Ongoing History of New Music

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You're Fired! Jan 14, 2019

Show notes

Chances are, at some point in your life you are going to lose your job. If you're lucky it will be a layoff situation and you'll get some sort of severance or package.

But it's possible that something happens that gets you fired. Sacked, canned, blown out, axed, dismissed with cause...and involuntarily discharged from your duties.

You then find yourself unemployed. Between Jobs, on the dole, on the beach, on the bench, and out of a job.

Hey it happens and whether we like it or not, it's and employers right to terminate an employee...if they follow the labour rules of course.

And being fired is a universal thing...it happens in all forms of business. Including being in a band or being associated with a band.

What do you have to do to get fired from your group? There's gotta be two sides to every firing right?
Let's investigate...

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What’s with Florence + the Machine? Jan 06, 2019

Show notes

One of my favourite movie lines of all time comes from a 1982 Peter O’Toole film called “My Favorite Year”… O’Toole plays a movie idol named Alan Swann who is reduced to appearing on a variety tv show of the 1950s… a junior writer named Benji Stone is put in charge of babysitting Swann… “just keep him out of trouble,” his bosses say…

Naturally, it doesn’t go well and they have a fight when Swann grows angry when Benji insists on the hero worship…then Benji replies:

Whoever you were in those movies, those silly heroes meant a lot to me! what does it matter if it was an illusion? it worked! so don't tell me this is you life-size. I can't use you life-size. I need Alan Swanns as big as I can get them!

That’s how a lot of us feel about our heroes… and I include our musical heroes in that number…

Music is an escape for us…it’s also a fantasyland populated by exotic creatures who do and say things far, far beyond what we could ever dream of doing… but at the same time, we want these creatures to be at least a little accessible, so we can make that all-important personal connection…

It’s a tricky balance…we want heroes and heroines, but we also want to know that they’re real… keep the fantasy but open the door a crack, you know?...

And it’s more difficult with some artists than others…how, for example, do you handle like someone like Florence Welch of Florence + the Machine?... much of her success is based on a kooky, quirky, fantastical image, like someone who looks like they just stepped out of a renaissance painting or out of a book of Grimm’s fairytales…

And then you learn she’s not a natural redhead…I’m sorry, but she’s not… she’s dark-haired and dyed it as a kid…did that just ruin something for you?...

It did?... oh, dear… this could be a rough show for you, then…

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Kings of Leon in Their Own Words: Part 2 Dec 31, 2018

Show notes

This is the second part of our "In Their Own Words" conversation with all four members of the Kings of Leon: Caleb, Nathan, Jared, and Matthew Folllowill.

It's the conclusion of ours in depth and honest interview with the band that told their story from their very early days, and up to the summer of 2009.

This is Kings of Leon...in their own words part 2

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Kings of Leon in Their Own Words: Part 1 Dec 30, 2018

Show notes

Back in 2009, we sat down with all four member of the Kings of Leon: Caleb, Nathan, Jared, and Matthew Folllowill.

What followed was a very in depth and honest interview that told their story from their very early days and up to the summer of 2009.

This was the first in a now ongoing series of inviting bands and musicians to tell us their story...in their own words.

This is Kings of Leon...in their own words part 1

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10 Things That Really Annoy Me Dec 24, 2018

Show notes

I'm a normally pretty reserved person, but like anyone else there are some things that really, really bug me: drivers who don't use their turn signal, people who use the word "irregardless", anti-vaxers, creationists, email with no subject line, high-end restaurants that charge for bread and tap water. That sort thing.

As it turns out, there are a bunch of things about music that really annoy me too. At least 10 things in fact. So...let me tell you about them

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60 Mind-Blowing Facts in 60 Minutes: 4th Edition Dec 19, 2018

Show notes

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 this piece of royal etiquette…the British royals are forbidden to play “monopoly”—as in the board game… I have no idea why, but this is apparently a hard and fast rule…

If you have a cat, you know all about hairballs…the technical term for one of those is a “bezoar”…

Still with animals, there’s a psychological disorder called “Boanthropy”…this is when a person believes they are a cow and tries to live their lives accordingly…

What do you think the most popular item sold at Wal-Mart is?...bananas…Wal-Mart sells more bananas than anything else in its inventory…

Astronauts cannot burp is space…that’s because the lack of gravity means all the gases in your stomach get mixed with the liquids and the solids instead of separating out…if you tried to burp, everything would come up at the same time…so where do gastric gases go?...out the other end…

And before you ask, no you cannot use that to propel yourself through the international space station…Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield tried that and he reports that the thrust produced isn’t enough to produce the requisite Newtonian shift in vector…

I have more, but I think you get the idea…this brings me to the topic of this program…when researching “ongoing history” episodes and my blog, I always come across pieces of information that are, if not useless, very close to being so…

But much of this stuff is just too weird, too fascinating, too fun to ignore…so once a year, it has become my habit to conduct a big data dump of this information…what you do with this what I’m about to tell you is completely up to you….

