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We were like Coca Cola, we were the real things.Inch-Albert CanadienBilled as InchCanada's All Indian Band,Inch the Tsimshian Nation garage band The Chieftones stormed the U.S. in the mid-'60s with their own brand of native rock n' roll. Led by guitarists Billy Thunderkloud and Albert Canadien, the band was filled out with Jack Wolf on lead guitar, Barry Clifford on bass, and Richard Douse on drums. Their repertoire was a heady mix of guitar instrumentals; Chet Atkins, Les Paul, Duane Eddy, and Brazil's Los Indios Tabajaras, but through the lens of the American sock hop.After a brief stint at Edmonton's Alberta College, The Chieftones hit the road, eventually setting up a home base in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, where they reportedly worked as ranch hands in between tours. InchFrom Sheboygan we made our way to Madison, Wisconsin, La Crosse, Cedar Rapids and on over to down south, like that. Indianapolis, Peoria, Illinois, Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, South Bend, Indiana back to Chicago,Inch Canadien told Pat Braden. InchWe had a circuit like that. We played two weeks here, one week there, like that. And finally after a year of doing that, we weren't going anywhere.Inch It was in this nascent state that they tracked a single and an album's worth of material with Jim Kirchstein.More Buddy Holly than Link Wray, The Chieftones lone Cuca single-1966's InchDo LordInch b/w InchI Shouldn't Have Did What I DoneInch-expressed the group's radio-friendly ambitions. The rest of their Cuca recordings, however, explore their indigenous roots. Tribal drums keep time under a wash of surf-y guitars. Ceremonial dance numbers are reimagined for the Elvis generation. When the single failed to light up the phones, the album was shelved, discovered only recently by Numero's crack team of magnetic tape sleuths.The New Smooth and Different Sound collects 12 unreleased demos and their sought after Cuca
