Deferred listening returns: Animal Slaves

One song I played several times on my college radio show back in the 80s, but which I never got my own copy of the record of, was "Bones Brigade" by Animal Slaves.  It appeared on the album Things Are Still Coming Ashore, a 1981 sampler LP from the Vancouver label Mo=Da=Mu.  The album featured four songs each from Animal Slaves, 54-40 (as "fifty four forty"), and Junco Run.  One reason I've been thwarted in getting this album is because 54-40 got so popular (in Canada), so it's a bit of a collector's item.  I thought I had hit pay dirt last year when I found Animal Slaves singer Elizabeth Fischer's website, on which she has made all of the Animal Slaves' records available for free downloading; but not the Things Are Still Coming Ashore tracks!  Argh!  Just this week I snagged my own copy for a reasonable price, it arrived in the mail today, and I finally got to hear "Bones Brigade" again after 20-odd years!  Rachel Melas' slap-bass work places this one in the Bassline Hall of Fame; coupled with Rosco Hales' rock-steady drumming it brings to mind Medium Medium's "Hungry So Angry".  Update: I heard from Fischer herself: the Animal Slaves tracks on this album are pre-Rachel and Rosco.  The actual players were from other Mo=Da=Mu bands, chipping in while Fischer fished (heh-heh) for permanent members.  Or with the female vocals maybe it's more akin to the Au Pairs, though Fischer's voice is much more rich and distinctive.  In short, "Bones Brigade" is nothing less than a lost postpunk classic:

The guitarist on this track must be, in Fischer's words, "the ubiquitous and given-to-alcohol stan, [who] fucked off to mexico and forgot to return" to record their first record, 1982's self-titled EP.  Elizabeth Fischer now sings in the band DarkBlueWorld, and her voice has gotten even deeper and richer over the years.  It's really quite spectacular and mesmerizing, and I'm always delighted to learn that someone whose music meant so much to me decades ago has kept right on creating and performing while my attention was elsewhere.