The New Originals
We're going to try and see how many tunes we can cram onto this playlist.
- Here is a test
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Crunchberry Collections
The guys are pretty happy with most of these releases. Some of them change over time, getting re-recorded or tweaked. Please enjoy as part of a delicious breakfast!
Rock and Roll Family
TRACKS (1) Rock and Roll Family (2) Hairband From Hollywood (3) Black Summer - This material is what we will consider the covid era Crunchberry. Rock and Roll Family is actually a recycled jmac riff from about 10 years ago, and it took that long to grow into itself. I Am Groot! The lyrics are pretty much the story of Crunchberry, from meeting through Robbo's cousin in the 80's while the lads were still in high school, to all the other shenanigans they've gotten up to since then. The last line in the bridge sums it up, considering PDK went in for heart surgery in December 2022. Did i divine the future? Spooky!
- The unmistakeable Robbo riffage continues with Hairband from Hollywood. Keen listeners will be able to determine that his tune 'Go to the Show' and this one are the same riff, just a different style. Magic! We also have a jmac tune, a bit of a 70's throwback, Black Summer. Coincidentally, RHCP's released a song late last year called black summer. I like this one better than theirs.
Covid Covers
TRACKS (1) Jane- Jefferson Starship (2) Fortunate Son - CCR - These songs were recorded live, in Franko's apartment Palais de PDK, with the occassional overdub thrown in, but mostly they were live, although maybe the CCR tune was recorded live at the Rehearsal Factory. Franko and Marcel have gone to extraordinary lengths to trick out his place for full recording capabilities, including video links and headphone monitoring, not to mention square drums. Square drums you say? I asked you not to mention them!
- If it's good enough for KISS, it's good enough for us. Close enough for Rock and Roll. Engineered by Marcel. Square drums provided by Yamaha. There is a copy of "I Can't Explain" floating around that were are trying to find and toss up here. It won't take too much of your time.. we are aiming for the world record fastest version of it.
Big Dumb Rock
TRACKS (1) Stripper Pole (2) The Front Row (3) Go to the show (4) Yesterday's news (Tiny Bongos) (5) Another Cigarette (6) Tongue Tied (7) Lurker - This pretty much sums up everything Crunchberry is about. Schooled on essentially big dumb rock music. The golden age of hair bands, the shredders, the dinosaur stomping of the 70's, the FM radio weekends and the introduction of that new format, the CD. Playing in the school gym or assemblies, and jamming at the auto shop. We were all gonna be rock and roll stars. Everyone who played! But these days, with all the Covid germs and whatnot, we're just chillin' in our living rooms coming up with kooky ideas
- Robbo brings us 'Go to the show', his goof on simple rock vocals, which we re-recorded. He freestyled the lyrics, so they are pretty silly, but it's mostly verbatim as they got redone. Turned out pretty good. We also have for ya "The Front Row", which was another freestyle... it was a space jam recorded on a boombox however many years ago, so it got the Zappa treatment.. . a tune was built around it from a poem the jmac had in his binder that was probably 20 years old. It sort of doesnt have a chorus but its a good headphone blaster, even if the audio is a little on the boomboxy side. Frankie PDK brings the lyrics for "Stripper Pole" and "Yesterday's News". I've said it before and i'll say it again, it's always about a girl!
- Pulling a David Coverdale, "Another Cigarette' is a cover of ourselves! Is it a re-do or a cover? This is the 3rd version of this tune, closer to the original intent, which shows what a big difference having the right tools can do for recording. Goodbye clacky drums! "Tongue Tied" is based on another set of lyrics from Franko's big book of Wordiage, otherwise know as a stack of photocopies in a file folder. Well, we're assuming it's from PDK, but they could have been from Marcel or maybe even Mark G from the olden days. Let's go with PDK. That's a better story.
- "Lurker" is a collaboration between Robbo and Marcel. The bed tracks were recorded and Marcel industrialized 'em up a little, and with a set of PDK lyrics that ended up being a little on the creepy side, we added some synth and drums and voila!
