Radio What Wave Playlist...Dec 30/2010 Cedar Lounge Special Part 2

This is the second installment of the Cedar Lounge Special and aired on Thursday Dec 30th in the usual time slot of 7 to 8:30PM...Part 3 will be aired thursday Jan 6/2011 7 to 8:30PM.

This is taken facing north, from the south side of King St. A little to the right is Talbot St. This was the door that you entered and paid your $2 cover. When you first walked in there was sort of an alcove that had vertical members (like 2 x 4's in an unfinished basement) that you could see all around the club and decide if you want to pay your cover or not. Many kids took one look and never came back again...their loss. This photo was taken on 8/15/80 the day after a Forgotten Rebels show and their was graffitti on several buildings downtown, obviously the punks did that!




1. The Spies...Underground...from their only 7" and they came from Windsor Ontario. Played the Cedar several times, renamed themselves The Nelsons and played a few times towards the end of The Cedar Lounge.



2. The Secrets...I'll Cry Tomorrow....Toronto based, and features 3 members of the original Viletones and a Diode. This and the next tune were taken from the OPM CD Teenage Rampage. These guys were a step out of time with the punk and new wave that was happening in the late 70's and preferred to play early 60's rock'n'roll, definitely garage like and they still sound REALLY good to these ears.



3. The Secrets....All The Words...2 great songs, classic buildup, memorable hooks, and they shoulda been contenders! They played 2/14/79 to 2/17/79 at the Cedar.

The Scenics playing live at Call The Office in London Ontario.

4. The Scenics...O Boy...from the Last Pogo CD, think it came free if you pre-ordered Treat Me Like Dirt book. Another band that was a step out of time, too arty for the punks, yet too punky for the artsies! Make sense? Not to me either, but these guys were one of the first Toronto bands to jump on the DIY bandwagon, recording themselves, playing out live and trying out new things. In their lifetime, they releaesed an LP, a 7" and appeared on The Last Pogo complilation LP.



5. The Scenics...Do The Wait...taken from the Sunshine World CD. There's that break near the end of the song, right after they sing 'Do The Wait' that is almost unnerving...done intentionally of course, these guys have tricks up their sleeves and you gotta listen close sometimes to pick them all out. If they only came from NYC or London....

Another shot of The Scenics playing at Call The Office...that's Andy in the center.

6. The Scenics...Waiting For My Man...from the How Does It Feel To Be Loved CD. These guys are currently going through all of their old tapes and releasing them as downloads on their website. There's some gems there... As a piece of trivia, Andy, guitarist/vocalist owned a record store here in London back in the early to mid 80's. Located at the SE corner of Clarence and Queen the building is long gone. There's also an interview that we did with Andy that appeared in an early edition of Mongrel Zine.



7. Arson...Pretty Girls...this was unreleased at the time and appears on the compilation Smash The State Volume 1 put out by Frank Manley to accompany his book of the same title. Arson were from Toronto and released a 7" and appeared on at least one compilation during their time. They also appeared at least twice at the Cedar Lounge.



8. Arson...We Gotta Get Out Of This Place...the Animals song and from the compliation LP No Pedestrians. They appeared at The Cedar 9/16/78 to 9/9/78 and 11/21/79 to 11/24/79.

This photo is from the Oct/Nov 1978 issue of Bomp Fanzine...there's also a great article on the Toronto scene by Ralph Alfonso in that ish.

9. The B-Girsl...Who Says Girls Can't Rock...from the OPM CD of the same name. An all girl new wave/powerpop band that later featured Marcy Saddy from London on drums. Another one of those bands that coulda and shoulda gone far...opening for The Clash, hanging out in NYC and LA, pictured in the cool rock'n'roll mags of the time like Cream, Who Put The Bomp and Rock Scene. Bassist Cynthia was the girlfriend of Dead Boy Stiv Bators.

Another page from the same ish of Bomp Fanzine.

10. The B-Girsl..B-Side...from their only output of the time, a 7" on Bomp Records. An LP was rumoured to be coming out on Bomp but never materialized...in the meantime The Go-Go's got their LP out and had major mainstream success.



11. The B-Girls...Jealousy...also from the above CD. One time the B-Girls were advertised as appearing at The Cedar, but they couldn't make it, or were late or something. Opening up was NFG, who dressed up entirely in drag and claimed they were the B-Girls...so maybe The B-Girls are responsible for the way those guys dressed after that show!



12. The Mods...Reign Of Terror...from the OPM CD Twenty 2 Months...another band that coulda and shoulda they appeared at least 3 times at the Cedar Lounge...2/21/79 to 2/24/79, 5/9/79 to 5/12/79 and then renamed The News on 10/31/79 to 11/3/79. There were too many bands with the name The Mods back then so they figured a name change was due. Think they went back to The Mods after a short time.



13. The Mods...Step Out Tonight...from their 7", this is the song that shoulda broke these guys out!

David Quinton talking to some future lawyers at a talk at the University of Western Ontario Law School early 2010.


14. David Quinton...Make Up Your Mind...from the CD Bombs and Lullabies. David was the drummer of The Mods and was handpicked by Dead Boy Stiv Bators to be his drummer when Stiv cut his solo powerpop record on Bomp Records. David also played in a late version of The Dead Boys, helping out Stiv. He's presently a big wig lawyer in Toronto, dealing with huge entertainment people but still LOVES to talk about his days playing in bands. He did a talk at the Law School here at the University recently and mentioned playing at The Cedar, playing with Stiv Bators, meeting Greg Shaw and all of the other influential people of the time period. He has some great stories, so if you ever get a chance to hear David talk, don't miss it!



