Ongoing History of New Music Podcast

Life After Music from 2023-11-29T05:00

If you are a professional musician—that is, you’re being paid to write and perform music and can actually make a living from it—you’re part of an infinitesimal quintile of people who are able to do...

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Remembering Sinead O'Connor from 2023-11-22T05:00

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Music vs Technology Over The Years from 2023-11-15T05:00

In the mid-15th century, France was ruled by Louis XI, otherwise known as “Louis the Prudent”...but he was always known as “Louis the Cunning” and “The Universal Spider” because he was always spinn...

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Gord Downie - Canada's Rock Poet from 2023-11-08T05:00

It was Tuesday, May 24, 2016...you know how when you land the flight attendant says it’s now permissible to “use transmitting and receiving functions your portable devices” while you’re taxiing to ...

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Introducing... Black and Blue: Behind the Badge | Catching Hell from 2023-11-04T04:00

It’s 1986 and Michael Morrison is offered the opportunity of a lifetime. A chance to leave his life of poverty in Newark and start afresh. It’s a job offer he can’t afford to refuse. Michael has no...

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The Last Moments Of - Part 2 from 2023-11-01T04:00

When someone dies, our first reaction is disbelief...we’re stunned...that’s immediately followed by a need to know what happened...how?...where?...it’s only natural...we need information to help us...

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The Last Moments Of - Part 1 from 2023-10-25T04:00

It’s always a shock when a rock star dies...and our first reaction is “what happened?...how did this person die?”... That’s completely natural...whenever we’re met with something incomprehensible, ...

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Introducing...Uncharted: The Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash from 2023-10-24T16:00

The old days of air travel were quite risky…compared to today, the chances of your flight going down were far greater …every airport had kiosks and coin-operating vending machines where you could b...

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The History of the Drum Machine from 2023-10-18T04:00

One of the most important parts of music is beat and rhythm...without beats, without rhythm, there’s no groove...without a groove, there’s no movement or dancing or really physically getting into t...

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The History of the 2010s Part 5: Music and Tech from 2023-10-11T04:00

For centuries, there’s been a dance between music and technology with each affecting the other in some way...almost always, though, there’s no fighting progress...music (and everything to do with i...

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Introducing.... Bad Parents | Vacationing with Children from 2023-10-07T04:00

We as parents get so little time to ourselves. So if you know when vacationing with kids actually becomes a relaxing vacation… please let us know. In this episode we discuss the literal ups and dow...

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The History of the 2010s Part 4: The Revivals from 2023-10-04T04:00

It’s an established fact that music comes in many different types of cycles...a sound and style will be big for a while, reach a peak with the public, and then slowly fade out....but once establish...

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The History of the 2010s Part 3: The New Genres from 2023-09-27T04:00

It must have been so easy to write about rock back in the 50s...comparatively easy to today, i mean...everything was so new that that’s all you had to pay attention to...there wasn’t exactly anythi...

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The History of the 2010s Part 2: The Role of Indie Rock from 2023-09-20T04:00

Traditional wisdom says that the recorded music industry is dominated by the major labels...there used to be a bunch of them, but over the last 25 years, their number has been whittled down to just...

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The History of the 2010s Part 1: Rock Struggles Again from 2023-09-13T04:00

We never know we’re living through history as it happens...for example, if we’re trying to assess what happened in a particular decade, we can’t really do it justice if we attempt to analyze things...

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The More Things Change Part 2 from 2023-09-06T04:00

Continuing to dive into the Ongoing History of New Music archives, here's a show for 2016 that we are surprised has not been posted yet! At some point in your life, you said “I’m never going to be...

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The More Things Change Part 1 from 2023-08-30T04:00

Continuing to dive into the Ongoing History of New Music archives, here's a show for 2016 that we are surprised has not been posted yet! Have you every heard yourself say this?kids these days! Wha...

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The Book of World Records Version 1.0 - Part 2 from 2023-08-23T04:00

This week we go back into the Ongoing history vault from 2008 and the second of two parts on world records. Most people want to leave this earth being known for... something.We want it to be at le...

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The Book of World Records Version 1.0 - Part 1 from 2023-08-16T04:00

This week we go back into the Ongoing history vault from 2008 and the first of two parts on world records. Chances are you have at least some kind of talent. Maybe it's not something very useful, ...

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Tracking Down Demos from 2023-08-09T04:00

If you're a fan of a particular artist, you want as much as you can get from that artist, you know, the albums, the singles, the t-shirts, all the downloads and all the swag and that's great when y...

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100 weirdest Things in Alt-Rock: Part 10 from 2023-08-02T04:00

There’s a fine line between “wonderful” and “weird”...things that are “wonderful” tend to inspire you with awe...you feel warmth and light and awe and admiration...and you may suddenly find yoursel...

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100 Weirdest Things in Alt-Rock: Part 9 from 2023-07-26T04:00

Money is a weird thing...when you don’t have it, it’s all you can think about...when you do have it, it’s the last thing on your mind... It’s gotta be especially weird for successful musicians...99...

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100 Weirdest Things in Alt-Rock: Part 8 from 2023-07-19T04:00

The standard musical diet consists of three things: sex, drugs and rock’n’roll....all three of these stapes affect the same areas of the brain... We’ve talked about this before, but here’s a quick ...

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100 Weirdest Things in Alt-Rock: Part 7 from 2023-07-12T04:00

It is a fact of human nature that those given the power to make rules that govern the behavior the rest of us will devote their lives to making and enforcing those rules... Most of the time, that’s...

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100 Weirdest Things in Alt-Rock: Part 6 from 2023-07-05T04:00

I think we take music for granted...as much as we love it; we also treat it like something disposable... And I don’t if we can be blamed for it...I mean, there’s just so much music out there...ther...

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100 Weirdest Things in Alt-Rock: Part 5 from 2023-06-28T04:00

Some things just go together naturally... A nice sauterne is a fine companion to foie gras that is served with fruit compote...or, if that’s too rich, strawberry jam works well in a sandwich with p...

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100 Weirdest Things in Alt-Rock: Part 4 from 2023-06-21T04:00

From the outside, being in a famous touring rock band seems like a glamourous thing...you travel the world, playing for thousands of adoring fans night after night with your gang of buddies... Oh, ...

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Introducing... Deadman's Curse: Slumach's Gold from 2023-06-17T04:01

This historical, true crime podcast hosted by Kru Williams from History Television's hit original series Deadman’s Curse: The Legend of the Lost Gold investigates the curse and legend surrounding t...

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100 Weirdest Things in Alt-Rock: Part 3 from 2023-06-14T04:00

If you’re listening to this show, you are a music fan...any arguments?...probably not... “fan” is short for “fanatic”–a person who is extremely passionate and enthusiastic about something...could b...

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100 Weirdest Things in Alt-Rock: Part 2 from 2023-06-07T04:00

There’s an old saying that goes “he who dies with the least regrets wins”... Good words to live by because by the time we shuffle off this mortal coil, all of us are going to have done and said thi...

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100 Weirdest Things in Alt-Rock: Part 1 from 2023-05-31T04:00

I have a fascination with the strange...what seems ordinary at first glance is–well, isn’t ordinary at all.... Once you get in the habit of looking past the obvious, the universe opens up in some i...

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Rock Explainer 3 from 2023-05-17T04:00

This universe is very weird...so weird, in fact, that we often don’t question its weirdness even though it’s right in front of us...we’re completely caught up in it... For example, when someone tak...

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Valuable Vinyl from 2023-05-10T04:00

Times are good for vinyl...the format was all but dead until some desperate record store owners invented “record store day” in 2008...since then, we’ve seen double-digit increases in vinyl sales ye...

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54-40 In Their Own Words Part 2 from 2023-05-03T19:13

If you’re going to commit to being in a band, you have to prepared to deal with the bad as well as the good... The good stuff can include fame, money, perks, and the ability to make a living by pla...

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54-40 In Their Own Words Part 1 from 2023-04-26T04:00

Being in a band is hard...keeping a band together is harder still...and if a band can keep it together for more longer than a decade, they should get some kind of medal... Let’s give props to the R...

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Buying Catalogues - A Primer from 2023-04-19T04:00

There is a new gold rush going on right now—but this one is different...it has nothing to do with minerals or oil or any other traditional commodity...it’s not what we’ve seen with crypto currency....

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History of Skate Punk from 2023-04-12T04:00

My main interest with skateboarding is the music that’s evolved along with it...in fact, there’s a whole subgenre of alt-rock built on skateboarding culture....and there are plenty of legendary roc...

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9 Nine In Nails Tales from 2023-04-05T04:00

I vividly remember my first encounter with Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails...it was April 17, 1990, at the old RPM club in Toronto... Nine Inch Nails were opening for Goth God Peter Murphy and fra...

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Sonic Coincidences in Alt-Rock Part 2 from 2023-03-29T04:00

This is part 2 of our look at true stories of plagiarism and unfortunate sonic coincidences in the world of Alt-Rock Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Sonic Coincidences in Alt-Rock Part 1 from 2023-03-22T04:00

Let me ask you this...how many times have you heard a song and said "Hey that song sounds just like something I heard last month. That guitar riff is really familiar....don't they realize those cho...

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The Weird History of Concert Tickets Part 2 from 2023-03-15T04:00

We’ve all been there...tickets for a concert you really, really want to see are set to go on sale at exactly 10am...you’re on the Ticketmaster site as the clock ticks toward the appointed time... 9...

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The Weird History of Concert Tickets Part 1 from 2023-03-08T05:00

Let’s define a “concert ticket”...it is a contract between you, an act, a promoter, and a venue that allows you admission to specific event at a stated time and place...seems simple enough...let’s ...

