The Last Pogo Jumps Again Interview & Show # 536

The Last Pogo Jumps Again begins with images of fans jumping around to bands playing music while in the background we hear The Demics “New York City”. This song, when not taken at surface value reveals a message of independence and creativity within one’s environment. As we see fans jumping or pogoing in erratic fashion we are led into the beginnings of the documentary. Directors Colin Brunton and Kire Paputts show the building of a scene from nothing. The beginnings of the documentary are juxtaposed with the building of Toronto’s CN Tower and the events that led up to the Toronto punk/new wave scene in 1976. The uniqueness of a music scene like this is covered in great detail and depth. There were a lot of factors at play that resulted in the rise and fall of many of the bands that were involved in this scene that was truly DIY and alternative to the mainstream.

From what began at a theatre that used to show B-movies entitled the 99 Cent Roxy in conjunction with the Ramones playing a series of shows at a venue called The New Yorker, a chord was struck with aspiring musicians and artists alike. Both of these venues were run by who are referred to as the two Gary’s (Gary Topp and Gary Cormier), who both supported the scene and booked acts and many of the venues that they would run throughout the early parts of this scene. The Last Pogo Jumps Again leaps into coverage of several of the heavyweights in this early music scene such as The Diodes, who took their power pop influenced punk sounds to CBS Records Canada, becoming the first Canadian punk band signed to a major label and The Viletones. They took punk to new extremes, both literally and musically. In addition to the music factor of the scene, many of the artists also connected through other art related means such as fashion. Marion Lewis who was a local artist at the time describes the early parts of this scene adding further to the images supplied in the opening parts of this documentary:

“There was no culture here. There was just European based culture or American culture. So we were starting from scratch, you know. We had to start with a crumpled Twinkie wrapper on the side of the road, there’s no other place you can start. You got to start there and then you’ve got to use your intellect and your sense of yourself and your sense of your destiny to build .”

The Last Pogo Jumps Again executes the feelings of alienation and the searching for something new at the time with razor-sharp precision. Additionally, it showcases the growing of this music scene, while at the same time covering some of the bands that were perhaps not as well known to the general public back then. For example, The Scenics had their own unique sound, but were criticized by some for it. This including several other bands that had a different aesthetic such as The Government, Drastic Measures and The Curse, among others are contrasted with the conflicts of bands and situations within the scene, which caused a separation of sorts. At the beginning of the documentary the pogoing fans in the audience jump to the beat of a song at a different tempo. Throughout this documentary we see many artists moving to their own beat musically and artistically, even if there is a clash between them.

Brunton and Paputts started this project in 2006 and after six years of work the result is an informative and revealing documentary of epic proportions that clocks in at approximately three hours and twenty minutes. The Last Pogo Jumps Again burns bright with its coverage of a scene that has been grossly overlooked by many. This film searches for meaning in the spirit of the music and the scene as it moves, with every drop of sweat and every sobering grain of film.

The Last Pogo Jumps Again was recently released on DVD with an extensive amount of extras. Get your copy at www.thelastpogo.net.

Check out the interview I did with Colin Brunton:



Saturday Night Play List:

1. Drastic Measures - Flowers (Live 1978)
2. The Ugly - All Because Of You (Live 1978)
3. Brian Eno - Dead Finks Don't Talk
4. Acid Baby Jesus - Row By Row
5. Tyranna - Back Off Baby
6. The Curse - Killer Bees
7. The Viletones - Screaming Fist

COLIN BRUNTON: THE LAST POGO JUMPS AGAIN INTERVIEW

8. The Diodes - Red Rubber Ball
9. The Government - Acute Angle
10. The Scenics - Bubbles
11. Thee Oh Sees - Wait, Let’s Go
12. Bob Dylan & The Band - My Bucket's Got A Hole In It
13. Bob Dylan & The Band - I'm Not There
14. SQÜRL - Funnel Of Love
15. Damaged Bug - Photograph
16. Simply Saucer - Get My Thrills
17. The CADs - Do The Crabwalk
18. Sonny Vincent & Spite - Disinterested
19. Sleater-Kinney - I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone
20. Ramones - We're A Happy Family
21. Marching Girls - First In Line
22. Teenanger - Fly On The Wall

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for December 6. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.

