This is a new Radiohead video, and it's pretty good. Radiohead's In Rainbows actually gets better with every subsequent listen, and I'd be submitting this for SLS consideration except we only allow one song per artist and I'm reserving that spot for "Jigsaw Falling Into Place".
It's two children with very different lives in different necks of the wood and it's pretty chilling.
Today is the perfect day to share my favourite song from the first band I saw live in concert, Chalk Circle.
This is The Pogues with The Dubliners performing "Irish Rover".
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Throughout the day, I made four trips outdoors to shovel this snow. It's coming down so hard right now, I'm just going to leave it for the night and get it all tomorrow morning. I'm not complaining about all this snow, I actually don't mind shovelling, I'm just impressed by how quickly it accumulates and how it hasn't let up all friggin day.
Speaking of snow, "Superb Notorious Outrageous Whiteboy" was born and raised in Toronto, and this is his biggest hit.
Do you remember the Sean Connery movie Finding Forrester? It wasn't a bad little film, I recall enjoying it at the time, but today the first thing I remember about the movie is the song that played during the closing credits.
It was "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" and "What A Wonderful World" tied together and it was so mellow and sweet I was sure to wait for the soundtrack credits to learn who was behind this intoxicating medley. It was Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, a name I had never seen before.
I soon learnt Israel Kamakawiwo'ole was a recently deceased Hawaiian musician and that his medley of "Over the Rainbow" and "What a Wonderful World" was his signature song. I've heard it since in other films and commercials and here it is, an ideal song to take us away as we await yet another snow storm.
This was BoingBoing'd the other day, so you may have seen it already. It's a cool new video from Canadian band the New Pornographers. It's a visual grilled cheese sandwich on a cold, snowy day.
In addition to My Hootastic Cross to Bear I must confess to another guilty pleasure from the 1990s. I'm throwing this out there in the hopes that my full disclosure will absolve me from all sin.
In 1997, Christian-ish rock band Creed released their debut album My Own Prison. Creed had a string of hits, but they were sort of like Nickelback before there was a Nickelback, so it wasn't cool to be a Creed fan. Were they trying to sound like Pearl Jam? Were they bible thumpers? We didn't know but we knew it was wrong.
As much as I tried to fight the hooky rock sounds of Creed, I couldn't help but really dig "What's This Life For", one of the hits off of My Own Prison. It was the guiltiest of pleasures that climaxed with me watching Creed headline an Edgefest one July night at Molson Park in Barrie.
I just realized I've confessed to this guiltiest of pleasures before. Now what's worse, me digging that Hootie track or the fact I'll still sing along to this Creed song if I hear it piping through my local Walmart?
I loved the first Everyday Normal Guy rap song from Jon Lajoie and HhDotCom tells me there's a sequel.
Here's the very funny and very NSFW Everyday Normal Guy 2.
retroCRUSH posted the best duets ever, so I've decided to follow their lead and throw down my top ten duets.
I've disqualified all duets from bands that are naturally duets. For example, Simon & Garfunkel, Sonny & Cher and Stars. Here are my favourite ten.
Honourable Mentions: Eddie Vedder and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg, Chuck D and Scott Ian, Shabba Ranks and Maxi Priest, Neil Young and Randy Bachman, Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow, Eminem and Dr. Dre, Tom Wilson and Sarah McLachlan.
Eddie Vedder has unveiled his first solo music video for "Guaranteed," taken from his Into the Wild soundtrack. My brother lent me this soundtrack on Christmas Day and I love it.
As a long time Pearl Jam fan, I remember when they stopped making videos. The video for "Jeremy" was everywhere and won big at the MTV Video Music Awards, and I remember Eddie making a comment about how they're not going to do that anymore. They were true to their word until "Do The Evolution". It's a shame, because those great Pearl Jam songs from Vs., Vitalogy and No Code would likely have been accompanied by some wicked vids.
I'm emotionally drained. Today I attended a company breakfast and some speeches, attended a funeral, visited the cemetery, attended the reception, met up with some colleagues for more speeches and a seemingly never ending dinner at Canyon Creek filled with good food and big laughs.
I'm winding down with Scotch Mist, a film with Radiohead in it made for New Year's Eve, 2007. It features every song on their new album IN RAINBOWS.
Kingston, Ontario's Bedouin Soundclash did an awesome cover of U2's "New Year's Day". Enjoy.
Oh 2007, where have you gone? It seems like only a year ago you showed up, all fresh and new. Now, it's time to say goodbye.
