Skip to main content

April Wine - I Like To Rock

April Wine. There. I said it. Lately, when no one's looking (or listening) I like to take a quick swig of their intoxicating (or adrenalizing?) mid-70s Canadian adventure rock... especially when I'm washing dishes. It's my guilty pleasure. But it shouldn't be and I want to be upfront about this.

Recently I was reading some Chuck Kosterman. The way he framed things really struck a chord with me. "The term 'guilty pleasure' is simply ridiculous; there is simply no band or artist (or movie or hobby or…) that exists that one should feel guilty for liking; to say otherwise implies that a) allowing “insecure” people to dictate your likes and dislikes is alright and b) being involved with certain aspects of life is somehow unacceptable, based on an unreliable, and often times bizarre, scale that you are keen on following."

I first heard about April Wine while reading "Trouble Boys," the recent Replacements biography. Turns out Bob Stinson was a big fan of their guitar riffs and an early incarnation of the Mats even covered some April Wine. Of course, I'd always seen their records at the thrift store, but imagined they were a late 70s soft rock clone of Player or Ambrosia. The Replacements connection prompted me to explore their tunes. Listening to their classic albums (Nature of the Beast and Harder... Faster!) I drew immediate connections to some of my favorite 70s rock bands like Thin Lizzy and Sweet. Right across the Atlantic on the stormy shores of Nova Scotia, they weren't too far from their U.K. rock brethren. There's something totally unambiguous and unpretentious about April Wine's sound. But, at the same time they're not as simplistic and bland as Bad Company or Foreigner. April Wine is somewhere between Grand Funk Railroad and Rainbow.

"I Like To Rock," was filmed at the late, great Le Studio in Morin Heights, Quebec. Unfortunately, the studio was burned down last year. You might recognize it from Rush's Tom Sawyer video.


This live version features an extended drum solo!

Comments

Post a Comment

Trending Tracks

Joy Division - Ice Age

It's January 2nd. The temperature in Maine hovers between 10º and -10º F. We will be hit by a bombogenesis (weather bomb) on Thursday and Friday which will drop close to a foot of snow, followed by temperatures that could plunge 20 below. Meanwhile, the U.S. President has just responded to North Korea's most overt nuclear threat to date with a response akin to a mentally deranged joke -- the most unstatesmanlike exchange in U.S. history. Seems like the perfect moment to revisit  Joy Division's Ice Age : Ice Age was recorded in 1979, but unreleased until its appearance on the 1981 posthumous album, Still . The song is a great example of the bands early sound, driven by a frenzied post-punk beat and distorted guitars. Many listeners debate the meaning of Ice Age . Some argue that the song is a literal expression of Ian Curtis' Cold War anxiety. Others perceive it as a song about feeling disconnection (the disintegration of a relationship). It's not hard to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sweetbottom - Shrapnel In My Ankle

Sweetbottom -  Angels of the Deep . I can provide a totally valid explanation for the existence of this record in my collection. You see, I'd been eyeing this peculiar 12" at my favorite little hole-in-the-wall record shop for about a month. It was in the $5 box. After a few weeks it finally landed in the $1 bin. For the album artwork alone, I thought, this is worth a buck. Four late-70s dudes clad in white, cotton shirts and pants, hairy chests and... white shag carpet. Sweetbottom indeed. Adding to the allure, the notes revealed that the album had been recorded at the Shade Tree Resort Studio in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin between 1977-78. Could this be like the Great Lakes version of Yacht Rock? Could I be holding some long-forgotten, Midwest soft rock obscurity? I was tempted to cheat and pull out my cellphone to Google them, but then I paused. This is $1 we're talking about. Let's take the risk and live dangerously. As I approached the register, I noted that the ...
Post a Comment
Read more