Over the course of the last weekend, I did a quick little session of recording to turn out a couple songs that I wrote earlier in the week. I’ve been experimenting with some ideas for the next music project, so this was a nice break from “big ideas” and just tossing something together, using some classic chord changes and lines of inspirational poetry that I’ve always had a kinship with. Hope you enjoy!
I thought I’d get back into the swing of writing about music a little more, highlighting some of the music or bands that I’m really digging these days. Perhaps you’ll find something new you’d like. Share any suggestions you have in the comments!
So for the first instalment, I’m sharing my current new favourite band; Chain and the Gang. Their latest record, “In Cool Blood” is a fun dose of attitude, garage-gone-groovy sound… all in mono. It’s minimal and dank, with every song featuring some kind of fun hook that will bring you back. The first songs that really got me were “Certain Kinds of Trash,” “Nuff Said,” “I’m Not Interested,” IIf I Only Had a Brain” and “Surprise Party.”
This is the third record by “Chain and the Gang,” and I’m still picking out some of my favourites from their older records. I really like “Music’s Not For Everyone,” particularly the monolog on the title track, and the searing two-part jam of “Detroit Music.”
A selection for 2012 Canada Reads by CBC Radio One, I picked “On a Cold Road: Tales of Adventure in Canadian Rock” by Dave Bidini to read because it seemed like the obvious choice for myself; I play music and have entertained dreams of being a rock star, and I’m fascinated by Canadian history and those who lived it.
I also picked it partially because I never was a Rheostatics fan… growing up in Belleville, Ontario, I had no choice but to have mainstream tastes, and I never hung with any crowd that anyone would deem very “cool.” Then by the time I began to broaden my musical horizons in university, I was looking at the obscure indie rock of the 80s and 90s south of the border. The Rheostatics passed me by as the band with the weird videos occasionally on MuchMusic, but I recognize they’re important… which ultimately intrigued me enough to pick up this book.
“On a Cold Road” is more or less Bidini’s tour diary of his band’s trip across Canada opening up for the Tragically Hip, while also functions as an oral history of Canada’s early days of rock and roll. The history presented is from the side of the musicians, who talk about life on the road and the gritty details on being in a band, which gives an “on the ground” feeling to their stories.
So because I was unfamiliar with the Rheostatics, and unfamiliar with some of the early acts Bidini talks to members of, I put together this overview/soundtrack of his book, which I think functions nicely as an audio accompaniment. Maybe you don’t need to hear “New Orleans is Sinking” again, but in the context of the Rheostatic’s history in the book, alongside the greater Canadian rock music history, it may provide you with fresh ears.
Hope you enjoy listening, and you can learn more about “Canada Reads” here on CBC.ca.
Chapter 1 – Prologue
Max Webster – “In Context of the Moon”
Triumph – “Rocky Mountain Way”
Rheostatics – “Christopher”
Ken Tobias – “Every Bit of Love”
Gale Garnett – “We’ll Sing in the Sunshine”
Chapter 2 – British Columbia
The Rheostatics – “The Ballad of Wendel Clark”
The Collectors – “What Love Suite”
Chapter 3 – Alberta
The Rheostatics – “Earth/Monstrous Hummingbirds”
Zon – “Back Down to Earth”
Thor – “Keep the Dogs Away”
Tragically Hip – “Little Bones”
Chapter 4 – Saskatchewan
Bachman-Turner Overdrive – “Rock is My Life and this is My Song”
The Rheostatics – “Saskatchewan”
Bachman-Turner Overdrive – “Taking Care of Business”
Crowbar – “Oh What a Feeling”
Chapter 5 – Manitoba
The Rheostatics – “The King of the Past”
The Stampeders – “Sweet City Woman”
The Tragically Hip – “At the Hundredth Meridian”
Fludd – “Get Up Get Out Move On”
Goddo – “So Walk On”
Chapter 6 – USA
The Rheostatics – “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”
The Rheostatics – “Record Body Count”
Chapter 7 – Toronto, Part 1
Stompin’ Tom Connors – “Snowmobile Song”
Stompin’ Tom Connors – “Sudbury Saturday Night”
The Guess Who – “Shakin’ All Over”
Chapter 8 – Quebec
Rheostatics – “Bad Time to be Poor”
Rheostatics – “Four Little Songs”
Rheostatics – “Dope Fiends and Boozehounds”
Chapter 9 – The East
Tragically Hip – “New Orleans is Sinking”
Headpins – “Don’t it Make You Feel”
Rheostatics – “Aliens”
Rheostatics – “Shaved Head”
Chapter 10 – Toronto, Part 2
The Tragically Hip – “Nautical Disaster”
Rheostatics – “Claire”
The Tragically Hip – “50 Mission Cap”
This came together relatively quickly; I’ve been a huge R. Kelly fan for a long time, and exploring Aaliyah’s music is an extension of that… he was an influential person in her life, and though these covers come from her “One in a Million” record, I really hear his influence in the way she sings. So, as “One in a Million” climbed around in my brain and took hold, I decided the only way to answer that was to get inside the songs themselves, see how they tick, and see how they sound stripped of their electronic-ness, their vocal gymnastics and pop moves. Listen for yourself, but I’m pleasantly surprised that despite these “best” songs from “One in a Million” only have 2 chords or so, Timbaland and Missy Elliot (the songwriters of “Four,” “Three,” and “One”) really knew what they were doing on the melodic side of things — not just on those insanely future-looking beats. Enjoy!
