I just read an article from the New York Times that reveals the latest radio format sweeping the United States. They call it "classic alternative" and several stations have switched to the format in the past month. "Classic alternative" is essentially music from the early 90s like Nirvana, Pearl Jam,
I was showing off my collection of newly ripped MP3s to my friend Marc Felice the other day. He was nice enough to drop off some tunes I didn't own so I could have a listen. Among the CDs he lent me was Warning by Green Day, the lone Green
I thought this was cool so I thought I'd share it. On our Smells Like Sour website, people can post comments and have a discussion on songs that are submitted for SLS consideration. Just last week I mentioned a few of the more interesting discussions and listed the one for
On New Year's Eve I posted my five favourite tunes of 2003. My only rule was that the song had to have been released in 2003. Songs released in 2002 that experienced most of their airplay in 2003 were ineligible. To refresh your memory, here was my top five. The
In 2003, much like the previous 12 years, most of the music I listened to was recorded in the early 90s. I listened to a lot of Nirvana, Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, The Tragically Hip and Soundgarden. That's not to say I didn't listen to any current music. I
I was just catching up on my ChartAttack news when I stumbled across an item dated November 17th that somehow eluded me. The Watchmen have broken up following their final gig at The Horseshoe in Toronto last night. I was always a big fan of The Watchmen and constantly wondered
Sometimes my favourite part of a song is the silence. Well, not the silence exactly, but the silent pause followed by a return of the tune. You know what I'm talking about, right? The song is clicking along fine when suddenly it stops. There is a period of about three
A very interesting site entitled American Brandstand 2003 presents some startling statistics. They tracked all the mentions of brands in the Billboard Top 20 singles chart in order "to demonstrate to our clients that pop culture relevance is a key dynamic in modern brand strategy". The results are staggering. There
The Golden Globe nominations came out today. I was going to write about this fact and list the nominees for the major awards, but it was a bunch of movies I hadn't seen and a bunch of television shows I don't watch. Sure, there's the odd exception like "Six Feet
I heard the new Courtney Love song this afternoon. It's called Mono and it's okay, but I prefer the new Courtney Love, Brody Armstrong of The Distillers. My relationship with Courtney Love throughout the years can best be described as tumultuous. When Live Through This from Hole came out, I
One of my favourite tunes to kick back and listen to is The Tragically Hip's live version of "New Orleans is Sinking" with the Killerwhaletank monologue. Hip fans will instantly know what I'm talking about. Others won't care. In the middle of the most excellently bluesy "New Orleans is Sinking"
It's December. That means we're approaching the deadline for SLS10. I'm going to assume readers of this blog are familiar with SLS, or Smells Like Sour if you prefer the elongated title. For those in need of a refresher course, here's the last update. I've muddled through all the SLS
When the deejay on your local alternative music station has a couple of minutes before the traffic/weather/news update, there are usually a handful of songs he or she can go to to bridge the gap. Three songs in particular are often thrown on the air at 28 or
Rolling Stone magazine has just listed what they consider to be the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Lets take a close look specifically at their top 100, shall we? Rolling Stone likes The Beatles. The four mop-tops from England account for eight albums in the top 100, including four
One of my favourite bands has officially called it quits. The Stone Temple Pilots have decided to split and move on. As a guy who believes music peaked in the early 90s, I was an instant fan of STP. Core had Plush, Sex Type Thing, Wicked Garden and Creep. Purple
It's happened. For the very first time ever, the top title on Billboard's Hot Digital Tracks chart has outsold the No. 1 commercial single on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles Sales tally. In other words, the #1 downloaded single has outsold the #1 offline single. The most excellent funky sounds of
Tupac Shakur is the hardest working man in show business. The man has been prolific, releasing nine albums over the past seven years and starring in the major motion picture "Tupac: Resurrection" which is being released this week. This is an impressive resume for a man who was gunned down
I'm listening to Alice in Chains' Dirt while sitting at my pc awaiting the start of the Raptors game. I listen to the 13 tracks on this album rather frequently. In fact, I find myself returning to the same few albums over and over and over again. Not counting albums
I can't say I've given Sinéad O’Conner much thought since her 1990 album "I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got". It was a pretty good CD at the time that spawned a monster hit with Prince's "Nothing Compares 2 U" and a minor follow up hit with "The
I maintain a Dead Pool page as part of this website. The most popular part of this page is the ongoing list of celebrities who have passed away. Everytime I hear or read about the death of someone who is well known in the public sphere, I add their name,
A couple of days ago I wrote about Alex Halderman who pointed out copy protection software could be blocked if people used the SHIFT key when they inserted a CD. This morning I read in the news that SunnComm Technologies, the company that developed the anticopying technology in question, was
In a recent blog entry I questioned whether a tune can be considered cool if it's being played on CHUM FM. I pondered whether being played on an MOR station was the kiss of death for a tune, no matter how good it is. I've been giving this concept a
Since the dawn of Napster a few years ago, the recording industry has been trying to play catch up as they lose business to MP3 rippers sharing their files via P2P networks. Ask the average computer savvy person in their 20s when they last purchased a CD. For many it
Three evenings a week I undergo physiotherapy for my injury (see September 24, 2003 / 19:43 EST). The clinic plays CHUM FM over the ceiling speakers to entertain us while the various machines work to soothe and heal our pains. Yesterday I was particularly surprised and concerned upon hearing Finger
As is my daily ritual, I was listening to the radio while taking a shower this morning. The news brief opened with word of John Ritters surprising death at 54. Following this piece of information, I heard there was another death to mourn in the celebrity world. Johnny Cash had
