Canard Music

Here’s another Ancient Brain track. “TV Doctor” was probably recorded in 1999 or 2000 and features one of the raunchiest bass sounds ever. Ancient Brain should have been a lot better live than it was. We had a couple of awesome gigs and a few mediocre ones. We formed right after Bacon Ray disbanded and I think Bruce and I were a little depleted. We practiced down in my studio and we couldn’t play as loud as we wanted which was also frustrating. We recorded an albums worth of stuff and most of it is great. It’s too bad we couldn’t stick it out. Anyway, more misanthropy from the Brain!

Ric Ocasek- the leader of the group. He’s a varied artist. Extremely creative!

Benjamin Orr- the sexy bass player . He’s dead now, but that don’t matter. The stage presence will be the same. Bland.

David Robinson- the drummer. His steady beats are the heart of the group. High in fiber, you always know what you’re getting.

Greg Hawkes- the nerdy keyboardist. He’ll do the robot, play sax as well. A multiple utility player.

Elliott Easton- his stringy leads are the things dreams are made of. Watch him rock out on a noodly solo. Wow! Hair helmet!

If you haven’t picked up their new album “Spaghetti-O” do so now!!!

Ya know I gotta tell ya that I’ve been finding lots of weird stuff. Not least of which is this track which I have no memory of recording, but obviously has Kelly Shane on drums and synth. “Satellite Jimmy(honky in space)” is a weird little tune where I seem to think singing in an English accent is a good idea. This must have been after ‘Ike’…who knows?

 I really don’t think that I could say enough great things about Marc and Brent and the time we spent together as a band. A lot of fun was had, but a lot of heartache too. I hurt myself pretty badly onstage in Atlanta in early 2004 and never quite recovered emotionally. We spent a lot of time getting our mojo back in the studio, but never played live again. I hope to rectify that in the future and really do it up nice. We suffered from a lot of insecurities about how old a person could be before they were ridiculous onstage. I think it really doesn’t matter and if we had felt that then maybe we would still be playing out. Anyway, I was listening to a lot of tapes and discs last night. If anybody isn’t moved by this     V-89 performance of “A Shovel” from 2003, well you don’t like Neil Young! But seriously I think this is a great, passionate performance. Marc goes off ya’ll!

Newsboy Legion was formed as a way for Kelly Shane and I to play material we had written for solo projects in a live setting. Eventually it took on a life of its own as a collaborative rock music project and then later as an electronic music outlet before changing its name to Electric Lawnchair. Now pretty much inactive, the band’s rock output resulted in several releases and a live lineup that originally featured Kelly, Bob Anthony, Kenny Howes and myself. After a few gigs, Brent McNeal replaced Kenny on bass. Bob stuck around for a while longer, but the group spent more time as a trio. This eventually culminated in the tragic 1998            “ri-goddamn-diculous” tour with  Invaders from a Forbidden Planet. This is a 9 minute bizarre live recording of the ditty “Don’t F**k with the Puppet” from the ‘Ike’ cd. It features improv, a messed up Led Zep cover and an acapella ending. Sound quality is a little rough as it is from the mixing board at the Cow Haus circ. 1999. Also be prepared for a rather large file. Enjoy.

There were plenty of retards in Publix tonight. Very frustrating, as I reached for the smoked gouda I was almost run over by one of these damn things . This only serves to make everybody even more miserable. It would be more interesting if Publix could use a belt drive people system like at the airport.I had an idea that I wanted to set up a store where everybody laid flat stomach down on an elevated conveyor belt and rode around the store grabbing stuff. What a lazy bastard I am. We’d be human mayo for sure.

Here’s a newer Canard solo cut called “The Natural” it’s a little rocker. I’m not sure what its about. I think it may be about being a slave to a job that you hate. We’re human beings man! We’re supposed to be free!

Oh and here’s a classic outtake from the Golden Master sessions. Well, actually at the time it was going to be called Medieval Thymes. This was finally fused together from all of its parts. I give thee “Bea(s)tmaster Carpet Cleaner” . A song that conveys some disappointment in ELP and a heartbroken love of alcohol. I’m on bass, Merlin on guitar, The Prince on guitar and the always on time Beard for his expressive drumming. Dated for its Coolio reference in the bizarre reggae breakdown in which the protagonist Shabba Ranks would like to visit the Shoney’s breakfast bar and slobber all over this. Feeling irie?

Also, did anybody ever remember what a jerk off Eric LaSalle was when he left ER? His career is blowin’ up. Here he is in a recent publicity shot.

If anybody has any old photos, news clippings, video or audio of Singing Spoons, Ultraboy, Bacon Ray, Ancient Brain,etc. Please let us know and we can post some of it.

For now we have a cut of two of Canard and the Magnetic Band’s last recordings. We spent a lot of time in the studio after I hurt my leg in Atlanta. We eventually kind of petered out, but I doubt you’ve heard the last of these guys.

Wigwam Hill

You don’t Believe

Marc, Brent and Mike

If you look to the left of this page you will see a link to another page called “Jacket City“. This was an acoustic cassette the Singing Spoons released in 1989. All the necessary and unnecessary photos and songs are available there on the Jacket City page. Please drink responsibly.

Here’s a couple of tracks from Bacon Ray. “Young and Evil” is from the first bacon ray cassette which featured the bass talents of Chris Gleaseman. He was and is a good egg and friend. We recorded the drums on 4 track, dumped it to 8 track reel to reel and then recorded Merlin’s guitar through the shittiest little Peavey we could find. It’s noisy,drunken fun. Next is a great live version of “War of the Gloved Ones” from a 1998 show opening for Will Oldham and Anomoanon complete with some classy banter. A belated thanks to Jack C. for hooking us up for that one. We all wore capes that night. Oh, and here’s what we looked like circa 1999 at Georgia Street,

Here we have 2 songs from Singing Spoons from a 1991 performance at Club 506. That place was fun to play but it always had plumbing issues. Anyway, this is probably one of our last shows and was dutifully recorded onto 8 track by Tommy Hamilton. Per John Hintz’s request I have included a rather cathartic version of “Hold Me Down” originally on the ‘Resin Cabin’ lp and from the same gig ” You’re Broken” which would have been on ‘American Buckle’ had we stayed together. All I remeber from the show was that we were bummed before we play and happy afterward. The power of rock! On another note, John Barlow found a few vintage photos and forwarded them to me. This photo of Chris is from a pre-gig booze session at Planet 10 in my Olds Custom Cruiser Wagon. The other one of me is most likely from Planet 10 in 1987 or ’88. I don’t remember who took this photo of us, but it was snapped on the roof top of “the window” on Gaines Street in Tallahassee in 1990. Finally, here is an old Singing Spoons flyer John Hintz and I made for a show at the Grand Finale. I was alaways made fun of due to my ridiculous flyers made with ball point pen!