OFF TO NEW FINLAND

It's unbelievable. The CBC is going to strike. No Peter Mansbridge or George Stromboluffagus to tuck us in at night? I mourn for the nation. I'm hoping that this is a good move for the CBC: they sack everyone making crucial decisions, bring in some real media leaders and revamp the programming and HIRE SOME GODDAMN YOUNG PEOPLE and turn the CBC into a new generation of culture warriors. But it won't, and it'll probably last long enough to give the CBC a hard ass black eye for the rest of the decade.

I just hope it all clears up by the time I get back. For the next six weeks, I'll be away in Newfoundland working as the audio guy on a film called Before the Fall with award-winning experimental documentarian Ben Roberts. As far as the radio show is concerned, nothing will change...except for the free music factor, Six special shows have been prerecorded, and because CIUT's fundraising drive will take place almost as soon as I get back, I've decided to make all the music available to you FOR FREE. That's right, the musical contents of each show, for $0...all you have to do is email me your name and address to:

soundbasement_05@yahoo.ca

and I will send you a CD-R of any material you ask for. Just send me the title any of the mixes that you want, and you'll have them in the mail FOR FREE.

BUT there is a catch. If you order any of these disks, you'll be asked come fundraising time in October to contribute some money to CIUT for our broadcast budget.

Choose from the following playlists of the best from the blogsphere in recent weeks and months:

ESB CLASSICS VOL 1 (Playlist from 8/19/05)


DENNIS OLIVIERI - I Cry in the Morning
* The insturmental sample of DJ Shadow's "Six Days".


DAVID BOWIE - Secret Life of Arabia
* The most Eno track I've ever heard.


LIQUID LIQUID - Bellhead (DFA Mix)
*What's better than a classic is when a production team that propelled the art of the remix into divine territory remixes their idols.


PAUL MCCARTNEY - Check My Machine
* From McCartney's lesser known synth album, which Spoilt Victorian Child credits as the birth of drum n' bass..


BLONDIE - Cautious Lip
* A sexy tune from the Metric of our parents.


CAN - Vitamin C
* It's not Eno, but it's getting there.


VASHTI BUNYAN - Diamond Day
VASHTI BUNYAN - Winter Is Blue
VASHTI BUNYAN - Seventeen Pink Sugar Elephants
* A psych folk heroine from 1970 who only put out one album. She's come out of hiding, however, to work on some new tracks with the Animal Collective, as well as her own material for a forthcoming album.


KATE AND ANNE MCGARRICLE - La Vache Qui Pleure
* A beautiful French ballad that you're more likely to hear at the Blue Skies Holistic Festival than on the Eclectic Sound Basement.


TERRY JACKS - Concrete Sea

* The man responsible for "Seasons in the Sun" strikes again...twent- five years after his one hit wonder career dies.

LEONARD COHEN - Bird on a Wire (Live Somtime Somewhere before I was Born)
LEONARD COHEN - The Partisan (Live at Some Other Decade)
* Leonard Cohen live. before he went cheeseball with the synths.


MADELEINE CHARTRAND - Ani Kuni
* Ok, if there's any reason you should email me for any of these comps, it's this song. A hit back in '73 on Quebec radio, it's a native chant performed like never before. Recently repackaged as part of Satan Belanger's Vol 3: Tolla Freak Out compilation.


CONSTANTINES - Arizona
* It was the first song I ever heard of theirs, and I still contest that it's their best.


ESB CLASSICS VOL 2 (8/26/05)


THE ZOMBIES - Butcher's Tale
* Can't go wrong with a brooding song about withdrawl to start off a radio show.


T REX - Metal Guru
T REX - Buick MacKane
T REX - Pepsi Jingle
* Mark Bolan's endless world of studio outtakes.


SPINAL TAP - All the Way Home
* The "first single" of the world's original mock-u-band.


JOHN CALE - You Know More Than I Know
* It's a pity I didn't find this tune sooner. I coulda used this ditty to weather some rough patches.


TELEVISION - Blank Generation
* An early live recording that's gone down in the history books of NYC.

The following selections are all made possible by the CHRW archive in London, Ontario, celebrating London's almost forgotten punk and art rock scene of the 70s and 80s.


THE DEMICS - New York City
THE DEMICS - I Won't See You No More
THE DEMICS - The 400 Blows
* A group that could rival Simply Saucer as one of the best "forgotten" bands from Southern Ontario.


THE NIHILIST SPASM BAND - This Is A Test
* These cats are still around, making a name for themselves as one of the most interesting noise acts of all time. They "design" (read: break stuff) their own instruments. So earth shattering that Sonic Youth had to go on tour with them in 2002. That and they're all in their 60s.


'63 MONROE - The Battle
'63 MONROE - Yumpin'
'63 MONROE - Henry VIII
* Don't let their later hair metal look fool you...in the early days, they were considered the one of the best bands in London.


