Smash ‘83 Cassette
April 11th, 2008 at 3:30 pm (Kinetic Ideals, Mannequin Records, Rheostatics, Spoons, Woods Are Full Of Cuckoos)
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
Paul Myers said,
April 21, 2008 at 12:14 am
Hey, I was on this. I’m Paul Myers and I wrote One Man Army by Disband which also featured Michael Phillip Wojewoda (Rheos, Space Invaders and Juno award winning producer) John Deslaurier (Pigfarm) Andrew Snell (Space Invaders and Life Times Nine) and Bruce Meikle (aka Bruce PM) we were also the Dead Breshnev’s doing a No Wave version of 10cc’s I’m Not In Love. I later did a solo recording of One Man Army that never came out and then joined Diatribe for a few weeks before starting Life Times Nine with my Disband (and Space Invaders) pal Andrew Snell.
Thanks for posting this up, let me know if you got any other 25 year old recordings digitized for the 21st Century.
Cheers
Paul
Gail W. said,
April 30, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Hey — My friend sent me this link to check it out and maybe download.
but… I’ve already got it.
In fact, I just sold this on eBay a few weeks ago. To you perhaps?
small world if so.
I’ve been clearing out all my cassettes. I bought all the local Toronto tapes back in the early 80s .
Glad this music is being spread. cool.
admin said,
April 30, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Hey Gail - It was I - I’m glad that people are enjoying it - it is a rare find.
Frobisher Grove said,
January 17, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Thanks for this. I was the original bass player for Diatribe, so I guess I’m on this myself. I found your post while scouring the intertubes for anything on the Rent Boys. And I was gobsmacked to see that Paul Myers had responded to this as well. Small-ish world.
rigeck said,
December 4, 2009 at 7:25 pm
This is a great document of history. Love the electronic drum machines, the depraved guitars & atmospheres. Way Cool !!!!!
Rigeck
Robin Parmar said,
December 11, 2010 at 11:25 pm
If someone has the original Woods Are Full of Cuckoos tape I would love you forever for posting it. Yes, I had a copy. But the tape broke!
Neil Exall said,
April 6, 2011 at 3:35 pm
It’s great that someone has taken the time to post this. The Smash cassette series were curated by the one and only Nick Smash, percussionist for the Rent Boys. This cassette was one of my earliest Toronto indie purchases and i’m proud to say i still have it. The 80’s Toronto music scene really needs to be recognized for the vibrant, creative melting pot it was…our cassette culture was second to none and i’m sure a big part of City TVs move from Queen & Church to Queen & John (and Queen St. west’s subsequent gentrification) had a lot to do with the arts community that was flourishing there at that time. Many of those folks are still around, and it really is a story that needs to be told. If anyone is interested i still have my cassette collection and i’m only too happy to share…at any rate, well done for posting this!
Gord Cumming said,
April 7, 2011 at 1:26 am
Cuckoos’ reissues in the works.
Mark Goldberg said,
April 7, 2011 at 2:12 am
This is crazy! I’d lost this tape years ago so thanks for posting. I still have the ones Nick put out that followed it though, as well as a bunch of other Toronto stuff (cuckoos, kinetics, rbi etc). By the way, I’m the lead singer in the Lucky Strikes, who are on this as well.