In This Issue:

• The Turrettes Want You To Eat It

• Bucket Truck Release Favour The Bull September 27th

• Forget What You Know, Here's The Trail Of Dead

• Arcade Fire and David Bowie To Perform @ Fashion Rocks

• D.O.A. Next Foo Fighters Single

• Lacking A Hip Song, But Not Hip News

• In Stores Next Week

• This Week's Releases Reviewed

• Upcoming Shows

The Turrettes Want You To Eat It

Last Friday (August 26th), The Turrettes held their CD Release Party at Brew Brothers here in Calgary to it's usual reception; a quick set containing your favourite Turrettes songs, a bunch of rowdy fans engaging in the most violent mosh-pits consisting of only about ten people, and of course, plenty of swearing. The show also featured Philly from The Dabblers filling in for bass duties, and in impressive fashion if I may say so.

The party was to launch their second CD, Each It And I (which if you sound it out, sounds much like an insult you'd rather not have hurled at you.) Accompanying the slanderously sounding title is an album cover of grotesque proportions. It takes a lot for this music lover to reel in disgust, but the cover is so terribly wrong, that I won't even describe it to you. All I can say is that guitarist Kevin has yet to show it to his parents, and there's a very good reason why.

The music itself is fantastic, containing your typical Turrettes fare; lyrics which are often nearly incomprehensible live and when they're not, they're hilarious (the lead track, Rambo Granny is a perfect example). This writer's favourite Turrettes song appears on the album, the very short, intense and quirky Stormin Norman The Mormon Doorman. Who wouldn't love that song, if just for the title?! It's not all jokes and crudeness with the Turrettes as the songs Dubya (about George Bush and only containing the lyrics "Here I sit my ass is flexin', Givin' birth to another Texan") and Low On Cash (about the loss of the inspirational Man In Black, Johnny Cash) also appear on the new album. Plus, for you Calgary Flames fans, you'll certainly enjoy The Red Mile, just in time for hockey season to return.

Ben's lyrics have always been mostly humourous in nature, and as I said before often incomprehensible live. Although the same holds partially true on Each It And I, fans can finally understand what's being said as the CD booklet contains the lyrics to all the songs. The album itself was recorded in similar fashion to their debut CD, Sindroam, complete with studio chatter from the band. The quality sounds like it has improved which makes for an enjoyable listen, and always a bonus when listening to an independently recorded and released disc.

The album features Lindon on drums for three songs while the rest were recorded by lead singer Ben's brother Dan. (Lindon has been sitting behind the kit for most, if not all of the band's live shows this year.) Also featured on the album are two songs (Halfpipe and Axe Gash) which guitarist Sean (aka, Taco) sings. Both these songs have been performed often live, and it's interesting to hear the more metal thank punk singing styles on CD, especially coming from the man behind all the swearing that makes me wonder if that's where the band's name came from.

Overall, the album doesn't disappoint as it sticks to the same formula in which their debut release and all their live shows are built on. There are no scheduled shows in the near future as the boys are looking at writing new material for the next album, but as Sean told me, they are always looking to play live. The CD is currently only available for purchase from the band at future shows, but it may arrive at Megatunes in the near future and I'll let you know if and when that happens.

Bucket Truck To Release Favour The Bull September 27th

The Newfoundland boys from Bucket Truck wanted to have the new album out in August, and although that hasn't happened, at least the release date for Favour The Bull has been firmed up for September 27th.

They do however have a new video out for Liberate The Fossils from their 2004 EP The Republic which has been added to Much Music rotation. They are asking fans to contact the music station and request "the balls out of da video", and you can catch it on this weekend's edition of MuchLOUD.

Their latest newsletter talks about their visit to Toronto (in which the were at edge102) where they met a number of old-time wrestling monsters, namely Bobby Heenan, Mene Gene Oakerlund and Rowdy Roddy Piper. Apparently, Piper told them about how he wrestled a de-clawed, de-fanged and drunk on Wild Turkey bear in Nova Scotia 30 years ago. Oh, and lest we forget the part about how his ass was covered in honey. Can any wrestling fans provide some insight as to whether or not this ridiculous story is true? Who knows...

The boys just completed a tour with The End and have two shows scheduled in St. John's tomorrow night. The first is an all ages show at 1800 hrs local time with Walter Schreifels, My Antonia and C'mon, while the second is 19+ only show at 2200 hrs also with Walter Schreifels and C'mon, as well as Jigger. Both shows are at Junctions.

www.buckettruckmusic.com
www.myspace.com/buckettruck

Forget What You Know, Here's The Trail Of Dead

You know, it's impossible for me to keep tabs on the countless number of bands that come and go and even those that have arrived and seem to be here to stay even though they fly under the radar. However, when I do discover a band the likes of And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, I just have to shake my head and ask, "Why hadn't I discovered these guys sooner?"

