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Recent Reviews
Joe Keithley
I, Shithead
Vancouver's D.O.A. may not have been the critical darlings that bands like the Minutemen or Minor Threat were, nor did they sell as many records as Black Flag or Husker Du. And they were certainly nowhere near the first band to play sped-up west coast punk (the Middle Class' 1978 Out of Vogue EP gets my vote on that). But the currents of U.S. hardcore, most recently extolled by the unlikely geeks over at Wire magazine in a six-page retrospective, would arguably not have happened were...more
The Media
Girl, I Want You / Endless Dream - 7"
A mint copy of this insanely obscure psych nugget would probably set you back a few thousand bucks if you managed to track down a copy. What little is known about the record comes from a YouTube post by guitarist Ted Kyte, "We cut that single in 1967 in Calgary. I co-wrote the words and I wrote the music for 'Endless Dream', and played guitar and sang backup on both sides." Rounding out the crew were Rick Buckthorpe on drums and lead vocals, and a rhythm section of Dave Nobes and Drew Mowbr...more
The Nocturnals
Do What You Want / Detroit - 7"
The Nocturnals were actually part-owners of the cleverly named Grooveyard, a happening nightclub over in New Westminster, B.C. that played host to r'n'b acts from 1965 to 1968. The band had been kicking around the lower mainland since at least the late fifties when they got their start as the Rousers out in suburban Haney, but by 1965 they had gelled into a taut six-piece churning out a mix of Brit-style Merseybeat and more revved-up r'n'b. The popular sextet of singer/drummer Bill McBeth,...more
The Government
Electric Eye
Nineteen seventy-nine was a fruitful year for the Government, one that included a couple of seven-inch records, the rougher-hewn 'Hemingway Hated Disco Music' and the cleverly sarcastic 33 1/3 EP. Though both records were excellent, neither quite captured the intensity of their highly original multi-media performances. The Toronto post-punk outfit's mingling of video and music was already garnering lots of b...more
Rachel Zeffira
The Deserters
Fate is a funny thing. At just seventeen, Rachel Zeffira probably hadn't given it much thought, but when the precocious young singer arrived in London to pursue a career in the opera, that "powerful, invincible" force, as Silvio Rodriguez once sang, was about to rear its head. The British Columbia native told the Independent, "It changed the course of my life. I got accidentally deported - it was a complete mistake. They had to hire another soprano for the concert and so the sponsor had to...more
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