Has it really been five years?  It must be true, because I wrote this entry five years ago today. As is my daily ritual, I was listening to the radio while taking a shower this morning.  The news brief opened with word of John Ritters surprising death at 54.  Following

I love mash-ups.  I'm very happy with so-called illegal music put together by the Kleptones or Danger Mouse or whoever.  Last night, I learnt about Feed the Animals, the fourth album by Girl Talk. Girl Talk, it turns out, is actually a guy named Gregg Gillis.  Feed the Animals is

Oasis front man Noel Gallagher was treated in hospital after a man ran onto the stage and attacked him while he and his brother Liam were performing at the annual Virgin Festival here in Toronto.  As you'll see in the footage below, Noel Gallagher "fell heavily onto his monitor speakers,

I got a message from a reader named Brian earlier today. Here's what Brian had to say. hey mike, i wanted to ask you about this song a month ago, but i had to see if i would still like it. culture reject - "inside the cinema" has really grown

Yesterday night I had a great time at a top secret party at an undisclosed location with a fun group of people you may or may not know that I can't mention.  It was to celebrate a well deserved happenstance and both Taryn and I had a blast.  Even the

Without a doubt, two of the more popular Stone Temple Pilot songs are "Plush" and "Interstate Love Song".  They're also two very different styles of song. Which is your preference, "Plush" or "Interstate Love Song?"  You've got all day to respond, I'll be hearing both tunes live tonight. PlushInterstate Love

I'll be spending Saturday enjoying Edgefest 2008.  Back in the day that meant sitting in traffic on the 400 and hauling my ass up to Barrie, but now I can take the TTC to Downsview Park.  That's pretty sweet. I'll likely spend 12 hours outdoors, so I must remember the

"99 Problems" is my favourite Jay-Z song.  I hear Jay-Z stole the show at Glastonbury this year and prior to busting into a "Back In Black" backed "99 Problems" he covered a little Oasis tune you might be familiar with. You see, guys like Noel Gallagher didn't think an American

Pete Seeger will be playing Hugh'S Room here in Toronto on July 6 and 7.  I'm very happy to see Pete Seeger still plucking away at the age of 89. I'm a documentary fan and a music fan, so I've seen a number of extensive interviews with Seeger in docs

Jim's Child of the '60s is a podcast of 60s tunes you don't hear that often.  He recently asked me for a digital copy of Jayson King's "Heartaches", Bobby Kris & the Imperials' "Walk On By" and Grant Smith & the Power's "Her Own Life".  I was happy to share.

Vanilla Ice's To The Extreme is not a very good album.  It was released in 1990 and was the most successful rap album by a white artist since The Beastie Boys' Licensed to Ill in 1987. Thanks to the monster hit "Ice Ice Baby", based on the baseline from Queen

I love a good cover.  I also despise a bad cover.  A Total Guitar magazine survey has named the best and worst covers of all time, and Celine Dion's cover of the AC/DC track "You Shook Me All Night Long" finished at the bottom of the heap as the

My comp slo-pitch team, Raging Storm, is doing okay.  We just split a double header and we're 5-4 on the season. The struggles are with my other team, my beer league team.  How do I put this nicely... we're not a very good offensively and we're horrible defensively.  We're 0-3

I recently shared the list of early Canadian rock songs that made up volume two of a homemade mix of such songs from the 1960s and 1970s.  On that mix is "I'm Running After You" by Major Hoople's Boarding House. Admittedly, I don't know much about Major Hoople's Boarding House.

I was 9 years old when Karen Carpenter died at the age of 32.  That means I completely missed The Carpenters, a vocal and instrumental duo, consisting of siblings Karen and Richard Carpenter. I primarily know The Carpenters for two things.  They had a hit with "(They Long to Be)

It's not really my cup of tea, but Toronto's hip-hop ambassador might have a big summer hit on his hands.  Featuring Akon, "Dangerous" is Kardinal Offishall's second single from his new album Not 4 Sale. Kardinal Offishall, of course, is a Toronto boy who's just about the biggest name this

We all love Radiohead's "Creep", right?  Apparently, even Prince loves "Creep", and he recently covered the song at Coachella.  The next day, YouTube clips of Prince's cover of "Creep" were super popular, but they were removed at the request of NPG Records who claimed a copyright violation. The videos were

We've got the day off here in the T.Dot, thanks to Queen Vicky, so I'm going to step in the wayback machine and see what I was writing about on this date four years ago. I was writing about Sum 41, a band I really, really wanted to like.

Andy Baio dove into the Whitburn Project data and came up with some interesting facts about one-hit wonders. For the last ten years, obsessive record collectors in Usenet have been working on the Whitburn Project — a huge undertaking to preserve and share high-quality recordings of every popular song since the

Ok, kids.  It's a "Sunday Morning" showdown.  Everyone gets one vote in the comments, make your voice heard. Which is the best "Sunday Morning?" No Doubt - Sunday MorningThe Velvet Underground - Sunday MorningK-OS - Sunday MorningMaroon 5 - Sunday MorningEarth, Wind & Fire - Sunday MorningJulian Lennon - Sunday

I got asked an interesting question the other day.  I was asked what was the most embarrassing thing on my iPod.  My thoughts instantly turned to some rather cheesy late-80s rap I still enjoy, then I wondered if it could be Kelly Clarkson's "Since You've Been Gone".  The question had