Northern Wish

I don’t really know too much about this except I bought it on ebay due to the fact that there was a very rare version of Rheostatics doing “Thank You” by Sly And The Family Stone live at the Cabana Room in 1983. It is a very eclectic yet very interesting mix of late period punk and early new wave from a variety of Toront bands, most of which I have never heard of. Some of the more interesting cuts are the formentioned Rheos cut as well as 2 live cuts from the band Woods Are Full Of Cuckoos, The Sturm Group who’s quite interesting history can be read about at Punk History Canada.

Here is Alan Murrell’s account of the Kinetic Ideals song on the tape:
“So here’s a short history of the song. The song is called Statue Stare and was written during a period when Jon Davies our original drummer had left the band. We actually were on Mannequin records before this demo was recorded. Our previous releases with Mannequin were a 7″ single in 1980 called “Life in Shadow” and then an ep in 1981 called Reason and another ep in 1982 called Angular Sky. In late 1982 we decided to go with a drum machine instead of finding a new drummer so we picked up a Roland 606 and wrote a batch of new songs Statue Stare being one of them. I believe we went into Sheridan College to record it as I was in Media Arts at the time. We really enjoyed writing with the 606 as it never got tired while we were trying to come up with songs. I think most of the songs on our next release A personal View were written using the 606. We eventually decided we wanted something a little bit more beefier in the drum machine department so we ended up selling the 606 (to Dave Howard of the Dave Howard Singers fame) and getting a DMX. Dave Howard still uses the old 606 he bought from us! We ended up dropping the song from our sets as it didn’t fare too well with the DMX.”
Kinetic Ideals were on Mannequin Records - home of Ceramic Hello and the first Spoons single.

This tape may not be your cup of tea but from a historic perspective this is a really interesting piece of early 80s Toronto music history. The full cover and instert are copied below.

1. David Howard Singers - What Christmas Means To Me   4:57   
2. Rick Robertson - Belong To Love   2:47   
3. Woods Are Full Of Cuckoos - Standard Toy   3:32   
4. Woods Are Full Of Cuckoos - I’m A Part   5:19   
5. Big Deal - White Christmas   2:37   
6. Dead Brezhnevs - I’m Not In Love   1:31   
7. Disband - One Man Army   3:08   
8. Diatribe - Apocalypso   3:21   
9. The Sturm Group - Die Sher Bin Stasse   3:27   
10. The Bayview Village People - Merry XMas Everybody   3:20   
11. Lucky Strikes - Put Your Cat Clothes On   2:32   
12. The Young Lions - Pray For Julie   3:37   
13. Deadlines - Saccharine   2:43   
14. Cult Of Reason - Initiation   3:25   
15. Fatal K.O. - Inside Scene   1:50   
16. The Points - In The Park   2:26   
17. E.B.S. - Glass Slippers   5:07   
18. Ugly Motels - Not For Me   1:31   
19. TBA - Through My Fingers   2:27   
20. Toybox - Kiteboy   2:32   
21. V-Necks - Sand Overdose   2:29   
22. Space Phlegm - Holiday   3:10   
23. Dr.Limbo - Stack Of Dollars   3:05   
24. Mark Malibu And The Wasagas - Wasaga Run   2:30   
25. Crash Kills Five - Oddy Knocky   2:13   
26. Rheostatics - Thank You   5:19   
27. The Young Lions - Folsom Prison Hardcore   1:24   
28. Kinetic Ideals - Statue Stare   6:27   
29. Tape Rewinding   0:59   
———————————–
Total Time: 1:29:34

Download Album

7. Men Without Hats - Rhythm Of Youth
That’s right Rhythm Of Youth. Men. Without. Hats. Why? I’m not really sure at this point. I think when I actually received the original email from Bob Mersereau I was listening to this album. I grew up in the 80s, was in high school from 1983-1987 so I was pretty heavily influenced by New Wave. What is now retro is musical comfort food to me. Like Arias And Symphonies, The Hurting, Falling and Rio, Rhythm Of Youth was a pretty influential album to me back in my High School daze. I was and still am a big fan of Men Without Hats and I don’t really care what anyone has to say about it. This album is an amazing New Wave album. Not as good as Arias And Symphonies and if I was voting today I would probably have Falling or Radio Silence by Blue Peter here over this one but as I mentioned at the beginning of this 10 part entry, it was what I felt on January 27 2007. Every other day since them and proceeding it would have produced an entirely different list as it probably would for most people. It totally depends on your mood at the time.

Unlike Arias and Symphonies, Rhythm Of Youth sounds exactly of the time it was created. It is safely etched in 1983 and there ain’t no way it came from any other time. That doesn’t deminish it’s qualities, however, as it fully represents the New Wave sound. And while it does sound “dated” it is not in a way that many other albums of the time are “dated”. Some albums are dated and do not sound relevant as they age. I don’t think that is the case for this album. I’m sure many would disagree so I’ll just leave it there.

Ban The Game, Living In China, The Great Ones Remember, I Got The Message, Cocoricci (Le Tango Des Voleurs), The Safety Dance, Ideas For Walls, Things In My Life, I Like, The Great Ones Remember (Reprise). It is all great. My original tape also had Antarctica which made me feel special.

I suppose this is my guilty pleasure pick. It makes me happy when I listen to it and it takes me back to my youth. I guess it is the Rhythm Of my Youth in some ways.

Here is the video for Safety Dance. Maybe you have heard the song before.

And here is I Like.

And here is a live version of I Got The Message

Rhythm Of Youth did not chart in Bob Mersereau’s book The Top 100 Canadian Albums. I guess I can’t really argue with that, but I don’t feel guilty voting for it either.

5. Spoons - Arias And Symphonies
Didn’t see that one coming did you? This could be another of the albums which no one other than myself voted for. I have to tell you, with all sincerity, there is no reason why this album doesn’t deserve to be in the top 10 Canadian albums. It spawned on global top 10 hit in Nova Heart and without a doubt is probably the most popular and most influential New Wave album to come out of Canada. Arias And Symphonies by Spoons is a Classic Canadian album by any standard. It is full of excellent pop songs. It is played perfectly. It charted well, had hit singles, was produced by a master (John Punter - Roxy Music, Japan) and it has an awesome cover. It has aged with grace and is still fun to listen to 25 years after it was originally released.

The album was quite a departure from their previous album. Stick Figure Neighbourhood was released in 1981 and sounded quite a bit like early Talking Heads and the original New York New Wave. Listen to Dropped Dishes and you’ll see what I mean. Anyway by the time Arias was released, Nova Heart was already a huge song but it sits perfectly well among the other material on the album, all of which is great. There is not a bad song on the album! Trade Winds sets the tone of the album and whenever I hear it I am instantly transported back to 1983 (when I first heard the album). Smiling In Winter is a New Wave Canadian anthem in my books. One In Ten Words and No Electrons are still fan favorites. Arias and Nova Heart end what was Side 1 and begin what was Side 2. Both huge songs in the 80s which are still played on the radio. South American Vacation and A Girl In Two Pieces are the quirkiest songs on the album but are just as strong as everything else here. Walk The Plank is a great Rock song that was always great to see live. Finally is Blow Away which is probably my 2nd favorite Spoons song after Symmetry (the B side of Nova Heart). Take a listen to this album again. It is a great blend of Keyboards, Drums, Drum Machines, Great Bass work and vocals by Sandy Horne and excellent Guitar and vocals by Gord Deppe. Most people don’t realize how amazing of a guitarist Gord Deppe is, probably because they tend to be viewed primarily through the ears of Tell No Lies and Romantic Traffic. Listen to the cool keyboards in One In Ten Words, the ghostly vocals in Trade Winds, the awesome bassline in Smiling In Winter or the wig out at the end of Blow Away. It is all awesome. On the strength of this album alone Spoons should be inducted into the Canadian Music Hall Of Fame. This has and always will be in my top favorite albums of all time. Check out all things Spoons related at my Spoons Archive site. Go to the forum there to read lots from Rob Preuss about the making of this and other albums of theirs.

