The Scenics feature two songwriters- Ken Badger (above r) and Andy Meyers (above ctr). The began playing together in the summer of 1976, and by the spring of 77 had a passel of great tunes. Sunshine World features the best of two studio sessions from 1977 and one from autumn 1978. Includes 13 originals and covers of the Kinks and Tommy James and the Shondells.

songs include:

DO THE WAIT

 #9, Toronto Star "anti-hit list", 10/09/2009.

One of "Five songs you gotta hear today" on "Explore Music", nationally syndicated  radio.

"The coolest dance tune ever" Colin Brunton, film-maker, The Last Pogo, Hedwig and the Angry Inch)

IN THE SUMMER

to be honest The Scenics' "In The Summer" needs to supplant "Seasons In The Sun" as the finest Canadian summer anthem ever.   4/5"   Cameron Gordon, chart attack 11/10/2009

"Wayward, jammy, a bit druggy and totally cosmic when they open up on tunes like "In the Summer" and the 10-minute psych odyssey "Scenic Caves." Ben Rayner Toronto Star 10/25/2009

sunshine world reviews:

“It wasn't so much that The Scenics were ahead of their time in 1977, it's more that almost everybody else didn't even know what time it was.  

 

The Scenics were on top of it though, grabbing the freedom promised by punk's first blush, and incorporating their own smarts. The group pulled sophisticated musical tricks that no bands had before considered.

 

  New York had Talking Heads, and England was blessed with XTC, but here was their equal in Toronto and they never got the necessary push and support. It's fabulous we finally have the evidence, but it's a drag we haven't been able to enjoy it for the past 30 years.”

 Bob Mersereau, author of the "the Top 100 Canadian Albums" 

 Brainy crackpot art-pop with an ear for off-kilter melody, a headful of magic and twitchy grooves to burn. Amazingly, these wry, rubbery tunes sat in a box unheard for nearly three decades until co-founders Ken Badger and Andy Meyers began excavating their musical past a couple of years ago.

Even more amazing, perhaps, is how original and uncompromising they still sound. Wayward, jammy, a bit druggy and totally cosmic when they open up on tunes like "In the Summer" and the 10-minute psych odyssey "Scenic Caves."

 It's a sin the Scenics have left such a faint mark on punk-rock history -- Canadian and otherwise -- but now we can start to make things right: the reborn cult starts here."  Ben Rayner, Toronto Star

4 stars. If a band makes an album and nobody hears it, does it still rock? It sure does. Three decades after the the fact, recently reunited Toronto punks The Scenics have finally issued a sophomore disc — this long-lost batch of wiry Television guitars, black Velvets art-rock, Pere Ubu yelping and the freakiest Tommy James cover you’ve ever heard. Download: Do the Wait, Mony Mony  Darryl Sterdan, Winnipeg Sun.

“The world's premier Velvet Underground interpreters are back with a  sizzling platter of studio songs original songs recorded in 1977/78. Needless to say their genetically-infused VU sound is on display as expected, but it's their poppy art rock and trippy jazzbo excursions which'll leave you sonically sated and wondering why most of today's bands are incapable of sounding half as good!”

 

Jeffrey Morgan, authorized biographer of Alice Cooper and The Stooges

            They filtered Lou Reed, and brand new contemporaries Talking Heads, Richard Hell, and Television into a Big Apple amalgam, adding Big Star’s picking power-pop funneled into early XTC’s vigor, via clipped guitars, busy, sharp-edged bass, rhythmic drums, and idiosyncratic, loopy vocals—and made it all sound uniquely theirs with their own slant, which is crucial. There’s even noise rock and free jazz hints.

Like The Last Pogo DVD, this spiky-tinged-tension collection is another tireless example of the wired nervous-energy, creative, nascent punk era (look how they subvert Tommy James and Kinks songs!), caught rawer and harder than their rare, lone 1980 Bomb LP, Underneath the Door. What a pleasure to hear Sunshine—it’s like time travel! (More time travel: The band reunited around Pogo in 2008—leaders Ken Badger and Andy Meyers with two vintage members—and has remained active!)  jack Rabid, The Big Takeover (NYC)

9. THE SCENICS

"Do the Wait" 

 

After re-entering the fray with last year's vintage live album of Velvet Underground covers, this Toronto cult band is finally receiving the critical recognition that eluded it during its late-'70s/early-'80s heyday.

 

Step 2 in the band's lurch into currency is a surprisingly contemporary-sounding collection of unreleased studio recordings from 1977-78. This highlight betrays the band's stylistic debt to the Velvets, coming off like a cross between "Sweet Jane" and "I'm Waiting for the Man." (Note: The Scenics play the El Mocambo on Oct. 13.) Oct 10 2009  John, Sakamoto, Toronto Star's "anti hit list".

The late 1970s punk era in Toronto was pretty obscure by and large, and even within that scene, The Scenics weren't exactly a household name.

 

Thus, the fact that The Scenics' original studio recordings are now unearthed on compact disc is pretty remarkable. And luckily, there is some decent enough tunage in the collection to make it worth the effort.

 

The Scenics were clearly listening to far more Television than Ramones back in '77, and the 15 tracks that comprise Sunshine World are indebted as such. The band channel Lou Reed big time on about half these tracks, namely the Velvet Underground knock-off "Great Piles Of Leaves." This isn't a bad thing, and to be honest The Scenics' "In The Summer" needs to supplant "Seasons In The Sun" as the finest Canadian summer anthem ever.   4/5  Cameron Gordon, Chart Attack 11/10/2009

EXPLORE MUSIC  5 SONGS YOU GOTTA HEAR TODAY:

 “Do The Wait” by The Scenics

 We’ll start with The Scenics. They were part of the original Canadian punk rock scene in the middle-to-late 70s. They came together in the summer of ’76. Not as famous as Teenage Head, The Diodes or The Viletones, but they did have their moments. They were good enough to open for The Talking Heads. But then by 1982, things had run their course and they broke up. 

Earlier this year, two of the principle members went through 300 hours of tape that had been sitting around. And last month, this material was released on a CD called “Sunshine World”. It’s surprising how contemporary this material sounds. Listen to a song called “Do The Wait” and tell me that it couldn’t have been recorded yesterday.  

The recording is at least 32 years old.

 11/09/09

 

buy SUNSHINE WORLD

hear SUNSHINE WORLD