Canard Music

This is a solo Canard track that I recorded last year about a guy that worked here. He was part of the family that owned the place or was related….damn…I don’t know but he was high up on the food chain and had all these trophies behind the register there. My dad would take us there pretty often when it was in the Northwood Mall. They had these private dining areas and I remember always overhearing some drunk legislative dudes in the bar there. They also had this enormous piranha type of fish in the waiting area. A friend of my dad got his finger chewed when he stuck his hand in the aquarium on a dare! I give you “Go Kart Racer” by Canard!

Just so you know I am trying to get some Spoons up here asap. This shot is from a roadtrip to Orlando to play a gig at a shitty club. We had a lot of fun on these jaunts. Everybody in the band seems to be doing well. We’ve got two Phd’s, a lawyer and a fat dude. Chances of a reunion are slim to none so stop asking Mr. Weiss! anyway the photo is most likely from 1990.

I used to play bass in a band called The New You. It was led by Matt Chapman and Ryan Hrvatin. Ryan Hrvatin sat through Wishmaster 1 and 2 with me along with Addie. Not good movies by any stretch of the imagination. Anyway, we recorded a second cd that was never released called ‘Remote Controlled Air Conditioning’. I think this is from 2000 maybe? Maybe a little later? Not sure. Anyway the song is “Holiday Ray” and it features me on Bass, Gibby on Drums, Ryan Hrvatin on guitar and Matt Chapman on guitar and vocals.

While we were working on ‘Self Portrait’ , we developed quite a list of tunes to record. I December of 2002, me and the Magnetic Band + Addie went down to record a cd’s worth of cover tunes. We got drunk, music was played, meatballs were puked and a great time was had. The final ‘self portrait’ cd was available for download on the www.canardband.com site for a long time and is no longer available, but you can read about it here. As a blast from the past Brent has forwarded an original mix of our Bob Dylan cover “Tight Connection to My Heart” which was an odd choice to do. I always liked that song although ‘Empire Burlesque’ is a little overproduced. Ever wonder what it would sound like with a robot singing? Ladies and Gents I give you “Tight Connection to My Heart(soulful robot mix)” . By the way it’s Brent on drums, vocals, Marc on bass, keyboards,vocals and me on guitars, vocals.

Here’s some disturbing music(?) by two early incarnations of the Singing Spoons. Most people remember us as a loud Crazy Horse/Husker Du type of band, but before that we were far more into noise and abstract stuff. This happened because none of us were very accomplished as musicians at all and partially because of hormones and high school insanity. First up is a cut from the second line-up of the Spoons which features me, Chris Gissendanner and Pat Barousse. The song “Vindicate My Scalp” is from our tape ‘Dyslexic Community’. This dates back to 1985. The lo-fi quality is due to being recorded on a radio shack mixer and cassette deck. Hi hat, Zither, Suitcase organ. In light of Pat’s recent birthday, I thought I would post one of his classics! Second up is a song by the Spoons after Pat had left to play with Insect Fear and before John Hintz joined the band. It was recorded in my bedroom at my parent’s house in 1986. I can only imagine what my parents thought when they heard the lilting strains of “Take the Bus You Hag” wafting down the staircase. This was recorded on a 4 track and features a trombone, a laughing idiot teenager and a cymbal playing monkey toy. Up for number 3 is an outtake from the ill fated 1993 Ultraboy opus ‘Jelvis’. This was a 10″ mini album that featured psycho jams and some great songs poorly recorded and even more poorly mastered. It is the first stuff ever recorded by me on 8 track. “Mr. Mosrite” never made it but I kind of like its weird wackiness as a sort of messed up surf song. Recorded in our practice space near FAMU on the shittiest of mixers. Kelly Shane, Chris Gissendanner and me.

I uncovered some photos the other day that were pretty funny. I have thought about putting this kind of stuff on here with some anectdotes about them to kind of make this site a little more entertaining or entertaining to me at least! Anyway first up is a photo from Scott Tennyson’s from about 1984. We used to go there every chance we could and make horrible sounds on all of their equipment. The Tennyson’s were very supportive people and helped us out a lot, but later on I think the heart went out of that place a little. They had great cheap gear for up and comers like us. I took this photo of these three buddies. From left to right: Erik Lazier, John Barlow , My brother Jason.Second is a photo from the first Newsboy Legion gig ever. It features Kenny Howes in a lavender dress, Kelly Shane in Bea Arthur’s blouse and make-up and me as the drowned riverboat captain.

And lastly I’m not sure what this is, but I ate it on the way to see Teenage Fanclub and the Afghan Whigs in 1994 with Errol Kolosine, Chris White and Luis Arias. We went bowling with Teenage Fanclub before the gig.

My friend Jason was challenged by our buddy Richard to record a cover of “Gimme Three Steps” by Skynyrd. He enlisted my help and we knocked it out yesterday at the stu-stu-studio. We had a great time doing it. Don’t be skeeeerrrrred and check it out. I’m sure a remix will be forthcoming.