renee

 

 

 

 

Other Press

OtherArts and Review

 

March 5, 1990

An Evening Out In Fuckface City

The Evil Twang with Last Cor-
vairs

Commodore Ballroom

Saturday, February 24
by Tim Crumley

Ya know, it was like Saturday
night, and I had just finished doing
some boring stuff at the Other Press
(figuring out proper point sizes for
line tape is not fun), and like, ]
needed a break, man.

So me and my buddies, like A
Guy Called Phil and Basil King
Lamus, we decided to go out and
have some fun. Wildthing came
along for awhile, but he had to go
before we even got to the theatre.
Plays a mean game of Cyberball,
though.

 

 

Chasing

 

by Nick Waldron
For the past year or so, A Mur-
der of Crows, have been creeping
up on the lower mainland alterna-
tive scene. Let me introduce them
to you.
First there’s Keya

  
     

distinctive sound. Let’s just say if
the majority of the music you listen
to is alternative, you'll like the
Crows. They have anew Demo out
called, "God and My Cat."

The title track is about a
minute and a half long and really
cool. It should be on sale soon.

ra

 

 

Twoico

Tntrodreducing

We knew that we just had to
use the freebies we got from the
Commodore for one of our
favourite bands, Chris Houston and
his Evil Twang. That man has been
twisting heads for quite a long time,
way back into his Forgotten Rebels
days.

Since then, he moved it on
down to the Pacific from Toronto,
and started his deeeeemented brand
of country hate that’s been heralded
on them Og "It Came From
Canada...." cassettes. We got wind
of him from those tapes, and we’ve
been hooked ever since.

So anyhoo, we got down to the
Commodore and Guy Called Phil
and Basil King Lamus immediately

Insanity

They've had a number of gigs
around Vancouver in the past few
months. Their most recent show
was at the Town Pump a couple of
weeks ago. It was one of those mid-

fats: ‘The date has yet to be con-
firmed. Keep looking for posters
and shit for these guys. You won’t
be disappointed. By the way, I am
nota MELONHEAD.
Production crew note: Nick is

‘a Melon Head!

3

 

 

Hasty Market

 

74 8th Street New

Cinnamon bun and

Also try our new Chester Frie

pocceeen see:

“Convenience with a difference”

525-8850

Special of the Week

this Coupon .Offer expires Sunday, March 18/90)

Westminister B.C.

(Across the Street from Douglas College)

Coffee for 50 Cents

wSiasanbevvesckeccenhinseascopecae

d Chicken and Mojo Chips

pumped a couple of paralyzers into
their respective systems, while I
nursed a Kokanee. Pretty soon the
openers, the Last Corvairs, got up
on stage. I hate to say this guys, but
don’t play anymore live dates until
you learn to move. Not move
funky-like. Just move. Period. I’ve
had more fun watching my desk
lamp. People caught onto the fact
that these guys don’t move pretty
quick, and they stayed in their seats
instead of dancing, except (of
course) Guy Called Phil, who was
so pissed: he jumped out on the
dance floor and danced his usual
*help me, I’m pitching a fit, I don’t
want to die’ dance, which consists
of jumping, gyrating, and doing
stupid face things until he ends up

writhing on the floor in a heaving
mass. The audience was pretty
pleased.

The intermission happened,
and just as I was like, getting bored,
Houston walks out and plays a
couple of sickie horror movies
from the UBC film department.
Ooohh, they were hefty scary, man.

Then the real fun began. The
band, consisting of Houston, old
drug-infested legend Art
Bergmann (aka Slab), and D.O.A.
bassist and drummer Brian Goble
(aka Spam) and John Card, started
the fun right away. They turned up
a 70’s 8-track tape player and
started the giveaways.

A Guy Called Phil was the

 

luckiest: he got a Jim Nabors
double album with Jim Nabor’s
hair all colored in with a highlighter
marker, and a plastic robot that
Houston gave away when he
played "Rock ’Em Sock ’Em
Robots", a song from his new tape.
It was really cool. I got a B.J.
Thomas album with "Raindrops
Keep Fallin’ On My Head" on it.
Basil King Lamus got a neat K-Tel
album. It was all cool until some
drunk asshole stole Guy Called
Phil’s and my record and chucked
em on stage. Spam whipped them
into the audience and I never saw
them again. Meanwhile, Guy
Called Phil took his neat robot
(made of hard plastic with lots of
nice pointy edges), smashed its
head off on one of the monitors, and
chucked it behind his head into the
crowd as hard as he could. I feel
sorry for the person that’s wearing
that one in their jugular vein.

Anyways, the Evil Twang
played a shorter set than I expected
(my, time flies when you’re having
fun), but it was waycool. They did
lots of their cool songs, like "Stupid
TV Christians", and Houston’s un-
pleasant ode to the Vancouver he
doesn’t like anymore, "Fuckface
City".

I really started getting into it
when he did his country version of
his old Forgotten Rebels gem,
"Surfin’ On Heroin". By the end of
the night, I was sweating like a
huge wart hog from dancing primi-
tively. And he played my all-time
classic in the encore - yup, he saved
"Baby Jesus Looks Like Elvis" for
last. It was nirvana.

I left the theatre drained and
smelly. I didn’t even mind eating at
Did’s Jr., with all the Vuarnet
brace-wearing puberty victims. It
was a night to remember.

Re-Issue Proves Talent

Indigo Girls
Strange Fire
Epic

Have you noticed that when a
band makes it on the radio, their
record company puts everything
they’ve ever made back in the
stores in the hopes that people will
buy them?

This is one of those albums. A
re-release of a 1986 Indigo Girls
record, it serves its purpose in
showing us the raw talent that
wasn’t noticed until 1989, when
their self-titled second effort went
gold.

The record is surprisingly
good. They really knew what they
wanted from their debut, and put
those ideas solidly onto the vinyl.

It’s a really folksy record. Most of
the songs feature just guitar, the
voices of Emily Saliers and Amy
Ray, and a bit of percussion. The
songs have been inspired by
country to a great extent, both in the
music and lyrics, but the vocals
have a really tough and soulful
edge to them, which intensifies the
lyrically interesting songs that
much more, but it also salvages the
songs with more cliched lyrics.
You might have guessed from this
that the lyrics are erratic in places.

The harmonies are really
soothing, and make for some really
beautiful songs, especially on "Left
Me A Fool". The title track is ex-
cellent, combining the harmonies
with Amy’s hard edged lead vocal

to make an intensity that a lot of
records will never have (hope
you’re reading this, New Kids).

But I think the standout cut on
the record is a realistic look at God,
entitled "Hey Jesus”. I’m not ac-
tually Christian or anything, but I
thought that it was really honest
and the melody is perfect. It’s one
of those songs that if someone that
doesn’t believe in the words sings
it, it sounds really bad. But emily
has a lot of faith , I guess. She made
that song.

In all, Strange Fire shows that
the Indigo Girls didn’t need time to
*mature’ before market success.
They just needed someone to notice
them.

_Tim Crumley