(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)
Artist: Inspiral Carpets Album Title: Revenge of the goldfish Year released: 1992 Year reissued: 2022 Details: 30th anniversary, Limited edition, transparent orange
The skinny: So here’s yet another album from the “man, I feel old” files. Inspiral Carpets’ third album, “Revenge of the goldfish”, was my true introduction to the Manchester-based, baggy quintet. I dubbed a copy of it to cassette after I borrowed the CD from my friend Andrew Rodriguez back in high school. I had recognized a song or two when I first listened to it and then, suddenly, I was hearing a handful of its songs all the time on Toronto’s alternative radio station, CFNY. To my young ears, Clint Boon’s crazy organ work, Craig Gill’s rapid fire drumming, and Tom Hingley’s pronounced and jaunty vocals were unlike anything else out there. For me, this album is a classic – so many great tunes! It’s a vinyl reissue I’d been waiting for for years and so when they announced this 30th anniversary (!) limited edition pressing in orange (of course), there was no way I was resisting. And I won’t lie, it’s hit my turntable more than a few times since it arrived earlier this year.
(I got the idea for this series while sifting through the ‘piles’ of digital photos on my laptop. It occurred to me to share some of these great pics from some of my favourite concert sets from time to time. Until I get around to the next one, I invite you to peruse my ever-growing list of concerts page.)
Crash Test Dummies live at Bluesfest 2022
Artist: Crash Test Dummies When: July 14th, 2022 Where: SiriusXM stage, Ottawa Bluesfest, Lebreton Flats Park Context: So I jumped back into live music with both feet over the last few weeks. It was my long-awaited return to Canada’s largest outdoor music festival, aka Ottawa Bluesfest. I had bought a full festival pass back in March 2020, just before everything went to hell, and when that year’s edition was cancelled, I just transferred my pass to the next. And then, the next – this year. I ended up attending five of the ten nights and saw plenty of great sets by acts as diverse as The New Pornographers, Lucy Dacus, Garbage, Run the Jewels, and Rage Against the Machine. But my favourite of all? A side stage headline set by Crash Test Dummies. It was partly nostalgia, I admit, but they really did put on an entertaining show. I had their debut album, “The ghosts that haunt me”, on cassette tape back in high school and I near wore it through with the amount of times I played it on my Walkman. And though it was good, I wasn’t as big a fan of their sophomore release, mostly because they were floating away from the folk-rock sound that I loved from the debut. So I never did see the group perform live. A wrong I definitely righted a week ago tonight. The set was heavy on that sophomore release, it was their biggest success, of course, but I was extremely happy to hear them pull out four tracks from that debut, including the cover song below and their big Canadian hit, “Superman’s song”. For many moments on that night, I was seventeen again and screaming along to lyrics I had never forgotten. Point of reference song: “Androgynous” (Replacements cover)
Three of the original dummies – Brad, Dan, EllenMitch Dorge on the drumsMarc Arnould, touring keyboardsEllen Reid and Dan RobertsStuart Cameron, touring guitaristEllen rocking the accordionBrad Roberts at the microphone
If you asked me today who is my favourite musical artist, I’d be hard-pressed to even narrow it down to a top 50. However, if you had asked me this same question back in high school and right up to my first couple years of university, I wouldn’t have even hesitated in responding that it was Stourbridge, England’s The Wonder Stuff.
I have written about them a number of times already on these pages, hitting lists on my favourite covers and favourites tunes of 1990 and 1991, and of course, their first three albums all placed in my top ten lists for 1988, 1989, and 1991. By the time their fourth long player hit the shelves in the fall of 1993, I was a full-on fanboy and was eagerly awaiting its release. I had already seen the Samuel Bayer* directed video for the advance single, “On the ropes”, and was thrilled by the rock energy and crisp production. It had seemed Miles Hunt and the boys were loosing themselves from the technicolour folk rock of their previous release and embracing a more rocking sound. Martin ‘Fiddly’ Bell still had his fingers all over the sound, of course, as is evidenced in this early single, in which his fiddles screamed and bounced and generally, kept the Stuffies just slightly apart from the American alt-rock that they appeared to be courting.
I was all in on The Wonder Stuff, though, and the changed sound on “Construction for the modern idiot” didn’t deter me in the least. I loved it from the first and I immediately studied it with the same fervency that I did their earlier work. Of course, a new album meant that the band might tour and going to concerts was a new favourite pastime for this young lad. When they were announced to play the tiny club RPM in Toronto in February 1994 for a mere $10, I jumped all over it.
Incidentally, one of the most memorable moments of the concert for me occurred just as the group was leaping into this very song. A few bars into the intro, the noise arrested and Miles roared into the microphone, “Gouge the ****-ers eyes out!” He was referring to a young fan that had leapt on to the front of the stage just long enough to leap off it again and into the outstretched hands of the audience. The whole band weren’t really fans of the act of stage diving. The frontman took the opportunity to take a swig from his magnum of red wind before continuing his tirade against the offender that had disappeared into the crowd. “The next person that tries that will have the rest of the crowd to deal with when we walk off the stage. They paid to see us, not your ass!” The band then started right back up and with no less energy, blowing the doors off the place.
There wasn’t one other attempt to dive off the stage that night and the band duly played a super long set, complete with three encores. I left the show a very happy fan and with a concert T-shirt much like the one Hunt sports in this video, a shirt that I wore for nearly a decade and only retired it when it was no longer wearable. I was proud idiot.
Good times.
*Famous for directing the iconic video for a certain Seattle grunge act’s breakthrough hit.
For the rest of the Best tunes of 1993 list, click here.
My (life in) music lists 