Ongoing History of New Music

Whenever you’re having a bad day, I want to think of this number…the probability of you existing—that you’re this sentient being, alive in this vast universe—is exceedingly small…in fact, it’s about zero… Your mom and dad have to meet…they have to stay together long enough to have kids…then that egg and that sperm have to connect, and so on… A guy by the name of Dr. Ali Binazir has calculated the odds of you being you…by that number is 1 followed by 2,685,000 zeroes… By way of analogy, here’s how he describes it… Imagine there was one life preserver thrown somewhere in some ocean and there is exactly one turtle in all of these oceans, swimming underwater somewhere. The probability that you came about and exist today is the same as that turtle sticking its head out of the water — in the middle of that life preserver. On one try. Mind-boggling, right?...now let’s get even weirder…add in the chances of you getting into a band that becomes successful…and not just successful, but a group that becomes world-changing…add another six zeroes to that last number… Now consider this: what if you got into a second successful band that stays together for decades and also becomes one of the biggest things rock has ever seen…that’s good for, what, three more zeroes?... So in this completely unscientific extrapolation of Dr. Binazir’s estimation of the uniqueness of existence, the chances of Dave Grohl being Dave Grohl is approximately one in two quadrillion, 685 trillion…give or take… This is the third and final part of our ultra-deep look at the guy… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When you reach a certain level of fame, you can expect that everything you do will be recorded somewhere…it’s out of your control…fans will do it…your management team will do it…your social media people will make sure that it gets done…probably someone at your label…and they’ll just keep doing it… Your life becomes one ever-expanding Wikipedia page…not that this is a bad thing…it’s just something certain famous people have to live with… This brings me to Dave Grohl…he is one of the best-documented guys in music…everything he’s ever does and continues to do is written down somewhere… There’s the Foo Fighters, of course…we know a lot about the Dave and the Foos…there was his time in Nirvana before that…a little bit has been written about them… Then there are the side projects, the guest appearances…the documentary work…the soundtracks…. we’ve even been introduced to his mom, who wrote a book about raising rock stars… Seriously…with all this attention, what else is left to tell?...well, you might be surprised…this is part two of a program I call “ultra-deep background on Dave Grohl”… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A couple of years back, i was invited to 606 studios, which is the headquarters of all things Foo…it’s the house of foo… This is where the Foo Fighters rehearse and record…it’s where they have band meetings…and it’s where they store a lot of their stuff…i had all five guys to myself for an interview…and there was no other way to describe them as a bunch of others… Taylor Hawkins took the lead on this…and the whole time Taylor was talking, Dave Grohl was sitting there with a big smile on his face…he knows he’s among the luckiest humans alive…sure, he’s talented and ambitious, but so many things completely beyond his control had to go right for things to turn out the way they have…it’s really amazing… Dave’s career has been extremely well documented—but there might still be a number of things that you don’t know about him—especially from the early, early, early years…let’s dig into that, shall we? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every once in a while, a form of music comes along that makes it its mission to break with the traditions of rock n roll. Okay...well maybe the instrumentation is largely the same...but it's the way they are used. And it's usually done by people who don't know there are rules when it comes to rock and people just want to get together and play. And this happened in the late 80's when we were first introduced to the idea of Shoegaze. The result was a wall of sound with atmospheres and harmonics. And It was truly unique. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As we looked at in part 1, Vinyl is making a comeback. But how did this happen? Will it last? And what lies ahead for the future of one of the oldest forms of recorded music?This is the History of Vinyl...Part 2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Vinyl. It's one of the oldest formats that you can listen to music on. And a few years ago everyone was talking about its death: First thanks to the CD and then the MP3. But a funny thing has happened over the last decade or so. Vinyl is making a comeback. But what is exactly is Vinyl....how did it come to be? Why did it disappear? And how have things changed for it to be back on the radar?This is the History of Vinyl...Part 1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Once upon a time, music was incredibly tribal…once you picked a tribe, you had to conform to serious and rigid rules…whatever the prevailing dogma dictated was your reality…snobbery abounded…. For example, in the 70s, 80s, and well into the 90s, rock was divided into two camps…on one side were the mainstream rockers, fans of the artists that occupied most of the attention: radio airplay, record sales, concert tickets…they were on top of the Rock’n’Roll zeitgeist… On the other were the alterative kids…they were the outsiders, the weirdos, the misfits—and they were very happy with their position…alt-rockers were content with their own musical universe… But here’s the thing: during this period, these two tribes were locked in a cold war…it was a war of musical ideology, musical outlook, and musical aspirations…and woe to any tribe member who tried