Gary Bettman Remains Entrenched Through Adversity

What's Gary Bettman's secret?

The National Hockey League's inaugural commissioner will mark his 17th anniversary in the post in February and, although he's helped oversee a dramatic increase in league revenues and a tentative return to more wide-open hockey after the clutching and grabbing era robbed fans of seeing the game's top players fully showcasing their skills earlier this decade, his bullheadedness about expanding into non-traditional hockey markets and inability to land a meaningful U.S. national television contract have left the NHL in a somewhat precarious position.

Bettman's tenure has seen the league lock out its players twice, reducing the 1994-95 season from 84 to 48 games and completely wiping out the entire 2004-05 schedule after owners and the NHL Players Association failed to negotiate new collective bargaining agreements. The NHL became the first major North American sports league to cancel a whole season due to a labour dispute, causing a black eye that's faded somewhat in time as they all eventually do, but turning off many fans in markets like Atlanta, Phoenix and Florida who still hadn't fully embraced the world's fastest team sport like those in original six and early expansion American cities and, especially, in Canada.

Bettman certainly can't be blamed for the mess that the NHLPA now finds itself in, and the introduction of a salary cap along with revenue sharing adds some economic certainty for owners that wasn't there before the current CBA. But with the current deal expiring after the 2010-11 season, one can't feel fully comfortable with the stubborn and often combative 57-year-old lawyer acting on behalf of the league's 30 governors again. That is, if there are still 30 teams left by the time those negotiations begin in earnest.

But as the Phoenix Coyotes bankruptcy case showed earlier this year, Bettman seems to have strong support from almost all of the NHL's owners. But now that the league has taken over the Coyotes, are those folks going to remain happy while footing the bill for a money-losing franchise that seems to have no chance of turning things around as long it remains playing in front of less than 6,000 people in a white elephant arena in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale? Even if I had a few hundred million dollars in my bank account, I know I wouldn't be.

Bettman seems to be wearing rose-coloured glasses while saying that the NHL is in good shape while teams in Tampa, Atlanta, Nashville, Florida and even farther north in Columbus walk precariously along a tightrope and try not to fall off into an abyss like the Coyotes.

It's not just Research In Motion head Jim Balsillie and the hockey fans in Hamilton, Ont. who had high hopes for the maverick executive shuffling the Coyotes north to the home of the Canadian Football League's Tiger Cats who are ticked off at Bettman for fighting the move. Opinion polls show he's unpopular across Canada, he was booed while presenting the Stanley Cup to the Pittsburgh Penguins in June, and there are at least two web sites — the terribly written www.garybettmansucks.com and the moderately more literate but no-less-venomous www.firebettman.com — dedicated to criticizing the former senior vice-president and general consul of the National Basketball Association.

Bettman must know where some bodies are buried, or have several photos of influential owners in compromising positions, to be able to smugly keep his lucrative job amidst such controversy and rancour. Come on Gary, just between you and me, what's your secret?

Reigning Sound Rules

I'd never seen Reigning Sound before and singer/guitarist Greg Cartwright (Oblivians, Compulsive Gamblers) said it had been "several" years since his band had been in Toronto, and it was obvious that I wasn't the only person eager to see the Memphis-formed, Asheville, N.C.-based band. I'd estimate there were about 300 people at the Horseshoe Tavern last night, which is a pretty impressive figure for a Sunday night and a band that more or less has a cult following.
I can't imagine that anyone left disappointed. It was like soulful garage rock heaven. All the sound coming from just one guitar was amazing, and the riffs coming from the organ of Dave Amels excited me even more. Bassist David Wayne Gay and drummer Lance Wille rounded out the totally solid veteran lineup.
Like-minded musicians from The Sadies, Deadly Snakes, Catl and The Lawn were in attendance and soaking up the good vibes. I ran into C'Mon's Ian Blurton and Katie Campbell during my walk home, and Blurton said he would have been at the show but was working in the studio. 
Almost every song was a highlight and the 90-minute show included "The Bells," "Call Me," "Break It," "I'll Cry," "Time Bomb High School," "If I Can't Come Back," "Stop And Think It Over," "Reptile Style," "Stormy Weather," "I'm Holding Out" and "Dangerous Game."
I like a lot of roll with my rock, and Reigning Sound played one of the best pure rock-and-roll shows I've seen this year.
Here are two photos:

