One of the reasons I try and keep this site afloat every week is that you never know who is watching, and who is going to pop up. My site in this format has been around 1.5 years now, and has a Google PR of 5/10 which is above average. So I get a lot of search engine traffic for a lot of the strange topics I’ve covered. Once in a while, I get a cool comment or email from someone who stumbled into this shit show by accident. Yesterday, however, I got the best email yet.

Drew Arnott fronted a Canadian synth band called Strange Advance in the eighties, and I featured their song “We Run” as one of my top 10 favorites from that decade – in an article that still pulls a lot of natural search engine traffic, and is one of my favorites. Here is what I wrote about the song that I chose as #4 back in October 2004:

Bryan Adams wasn’t the only Canuck rocking out hardcore in the eighties. Darryl Kromm sounds almost as if he’s fighting back vomit during the entire song, but I like the 2nd synthesizer that comes in mid way, and the eerie high-pitched “hayaaa hayaaa” vocals that get layered in at the end. I don’t know much about this band, and I don’t think anyone does, but I love this song. And Bryan Adams.

Drew actually emailed me yesterday to correct one of my ‘facts’:

On the one hand, I’m glad you liked ‘We Run’. On the other hand, I’m not sure I feel good about setting the record straight. In fact it was I who sounded like being on the verge of vomiting. Darryl is a much better singer and knows the value of Gravol. I was down at Bryan Adams studio the other day. He’s rarely in town, but if I see him I’ll pass on your kind words.

Will Bryan Adams become a Pye In The Face fan? Absolutely not. But this is still a very cool development, and I am glad that Drew reached out. He wrote me again this morning after I inquired about what he’d been up to, and how happy I was that new Canadian bands are making a dent in the American market (Sloan is opening for the Stones, for example):

Well, we’re not up to much. Had a couple of offers to tour but Darryl isn’t into it. I have a studio and I write and produce local artists. This year I’ve gotta get off my ass and actually put something out! Someone offered me a deal and I guess I’d better do something about it. Thanks again for the kind words re: We Run. One of my favourite things about it is the strings. Michael Kamen (Pink Floyd etc) played them. He actually brought in a string section but when we got back to Canada, I preferred the rough tracks he laid down on the Fairlight. Nice to see so many great Canadian bands happening out there. A while ago, I saw Stars, Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene all in one month. Pretty hot.

So it looks like Drew may be on the verge of a comeback. Strange Advance won’t be touring any time soon, but it’s still nice to know they’re out there. Somewhere. Still strange and still advancing. I have added the song to Radio Pye and you can hear this classic for yourself by clicking the ZAP button on the left.

“Behind the Roses and Mondays, Inspiral Carpets were always imagined as the third of a triumvirate…”

So maybe I’m feeling a little Manchester tonight, again. Back in the early 90’s I didn’t really like this Carpets‘ song. I much preferred ‘Joe’ and ‘Commercial Rain‘ or anything off of ‘Revenge of the Goldfish’. But this is the only one of their songs that has really endured for me. Classic Manc from that period, with heavy multiple organs fluttering over a 3-part harmony (which I think is all the one singer, Tom Hingley). Drop an ‘E’, get in line at the Hacienda and click on Radio Pye.

‘This is How it Feels’ is “distinctive and specifically northern in flavor”. The Carpets early songs, all pretty much backed with organs, influenced The Charlatans and many other bands from the era – “it’s worth noting how ubiquitous Hammond-style keyboards became in British music over the next few years — most notably with Portishead and PJ Harvey.” I remember I had this song on a little tape I would listen to right after I’d gotten my driver’s license. As I clutched the wheel white-kuckled, I’d bop along and carefully try not to hit any Concordians.

“Hardly bandwagon jumpers, they were playing their psychedelic punk pop in the mid-eighties way before anyone was putting the ‘Mad’ into Manchester.”

Their popularity was helped along early on by a crappy T-Shirt that became all the rage in the English city. It was simply a cow’s head with “Moo! Cool As Fuck” emblazoned underneath. Incidentally, this was also the name of their greatest hits album that was released in 2003. The band flared up and died out very quickly, enjoying a lifespan of about 6 years and 4 albums, but they remain a fun timecapsule of the era. And thank goodness I wasn’t old enough to be able to afford bell-bottoms at the time.