kitchener

#1136: Prophets of Disaster

RECORD STORE TALES #1136: Prophets of Disaster

A teaser for the 30th Anniversary story & video of my hiring at The Beat Goes On

From day one at the Record Store, there were always the doomsayers.  The people who expected us to go under any day now.  The prophets of disaster, who say the ship is lost.  It was almost like they wanted us to fail.

“How’s business?” people would ask.  My boss taught us to always answer this question simply.  “When people ask you how business is going, just answer ‘good’.  Don’t tell them you’re having a great day, or a slow day, or offer any details of any kind, OK?  Just say ‘business is good’.  That’s all.”  This was very shrewd.  If someone sniffed out that there was a lot of cash in the register, you could have just made your store a target for a break-in.  And, of course, you never wanted to give the impression that business was slow, even if the store was empty.  “Always look busy,” the boss told us.  “Don’t let the customers see you leaning and chatting behind the counter.  Always be filing, organising, cleaning.”

When I first started working alone in late 1994, at Stanley Park Mall, I encountered my first doomsayer.

“So, I heard you’re closing soon,” said the man as I rang in his cassette purchase.

I took a moment, and answered simple, “Not that I know of.”

“I heard this place is going to be a shoe store,” he responded.  I shook my head no.

Of course I told my boss about this encounter.  I didn’t think we were in danger, but I did think he should know what people were saying.

He shook his head.  “Mike, people have been saying that since the week I opened.  They said we wouldn’t last a month.  Then they said we wouldn’t last a year.  That was three years ago.  See, this is why I told you never to say anything other than ‘business is good’.”  Smart man.  The thing about it that bothered me is these people sometimes seemed to be taking pleasure in telling me we were going out of business.  Like, what did we ever do to you?  Lowball you on a CD you sold to us?  How about supporting your local business?

I bet those guys loved going to Future Shop to buy their music.  They always had plenty of Skynyrd, cheap.

It kept happening, when I moved to manage my own store in the Canadian Tire plaza in 1996.

“I hear you guys will be closing soon,” said one guy.

Deciding to play with him, I answered, “No, we close at 9:00.  Lotsa time.”

“No, I mean I hear you guys will be going out of business soon.”

“We just opened three months ago,” I answered, smiling politely.

“Lotsa luck,” said the guy as he left, buying nothing.

That store is still open today, in a new unit at the same plaza.

At one point, there was a rumour going around that one of the unpopular employee’s dads was going to buy us out.  A few people were spooked by that.  I considered for a moment, but told them, “I’ve seen the old beater that he drives.  He drives her to and from work.  He doesn’t look like he’s swimming in excess cash.”

This July will be 30 years since I started working at that store in Stanley Park Mall.  While we weren’t exactly winning the lottery at that location, we definitely did well enough for the owner to expand to the many locations he has today.  He could not have done that if the original store was not a success.  Thanks to a lot of hard work (including two years of dedication at that location from me), he thrived and grew.  No matter what the naysayers claimed they heard.

I really don’t get it.  We’re supposed to be supporting local.  Why did some people seem to want us to fail?  Did they find a cassette tape cheaper at Zellers?  Was it personal?  I’ll never know.

DRONES! I think I have a new hobby…

I probably won’t be posting every drone video I make here on WordPress, but this is the official announcement:  I have a new hobby!

Since this is primarily a music website, please enjoy the song “The Optimyst” by an awesome band, the Forrest Williams Democracy.  My #1 song of 2023.  The F.W.D. is one of my favourite new bands, featuring Matt DeMatteo and Scott Maybee on vocals.  Their music is perfect for a video like this!  You might remember Forrest as the original drummer of Big Wreck.

Forrest Williams in Big Wreck, far left

As you listen to the song, you’ll witness a test flight of my new Potensic Atom SE drone.  I took it 118.8 feet in the air on this test run, with a great view of Highway 8, from Hofstetter Park.  I even landed it on home plate of the baseball diamond!  This drone will get me some awesome cottage footage this summer.

