Monday, November 9, 2009

Obscure Canada - Vol. 1

Recently I've been recording a bunch of Canadian records for someone. What you get here are some lesser known songs all taken from 7"s. Some have appeared in the past on eBay under the guise of "megarare KBD punk/powerpop". Keeping in mind that "KBD" and "powerpop" are among the most overused (and abused) terms (next to "rare" and "mint") on eBay I'll leave it up to you to decide whether these are worth searching for.

Androids - Roller Derby Queen (1979) From Toronto.
Roland Blinn & The Fishermen - Tense (198?) From Halifax. Not sure of the year but maybe early 80s. It is on the Nerve label, same as the excellent Phollop Willing P.A. 7". Also released an LP called "Rosebud" in 1989.
Blue Oil - Money (1982) All girl band from Montreal. See them do "Sardine City":

Buddy King & The Motion - Schoolgirl Alibis (1981) From Vancouver.
Cutz - Nuclear Hall Of Fame (1981) From Calgary. Same label as Verdix and Plan 9.
Dundas - Bloodshot In Your Eyes (1979) From around Hamilton? Same label as The Innocent and Tyro EPs.
Edsells - Don't Wanna Go To School (1981) From Vancouver.
Gas - Special This Week (1979) From Toronto area.
T.H.E. Hab - You Make Me Glow (early 80's?) No idea where this is from.
Idols - Reajean (1980). From Saskatoon. Members later formed the Northern Pikes.
Mix - Break Up Shake Up (1985) From Nanaimo. Has been known to sell for high prices.
Mr. Science - Popeshat (1990) From Toronto.
Paperboys - Looking For Sharon (1981) From Toronto?
Pelicans - New Wave (1979) From Brantford, Ontario.
Psychotic Pineapples - Stranded (1980s) From Kingston.
Suspects - Raining Over France (1979) From Toronto. Became The Deserters who released a couple of LPs.
Tickets - It Don't Matter (1980) From Calgary. Taken from a 4 song EP called "Extended Play".
Uranus - I'm Wonderful (1978?) From London. This is from an EP released prior to their "You're So Square" LP.
Zipper - Another Boyfriend (1980?) From Victoria.

9 comments:

trgec said...

cheers...and big thanks for this post!I'd love a lot Canadian punks and it's nice to hear some 'till now unheard music!Not bad at all!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this!!! Brilliant stuff all around. And there are no words to describe Mr Science, except to mention I once had a science teacher in grade 10 or something who was kinda like that and got fired.

Anonymous said...

Love the heavy riffage on the Psychotic Pinapples track. Lookin' forward to vol.2

Anonymous said...

I'd say the Androids, Cutz, Mix, and the Psychotic Pineapples are the best of these. Buddy King is good lightweight powerpop. The rest vary from average to mediocre. It would be hard to do a whole set of quality records, although there are another 5-6. It's surprising that a country that produced a lot of great poppunk didn't fare as well with powerpop.

Anonymous said...

Highlight for me is that Gas song "Special This Week" (with lead vocals by Eva Everything!) That is some serious Torontoian new wave circa 1980.

I'd be interested to hear the a-side of that single - "Evacuate". That song might be a bit too "quirky" for it's own good. Still wouldn't mind hearing it though!

GraemeSTL said...

That's the problem with these kind of posts/LPs - if you find some tracks you really like then you've got a long, hard search on your hands for the record followed by a huge price to pay if you're lucky enough to get it. More posts with A-sides AND B-sides please!

Erika said...

Superb nice blog! If you like canadian punk rock maybe you have Slander's "Hemi-Conscious" album from 1981. If it is so, it would be great that you could post it. Keep this work up!
cheers!!

Richgatkow said...

EXCELLENT post!!! Can't wait to hear more!

Not Waving But Drowning said...

I actually saw The Edsells play in a town called Port Moody. Back then, it was really small. They played in a bar, and nobody at that time, in that town, would know that kind of music...except for me and maybe the one other guy who I started to talk to. Somewhere in my collection I have a song they did (the lyrics have a line...she's walking to the river, she knows, that she can't swim). I recently read that they became known as the Rocking Edells and then formed a country band. Vancouver used to have great punk bands in the early eighties---DOA, Subhumans, House of Commons (originally called "Bill of Rights"). There was The Pointed Sticks, which had a pop edge. A woman called Bev Davies took photos of many of these bands and has posted photos of them on her site. It was a great time and I miss them.