15. The Forgotten Rebels...I Think Of Her...recorded live at The Cedar Lounge and is from the CD Forgotten Rebels on OPM Records. The Rebels played The Cedar many many times and always put on an entertaining show!

The Forgotten Rebels playing in a farmer's field somewhere outside of Goderich Ontario...7/4/81. It rained that day which put a stop to the show for awhile. Also on the bill were The Demics, Zellots and Fictions.

16. The Forgotten Rebels...Surfin' On Heroin...from their This Ain't Hollywood LP on Star Records. One of those songs that The Rebels and bassist Chris Houston will always be remembered for.

17. The Forgotten Rebels...Elvis Is Dead...from the above CD, and again live at The Cedar. Probably recorded in Aug 1980.



18. The Forgotten Rebels...You're A Rebel Too...from the In Love With The System LP on Star Records. Bought this right after seeing the Rebels in Aug 1980 and played the shit out of this one. Lead singer Mike still gets a band together every once in awhile and plays out as The Forgotten Rebels and the kids still dig it!



19. The Fast...Wet'n'Wild..from the Fast For Sale LP...3 NYC brothers form a band in the very early 70's, pre-dating the NYDolls even. They play their own crazy version of bubblegum meets glam meets theatre...way ahead of the curve, these guys didn't fit in with any scene. As far as i can figure, they only played one night at the Cedar Lounge, 11/4/78.



20. The Fast...Kids Just Wanna Dance...from the Munster Records CD, The Best Of The Fast: 1976-1984. A highly recommended CD!!



21. Joe King Carrasco and The Crowns...Houston El Mover...from his Island LP. Joe released lots of records back in the day, toured constantly, appeared on American Bandstand and put on amazing shows and obviously was based in Texas. He only played one night at The Cedar, 7/24/79 with The Zellots. I was a schmuck and didn't go in cause the cover was an astromical $5 (in those days, cover was usually $1 or $2) and had no idea who Joe Carrasco was. Joe later came back to Fryfogles (club on Dundas St where the Library presently is) and it was supposedly a really wild show according to legend. Fryfogles was another influential club and we'll do a Radio WW special on it in the near future!



22. The Standing Waves...Integrating Circuits...from a 7" they released, again based in Texas and this combo had a bit of that Sir Douglas meets new wave sound. The beauty of The Cedar Lounge, is you could almost always be guaranteed to see/hear a cool band and there were lots of surprises like The Standing Waves.



23. Psychedelic Furs....Pulse...from their first LP and they made one appearance at The Cedar, 10/6/80. Another show i'm still kicking myself for missing, but think i had an exam or something the next day...The Zellots covered this song in their live show.



24. Fingerprintz...Close Circuit Connection...from their self titled LP, some of these guys went on to form the commercially successful The Silencers. 10/16/80 to 10/18/80 at The Cedar.



25. Chris Spedding...Hurt By Love...from the Hurt LP, Chris made several stops in London over the years, and 1/2/81 at The Cedar Lounge.

Certain General playing at The Embassy Hotel 1/1/83...that's mMarcy Saddy on the drums and is also the only picture I have of her in the band. There's more pics from this show on the Radio WW page on facebook.

26. Certain General...B2C2...from their Holiday Of Love EP from 1982. It was the summer of 1981 and drummer Marcy Saddy brought her latest band, NYC based Certain General to play Rose and Doug's wedding at The Cedar Lounge. The band decided to stay here for awhile playing club shows at The Cedar and Fryfogles and supposedly rehearsing. They put on some amazing shows, one of the first bands of that era that i saw that started to touch on psychedlia and surf sounds and if i remember correctly, would bring lit candles to the stage to enhance the vibes of their show. They came back a year or 2 later and played at The Embassy Hotel, i'll try and dig out my pics from that show.



Thanx for all the call-ins, emails, kudos etc etc....on next week's show, we'll continue this special and probably start the show with some more Certain General.

The west wall of The Cedar Lounge, picture taken sometime in the summer of 1980.



The show is archived at:

http://chrwradio.com/archive/

Thursday at 7PM.



Happy New Year!

Radio What Wave Playlist...Dec 30/2010 Cedar Lounge Special Part 1

Radio What Wave Playlist...Dec 30/2010 The Cedar Lounge Special Part 1

This was a special early show, starting at 3:30PM until 6PM on Thursday Dec 30/2010 and is the beginning of The Cedar Lounge Special. The Cedar Lounge was London Ontario's first exclusive punk/new wave/whatever club and ran from late 1977 until May 1/1982. This series will feature ONLY bands that played at The Cedar Lounge...

1. Uranus....Gilligan's Island...from the You're So Square LP 1980 on Trilogy. If it wasn't for Uranus, and their insistence on playing at The Cedar Lounge (then called The Blue Boot Hotel) London would not have had the music scene it had back in the late 70's/early 80's. If it wasn't for Uranus, i wouldn't be the music geek that i am today....so you can blame Uranus, for this and just about anything else you want to!

2. Uranus... '53 Buick....from their first and only 7" EP, it's pictured above, top RH corner.



3. Uranus...You're So Square...yep, this was a hit on AM radio across Canada! Our hometown boys travel across Canada and even appear on Terry David Mulligan's TV show from Vancouver! But things aren't all rosy, the boys realize that they're getting shafted something fierce and there's no money coming in....travelling across Canada and having to stay at campgrounds sure ain't the big time!



4. Uranus...Lonesome Train...from the You're So Square LP...when i heard these guys play this song, and other Johnny Burnette and the Rock'n'Roll Trio songs live at The Cedar, it changed my whole appreciation of live bands. Here's a band that actually know the songs that i'm digging at home and play them live...usually when we went to see live bands back in the late 70's it was all Arrowshit, Led Shittelen, Pink Shit, and other shit covers....Thank You Uranus!!

