The Best of Ready Volume 1 :: 20th Century Masters The Millenium Collection

1. New York City DEMICS
2. All I Want Is You Alone STEVE BLIMKIE
3. Same Old Place BLUE PETER
4. Circular Impression THE EXTRAS
5. Cardiac Arrest COLIN LINDEN
6. Conventional Beliefs SPOONS
You Turn Me On SANTERS
8. Ba Kome MANTECA
9. Nova Heart SPOONS
10. Radio Silence BLUE PETER
11. Turning It Out THE EXTRAS
12. Arias & Symphonies SPOONS

Compilation mastered by Peter Moore
Released November, 2006
0249843785

Chris' Notes:
Same Old Place - this was our declaration that it was time to move from the boredom of the suburbs into the punk clubs of downtown Toronto. The EP "Test Patterns For Living" was recorded in 1979 in 2 days by Kevin Doyle and was produced by Angus and Andy. Drummer Ron Tomlinson was hired because he was the only drummer that could keep up with us without collapsing. We mixed a couple of songs at Sounds Interchange and at the time Kevin was too "junior" to touch the board so a house engineer was in charge. At one point he turned around and said "I think that sounds like a 'punk' kick drum". That moment made me want to become a producer so I could overthrow the system.

Radio Silence was inspired by the book/movie Catch 22. I was obsessed with war themes. At the time I was very much against "heavy" guitars, preferring skinny punk tones instead, but Kevin Doyle had a Les Paul that Keith Richards, had left behind while he was hanging around Toronto due to his legal problems, so I was happy to play that! Paul was always great at finding the right minimalist keyboard parts.

Paul's Notes:
This song marks our transition from a very loud "faster-than-you-can" guitar band into the nuanced and expanded possibilities of what we referred to as "Nouveau Wavo" - still very loud. We wrote it from Chris' idea in his parents' basement. I remember plunking out the riff on this dinky lawn-sale keyboard of no-fixed brand. The knobs had fallen off and any markings had been worn away. Each note bent flat as it faded and expired - any note could be its last. It was so bad that it was good. No established band would ever think of using such a piece of crap. That defines a lot of the philosophy of those days: using what you could find, trying something different, or weird, or just plain bad - so bad it's good.