It's tragic what is happening to The Ramones. Within the past few years Joey Ramone died of lymphatic cancer and Dee Dee Ramone died from a drug overdose. Now Johnny Ramone is losing his battle with cancer. In the 1970s, The Ramones were punk pioneers, paving the way for bands
There has never been an official Pearl Jam acoustic release. Every Pearl Jam fan has a bootleg of their awesome MTV Unplugged performance from 12 years ago, but for whatever reason it was never released as an album. Eddie and the boys unplugged produced a simply awesome sound. Pearl Jam
A few weeks back I got a hold of the debut album from a local band by the name of Billy Talent. I've been spinning this disc like crazy since because it might just be the best new CD I've heard since Queens of the Stone Age and Audioslave. Billy
I'm sure this is old news to everyone who would care, but I just wrote about it on the Smells Like Sour Blog. Music fans, Creed has called it quits. Despite being nothing more than a fairly good Pearl Jam cover band, Creed managed to release hit after hit for
Speaking of the devils, Pearl Jam will release their first ever greatest hits album before Christmas. I'm not so interested in the disc itself because I already possess everything they've released and more, but I'm very curious as to what the tracklist will look like. Assuming they go with a
I made a point of watching The Way The Music Died, a PBS Frontline documentary that aired last night. They made a big deal about the perfect storm that is killing the quality of new music. I was intrigued by their analysis of the big six occurrences that created this
I've been using the Audioscrobbler plug-in for Winamp for about three weeks now. Feel free to check out my Audioscrobbler page to see what I've been listening to. This thing is great. It works so deep under the covers I don't even realize it's doing it's thing. For fun, here
I recently introduced James to Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody". I remember my brothers and I having a great time singing along to this epic even before Wayne's World introduced it to a new generation. James and I holler along to the operatic part and bob our heads in unison. It's very
When a rock band comes out of somewhere like Ajax, Ontario, I try very hard to like them. "Fat Lip" was a cool tune with a cool video which gave hope to my cause. Sum 41 was selling a tonne of albums and were quickly becoming princes in the pop-punk
Never underestimate the power of the right song at the right time. Take this morning for example. I'm driving along on a wet looking Tuesday morning with a lot on my mind and feeling a little blah when CFNY Edge 102 plays "Chop Suey!" by System of a Down. "Chop
It's safe to say this isn't a question that's passing through your cranium on a regular basis. If it is, I pity you. I can also help you. Audioscrobbler is a popular service which can track the tunes you're playing on your computer. While I work (and play) I'm often
Following the finale of Friends, I wrote this entry bashing yet another unfunny episode of the most overrated show in history. I mentioned there was a minute of the show I did like and that was when I heard the familiar opening chords to Pearl Jam's "Yellow Ledbetter". I was
In September of 2001, System of a Down released Toxicity. In a month that will be forever remembered for the 9/11 attacks, one of my favourite rock albums of all time was launched into orbit. Every tune on Toxicity rocks very, very hard. It's emotionally charged political music with
I watched the "Friends" finale last night. It was just as bland and unfunny as I remembered it. Nothing even remotely exciting or interesting happened. Talk about playing it safe. The most shocking development was the fact the girl from "Scary Movie" had twins. Wow. My absolute favourite part of
I just read that The Beastie Boys will be performing at the MTV Movie Awards next month. I'm a Beastie Boys fan from way back, so I'm looking forward to hearing something new from them. Paul's Boutique and Check Your Head rank among my favourite albums of all time. I've
The Ongoing History of New Music on CFNY Edge 102 have listed their Top 100 Moments. Here are their top 10. Death of Kurt Cobain.Edison invents recorded sound.Invention of the electric guitar.Collapse of the Mercer Arts Centre and CBGBs convinced to have a rock night.Ramones at
Blender magazine has published its list of the 50 worst songs ever. I haven't seen the whole list yet, but below are their top (bottom?) 10. We Built This City, Starship, 1985Achy Breaky Heart, Billy Ray Cyrus, 1992Everybody Have Fun Tonight, Wang Chung, 1986Rollin', Limpbizkit, 2000Ice Ice Baby, Vanilla Ice,
The Mars Rover engineering team plays a tune or two each morning for Spirit and Opportunity. The songs played are usually related to the day's events. The Beatles "Good Morning, Good Morning" for the first morning, Ratt's "Round and Round" when the rover is turning, etc. I was perusing this
Courtney Love is a lot of things, but being poor isn't one of them. Or is it? According to a Reuters article, she is in debt to the tune of at least $4 million. "I'm covered with loser dust" she told Blender magazine. "I found out that our dog walker
Fifty years ago today Bill Haley and the Comets recorded "Rock Around the Clock" at New York City's Pythian Temple. Blackboard Jungle featured Rock Around the Clock during the opening credits and the rest is history. If you're interested in reading a pretty good synopsis of the past fifty years
I was channel surfing the other day when I came upon a Muchmusic bit entitled "Two Hit Wonders". They were counting down the top two hit wonders and at number one they had Papa Roach for "Last Resort" and "Broken Home". By my count Papa Roach had a third hit
Nickelback's The Long Road contains a stamp on the back that claims it's "Copy Controlled". The basis of the technique is the observation that computer CD-ROM drives are generally cleverer than simple CD players and are more likely to notice errors on the disc. By putting intentionally bad or misleading
He wasn't just good, he was scary good. Over the past week I've spun every Nirvana CD in my collection. I've listened to Bleach, Nevermind, Incesticide, In Utero and MTV Unplugged in New York (Live) several times each. Every note reminded me of how talented a musician Kurt Cobain was
I intended to write a lengthy piece about Kurt Cobain, his musical genius and his tragic demise ten years ago today, but there has been so much coverage of this in the printed press, on the radio and on television that I decided to spare everyone the details you all
The Mercury News out of the Bay Area has listed what they believe to be the 11 greatest grunge albums. I read this list and article with great interest considering the majority of what I listen to was released during the golden era of grunge. Here is their list. "Nevermind,
