

Side two, a side I'd just finished listening to, was enjoyable and instantly forgettable. I mean, it's strange, I literally just finished it and I can't remember what I heard. So, I'm playing it again. There are only four songs, it won't take long. Just hang on a bit.

So I'm jotting down notes while the songs are playing, and the opening track "So Strong" had some really cool elements to it but it sort of went in one ear and out the other. "Last Time" has some strong "Arms of Mary" vibes going on. Decent song and Bill's voice is so good, but it just didn't click. Sort of a trend as the last couple of songs played through. Even the piano ballad that closes out the record really seemed to be going for the epic finish. It actually gets close, and frankly if I had a lighter I'd probably burn my thumb. While it's playing I'm totally engaged. Chilliwack was always a band that (to me) had some great singles, and over time they amassed a pretty impressive body of work, but their albums while enjoyable just never seemed to stick the landing.

Ab Bryant debuted on bass on this one, with guitars by John Roles, Brian MacLeod and Bill Henderson. Brian would also play drums on all but three of the album's tracks that were done by Bucky Berger before he left the band. Brian also provided the keyboards. But wait, there's more: He also sang lead vocals on "Let it All Begin." Drummer Rick Taylor who managed to get his picture on the back cover didn't play on the record and by the time Chilliwack was ready to record again the band had been reduced to the trio of Bill, Brian and Ab.

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 , ...

Billy Rankin - Growin' Up Too Fast

Growin' Up Too Fast was never widely released on CD (if at all), and it was one of the albums I really wanted to get back after a basement flood wiped out my vinyl collection in the '90s (when no one really gave a shit about records, and my insurance gave me a couple hundred bucks for an appraised $10,000 collection). Way back in 1984, my (dearly departed and greatly missed) buddy Dave let me borrow his cassette copy, which included a bonus track of "Get It On (Bang A Gong)." When I eventually bought the album, I didn't know it was a bonus track, or even what a bonus track was. If that sentence was hard to read, just go back and skim it. I'm sure you'll get the gist. I'd find out later Billy was an off-and-on-again member of Nazareth and wrote some absolutely killer songs for them. At the time, though, all I knew was this guy laid it out cold with the opening cut, "Baby Come Back," then proceeded to lay down one killer tune after another bef...

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 BTO's 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) - so 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 toward the progressive, but with a pop bent. Oddly enough, the vocals rem...

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