Well, I don't have an answer for you, but I will tell you this; If you're any fan of rock music, you absolutely need to do yourself justice and at least hear for yourself this band's incredible sounding January 2005 release, Worlds Apart. With that said, after downloading the album just last week and listening to it maybe three times in it's entirety, Trail Of Dead have certainly set themselves worlds apart from many other acts in my ears. So much so, that less than one week after "stealing" the album, I've already purchased it and am looking to pick up some of their older material.

Before I get into the album, let's talk about the band's extensive and intriguing name. The name comes from Mayan and Egyptian text. The story (of which you can read fully on the band's web site by clicking a graphic on the left side of the page titled "Why Is The Trail Of Dead?") goes that in 1860, a professor of linguistics from Harvard named Ethan Allan Vanderpool and a former army associate, Prescott Phillips Meyer made a trip to the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico to excavate pre-Hispanic step pyramids. Meyer had discovered several Mayan scrolls which he couldn't decode so he enlisted in the help of Vanderpool who was able to decipher among them a religious ceremony summoning the Mayan corn gods, Apuk which began: "Sever for us all ties between the now and what is to be. We will act as your sword, oh Great Itzamna And you will know us by the trail of dead." Meyer had previously held a theory that there was some correlation between Mayan religion and Babylonian mythos, but the discovery of this text provided a different link altogether; to that of Egyptian burial texts of the 13th century. The Book of the Dead papyrus contains the following passage, a spell for letting a soul rejoin its corpse: "O you who bring, you who run You who are in the booth of the Great God...If the bringing of my soul to me from anywhere is delayed You will find the Eye of Horus standing us thus against you And you will know it by a Trail of the Dead." Meyer never published Vanderpool's findings, and they weren't discovered after his death in 1890...that is until a University of Texas archaeology student discovered them in 1997. They are now part of the archive at the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Texas; the band's home town.

As far as the music goes, for days the only way I could describe it as was "epic rock"; a full sound that doesn't bore you as it changes, often more than a couple of times in each song.  It's definitely album oriented rock in which it's best served when listened from beginning to end.  The music often leaves you with a feeling that you've heard that sound before.  At points, you can almost hear a bit of a Beatles sound to it and, although it took myself and a loyal kMNR reader a while to figure out, more-so sounding like old David Bowie.  The lyrics are smart; not in the way that leaves you scratching your head in incomprehension, but in the way that makes you want to open up the CD booklet and see exactly what they're trying to get out.

I wish I could convey in more successful ways how excellent this album, and this band, are, but this is one of those instances where the best description is the music itself.  I highly recommend you check out their web site and MySpace site to hear for yourself.  There are a good deal of songs and videos to sample on one or the other so you can decide for yourself whether this band truly is as good as I think they are.

www.trailofdead.com
www.myspace.com/trailofdead

Arcade Fire To Team Up With HUGE Fan At Fashion Rocks Next Week

It was announced recently that Montreal's Arcade Fire were slated to play this year's Fashion Rocks concert on September 8th at Radio City Music Hall in New York. It was also rumoured that one of the band's big fans was going to join them for the performance. Now, when I say big, I not only mean this guy LOVES the band, but that he's something of a musical genius himself. You see, having David Bowie join one of his favourite new bands on stage is a big deal and now the rumour is truth.

Bowie has confirmed that he will have the Arcade Fire be his backing band for the song Five Years at the concert next week. In addition to that, the band will have Bowie join them for their performance of Wake Up. CBS and Global will be broadcasting the concert and fashion show next Friday, September 9th. Check local listings for times.

www.arcadefire.net

D.O.A. Next Foos Single

This will come as no surprise to most hardcore Foo Fighters fans, but the next single from In Your Honor will be D.O.A. The single will be released in the UK and on iTunes on September 5th, but the real treat is that the CD single will also include a cover of Cream's I Feel Free with Taylor Hawkins on vocals and a song titled Skin And Bones which was recorded backstage at this year's T-in-the-Park festival.

The video for D.O.A. can now be seen on MuchMusic.

www.foofighters.com

Lacking A Hip Song, But Not Hip News

The reasons why should be blatantly obvious to anyone who hasn't lived under a rock, but you may have noticed that The Tragically Hip's 1989 cult hit New Orleans Is Sinking has suddenly disappeared from radio-play all over the country.

