Alphabet Soup Week 40: The T Tracks

Canadian artists, a foundational part of my musical life in the mid-90s, dominated the rebuild of my CD collection and feature heavily this week.

Oct 06, 2024

Welcome to week 40 of Alphabet Soup, the weekly playlist series that covers tracks that appeared in my physical CD library prior to digitizing the music and donating/selling the collection in the early 2010s. When I first kicked off the series I mentioned that my readers could expect to see a fair bit of Canadian music, driven by the composition of my collection and how and when it was built.

As I've mentioned previously, I'm a recovering addict and alcoholic who got sober in 1994 while taking a year away from college in Halifax, Nova Scotia. By the time I reached my rock bottom in June of 1994, in addition to having sold my soul to addiction, I'd also sold just about everything I physically owned, including my music collection (for cents on the dollar) to feed my insatiable appetite. After getting sober I slowly began building a new music collection, one which would eventually grow to ~2,500 CDs at its height. After returning to Canada in September 1995 to resume my studies, I dove deeply into the Canadian music scene and began filling my CD shelves with multiple linear feet of CDs by Canadian artists.

While I've made no concerted effort to include Canadian music in my playlists, 62 tracks by Canadian artists have now appeared over the first forty weeks of 2024. That's just over 15% of the total track count, which feels about right to me in terms of the proportion of my CD collection represented by Canadian artists. This week’s installment includes five Canadian acts, only the second time that's happened all year.

Sadly, after graduating and leaving Canada in 1997, I slowly lost touch with Canadian music. As was the case then, I'm sure there continues to be plenty of fantastic Canadian music coming out all the time. If you have any favorites, particularly from the last 5-10 years, please let me know in the comments!

Why don't we jump into the music eh?!?

ALPHABET SOUP WEEK 40: The T Tracks

This week’s selections:

TRACK: "Two For The Show" from Hot Shots (1979)

ARTIST: Trooper

Trooper were a legendary Canadian rock band primarily active in the 1970s and perhaps best known for their songs Raise a Little Hell and We're Here For a Good Time (Not a Long Time). I'd never heard of them before attending university in Canada, but I managed to see them in concert at one of the diviest of dive bars in Halifax, The Misty Moon, in September 1992, becoming a fan in the process. Two For The Show was the title track from the band's second album, released in 1977, and also appeared on their greatest hits album Hot Shots which found its way to my CD library. Sadly their music isn't on Spotify, but YouTube is there to deliver the goods.

TRACK: "This Is The Day" from Apartment Life (1997)

ARTIST: Ivy

This is the third appearance for Ivy, and the second from their 1997 album Apartment Life. This Is The Day was the third single released from the album; it also featured in the 1998 comedy movie There's Something About Mary and appeared on the soundtrack. I've always been disappointed and a little surprised that this band never made it big. While it's nice to know of and be a fan of such lesser known gems such as Ivy, selfishly I'd generally prefer these bands to make it big(ger), stay together and release more music.

TRACK: "Twentyone" from Marry Me Jane (1996)

ARTIST: Marry Me Jane

Although Marry Me Jane officially released two albums, it's their self-titled 1996 debut that included songs from the film If Lucy Fell that brought them some small degree of acclaim. By all accounts, the track Twenty One did see some airplay in 1996 but not enough to generate any significant buzz. It's surprising to me that the band wasn't bigger as their music really captured the zeitgeist and many contemporary acts with a similar sound found success.

The band has no Wikipedia entry, their music isn't currently on Spotify, and there's not much information floating around about them on the interwebs. Apparently the band folded after their second album and lead singer Amanda Kravat (who also has no Wikipedia entry) has since released a couple solo albums.

As you make your way through this week’s playlist, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Do any of these tracks really stand out for you? What do you like? What don’t you like?

Please click the button below to leave a comment.

TRACK: "Try" from Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 (2001)

ARTIST: Blue Rodeo

The second of five Canadian artists in this week's installment arrives in the form of Blue Rodeo, who also appeared way back in week three with 5 Days In May from their 1993 album Five Days In July. Try was the second single from the band's debut album, 1987's Outskirts, and is considered one of their signature songs. It peaked at number 1 on Canada's country chart, number 3 on the Adult Contemporary Chart and number 6 on the Top Singles Chart. I only ever owned a handful of the band’s albums and this track comes from their 2001 compilation Greatest Hits Vol. 1, an absolutely fantastic album.

TRACK: "This Night Has Opened My Eyes" from Hatful Of Hollow (1984)

ARTIST: The Smiths

This Night Has Opened My Eyes was originally recorded for the Peel Sessions in September 1983 with the intention that the track would later be recorded as the B side to the Nowhere Fast single. That single never came to fruition and the Peel Sessions recording has become the definitive version of the track (although a bootleg version also exists). The track itself, which is one of my favorite Smiths songs, serves as an exploration of a potential outcome to Shelagh Delaney's play 'A Taste Of Honey' which ends without a satisfying denouement.