It wasn't easy trying to come up with my ten favourite songs from 2007. I had "Nature of the Experiment" from Tokyo Police Club on here before I realized it was released in 2006. Same for "Lazy Eye" from Silversun Pickups. Then, I had a couple of Arcade Fire tunes on here before I started making cuts. It turns out I like Neon Bible better as an album than a collection of singles.
Here's my 10 favourite songs of 2007 complete with videos so you can hear the great tunes you missed this year.
One of my favourite songs of the year is "Take Me To The Riot" from Stars. It's just a great little ditty. Here's the video.
The Stars are responsible for one of my favourite songs of all-time. I don't remember the last time I synced my iPod without including "Your Ex-Lover is Dead". The video is perfect for this time of year, full of ice and snow.
You likely know Stars best from their 2006 hit "Ageless Beauty". That's a great tune, although I prefer The Most Serene Republic Mix. Here's the video for the original.
They'll call Stars a Montreal band, but they were originally formed right here in Toronto. They've got a fantastic sound, don't they?
I shared The Pogues' "Fairytale of New York" earlier in the month as a weekly MP3. Normally I only host MP3s for seven days before yanking them, but dammit, this is Christmas, so you can still grab it if you haven't already.
If you can't wait to hear this holiday favourite, the video is below. It's Matt Dillon's greatest role to date.
Is there really only a week until Christmas? Holy crap.
Here's a little something from me to you. It's Wham's "Last Christmas". Don't pretend you're not ecstatic.
After hearing It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back for the first time, I couldn't believe my ears. I had finally found music that got my heart pumping, my head banging and my mind racing all at once. A standout track on that phenomenal album is "Bring the Noise".
It only took me a few listens to memorize the lyrics and I've never forgotten them. A few years later, while flipping through the channels, I heard that beat again, only it was different. It was rocking hard. It was Public Enemy and Anthrax. It was awesome.
Every time I hear this, I rap along. It came on the radio this weekend and I treated James and Michelle to my Chuck D and Scott Ian. I brought the noize and they loved it.
While riding the subway today, I called myself "Mr. Metro". The dialogue in my head was about eco-friendly modes of transportation and with metro being the French word for subway, the term Mr. Metro came naturally. (Note to self: check yourself into a mental institution for observation).
So I'm calling myself Mr. Metro, when all of a sudden I catch myself singing a local rap song from back in the day. Devon was a Toronto rapper who recorded "Mr. Metro", a song about Toronto police racism allegations. MuchMusic would play the video now and then and I always thought it had a raw, gritty charm.
I found the video on YouTube. There are some Toronto street scenes in there for good measure. On an interesting side note, I just learnt from Devon's Wikipedia page that he's now a police officer for the RCMP. Go figure.
The Sweet Hereafter, a great Atom Egoyan film, features a cover of The Tragically Hip's "Courage" sung by Sarah Polley.
I've always liked this haunting reworking of the tune and meant to share this video some time ago.
During Thanksgiving turkey at my mom's house, the conversation turned to The Rheostatics. Actually, the conversation turned to Old Mill Donuts and then The Rheostatics, but the devil is in the details.
I told Steve my favourite Rheostatics song was "Record Body Count" and promised to share the video in this space. He told me to do it up, and here it is done... and done.
I've been helping Buffalo Boy start up his own blog. I just popped over to see how he's doing and I was delighted to find this entry in which he shares The Rheostatics' "The Ballad of Wendel Clark, Part 1&2".
If you remember Etobicoke in the mid-80s, watching this video is a trip down memory lane. My favourite part is the scenes of the Old Mill Donuts shop which I fondly recall. It was on Dundas Street West, between Islington Avenue and Burnhamthorpe Road, where the Second Cup is now. I hadn't thought about Old Mill Donuts in years.
There's more fantastic Etobicokery as well, and it's a pretty cool tune honouring a Leaf great who was all heart.
Well done, Buffalo Boy. Just remember what I told you about leaving the entry mark-up to the CSS...
Here's everyone's favourite guilty pleasure. On this day, you want to skip on over to the 3:37 mark.
Holy cow!
I'm all about one-stop shopping. The sole purpose of this entry is to give me easy access to every Tragically Hip video from one convenient page.
Here, in chronological order, is every Tragically Hip video. For more on The Hip, visit my Tragically Hip page.
Let me know in the comments if the order is wrong. I did it from memory. Also, if I missed a video, let me know that as well.
