Welcome to the Albert Bouchard section of the Hot Rails site in which I attempt to keep track of as many Albert-related project shows and setlists as possible.
Since the demise of the Brain Surgeons and subsequent hiatus, Albert has at last begun to show signs he's ready to start playing again. This site will try to document the expression of this as much as humanly possible, as well as celebrating that which has already gone before.
As well as a Brain Surgeons section, there are also sections covering his work with Helen Wheels, as well as new sections on The Underbelly and the Regaltones reunion shows. Albert has also played with Blue Coupe but as this is two thirds BDS, you'll find details on this in the Joe Bouchard section.
If you've ever seen an Albert Bouchard show, please consider sending me a for posting on the site. And if you know of any missing gigs or setlists, please tell me about them.
Here are links to Albert's various MySpace pages...
Here are a few links to some Cellsum pages...
Here are a few links to some online Albert interviews...
Here's Albert's latest news on Blue Coupe...
Blue Coupe have been hard at work the first half of 2010 making a new record. The title is Tornado on the Tracks. On the record we have Manic Panic's Tish and Snooky from the Sic F*cks and Robby Krieger from the Doors as special guests.
The CD will contain 9 new songs and one Byrds cover but we have 4 more that will either be used as bonus or promo material or reserved for the next record. We will be launching a band website and doing a series of webcasts to promote the new record.
We only have one mix that is ready yet but we've made a video for it and we also have 5 more mixes that are almost done. I'm not sure when it will be done because we originally set August 1st as a deadline but it looks like we're not going to make that. We'll do as much as we can before we go on tour in Canada and France in this August.
Here is the set list for the Outrageous Canadians gig at Club Absinthe on Saturday 26 April...
- Stairway To The Stars
- Cities On Flame
- The Red and The Black
- Hot Rails To Hell
- Dominance and Submission
- ME 262
- Flaming Telepaths
- Summer Of Love
- Don't Fear The Reaper
- Vera Gemini
- Astronomy
- Sinful Love
- Tattoo Vampire
- Joan Crawford
- Burnin' For You
- Godzilla
- Encore - Kick Out The Jams
Plus - check this link out for live clips and an interview...
Here is the set list for the Outrageous Canadians gig at Toronto's Bovine Sex Club on 25 April...
- Stairway To The Stars
- Cities On Flame
- The Red and The Black
- Hot Rails To Hell
- Dominance and Submission
- ME 262
- Flaming Telepaths
- Summer Of Love
- Don't Fear The Reaper
- Sinful Love
- Astronomy
- Vera Gemini
- Tattoo Vampire
- Joan Crawford
- Godzilla
- Burnin' For You
- Encore - Kick Out The Jams
Last night was great... can't wait for tonight's show...
P.S. The drum clinic on the 24th was great. Albert is very entertaining.
Here's a link to a free Drum Clinic Albert's holding at Long-McQuade in Toronto on April 24:
Lou Molinaro has kindly just sent me a link to some great photos of Bouchard's Outrageous Canadians in rehearsal taken by Stephanie Bell from Emerging Studios:
Furthermore, here's a link to a great interview/article by Sean Palmerston in Hamilton's VIEW Magazine for the Hamilton show:
Please post on your site that Albert Bouchard will be performing 2 nights in Canada with 9 Hamilton Ontario Musicians backing him.
Here are the details... Keeping with the BOC acronym, this project is called:
Bouchard's Outrageous Canadians - Featuring Albert Bouchard
Backing Albert will be:
- Strat Andriotis
- Buckshot Bebee
- Lisa Winn
- Ginger St. James
- Dave Elley
- Sean Royle
- Greg Brisco
- Eric Herrmann
- Lou Molinaro
Special guests for both shows will be Dean Lickyer and Drunkula.
Show dates are:
- Friday April 25th - Toronto at The Bovine Sex Club
- Saturday April 26th - Hamilton Ontario at Club Absinthe.
Check out Lou's interview with Albert here:
The Regaltones are riding again - the Cellsum upcoming gigs page at last has something to report. A new gig, although it's 4 months off:
Saturday, July 7th, 2007 8:00 PM EDT
Bonnie Castle Stables
1 Outer Holland Street
Alexandria Bay, NY 13607
Price: $TBA
Sounds lke an occasion not to be missed.
No Brain Surgeons news, though - looks like the hiatus is still well and truly in full sway.
:-(
Click here to find out the latest information on what seems to be happening at Brain Surgeon central...
The Euro tour is cancelled and the Surgeons are on what is being called a "hiatus" - check the Cellsum news page...
Although "hiatus" implies a resumption of activities after some indeterminate period, I'm not getting a good vibe from any of this.
If tBs do end up being KIA, this would be a crying shame. Finally they produce a killer CD which can be loved and appreciated by Surgeon fans and non-Surgeon fans alike and which will sound GREAT on the radio... and then this happens!!
After all this time, I believe the Brain Surgeons could start to get the respect and appreciation they deserve on the back of this record - that's what makes the whole thing so crazy.
Otherwise, what have they been working for these past ten years??
I'm going to go and have a drink (a pint of Pernod, anyone?) and play "Denial of Death" again... after that, I may ponder the transient nature of existance and futility of all things - either that or I'll get completely rat-arsed instead...
Albert has just sent some info regarding the disappearing dates from the tBS summer tour:
We had a situation where Ross could not do some of the dates because of family obligations that he did not know about when we started booking the shows.
Logistically we are having a hard time rescheduling them at this point. Because they are in the south however we may be able to reschedule them for December 2006 or February 2007.
The Regaltones show was amazing, one of the best shows any of us has played. It was a lot of hard work getting ready for the shows, a lot of research, planning and rehearsal but it paid off
Some photos of the Regaltones show are available here.
 "Regal Tones")
Regal Tones Reunion!!
Cellsum brings us the exciting news that Albert and Joe's original home-town high-school band, the Regal Tones are reuniting "on July 8th 2006 for a special benefit show in Clayton NY. "
"Details are being worked out but it will be a long sweet trip down memory lane."
I asked Albert for some more details. Here's what he said:
Well, this will be the first time we will have played together since 1965. The Regal Tones played over 400 shows in their career. We had a repertoire of over 220 songs but will probably only play 40 or so at this show.
It is a one off but it will be well documented I think. We will probably have opening acts that will be our nieces and nephews. A number of them have bands.
It is a benefit for 2 charities. The Ryan Russell Memorial Scholarship Fund (our cousin once removed) and the Stevens-Johnson Syndrome Research Fund.
If you click the image above, it opens up a newspaper clipping which mentions the Regal Tones were in a Battle of the Band finals. I asked how they did in this competition:
We actually did win that battle of the bands. We lost other smaller contests but that was the biggest one in the area. It was a multi-day event with 2 run-off rounds before the final. So to win we actually had to win 3 contests. In the final we played This Diamond Ring, She Turns Me On (an original) and Johnny B Goode. We were the only band in the area to play original tunes.
Al
PS We will be wearing uniforms
Dates have been announced for a short series of Brain Surgeon dates in the Pacific North West.
The gig count for the mini-tour is currently six dates at the moment (see above) but fingers crossed for more later.
The last time tBS were in the region (apart from a one-off Seattle gig in November 2000) was back in July 1997 so it marks a welcome return for the Surgeons.
Thanks should go to Teri who was instrumental in organising the whole affair, if only to make sure she got to see a Bellingham tBS gig!! Nice one, Teri :-)