alright, just a quick one today from a band called Another Joe, saw them play with gob (they were on tour supporting a split 'Ass Seen on TV'). Anyhow, this song was pretty damn catchy then...and is still pretty damn catchy now... Enjoy!
Eat At Bernie's
Friday, May 27, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Propagandhi
One of the first punk bands I started listening to about 15-16 years ago. Oddly enough, despite being one of my favorite bands I'd never seen these guys until two nights ago in Melbourne, Australia a couple of thousand km's from our home country Canada. Random story, but I had actually met the drummer, Jord years ago (1999 I think) when me and a mate backpacked across Canada, and stopped in Propagandhi's hometown of Winnipeg. Prop at the time were running an indie label called G7 Welcoming Committee, and we stopped by their office to see if we could get some merch. We ended up talking to the one dude working there at the time for like a half an hour or something, before it finally clicked that it was Jord. We asked if we could get our photo with him, but I guess in true punk rock fashion, he declined to partake in that kinda rock and roll bs. While I think that's cool, the 16 year old kid in me is still disappointed...but life goes on.
Anyway, back on point, Propagandhi, as the name suggests our a highly political punk band. Yep, those kinda bands still exist! Regular topics include veganism, homophobia, sexism, racism, nationalism, religion, capitalism... you get the picture yeah? The only thing is, unlike a band like Anti-Flag (who I hate, which will become obvious in two seconds) who will champion similar causes (albeit with significantly less articulate lyrics and repetitive and boring song structure), but sign to a major record label and sell clothing made in sweat shops - Prop write highly intelligent, satirical lyrics and practice what they preach. They realize that integrity is #1 when making the points they make, and their albums tend to come with loads of social and political literature. Some I agree with, some I don't, regardless of that is that they make very compelling arguments, and they know how to get their point across. With that said, they can come off as preachy (which they have made fun of themselves), and have been known to ruffle a few feathers. Case in point, prior to me going to the show a friend from Canada send me a link to an article about how a white supremacist group here in Australia had publicly called upon its members to go to the venues and protest the band by both violent and non-violent means, due to the bands 'anti-nationalistic' message, or something stupid like that.
Another random Prop fact is that lead singer Chris Hannah was voted 2nd worst Canadian of all time (he campaigned for #1 to be fair).
Back to the music, sound wise these guys started off with a melodic-hardcore/skate punk sound (with a few satirical ska songs). Their debut album 'How to Clean Everything' off Fat Wreck Chords is great. Tight, melodic songs usually at a blistering speed. (another random fact, John Samson, who later went on to form the Weakerthans, played on the first two albums). The ska songs do a great job of breaking up the fast pace of the album, and they finish off the album with a Cheap Trick cover.
The videos below are all live, as these guys have never made a music clip that I know of...
Anti-Manifesto
Ska Sucks
The next album, Less Talk, More Rock (1996) is a little more of a mature, textured offering. Probably a little slower, and catchy too. But, you also see their metal influence coming out, a tell tale sign of the direction they'd take in the future.
Nation-States
title track
They released a compilation of rarities and live tracks not too long after...
True (Concrete Blond cover)
...the albums afterwards became increasingly influenced by metal (Hannah is an amazing lead guitar player, and seeing how he pulls of lead vocals and guitar live was a highlight!), and shifted away from being melodic and goofy in my opinion. TO be honest, I am not as big a fan of their later stuff, as their old - BUT they still rock and sound fresh, which is better than writing the same old album over and over again (*cough Anti-Flag).
Back to the Motor League (2001)
A Speculative Fiction
Dear Coach's Corner
Anyway, back on point, Propagandhi, as the name suggests our a highly political punk band. Yep, those kinda bands still exist! Regular topics include veganism, homophobia, sexism, racism, nationalism, religion, capitalism... you get the picture yeah? The only thing is, unlike a band like Anti-Flag (who I hate, which will become obvious in two seconds) who will champion similar causes (albeit with significantly less articulate lyrics and repetitive and boring song structure), but sign to a major record label and sell clothing made in sweat shops - Prop write highly intelligent, satirical lyrics and practice what they preach. They realize that integrity is #1 when making the points they make, and their albums tend to come with loads of social and political literature. Some I agree with, some I don't, regardless of that is that they make very compelling arguments, and they know how to get their point across. With that said, they can come off as preachy (which they have made fun of themselves), and have been known to ruffle a few feathers. Case in point, prior to me going to the show a friend from Canada send me a link to an article about how a white supremacist group here in Australia had publicly called upon its members to go to the venues and protest the band by both violent and non-violent means, due to the bands 'anti-nationalistic' message, or something stupid like that.
