Record Store Day After Party April 22nd 2017

After hanging at home all Saturday afternoon listening to all my new Record Store Day purchases and having a few beers it was off to the Blackbyrd after party for Record Store Day. Usually this event is held in the alley of Blackbyrd, but because of the snow this year, it was moved across the street indoors at The Buckingham.

The two bands lined up for the party were local bands Cham and Altameda, with DJ's Lyle and Kim from the Wet Secrets spinning tunes before and between bands.

The party started with the band Cham whom I had seen for the first time about a month ago opening for Napalmpom and Wet Secrets. I didn't care for them at all that time, but thought their show was much better this time around, maybe it was the beers! Anyways, this time they reminded me a bit of Pavement, a much stronger set on this night I thought.

Cham.

Next up was a band called Altameda. I had never heard of them before, but wow! They put on a hell of a show and a band I will be checking out a lot more. Their music reminded me of a mix of Tom Petty and The Boss at times, but with more of an edge. I was very impressed. Enough that I picked up their limited edition silk screened cover art album only 20 printed.

The band is lead by Troy Snaterse on vocals and guitar and does a hell of a job of both. The drummer also did background vocals and killed it on the drums. The whole band was awesome. A very entertaining set by Alameda. Also a big thank you to the staff at Blackbyrd for the free Yellowhead beers, mmm mmm good! Good times!!!

Altameda.

The limited edition album of Altaneda's I picked up.

Record Store Day 2017

Well another successful Record Store Day. My favorite day of the year, it's my Christmas, and the weather was a lot like that time of year with snow falling for the better part of the day, which made for a chilly line up for two hours outside the local independent record shop Blackbyrd Myoozik here in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. This was the 10th year of Record Store Day a celebration of records and independent record shops. What does make me sad this year is that I only had one record shop to go to. It was only two years ago that there were 3 different record shops I could go to in my neighbourhood with all of them having special sales and events, like bands playing through the course of the day. What was once an all day thing for me is now only a few hours of line up and an hour in the record shop.

I managed to find almost everything I was looking for except for two releases. But what I did get I am very happy with. Here is a list of my finds for Record Store Day 2017.

Against Me! a limited edition 7 inch picture disc with two new songs "Stabitha Christie"/"First High Of The Morning". A limited pressing of 4000.

Steve Earle & The Dukes - Live, a seven inch two song single featuring live versions of Waylon Jennings' "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way" and his own "Fixin' To Die". Limited pressing of only 2800.

Grateful Dead - Live at P.N.E. Garden Auditorium, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada 7/29/66. This show was the Grateful Dead's debut performance outside the States. The cover art itself is worth the purchase. The art work is by Canadian poster artist Bob Masse. This too is a limited pressing of 6600.

Old 97's - 12 inch single on white vinyl with two B side songs that didn't make their last album Graveyard Whistling. The two songs are "Terlingua" and "Off My Mynd". Limited pressing of 2530.

Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit - Live From Welcome To 1979. This EP is almost all covers, a very strong live recording on white vinyl.
Side A: 1. Can't You Hear Me Knocking (Jagger/Richards) 2. Storm Windows (Prine) 3. Heart on a String (Jackson/Buckins)
Side B: 1. Atlantic City (Springsteen) 2. Sway (Jagger/Richards) 3. Never Gonna Change (Isbell)
Limited pressing of 4000.

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble - Live at Carnegie Hall. This double live album recorded in 1984 is amazing. This is a RSD exclusive on marble brown vinyl with a limited pressing of 3000.

Lou Reed - Perfect Night Live In London. A awesome live recording from the Meltdown 1997 Festival in London. A great sounding record and one of the RSD titles I was really looking for. Limited worldwide pressing of 7000.

The Magpie Salute - a limited edition black and white marble 10" of covers Comin' Home (Delaney & Bonnie) & Glad and Sorry (Faces). Magpie Salute features former Black Crowes members Rich Robinson and Marc Ford and Sven Pipien. Limited pressing of 2000.

The T Rex and Frank Zappa records in the first picture were a couple of records I picked up for a couple of buddies.

Not pictured in the first picture is the Hawkwind album as I went back to the store later in the day to have a another look and picked up that one.

Hawkwind - Best of United Artists Years: 1971-1974 This limited edition pressing is on green swirl vinyl. Limited pressing of 3000.

There were two records that I didn't get that I really wanted which were the Drive-By Truckers - Electric Lady Sessions and the Blitzen Trapper - Unreleased Recordings Series: Waking Bullets at Breakneck Speed. If anyone can help me with these two albums please get in touch with me. Thanks!

All the information on pressing numbers is from the Record Store Day website. Hopefully that info is correct. I did notice a couple of differences, the Hawkwind says limited pressing of 2500, yet the sticker on the album itself says 3000. copies.