5. The Demics...New York City...from the Talk's Cheap EP...Frank from Uranus was able to convince the owner of The Cedar to let The Demics play live...don't let that door hit you on the way in as the crazies have taken over and there's no looking back! Beer, beans, loud music and a whole lotta fun as the world will never be the same again. Another reason to thank Uranus.



6. The Demics... 400 Blows...from the New York City CD on OPM Records...recorded live at The Cedar Lounge.



7. The Demics... Talk's Cheap...from the Domestic Animals cassette. This was the 1st cassette of all local bands issued. The people that put it together (Peter Moore and Gerry Collins) didn't bother talking to the bands, or even tell them that it was going to come out. It was a total surprise to most of the bands! Hence a 2nd cassette called Animals Fight Back (compiled by Chris Richards of The Generics) was released with all of the band's involved approval. The way things should be done! And we'll be playing The Generics in a later part of this series.



8. The Demics...Oh Well...from the above mentioned Animals Fight Back CD.



9. The Regulators...That's Right, Nothing's Left....from their only 7". Yep, the doors have been opened and there's new bands forming and there's actually a viable scene in sleepy London Ontario. The single came out in 1979 on Ready Records.



10. The Regulators...What's In The City...from the Animals Fight Back cassette. It's actually the flip side of the above 7" but you try and flip over a 7" without stopping while you're on live radio...did i mention that this whole show was done live on air? Not pre-recorded or done on a laptop...this is the real deal with vinyl and CD's...hence the usual Radio WW fuckups that we do every week! It wouldn't be a RWW without a fuckup or 3!

Gord Lewis and Jack Peddlar at the Treat Me Like Dirt Book release party at This Ain't Hollywood, Hamilton 1/20/10. Steve Mahon was on bass, but i didn't get any decent pics with all 3 of them.



11. Teenage Head...Picture My Face... recorded live at The Spoke (fall 1980, sometimes this boot floats around as Live At The Spoke And Rimjob) and broadcast over the airwaves of CHRW with profanities and all. Since it was students (and the students guests only) that were allowed to get into this gig, i stayed home and taped it from the airwaves live on CHRW. Industrious little bastard with a lot of forthought wasn't i? And thanx to Andy Butler of the 905's for transferring the original cassette to CD for me a coupla years ago! Yes, this is Teenage Head in their glory, David Bendith is on guitar as Gord Lewis was involved in a serious car accident prior to this gig. Frankie describes the dressing rooms of The Cedar Lounge to a tee as this song starts out. Teenage Head used to regularly pack The Cedar Lounge and put on KILLER shows! From Hamilton Ontario, but you already know that if you're read the book 'Treat Me Like Dirt' by Liz Worth...more about this book later, so stay tuned.



12. Teenage Head...Tearing Me Apart... from their first single.



13. Teenage Head...Top Down...2nd version, recorded in 1978 and released as a single. One of my all time fave records from this era as TH get those killer Beach Boy like harmonies down so perfect! And the car sounds...Fucking amazing!!



14. Teenage Head...Kissing The Carpet...again live at The Spoke Fall 1980. They give the call out to CHRW and Nick makes the comment along the lines of 'if they haven't cut us off the air by now' that is just so perfect! Dunno how this ever got on the air...only Frankie would know what it's like to get boned up the ass by Elvis Costello who according to Frankie, 'is hung like the heater hose on a Mack Truck!!!' A little too much information there Frankie...LOL....



15. Crash 80's....Nowhere To Hide...from the Domestic Animals cassette..singer Pete Tangredi was later in Suffer Machine and presently The Cool Mothers. A little soul, funk and art mixed with punk is a good thing!



16. Crash 80's...Waiting For The Heat....from their only 7"...London band.



17. The Sinners...Some Enchanted Evening...from the Animals Fight Back cassette. Another local band who played just about anywhere and everywhere in London. Featured Paul Harlow (sometimes used other surnames) who later went onto Spiral Scratch and then Crawling Kingsnakes. We'll be spinning some Spiral Scratch in a later show.



18. The Sinners...No Brains Required...had to use the version from Punk History Canada CD that came out a coupla years back...all Canpunk from 1977 to 1982. This was also released on a 7" but mine has gone missing....if anyone has a spare copy please let me know.

19. NFG...Fuck Your Mother Later...from the Animals Fight Back cassette....Not For Girls, Non-Functioning Gear, No Fucking Good....take your choice but when these guys started out they were Fucking Amazing!! Bassist Bob had this really long hair that would fly around while he was playing and jumping up and down and get tangled in the strings of his bass. Drummer Pete had one of the cheapest drum kits around and it would constantly be falling to bits and pieces as he pummelled the living bejusus out of it. Singer Steven R Stunning would show you what was between his legs whether you wanted to see it or not and guitarist Markii Burnaway, ever so coy, came out of the closet with his drag queen persona...a sight and sound to behold this NFG!! You had to see it to believe it, they were that fucking good! There's an interview i did with them a few years back that appeared in the Greek fanzine Rumbleskunk (it's in the picture above).

20. NFG...At The Boot...from their 12", this is the anthem dedicated to The Cedar Lounge (formerly called The Blue Boot, hence the title) and recorded live, fall 1980 at The Cedar Lounge.

21. NFG...HiJack Victim...from the above 12', but also released on a Killed By Death compilation LP, #10 to be exact. Possibly the only London band to be on one of these comps were compiled by the collectors of late 70's/early 80's punk records. Not only that, but this is one of my fave songs from back then...just listen to those lyrics next time you hop a plane bound for Lauderdale!