The Scenics Interview & Show # 431

The Scenics are a Toronto based Proto-Punk band that originally formed in 1976 and split up in 1982. Formed by Ken Badger and Andy Meyers who also served as the principle song writers, The Scenics were different from others in the Canadian Punk scene at the time.  They embraced the attitude and immediacy of the DIY late 70s Punk ethos and at the same time they had a style all their own. Mixing elements of Velvet Underground, The Byrds, Television, and other bands such as Pere Ubu, Roxy music, The Scenics built up a devout following during their formative years as a band. In 1979 they released their debut album Underneath The Door, they also appeared in the Punk documentary The Last Pogo and on its soundtrack. After playing for a few years and releasing one more single in 1982 entitled Karen, The Scenics called it a day.

In 2008, The Scenics returned with the album How Does It Feel To Be Loved? an album made up entirely of Velvet Underground covers recorded during the bands heyday. A DVD version of The Last Pogo film was issued the same year which included bonus vintage footage of The Scenics playing on Canadian cable television. A new interest was generated in the band and they even began playing some live shows together again. Another album featuring previously unreleased material was put out in 2009 entitled Sunshine World, an album made up of studio recordings from 1977-1978. The band embarked on a mini tour around this time playing in places such as Toronto, London, Montreal and Ottawa.  Around this time the band also began working on new recordings for a forthcoming full length album that would eventually be released in October of 2012.

Deadman Walks Down Bayview was released to positive reviews and displayed the band in a mature, yet unique point of view. The songs that make up this album are somewhat reminiscent of music heard from the band’s past, but The Scenics were never a band to follow trends or to repeat themselves. Even when they were playing in the late 70s Punk scene in Toronto, The Scenics were different and had their own sound. They are often described as a Proto-Punk sounding group and on Deadman Walks Down Bayyview the band expands their song writing capabilities while still keeping their youthful edge lyrically.

The opening track “Dark Cave” musically is reminiscent of Velvet Underground as the lyrics emphasize the secluded atmosphere around working a full time monotonous job. “Fox”, “When You Come Around”, and “Oh Boy” all display different sounds referencing music from bands such as Velvet Underground to The Byrds, and Television. “No Sleep” arrives with a Rockabilly-like rhythm, “Miami” comes in at song six with its Guided By Voices sounding influence as the lyrics “I want my own camera” are repeated over and over again. Songs like “I Can’t Be Careful” displays the bands more slower melodic style and a song like “Farmer” goes into experimental Psychedelic directions.  It may have been thirty years since The Scenics have released new material, but Deadman Walks Down Bayview shows that The Scenics still have the chemistry and essence that made them so interesting in the first place.

Listen to an extended version of the interview that I did with Ken Badger of The Seenics on Revolution Rock here:



Music Video for Dark Cave:



This Week's Play List:

1. Chuck Berry – Let It Rock
2. Frankenstein 5 – It’s A Cryin’ Shame
3. Crystal Swells – Harsh Flux
4. Riff Raff – I Wanna Be A Cosmonaut
5. The Bloody Five – (I Wanna Go To) New York City
6. Alright Alright – Bingo Bango
7. Purple Hearts – Just To Please You – The Guy Who Made Her A Star
8. The Scenics – Dark Cave
9. The Scenics – Great Pile of Leaves

Ken Badger (of The SCENICS) INTERVIEW

10. The Scenics – Miami
11. The Scenics – Do The Wait
12. Dot Dash – Lateral/Vertical
13. Tame Impala – Why Won’t They Talk To Me?
14. Andrew Bird – When That Helicopter Comes
15. Richard Hell & The Voidoids – Ignore That Door (Live August 17, 1978 Max’s Kansas City)
16. Indian Wars – Already Home

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for November 20. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.