It was an awesome day of buying music and hanging at home listening to new music and swilling beers. Good times!!!

And if that wasn't enough, a buddy of mine came by to pick up his T Rex single and brought me a box of books to keep. My time is going to be kept busy with reading and listening to tunes for the next little while. Thank you so much RCD for the books. Much appreciated!

After hanging at home for the afternoon it was off to the Blackbyrd after party. Watch for a review of that coming soon.

Brian Wilson's Pet Sounds Tour Live in Edmonton April 12th 2017

Well it's been a week already since the Brian Wilson show here in Edmonton at the Jubilee Auditorium, with playoff hockey going on it's been tough to get around and write about the show, but here we go.

The show last Wednesday happened to land on the same day as the Edmonton Oilers first playoff game in eleven years, so there was a lot of score watching happening during the course of the concert.

This was my second time seeing the legendary Brian Wilson on the Pet Sounds Tour having seen the same show last summer in Toronto at Massey Hall. The only thing is this time around I understood the show that much more. I have listened to the Pet Sounds album a few times in the past year and also read Brian Wilson's autobiography "I am Brian Wilson: A Memoir". This was a great book to read in advance as I learned quite a bit about the man and his struggle with mental illness. The last time I saw Brian in concert I was let down by how he didn't sing all the songs, but I now know that he always didn't. He wrote and composed all the music. So this time around I wasn't surprised with him not singing all the songs.

Brian Wilson and his 11 piece band started the show with an hour of classics. Brian shuffled on to the stage, shuffling a lot like Ozzy does. Then an intermission, after the intermission it was the Pet Sounds album in it's entirety, which was really good. After Pet Sounds it was another set of greatest hits, timeless classics all of them, hits like "Good Vibrations", "Help Me, Rhonda", and "Surfin' USA" just to name a few. The band included founding Beach Boy member Al Jardine who looks extremely good for his age of 76. Al pretty much was the ring leader of the band, also with Brian was Blondie Chaplin who is 65 years old and reminds me a lot of Keith Richards, he made sporadic appearances through out the show, bringing the rock and showmanship to the concert. Blondie played in the Beach Boys for a few years in the early 70's playing on a couple of albums.

Al Jardine's son Matt Jardine also plays in Brian's band and does all the falsetto singing, to me he almost the highlight of the show, the man has an incredible voice. The whole band was top class. As the show went on I couldn't help but think it was just one classic AM radio song after another, you kind of forget how many classic songs the Beach Boys had. Just look at the setlist and see for yourself all the hits. Brian doesn't have the voice that he once did and looks like he is staring into space most of the time, very little emotion from him, being as close as we were you could see that Brian doesn't even tap his toes to the music. Kind of weird really. Al Jardine's voice sounded great and the rest of the musicians were bang on. All and all I enjoyed this show more then I did last summer. Good times!!!

Setlist for the Edmonton show.

Edit this setlist | More Brian Wilson setlists

Brian Wilson.

Al Jardine.

Blondie Chaplin.

Matt Jardine.

Various other pictures.

T-shirt front.

Back.

Leeroy Stagger Live at the CKUA Studio in Edmonton April 7th 2017

Wow, can't believe it's already been a week since Buzzard, Cuz and I went to the free Leeroy Stagger show at the CKUA studio in downtown Edmonton. This was my 11th time seeing Leeroy perform live and second time in three weeks seeing him and his band play.

This free show was presented by CKUA as part of the Touch the Transmitter tour that CKUA did in celebration of being 20 years since being back on the air after signing off 20 years ago because of lack of funds. The tour involved CKUA personalities Hayley Muir and David Ward touring all over Alberta touching all 16 transmitters, at each stop they held a meet and greet and a live performance by an artist. It was twenty years ago that CKUA was taken off the air after the government stopped funding for this station. The station has now been on air for eight decades with many more to follow. Since 1997 the station runs with the help of listener donations (fund drives held twice a year, spring and fall), corporate sponsors, volunteers and of course commercials which are few and far between making for a great listening experience. This station actually plays real music, playing a very eclectic variety, well worth checking out. To read more about the history of the station click here.

So the Leeroy Stagger show was the wrap up party for the Touch the Transmitter Tour and tied in with Leeroy's Friday night radio show (Dirty Windshields Radio Hour) that he has been hosting on Friday's for the month of April. Not only that, it was the album release day of Leeroy Stagger's excellent new album "Love Versus", which is his ninth studio album. So Leeroy and his band did the whole "Love Versus" album during a live broadcast of what would normally be his radio show. The concert was excellent and gave everyone in attendance a chance to hear the full album live, which to me sounds even better then the studio version. Also during the hour long broadcast Grant Stovel a DJ with CKUA hosted the show as Leeroy was performing, asking questions in between songs. Great job Leeroy Stagger and CKUA! The only song they performed at this showcase not from the new album was the very last song "Dirty Windshields" from his album 2013 album Radiant Land. Good times!!!