 

Andre Williams and The Sadies
My Thursday night volleyball games kept me away from Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern until 11 p.m., so I unfortunately missed local blues/roots/rock-and-roll combo Catl (who I quite like and last saw at the Halloween party at Mitzi's Sister a few weeks ago) and Montreal rockabilly artist Bloodshot Bill (who I've never witnessed in person, but have liked what I've heard on radio and seen on television), who I'll try to catch opening for King Khan & BBQ at Lee's Palace on Dec. 4.
But my arrival coincided with the start of a short nine-song set by The Sadies, which included "Why Be So Curious (Part 3)," "Leave Me Alone," "Stay A Little Longer," "Tiger Tiger" and a couple of instrumentals. The quartet was sharp, as always, and got the good-sized crowd pumped up for its next role as Andre Williams' backing band.
"Mr. Rhythm" (who was apparently given that name by the late, great Redd Foxx) took the stage along with two local go-go dancers (who I won't name, just in case their employers happen to see this and didn't know they were moonlighting). Andre was decked out in a red zoot suit with matching hat, had earrings on both sides of his head, and looked every part the pimp.
I've seen Andre at least half-a-dozen times, but it's been a few years since he's been in Toronto. He didn't look as good as he has in the past when I saw him at the Continental Club in Austin during the South By Southwest Music Festival in March, so I was a bit wary going in to this performance. He turned 73 earlier this month and has lived a hard life that's included lots of booze and drugs and periods of homelessness, but he seemed to be rejuvenated somewhat for this show. Performing in front of The Sadies can do that to people.
Andre opened with  "Hallelujah" and then moved into "She's A Bag Of Potato Chips," which he recorded with The Sadies on the 1999 country-influenced  Red Dirt album. He showed a few dance moves during "Agile, Mobile & Hostile" and then sang about one of his many fantasies with "I Wanna Be Your Favorite Pair Of Pajamas." The Sadies provided lots of raunch and crunch in support, and Dallas Good even took an impressive turn at the organ during "Pajamas."
Things slowed down for another Red Dirt track, "I Can Tell," after which Andre said, "I'd like to take a short break and turn you over to some bad motherfuckers."
Andre stood behind Dallas and caught his second wind as The Sadies ripped through an uplifting version of "Higher Power."
The dancers returned once Andre reclaimed centre stage to scan the crowd for "some good pussy," which was an obvious introduction for "Pussy Stank."
Andre then reached back about 50 years into his catalogue for two early hits. First came a bluesy doo-wop version of "Bacon Fat," followed by the still lascivious "Jail Bait."
Andre made a dedication to all the "hillbillies in the house," and explained, "I used to pick cotton and screw myself because there was no girls" when he was growing up as a "blackbilly" in Alabama.
The set ended with what's probably Andre's best-known song, the ever-awesome "Shake A Tail Feather," which had the go-go girls shaking theirs.
Andre returned to the stage wearing a Christmas sweater for a short two-song encore that concluded with a reprise of "Hallelujah." 
The set was relatively short and I really missed "Let Me Put It In," which used to be a highlight of past shows and seemed to get a lot of ladies excited, but any time spent with Andre is a good time.
Andre isn't  quite what he used to be as a performer, but I'm glad that he may be able to prolong his career a bit and make some more money now that he's cleaned up — even though from a totally selfish perspective, I miss some of the old post-show, backstage debauchery that used to take place (that I would just observe, of course, since I would never dream of partaking in any illicit activities).
Here are some of my shots from the show:

 

Joel Plaskett Photos
My good friend Tara celebrated her 40th birthday last Saturday, and part of the celebration included a private show at Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern featuring The Royal Crowns and the Joel Plaskett Emergency. It was a great night and I was going to write a review, but since it felt like more of a party than a concert, I kept the notepad tucked away and just focused on having a good time. I took some photos, however, and thought I'd post three of them. Here you go:

