Radio What Wave Playlist Friday Dec 9....Canadian PowerPop Special Part 5
Final episode on our trip across Canada and yammering about and playing the bands that played (and some still do) powerpop. On this final edition, we finish our look at London Ontario's combos, go west down the 401 to Windsor and then cross the Prairies to Vancouver/Victoria which has always been a hotbed for powerpop.
1. Dustbin Flowers....Bayside Jenny....from their self titled debut CD and a song that shoulda been a radio hit! As so many powerpop/pop tunes should be!
2. Giggleswitch....How Good You Look...from their VII CD from 2007. Local combo that is considered punk, but this song definitely has the hooks and background vocals to get played on this show. And they've just reformed (got back together, not been released from reform school) recently.
3. Ruth's Hat.....Show Me....from their Nostalgic For Right Now double CD from 2006. Not the song I meant to play, but still a pop tune from these guys who used to play places like Call The Office and the Brunswick.
4. The Knaves....White Car....from a demo that a certain DJ (who actually drums in this combo) dropped into all the DJ's mailboxes here at CHRW several years ago. Most of the DJ's ignored this high energy powerpop...not me. Jesse who played guitar in this combo, is now in The Try Umphs who are in the process of releasing 2 songs a month for awhile.
5. Hurricane and Able.....Who's That Girl?....from their 2013 download The Last Temptation. A duo that is half London and half Toronto based and basically a studio band. They've played out once or twice and I've given up pestering them to play London....LOL...
6. Hurricane and Able...Day More Day....from their Thin End of the Wedge download, probably from 2015.
7. Coaching For Sara.....Look Around....from their self titled debut CD that came out earlier this year. They're working on more recording right now, and we'll be spinning it as soon as we get it to our sweaty palms! My fave local powerpop combo and they've got a coupla shows coming up, December 21 at Fitzrays and January 7 at East Side.
8. Fine Print....Tonight....from their wonderful self titled CD from 2013. They also released a cassette on the What Wave label....very limited.
9. Square Root of Margaret...Hollywood Will Find A Way....from their Teragram Photeur CD from 2002 and from just west of London in Chatham Ontario....not the same Chatham that Wild Billy Childish and his band of pranksters came from.
10. The Spys....Underground....from their only 7" from 1980 and from Windsor Ontario. There were 2 different sleeves for this one, and it was recently re-ished by Ugly Pop Records out of Toronto. After releasing this record, the band re-named itself The Nelsons and upon returning to the Cedar Lounge, gave away tons of this 7". My buddy Derek and I both grabbed one and we both put them on the dash of his car when we were leaving. It was the middle of winter, cold as fuck and he had the heater on full to help defrost the windshield. And you guessed it, 2 severely warped records!!
11. Popular Mechanix....Ice Box City....from their self titled first LP from 1979 and from Winnipeg. The whole LP is filled with fast hook laden powerpop! Got to see them at The Cedar Lounge back then and remember them doing a few early Who covers in with the originals. They released one other LP, not quite as good as this one, but that's just my opinion.
12. Telepathic Butterflies....A Final Word...from An Album on Rainbow Quartz Records out of the US, but this band was from Winnipeg. Rainbow Quartz was a label that specialized in powerpop and I still search out anything on this label that I don't have. Very Beatles/Big Star influenced.
13. The Perms....Bring You Down....from their Better Days CD from 2005 and also from Winnipeg. These guys used some well placed horns and at this point, I gave a shout out to our pal The Invisible Man, a horn blower in many ska combos and DJ on UMFM!!
14. Jr. Gone Wild....Old Blue....from their Less Art More Pop LP from 1987 on BYO Records out of California, but these louts were from Edmonton! Great Byrds jangle on the guitars with loads of 60's pop sounds on this label that was known for punk rock. Saw these guys a few times in this lineup and the shows were completely unpredictible due to alcohol, testosterone and probably some man made drugs! I had them doing a sunday night showcase at Key West many moons ago. We had a great writeup in the local newspaper and the place was packed. Only one problem, the band wasn't there!! They had spent the day in Toronto consuming beer and after many frantic phone calls, they showed up and proceeded to load in faster than lightning and start playing! Put on a truly amazing set although a few people had already left. And yet another time, again at the Key West here in London, they were so drunk they were doing Black Sabbath covers and almost falling over each other...luckily only a few saw this train wreck. A documentary on Jr Gone Wild is due out soon and there may be some pics from the Key West shows.
15. Chilliwack....Fly At Night....from their Segue Lp from 1977 and one of the few Canadian powerpop combos that were getting radio airplay here in Canada. They had several really cool pop tunes and thought this one would fit the show best.
16. Grapes Of Wrath....You May Be Right....from their These Days CD from 1991 and from Vancouver. They released at least 3 CD's, all of which got loads of airplay here at CHRW and many other places. Very nice hook in this one.