Leeroy Stagger at the CKUA Edmonton studio.

In concert news...You can catch Leeroy Stagger and his band with opener JJ Shiplett with guest John Guliak playing Saturday April 29th at the Almanac on Whyte Avenue here in Edmonton. Tickets available at Blackbyrd Myoozik and YEG Live.

The Bronx and Dave Hause & The Mermaid Live in Edmonton April 6th 2017

On Thursday night I went to the Needle Vinyl Tavern for The Bronx, Dave Hause and Iron Eyes triple bill. I was super excited about seeing The Bronx again, especially with them headlining finally.

First band of the evening was local heavy rockers Iron Eyes. I had never heard the band before but will say I think they have potential. They were loud, as was every band on this night. They rocked pretty good and people seemed to be enjoying them. A band to watch for.

Iron Eyes.

Next up was singer/songwriter Dave Hause & The Mermaid from Philadelphia. This was my second time seeing Dave Hause, the first time being when I saw him when he fronted the band The Loved Ones. This time around he has his own solo band. When this show was first announced I expected to see Dave just solo, but he had a full band backing him up on this tour. Dave Hause released a solo album earlier this year called "Burry Me In Philly". While I didn't know a lot of his music, I will certainly be looking into picking some up after his performance here.

His band The Mermaid, I guess that's what they are called as it was billed Dave Hause & The Mermaid was excellent. His band consisted of his younger brother Tim Hause on guitar whom Dave showed a lot of brotherly love to, which is always nice to see. The band was rounded out with Miles Bentley on bass, Kevin Conroy on drums and the cute and talented Kayleigh Goldsworthy on keys and guitar on vocals.

Dave's music I guess could be described as rooted in punk rock with some Americana in it. Just real well written heartfelt songs with some edge. Their show here was awesome, and it looked to me like there was just as many people at the show for him as The Bronx.

Dave Hause played some songs from his newest album including the title song "Burry Me In Philly", "Divine Lorraine", "The Mermaid" and a great sing-a-long song called "Dirty Fucker". A few songs "Autism Vaccine Blues", "Same Disease" and "The Great Depression" from his 2013 release Devour. I really enjoyed their set and got the chance to talk with Dave Hause after the show. A great guy and easy to talk with. I asked him about his old band The Loved Ones, in which he said they are no more. That's too bad, but he's got one hell of a band with him now, so that's cool. Look forward to seeing Dave Hause again hopefully in the near future, a great set!!!

Dave Hause and the Mermaid.

Next up was headliners The Bronx from Los Angeles, California. This was my second time seeing this punk band. There's not a lot of heavy bands these days that do much for me, but I have always been a fan of these guys. And on this evening they certainly didn't disappoint. You could feel the energy and excitement in the crowd before they started.

The band come out storming and very loud, and with that the crowd formed a pit and things got crazy. Fists pumping, heads banging, and of the crowd moshing. Lead singer Matt Caughthran started out with his famous scream, how this guy can sing/scream like he does and make it looks so effortless is beyond me. I would think his vocal chords would be ripped to shit, but some how he pulls it off and sounds damn good doing it. I can't remember now what they stated with but whatever it was it fucking rocked hard as did the whole show. Matt did the first two songs from the stage and then jumped off the stage and in to the crowd right in the middle of the pit and did the next half dozen songs from the floor while the band rocked out on stage. And with that you couldn't help but be pumped and get caught up in the dancing and moshing on the floor. So much fucking fun!

Some of the songs done were "Knifeman", "Six Days A Week", "White Guilt", "False Alarm" the awesome rocker "Shitty Future", "I Got Chills" which actually did give me chills it was so well performed. The band was tight and again Matt's vocals are amazing. There wasn't a bad song played and so much energy from the band and Matt and the audience. This show had me rocking out like I haven't rocked out in a very long time. At times Matt the lead singer reminds me of Gord Downie of the Tragically Hip if The Hip were a hardcore band, just the way he moves and shakes his head and such. An absolutely amazing show and surely will be one of my top shows of the year for sure. Did I mention loud, stupid me forgot to bring ear plugs, so my ears rang for a day after, but fuck it, well worth it. Good times, really good times!!!

The Bronx.

Dave Hause t-shirt.

The Bronx t-shirt.

The Bronx hockey puck. This is the strangest and most daring band merch I have seen sold at a show. Things could really go bad if the show isn't good. Brave I would say.

Ticket stub that I got autographed by The Bronx lead singer Matt before the show while he was manning the merch booth. Super nice guy.