The Day the Old Man Music Died - Challenge XVI Wrap-Up from Dallas

So that's another Painting Challenge in the books. You can see the production from me in the photo above. I never get as much done as I want/hope to, but I did meet my (admittedly modest) target.


ALSO - I'm heading to the UK for Salute next month, and want to extend an invitation to other Challenge participants to meet up at (or after) the show on 11 April. If you're interested please send me an email at dgewen (at) hotmail.com. Thanks!

The main project I wanted to start in this Challenge is Little Bighorn. I got 10 Plains warriors (from Foundry) and almost a dozen dismounted US Seventh Cavalry (also mostly from Foundry) painted, but as with all painting plans, I quickly got distracted...

  

...by painting a Chaos Blood Bowl team...

...and more significantly, by starting a Khorne Berzerkers army for 40K! Here are some of the said Berzerkers.

And here are two big hunks of metal - a Chaos Lord on Juggernaut and a Dreadnought. I really enjoyed painting these.

Lastly for the force, I painted five Bloodletters to bring the unit up to Khorne's "magic number," eight.

Here's a downed Imperial pilot and grave marker from the late, lamented chaostemple.cz.

An Imperial Commissar from Victoria Miniatures with a converted Ork Kommando, and a Predator for my Sisters of Battle army.

A couple of rovers for the Lunar game.

A dug-in Panther tank for Bolt Action, from Warlord Games.

Here I am!

And lastly, it wouldn't be a Challenge post from me without some old man music...

Pukka Orchestra - Listen to the Radio

Lately I've been listening to a lot of Canadian New Wave from the 1980s and this is one of the best. The song was written by Tom Robinson and Peter Gabriel and recorded by Robinson... but I think this Pukka Orchestra version from 1984 is superior. The band was formed in Toronto in 1979, and the name came from founding member Tony Duggan-Smith's "extremely English" grandfather who had been the harbourmaster of Calcutta... when Tony told him he was playing music for a living, he was told "that's all very nice Tony, but don't bother with any mediocre bands, get yourself into a pukka orchestra." The band performed regularly in Toronto's Queen West club scene, released a couple albums, and won a CASBY award for "most promising group." Unfortunately they had some significant setbacks in the late '80s when their label (Solid Gold) went bankrupt and vocalist/guitarist Graeme Williamson fell ill in Scotland and had to have a kidney transplant! But this song is a great piece of music from the New Wave of the '80s.

So thanks to my Monday crew, the other Minions, and of course Mr Curt and Lady Sarah for all their work in the Challenge... see you at the afterparty!

Dallas

Monday Again!

Daniel Lanois - The Maker

Like the post title says it's Monday again... has everyone recovered from putting the clocks forward? Yes? So let's get to the old man music then :-)

Daniel Lanois was born in 1951 in Hull, Quebec, Canada. Professionally, he's probably best known as a music producer and engineer, having produced albums by Peter Gabriel ("So"), Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris and others, but he was best known to me for his collaborations with Brian Eno in producing U2's seminal albums "The Unforgettable Fire" and "The Joshua Tree." But in addition to producing and engineering, Lanois has had a productive solo music career too. His song "The Maker" was released in 1989 as a track on his LP "Acadie." I love this song and its rolling bass line and ambient sound. My other favourite from this album is "Jolie Louise", an upbeat but dark and tragic folksong. Have a listen to it as well.

Now to the painting! This week we have:

• Helblaster fury from SanderS
• Some Soviet freebies (and the start of a new project?) from NormS
• Bolt Action in the Pacific from SteveA
• Star Wars goodness from AaronH
• LATE ADDITION - Trench Crusaders from DavidB

Have a great week everyone.

Dallas

Monday Funday

Spoons - Romantic Traffic

Monday again and time for some more OMM. This time it's something from the New Wave of the early 1980s and one of the best Canadian bands of that genre at the time - Burlington, Ontario's own Spoons.

Gordon Deppe and Sandy Horne dated when they were students at Aldershot School in Burlington and formed the band with a couple of friends. Their debut studio album "Stick Figure Neighbourhood" came out in 1981 and was engineered by none other than Daniel Lanois, who you may see in a future instalment of OMM. The next year saw the release of their breakout disc "Arias & Symphonies" which featured three Canadian top-40 hits.