Please enjoy!  “Like” and subscribe to my YouTube to see more, and to support the site.

#1113: Running Up That Hill

RECORD STORE TALES #1113: Running Up That Hill

By and large, 1998 was a pretty good year for me.  There was a lot going on musically with new albums by Iron Maiden and Van Halen (long awaited) coming out.  In January I moved in with T-Rev, into this little basement apartment.  It was a cool hang.  We both managed record stores, and the apartment was right near mine.   T-Rev had this “comfy couch” that was like kryptonite.  You couldn’t help but surrender to the comfy couch.  There were Christmas lights up all year round, and beaded entranceways.  Movie posters adorned virtually every wall.  He sought to make a place where gals and guys alike would want to come over and hang out.  We were both single.

I had my fully loaded Nintendo 64 and a handful of great games like Goldeneye and Top Gear Rally.  Our place was the place to be on a Friday night.  It was frustrating when T-Rev’s skills exceeded mine in both games, but that’s how it went down!  He was really, really good.  He was working at finishing both games, I was lucky to have made it as far as I did.  Friends of all kinds liked Nintendo 64 night on the comfy couch.  Trevor usually had beer and a bag of chips.

Some time in May that year was a typical gathering at the T-Rev residence.  The place was packed with people he worked with at the Waterloo Inn, including the woman that he would one day marry and is still his wife today!  There was a girl that I was interested in but didn’t return the sentiment, and another girl who had a thing for me but was unreciprocated.  I think the movie they chose to watch that night was Kama Sutra.  I wasn’t into it, and on that night I felt like a third wheel (or ninth wheel perhaps).

I was never very good at talking to girls and today I wonder if I have some kind of actual mental malfunction.  T-Rev would try to help me.  “Don’t quote movies man,” he advised me.  “Nobody gets it when you quote movies.”  I guess my hope was that one day, somebody would get it, and I’d meet a new soul mate.  However I tried to stick to Trevor’s advice and not quote Pulp Fiction lines at girls, hoping they too were fans of Samuel L. Jackson.

I seem to remember hurting my neck while washing my hair in the shower before the party, which was a common weakness of mine.  The girl that was interested in me gave me a neck rub, but it didn’t feel good at all.  I wasn’t able to relax.  I may have two separate parties mixed up here – Kama Sutra and hurting my neck might not have been the same night – but these are the memories coming back about that basement apartment.  One way or the other, at some time in the evening on May, I was feeling disconnected from everyone else.  It was one of those times where I felt alone in a crowded room.  I was lonely sitting there in that apartment with my thoughts, apart from the conversations surrounding me.  I wanted some fresh air, and maybe also some company.

“Anyone wanna go for a walk?  Anyone?  No?”

Everyone was content to stay in.  I put on my shoes and stepped out into the darkness of early evening.

We lived very close to Stanley Park Mall, which in turn is close to my old stomping grounds at St. Daniel School.  In the winter time, the large hill behind the school was popular for tobogganing.  In spring, I thought it might be a good place to catch a good view at the stars and surrounding city.  And so, I crossed River Road, and wandered through the mall parking lot.  Though it is all built over now, once upon a time just an empty field separated the mall parking lot and the hill.

The hill!  That green, steep hill!  Looking at it today, it seems so small but back then it seemed a mountain!  Perhaps the pitter-patter of children has been flattening it over the decades, but then it seemed as tall as the sky.  Located in Midland Park behind the school, it was home to so many childhood adventures.  Technically it was not on school property and sometimes the teachers would get fed up with the kids, and ban the hill from recess activities.  But what fun we had when it was allowed!  Running up that hill, running down, imagining if we caught enough air we could take off and fly!

What would I find on that hill on this night in 1998?  The view would be good at least, I was certain.  There it was in front of me, and so I took off running up just as I did as a little kid!  I may have been alone, but I smiled in glee as I flashed back to the golden carefree years.

Whew…running uphill wasn’t as easy at age 25 as it was at age 10!  But up I went, and upon reaching the summit in that pitch black, I leapt upwards and landed on the bald, grass-free patch at the very top.