SPIRAL SCRATCH - Jimmy Was a Virus
* Scrappy, punchy punk from '83.


NAPALM BABIES - Jesus Enters
* This song scares the shit out of me, and will possibly get me thrown off radio.


THE HIPPIES - Nuclear Disaster
THE HIPPIES - How You Gonna Live
* Apparently, these guys were too cheap to put the title on their first and only album...but it's damn good music. Great chick singer and slack rock that could make you have an orgasm, if only you'd get off your ass.


NOSMO KING JR. - The Fool
* This tune is definitely more 80's than the rest of 'em, but hey, London was entitled to it's share of the good times, too, eh Willis?


ESB COVERS (9/2/05)

DEVO - Ohio (Neil Young)
THE UKRANIANS - Batyar (Morrisey/The Smiths)
!!! - Take Ecstasy With Me (Magnetic Fields)
TV ON THE RADIO - Mr. Grieves (Pixies)
THE BAND - Long Black Veil (Johnny Cash)
BISHOP ALLEN - Ring of Fire
UNICORNS - Can;t Get You Out of My Head (Kylie Minogue)
OF MONTREAL - Can't Explain (The Who)
OF MONTREAL - Know Your Onion ( The Shins)
RUFUS WAINWRIGHT - Somewhere Over the Rainbow (Judy Garland)
HANK COLLECTIVE - Be True to Your School (Beach Boys)
THE BLANKKET - He Ya! (Outkast)
LES MOUCHES - Close to You
ARCADE FIRE - Naive Melody (Talking Heads)
HERBIE HANCOCK - All Apologies (Nirvana)

ESB BEST OF VOL 1 (9/9/05)

SONIC YOUTH - Rouche Rumble
GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS - I Will Never See the Sun
SMOG - Hit the Ground Running
LCD SOUNDSYSTEM - Never As Tired As When I'm Waking Up
SIKTRANSIT - 99 Problems Cutup
DUCHESS SAYS - Cut Up
DAMON ALBARN - I Need A Gun
GORILLAZ - Dirty Harry
BARCELONA PAVILLION - How Are You People...
FINAL FANTASY - The CN Tower Belongs to the Dead
DEEP DARK UNITED - Zut!
CONSTANTINES - Blind Luck
BLACK MOUNTAIN - Set Us Free

ESB BEST OF VOL 2 (9/16/05)

THE ROWDEYMEN - Clap For the Wolfman
ZOOBOMBS - Jumbo
GRAND THEFT BUS - Room in Your Brain
BLACK MOUNTAIN - Bicycle Man
DEATH FROM ABOVE - Blood on Our Hands (Justice Remix)
SOULWAX - NY Excuse
Y PANTS - Off the Hook
NO DYNAMICS - Josephine Baker
NINJA HIGH SCHOOL - By Purpose Not By Plan
ELTON MOTELLO - Jet Boy, Jet Girl
GALAXY - Slashpile
MARK MOTHERSBAUGH - Zissou Society Star Cadets / Ned's Theme
RUSSIAN FUTURISTS - Our Pen;s Out of Ink
CARIBOU - Yeti
ARCADE FIRE - Intervention

ESB BEST OF VOL 3 (9/23/05)

OF MONTREAL - Sad Love
BLUES EXPLOSION - Hot Gossip (!!! Remix)
!!! - Get Up
THE JUAN MACLEAN - Shining SKinned Friend
LENIN I SHUMOV - Sebya v Sebe
HANGED UP - Klang Klang
^RYU vs KEN - Chun Lee Is the Girl For Me
^RYU vs KEN - AT the Club With M. Bison
^SIKTRANSIT - Futuresack
^SIKTRANSIT - All Your Bass Are Belong to This Song
EXTRA ACTION MARCHING BAND - Fat Sexy Guy
^SEAHORSE LIBERATION ARMY - Oh Nous Cache Tous, On Nous Dit Rien
^SEAHORSE LIBERATION ARMY - We Set Paris on Fire
^SEAHORSE LIBERATION ARMY - YeYe Cambodia

^These tunes are extremely rare and fucking excellent, and therefore you should ask for this compilation.

So, email me, and you get free CDs.

Talk to ya in six weeks...

SOMEWHERE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE HYPE MACHINE

Everyone knows the story of Skrewdriver. After the turbulent years of punk's childhood, having gotten caught up in the identity game, pingponging between punk and skinhead, they disbanded after only a few records. They'd had some great singles and broke record numbers at the Roxy for attendence. They played with Siouxie and The Banshees, The Buzzcocks and even the Police, but their audiences always outnumbered those of the more recognized performers. Their music wasn't so much political as it was identity-based. Singer Ian Stuart's poignant stanzas reflected a general malaise around being young that opened the gates for anger and reaction. Punks could relate to the lyrical sentiments, while skinheads could vibe with the energy. They were a solid band, very skilled musically in comparison to most of their contemporaries, and had a street sense that few bands could muster authentically. The Clash began this way, and we all know them now as "the only band that mattered."

