by Low D Sat Apr 27, 2024 4:41 pm
The New Smooth and Different Sound
by The Chieftones
Released last year on vinyl, and also available as a digital release
https://thechieftones.bandcamp.com/albu ... nt-sound-2These fellas were the real deal, Indigenous youth from tiny communities in the far northwest of the continent, some still semi-nomadic, taken from their families and meeting in a residential school, forming an edgy garage band that toured the US for years, playing clubs & bars but also sharing the stage with big stars while wearing traditional clothes and speaking their own languages. 14 songs recorded in or about 1966 at Cuca Records' Sauk City, Wisconsin, recording mecca. I have to agree with the comment that they're more Buddy Holly than Link Wray, but there's some fine surf guitar and heavy, sometimes indigenous-inspired drums that make this of interest to garage music fans. When they nail it, they're amazing. "I shouldn't have Did What I Done", one of only two previously released songs from these sessions, is surely a lost classic of the genre.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtdZ3pT8-n0Of note, these are mostly originals, with most songs co-written by singers Vincent Clifford and Albert Canadien. They only made a handful of other, very obscure 7" releases, before Albert Canadien left in 1969, at which point the group went on to change it's name to Billy Thunderkloud And The Chieftones, adopt stage names, and arguably became a bit of schmaltzy act. I don't know what their live shows were like, but those later albums use session musicians and outside writers. Canadien went on, eventually, to become Director of Official Languages in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, and wrote a great book about his early life and experience in residential schools and with The Chieftones.
https://www.theytus.com/Contributors/C/Canadien-Albert
[img]https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71qiFHc5YFL._UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg[/img]
The New Smooth and Different Sound
by The Chieftones
Released last year on vinyl, and also available as a digital release
https://thechieftones.bandcamp.com/album/the-new-smooth-and-different-sound-2
These fellas were the real deal, Indigenous youth from tiny communities in the far northwest of the continent, some still semi-nomadic, taken from their families and meeting in a residential school, forming an edgy garage band that toured the US for years, playing clubs & bars but also sharing the stage with big stars while wearing traditional clothes and speaking their own languages. 14 songs recorded in or about 1966 at Cuca Records' Sauk City, Wisconsin, recording mecca. I have to agree with the comment that they're more Buddy Holly than Link Wray, but there's some fine surf guitar and heavy, sometimes indigenous-inspired drums that make this of interest to garage music fans. When they nail it, they're amazing. "I shouldn't have Did What I Done", one of only two previously released songs from these sessions, is surely a lost classic of the genre.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtdZ3pT8-n0
Of note, these are mostly originals, with most songs co-written by singers Vincent Clifford and Albert Canadien. They only made a handful of other, very obscure 7" releases, before Albert Canadien left in 1969, at which point the group went on to change it's name to Billy Thunderkloud And The Chieftones, adopt stage names, and arguably became a bit of schmaltzy act. I don't know what their live shows were like, but those later albums use session musicians and outside writers. Canadien went on, eventually, to become Director of Official Languages in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, and wrote a great book about his early life and experience in residential schools and with The Chieftones.
https://www.theytus.com/Contributors/C/Canadien-Albert