The DROPOUTS (Canada)

THE DROPOUTS
-CDep
2003 (Dropouts Music)





Dark, sexy, and as morbidly seductive as a Quentin Tarantino flick, this female-fronted foursome has been breaking hearts and stealing souls with their tales of love, betrayal, revenge, and bloody demise.




AFTER SCHOOL SPECIALS
-CD
2005 (Dropouts Music)





The front cover only looks innocent. A quick flip to the songlist on the back gives ample warning of what's to come: "In The Shadows", "Six Feet Under", "Suckerpunch"... With narrative imagery that's as vivid as the best film-noir classics from Blue Velvet to Chinatown, each and every tune is an erotic pulp thriller that dances with the macabre.


"Some people will call it garage-punk-rockabilly, or psychobilly, or Kill-Billy or even Jezebilly. We call it rock and roll." - The Dropouts


"So there's this band from London, Ontario you should definitely check out. And no, this isn't some street-team b.s. either. I've seen them a few times, but most recently on Saturday night and they tore the roof off.
They're called The Dropouts and they play mashed up garage-punk-rockabilly rock'n'roll stuff. I don't wanna call them psychobilly because they're not a cookie-cutter cartoon schlock band with giant hair and 500 sacred heart tattoos. They have a great, original sound and play tight as all fuck.
They have a chick lead singer whose voice is really distinctive.. Let's just say she can really sing for real. The rest of the band really knows how to play, too." - LDHBA, Groupie in Training



"A healthy combination of the Misfits and Crash Vegas, The Dropouts capitalize on their female singer. Her borderline operatic vocals are the ray of light shining through the band's dark, yet catchy riffs." - matt

The Dropouts:

Candace Beaul - vocals and organ
Corey Shipp - guitar
Chadwick Shipp - bass
John Augustine - drums

THE DROPOUTS S/T:
1. Painted Moonlite
2. Laid 'Em Low
3. Bored Stiff
4. Monster Bash
5. Loaded Gun
6. Loudmouth, Quiet Days
7. Horror Hotel
*. Idle But Deadly (Live Broadcast) - bonus

"This 7-song EP debut by London, Ontario's monsterbilly quartet is striking in its fusion of surf, garage and rockabilly; not simply a throwback to what other bands have done but The Dropouts instead have captured a sound they're defining on their own terms.

Corey Shipp's licks reinterpret 50s and 80s rhythms, and Candace Beaul's countryesque punk vocal sensibilities complement his guitar work better than any of the current revivalists would be able to muster. John Augustine's timely, head-bopping drumming and Chadwick Shipp's bass don't miss a single beat, and the maturity in this outfit sounds well beyond their years: there's no grandstanding or one-upmanship, just four in-sync rock and rollers giving life to an obtuse local music scene currently overrun by emo/screamo sound-a-likes.

The first six tracks are all original numbers and the energy is constant; the pace scaling down to mid-tempo for their fabulous cover of The Misfits' "Horror Hotel" which ends the record much too soon. Andy Magoffin of London's House of Miracles again does a masterful job of producing a band that allows The Dropouts to keep their own voice, and at the same time bringing out the best of each member.

Put The Dropouts in San Francisco, Austin, Texas or Chicago's underground and you would have heard of them long ago..." - Andreas Gripp, Music Director, CHRW 94.9 FM 2002-2004


AFTER SCHOOL SPECIALS:
1. In The Shadows
2. Six Feet Under
3. Sucker Punch
4. Don't Make A Move
5. Blissful Torture
6. Bleeding On The Sabbath
7. Murder Following
8. Fallen Crown
9. Black Dress
10. The Night The Caddy Died

"Good ol' twang-tinged, laydee fronted Rock n' Roll from Vancouver's soon to be secret lovers. If you take the honest to Garage sounds of Holly Golightly and mix them with the sultry country sensibilities of Coal and the Rawkabilly sneer of Nashville Pussy you would end up with a band that would be skipping classes with The Dropouts." - Red Cat

DOWNLOAD (256k, 99 Mb)

ZOMBIE NIGHT IN CANADA - v/a

ZOMBIE NIGHT IN CANADA Vol. 1
-CD
2004 (Stumble)





"The track list's stacked with more zombies than the forthcoming, dubious-looking Dawn of the Dead remake, suggesting a hair-raising, horrorizin' psychobilly shakedown. That facet of Canadian retro rock 'n' roll is certainly represented here, but this comp makes a point of showing how varied the punk-surf-rockabilly axis is this side of the border." - Rupert Bottenberg


"The Zombie Night in Canada Volumes 1 and 2 recordings are a throwback to the OG Records era compilations.