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The Early Days of LGBTQ Rock from 2023-03-01T15:12

Once upon a time, it was illegal—criminal—to be another other than heterosexual...any hint that you may be something other than straight could get you into all sorts of trouble—and career suicide w...

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The Very First Episode of the Ongoing History of New Music from 2023-02-28T05:00

I vividly remember sitting down to write the first-ever episode of “The Ongoing History of New Music”...I was in my living room with a blank yellow note pad...and I was terrified... To be brutally ...

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Black History Month 2023 from 2023-02-22T05:00

A couple of years back, I did an episode called “The Diversity Show”...it ran in February as part of Black History Month...the goal was to salute the contributions of people of African descent to t...

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The Story of TV Theme Songs from 2023-02-08T05:00

Like Homer Simpson, I love my TV...without my local, network, cable, on-demand, and streaming shows none of us would have made it through the pandemic... The downside is that in order to remain dis...

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Connections from 2023-02-01T05:00

Back in the late 70s, the BBC debuted a science education show called “Connections”...the host was James Burke, an affable, professorish guy, usually dressed in a beige polyester leisure suit who g...

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The History of Remixes from 2023-01-25T05:00

When humans first started making audio recordings of music, they were limited as to how long those recordings could be... An original Edison cylinder could maybe hold two minutes of music, therefor...

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Couples in Music from 2023-01-18T05:00

Have you ever had to work together with your significant other?...and I don’t mean anything like housework or parenting or anything like that...I’m talking about a job—your primary source of income...

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In Memoriam of Those Lost in 2022 from 2023-01-11T05:00

Sometime around 2016, I got the sense that we were entering into a new era of rock history: a period when the musicians we loved and admired began to die... Listen, there had been many deaths befor...

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Rhythm Sections from 2023-01-04T05:00

In most rock bands, we hear most about the singer and the guitarist...you know...those two up front tend to get the most attention, and the most adoration. That leaves the bass player and the drumm...

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Outsider Music from 2022-12-28T05:00

When it comes to what you are about to hear, there is nothing wrong with your equipment or how it was produced...this music is exactly as it was intended to be. It is exactly as it was record, and ...

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The Roots of New Wave through Techno-Pop from 2022-12-21T05:00

A few years ago, there was a revival. A rediscovery of a sound that we used to call Techno-Pop. Some people loved it...some people hated it. But whatever the opinion, it was a very important part o...

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60 Mind-Blowing Facts About Music 2022 Edition from 2022-12-14T05:00

Well, it’s that time again...another year is almost at an end—and once again, we have been subjected to the whims of the universe and human stupidity through 2022... It got better with covid but th...

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Introducing "Everything 80's" from 2022-12-08T05:00

It was a classic battle between good and evil and it gave us one of the greatest toys of all time. Today, we journey back to revisit the history of the iconic Transformers. From their early days in...

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20 Short Stories About Joe Strummer from 2022-12-07T05:00

When Joe Strummer died on December 22, 2002, no one could believe it...first of all, the guy was only 50...second, this was a guy who ran marathons...third, he’d been strict vegetarian since 1971.....

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Piano Heroes from 2022-11-30T05:00

Rock’n’roll is built on the electric guitar...well, mostly...and not really in the beginning...in fact, the electric guitar as we know it, didn’t have much to do with the birth of rock at all... Th...

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Introducing "Canadian History Ehx" from 2022-11-24T05:00

From 1964 to 1966, The Beatles played only a handful of shows in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. Each show was pandemonium but the story of the Beatles in Canada goes far beyond that. From their f...

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Michael Hutchence: 25 Years Later from 2022-11-23T05:00

Being a music fan was much different in the era before the internet...news traveled slowly often passed through many filters—so many filters, in fact, that a tremendous amount of information was ei...

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Musicians Battling Disease Part 2 from 2022-11-16T05:00

In the old days before the internet, musicians had an aura of mystique about them...we only knew what they wanted us to know or what music writers could ferret out...it was an era of secrets and in...

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Musicians Battling Disease Part 1 from 2022-11-09T05:00

The human body is a wonderful thing, a marvel of evolution, biology, chemistry, and more than a few bits—like consciousness—we don’t understand...and for the most part, this meat bag of water and c...

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Driven By Her: Women of the 21st Century from 2022-11-03T04:00

There’s no way to sugarcoat it: the music industry has a reputation of being unkind to women...it has been a struggle from the beginning...and even after decades of work, things have evolved to the...

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The History of Distortion and Feedback from 2022-11-02T04:00

Once upon a time not that long ago, all music was expected to sound clean and clear. Pure, accurate, right in tune. And lo, it was…fine. But with the introduction of the electric guitar and the am...

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Rock Explainer 2 from 2022-10-26T04:00

There’s the La Tomatina festival that happens on the last Wednesday in August in Spain...this is the largest public tomato fight in the world...first of all, why would you do this on a Wednesday?.....

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Rock's Greatest Disasters from 2022-10-19T04:00

Humanity has always been set by disasters, whether they’ve been acts of god or something we somehow brought on ourselves...war, disease, earthquakes, famine, floods, volcanic eruptions, fire, plane...

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Hidden Tracks and Other Sundry from 2022-10-12T14:13

This is a program about the hidden audio that lurks in your music collection. You don’t know about it…you didn’t ask for it…you maybe didn’t even want it…but it’s there…and it needs to be exposed… ...

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Driven By Her: Guitar Heroes from 2022-10-06T04:00

Once upon a time, musical instruments were divided into two groups: those appropriate for women to play and everything else... That first group was very small...playing the piano was considered fe...

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The Roots of the 90s CanRock Explosion from 2022-10-05T04:00

There was a time in this country when Canadians didn’t really care about Canadian music...no, wait...let’s start over... There was a time in this country when Canadians didn’t like Canadian music ...

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The Long Strange Trip of John Frusciante Part 2 from 2022-09-28T04:00

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in all my years dealing with musicians, there are artists and then there are artistes...here’s how I tell them apart...Artists make art, but they also have other i...

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The Long Strange Trip of John Frusciante Part 1 from 2022-09-21T04:00

And if I’m sitting with my taxonomy flowchart, this is where I write the name “John Frusciante,” the occasional guitarist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers... And I use the word “occasional” deliberate...

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Mind-blowing Facts about Music, the Brain, and the Body from 2022-09-14T04:00

The most powerful and strangest lump of organic material in the known universe is sitting inside your skull...the human brain weighs about three pounds—call it about 1400 grams if you’re feeling me...

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Driven By Her: Unsung Heroines from 2022-09-08T16:53:35

Have you ever heard of a woman named Rosalind Franklin?...probably not, but you can draw a line from today’s covid vaccines all the way back to her in the 1950s...she conducted some serious researc...

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The History of Alt Rock Chapter: 15 from 2022-09-04T04:00

If the doomsayers are correct, something monumental–something transformative–is going to happen on December 21, 2012...this is the day the b’ak’tun cycle ends... The Mayan long count calendar runs ...

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The History of Alt Rock Chapter: 14 from 2022-08-31T04:00

To fans of any kind of rock, may 18, 1999, seemed like the end of the world...the Backstreet Boys released their new cd called Millennium...on that first day, it sold more than 500,000 copies...by ...

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The History of Alt Rock Chapter: 13 from 2022-08-28T04:00

If you were around in the early 90s, you probably remember it as a time of awesome new music...it seemed that every single day, there was a cool new band, a great new sound, a scene you didn’t know...

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The History of Alt-Rock: Chapter 9 from 2022-08-01T14:39:40

It had taken a few years, but by the middle 1980s, the underground music scene in north America had reached some kind of a tipping point...enough people had discovered punk, new wave and all the su...

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Imagine Dragons from 2022-04-13T04:00

I get a lot of email from young musicians looking for advice…they all ask pretty much the same questions: how to do I get more people to know about my music?...how do I get them to listen to my mus...

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Remembering Taylor Hawkins from 2022-04-06T04:00

Back in 2014, I was invited to the foo fighters headquarters...this is 606 studios, the band’s hangout and nerve centre in Van Nuys, California...I was there to talk about the new album and TV seri...

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From Broken Record: The Red Hot Chili Peppers Reunite from 2022-04-05T04:00

We’re thrilled to share a special preview of the Broken Record podcast from Pushkin Industries. In honor of the Red Hot Chili Peppers new album, Unlimited Love, the band members sit with their lege...

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The Rock Explainer from 2022-03-30T04:00

I’m going to explain why you might get frustrated at spellcheck on your phone or computer…and the answer has to do with a guy named Noah… no, not that Noah from the bible with the ark…another one… ...

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The Concept of Selling Out: Part 2 from 2022-03-23T04:00

Artists make art because they have it…there’s something in their hearts that forces them to turn what they feel inside into something the rest of us can see and hear and feel ourselves… It suppose...

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Infamous Hotels and Hotel Rooms from 2022-03-09T05:00

In the days before Covid, I was always on the road…if it wasn’t a music conference in Singapore, it was an interview in London, the Juno’s in—wherever, or a concert in Los Angeles…this means I have...

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Modern Rock Feuds from 2022-03-02T05:00

There are some people who just can’t get along…it could be the result of politics, religion, philophies, property, honour, a personal slight, a perceived insult, or—well, a million things, really… ...

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History Concert Sound from 2022-02-23T05:00

Ever been to a concert and wondered "How do they make all of this work?". "How have I not gone deaf?" or "Why does the dude on stage wearing what looks like a pair of ear-buds?" Well we're here to...

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The Story of the Electric Guitar - Part 3 from 2022-02-16T05:00

In assessing popular music in the last half of the 20th century, rock music was a massive cultural phenomenon…initially driven by young baby boomers, rock grew bigger and stronger, starting in the ...

