Canrock 80s – Slow – “Have Not Been the Same”

Holy shnikes, look what I just found on youtube. Okay, it’s not the usual, embarassing “oh God I remember them!” entry. More like a “wholly shit this is rad!” one. This is the original promo clip for Vancouver proto-grunge group Slow’s “Have Not Been the Same.” These guys were contemporaries of Green River and as you can probably tell from listening to the tune, they shared more than just a little in sonic similarities. 

The tune is from their “Against the Glass” EP which now goes for about $75 when you can find a copy. These guys played a show at the Plaza of Nations during Expo 86 but a riot quickly broke out and the crowd stormed the BCTV onsite stage. Though they signed a US record deal, they never released an LP. Instead they morphed into Circle C, then Copyright, a rather proggy mid-90s canrock act who are a lot more fitting to the usual Canrock 90s entries. Interestingly enough, this song provided the title for an excellent book about Canadian rock music. 

Canrock 90s: New Meanies – “Letting Time Pass”

Seeing as the sun is out (at least in concrete ridden Toronto) and summer is upon us, it seems appropriate to dig up this old summer jam from 1998. I vividly remember New Meanies soundtracking my summer between grade 11 and 12 cruising around downtown Vancouver.

The band are originally from Winnipeg and used to go by the name Blue Meanies. After they changed their name and got a record deal they released Three Seeds and this hit and then pretty much disappeared, at least on the national radar. They’re still together, though this is the only track I really ever cared for.

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Canrock 90s: Matthew Good Band – “Alabama Motel Room”

Canrock 90s: odds – “Wendy Under the Stars”

Canrock 90s: Salmonblaster – “Freeway”

Canrock 90s: Matthew Good Band – “Alabama Motel Room”

Celebrating the best(?) of 90s Cancon sanctioned modern rock.

Okay, so Matt Good has actually done a lot with his lengthy career, first solo, the with Matthew Good Band and now solo again. My favourite incarnation remains the early Matt Good Band records Last of the Ghetto Astronauts and Underdogs (not to mention his 1992 demo cassette tape Broken that I have tucked away somewhere in my parent’s house) back when he didn’t seem like such a prick and before writing partner Dave Genn split and married the local weather girl in Vancouver. These days Matt plays the role of professional asshole (or now that’s he’s getting on in years is he just a curmudgeon?). Just the other day he was cutting down on the Junos for their crass commercialism, despite having won three himself back when people gave a shit. Oh Matty…

I saw Matt many times at festivals in Vancouver, but my fondest memory is seeing him open the three day “Fox Fest” festival at the Plaza of Nations. This was his only single at the time and he seemed genuinely happy to just be there with people listening.

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Canrock 90s: odds – “Wendy Under the Stars”

Canrock 90s: Salmonblaster – “Freeway”

Canrock 90s: Killjoys – “Today I Hate Everyone”

Canrock 90s: Rusty – “Misogyny”

CanRock 90s: odds – “Wendy Under the Stars”

Unlike a lot of CanRock bands in the 90s, Vancouver’s Odds never followed the lead of alternative bands down South. Instead they blazed a trail of off-beat pop hits over the course of four albums. I saw them at the three day, all Canadian Fox Fest in 1996 and they were the first band I ever crowd surfed to, so they hold a special place in my CanRock heart. The band split in 1999 after scoring its biggest hit with “Someone Who Is Cool,” and recently reformed sans Steven Drake, first as New Odds and more recently under their original moniker.There are a lot of tunes I could have included below (and I may include in the future), but “Wendy Under The Stars” from their first record Neopolitan is my favourite, and shows off the bands’ ability to blend humour and emotion in the same song. Note that the uncensored chorus on the record goes “I was fucking Wendy under the stars.” And sorry I couldn’t find a video without the Much More Music supers…

Can-rock 90s: Salmonblaster – “Freeway”

Celebrating the best(?) of 90s Cancon sanctioned modern rock.

I don’t really know much about these guys other than that they were a three-piece from somewhere in Ontario (I think). This is their first video  from their self-titled record. Almost every song on it dealt with cars and speed (as in velocity, not the drug). I seem to remember it even being on the Much Music Countdown for a spell, but the band kind of disppeared after that. I actually still listen to this track a lot.

I also found their clip for Sugar Rush (which I’m guessing didn’t go over that well cause I never saw it) and an interview with TDM they did in Vancouver for MuchWest. Check out the shots of the old Town Pump (now Sonar) and Sam the Record Man (now a derelict building). Oh home…

Can-rock 90s: Killjoys – “Today I Hate Everyone”

Celebrating the best(?) of 90s Cancon sanctioned modern rock.