 

Carbon/Silicon — The Silicon Bubble
Carbon/Silicon's The Last Post was one of my favourite albums of last year, and The Silicon Bubble has just vaulted to the top of my best of '09 contenders' list. 
Singer/guitarist Mick Jones (The Clash, Big Audio Dynamite), guitarist Tony James (Generation X, Sigue Sigue Sputnik), bassist Leo "Eezykill" Williams (B.A.D.) and drummer Dominic Greensmith (Reef) are back to continue their "M.P.Free" revolution by making the 12-track album available as a free download from their web site.
Jones' voice is unmistakable and, as a loose generalization, much of the material on The Silicon Bubble is comparable to his best work from B.A.D. But "What's Up Doc" is brash with lots of thrash and is the most punk thing Jones has done since The Clash's first album, while "Make It Alright" is a frantic psych-rocker. Things slow down, but work just as well, on the sparse and simple "Unbelievable Pain."
"Fresh Start" effectively blends harmonica in with the twin guitars. 
Jones mentions Facebook and flash mobs in "Shadow" and follows it with another reference to modern pop culture in "Don't Taser Me Bro."
Songs average about five-and-a-half minutes in length, but none of them seem to drag on, which is one of my key qualifiers for a great album. While it may not have those one or two songs that really jump out like The Last Post did, it's an overall more consistent effort. 
Carbon/Silicon put on a great show when I saw it at the South By Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas last year, and I was disappointed when James told me that Williams' passport problems wiped out the group's two Canadian concerts, but I'm still holding out hope that it will make it here eventually.
I don't expect everyone to share my enthusiasm for Carbon/Silicon but, since it won't cost you anything to give The Carbon Bubble a shot, why not go for it?

Heavy Trash — Midnight Soul Serenade

Jon Spencer and Matt Verta-Ray's third full-length Heavy Trash release goes a bit beyond what they've done in the past, but there's still more than enough familiarity to assure that existing fans should be kept happy.
Verta-Ray's electric guitar solos are just one of the interesting ingredients of the haphazardly wonderful "Gee, I Really Love You," and the backing vocals by Those Darlins on "Good Man" represent just a fraction of the album's guest contributions. 
"Pimento" is a primarily instrumental track with lots of organ, "(Sometimes You Got To Be) Gentle" is a big-sounding garage rocker, "Bedevilment" is pure trashabilly, "That's What Your Love Gets" turns back the clocks 50 years and the album ends with a blues-influenced love song, "In My Heart."
Spencer is by no means a classic crooner, but his approach works well as he talk-sings through the multi-dimensional "Isolation." It's not as effective when he talks most of the way through "Sweet Little Bird" and the slow and somewhat sinister "The Pill."
"Bumble Bee," a 1960 single from LaVern Baker, is the only non-original among the disc's 11 tracks, but it's presented in the reliable Heavy Trash style.
Midnight Soul Serenade offers dark, greasy rock-and-roll for those into that sort of thing. I am. I'll rate this album an 8/10.

Dave Rawlings Machine - A Friend Of A Friend

Rawlings is probably best known for playing and recording with Gillian Welch, but he also contributed to Ryan Adams' Heartbreaker and Bright Eyes' Four Winds and Cassadaga.
This is his first record under his own name, but the primarily acoustic LP includes a lot of friends alluded to in the title. The singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist is joined by Welch (who also co-wrote five of the nine songs with Rawlings) on all the tracks along with Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench on three of them, and Old Crow Medicine Show members adding fiddle and guitjo on many. Rawlings produced the album in Nashville.
Opener "Ruby," which features strings and Tench on organ, reminds me of The Band in its more laid-back moments. The more up-tempo "To Be Young (Is To Be Sad, Is To Be High)" was co-written with Adams and is replete with banjo, fiddle and organ. The quiet but powerful "I Hear Them All" deals with suffering, tyranny and religion.
"Sweet Tooth" is gentle and playful musically, but seems to have a darker lyrical undercurrent. "How's About You" and  "It's Too Easy" are both classic-sounding and timeless country numbers.
"Monkey And The Engineer," written by one-man band Jesse Fuller (who died at the age of 79 in 1976) and probably best known by the Grateful Dead cover of it, is included here. It offers a lot of harmonica and fun. The album ends with the only track featuring drums, "Bells Of Harlem." Organ and strings also combine to make this a beautiful ballad.
The only place I feel the album falters just slightly is on the combination cover of Conor Oberst's "Method Acting" and Neil Young's "Cortez The Killer." It's certainly not bad, and Rawlings' voice has similar intonations as Young's in that section, it just didn't grab me as much as the rest of the record.
A Friend Of A Friend comes out on Nov.  17 via Acony Records, and there's a good chance it will be my favourite country album of the year (since I'm not classifying Mike Herrera's Tumbledown or Neko Case's Middle Cyclone as pure country records).