Take Another Look ... The Secrets & Show # 405

In the middle of the Canadian Punk scene in the late 70s, guitarists Freddy Pompeii, Chris Haight and drummer Mike Anderson left The Viletones after disagreements with the direction that the band was going in and joined up with John Hamilton, a bassist that previous played in another Canadian Punk band The Diodes. Still trying to keep true to their Punk ethics, they went in a completely different direction. Calling themselves The Secrets (not to be confused with the 60s band of the same name from Canada) they absorbed Rockabilly, Blues and 50s Rock influences and started playing gigs around town. They quickly signed to an independent Toronto Label Bomb Records in 1979 and recorded two live tracks “Teenage Rampage” and their version of “Shout” for inclusion on the compilation album for the documentary film The Last Pogo that would be released in the fall of 1979. Titled And Now Live From Toronto ... The Last Pogo, these were the first recordings that The Secrets made.

The Secrets then began work on their full length debut which would be entitled Success Without College that was released in 1980. The album was an eclectic album which has often been described as part Punk part early 50’s Rock and Roll. The album featured songs such as the studio version of “Teenage Rampage”, “Suzie Peroxide”, “Strictly From Cough Syrup” a song which addressed Pompeii’s own person demons, and a cover of Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Woman”. The first single released to promote the album was “Tattoo City” backed with “Pretty Woman” which did get decent airplay in Southern Ontario and the album did get good reviews, but it did not translate well into sales. Following a live show Pompeii was busted on drug related charges. The band split at this time, Pompeii moved to the US, eventually forming Immaculate Hearts and released a few 45’s before becoming a successful freelance artist. Hamilton joined a reformed version of The Ugly Ducklings before forming Daily Planet.

While The Secrets time as a band may have been brief they were sustained in the public consciousness via numerous compilation albums in the 80s/90s. In 1997, the label Other People’s Music released the album Teenage Rampage which compiled the bands first album Success Without College along with the live version of “Shout” from The Last Pogo compilation album and six previously unreleased tracks. The Secrets are an example of one of those bands that pop up and disappear so quickly that most people may not even have heard of them, or maybe they even had negative things to say about them. Like many Punk bands have done they expanded into different areas musically, but The Secrets are one of those bands that are an important document to the Canadian Punk scene of the late 70s, even if they weren’t completely falling into the so called “Punk” category.

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This week once again, I Filled in for Some Folks Get The Blues (from 9-10:30 AM), which I will be doing until the end of May. The show will be Folk, Country and Blues centric, but will also include glimpses of other Rock and Roll forms. Revolution Rock will follow this program from 10:30 to Noon featuring my usual blend of Garage, 70s Punk/New Wave, and Indie Rock.

Part One - Revolution Blues (Some Folks Get The Blues Fill-In) Play List:

1. Rosco Gordon – No More Doggin’
2. Jimmy Reed – Shame, Shame, Shame
3. Junior Wells – Come On In The House
4. Frank Frost – Harp and Soul
5. Toussaint McCall – Shimmy
6. Deer Tick – Friday XII
7. Joel Plaskett Emergency – Somewhere Else
8. Twin Library – Archives
9. Leeroy Stagger – Travelling Over Water
10. Indian Wars – Won’t Do A Thing
11. Pow Wows – No, Thirteen
12. The Angry Dead Pirates – Being
13. The Nevermores – Like A Pill
14. Wolfy & The Bat Clubs – Guy Like Me
15. The Molting Vultures – Cool Right Down
16. Allen Wayne – Chills & Fever
17. Grey Kingdom – When Seasons Drown
18. Woody Guthrie – Ranger’s Command
19. Leland Sundries - VFW Hall
20. The Mark Inside – The Bottom Line
21. Neil Young – Revolution Blues
22. Bob Dylan & The Band – Ballad Of A Thin Man (Live Liverpool Odeon Theatre May 14 1966)

Download part one (Revolution Blues) here!