22. NFG...Media Junkie...from the Punk History CD...by this time, NFG had become 63 Monroe, then First Date and then back to 63 Monroe. Make sense? Didn't think so, marketing was certainly not high priority to these guys. Maybe that's why singer Steven R Stunning didn't win when he campaigned for mayor for the city of London. Instead we got that bitch who hated gays!



23. 63 Monroe....Weekend Punx...from the Stinkin' Out The Joint LP...the rhythm section has left and now we've got ex-Verge members Pete Dekoker and Jeff Rooth (RIP) as members. In 2002, CHRW manager Mario Circelli did a documentary on the London punk scene and called it Stinkin' Out The Joint. Check youtube for that one, well worth checking out if you're a fan of the late 70's London punk scene. Oh, more trivia, this lineup of 63 Monroe played CBGB's in NYC!

24. Hot House...Burn It Down...from the LP of the same name....a budget metal band that played The Cedar fairly regularly and billed themselves as aggressive rock (or something along those lines). Bob the drummer was sometime sound guy at The Cedar and bassist Dick Demmery appeared in many other bands including a late version of Flying Squad.



25. Soma...Mr Mill...from the Animals Fight Back cassette...saw them a coupla times, but can't remember much.



26. Mettle...5/4...from the Domestic Animals cassette and was the brainchild of former Demic Rob Brent who wanted to go in an art direction. They did release a 12" which i sold years ago.



27. Enemas...Joe Wyatt...from the Animals Fight Back cassette..these guys were from Guelph (and did a song called Picture Yourself at Guelph, a song about not really fitting in...what punk did?) Ontario and featured NFG's Pete Lamberts brother on bass.... I remember really liking these guys back in the time.

28. The Zellots...Let's Play House...from a 1979 demo when the band was based in Vancouver. Chris and Jane, two London friends, both moved to Vancouver, unaware that the other did, and they ended up living within a couple of blocks of each other. Formed an all girl band with Holly and started playing in Vancouver opening for DOA, Subhumans, Pointed Sticks (all 3 of these bands will be featured in a later show in this series as they all played The Cedar Lounge) and others. Jane and Chirs moved back to London, Cathy Destin took over vocals and they played out lots around London. One of those bands that coulda and shoulda...they opened for John Cale at Fryfogles and he wanted to take them to the UK and open for him....instead they break up.Typical thing to do for a London band.



29. The Zellots...On The Dole...as above, some great lyrics on this one...listen carefully!

30. The Zellots...Blades...from the compilation CD called You Only Get One Shot at The Big Time on Wizzard in Vinyl from Japan. This is one of the Emac Studio demos and everyone involved had no idea that this  CD was coming out. A copy arrived in the mail for me one day, opened it up and recognized one of my pictures of The Zellots from 1980 taken in front of Flamingos Hair Salon, Dundas St near Adelaide (see above)! Yep, there's a whole buncha those pics inside the booklet that comes with the CD and some of these pics have appeared on facebook. The compiler of the CD, Keith Grave, an old buddy from the What Wave zine days, sent me a copy as it had my pics in it and asked me to try and get in touch with the band. At the time, i wasn't able to, but since then, contact has been made....a possible Rave Up vinyl LP may be next!

31. Simply Saucer...I Can Change My Mind...from the 7" on Pig Records from 1978...shout out to our pal Gary Pig Gold at this point!! Yep, SS played The Cedar Lounge 5/16/79 to 5/19/79, a 3 day visit that singer Edgar Breau recalls very little about...too many years and beers, or something along those lines was what he said to me when we had him on Radio WW about 1.5 years ago!

L to R...Ralph Alfonso (Head honcho at Bongo Beat, publisher of Treat Me Like Dirt, manager of The Diodes, beat poet, record/CD sleeve designer, and a million other things), Mike Niederman (whose loft The Demics debuted in) and Liz Worth (author of Treat Me Like Dirt) at the London Record Show 2/14/10.

32. Simply Saucer...Bullet Proof...from the Cyborgs Revisited LP....this has the 'Treat Me Like Dirt' chorus on it as this is the beginning of out Treat Me Like Dirt portion of the show. All of the following bands are featured in Liz Worth's Treat Me Like Dirt book...you can get a copy from the publisher, Ralph Alfonso when he comes to the London Record Show this winter. That's him in the pic above, he's a nice guy and real easy to talk to. Thanx to our pal Bruce Mole Mowat for having the fortitude to release this record! One of the greatest records to ever come out of Canada.



33. Simply Saucer....Simply Saucer Story....from a CD called Saucerland that lead singer Edgar gave me last time we had him on Radio WW for an interview....a rock'n'roll droog indeed!

34. The Diodes...Red Rubber Ball... from a 7" from 1977. The first Canadian punk band to release a record on a major label!! They played The Cedar a few times and also have the distinction of being the first ever punk band to play here in London...read Treat Me Like Dirt for the details!



35. The Diodes...Child Star...from their greatest hits CD...The Diodes played Call The Office here in London this past June, you shoulda been there, it was an amazing and loud show! See the poster for the gig above



36. The Diodes...Tennis Again...from the above CD.



37. The Viletones...Screaming Fist...from one of their 7"'s. They only played The Cedar once as they destroyed the place and weren't allowed back. Later on they came back to London, this time at the Embassy Hotel.



38. The Viletones...Possibilities...from the A Taste Of Honey CD on OPM Records...mixed by Peter Moore, one of the 2 individuals responsible for the Domestic Animals cassette release.



39. The Viletones...A Sign Of The Times...from the What If Feels Like To Kill CD...this is from around 1977 and there's some great songs on this one, this almost feels like powerpop!