In case you missed it, here's Amy Winehouse's latest video. It's for "Tears Dry On Their Own" and was directed by David La Chapelle. Yes, there is a "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" sample in there.
The other day, right after Raging Storm's second loss in four nights, both of which can be pinned on a certain pitcher who bailed on us, I turned on the car and heard the opening of Faith No More's "Epic".
It's been a few years since I've heard "Epic", but it's as good as I remember it. It is, for all intents and purposes, epic. It helped kick off that hip-hop meets hard rock blend I've always loved.
It had a cool video as well, and no, the fish doesn't actually die at the end. They returned it to its tank.
One of my all-time favourite bands is Alice In Chains. I love that moody, grinding, grungy melody and Layne Staley's vocals still send shivers down my spine.
I was listening to Alan Cross' Ongoing History of New Music episode on Layne Staley and he reminded me of Mad Season. Mad Season was a Seattle supergroup that released a single album back in 1995. Mad Season featured Layne Staley on vocals, Pearl Jam's Mike McCready on guitar, as well as members of the Screaming Trees and other Seattle bands.
I only really know one Mad Season song, but it's awesome. For a trip back to the mid-90s and a reminder of just how good Layne Staley was, here's the video for "River of Deceit".
My third CanCon song dump led to a discussion about Colin James. In particular, Al and I were chatting about the song "Why'd You Lie", which is actually a cover of a Morgan Davis tune.
It's a cool track from 1988, and if you can handle Colin James' hair, you'll love revisiting this video.
I just lamented about the fact Jill beat me to the punch by submitting The Fratellis' "Flathead" for SLS17 consideration. It's a catchy as all hell sorta tune and I'm totally digging it.
Here are some things I just learnt about The Fratellis.
Did I mention there's a really-cool-yet-smoking-hot video for "Flathead", too? Here it is...
An old favourite video of mine was They Might Be Giants' "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)". It's actually a fairly old song, dating back to the 1920s, but the They Might Be Giants version is the only one I know.
In 1990, MuchMusic began airing this very cool video for the song. Accept no substitutes.
Because I dig her, and this is her new single, I thought I'd share Feist's video for "1 2 3 4".
C'mon get happy...
There was a trend in the late 80s and early 90s where every hip-hop album contained a track that featured all the MCs taking turns. One by one they'd drop their rhymes in their style and they'd go down the line. One of my favourites was "Down the Line" which appeared on Big Daddy Kane's Taste of Chocolate album and featured Big Daddy Kane, Scoob Lover, Scrap Lover, Mister Cee, Lil' Daddy Shane and Ant Live.
I still know every line in that song. Yesterday morning I went for a run by myself and needed to talk to myself to ensure I was keeping an appropriate pace. I opened my mouth and rapped everyone's part from "Down the Line". The album is 17 years old, but it's the first thing that came out when I started to run.
Big Daddy Kane was one of my favourite rappers because he had this seemingly effortless style and the smoothest delivery in the biz. It made my day when he joined Ice Cube on "Burn Hollywood Burn", a cut from Public Enemy's Fear of a Black Planet. It was a great song and Kane's contribution nicely complemented Chuck D and Ice Cube.
Here's the video which, unfortunately, had to be heavily censored to get any airtime.
History repeats and James is now a TMNT fan as his father was before him. He's been talking about the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie for a while now, and in a moment of weakness at some point I may have promised I'd take him to see it.
Today I read the review of the movie in the Star and learnt it's not that funny, not as charming as it once was and it's neither a good time for kids or parents. Ouch. I'm wondering what would happen if I simply forgot to take him but made up for it by taking him to something good. Then, we could watch the new crappy TMNT when it hits TMN next March or so. I'm thinking this plan is crazy enough to work.
It's a shame the new TMNT doesn't measure up to the 1990 film I remember so fondly. The sequel to that film featured an embarrassing performance of "Ninja Rap" by Vanilla Ice. As difficult as this is to watch, I fear the new film is an even tougher pill to swallow.
Go Ninja, go ninja, go!
It's warming up outside, so I took a stroll to Yonge and Dundas. Passing 333 Yonge, home to HMV, I thought about Kish.
Kish was a local rapper who hit the charts back in '91 with I Rhyme the World in 80 Days. According to his Wikipedia page his real name is Andrew Kishino, but there's no info on what he's up to these days.