The video I've linked above was released by the band in 1984 on the soundtrack for the film "Listen to the City." To me this is peak New Wave from the '80s with all of its keyboards and synthesizers and faux-British-accented vocals, plus some solid rock staples like the "doo doo doo" chorus and handclaps. Plus check out those hairstyles, absolutely epic. The TTC setting for the video is very nostalgic for me too as I rode it a lot when I lived in Toronto in the early '90s.

Now on to the painting...

• Norm brings out the big guns for his Napoleonic Austrians!
• Jez with "assorted" Landsknechts!
• Aaron presents a Star Wars Legion bada$$ and some tiny Ork APCs!

Have a good week all!

Dallas

Blue Monday

Northern Pikes - Wait for Me

It's Monday again and time for your weekly dose of old man music from Winnipeg, Manitoba. I was going to post something from an American band today but my feelings are a little too raw from Canada's overtime loss in the gold medal hockey game this morning. So we will enjoy (not New Order, but rather) some Cancon from Saskatoon's own Northern Pikes.

The band formed in 1984 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan by Jay Semko, Merl Bryck, Bryan Potvin, and Glen Hollingshead. They released two independent EPs before Hollingshead left the group in 1986, being replaced by Don Schmid on drums. Their first record for the Virgin label was 1987's "Big Blue Sky" which spawned the indy hits "Teenland" and "Things I Do for Money". The video I've linked above is from their followup "Secrets of the Alibi" (1988) and I think it's among the best of the band's catalog.

While Merl Bryck (crush object of some of my female friends back then) left the band in 2006, he was replaced in the lineup by ex-Grapes of Wrath guitarist Kevin Kane, and the Pikes still tour. I saw them in 2021 at a multi-band show with the Jim Cuddy Band (he of Blue Rodeo) and 54-40. They were great, but it wasn't the first time for me. Check this out:

That must have been obtained on their 1991 tour, probably at the Keystone Centre in Brandon, Manitoba (don't be too hard on me, it was 35 years ago and I was 19 years old!). That's the centrefold of their "Snow in June" CD, released in 1990.  

Anyway on to the painting. This Monday we have:

• Plague Marines, modern US infantry and Great War French from DavidB!
• Post-apoc and Dark Souls from GavinB!
• Austrian Napoleonics from NormS!

Although this post won't appear until early Monday morning, I'm writing it on Sunday afternoon and the sad from the game this morning persists. However a bunch of the locals are getting together on the ODR to "skate away the sadness" and I'm looking forward to that.

Have a good week all.

Dallas

Monday Again!

The Clash - Gates of the West

OK all, it's Monday again and that means more old man music. This week it's one of my all-time favourites - "the only band that matters" - plus a couple bonus tracks from the two frontmen's post-Clash projects.

What can you say about the Clash? Formed in 1976 in London by Mick Jones and Joe Strummer (we won't mention the previous band Joe was associated with), the classic lineup also included bassist Paul Simonon (he taught himself to play the bass in three weeks!) and drumming genius Topper Headon. Their eponymous first album was released in 1977, followed by "Give 'Em Enough Rope" in 1978. But their magnum opus was certainly "London Calling" released in 1979 and named by Rolling Stone as the greatest album of the decade (the 1980s that is). Infused by ska and reggae as well as rockabilly and traditional rock 'n' roll, every song on this record is a banger. The song linked above, "Gates of the West", is from the band's 1979 EP "The Cost of Living", released just about seven months before London Calling.

London Calling was followed at the end of 1980 by a triple (!) album (sold for the price of a double album), Sandinista! Although I personally love half of the songs on Sandinista!, a lot of it is half-baked rubbish (the "dub" versions of other album tracks for example) and although the band had always been "political", the triple album was even moreso. The album was followed in 1981 by "Combat Rock" featuring the charting US single "Should I Stay or Should I Go?"  Unfortunately the answer was the latter, as after a half-hearted 1982 release (of which the less said the better) the band broke up for good. 

But the animating minds of the Clash, Strummer and Jones, carried on! Jones formed Big Audio Dynamite in 1984. After a time that incarnation broke up and in 1991 Jones formed its successor "Big Audio Dynamite II" releasing their debut album "The Globe", which spawned this hit:

Big Audio Dynamite - Rush

Joe Strummer wasn't idle either. He formed a group called the Mescaleros and they were also great!

Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros - Get Down Moses

(You might recognize that tune from its great cover by ska band the Interrupters). Sadly Joe Strummer died of a congenital heart defect in 2002. He is missed! 