They feature the spookified surf twang of teen-targeted B movies and gather up many of the rip ‘er up ‘n tear ‘em down psycho-billy and cowpunk bands that play the factory town stockcar racing circuits throughout Upper Canada. It’s all leopard print shoes and Western shirts. Think The Sadies’ Rat Fink Soundtrack... but with a different band for each song." - William McGuirk


TRACKLIST:

THE DEADCATS - Crypt Zombie Hula
SIN-TONES - Knot Of Wood
BIG JOHN BATES - Crankenstein
GUTTER DEMONS - Playground Horror Peepshow
FARRELL BROS. - The Baddest One Around
FLESH - Are You Restless
MATADORS - The Evil Eye
FEVER BREAKS - Zombie Swagger
BRAINS - It's Over
ASTROBILLYS - Jungle Fever
KC & THE MOONSHINE BAND - Zombified
ALLEY DUKES - Change My Way
CADILLAC BILL & THE CREEPING BENT - Leather Pants
BLOODSHOT BILL - Monsters Everywhere
WREKDEFY - She Haunts Me
SCREAMIN' BLACK CADILLACS - Back Around
HOWLIN' HOUND DOGS - Rockin' Rollin' Stone
NIGHT STALKERS - Tombstone Hop
BUZZ DELUX - Velvet Eyes
HELLBOUND '71 - I Like To Drink
SWINGIN' BLACKJACKS - I Love You So
ROSEKILL - My Bloody Valentine
ATTIC DADDY - Rule That Roost
THE ROWDYMEN - The Old Hereafter
CRAZY RHYTHM DADDIES - Been Gone A Long Time.

DOWNLOAD (192 k, 97 Mb)

DEJA VOODOO (Canada)

GUMBO
-CS
1983 (OG!)


Re-Up


"OG Music meisters Gerard Van Herk and Tony Dewald are rock's answer to Bela Lugosi/Peter Laurey. Deja Voodoo brewed up their zany, and often trying, sludgeabilly swamp rock with enthusiasm of Buddy Holly and the charm of Herman Munster. Raw guitars, drums and vocals are all that grace their records and contain no studio trappings leaving them live and harsh." - canoe.ca



"Deja Voodoo (and the Gruesomes) were probably the Canadian underground bands from the 1980's who generated the most affection from their fans partly through the good-natured silliness of their music and image which could still rock no matter how goofy it was. Their mixture of rockabilly, garage, 'B' horror movies, comic books, cartoons, and junk food was not the first such (the Cramps were already there), but they pursued it with such irreverent vigour in an decade full of sombre, gloomy music or wimpy synth bands. Deja Voodoo also toured heavily all over Canada as well as the USA and Europe (especially Scandinavia), the first Canadian underground band to do so. Their Deja Voodoo BBQs became an institution in Montreal, Toronto, and elsewhere in southern Ontario. They also further encouraged a scene to develop by founding their own lable OG! Records and putting out a series of comps. of similar minded Canuck bands called It Came from Canada, which introduced a number of bands such as the Gruesomes, UIC, Ray Condo, Harold Nix, the Deadcats, the Shadowy Men, the Cowboy Junkies, the Smugglers and more.