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The Story of the Electric Guitar - Part 2 from 2022-02-09T05:00

For centuries, music was nice and clean…while different instruments gave notes different timbres, the frequencies of those notes was expected to be clear and pure…yes, you could add a little umph b...

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The Story of the Electric Guitar - Part 1 from 2022-02-02T05:00

There are few instruments more powerful than the electric guitar…when the first primitive models appeared in the 1920s, no one gave them much thought…the electric guitar was brand new, unproven, an...

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Rock'n'Roll Tattoos from 2022-01-26T05:00

The human body is a remarkably good piece of construction…it has its quirks and shortcomings, but for the most part is a pretty cool thing: functional, durable, and to other humans, attractive… Bu...

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14 Important Canadian Punk Bands from 2022-01-19T05:00

We’ve all heard the stories about where punk came from…the New York Dolls and a few other bands start playing in a crappy area of New York that attracted musicians, artists, and degenerates with lo...

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More Musical Offspring from 2022-01-12T05:00

Whether we want to admit it or not, each of us is product of our parents…we are like mom and/or dad…and that may manifest itself in different ways… Maybe one of them was a great cook and that’s le...

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What's The Big Deal About Elvis Costello from 2022-01-05T05:00

With the way the music industry operates, this guys career should have been dead and buried long ago. I mean no offense…but look at this dude. Even when he was young, he looked dorky. Bad glasses ...

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What's The Big Deal About The Smiths from 2021-12-29T05:00

Although they were around really for just 4 years, The Smiths succeeded in becoming the most influential British indie band of the 1980's. They hastened the deal of tech-pop, and laid the foundatio...

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Joe Strummer: A Remembrance from 2021-12-22T14:37

Back in the day, they called The Clash "the only band that mattered" and few voices are more important or influential in the history of rock than that of Joe Strummer. Without Joe and The Clash, we...

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60 Mind-Blowing Things About Music: 2021 Edition from 2021-12-15T05:00

Is it really almost the end of 2021?...if I’m honest, it’s all been a blur, almost like 2020, with covid on my mind 24/7…it’s just reality… You know how I’ve been spending my time?...I’ve spent al...

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Alt-Rock's Most Mysterious Musicians from 2021-12-08T05:00

Once upon a time, before social media and the internet, all musicians were mysterious…outside of seeing them live, our only connections with them were through their music, the liner notes and album...

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The Strokes from 2021-12-01T05:00

I remember being in London in the summer of 2001…I made my usual pilgrimage up to the original Rough Trade records store on Talbot Street, off Portobello Road in Notting Hill… I was a little bumme...

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Album Artwork from 2021-11-24T17:34

This time we go deep into the vaults for an episode about the now seemingly long lost concept of "Album Artwork". We'll look at some of the most famous of all time, and look into why this concept ...

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23 Points About Streaming: Part 2 from 2021-11-17T05:00

Once upon a time many centuries ago, someone came up with the idea of taking all the world’s available knowledge and storing it one place…that way everyone who had questions had somewhere to go to ...

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23 Points About Streaming: Part 1 from 2021-11-10T05:00

Once upon a time, all music was sold to us on pieces of plastic…we had to travel through time and space to hand over hard-earned money to purchase those pieces of plastic…and there was a financial ...

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People Who (Almost) Died from 2021-11-03T04:00

Being a rock star comes with all sorts of privileges: money, fame, plenty of sex, drugs…but those things can also be very dangerous. Take the case of slash…in September 1992, Guns N’ Roses was on ...

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Key Alt-Rock Movie Soundtracks from 2021-10-27T04:00

There was a time when movie soundtracks were the lifeblood of the recorded music industry…the lp record, which was introduced in June 1948, was developed at least partially at the behest of movie s...

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The Unsung Heroes of Music: Part 2 from 2021-10-20T04:00

In the winter of 1417, a young man named Poggio Braciolini was searching through a library when it found an odd manuscript sitting on a shelf…it was a thousand years old—the last surviving copy of ...

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The Unsung Heroes of Music: Part 1 from 2021-10-13T04:00

Not everyone who managed to change the world is famous…it is possible to do something absolutely, monumentally world-shaking and not receive any recognition for it… I’ll give you a name: Vasyli Ar...

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Bond...James Bond...Music from 2021-10-06T04:00

When a movie is successful, someone somewhere wants more…that’s when we get a sequel…if that follow-up does well, then the sequel gets a sequel…and if that film has traction, well, then you reach t...

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The History of Portable Music: Part 2 from 2021-09-29T04:00

There are three moments when I remember looking at something in my hands and realizing that this was going to change my life… The first time was on my sixth birthday when my grandmother gave me a ...

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The History of Portable Music: Part 1 from 2021-09-22T04:00

One of the many great things about music is that we can enjoy it anywhere…I’m talking about the recorded kind…everyone has a smartphone, and every smartphone has the capability of playing music, wh...

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Studio Stories with David Botrill from 2021-09-15T04:00

Long before I started doing this for a living, I had the notion that I was going to be a record producer…after all, I loved music and the idea of being able to help record it would be a great job… ...

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The Amazing Year That Was 1991 from 2021-09-08T15:02:41

When it comes to music, not all years are created equal…listen, every year features some great new songs from great new bands…but over the long term, this music isn’t equally distributed…sometimes—...

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U2 and The Joshua Tree at 30 with Daniel Lanois Part 2 from 2021-09-01T05:00

Whenever an artist goes into the studio, they hope for the best but expect the worst…you want it the album to sell and turn you into a global superstar with all the rights and privileges thereto…bu...

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U2 and The Joshua Tree at 30 with Daniel Lanois Part 1 from 2021-09-01T04:00

On March 9, 1987—a little more than ten years after a bunch of kids met up in a Dublin kitchen—U2 released their fifth album…expectations were running pretty high…after establishing themselves with...

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The Tragically Hip's Fully Completely Reissue With Rob Baker from 2021-08-25T13:40

“Even though it was the middle of summer, it was cold and wet,” Rob Baker remembers, “and after a full day in the studio, there was nothing to do but go back to where we were staying and watch the ...

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Oasis At War: Part 2 from 2021-08-18T14:58

How well do you get along with your siblings?—assuming you have any, of course…brothers and sisters can be a pain, especially when you’re always in close quarters…and when you have to work with the...

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The Rock Snob from 2021-07-28T04:00

This is a course in Rock Snobery. To help you understand why some terms exist in music and what they actually mean. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Alt-Rocks Great Bass Players from 2021-07-21T04:00

This week we look at one of the most under appreciated and underrated members of any rock band...the bass player. These are the most influential bass players in the history of alt-rock. See omn...

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The Kings of Quirk from 2021-07-14T13:22:55

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder—or in the case of music, the ear…what’s pleasant to one person is nothing but noise to someone else… This is where it’s good to have some patience…there are so...

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The Queens of Quirk from 2021-07-07T15:25

For a very long time—too long—women were locked in very defined roles when it came to rock’n’roll…girls were expected to look pretty and do little more than sing…okay, maybe shake a tambourine or s...

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The Tribes of Alt-Rock from 2021-06-30T04:00

One of the most useful things about music is that it can be used to tell the world who you are…we’ve all done it…it is a symbol of our individuality and belief in personal freedom…it proclaims our ...

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9 Amazing Things About Your Brain and Music from 2021-06-23T13:11:05

There is absolutely no need for music—speaking in terms of evolution, anyway… As far as scientists can tell, there’s no compelling reason for humans to make and enjoy music…neurologically, we coul...

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Music Questions People Almost Never Ask from 2021-06-16T14:22

I think one of the greatest gifts humans have is a sense of curiosity…the ability to question things around to learn why things are the way they are pushes us forward… Here are my three favourite ...

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RocknRoll Rehab from 2021-06-02T13:39

Sometimes, the pressures of life become a little too much and the methods of escape you choose to cope with them aren’t exactly the best ones…over-indulgence with and reliance upon drugs and/or alc...

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The Tragically Hip's "Saskadelphia" from 2021-05-26T04:00

On Saturday, August 20, 2016, tens of millions of Canadians watched and listened to the final Tragically Hip concert from Kingston…given Gord Downie’s illness, we knew that was the last time we’d s...

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A Requiem for Daft Punk from 2021-05-19T04:00

It takes a special kind of band to obscure their appearance…but if you can do it right, then it moves from being a silly gimmick to an important piece of your identity, image, and brand.… When Kis...

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The History of the Record Store from 2021-05-12T15:15

Before we begin, I am very aware that there are people listening to this program who have never, ever set foot in a record store…they came of age musical after the Internet changed everything about...

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Hobbies of Musicians from 2021-05-05T15:13

What do you for fun?...hobbies, pastimes—things that you do just for you, away from your job and all your other responsibilities?... I’ve got my dogs…my wife and I like to travel…and I’ve always h...

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Big Bands from Small Towns from 2021-04-28T13:17

Let me say from the outset that I have nothing against small towns…I grew up in one myself…population: 2000…it was in the middle of the Canadian prairies…the nearest big city was Winnipeg…after tha...

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The Post-Punk Explosion Part 7: All the rest from 2021-04-21T18:32

The original punk rock explosion of the 1970s was two things…first, it was a major reset for rock’n’roll…think of it as a great musical decluttering…Punk of the 70s wasn’t revolutionary…it was reac...

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The Post-Punk Explosion Part 6: Ska from 2021-04-14T04:00

Every once in a while, music enters a state of flux where the direction of everything is, shall we say, undefined…we see and hear change but we’re not quite sure what it all means just yet…somethin...

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The Post-Punk Explosion Part 5: Goth from 2021-04-07T13:23

On April 10, 1815, a volcano erupted in the central part of the Indonesian archipelago…Mount Tambora blew up, ejecting nearly 200 cubic kilometres of debris into the atmosphere…all that dust circle...

