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Recent Reviews
Shirley Matthews and the Big Town Boys
Big Town Boy / (You Can) Count On That - 7"
Shirley Matthews was born in shadow of Motown, in Harrow, Ontario, just south of Windsor, but eventually made her way up to r'n'b-obsessed Toronto, where she found herself gigging at the venerable old Club Bluenote on Yonge Street. It was there that she caught the attention of producer Bob Crewe, who whisked the young lady off to New York to record the massive-selling stormer 'Big Town Boy'. Released in December 1963 in Canada on Stan Klees' Tamarac label and down in the States on Atlantic,...more
The Staccatos
Half Past Midnight / Weatherman - 7"
Following the success of early rock 'n' rollers the Esquires, Ottawa's most successful sixties group got their start in 1964 as the backing band for local DJ and singer Dean Hagopian, releasing a seven-inch that year ('Just in Case'/'This is the End'), before striking out on their own as the Staccatos. A residency at the Chaudiere Club over in nearby Hull, Quebec sharpened their young chops, while attracting the notice of the Esquires' manager Sandy Gardiner, who took the lads under his wing...more
Deja Voodoo
Too Cool to Live Too Smart to Die - mini LP
Montrealers Tony Dewald and Gerald Van Herk carried the Cramps' fascination with all things rockabilly to the extreme, pairing a four-string guitar with a minimal drum set (no cymbals or hi-hat), cranking the amps to the max, and dubbing the whole distorted mess "sludgeabilly". The pair then rifled off the Monsters in My Garage EP in 1982, and the 17-song cassette, Gumbo, 17 Sludgeabilly Greats!, the following year, both issued on their own newly formed Og label. Their 1984 bre...more
The Paupers
Ellis Island
Following the tepid response to their 1967 debut LP Magic People, and the near-mythical meltdown at the Monterrey Pop Festival that followed it, the Paupers went back to Toronto to regroup. Essentially broke, travel-weary, and on the verge of break-up - bassist Denny Gerrard was given the boot for his constant drug use and errant absenteeism, and co-leader Skip Prokop even considered bailing - the band played an impressive set at CNE Stadium in suppo...more
Roger Rodier
Upon Velveatur
Roger Rodier was originally a member of the Mike Jones Group, whose 'Funny Feeling', the b-side of their only single (Jet Records 1967), seems to have struck a chord with garage rock collectors after all these years. By 1972, however, the Montrealer had already released a couple of painfully obscure psych singles on the Pax label in the late sixties, one anglophone and the other francophone, before settling into the Andre Perry studios in Montreal to record...more
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