It might be a little bit hard to believe now in 2013 – a decade after Broken Social Scene and the rest of the Arts & Crafts stable began making waves and winning fans – but there was a time when being a Canadian band, owning up to it and hoping to have a career outside the country's borders was a long shot. Outside of the “big heavies” (artists like Neil Young, Anne Murray, Leonard Cohen, Paul Anka and The Guess Who), being Canadian and making it in the music business was really, really hard; touring across the country was difficult given the distance involved and the reasonably spare population (it's hard to go from town to town when the drive to the the next one-horse town is six hours), getting on the radio as an untested band was no small feat (college radio hasn't always had the presence it does now, and CanCon rules can both help and hurt chances) and the truth is that even the national population hadn't been sold on the quality of its own talent, so trying to sell it internationally wouldn't have been easy. The competition got so stiff that many more desperate bands started trying to sound “American” in hopes of breaking through the back door (the first, most famous example would be The Guess Who, who actually chose their name as a ploy to get played on the radio; they put their name on a blank sleeve with no other information in hopes of letting the music speak for itself, and the first single was still “American Woman”) and were writing songs which sounded like “designer impostor” fare (see Gowan, Glass Tiger and so on). It was almost never an ideal situation and results were invariably mixed. The situation seemed pretty hopeless but, happily, all was not lost. The inroads that the punk and hardcore scenes had made both around the U.S. and Canada helped other bands too; bars opened their stages and college radio was opening its ears, so those bands who were willing to work hard enough at least had a fighting chance to get noticed and maybe foster a career.
This was the story that Have Not Been The Same (the novel) told in 2001 and it was great. In the case of the book, readers really got a feel for who the bands included were and what they hoped for; but the compilation “soundtrack” isn't quite so lucky.
In listening to this comp, it's important to recognize that this set is called a 'renaissance, not a Golden Age – that would come somewhere between 1993 and 1996 when bands including The Tragically Hip, The Headstones, Barenaked Ladies, Our Lady Peace, I Mother Earth, Moist, Thrush Hermit and Sloan to name only the largest names all just seemed to appeared and took turns taking the country by storm. This set captures the period immediately before the ground seemed to swell with talent, and the music is just okay; it's important, but not as groundbreaking as that which would follow it.
The fact that so much great music is absent from this set will certainly be hard for any long time rock historian to hear, but those who are just becoming acquainted with Canada's rich musical history will find plenty to marvel at on Have Not Been The Same. Here, the nervous indie rock energy and sparks of promise shine brightly through through tracks like Nomeansno's “Dad,” Change Of Heart's “Smile,” 13 Engines' “Bleached” and an early, pretty rough demo of “Lucky For Me,” but other cuts including The Dough Boys' “Long Haul,” Wake Up And Smell Cathy” by The Pursuit Of Happiness” and Jale's “Jesus Loves Me” are pretty far from any band's best, and aren't a glowing endorsement of the country's creative powers either. In effect, what listeners end up being subjected to is an earnest compilation of songs, but not a great one because there are just too many bands missing (and where the hell is Rough Trade in all of this?!) for anyone to call this set definitive of anything.
Artist:
www.slaightmusic.com/
Album:
Have Not Been The Same – The CanRock Renaissance 1985 – 1995 is out now. Buy it here on Amazon .
