waltons | tape the night

The #30DaysofCDN90sSongs challenge on Twitter started by the Rave and Drool podcast has been a fun trip down memory lane so far this month. It’s been a lot of fun connecting with others who have the same appreciation for that particular era of music, but I’ve been finding myself limited by the Twitter character count to properly share my memories and thoughts around my song choices.

Then I remembered, oh yeah, I also have a blog that I keep ignoring, and as the basic notion behind this site is to track and reminisce about the soundtrack of my life, it’s a perfect opportunity to expand on those choices here and get back into the habit of writing a bit more regularly.

I’m a 1977 kid, which means that my teen years coincided right alongside an explosion of talent in Canadian alternative music. Being able to buy my own music with my own money (and not from Columbia House) as well as being able to attend all ages shows with my friends meant that my access to this talent explosion came at a time when I was also the most impressionable.

A lot of the songs in this advent calendar are still played regularly around the house today and they bring me right back to those teen years and the mishaps, misadventures and misplaced emotions that came along with them.

The one rule is that we can’t repeat an artist or band so, with that in mind, let’s check out the first 5 days of 90s CanRock.

Day 1 – The Killjoys – Someplace

My high school girlfriend had really strict Italian parents. Missing curfew could lead to a restriction on how many nights a week she could go out, or potentially not go out at all.

We are down on the Lakeshore in the West End of Toronto, parked, having just got back from a walk along the boardwalk where we saw swans. Swans! Romantic!

We turn the radio on and start listening to one of my mix tapes while we do what teenagers do while parked listening to mix tapes.

It’s soon time to head home and I go to start my car but running the radio has drained the battery and my car won’t start!

We start freaking out. This is it. We will never be allowed to see each other ever again. We will grow old and each die alone. I hope the make-out session was worth it, because it will be our last one.

I get out of the car and pop the hood, completely delusional that I would even know what to do with anything under there.

It turns out that this was a good move as a man from further down the parking lot gets out of his car and approaches us and asks us if we’re having car trouble.

I blurt it all out, how we were making out, the battery drained and if we don’t get her home by 11, I will never be allowed to see her again. She may even be forced to move schools to ensure it.

He chuckles and says, don’t worry, I can help. He gives me his CAA card and points over at the phone booth.

“Call them and tell them you’re me and they’ll come and give you a boost. I’m just passing through town and resting my eyes in my car before driving all night, so I’ll be just over there if they give you any trouble.”

I thank him profusely, call them and we wait, trying not to imagine her father having a heart attack. It’s an agonizing wait while it’s happening but they actually show up super quickly. We get our boost, no further questions asked, and before we drive away, the man gives us a thumbs up from his car, then we are on our way, speeding home.

We make it home in time. We will live to see another date. Our love is intact.

At least until the following year when I go away to University and we break up on Valentine’s Day, but that’s a story for another time.

This song always reminds me of that night.

Day 2 – The Waltons – Truth And Beauty

Now, not as much of a story to this song, but it was on the mix tape we were listening to in the car and the sweetness and heart in it always brings me back to that relationship as well.

Day 3 – Skydiggers – Slow Burning Fire

That girlfriend of mine at the end of high school LOVED this song, but that’s not why it’s on this advent calendar. This part of the list is like Valentine’s Day, 1997: we’re now moving on past her.

I’m 16 and it’s Friday night and we are all out drinking down at the pit, and we’re happy to be at the pit, having gotten there first and thus claiming the campfire. If your group didn’t get to the pit first, you’d have to settle for the bridge, and if the bridge was taken, you’d have to go all the way to the second bridge, and nobody liked going to the second bridge.

The pit was the place to be.

Our group was joined by another group not too long after we settled in and had a fire going, having used our 2-4 cases as kindling. They were a bunch of kids from another school who we didn’t know but seemed cool enough, and we had more people than they did, so it was still our fire and they were our guests.

One of the girls in the group was named Delaney and she sat down on the log next to me and as we all laughed and told jokes, music playing in the background, the hormone-filled tension in the space between us on that log was so thick it almost prevented us from moving closer together. Almost prevented us.

As our shoulders touched she giggled and my heart leapt.

We kept chatting and eventually she said she had to go to the bathroom and asked where she could go. It was her first time at the pit.

I pointed at the path that led up the hill and into the trees, guys on the left, girls on the right, those were the rules, and she looked nervous.

“Want me to go up there with you?” I asked.

She nodded and I followed her up the hill, into the trees and gave her her privacy as she walked off to the right.

When she came back out onto the path, she kissed me on my cheek and thanked me, and headed back down to the fire.

WHERE HER FRIENDS WERE GETTING READY TO LEAVE.

I can still feel the hug around my neck that she gave me to say goodbye and then they left and I never saw her again.

