Songbird, the highly anticipated open-source media player from Rob Lord and the gang, built on the same platform as Firefox, was released today as a "proof of concept". The official site was impossible to access, but I managed to download the installation file from a mirror. Songbird crashed the first
Checking the milk calendar on the wall, this is 2006, not 1966. During the Super Bowl half time show, the audio failed to pick up one of Mick's lyrics in "Start Me Up". Children everywhere were spared from having to hear a geriatric exclaim "you make a dead man come"
It's update time at torontomike.com. In August, I wrote about Gord Downie's "Hallelujah". He covered Leonard Cohen's masterpiece for the movie "Saint Ralph" but I couldn't score a copy of the tune anywhere. I embarked on a hunt for Downie's "Hallelujah". I conducted a hard-target search of every gas
I just submitted a tune for SLS15 consideration. I submitted "Rock & Roll Queen" from The Subways. It's a little Oasis-ish, but it's a pretty damn good little rock song. Besides, there's nothing wrong with sounding a little Oasis-ish, just ask Jet. The Subways are a British indie band from
We're down 2-1 after one period. Will this be seven in a row? Here are my favourite losing songs.... Losing My Religion - REMLosing California - SloanI'm Losing You - John LennonAngels/Losing/Sleep - Our Lady PeaceLosing Hope - Jack JohnsonI Can't Stand Losing You - The PoliceThe Losing
Is there a guy my age who didn't love Guns N' Roses? I'm sure there is, but I'm not him. I was a huge fan. Although Axl Rose is the only guy left from the glory days of the band, he's been promising a new album for about a decade
The Tragically Hip wanted us to know they're currently in the process of recording a new studio album with producer Bob Rock. Once completed, they will be out on the road performing select shows in Canada, the USA and Europe this year. I've been itching for a Hip show, so
On New Year's Eve 2005, CFNY Edge 102 counted down their top 102 songs of the year. I would have posted their list earlier in the year, but I couldn't find it on their site. I finally wrote Alan Cross about it and he got me in touch with the
I love music from the band System of a Down. Their tunes are wonderfully heavy but maintain incredible melody. Their lyrics are politically charged and meaningful. Serj Tankian has an exhilerating delivery with many facets, just listen to "Chop Suey" for a sample of what I'm referring to. He's the
Is there a more dismissive term in the English language than "whatever"? Someone can tell me to f*ck off, go to hell or eat shit and die and I'm cool with it. "Whatever", however, is the lowest of the low. I've been listening to a song from CDLX called
Using statistics gathered from my Last.fm page I've created a new My Music page The URI is http://www.torontomike.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
It's the year-end list you've been waiting for. I've already documented my favourite albums of 2005 and now here are my ten favourite songs of 2005. 10. Wolf Parade's I'll Believe In Anything I only got into this band recently when a friend insisted I listen to Apologies to the
With only a few days remaining in the calendar year, it's time to write a bunch of year-end "best of" entries. I've already hit you with my favourite television shows in 2005 and my favourite musical guilty pleasure of 2005 but now it's time for a biggie. Here are my
I've never been ashamed to write about the guilty pleasures in music, film and television. These are the things you know you shouldn't like but you do. Like a grilled cheese sandwich on a lazy Saturday, they just feel good even if it's not necessarily good for you. To borrow
I'm so damn proud of the new music I hear coming from this country. This week I've been heavily spinning the tracks from The New Pornographers' Twin Cinema, Metric's Live It Out and Broken Social Scene's Broken Social Scene. All three albums are fantastic. They're a joy to listen to
Last December I unveiled my definitive Christmas mix. This year I created a 247 song Christmas playlist and quickly got tired of skipping over the songs I didn't feel like hearing. My solution to this problem was to create a second Christmas playlist consisting only of the tunes I feel
It looks as if Green Day's "Jesus of Suburbia", the second track from their 2004 American Idiot release, will appear on SLS14. At 9:08 it will be the longest song in the history of SLS. It's an epic with several twists and turns. In the spirit of Meatloaf's "Paradise
I just created a playlist that includes all my Christmas albums plus all seasonal songs found on other albums in my collection. I then removed all repeats. The same song may appear multiple times, but only if it's by different artists. Only one "White Christmas" by Bing Crosby allowed! This
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
I watched the half time show during the Grey Cup on Sunday. For those who didn't, it was the Black Eyed Peas performing a variety of their hits and causing a little controversy. From what I can tell, there are three reasons for this controversy. I'll list the three reasons
Yesterday I heard The Pursuit of Happiness' "Hard To Laugh" on CFNY Edge 102. It was the first time I've heard a song on the radio from TPOH that wasn't "I'm An Adult Now" in many years. Earlier in the week, I read this which discusses "When We Ruled: The
Listening to The National Playlist on CBC radio this morning, I heard a song entitled "The Bridge" from a Toronto-based band from Windsor called Elliot Brood. Prior to today, I had never heard of Elliot Brood. One listen to "The Bridge" and I was impressed. It's a very cool single
It started when I started reviewing Dave Cassel's list of the 100 greatest internet moments. While cruising down memory lane I learned about a video for an acoustic version of Radiohead's "Creep". This moment was ranked in the top 100 and I had no recollection of it. The video is
On Saturday, BBC Radio2 is is airing part two of their documentary "The Maple Music Revolution". Here's their description of the feature: "A major two-part series where Bob Harris looks beneath the surface to discover the reasons for the emergence of a unique, creative and dynamic government-funded Canadian music scene.
Twas the night before Halloween, and all through the house, all the creatures were stirring, except for the mouse. The monsters had gathered to plan and prepare, for the trick-or-treaters who soon would be there. Sick to death of "Monster Mash", these monsters played a frightening playlist of ten "ghost"