Morrisey has long been an admirer of Delaney’s work and credits her as an influence and a motivating force for his own writing. A photo of Delaney appears on the cover of Louder Than Bombs as well as the cover from the Girlfriend in a Coma single.

TRACK: "That I Would Be Good" from Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (1998)

ARTIST: Alanis Morissette

There are a handful of artists and albums that I vividly remember hearing for the first time. One of those is Alanis Morrissette's You Oughta Know from her debut album Jagged Little Pill. Although I'd been in Canada when she released two dance-pop albums under the moniker Alanis, I don't ever remember hearing them. But I remember being in a hotel room in Las Vegas in the summer of 1995 when that song came on MTV. I hadn't really been paying attention to what was on prior to that, but as soon as the song started I was like "what the fuck is that? who is this?" I stopped whatever it was I was doing and stood there watching the remainder of the video absolutely transfixed and blown away. Needless to say, I was a huge fan of that album.

Three years later, on November 1, 1998 I tuned in to Canadian music video channel MuchMusic's "Intimate and Interactive" concert series as Morrisette launched her sophomore album Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie. She performed six tracks from the new album, which would be released two days later. Once again, I was blown away. SFIJ would become my favorite Morrisette album and That I Would Be Good my favorite track. It's a 10/10 album for me and one I still go back to fairly regularly.

TRACK: "Tell On You" from Bif Naked (1995)

ARTIST: Bif Naked

Born in New Delhi, raised in Winnipeg, and now based in Toronto, Beth Nicole Torbert, better known as Bif Naked, has released six studio albums since 1994. Tell On You, the lead single from her self-titled debut, is a harrowing account of sexual assault and makes for a difficult listen. The final refrain "Please remember I know who you are / Someday I'll have the strength to tell / On you" is a haunting and heartbreaking closing to a powerful yet disturbing song.

TRACK: 'Tangerine" from Creature (1996)

ARTIST: Moist

Wrapping up the Canadian bands with a track from Moist's sophomore album Creature, released in 1996. Tangerine was the third single released from the album and the video won two MuchMusic video awards (Best Director and Best Video) in 1997. While not quite reaching the heights of their debut album Silver which was certified 4x platinum, Creature was still extremely popular and went on to attain triple platinum certification. As was the case with many Canadian bands after I finished university in the late 90s I completely lost touch why the band after 1999's Mercedes Five And Dime, which was their last platinum certified album. They've released two albums since then, in 2014 and 2022, but neither has seen the success of their output from the 90s.

TRACK: "Thrown Away" from Nude (2004)

ARTIST: VAST

I'm surprised that we've managed to get to the fortieth week of the year without an appearance by Visual Audio Sensory Theater, the project founded by singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jon Crosby. The "band" for lack of a better term, more popularly known as VAST, has released eight studio albums. I loved the 1998 self-titled debut which had a very heavy electro, rock and industrial feel. The follow up, 2000's Music For People, which I always felt was a tongue in cheek reference to what the label wanted relative to what Crosby wanted, failed to achieve much success and led to Crosby parting ways with Elektra. There are two versions of Thrown Away - this one from 2004's Nude and a remastered version from Turquoise & Crimson which was released on Crosby's own label in 2006. Although they're quite similar, I've always been partial to the earlier version as it's the first one I heard and came to love. We'll be hearing from Mr Crosby again later in the year with one of my favorite songs of all time.

TRACK: "This Corrosion" from Floodland (1987)

ARTIST: The Sisters of Mercy

For a short period in the mid to late 80s I was quite into goth rock (my "definition" of goth in this context is very tightly constrained) and while The Sisters of Mercy weren't necessarily favorites (The Mission and Killing Joke would top my list from that period), they still produced a couple of standout albums in First and Last and Always and Floodland. This Corrosion was the lead single from the sophomore album and would spend eight weeks on the UK Singles Chart peaking at number 7.

Walking The Kerry Way

A storm rolling in off the Atlantic yesterday prompted an Orange weather warning from the Met Éireann (Irish Weather Service). We made the tough but obvious choice to stay out of the hills, but were back out on the Kerry Way again today. Here are some of my favorite photos from the past week:

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Here’s the link to the running playlist which is updated on a weekly basis as each new installment is published:

ALPHABET SOUP RUNNING PLAYLIST

Tracks missing from the Spotify playlist:

Allegory by Murray Attaway (Week 02)
Face Me and Smile by The Lover Speaks (Week 12)
From Your Mouth by God Lives Underwater (Week 13)
This Can’t Go On! by The Lover Speaks (Week 23)
Two for the Show by Trooper (Week 40)
Twenty One by Marry Me Jane (Week 40)

Thank you for reading Joy in the Journey, I appreciate you being here! If there’s someone in your life you think may enjoy this post, feel free to share it.

Joy in the Journey