'Somethin' Ya Can't Tell Your Mother'

I had some doubts about posting today’s music, because I just found it last week on another blog. Then I thought, well, if you can reblog things on tumblr, you can reblog things here. I’ll post a couple of songs here, and then send you to OP for more info.

Toronto, along with New York and London, was at the forefront of the original late 70s punk scene. Three September 1976 concerts by the Ramones kicked off the Canadian movement. The joke was that 1,200 people went to see the Ramones play, then they all went out and started bands.

The Curse were formed during that flurry of activity. One of North America’s first all girl punk bands, they supposedly got together as part of a challenge to form a band to open for another band. Within a year, they were playing CBGB as part of a Canadian punk bill.

Probably their most infamous moment came with the release of the “Shoeshine Boy” single. The song was about 12-year-old Emmanuel Jacques, who was raped and murdered after being kidnapped in mid-July 1977 off of Toronto’s then-sleazy Yonge Street district. Jacques was working on the street shining shoes. The band sparked additional controversy by sending copies of the single to the boy’s murderers in prison.

So, check these couple of songs, then get over to the Model Citizen, Zero Discipline blog for the complete story of The Curse and some more of their music.

Shoeshine Boy.mp3
Somethin’ Ya Can’t Tell Your Mother.mp3

Labels: punk

posted by aikin @ 9:39 AM