This is the annual show I called “60 mind-blowing facts about music in 60 minutes”….

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Bush: The Post-CD Band Featuring Gavin Rossdale Dec 16, 2018

Show notes

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 their music…those pieces of plastic were very, very precious because they were this was the only way musicians could distribute recordings of their art and their supply and their price was strictly regulated by the lords of the music industry…

Eons earlier, the oracles had foretold that this plastic would come down—but that never seemed to happen…the overlords enjoyed their immense wealth and were loathe to do anything that might jeopardize the power of their kingdoms…

Meanwhile, musicians—not all, but some—also reaped huge riches as millions and even tens of millions of people handed over money for the privilege of owning certain pieces of plastic…the musicians never made as much as their overlords, but plenty just the same…and it was good…

In fact, it was very good…there were lavish parties, obscene luxuries and plenty of indulgences on a scale unimaginable by the good citizens of the regular world…

Yeah, it’s not like that anymore…new artists know this…but what if you are one of those acts who had a taste of the good life—the old record industry—and then had to adjust to the new realities?...

Let’s talk to one of those artists—someone who has adjusted to life in the post-cd world…how was it then—and what’s it like now…really…

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Radiohead - A History: Part 3 Dec 12, 2018

Show notes

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 records to develop and mature so if they don’t score big with the first album, they’ll a little longer to establish their career and reputation…

Second, the label has a chance to see if their investment in this act pays off…the label puts all kinds of money into the artist up front and therefore needs the artist to turn profitable as soon as possible so they can make that money back and start seeing a return…

But a record deal is like a marriage…sometimes things go well and everyone lives together happily ever after…and sometimes (and for whatever reason), one party wants out…a divorce is in order…

It was this second scenario in which Radiohead found itself at the beginning of 2005…they had fulfilled their end of the bargain to EMI Records: six studio albums, a live album, half a dozen EP’s along with at least four video releases…and now they wanted out… they had no wish to resign with EMI …

But were their options?... Option (a): negotiate a killer deal with EMI with the hopes of signing a contract that addressed every single one of their concerts…but EMI was in trouble, the smallest and weakest of the major labels…the internet was killing the company and management didn’t seem to have a clue…it looked like they were determined to drive the label into the ground no matter what they did…

Option (b) sign with another major label when it looked like the entire recording industry was melting down, again thanks to rampant piracy and the disruption brought about by the internet...in other words, a contract with another major might be no better than signing with EMI …

But then there was option (c): go it alone and redefine what it would mean to be an “independent artist”…after thinking long and hard about it, Radiohead went with option (c)…

Crazy idea…then again…

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Radiohead - A History: Part 2 Dec 05, 2018

Show notes

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 bands who have worked for years and years and years and never managed to enjoy even the briefest taste of success...

Still, no one likes that label...it’s demoralizing, knowing that you’ve gone down in history as a band with just one good song...

It’s hard to imagine it now that they’re considered to be one of the most influential groups of a generation, but this is exactly the sort of thing Radiohead faced early in their career…

But with the help of producer John Leckie and a tour opening for Alanis Morisette (who was on her way to selling 30 million copies of “Jagged Little Pill”), they were able to overcome the pressure of following up the potential one-hit-wonder-ness of “Creep”…

Let’s pick up the story there…this is a history of Radiohead, part 2…

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Alt Rock Shrines | From the Archives Dec 03, 2018

Show notes

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 the road where someone died.

Shrines appear in pop culture too. Any place that has been deemed important because of its history or associations...can be considered a shrine. It's a place people visit so they can see things for themselves.

Now rock n roll has many shrines. The field where Buddy Holly's plane crashed, the site of the first Woodstock in 1969, Elvis' Graceland....doesn't get much bigger than that.

But what about in the modern era of rock? There must be places where people make pilgrimages. Well of course there are....and here are a bunch of them.

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