"In their groundbreaking two-man, trash-rock attack, they led the way for a number of other one and two man bands such as The House of Knives, Leather Uppers, Fuck Y'all, Bloodshot Bill, Mississippi Grover, Slim Sandy, Duotang, (all Canadian BTW) Flat Duo Jets, and Bob Log 111 to open up garage rock by stripping it down. Now of course we have the mega-successful White Stripes and Death From Above, but Deja Voodoo did it first." - Carl Wilson



"If Og broke new ground for the Canadian indie scene, pop music is only now catching up to the weird and wonderful world inhabited by Deja Voodoo. They weren't the first guitar-drums duo -- Marc Bolan's original Tyrannosaurus Rex comes to mind -- but their incoherent mix of The Cramps, The Kingsmen, The Sonics and "the episode of The Incredible Hulk where he marries Mariette Hartley and she dies" seemed to come from another dimension." - Allan Wigney


"We had tried to do a band with more people and it hadn't really worked out, and we did figure out that we could make enough noise with the two of us.

If Tony didn't spend a lot of time hitting symbols we would have bottom all the time; if I only had the four fat strings we would have a sort of bassline happening all the time. I've heard other people play with just guitar and drums playing with a full drumkit and with a full six strings and it sounds very thin and tinny. But then again, we sounded like we were playing in your basement with the door closed. So it all evens out." - Gerard Van Herk



Gerard Van Herk - Screams & Gut Strings
Tony Dewald - Skins & Bones


Tracklist:
01 - Into The Gumbo
02 - Duh Papa Duh
03 - Van Gogh's Ear
04 - Baby Honey
05 - You're No Fun When Your Head's All Mushy
06 - Deja Voodoo Train
07 - Someone In My House
08 - Boppin' 88
09 - ifugao
10 - Baron Samedi
11 - Full Moon
12 - Big Black Bus
13 - A Girl I Know
14 - Pyramid
15 - Wall of Paisley
16 - Vegetables
17 - Surfing on Mars


Download (192 k, 40 Mb)

The RONDELLES (USA)

Fiction Romance Fast Machines
-CD
1998 (Smells Like Records)





"Careening, ultra-catchy, hook-filled lo-fi pop songs that will keep you on your feet while you listen and remain embedded in your consciousness for weeks to come." - Jesse Ashlock


"The Rondelles are a fabulous disaster. They are wonderfully crappy. The first time I saw them I almost walked out in the middle of the show. It was like seeing a bunch of high school kids. Something about their attitude and the atmosphere of the dive they were playing in made me stick it out. When I did leave, I had a copy of their latest cd clutched in my sweaty palms, with the hopping up and down and the clapping...

The Rondelles have an endearing charm that seems to be made up of equal parts naivete, youthful enthusiasm, and beginners luck. Their songs are simple and their sound is low-tech. Song subjects are typical of the genre, lots of boys behaving like louses, sock hops and county fairs...

Part of the Rondelles package is their amateurish exhuberance little bit on par with early Shonen Knife. I said "a little", so don't get carried away...

Most songs have some pieces of brilliance in them. Some of them are awkward, but not awkward enough to kill your buzz. It's like riding a rickety rollercoaster. Part of the thrill is being on the verge of derailing, and wondering if they are going to be able to pull it off. rough around the edges? Sure. Worth buying? Definitely." - Kilwag


"Only 23 minutes and 19 seconds. Ah, but what a sweet 23 minutes and 19 seconds it is! The Rondelles' Fiction Romance Fast Machines (Smells Like Records) is a short but immensely satisfying romp. Their "Sleater-Kinney meets the Shangri-Las" tunes are a curious mixture of anthemic rock & roll and bubble-gum pop featuring aggressive players who, though lacking the anger of their riot-grrrl and punk heros, infuse their songs with plinky New Wave keyboards and delectable harmonies.

The Albuquerque, N.M., natives are still in their teens: They're fresh-faced, fun-loving kids, which is what makes Fiction such a wild ride. Young 'uns, free from restraint, don't have to bother with health insurance, major disappointments in life or five-year relationships that turn to shit. Instead, they can sing gloriously about boys, boys, boys and be, at least for now, carefree. Sigh.

The "boys" include Slim, "the rebel guy from the other side," in the catchy lo-fi mania of "He's Outta Sight"; Johnny from "Drag Strip Race"; and the supercute, intellectual object of desire of "Mission Irresistible." The lyrics aren't inane but smart and clever; they don't meditate on the meaning of life or on humanity's place within the universe, but their words are entirely appropriate to chugging power chords and good-girl/bad-girl vocals. There's nothing wrong, and everything right, with singing about milkshakes.

