Ongoing History of New Music

I love the smell and feel of recording studios…if you’ve been inside a proper one, you’ll know what i mean… The air is kept clean and dust-free to protect the equipment…the a/c is usually cranked up to offset the heat generated by the electronics…there’s a slight whiff of ozone created by all the electrical circuits…and it’s usually very, very quiet…loads of isolation and baffling and sound-proofing… To me, a recording studio is the musical equivalent of an operating theatre; a place that’s dedicated to one thing and one thing only…and what goes on within the walls is deadly serious… Okay, I’m not saying that recording a song is the same as a heart transplant or something, but there is the same sort of vibe… There used to be dozens and dozens of these places around the planet…people would travel thousands of kilometers to work there because they were thought to be magical in some way… But that’s when you needed a full-equipped recording studio to make a record…today, you can do a pretty good job with a laptop in your bedroom… Many of the legendary studios are gone, a victim of the changing economics of the music industry…a few of these behemoth still exist… This is another look at the world’s legendary recording studios, both past and present… Songs in this Episode: David Bowie - Life on Mars Sex Pistols - Holiday in the Sun The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony Mumford & Sons - Believe The Clash - The Magnificent Seven The Black Keys - Tighten Up The Tragically Hip - Poets Bob Marley and the Wailers - No Woman, No Cry Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I used to be a big fan of “King of the Hill”…Hank Hill would often look at his son Bobby and say… “that boy ain’t right” I know how he feels…you know when you encounter someone and there’s something off about them?...they’re not malevolent or evil in any way…they’re not a danger to themselves or anyone else…they’re just different… They look at the world in ways you wouldn’t think to—which is kinda cool in a lot of ways… but at the same time it might be a bit—well, maybe “unnerving” is too strong…but at the same time, you’re not really sure what’s going on or how you should react… This happens a lot with music…you encounter artist who has a complete unexpected attitude to towards the universe…this is to be expected…art can comes from a strange, uncharted place in the soul…and since all souls are different, you’d expect that some weird will leak out from some of the weirder souls… And because alt-rock has a history of being open to different forms of expression, some of these souls have found homes in this province of rock’n’roll…and some of those have even had hit records… Maybe we should look at some of these musical outliers…it’s a tense world…maybe this will help loosen us up…and hey, who doesn’t like a bent sense of humour from time to time? Buckle in…this is about to get weird…and at some point, you will be thinking “that boy ain’t right” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Streaming is a very cool way to access tens of millions of songs with a few pokes on your phone…the idea of being able to listen to virtually any song from any era of human history with such ease is something akin to magic… The downside of streaming is that it doesn’t provide any context to what we’re hearing…a continuous stream of music tells us nothing about the artist or the song…it’s just music, standing alone with nothing to anchor it to anything… It was different in the old days…if you bought an album, dammit, that was an investment…you paid money for it, which created a fiscal relationship with the artist…that meant you were more likely to stick with an album and get deeper into the artist and the songs…otherwise, you had this nagging feeling you had wasted your money… Context means so much to the enjoyment of music—which is probably a reason you’re listening to me right now…you want more than the notes that make up a song… Yeah, sometimes a song is just a song…you know, it’s got a good beat, you can dance to it and maybe sing along…it doesn’t really mean anything more than that… But some songs are very deep…they actually form some part of a historical record…they tell the story of real people, real events and the things that came after… That’s where we’re going with this show: everything we’re about to hear is based on fact, on history, on actual events…and you may be shocked by the truth beyond songs that you’ve been digging all your life…this isn’t anything you’re gonna get from a stream…trust me… Songs in this episode: The Clash - White Riot Boomtown Rats - I Don't Like Monday's U2 - Sunday Bloody Sunday REM - What's the Frequency Kenneth? Pearl Jam - Jeremy Nirvana - Polly The Tragically Hip - Wheat Kings Filter - Hey Man, Nice Shot! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's another bonus episode and this one by request. Someone asked recently: "Have you ever done a show about alt-rocks really out-there people? I don't mean that they've done terrible things...just...they have their challenges?"Why yes we have...about 12 years ago in fact. This is Alt-Rocks Craziest People. Songs used in this episode: Iggy Pop - Real Wild Child David Bowie - Alladin Sane Joy Division - She's Lost Control Killing Joke - Love Like Blood The Verve - The Drugs Don't Work Nivana - On A Plain Courtney Love - Mono The Vines - Highly Evolved The Libertines - Up The Bracket Pre) Thing - Faded Love Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When we started posting "bonus" epiosodes of the Ongoing History, lots of people began requesting topics...wondering if we had ever covered them. With 800+ shows in the vault, there is a good chance that we have. One request came to us from a drummer who asked "I'm sure you've done shows about singers and guitarists...but what about drummers? I play the drums and often am the butt of jokes because...well I play the drums". Well...good thing you asked becasue in May of 2004 we paid homage to the Drummer. And here it is...in Podcast form. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every song comes from some sort of story. Sometimes it’s just the story of a feeling…good or bad…or maybe it’s just a way of getting a point of view across. Other songs are actual stories. They have a narrative, characters, drama, beginning, middle and end. But what if you’re a composer and you have a story that is too long….too complex to fit in the standard four minute song. Well then maybe you need to think about breaking it out to its constituent parts and telling the story across multiple songs. You do this over enough songs and you create a concept album. A record where a story or a variety of themes tie everything together front to back and back to front. Your four-minute short story has turned into an hour-long novel. This is part 2 of the history of the concept album in alt-rock. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's not easy making a living as a rock band in Canada... This is afterall the second largest country in the world. And when you consider that the Trans-Canada Highway is over 7600 kilometers long, and there is nearly 10 million square kilomters of land spead out over 6 time zones, well...it's a little daunting to say the least. And even though 77% of Canada's 36 million people live in big cities, bands still have to work really really hard to reach everyone. It's even harder when you factor in that we live right next door to the largest exporter of pop-culture in the universe. Geography has chewed up the domestic careers of countless bands...but some have it figured out. They've got the routine and fanbase all figured out. They may not be rich, but they are making a solid and respectable living as rock stars in Canada. Sloan is one of those bands. They've been around since 1991and have become somewhat of a Canadian institution. This is Sloan in Their Own Words...Part 2. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are many ways to tell a story...a book, a movie, at TV, a comic book. You also use music of course; a ballad is a story set to music, a lot of music videos tell a story. Operas and ballet are more grand. The other musical option is the concept album. These are records where all the songs, all the imagery, is somehow tied togethor by some sort of unifying theme or thesis. The music, the lyrics and sometimes even the artwork come togehtor to tell a story. These were big in the '60's and 70's but they were seen as old rock and needed to be expunged from popular culture. But then a funny thing happened. They started to make a comeback...the stigma vanished, and they even found a place in Alt-Rock. Here...let me show you. Songs in this episode: Green Day - American Idiot, David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust, Kraftwerk - Computer Love, Husker Du - Pink Turns to Blue, Nine Inch Nails - Hurt, Smashing Pumpkins - Bullet With Butterfly Wings, Weezer - No Other One, Tool - Stinkfist, Marilyn Manson - Beautiful People Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the years, there have been a good number of Canadian bands that have gone on hiatus, broken up, taken time apart....and eventually reunited. Some have made it work....others not so much. Take Sloan for example. Aside from a brief 2 year hiatus between 1994 and 1996...we'll explain...they've been putting out music since 1991 and really, can you imagine a Canadian rock music scene without them? Fortunately for us, we were able to get Chris Murphy and Jay Ferguson in a studio and we thought it best to get them to explain the history of Sloan...in their own words. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Okay here is something that may shock you. As far as scientists can tell, there is no biological or evolutionary need for humans to have…music. As a species, we could get along just fine without it. Life would be much duller but we would be okay. Yet there is something about our brains…we’re hard wired to both crave and create music. Bottom line is that music is literally part of your DNA, which brings up some interesting issues. Welcome to an episode that I call “Medical Mysteries of Music” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sometimes when you’re in a band, you have ideas and ambitions that might not line up exactly with what your band is doing. This can cause tension, friction, confusion...suspicion. So, one of two things can happen: the band can break up and use the "creative differences excuse", or you can reach some sort of agreement where the keener can do whatever it is they want and everyone can then get back down to business. Sometimes this works...and sometimes it doesn't. This is what happens when someone in a band says, "Screw you...I'm going solo!" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alright, let’s face it. My entire carrier is based on obscure information. The weirder stuff I can find out about a band, an artist, a musician, a performer…the better. However. Obscure information does not necessarily mean useful information. But I don’t think there is anything wrong with useless information. This is the fun stuff…the bits of trivia that gives things spice. You can use it to win bar bets and I’m glad I know it because it’s just fun! So, I think it’s time that I gather this information and give it to you as one bit glob and data dump. Use it however you would like…I call this The Completely Useless Information Show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're going to dispel some myths about the rock star. Over the decades, most people have come to believe that rock stars...of both sexes...are drunken, drugged out sex machines that had they not learned to play an instrument would have had a hard time holding down the worse type of minimum wage job. But being a rock star isn't necessarily synonymous with having the intellect and manners of a caveman. Don't believe us? Have a listen and you'll see. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's not only expensive to put on a concert or a tour, but it's also risky. There's the whole issue of liabiltiy. If a fan gets hurt or killed, the resulting lawsuits can be crippling. You need insurance. You know...just in case something awful happens. And awful things do happen. No one goes to or holds a concert with the idea of anyone being hurt...but...stuff happens. Well, what kind of stuff? Well...I'm glad you asked Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ska was born in Jamaica in the 1950's. It was declared over at least twice. The first wave pettered out in the 1960's as Reggae took hold. Then in the early 1980's, post-punk Ska was suddenly deemed passe. But on both occasions, Ska rose from the dead and came back even stronger. Ska is not onto its 3rd wave...and that's where we are going. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How many of today's Ska fans...and there are millions and millions of them all across the world...realise how deep and how rich, and how complicated the history of this music really is? From first wave, through second wave, and finally the present third wave of Ska...We think it's time to check it out. This is the first part of our in depth look at the history of Ska. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this Podcast, conclude our 2009 profile of Rage Against The Machine. Few bands in Alt-Rock are as passionate, powerful and influenctial as these four guys. We trace the roots of Rage from their earliest bands, all the way through their reunion in the late 00's. Enjoy. And turn this one up! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every walk of life has its stars...the famous people who get all the attention. In business it's the CEO's, in sports the athletes. In movies it's the actors and to some extent, the directors. And in music it's the musicians...and the singers. But to be honest, these people are just the faces of their respective industries and pursuits. Some have real power and influcence...others are just figureheads and pupets. Whatever the case, behind them...behind the famous people...are armies of people who made it possible for these folks to do what they do. This is the kind of stuff I want to explore on this program. The people deep behind the music and who never got the credit. Until now... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Few bands in Alt-Rock are as passionate, powerful and influenctial as Rage Against The Machine. On this weeks bonus summer Podcast, and by request, we dig into the archives to bring you our 2009 profile of RATM. We trace the roots of Rage from their earliest bands, all the way through their reunion in the late 00's. Enjoy. And turn this one up! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I hate not finishing something I start…for example, if I pick up a novel, I’m determined to finish the thing even if I hate it… But then I look around the house and I see all the jobs that I didn’t complete…organizing the basement…filing all CDs and records…that little project in the back corner of the garden that—well, I don’t even remember what I was trying to do there… Then there’s my novel…I’ve wrote two chapters in a flurry of creativity year ago—and I haven’t touched it since…it’s been so long that the file was written in WordPerfect…I hope I can still open it…I’ll get around to checking that…. All this unfinished business really bothered me—until I saw something that made me feel so much better… It was in china...north of Beijing is a giant amusement park that from the highway looks a lot like Disneyland…it’s called wonderland…it was supposed to attract millions of visitors from all across the country… But then in 1998, investors pulled out…120 acres of half-finished, abandoned, fairytale-themed amusement park…it was so weird…all this time and money and labour put into something only to never see it actually work out… Which brings me to this…just because you start on an album doesn’t mean you’ll ever finish it…and even if you do, it doesn’t mean it’ll ever get released… There are dozens and dozens and dozens of “lost” albums sitting in vaults and on hard drives all over the world…who made them?...and what happened?...let’s take a look—and maybe even a listen… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For this weeks bonus Ongoing History Podcast, we go back to January 2005 and our look at Christian Rock. In this episode we trace its history and evolution of in the Alt-Rock world. It's not all Creed! Thankfully... Special thanks to Brad from Brampton, Ontraio who asked for Alan's thoughts on the genre. And fortunately, we had one on file! Here it is! Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to a show about crime—specifically crimes committed by performers in alt-rock…and i’m not talking about petty misdemeanors, bar fights, minor felonies, drug convictions or overnight stays in the drunk tank…the topic is real crime and hard time…arrests, convictions and long-term jail sentences—in some cases, sentences scheduled to last decades…robbery, murder, child abuse…there’s some scary stuff coming up here… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For decades, the attitude was that if you recorded for an independent label, you were in the minor leagues…after all, if you were any good or you made music that the masses were likely to enjoy, you’d have been picked up by a major label, right?... The world of indie rock—which itself was a subset within the already left-of-centre alternative rock scene—was a place to put all the extra weird misfits or those whose talent was questioned… Totally unfair…mostly…yes, there were plenty of dregs when it came to indie rock…but this is also the universe where people took chances…and every once in a while, something great inevitably happened…a new sound…a new trend…a new band…even just a new song… And when things got weird with the music establishment in the era of music piracy and illegal downloads, it was the indie world that was forced to step up and figure what everyone needed to do… This is part four of our history of indie rock… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For this weeks bonus Ongoing History Podcast, we go back to early 2005 and our profile of Green Day. In this episode we trace their history from their very beginnings before the band even formed, right up to the release of their "comeback album" American Idiot. Special thanks to Colin who asked: "Hey Alan...have you ever done a show about the history of Green Day"?Why yes we have Colin...13 years ago. And here it is again! Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There was a time when indie music was ignored by most people…the thinking was that if the music was any good, then it would have been picked up and released by a major label… And there was some merit to that argument…there was a time when the major labels—back when there were six or seven of them—scooped up all the best stuff…they could afford to take those kinds of chances back then…the indie labels were, for the most part, left with the dregs… I know, I know…that sounds shortsighted, elitist and unfair…but there really was that imbalance in quality—generally speaking, anyway… Indie and alternative music was looked upon as the domain of weirdos and outliers—stuff that just wasn’t good enough for everyone to enjoy… For the musicians who made that kind of music, the labels that distributed it and the fans that enjoyed it, that was fine…they were penned off in their own little parallel universe, free to do things as they pleased… So this music lived in its little petri dish and grew…and grew…and grew…and by the time we got to the early 90s, no one was in a position to ignore anything… This is part three of the history of indie music… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The music industry is dominated by three major record labels: Universal, Sony and Warner…they are multi-national entities that control most of the world’s trade in music and all the revenue that goes with it…. But beyond those three companies are hundreds, thousands of labels that do their own thing…and because they are unaffiliated with the big three, we consider them to be “independent”… They are the indie labels….the musicians who record for them are indie artists…this is the universe of the non-mainstream…the experimental, the daring, the outliers, the unusual, the non-conformist—or, if you prefer, the not-ready-for-prime-time…at least not now—and maybe never… The indie universe is the engine of change for rock’n’roll…whatever sounds and trends and fads are coming next often start here…and it’s through their work and their art that we’re all dragged into the future… I shall illustrate…this is part two of the history of indie rock… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re going to spend a couple of programs tracing the history of “indie rock” and why music that has come up through these ranks has become to important to not just alternative rock but today’s rock’n’roll in general… Our story is of the records and the artists—but it’s also of the labels and the people behind them…you can’t tell one part of the story and not the other… But what are we really talking about?...what, exactly, is “indie rock?”