Radio What Wave Playlist June 30/2016. All Canadian Show to Celebrate Canada Day!!
This show was an extended (2.5hour) version of Radio What Wave playing only Canadian music and a lot of stuff we either haven't played in ages or never at all. The music was as diverse as Canada this time out....enjoy!!
1. 24th Street Wailers....Wicked....from their 2014 CD of the same name. Caught The Wailers at the London Music Club last week and they once again lived up to their name!! They've been living/based in Austin Texas for the last while, and that bit of extra seasoning has really added to their live show. Catch them when they hit your town as they're always on tour.
2. Leeroy Stagger and The Sinking Hearts....Where I Live...from their Depression River CD from 2006. Don't know much about this combo as this was one of those CD's that showed up in my mailbox at CHRW and I really dug it! Kinda like a northern version of Steve Earle and there sure ain't nothing wrong with that!
3. Junkhouse....Small Town Romance...from the 22 Original Hits/22 Original Stars CD compilation from Hamilton that came out in the very early 90's. This is well before Junkhouse hit the big time on FM radio, not only across Canada, but across a good part of the world. Longtime veteran Tom Wilson lead this group after disbanding the Florida Razors, another band that should have gone on to big things.
4. Sharkskin....Run Men Run...from the above 22 Original Hits compilation CD and features guitar wizard Coyote Shivers, whom you may remember from the Dave Rave Conspiracy and other combos. This particular song was a tribute to the Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet.
5. Rat Bastards.....Swamp Spree....from the Cows Go Mu CD compilation put out by our sister station CFMU in Hamilton around 1993.
6. Dave Rave....Ann Marie....from his Live With What You Know CD from 2010. One of my all time fave pop tunes and we had the pleasure of having Dave Rave come on Radio WW live and play this tune solo acoustic!! Dave's been live onair a couple of times with us and always has TONS of rock'n'roll stories as this guy is touring the world constantly!
7. Simply Saucer....Almost Ready Betty...from the Half Human Half Live CD from 2008. SS came to town when this one came out and a huge crowd of about 12 people came to see them! But they were still fucking awesome and sounded just like the records!!! Now they play the big festivals around the world...
8. Herald Nix...Take A Drive....from the Open Up The Sky CD from 1997. West coast rockabilly/rock'n'roll combo that sounds psychedelic on this particular track.
9. Stompin' Tom Connors.....The Pole and The Hole....from The Unpopular Stompin' Tom Lp from 1976 on Boot Records. The ultimate patriotic Canadian performer! This is my fave Stomper LP as the cover is black with a skeleton standing in the middle wearing cowboy boots, leather vest and black cowboy hat! A punk well before it was fashionable!
10. Tripping Hazard.....Taste Of Spring....from the Wron: Suicide Goat CD and another combo I know nothing about and the CD magically appeared in my collection. A quick search reveals they are from Toronto and definitely an artwrok combo!
11. Jill Porter....You Made Yourself Clear....from her self titled CD from 2005 and from Newfoundland. Got this one recently from Ricochet Sound, The Gruesomes label in Montreal and been really digging this one, hence it's appeared on a few recent Radio WW's. The guitars have that interwoven sound that The Real Kids from Boston had/have, which to these ears, is the essence of early 70's rock'n'roll! BTW, The Real Kids played the Burger Boogaloo earlier this week and then showed up at the Dirty Water Club in the UK a couple nights back. There's FB pics of The Real Kids with The Diodes together at that show!!!
12. Little Foot Long Foot....King Hipster....from their Harsh Words CD from 2009. 2 piece combo from Toronto who have released a couple other CD's.
13. The Mogs....Hate...from the El'Mogamundo! CD from 2 years ago and this goes out to our good pal Rob Munro who left us way too early! Rob's dream was to reform The Mogs and get these songs recorded and released.
14. Roger Zuraw.....Freight Train Through My Head Blues...from the Feels Like Blues To Me CD from 2007. Roger is a singer/songwriter based in Etobicoke and plays out fairly regularly.
15. The Sadies....1000 Cities Falling....from the Favourite Colours CD from 2004. Another one of those bands that is constantly playing and touring the world. They come to London in a couple of weeks for the Home County Folk Festival and will probably be playing the main stage late at night....highly recommended!!
16. Kensington Hillbillies....Straight To Hell...from the Bones in The Backyard CD from 2005. Former Londoner Lucky Pete Lambert plays the drums in this combo. You may remember Pete for such memorable combos as NFG and 63 Monroe in his younger days.
