Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Savvy Show Stoppers...The Story of Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet...Show # 185 (Surf Show)


Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet were a Canadian band that formed in 1984. The group had three members Reid Diamond on bass, Brian connelly on guitar, and Don Pyle on drums. The group mixed styles of surf, punk, and were an instrumental group. Throughout the 1980's the group released a series of EP's and in 1989 one of their songs "Having An Average Weekend" was used for the Canadian TV comedy show Kids in the Hall. In 1990, Savvy Show Stoppers was released, it was a collection of their early singles. In 1991 the band released their second full length album Dim the Lights, Chill the Ham. It offered more variety than the bands previous releases. In 1993 Sport Fishin': The Lure of the Bait, The Luck of the Hook came out. The album was also produced by Steve Albini and once again took the band into another direction, while still having elements of surf. The album had a more diverse sound than the bands previous releases.

In 1996, the group split up and went into different directions. Diamond and Pyle went on to form another instrumental group called Phono-Comb, while Connelly went on to play with Atomic 7 and the garage rock trio The Heatseekers. The group are known for being a great Canadian (from Toronto) surf/instrumental rock band, they are identified as doing the theme song for the TV show Kids in the Hall, but were much more than that. In 1992, the group also won a Juno Award for Instrumental artist of the year. In 2001, Reid Diamond passed away due to cancer. For more information on Shadowy Men, Atomic 7, Phono-Comb, and all their side/after projects visit The Shadowy Site on a Shadowy Web.

This week I did a show consisting entirely of Surf rock style songs. It was the fourth week of the I Am Collecting Beautiful Things variety challenge, which means for four weeks, I was not to play the same artist twice; The host of the show will not play the same artist all year! I previously did a surf rock and garage rock show last February and this February it was entirely surf and surf influenced material. I would also like to mention that I have a new banner that was excellently designed by Greg Maxwell, he has a website called The Ugly Vision

Surf Play List:

1. Ventures - Walk Don't Run '64
2. Beach Boys - Moon Dawg
3. The Vistas - Moon Relay
4. Avengers VI - Heartbeat
5. The Phantoms - XL-3
6. Chevells - Riptide
7. New Dimensions - Cat on a Hot Foam Board
8. Goldtones - Strike
9. Tommy & The Hustlers - Diggin' Out
10. April March - Chick Habit
11. Torpedoes - Bustin' Surfboards
12. Spring Break Shark Attack! - Blood Ocean
13. Shadowy Men On a Shadowy Planet - Our weapons are Useless
15. The Beans - Surfs Up
16. Metalunas - Balistic Bikini
17. Atomic 7 - Chock Full O' Notes
18. Ramonetures - Rockaway Beach
19. The Cocktail Preachers - Rudie Can't Fail
20. The Glasgow Tiki Shakers - Garageland
21. Rna - Spanish Bombs
22. Urban Surf Kings - Clampdown
23. The Anacondas - Guns of Brixton
24. The 5.6.7.8’s - Cat Fight Run
25. Challengers - Our Man Flint
26. Bobby Fuller - Our Favorite Martian
27. Lively Ones - Surf Rider
28. Surf Trio - Beach Genius
29. Mach Kung-Fu - Singapore
30. The Chantays - Pipeline
31. Dick Dale & His Del-Tones - Banzi Wash Out

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