…tough one, so we’ll have to unpack this carefully… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the early days of rock—and we’re talking the 1950s here—the most efficient and cost-effective way to put acts on tour was to bundle them together as a package and put them on the road… In some cases, there would be a common backing band for most of all of the artists…PA equipment—such as it was in those days—was often supplied on site… These became known as caravan tours…guys like Alan Freed, the pioneering disc jockey and Dick Clarke—you know him, right?—took all these acts on the road playing places like theatres and county fairs and wherever else they could find a booking… This package tour approach was pretty common until the late 60s when music business was producing artists big enough to tour on their own and play areas and later stadiums…that’s where the real money was…that and big festivals… But then along came Lollapalooza in 1991…Perry Farrell, singer for Jane’s Addiction, put together a multi-act bill to support what would be the last-ever tour for Jane’s Addiction…the net effect was very much like those old caravan tours… That ’91 tour was successful enough for Lollapalooza to try again in 1992…this time, things were expanded across multiple stages and multiple attractions…and for the next couple of years, Lollapalooza was thetouring music festival for the alternative generation… This spawned imitators: Edgefest…Lilith Fair…Summersault…Another Roadside Attraction…and for a while, it was all pretty cool… Things are different now…Lollapalooza is a static festival held in Chicago ever August…Edgefest, Lilith Fair, Summersault, and Another Roadside Attraction are all defunct… But there was one travelling music festival that survived for 24 years…and it’s been so big that no one knows for sure how many acts have played it… This is the history of the Warped Tour. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

No one is born a rock star…well, maybe in terms of their attitude but not in terms of vocation…you gotta have the talent and you need to put in the work if you want to achieve actual rock star status… But that takes a lot of time and a lot of effort…and before you get to the stage where people acknowledge your rock star-ness, there are lots of twists and turns, false starts and dead ends… Later, when you’re rich and famous, these early attempts become part of your archeological record…some of this stuff may be found in shallow graves…the rest may be buried very, very deeply and need serious excavation work… Finding this material used to be hard…tapes were locked away in vaults…other early music on tape was erased, recorded over in order that this tape be reused… Cassettes were placed in shoeboxes and lost in closets…music that was released went out of print and was no longer available for sale… There were fires that destroyed archives…storage sites were wrecked with water damage…and then there were all the legal disputes…who owned all these old recordings…which member of the band?...the record label?...someone else?...until that can be sorted out, this music remained unheard… Some of this material did leak out and was released on bootleg albums and CDs, but they were very hard to come by… But then the internet hit…slowly, first through file-sharing sites like Napster, these demos, alternate takes and long-lost recordings started changing hands…and then came YouTube…that’s a treasure trove of old music… Finally, there are box sets and reissues…as physical music sales, record labels are looking deep into the catalogues to find stuff that might entice fans to buy high-margin physical product… The result is that today, a lot of the heavy archeological excavations have already been done for us…and I think it’s time we sifted through the results, don’t you? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Buying concert tickets used to be easy…you show a show you wanted to see, went down to the box office, plunked down some cash and in exchange were given a couple of stiff pieces of paper with some words on them… When it came time for the show, you presented those pieces of paper to a person at the door who torn them in half—and you went inside to enjoy the gig… It really was that simple—in theory, anyway…it wasn’t, but we’ll get to that… As time went on, buying concert tickets got more complicated…through the mail…credit cards…bar codes… Then the local ticket sellers vanished, replaced by a big mega-corporation…physical box offices started disappearing…the internet came along with online sales…scalpers…the secondary market…bots…and all the while, concerts and touring became big, big, big business… These days, buying concert tickets is really confusing…you still exchange money for admission to gigs, but the experience has very little in common with the so-called good old days… Stay with me…i’m going to give you the honest truth about concert tickets… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People often ask me where I come up with ideas for this program…my answer is always the same… you know that feeling when it’s Sunday night and you promise yourself you’ll start on that assignment that’s due the next morning as soon as “the Simpsons” is over?... Yeah, that’s me…every week…and after more than 700 of these one-hour assignments stretching back to 1993, I hit a wall…total writer’s block… I started to panic…there are hard deadlines…I have a contract…I’m expected to deliver another new show…there are radio stations all over the place that need new programming from me…what the hell am I gonna talk about this time when I got nothin’?... I mean, this is the seven hundredth and forty-sev— Wait…show number 747?...that’s the same as the airliner…what about stories of alt-rock and airplanes?... And so I started go back through all my files—and sure enough, there’s tons of stuff on the subject…plane crashes, near-misses, air rage, terrorist bombings… Well, that settles it…show number 747 will be able civil aviation and alt-rock…there…that wasn’t so hard, was it?... Dodged that bullet for another week…. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I don’t know if you realize this, but the music festival isn’t a modern creation…people have been gathering in fields to hear music for centuries…and in some cases, those original festivals are still happening… Ever hear of Fiera Della Frecagnola?...it started in the village of Cannalonga, up in the mountains in the south of Italy…as far as we’ve been able to tell, the first gig was in 1450…and it’s still happening today… There are other long-timey festivals in Germany, England, India, Latvia…so this isn’t a new thing… The first modern music festival—the thing that would be recognizable to us today—would be Monterey Pop, which was held in San Francisco in the summer of 1967…that led to Woodstock, Glastonbury, Roskilde and a ton of others… But the 1990s was the decade where the festival really came into its own with a series of regular events that reappeared year after year in the same spot—or ones that moved from place to place… Europeans were pretty used to standing in fields in the mud and the rain and the heat…but we north Americans were late to the party…there was no tradition of us doing anything like that…we’d go to the occasional outdoor gig, but it wasn’t the lifestyle thing it had become in other parts of the world… But by the time the decade was over, we had embraced the summer festival…now we have our own events and traditions…and it couldn’t have happened without the 90s alt-rock nation… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Canada is now the sixth-largest music market in the world…only the US., Japan, the UK, Germany and France are bigger…not bad, considering that we’re living right next door to the biggest exporter of popular culture in the known universe—and considering that unlike Japan, Germany and France, most of our domestic music industry isn’t isolated and protected because of language… I mean, the whole world consumes English-language music…what’s the market for Japanese music outside Japan?...or German music outside of Germany?... Then there’s the matter of population…of those top six nations, Canada, with 36 million people, has the smallest number people…compare that to 66 million in both the UK and France and 83 million Germany… Canada also exports far more music to the rest of the world than we should…every year, the export numbers grow bigger and bigger thanks to stars like Drake, The Weeknd, Justin Bieber, Alessia Cara, Arcade Fire and a long list of artists that came before: Alanis Morrissette, Sarah McLachlan, Celine Dion, Shania Twain, Rush, The Guess Who and dozens and dozens of others… And maybe most important of all, Canada has a super-strong domestic market…Canadians listen to and support Canadian music…and the country tends to be very proud of its homegrown talent…just look at the national outpouring of affection for The Tragically Hip in the summer of 2016… But it wasn’t always this way…there was a time when “Canadian music” was a synonym for “substandard” and “not very good”…Canadians went out of their way to avoid Canadian music—unless it had received a stamp of approval from music fans in the United States…that was the only form of validation the country would accept… That attitude is pretty much extinct now…and the roots of our current musical nationalism can be traced back to the days of the alt-rock 90s… This is chapter 8 of our look at that decade…let’s call it “The CanRock Revolution”… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of the great things about the alt-rock revolution of the 1990s was its diversity… The sounds from this part of the rock universe had always been varied…that’s because the idea of “alternative music” was so amorphous…if it was (a) non-mainstream and ignored by most radio stations; (b) a little left of centre in terms of aesthetics; and (c) considered weird by the majority, then it qualified as “alternative” by default, simply because the was no other way to categorize it…and humans love to organize things into piles, right?... Multiple genres thrived in the alt-rock universe…plus there were all the sub-genres and sub-sub-genres and even sub-sub-sub-genres…this mean that if you into alternative music before the 1990s, you were spoiled for choice…there was something for everyone… Then along came grunge, the biggest sound of the decade…it ripped a whole in the music-space-time continuum, opening a hole into this parallel universe, allowing all these sounds to invade the mainstream… And because these sounds and scenes and sub-genres had been happily evolving almost unseen for years, the people making this music knew what they were doing…the mainstream was flooded with new songs from scenes that were already mature—or at least close to it… Never before had so much solid music from so many seasoned performers been waiting in wings, ready to show their stuff…and when they got their chance—wow… This is our look at the alt-rock of the 1990s, part 7… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The early 90s were an amazing time for music…generation x, a powerful demographic force, reached the age where they were in a position to demand music that reflected their needs and wants and wishes and desires and fears… The biggest sea change came with the rise of grunge, thanks to Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, and, of course, Nirvana…but that music was just the kick-start for the alternative nation that came to dominate most of the 90s…. For many, grunge was alternative music with training wheels…those who liked what they heard were invariably led deeper into a culture that had existed outside the mainstream for years…Gen X discovered different flavours of goth and industrial and electronic music…and they also discovered punk…. Punk had always been around…sure, it kinda got burned out at the end of the 70s, but it never died…the Ramones kept touring…bands like husker du were putting out records…and American hardcore established itself as a force to be reckoned with… But punk was still a niche thing, away from the attention of most music fans…but then an interesting set of circumstances came into play that resulted in a massive resurrection of interest in punk rock—and echoes of that resurrection are still being felt today… This is chapter 6 of our look at back at the 1990s…it’s the mid-90s punk revival… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If we look at the state of rock here in the 21st century, it is no longer the main musical driver of popular culture…hip-hop is king… This doesn’t mean it’s dead, that it doesn’t have a place in our lives, that it isn’t going to be around for decades to come…but if you’re honest, you’ll have to admit that hip-hop has extended its reach into popular culture with the strength and depth that used to belong to rock… And it’s not like rock’s appeal shrank…it’s that other genres have exploded, hip-hop being the genre with the most growth… Now let’s go back to the 1990s, the last decade where rock ruled everything…alt-rock was the thing…but if we dig through what happened in the 90s, we can see how hip-hop not only infiltrated alt-rock but how it was embraced, incorporated, and celebrated… Regions of the alt-rock universe began to evolve…the beats got bigger…the rhymes got tougher and more complicated…the vibe began to change…and it was all pretty good—but not all of it worked out well… What were hip-hop’s effects on alt-rock?...we’re going to continue with that topic on this next episode on the alternative 90s… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are some things you should never mix...oil and water...nitro and glycerin...tequila and—well, it’s not a good idea to mix tequila with anything other than salt, lemon and maybe some fruit juice… They used to say this about rock and rap music, too...and they were pretty adamant about that… When