So if you've made it down this far you're probably interested in the painting this week. First off an apology from me, SteveA's Space Marines were a late entry last week and I didn't get to them, so they're first up this week. Next are some very nice Austrian Napoleonic mounted officers from NormS. And that's it, an easy start to the week - a short week for many of us in North America as today is a provincial holiday in many provinces as well as Presidents' Day in the USA.

Have a better one!

Dallas

It's Monday Again! And That Means More Old Man Music!

Squeeze - Another Nail in My Heart

OK so it's Monday again and another dose of old man music for you. Today it's one of my all-time favourites - Squeeze. It's always surprising to me how many people have never heard of them given how many good songs the band have produced in their long career, but if I can introduce anyone new to their amazing music I'm happy to do so.

Squeeze was formed in the mid-'70s in Deptford, southeast London, by vocalists and guitarists Glenn Tillbrook and Chris Difford. The band was part of the British New Wave scene. The Tillbrook and Difford songwriting partnership produced a TON of great music - this is one of my favourite songs of theirs, a good friend put it on a mixtape for me in about 1986. But you'd recognize a lot of Squeeze songs - "Pulling Mussels (from a Shell)," "Cool for Cats," "Black Coffee in Bed," "Hourglass," "Annie Get Your Gun" (which was shortlisted for this post), "Tempted" (with vocals by sometime-keyboardist Paul Carrack), etc. Tillbrook and Difford have been compared to Lennon and McCartney and I wouldn't dispute that. Glenn has a remarkable singing voice too.

I saw Squeeze play live at the Salt Shed in Chicago in 2023 and it was one of the best rock shows I've ever seen. There are two schools of thought regarding live rock performances. The adherents of one school want to hear the songs like they sound on the album and on the radio. Those of the other school love "noodling" and alternate arrangements of the familiar hits. I have to say that I am of the first school (although the Police's live show made a good argument for the other) and the show that Squeeze put on suited me down to the ground. Glenn and Chris's voices were top-notch, the playing was outstanding, and every song sounded just like it did on the record. Amazing show!   

So now onto the painting... this week we've got some great stuff:

• Kingdom Death (but safe for work!) from ByronM
• A miscellany from DavidB
• Spiffy samurai from JezT
• Terrifying Tyranids from SanderS, and
• Vietnam NVA, USMC and civilians from HayesR

Enjoy the week!

Dallas

Thursday Sub-In for Minion GregB

Blue Rodeo - Head Over Heels

Minion Dallas here, subbing in for GregB as he's in sunny southern climes. I hope you will forgive me for using the space to talk about more old man music :-)

I don't often post live performances here (mostly because of quality of recording) but at the same time, it's kinda boring to just look at an album cover. So here's Blue Rodeo performing their song "Head Over Heels" in 1993. For me this is peak Blue Rodeo. I've seen them live a number of times and they've always put on a great show. The song I linked is one of my favourites of theirs, it was the sixth (!) single from their fifth studio album, "Five Days in July." To me it's a perfect representation of the band's alt-country-rock style and sensitive, poetic lyrics. 

The band was formed in 1984 in Toronto, Canada by high-school friends Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor. After spending some time in New York City, the original lineup was finalized with the addition of keyboard player Bobby Wiseman, bassist Bazil Donovan and drummer Cleave Anderson. Their first album, Outskirts, was released in 1987 and was a big part of my teenage years. I still remember listening to the album's monster hit single "Try" on the radio when closing up at Bonanza restaurant, my first job. 

Blue Rodeo is truly one of Canada's musical treasures. Cuddy and Keelor have been recognized for countless awards in their over-40-year career, including a star on Canada's Walk of Fame, induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and Songwriters' Hall of Fame, eleven Juno awards, etc. They are legends, no doubt, and were my late wife Pam's favourite band for sure. I hope you enjoy their music too.

Now to the painting... this week I'm proud to present:

• Some Age of Sigmar commissions from Millsy!
• A miscellany from DaveD with some great painting and a scratchbuilt boat!
• Napoleonic Austrians from IainW!
• Some Epic Bohemian Pike & Shotte from Curt!
• Snowy (not the dog) fantasy units from JamieM!
• A few MCP heroes (and villains!) from RhysH!

Have a great Thursday everyone and I'll see you again on Monday!