40. The Viletones...Swastika Girl...from A Taste Of Honey CD...read the book for the full story with all of the grimy details that you really didn't want to know...or maybe you did.





At this point, there was an hour of documentaries scheduled, so i chilled out, drank some Gold Keg and got ready for the next portion of the show. And that will be in a future blog...time permitting.

Some Record Reviews For Mongrel Zine 9 that wouldn't fit...

Due to size (and money) constraints, a few of the record reviews I wrote for the latest Mongrel Zine (#9) didn't fit in...so here they are. I'm gonna add some notes after some of them, to update the review...plus I added the review of The Fine Print which somehow got missed.

Here's the link to Mongrel Zine, easily Canada's coolest garagepunk fanzine:
http://www.mongrelzine.ca/

CATL
With The Lord For Cowards You Will Find No Place LP
Folk Brand 2010

Here we have the second long player from this Toronto combo, and since their last record, they’ve gone from a two piece, to a trio with the addition Sarah K on keyboards, percussion and background vocals to fill out the sound. There’s still lots of rough and tumble primal blues, but some of the songs are sweetened up just a little bit with the addition of the organ, which gives these songs an almost 60’s garage punk vibe at times. Classic, cool and timeless all at the same time, this is one of those records that I’ve played many times and each time, seem to get into a different song. But the highlight for me is the closer, “Workin’ Man’s Soul” where you can feel that 40 hour burden leave your body and mind as this song brings it all together in a gripping climax. And live, this band is nothing short of demonic as they toss in Hasil Adkins numbers along with their originals to let you know where they’re coming from!!!
(I'm still digging the shit outta this record and it easily makes it into my top 10 for 2010! catl did a residency at The Drake in Toronto for most of the summer and are becoming a Toronto band to watch for.)



THE EVIL FARM CHILDREN
Three Orange Whips/Outer Limits Bride 7”
Dad’s Favourite 2010
Ottawa 3 piece greasy rock’n’roll combo that lives up to the expectations of their live show on this little 7” of purplish multi coloured vinyl. A side is a guitar instro that combines surf and Link Wray sensibilities for a catchy little ditty that could have easily come from an obscure late 50’s instrumental compilation, but is actually a self penned number. Flip it over for the hook laden tale of an invisible bride as the background harmony vocals on this one make the song.



THE LIVING DEADBEATS
Demo CD 2010
Hey Girl CD 2010
The Living Deadbeats have been real busy lately, 2 brand new CD releases, plus one of the songs from the second CD, Hey Girl/Liar Liar was picked by Dirty Water Records in the UK as one of their single of the week downloads! Not bad for a fairly new garage punk band from Vancouver who have yet to take the show eastward to the rest of Canada. And since most of you probably haven’t heard The Living Deadbeats yet, they lay down a raw and tasty mix of 60’s garage punk meets late 70’s punk sounds fueled by the over the top vocals of Lindsay. There are some real gems on these 2 CD’s that have been getting a lotta airplay around here. From the Demo CD, the pick hit is Theme Song with its hook laden background vocals while the lead vocals introduce the band over top of a three chord fuzz rumble. In fact most of the Demo CD is in this sonic mode of attack with some mighty fine songwriting. The Hey Girl CD is shorter in length at only 3 songs, and this time my fave cut is Time with its screaming putdown over the fuzz and thump of the rest of the band. And if these 2 CD’s are any indication, The Living Deadbeats should be putting out one heck of a longplayer in the not too distant future!



THE MARVELOUS BEAUHUNKS
Do Not Resuscitate CD 2010

 The Marvelous Beauhunks were a Toronto based combo that lasted for a couple of years in the early 90’s and put out one cassette during that time. Now, 20 years later, they’ve decided to release a CD containing their previous recordings with a few live tracks tacked onto the end, and… go out and play live again! Why I missed this band back in the day, I have no idea, but based on this CD it’s time to make up for that oversight as I’m sure these guys will be putting on some amazing shows to make up for the last 20 years!

Soundwise, this is some really cool mod influenced powerpop with a slight early Jam/Who influence that comes out in a few of the songs. There are lots of hooks and background vocals in all of the right places and the songs have that timeless quality about them which makes a great recipe for cool powerpop!
(they've done a reunion show at Mitzi's Sister in Toronto, I'm assuming that it went well...and this one has been really growing on me and sounds like it could have easily been recorded in 2010.)


The Fine Print
Standing Out CD  2010

I actually thought that I had reviewed this one for the latest MZ, but somehow it got overlooked. The Fine Print is a London Ontario based combo that base their sound on the mid 60s' sounds of The Zombies/Kinks and they have the chops to back it up!  From the opening drum snaps and minor chord guitar attack, you know you're in for something special on this one, as the twin guitars intermesh precisely and the background harmonies are just so perfect! Made for repeated listens, this one has barely left my CD player and gets played weekly on Radio What Wave as I can't seem to get enough!  Which brings up my one complaint, it's too short at only 6 songs. A long player is definitely needed from these guys. And this easily made my top 10 for 2010, no questions asked!
I've only caught these guys live once, as they don't play out very often, but what I saw and heard at that show blew me away! We definitely need some more bands like this in sleepy London Ontario!!

Top 10 Reasons to Contribute to CHRW's Fundraising 2010

CHRW's 2010 Fundraising runs from now until Oct 31/2010 at the London Record Show. This is your chance to donate to our local (London Ontario) radio station and help us keep our equipment up to date and keep everything running smoothly. This past year, our transmittor was replaced with a brand new digital unit, replacing our old tube (yep, really and the tube was NOT cheap to replace) to bring you better over the air sound. This year we're working on getting better equipment to do live to airs from events around London.