The Action - Complete Punk Recordings 1977-1978

I was talking to D.O.A. frontman and Sudden Death Records founder Joey "Shithead" Keithley a couple of weeks ago, and he told me about an album his label released recently that he'd send me because he wanted me to hear it.
It was from a 30-year-old Ottawa punk band I'd never heard of called The Action, and the 17-song CD features all of the recordings from its relatively brief career.
The Action was one of  Canada's first punk bands and opened for both The Ramones and The Stranglers. The group released a decent four-song EP recorded live with no overdubs that was highlighted by "T.V.'s On The Blink" and which also included a cover of The Velvet Underground's "Waiting For The Man."
A five-song EP was subsequently recorded but never released. It showcased the band's on-stage energy with a live version of "Success Without College," featured a song about a former road manager who got crabs called "Seafood Mama," and offered a slower and more expansive number called "Zona Rosa." My favourite from the EP is "Pressed Pig."
The last eight songs in this collection were recorded for a live radio broadcast at Ottawa's infamous Rotter's Club, where The Action was the unofficial house band and waitresses apparently served drinks in the washrooms. These numbers show that The Action hadn't totally turned its back on the rock that the young members grew up on, though they were still pretty damn punk for that era. The performance includes a staple of the band's sets, a cover of The Rolling Stones' bluesy "Midnight Rambler."
This compilation didn't knock me out like some of Other People's Music's vintage Toronto punk releases from the likes of The Viletones, The Mods, The Ugly and The 'B' Girls, or even The Scenics' recently released Sunshine World collection of '70s recordings (which I wrote the bio for), but punk historians or people who remember The Action might want to check this out.

Grant Hart — Hot Wax 

I'd never seen former Husker Du drummer, co-lyricist and singer Grant Hart perform solo, but planned to catch him at a night-time show during the South By Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas this past March. But a friend whose opinion I trust and value had caught a daytime performance and wasn't impressed. And since there are a myriad of options at SXSW, I passed on Hart.
But I've just been listening to Hot Wax, Hart's first  album in 10 years, and I now definitely want to see him when he comes to Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern on Dec. 14. 
The nine-song, 34-minute disc was partially recorded by producer/engineer and former Arcade Fire drummer Howard Bilerman at his Hotel 2 Tango studio in Montreal as well as at Albatross studio by Mike Wisti in Hart's hometown of Minneapolis. Members of Montreal's  Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Silver Mt. Zion as well as Wisti's band, Rank Strangers, contributed musically.
Opener "You're The Reflection Of The Moon On The Water" is a garage rock tune with repetitive lyrics that's taken up a notch with organ and hand claps. "Barbara," about an invisible woman that only Hart can see, is slower and gentler, but isn't a ballad. Trumpet and strings add depth to the song.
"Charles Hollis Jones," named after the renowned furniture designer who's referenced in the lyrics along with clients Tennessee Williams and Sylvester Stallone, is a psychedelic pop song with organ. A psych influence is also evident in "Narcissus, Narcissus," which rocks harder while still featuring what sounds like vibes, and "Sailor Jack."
"California Zephyr" features acoustic guitar and a chorus with a strong pop hook. Canadian singer/songwriter Basia Bulat contributes backing vocals to "My Regrets," which has a big, sprawling sound that's appropriate to close the album.
I wasn't expecting this much from Hot Wax, which was a pleasant surprise. Bob Mould continues to make impressive music, and I'm glad that his former Husker Du bandmate has returned to do the same. I'll give this an 8/10.

np Robbie Fulks —  "Cigarette State" (live)

For Greenpeace Supporters And Old Folkies

Environmentalists and fans of Phil Ochs (pictured, appropriately, to the left), James Taylor and Joni Mitchell may be interested in a new Greenpeace benefit album titled Amchitka that will be available exclusively through the organization on Nov. 10.
The two-CD set  was recorded at an Oct. 16, 1970 concert at Vancouver's Pacific Coliseum that raised funds to protest U.S. nuclear bomb tests near the Aleutian island of Amchitka, Alaska and launched Greenpeace. 
Ochs was one of the foremost protest singers (he described himself as a "singing journalist") of the '60s and I've been a longtime admirer. He performs eight songs on disc one — including one of his best known numbers, "I Åin't Marching Anymore," and "Joe Hill" — and his lyrics still resonate with meaning almost 40 years after his performance.
I've never been much of a Taylor fan, aside from "You've Got A Friend," "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)" and "Handy Man" (which all came later in his career, and he didn't write any of them anyway), but his set includes early hits "Fire And Rain" and "Carolina In My Mind."
I may be chastised for being a bad Canadian or perhaps an insensitive boor for having little appreciation for Mitchell, but so be it. Her 10-song set, which takes up the entire second CD, includes "Woodstock," "A Case Of You" and "The Circle Game." She also tacks Larry Williams' "Bony Moroni" on to "Big Yellow Taxi" and Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" on to "Carey." Mitchell is joined by Taylor towards the end of her performance.
The between-song audience addresses by the three artists are also entertaining in places.
Proceeds from Amchitka go to a worthy cause, so pay a visit to the Greenpeace website once the album becomes available if you'd like a copy.


np The Apples In Stereo — #1 Hits Explosion 
(There's some pure pop goodness on here.)

Roky Erickson Comes To Toronto

I had the privilege of attending the Toronto Raptors' season-opening game against the Cleveland Cavaliers at the Air Canada Centre on Wednesday evening. Even better, the Raptors upset the Cavaliers and scored 100 points, which means I can exchange my ticket for a free slice at Pizza Pizza after my volleyball game tonight.
I was with the owner of Lee's Palace, who invited me to the club after the game. We arrived too late to catch The Sadies' opening set, but that's no big deal since I'll see the band playing with Andre Williams at the Horseshoe Tavern on Nov. 19.
But the main attraction was the legendary Roky Erickson, who was making his first Toronto appearance (and I think his only previous Canadian show was the night before in Hamilton). 
The leader of the pioneering and influential Austin, Texas '60s psych-rock band The 13th Floor Elevators suffered from schizophrenia and drug and electroshock-induced mental illness for decades, but performed for the first time in 10 years when he played three songs in his hometown in March 2005 during the South By Southwest Music Festival. That's where I saw him for the first time last year, and where I took the above photo at Stubb's.
Erickson played with some older musicians at that show and, while he's worshipped by local music fans, I thought the performance lacked passion. Last night, with three younger guys supporting him, there was more life and energy.
I missed the first four songs but arrived just in time to hear my favourite Erickson song, "Starry Eyes." His voice didn't sound great, but the mid-'70s tune is so catchy that you may have no soul if you don't like it.
Speaking of souls, and those who try to claim them, Erickson followed "Starry Eyes" with "Don't Shake Me Lucifer." Though I'm sure Erickson wasn't thinking about Halloween, much of the set list was appropriate for this time of year, as it included "Stand For The Fire Demon," "I Walked With A Zombie" and a sludgy "Night Of The Vampire."
Erickson didn't say a word between songs the whole time I was there, and he turned his back to the crowd to play his guitar whenever he wasn't singing. But the younger guitarist played lead, and was very good. 
The 13th Floor Elevators' signature song, "You're Gonna Miss Me," brought whoops from the crowd of 400 (which included The Sadies, who idolize Erickson, as well as local singers/musicians Ian Blurton, John Borra, Gord Cumming and Kate Boothman) who paid $35 to get in. Despite a rousing ovation that lasted for several minutes, there was no encore, so "Two-Headed Dog" ended the night.
It's unlikely that the 62-year-old Erickson will return to these parts again in the near future, but there seemed to be a consensus among those I spoke to or overheard that this show supplied sufficient gratification.
For fans or those who might be interested in finding out more about Erickson's fascinating life, you should definitely seek out the 2005 documentary, You're Gonna Miss Me. It's worth 94 minutes of your time.

Gogol Bordello — Live From Axis Mundi

I've quite liked Gogol Bordello's two SideOneDummy albums, 2006's Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike and 2007's Super Taranta!, but have either been out of town or had conflicting engagements whenever the New York City "gypsy punk" band has come to Toronto. I've regretted this, since I've received first-hand reports from people who've gone and said the band is incredible live.

And while I still haven't personally witnessed Eugene Hutz and his traveling musical circus, I now have a better idea of the experience after watching Live From Axis Mundi's DVD, which captures two 2007 performances at New York City's Irving Plaza. The music is frenetic and there's action everywhere, as the stage is filled with musicians, singers and dancers.

Hutz rides the shoulders of a security guard during my favourite Gogol Bordello song, "Start Wearing Purple," and he climbs up into a balcony during the first encore number, "Punk Rock Parranda." During the very extended final song, "Baro Foro," one of the female members of the group stands on a large drum being held aloft by audience members.

I sincerely hope I have no conflicts the next time that Gogol Bordello comes to town, because these shows look like a ton of fun.

The DVD extras include additional live performances and music videos for "Start Wearing Purple," "Not A Crime," "Wonderlust King" and, best of all, "American Wedding." There's also a short documentary titled "Creative People Must Be Stopped!" that features in-studio footage and interviews.

The package also includes an 11-track CD of previously unreleased material featuring six songs recorded on BBC Radio 1's In The Company Of program in March 2008, "Stivali E Colbacco" from the Super Taranta! recording sessions, "Troubled Friends" from the Gypsy Punk sessions, demo and instrumental recordings of "Immigrant Punk," and the "60 Revolutions" demo.

While nothing can match actually attending a concert, Live From Axis Mundi gives you a very good picture of what it's like — at least when my DVD wasn't stopping and starting, very annoyingly so during the bonus features. Hopefully I just received a dud disc and this isn't a widespread manufacturing mistake.

Newfoundland Reggae

I received a self-titled album from a group I'd never heard of called Pressure Drop 17 years ago, and was somewhat surprised to find out that it was a reggae LP recorded in St. John's, Nfld. with a lineup of five people you wouldn't normally expect to be in a band together. I was even more surprised to find out that it was really good.
I hooked up with the band members when they came to Toronto and became friends with them, especially drummer/singer/producer Jim Fidler. I even went to St. John's and the tiny French island of St. Pierre off the coast of Newfoundland when Jim married his lovely wife Lillian in 1996 and spent a lot of time with the two of them when they briefly moved to Toronto while Jim was appearing in The Needfire at the Princess Of Wales Theatre in 1998 and the Royal Alexandra Theatre in 2000. There are lots of fun stories I could tell about spending time with these folks, but I'll save them for later.
Pressure Drop released another album called From The Inside Out in 1994 before calling it a day, and Jim embarked on a solo music and production career centred around his Roots Cellar studio. He released four fine albums that touched on Newfoundland's Celtic music roots and also explored music from around the world. Jim plays pretty much every instrument on his albums, which is all the more impressive considering that he's blind.
Jim and I have lost touch over the last couple of years, but I thought about him again today after listening to Keep Out, the new album from another St. John's reggae band, Idlers. I was given the group's Corner debut album (which was engineered by Lee Tizzard, who I know from his days working with Pressure Drop) by another friend from St. John's last year and was really impressed. So were others, as Idlers won a Galaxie Rising Star of the CBC Award, several honours in Newfoundland and was nominated for an East Coast Music Award.