Part Two - Revolution Rock Play List:

23. Holograms – Chasing My Mind
24. Rotten Tropics – Spectre Tectonics
25. Dum Dum Girls – Just A Creep
26. The Imagineers – The Legend of John The Terror (Notorious)
27. Is/Is - Moon Dropping
28. Bittersweet Draw – Leavin’ Hinton (CJSW Session)
29. The Gerry Alvarez Odyssey – In the Garden
30. Little Roosters – I Need A Witness
31. The Pygmies – She Lied (CJSW Session)
32. Ex-Boyfriends – Bubblegum (CJSW Session)
33. The Ugly – All Because of You (Live)
34. Blue Peter – Time & Money
35. The Secrets – Teenage Rampage
36. Dik Van Dykes - Pterodactyl
37. Blue Orchids – House That Faded Out
38. 101’ers – 5 Star Rock N’ Roll Petrol
39. Thee Mighty Caesars – Now I Know
40. Brian James – I Can Make You Cry
41. Iggy Pop – Some Weird Sin
42. The Hives – The Hives Are Law, You Are Crime
43. Generation X – From The Heart
44. Wire - Please Take (Black Session)
45. The Strangeloves - Night Time
46. The Vagrants - Respect
47. Square Root of Margaret - Attack of Giant Problem vs. the Creature from the Planet of the Incredible Sinking Solution
48. Black lips – Fairy Stories

Download part two (Revolution Rock) here!

Subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.

And Now...The Last Pogo & Show # 399

In 1978, a documentary was made by director Colin Brunton chronicling what was billed as the last Punk Rock concert in Toronto. Titled The Last Pogo the short film featured performances from Canadian Punk/New Wave artists from 1977/1978, amongst the performers The Scenics, The Secrets, The Mods, The Ugly, The Viletones, The Cardboard Brains, and Teenage Head were in the film. The concert took place at the famous Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto, which was run by Toronto promoters Topp and Cormier Gary at the time. In addition to the performances that make the film, police and firefighters kicked out the director and crew, but the soundman remained, it was originally released in 1979. After years of being out of print, the film was issued on DVD in 2008.

A soundtrack was also recorded and released entitled And Now Live From Toronto …The Last Pogo. Released in 1979, the soundtrack was made up of live performances from two dates at The Horseshoe Tavern. The soundtrack features performances from The Scenics, The Everglades, The Mods, Drastic Measures, Cardboard Brains, The Ugly and others. The soundtrack is further document of the bands and Punk/Post Punk scene at the time in Canada. All the recordings are live and the album, which is now out of print and features some excellent performances most notably the opening track, which is The Secrets version of “Shout”.

Currently director Colin Brunton and Kire Paputts have started a new project. Compiling more footage with 1978’s The Last Pogo as a starting point, the film makers are working on a new longer documentary which further explores Toronto’s cultural and musical explosion during the 1976-1978 time period. The film will be titled The Last Pogo Jumps Again: A Biased & Incomplete History Of Toronto Punk Rock Circa September 24 1976 To December 1 1978. The film is said to be released in a variety of formats soon. More information on the film can be found at http://www.thelastpogo.net/

This Week's Play List:

1. The New York Dolls – Trash
2. T-Rex – 20th Century Boy
3. The Shins – Bait And Switch
4. Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat
5. Cowboy Junkies – Fuck, I Hate The Cold
6. Papermaps – US And Them
7. Joel Plaskett Emergency – You’re Mine
8. Jaill – She’s My Baby
9. Link Wray – Commanche
10. The Secrets – Teenage Rampage
11. The Everglades – Rock n’ Roll Cliché
12. Teenanger – Cops (But Not)
13. Sloan - Living With The Masses
14. Ty Segall – Maria Stacks
15. The Angry Dead Pirates – Moon
16. Neil Young – Walk On
17. The Stooges – Little Doll (John Cale Mix)
18. The Gruesomes – For All I Care
19. The Black lips – Family Tree
20. Ramones – I Can’t Be (Demo)
21. The D4 – Mysterex
22. The Clash – Bankrobber (Live From Here To Eternity II)

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for April 10. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.