17. Cub....My Chinchilla....from a 7" EP called Hot Dog Day on Mint Records from 1993. 3 piece combo that played The Embassy here in London at least a few times. They released many other singles, CD's and appeared on many compilations and from Vancouver as most of the combos for the rest of this episode.
18. New Pornographers....Chump Change....from their Electric Version CD from 2003. Another combo that is well known across Canada and get lots of airplay from mainstream radio. They are also a really good pop combo!
19. Bum....Weekend....from a 7" from 1992 and from Victoria BC and sent this one out to Jon Traut from the Boy From Nowhere as he called in just prior to this being aired! Bum were more influenced by Cheap Trick and members showed up in this next combo....
20. Budoken....You Don't Stop Lovin' The Band....from their Spin A Little Gold CD from a few years back.
21. The Sweaters....The Pop Thing....from a CD of the same name from 1991 and validates this whole pop show!
22. The Modernettes....Barbra....from their Teen City EP from 1980 and a band that coulda and shoulda but somehow didn't! This is a song that should be blasting out of the car radio as you cruise the back roads with the top down!!!
23. The Modernettes....Teen City... as above....
24. Secret V's....Modern Boy....from a self titled 1980 12" EP and features a guy named Radial on bass. Radial is none other than soon to be well known, Ray Condo, who along with his Hardrock Goners crossed Canada many a time, preaching the gospel of rock'n'roll! Those Hardrock Goners used to stay at our place when they played London and we got to talking late one night and found out that Ray was Radial. Saw The Secret V's play the Cedar Lounge and Ray said they stayed in the upstairs rooms above the club and let's just say that wasn't the best accomodation here in London....LOL...
25. Female Hands....Divided By 3....from a 1980 self title EP on Quintessence Records. Got this back in the day when I'd buy just about anything that looked interesting and glad I grabbed this. Picked it up when City Lights Book Store had an actual record bar upstairs with loads of new wave/punk records and a young lady ran it. Picked up many singles and the first Dead Kennedys record there as well.
26. Pointed Sticks....Perfect Youth....from the LP of the same name from 1980 and a real game changer when I saw these guys at the Cedar Lounge....they were the first combo that I can remember covering a Sonics song...The Witch!!! And this was right around the time I was discovering Pebbles records (again that record bar at City Lights) and digging and realizing where all these punk sounds were coming from ....60's garagepunk and a bowl haircut for me please!! And then realizing that there were others out there with the same mindset...ie Chesterfield Kings, The Last, Droogs and more!!!
27. Pointed Sticks....Destitute....again from 1980 and a bonus track on the Perfect Youth CD on Zulu Records. Pointed Sticks opened for Teenage Head in the fall of 1980 at the Spoke and Rim at Western University here in London. The Teenage Head live sets aired over CHRW and I managed to tape that. Does anyone know if the Pointed Sticks portion aired and if so, who has a copy that I can trade for??? OCD's got a hold on me!!
28. Young Canadians....Just A Loser...from the This Is Your LIfe EP from about 1980 and features Art Bergman on guitar/vocals. At the time, Art was called Canada's Lou Reed.....monotonic vocal, deep lyrics, hard to deal with due to drugs/alcohol etc... Art has lived through it all, and is still around to this day doing the solo thing and was through town in the last year or so....missed that show.
29. 64 Funnycars....Fading Away....from their 7" EP from 1990 and from Victoria BC. Caught these guys at Call The Office and managed to get all their releases at that time. Nice pop combo.
30. The Smugglers....Walking Out On Love....from a 7" from 1994 and at one time, one of Canada's best known underground combos as they travelled the world, released records around the world but never did well right here in London Ontario! Singer Grant Lawrence, whom you may know of via CBC Radio, is presently working on a book about this combo and might even be some pics from right here in London. I've never seen a grown man kiss another mans bare ass, except when The Smugglers were playing at Call The Office one night....no names, ask me sometime.
31. New Town Animals....Sitting Alonge With You....from the Is Your Radio Active CD from 2001 and Jeffy Clone is in this band. Some members went on to The Briefs.
32. The Clones....Forgetting What I Know....from the Need A Wave CD from 2003. Jeffy Clone and more jeffy clone....LOL....
33. The React....Only Living For You....from a recent 7" on the La Ti Da label and features a member of The Tranzmitors....
Goddamn, ran outta time but certainly not tunes...next up was going to be Vancouger and then a bunch of Tranzmitors singles....maybe next show!!
Big thanx for all the phone calls, emails, facebook messages and Heys!!! Back again on Friday Dec 16th from 4 to 6PM and we'll be yammering with Jesse Locke about his brand new book on Simply Saucer!
You can find the archived show at, just click on the Dec 09 @ 1600 Download:
https://chrwradio.ca/program/london-indie-underground