Another random Prop fact is that lead singer Chris Hannah was voted 2nd worst Canadian of all time (he campaigned for #1 to be fair).
Back to the music, sound wise these guys started off with a melodic-hardcore/skate punk sound (with a few satirical ska songs). Their debut album 'How to Clean Everything' off Fat Wreck Chords is great. Tight, melodic songs usually at a blistering speed. (another random fact, John Samson, who later went on to form the Weakerthans, played on the first two albums). The ska songs do a great job of breaking up the fast pace of the album, and they finish off the album with a Cheap Trick cover.
The videos below are all live, as these guys have never made a music clip that I know of...
Anti-Manifesto
Ska Sucks
The next album, Less Talk, More Rock (1996) is a little more of a mature, textured offering. Probably a little slower, and catchy too. But, you also see their metal influence coming out, a tell tale sign of the direction they'd take in the future.
Nation-States
title track
They released a compilation of rarities and live tracks not too long after...
True (Concrete Blond cover)
...the albums afterwards became increasingly influenced by metal (Hannah is an amazing lead guitar player, and seeing how he pulls of lead vocals and guitar live was a highlight!), and shifted away from being melodic and goofy in my opinion. TO be honest, I am not as big a fan of their later stuff, as their old - BUT they still rock and sound fresh, which is better than writing the same old album over and over again (*cough Anti-Flag).
Back to the Motor League (2001)
A Speculative Fiction
Dear Coach's Corner
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Our Lady Peace
First time I ever heard of Our Lady Peace was when they opened for Van Halen in 1995 or 1996. I was 12 years old, and it was the first rock concert that I went to that wasn't the Beach Boys. I was just starting to discover music at that point, so I didn't know much - but I did know that I liked Our Lady Peace that day. For one they were Canadian, second they were loud, and third they seemed cool (people in GA were moshing to them)... My priorities were skewed back then, but their first album 'Naveed' (which was purchased shortly after the concert) is still a favorite of mine today.
They sounded so familiar, yet still distinct. While they were obviously influenced by the grunge scene, they also had a melodic classic rock feel. For a debut album, Naveed is filled with tight, technical songs that manage to be both aggressive and catchy. The most distinctive thing you'll notice is Raine Maida's distinctive falsetto vocals - from the opening track 'Birdman', its clear that they are something special. I find that on typical filler tracks (that every band has) the vocals just raise the quality of the song to make em better. As they should, but there is just a unique quality in his voice.
The Birdman
Starseed
Naveed
The releases following 'Naveed' have all been decent, but I feel very different from their debut. They just seemed to have a hunger on this album, the energy is just phenomenal - I just don't think that was ever re-created on subsequent albums. Instead they embraced the new direction of alternative music in the late 90's with a much more melodic, dare I say 'safe' album in 'Clumsy'. A good album with some of their biggest songs, which cemented them as one of the top rock bands in Canada. Below are some of the highlights from those albums.
They sounded so familiar, yet still distinct. While they were obviously influenced by the grunge scene, they also had a melodic classic rock feel. For a debut album, Naveed is filled with tight, technical songs that manage to be both aggressive and catchy. The most distinctive thing you'll notice is Raine Maida's distinctive falsetto vocals - from the opening track 'Birdman', its clear that they are something special. I find that on typical filler tracks (that every band has) the vocals just raise the quality of the song to make em better. As they should, but there is just a unique quality in his voice.
The Birdman
Starseed
Naveed
The releases following 'Naveed' have all been decent, but I feel very different from their debut. They just seemed to have a hunger on this album, the energy is just phenomenal - I just don't think that was ever re-created on subsequent albums. Instead they embraced the new direction of alternative music in the late 90's with a much more melodic, dare I say 'safe' album in 'Clumsy'. A good album with some of their biggest songs, which cemented them as one of the top rock bands in Canada. Below are some of the highlights from those albums.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
gob
The first punk band I got into was a band called 'gob'. Actually that's not true, as with most teens in the early-mid 90's, Green Day was my first punk band. Anyway, when I was in grade nine the band from Vancouver Canada had a video on rotation on MuchMusic (Canada's MTV) for a song called soda. The guys all looked like they were 16, played pretty fast pop-punk/skatepunk, and in the video were just seemingly going around on bikes, jumping off ramps at the end of a dock and into a lake (a line from the chorus is "I want to jump in a lake"...get it?) and eat bugs...
then they released another song off their second album (too late no friends) for "You're Too Cool", which had hockey in it, so of course its gonna be awesome! An unimportant fact about this song, is that this was the first cover my ridiculously semi-unpopular Grade 9-10 band 'Room 237' ever played at a coffee house...that is all.
