Similar Pages

Reviews
CD Reviews
D.T.Delinquent
"Jack Pedler has composed a rock opera for the homeless and I'm hoping for a front row seat! Further proof that the human imagination can be a pleasantly disturbing vehicle when driven by the right mind"
Mike Bell, CHORE
Gary Pig Gold always has something to say.
Check out his review here
Veteran of a couple of hundred bands up Canada way, currently busy terrorizing what remains of  Manhattan's anti-folk anti-scene, Jack Pedler AT LAST commits to disc
 fourteen slices of a life seen (and lived) from the far, far outside looking in.
 Most definitely NOT for the faint of ear -- or spirit --,
 this album is destined to provide an unwilling if oh-so-necessary soundtrack for several millenniums yet come.
Go ahead then: Trust in Jack. Bruce Farley Mowat "e-mole"
Canada Calling! With Your Host, Bruce "e-Mole" Mowat
This Month's Topic: In Jack We Trust
By: B.F. "Mole" Mowat

D.T. Delinquent-- is the big one for Jack Pedler. It is the second part of his "soak opera" cycle, his version of Twilight Of The Gods, the reformed rubbie's vision of the apocalypse. Gottendammerung! (no, I don't know where the umlauts are!)
All the stops have been pulled out. The horn section blares in True Stereo and Full Colour by Deluxe! The guitars go OVER THE TOP and stay there, wheedling away like mad cartoon images. The Greek Chorus of femme-backing singers punctuates Pedler's elliptical Zen koans with helium-buoyed reinforcements. Velva & Soda ..necktie party.

And right at centre stage is your hoary-voiced host, Jack. Say, Hi Jack!

WHO IS JACK PEDLER AND WHY DOES HE SING LIKE THAT?

Jack Pedler has been playing drums professionally since the 1960's. By his own tally, he has played with over 200 acts, from country to blues to jazz to punk rawk. He appeared on Teenage Head's 1988 Electric Guitar LP, which still turns up in cut-out bins from time to time. He stopped drinking (I mean heavy drinking) in the '80s, but he still likes a smoke. That's why he sounds like that--

Never mind all of that, though. This is Jack, front and centre, singing his songs in that pat.-pending gravel-gargle voice just for you. The bulk of these, and Fairyland It Ain't (part une of the soak opera) were written in the early part of the '90s, after his father passed away.

"The days of kid gloves are finito," sang Jack on Fairyland, one of the two great CDs of 1998 (the other was Lucinda Williams, Car Wheels On A Gravel Road) On D.T. we learn Why--Why does Little Bobby Hobnobby go Dumpster diving? Or hang out with Queenie, The Cocktail Queen?

The finger points to the Hippie Fascists right from the giddy-up. Sell Out Man, the money's great/ Peace! Love! Let's go to The Bank/Yip-pie/We're Hippie fascists!"

Jack is the Jiminy Cricket of Canada, the dark conscience of an otherwise complacent music scene. Sure we can delude ourselves and sing along with Shania. Ultimately, though, we too, will be held responsible for the crimes committed by the same powers that brought us the Almighty Navel.

"Uh, Pin, the Blue Fairy's not gonna like that."

J. Cricket to Pinocchio, New Adventures of Pinocchio, cheesey Canadian kids' show circa the 1960's. (As seen in the Toronto bus terminal at 5 a.m. on a Sunday morning, sometime during the 1980's)

Speaking of crimes, consider what Little Bobby does in Hot Wire. Bad, very bad, especially getting his innocent, mail-order bride involved in a Grand Auto theft racket. On their honeymoon, no less!

And what about Little Baby H?"You become the thing you hate" someone once said. Either that, or your children do it for you.

Yes, this is a recording with a message. And the message is: save yourselves. Wear the Muzzle Chop Whisker, that tin-foil hat that blocks the transmissions from the Government that control your brain. You'll thank me later. 4.5 stars out of 5 (yes, Mr. Editor, you can get half stars in Canada)

 

page created with Webpage Designer (NS)