Any of you fans of Art Bergmann should promptly go to Otis Music on Davie and get Todd to dig you out one of the sealed copies of the Shmorgs album he has - especially if you've never heard it. He has a bunch, which he sells on the cheapish. Dale at Noize to Go may also have copies - he sold me one for $10 the other week, tho' I'm less sure that he has more to go around. I had never heard of this album until a couple of years ago, and, despite a definite pre-punk, pseudo-Stonesy sensibility, find much that is charming and intriguing about it: and it's a great chance to hear what Art Bergmann was doing pre-K-Tels! It kind of shocks me that it's regarded so casually by people; it doesn't suck that badly...
By the way, those of you at Scott Beadle's talk the other week should note that Jim Cummins did NOT do the cover art for this one, btw. Cummins is given a thank you on the back, but Bill Scherk is the man responsible (he played with Art under the name Bill Shirt and was a member of Active Dog... not sure what-all-else he's done, to tell you the truth). Y'all might be also interested to know, if you haven't stumbled across it, that there's a new Art Bergmann fan site up... including a Chris Walter short story, "The Man Who Would Be Art!"
Art Bergmann making a surprise appearance summer 2008 at the Pointed Sticks show in Kitsilano; photo by Femke van Delft
4 comments:
Yeah, good catch. I thought Jim Cummins did the cover art but it's Bill who gets the credit on the actual sleeve. That's what I get for A) not having an actual copy of the album; and B) repeating what people tell me! It sounded plausible. Both Bill Shirt and Jim Cummins had done flyer artwork for Art's old bands in the past. PS: After Active Dog broke up, Bill Shirt sang for Vancouver supergroup-of-sorts Los Popularos.
Ah, Los Pops! Now that's an album that *I* don't have, tho' I did once upon a time...
Hey, you would know this: was he also in the Scissors, of "I Wrecked My Car" fame, or is that someone else... someone also named Bill? I'm confused.
A.
Thanks so much for posting the scan. That album art was indeed my work. Apparently I didn't know how to paint legs. Oh well.
Glory days.
The Scissors' Bill was Billy Barker. Scissors also featured future Poisoned alumn Ray Fulber (bass). Both were in pre-punk era band called Nytro (which also included future Enigmas and Subhumans drummer Randy Bowman!)
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