The Basement Rug

The Bureaucrats are:

Vocals: Gary (Gaz) Sidwell
Rhythm Guitar & Vocals: Mitch Sidwell
Lead Guitar & & Vocals: Joe Frey
Bass: Grant Bucosky
Drums: Wayne Johnson

The following info is a loose re-write of the liner notes to this 1999 compilation CD. I found them at the SonOfSpam blog:

Ottawa’s Bureaucrats were formed in the summer of 1978. During that time, there was very little happening on the Canadian music scene. Bands that wrote and performed their own material couldn’t get gigs in local clubs. Club owners systematically selected “cover” bands to fulfill their club’s musical needs. Record companies didn’t believe original Canadian bands had anything to offer. In fact, they’d rarely venture outside New York to check out new talent.

Eventually, Toronto was seen as a stepping stone to NYC. But even that didn’t occur until well into the 1980’s. But Ottawa…? With apologies to residents in the Nation’s Capital, the city is still seen as a bit of a cultural joke.

But the Bureaucrats helped change things in the Canadian capital’s club scene. Their growing appeal ultimately led to almost all clubs opening their doors to the band — and eventually, to the just then emerging “new music scene”.

Over the course of those early years, The Bureaucrats had been busy writing and recording original songs. In total, the band had written about 20-30 of them. Unfortunately, only half of those songs got recorded.

However, they did release a number of singles in 1979, along with a 12? EP in 1980. The singles veered from snotty, fuzz driven punk rock, to slightly more polished power pop, to neo-reggae (however you might define it). Their 12? EP expands on the power pop sound.

In 1999, Drummer Wayne Johnston and Rhythm Guitarist Mitch Sidwell released a compilation CD titled “roi” (sic) . That’s pronounced “Roy” as in Rogers, not “Rwa” as in Patrick or a French king. It stands for “Return On Investment”.

Interesting Sidenote 1: The Brothers Sidwell (Gaz & Mitch) hailed from Leicester, UK (hence the accent). Their family emigrated to Canada during the so-called British “Nanny Boom” in Ottawa.

Interesting Sidenote 2: Everyone in the Sidwell family (including sister and parents) all have entirely different accents.

What are they doing now?

Well, Joe is a Chef. Mitch is a Draftsman (or “Draughtsman” for you Brits) . Grant works as a General Contractor, and Gaz is a Printer.

And Wayne? Oh, he’s now Chief of Operations for International Trade at Statistics Canada — a government agency. So yes: he is a bureaucrat.

Track Listing:

1) Grown up Age
2) The Game
3) Bureaucracy
4) Today & Everyday
5) Frustration
6) Girl of your Dreams
7) Now and Then
8) She’s an American
9) Feel the Pain
10) A Question of Sport *
11) Passion Bastards *
12) You Never Wanted Me *

* Recorded live at Barrymore’s (Ottawa) - February 1980

One of these things is not like the other things. That’s one way of describing this 2003 sampler from Toronto’s tiny Lifestyle label. It has folk, bluegrass, first nations, and a dash o’hardcore. I will let you decide which one is not like the others. I was hoping to have a detailed post of the various artists, but unfortunately the only info I could find was on Bloodwurm, from metallian.com:

Frontman Vince used to describe the band’s sound as ‘Southern Fried Devil Rock!’ He had replaced Chris Bailey in Infernal Majesty and sang on that band’s Creation Of Chaos demo. He had also laid down vocals for Infernal Majesty’s return album. His sessions were eventually erased when Bailey returned to front Infernal Majesty once again. Cold Dead Stare was an EP on Lifestyle Productions and was limited to 100 copies. It was followed by a red vinyl 7″ in 1998. The band hailed from Toronto and was compared to Gwar and Motorhead. Things came to an end when Vince died of a heroine overdose on October 13, 2001 during a Toronto radio interview. Vince was previously once incarcerated for alleged vampire activity and sucking blood from human volunteers and again later for assault charges.

The signed CD insert says it all for me: “Be Dangerous, it’s careful out there!” That’s some pretty quaint sarcasm coming from someone who died from an overdose of smack.

I don’t know about the “Southern Fried” business, but the near-perfect ghoul vocals place Bloodwurm firmly in the devil rock category. You can check out more on Bloodwurm by visiting CBC Radio-3 and/or you can watch | download their “Pit” video.

As for the others:

If J. Rowley really had the girlfriend he described in his song, then he should have left the studio and made a run for it. Brady Jenkins goo will stick to your ribs, and then dance sadistically on your chest, thanks to one of the worst mixing/mastering jobs I’ve ever heard. Note to Jenkins: Next time don’t let your bass player near the mixing console.

Lastly we have Brad English and Red Wind, who performed the most interesting track on the EP. The little time I spend listening to radio is increasingly reserved (pun intended) for aboriginal music. The new music coming out of Canada’s first nations is some of the most creative work around.