to change tribes…you might as well try to take a stroll across the DMZ between North and South Korea…things could be that rigid… And there was more…if you were a mainstream rock fan, you couldn’t admit to your fellow tribe members that you liked music from the other side…same thing if you were an alt-rocker…to admit that you liked Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, or Van Halen was nothing short of heresy… I recall one time when Billy Corgan admitted that some of the Smashing Pumpkins sound was influenced by Judas Priest…shock and horror!...treason!...if social media had been around back then, he would have been trolled to death—even though if you listened to the pumpkins, you could hear that kind of metal influence coming through…it just didn’t make sense… Today, though, those rigid tribal groups have broken down…we have entered an era when we’re very ecumenical about music…more and more, the prevailing philosophy is “respect all music, listen to what you want”… This is healthy because it opens up new vistas for music—for listening andfor influences when it comes to making new music… Here…let me show you what I mean… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you were to ask a contemporary group like say The White Stripes or The Hives about which band influenced their sound they would probably list off a bunch of names including The Stooges. If you were to go back to the 90’s and ask the same question to Nirvana or Janes Addiction, one of the bands they would inevitability mention would be The Stooges. Slip back to 80’s and ask Sonic Youth and they would probably say The Stooges… If you travel back to the 70’s and ask The Sex Pistols or The Ramones and they would likely say…The Stooges… Or ask David Bowie…and you’d get The Stooges… Alright then so The Stooges seem to be on everyone’s list but hold on….this is a band that hardly sold any records in their day and were so messed up that their singer ended up in an asylum. So, I guess the question must be asked…what’s the big deal about The Stooges? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The study of word origins and word meanings is called Etymology. And rock music has it's own branch of Etymology and we can give you lots of examples. In fact over the course of the next two Podcasts we will break some of these terms down. Why do we call it Punk music? And how did we come up with New Wave? Or Grunge? Or Post Modern? Answers to those and more as we explore Etymology in Alt Rock Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every song has a story behind it. Maybe the way it was created, what it is about, who it is about, where it was written...there are literally a million reasons and ways a song was born. But have you ever wondered how musicians came up with some of their best known songs? How did Nirvana arrive at Smells Like Teen Spirit? What was Blur doing when they came up with Song 2? Why was it so complicated to finish Fairytale of New York? Well wonder no more...we have answers to those and a whole lot more as we once again look at the stories behind songs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is "The Reunions: Part 3" The final part of a series that first aired in 2009 and we thought it was time to revisit it...see what bands did survive a reunion and which ones have not. Now something to note about this series. Some bands have since broken apart again or gone off in an entirely different direction. And some are no longer together because a member has since passed on. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Everyone needs a hobby, something to distract from the job…something that’s just for you…something that allows you to pursue a passion that maybe only you understand… For example, Flea is big into chess…when the Chili Peppers on the road, he’ll often challenge people to games, including grand masters who are invited backstage for the purpose of playing flea… Geddy Lee of Rush used to be very, very big into signed baseballs, especially those from the old Negro League… Neil Young finds model trains very relaxing…Iggy Pop paints…Bob Dylan does sculpture…Bryan Adams is into photography…Slash collectors pinball machines…guy Berriman of Coldplay has an incredible collection of cars, ranging from classic Porsche’s to a Bugatti Veyron…and then there’s Stephen Morris of New Order…he collects old military vehicles, including tanks… Hey, if you have the interest and the money, why not?... This brings me to Kirk Hammett of Metallica…Kirk is a fan of horror memorabilia…but his biggest passion are posters from old horror movies…his collection is so big and so comprehensive and so well-preserved that it’s the subject of exhibitions at major museums, including the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto…why movie posters?...I sat down with kirk to find out… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is "The Reunions: Part 2" A series that first aired in 2009 and we thought it was time to revisit it...see what bands did survive a reunion and which ones have not. Now something to note about this series. Some bands have since broken apart again or gone off in an entirely different direction. And some are no longer together because a member has since passed on. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sometimes, a band can survive their entire career without a line-up change...looking at you Radiohead, Coldplay, U2....others have members leave, hello Oasis, or get kicked out. See The Clash. Meanwhile some bands just decide that it's time to pack it in. Call it a day. Stop the train and get off. There could be any number of reasons for this; you grow apart, you don't have anything else to say, you can't stand each other anymore...that sort of thing. And when a band does break up, many fans ask the same question: "So when are you getting back together?!?!" And many times band do! For a variety of reasons...and many reasons that come back to money. Anyhow, this is the first of a series we did a number of years ago on bands that had reunited. Now something to note about this series. Some bands have since broken apart again or gone off in an entirely different direction. And some are no longer together because a member has since passed on. This is "The Reunions: Part 1" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This time we take a deep dive into the history of Mumford and Sons...the earliest and mostly unknown aspects of their career. If you're a superman...you might already know some of this. Or maybe not! Lots to digest in this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wait, There’s More is a daily Global News podcast released every afternoon just in time for your commute home. On this episode, protests have erupted in Hong Kong as tens of thousands of people speak out against legislation that would allow the territory’s citizens to be extradited to Mainland China. Demonstrators tried to storm government buildings and police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. Host Tamara Khandaker explores Hong Kong’s precarious relationship with China since the end of British governance in 1997 and what the implications of such a major change will mean for the safety of its citizens with the help of Crystal Yeung, a Canadian human rights lawyer living in Hong Kong; Grace Yeung, a Hong Kong resident, who has taken to the streets to protest; and BBC journalist Vincent Ni. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're taking a look back at the glorious days of Britpop. That incredible time in the 90's which lasted about 6 years where it seemed Cool Britannia ruled the airwaves and everyone was having a great time! London was swinging again and British acts were selling tens of millions of albums the world over. It was fresh, it was fun, and it was cool. And then it was over...collapsed by the weight of over exposure, boredom, and drugs. Lots and lots of drugs. Let's take a look back to see how this all happened. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to another episode in our series of having bands and musicians tell their history in their own words. This time we go back to our interview in 2009 for the amazing Franz Ferdinand! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The human body is basically a bag of water with a bunch of chemicals mixed in…that’s an over-simplification, of course, but it’s an accurate description of the squishy bits that make up us… It’s also true that every once in a while, something—or maybe a lot of things—go a little wonky with these squishy bits…yeah, we often hear of some guy up in the Ural Mountains who’s 117 years old who credits his longevity to bacon and unfiltered cigarettes…but that’s the exception… The rest of us have to constantly be vigilant about our health, eating right, sleeping enough, reducing stress—all that sort of stuff…but not everything is preventable…bad genes…disease…accidents… These same rules apply to the musicians we follow…they’re human, just like us…and every once in a while, we hear about their health challenges...and quite often, they’re very open about their issues…they want to be honest with their fans—and maybe by bringing attention to their situation, they can encourage awareness or those with similar health problems to seek treatment… In other cases, we only found out there was a problem after the fact…that knowledge has helped us understand what happened… So, without betraying any confidences or digging into private health records, here are some musicians who have battled their bodies and their brains, just like us regular folk… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Not all bands hit it out of the park right away…they need a few albums and a couple of long tours before things start to fall into place… Take the Red Hot Chili Peppers, for example…their career really didn’t start to blossom until their fourth album…same thing with Muse—at least in North America…they might have been playing arenas in Europe…but when it came to their fourth album, they were still playing clubs on this side of the Atlantic… Same thing with R.E.M...they had a strong cult following through four records before they were able to cross over into mainstream consciousness… And for The Black Keys?...it took until albums number six for them to have their big breakthrough… These success stories underscore the need for patience and foresight on behalf of record labels, managers, and everyone else associated with the welfare of a particular artist…if you honestly see potential, then you gotta play the long game, one that may stretch out over years… And then you gotta look at things from the artist’s perspective…is the band prepared to live through some lean and dark times on their way to some kind of success?... This brings me to Twenty One Pilots…they blew up with the “Blurryface” album in 2015…but before that were six years of really hard slogging when almost no one knew who they were…let’s get caught up on that part of their story, shall we?... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the afternoon of October 1, 1982, Sony introduced a new home stereo gizmo… it was the world’s first compact disc player… they called it the CDP-101… Weird name, but if you take it apart, it makes sense…”CDP” stands for “compact disc player…and “101” is binary notation for the number 5…that’s because the head of the audio division considered this first model to be in the middle of Sony’s future lineup of cd players…so “5” on a scale of one to ten, I guess… Sony had been working on compact disc technology with a Dutch company called Philips for a number of years, which released their own machine, the cd100, about a month later… Compact disc technology was rolled out worldwide in march 1983…and for the next seventeen years, the recorded music industry experienced a boom unlike it had ever seen before…music fans were convinced to buy all their favourite albums again…and as the popularity of vinyl and cassettes waned, the cd became the currency of the realm… And lo, it was good…insane amounts of money were made year after year after year… But nothing lasts forever and in about 2000, the bloom started to come off the cd rose…and now, cd sales are in a total free-fall as streaming becomes the way most people access music… The compact disc isn’t dead yet, but it’s never going to be the juggernaut it once was…what happened?...and how?...it’s actually a fascinating story… This is the rise and fall of the CD… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It runs in the family…like father, like son (or mother like daughter…or some variation of that)…the apple never falls far from the tree… All these sayings have something to do with some sort of hereditary characteristics or learned abilities passed down from parent to child… I suppose if you grow up in a creative household, something is gonna run off, whether it be something in your genes or just because of what goes on around you as you’re growing up… Take the case of Patrick Schwarzenegger, son of Arnold…not only has he done some acting, but he’s got a clothing company called #project360 that donates a chunk of profits to charity… Duncan Jones is the son of David Bowie…he’s a really good film director…Sasha Spielberg is the daughter of Stephen and Kate Capshaw…she’s become quite the screenwriter…Ben Stiller is the son of Jerry Stiller…most people know Jerry as George’s father on “Seinfeld”… What about music?...Johnny Cash and daughter Roseanne…Billy Ray, dad of Miley Cyrus…Norah Jones is the daughter of Ravi Shankar….Jason Bonham is the son of Zep drummer John…he’s not only been in a bunch of bands of his own, but he’s sat in for his dad on drums a couple of times when Jimmy Page and Robert Plant needed someone to keep time… Okay, this is fun…how many other parent-sibling combinations can we name—if we just focus on the world of alt-rock…sounds like it’s time to make a list… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every industry has its own language…think about what it’s like to be a doctor and all the terms and phrases you must learn if you’re going to communicate with your patients and other medical professionals…what’s the difference between and otolanryingolist and a nephrologist?...iatrogenic and idiopathic?...hypotension and hypertension?... What if you’re working in the world of finance?…you need to know about things like “shorts” and “yield curves” and my favourite, “ebidta”—earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization… Or maybe you’re a coder…think of all the jargon you use when you’re working on a project… I have a list of coder slang in front of me…I’m told these are real terms used in that world… “rubber ducking is a discussion with other engineers to solve a problem…a “jimmy” is a new and clueless new member of the team…and a “hydra” is a bug that can’t be fixed because every time you try something, two or more new bugs pop up… So you see what I’m saying about jargon and a language created by the people who work in a certain area… This applies to the music industry…and if you’re not familiar with the terms that are always thrown about, you might excluded, out of the loop, or a little dumb… I’ll say it again: that’s wrong…and you shouldn’t be afraid to ask what some of these terms mean…that’s brings us to part two of our music industry glossary… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Maybe it was the first time you saw your favourite musical. Maybe they played a set list that you thought was perfection. Maybe you were front and centre and the singer crowd surfed right over your head! So sure...an absolutely legendary gig! But what about those gigs that redefined alt-rock? Those concerts or shows that stand out as legendary for what came after them? The bands they inspired or the lasting legacy of that show on the audience? Well we're going take a look at 8 of them and try to explain why they are so legendary in the history of alt-rock Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I’m really bad with jargon…I hate it…jargon is by its very nature exclusive…if you don’t know the language, don’t know the codes, don’t know the usage rules, then you’re locked out of the discussion… I remember one financial guy who wanted to talk to me about a retirement savings plan…and his schpiel went something like this: “When it comes to diversification of your asset classes, consider taking out some warrants on pink sheet stocks on the vix, backing them up with shorts on fang stocks for a few months before rebalancing your portfolio through dollar-cost averaging”…I have no idea what I just said… Now let’s switch to music…if you do any exploring of how the music business works, you inevitably run into words that seem important, but you don’t know what they mean…you could ask, but then it might show that you’re, err, lacking in knowledge… “Newbie!...ignoramus!...rookie!”…no one wants that, so you just keep it to yourself…no one wants to be made fun of…and if someone does deign to explain things to you, there’s always the risk that they’ll be condescending…so you say to yourself “I’ll figure it out…eventually…I hope”… But that’s not right…music should be for everyone…if you’re interested in how things work with the recorded music industry, your curiosity should be rewarded…and that’s what we’re going to do right now…this is an audio glossary of music industry terms…and once we’re done, you’ll be able to converse with the best of them… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Back in 2007, Trent Reznor did something a little different with the release of "Year Zero". He essentially created a game...a mystery...a unique marketing campaign. This was an incredibly complex campaign with clues buried all over the world. Basically all of this was done because Trent was bored. He wanted to shake things up with his music, his concerts, his fans...and with his image. This is the story behind Year Zero Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A band is like a plant…stay with me on this…like a plant, a band grows from seeds to maturity, bursts for with new seeds and then eventually withers and dies…it’s the cycle of life, you know?... But like plants (or animals or any other living thing), the lifespan of bands varies greatly…you could last as long as rehearsal—kinda like, what, a dandelion?