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The Post-Punk Explosion Part 4: Alt-Dance from 2021-03-31T04:00

Dancing is as old as the human race…not long after we started walking on two legs, we found a groove and have been moving to the music ever since… Fast-forward several million years and we find th...

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The Post-Punk Explosion Part 3: Industrial from 2021-03-24T13:30

By the time we got to the mid-70s, rock had organized itself so that were rules…you did things this way and not that way…then came punk… One of the great gifts of punk rock was a reminder that you...

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The Post-Punk Explosion Part 2: Techno-Pop from 2021-03-17T04:00

For the longest time, the sounds of rock were made with voice, guitars, bass, drums, and keyboards like piano and organ…there were plenty of ways to manipulate the sounds of those instruments: effe...

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The Post-Punk Explosion Part 1: New Wave from 2021-03-10T15:13

If you’ve been around enough, you may remember those special times when you know that you’re in a middle of music history being made… You might be old enough to remember the early 90s…so much new...

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History of Nerd Rock from 2021-03-03T20:09

Nerd…noun…a foolish or contemptible person who lacks social skills or is boringly studious…definition 2: a single-minded expert in a particular technical field...example: a computer nerd… It’s an ...

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50 Years of CanCon from 2021-02-24T05:00

Fifty years ago, there was no such thing as a Canadian music industry…well, at least not compared to the U.S. or the UK…we had bands that played gigs and recorded singles and albums…but there wasn’...

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The Diversity Show 2021 from 2021-02-17T05:00

Here is a truth that some people find very uncomfortable: rock, alt-rock and indie rock are predominantly white…why is that?...the answers—and there is more than one—are complicated…there has actua...

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Digital Debris Part 3: Liner Notes from 2021-02-10T15:26

When you listen to music through a streaming music service, how aware are you of what you’re listening to?...sure, you can look at the screen, but what does that tell you?...the name of the artist,...

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Digital Debris Part 2: Album Artwork from 2021-02-03T05:00

A little while ago, I carved out some time to finally file some records and CD’s…I’d been procrastinating, but I finally summoned up the discipline to get it done…and honestly, it was a task that s...

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Digital Debris Part 1: B-Sides and Bonus Tracks from 2021-01-27T05:00

We are very, very deep into the digital world when it comes to music…virtually every song we could ever want is available to us instantly no matter where we are…all we need is an internet connectio...

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Unfortunate Sonic Coincidences: The Lawsuits from 2021-01-20T05:00

Okay…let’s go over this one more time…there are just twelve notes in the western scale…the ways they can be combined to form pleasing sounds are finite in number…it’s a big number, but it’s still f...

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Theories, Thoughts, and Half-Baked Ideas from 2021-01-13T05:00

One of the byproducts of doing a show like this for as long as I’ve been doing it is that it’s really hard to shut off your brain… I’m always thinking about topic ideas, ways to link facts and tri...

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Sid Vicious from 2021-01-06T15:03

Every once in a while we come across someone who is famous and iconic for being...well let's be honest...nothing more than a monumental eff-up. There is nothing about them we should admire...but f...

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Indigenous Alternative from 2020-12-30T16:52

Over the last decade, there has been some very, very long overdue attempts at reconciliation with the First Nations and Indigenous Peoples of North America…there’s still a long, long way to go, but...

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The 2020 Xmas Show from 2020-12-23T17:35:28

This the 23rd annual ongoing Christmas show…and yeah, I know that 2020 has been a challenging year, but let’s look at some of the good things that happened… Many of us learned to bake bread…drive-...

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60 Facts in 30 Minutes: 2020 Edition from 2020-12-16T05:00

Okay…let’s start the annual office cleanup…this is the time of year when I go through all the scraps of paper, all the scribbles on various notepads and all the post-it notes hanging everywhere…the...

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The Story of Stereo: Part 2 from 2020-12-09T05:00

We are always pouring sound into our heads, whether we’re using some kinds of speakers or wearing headphones… I’m going to make a guess here, but I’m going to assume that most people demand a cert...

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Introducing: Whatever Happened To...? from 2020-12-04T16:36:16

You’ve heard the stories. You’ve felt for the people involved. But what happens after the cameras shut off and the reporters walk away? Just because a story disappears from the news doesn’t mean it...

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The Story of Stereo: Part 1 from 2020-12-02T05:00

Our ears are amazing things…evolution has created an ability that allows us to tell the direction of a sound…left and right, up and down, front and back…we can tell how close something might be, w...

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Even More Rock Conspiracies from 2020-11-25T05:00

The universe is a weird, random place that has little regard for what us puny humans think…this is something we find very, very hard to accept…we’re always looking for explanations for the weird, r...

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Hidden Figures from 2020-11-18T16:38

I’ve always been something of a nut when it comes to the space program…but even though I’ve read all the books, seen all the documentaries, and watched all the movies, I was still surprised to lear...

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The Return of ACDC - Power Up Premiere from 2020-11-16T13:54

2020 has been a miserable year…the pandemic…economic ruin…the crazy U.S. election, which featured an impeached President…Kobe Bryant’s helicopter crash…the death of George Floyd…murder hornets arri...

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Great Alt-Rock One-Hit Wonders of the 90s: Part 2 from 2020-11-11T05:00

Creating art is hard…if it wasn’t, everyone would do it—and everyone would be successful at doing it…even those who can create art—the people with the right stuff—have a finite supply of good stuff...

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Introducing... 13 Hours: Inside the Nova Scotia Massacre from 2020-11-09T06:01

The deadliest shooting spree in Canada’s modern history left us with far more questions than answers. Join Sarah Ritchie, a reporter for Global News in Halifax, as she tries to unravel how somethin...

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Great Alt-Rock One-Hit Wonders of the 90s: Part 1 from 2020-11-04T05:00

Artists who manage to have only one hit are often the butt of jokes…getting tagged as a one-hit-wonder can kill your career…but let’s turn this around: how many hits do you have?... There is so m...

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The History of Moshing from 2020-10-28T04:00

I do not dance…I’m too awkward and too self-aware of my awkwardness…I know we’re all supposed to dance like no one is looking, but when it comes to me, people will look, point, and judge… My wife ...

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The Great KGB Punk Conspiracy from 2020-10-21T04:00

You may be aware of a podcast that came out in the spring of 2020 that sought to get to the bottom of a certain musical mystery…it’s called “wind of change” and it explores the possibility that a m...

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Introducing... Crime Beat - Season 3 from 2020-10-20T04:01

Ride along with 25 year veteran Crime Reporter Nancy Hixt, from Global News, on her award winning podcast Crime Beat as she takes you through some of Canada’s most high-profile criminal cases. Real...

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History of Pop Punk: Part 2 from 2020-10-14T13:05:26

Here’s a list of words that shouldn’t go together but do…alone together…how many times did you uses that during the coronavirus pandemic?...deafening silence…I know what that means, but when you th...

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History of Pop Punk: Part 1 from 2020-10-07T14:09:26

Before we get to the topic at hand, I’d like to revisit the movie “Forrest Gump,” specifically Forrest’s shrimp boat buddy, Benjamin Buford Blue—but you can just call him Bubba…he knew all the ways...

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Where Are They Now? Part 4 from 2020-09-30T14:22

At some point, you may end up being invited to your high school reunion—and you’re probably going to go because you wanna see what happened to all those people… Where’s the jock that made your lif...

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Musicians Who Lost It: Part 2 from 2020-09-23T13:49

Sometimes, life becomes too much…things get too weird, there’s too much pressure, too many decisions, too many wrong choices….the uncertainty builds—and then you just kinda lose it… We lose the pl...

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Musicians Who Lost It: Part 1 from 2020-09-16T13:57

There’s something about creative types that make them different than the rest of us…if you’ve ever spent any kind of time with any kind of artist, you’ll what I mean…they’re just different, you kno...

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New Rock Secrets from 2020-09-09T16:57

This show is going to blow the lid off some secrets and mysteries in new rock. Admittedly some you may have already have heard rumours about, but others....well this may be the first time you are ...

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Ongoing History Introduces you to: "History of the 90's" from 2020-09-04T04:00

In the 1990s there was a massive flood of stand-up comedians making the leap to television to star in their own stand-up sitcoms thanks in part to the success of the Cosby Show and Roseanne. Those...

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The Ongoing History Book of Lasts from 2020-09-02T13:12

Everyone talks about being first at something because it’s cool to be the first to do something…but what about being last?... There’s something called “Telesphobia,” which is the fear of being las...

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If That Is Your REAL Name from 2020-08-26T14:43

This is a show all about fake names…sure we could spend an hour talking about how people like Courtney Love and Elton John and Madonna use fake names on hotel registers…or we could go into how Bono...

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Your questions answered from 2020-08-19T13:56

Here at the Ongoing History of New Music, we get questions....a LOT of questions. So many that it's often difficult to answer all of them. But we do. And what we've gathered in this edition of th...

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Get in the Van from 2020-08-12T16:27

If you've ever wanted to be a musician, chances are you dreamed of going on tour. The romance of the road and everything that comes along with it. But it's not as easy as you think. Not everyone i...

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The History of Power Pop from 2020-08-06T23:58

In the beginning—and I’m talking about, say, 1955—it was easy to categorize popular music…there was rock, pop, country and r&b…it was nice and simple…pretty much all mainstream music you heard coul...

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Trying to be a Superstar in the 21st Century from 2020-07-29T13:34

You may have noticed that the most of the biggest rock acts in the world aren’t that young…Green Day?...middle 40s… Dave Grohl?...creeping up on the half-century mark… Trent Reznor?...as we sit her...

