| Calgary bands break up. All of them. Usually immediately after a recording. So nobody really questioned it when the Cripple Creek Fairies (CCF) had a CD-comic-book release-party-farewell show. However, CCF would like to state for the record that they haven't broken up at all. It was a simple miscommunication: "farewell" meant "for now," as they were about to embark on a short tour of Canada! Got it? They're still going strong. They will continue to play superb rock ’n’’ roll shows to support The Fist, their brand new full-length, accompanied by a comic book about the band, created by Tim Huesken (the guy who draws all of those fancy Broken City gig posters).
Cripple Creek Fairies: not broken up.
Out of the ashes of Parker’s Lime comes a new band called Five Star Affair. What do they sound like? I have no idea. They have a fancy-ass website and my computer machine isn’t hi-tech enough to handle it. However, I have it on good authority that they offer the same funky-chunky pop that Parker’s Lime was know for. If you want to check it out, go to www.fivestaraffair.ca. The law of averages states that this Five Star Affair are probably better than Parker’s Lime, so don't be afraid.
Parker’s Lime: broken up
Rumours are flying about Calgary’s favourite band (according to the Fast Forward readers’ poll), Mico. Drummer Troy Fleischhaker is moving to Scotland indefinitely, and singer-songwriter John Stewart is moving to Vancouver permanently. Is this the end of Mico? No. They are hitting the studio this month to record tracks for their new album and they plan to keep the Mico gravy-train rolling by having Stewart rack up his frequent-flyer points by returning to Calgary on a regular basis to rehearse. Filling in for Fleischhaker on drums for the recording will be his big brother Mark Fleischhaker (XL Birdsuit, Olé). Other unsubstantiated rumours? That Mico, Dudebuggy and Snake Cage are all the same band. OK, let's clear up the confusion right now: Mico are the clean-cut Calgary emo band. Dudebuggy are the Swedish-Viking transvestite metal band. Snake Cage are a Dudebuggy tribute band comprised of aliens from outer space. Now, the reason that all the bands look similar is that Dudebuggy and Mico are cousins and Snake Cage are shape-shifters who heard AM transmissions of Mico in space, but then met Dudebuggy upon first entering our atmosphere. They are clearly not the same people.
Mico: not broken up.
Dudebuggy: currently presumed to be having their minds probed in outer space by Snake Cage on the latter’s spacecraft: not broken up.
Snake Cage: not broken up.
Another source of local confusion is Lorrie Matheson. Before going solo, Matheson had a string of different bands with different names (National Dust, Yorkton Spokes) that all broke up so that Matheson could redefine his image. The confusing part? They all sound exactly the same. So I asked him,
"Why bother changing names and abandoning your manufactured product fanbase?" He replied that Yorkton Spokes were "rocky-ish," National Dust were "country-ish" and "Lorrie Matheson" (as his current project is called) is "poppy-ish." Well, Matheson just released a new CD A Dime at a Time, and guess what?
Lorrie Matheson: not broken up (yet). |
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