…or you might find yourself on some kind of 50-year-anniversary tour—the equivalent of a bristlecone pine tree that can live as long as 5,000 years… Okay, I think we’ve tortured this metaphor long enough… Then we have bands that form, rise to a peak, hit something of a downhill slope, and break-up, only to reform again for—well, there could be any number of reasons…and this leads into completely new second act…and thus things begin again—and maybe even under better circumstances than anyone thought possible… Let’s do a case study…let’s have a specific band deconstruct their journey from formation to breakup to reunion…this is the history of Alexisonfire—in their own words… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are a lot of songs about Murder...but what about actual events where there are real killings involving real personalities in music?Well we've gathered a bunch. Actions are motivated by jealousy or sex or fear or revenge or anger...or someone just gets very unlucky. And in the end...someone ends up dead! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There was nothing particular special about April 8, 1994…I came to work as usual, saw the usual people, and prepared for my radio show in the usual way…I made note that the Toronto Blue Jays were playing a sold-out home game…one of the stories in the news was that American troops were upset about a smoking ban that had come into effect on some military bases…that was about it… But at about 1:45—fifteen minutes before airtime—Anita, who was working in the newsroom—popped her into the studio… “Just a heads-up,” she said, “something’s going on in Seattle…it looks like it has something to do with Kurt Cobain”… If I’m honest, most of us were prepared for some bad news…we knew that Kurt had his issues…his health problems…his heroin addiction…his crazy marriage to Courtney Love…the canceled European tour…and, of course, an apparent suicide attempt in a Rome hotel room about a month earlier… Still, all that was abstract, gossip, stories in magazines…but over the next 90 minutes, everything resolved into harsh, terrible, awful, reality… If you were around then, you probably remember exactly where you were and what you were doing when you heard the news… it was one of those rare, rare moments, the same sort of thing felt with the assassination of John Lennon on Monday, December 8, 1980, and the death of Elvis on Tuesday, August 16, 1977…. Was that really 25 years ago?...yes, it was…if you were there, let’s revisit things…if you weren’t, here’s how dramatic and sad it was…this is Kurt Cobain, 25 years after he died… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Just because you're a successful musician or are in a band doesn't mean you don't want to try something else. Maybe you want to open up your own side business in something related to music. Maybe it's in a completely different part of the economy. Whatever the case...you want to try something different while still doing your day-job. In this podcast we look at various side business that musicians have tried over the years. Now granted this show was done a number of years ago, and some of these business may no longer exist, but what it shows is how musicians have taken on more than just touring over the years. These are musicians who moonlight. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Like we said before, from time to time we have the opportunity to get a band or a musician into a studio and have them walk us through their career. What comes out of these interviews can be honest and pure conversations about the ups and downs, trials and tribulations, and challenges that come with being a musician trying to keep it all together in the madness and chaos of recording, touring and living. On this second episode we pick up the story with Matt from the last days of the Matthew Good Band through the start of his solo career. This is Matt Good...in his own words. Part 2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From time to time we have the opportunity to get a band or a musician into a studio and have them walk us through their career. What comes out of these interviews can be honest and pure conversations about the ups and downs, trials and tribulations, and challenges that come with being a musician trying to keep it all together in the madness and chaos of recording, touring and living. What you hear from Matt Good is one of the most honest and true conversations you might ever hear from a musician. This is Matt Good...in his own words. Part 1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Maybe this isn't a topic you thought about in New Rock, but it's time for us to take a look at New Rock Hair. Seriously... We've dug back into the archives and found this one from 2006 where we have a dive into the hairstyles of New Rock. Dreadlocks, Mullet's, Punk, Bowie...and of course Robert Smith among others. This is a good one! Trust us... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Let’s make a list of all the things we did not have on January 1, 2000…ready?...iTunes, iPods, iPhones…YouTube, Facebook, Twitter…Snapchat, Spotify, smartphones… There was no Netflix (at least as we know it now)…no MySpace…no Instagram Well, what didwe have?...dial-up modems…Windows 98 (if you were lucky) or Windows 95 (if you weren’t)…Apple?...still mostly a corporate basket case…even Google was less than 18 months old… If we look at music, we were mad for compact discs…they were selling by the hundreds of millions, ensuring that the music industry was drowning in money… Vinyl?....dead, dead, dead…the only thing that was keeping that format on life support were club djs who still preferred the feel and action of records over CDs in the booth… We had MP3s and we’d begun to trade music files online, but that was still a clunky and frustrating experience for most people—unless you’d discovered this new thing called “Napster” that had been out for about six months… Now fast-forward ten years to December 31, 2009…everyone was getting smartphones…global CD sales had dropped from a high of 26 billion U.S. dollars in 2000 to around 9 billion in 2009 with no end in sight…the number would get much smaller yet… Meanwhile, vinyl was starting to come back…everyone was using digital music files…streaming music services were starting to catch on…and Apple and Google and Facebook were among the most powerful companies in the world… The recorded music industry was in complete disarray, bleeding money, laying people off, dropping artists, and still trying to litigate their way back to their former glory… The first decade of the 21stcentury was an era of massive technological disruption…how did our music adapt?...let’s examine that…this is the oughts, part 5… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Crime Beat” is a new investigative podcast series hosted by Crime Reporter Nancy Hixt. She's been covering cases for over the past 20 years and knows her hometown by the crime scenes she's been to. Journey deep inside some of Canada’s most high-profile criminal cases. Each bi-weekly episode will take you inside the story to give you details you didn't hear on the news. Here’s a sneak peek from episode 2 of the series…. and while you’re listening, search and subscribe to “Crime Beat” for free at Curiouscast.ca or wherever you’re enjoying this podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Music is always evolving, mutating, and modifying itself…enough people may agree on a certain direction for a new sound to become a new sub-genre…and in time, sub-sub-genres may spring from that offshoot, multiplying things even more… Think about it…in the 50s, you had rock, pop, country, and R&B…most everything that was released back then could be classified under one of those four headings…today, Spotify has organized things into nearly 2,000 different categories… There’s music with names like “dark psytrance” to something called “stomp and flutter”…you might be into “vapor soul” or “fussball,” “gymcore” or “catstep,” “footwork” or “sleaz33e rock”…seriously….these are all actual Spotify genre classifications…. Now let’s circle back to alt-rock in the early 2000s…after a decade of things staying fairly close to a certain set of specs, it began to mutate again…yes, guitars were still important, but not essential…and there were certain shifts in attitude and outlook, created by world-shaking global events—because as we’ve learned, the sound of an era’s music is always just a little downstream from what’s happening in society at large… Let’s deconstruct this concept a little further…this is alt-rock in the oughts, part four. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

They've been around since the early 80's and still recording and touring. It's really incredible considering how self-destructive Depeche Mode has been over that time. Really....it is amazing what has happened to them over the years. And that includes the time Dave Gahan was essentially dead. Well we had a request recently wondering "If we've ever done a profile of Depeche Mode". And while we have done a number of things over the years, the is perhaps our most interesting show on the band. So from mid 2006, this is a trip back to...at the time...25 Random Facts About Depeche Mode. Enjoy! (the non-silence) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In times of crisis, we start to look for a leader, someone who can get us out of trouble…this is a trope of every comic book universe movie and half all the action-adventure stuff… But it’s true…when things are bad, we first look to people with experience, with knowledge, with strength to lead us away from whatever is wrong… There was a lot of this sort of talk among rock fans at the end of the 90s…pop, electronica, and hip-hop had taken over…rock itself had fallen into the doldrums and every fan was hoping, praying that someone or something would come along and inject new life into the genre… And as hopeless as some people felt at the time, sometimes you just gotta be patient…a couple of things inevitably happen when it seems that rock is on the ropes… First, a new generation of young people decide to take matters into their own hands and kick-start things themselves…we saw this with the indie rock revolution that started taking hold in the very late 90s and then exploded for the next decade… Second, trends and cycles in music and demographics inevitably start to work in favour of the music you like…for the previous 50 years, when rock was on the descent, pop was on the ascent—and vice versa…in the early 2000s, it was time for that polar shift in the public’s tastes… And third, sometimes the old guard needs a little time to catch their breath, to take the lay of the land, and to figure out what their next moves should be…and if they do it right, their careers move into a new phase, a new act… This exactly is what happened in the first half of the first decade of the 21stcentury…and the results were amazing…this is the history of the oughts, part 3: the return of rock… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At the end of the 90s, rock music was deep in the