This brings us to an obvious comparison with another teen band that likes boys. If California's the Donnas listened to more indie rock and less Kiss, they would sound like the Rondelles. The latter band is less stylish but more pure: They are a truly modern version of the garage-rock band.

The Rondelles' simple yet incredibly engaging sugar rush is practically over before it begins. But there is virtue in its quickness. Too many cookies can make you sick. And the Rondelles won't make you sick." - Anna Giuliani

The Rondelles:
bassist Yukiko Moynihan
drummer/organist Oakley Munson
singer/guitarist Juliet Swango

Tracklist
1. Distraction
2. Can't Stop
3. Mission: Irresistible
4. Magazine
5. Drag Strip Race
6. Fake Fight
7. Shanghai Surprise
8. Do It for Me
9. He's Outta Sight
10. Indication
11. Catastrophe

Download (160 k, 30Mb)

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POINTED STICKS (Canada)

DEMO BOOTLEG
-1980



Re-Up



"a west coast phenomenon that burned white hot during their short career from 1978-1981. Coming out of Vancouver, Canada, the Sticks created a unique legacy with their pop/rock/punk sound." - Sudden Death Records


"Although Vancouver's scene in the late '70s and early '80s was dominated by first-wave hardcore acts like D.O.A. and the Subhumans, the West Coast city's breakout new wave act was the altogether poppier Pointed Sticks." - Stewart Mason


"Canadian bands with few exceptions have the odds of achieving success overseas stacked against them and little has changed in the almost 30 years since the Pointed Sticks were in their heyday. For them that lucky break, despite a golden opportunity, would prove even more illusive than even they could have anticipated...

Formed in the summer of 1978, when singer and principal songwriter Nick Jones returned to Vancouver from London, England that is rather than Ontario, where he’d been working in a record store, it’s clear that Jones had been paying attention to what had been going on around him.

Conjuring a winning formula of punk’s energy and no small amount of pop sensibility, the band churned out three cracking singles between 1978 and 1979. Sounding quintessentially English – the band even took their name from a Monty Python sketch! – the band should have gone down a storm in the UK. Stiff Records, one of the great record labels thought so as well, signing the band and releasing the Brinsley Schwartz-produced single ‘Out Of Luck’ backed with ‘What Do You Want Me To Do?’ and ‘Somebody’s Girl’ in 1979." - Geraint Jones




"The Pointed Sticks seemed to have a good thing going at the dawn of the ’80s. They sold out of a combined 11,000 copies of their first three seven-inch singles, they drew more than 1,000 people to the Commodore Ballroom in their hometown of Vancouver and had a solid live following across Canada and down the U.S. west coast, and they were the first Canadian band signed to England’s infamous Stiff Records label.

But things quickly unravelled for the hard-luck power-pop group. Stiff never released their album. Their Canadian label, Quintessence, didn’t pay the pressing company for the manufacturing of their re-recorded debut LP, and 5,000 of the 10,000 copies ended up being destroyed. Not surprisingly, low morale and uncertainty led to the band calling it quits in June 1981." - Steve McLean

"Several attempts to bootleg the band's material were made during the '80's..." - hushreality.com


Pointed Sticks Line-up:

Nick Jones (vocals)
Bill Napier-Hemy (guitar)
Gord Nicoll (keyboards)
Tony Bardach (bass)
Ken "Dimwit" Montgomery (drums)
Scott Watson (bass; replaced Bardach)
John Farano (sax)


Tracklist:
01 - The Real Thing
02 - Marching Song
03 - True Love
04 - All That Matters
05 - All My Clocks Stopped
06 - Nothing Else To Do
07 - Careless
08 - All I Could Take
09 - Part of the Noise
10 - How Could You
11 - Middle Aged Teenagers
12 - Worse
13 - Love or Money
14 - American Song
15 - New Ways
16 - Apologies


Download (192 kbs, 52 Mb)