I honestly don’t know if this song was playing that night on the cassette player, but there’s a good chance that it might have been.

Regardless, this song always reminds me of sitting on that log and the slowness with which the space between us disappeared.

Day 4 – Sloan – Coax Me

The twins had the greatest party house and parents who were often away on weekends, a potent combination when you’re 16 and part of the tighter inner circle.

Frozen burgers and Diana sauce were on the menu. Ah, Diana Sauce… the perfect combination of affordability and class, at least in our eyes.

This album was played constantly on many a backyard barbecue night, when the evenings turned from ridiculous dancing to those quiet, late-night talks about life, our future and our place in the universe.

Up until that point in our lives, it was the best our lives had ever been…

Day 5 – The Hardship Post – Garbage Truck

Have you been to Toronto’s newest, hottest club?

Located in Yorkdale Mall, you haven’t been clubbing until you’ve been to Club HMV.

Yep, totally lame, but we used to use the listening stations at the HMV at Yorkdale to hear new music before buying anything; headphones attached to the wall and buttons you could press to change between the newest CDs.

We would ROCK OUT on these things, motioning to each other from down the aisle trying to guess which CD the other person was listening to. The first silent disco parties.

I heard this song and didn’t even finish it. I wanted to grab the tape before it sold out.

I bought it and didn’t hear the end of the song until I was in the car on the way home.

Absolutely fantastic song and band.

And, in case I wasn’t totally clear, I absolutely understand how lame Club HMV was in hindsight.

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You can catch the advent calendar daily on my Twitter, days 6 to 10 will get posted next week!

And, to that stranger passing through town with his CAA membership and Delaney, should either of you be reading this, thanks for those memorable nights…

90’s Canadian Alternative Rock. If I had a wheelhouse, this would be it.

There are a few people looking to document this time in music history with a film called Rave & Drool and I am all over it.

I have been following the campaign to make this movie quite closely and it’s triggered my nostalgia glands which, by the way, totally medically exist with symptoms including misty-eyed smiles and looking off into the distance.

I also recently purchased Apple Music and am finally starting to resign myself to the idea that I no longer need to physically “own” every song I listen to. Not everything has to be in a “playlist” created from my own versions of “mp3s” stored in “folders” on my “computer”. Maybe, just maybe, the music I’m listening to will actually from now on be forever available to me and I don’t have to worry about a format change sweeping everything out from under me any more.

As I dove into the wormhole that is streaming music I didn’t know where I would end up, following recommended links and albums continuously to see what else Apple Music would uncover for me.

Now, had I actually thought about it, I should have known exactly where I would end up. 90’s Canadian Alternative Rock. As I cycled through all the albums that have made their way through my collections over the years, from tape to CD to mp3 and still comprise a good chunk of my current playlists on iTunes, one album stood out as it was one that hadn’t survived the format changes over the years into digitalization.

Lik My Trakter by The Waltons.

I put some headphones on, turned the lights out and laid down in bed and suddenly I was 15 again, doing the exact same thing, only with a walkman instead of an ipad.

Every word from every song came back to me, even though I hadn’t listened to the album in probably 15 years.

The Waltons were a staple on the live music scene around that time as well. I had seen them at CFNY’s acoustic Christmas several times and they routinely played with other big names like Barenaked Ladies and The Skydiggers. They were winning Junos, they were all over the radio but after breaking up in the mid 90’s they just faded away.

Because I am nostalgic for pretty much everything and spend a lot of my quiet moments reliving and remembering the events that have led up to now, it’s a little rare for me to rediscover a full album in this manner.

If you don’t remember The Waltons I’ve got three songs here for you that, if you listened to the radio at all in the 90’s, you would have heard.

In The Meantime was one of the most played songs on Canadian Radio in 1993.

And this is why I do this blog. I don’t do it for people to read, I do it to relive and discover things anew about the music that has helped shape my life. I didn’t even know this next video existed until this exact moment that I’m writing this.

Mel Lastman Square, New Years Eve 1993. I was 15 and this was the first time I had ever gone out for New Years Eve to do something without my parents. I remember exactly where I was standing and I remember this song perfectly and the fact that someone has uploaded this to YouTube with whatever crazy size camera they must have been holding… well, the Internet is a special place sometimes.

The Naked Rain.

And, last but not least, one of the most popular songs off the album, Colder Than You.

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Further Listening:

I know I got a little sidetracked in focusing on The Waltons, but lots of good stuff to do with the Rave and Drool movie is out there.

Check out their Facebook Page where they have Cover Song Saturdays with 90’s Canadian artists doing covers.

They’ve also got a wicked Spotify playlist that rivals a few that I’ve put together myself; further proof that I need to let go of the idea of owning my own music library and just dive into this online world of subscriptions and sharing.