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The Original Ramones from 2020-07-24T13:55

Friday, August 16, 1974, was a hot summer day in New York City…it was 31 degrees, but the humidity made it feel a lot hotter…and if you were down in the Bowery amidst all the concrete, it was hotte...

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The Second Voice from 2020-07-22T14:38

when you’re the lead singer in a band, you’re pretty much guaranteed to get all the attention…after all, you are the visual and audio focal point for pretty much everything… Yeah, there might be a...

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Good Goth: Part 2 from 2020-07-15T13:48

This is the second part of out examination of the Alt-Rock scene and this time we go from mid 80's right up to today. Goth has always had a bad rap so we're going to try to clear everything up wit...

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Good Goth: Part 1 from 2020-07-08T13:06

Goth has always had a bad rap and that's not fair to the music, the fans and the fashion so we're going to try to clear everything up with our deep dive. Don't worry...no one's going to get hurt.W...

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Fashion from 2020-07-03T16:34

Today we go back into the Ongoing History archives to talk about Fashion. This is a request for Amy in Cambridge who asked "have you ever done a show that talks about how fashion was influenced by...

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10 Things About Muse from 2020-06-26T02:17

There are some bands that you can take at face value, what you see is what you get. Then there are others which have backstories that go on for everand ever. Pearl Jam is one U2 Green Day. Nirvan...

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Canadian Producers from 2020-06-24T13:59

We all know that Canada has created some of the biggest selling musicians in the world. I mean think about it... Celine, Alanis, Shania, Nickelback, Drake, Bieber, The Weekend....you get the idea....

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What's The Big Deal About Bauhaus? from 2020-06-17T04:00

They only exhisted for barely 4 years and released just 4 albums but without them would there be a Smashing Pumpkins? Nine Inch Nails? Marilyn Manson? White Zombie? This is a program in the "what'...

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The Oral history of "Madchester": Part 2 from 2020-06-12T13:25

This is part 2 of our Oral History of Madchester as told by someone who was there to see it and make it happen.Gaz Whelan of the Happy Monday's! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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The Oral history of "Madchester": Part 1 from 2020-05-28T16:51

This week it's the Oral History of Madchester as told by someone who was there to see it and make it happen. Gaz Whelan of the Happy Monday's!This really is something else... See omnystudio.com/l...

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Ian Thornley - In His Own Words: Part 2 from 2020-05-20T04:00

The problem with so many interviews is that they can come across as interrogations…” I have a list of questions I must get through in the allotted time so let’s begin”… Depending on the circumstan...

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Ian Thornley - In His Own Words: Part 1 from 2020-05-13T04:00

Recently, I had a chance to sit down with Ian Thornley to talk about his career in our ongoing series of “in their own words” shows And this time we cover everything…and I mean everything….This is...

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100 Years of Radio: Part 2 from 2020-05-06T13:13:07

One of the most robust creatures on the planet is the cockroach…gross things, but you have to admire ability to survive…I mean, they’ve been around for 280 million years… Not only can a cockroach ...

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100 Years of Radio: Part 1 from 2020-04-29T04:00

This episode begins shortly after 9 am on the Saturday I turned 6…for reasons that will forever remain mysterious, the present from my grandmother was a Lloyds portable transistor radio…model tr-62...

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Big Picture Stuff: Part 2 from 2020-04-22T13:57

In the olden days of newspapers—and I’m talking decades ago—there was a specific way printing photographs…photos were given to the printer who copied the picture using a special camera that convert...

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Big Picture Stuff: Part 1 from 2020-04-15T13:58

When it comes to music, it’s so easy to get lost in the weeds…to become distracted by all the minutiae and trivia… There’s nothing wrong with that, of course…it’s the study of exactly this kind of...

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9 Great B Sides from 2020-04-14T15:22

Back in the day...when singles were released on vinyl...you needed to put a song on either side of the record. Sometimes it was another version of the same song, or just the same song again, or ma...

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Alt Rock Revivals Part 5: New Wave from 2020-03-25T17:14:58

It is a fact of life that there are periods where everything old is new again…if you look at Broadway, for example, old productions are always being brought back… Take “West Side Story,” for examp...

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Alt Rock Revivals Part 4: Garage Rock from 2020-03-18T13:08:19

Take a look in your closet…are you the kind of person who won’t throw out anything because you’re sure it’ll come back into style one day?... I am…long after this stuff have ceased sparking joy, i...

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Alt Rock Revivals Part 3: Emo from 2020-03-11T04:00

We hear this phrase all the time: “once in a generation”…fine, but how long is a generation?...according to Wikipedia, it’s about 30 years, which is the time it takes children to be born, grow up, ...

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Alt Rock Revivals Part 2: Ska from 2020-03-04T05:00

Certain types of music have been around forever…jazz, for example, has been with us for over a hundred years…classical music goes back at least six hundred years…and then there’s religious music wh...

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Alt Rock Revivals Part 1: Punk from 2020-02-26T05:00

We begin this episode with Ecclesiastes, chapter 3, verses 1-3…ish: “to everything there is a season, a time to every purpose under the heaven…a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant,...

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Ongoing History of New Music - Trailer from 2020-02-24T17:41

Ongoing History of New Music looks at things from the alt-rock universe to hip hop, from artist profiles to various thematic explorations. It is Canada’s most well known music documentary hosted by...

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Secrets of Queens of the Stone Age: Part 2 from 2020-02-19T14:45:28

There are some bands that are very consistent with their sound—and fans love them for it…no two records are never exactlythe same, but whenever a new album is announced, we have a pretty good idea ...

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Secrets of Queens of the Stone Age: Part 1 from 2020-02-12T05:00

How old is rock’n’roll now?...if we use 1955 has some kind of abritary ground zero, rock is now eligible for all kinds of senior’s discounts…. That’s a long time…and the older rock gets, the more ...

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Studio Stories with Chris Birkett from 2020-01-30T19:33

Like a lot of music fans, I’m fascinated by what goes on in the kitchen…how is music made and recorded?...who is responsible for doing what?... You may have wondered what a producer does or what’s...

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Headstones: In Their Own Words Part 2 from 2020-01-22T05:00

Our memories are shaky constructs…we remember things wrong or forget things altogether…I’ve found—and other people agree with this—that if you want to dig through your brain to recover things that ...

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Headstones: In Their Own Words Part 1 from 2020-01-15T05:00

At one time, The Headstones were the scariest band in Canadian music…they scared audiences, scared record companies—hell, they scared themselves… There were other words to describe them…intense…se...

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Remembering Neil Peart from 2020-01-13T10:00

Over the decades, drummers haven’t received a lot of respect…all the jokes…the running gag in “Spinal Tap”…the issues so many groups seem to have finding the right drummer… But there are also thos...

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Deconstructing the Arctic Monkeys from 2020-01-08T15:16

I love trying to figure out why things are the way they are…it’s a need to understand, you know?... Take a guy like Jack White, for example…if you go deep into his background, you have a much bett...

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60 Mind Blowing Facts in 60 Minutes: The 5th Edition from 2019-12-18T05:00

I have a long list of music-related facts that came to my attention this year…many of them were incorporated in various “ongoing history” programs over the last 12 months…but there’s also a lot of ...

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Musicians With Disabilities from 2019-12-04T14:29:24

The human body can be both very strong and very fragile…given its complexity, it generally works pretty well…but there are those among us who face challenges because of various disabilities… Some ...

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Lost Canadian Bands 3 from 2019-11-27T05:00

There are a lot of things wrong with Facebook—don’t get me started—but there’s no denying that it can be addictive…The best thing for me is finding out where people from my life have ended up…high ...

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Golden Age of Synths as told by OMD from 2019-11-20T14:17:04

There have been many times over the last one hundred years where technology has changed the way we make music… Take the microphone, for example…before it came along, singers had to be naturally lo...

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Weird and Shocking Rockers from 2019-11-13T14:18:39

Here’s a warning right from the outset: this is going to be a weird program…the performs and the music we’re going to talk about are famous because of their weird, shocking behaviour…they set out t...

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The Sum 41 Story As Told By Deryck Whibley: Part 2 from 2019-11-06T05:00

You don’t need me to tell you that being a rock star isn’t a normal kind of job…you live in a bubble that’s as far removed from the regular 9-5, Monday-to-Friday thing… You spend a lot of time liv...

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The Sum 41 Story As Told By Deryck Whibley: Part 1 from 2019-10-30T04:00

If you’ve ever seen Sum 41 perform live, they seem larger than life…big…loud…brash…in your face…very punk rock…and out front is Deryck Whibley…he’s like a man possessed….it all makes for a great sh...

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Solo Noel Gallagher from 2019-10-23T04:00

It all came to an end on august 28, 2009, with a plum thrown against the wall…after eighteen years, the most volatile band in the world came to an end… Noel Gallagher and Liam Gallagher had always...

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Riot Grrrls - A Primer from 2019-10-16T03:01:25

There is no question that the vast majority of rock history involves dudes…it’s been a very male thing…not always, but most of the time… There was a time when it was “common knowledge” that girls ...

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A Guide to Genres: Part 2 from 2019-10-09T04:00

I’m trying to imagine what it might be like to design an Amazon warehouse…a typical fulfillment centre is at least a million square feet filled with a zillion kilometres of shelving… And given tha...

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A Guide to Genres: Part 1 from 2019-10-02T04:00

Humans have always tried to make sense the world by putting things into neat little piles and filing them away somehow for further reference…it just makes things easier… If you study biology, you...

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Ultra-Deep Background on Dave Grohl: Part 3 from 2019-09-25T14:13:19

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 abo...

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Ultra-Deep Background on Dave Grohl: Part 2 from 2019-09-18T14:01:09

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 p...