Dallas

 

Monday Mania with a Social Conscience

World Party - Ship of Fools

Back to "old man music" with this absolute classic from one-man-band and musical genius Karl Wallinger. He was born on 19 October 1957 in Wales. As a boy he completely absorbed the music of the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Bob Dylan and the Kinks... his musical career began as a keyboard player but he first became known as a multi-instrumentalist member of the Waterboys, contributing significantly to their 1985 hit "Whole of the Moon." After leaving the group, Wallinger's next project was World Party and its first album "Private Revolution" (1987). The video I linked above is from that album and reflects Wallinger's world-music style and social conscience. Private Revolution was followed in 1990 by World Party's masterpiece album, "Goodbye Jumbo", with its two hits "Way Down Now" and "Put the Message in the Box."

Wallinger's music was obviously influenced by the Beatles but he was an inspiring songwriter and musician. "Way Down Now" obviously draws inspiration from "Sympathy for the Devil" but it's by no means a pastiche. The energy of World Party's recordings and videos is really unmatched and his social message is especially relevant today. Sadly Wallinger died in 2024 of a stroke, at his home in Hastings.

Now for the painting... this week we have a swell Gendarme standard bearer from JezT, a buncha cool Greeks from RobH, unexpected Ultramarines from SteveA, and a great deal of WW2 infantry and vehicles from DavidB!

I hope you enjoy the posts and I'll be back Thursday with some more old man music when I sub for Minion GregB.

Dallas

Monday Maniacs Back to Work!

The Tragically Hip - My Music at Work

Good Monday morning! I'm just back from a week away in Costa Rica (thank you to Minion Greg for looking after my duties last week) so it's back to work for me as well as many other Challengers - although I know that our friends in the USA are enjoying a long weekend for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. 

My first Minion post included a video from a great (but lesser known) Canadian band - Sloan - but this video is from one of Canada's best known rock bands, the Tragically Hip. The band was formed in Kingston, Ontario in 1984 and led by singer, lyricist and poet Gord Downie. The Hip (as they were known here in Canada) released 14 albums between 1987 and 2017 and won 17 Juno awards. Lead singer Downie has been described as "Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Michael Stipe combined into one sensitive, oblique poet-philosopher" by no less an authority than the New York Times, and his death in 2017 effectively ended the band and affected Canadians everywhere.

I've picked this Hip video for the post because it's one of my favourite songs from the band - I love the lyrics and the music - especially the chord change at 1:05 that always gets me. The video was directed by Kids in the Hall comedy alumnus Bruce McCulloch, for which he won the "Best Director" award at the 2000 MuchMusic Video Awards. If they haven't already, somebody has to start a Hip tribute band called "The Filters" - amirite?

Anyway, this week I am proud to present for your edification and amusement:

• very cool Little Red Riding Hood and Wolf from SanderS!
• lovely Hungarian Hussars from JezT!
• snazzy Leopard 1 tanks from RossM!
• some super FSSF infantry from DavidB!
• a very nice Vietnam USMC mortar crew from HayesW!

I hope you enjoy this week's offerings, and I want to send out a special wish for Challenger FrederickC who had unexpected and urgent surgery last week. We're all pulling for you and wishing you the best, Frederick.

Till next Monday, all the best,

Dallas

Monday City Maniacs

Welcome to Monday! I'm your Monday Minion Dallas, and I'm happy to be back helping Mr. Curt run the Challenge this year. 

I hope you have a look at the link above ^^ as it's a really creative video for "Money City Maniacs", a super-catchy tune by one of Canada's greatest (and perhaps least recognized?) rock bands, Sloan. Hailing from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Sloan was formed in 1991. The band has been nominated for nine Juno Awards (Canada's national music awards) and won one, so far. I've never seen Sloan play live but last year I saw Chris Murphy of the band play with Canadian "alternative '90s supergroup" the Trans-Canada Highwaymen (also featuring Moe Berg of Pursuit of Happiness, Craig Northey of the Odds, and Steven Page of Barenaked Ladies). It was an awesome show, the boys were in high spirits and played all the hits of their regular bands plus a ton of Canadian AM radio standards, often switching instruments as they did so!

What does all of this have to do with the Challenge, you ask? Very little! But I wanted to have a punny name for my Monday crew so I came up with one. Deal with it :-)

Anyway, for Challenger posts this week I'm proud to present:

• Some magnificent Austrian Napoleonics from NormS!
• A unit of great looking Age of Sigmar Ogors from ByronM!
• Some spiffy Gauls from RobH!
• Quite large Orcs from DavidB!
• Late addition - very nice Orks and Solar Auxilia from MattK!

Enjoy your Monday!

Dallas