Rok Boutique
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TRACKS (1) Electric People (2) Sweet Jesus (3) Waiting for the bus (4) Film Noir (5) No compromise (6) Painkillers and Plastic Surgery (7) Golden Handcuffs (8) X marks the spot (9) I think it's You - Welcome to the Rok Boutique... a place that has a lot of meaning for the crunchberry crew, for PDK in particular. It seemed appropriate to name this collection of tunes for the watering hole. Lots of memories swirl around it. Many faces and friendships borne out of its short life. But it lives on his our hearts... and his living room!
- This collection of tunes is highlighted by the ones Robbo brings us... 'Golden Handcuffs", 'Electric People',' Waiting for the Bus', "Painkillers and Plastic Surgery" and 'Film Noir'. Both 'Waiting' and 'Film' were recorded live off the floor, with the vocals and overdubs added later. The jmac added lyrics to these, but you can thank Robbo for his chorus on waiting for the bus! ...Him and Jesus, they were waiting for the bus!
- Frankie PDK's soft gentle side is revealed on 'No Compromise' and 'X marks the spot', and his riffage on 'Sweet Jesus'. 'I think it's you', features music by the Jmac and a set of lyrics by PDK. It's always about a dame, ain't it? Rok on, all!
Dutch Oven
TRACKS (1) Lie (2) In Pieces (3) Crunchberry Queen (4) Nineteen (5) Jesus in an email (6) Captain Outer Space (7) Bump (8) Living like a star(9) Bonus Track One Hit Wonder- Dutch Oven, a tribute to the fourth member of Crunchberry, Dutchman Marcel Kamperman. He does it all here, some background vocals on Jesus in an email, disputed lyrics in 'Lie' and 'Living like a star', attributed to either PDK of Marcel, we dont know... everyone was drunk a lot, engineering, running the soundboard. This disc marks the first appearance of the Blue Robbo. Where exactly we can't remember. Sounds kind of uncomfortable. Oh No, he's got a Blue Robbo.
- Recorded mostly at the Lizard Lounge, the live jams became 'Lie' and 'Crunchberry Queen', both by PDK. Robbo brought the music for 'In Pieces' (originally known as a Crunchberry Christmas Carole) and 'Captain Outer Space'. We had a live arrangement of Phil's '19', thanks to Carmen Cariaso for working it out with us, even though she's not on the track. The track 'One hit wonder' was never released officially. It ended up as an online only track at Ace Radio Online, so we thought we'd drop it here. It was written at the same time as 'Eighteen Forever' and hung around for some time.
- Also included is 'Jesus in an Email', which originally featured the vocals of CBS, but it didn't pan out and we re-recorded them ourselves, with Marcel doing backgrounds. 'Living like a Star' was done at Walkingstar Studios from a discarded set of lyrics that also may have been written by either PDK or Marcel. Too much beer... And finally 'Bump', our 'hit' from the Rok Boutique, rest in peace. May it live on in PDK's living room. Rok On, Captain Outer Space!
The Dutch Oven EP
TRACKS (1) Lie (2) In Pieces (3) Crunchberry Queen (4) Nineteen (5) Jesus in an email(6) Bump - The Dutch Oven EP was intended for shopping around with the intent of booking gigs with some newer material on it. When the music was finished we bumped it up to the full version. It was just a stop gap disc to get some of this material on disc.
- The original release of this may have had the version of "Jesus in an Email' with CBS doing the vocals. I'm not exactly clear as to what happened there, but eventually we took her off the track and re-recorded the vocals. Marcel did the backing vocals on the new one.
- It's also very possible that most of these tracks were re-mixed before getting the Full Monty treatment. PDK and Marcel were i believe still involved with The Lamonts around this time, before that band unravelled, which explains why Carmen C. Lamont helped us out with the version of 19 here, and with a couple of gigs as second guitar.
A walking star gathers no planets
TRACKS (1) Boys will be boys (2) Wheatfield soul (3) The only thing that i can't do (is you) (4) The Oracle (5) Ecclesiastical Christadelphian (6) I'm alive (so real) (7) Hi Wayne (8) Oh Well- A walking star gathers no planets: The unauthorized versions" is a collection of unfinished work from the Walkingstar Studio projects. Most of these numbers were in production during the recording of The Sandra Good China Basement Band. Once it was decided to pursue all new projects in the Lizard Lounge, these tunes were more or less relegated to the bootleg bin. They were finished up and committed to disc. The numbers were a split recording between the Lizard Lounge (Side One), and Walkingstar Studios (Side Two), but everything was mixed at WSS.