Here's the link to contribute online:

http://chrwradio.com/donate/

Or you can phone 519-661-3600 during any show and talk to a live DJ/host to make your pledge.

Now here's 10 reasons (there's lots more, but these sprung to my typing fingers) why you should contribute if you're a regular listener of Radio What Wave...

1. We’ve had some of the coolest guests on air since the last fundraising event…Joe Shithead of DOA, Paul Robinson and John Catto of The Diodes, Liz Worth (author of Treat Me Like Dirt) twice, Gary Pig Gold (Editor of Treat Me Like Dirt), Frank Ridsdale (man about town and responsible for getting punk bands into the Cedar Lounge back in early 1978 plus Frank played Shake Some Action on air solo!!!), Lonesome Ghost (played live in the studio), The Oily Birds (played acoustic in the onair studio), Sonic Avenues, Rocket Reducers, Peter Gripp (The Living Deadbeats) and The Baketones (Halifax garage combo).


2. We put shows on around town featuring artists that get played on Radio What Wave regularly….since our last fundraiser we’ve presented events with (or co-presented events with other CHRW shows or Speed City Records); Paul Collins Beat, Walnut Kids, Mother’s Children, 905’s, Lonesome Ghost, Shanker and Romps, Can-Too’s, The Skirt Chasers, Will Crum, The Famines, Cordcalling, Kirk Special, The White Wires, Sonic Avenues, Rocket Reducers, Gerry Alvarez Odyssey, The Evil Farm Children and The Hook Up.

3. We play requests….you wouldn’t believe some of the obscure requests we get and usually, but not always we can find the song and play it the following week.



4. Every once in awhile we fire up the old cassette decks and play stuff that you will not hear anywhere else….the What Wave archives has well over 2000 tapes of demos, live shows and who knows what else. Live shows of many bands recorded right here in London Ontario.

5. We play records….from the What Wave record room. A room that is literally filled with vinyl, tapes and CD’s as anyone that has seen can attest to. We’ve been collecting records since long before most of you were born. And still actively buying them to this day.

6. Tributes….this year one of our brothers in the trenches of garage rock passed away and we had to do a full show tribute for him….Greg Johnson, of The Fiends, The Worst and many other fine garage combos. Not one of our favourite things to do, but we someone has to pay tribute to the fallen. We've also had to do tributes to Ron Asheton and Lux Interior in the recent past.

7. Specials…some of the specials I can remember since the last fundraising event were; Canpunk (2 part all Canadian punk from the late 70’s/early 80’s), all Canadian show, all powerpop show and a 2 person band only show.

8. Exclusives…several times this past year we’ve had the honour of being the very first radio show in the world to play songs…ie Gerry Alvarez Odyssey, The Baketones and many others.

9. We’re onair almost every Thursday night from 7 to 8:30PM….it’s pretty rare that we miss a show but it does happen due to circumstances beyond our control.

10. Radio What Wave is ONLY heard on CHRW….and we’re just one of MANY cool shows that get played on CHRW. In The Red, Bandaloop Radio, Just Another Punk Show, Shakin’ Katz, Magical Mystery Mondays, Life In Plastic and many others are all shows that you should listen to regularly here on CHRW.

PLUS, we've got a big CHRW Fundraising Event this thursday....Battle Of The 2 Piece Bands Part 4 at Moon Over Marin starting at 7PM. Starring The Famines (Edmonton), Lonesome Ghost (Aylmer) and Cordcalling (London) and it'll all be over by 11PM so you can get to work the next day.

A Visit By THE ROMAN GODS....

Yes indeedy, we'd been waiting many years to see The Fleshtones once again, as it's been WAAAAAYYYYYY too long since they've graced the stages of any club in London. We had to make the road trip to our fave club this side of Tyranna, This Ain't Hollywood in The Hammer on friday Aug 20th to catch the action!!

We got there a bit early, maybe tenish, and not many people were at the club. There was a certain X-Frankenstein V member by the name of Rob Munro who was primed and ready for rock action. With his many tambourines, Rob was going around getting people to autograph these for momentos of the action that was about to start shortly. I had to run out to the car for a moment and who should be walking down the street but Ken Fox and Bill Milhizer, Roman Gods on the streets!! I quickly shouted out' Are The Fleshtones gonna ROCK Hamilton tonite!!". To which they jokingly replied 'nah, we're not gonna play tonite, we're gonna blow off this gig."...got to talking to them about why they haven't played London for SOOO many years and Bill said 'Is Call The Office still there?". And Ken said 'That was the night we all took acid and Peter destroyed his organ and the wires coming out of it looked like snakes!' Lots of laughter inserted here...After talking for awhile, we figured out that the acid show was at The Electric Banana, a long extinct club in London and YES, it has been too many years since The Fleshtones came to London and that just might change soon!

But back to the show, Teenanger from Toronto got the ball rolling, they were sounding real good to me as i'd only seen them once before, at the sound deficient Moon Over Marin here in London. For some reason, they didn't go over all that well with the Hamilton crowd, but I dug them, and that's all that matters to me!

Next up was Gord Lewis's combo, with Gord on lead, his gf on vocals and rhythm, Jack Peddlar on drums and a bassist that i didn't recognize. They got off to a great start with a rousing version of 'Flying Saucer Rock'n'Roll' but they couldn't maintain that throughout their set and slowly lost my attention.