Remember these kids? They had a few hits on Much (“Rave and Drool” and “Soaked” come to mind) but they’ll forever be remembered for this slacker gen gem, though they do sound a little too happy about their hate for me to believe it’s real.

CanRock 90s: Rusty – Misogyny

Welcome to a special edition of “CanRock 90s” taking a look at the video for Rusty’s “Misogyny.” What makes this edition special? Well, “Misongyny” copped most of it’s footage from the movie Hustler White, which screened at the Royal this weekend as part of their Bruce LaBruce retrospective. LaBruce, a leading light in the early 90s Queer Cinema movement, also has a new movie out called Otto; or, Up With Dead People, a gay zombie porn film screening at the Royal until Thursday. Why did Rusty decide to use this footage? I have no idea. But I seem to remember that he also directed the band’s video for “Empty Cell” though I can’t seem to find it on the Internet anywhere. Anyway, Rusty were a Toronto band who scored some big hits on MuchMusic with singles from the records Fluke (“Wake Me“) and Sophomoric (“Oh No Joe”) but kind of fizzled after their third album Out of their Heads (with it’s very cool “Soul For Sale” vid). It’s a shame because this was a rare case where the CanRock 90s group deserved their success (I think so at least).

Canrock 90s: Limblifter – “Tinfoil”

Celebrating the best(?) of 90s Cancon sanctioned modern rock.

My God did I ever love this song when it came out. In case you haven’t noticed, I was a bit obsessed with Much Music when I was in highschool, sitting around with the VCR remote after school, taping videos and watching them over and over. This was one of those videos. In fact, I think I learned to play the song on guitar from the video because I didn’t have the CD at the time. Like most of these videos, I really can’t explain why I was so captivated – it’s just the three of them in a room. In fact almost ever video was the band playing in a room, interspersed with cuts of them walking around somewhere, never emoting. In a weird twist, the drummer, Kurt Dahle who also played in Age of Electric with his brother (and Limblifter lead singer)  Ryan is now in Vancouver super-group the New Pornographers. He also produced what I assume is the only record by Vancouver band Bloody Chicletts.

Can-rock 90s: Nickelback – “Fly”

Celebrating the best(?) of 90s Cancon sanctioned modern rock.

Want someone to blame for Nickelback’s current dominance of modern rock radio? One of those fingers could be pointed right here I’m sorry to say. See, way back in 1995, Nickelback were just another grunge aping rock band kicking around Vancouver. But someone over at local radio station 99.3 “The Fox” (“The Fox Rocks!”) thought that their song “Fly” from demo ep Hesher deserved some radio play. I was 15 at the time, a fan of bands like Silverchair, Bush (Bush X in Canada at the time) and Seven Mary Three. So naturally I thought the song was awesome. Hey, it was the first local band I could champion. Being underage, the first time I saw them was a free in-store at Virgin Records and about 30 people showed up. They continued this trend, playing similar in-stores at Sam the Record Man and Future Shop. My constant appearance at these sparsely populated gigs coupled with the fact rhythm guitarist Ryan Peake used to baby sit my friend Tyler meant Chad Kroeger actually started to recognize me. By the time I saw them play a gig at the rec centre in Port Moody (the only time I ever paid to see them), they were selling VHS cassettes with this music video on it. So yeah, I was an early Nickelback supporter. What’s a guy to do?

Oh, back then Ryan Peake also used to sing when the band covered Soul Coughing’s “Super Bon Bon.”

Can-rock 90s: Pluto – “When She Was Happy”

An odd hobby of mine is trying to find old 90s Can-rock videos on youtube. These are the bands they used to play all the time on the Vancouver rock station 99.3 “the Fox.” Listening to these songs now, I can’t believe a lot of these bands got record deals, but man did I ever love them back then. It should be noted that Nickelback could have easily fallen into this category had they not, you know, sold ass-loads of records. I saw them play free gigs in various record shops around Vancouver and they were lucky if more than a couple dozen people showed up.

This is the second single from the Vancouver band Pluto’s major-label debut. They were one of the first bands signed to Mint Records, along with cub and Tankhog. But somewhere along the way Virgin signed them and they put out a self-titled record that did pretty well on radio, and this video, along with their one for “Paste,” did alright on Much Music as well. They released one last album, that kind of sucked, but had the excellent song “The Goodbye Girl” on it. You can download it all via their myspace page.