rap and hip-hop started seeping into the mainstream in the middle 1980s, it immediately polarized people...those who didn’t (or refused) to get it, were aggressively dismissive of what rap brought to the table... “that’s not rap…it’s crap!” …. “this isn’t music…it’s just bad poetry over beats stolen from another record”… It took a few years, but by the time we got into the 90s, hip-hop and rap was becoming a very powerful musical and cultural force…today, it is the genre when it comes to driving culture…after half a century of being in charge, rock has fallen to second place… Not only that, but a chunk of the rock scene was co-opted into hip-hop, creating a new series of hybrid sounds… The original post-punk alt-rock population also aged...the older, set-in-their-ways crowd was pushed out by a new generation who didn’t have any preconceived notions or baggage when it came to these new sounds...to them, rap was just another form of exciting new music... So, by the end of the 80s, there were signs that punk, funk, rap, hip-hop and metal were all becoming inextricably intertwined...but who knew that in a few years we’d all be talking about this thing called “nu metal?”... This is part 5 of our look back on the alt-rock of the 1990s… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I want you to think about fashion for a moment…fashion is one of the most disposable of all the artistic endeavours…much of what’s created isn’t designed to last more than a season…once the season is over, time to toss out all the coture and buy new stuff… But there are cycles in fashion…after a certain amount of time, old styles might come back into favour again…this, in a way, makes fashion a renewable resource… Music is also like that…trends and sounds and styles come along and then disappear…but then ten, fifteen, twenty or more years later, those trends, sounds and styles are resurrected by a brand-new generation… Sometimes the kids rediscover the joys and appeal of a certain style of music independently…or maybe they got into some older records and were inspired by that…whatever the reason, anything to keep from being bored, right?... If you were around in the early-to-mid 90s, you may remember a period when every week seemed to bring along something new and cool…a new band with a new sound and a new attitude…and this stuff was coming from all directions… North America had developed a massive appetite for all things alternative, led by grunge…in fact, grunge threatened to completely swamp rock music worldwide, including the UK… But some young musicians would have none of this musical imperialism from the colonies…they decided to fight back with a real Made-In-Britain approach… The result was fantastic…and until the whole thing collapsed under its own weight of excess and overexposure and drugs, it was an excellent party…this is part 4 of our look back of the alt-rock of the 1990s…the topic?...Britpop… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Up until the 1990s, the section of the rock universe known as “alternative” was all over the place…there wasn’t what anyone could call a defining sound…if it was left of centre, weird to mainstream music fans and ignored by the media, then it was “alternative”... If you were around the late 80s—the decade where the word “alternative” began to be used to describe a certain attitude in rock—you’ll remember that this was an umbrella term for so many different types of artists… If you couldn’t categorize a song or an artist by tossing it into any of the regular buckets, then there was only one other bucket you could use…and it quickly filled up… Singer-songwriters…indie pop artists…industrial bands…groups with synthesizers…goth groups…extra-noisy guitar bands…even rap was alternative for a while in the 80s: it was new, it was weird and it was hated by the mainstream…ergo: alternative! There were so many different sounds and textures and moods and looks that just trying to come up with a definition of “alternative music” was impossible…basically, we went by the credo of “I can’t tell exactly what it is, but I know it when I hear it”… Come to think of it, in many ways, back then was a lot like the alt-rock of today…a vast variety of sounds that were adventurous, different and sometimes weird… But then came along something that codified everything, something around which everything else could coalesce and organize…and once that happened, alt-rock was unstoppable—for a while, anyway… This is part 3 of our look back on the 1990s… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1967 during the summer of love, anything seemed possible…civil rights issues were being addressed…the war in Vietnam could be stopped…drugs and free love were in the air…and women were being liberated… Amongst all this was Jimi Hendrix who became a fan of an all-female rock band from San Francisco called “the ace of cups”… Wait a second…an all-girl rock band?...who wrote their own songs?...who had a chick out front that could shred like a man?...and a girl playing drums?... Even in 1967, that was radical…Hendrix was so impressed by their chops that he invited them to open a couple of his shows…it really did seem like a defining moment… But then the old sexist attitudes took over…women groups did not—could not—rock…it was common sense…self-evident…everyone knew that… The ace of cups gave it a good shot, but by 1972, they’d broken up…and until punk rock came around a few years later, the idea of a female-fronted rock band was considered silly… But punk brought in new egalitarian values…and fans embraced groups fronted by, led by and occasionally consisting entirely of women… Deborah harry and blondie…Chrissie Hynde and The Pretenders…The Slits…Patti Smith…Siouxsie and the Banshees…Wendy O. Williams and the Plasmatics… These amazing women did all sorts of good for women’s role in rock…and by the time generation x and the 90s started to happen, the idea of bands where the leader and most (or all) its members had extra x chromosomes wasn’t weird at all…finally… But there was still work to be done…and all through the alt-rock 90s, we were influenced and inspired and entertained by some of the greatest female musicians in rock, period, full stop…this is part 2 of our series on the alternative rock of the 1990s… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a less-enlightened time, women were barely tolerated by the rock’n’roll establishment…they could sing, shake a tambourine and look pretty…but that’s about it…in retrospect, the sexism and misogyny was unbelievable…but back in the day, it was business as usual… Some strong women who broke through…Joan Baez, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Carole King, Janis Joplin…but they were the exceptions… Sexism continued through the early- and mid-seventies…the prevailing “wisdom” was that women just couldn’t rock…it was a biological impossibility, apparently… But then along came punk rock and a sense of egalitarism…the central tennet of being a punk was that anyone with anything to say should be