Local Rabbits---You Can't Touch This--Auspicious Debut Album from Montreal

Sometimes I hear about interesting bands from unlikely places. In this example, I first heard of Montreal's Local Rabbits because they were mentioned in a book by Dave Bidini of the Rheostatics called Around the World in 57 1/2 gigs. Apparently Bidini and Peter Elkas are friends, and at some point in a hiatus of the around-the-world-on-a-shoestring tour, he winds up at some rural lake with Elkas, friends and family members, fishing, hanging out, and taking turns singing tunes. It was a nice moment in a very recommendable book, a book where Bidini ends up in places like Finland and China, playing gigs and discovering how rock music is perceived and accepted around the world. But mostly its a lot of self-deprecating humor and awkwardness. Definitely a good music read.

Later I read some more on Local Rabbits in Have Not Been the Same, a pretty hefty book on Canadian Rock, which would probably useful if your interests lie there. So with a little more knowledge on my side, I made the mouse click and gave the band a listen.

Fresh New Kicks, Advance!

You Can't Touch This is Local Rabbits' debut album from 1996 on Murderrecords, and it seems somewhat disjointed. When I saw the album cover for the first time, my first impression was that these guys are the ZZ Top of sideburns. But look past this, and you will find a musically accomplished bunch who most definitely sport their own unique sound. If you put the album on and listen to the first song, your impression is that these guys sound like 80's post-punk, pre-Franz Ferdinand. But they mostly don't sound like that here.




Pete Elkas: singing, guitars, etc.
Ben Gunning: singing, guitars, etc.
King Johnny Starr: singing, bass, etc.
Brian Waters: singing, drums


On this record they sound kind of like a blend of Pavement and Neil Young and Crazy Horse. The songs are filled with loads of interesting somewhat discordant guitar runs, with mostly tuneful harmonies laid across the top. There always seems to be a lot going on these songs, and the songs don't rely much on cliches. What seems odd is the number of blues or country numbers interspersed (not to mention a little Klezmer or Pop's & Company's Haircut 100esque stylings) in between the alternatunes, but in all honesty those are done well too. People seem to have a huge problem with things like this, but I certainly don't. It seems like they had the chops to do mostly everything. What is equally remarkable is the upbeat nature to this album--no wallowing in misery for these guys.



These guys went on to make 2 more albums which I'm told are more accomplished than this one, but I haven't heard them yet. Their 2nd album Basic Concept even hit number 1 on the Canadian College Charts in 1998. Even from this stage, it is clear that these guy began with their own pretty unique music. Certainly I think their music lies in the tradition of modern guitar bands like Television, The Feelies, Wipers, Built to Spill, Dinosaur, Jr., that aren't afraid to air out the leads. But they never let the songs drag on to tedium--they change gears well.




Since the band split up, Elkas has put out 3 solo albums, and in 2010 Ben Gunning put out Mal de Mer, his 2nd album, which is described as a concept album about living and working on a cruise ship.

This album is a pretty cool one, especially considering this is a debut album from pretty young guys. Maybe a little more falsetto than I like, but overall a big winner. A very interesting guitar album. And a lot of happiness here, I must say.

Time to See the Light--Rational Youth--Electronic Pop from Montreal

I was never a big fan of electronic music when I started listening to music as a teenager.
Even though I was taking piano lessons, my idea of great music involved loud music, guitars, power chords.

Like every self-respecting rocker, I would faithfully watch show like Midnight Special and Don Kirschner's Rock Concert to see musical idols perform, and perhaps get a preview of the great new music to come. There weren't so many outlets back in those days for music.

One night I still remember seeing Gary Numan for the first time one night on Don Kirschner's show.
I was completely flabbergasted. What sort of nonsense were they trying to foist on us. At the time I thought it was totally laughable stuff. Weird. Wimpy. For a long time I just couldn't listen to much in this genre. It felt like novelty music. I thought it was cheesy and for the most part unserious.

But in reality electronic music has its good and bad, and of course can be superb, transcendent. Synthesizers and Computers are just another tool to be used to make music to express ideas, and for every 20 stinkers in any genre, there are always a few good, even great albums to be enjoyed.