doldrums…fans were genuinely worried for its future…and it did look bleak, especially in contrast to how exciting things had been earlier in the decade… But in ’98 and ’99, rock was under assault on three sides…pop music was king and the whole world had gone crazy for those sounds…then there was rap and hip-hop, which kept getting more popular and stronger every month…and then there was electronica, which was siphoning away rock fans to go dance in a warehouse somewhere… Like I said, it was dire…and lots of rock fans were despondent…it was around then, when rock music was deep in the doldrums, that I wrote a newspaper op-ed…it was a pep talk of sorts…it was called “Britney Spears, the end is nigh”… Basically, I said “there are cycles in music that go back to the 1950s…they describe a fight between rock and pop…when one is at its height, the other is at its low in terms of popularity…yes, pop is hot right now, but rock will come back…and of you look at the history of these cycles, rock should be ready for a big comeback in about two years”… Turns out I was right…and the artists to lead the comeback were a bunch of young unknowns with fresh ideas… This is part two of our look at the music of the oughts…I call this episode “the indie revolution”… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How long should we wait before we write the history of a decade?...we can write things down as they happen, but that’s only the first draft…time has to pass before we can wrap our heads around exactly what happened, what it all meant, and the lasting effects of those ten years… Something that may have appeared to be insignificant at the time turned out to be a really big deal…it was only after many years passed and the ripples from that thing or that event played out do we realize “holy crap!...that was history!”… When it comes to the history of music, it’s often convenient to break things down into decades because that seems to be the natural order of things…music is a great barometer of the life and times of a decade because it’s so intertwined with society: politics, economics, demographics—everything to do with culture…understand the music of a decade and you’ll have a better understanding of what happened during that time… The 50s marked the birth of rock’n’roll…the 60s brought us The Beatles, the rise of the album, and the mega rock festival…in the 70s, we got punk, metal, disco, and rap…the 80s?...techno-pop, hair metal, and the era of classic rock…the 90s were all about grunge, the Lollpalooza generation, Britpop… That takes us to the end of the 20thcentury…and as transformative and disruptive as the 90s were—the Internet, cell phones, sampling—that was only a warm-up for the next ten years…by the time it was over, everything had changed… This is a history that first decade of the 21stcentury, which we’re going to call “the oughts”…this is part 1… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are people who still believe that the resurrection of vinyl is a fad, a passing trend, something of which people will tire and we’ll all move on… This, frankly, is insanity…total insanity… Vinyl LP sales have been going up by double digits year-over-year since 2008…and that’s just new releases…these figures don’t include the sales of used records in record shops, at record sales, or online through eBay or sites like discogs.com… The numbers also don’t include vinyl sold at the merch table at gigs…and it doesn’t include the millions of younger people who have been raiding their parents’ collections… People are deep into vinyl and are embracing (or re-embracing) the format more and more with every passing week…why?...maybe it’s a reaction to the digital age…people want something physical, tangible, something they can hold in their hands… Maybe it’s the idea that vinyl is inconvenient when compared to digital formats…listen to a vinyl record requires physical presence and care…or maybe it’s the warm, real sound of the audio… Whatever…I’m always getting email from people who want to know more about vinyl as people want to have a closer relationship with their music collections…okay…you asked for it…here’s more about vinyl that you ever need to know… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When you’re in a band and things begin to take off, life starts to move pretty fast…days start to blur as you move from gig to the studio, from the studio to the van, and back from gig to gig… Unless you have someone document what’s happening, you run the risk of forgetting a lot of what you go through—both the good stuff and the bad… One way to combat that is through talk therapy—or at least my version of it…this involves getting the entire band together at the same time and getting them to talk about their experiences…once everyone starts to reminisce, the memories start to come back… That’s what I was hoping for with Arkells when all five guys gathered for a long talk…this is part two of “Arkells: in their own words”… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Russia Rising” is a new investigative podcast series hosted by Jeff Semple, the former Europe Bureau Chief for Global News. This series hopes to unravel the giant mystery behind Putin’s Russia with the help of those who know her best - Russian Trolls, Hackers, Putin Supporters, and even a former Russian K.G.B. agent. Join Jeff on the journey to unravel how Russia has gone from tenuous ally, to a potential global threat. Here’s a sneak peek from episode 2 of the series…. and while you’re listening, search and subscribe to “Russia Rising” for free at Curiouscast.ca or wherever you’re enjoying this podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When you’re in a band, you want to make sure the public record is correct…but you’re often at the mercy of someone else when it comes to creating that record… First, there’s your publicist and anyone at your record label dealing