SKREWDRIVERAnti-Social

But Skrewdriver were pulled apart by the zealous politics of the scene. As a response to the growing influence over punk crowds of fascist movements in Britain, the punk community radicalized, and right fully so, but for Skrewdriver, the politics were an unexpected element for which they had not been prepared. In the scene, it was getting to the point at which bands had to either assign themselves with causes or face ostracization. Skrewdriver had always appealed to National Front members, as had happened with other bands like Sham 69. At the same time, Skrewdriver had reverted back to the skinhead look (Stuart after all had been a first wave skinhead back in the early 70's, long before it was associated with racism) As a result of these two factors, the press aligned the band with facism. The hype over their alleged Nazism grew, and an advertising band had been placed on the band in all publications. The band collapsed from the pressure of negative coverage and everyone agreed that it had been a pity. (Of course, the irony here is that skinhead culture, originating in Jamaica, never had anything to do with fascism, with the exception of its reappropriation as the style of choice for fascist youth movements.)


Such smashing punks, but my, the skinhead look is some next level shit.

Who knows what happened just after the band had dissolved...now, I wasn't there, but I suppose Ian Stuart was isolated from his old friends, abandoned by the movement and in need of something to get himself into. Of course, the only group that gav e him any comfort during this period were very likely The National Front. Ian quickly went to the dark side, reformed the band as a front for his new way of life, and henceforth known as the beacons of fascist and more importantly, racist music.


Little Jimmy's dying wish was to see Skrewdriver just once. The nice guys in SSecurity let him help out for a while.

In any case, you'll probably get a kick out of Jewdriver, who reappropriate songs from Skrewdriver's racist days and turn them into pro-Jewish songs.

PAST PLAYLISTS, AND BASINSKI'S MELTED ICE

A couple of weeks ago, I tried to explain the brilliance of William Basinski's Disintegration Loops to my mother. I marvelled at how amazing it was that he had discovered these tapes and recorded them as they turned to dust. "it was like the music died, man!" I said. So my mother, perched on her sardonic cloud, said to me:

"Well, I once scooped up a big piece of ice into a bucket, but guess what? It started melting and I watched the drops of water as they poured out of a hole in the bucket. It was like the ice was dying!"

Touche. But then again, she doesn't see the point.

Tune in tomorrow at noon ET for another beauty show featuring the best new music of the blogosphere, including new music from The Blow, a freak folk rundown and some Canadian disco-punkadelia.

ESB PLAYLIST 8/5/05

QUEENS OF NOIZE - Indie Boys (Don't Deserve It)
* A tune from NME Chart Show hosts and pervasive socialites Tabitha and Mairead, who Bloc Party's Kele Okerele recently described as "a crap bunch of bitches" in a recent NME issue. Sure, they're more than likely just a couple of crazy (albeit really good looking and fashionable) birds who are in the thick of it solely for the parties and the status, but one has to keep in mind that the ladies slagged off Bloc Party for making an "overrated" album...and they're right! Kele's just jealous 'cause the song probably describes 90% of his fan base to a T.








Queens of Noize avoid the indie boys and their grabby hands by posing in funny pictures.

ONE SELF - Fear the Labour
* New project from the vocally acrobatic MC Blurum 13, formerly of the legendary Bullfrog. Courtesy of Scissorkick.

FUG - Cheval Noir
FUG - R.F.O.
* Also from Scissorkick.

EMBER SWIFT - Include My Food
DON ROSS - So Much Time
DON ROSS - Robot Monster
DON ROSS - Godzilla
SPIRAL BEACH - Strobe
SPIRAL BEACH - Gregory's Birthday Box
* A recap of some of the highlight acts at this year's Blue Skies Music Festival in Clarendon, Ont. Read our review here.

PS- I caught Spiral Beach this past Elvis Monday at The Drake Hotel, and jesus, it wasn't just a fluke that I was so impressed with them at Blue Skies. To quote my friend Peter after seeing them: "I've pretty much grown up with the Hidden Cameras and all these amazing Toronto bands, and sure, they're all good, but these guys play better than all of them...and they're like, 17 year olds!"

ALL PURPOSE VOLTAGE HEROES - Bust Outta Compton
ALL PURPOSE VOLTAGE HEROES - Wolfslinger
* Part of the new Edmonton Electro-rock Explosion that's making waves across the country. They just dropped in at Wavelength and have a new EP out that supposedly took longer to make than their past two albums combined, so expect something too intense for words.

PICASTRO - All Erase
PICASTRO - Sharks
* Torontonians who just released some music on the Polyvinyl label. I'm pretty sure Owen Pallett is still in this band, so expect the hype machine to hit soon, for better or worse. Either way, their music is too out there to get hyped out of proportion, so if you're a fan, don't worry. You'll still get to enjoy them at Sneaky Dee's for a long time to come.

SPARROW - The Early Years
*Jason Zumpano branches off into the further phalanges of The New Pornographers, brought to us by Spoilt Victorian Child.

ESB PLAYLIST 7/29/05

GOGOL BORDELLO - Not A Crime
CHEMICAL BROTHERS / DFA - The Boxer (DFA Remix)
BEACH BOYS / FREEFORM REFORM - Our Prayer (Freeform Reform Remix)
BEACH BOYS - She's Goin' Bald
SIKTRANSIT - Hey, Pots DO Make Really Good Drums
SIKTRANSIT - Just Say Yes
DADDY'S HANDS - Grandma's Gotta Eat
WOLF PARADE - Fancy Claps
LEDERHOSEN LUCIL - Anarchavid
DESTROYER - An Actor's Revenge
DEVENDRA BANHART - Heard Somebody Say
DEVENDRA BANHART - Now That I Know
DEVENDRA BANHART - When They Come
DEADLY SNAKES - By Morning I'm Gone

ESB PLAYLIST 7/22/05

EXTRA ACTION MARCHING BAND - Guaguanco
VAPOURSPACE - Gravitational Arch
HAWKWIND - Hash Cake '77
SILVER APPLES - Oscillations
DELIA GONZALEZ AND GAVIN RUSSOM - Rise (DFA Mix)
ANDREAS DORAU / JUSTUS KOHNKE - Durch Die Nact (Geiger Mix)
FAST EDDIE - Acid Thuner
SINNAMON - He's Gonna Take You Home
MT. EERIE - The Intimacy of the World With The World
MAHOGANY FROG - Zulumatic
MAHOGANY FROG - Springtime Youth
THE COAST - All Farewells
CHAMPION ALBERTA - The Fifth Wednesday of the Super Month
CAMOUFLAGE NIGHTS - This Could Be Love
I CAN PUT MY ARM BACK ON YOU CAN'T - Queen Elizabeth's Way
GOLDEN DOGS - Birdsong

ESB 7/15/05

BARCELONA PAVILLION - Pain Is All You'll Find
TOM VEK - If You Want (Playground Dub)
NINE INCH NAILS / DFA - The Hand That Feeds (DFA Remix)
NICE NICE - YEsssss!
SONS AND DAUGHTERS - Johnny Cash
QUANTIC SOUL ORCHESTRA - Pushin' On
JAZZANOVA - In Between
EXTRA ACTION MARCHING BAND - Fat Sexy Guy
TAM AND THE VAMPIRES - No Cars Go
TAM AND THE VAMPIRES - Incest at Best
BALTHAZAR - Ana Pavlova
JON-RAE FLETCHER AND THE RIVER - Prayer to God
FINAL FANTASY - Illusion Song
* NOTE; one of my teachers at school, Paul Hodge, was responsible for the excellent sound of this recording. At first, I saw him as a kinda dry, techy audio engineer from the CBC, but as it turns out, he's the tech director at the Music Gallery and a member of the delightfully weird Toronto Glass Orchestra, who make music out of...well, glass, of course!

It's altogether too easy to pass off old hippies. They dress funny, like to get mushy and geek out on love. But don't ever pass them off! if you're one of those who would like to believe that the work of hippies, folkies and aged scenesters no longer has anything to contribute to society, think again.

There I was at Blue Skies, a semi-private Kingston area festival that's been around since the Trudeau era. Though the kids en masse outtnumbered their parents in attendence figures, much of the music and workshops throughout the festival were dominated by the ghosts of another time. The guy who likes to read poems aloud...the cool music teacher woman...the author of organic living...they were all there. It was an enjoyable time, but I was beginning to wonder, "Where are the youth leaders of this holistic party?" I would soon see, as minutes later, Spiral Beach from Toronto took to the stage and totally fucked up ALL of my shit. AMAZING! In all the months I've lived in Toronto, I have to go to the middle of nowhere to see one of the city's best young bands.

From the first moments to the last, this band played artistically enchanting songs that seemed well beyond the limits of a high schooler's musical vocabulary. It was a bouncy, almost derailing kind of rock and roll, with a heavy synth sound, superb vocal harmonies, and an overall tightness that stamp the mark of goodness on a band. And the best part? It wasn't just me, the jaded twenty-something dance-punk enthusiast who enjoyed the show. For the remainder of the festival, accolades came forth from musicians and casual onlookers, both young and old.

Who were these creatures? Were they bastard children of some lurid orgy affair between The Slits and The Talking Heads? No. They were children of die-hard Blue Skies veterans like David Woodhead and Nancy White.

Download their music here, and go see them at The Drake on August 8th.