- There is some tasty playing on here, notably the guitar solos. Frank (Hi Wayne) and Robbo (I'm Alive and Boys will be boys)) outdid themselves commiting some shredding and soulful parts. This disc also marks the first time an outside player was recorded. Jonny D does the solo on "Ecclesiastical Christadelphian", recorded on the first take. There might be a minor flub or two, but it works within the context of the song, so we left it in.
- "The only thing that i can't do" is an early mix of the tune, and a redone version was expected to appear on the next cd, but we never got around to it. It had a certain sentiment to it lyrically that meant a lot to me at the time, so we agreed to two versions, this one (the drumgirl edit) and a more generic one, but that never happened, oh well... and we also have to thank Fist Full of Lizard king Mark Gillespie for the lyrics to Oh Well.
Sandra Good China Basement Band
TRACKS (1) Kristina one and two (2) Candy Store (3) Eighteen Forever (4) Not in Kansas anymore (5) Honeydew (6) Another Cigarette Remix (7) Lost in Translation (8) Are you Ready? (Live at Jeff Healeys) - The Sandra Good China Basement Band is the first disc to feature recordings from the retro-fitted Lizard Lounge and Walkingstar Studios. The production is an advancement over the previous discs, and hopefully so is the songwriting. The songs once again reflect an interest in the content of the 1970's and the style of the mid 80's and 90's, with nods to Thin Lizzy, Van Halen and the Police. Songs about fetishism, smoking, drinking, STD's, murder, and bitter breakups tell the story.
- The title of the disc takes it's name from a carton used to carry around a set of vintage 80's simmons electronic drums. The band were performing acoustically on a cottage deck when an over-zealous neighbour came calling to complain about the loud radio! Taking the complaint as a compliment, the band immediately took some pictures, and set about to drinking. The original picture on the cover was from the deck session and ran on the original discs, but it didn't develop well, so the picture you see above is the final version.
- "Kristina one and two" is a Doyle/Martin composition that was resurrected from a 4-track cassette at least 10 years ago with a set of lyrics and a ripping guitar solo by Robbo Doyle himself. "Eighteen forever" takes its title from a conversation with Drumgirl who said that you can't be 18 forever, but we say why the hell not, if you're responsible enough about it. "Another Cigarette" appears again on this disc, completely re-recorded and remixed except for the original guitar tracks and Frank Martin's chiming guitar solo. It was felt that the version on International Gentlemans Club was lacking the oomph it needed, so it was punched up and re-done. Finally, featured on this disc is a roaring version of Thin Lizzy's live masterpiece, "Are you ready?" recorded live at Jeff Healey's in July of 2005 at Roger Costas' annual Thin Lizzy Celebration with the excellent Carmen Cariaso of the Lamonts helping out on dual leads. Crunchberry knocked everyone on their arses with a blistering set that opened with this number. Any proceeds made by the sale of The Sandra Good China Basement Band will donate a portion to the Roisin Dubh. Thanks Rog
International Gentlemans Club
TRACKS (1) She's Wet (2) Back Down (3) Unsaid (4) Die with your boots on (5) Another Cigarette (6) Fist Full of Lizard (7) Punkeydoodles Avenue (8) Dirty Girl(9) Doyles War- The International Gentlemans Club is a compilation of tracks accumulated from the various discs released to this point. Obviously the theme of the songs is reflected in it's title and artwork. Like any self-respecting 70's rock combo, three symbols were chosen to represent not only the members of the group but the motivations of them as well... wine, women and song, or its more stereotypical form, sex, drugs and rock and roll. The numbers on this disc are taken from the earlier combo disc Your Friendly Neighbourhood Rock Band in an effort to package the disc with better graphics and layout. This was never intended as a demo disc for the chicken-wing circuit like Neighbourhood was.
- The style of the disc is very raw, reflecting the bands influences. Robbo Doyle favours 80's european rock shredding solos while Frank Martin is a much more american sounding player, in the rock tradition of Joe Perry and Saul Hudson. The tunes range in style from LA rock to 90's alternative. For a home-made effort it comes across fairly well. The major undercurrent of the disc is longing for the ladies, the ladies toybox of "She's Wet", the unrequited love of "Unsaid", the sadness of a failed romance detailed in "Another Cigarette" or plain old fatal attraction of "Dirty Girl". Both Frank Martin and un-official 4th member Marcel Kamperman (our Pye Dubois!) have written lyrics that are fun to work with and lend themselves to interesting arrangements.
- The disc is filled out by a tribute to musician "Dimebag" Darrell, murdered onstage in front of his brother while he played guitar, in "Die with your boots on", and a Robbo Doyle number that laments the music he grew up listening to being driven underground. Also included are two tracks really just for fun, "Fist full of Lizard" written as a gag before a hallowe'en gig in 2002, and "Punkeydoodles Aveneue" about a real rural route in Southern Ontario, that takes a vague shot at the weirdness of sesame street.
The Urban Jukebox Revue EP & Your Friendly Neighbourhood Rock Band
TRACKS (1) She's Wet (2) Back Down (3) Unsaid (4) Fist Full of Lizard (5) Punkeydoodles Avenue- The Urban Jukebox Review EP is a small collection of tracks we were using for clubs and managers to do some bookings. We were doing it ourselves and we had to run these around the city getting people to listen. This was back before we had a real online presence or could get any kind of streaming set up. Maybe we had a myspace page or something. I dunno. Franko would know better. We had 2 or three different discs we were shopping around, some with cover material, some with just live material and some with original material. The Friendly Neighbourhood Rock Band was another we carted around. It was all the tunes from International Gentlemans Club, plus a bonus track that the JMac had been working on.. "Seven Days". We got quite a few gigs those days through these discs, plus we had some groovy posters of exploding jukeboxes and whatnot!
Gallery
You can see how much capering the lads get up to. Mostly it's PDK. Oh, he's a wiley coyote he is.
Crunchy News
The lads do get up to some Shenanigans.
Shows and News
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30Jan
20162016 - Cheers to 50 years! - Legion 73 -
31Dec
20162016 - Goodbye Lizard Lounge - Lizard Lounge -
10June
20162013 - L&M Rock Showdown - Long and McQuade -
10Nov
20162012- Rok Boutique Revival - Rok Boutique -
10Nov
20162010 - Dirty 30 Flirty 40 - The Hideout -
4Jul
20162008 - 4th of July - Rok Boutique -
23Jan
20162008 - Wednesday Night Mayhem - Ace Radio Live -
23Jul
20162007 - Thin Lizzy Celebration - Jeff Healeys -
15Aug
20162007 - Wednesday Night Mayhem - Ace Radio Live
The Lads
These three mugs have been jamming and gigging since the 80's when they were still long-haired schoolboys!.
Frankie 'PDK' Martin
Guitars and Shouting
Hey Hey! Welcome to Frank's Place... A wonderland of sensations! Say hello to all the interesting citizens here. Look there's Les Paul. And over there, it's Marshall. So many friends. Relax as time slows and the sun rises before your very eyes. Welcome visitors, where there is one-hour Martinizing for all. And now, on with the show!
Robbo Doyle
Bass guitars and witty Repartee
Ah... the Transmundane... the uh... Freakshow. And as keeper of the Transmundane, Robbo endeavors to learn the limits of human consumptions. He tries to solve dilemmas that have troubled man for decades... unsuccesfully mind you. As the proud proprietor of Doyles Ye Olde Guitar Shoppe, Robbo exclaims 'PotatoMan!'
Jeff Ehm
Drums and More Yelling
On the floor there, with a basil beat, it's the J-MAC, Hey! knock you off your feet. Shout out to drumgirl and the Dmac, forty creek, rosemount and mill street. Here's a fun fact... Some beavers... wear hats!
Contact Us
You can try shooting PDK a note.
Maybe he'll see it, maybe he won't.