with marketing…they issue bios and press releases where the writer seems to have been paid by the word…they’re paid to fill a page or two in 10-point font, so they revert to lots of flowery language signifying nothing…frankly, I find most official band bios close to useless because they don’t really tell me anything about the band… A site like allmusic.com does better, but often all the writer has to work with are those official bios… Then there’s Wikipedia…it has its drawbacks, but for the most part, Wikipedia entries can be very good because editors incorporate information from a variety of sources, including lots of feature stories and interviews… In my opinion, though, nothing beats getting every member of the band together in a room at the same time and getting them to tell their own story…it’s hard, given the schedules musicians keep, but with a little persistent persuasion, it can be done… So, Wikipedia editors, listen up…if you want to make additions and changes to the entry on Arkells, here’s your chance…this is a conversation between me and all five members of the band…it’s their story, in their own words…start taking notes…here are all the citations you need… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every once in a while we will pull a show from the vast Ongoing History of New Music Archives that is a bit of a time capsule. It captures a moment in time that seems somewhat forgotten...distant...calmer... This show takes us back to October of 2006 when we aired our 500th original episode of the Ongoing History. A lot had happened in the world of Alt-Rock up to that point in time...and a lot has happend since. I mean we are at show number 845 and counting! So, let's take a trip back 12+ years...and 345 shows ago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chances are, at some point in your life you are going to lose your job. If you're lucky it will be a layoff situation and you'll get some sort of severance or package. But it's possible that something happens that gets you fired. Sacked, canned, blown out, axed, dismissed with cause...and involuntarily discharged from your duties. You then find yourself unemployed. Between Jobs, on the dole, on the beach, on the bench, and out of a job. Hey it happens and whether we like it or not, it's and employers right to terminate an employee...if they follow the labour rules of course. And being fired is a universal thing...it happens in all forms of business. Including being in a band or being associated with a band. What do you have to do to get fired from your group? There's gotta be two sides to every firing right?Let's investigate... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of my favourite movie lines of all time comes from a 1982 Peter O’Toole film called “My Favorite Year”… O’Toole plays a movie idol named Alan Swann who is reduced to appearing on a variety tv show of the 1950s… a junior writer named Benji Stone is put in charge of babysitting Swann… “just keep him out of trouble,” his bosses say… Naturally, it doesn’t go well and they have a fight when Swann grows angry when Benji insists on the hero worship…then Benji replies: Whoever you were in those movies, those silly heroes meant a lot to me! what does it matter if it was an illusion? it worked! so don't tell me this is you life-size. I can't use you life-size. I need Alan Swanns as big as I can get them! That’s how a lot of us feel about our heroes… and I include our musical heroes in that number… Music is an escape for us…it’s also a fantasyland populated by exotic creatures who do and say things far, far beyond what we could ever dream of doing… but at the same time, we want these creatures to be at least a little accessible, so we can make that all-important personal connection… It’s a tricky balance…we want heroes and heroines, but we also want to know that they’re real… keep the fantasy but open the door a crack, you know?... And it’s more difficult with some artists than others…how, for example, do you handle like someone like Florence Welch of Florence + the Machine?... much of her success is based on a kooky, quirky, fantastical image, like someone who looks like they just stepped out of a renaissance painting or out of a book of Grimm’s fairytales… And then you learn she’s not a natural redhead…I’m sorry, but she’s not… she’s dark-haired and dyed it as a kid…did that just ruin something for you?... It did?... oh, dear… this could be a rough show for you, then… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the second part of our "In Their Own Words" conversation with all four members of the Kings of Leon: Caleb, Nathan, Jared, and Matthew Folllowill. It's the conclusion of ours in depth and honest interview with the band that told their story from their very early days, and up to the summer of 2009. This is Kings of Leon...in their own words part 2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Back in 2009, we sat down with all four member of the Kings of Leon: Caleb, Nathan, Jared, and Matthew Folllowill. What followed was a very in depth and honest interview that told their story from their very early days and up to the summer of 2009. This was the first in a now ongoing series of inviting bands and musicians to tell us their story...in their own words. This is Kings of Leon...in their own words part 1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm a normally pretty reserved person, but like anyone else there are some things that really, really bug me: drivers who don't use their turn signal, people who use the word "irregardless", anti-vaxers, creationists, email with no subject line, high-end restaurants that charge for bread and tap water. That sort thing. As it turns out, there are a bunch of things about music that really annoy me too. At least 10 things in fact. So...let me tell you about them Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices