Northern Wish

So I did my first DJ slot on www.radiojohnson.net today. I do a show called Soulgazers and Hellraisers which is a bit of a mash up of mellow and not so mellow. it is every Monday from 2-5PM Eastern Standard Time and features an array of bands from Rheostatics to Wheat, from Fishbone to Ryan Adams, from Grateful Dead to The Verve and from The Hip to Death Cab For Cutie. A five decade long emotional roller coaster of Melancholy and Elation.

Here is the set I programmed for today’s show:

1. Canadian Skye - Spirit Of The West
2. Get Off This - Cracker
3. See The World - Gomez
4. Judas - Charlatans UK
5. Catacombs - Poi Dog Pondering
6. The Wind - Cat Stevens
7. Lusitana - Watchmen
8. It Should Be - Change Of Heart
9. Mayonaise - Smashing Pumpkins
10. Body Talk (Part 2) - Wheat
11. Lurgee - Radiohead
12. Helpless - Sugar
13. Step Out - Oasis
14. Medicine - By Divine Right
15. Tears - The Stone Roses
16. Weeping Willow - The Verve
17. The New Maybe - The Tragically Hip
18. Lazarus - Porcupine Tree
19. Everyday Sunshine - Fisbone
20. Broke Jennifer’s Window - Joie Calio
21. Baby’s Coming Back - Jellyfish
22. In A Future Age - Wilco
23. Lullaby Requiem - Neil Finn
24. Into Your Arms - The Lemonheads
25. Dark Quiet - Chris Brown and Kate Fenner
26. Just A Touch - REM
27. Last Goodbye - Jeff Buckley
28. Avalanche - Ryan Adams
29. Shanghai Sky - Joe Jackson
30. Don’t Change - INXS
31. Surrender - Cheap Trick
32. Ripple - Grateful Dead
33. Razor Love - Neil Young
34. Here Comes Everyone - The Wonder Stuff
35. Another Tricky Day - The Who
36. Scattered Black And Whites - Elbow
37. Thank You World - World Party
38. All I Am - Dada
39. No Surface All Feeling - Manic Street Preachers
40. If I Never See You Again - Teenage Fanclub
41. Northern Wish - Rheostatics
42. Emperor Penguin - The Tragically Hip
43. The Morning Fog - Kate Bush
44. Brian And Robert - Phish

SERIOUSLY I’VE BEEN WAITING 12 YEARS FOR THIS!!!!!

I missed the band’s last show in 1996 but I saw their second last show in Toronto. The Bourbon Tabernacle Choir were my definitive life changing band. I first saw them at a Halloween show at The Diamond - Dave had long hair and was dressed up like Olive Oyl from Popeye. Actually the first show I saw was at their first show at The Battle Of The Bands at The Concert Hall in 1985. You can read about it at http://www.bourbontabernaclechoir.com/history.shtml.

Then I remember hearing some cuts from Sister Anthony on Q107 on their “Indie Hour” back in 1990. I must have seen 100 Bourbon shows between 1990 and 1996. Clinton’s Tavern, Lee’s Palace, Kingswood, Maryhill, Kitchener, Guelph, London Fairgrounds, Call The Office, A Gathering Of Human Beings (easily the weirdest show I have ever been to …. ever), Hamilton, Peterborough etc, etc..

I can’t Imaging how many nights I must have annoyed them off backstage in my post show excited state (courtesy of many double rum and cokes).

The Bourbons were the by far the best live band I ever used to go see (except perhaps for Rheostatics but they are a whole different kind of fun). Bourbons were drink you face off, dance wildly and get your funk on kind of fun. I have missed them every day since 1996 and Never EVER figured they’d play together again.

Well it looks like Never EVER has arrived! On Saturday July 26 after a 12 year hiatus Chris Brown, Dave Wall, Kate Fenner, Chris Miller, Andrew Whiteman, Jason Mercer, Gene Hardy and Tom Bona will take the main stage at Hillside 2008. It will not be a night to miss and I’m sure just like the final Rheostatics show, there will be people coming from all over the country to see them once again, if only for one last time.