17. The Mongrels...Do It.....from their demo and they are playing saturday night opening for Moxy at the 765 East and then on sunday for the monthly Rock'n'Roll Rent Party.
18. The Kards....Every Time You Walk Into The Room....from their Here's The Deal CD and they are playing the Byron Legion on July 9th.
19. The Guess Who....Heart Brokin' Bopper...from the Rockin' LP from 1972. This was the first ever Guess Who LP I bought and I really couldn't get my head around how drunk the band sounded on many of the songs! Many of the songs sounded like piss takes to me and how could noted producer Jack Richardson let the band get away with this shit! Stil don't get it to this day, but still love this particular song as it's nothing like any of the other songs by The Guess Who. It's like they're slamming their fans!! Maybe they were punk before punk! Later releases will shoot that theory down...ie anything with Dominic Troiano on guitar.
20. Ugly Ducklings....Hangman....from the compilation CD Thump and Twang on Pacemaker. Nothing like their earlier garagepunk tunes, this one's a dark and moody look at what happens prior to a hanging. There was a CBC video for this filmed in about 1968 that you might be able to find on youtube. The Pacemaker label has released many obscure Canadian recordings and is run by a former CHRW DJ, Peter Burnside.
And on this particular song, Mike McKenna was lead guitarist, which takes us to...
21. McKenna Mendelson Mainline....Think I'm Losing My Marbles....from the Stink LP from 1969 and recorded in the UK while the band was resident over there. Probably my fave MMM tune as this one gets stuck in my noggin every now and again. Vocalist Joe Mendelson released several solo LP's in the early to mid 70's and they carry on this humorous style of songwriting. There's an excellent video with comedian Rick Mercer going to visit Joe Mendelson at his cabin out in the woods which is worth your time searching for.
22. Perpetrators.....The Z Rays Cured My Hangover....from their Towtruck CD from 2009 and from Winnipeg.
23. The Paperboxes....Coffin Nail....from their second CD from 2009 and based in Nanaimo British Columbia. A duo who are heavily influenced by the guitar playing of Black Sabbath and the late 40's country blues of the south. Ran into singer/drummer Marcus Hastings recently at the Pack AD show here in London where he was a merch guy and doing work for the band. Marcus snuck up to me and said 'Hey Dave, look at this' as he pulled up his sweater and there was a What Wave tee shirt underneath!! Thanx Marcus, that sure gave me a boost!
24. The Paperboxes....You Be The Dog....from their first CD and they came to London with The Pack AD (then called The Pack) and played a couple of shows at a place called The Brunswick, which is long gone. A great show and would love to see The Paperboxes get back together and do some more shows!
25. Jerry Jerry and the Sons Of Rhythm Orchestra....The Drift....from the Battle Hymn of The Apartment LP from 1987. JJ were one of those bands that played London many times and always put on memorable and killer shows!! These guys could out drink anyone and proceeded to do that every show, blowing minds at every appearance. My all time fave JJ show was when they played a place called Bannisters in Hamilton Ontario and were opening for the Long Ryders. The Long Ryders were all rock star resplendent with their ID tags and rock star passes around their necks, not letting us members of the underground press near their guilded dressing room areas. We had planned to interview them for WW zine as their records had got a fair bit of airplay around HQ's, specially that first one, 10-5-60 with it's catchy garage and power pop numbers. And it's still a classic to this day! But we never got near the band and went downstairs to see the opening band (it might have been Dave Pomfert's band) and then our good pals JJ whom we'd seen the night before here in London. Well prior to JJ going on, there was word that a huge tornado had hit their hometown of Edmonton and word still wasn't clear as to how many killed, injured, etc. There was a bit of a panic and the alcohol started flowing even faster, remember these guys could out drink anyone and they didn't have to prove it. Well JJ and the boys hit the stage, fired up on adrenalin, booze and pure panic and proceeded to put on the very best show I ever saw them do! The hairs on the back of my neck were sticking straight up and that was no easy accomplishment when you've got a bowl haircut and it's a raging hot night! But man oh man JJ and the boys delivered every once of musical energy their souls could summon up that night and blew, and I mean BLEW the Long Ryders off the stage that night! In fact, The Long Ryders broke up within days of this show! Karma's a viscious thing to fuck with!