allowed to say it, regardless of musical ability, class, race, religion—or sex… The punk rock of the 70s opened musical doors for women more than any other era in musical history…this doesn’t mean that sexism and misogyny and abuse was over…but it did mean way more strong, powerful female musicians… Slow, steady progress was made in through the 80s…and yes, there were setbacks…but by the time we got into the next decade, the music world was flooded with women who, in many ways, set the agenda for all rock music… This is part 2 of our series on the 1990s… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Writing history takes a very long time…sure, you could write down everything as it happens, but that’s really only like writing a diary…you only have a record of events—which is fine…but real history, meaningful history is something more… To understand what happened in the past, more time has to go by so that we can observe the ripples events have the world…it’s only by examining those ripples that we begin to understand what’s happening in the present and what could happen in the future… It’s often helpful and convenient to look at the past by decade…that’s certainly a favourite way to do things with music…in fact, that’s how we like to categorize music history… If I say “50s music,” you know exactly what I mean…if we move to the music of the 1960s, same thing…the names or artists and songs leap to mind, just as they do if I said we’re going to talk about the 70s or 80s… But what about the 1990s?...what comes to mind on that branch of music history?...grunge, Britpop, raves, electronica generation x, hip hop, sampling, cell phones, personal computers, the internet, MP3s, music piracy… The 90s were a transformational decade, in so many ways, the end of the way music used to be and the beginning of what it would become in the next millennium…many people have come to the conclusion that the 90s were the last great decade for music… Is that true?...now that enough time has passed, we can now look back on the 90s to help us understand where we are today… And if we’re going to be successful at that, we’re gonna need to spread this investigation over out over a lot of shows… These are the 1990s, part 1… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How would you like to be remembered when you’re gone?...most people make do with a tombstone or some such other grave marker…maybe a few photographs and other detritus from a life… But maybe you’ve done something exceptional, something that extends beyond just your family and friends…my dad was mayor of my tiny hometown on the Canadian prairies and was instrumental in the development of a tourist area…for that, he had a street named after him…very nice… Others have schools named after them…buildings…airports…whole towns and cities and countries and even continents…North America, for example, is named after an Italian cartopgrapher named “Amerigo Vespucci”…you get the idea… Another way to achieve this sort of immortality is to have something in nature named in your honour…it turns out that this is a great way to pay tribute to rock stars… Sit tight…we’re going to spend the next hour learning a few Latin terms… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

He was known by many names over the six decades he made music...and for the last 40-plus years, he was the most discussed, photographed, imitated, worshiped and admired rock star in history... No single rock and roll performer had a more profound an effect on our music as David Bowie...all of today’s best alt-rock bands all have a bit of Bowie in them …and that net can be cast much, much wider…Madonna, Lady Gaga, Prince…the list is endless... He was a singer, a songwriter, record producer, movie actor, stage performer, internet entrepreneur, artist, art critic, fashion maven, wall street investment and gay icon... He has been a trend-setter, a shapeshifter, a cultural mover-and-shaker…he’s Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, Halloween Jack, Plastic Soul Man, the Thin white Duke...and now he’s gone…he’s David Bowie—and now that he’s gone, it’s important to recognize all the contributions he’s made to our music… This is Remembering David Bowie, Part 2… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The sound of a text coming through woke me up at 2:15 in the morning…what was so important that it couldn’t wait until later?...it was either a wrong number—or it was bad news… It was bad news…a friend in L.A. had just heard some awful information: David Bowie had died… This wasn’t supposed to happen…Bowie was supposed to be one of the immortals, someone who would always be with us….after all, he’d been making music through six decades… And yes, he’d been almost entirely out of sight for a decade, but we knew he was there…he released a surprise album in 2013 to much critical acclaim…and didn’t just release another acclaimed album just three days ago…how could be dead?.... No, there must be some mistake…one of internet hoaxes…but as soon as my computer booted up, I could see that it was all confirmed…David Bowie had suddenly, surprinslgy passed away….and from cancer?...he had cancer?... And so began weeks of mourning all over the world… Look, I realize that if you’re of a certain age, Bowie might be as foreign to you as some big band leader of the 1930s…he was an old guy that belonged to another generation, like Elvis or John Lennon…you might even feel that way about Kurt Cobain…Michael Jackson dying—you get that—but this Bowie guy?...why should I care?...why are people making such a big deal about this?...isn’t this just another baby boomer sob story… No, it’s not… here’s a line I’ve repeated again and again since Bowie died: if you take any contemporary artist—and I don’t care which one—and you draw a line from that artist into the past, that line will inevitably, unavoidably intersect with bowie: something he did, something he touched, something he influenced…no matter where you start, all roads lead to Bowie… If you are to understand anything about today’s music, you to acknowledge this…fans already know this…and if you’re still uncertain, don’t go anyway…I will explain why Bowie does and will always matter… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Let’s just say it: Arcade Fire is weird…just about everything they’ve done in their career has been not only unconventional but against the rules… They rarely give interviews…they won’t license their music…they’d rather spend weeks working with the people of Haiti than lounging by a swimming pool somewhere…they won’t even stay on the stage when they perform… Yet whatever they’ve done has worked…junos, Grammy’s, Brits, The Polaris Music Prize…members have had their work nominated for an academy award…humanitarian awards… Critics have fallen all over them for years…they’ve made all the important magazine covers…big name stars all the way up to Chris Martin and U2 and David Bowie have lavished praise on them…and they’re one of the few new rock bands to emerge in the 21st century