Pointed Sticks - 1979 - Lies! 7'' (CAD)

Pointed Sticks - 1979 - Lies! 7'' (CAD)

download@rapidshare

download@multiupload

  

Pointed Sticks - 2006 - Waiting For The Real Thing (CAD)

Pointed Sticks - 2006 - Waiting For The Real Thing (CAD)

download

.

One of those bands that I had a very vague recollection of despite probably never having heard anything by them that I can recall until now, Pointed Sticks were one of the movers and shakers in the early Canadian punk scene, forming in 1978 and disbanding just three years later in 1981.

Canadian bands with few exceptions have the odds of achieving success overseas stacked against them and little has changed in the almost 30 years since the Pointed Sticks were in their heyday. For them that lucky break, despite a golden opportunity, would prove even more illusive than even they could have anticipated, of which more later.

Formed in the summer of 1978, when singer and principal songwriter Nick Jones returned to Vancouver from London, England that is rather than Ontario, where he’d been working in a record store, it’s clear that Jones had been paying attention to what had been going on around him.

Conjuring a winning formula of punk’s energy and no small amount of pop sensibility, the band churned out three cracking singles between 1978 and 1979. Sounding quintessentially English – the band even took their name from a Monty Python sketch! – the band should have gone down a storm in the UK. Stiff Records, one of the great record labels thought so as well, signing the band and releasing the Brinsley Schwartz-produced single ‘Out Of Luck’ backed with ‘What Do You Want Me To Do?’ and ‘Somebody’s Girl’ in 1979. Re-recordings of tracks featured on their first two Canadian singles, the original versions are included here, but whether the re-recordings captured the band’s energetic punk-pop hybrid as successfully as the originals had done, I don’t know. Had they done so, I’d have certainly bought a copy at the time, assuming I’d even known of its existence. Despite the lack of increased UK profile from the single, the hook-up with Stiff did succeed in gaining the band increased visibility and credibility nearer to home where they began to get regular shows and resulting acclaim from regular stints up and down the US West coast from where they ventured increasingly from their Vancouver base.

Stiff then invited the band to England to record their debut album which was when things began to go awry. Produced by Nigel Gray (The Police, Siouxsie And The Banshees), for reasons not entirely clear Stiff decided not to release the finished album, the band returning to Canada, very disappointed though not quite defeated, soon afterwards. Re-recording the album with producer Bob Rock upon their return, the band's debut album ‘Perfect Youth’ was finally released in Canada in 1981. Unfortunately though the band’s momentum, by now diminished on the international stage following the unsatisfactory conclusion to the Stiff deal, eventually saw the band stutter to a halt later that year.

‘Waiting For The Real Thing’ collates all six sides of their three original Canadian singles, a slew of compilation appearances, some unreleased material, including a number of tracks from the aborted Stiff album, and a live radio session from 1979.

Essential for the inclusion of the singles anyway, elsewhere though, perhaps lacking in fidelity at times, most noticeably on the radio session, this excellent set reveals a band fully deserving of their not even fifteen minutes in the spotlight and who deserved much more. For anyone enamoured of the punk/new wave scene of the late 1970’s, this retrospective reveals a band far too good to be forgotten.

.

source Penny Black Music (link)

Pointed Sticks, The - 1995 - Part Of The Noise (CAD)

Pointed Sticks, The - 1995 - Part Of The Noise (CAD)

download

.

Pointed Sticks were a Canadian punk rock/power pop band from Vancouver, first active from 1978 to 1981, and reunited to perform in 2006 and 2007.
They were the first Canadian band signed to Stiff Records, although the label was going through financial problems and never released an album by the band. The band consisted of vocalist Nick Jones, guitarist Bill Napier-Hemy, later keyboardist Gord Nicholl (from Active Dog), bassist Tony Bardach and drummer Ian Tiles. Johnny Ferreira later joined on saxophone, Bardach was replaced by Scott Watson on bass, and Tiles was replaced by drummer Robert Bruce (from Active Dog), and later by Ken "Dimwit" Montgomery. The band released four singles before releasing their only full-length album, Perfect Youth in 1980.
All of their recordings were re-released in 1995 on the compilation Part of the Noise. In 2005, Perfect Youth was reissued by Sudden Death Records, alongside a new compilation of singles, outtakes, and other rarities, entitled Waiting for the Real Thing. The original band members reunited in 2006 for a Japanese tour, and they have played reunion concerts in Canada and the United States in late 2006, early 2007 and have continued to perform and record through 2008.

.

source Wikipedia (link)