In a story specifically pointing out two radio stations in Ottawa (CHEZ 106.1 and The Bear 106.9), the program directors of each station have pulled the song citing the sensitive nature of the deadly category four hurricane Katrina which ravaged the gulf coast and flooding 80% of the city of New Orleans. The situation there is dire at best, and playing the song simply seems to be inappropriate.

You should, however, see the song appear on The Hip's forth-coming CD/DVD box set Hipeponymous which is scheduled to hit stores on November 1st. The set includes a two CD set called Yer Favourites Greatest Hits, containing 34 tracks selected by over 150,000 fans online, a 48 page book of the band's history and of course photographs, the group's first ever DVD, That Night In Toronto of a 24 song concert at the Air Canada Centre from November 2004 and a bonus DVD containing all 23 music videos and 11 video vignettes.

The CD set will contain three new songs including No Threat which Rob Baker has deemed "the most rocking tune since Poets". The concert was filmed in high definition and mixed in 5.1 Surround Sound. The bonus DVD is exclusive to the set and also contains a bonus film by Christopher Mills titled Macroscopic.

If that isn't enough Hip news for you, the band is working at bringing back Another Roadside Attraction, an outdoor festival they took on the road for a number of summers in the '90s, for 2006 and they plan on recording the next album over this winter. Oh, and they're opening for the Rolling Stones this weekend in Moncton, NB.

www.thehip.com

In Stores Next Week

This segment has disappeared in the past couple of weeks for the simple facts that there hasn't been much of great interest released lately and more likely because my sources are lacking in providing details of up-coming releases. However, September 6th provides us with a number of relevant (and by relevant, I mean popular and corporate record company marketed) releases.

Let's start with a man who has released countless albums in many languages, can still reduce women to uncontrollable sexual desire to the point of having their panties thrown at him and spawned a son, Enrique, who enjoyed similar latin-esque musical success. That's right, I'm talking about Julio Iglesias. He's got not one, but two albums out next week; L'Homme Que Je Suis and En Francais.

For the rap lover in you, if you didn't get enough of 50 Cent's Massacre, he's re-releasing the widely successful album next week, this time including a deluxe DVD containing a video for every song on the CD. Pimps and Hos and bullet-holes, OH MY!

Next Tuesday brings us a pair of female pop-rock stars. Natalie Imbruglia returns with her first release since 2001's White Lilies Island. The album, Counting Down The Days, has actually been available overseas since April but finally hits Canadians stores next week. Canadian darling Sarah McLachlan returns to her popular remix foray with Bloom Remix Album containing ten tracks of songs old and new.

Canadian Idol's second season finalist Jacob Hoggard debuts his band Hedley September 6th with their self-titled album. The quartet starts a one-month-long Canadian tour in support of the new album today in Vancouver with stops in Toronto on September 8th and Calgary on September 30th, ending in Edmonton on October 1st.

Last, and certainly not least, we have A Bigger Bang from the Rolling Stones dropping next week. Really, what more can I say about a band who'll likely continue to tour even after they're wheel-chair bound?

This Week's Releases Reviewed

"It's fun to take a trip, put acid in your veins."

Looking for a quick fix? Don't have much time to investigate new material on your own? Are you just plain lazy and want someone else to guide you in your next music purchase? Why not look to the Chart Magazine staff, who like to tell you how it is when it comes to In the Heat of the Moment from Canada's C'mon, Our Lady Peace's sixth album Healthy In Paranoid Times, First Blush from Montreal's Tricky Woo or Manitoba's The Farrell Bros. with This Is A Riot and many more...

http://www.chartattack.com/damn/2005/08/3001.cfm

Upcoming Calgary Shows

~~ kMNR v2005.082 ~~

If you would like to hear about or if you have any information on a particular band or artist, please email and I will do my best to cover them.

• August 25, 2005 ~ kMNR v2005.034 ~ ""Vulcanize the whoopee stick, in the ham wallet""

• August 18, 2005 ~ kMNR v2005.033 ~ "If You Wanna Do It, Do It Right"

• August 11, 2005 ~ kMNR v2005.032 ~ "Made My Peace and Now I'm Through"

• August 04, 2005 ~ kMNR v2005.031 ~ "Make Us Proud, Cast The First Stone"

• July 28, 2005 ~ kMNR v2005.030 ~ "Show me the way to the next whiskey bar"