that is capable of selling out an arena… Okay, so they haven’t sold a gazillion records, but who has these days?...still, they’ve moved several million, which is very respectable…and all those records were made for a small indie label, not a major… Oh—get this: a chunk of the money they’ve big made—a million-dollar chunk—was donated to a Haitian relief organization… There are no reports of legal issues, tabloid scandals, drunken antics, drug use or any kind of anti-social behavior—unless you count it when singer Win Butler gets into foul trouble when he’s playing in a celebrity basketball game… All of this is very good…but in the context of rock’n’roll, it’s very weird… [off mic] how am I supposed to come up with all kinds of juicy bits when there’s nothing at all salacious about these people?...do my best?...what’s that’s supposed to mean?...thanks a lot… All right…let’s see what I can do…this is who the hell is Arcade Fire, part 2… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The music world went a little weird on February 13, 2011…and I remember it very, very well because I was in a hotel room in Vancouver with nothing to do but watch TV…I think I was coming back from a speaking thing in Victoria and my flight home had been cancelled… I ordered up a club sandwich from room service and lay on the bed watching the 53rd Grammy awards…all the usual suspects were there…lady gaga, whose album “the fame monster” had been, well, a monster…six nominations, including best album… Katy Perry…seven nominations for her “Teenage Dream” album…Eminem was back…Rihanna had a bunch of nominations…there was buzz about Justin Bieber, Jay Z, Alicia Keys, Bruno Mars, Lady Antebellum…. Finally, after more than three hours of awards and speeches and performances, it was time to present album of the year…the presenter was Barbra Streisand, who, earlier in the evening, was feted with the “musicares person of the year” honour—a big deal… She stepped onstage with the envelope….the crowd buzzed… “it’s gonna be Katy Perry” ….”No way! They’re gonna give it to Eminem!...”Are you crazy? Lady Gaga has this sewn up”… Babs opened the envelope and—well, just listen… Didn’t she sound so confused?...let’s listen again…and note the long pause as she stares at the printing on the card as if she doesn’t know what to do… Twitter exploded…I mean, it just melted down with indignation, outrage and hate…“The Suburbs?”…by who?...what’s an “Arcade Fire?….never heard of them…you people are Grammy…how come I don’t know who they are?....no one knows who they are…who the hell is Arcade Fire!” It was epic....and for those who still don’t get it, hang on…we can fix things for you…or at least try to… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you’ve ever been responsible for managing a group of people, you’ll understand when I say, “humans are complicated” …as much life experience you may have, you will always, always encounter folks who have gone through lives that are much different from yours… You consider your life normal…they consider their lives normal, too…but the gulf between these senses of what’s “normal” can be huge… It all depends on your upbringing, your current environment, your family life and your state of mind…no judgements here: those are all statements of fact… When you’re a rock star, the definition of “normal” changes…living in your celebrity bubble skews things…when compared to civilians, things can quickly become abnormal—although because of your bubble, you don’t realize it…it’s like as usually, even though those on the outside find your life very weird… But even by the standards of rock star normal—which pretty weird to begin with—the life of Scott Weiland was off the charts…I mean, when a guy like slash takes you aside and says “dude, I’m worried. You’d better take it easy”—you know that you’re dealing with some extraordinary circumstances… This is the life and death of Scott Weiland, part 3…. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We all react differently when we hear that a celebrity has died…if it’s someone whose work has managed to touch us in a particular way, the loss can really hurt… Our idols aren’t supposed to be life-sized…they’re something bigger than that…maybe not immortal, but somehow not subject to the day-to-day things we have to deal with…. It really, really bothered me when Joey Ramone died…it hurt when Kurt killed himself…and when Amy Winehouse OD-ed, it affected me even though I wasn’t what you’d call a big fan… A lot of people were similarly affected by the death of Scott Weiland…if you grew up in the 90s, his was one of the great voices of that era….and even though you knew about all his problems—drugs, alcohol, mental health issues and all the rest of it—you didn’t want to believe that things might end up going very badly for him…but deep down… So, what happened with him?...and I’m not just talking about his final days…I mean “what happened to him over the years that put him on this path towards dying in the back of a tour bus?”…. As I said when we started this investigation, this is going to take a while…this is Scott Weiland, part 2… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The layout of a tour bus is standard…first, you have the driver’s compartment…behind that is an area where everyone can hang out…a couple of tables, some seating, a fridge, a stove, a microwave and an audio-video system connected to a big-screen TV… Next is a hallway lined with sleeping bunks, usually about three per side…after that, a bathroom and maybe some shower facilities…and finally, we come to the rear bedroom… Here you’ll find a double bed, more seating, another TV and few more amenities… Sometime on December 3, 2015, Scott Weiland entered the back bedroom on his tour bus, which was parked outside a country inn and suites hotel northwest of Minneapolis…he wanted to rest up before that night’s show at the medina ballroom that night…he never came out alive… After 8:00 that night, police were called…there were reports of an unresponsive male, perhaps suffering from an overdose…it was Weiland—and by the time help arrived, he was long dead… The fact that scot weiland had died wasn’t the biggest surprise…it was that he had managed to live to 48…the man lived—and let’s be charitable—a colourful life…unfortunately, those colours were pretty dark… And he was well aware of it…this is a guy who published an autobiography until the title “not dead yet and not for sale”…the first-ever stone temple pilots single was called “dead & bloated,” which features the lines “I am smellin’ like the rose that someone gave me on my birthday deathbed”…Scott was always well aware that he wasn’t living the safest kind of life… At the same time, though, Scott Weiland was one of the great voices to emerge out of the 90s…he was up there with Kurt Cobain, Layne Staley and Eddie Vedder… But who was he?...and how did it eventually come to end in the back of a tour bus in snowy Minnesota?...let’s do what we can to find out… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices