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Friday, January 21, 2011

#80 of CFNY's Best 87 of 87, Various Artists, In Demand

This entry made me test my Google detective skills, as I had no memory of this one at all. Actually, it was All Music to the rescue.
Reviewer Sean Carruthers writes:
As a snapshot of Toronto (mostly) in 1987, perhaps this doesn't exactly do the trick, but as a snapshot of a fairly tight subset of the scene, it certainly does the trick. Chalk Circle was just getting started and Parachute Club had just wound down, and maybe those two touchstones are as good as any to get a feel for one of the sound of downtown Toronto at that point: clean guitars, lots of keyboards, and an eclectic style. It's not as representative as it could be: Chop Sticks Haul Water appear three times, there are two versions of the same song by Eva Everything, and both Scott McGregor Moore and Kurt Swinghammer appear multiple times in different incarnations. The most interesting pieces are the all-electronic numbers by Alberta's Ohama, an instrumental piece from Radio Silence, and a reworking of Swinghammer's caustic "Canada Ha Ha."

I can't say that jogs my memory at all. Yum-Yum, my favorite Canadian blogger, are you there? Does Tona Walt Ohama ring any Torontonian bells? And what kind of band name is Chop Sticks Haul Water?

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3 Comments:

Blogger Yum-Yum said...

Wow, that must have been tough to find.

There's a page dedicated to the album over at discogs as well. Various - In Demand

I have that Tona Walt Ohama video in my YouTube "favovites," and have been known to watch it every once in awhile (fans of the minimal wave branch of synth-pop seem to really dig his stuff).

Eva Everything's "Painless" (a.k.a. pills are painless) is a bit of a classic in my mind.

I recall seeing flyers for Kurt Swinghammer's gigs all over the city (Queen West) back in the late 80s/early 90s. (He did the music score for the second Ginger Snaps movie).

The name Chop Sticks Haul Water sounds familiar, but I have no idea what kind of racket they used to make. Oh, and their name probably refers to an ancient Chinese proverb that involves drinking water with chop sticks.

9:53 PM  
Blogger Jaime said...

http://copperllamastudio.blogspot.com/

10:03 PM  
Blogger Karim Amir said...

Yum, thanks for the detailed information. You rock, my Canadian blogger friend. :)

7:02 PM  

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