The first song in this installment of my week-long tribute to Canadian music is the title track from the soundtrack of the movie Trees Lounge written/directed and starring Steve Buscemi. The video includes character actor Seymour Cassel miming the drums.
Little known fact 1) Seymour is the person who gave his son's childhood friend Saul Hudson the nickname Slash...yes that Slash.
Little known fact 2) I know Seymour's oldest daughter Lisa and I used to live with Lisa's half-sister Kelly.
The Pacific coast of Canada seems to be a fertile area for the development of innovative music. The city of Vancouver itself has produced more good bands than one would expect from a city of 600 kilopeople. In addition to the three bands featured here Econoline Crush, Black Mountain, Moev, New Pornographers and Spirit of the West also call Vancouver home.
Pure - The Hammock
Cub - New York City (They Might be Giants later covered this song), Hockey fans note in the video drummer Lisa G. occasionally sports a retro mustard yellow Vancouver Canucks sweater.
The Asexuals started out as a punk band from Montreal in 1983. After founding member John Kastner left in 1987 they took on a more melodic tone as evidenced in their single 'Walt's Wish released in the early nineties.
Kastner departed over disagreement on the musical direction of the band and went on to form the Doughboys. In 1993 they released the single 'Shine' that in the year 2000 was voted the 26th greatest Canadian single of all-time.
Original guitarist for the Doughboys, Scott McCulloch went on to form Rusty. Their 1995 album Fluke produced two songs Wake Me and California that received moderate exposure on CIMX 89x. Here is a third song from that disc 'Groovy Dead' a song about nothing more than trying to get some sleep.
The Tragically Hip are national treasures of Canada. They've been making relevant music since the early 80's. Of the 14 albums they've released 9 have hit number 1 in their home country. So Canadian is the band that they have two members named Gordon, a name that surged in popularity in that country during the career of Mr. Hockey, Gordie Howe.
This last song is about Bill Barilko a defenseman for the Toronto Maple Leafs who in 1951 scored the Stanley Cup clinching goal in overtime. It was the last goal he ever scored because that summer he died in a floatplane crash on a trip to a remote fishing location. The plane's wreckage and the victims' remains weren't found until eleven years later. Coincidentally the Leafs ended an 11 year Cup dry spell by winning Lord Stanley's Trophy that spring of 1962. It doesn't get any more Canadian than that unless they were carrying a payload of maple syrup and crashed into a polar bear being cornered by the Mounties in a Tim Horton's parking lot full of sled dogs and snowmobiles.
When I've had access to satellite radio, I always gravitate toward the 'Lithium' (90's) channel when I'm in a nostalgic mood. Although the channel does a good job covering a half dozen or so bands, it differs from my 90's music memories because of its lack of Canadian content.
During the decade when the powerchord underground and popular music universes collided and merged, I was spending 50-60 hours per week in a roll form machine shop with a blasting radio fixed on CIMX 89x from Windsor, ON.
Radio stations in Canada are required by law (CanCon law) to have at least 20% of their playlist comprised of Canadian content. As a result 89x played not only the mega-selling bands of the US and Great Britain but also under-the-global-radar bands from the home of the North Magnetic Pole.
With Canada Day, July 1, coming up next week it is time to spotlight what is lacking from any 90's retrospective filtered through American lenses.
First off is 'Trust' by 24 Gone, a Vancouver band that very few folks outside 89x's earshot have heard of. In fact if you google their name or read the comments on their youtube videos you will almost certainly see 89x mentioned by someone who first heard the band on that station. The reason is that one of the DJs at the station actually was at the studio when their album 'The Spin' was recorded. Then shortly after the recording session ended and a minimal number of copies of the cd were released, the record label went out of business and no more copies were made (until a reissue was released in the 2000's, mostly by demand of 89x listeners).
Next is a song from one of my favorite CDs of all time....Generation 6-pack by Pure, although the copy I have has a retro photo of a couple of children (presumably at least one band member) one of which is holding a beer.
Lastly, we have 'Moment of Weakness' by Bif Naked. Bif's Canadian credentials are not 100% perfect as she was born in New Delhi and adopted by an American couple before the family eventually settled in Manitoba. Although settling in Manitoba should qualify you for bonus points and perhaps an Arctic Circle all access pass.
Besides all the bands having significant Canadian pedigree, they also have a connection to one individual...the late Pure guitarist Todd Simko. Mr. Simko was in an early incarnation of 24 Gone, a founding full-run member of Pure and he contributed his guitar skills on Bif Naked's first album.
Editor's note: If you don't have time to listen to six songs just skip to the last song and watch one of the greatest Youtube videos ever.
Here are three sets of songs where the first in each set reminded me of a different song recorded earlier by another band. First off by the Charlatans ' A house is not a home' whose intro sounds like Bob Dylan's 'I don't believe you'
Next Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's 'Salvation" is reminiscent of Ride's 'Sennen'
Lastly a song I featured in my Winter is Coming post back in October, Elf Power's 'Winter is Coming' sounding like the Velvet Underground's 'Sister Ray'
The most famous rock band ever came from Liverpool, England. Here are some other bands that carry on the tradition of the home port of the RMS Titanic.
