Heroes in Rehab: the blog

What Wonders YouTube Does Provide

I was tooling about a bit on YouTube this afternoon. Rest assured, I was not searching for the clip below. Little did I know how much I wanted to find it.

Some thoughts on this video:

Not to sound too much like the American Idol judges, but…song choice: it’s an issue for this vocalist.
The dogs are VERY [...]

Someone Stole My Idea, Several Years Before I Had It

Yesterday, Spouse and I were out for a drive in the Big Nickel listening to the local radio (Q92 – they “move more rock than Inco”). Unsurprisingly, after having the radio on for eight minutes, the programming included some Black Sabbath: Iron Man.
Spouse and I were in a bit of a creative mood and we [...]

I’se the By That Catches the Fish…and Other Things, Yo!

LIstening to CBC radio this morning on the way in to work, and there was mention of some concert or other taking place at Hugh’s Room in Toronto. Spouse told me that she had been to Hugh’s Room once, several years ago, to see some “singing fishermen group”
My quizzical look was a silent entreaty for [...]

Introducing Wavy Gravy and Sebastien’s Theme.

In 1998, it somehow happened that my band agreed to write some music – on a volunteer, we can’t pay you for this basis – for a movie that was being directed by a friend of a friend. In truth, I do remember how this arrangement came to pass, but the story is boring, pointless [...]

Bower, Avery and Honky the Christmas Goose: Invective Dept.

After many years of searching, last night I managed to find (thanks to the glory that is teh Intarwebs) not one but TWO copies of Johnny Bower’s vocal masterpiece, Honky the Christmas Goose. Recorded for charity in 1965, the tune gave the Beatles a battle on the CHUM charts in Toronto for a while that [...]

Project Squawk Begins

My work as a recordist on Saturday evening and Sunday morning (part of the Founders’ Day festivities) has inspired me to attempt to learn a little more about the voodoo magic that can be accomplished in a home stuido with one of these little fellas. One of my co-workers is married to a fellow who [...]

I Wish the Maneater Were Slightly More Successful

I have been away from the blogging for a while. It matters not what lame excuse I might offer. According to WordPress’ little numbering system, this is post number 200, so maybe I just had a little mental block about the double century. Whatever.
The important point is that I have received [...]

Static Journey, vol. 2

I dipped into the second volume of Darin Cappe’s 9 volume box set retrospective of the Rheostatics’ career. Darin is releasing one volume a week up ’til the end of March, in order to commemorate the one year anniversary of the last Rheos concert. I posted about volume one here.
Volume 2 of Static [...]

Static Journey vol.1

Some thoughts on volume 1 of Darin Cappe’s Static Journey “box set” retrospective on the Rheostatics (you can get it here):

I was a little disappointed initially that the first track in the set – position of primacy, very important – was not in fact a Rheostatics track, but rather the Introduction for the band that [...]

New Rheostatics Material

Okay, well not exactly “new.” The band is still broken up, so they’re not producing any new material. Not to worry, though, because Green Sprout* extraordinaire Darin Cappe has been working on a project – a mega-project, actually – to celebrate the upcoming one-year anniversary (on March 30th) of The Last Whale, the final Rheostatics [...]