After a short break, the sounds started coming out of the PA.....a drum and other noises and we knew it was SHOW time baby!!!! Leading the parade into the bar was drummer Bill, followed by the other members of the band as they snaked their way through the crowd, playing their instruments and chanting as they danced up to the stage. Chairs emptied and everyone was at the front of the stage, as the band took us out of Hamilton and to the mystical town of Hitsburg USA....where magical things happen! Only in Hitsburg can you dance all nite to the sounds of The Roman Gods!!! As things got 'Bigger and Better' pyramids formed....

Dance steps were invented on the spot as this was a total audience participation show! The 3 front members of the band spent so much time on the dance floor, in the crowd, on the bar and just about everywhere else, that poor Bill musta been feeling kinda lonely up on stage all by himself...

But Bill is an integral part of the sound for our visit to Hitsburg and he was a grinning at the antics of the rest of the band as they proceeded to get just about everyone involved....there were excercises that had to be done....we had to get down, pushups had to be done, stretches....

And sometimes when you're in Hitsburg, you get visiting dignitaries to join the proceedings. Gord Lewis (Teenage Head guitarist) joined in for a rousing version of the Teenage Head anthem "You're Tearing Me Apart' in which bass player Ken handled the vocals quite nicely as he was nurtured on these sounds as a Scenic and Raving Mojo all those years ago! And this time out, we got a bonus of 'Some Kinda Fun' that The Head and so many other bands have covered over the years. Real classic Rock!

But mere words cannot bring a proper perspective to a visit to Hitsburg...as mentioned above, it involves total audience involvement as your 40 hour work week vanishes and you are taken to a higher level. Drugs and alcohol aren't required, but properly administered can certainly heighten your experience on this journey. A journey that requires lots of stamina as your feet, your hips, your legs, your head and the rest of your body will be in constant motion from the moment the band enters the club till they leave with you following them out the door as we all did that nite. But everything can come to a total standstill as The Fleshtones stop everything and you assume the Power Stance along with them...

But before we bid our farwells to Hitsburg, let's have a look at a picture that illustrates proper behaviour at This Ain't Hollywood. If you're in a band playing and you need a refill, all you have to do is jump on the bar (avoiding that large ceiling fan of course) and start playing on the bar. The Fleshtones proved it thus...


But now, it's time to leave Hitsburg as we all chant 'Hexbreaker' and follow the band out the side door of the club and around to the front of the club to be let back in by our guide, Lou Molinaro. Tambourines shaking courtesty of Rob Munro as onlookers can only stop and stare at the mysterious proceedings taking place on the streets of Hamilton at this late hour. Hitsburg is an amazing place to visit as we all talk about the amazing show that we just witnessed. Andy Butler of the 905's summed it up best when he said 'THAT was a SHOW!!!'....

We got to talk to the band quickly after the show, congratulating them on their performance and when i mentioned London to Peter, he immediately remembered Call The Office and acid and the organ that he smashed that night. And the Guy Lombardo museum, bridge and what great times they have had in London over the years...

Shut The Fuck Up!! Glen Matlock and The Sadies 2/6/2010

So we went to see Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols, Rich Kids, Iggy Pop etc...writer of I Was A Teenage Sex Pistol) along with The Sadies at The London Music Hall here in London. We've been to a couple of shows at The London Music Hall, and usually the sound is way too loud and everything sounds like shit being flushed, so our hopes weren't real high for this one, but The Sadies can usually overcome any obstacle, man made or other.
We got there real early, tickets (which btw were not cheap, $25 at the door) said doors at 8, show at 9...so we got inside around 8:30 with the 10 or so other people waiting to get in. Got some seats up real close and then the masses started showing up...didn't recognize a soul until our pals Jon, Bryan and Christine showed up. People asked us if the other seats at the table we were sitting at were reserved?!? WTF, are we at the highschool prom or something? Guess this shoulda been a clue...
Anyways, The Sadies took the stage around 9:30 or so and proceeded to rock their asses off as always. Pure rock'n'roll with all the prime ingredients intact...ie twin dueling guitars, surf, psyche, benzedrine fueled country, rockabilly and anything else these cats could throw at us. As always, they put a smile on my noggin' and a twitch in my legs! Easily one of the most low key rockin' acts on the planet and they always throw in some unexpected tunes that'll blow your mind!



Around this time, our pal Dave from Windsor showed up with his gf Nicole and proceeded to rave about how great The Sadies set was! Neither of them had seen The Sadies before but knew of them due to the recent John Doe/Sadies tour and album. Nicole had to have some CD's, as the merch table was going full blast right behind us and there were at least 8 Sadies CD's plus Tee's and various other stuff. Course i recommended my fave, the Tales of The Rat Fink Soundtrack (played that Black Sheep cut on Radio WW more times than should be legally allowed!) and the double live as great starting points. Surprisingly, a number of the people in attendance hadn't seen The Sadies before but not surprisingly they became instant fans and had to have merch. After a really short break, Glen Matlock hit the stage, looking fit and armed only with an acoustic guitar.



