Hello, partygoers! Things get exciting this week and also very, very wrong.
On this episode, Mary and Dave record the Listening Party in the dark as a windstorm causes a power outage in good old rural Aldergrove. So, bring a flashlight and a blanket, and join the pair in the crepuscular rumpus room for some music fun!
Let’s peer into the gloom and listen to:
- The Nerves – “Hanging of the Telephone” – DIY: Come Out and Play – American Power Pop I (1975-1978), 1993 – 8:55
- Fire – “Father’s Name is Dad” –Decca single b/w “Treacle Toffee World”, 1968 – 29:57
- Idina Menzel and Lea Michelle (Glee) – “Poker Face” – Glee: The Music, Volume 3 – Showstoppers, 2010 – 1:07:58
- Camper Van Beethoven – “Take the Skinheads Bowling” – Telephone Free Landslide Victory, 1985 – 1:27:04
- The Act – “The Remedies of Doctor Brohnicoy” – Columbia single “Just a Little Bit” b/w “The Remedies of Doctor Brohnicoy”, 1968 – 1:34:58
- Jane Aire and the Belvederes – “Yankee Wheels” –Stiff records single b/w “Nasty Nice”, 1978 – 1:46:40
- The Thrills – “Til the Tide Creeps In”- So Much for the City, 2003 – 2:06:43
- Caroline Peyton – “Engram” – Mock Up, 2009 – 2:15:41
- The Everly Brothers – “Talking to the Flowers” – Mono single version B-side to “Mary Jane”, 1967 – 2:24:29
- Stephen Malkmus (and the Jicks) – “Mama” – Face the Truth, 2005 – 2:35:22
- Gwen McCrae – ‘Rockin’ Chair” – Rockin’ Chair, 1975 – 2:40:24
- Chilliwack – “Fly at Night” – Dreams, Dreams, Dreams, 1976 – 3:00:46
Also on the old Victrola:
- Fire – “I’ll Tell You a Story” – The Magic Shoemaker, 1970 – 58:51
- Felt – Jewel Sky” – Let the Snakes Crinkle Their Heads to Death, 1986 [Intermission Music] – 1:30:54
- The Act – “Just a Little Bit” – b/w “The Remedies of Dr. Brohnicoy”, 1968 – 1:42:55
Department of Corections:
A major correction this bi-week as Dave got hold of the completely wrong end of the Chilliwack stick. In a major case of “maybe don’t trust your faulty memory and look at the track listing, dum dum”, Dave assigned “Fly at Night” to the wrong Chilliwack album. It was not 1978’s Lights from the Valley, but 1976’s Dreams, Dreams, Dreams – a real comeback after 1975’s disappointing Rockerbox – that “Fly at Night” is on. As Dave mentioned during the show, Chilliwack at this point was Bill Henderson on vocals and guitar, Glenn Miller on bass and vocals, Ross Turney on drums, and new(-ish) member Howard Froese on guitar, keyboards and vocals. Additionally, both Henderson and Froese are credited with playing the Solina String Ensemble – a polyphonic synthesizer from the Netherlands that incorporated violin, viola, trumpet, horn, cello, and contrabass with a built in chorus effect. This was marketed as the ARP String Ensemble in the States – after the company that distribute it there. While making Dreams, Dreams, Dreams, all the members of Chilliwack were involved with Scientology (dumb hippies) and there is a thank you to L. Ron Hubbard on the sleeve of the original LP.
Not a correction, but a clarification: The Everly Brother’s version of “Talking to the Flowers” was the mono single mix – not the album mix, which puts some of the background vocals a little too high in the mix for our tastes.
Thanks for listening.
Here is Caroline Peyton at nineteen, performing an acoustic set live, and then, some years later, performing as Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance :
Chilliwack at the Winterland in 1977 performing “Fly at Night” with later full-time member Brian McLeod on keyboards (you can see he is playing the Solina or ARP String Ensemble):
Gwen McRae and her “Rockin’ Chair” in unfortunate collision of great music and unfortunate video effects:
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I’m listening to this following a night of torrential rain here in Scotland and wonder if it might be the tail end of the same storm that knocked out your power in BC. Even if not, it feels like I’m part of the party!
The Nerves / Nerds / Worms – Excellent version. Blondie gave the song a more polished production and extended the melody line, but at the expense of the gloriously raw, DIY aesthetic of the original.
Fire – This was great, Very Who-like as Dave said. Wonder if Black Sabbath heard this? The main melody of Paranoid, which came out two years later, is pretty similar.
Idina Menzel and Lea Michelle – Oh, David, David, David… (lowers eyes, shakes head sadly). Let’s agree never to speak of this again.
Camper Van Beethoven – Ah, that’s better! Not only my favourite band name of all time, but a real fun mix of classic pop and goofy weirdness worthy of Jonathan Richman at his very best.
The Act – As Nigel Tufnell might say, how much more 1968 could this be? Lots of elements I like here, but I felt it lacked soul, and cringed at some of the lyrics.
Jane Aire and the Belvederes – Very inventive chord sequence, a great chorus, nifty Marc Ribot-style guitar and a motorbike sound effect. I’m in!
The Thrills – Didn’t grab me, but pleasant enough.
Caroline Peyton – She has a lovely voice. Although I found the Joni Mitchell influence too much of a distraction at first, repeat listens did the trick and I grew to like this one.
Everyly Brothers – Oh, those voices! Never heard this before and liked it a lot. I hadn’t heard the story of their falling out with Acuff-Rose either – explains a lot.
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks – Fantastic. He rhymes ‘onion’ with ‘bunion’! In the first verse! How could I not love that?
Gwen McRae – She sings beautifully and the arrangement and instrumentation are great, but the song itself pales in comparison with Rock Your Baby. Maybe it’s best to think of it as a kind of companion piece to the earlier song.
Chilliwack – A great closer – loved this one to pieces. Highlights were the beautiful harmonies and crazy lead guitar.
Extras – I really liked Fire, although the transition from spoken word intro into the song itself was a little jarring. If I’d been the kid that was being told the story, those shouty vocals would have scared the crap out of me. Main melody owed a debt to Hole in my Shoe.
Felt was brief and an instrumental, so I appreciated both of these aspects 🙂 . (Just kidding, Dave – it was fine.)
The Act – I preferred this to Dr Bronichoy and enjoyed the backstory. Kenny Lynch was a frequent presence on TV variety shows in the UK when I was growing up, and also appears on the cover of Band on the Run. I didn’t know about his career as a songwriter, so thanks for filling us in.
Another lovely show, folks – I’m off to listen to Dusty Springsteen now.
Ahh, Dusty Springsteen – the popular Jewish songstress.
I feel like I should point-by-point your points for full meta effect.
It’s funny, but I don’t really know the Blondie version of “Hanging on the Telephone”. They were more of a radio singles band for me and that song was not a hit here in Canada. We have another Nerves song coming along. What is it? Well, you’ll find out. 🙂
I’m sorry that you don’t enjoy a couple of big-voiced gals belting out a song at the top of their lungs. There’s no accounting for taste.
“The Remedies of Doctor Brohnicoy” has more of a late-60s psych feel to me and so I rate it higher that “Just a Little Bit”, which, as I said on the show, could have done with a lighter touch. BTW, the song has lyrics??? (I actually would have pegged this band as a Continental imitator of the British sound – the lyrics are just complete gobbledygook to me. I was shocked when I discovered they were actually British. Shocked, I say!)
I guess I really love a singer who sounds like he’s singing while laying on a couch and The Thrills really have that super-relaxed feel. It also sounds sort of sarcastic so I like that too – kinda Dylan-y.
“Rock Your Baby” is a very well-known song so I couldn’t see the point in putting it on one of these mixtapes. (I did have it on one of the many mixtapes I made when the girls were younger.) I do love “Rockin’ Chair” though and I feel like Gwen McRae deserves a little mixtape love. (Also George is there singing backing vocals.)
And I’m so happy you enjoyed Chilliwack. As a kid growing up in BC they were pretty ubiquitous, but I figured I could put them on a mixtape for anyone anywhere else in the world and they’d be an amazing find. Unlike Sloan though, I think I underutilized them.
Thanks for writing. I always enjoy your comments!