CBC Radio has completed their quest to come up with a great list of the 50 essential Canadian popular songs. You can view the list in its entirety. Below are the top ten. 'Four Strong Winds' by Ian and Sylvia (1963)'If I had $1000000' by the Barenaked Ladies (1992)
The Wall Street Journal recently had an interesting article on the yelling of "Freebird" at rock concerts. Yelling "Freebird!" has been a rock cliché for years, guaranteed to elicit laughs from drunks and scorn from music fans who have long since tired of the joke. And it has spread beyond
Ed and the boys are quietly working on their next studio album. Matt Cameron told Rolling Stone, "There's a lot more up-tempo stuff. It's a lot more rockin' than our last one." Some new songs in consideration are "Severed Hand," "Worldwide Suicide," "2X4," "Marker," "Cold Concession" and "Unemployable". I'm thinking
There are a few upcoming albums I'm eagerly anticipating. Queens of the Stone Age's "Lullabies To Paralyze" is due out March 22, System of a Down's "Hypnotize" is coming soon with "Mesmerize" coming later in the year and The White Stripes will be recording a new album this week. Right
Matthew Good is a bonafide Canadian rock star. I've seen him live three times and have two of his discs in my collection. While he was fronting the Matthew Good Band, our radios were inundated with hits like "Everything is Automatic", "Apparitions", "Indestructible", "Rico", "Hello Time Bomb", "Strange Days" and
I realize I'm a day late with this, but better late than never. Last year I posted my ten favourite songs with the word "love" in the title in honour of Valentine's Day. Today I bring you my ten favourite songs with the word "heart" in the title. Heart-Shaped Box
I watched most of the Grammys last night. Some stuff I enjoyed, like the Jamie Foxx & Alicia Keys tribute to Ray Charles, Green Day's "American Idiot" and the entire Kanye West "Jesus Walks" set. Some stuff was entirely underwhelming, most notably the all-star rendition of "Across the Universe". "Across
Paul McCartney is singing "Live And Let Die" during the Super Bowl half-time show as I write this. I wonder how many kids watching think it's pretty damn cool that he's covering Guns N' Roses.
U2's "All Because Of You" and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' "Maps" have very little in common. One bores me to tears and the other is one of my favourite tracks from 2004. "Maps" has more soul in one 3 second sample than "All Because Of You" has throughout. Unfortunately, there
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
On Nina Gordon's official site she's sharing a few very cool covers as MP3s. You'll find them all here, but below are direct download links to my personal favourites. Straight Outta Compton - A classic from NWA. 18 And Life - A guilty pleasure from my early high school years
Sloan has announced they're in the studio recording tracks for their greatest hits compilation. What songs will be represented on this retrospective album is not yet known, so I'm going to take a wild stab at it and see how I fare. If I chose the songs for Sloan's Greatest
Canada for Asia is a three-hour live concert in aid of tsunami victims taking place tonight in Toronto. You'll find it on CBC and various other networks at 19:00 EST but you can also find it on the radio on streamed over the net at CBC.ca. It's a
I totally dig the first two singles from The Marble Index' debut album. They have a great sound my ears love. I'm still surprised they're from Hamilton. "Not So Bright" is their awesome second single and I've been listening to it quite a bit lately. Every time I hear it,
On New Year's Eve I listened while CFNY Edge 102 played their top 102 songs of 2004. Below I will reveal my feelings about their top ten. Green Day - American Idiot During the political summer of 2004, this was a great single. It reminded me of the good ol'
With the Bills playoff hopes down the drain and with a few minutes before TSN's coverage of Team Canada's semifinal game against the Czech Republic at the 2005 IIHF World Junior Championship, I've started spinning tunes. Looking back at music in the year 2004, there are quite a few bright
On Christmas Day I told my brothers "Scars" would do for Papa Roach what "The Reason" did for Hoobastank. "Scars" is a hook-laden pop-rock single that's destined to be a big hit. It's just starting to break on CFNY Edge 102 and I suspect it will eventually chart on Chum
In the late 80s I was watching Rap City on MuchMusic when I first saw the video for Public Enemy's "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos". My ears instantly liked what they were hearing and my mind was immediately stimulated by the weight of Chuck D's words. Here was
It was twenty-four years ago today that John Lennon was shot four times in the back by Mark Chapman. I was quite young at the time, but I remember a brief discussion in grade one that one of the Beatles had died. I knew the Beatles were famous and that
This note ain't for you, it's for the Gap. A month ago, our televisions were inundated with Gap commercials featuring Sarah Jessica Parker bopping to Lenny Kravitz' "Lady". "Lady" is a new tune of his from his new album "Baptism". This advertisement was the first time we all heard this
CFNY Edge 102 has been playing a tonne of cover songs all weekend long. I'm a fan of the cover. I enjoy it when I band I like takes another tune I like and pays homage to it by performing it their way. A few years ago, a friend and
CFNY Edge 102 has been playing "Me Against The World" from Simple Plan on fairly heavy rotation. This tune has even been on their Thursday 30 chart for the past couple of weeks. It's horrible. It's the whiney, poppy, pathetic sound I can't stand. Sure, they're from Montreal and they
I've pledged to put together the definitive Christmas mix. I enjoy Christmas as much as the next guy, but I find the overwhelming majority of Christmas/Holiday songs you hear on the radio, at parties and around town suck. I'm working on an 80 minute mix of the least-sucky Christmas
The other night I found myself watching Muchmoremusic when the latest video for Gwen Stefani came on. It's called "What U Waiting For?" and a great deal of it sounds an awful lot like "Hash Pipe" from Weezer. What's happened to Gwen Stefani anyways? If I remember correctly, she was
Prior to the start of the Santa Claus Parade on Sunday, a plane circled above carrying an advertisement for EZ Rock 97.3. It proclaimed that this horrible station was already playing all Christmas carols, all the time until Christmas Day. This rendered my earlier post about stations that pull
