Sweet. 10 songs originally mixed by Bob Rock in the late '80s, never released except for a 4 song cassette tape by Poisoned.

I gave it a quick listen. It's pretty good, and definitely an improvement on the John Cale-produced solo debut. But I still think the Achilles heel of Poisoned was those goddamned cheesy keyboards. Probably had something to do with the fact the keyboard player was cute AND the band's lawyer - but Bergmann should've shitcanned her from the word go. The songs are solid otherwise, and Bergmann's guitar is as raw as it should be.

[quote="Georgia Straight"]Art Bergmann revisits a chapter of his legendary Poisoned past

Today is not a good day for Art Bergmann. His hearing, damaged by a lifetime of standing in front of cranked amps, is acting up, and he's having a hard time making sense of my questions. I'm in trouble, too: the near-legendary singer-guitarist has somehow gotten hold of a defective phone, and he sounds like a chorus of cartoon chipmunks. After a few shouted queries and indecipherable answers, our interview is rapidly sliding sideways—until Ray Fulber rides to the rescue.

Bergmann's staying at his long-time friend and bassist's Sunshine Coast recording studio, where he, Fulber, keyboardist Susanne Richter, and drummer Taylor Nelson Little are rehearsing for the much-anticipated reunion of their band Poisoned. The occasion is the release of Lost Art, a collection of unissued recordings that Bergmann and his quartet made in 1986. Notable both for the ferocity of the songwriting and the presence of superstar knob-twiddlers Bob Rock and Mike Fraser, the sessions are further evidence that Bergmann's more like the rock god who never was than a has-been on the comeback trail.

Bergmann's lyrics are rich in deception and betrayal; songs like “Junkie Don't Careâ€

You had me at "murder-suicide".


More proof that Cale should've stopped producing after "Horses".

"now resides on a farm outside of Calgary..."

I'm dispatched and will report shortly.

I actually bought all his albums on iTunes. I wish they'd put them all up there.

Are the songs better than "our little secret?" I listened to that one on the blog and it was pretty bad.

Uh, listen to the other songs posted on that blog. "Our Little Secret" is one of the songs massacred by John Cale. If you don't like "Bound for Vegas" and "Yeh, I Guess" go no further.

"Yeah, I guess" is pretty great. Cale really did butcher that shit.

I saw they had this on zunior.com but I think I'm going to buy the disc.

I wish I had heard about the reunion earlier (It was Thursday). I would have gone for sure.

I still haven't heard Lost Art Bergmann, I need to prioritize. This is from an Exclaim! interview. Probably the most depressing and horrifying point here is that he opened for the Great Lake Swimmers. Life just isn't fair sometimes.

================================

Art Bergmann
By Jason Schneider

The Canadian music scene needs Art Bergmann now more than ever. Although he established his snarling reputation during the first wave of Vancouver punk, Bergmann hit his songwriting stride during the late '80s and early '90s with a string of albums that somehow managed to channel Lou Reed, Paul Westerberg and Keith Richards all at once. With an unflinching eye he tackled subjects such as incest, domestic violence, addiction, AIDS, and just plain selling out, leaving a trail of destruction – in nearly every respect – in his wake. Now, despite serious arthritis curtailing his musical pursuits in recent years, many of Bergmann’s best songs are available again, this time as they were intended to be heard, on the new release, Lost Art Bergmann. It’s a compilation of sessions recorded by his band Poisoned in 1986, just prior to his first solo album, Crawl With Me. Bergmann was never happy with producer John Cale’s work on the latter, making Lost Art Bergmann (originally mixed by Bob Rock) as close to a definitive representation of his vision at the time as can be presented. Bergmann was indeed as unrepentant as ever when discussing this and other topics from his home in Calgary, hot off the heels of his first live performances in half a decade.

I was really excited to listen to this new record.

Good. Does it sound like the '80s to you?

Yeah, in the best possible way.
Well, that’s Bob Rock, pre-Aerosmith.

Before we talk about that, I wanted to ask how your set went opening for Great Lake Swimmers in Toronto?
Fantastic. Apparently, Tony Dekker specifically requested me because he’d stumbled upon Design Flaw, my acoustic CD I did with Chris Spedding. It’s never happened before that someone’s called and asked me to play, and I was kind of thrilled by that. I hadn’t played in five years, except for the release party in Vancouver for this new album, and that was a drag for me actually. But for this show I played guitar and had some good rehearsals with Chris Wardman and Jason Sniderman. We did a lot of mid-tempo, Tom Petty kind of numbers.

Really?
I’m joking.

So whose idea was it to put these Poisoned sessions out?
Well, all of us. It was always a case of woulda-coulda-shoulda. That was just a demo and it was better than the John Cale record, I think. It should have come out indie, instead of me getting management and a shitty Canadian record deal. Because of that, it never went anywhere.

Things were completely different back then though, wouldn’t you say?
Wasn’t that the route everyone assumed you had to take? Yeah, apparently. Sam Feldman goes to the record company and says the usual thing, and I get 25 per cent and he gets 75. Fuck, you know? I guess I was pretty intimidated at the time and should have stood up for myself. But, you know what, I just finished watching The Future Is Unwritten, the Joe Strummer movie? Hearing him say, “We made every mistake you could makeâ€

That interview is pretty sad. I don't understand why they forced him to play solo when he didn't want to. Assholes.

Anyway, here's Lost Art Bergmann.

God bless, sir.

Yeah. I don't like the fact that Bergmann still ties his music to the likes of Fulber, Richter, and Wardman. Those dicks were the main reason a decade's worth of great rock 'n' roll got drowned in shitty '80s keyboards and production.

Thanks for the link, Donovan!


Herald Nix has recently put out a couple of very good albums. He seems to have managed to get better with age, as his voice has grown more resonant, which really adds depth to this kind of music. I wouldn't go so far as to call it GREAT - most of it harkens back to the Lee Fields discussion between the difference between mimicking and progressing a genre - but it's definitely solid stuff if you're a fan of the style.

MP3s can be heard here: http://www.northern-electric.ca/hn/#

Very different. It's really nice to hear these versions again, and on digital instead of an old cassette. There's still a lot of 80s damage, but overall this may be the closest document we'll ever hear to what it was like to see Art live back in the day.

For me, I'd totally forgotten how awesome the song "Black Heart" is. And this version of "My Empty House" slays. And the lyrics (and their delivery) always make me hit the repeat button.

"They said things would be all right
after a couple years of restraint
but the kids aren't getting any younger
and for me it's much too late.

I got married in a fever
I'd sooner kill you than leave ya
I'm thinking maybe that we should've moved
I'm staring at you across my living room

When things go wrong turn to the right,
when things get worse pick up a gun,
well, things for me just got weird,
I think I shot the wrong person

And I'm painting the whole house red."