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...

Jo Jo Gunne were one of the first acts signed to David Geffen's newly minted Asylum Records in 1972. The band sounded a bit like Grand Funk at times, and while the band was heavy they were more of a boogie woogie rock band than the blues based bands like Led Zeppelin or early Sabbath. I'd never heard of the band before finding their '73 album Bite Down Hard and it was good enough to put the band on my radar. Although it turns out I had heard them before, I just didn't remember. I actually have "Run Run Run" on a few classic rock compilations in the basement. It's funny that while the song registered as kind of cool I never remembered the band. Not like it matters at all. So here we have the debut released in '72 and the band kicked off side one with "Run Run Run" that sets the tone for the rest of the record, and boy howdy do the fellows deliver. It's still a bit of a conundrum as to why this didn't catch on and break the band to a w...

But Seriously Folks , released back in '78 was Joe's first solo album in a few years, and although I didn't know it at the time it was a pretty typical Joe Walsh record. ... that says nothing and makes no sense. Bear with me, I'm going to see what I can do with that and hopefully redeem myself. I have a pretty good idea what I meant. I'm just waiting for my coffee to kick in. Joe Walsh had been building his solo career after leaving The James Gang (I still remember going to the drive in theatre with my uncle Lloyd and my cousins where we saw Zachariah (if you know, you know) and The Holy Grail in a double feature. I'd see both movies more than once, and of those two I'd see one way more times than I should admit). While his first solo record Barnstorm did okay, it was his next two albums, The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get and So What that would go gold. Joe was setting to be a pretty significant solo artist.  Then he joined the Eagles and put his so...

Oh what's this? I had no idea what to expect here, but it was on Asylum records, a label that had a great track record of releasing solid artists. It was produced by Bill Szymczyk who also produced the Eagles and Joe Walsh. Some of the names were familiar as well, so I figured it was worth a shot. Worst case I'm out a buck. The inner sleeve was missing (who knows what treasures were missing, more likely it was a plain plastic insert), but the jacket was okay and the vinyl was in better shape than I thought it would be. This was released in 1973 and is very much of its time, which isn't a bad thing. I love 70s rock and roll. It's enjoyable, and there were no clunkers that made me want to turn it down, but honestly not particularly memorable after my first listen. But it did warrant more time on the turntable.  I'm on my third pass now and it has a solid groove and songs are starting to stand out (according to the ever reliable Wikipedia it cracked the top 100 peaking...