The Five Hole Band — Tales Of Hockey Erotica

Music From Five Hole: Tales Of Hockey Erotica

Zunior/Outside

Steve McLean (CHARTattack)

01/29/2009 2:38pm

This unusual album is based on a play staged by Calgary's One Yellow Rabbit Performance Group that was based on a book written by former Rheostatics singer/guitarist Dave Bidini, one of this disc's five main creators. It's based around the "five hole," the space a sharp-eyed hockey player looks to shoot between a goalie's legs, and mixes hockey and sex as much as last year's short-lived CBC TV show, MVP.

It starts with the multi-voiced "Hockey Anthem" before moving into the best song, "(Thinking 'Bout Your) Five Hole." Selina Martin handles lead vocals on this innuendo-laden number with a catchy singalong chorus. "Joan," a lesbian-themed track that wouldn't sound out of place on a Rheostatics album, gets bonus marks for including a saw. "Electric Goalie" and the album-closing "Electric Goalie Exit" are more sound and voice collages than songs.

"Five Hole Story" is essentially a Bidini spoken-word piece with phrases that would make a junior goalie blush. Former Pittsburgh Penguins and Hartford Whalers goaltender Frank Pietrangelo and "Convoy" singer C.W. McCall are both name-checked in "Enough About Men & Women Already" before Barenaked Ladies drummer Tyler Stewart jumps in and starts rapping. "I Fall To Pieces" isn't the old Patsy Cline hit and "Bobby Wolf" shifts back and forth between dark and mean-sounding and light prog-rock sections.

I'd be interested in seeing the play, and this album might make more sense if I did. But as a stand-alone disc, it's not a playoff contender.