[APRES SKI] Polka Express (Liesbrink's Party Mix)

‘Critic Critic’ was a pretty early on Rings song.  We’re thinking 1978/1979.  The only version of it that we remember recording in a studio environment was a live performance captured at Intermedia Studios on Newbury Street in Boston and broadcast live on WBCN.  YOU try singing this song at 9:00am on Sunday morning!  Definitely a reflection of the Punk / New Wave influence we fully embraced at the time.

A little trivia:  Intermedia Studios was eventually bought by the Cars and re-launched as Synchro Sound.

Crazy Parade

Critic Critic

CYNTHIA KAARTO Clarinet Polka

You just leased an apartment and have moved in the minimum stuff needed.   There's plenty of space still for a little dance.  

That is before you scrounge a couch, and a big chair, and a table, and an antique piano, and some bookshelves, and a large TV,  and extra sleeping bed for guests,  and a record player, and collections of vinyl records, and some nice potted plants, and some curios from your last vacation,  and extra sports equipment that doesn't fit in storage,  and your pile of magazines to be read, and some old leftover pizza boxes and some ....

Moving In Polka

Recorded by Ed Pigeon, a take one/one off of my arrangement of a polka that we identified as "Whistler's Polka" although it doesn't sound like any other renditions I've heard with the same title. That's why I renamed it "Mystery Whistler's Polka". If anyone knows and can provide backup for a more correct name for the tune please let me know.

Mystery Whistler's Polka

Locating Rollie is a project, a collection of songs that come from the eclectic musical minds of Bob Gifford and Mark Sutton.

Gifford and Sutton were integral parts of 3 bands that achieved various levels of notoriety in the Boston music scene back in the 80's - the Rings, Bamboo Gang, and the Wickermen - writing literally dozens of songs together during that time.

Some of those songs were recorded professionally, some of them were recorded in studio settings as demos, but most of them made their way out of the rehearsal room only as live recordings on audio cassette tapes.

Writing together came to an end in 1986.

In 2010 Mark reached out to Bob, suggesting that the two of them re-record some of the music they had recorded together in the past, but Bob had a better idea.  He proposed recording the songs that were never finished.

They are now doing both, and this renewed musical collaboration is called…

…Locating Rollie.

Closing the circle.

Critic Critic

Locating Rollie

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