They did a survey in Britain to learn what the most requested funeral songs are these days. 51 percent of people ask for a specific song be played at their funeral and 79 percent have talked with family and friends about possible song choices. Here are the top choices in
I mentioned that I've been enjoying the last twelve hours of Edge music, the best thing to happen to the official Edge site in forever. Shortly after noon today, I copied the list of songs played on 102.1 in the previous twelve hours and I've been adding little notes
I mentioned The Polaris Music Prize back in July. Last night, it awarded $20,000 for the best Canadian album released between June 1, 2005, and May 31, 2006, regardless of genre. The nominees included many of my favourite albums of the past year, including efforts from Broken Social Scene,
I had never seen a minute of the reality show "Rock Star" until last night. Waiting for the season premiere of "Rescue Me", I stumbled upon "Rock Star" and stuck around for a bit when I heard someone was going to cover Nirvana's "Lithium". "Lithium" is one of my all-time
No, we're not expecting a third kid, but this might be just the push I need. It's pure genius, a bonafide aphrodisiac. This company "transforms timeless rock songs into beautiful instrumental lullabies, sending your little one to a slumberland of sweet dreams." The two I have my eye on are
Hustle & Flow has me thinking of rap and hip-hop. I got into the genre in a big way during Public Enemy's hey days of the late 80s, early 90s. When grunge hit I found myself listening to a lot less hip-hop, but I've kept my ear to the ground
I don't think I've ever written about Madonna. Reading a discussion about how the latest Jessica Simpson song sounds just like Madonna's "Holiday" got me thinking about the early 80s material girl which has led to this entry. Madonna means nothing to me, but it wasn't always that way. There
Periodically I'll play kid-friendly songs on the PC for my four and one year olds. They have their favourites, but I'm always trying to expand their horizons. They seem to like The White Stripes "We're Going To Be Friends" and Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" and they've always liked Hot Hot Heat's
I just read that Toronto duo Death From Above 1979 have called it quits. Jesse F. Keeler says he and drummer Sebastien Grainger decided a year ago to "stop doing the band". It's a shame, You're A Woman, I'm A Machine, their only full-length album, spawned two singles that ended
I'm digging City and Colour's "Comin' Home". It's totally mellow and full of shout outs to varous North American locales. There's a call out to Saskatoon, Sydney and Halifax, but no love for Toronto. That got me thinking about popular songs that do that shout out thing and include Toronto
I don't know where Bradenton is, but the Bradenton Herald ran an interesting editorial piece entitled "Back when it mattered: From 1991 to '95". In this piece Wade Tatangelo ehoes a sentiment I shared in my very first blog entry back in 2002. The early to mid-1990s was the last
CBC Radio 3 just posted a blog entry entitled Bitchin’ 1980's Canadian Music Videos. Any product of the 80s who grew up watching Video Hits, Toronto Rocks and MuchMusic will appreciate the 24 YouTube videos linked to. Platinum Blonde is there, Lee Aaron is there, Martha and the Muffins are
A well placed piece of music in a film can alter the meaning of that song for all eternity. Try and listen to Bill Conti's "Gonna Fly Now" without envisioning Rocky Balboa's run up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Some will think of Gord Martineau, but most
Yeah, it's hot. It'll be even hotter tomorrow. This is the hottest Canadian year on record. If you can't beat the heat, create a playlist of songs with "heat" in the title. The following songs were culled from my collection. Canned Heat Blues - Sloppy HenryHeat - 50 CentHeat -
We finally have our Mercury Prize. On September 18, the Polaris Music Prize will award $20,000 for the best Canadian album released between June 1, 2005, and May 31, 2006, regardless of genre. The inaugural nominees are: Broken Social Scene for Broken Social SceneCadence Weapon, Breaking KayfabeThe Deadly Snakes,
The weekend was such a blur, I'm only getting to Saturday's paper now. In honour of Canada Day, the Star listed ten essential Canadian songs. I did something similar last September, listing what I thought were ten essential Canadian tracks. Here's the Toronto Star's list: Huron Carol - Jean de
You can't go anywhere or do anything without stumbling across a Superman reference this week. "Superman Returns" is in theatres and it's received fairly good reviews. When I think of Superman, a number of pretty good tunes immediately spring to mind. As I think about it, Superman is a popular
I was just checking out Wikipedia's list of bands from Canada. They even break it down by province and city, which means I can tell you the following bands are from Toronto. Andrew CashArmed and HammeredBarenaked LadiesThe Battered WivesThe Birthday MassacreThe Black MariaBlue PeterBroken Social SceneBy Divine RightCancer Batscontroller.controllerCowboy
As a teen, I was too dumb and too ignorant to appreciate The Velvet Underground and subsequent work by Lou Reed. In 1996 I watched "Trainspotting", one of the few movies that ever made it into my DVD collection, and based on a single viewing of this great flick, I
In 1990 I saw "Coupe de Ville", a charming as hell story about three brothers forced to take a road trip together. As one of three brothers, I especially liked this flick and consider it one of the more under appreciated films of the 90s. A classic scene in the
Even before I saw "Saint Ralph" I was hunting for an MP3 of Gord Downie's cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah". Last month I linked to a site that was sharing several covers of this Cohen classic. I left a comment on that site telling everyone about my search for Downie's
When you're trying to lead a revolution, you need the right tunes. These songs are all in my collection and collectively comprise my "revolution" playlist. Raining Revolution - Arrested DevelopmentBeastie Revolution - Beastie BoysRevolution - The BeatlesRevolution 1 - The BeatlesRevolutin 9 - The BeatlesRevolution Rock - The ClashRevolution -
Sure, I'm in my thirties now but I still make an effort to catch the MTV Movie Awards every year. This is the first year I actually taped it off of MTV and not MuchMusic. There's an MTV Canada now, did you know that? I watched the first half last
One of my favourite tunes on the new Strokes disc is "You Only Live Once". It's the next single from First Impressions of Earth and it has a B side that's intriguing the hell out of me. The Strokes have covered Marvin Gaye's "Mercy Mercy Me" with Pearl Jam's Eddie
Because it plays at the beginning of the "Toy Story 2" DVD my kids love, I've seen the trailer for the new Pixar movie "Cars" about a hundred times over the past twelve months. I was always happy to hear the song that played over top the trailer, Tom Cochrane's