Keep Out is one of the best roots reggae albums I've heard this year, and I'll hopefully get a chance to see Idlers when the band embarks on an eastern Canadian tour next month that includes a Nov. 13 stop at Toronto's Rancho Relaxo. Idlers call themselves a "reggae circus" and I have no idea how an 11-piece band is going to fit on to that club's tiny stage.
Listening to Keep Out piqued my curiosity about what Jim has been up to lately, so I went to his website and found out that he's returned to reggae again and has just released a new album titled Revolution Time. You can hear samples of each song on the record on the site, and I'm happy to say that it also sounds great and exhibits more polished and professional production than the Pressure Drop records did.

So while you may not think of Newfoundland as a reggae hotbed,  Keep Out and Revolution Time show that there's certainly something happening on The Rock and both Idlers and Jim Fidler deserve to be heard across the rest of Canada and beyond.
You can find out more about  Idlers here.
You can find out more about Jim Fidler here.

Dead To Me — African Elephants

This San Francisco trio's third Fat Wreck release is a relatively diverse punk album. 
Opening track "X" songs like one of The Clash's reggae efforts, and the Jamaican influence can also be found in "A Day Without War." "California Sun" isn't a cover of The Rivieras classic, but has a nice tropical vibe and a call and response chorus. 
"Liebe Liese" deals with the development of the atomic bomb, but the dark subject matter is counterpointed by pure pop backing harmomies. Acoustic guitar works well in "Cruel World" and "Bad Friend" builds momentum as it progresses. 
"Tierra Del Fuego" is a melodic punk-pop number, while "Modern Muse" and "Fell Right In" are a little more aggressive, and closer "Blue" even verges slightly into metal territory.
I'll give African Elephants an 8 out of 10.
The album is out on Nov. 10. 
You can  find out more here.

The Scenics

I have to review the Gaslight Anthem show at Toronto's Kool Haus on Tuesday night (Oct. 13) and I'm unsure if I'll be able to make it up to the El Mocambo in time to catch The Scenics, who I saw at The Last Pogo 30th anniversary show at the Horseshoe Tavern last fall. But even if I can't write about the group's show, I still want to publicize it and the band's new Sunshine World album because The Scenics are one of the secrets of Canadian music that shouldn't be secret any longer. So here's the artist bio that the band asked me to write for it this summer:  

Andy Meyers and Ken Badger formed The Scenics in Toronto in the summer of 1976 and, with a rotating cast of drummers and bassists, made some of the most innovative music Canada has ever produced during their six-year original run.

You can hear elements of Pere Ubu, Talking Heads, The Velvet Underground, Television, Roxy Music and free jazz in The Scenics' intricate yet powerful twin-guitar sound, but the band put everything together in a way that was uniquely their own.

"We were kindred souls, but we created our own thing," Meyers says of The Scenics' acknowledged influences, while asserting their independence.

"The Scenics never toed the line. Never once did someone bring in a song and was told, 'You can't do that.' There was complete acceptance and support of each other just because that's the way it went. Musically and lyrically, there was this sense of being able to do anything you wanted."

The Scenics opened for Talking Heads and The Troggs and were part of the infamous Last Pogo punk blowout concert at Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern in 1978. The band recorded their Underneath The Door album for Bomb Records in 1979 and the "Karen/See Me Smile" single two years later before breaking up on amicable terms in 1982.

Almost nothing was heard about The Scenics after that — not that they were well-known when they existed anyway. But when Meyers finally got around to listening to some of the more than 300 hours of rehearsal, live and studio recordings that had done little more than sit on a shelf for a quarter-century, he was knocked out and "totally taken by surprise with the songs and the passion of the performances."

The Scenics re-introduced (though it was more like an introduction for most people) themselves to music fans in early 2008 with the release of How Does It Feel To Be Loved: The Scenics Play The Velvet Underground. This collection of 10 live recordings taped between 1977 and 1981 and released on the band's own Dream Tower label received Canadian campus radio airplay and earned critical acclaim across North America. But as positive as the feedback was, the album left many music writers asking if The Scenics wrote any of their own material.

Those scribes will get their answer with the Oct. 13 release of Sunshine World, which features 14 original songs and intriguing covers of Tommy James And The Shondells' "Mony Mony" and The Kinks' "Where Have All The Good Times Gone?" The songs were laid down in the studio in 1977 and 1978 and, while they were cleaned up in mastering, there are no overdubs on the original four-track recordings.

People will finally be able to discover such previously buried gems as the art-punk album opener "O Boy," the jangly "In The Summer," the melodic yet still mildly cacophonous "So Fine," the outsider pop of "Sunshine World" and the danceable rock of "Do The Wait" — which features an unsettlingly long pause two-thirds of the way through that literally makes listeners "do the wait." The album ends with its longest and most experimental track, "Scenic Caves," which was the group's original name in the spring of 1977.

Meyers and Badger were both prolific songwriters, and there are almost another 100 originals from The Scenics' early days still sitting in the vaults.

"It's not like we had a few good songs and the rest were dreck," asserts Meyers. "If you like Sunshine World, we have a trunk full of songs that are like them."

The Scenics' originality earned them a small core group of devoted fans, but they were far from universally beloved in the late '70s Toronto punk and new wave scene that spawned the likes of Teenage Head, The Viletones, The Ugly, The Mods, The Secrets and The Cardboard Brains, all of whom are featured along with The Scenics on The Last Pogo CD and DVD released on Dream Tower last fall (and which included seven Scenics songs performed on video as a bonus feature on the DVD).

"Punk was this revolution, but there was no room in the revolution for another revolution," says Meyers. "And that's what The Scenics were.

"There were a lot of people in the Toronto scene who hated us and there was a serious debate in the Toronto scene about whether what we were doing had any validity whatsoever."

While there's little doubt that what The Scenics created was musically ahead of their time 30 years ago, it's easy to agree with Meyers now when he says it no longer sounds like "some totally foreign experiment" and that "then was the perfect time to do the creative end of it because there was so much space and freedom, and this is the perfect time to do the marketing end of it."

The Scenics have played a few shows over the past year-and-a-half with singer/guitarists Meyers and Badger joined by former bandmates Mark Perkell on drums and vocals and Mike Young on bass and vocals. They recorded 14 new songs — written by Meyers and Badger over the years following The Scenics' break-up — while in Toronto for The Last Pogo 30th anniversary show last fall. Those tracks will be released on an album next year.

But there are a lot of things going on in The Scenics' world before that.

They'll be featured in Treat Me Like Dirt, author Liz Worth's tome on the history of the southern Ontario punk scene that will be published by Bongo Beat in September.

A short Canadian tour hitting cities between London and Montreal will coincide with Sunshine World's Oct. 13 release on Dream Tower. The musicians may have grown older, but their performances remain vital. These shows should be a must-see for anyone interested in learning more about a little-known but important part of Canadian music history.

The Scenics will be featured in The Last Pogo Jumps Again, director Colin Brunton's sequel to The Last Pogo, which is expected to be released by the end of the year.

Furthermore, The Scenics' website is now featuring Punk Haiku, Meyers' bi-weekly blog of his reminiscences of what was happening with the band and the exciting and changing world of music 30 years ago. Punk Haiku will be augmented by Basement Box, an online storehouse of Scenics material from those 300 hours of recordings that will be available via paid download.

"The Scenics were not a mild-mannered or small band," concludes Meyers. "Our energy was very big and very powerful, but it happened in a vacuum.

"But these things are coming out now to give people a real sense of what we did. And the story is starting to be told in the Punk Haiku blog and the Basement Box."

Find out more at www.thescenics.com.

"They were my favourite Toronto band, and having seen them play or rehearse well over a dozen times, I never heard them play the same version of a song twice. They were the most creative, the most original, the most daring — and probably the most misunderstood — of all the bands in that scene. And 'Do The Wait' was the coolest dance tune ever."

—Colin Brunton, The Last Pogo director