“HEY!  WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?” came a startled voice from the darkness.

Apparently, I had interrupted a couple in the middle of coitus! Let’s just say they must have been having a bangin’ good time.

What could I do?  Without a word I just kept running down the opposite side!  As if to say “I meant to do that,” Pee-Wee Herman style, I just kept running.

I eventually made my way around the block, and back to the basement apartment.  That was enough walking for one night.  When I returned and told my story, everyone laughed and the general consensus was that I should have expected it!  I suppose they were right; that spot did have a reputation for make-out central for the teenagers in the early 80s.

That’s what I found when I went running up that hill.  The lesson learned:  never run uphill at night!

 

 

 

#1071: Hot Town, Summer in the City

RECORD STORE TALES #1071: Hot Town, Summer in the City

Setting:  The 1980s.  Southern Ontario.

Our summers always began with a week at the cottage.  For a kid, being out of touch with friends from home, not to mention the latest happenings in WWF wrestling and music videos, it was a challenge!  We took everything we had for granted back then, and what kid our age didn’t?   The cottage was not a place I looked forward to going.  I didn’t like the isolation.  Sometimes I wonder if I’d dislike cottage vacations today as much as I did then, if we didn’t have high-speed internet and all the entertainment and connection that it brings.  Literally the first thing I do when I arrive at the lake is connect to my family and friends and tell them we’ve arrived safely, often with a photo or video.  But back then….

For me, the summer excitement didn’t begin when we arrived at the lake.  It began when we got home from that first week’s vacation!  I’d race into the house and check my mail.  Would it be comic books straight from Marvel?  Or a cassette from Columbia House?  Mail was the most exciting thing about coming home, and it sucked when there was no mail!

Next up:  check the VCR.  Did the many hours of WWF wrestling that I had programmed record properly?  Usually not!  Programming a VCR was tricky back then, and you had to count on power failures resetting everything.  There were many times that I would come home to find no wrestling!  Other times, it would record like a charm.  If successful, the morning after returning home would be spent watching the wrestling I missed.

Speaking of the almighty VCR, the week spent at the lake would mean I missed at least two installments of the Pepsi Power Hour.  What videos and interviews did I miss?  I preferred not to think about it.  In the summers, there was a lot of metal that I missed.  I didn’t want to set the VCR to record whole shows – I was compiling music videos and interviews, ad-free.

After the July holiday, I’d come home with some new music purchased at the lake, and want to show my new albums to my best friend Bob.  In 1989, one that I was particularly enthused about was The Headless Children by W.A.S.P.  It took Bob some time to believe me when I said it was great.  Later that year, the ballad “Forever Free” convinced him.  Meanwhile, Bob would be filling me in on anything important happening in our neighborhood.  It wouldn’t be long before we were back at it, getting into mischief in the summer of the city.

Our interests changed as we got older and more independent.  Bob was driving by the summer of ’90 so we could go virtually anywhere we wanted to.  We made excursions downtown to buy music!  There we had Encore, Sam the Record Man and Dr. Disc all waiting for our dollars.  Today it’s just Encore, who have moved twice but is still alive!  The longest serving record store in Kitchener still lives today.  I can recall bringing home treasures such as Rocka Rolla by Judas Priest.  Vinyl, of course – cassettes were impossible to find of that oldie.  The idea was, if you went downtown, you wanted to score something that you couldn’t get at the mall.  It had to be something special.  A single, an import, a record you couldn’t buy on cassette in these parts.  The city had record stores, but so did the cottage.  What the cottage didn’t have was Sam’s, Encore, and Dr. Disc.  No access to music that was hard to find.  Coming home to the city meant buying rarities.

We rocked hard and we played hard.  Summer meant basketball, baseball, and tennis.  Usually with music blasting!  Sports weren’t my thing but they were a thing that we did.  Hours spent at the park.  In driveways.  In backyards, playing.  Or we’d be getting into trouble, exploring the nearby woods on our bikes.  We did a lot of exploring.  We came back scraped and bruised, and it was awesome.  Constantly exploring!

Occasionally we’d go to the waterpark at Pioneer Sports World, which no longer exists.  I can still smell the chlorine!  One thing about summer in the city, you can smell the chlorine from nearby pools.  Chlorine always smells like summer.  Of course, for non-chlorinated water fun, we set up sprinklers at home.  One summer, we built an obstacle course in the back yard with lawn chairs and sprinklers.  Only we understood the rules, but it was a race against the clock!  My new digital stopwatch was timekeeper.  Just couldn’t get it wet!

Sprinklers gave way to water balloons.  Bob and I would go to the store and buy a few bags of balloons.  We made such a mess!  Parents would be furious about the wasted water and rubber fragments all over the yard.  Those rubber bits always took a while to clean up.  Parents did not enjoy water balloon days at our house.

The next door neighbor George was always a misfit.  One day Bob and I decided to hurl water balloons at his bedroom window.  The barrage of water was never acknowledged, but I do recall Bob and I remarking how dirty his windows were!  The water revealed years of accumulated dirt on his screens.

Playing outdoors was the thing.  Parents didn’t want us in their personal spaces.  In the olden days, we would have played GI Joe or Lego in the yard.  Later on, we’d grab our guitars, amps, tape decks and power cords and record!  Whether on the front patio, or in the garage, we recorded a lot of garbage.  It didn’t matter how bad it was, just that the record button was on.  I have seven cassettes called “Mike and Bob…” littered with garbage we recorded!

Bob and I would raise hell for a month or so, but then it was time again.  My dad usually had two weeks of vacation booked for August which would be spent at the lake.  Sometimes he’d go home for a day and bring us our mail, but there was rarely anything good.  The two weeks of isolation in August was worse than July because the weather was wet and cold.  Worst of all, the TV would start showing “back to school” ads.  Now that was something in the city that we didn’t want to return to.  By the time we got home, kids were already sporting their new “back to school” haircuts, and had new shoes waiting for the coming year.  All we had left was Labour Day and then back to the daily fall grind!

Time changes everything.  Once Bob finished highschool, he was allowed to drive to the cottage.  No more friend-less holidays!  Then we got phones, cable TV, and VCRs.  (There are actually three VCRs in storage at the cottage right now!)  When these things changed, so did my attitude.  Now I’d rather be there, than anywhere else in the world!

I wonder if Bob’s up for a garage jam session this summer!

#1067: The Distance

A sequel to #322:  Highway to Hell

RECORD STORE TALES #1067: The Distance

Regardless of “improvements” on Highway 401 and King St. in Kitchener, commuting continues to be a highway to hell.

I was spoiled for many years with pretty easy commutes.  During my first two years (1994-1996) at the Beat Goes On in Stanley Park Mall, I was able to walk to work.  Talk about the dream situation!  Working at a music store, coming home with amazing used CDs every week, and only a 10 minute walk home!  No wonder I was so skinny.  However, working part time buying and selling used CDs wasn’t sustainable forever, and I sought advancement.

Though I was skipped over on the first managerial promotion, I was selected to run our new Fairway Road location in 1996.  This was especially exciting, because it was the biggest store yet.  I admit I let this go to my head.  I boasted a bit.  This new store had six listening stations for customers, each equipped with a five-disc CD changer.  Our store was to be 95% used CDs, with a small selection of charting new releases.  The only thing I didn’t like was the location.  Across from Fairview Mall, it was kind of…trashy, in terms of clientele.  There were jazz snobs and strippers in equal measure.  It was only a ten minute drive from home though.  Not bad, though I only walked to work once.

In 2004 I was transferred across town to Highland Road.  This is where I really learned to driving to work.  I experimented with different routes to and from, eventually coming up with an optimal way to, and another one from, work.  The accountant Jonathan lived near one of my routes and gave me tips.  I improved my musical arsenal by putting a Discman in the car.  The commute was now about 20 minutes each way, but unfortunately now I also to do pickups and drop-offs as part of the relocation.  My old location was the hub store, so I didn’t have to do a lot of pickups or deliveries.  This commute was more prone to disruption by construction, weather and accidents, but hey…I had a Discman in the car now.

I quit the hellhole in 2005, with my final day coming in January 2006.  I worked a number of jobs in 2006, before settling in at United Rentals, which I loved.  They had music piped in on the radio, which was my introduction to the great local rock station Dave FM.  Hard to believe that relationships I made there are almost two decades ago now.  That was life changing, but the commute was the thing.  10 minutes, with a Tim Horton’s right on the route, and all back roads too!  Never any traffic issues.  I had a new car too, with a factory CD player.  Another quantum leap for me!

United Rentals was probably my peak happiness for driving to and from work.  Now I work in Cambridge, and have done for the last 17 years.  My commute used to be 10-15 minutes.  Now, it’s pure agony.

Construction is perpetual.  Every way I go, I run into construction.  There was a brief four month reprieve, where one of my routes had no construction.  That oasis of good driving has now ended.  To get home from Cambridge, I need to not only cross over Highway 401, the busiest in Canada, but also the Grand River.  And guess what?  The Grand River bridge right around the corner from my place is now needing repair.  They’ve already blocked truck and bus traffic.  Next year, it’ll be out of service.  That means I’m going to be forced to take the 401 to and from work every day.  Which I already do anyway, now that construction has resumed on King St.!

Now, of course, I have my 2T hard drive in the car, so I can listen to literally everything I have ripped to PC.  That helps to alleviate the tension a little, but the drive home is still a nailbiter several times a week.

Still waiting on that flying car!


Video filmed by the Grand River bridge

Who do you think you are, Benjamin Franklin? (Sunday Chuckle)

Yesterday around noon, some tornado-force winds ripped through town with a healthy dose of rain.  All told, I read that 38 hydro poles went down along with numerous trees.  It took about seven hours to restore power to where I live.

Some areas still had electricity, so Jen and I went out looking for a place to get lunch.  Lots of intersections with no power to the lights.  We drove past a Tim Horton’s with no electricity.  The three employees were our in parking lot with brooms clearing debris, and had pylons blocking the drive-through.  Yet in our brief time driving past, three cars drove into the Horton’s looking for coffee.  As if Tim Horton’s have their own nuclear power generator in the basement, or like the customers could magically turn on the power for them.  The girls with the brooms just stared incredulously at the numbskulls who thought that this was the one business on the whole street with power!

#983: Gimme Another R!

RECORD STORE TALES #983: Gimme Another R!

A sequel to Record Store Tales Part 2:  Gimme An R!

There’s a certain amount of pride that one takes in being a Helix fan.  Helix the band are almost as old as I am!  They formed in 1974 and put out their first independent album Breaking Loose in 1979.  And what a debut it was!  With a handful of road-tested songs, the band plied the waters of guitar rock, with a foot in sci-fi prog and another in boogie-woogie.  Just check out their first minor hit “Billy Oxygen” if you don’t believe me.  They’ve been releasing music steadily ever since, with Capitol Records and others, with only a minor five year gap between It’s a Business Doing Pleasure (1993) and half-ALIVE (1998).

In 2022, Helix are back with a new single called “Not My Circus, Not My Clowns”.  They’re getting ready to start gigging again after two years of Covid-induced hibernation.  The current lineup consists of founder Brian Vollmer, classic members Daryl Gray and Greg “Fritz” Hinz, and guitarists Chris Julke and Mark Chichkan.  Julke has already been in the band eight years, and Chichkan had countless gigs with Helix in the mid-90s.  These veterans absolutely know how to give ’em an R.  Then we have Sean Kelly helping out in the studio to boot, adding some nitro to the mix.  In other words:  Helix are still potent.

