Toronto Mike

Music

Total 776 Posts

Falling Slowly Redeems Oscar

I watched most of the Academy Awards last night.  At around 11pm I bailed, but I caught all five musical performances.  This entry is about the five songs I saw performed last night. Three of the five songs were just awful.  Not average or mediocre but awful.  "Happy Working Song"
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Body Of War Boasts Many Faves

A two-disc collection entitled "Body of War: Songs That Inspired an Iraq War Veteran" is due March 18, and it boasts many of my favourite artists.  You might recall Eddie Vedder performed last September at the Toronto International Film Festival to promote the documentary of the same name. Joining Mr.
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Who's Your Grateful Dead?

Bob Weir, Phil Lesh and Mickey Hart reunited yesterday for the first time in four years to back Barack Obama.  Weir, Lesh and Hart are the three surviving members of the Grateful Dead.  "Deadhead" has become the generic term for super loyal fans who tour with a band as opposed
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Louie Louie Is Still In Effect

In June of 2006 I wrote about "Louie, "Louie", a 1990 remix of the song by Young MC featuring the rap stylings of our very own Maestro Fresh-Wes. For years this song only lived in my memories.  I couldn't find it anywhere.  This morning I awoke to find it in
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Let Your Backbone Slide

I learnt a lot about my sacroiliac today, and it's giving me a case of deja vu.  Where do I know sacroiliac from?Oh yes, the year was 1989 and Canada's greatest rap song had just been released.  I heard it once, was hooked right away, and learnt the lyrics.
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Black Music for White People

Back in '91, I listened to a lot of Shabba Ranks.  Don't look so surprised.  I wasn't just about the grunge scene.  A friend turned me on to Shabba and I spent a lot of time listening to As Raw As Ever and other singles from the popular Jamaican dancehall
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12 Days of Christmas

I've never liked "The Twelve Days of Christmas".  It's so repetitive I'm usually bored by the third day.  Bob and Doug's 12 beers of Christmas is fun, but is there a version of the proper song that isn't terribly boring? I say there's one.  This is John Denver singing with
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John Lennon Loved Us

It was twenty-seven years ago today that John Lennon was shot four times in the back by Mark Chapman.  As my blogging years advance, it becomes harder to write these annual-type entries without repeating myself.  As a result, I'm blatantly ripping off this entry I wrote four years ago today.
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In Praise of the Long Song

I discovered this Rolling Stone list after Fameone linked to it.  It's the 50 best songs over 7 minutes long, and it's got me thinking... What are my favourite songs over nine minutes in length?  Here are my top ten. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida - Iron Butterfly (17:02)The End - The
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More Cowbell

I watched Christopher Walken demand more cowbell in an SNL skit over on Humble's blog and it got me thinking about songs that feature a cowbell. Here are my ten favourite songs with cowbell.  I need more cowbell! Rage Against The Machine - Killing In The NameGuns N' Roses -
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Big Shiny Dominance

If you're Canadian, and between 25 and 35 years old, you likely know Big Shiny Tunes.  Big Shiny Tunes is a compilation MuchMusic started putting out in 1996.  It was full of popular rock songs of the year and I used to collect 'em. Because the many editions of Big
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Charting Rap

Metafilter linked to a site that's right up my alley.  It's called rap represented in mathematical charts and graphs and if you're a fan of the genre, you'll find it pretty self explanatory and very funny. Here's one of my favourites, based on Ice Cube's "It Was a Good Day"
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Parade Songs

We're all set for tomorrow's Santa Claus parade.  As mentioned, this will be my fourth year in a row attending the world's largest Santa Claus parade, and I'll bring my camera to try and snap each float as it rolls by. Here are my entries and photosets from the last
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Arcade Fire PLUG'd

I just read that Montreal's Arcade Fire trail only Of Montreal and Battles in nominations for the 2008 PLUG Independent Music Awards, which recognize the best indie acts from around the world.  Canadians Emily Haines, Sunset Rubdown, The New Pornographers, Caribou, Chromeo, A-Trak and the profanely named Toronto acts Fucked
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Last Canadian Music Chain Closes

Did you know Music World was the last Canadian-owned national music store chain?  Neither did I until today when I read Music World is under bankruptcy protection and will close its stores. That makes HMV the last chain standing in an age of digitized music collections and downloads.  There  was
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Feist on SNL

Leslie Feist recorded one of my favourite albums of 2005 and Saturday night she was kicking ass on SNL.  I'm asleep before Saturday Night Live hits the air, but thanks to YouTube, I can enjoy these performances over and over and over again.  What an age we live in! Here's
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In Theory, Communism Works

Last month I wrote about how Radiohead was leaving it up to us.  Buyers could name their own price when downloading "In Rainbows".  At the time I wrote "As I understand it, there's no minimum, but by treating their loyal fans so nicely you can bet this will pay off.
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