Artist: The Shakers, Album: Weekend, Song: Let's Face It

The Shakers were a garage rock band from Hamilton, Ontario.  They started out in 1979 and lasted until 1983.  They were signed to local indie label, Warpt Records.  They were Rick Andrew, Claude DeRoches, Dave Rave (see blog 10/19/10) and Dan Gibbons.  The album, Weekend, was their final release in 1983 and was produced by the late great, Jack Richardson (Guess Who, Alice Cooper, Bob Seger, Max Webster).  The Shakers originated from the same cool scene as the Teenage Head (see blog 10/3/10) and the Florida Razors (see blog 3/5/11).  Dave Rave actually worked very closely with Teenage Head before and after the Shakers.  Dave Rave would also continue to record on his own as well as with various bands throughout the years.  He has also become a highly sought after session musician and writer.  He has worked with everyone from Alex Chilton (Big Star, Box Tops) and Daniel Lanois (see blog 9/16/10) to the Trews.  The song, Let's Face It, is one of my all time favourite tracks and it is from the Weekend release.  You can hear the song on You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUm90HjKEAk).  Dave hasn't lost a step in the 30+ years he's been on the scene.  He has a new album out that he is currently supporting.  He was in London, England last month and made his way up from the U.S. to play NXNE in Toronto a couple of weeks ago.  He will be off to Italy for a couple of weeks before returning to North America in mid July.  You can follow him at http://www.dave-rave.com/.  There was a Shakers self titled release in 1995 which was then re-released with Bullseye Records in 2001.  It was a compilation of their work and it also included this track.  However that release, much like the Weekend album, is very rare today.  At the time of this blog there were copies of the self titled compilation trading on Ebay for $15.  You can also find the song, Let's Face It, on the Dave Rave Anthology Vol.1 which is available from Amazon.  Thanks for reading and enjoy!