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When I interviewed Bob Mould in the early nineties, the former Hüsker Dü guitarist alerted me to almost forgotten Canadian punk band the Diodes. According to Mould, their untitled first album was even better than the Ramones´ debut, as, and I quote: "a guitar solo came by every now and then".
Which made me seek out that ´77 slab of vinyl pronto of course, and I soon found that Mould surely had been waxing nostalgic a bit. The Diodes didn´t come close to the genius of Da Brudders, although they certainly had their moments. Here´s their inspired Paul Simon cover Red Rubber Ball (indeed featuring a guitar solo, and a fine one at that) for proof. Legend has it they picked this song because Simon had been slagging off punk in the media.
And as a bonus I just couldn´t resist given this week´s theme, here´s another early Canadian punk band for you. The Subhumans sounded much rawer than the Diodes and weren´t to happy with their ´white wasteland´ apparently... "Oh Canaduh, what’s wrong with you, you better wake up, now what you gonna do..."
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