Tune in daily to Canada’s Aboriginal Voices Radio Network:

• Vancouver 106.3 FM
• Calgary 88.1 FM
• Edmonton 89.3 FM
• Kitchener 102.5 FM
• Toronto 106.5 FM
• Ottawa 95.7 FM
• Montreal 106.7 FM

Track List:

1) J. Rowley - She’s Crazy and She’s Trying to Kill Me (folk, 2001)
2) Brady Jenkins - A Little Bit O’The Goo (bluegrass, 1995)
3) Greg English and Red Wind - Turtle Bay (first nations, 2003)
4) Bloodwurm - Erase the Past (hardcore punk/metal, 2003)

Download the sampler

I am not sure if they are still operating, but you might be able to reach Lifestyle Records in Toronto at lifestylerecords@yahoo.com or by phone at 1-416-763-8515.

I know it is extremely cliche, but I have but three words for you: buy this album. This is Rage Against the Machine with a sense of humour - in broken English. Tom Morrello introduced me to the Bordello via a request on the Strombo radio show a few weeks ago. The downloads are not from the “Gypsy Punks” release, but hey, they are free! Rather than write my own intro, I will let the band tell you about themselves in their own words:

Starting as a simple Ukranian rural punk cabaret act, they were known as the Bela Bartoks. Reverse-striptease, express-pizdetz and transilvansku gypsy-swing, the usual, you know… Taking mystical calls was their hit. Oh, many of them cruised around swampy desserts of Ukraine pissing locals the fuck off with their vulgar prophecies. And when asked, “Are you gypsies or just punks?” they’d say, “Kurav tumen, we are Gypsies and punks.” and then release their dancing bears.

Downloads:

Biography by Stacia Proefrock:

Combining elements of punk, gypsy music, and Brecht-ian cabaret, Gogol Bordello tells the story of New York’s immigrant diaspora through debauchery, humor, and surreal costumes. Leader and singer Eugene Hütz’s taste in music was spun out of black market tapes of the Birthday Party and Einstürzande Neubauten in his native Ukraine. After being evacuated to western Ukraine in 1986 following the Chernobyl disaster, Hütz became enamored of the mystical, outsider qualities of gypsy music. Living as a refugee in Poland, Hungary, Austria, and Italy before moving to the United States in 1993, he experienced life as an outsider himself. After arriving in New York, he teamed up with guitarist Vlad Solofar and squeezebox player Sasha Kazatchkoff. American Eliot Fergusen added a strong rock sound on the drums and the band was also augmented by Sergey Rjabtzev on fiddle, a former theater director from Moscow whose past experience would prove helpful in the future in crafting Gogol Bordello’s bizarre stage shows (like one that tells the story of super-powered immigrant Ukrainian vampires).

The group’s early gigs involved playing straight gypsy music at Russian weddings, but their music soon evolved into the hyper-kinetic explosions that earned them a solid following among New York’s downtown hipsters. The band issued a single in 1999 entitled When the Trickster Comes a-Pokin’, quickly followed by their debut full-length, Voi-La Intruder, which was produced by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds drummer Jim Sclavunos. Solofar and Kazatchkoff were replaced by accordionist Yuri Lemeshev, who hails from the Russian island of Sakhalin, and two Israelis, guitarist Oren Kaplan and saxophonist Ori Kaplan, who despite their similar names aren’t related. Hütz helped bolster the band’s popularity by becoming somewhat of a celebrity in the downtown scene, in part fueled by his Thursday night DJ gigs at Bulgarian club/restaurant/bar Mehanata, where he played Ukrainian, gypsy, rai, and flamenco music for a crowd of artists, models, Ukrainians, Russians, Gypsies, and Bulgarians with tendencies toward exuberant dancing and smashing plates.

In the spring of 2002, Gogol Bordello embarked on a European tour and performed as part of the Whitney Biennial, bringing their music to a whole new audience. Voi-La Intruder came out around that same time, followed that fall by another album, Multi Kontra Culti vs. Irony. The East Infection EP came out in March 2005 before Gogol Bordello made their SideOneDummy debut that August with the aptly titled Gypsy Punks. By this point, though the band’s cast no longer included Ori Kaplan, it did boast bassist Rea Mochiach and dancers/percussionists Pam Racine and Elizabeth Sun. Aside from leading the band, Hütz also lent his hand to acting when he was cast as Alex in 2005’s Everything Is Illuminated (based on the critically acclaimed book) after Gogol Bordello attracted the attention of the film’s producer. The band soon got to work on their next album, however, switching to bass player Tommy Gobena and utilizing the talents of producer Victor Van Vugt to help them craft their fourth full-length, the ever-inventive Super Taranta!

This is a great little indy punk/hardcore compilation out of London, Ontario, Canada (1996).

Tracks:

1) Life Long - AngerKain
2) Dig - Acid Mud Flower
3) Tears of Rage - Spitfunnel
4) Fight - Rellik
5) Surreal - Owen
6) Raw Assumption - Mr. Machete
7) Space Suit - Brownwater
8) The Program - Storm Without Cease
9) Goin’ to See Rollins - AngerKain
10) Beyond the Grave - Acid Mud Flower
11) Click - Spitfunnel
12) Mindlapse - Rellik
13) Small Town - Owen
14) American Cigarette - Mr. Machete
15) Manic Nerve Shot - Brownwater
16) Neutralize - Storm Without Cease