Monday, July 21, 2008

Remember When The Doughboys Played at Gilman And They Broke Up On Your Lawn

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A lot of people would say the Doughboys are the best Canadian punk band ever. I prefer Slow or Chixdiggit myself, but then I'm not the expert, the guys with the Tragically Hip and Barenaked Ladies tapes are.

Anyway, this EP collects three songs that the Doughboys demo'ed in 1987 and then re-recorded for their first LP, "Whatever". I like these versions much better; arrangement-wise, the two songs I'm posting here aren't all that different from the versions that ended up on "Whatever" (the demo of "Stranger From Within" has an additional acoustic guitar intro), but sonics-wise they're a hell of a lot crunchier.

This record has the thickest vinyl I've ever seen for a 7-inch-- it's like a dinner plate, for crying out loud. It would be cool if it was glow-in-the-dark vinyl, too, like that M.O.T.O. 7" which is almost the same color, but you can't have everything, I guess.

I posted a bunch of vinyl rips from "Whatever" back in March, by the way; you can find them by clicking on the "Doughboys" tag at the bottom of this post.


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Doughboys -

"The Forecast"

"Stranger From Within"

(these files are now listen-only)


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11 comments:

jeffen said...

The Doughboys managed to write great songs and play the hell out of them during a really weedy era of music - I'll forever love them for it.

(Though Slow did write THAT song...)

Brushback said...

Like I said in my other Doughboys post, I saw 'em twice; the first time they were good, the second time the sucked.

I can understand the love affair that Canadians of a certain age have with them, though. We have sorta the same thing going on with some of our bands down here. I mean, I think Moving Targets' "Burning In Water" blows away anything the Doughboys have ever done, while roughly within the same genre, yet nobody outside of New England even gives a shit about them.

jeffen said...

It's a fair comparison, though both bands pilfered shamelessly from Husker Du. (Yeah, I had the first two Moving Targets LP's and while I can't remember one really distinctive song, I always loved how they sounded.)

The Doughboys did enter a serious decline but it's (as always) a debate about where it begins.

Home Again is a great record and the first song on Happy Accidents "Countdown") is incredible after that I lose all interest.

Brushback said...

I've got "Home Again" on vinyl, which I might get around to ripping eventually-- once I listen to it again and figure out if it's worth it.

I kinda like that song "Shine" (from one of their later albums) a lot, for some reason.

ib said...

I agree with the Husker Du comparison, but on "The Forecast" the guitar sound and production is quite eerily reminiscent of Motors era Bram Tchaicovsky, 1977-78. Very Power Pop, but with a chuggier feel.

Quite cool.

Brushback said...

Ooooh, Bram Tchaikovsky. I've been meaning to write something on that subject, soon.

Chris said...

If I remember rightly "Shine" is on Crush. I bought the album because the guys in ALL were really into the band. The only song I liked instantly on the album was "Shitty Song" so I've always thought of the album as "Shitty Album". I wrote the band off and decided the fuss was over nothing.

Casualty was a New Zealand band whose second album which came out in 1994 (by then they were based in Australia) and according to their ex-manager were influenced by Suicidal Tendencies and the Doughboys at the time. I have the album but I've been asked not to put it on my blog. It's great but hard to find. I'm sure Waterfront records used to stock it.

Brushback said...

Chris:

That's interesting-- you were preemtively told not to post a record? Do you know the band personally, and they said "We know you have a blog and we don't want you giving our record away for free", or is it because they don't like the record anymore and don't wan't people to hear it?

Chris said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Chris said...

Brushback, I don't know the band but their ex-manager, Greg is a fairly regular commenter on my blog and I got MP3's of the album from him trading some music he was after and he said he'd rather the Casualty wasn't put on the blog. I'm not sure what the reason is but I'm respecting his wish. I'm sure the band are still proud of the record.

Brushback said...

The mp3 files on this post are now listen-only (non-downloadable) files. For those of you who came to the party late, I will do my best to respond to any e-mailed requests for the original files.