The Ongoing History of New Music is discussing bands that were around in the 70s and continue to make music to this day. That got me thinking about my favourite bands that were making music twenty years ago and are still making new music today.

To qualify for this list, the band must have released material in 1987 or earlier and must be still recording new music today. Here's my top ten.

1. The Tragically Hip
2. Public Enemy
3. R.E.M.
4. Beastie Boys
5. Red Hot Chili Peppers
6. U2
7. Blue Rodeo
8. The Flaming Lips
9. 54-40
10. The Cure

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Using statistics gathered from my Last.fm page I've created a new My Music page The URI is http://www.mikeboon.com/music.html.

Right now it's simply displaying my weekly artist chart and my overall artist chart. Once my creative juices start flowing, I'll add more exciting features aimed right at my target audience: myself.

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Did you know Music World was the last Canadian-owned national music store chain? Neither did I until today when I read Music World is under bankruptcy protection and will close its stores.

That makes HMV the last chain standing in an age of digitized music collections and downloads. There was a time in the early 90s when I would head downtown and hit HMV, Sam the Record Man, Music World and A&A Records. I'd usually go home with two or three CDs, too. Times have certainly changed.

How many CDs each month do you now buy in a non-digital format?

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I've added 5 new CDs to my MP3 collection. Here they are...

• Christmas Music - Vince Guaraldi Trio's A Charlie Brown
• Christmas Music - Music for the Wholidays
• Christmas Music - A Lump of Coal
• Christmas Music - A Very Special Christmas
• Christmas Music - Loreena McKennitt's A Winter Garden (Five Songs for the Season)

That's 1119 complete albums, 16,466 songs and 44.4 days of tunage. Check it out.

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I was 15 when the 1990s arrived and 24 when the decade ended. I don't care who you are, it's unlikely you'll ever again love music the way you loved music between the ages of 15 and 24. Between the ages of 15 and 24, music is everything.

It's no wonder I look back at music from the 90s, particularly the first half of that decade, which such adoration. I loved so many bands, played so much air guitar, hung posters on my bedroom wall. I was there and I remember it like it was yesterday.

That's why I'm going to do something different over the next few weeks. I'm going to take a 90s band I loved and present a sort of band primer. I'm not going to copy stuff from Wikipedia or worry too much about facts, I'm just going to share my love for a band and how I remember it unfolding, complete with YouTubery for additional context.

I think I know just the band for my first primer. I'll write that later tonight.

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Perusing the web this afternoon, I stumbled upon this Ask Yahoo! page which asks the question "What is the name of the "Jeopardy" theme song?"

It turns out the song was written by "Jeopardy" creator Merv Griffin back in 1964 and is called "Think Music". Wait a minute. Isn't that tune "I'm a Little Teapot"? You know the one. "I'm a little teapot short and stout. Here is my handle, here is my spout. When I get all steamed up hear me shout. 'Tip me over and pour me out!'"

"Think Music" my ass.

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Hip Music - I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to beta test the new official Hip site which went live a few days ago. This link is to the new Hip Music Player which will stream a bunch of good Hip tracks for you so you can truly have your music @ work.

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The Fan 590 has sports updates every twenty minutes. They've had this for as long as there's been a Fan 590. As a Toronto sports fan, I know I can count on these twenty/twenty sports updates.

All week, the twenty/twenty sports updates have sounded different. The intro music, music they've used for as long as I can remember, has changed. Although I've probably heard the new intro music a half dozen times now, it's not at all memorable. Like Pavlov's dogs, I knew to prick up my ears when I heard the old intro music. It's playing in my head right now. Da-da-da-da-da-DAAAA-da-da-da-DA!

I wonder why they changed it? Is anyone at Rogers reading this who can get it changed back?

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New York Press has a neat article about The Tragically Hip entitled "Hip Check: The biggest band in Canada is not from Montreal".

The article includes a great quote from Gord Downie regarding the effect downloading has had on the music business.

I’ve always felt that rock ’n’ roll is just melodious air. I get perplexed when music gets blunted at the border by some artificial demarcation line—whether a corporate border or a technological one. Music, or any kind of art, is like water, and it needs to be able to find its way. Fifteen years ago, we would have needed a licensing deal, some kind of emissary to chaperone our music into the same kinds of places that it’s getting to naturally these days. It’s fluid; it’s just doing what it should be doing.

Amen.

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100 Awesome Music Videos - I've linked to a lot of music video portals lately, but this is the king. This is a killer collection complete with reasoning and the video itself. Take on me!

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The latest single from Sum 41 is "Pieces" and it's currently receiving plenty of airplay on your local new rock station. The next time you hear it, think about The Cranberries' "Zombie". The music is eerily similar.

Did you know The Cranberries released a greatest hits album a couple of years back entitled Stars: The Best of the Cranberries, 1992-2002? I learned that little nugget when I hit the web to figure out whatever happened to this Irish band. Zombie was is a very cool tune.

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I've never liked The Police. They're reuniting to open the 49th Annual Grammy Awards and I couldn't care less.

I've tried to like their music, mainly because I love Sting's contribution to one of my favourite Simpsons episodes, Radio Bart. He was so good in that amazing ep, I've been trying to like his music ever since. The thing is, the only stuff I hate more than tunes from The Police is tunes from Sting himself. It's awful.

The man can dig like nobody's business, but his music is pure shite.

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Simpsons music (MP3s) - "One of my favorite parts of The Simpsons is the music, and so I have made this page containing over 100 great songs from the show (including end credit variations and short skits), free to listen to and download. Songs are in mp3 format and so will play in most audio applications." Bless this soul and his appreciation for stealth art.

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For the third straight year, "nobody" is back. "Nobody" is an anonymous soul who essentially blogs on an entry I wrote six years ago about Christmas music. He or she posts these humorous updates on their Christmas tapes and love for holiday music.

After this morning's comment, "Nobody" has left over 50 comments. Here's what he or she wrote earlier today.

I think you have no right to complain. If you personally don't enjoy being festive or listening to Christmas music change the station. All you do is complain and considering the fact that I personally want them to begin playing Christmas music now, rather than later. So stop being a cold hearted scrooge and lighten up for a change.

What's fascinating is that the entry is six years old and "Nobody" has been consistently chiming in over there for three years. It's at the point where I smile when I see the return of "nobody" and wonder what's wrong if a few months go by without a peep from him or her.

I hope "Nobody" keeps going.

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I decided to start tagging the music I listen to on my last.fm page, powered by Audioscrobbler. The first tag I created was entitled "Canadian" and I applied it to every artist I've listened to on my computer since May 2004 that was Canadian. By the time I was done, I had tagged 148 artists and you can see this list here.

This practice got me thinking about Canadian artists and that got me thinking about essential Canadian artists and songs. Naturally, I started making lists. Prepare yourself for what I believe to be the top ten essential Canadian artists and songs. Consider yourself warned.

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Top 50 Music Videos of 2006 - This is the big one folks. The link of the year!

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Using iTunes to backup your music - Every once in a while you come across a link that fundamentally changes the way you live your life. This is that link for me. When you have almost 90 GB of music, backing it all up on a regular basis can become a very time consuming thing. Following these instructions for backing up my MP3s with iTunes will save me a great deal of time and stress. Amazing.

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CBC Radio 3 just posted a blog entry entitled Bitchin’ 1980's Canadian Music Videos. Any product of the 80s who grew up watching Video Hits, Toronto Rocks and MuchMusic will appreciate the 24 YouTube videos linked to. Platinum Blonde is there, Lee Aaron is there, Martha and the Muffins are there... twice. It's a nice collection of 80s CanCon video staples.

