Tag Archives: Zellots

Girls with Guitars…

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…the emphasis on “girls.”

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Working on the Zellots record with Jason Flower of Supreme Echo I’ve had to consider time’s inexorable march, how it treads upon our minds and bodies until nothing of us remains. Also, the folly of youth, the hubris of youth. We were so cavalier about the demo tape we were making, about the band we’d created and the songs we’d composed, cavalier to the point of losing the master and most cassette copies. Oh, and breaking up. We didn’t-perhaps couldn’t-appreciate what we had. The late Peter Draper did a stellar job, recording we fools in the basement of our house/rehearsal space near the corner of 34th and Victoria. I can’t recall where or how he mixed it but lucky for us Peter was a very talented guy. Also fortunately, Jason Flower is a hardcore music nerd, driven in fact to seeking us out and resurrecting our group despite scant traces of its existence. I get the impression it’s like a treasure hunt for Jason. In that spirit and though likely a long shot, we’re going to try to track down a copy of the Lenore Herb video for the launch party. No date yet but the new master is currently in the Czech Republic being pressed. I’m as excited as a teenager about to play her first gig!

 

For zealous Zellots fans everywhere, the Zellots on vinyl at last!

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My dear friend, musician and musicologist Jason Flower of Supreme Echo Records in Victoria just announced that he is about to remaster the only known surviving Zellots recording, a cassette copy of a demo tape engineered and produced by the late Peter Draper, RIP. Jason and I spent nearly two years trying to track down the master, to no avail. I did a lot of sleuthing and may have pissed off some people but could not even unearth another cassette. There was talk of possibly using the audio off some of the video Lenore Herb shot back in the day-which I hear has been digitized-but it appears Jason is going with this tape which contains On The Dole, Let’s Play House and another track called Vampire Love. I think that’s what it’s called.  And there might be a fourth track, I’m not sure. Oh it was so long ago…In any case, I’m excited that the Zellots will finally be on vinyl! Details to come. Check out this “teaser clip/video” and the fabulous Supreme Echo merch at the website. Also, head over to the record store in Victoria when you’re in that neck of the woods. Jason knows his stuff! And this is all true:

extraordinary archives of forgotten scenes from lesser known places

the anthropology of counter-culture. extensively researched biographies. remastered audio. restored original-era imagery. hand assembled in small editions.

 

OPEN SOURCE EVERYTHING, EVEN PUNK ROCK

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Yeah, I know Open Source Everything is too radical for the masses and will never manifest in my lifetime but I feel its rumblings. I can imagine that some day we will open source food, water, shelter, electricity, transportation, education, art, music. Love. More than feeling, I’ve been riding the rumblings ever since I ran away to join the punk rock circus. Busy playing music, we didn’t talk politics all the time but knew we were teetering upon the precipice of revolution. It fueled us. Fed us. And now, is a quantum leap or perhaps even a new paradigm upon us at last? Did our caterwauling lead to anything?

As we lament the glacial pace of change, it seems we can’t keep up as it pertains to media. The subject of vinyl arose this past week.  People’s feelings about vinyl reveal their feelings about change. Adapt or die, right? But, resourceful to the bone, we find ways to make the old new again. I kept my turntable but moved around so much it was impossible to hold onto all my records. I still mourn the loss of some LPs like deceased friends. Apparently, there is a resurgence in vinyl. Check out the Vinyl Engine. Our friends, the scintillating Petunia & the Vipers just released an album and I hear that young people are only interested in vinyl these days. They may acquire mp3s but when it comes to buying, crave cover album artwork and liner notes. Just like we did!

And then there’s video, which has evolved to the point of digital. I don’t regret the demise of tape, revel in the mobility of the camera, to the point of one-in-every-cell phone, hence the rise of citizen journalism, Arab Springs, etc.

The subject of videotape and the schism between several old school punk rock camps roared to the fore recently when a Mongrelzine article quoted my Zellots band mate Christine deVeber as saying Continue reading →

Hangover City-Fractured Old School-Shmorgs guitarist Peter Draper

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The party’s over. Here we sit, post-Olympics, talk of legacy raging as the provincial government returns to the capital for further belt tightening, dickering with The Budget. It was a glorious party and I, to my surprise, swept up. Well, I had to watch the hockey, it’s in my DNA, being a Béliveau.  I do regret missing the revelry downtown after the Team Canada victory last night. It was an incredible game, with an astonishing sudden death goal by the Kid, Sidney Crosby, decidedly a once-in-a-lifetime event. No next time. Boo hoo. I once passed up a free ticket to see Nirvana, to attend the premiere of Tombstone. Gawd. How can I admit such a thing? My only excuse, I’m a serious film buff and by that point, had witnessed enough wasted, wailing rockers for two lifetimes.  “A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet.” – Orson Welles. Hmm, I can’t remember who directed Tombstone, and see, I’m not even going to bother to Google it, but he, or she, was no poet. Oh, I have another excuse for screwing up; I just remembered I was pregnant, hormone-addled. I mean, more than usual.

Some people are smugly saying things like oh where are those pesky protesters now? Well, when I was at W2 for the Real Vancouver Writers Series last week we walked by the Continue reading →

More snow, Shakespearan insults and day dreaming

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Woke up to snow. Again. Ugh. God, I long for California. Exactly what did the groundhog indicate on Saturday? Sun emerged around 1 pm so walked the dog and got a little Vitamin D. Had to go to the Cove to run errands and it was hairy getting out of the yard still socked in with snow but my trusty old Volvo hauled us out.

Found myself trying to explain Facebook to a friend in Barcelona which made me wonder about the state of social networking in Europe. Guess I’ll see for myself in the fall when the Aural Heather tour hits the continent. Came across the first Facebook app I’ve enjoyed in a while, the Shakespearean Insult Generator. I called Scott Beadle a “fobbing, shrill-gorged waterfly” and I’m a “craven, dizzy-eyed harpy” as far as he’s concerned. Much fun.

Spend a fair bit of time gazing out my window. Funny, I used to do the same thing while living in a funky old $400. a month house in East Vancouver. It was where Conny Nowe and I rehearsed with our band, the Zellots. My room had a view of the Lions. Now here I sit a hundred years later on the other side of the North Shore mountains, still an artist in pursuit of the muse.