Pointed Sticks--Waiting For The Real Thing--Don't wait--buy this now!!!!

Canada---home of Bryan Adams, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Celine Dion, Lawrence Welk, Stompin' Tom Connors. With the exception of Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and Rush, Americans didn't show a lot of respect for Canadian musical artists. That is at least until recently with the success of New Pornographers, Sloan, Arcade Fire, Metric, Stars, The Dears, etc.. Turns out that there were quite a few cool bands back in the 80's, Modernettes, D.O.A, Young Canadians, The Nils to name a few.

Out Of Luck Again

Pointed Sticks are probably the biggest example of punk greatness that I was clueless about. It's unbelievable that I learned about these guys so recently. This music was not easily available until Sudden Death Records reissued this compilation and also their Perfect Youth Album. Maybe this band is only cool to like if you live in Japan, where they apparently have a loyal following. The Waiting For The Real Thing compilation is by far my favorite Canadian album. If the Undertones were the Irish Buzzcocks, then the Pointed Sticks are Canada's Undertones (albeit with more keyboard).

Waiting for the Real Thing is an odds and sods collection of singles, performance from the landmark Vancouver Complication comp, unreleased songs and live performances.So what do you want me to do? Listen to the same titled first song. A nice driving  classic punk pop song. The B side to that single follows, Someone Else's Mom. Some great vocals by singer Nick Jones plus a kinetic solo by Bill Napier-Hemy on guitar. After this single Gord Nicholl played spirited keyboards on all the other tunes except  the great You Must Be Crazy from Vancouver Complication. Real Thing is a slower more new wave tune-pretty good, though I prefer the uptempo numbers.

Out of Luck is definitely one of my favorite songs ever--a soundtrack to romantic frustration, a blur of tuneful energy that almost seems to end before it starts. And there is one great tune after the next on this collection, each a near equal to Out Of Luck. Lies, I'm Numb, It's Ok, all revved up smashes. All I Could Take is a speeded up Country tune. How Could You is another terrific tune in the vein of Shelley & Diggle.

Another standout on this record is Marching Song, an infectiously poppy 100 words a minute winner. They also notably cover the 60's garage tune The Witch by Seattle's own Sonics. Apologies is another high water mark on this bountiful anthology. The Pointed Sticks were not around for that long at all, so one thing you see is that the unreleased track are all pretty worthy songs. They were not songs that were unreleased due to quality control, but because they never got around to formally recording them. Care Less, Worse, Middle Age Teenagers/No More Love, are all worthy additions to the canon. Additionally, the rave up Automatic You has 2 more songs appended to it, Dion's (I Was) Born To Cry and Del Shannon's Keep Searchin' (We'll Follow The Sun). So actually 26 songs crammed on one disc!

Canadian Punk Pop Masters

In 2006 the band began working together again after many years. They put out a 7" My Japanese Fan and also released on the Internet two pretty nifty Christmas songs, Power Pop Santa and Xmastime Again. That was just a teaser for their long overdue 2nd album Three Lefts Make A Right, which is pretty good, not on the level of this disc, but a very welcome addition. In fact they just toured Japan briefly again in July, so who knows maybe one of these days we may see them do a gig in New York. But for the time being, do yourself a favor and get this CD without delay.