Uptown magazine (Winnipeg, MB) article - November 6th, 2008

(Super) oldies but goodies Minnesota label unearths long-lost local gems from the '60s
by Don 'Nostalgia' Beat

"We're all very familiar with Neil Young and the Guess Who, but in the late 1960s there were over 250 bands performing in the area in community halls and other venues," says Super Oldies operator Shawn Nagy over coffee at the Victoria Inn during Rockin' Richard's Record & CD Show n' Sale in October. "Not a lot of these bands made recordings."

There's a growing global interest in the bands that did record, as the bulging world-wide website traffic for Nagy's 24/7 internet station – Super Oldies.com – proves.

Winnipeg bands like The Shondells, Pallbearers (still playing shows!), Trippers, Quid, and Franklin' label recording bands like Gettysbyrg Address, Sugar 'n Spice, Mongrels, the Fifth, and Dublin Corporation all released records or made recordings that continue to interest & please worldwide fans of psyche, soft pop, A.M. rock & proto punk. "When I released the (currently sold out) Eagle compilation, people said you've got to do the Franklin record label," says Nagy with a solid smile.

So he did.

"Between 1967 and 1972 Franklin Records released thirty singles. Most were Winnipeg groups."

The Franklin double disc features a 24-page, heavily-illustrated booklet penned by Nagy. It reveals Franklin was launched by U of W alumni/Shondels' manager Frank Weiner who formed the Hungry 'I' booking agency and night club in 1966-67 – opening at 340 Portage Avenue.

"Strictly a non-alcohol, teen dance club, it would feature go-go dancers and the area's top bands… It would be the first establishment to obtain a dancehall license in downtown Winnipeg in 25 years," Nagy writes. It was packed every weekend, and the success of the club eventually led Weiner to start Franklin – which released over 35 singles and at least one full-length LP.

"There's a pretty good volume of stuff on the Best of Franklin that has never been available before. The disc is 160 minutes and features 56 songs, almost all the records that Franklin put out - some of which are quite expensive today," says Nagy.

"The most expensive record on the compilation is the Expedition to Earth single which can run anywhere from five to six-hundred dollars."

Nagy says his quest for the master tapes to use for both compilations turned up some pleasant unreleased surprises like a demo recording by the Gettysbyrg Address and "three unreleased Deverons tunes."

Not everyone shares the same interest in the resurgence of Winnipeg's nostalgic sounds. Indeed the master tapes for the recordings to some of the songs on these comps were left to the elements in a rural barn. Leave it to the archivists like Nagy to come up with the exhumed fuel for the fan's fire – even if it all stinks to high hell.

"Some of the tapes stunk," says Nagy of one of his pet projects. "When I was transferring them in the studio, the smell of mildew and cat filled the place."

"But there were no dropouts, no rolling, which was amazing because the tapes had not been played in 40 years."