This also gives me another opportunity to promote my YouTube favourites, a collection of videos soaked in Canadiana. CBC Radio 3 has me thinking I should add a section for Canadian music videos, in addition to Tears Are Not Enough, already on my list. Get over there and leave any suggestions in the comments.

Now that I think of it, black cars do look better in the shade.

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We finally have our Mercury Prize. On September 18, the Polaris Music Prize will award $20,000 for the best Canadian album released between June 1, 2005, and May 31, 2006, regardless of genre. The inaugural nominees are:

• Broken Social Scene for Broken Social Scene
• Cadence Weapon, Breaking Kayfabe
• The Deadly Snakes, Porcella
• Final Fantasy, He Poos Clouds
• Sarah Harmer, I'm A Mountain
• K'naan, The Dusty Foot Philosopher
• Malajube, Trompe L'oeil
• Metric, Live It Out
• The New Pornographers, Twin Cinema
• Wolf Parade, Apologies To The Queen Mary

There's a lot of Toronto represented there and a lot of great music. This addresses my issue with how out of touch the Junos seem when compared to what's truly happening in our musical landscape. Long live the Polaris!

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I heard "Icky Thump" on the way to work this morning. I turned up the volume and funked out. It was so raw, so catchy, and those lyrics are super cool. It's a tremendous single.

Then I started to think about other radio singles from The White Stripes. They're all amazing. The album cuts are ultra cool, too. I was chatting with a bud about today's music when I heard myself say it. The White Stripes are the best band from the past ten years.

Who's better?

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Although it's not what it once was, it's still the best music awards show of the year and I'll be watching tonight. The 2005 MTV Video Music Awards airs at 20:00 EST on Muchmusic.

Judging from the nominees it looks like it's going to be a big night for Green Day and Kanye West. Don't expect a lot of Cancon, there's just a single nomination for Sarah McLachlan and a couple for Simple Plan representing the Great White North.

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Damn I love holidays. No need to jolt out of bed at 06:00 and no need to get your ass into an office. That's not to say I didn't work today, because I did put in a few hours, but it was holiday workin' and that's the best kind of workin'.

My intent with this entry was to list my ten favourite songs with the word "holiday" in the title, but I think I'd best stick with five. There just aren't many good tunes with the word "holiday" in the title. Here's my five.

1. The Watchmen - Holiday (Slow It Down)
2. Weezer - Holiday
3. Sex Pistols - Holidays In The Sun
4. Green Day - Holiday
5. 10 CC - Dreadlock Holiday

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Last month I announced I had taken the Christmas discs on my MP3s page out of "Various Artists" and was now sorting them by "Christmas Music". Should a Christmas album be from a single artist, I decided that would remain under the artists name.

A couple of anonymous souls wrote me via this form to tell me Christmas music was Christmas music, even if it was from a single artist like "Elvis Presley's Christmas Peace". My initial instinct was that an Elvis Presley Christmas album belonged under "Presley, Elvis" but these emails had me wondering if my initial instinct was wrong.

You anonymous souls convinced me to change the way I sort Christmas music collections from a single artist. Go here and scroll down until you hit "Christmas Music" to see what I've got to spin this month.

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Music sounds better loud.

It just does. Period.

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Alain Levy, chairman and CEO of EMI Music, says the music CD is dead. He notes that the majority of people just use CDs to rip their music on their computers to transfer the songs to digital music players.

Back in September 2003 I first wrote about the demise of the traditional music CD. Later that year, I had an epiphany. I didn't want to see my CD collection anymore. I had no use for it. I started ripping every CD in my collection and never looked back. The CD has been dead to me for three years except for a few minutes when I'm ripping the files to high quality DRM-free MP3 files. Once they're digitized, I'm in charge. They're playing off my computers or they're playing on my iRiver. I'm at 1214 complete albums and I can't imagine going back.

So yes Mr. Levy, the CD is dead. It has been for quite some time.

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