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Ultra-Deep Background on Dave Grohl: Part 1 from 2019-09-11T13:24:41

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 ban...

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History of Shoegaze from 2019-09-04T14:00:19

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 w...

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The History of Vinyl: Part 2 from 2019-08-26T03:22:27

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 o...

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The History of Vinyl: Part 1 from 2019-08-19T01:36

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 happ...

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The Influencers - Springsteen from 2019-08-07T04:00

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...

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What's The Big Deal About The Stooges? from 2019-07-30T15:33:42

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 ...

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Etymology: Part 1 from 2019-07-29T02:33:51

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 Podc...

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Stories Behind Songs from 2019-07-22T02:35:28

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 y...

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The Reunions: Some Lasted....and Sadly, Some Didn't | Part 3 from 2019-07-15T02:21:13

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 somet...

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Kirk Hammett’s Movie Poster Collection | Bonus Podcast from 2019-07-10T10:00

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...

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The Reunions: Some Lasted....and Sadly, Some Didn't | Part 2 from 2019-07-07T04:19:02

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...

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The Reunions: Some Lasted....and Sadly, Some Didn't | Part 1 from 2019-07-03T04:00

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. Mea...

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Mumford and Sons from 2019-06-24T13:04:57

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 ...

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Ongoing History introduces Wait, There's More from 2019-06-21T13:00:52

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 spe...

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The Rise and Fall of Britpop from 2019-06-19T13:28:18

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 gr...

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Franz Ferdinand: In Their Own Words from 2019-06-17T13:36:25

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!See omny...

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Health Issues of Musicians from 2019-05-29T13:00:59

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 a...

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Catching Up With Twenty One Pilots from 2019-05-22T20:20:41

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 r...

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Rise and Fall of the CD from 2019-05-15T04:00

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 mak...

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Musical Offspring from 2019-05-08T15:29:26

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 he...

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Music Industry Glossary: Part 2 from 2019-05-01T04:00

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 profes...

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Legendary Gigs from 2019-04-29T15:31:40

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...

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Music Industry Glossary: Part 1 from 2019-04-23T19:46:22

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 discussio...

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Nine Inch Nails and "Year Zero" from 2019-04-21T04:00

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 ...

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Alexisonfire - In Their Own Words Podcast from 2019-04-17T13:29:03

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?... B...

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Murder! from 2019-04-15T14:26:44

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 jealo...

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Kurt Cobain: 25 Years Later from 2019-04-08T09:00

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 p...

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Moonlighting from 2019-04-03T16:07:27

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 ...

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Matt Good: In His Own Words - Part 2 from 2019-03-31T21:05:50

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 hones...

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Matt Good: In His Own Words - Part 1 from 2019-03-27T13:32:51

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 conversati...

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New Rock Hair from 2019-03-25T03:22:51

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 hav...

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The 00s Part 5: Technology from 2019-03-20T04:00

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 ...

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Ongoing History Introduces you to Crime Beat from 2019-03-14T04:00

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....

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The 00s Part 4: Variety Returns from 2019-03-13T04:00:49

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 of...

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25 Random Facts About Depeche Mode from 2019-03-11T00:28:31

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 wha...

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The 00's Part 3: The Return of Rock from 2019-03-06T20:19:13

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…w...

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The 00's Part 2: The Indie Revolution from 2019-02-27T05:00:41

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 de...

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The 00's Part 1: The Sad State of Rock from 2019-02-20T15:15:52

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 exac...

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A Deep Dive Into Vinyl Trivia from 2019-02-13T05:00:24

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…Vi...

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Arkells - In Their Own Words: Part 2 from 2019-02-06T05:00

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… Unl...

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Ongoing History Introduces you to: Russia Rising from 2019-02-04T14:30:47

“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 wit...

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Arkells - In Their Own Words: Part 1 from 2019-01-30T05:00

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 any...

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The 500th Show! from 2019-01-28T20:37:17

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....

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Modern Guitar Heroes 2: The Women from 2019-01-23T05:00

It’s been a rough decade for the electric guitar…sales of new instruments have dropped by a third, from 1.5 million globally to around just one million… Why?...generations brought up on electronic...

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Modern Guitar Heroes: The Men from 2019-01-16T05:00

What is a guitar hero?...yes, yes, it’s a video game that vaguely simulates playing a real guitar…what else?... Yes, yes, it means someone who can rock the “expert level” at guitar hero, the video...

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You're Fired! from 2019-01-14T14:37:51

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 somet...

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History of Concert Sound from 2019-01-10T15:45:05

Ever been to a concert and wondered "How do they make all of this work?". "How have I not gone deaf?" or "Why does the dude on stage wearing what looks like a pair of ear-buds?"

Well we're...

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What’s with Florence + the Machine? from 2019-01-06T02:06:27

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 s...

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Kings of Leon in Their Own Words: Part 2 from 2018-12-31T04:21:28

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 ho...

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Kings of Leon in Their Own Words: Part 1 from 2018-12-30T20:52:20

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...

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10 Things That Really Annoy Me from 2018-12-24T03:50:24

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-v...

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60 Mind-Blowing Facts in 60 Minutes: 4th Edition from 2018-12-19T05:00

One of the occupational hazards of my job is I run across all kinds of facts, bits of data, and pieces of knowledge that don’t have any immediate practical application… For example, I ran across t...

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Bush: The Post-CD Band Featuring Gavin Rossdale from 2018-12-16T05:00

Once upon a time, not that long ago and in a land not that far away, musicians—not all, but some—could become very, very rich… Their riches came by selling pieces of plastic to those who enjoyed t...

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Radiohead - A History: Part 3 from 2018-12-12T05:00

When you sign your first record deal, it’s usually for around seven albums…theoretically; this is to protect both sides… First, it offers the artist a degree of security…it gives the artist a few ...

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Radiohead - A History: Part 2 from 2018-12-05T05:00

When you think about it, it’s quite an accomplishment to become a one-hit-wonder...sure, your career is essentially over after one song–but hey, at least you made it that far...think about all the ...

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Alt Rock Shrines | From the Archives from 2018-12-03T02:59:36

When I say the word "Shrine"...what comes to mind? Lords? A temple in the Himalaya’s? Something secular...like a war memorial? They could be something makeshift like flowers placed on the side of ...

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Radiohead - A History: Part 1 from 2018-11-28T05:00

Is it just me or has there been an uptick in the number of one-hit-wonders over the past couple of years?...think about all the hot bands who have had just one good album–or even just one good song...

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Death as a Career Move | From the Archives from 2018-11-23T17:00

Here's the thing. As a musician you can spend thousands and thousands of hours, days, weeks working to be a success. You know, make enough money to pay the bills, have a living, and make a career.....

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Lost CanRock Bands of the 90s: Part 2 from 2018-11-20T17:45:41

Before 1971, there really wasn’t much of a Canadian music industry…sure, there were record labels and recording studios and promoters and agents, but we didn’t have what you’d call a “first-world” ...

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Lost CanRock Bands of the '90s: Part 1 from 2018-11-13T17:00

If you came of age musically in Canada in the 1990s, you’ll remember that it was an extraordinary time…there was this mass embracing of homegrown music…it was part nationalism and part patriotism, ...

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Groups That Changed Their Front-Person and Survived from 2018-11-01T04:00

Building and maintaining a band is a lot like building and maintaining a sports team…you struggle and wheel-and-deal and trade and sometimes steal to put together just the right lineup… And it’s n...

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It's A Family Affair from 2018-10-24T04:00

Music is one of those things that can bring families together…and sometimes, that togetherness grows into a business… The BeeGees had the three Gibb brothers…baby brother Andy Gibb was also part o...

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Rock Star Kids | From the Archives from 2018-10-22T03:05:08

Being a kid of a rock star isn't the easiest life to live. The celebrity, the expectations to be like your dad or mom who's a famous rock star. Everyone watching you to make a mistake. But there ar...

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9 Great Alt-Rock Cover Songs from 2018-10-17T13:38:07

There’s just something fun about learning to play one of your favourite songs for yourself…you know, learning the lyrics, figuring out the chords and the rhythm and deconstructing all the constitue...

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Was Kurt Cobain Murdered: Part 2 from 2018-10-14T04:00

For this Ongoing History bonus Podcast, we go back to the spring of 2004 to take a look at the "Was Kurt Cobain Murdered" conspiracy. These shows originally aired 10 years after the death of Cobain...

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USS In Their Own Words: Part 2 from 2018-10-10T04:00

I hope you’re ready for an interesting interview with Ash and Jay from USS…because this is another one of those occasional “in their own words” profiles where I just let the artist tell their stori...

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Was Kurt Cobain Murdered: Part 1 from 2018-10-07T04:00

For this Ongoing History bonus Podcast, we go back to the spring of 2004 to take a look at the "Was Kurt Cobain Murdered" conspiracy. These shows originally aired 10 years after the death of Cobain...

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USS In Their Own Words: Part 1 from 2018-10-03T04:00

If you’re a fan of a particular artist, you want to know everything you can about them…maybe you scour things like their official bios, their Wikipedia pages and maybe read through as many intervie...

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More Famous Recording Studios from 2018-09-26T04:00

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 ...

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Bent Bands from 2018-09-23T04:00

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 somethi...

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Songs Based on Real Events from 2018-09-19T04:00

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 i...

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Alt Rocks Craziest People from 2018-09-16T04:00

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...

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A Brief History of Alt Psychedelic Rock from 2018-09-12T04:00

Here’s one of the most misunderstood and misused words in the English language: “psychedelic” …The word first came into use in 1956 when a psychiatrist named Humphrey Osmond was studying a new clas...

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Drummers from 2018-09-10T13:45:09

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 chan...

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Alt Rock Concept Albums: Part 2 from 2018-09-05T04:00

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 ha...

