Recording: Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet

Artist: Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet

Songs: Fortune Tellin' Chicken / Plastics For 500, Bob / Customized + Good Cop Bad Cop / Reid's Situation / Off Our Back Conrad Black

Recorded at The Dakota Tavern (September residency – Week 3), September 19, 2013.

Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet - Good Cop Bad Cop / Reid's Situation / Off Our Back Conrad Black

Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet - Fortune Tellin' Chicken / Plastics For 500, Bob / Customized

Full review to follow. Sometimes it's a good world. Following last summer's emotional, vital reunion spectacular the reformulated Shadowy Men have stuck around. They've been playing early shows at the Dakota every Thursday this month, a casual + cozy affair with the band playing two sets of their rapid-fire songs (a couple volleys are reproduced here). There's one more week left in the run, so go catch 'em if you haven't yet. Plus, they'll also be playing alongside The Sadies this Saturday at The Garrison, reprising their full-on costumed re-interpretation of Alice Cooper's Love It To Death.

Recording: Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet

Artist: Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet

Song: a whole bunch of songs^*

Recorded at Lee's Palace, July 14, 2012.

Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet - Algoma Reflections / Bennett Cerf

Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet - Zombie Compromise / Musical Interlude / (Relax) You Will Think You Are A Chicken / Hot Box Car

Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet - Hunter S. Thompson's Younger Brother

Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet - Having An Average Weekend

Full review to follow. Well, first off, there was so much goodness here — and such a flurry of songs tackled — that I'm sticking up more stuff than usual. And (see below) I'm posting first and figuring out titles later, so leave a comment if you know any of these off the top of your head. The songs mostly came in bunches of three or four played with no pause in between, so besides picking some individual highlights, there's also a representative burst.

I last saw Shadowy men play back when Dim the Lights, Chill the Ham came out — I think it was '93, which makes this an unusually long time between seeing a band twice. I never would have thought this was going to happen, but Dallas Good filled in for deceased bassist Reid Diamond with aplomb, and on the whole, it was a joyful occasion.

^* I know all these songs, but the titles are well-elusive to me at the moment. Hopefully a photo of the setlist will show up online — feel free to forward it my way if you see one. Otherwise, I'll have to dig out the old cassettes to try and nail down these song titles. If you can fill any of these in, please leave a comment! Big thanks to Owen Gwilliam for nailing the song titles!