Sunday Playlist #47

Sunday Playlist #47: In memoriam Pete Carmichael

It was a shock this week to hear of Pete Carmichael's sudden passing. Pete was someone I knew first as a musician — The Diableros were more or less rock stars in my book, and when I started recording shows, they were the sort of local group that I thought needed to be documented. Fortunately, I had my gear by the time the group were playing around for their last EP.

I remember back in Stillepost days, Pete would often say "bootleggers welcome at our show!" when promoting his gigs, so my first contact was indeed me getting in touch to offer a recording (from the first show in this playlist) back to him. He was always gracious and thankful for that. At some point after that we met in person — we were going to the same sort of Optical Sounds psych-pop shows in that period. After Diableros ended, I was around as he built toward something new (like that rare acoustic show at St. Stephen-In-The-Fields) that ended up becoming The Whirly Birds. I saw that band several times as they built up their sound and repertoire, and I was always sad that the project seemingly fell apart in that sort of heartbreak phase where there was stuff recorded but no longer the will to put it out. To remind folks of what-might-have-been, I'm sharing a full Whirly Birds set here today. (link — in case your browser doesn't like the embed below)

There was also the relatively short-lived project The Green Ray/Green Rays which hewed to more of a Nuggets-style template, but offered some rough-and-ready fun. I have no inside info as to what happened there, but the band's existence has been mostly scrubbed (I seem to recall there were a few demos online at some point that're now long gone). Digging through the archive this week, I found a set from the group playing the Dundas West Fest in the parking lot across from The Garrison, so I'm sharing one of Pete's tunes from that set for the first time here. And closing things out, maybe it's best to end with a celebration, so I'm sharing the full set from The Diableros' 10th anniversary reunion show, where they played You Can't Break the Strings in Our Olympic Hearts in full. (link — in case your browser doesn't like the embed below)

Like so many people that I knew from the rock scenes, I can't say I knew Pete very closely — something that happens when the bulk of your interactions with a person come in loud bars. We would chat a bit out back at The Silver Dollar, and when I was having my back problems, I remember having a couple more substantial conversations with Pete about that, and about dealing with chronic pain (something I gathered that he knew far too much about).

Pete was generally kind and well spoken, often chatting with a bit of a sly smile. He showed up at his friends' gigs — sometimes even behind the mixing desk, as I recall seeing him at The Boat. He was a very careful craftsman in the way he constructed his songs, but he didn't let that search for perfection spoil the glorious imperfections of a band playing on stage. He had lately been working on some cool new songs, and it's a shame we won't hear the culmination of that project. It's a shame not to have him in our community. May his songs and his kindnesses be remembered.

Here's a few sounds from the archive to keep those memories alive:

The Diableros - Heavy Hands

• Recorded at Sneaky Dee's (Pitter Patter Festival), May 30, 2009.

The Diableros - Push it to Monday

• Recorded at The Boat, October 16, 2009.

Pete Carmichael - unknown

• Recorded at St. Stephen-In-The-Fields Church, November 13, 2010.

The Whirly Birds - Here to Stay

• Recorded at Handlebar (Crosswires), April 14, 2013.

Pete Carmichael and Co. - Dead Flowers

• Recorded at The Great Hall (A Night of Covers: A Celebration of Chris Levoir), July 4, 2013.

The Green Ray - He Don't Care

• Recorded at Bovine Sex Club, January 24, 2014.

Green Rays - Terror Eyes

• Recorded at Lakeview Stage (Dundas West Fest), June 7, 2014.

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Sunday Playlist is a semi-regular feature that brings back some of this blog's previously-posted original live recordings for an encore. You can always click the tags below to see what I originally wrote about the shows these songs came from.