New BSS is coming. It's been awhile since we had a new record from Toronto's Broken Social Scene collective. The first song from Forgiveness Rock Record is World Sick and it's a free MP3 download from http://www.brokensocialscene.ca/ right now.
Sloan just quietly released a collection of b-sides and rarities they're selling at http://www.sloanmusic.com/ for $9.99. It's 26 tunes, and the first is the original version of Underwhelmed. If Sloan's embeddable player worked, you can hear this version of Underwhelmed above. I've never heard it before,
I'll admit it, I was digging the hair bands in the late 80s. One band I enjoyed in 1989 was Skid Row, fronted by Torontonian Sebastian Bach. Skid Row's self titled debut spawned a trifecta of mega hits that received a wealth of radio play in this city. It was
In my review of the Blue Rodeo concert at Massey Hall, I mentioned the opening act Dustin Bentall. He was great, but he was best when joined by Kendel Carson. This entry is about Kendel. I'm not really a country music fan, but I like folksy country rock and ol'
Last night, I was at Massey Hall to see Blue Rodeo. I've been a Blue Rodeo fan since 1987 when the DJ we hired for our grade school dance told us he was going to spin us a new one and I heard "Try" for the first time. And if
Like a sucker, I watched the Grammy Awards last night. I PVR'd the show and started it about 45 minutes in, so I could skip the commercials. I never like the Grammies, but I always feel compelled to watch them for some reason. The music was once again mediocre. Actually,
In my travels the other night, I stumbled upon Dead Teen Songs or Teenage Death Music or the teen death song or teen tragedy. In addition to being quite the title, it's quite the list. You've got to love songs about teenage death. Here are my ten favourite dead teen
The Kleptones "released" one of my favourite albums of all time. I almost wrote "favourite mash-up albums", but that's not true. A Night at the Hip-Hopera is one of my favourite albums overall, just like Girl Talk's Feed the Animals was my favourite album of 2008. The Kleptones have a
Chris Cornell wrote a very sweet tweet that excites this Soundgarden fan. "The 12 year break is over & school is back in session. Sign up now. Knights of the Soundtable ride again!" Back in October, Soundgarden appeared on stage together for the first time since '97 during a Pearl
My brother works with a guy who raps as K-Dot-O-Dot. He sent me this guy's latest album, produced by The Arkeologists, and called The Life & Times of Lucha Lonely. My brother is friends with K-Dot-O-Dot, but that alone wouldn't get me to share these tracks. I listened to the
DJ Earworm did this last year. He calls it "United State of Pop 2009 (Blame It on the Pop)". It's a mashup of the Top 25 Hits of 2009, according to Billboard. Pop sure does rule the day in the USA. Except for the Kings of Leon track, it's all
I love this story out of the UK. A Simon Cowell act has topped the United Kingdom pop chart at Christmas four years in a row. X-Factor artist Joe McElderry's Christmas song "The Climb" was a virtual shoe-in to top the charts this year, which would give Cowell an impressive
You can blame it on The Sopranos. When it came time to end that most popular series, creator David Chase opted to do it to "Don't Stop Believin'", the 1981 hit for Journey. The ending was rather controversial, so it put a whole new focus on the contagious sing-along single.
There's a link going around that lists the 100 best band names of all time. Here's their top 10: 1. Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem (Leave it to The Muppets to come up with the BEST BAND NAME OF ALL TIME.) 2. Guided By Voices (This always seemed like
A homeless guy named Mustard told Opie and Anthony that he used to be a musician, so they gave him a guitar. He then covered Radiohead's "Creep". [via Metafilter]
Tis the season we're inundated by Christmas music. Like any music, some Christmas songs are great, while others are pretty dreadful. This year, I decided to wade through my collection and produce the top 40 Christmas songs. Yes, music playlists are totally subjective, so I'm sure I've missed a few
I have vivid memories of discovering Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. Yes, it was years before Wayne's World brought the song to a new generation. I discovered it in the best possible way. I started playing vinyl records found in my old man's collection. I also have vivid memories of discovering The
In the late 80s, I absolutely loved Guns N' Roses. I literally wore out my Appetite for Destruction cassette. I had to score both Use Your Illusion 1 and Use Your Illusion 2 the day they were released. For a few years at least, GNR was the best band on
Back in '92, I was listening to the debut album from House of Pain. Snicker if you will, but I dug that album, and I still spin it now and then. One of the songs I enjoyed was "Put on Your Shit Kickers" and it included this folksy verse that
Is it me, or did they used to air more tunes with swear words on the radio than they do now? I'm not talking about late night live-to-airs, I'm talking about middle of the day F bombs. From memory, here are songs with swears I heard completely uncensored on CFNY
Here in Canada, we're smack in the middle of our Thanksgiving long weekend. My family carved the turkey yesterday, but most are doing that today and some are doing that tomorrow. If you need a Thanksgiving playlist, here are songs from my collection with "thank" in the title. Give Thanks
Toronto's Fucked Up (a hardcore band, not a declaration) won the fourth annual $20,000 Polaris Music Prize. I can't say I'm familiar with Fucked Up. I was interested, however, in how this news would be reported by the mainstream media. Will they print "Fucked Up" or F***ed Up"
I was so disappointed with The Top 200 Songs of the 1990s that aired on Edge 102 / CFNY a few weekends ago, I decided to create my own list. There are almost 60 songs here that did not appear on the original list. I've marked my additions with "NEW". Feel
With the death of DJ AM yesterday, people are seeking out his former band's one hit. Crazy Town was an alternative hip-hop ensemble consisting of several artists, including Adam "DJ AM" Goldstein. "Butterfly" was released back in 2001 and was a massive hit for the band. The contagious groove is
It's been a long week. Earlier today, during a five minute break, I posted five albums every teenager should listen to. After some reflection I realized that 3/5 were actually compilations, and not studio albums. If we're going to force teens to listen to five albums recorded prior to
