Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler My favorite Canadian bands + Steel river anyone?

These are my favorites:

Steel River
Guess who
Jeff Healey
Alannah Myles
Sass Jordan
AND of course, BTO.

What I really want to know from the Canadian forum members is...... do any of you remember the 70's band "Steel river"?
I saw them live,....(back in the day) and I still have a couple of their LP's. Does anyone know if their albums ever made it on to CD'S up there?....(they didn't here).
They were a good band, and had some really good songs too.

i grew up with the 90s grunge/post grunge movements, my favorites have always been:

Skinny Puppy
Big Wreck
Moist
I Mother Earth
Billy Talent
New Pornographers

(good topic by the way, we can introduce some of our southern neighbours to some of the great music they probably wouldn't otherwise be exposed to)

Not too many "older" Canadian rockers here eh?.........................OR...maybe "Steel River" is so old, and obscure a band, that EVEN Canadians have forgotten them.

Saga

My fav albums are:
Silent Knight
Images at Twilight
Worlds Apart

I wonder if even Canadians know about this group.
I was into synths. during the mid80s - early 90s , a fellow keyboardist introduce me to them.. Their early work was way ahead of its time.

~Jaime

I must admit that having grown up in the 70's in Southern Ontario, I can't for the life of me place that band.......

As for Saga, I was very close to the music scene, and I went to high scholl with the drummer and his brother!

I also hung out with Triumph (Rik Emmett is an AMAZING guitarist), Honeymoon Suite, Helix, Rush, Brighton Rock, Coney Hacth....the list of local artists is endless!!!

BBIBH,

Now I'm REALLY curious...........I'll get out the LP's when I get home and see if they say WHERE in Canada they hailed from.

As far as band members go,........the only one I know personally.....is Jim Stafford, (We grew up in the same small mid-west town)......he's now the lead guitarist with the California band..... TRAIN.

LT

I can't seem to find anything that references the band......

If memory serves, there was a band that formed from the wreckage of BTO late 70's...something like Street Something or Steel Something......is that a possibility?

Skinny Puppy is definitely good, so's Moist.

I generally don't know where bands are from, though, so i can't continue this list!!

BBIBH,

I just found their "bio" by doing a google search: STEEL RIVER BAND.
(65-73 out of Toronto).

LT

FM was fantastic live in the early days (especially as a two-man group) but the albums never lived up to the live sound.

Does anyone remember Zon ? There was some kind of grudge match thing going between Zon and Saga's keyboard players, always made for interesting concerts.

I assume Max Webster and Men without Hats were just missing due to an oversight, right ?

Fave Canadian Bands:
(ie: A not-very comprehensive list that no one but Sid will know who they are but that's only fair, I haven't recognized a single prog rock band mentioned here in 2 years!)

Age of Electric (AB?)
Asexuals (west?)
Bif Naked (BC)
Color Me Psycho (AB)
D.O.A. (BC?)
Dayglo Abortions (BC)
Doughboys (west?)
Forbidden Dimension (AB)
Forgotten Rebels (ON)
Harlots, the (MB)
nomeansno (west?)
Propagandhi (BC?)
Real McKenzies (AB/BC)
SNFU (BC)

... then there are the honourary "Canadian" bands - Live (actually from Pennsylvania, but with a singer with a good prairie name like Ed Kowalczyk, they count)...

Bren R.

Interesting...they are definitely not the BTO reformed bad I was thinking of!!

For the metal fans: Exciter (Ottawa), Rapid Tears (Guelph??), Razor (Ontario...not sure where), Harem Scarem (TO), KickAxe (BC)....

As BrenR mentioned, hononrary - Skid Row, vocalist was from Peterborough - originally Kidd Wikkid.

Apparently punks come from the West, headbangers from the near east, Celtic-types from the far east.

Bren R.

LT61,

Well, I'm old and "Steel River" does not ring a bell. Do you recall a band called "Foot In Cold Water"? I remember directing a remote TV broadcast of a concert for City-TV that featured that band and also another called "Edward Bear." I think the latter had a big hit single in Canada, a kind of sappy song with a catchy melody. The concert was to raise money for the mayoralty campaign of a politician, David Crombie, who later became Mayor of Toronto.

Regards,

My current favorite Canadian artist is Jorane (www.jorane.com). She's from montreal. Her music is fairly different on her different albums, and it's clearly not for everyone. I don't like her new album, but the ones before are quite good and have very good recording quality.

I keep thinking that it wasn't all that long ago.........I must be getting old, myself.

I do seem to remember...Edward Bear.......(I think).

LT

Alan, I haven't thought of A Foot In Cold Water in about 30 years. Talk about a blast from the past. I just ran upstairs, and YEP! I've got their self-titled album on Electra. I'll have to put it on the turntable one of these days. Whew! What a rush!

In reply to:

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Whew! What a rush!

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It's amazing what running up stairs can do, eh?

I overstated the issue. At my age, shuffle upstairs is a more accurate description. It was the change in altitude that provided the rush, not the speed of ascent.