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Sloan In Their Own Words: Part 2 from 2018-09-02T04:00

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...

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Alt Rock Concept Albums: Part 1 from 2018-08-29T04:00

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 ar...

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Sloan In Their Own Words: Part 1 from 2018-08-26T04:00

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...

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Medical Mysteries of Music from 2018-08-22T04:00

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 i...

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Going Solo from 2018-08-19T16:45:33

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 th...

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Useless information from 2018-08-15T04:00

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...

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Eggheads and Geeks from 2018-08-13T01:31:57

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 le...

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Fans and Fatalities from 2018-08-10T16:00

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 getshurt or killed, the resulting lawsuits can be crippling. You need insu...

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A Not-So Brief History of Ska: Part 2 from 2018-08-08T04:00

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 deeme...

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A Not-So Brief History of Ska: Part 1 from 2018-08-01T04:00

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...

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Rage Against The Machine: Part 2 from 2018-07-30T02:43:19

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 ...

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The Inventors from 2018-07-25T04:00

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 ...

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Rage Against The Machine: Part 1 from 2018-07-23T00:53:37

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 pr...

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Hidden Tracks and Sundry from 2018-07-18T04:00

This is a program about the hidden audio that lurks in your music collection. You don’t know about it…you didn’t ask for it…you maybe didn’t even want it…but it’s there…and it needs to be exposed… ...

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Great Lost Albums from 2018-07-11T04:00

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’...

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Christian Rock from 2018-07-10T03:05:19

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 ...

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You're Going to Jail! from 2018-07-04T04:00

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 i...

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History of Indie Rock: Part 4 from 2018-06-27T04:00

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, yo...

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Green Day: From their Beginning to 2005 from 2018-06-25T02:09:13

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, ...

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The History of Indie Rock: Part 3 from 2018-06-20T04:00

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 me...

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The History of Indie Rock: Part 2 from 2018-06-13T04:00

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 go...

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The History of Indie Rock: Part 1 from 2018-06-06T04:00

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 roc...

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24 Years of the Warped Tour from 2018-05-30T04:00

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 ...

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Before They Were Famous from 2018-05-23T04:00

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 stat...

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The History of Nerd Rock from 2018-05-16T04:00

Nerd…noun…a foolish or contemptible person who lacks social skills or is boringly studious…definition 2: a single-minded expert in a particular technical field...example: a computer nerd… It’s an ...

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The Truth About Concert Tickets from 2018-05-09T04:00

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 ...

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Songs of Protest from 2018-05-02T04:00

Sometimes people get so pissed off or so inspired by something that they just have to sing about it…this is the protest song and it’s been with us for centuries… It’s music that encourages politic...

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Airplanes! from 2018-04-25T04:00

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 t...

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The 90s Part 9: The Festivals from 2018-04-18T04:00

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 sti...

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The 90s Part 8: The CanRock Revolution from 2018-04-11T04:00

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 o...

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The 90s Part 7: The Other Genres from 2018-04-09T13:59:48

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 ...

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The 90s Part 6: The Punk Revival from 2018-04-03T02:58:32

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 wishe...

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The 90s Part 5b: Hip-Hop's Effects Part 2 from 2018-03-25T00:51:19

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 o...

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The 90s Part 5a: Hip-Hop's Effects Part 1 from 2018-03-17T00:35:28

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 jui...

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The 90s Part 4: Britpop from 2018-03-10T03:52:39

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 ...

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The 90s Part 3: Grunge from 2018-02-27T04:32:53

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...

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The 90's Part 2B: Front Women from 2018-02-21T01:14:36

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 lib...

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The 90's Part 2A: Solo Women from 2018-02-18T16:47:14

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 misogy...

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The 90's Part 1: Foundational Changes from 2018-02-07T04:33:40

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 histo...

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RocknRoll Scientific Nomenclature from 2018-01-31T04:12:03

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’v...

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Gorillaz: A History from 2018-01-20T15:42:20

Everything is virtual these days…outside of the stuff you’ve got in your pocket, money is nothing but a bunch of zeroes and ones…we shop online at virtual stores…we read virtual books on our tablet...

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Remembering David Bowie: Part 2 from 2018-01-16T22:36:05

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 ...

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Remembering David Bowie: Part 1 from 2018-01-11T03:44:38

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 f...

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Who the Hell is Arcade Fire? Part 2 from 2018-01-05T03:58:23

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 th...

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Who the Hell is Arcade Fire? Part 1 from 2018-01-01T05:00

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 ...

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Scott Weiland: Part 3 from 2017-12-31T15:14:31

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...

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Scott Weiland: Part 2 from 2017-12-27T04:15:35

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 li...

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Scott Weiland: Part 1 from 2017-12-26T02:44:31

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...

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60 Mind-Blowing Facts About Music in 60 Minutes: 2017 Edition from 2017-12-24T19:37:06

One of my great accomplishments of the year was the construction of a new home office…after 12 years working on this program in a converted bedroom, I built a full-feature workspace in the basement...

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Remembering Chester Bennington Part 3 from 2017-12-15T17:06:58

If anyone were to look at Linkin Park around 2011, there no reason to think that anything was going wrong… In the ten years since the band was formed, they’d sold over 80 million albums…they had m...

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Remembering Chester Bennington Part 2 from 2017-12-07T12:56:32

When a musician dies, there’s a light that goes out in fans…it’s not like we knew this person, you know, personally…but it might feel that we did…that’s because the art they created expressed feeli...

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Remembering Chester Bennington Part 1 from 2017-11-29T04:04:52

When the news first came down on the afternoon of Thursday, July 20, 2017, maybe your reaction was the same as me… “another celebrity death hoax…it’s gotta be because this doesn’t make sense”…but i...

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60 Band Name Origins in 60 Minutes from 2017-11-22T03:07:14

As someone who churns out tens of thousands of words a week—everything from emails to blog posts to business documents to these radio scripts—I’ve developed a fascination with words and, for whatev...

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Legendary Recording Studios from 2017-11-10T18:58:46

Not that long ago, if you wanted to make an album, you needed rent a big, expensive recording studio…in addition to paying an hourly, daily, weekly or monthly rate, you need to pay for a producer, ...

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Gord Downie: A Remembrance Part 2 from 2017-11-07T14:21:08

This is part two of our remembrance of Gord Downie… We left off last time with The Hip in their golden years—a glorious run of singles, albums, tours, festivals (like edgefest, their own “another ...

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Gord Downie: A Remembrance-Part 1 from 2017-11-01T20:19:12

Here is how we’re going to do this…we all know how important Gord Downie and The Tragically Hip have been to Canadian music, Canadian culture and Canada, period…we’ll take that as read… And when G...

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The Tragically Hip: A Retrospective from 2017-10-22T01:23:55

I’d just landed at Pearson airport in Toronto after a long flight from the far east…as soon as we left the runway, I turned on my phone…the texts and the emails came one after another…blam: Gord Do...

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The Beginners Guide To Vinyl from 2017-10-18T04:00

So you’ve decided to go all retro and dive into vinyl…no more digital for you…you are going back to the future…it’s all about analogue, baby…

Buh-bye, mp3s and digital downloads—except may...

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The Oral History of Manchester Part 2 from 2017-10-06T19:14:26

It's a Friday bonus Podcast of the Ongoing History of New Music. We dig deep into the OGH archieves to bring you episodes that you want to hear again. This time in Podcast form. This week it's the...

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The Ongoing History Book Of Firsts Volume 2 from 2017-10-04T04:00

There’s a first time for everything…we know who the first man on the moon was…Edmund Hillary was the first to the top of Mount Everest…the first movie with talking in it was “The Jazz Singer”…and s...

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The Tool Odyssey from 2017-09-27T04:00

As we sit here together, it’s been about 11 years and five months since Tool released their last album, “10,000 days”…that record came out on April 28, 2006… Let’s put that into perspective…the l...

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10 Unusual Things About Nirvana from 2017-09-20T04:00

Nirvana is one of those bands where it seems we know everything…when they broke through with the “Nevermind” album in 1991 and 1992, there was a rush to learn everything we could about them…and the...

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The Last Hours Of... from 2017-09-13T04:00

At some point, all of us will shuffle off this mortal choir and join the choir invisible…doesn’t matter who you are, how much money you may have or how famous you might be…in the end, we’re all mor...

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Unfortunate Sonic Coincidences from 2017-09-11T15:53

Here are a couple of musical terms you may have heard of… Earworm: that’s when a clip of a song keeps running through your head on a loop over and over and over again.Mondegreen: a misheard lyric…a...

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Catching Up With The Black Keys from 2017-08-30T02:13:51

It is so hard to have a hit record these days…hell, with all the music out there it’s nearly impossible to attract any kind of attention…all the noise and distractions and competition… If you’re a...

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Spectacular Acts of Self Sabotage from 2017-08-22T19:16:41

You probably know someone like this: a guy (or a woman) who through having loads of talent or tons of luck or both has become successful…they have everything anyone could ever hope to have…money, n...

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9 Amazing Things About Your Brain from 2017-07-26T14:05:25

There is absolutely no need for music—speaking in terms of evolution, anyway…

As far as scientists can tell, there’s no compelling reason for humans to make and enjoy music…neurologically,...

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Chester Bennington and Linkin Park from 2017-07-25T04:36:17

The last few years have been rough for music fans…Scott Weiland, David Bowie, Prince and a dozen more have left us…2017 has also had its share of loss…Chuck Berry…Gregg Allman…Chris Cornell—and now...

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Inside The Foo Fighters from 2017-07-19T14:11:36

Being in a band seems straightforward…you pick up some instruments and start playing…but it’s much more complicated than that…the music that you end up making is influenced by so many outside force...