Tracklisting is:
1. Trade Winds
2. Smiling In Winter
3. One In Ten Words
4. No Electrons
5. No More Growing Up
6. Arias And Symphonies
7. Nova Heart
8. South American Vacation
9. A Girl In Two Pieces
10. Walk The Plank
11. Blow Away

Here is the video for Nova Heart

Arias And Symphonies by Spoons did not chart in Bob Mersereau’s book The Top 100 Canadian Albums….but it should have. The album is no longer available for purchase. 2007 is the 25th Anniversary of it’s release.

Well I guess this is where it all starts. I’m not sure what this blog will end up as. Even if I was to guess it probably would end up being something different anyway.

Why Northern Wish?
Well I’m a Rheostatic fan. Northern Wish is the third song from the album Melville which recently charted at number 38 in Bob Mersereau’s book The Top 100 Canadian Albums. Back in 2000 it ranked number 5 in Chart Magazine’s top 50 Canadian Albums. It isn’t my favorite Rheostatics song, although it ranks pretty high on my list. I think just referencing it makes me feel proud to be from Canada for some reason.

One of the sites I run is rheostaticslive.com. It is a band sanctioned archive of live Rheostatics shows, videos, photos etc. There are other sites as well that I run. They all kind of look the same. It is easier for me to maintain them that way. They idea of them all at the beginning was really just a glorified FTP site so I wasn’t too concerned about creating beautiful websites. Content is the key for me.

So how did it all start?
My taste in music has always been eclectic, ranging from Progressive Rock bands like Yes, Genesis and Marillion to the New Wave sounds of Men Without Hats, New Musik and Spoons.
About 2 years ago (2005) I emailed Ricky Brennan from the band Wheat about setting up an archive site for live shows. To my surprise the band was OK with the idea and I set up the first site thiswheat.com. At the end of 2005 I emailed Gord Deppe about setting up a Spoons site. I was always a fan of Spoons and was amazed that for a band that had so many big songs, there was only 1 site on the web which was known as Carolyn’s Spoons Tribute Page. It wasn’t really being maintained so I emailed Gord Deppe about setting up a Spoons site that would have music, videos, photos etc. He was cool with the idea and that led to Site Number 2 - The Spoons Music and Video Archive.

I then followed that site with Rheostatics Live and The Unofficial Bourbon Tabernacle Choir Site. In 2006 I noticed that Jonathan Moyes had posted some Thomas Trio And The Red Albino footage on youtube from a show they did with The Bourbons in 1992 in Nova Scotia. I offered to host the videos and from there, along with material from him, Stephen Legge, Todd Sauvé, Colin Squires and myself, The Official Thomas Trio And The Red Albino site was born.

Following the last Rheosatics show at Massey Hall on March 30 2007 I set up Good Gone Dead, an archive and memorial to the last show by the best band ever to come out of Canada.

Next came my big idea for a website: The Canadian Music Forum. I’ve been working on it for quite a while. One day it will be done. As of today I have finished the letter “A”. The forum is all set up and ready for action. It is a massive forum of mini forums dedicated to hundreds of Canadian Bands. The site is to mirror the forum’s band list to provide a snapshot of online sites related to each band. Jam Encyclopedia, Wikipedia, Myspace, Official sites, fan sites, places to buy their music etc.

Finally there is Fugitland, a site dedicated to my band Tempus Fugit who I have played with on and off since 1987.

There you go, 8 sites in 2 years. Now I’m going to write about stuff I like. Music. Videos. Songs. Youtube. I don’t know, whatever comes to mind.

By the way, if you have any content for any of the sites I have just mentioned, email me at info@thecanadianmusicforum.com.
I’m Darrin