With little fanfare and ready to rock, Glen took over and belted out some classic tunes he's written over his more than 30 year career. Couple of Rich Kids (the band he formed right after leaving The Sex Pistols) tunes including 'Ghosts Of Princes In Towers', a song from Iggy Pop's Soldier LP ('Ambition' when Glen was in Iggy's band) and several others that i couldn't place. Glen is certainly no front man and had very little between song banter, but he put everything he had into his singing and guitar playing which more than made up for any shortcomings. But that certainly didn't stop the crowd at the back from getting louder and louder and more annoying to us fans up near the front. At one point Glen said something along the lines of 'i want you all to clap, clap-clap along with this one, even the noisy folks at the back' and he let loose with 'God Save The Queen' which shut some of them up for awhile. Around this point of the show, Fergus Tranzmitor was up near the front, totally transfixed by Glen, looking like a cat about to pounce on it's victim. Time for a rousing version of 'Stepping Stone' (you know The Monkee's tune that the Sex Pistols covered early in their career) but that didn't do much to lessen the growing noise from the back. Like WTF?!? You've paid your $25 for a ticket and Glen is delivering the goods quite finely and you've gotta be talking and taking pictures of yourselves! Shut The Fuck Up! What do you expect, John Lydon to appear from behind the curtains along with Cook and Jones for a full scale reunion in London. Get a life...Cook and Jones played Fryfogles here in London way back around 1980 and you weren't there then! So Shut The Fuck Up and let us enjoy the show!! Ok, back to the play by play...Glen decided to do a 'you fill in the blanks cause you know the words' version of 'Pretty Vacant' that went over quite well and got people singing along. Course Fergus decided to jump on his prey at this point, mounted the stage like a man possessed and proceeded to sing along with Glen! Ya, Fergus was on fire and immediately Dan Rudbal (Sex Pistols number uno fan!) had to get into this and the 2 of them finished the song with Glen laughing along!! Wotta blast!! Huge thanx to Fergus and Dan for making this show so memorable! And thanx to the bouncers for not being assholes and throwing these 2 uber fans off the stage!! And that was it for Glen's part of the show so you noisy people can carry on or leave now.



Back to The Sadies for the final part of the show and once again, these guys ripped through another top notch set. Glen came up for one tune, that again got Fergus jumping/dancing across the floor like a madman in heat! And The Sadies played a couple more, including a dead on cover of The Birds 'Leaving Here' that of course got me up dancing like a moron while someone (maybe wife or gf?) snatched Fergus off the dance floor for the trip home. Definitely a fun nite and well worth the $ even if some people didn't think so and tried to ruin it for us fans!

The Cynics, The Ugly Beats and The Squids in Hamilton

Hit the road right after the radio show with Alicks (Music Director at CHRW) and Kellen (Bandaloop Radio, 6 to 8 on fridays on CHRW) to go to Lou's brand new club in Hamilton. It's called This Ain't Hollywood (you know, The Forgotten Rebels LP?) and it's in the north end of Hamilton on James St...easy to spot, look for all of the bright white neon tubes glowing in the darkness...sign is coming shortly says Lou. Found the front of the club, lots of locked doors, then I spotted an Ugly Beat who pointed us to the side of the club...ya, we'll know for next time!
We didn't even get to the door before Brantford Frankie yelled out 'where's my shirt' as he desperatly had to cop a fix with a brand new What Wave tee, only the stylishly cool need apply for these shirts and Brantford Frankie certainly fits the bill! As does his equally cool brother!
Forked over a meagre 10 spot to doorperson Lindsay who just happens to be an X-Londoner and has obviously moved up in the world, working at this fine establishment. And hey, there's Rob Frankenstein 5 lurking in the shadows of the club, he always seems to be at all of the Hamilton shows that I make it to! And right in front of the soundbooth is none other than Rick Chessmen and his wife Ada who conveniently happens to be celebrating a birthday with her fave band, The Cynics! Coincidence or what?
Anyways, The Squids finally hit the stage just before 11 and put on a pretty decent set. This duo has a 2 string guitar and a full drum kit....kinda like Deja Voodoo meets The Ramones meets The Dik Van Dykes and this is the result. Totally enjoyable rock'n'roll that I would certainly go see again.
Next up, The Ugly Beats from Austin Texas, 5 piece mid 60's style garage combo that certainly had the crowd up and dancing. Dual guitars, keys and lots of harmony vocals from this band, that i'd LOVE to see again. Only complaint, the bass was way too loud, no fault of the band...Here's a pic of Jeanine on the keyboards that had all of the guys in the club drooling....

Total non-stop dancing and smiling as she pounded that Farfisa for all it was worth! And she was real friendly too, as all of The Ugly Beats were. It was their first time to Canada, so i sure hope we made a good impression on them...and thanx for playing 'I'm The One', my fave song from the 'Bring On The Beats' CD...only on Get Hip Records. Below is a pic of an Ugly Beat invading the crowd...ya, it's hard to tell but he's dancing and playing that 12 stringer! That geek in the blue shirt with the tambourine is Kellen from Bandaloop Radio making another attempt to join a band.

Next up, the band we've all been waiting for, Pittsburgh's Cynics....now with an Ugly Beat on the bass and a drummer that someone said was an X-Untamed Youth. Instantly recognizable guitar tone from Gregg as they got ready to blast us with an assortment of classic and new Cynics material..everything from 'Blue Train Station' to 'What She Said' from the latest LP! All I can say is WOW! This is probably the best Cynics show I've seen since the first time we saw them back on Aug 1, 1988 at the Gown and Gavel in Hamilton! Michael was in prime form, posing for the cameras and dancing up a storm, jumping off the kick drum and just having a great time on stage! Where this guy gets his energy from is beyond me, I was sweating up a storm watching him! The high point for me was a stretched out version of The Unrelated Segments 'Cry Cry Cry' that had Gregg constantly changing amp settings, getting the maximum noise and fuzz outta that old Fender setup! Wotta way to end the show!! No encore, everyone was completely drained out and it was well after 2 in the morning on a work night! Here's a picture of Gregg on the guitar...

And finally an out of focus Cynics sandwich with Ugly Beat bread....this is a hot, sweaty and nasty combo, only served at the finest diners and certainly not for the faint of heart...

Wotta blast! We need to get more shows like this happening, big thanx to Lou Molinaro for putting on this show in his brand new club....lots of other cool stuff is coming to this club and it's only a little more than an hour from London...well worth the trip!