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10 Terrible Career Moves from 2017-06-28T06:00

We’ve all done something that we’ve later regretted...it seemed so right at the time, you know? In hindsight, though, it turned out to be really, really dumb… Maybe we were misinformed or lacking ...

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RockNRoll Drugs from 2017-06-21T06:00

There are many ways to clear or expand your mind to allow creativity to flow, stress to dissipate and peace to descend on the mind and body…exercise, meditation, prayer…but that takes exertion, pra...

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Remembering the Beastie Boys Part 2 from 2017-06-14T06:00

It is almost impossible for anyone from a lightweight boy band to transition to serious, respected artist…it can be done—we can look at Justin Timberlake and, um…well, we can look at Justin Timberl...

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Remembering the Beastie Boys Part 1 from 2017-06-09T03:46:17

For an entire generation of music fans—two generations, really—The Beastie Boys were always there…and now that they’re no longer with us, there are a lot of people who feel like there’s a void in m...

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10 Unusual Things About Pearl Jam from 2017-05-24T18:07:22

Pearl Jam is one of the most-documented bands of the last 30 years…even before the internet came along, fans were obsessive about cataloguing everything the band did…tour schedules, setlists, bootl...

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Chris Cornell: 6 Degrees of Separation from 2017-05-19T07:03:26

There’s a misconception that it takes a lot of people to come together to create a viable music scene…not true… The original punk scene in New York consisted of a few dozen weirdos who hung out at...

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The Diversity Show from 2017-05-04T04:26:13

Here is a truth that some people find very uncomfortable: rock, alt-rock and indie rock are predominantly white…why is that?...the answers—and there is more than one—are complicated…there has actua...

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Rock N Roll Rehab from 2017-04-26T08:00

Sometimes, the pressures of life become a little too much and the methods of escape you choose to cope with them aren’t exactly the best ones…over-indulgence with and reliance upon drugs and/or alc...

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Oasis At War: Part 1 from 2017-04-05T11:42:27

Siblings can be a pain in the butt…just because you’re related to someone doesn’t mean you’re going to get along…not everyone can be Venus and Serena Williams…here: lemme give you some examples… Listen

Why Punk Happened from 2017-03-22T15:00

Every once in a while, something extraordinary happens in rock’n’roll…I hate the use the cliché of “a perfect storm,” but that’s exactly what I’m talking about…a bunch of things involving culture, ...

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Rock And Roll Myths from 2017-03-15T16:00:25

Myths and legends come in all sizes…Atlantis…that’s a big one that we can’t seem to wrap our heads around…but maybe homer was just yanking our chain… “feed a cold, starve a fever”…turns out that’s...

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Billy Talent In Their Own Words: Part 3 from 2017-03-09T04:53:03

It’s hard being in a band…all that time close together, day and night, in cramped vans and crappy dressing rooms…record company issues, personal issues, personnel problems and the general fragile s...

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Billy Talent In Their Own Words: Part 2 from 2017-03-02T05:10:36

I’ve done hundreds of interviews with individual artists over the year…it’s relatively easy...all you have to do is get one person in a room, turn on the recording devices and you’re set… When it ...

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Billy Talent In Their Own Words: Part 1 from 2017-02-23T02:49:12

The best way to construct a profile on an artist is to round up everyone together, put them in a studio and get them to tell their story themselves… But that can be difficult, especially with a ba...

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The Rise and Fall and Rise of Blink 182 Part 3 from 2017-02-17T02:07:36

Some years ago, I had a conversation with Don Letts, the DJ, filmmaker and confidant of The Clash…and he said something that stuck with me: “the average lifespan of a band is seven years…that’s eno...

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The Rise and Fall and Rise of Blink 182 Part 2 from 2017-02-10T15:29:01

It’s rare that a band has a career with two acts…it’s not impossible…the survivors of Joy Division managed to do quite well as new order…the Barenaked Ladies were once written off before roaring ba...

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The Rise and Fall and Rise of Blink 182 Part 1 from 2017-01-31T18:37:01

After grunge blew up in the early 1990s, the walls between mainstream rock and the alternative universe crumbled completely…what other music had been hiding in the plain sight?... There was goth a...

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Podcasts by Ongoing History of New Music

All episodes

Life After Music from 2023-11-29T05:00

Remembering Sinead O'Connor from 2023-11-22T05:00

Music vs Technology Over The Years from 2023-11-15T05:00

Gord Downie - Canada's Rock Poet from 2023-11-08T05:00

Introducing... Black and Blue: Behind the Badge | Catching Hell from 2023-11-04T04:00

The Last Moments Of - Part 2 from 2023-11-01T04:00

The Last Moments Of - Part 1 from 2023-10-25T04:00

Introducing...Uncharted: The Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash from 2023-10-24T16:00

The History of the Drum Machine from 2023-10-18T04:00

The History of the 2010s Part 5: Music and Tech from 2023-10-11T04:00

Introducing.... Bad Parents | Vacationing with Children from 2023-10-07T04:00

The History of the 2010s Part 4: The Revivals from 2023-10-04T04:00

The History of the 2010s Part 3: The New Genres from 2023-09-27T04:00

The History of the 2010s Part 2: The Role of Indie Rock from 2023-09-20T04:00

The History of the 2010s Part 1: Rock Struggles Again from 2023-09-13T04:00

The More Things Change Part 2 from 2023-09-06T04:00

The More Things Change Part 1 from 2023-08-30T04:00

The Book of World Records Version 1.0 - Part 2 from 2023-08-23T04:00

The Book of World Records Version 1.0 - Part 1 from 2023-08-16T04:00

Tracking Down Demos from 2023-08-09T04:00

100 weirdest Things in Alt-Rock: Part 10 from 2023-08-02T04:00

100 Weirdest Things in Alt-Rock: Part 9 from 2023-07-26T04:00

100 Weirdest Things in Alt-Rock: Part 8 from 2023-07-19T04:00

100 Weirdest Things in Alt-Rock: Part 7 from 2023-07-12T04:00

100 Weirdest Things in Alt-Rock: Part 6 from 2023-07-05T04:00

100 Weirdest Things in Alt-Rock: Part 5 from 2023-06-28T04:00

100 Weirdest Things in Alt-Rock: Part 4 from 2023-06-21T04:00

Introducing... Deadman's Curse: Slumach's Gold from 2023-06-17T04:01

100 Weirdest Things in Alt-Rock: Part 3 from 2023-06-14T04:00

100 Weirdest Things in Alt-Rock: Part 2 from 2023-06-07T04:00

100 Weirdest Things in Alt-Rock: Part 1 from 2023-05-31T04:00

Rock Explainer 3 from 2023-05-17T04:00

Valuable Vinyl from 2023-05-10T04:00

54-40 In Their Own Words Part 2 from 2023-05-03T19:13

54-40 In Their Own Words Part 1 from 2023-04-26T04:00

Buying Catalogues - A Primer from 2023-04-19T04:00

History of Skate Punk from 2023-04-12T04:00

9 Nine In Nails Tales from 2023-04-05T04:00

Sonic Coincidences in Alt-Rock Part 2 from 2023-03-29T04:00

Sonic Coincidences in Alt-Rock Part 1 from 2023-03-22T04:00

The Weird History of Concert Tickets Part 2 from 2023-03-15T04:00

The Weird History of Concert Tickets Part 1 from 2023-03-08T05:00

The Early Days of LGBTQ Rock from 2023-03-01T15:12

The Very First Episode of the Ongoing History of New Music from 2023-02-28T05:00

Black History Month 2023 from 2023-02-22T05:00

More Vinyl Stories from 2023-02-15T05:00

The Story of TV Theme Songs from 2023-02-08T05:00

Connections from 2023-02-01T05:00

The History of Remixes from 2023-01-25T05:00

Couples in Music from 2023-01-18T05:00

In Memoriam of Those Lost in 2022 from 2023-01-11T05:00

Rhythm Sections from 2023-01-04T05:00

Outsider Music from 2022-12-28T05:00

The Roots of New Wave through Techno-Pop from 2022-12-21T05:00

60 Mind-Blowing Facts About Music 2022 Edition from 2022-12-14T05:00

Introducing "Everything 80's" from 2022-12-08T05:00

20 Short Stories About Joe Strummer from 2022-12-07T05:00

Piano Heroes from 2022-11-30T05:00

Introducing "Canadian History Ehx" from 2022-11-24T05:00

Michael Hutchence: 25 Years Later from 2022-11-23T05:00

Musicians Battling Disease Part 2 from 2022-11-16T05:00

Musicians Battling Disease Part 1 from 2022-11-09T05:00

Driven By Her: Women of the 21st Century from 2022-11-03T04:00

The History of Distortion and Feedback from 2022-11-02T04:00

Rock Explainer 2 from 2022-10-26T04:00

Rock's Greatest Disasters from 2022-10-19T04:00

Hidden Tracks and Other Sundry from 2022-10-12T14:13

Driven By Her: Guitar Heroes from 2022-10-06T04:00

The Roots of the 90s CanRock Explosion from 2022-10-05T04:00

The Long Strange Trip of John Frusciante Part 2 from 2022-09-28T04:00

The Long Strange Trip of John Frusciante Part 1 from 2022-09-21T04:00

Mind-blowing Facts about Music, the Brain, and the Body from 2022-09-14T04:00

Driven By Her: Unsung Heroines from 2022-09-08T16:53:35

The History of Alt Rock Chapter: 15 from 2022-09-04T04:00

The History of Alt Rock Chapter: 14 from 2022-08-31T04:00

The History of Alt Rock Chapter: 13 from 2022-08-28T04:00

The History of Alt-Rock: Chapter 9 from 2022-08-01T14:39:40

Imagine Dragons from 2022-04-13T04:00