26. Jerry Jerry and the Sons Of Rhythm Orchestra....Blew Elvis Mind...from the 1992 CD Don't Mind If I Do and goes out to guitar legend Scotty Moore who passed away earlier this week. This is JJ's attempt at being on a major label, unfortunatly the public wasn't ready for a singer who worshipped Elvis and spewed deep thoughts of socialism and the demented life of a rock god. Bands have lifetimes/cycles and if you're not on your way up, you're on the way down. It's inevitable and a part that many bands don't recognize at the time...witness The Long Ryders above. Well one of the last times we saw JJ, there was a band called The Bare Naked Ladies opening for them. Catchy little sing along a nursery rhyme type songs and the exact same show we had seen on cablecast a few weeks prior....jokes and all the same! Well a lot of the kids at the show were there to see the BNL and JJ, even though the headliners, were just not in the optics of these kids. And that was probably the last time we saw JJ, still put on a killer show, but the opening band went on to sing about and then make a million dollars. Ain't no justice in this thing called rock'n'roll!!
27. Jerry Jerry...Rockstar....from The Sound and the Jerry CD released as a solo CD on an indy label. Back to his roots and still as good with the lyrics as ever! Who else could write and sing a song called Talk About My Dick and get away with it? Jerry Jerry we'll never forget you and the killer shows you put on at such sweaty stinky clubs like The Key West and Call The Office!
28. Robbie Rox....Reeming Me....from his Construction Site Lp from 1978. Toronto 1978 had a hidden punk scene happening and even further underground was this wacko singing about the world reeming him with a full horn section blasting in the background!! The rest of the LP is even better, but some of the language used isn't suitable for the airwaves. Robbie released at least 6 LP's and yep, I have and cherish them all! Only got to see him live once, at Fryfogles many years ago, but I ended up drinking too much and showing too much love to Robbie and Rena made me leave... For some odd reason, Robbie Rox has never come back to London but still plays the odd show in Toronto.
29. The Scenics...Do The Wait....from their In The Summer Lp from 1978 and they will be at This Ain't Hollywood this coming Wednesday! A rare east coast tour!
30. The Shanks....Mirror... from their Dark Richard Show from 2010 and from Orangeville Ontario. 2 piece combo that has moved in a much heavier direction and enabled them to tour Europe and release records in Germany!
31. Ffud....Pointless....from The Mighty Ffud CD and from Montreal. We saw these guys a couple of weeks back and put on a great show with loads of tight harmony vocals. Former Londoner Mark Goodwin is on vocals and guitar.
32. Painted Ship.....Little White Lies.....by request and from Vancouver 1966. This one goes out to regular listener and vocalist Captain William Hay!! Thanx for all your years of friendship and encouragement!
33. Tijuana Bibles....Deadly Weapons.....from the Fists Of Fury CD and there might be a Leather Upper involved in this release.
34. Stolen Minks.....Batman...You're The Sex....from their second CD, Family Boycott and from about 5 years ago. From Halifax and we had the pleasure of seeing this band a couple of times on their North American tours. Always smiling and fun!!
35. The Stance...I Need A Reason....from the Shall Inherit The Earth CD from 2006 and from Halifax. We were lucky enough to get this combo through London right after they released this CD as they did a double bill with their good pals The Stolen Minks!!
36. Liquid Vapours....What Kind Of Spell...from the Devilla CD and from the east coast of Canada 2010. Members of several combos got together and recorded this one.
37. Walkin' Jacks....Summertime....from the Drop Dead CD from 2011 and somehow incestuously related to the Liquid Vapours.
38. Grey Lands....Collide and Conquer.....from the recent Right Arm CD and from Hamilton Ontario. Caught these guys a couple weeks back at Call The Office when they opened up for Pack AD. Psych guitars raged live and things are toned down just a little on the CD.
39. No Means No.... My Roommate Is Turning Into A Monster....ffrom the Mama CD and recorded around 1982....form Victoria BC and still around in some form to this day.
That's a wrap.....had a TON more stuff to play, but the clock went faster than usual and we ran out of time. Back again next week with another all Canadian show and a pile of requests from Facebook.....if you have more Canadian requests, get them to me right away.
Big thanx for all the phone calls, emails, facebook messages and Heys!!!! It's all for fun and hopefully fun for all.
Here's a link to the archived show....we ran from 6 till 8:30 with this show:
https://chrwradio.ca/program/radio-what-wave