I actually bought his album Order From Chaos and thought it was pretty good, but teenagers are notorious for having bad taste. The reason that HMV reminds me of Kish is because I once saw him there when I was checking out new hip-hop in the basement. He had a large guy with him who may have been a bodyguard and I remember thinking that Kish probably didn't need a body guard while shopping for CDs at HMV.
I'll bet he doesn't have that body guard today. Andrew Kishino, if you're out there, let us know where you're at. I'm goin hypa.
Chalk Circle is already a major part of my personal history because they were the first band I saw live in concert. When CFNY Edge 102 played the top 102 Canadian new rock songs of all time, Chalk Circle showed up twice.
Their highest ranking song on that chart, and their biggest hit, was April Fool. It's still pretty sharp, see for yourself.
I just posted the video for Treble Charger's "Even Grable". The video has a cameo appearance by Hayden, an artist I was touting as the next Neil Young. That got me spinning all my Hayden CDs and searching for his videos.
I was hoping I'd find the obscure video for Hayden's "Take", but it's nowhere to be found. That's okay, because another Hayden song was listed as one of my ten tracks, and that's pretty exclusive company.
Here's the video for that song I find so fine, "Bad As They Seem".
I was walking home tonight when I started thinking about "Even Grable". "Even Grable" was probably the first Treble Charger song I ever heard, but what I remember most about the song was the video. The video had Toronto street scenes and a cool cameo from Hayden, an artist I first heard in '93 on CFNY's New Music Search disc.
Thinking about this cool video and song, I went hunting for it on YouTube. I found it, but it's not great quality. If you want a mid-90s Cancon flashback, revisit "Even Grable".
Prince is all over the news today because he used his guitar as a phallic symbol during his half-time show at Super Bowl XLI. Imagine that, Prince being sexually suggestive. Will wonders never cease. Have these people never listened to Darling Nikki?
The summer of 1989 was the summer I turned fifteen. The most anticipated film that summer was Batman. I had the tee shirt, we had the big cups they were giving away at McDonald's (or was it Burger King?) and Muchmusic was playing the video for Prince's Batdance on very high rotation.
Batdance was kitschy fun. It helped me memorize many of the best lines before I saw the movie. You never hear it or see it any more, but if you remember videos from the spring and summer of '89, you remember this one.
For the record, I absolutely loved the movie. I even bought the soundtrack on cassette. All subsequent Batman flicks paled in comparison.
I liked The Pursuit of Happiness' I'm An Adult Now enough to list it as one of my ten Canadian tracks. I've always considered this cool song to be the definitive Toronto single.
In this video you catch a glimpse of Yonge and Dundas the way it was. That theatre they pan by is playing Wildcats and is located where the Pantages Theatre is today. It's total Toronto circa 1986.
I'm not sure this tune is any good, but the video is great. It's from U2's singles collection, U218 and the video appears to be sung by an assortment of great artists, from Iggy to Flav.
We sort of broke with convention when we put Regina Spektor's Fidelity on SLS16. We just dug the tune so much, we couldn't leave it on the cutting room floor. I even slapped it on my ten favourite songs of 2006 list.
Regina Spektor's got a video for "Fidelity". It's kinda cool. Here it is.
All this chatter about Jeff Healey got me thinking of "Angel Eyes", a sweet tune from his 1988 album See The Light.
It was a bonafide Cancon hit single at the time, and here's the video.
This is the video for my favourite song of the season. It's The Pogues but Kirsty MacColl makes it work. For many, Christmas kind of sucks. This tune doesn't sugar coat that fact.
Yes, that is Matt Dillon as a cop in the opening scene.
Here are the other videos covered in this continuing series.
If I had to pick one video that represented Christmas time on MuchMusic back in the day when they actually played music videos, this would be it. It's a great song, a great message and totally seasonal.
Band Aid was made up of these guys and the money raised went to famine relief in Ethiopia.
Here are the other videos covered in this continuing series.
I was pretty young when John Lennon was murdered. I shared my memories of that day last year. I remember sort of understanding what it all meant and realizing that many of the adults around me were upset about this loss.
In survey after survey "Imagine" is honoured as one of the greatest song in the history of popular music. There's no doubt it's something special. On this day, twenty six years after his senseless death, we can still imagine.
Here are the other videos covered in this continuing series.
Remember when rock went wussy in the late 80s before the grunge revolution saved the day? During that period of time, I discovered Public Enemy. My brothers will vouch for my love of this band. I listened to them every day, learnt every word to every song and prayed at their alter. It was heavier than heaven.
"Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos" was one of my favourite tracks from It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back and I loved this video. It was only played during Rap City, but it was worth the wait. Listen to Chuck D's words, listen to that beat, feel that anger. This was when Rap mattered.
Here are the other videos covered in this continuing series.
We're actually leaving the 80s for this one. Maestro Fresh Wes' breakthrough hit "Let Your Backbone Slide" hit the radio in 1990 and remains the best-selling hip hop single in Canadian music history. I just loved this track, buying the 12 inch and CD and catching this great video whenever possible.
This is a throw down, a showdown. Hell no, I can't slow down... It's gonna go.
Here are the other videos covered in this continuing series.
A great song and an instant video classic collided in an explosive frenzy with Dire Strait's "Money For Nothing". At the time, these computer generated images were pretty cutting edge.
In grade seven, my classmate Marc brought in this song to play for the class. It was all part of a class project where we had to share a piece of music and discuss the lyrics. I remember Marc getting in some trouble because the word "faggot" was in there three times.
While we're on the topic of "Money For Nothing" lyrics, Marc and I had an interested debate prior to his presentation. Was he singing "hawaiian noises" or "how are ya noises"? We correctly agreed it was "hawaiian noises". In the days before Google, we actually had to debate such things. Imagine that.
Here are the other videos covered in this continuing series.
Whenever MuchMusic would count down "all-time best video" lists in the late 80s, Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" would always crack the top five, often finishing first. It was groundbreaking, that stop action stuff kicked ass.
This was one of those videos that was always on high rotation. They're probably still playing it daily.
Here are the other videos covered in this continuing series.
I just searched my blog for instances of the word Mitsou and I was shocked there are none. How is it I've never dropped the word "Mitsou" once?
Her video for "Bye Bye Mon Cowboy" had me day dreaming as a fourteen year old. It was an instant crush. The entire song is sung in French, but I didn't care. I was smitten.
I still am.
Here are the other videos covered in this continuing series.
When I look back at the early days of MuchMusic, there are certain videos that immediately spring to mind. One such video is for Gowan's "A Criminal Mind". But first, let's review where we've been.
Gowan is Canadian, which meant here in Canada "A Criminal Mind" got plenty of airplay. This was a good thing because the video was/is really cool. I'm surprised by how well it's held up. The follow up, "(You're A) Strange Animal", is pretty good too.
Today is Halloween. Since I'm sharing great videos from the hey day of MuchMusic and MTV, I thought this would be an appropriate day to revisit a classic video that scared the bejeezus out of my brother Steve.
But first, here's where we've been thus far.
Michael Jackson's video for Thriller was a video that seemed too good to be just a music video. At fourteen minutes and with credits that rolled at the end, it seemed more like a short film. It was even directed by John Landis.
Whenever this video would come on, we'd have to whisk Steve out of the room. The video literally gave him nightmares. To this day, I'm not sure he's ever seen the entire video. Go ahead Steve, click play and face your worst fears! I assure you, it's not nearly as scary as you think. Or is it? Ha ha ha ha haaaa!
Yep, I'm sharing great videos from back in the day. Music videos came of age in the 1980s and that's when they first won me over. If you're just joining us, here's where I've been thus far.
Today I'm sharing "Cry" from Godley & Creme. For its time, this seemed like such cool effects and whenever I'd catch it on Toronto Rocks or Video Hits it would resonate with me for hours.
The other day I decided to share great videos from my youth. Thanks to GooTube, it's easy. First up was A-Ha's "Take On Me" and today I'm sharing Cyndi Lauper's "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough".
"The Goonies 'R' Good Enough" isn't a particularly good song, but as a kid I loved this video. You see, it starred a number of WWF stars of the time, like Rowdy Roddy Piper, Captain Lou Albano, the Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff. That was more than enough for me. I should also mention that I loved the movie "Goonies". Enjoy 7:20 of wonderful cheese that will take you right back to 1985.
I used to be all about the music video. Before MuchMusic came down to our level of cable I would watch Toronto Rocks and Video Hits after school. On weekends, there was the CHUM 30 countdown. When MuchMusic started delivering videos 24x7, I was in heaven.
I rarely see videos anymore. When I flip by MuchMusic, they're usually airing some stupid reality show or a moronic program aimed at kids fifteen years my junior. Do they even play music videos anymore?
Enough griping about the good ol' days. Periodically, I'm going to share a great video from my past. I doubt there's a better way to kick things off than with A-Ha. Here's "Take On Me", a great video from yesteryear.
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