I didn't overcome my musical prejudice for a long time. The whole "man becoming machine" thing is still pretty uncompelling to me. Even if in this day and age there it appears that there was more than a germ of truth to the concept.  I suppose I have a greater appreciation for music with a human face.
And that's why I was completely taken aback when I heard New Order for the first time. I heard it playing on my stereo, coming from my own college radio station. It definitely altered my perceptions about electronic music in a way that other groups like Devo could not.

I'm pretty sure it was "Age of Consent" playing that day--it was about the time the release of Power Corruption and Lies, which I became an owner of shortly thereafter. In those days I didn't know that it was a new incarnation of Joy Division after Ian Curtis' sad demise. It was an immediate, visceral reaction to great music, and it helped open me to listening to music rather than compartmentalise my musical preferences narrowly.

Which comes to the point of my post. I was reading Have Not Been the Same, a terrific and weighty tome on Canadian rock of the 1980's and 90's, and learning about a lot of groups that never reached my American airspace. I enjoyed the book a great deal. There is even a compilation CD that came out in conjunction (i.e. not with the book) that gives you a taste of the diversity and quality of the bands of the era.

When I was young, I knew Canadians could play Hockey and brew strong beer like LaBatt's and Molson, but believed they could never compete with the Americans and the Brits in rock and roll. I guess in the Cold War era, everything felt like a stupid competition. BTO of course was some crazy exception of course.

The Unity of Things is the Essence of Truth...

Based upon my Canadian research, the first album I bought happened to be by an electronic group of the 80's from Montreal called Rational Youth. I don't think they are any big secret to fans of new wave and electronic music, but they are fairly new to me. Some of the song titles of Cold War Night Life seemed vaguely familiar. I have to say that this album is pretty terrific. When you compare the quantum leaps of technology in the music world, you have to admire what these guys did back in the early 80's. The music was all created on keyboards. And unlike a lot of the music of era, the music does not seem so dated. In fact, I find it to be as good or better than most of the better-known synth-pop contemporaries were doing.

I find a lot of creativity in the music on Cold War Night Life. Sometimes groups latch on to a sound and their songs seem a bit samey, but there is a great deal of diversity in the arrangements. Instead of being a record with a few strong cuts and mediocre material, the songs here are universally good. The music is a combination of bounciness, and sombre macabre spookiness. There is an noticeably aggressive muscular quality to the music that is hard to ignore.  I cannot help but believe that these guy were pretty influential to other groups. I'm a little reminded of comeback era Wire, and they also seem to be a precursor to industrial music. The band was Tracy Howe, Bill Vorn, and Kevin Komoda, all playing synths, with Howe as lead vocalist.






Though Dancing on The Berlin Wall is probably the best known song, there are other songs that I like better. Though these days, seeing young people in the Middle East doing the Harlem Shake in a symbolic defiance of their governments, I see a bit of a connection. Dancing on the Berlin Wall is almost a Gothic "Rocking the Casbah" in a way. As for my tastes, Beware the Fly is probably my favorite on this album, dark clever atmospheric pop with haunted house organ sounding synths segueing into the ostinato laden chorus. Saturdays in Silesia is another Cold War synth classic with almost a Flashdance rhythm to it. Other recommended cuts are the the opening song Close to Nature, City of Night, and the instrumental tune Power Zone. The reissue also includes the tremendous electro-ballad I Want To See the Light. Definitely one of the band's high points. Coboloid Race, also included, is also very good, with a more industrial metallic sound.



When I first tried to pick up a copy of this, I was surprised to find that it would cost me a good amount of cash. I actually wound up buying it on Amazon UK. Right now it seems it can be purchased at a reasonable prize. If that changes, be aware that Yul records, the label that originally issued Cold War Night Life has come out of mothballs and is active once again. You can order the album directly from the label's website. To celebrate the label's 30th anniversary, they have released 4 Rational Youth eps, containing remixes, some newly discovered and never before released.






It has been nearly 25 since the Berlin Wall fell and I don't think people today understand just what things were like back then. For all we knew about life under Communism, there was a lot we did not know, and the same was true about life in the world of Capitalism. I don't think you will learn much about such things by listening to Rational Youth, but quite honestly by listening to the album you can get a little idea of what people were thinking at the time, beliefs and opinions, which were colored by a world seemingly running on a course toward mutually assured destruction. Of course if you had been to Russia at the time and seen how parents bundled their children for winter weather, you wouldn't have many doubts as to whether they loved their children or not. And certainly Rational Youth took the lyrical content of their songs extremely seriously. All I'm saying is there is a certain context to these songs which I still may find interesting today, but I understand how they would not seem so meaningful to people who were born after Communism collapsed in Europe.