I can’t wait!

Check out all things Bourbon at my http://www.bourbontabernaclechoir.com site. Lots of Live shows, Videos etc.

TIckets for Hillside 2008 go on sale May 3 at 10AM - http://www.hillsidefestival.ca

I have been a big fan of the band Wheat for many years. Actually I have a full website devoted to them at www.thiswheat.com. Their first two albums Medeiros and Hope And Adams are two of may favorite albums of all time. Lo-Fi, quirky and full of melancholy. Both are presently out of print and with the band’s approval are available from my site. Listen to thess songs to get an idea of what they are like.
Death Car
Don’t I Hold You

Here is the link to Medeiros

and Hope And Adams

Last week I received a few rarities from them and decided to put together a makeshift album of Rarities and B Sides which are very hard to come by. The title Heaven Has is a song which only appeared on the Vinyl version of their Medeiros album.

So for all Wheat fans out there - here is a compilation of hard to find Wheat material. The first four songs are from the band’s first Demo called “Gerl Tape” which is Lo-Fi to the point that it makes Medeiros sound like OK Computer. Songs 5-8 are from the band’s second Demo called the “Wheat EP” - most of the songs on these demos would be reworked for the Medeiros album. Actually the Wheat EP material is pretty close in sound to what was ultimately recorded for that album.
“Heaven Has” is the Medeiros Vinyl LP only track. “Hope And Adams” and “And First YOu See A Superstar” are both instrumental B sides. Flat Black, Headphone Recorder and New Boyfriend were Hope And Adams era B sides which also ended up on a few Limited Edition and Foreign releases of the albums as bonus tracks.
Tracks 15-25 comprise what has become known as The Naked Version of the band’s third album Per Second, Per Second, Per Second….Every Second. The story here is the band recorded a full album after signing to Nude which then folded leaving the band without a label. It took several years for them to find a new home on Aware Records and the band ended up redoing all the songs for a much more polished, pop friendly version of the album which came out in 2003.
Track 26 is a Wheat Xmas song featuring labelmate Liz Phair with whom they had opened for in 2004 following the release of Per Second.
Since then the band kind of folded and then came back with an EP called That’s Exactly What I Wanted…Exactly That and the concisely titled album Everyday I Said A Prayer For Kathy And Made A One Inch Square - both in 2007. These saw a more stripped back approach reminiscent of their early albums. The band is presently working on the follow up to that album with the working title White Ink, Black Ink which should be out in 2008.

Here is the full tracklist for the DIY Heaven Has album:
1. Don’t Ya - Gerl Tape
2. Heaven Has A Name For This - Gerl Tape
3. Karmic Episodes - Gerl Tape
4. Working Man’s Manifesto - Gerl Tape
5. Leslie West - Wheat EP
6. Summer - Wheat EP
7. Karmic Episodes - Wheat EP
8. Gerl Singer - Wheat EP
9. Heaven Has - Medeiros Vinyl Album Only Track
10. Hope And Adams - Death Car single B-Side
11. And First You See A Superstar, Then You Don’t - Raised Ranch Revolution single B-Side
12. Flat Black - Off The Pedestal single B-Side
13. Headphone Recorder - Hope And Adams Bonus track
14. New Boyfriend - Don’t I Hold You single B-Side
15. We Will Rock - Naked Version
16. Breathe - Naked Version
17. Life Still Applies - Naked Version
18. Go Get The Cops - Naked Version
19. World United Already - Naked Version
20. He, So Long Ohio - Naked Version
21. The Beginner - Naked Version
22. Can’t Wash It Off - Naked Version
23. Closer To Mercury - Naked Version
24. This Rough Magic - Naked Version
25. Headphone Recorder - Naked Version
26. Baby It’s Cold Outside - 7″ single featuring Liz Phair

Download the album here

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   
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Total Time: 1:29:34

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