Everybody… do yourself a favour listen to this track right now.
Congratulations, you are now enjoying “City Slang” by Sonic’s Rendezvous Band. Yes, as in Fred “Sonic” Smith, Mr. Detroit High Energy Rock — former guitarist and founding member of the MC5. Shortly after the Motor City Five split up in 1972 Smith rose from the ashes — not unlike a golden phoenix — and formed the Rendezvous Band with a few Detroit hard rock cronies, including Stooges’ drummer Scott Asheton. SRB enjoyed a short run from 1975-1980 and pretty much existed well under the radar until a slew of re-issues in the last decade or so put their music back in the hands of the record-buying fans.
I picked up their recently re-issued 1978 live album on vinyl at Zulu a couple weeks ago and have been spinning it pretty much in a non-stop loop since I got it. Rock on.
Been listening to these guys’ MySpace page on repeat all day today. They’re a Vancouver act with a penchant for the raunchy and thick guitar rawk — very reminiscant of Turbonegro… which is the highest of compliments I can pay to a band. These guys are fucking tight!
Check out the super catchy DXM off their debut LP Haute Voltage (which I just picked up today of InterPunk)
For the ignoramuses in the crowd, The Inbreds were a killer rock duo way before bands with only 2 people in them became the flavour of the month. And they didn’t even play the blues. They made straight-up indie pop using a bass guitar played like a guitar through a guitar amp — power chords, feedback, riffage and all. It ended up sounding more like a guitar than a bass, but not really like a guitar at all. After a few albums they called it quits in ‘98 when they were just starting to get some traction. Just before the break-up they were booked on one of those traveling summer festivals (maybe Edgefest) when Foo Fighter Dave Grohl (who was also on the tour) famously called the Inbreds his new favourite band… or something to that effect. I’m sure that picked them up a few new fans but they packed it in soon after.
Since then, Mike O’Neill has released a couple of solo albums and played in Sarah Harmer’s band for a few years. Dave Ullrich opened up Zunior, blogs at Thick Specs (”classic indie rock”) and plays in a band called Egger. So they haven’t been what you would call “slouches” or anything.
Speaking of Halifax Pop Explosion… it’s been 10 years since Mish and I flew from Ottawa to take in the festival (back when it was called Halifax On Music). I thought I had died and gone to indie rock heaven. Behold this magical and wonderful 1998 lineup…
Admiral, By Divine Right, Cheticamp, Cool Blue Halo, Deadly Snakes, Holler, Julie Doiron, Lady Bug Transistor, Moon Socket, Mooney Suzuki, Neko Case, Number One Cup, Pansy Division, Papas Fritas, Plumtree, Rebecca West, Richard Davies, Rome Plows, Ron Sexsmith, Shallow North Dakota, Shyne Factory, Soaking Up Jagged, Starbeam, State Champs, Straight, Syrup USA, Teen Wolf, The Euphonic, The Grifters, The Inbreds, the Ten Cent Wings, The Vees, Thrush Hermit, Tricky Woo, Yo La Tengo
Highlights from that trip included:
Seeing Thrush Hermit play in a venue not unlike my high school cafeteria a few months before Clayton Park came out so I got to hear all those songs before the album was released.
Buying my first Tricky Woo album — The Enemy Is Real — which remains probably one of my top 20 albums of all time to this day. Talk about having your ears ripped off your head and nailed to the wall. Also… minimum 2 guitar solos per song.
Discovering the Brian Jonestown Massacre. Bit of a back story… BJM were supposed to be headlining the aforementioned cafeteria show (the festival finale) so they were on the front cover of the Halifax weekly arts paper but they got busted for drugs at the border and never made it to the show. Regardless, I picked up Strung Out In Heaven (their “major label” debut on TVT) mostly because of the totally electric buzz surrounding the band and the fucking awesome album art. I bought it from Sam the Record Man on Barrington Street where Inbred Mike O’Neill was working and a totally unknown punk band of pre-pubescent misfits called “Sum 41″ was playing an in-store performance to like 6 people.
Christ… that was a real Canadian indie rock fanboy trip down memory lane. Back to regular programming.
Before I sign off, a seminal Inbreds track for your listening pleasure — “Any Sense of Time” off the most excellent 1994 album Kombinator:
The Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Beatles, Hayden, The Rolling Stones, The Jolts (Vancouver, Humble Pie, The Hellacopters, Theme Songs, U2, Wolf Parade, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Eric's Trip, The Stooges, The High Beams, One Hundred Dollars and more
Congratulations, you are now enjoying “City Slang” by Sonic’s Rendezvous Band. Yes, as in Fred “Sonic” Smith, Mr. Detroit High Energy Rock — former guitarist and founding member of the MC5. Shortly after the Motor City Five split up in 1972 Smith rose from the ashes — not unlike a golden phoenix — and formed the Rendezvous Band with a few Detroit hard rock cronies, including Stooges’ drummer Scott Asheton. SRB enjoyed a short run from 1975-1980 and pretty much existed well under the radar until a slew of re-issues in the last decade or so put their music back in the hands of the record-buying fans.
Been listening to these guys’ 
For the ignoramuses in the crowd, 
The Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Beatles, Hayden, The Rolling Stones, The Jolts (Vancouver, Humble Pie, The Hellacopters, Theme Songs, U2, Wolf Parade, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Eric's Trip, The Stooges, The High Beams, One Hundred Dollars 