A Christmas Carol Poem
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1799)
I
The shepherds went their hasty way,
And found the lowly stable-shed
Where the Virgin-Mother lay:
And now they checked their eager tread,
For to the Babe, that at her bosom clung,
A Mother’s song the Virgin-Mother sung.
II
They told her how a glorious light,
Streaming from a heavenly throng.
Around them shone, suspending night!
While sweeter than a mother’s song,
Blest Angels heralded the Savior’s birth,
Glory to God on high! and Peace on Earth.
III
She listened to the tale divine,
And closer still the Babe she pressed:
And while she cried, the Babe is mine!
The milk rushed faster to her breast:
Joy rose within her, like a summer’s morn;
Peace, Peace on Earth! the Prince of Peace is born.
IV
Thou Mother of the Prince of Peace,
Poor, simple, and of low estate!
That strife should vanish, battle cease,
O why should this thy soul elate?
Sweet Music’s loudest note, the Poet’s story,
Didst thou ne’er love to hear of fame and glory?
V
And is not War a youthful king,
A stately Hero clad in mail?
Beneath his footsteps laurels spring;
Him Earth’s majestic monarchs hail
Their friends, their playmate! and his bold bright eye
Compels the maiden’s love-confessing sigh.
VI
Tell this in some more courtly scene,
To maids and youths in robes of state!
I am a woman poor and mean,
And wherefore is my soul elate.
War is a ruffian, all with guilt defiled,
That from the aged father’s tears his child!
VII
A murderous fiend, by fiends adored,
He kills the sire and starves the son;
The husband kills, and from her board
Steals all his widow’s toil had won;
Plunders God’s world of beauty; rends away
All safety from the night, all comfort from the day.
VIII
Then wisely is my soul elate,
That strife should vanish, battle cease:
I’m poor and of low estate,
The Mother of the Prince of Peace.
Joy rises in me, like a summer’s morn:
Peace, Peace on Earth! The Prince of Peace is born!
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not one for ranking “bests,” I prefer favourites, and this time around I’m addressing my favourite “new” releases in order of release date, which is a fair indication of what time of the year I was listening to that record at its peak.
1. Destroyer – “Kaputt” (January 25)
Jonas Reinhardt – Smokey Jotus from Not Not Fun on Vimeo.
Siskiyou – “Dead Right Now” from Constellation Records on Vimeo.
While working on the new “Silver Speakers” record, I took a break to record these covers from the latest Handsome Furs record, “Sound Kapital.” The songs are “Memories of the Future,” which I think really compliments and resonates with the themes I’m exploring on the new Silver Speakers record, “Never Was,” and “Cheap Music,” which I think is an anthem for New Music as we know it/create it today.
Let me know what you think, the “sound” is similar to what I’m approaching for “Never Was” as well, kind of like a low-key acoustic take, instead of the dusty/smokey atmosphere of last year’s “Iceland.”
In continuing with the run of music posts lately, I wanted to share the following track, “Oh Yes My Lord” by the Voices of Conquest. First of all, how great of a group name is that? Secondly, you have to listen to this: it’s simply a vocal group doing their thing with a really banging percussionist. It’s on the album “Good God! A Gospel Funk Hymnal,” which is loaded with amazing, funky, experimental gospel. If I had any talent for vocal arrangement, I would put together an EP of worship music like this. Mind-blowing.
Inspirado, thy has struck again, and your name be JIMMY HOTZ. This is exactly why I love the internet, the obscurities of the past are the treasures of today, unrestrained by physical copy… just the desire to have ideas live on. As you can see, I’m already getting overtly influenced by Jimmy Hotz and his singular epic, “Beyond the Crystal Sea,” a psychedelic opus of early “Christian Rock” that is more King Crimson than Stephen Curtis Chapman, if you know what I mean. I can’t even begin to describe how awesome this is… just do yourself a favour, and grab this from iTunes or wherever.