It’s fair to say we all miss Paul Hackman.  I never met Paul though I’ve met most of the others.  He sure was a talented writer, and many of his songs like “Heavy Metal Love” are beloved classics today.  Fritz Hinz has been through hell and back, making a stunning recovery after a coma-inducing fall from a roof.  In recent years we also lost original guitarist Ron Watson, keyboardist Don Simmons, and road warrior Brian Knight.  Brian Knight was a kid from our neighborhood, who went to do road work with Helix for many years.  We lost him in 2021.  Yet Helix keep on going, and going, and going.  Even former guitarist Brent “the Doctor” Doerner has a new album coming out called The Ashtray Sonatas.

Speaking of the good Doctor, I first befriended the guitarist in 2006 at a Helix gig.  I knew a guy named Shane Schedler, who was in his new solo band, and this led to an interview with Brent at his home.  It was the first of several visits.  A few months later, with a few gigs under his belt, Brent screened some live footage of the band and had some friends over to celebrate.  It was that night that I wrote up the official bios for his band.  I remember telling Brent I wanted to write the band member bios for his website and then running around the room getting quotes from all the members.  It was a lot of fun.  Definitely a personal highlight.

So for the first time since the first time, here are the Brent Doerner’s Decibel bios that I wrote.

Thanks to everyone who’s ever been in Helix for rocking us.

BRENT DOERNER’S DECIBEL

Band Bios and Fascinating Factoids

 

BRENT DOERNER (Lead Vocals, Lead & Rhythm Guitars)

“What’s right is what’s left after you’ve done everything else wrong.”

Not just every guitar slinger out there can claim to be a part of a Canadian rock institution.  Brent Doerner can:  He spent over 15 years in Helix playing guitar, writing, singing, blowing minds and winning fans the world over.  He has the battle scars and the gold records to prove it, but that’s not the end of the story.  A new chapter has just begun with Decibel, a new rock band of good-time tunes and unique lyrics that continues his legacy with pride and vision for the future.

CHICK (Rhythm Guitars)

“If you don’t have rhythm, stay at home.”

Ralph “Chick” Schumilas has been around the block once or thrice.  He has 40 years experience as a musician.   In the beginning, he was a drummer which gives him a rhythmic edge that’s tough to beat.  Formerly, he was the co-owner of  Buzz Marshall studios, and has played and written with such luminaries as Cheryl Lescom, Rob Juneau, and Keith Gallagher among others.  He brings his immense songwriting experience to Decibel’s solid live repertoire.

HILLS WALTER (Bass, Lead & Backing Vocals)

“I’m not working for road rash.”

Hilliard Walter’s résumé is impressive in its diversity and scope.  He’s been paying his dues in the clubs across Ontario for the better part of 30 years.  Rock, however, is only one part of Hills’ musical makeup:  He’s done punk, new wave, funk, soul, and every combination and isotope of those styles that is currently known to modern science.  He’s played with Soul Circus, Sthil, Dezmanhall, Ed Bertoli, and lots more.  He saw Helix make their big break and said, “I can do that too.”  Now, Decibel is the main focus of this talented bass player with the soulful voice.  When he sings, you listen.

SHANE SCHEDLER (Lead guitars, Lead & Backing Vocals)

“They tried to bury the double lead, but we’re going to rectify that.”

Shane’s history as a recording artist goes back to the mid-90’s when he was a member of the guitar-driven trio Martyrs of Melody.  With the Martyrs, he released two independent CDs and began honing his songwriting craft.  He’s been grinding his axe for “seven point something Olympic years” (you do the math).  He now writes, sings and plays for Decibel, a band that makes him beam with pride.  Shane is also proud that he hasn’t cut his hair since grade nine.

BRIAN DOERNER (Drums, Vocals)

“Some drummers think ‘time’ is a magazine, but they don’t have a subscription!”

Brent’s twin brother Brian Doerner is legend on the skins.  His discography reads like a “who’s-who” of rock:  Helix, Saga, Brian Vollmer, Ray Lyell, Refugee, Myles Hunter, and more.  He first picked up the sticks after seeing the Beatles on TV in ’65, and it’s been a love affair with music ever since.  A respected session man and teacher, Brian has inspired the others to new levels in their playing.  Now that the twins are back together, the chemistry onstage is infectious.