All in all Rational Youth put out a very intelligent, forward sounding synth-pop album which should be better known. In addition there are other releases under the moniker, but none with the original lineup. There is an anthology of their music entitled All Our Saturdays which is readily available and includes music from Heredity, the 2nd album. Years later Howe put out another Rational Youth album To the Goddess Electricity on a Swedish label, which is a bit pricey to get. A Singles box set came out in 2000, but was released in limited quantities. But I recommend you go right to the first album if you want to hear the group. If you are a fan of synth-pop, electronic music, or merely an 80's nostalgist, this disc sound pretty essential to my ear.

250th Post!!!!----As Time Dances Faster--The Nils--Green Fields in Daylight---

The Nils are a band I came onto quite late. Today it baffles me that so many great Canadian bands of the era passed completely under my radar. However, I can't believe that if I had gotten a whiff, a semblance of hype thrown my way, that I would not have have given these bands a good listen when they first came out. Perhaps part of the problem was scene snobbery. Too often people were looking to London, New York and LA for the good stuff. But as we all know, great music can come from anywhere--the question is, is anyone really listening?

A perfect example was the excellent Montreal punk pop band The Nils, led by brothers Alex and Carlos Soria. It took a rave review in Big Takeover magazine of the CD compilation on Mag Wheel Records, Green Fields in Daylight in 1996, to get my attention. And what a collection of music this is! 29 Tracks! The Cd might be a bit tough to track down now, but quite available in MP3 format. It's exciting, energetic, youthful joyous, punk rock, in the style of contemporaries like The Replacements, Husker Du, but in their own distinctive torturedly tuneful style. Of great bands that are by all accounts criminally uncelebrated, these guys are at the top of the heap in my opinion. If you have never heard this band before, do yourself a favor....grab this music immediately. I felt like Indiana Jones when I first heard this music, like I uncovered some lost holy artifact from another era.

This collection covers pretty much everything they released aside from their only album, the eponymous album released by Rock Hotel, which is a pretty good record and worth owning also. But the recordings on Green Fields are raw and ready, including some live performance and covers, like Mary Ann with The Shaky Hands, and Tim Hardin's Red Balloon. They even do a short take on Men Without Hats with Pop Goes the World. I thought they were having a little fun at the expense of MWH, but it turns out that they were friends with the band. The lead singer even helped finance and produced their first Ep, Sell Out Young. And I do mean young; when this band started out Alex was only 12!

Like a lot of my very favorite albums, it's pretty much all great. But Scratches and Needles is one of my favorite songs ever. It gives me a rush like the rush when I listen to a raucous Mission of Burma tune.





But there is so much here, the fierce Give Me Time, the white hot When Love Puts on a Sad Face, or the energetic Bandito Callin'. Though I have a preference for Scratches and Needles, In Betweens might actually be the best thing on this disc. But now I am listening to the anthemic Fountains, and my opinion in the last sentence is in doubt....



Another secret classic is Daylight, the song from where this comp's title derived.

Let's pretend we were joyful
Like Green Fields in Daylight......

The Nils definitely made some powerful, powerful music. I often wished that there was more. Of course the Nils as we know it will never reform, because Alex took his own life in 2004. Tragedies like this seem to happen all too much with talented musicians. Last year however, The Title is the Secret Song was released, a collection of unreleased music by the band, a CD/DVD, available through the bands website. I don't have it yet, but if it is comparable to what I own by them, well, maybe it will be my Christmas present to myself. It seems that Carlos Soria is rehearsing with some people, so there will be some Nils shows occurring. Any appreciation these guys can get is sorely deserved. There is even a tribute album to the band out which includes tracks by Punchbuggy, Down By Law and the Stand GT.

But if you are interested in getting a hold of some great music, I unabashedly recommend this album. Green Fields in Daylight is a classic 80's post punk mother lode. This should be an ubiquitous part of any respectable music collection in the same way The Buzzcocks Singles Going Steady is. The fact that so few people know about this band is an abomination. Listening to this album really makes me really happy, and if I can get even a handful of more people on the Nils bandwagon I will be even happier!!! They were definitely one of the best bands of their era, so track this comp down in any format ASAP.