Meanwhile in ... oh it's obvious isn't it?

COW #168 -- 10-Dec-1994 -- Rock It to the Moon!

Here it is, the latest episode of Chas’ Crusty Old Wave, fresh out of the oven! It’s a humdinger as well if I do say so myself, with lots of killer tunes. Heck, any episode with both They Might Be Giants and Weird Al Yankovic is bound to be good, plus you throw in lots of original punk, an interview and music from Orlando band Potential Frenzy, some particularly brilliant but less-heard music from Bruce Woolley, Bill Nelson, Modern English, Joe Jackson, The Assembly, the Buzzcocks, Paul Collins' Beat, and Georgia bands The Woggles and Hillbilly Frankenstein.

Oh wait, there’s more! How about a rare remix from Yazoo, some ska from the Toasters and Madness, and more great local music from The Hatebombs? And did I mention a bit from Monty Python? It’s all here, friends, in two hours of delightful fun. Get it streaming or downloadable on the site or from iTunes.

Get your dancing shoes on -- by the time Malcolm McLaren’s “Double Dutch” shows up, you’ll already be out of your chairs and hip-hopping down the stairs! Enjoy.

31 years ago (and a day)

One of the things that always amazes me about Canada is that, in the form we know it today, it is a very young country. The document above is the equivalent of the US “Bill of Rights,” and forms the first part of the Constitution of Canada -- and was only passed in 1982, just 31 years ago.

There was a Bill of Rights prior to the Charter (going back to 1960), but it was only a statute rather than a constitutional document and could thus be narrowly interpreted, changed and generally ignored. This document stemmed largely from the work of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau -- whose son Justin has just become the leader of the Liberal Party -- and the process of hashing out the complicated issues of judicial versus legislative versus provincial and individual rights was actually filmed for television.

I’d like to think that those discussions were much like the ones the US founding fathers had over the original Bill of Rights, and that the filmed record gives us some insight into what happened way back in  1789. The Canadian version -- which to me seems to be roughly equally influenced by the US Bill of Right and by British laws and rights -- is very well laid out and articulate. You can read the actual text of the document here.

Happy birthday, Canada-USA-CFTUSA!

Yes, it’s that time of year once again! This year, I decided to wait until July 4th to post my annual Happy Birthday greetings to Canada (145 years old), the USA (236 years) and of course to this very blog, begun FIVE YEARS AGO (on July 1st to be specific). I needed the extra time to edit together a short little video to mark the celebrations that have gone on (or are about to happen as I post this) in both countries. Really, guys, the whole population turns out to celebrate the 5th anniversary of this blog? You shouldn’t have!

We had a great time on Canada Day. It was a moderately warm, sunny day (we’re having a very mild summer so far even by our northern standards -- it's been rare that we’ve cracked much above 60°F! As I write this it is 63, but we're hoping to get to 68 later this week. Sorry, all you Eastern-residing folks -- I know this is making you jealous! :)

Anyway, here’s the video. Hope you had or are having a great holiday, and we’ll try to update this blog a bit more regularly as we go forward.

SuperCOW loves SuperMOOOOOON!

And back into the tape vault we go! Here's a classic one from 1993, episode #102. This was just two weeks after my old Black Volvo was broken into and the core of my CD collection I used for the show stolen. In some ways (and with a lot of hindsight) I think it may have made this episode better than average.

I will always remember these days -- I was so shocked when it happened (first time my car had ever been broken into) and it came on the heels of a perfectly DELIGHTFUL evening (up to that point at least) in a period where I was doing very well for myself on most fronts. Popular show, king of downtown, some lovely relationship happenings, good day job ... Lucky Pierre, that's me ...

Anyway, a great mix of familiar and obscure 80s tunes. That's what makes COW so special.

You can grab your copy from the website or directly from iTunes.

Enjoy.

Canada

This is how Canada rolls

An actual email I received recently from a local Mac dealership:

That COW ... it’s ALIVE!!

Wow, sorry that took so long, but here it is -- part two of our madcap 20th Anniversary celebration as it aired on WPRK this past July 4th. On this episode, we took down the “80s only” sign and grabbed great music from the past 30 years to play for our listeners and to dance around the studio like mad fools in the wee hours to.

As I say in the introduction to the show, some of these songs are not just pieces of music ... they’re my friends! Seriously, I have long and cherished memories with some of these tunes, from the They Might Be Giants song I sang with a TMBG cover band (seriously!) to the way Kraftwerk melted my 70’s-rock, guitar-addled brain, to the way the Hidden Cameras and the Botticellis (both contemporary bands) make me feel so alive the way Punk and New Wave (and Ska) did way back when ...