Gob ended up having a pretty decent career in Canada in the late 90's and beyond. They released several albums after, all which were more polished then the previous effort, not a band thing - as their albums also sounded more varied. As much as I love 'too late no friends' it does get a tad repetitive over 20 songs, the majority of which are under a 1:30 long and fast as can be. My favorite album is 'How Far Shallow Takes You', in case you're wondering. Also, I really love their cover of the Rolling Stones 'Paint It Black' for the Stir of Echos movie (the kinda Kevin Bacon rip off of the Sixth Sense).
I kinda lost interest in them at one point after hearing the lead single from a new album, and honestly thinking it was the Foo Fighters. I'm a massive FF fan, but I was disappointed to find out that gob had changed so much from 'soda'. Nowadays, I listen to the same song and wonder what I was thinking, and actually like the song. Gob simply developed their song writing skills and grew up, nothing wrong with that. We just had a strained relationship for a bit, like friends in high school do...for some stupid reason (ie they sounded different to their old stuff, but not dissimilar to other stuff I really liked) we didn't talk anymore...dumb
In hindsight, you can really see how influential gob was to another pop-punk band from Canada, Sum 41. Be it the goofy sense of humour (see videos), and extremely catch punk songs that weren't cheesy or lame, amazing live show.... Sure enough one of the frontmen from gob joined Sum 41, and is currently doing both bands.
The following are several more videos from gob's career, thoughts?
B(flat) (1997)
What To Do (1998)
For The Moment (2001)
Give Up The Grudge (2003)
We're All Dying (2007)
then they released another song off their second album (too late no friends) for "You're Too Cool", which had hockey in it, so of course its gonna be awesome! An unimportant fact about this song, is that this was the first cover my ridiculously semi-unpopular Grade 9-10 band 'Room 237' ever played at a coffee house...that is all.
Gob ended up having a pretty decent career in Canada in the late 90's and beyond. They released several albums after, all which were more polished then the previous effort, not a band thing - as their albums also sounded more varied. As much as I love 'too late no friends' it does get a tad repetitive over 20 songs, the majority of which are under a 1:30 long and fast as can be. My favorite album is 'How Far Shallow Takes You', in case you're wondering. Also, I really love their cover of the Rolling Stones 'Paint It Black' for the Stir of Echos movie (the kinda Kevin Bacon rip off of the Sixth Sense).
I kinda lost interest in them at one point after hearing the lead single from a new album, and honestly thinking it was the Foo Fighters. I'm a massive FF fan, but I was disappointed to find out that gob had changed so much from 'soda'. Nowadays, I listen to the same song and wonder what I was thinking, and actually like the song. Gob simply developed their song writing skills and grew up, nothing wrong with that. We just had a strained relationship for a bit, like friends in high school do...for some stupid reason (ie they sounded different to their old stuff, but not dissimilar to other stuff I really liked) we didn't talk anymore...dumb
In hindsight, you can really see how influential gob was to another pop-punk band from Canada, Sum 41. Be it the goofy sense of humour (see videos), and extremely catch punk songs that weren't cheesy or lame, amazing live show.... Sure enough one of the frontmen from gob joined Sum 41, and is currently doing both bands.
The following are several more videos from gob's career, thoughts?
B(flat) (1997)
What To Do (1998)
For The Moment (2001)
Give Up The Grudge (2003)
We're All Dying (2007)
Where to start?!
Alright, so like most of you reading this, I spend way too much time scouring the net for 'new' music. By 'new' I don't just mean recent stuff, just stuff that I haven't heard before. My idea behind this blog is simple enough, I'll post about bands that I listen too, many of which are no longer around. I'll rarely focus on new releases, but I may look at a band's back catalog. What kinda type of music you might be wondering? Well, the name of the blog gives a hint at some of what i'll reminisce about, but I'll be looking at anything from punk to alternative to alternative country to classic rock...whatever strikes my fancy, I guess.
Enjoy?
Enjoy?
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