There’s plenty of familiar stuff over the course of the 2.5 hours, like the B-52s and Elvis Costello and Violent Femmes and Talking Heads. But there’s also some stuff both old and new that’s so obscure I dare you to name every song on the playlist without cheating. Lots of really great tunes in my opinion!

You can grab your copy from the website or directly from iTunes.

Enjoy.

COW XX -- 20 Years of Crusty Old Wave!

WPRK threw a party and invited me ... and, by proxy, you ... to a celebration of 20 years since the first episode of what would become Chas’ Crusty Old Wave. I returned to Florida for the first time in nearly two years, and we did not one but two two-hour shows featuring the music we all love so much -- the red-headed stepkids of the 80s!

Today, three months after the event, we present the first of the two anniversary shows, hosted by Phantom Third Channel and myself. We get on terribly well and giggle like schoolgirls reading Tiger Beat magazine when we talk about music and bands and records and stuff, and this shows in our several extended conversation breaks -- but don't worry, there's lots of great music there, with an emphasis on Brian Eno, David Bowie and Elvis Costello. A lot of the tunes on this episode slot neatly into that all-too-brief era between the fall of UK punk and the rise of commercial "alternative" music. For a bit there, before MTV and in a few cases even before punk rock, there was a period where Weird Was Good. We touch on a lot of that with things like the Stiff Records single You'll Always Find Me in the Kitchen at Parties by Jona Lewie, or Bruce Woolley's original take on Video Killed the Radio Star, or Bow Wow Wow's call for sonic revolution, C30 C60 C90 Go!.

We also hit some songs that are sheer nostalgia for me personally, within and without the New Wave movement -- such as Love and Loneliness the most over-produced record in the world, and Monochrome Set's odd little B-I-D Spells Bid, one of the very few songs written by and about the lead singer of the band. There's also some Ultravox from both "eras" of the band, some bona-fide classics like Gary Numan's Me! I Disconnect From You and more. You can grab your copy from the website or directly from iTunes.

Enjoy.

Happy Birthday, USA!

Wishing the US and all our friends and family who live there a happy 235th birthday! I can hardly believe it was 35 years ago that the country celebrated its 200th birthday -- I remember it all very well.

Happy Canada Day!

Yes, the whole country celebrates the birthday of this blog, four years ago! :)

Actually, the country turns 144 officially, and although the Queen isn't in Canada this time as she was last year, she sent Prince Phillip and his bride Kate instead. Hopefully they are having a good time, Canada loves its royals.

We’ve been sparse with updates to the blog, as the main mission of it was accomplished last year, but I did want to update a few details: believe it or not we are STILL waiting on that Permanent Resident card (the actual card only; the legal status has been achieved). Ironically, after waiting almost three years for a Canadian Work Permit, I find myself with a (lovely!) job that's actually based in the States (though I'm not required to go there to do it, it's an internet-based job).

The only reason I don’t have the PR card yet is (probably) due to the postal strike that just ended this week. I’m not sure who was “right” in the dispute, but I fear the government has just put a band-aid over the real problem.

I’ll try to at least post more links to Canadian news stories of interest, just in case some of you need a break from the wall-to-wall Casey Anthony trial coverage. (rolls eyes)

COW your head -- epic Episode #19 is complete!

Like the relief felt at the completion of the end of the Lord of the Rings, I have managed to split a massive six-hour (well, five after editing) show into two parts, including artwork and for the most part very high audio quality into two great new episodes of Chas’ Crusty Old Wave (actually, its predecessor Chas n Gwen’s Pop Pajama Party), both parts of which you can now download directly from the website or via iTunes.

As was the case with Chas n Gwen’s Pop Pajama Party more so than the later solo show, we mix up the 80s songs with a healthy helping of music from the very early 90s, to great effect in my opinion. This far on, only the most dedicated collectors and historians of the New Wave era will remember specifically that bands like They Might Be Giants (for example) weren’t part of the original New Wave movement, but of the first wave of great stuff that came after it, so it all ends up a bit of a wash of nostalgia. Looking back, it’s kinda cool to see the obvious impact the punk aftermath had on artists that were actually paying attention -- before that awful grunge crap came around and ruined everything for a while.

I'd suggest -- if you think you can stand five hours of 80s, 90s and Chas with his multiple personalities -- downloading both parts of episode 19 and use them as a good workout tape or just for revelling in memories of your own misspent youth. There’s a heck of a lot of great stuff in there. Enjoy.