Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Aaron Bronsteter KOTJ: Toronto Mike'd #286

Episode Date: November 26, 2017

Mike and Aaron discuss his role as Editor of UFC content and Producer of Talent Relations at TSN before they play and discuss his ten favourite songs.

And right now, right now, right now it's time to... Take out the champs, motherfuckers! I'm in Toronto where you wanna get the city love I'm from Toronto where you wanna get the city love I'm a Toronto Mike, wanna get the city love For my city love, me back, for my city love Welcome to episode 286 of Toronto Miked, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent brewery celebrating 30 years in the craft beer business.

Visit GLB at 30 Queen Elizabeth Boulevard for $5 beers. And PropertyInTheSix.com, Toronto real estate done right. And PayTM, an app designed to manage all of your bills in one spot. Download the app today from paytm.ca. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me this week is TSN's producer of Talent Relations, Aaron Bronstetter. Welcome Aaron. Thank you, sir.

I like hearing the immortal words of Rob Tyner off the top. Oh, yeah. A heck of a talent. Yes, Motor City 5. That's, yeah. And you're okay with the F-bomb? I'm fine with it. It's not my problem.

Not your problem? This isn't regulated by the CRTC, so you're good. No, I'm trying to ensure the CRTC never learns this exists. So it's flying, yeah, unpoliced by the CRTC, that's for sure. So welcome, welcome. We're going to have a great chat. I think you're one of those guests where

your name won't be instantly recognizable, but when people learn what you do at TSN, I think there's going to be a lot of fun inside baseball before we kick out the jams. Absolutely. Unless they follow the UFC, because that's where I have my on-air presence.

That's why I don't follow the UFC. You've got to start. I did several years ago, and I guess he's back, but Georges St-Pierre, when he was really big, somebody tried to get me into it and i really did try like i think i gave it my uh my best to get into ufc and it just never it wouldn't take and i just didn't enjoy it and when you don't enjoy something you don't waste your time with it

so uh but i know it's a very popular uh sport like people are really it, so we will have a good UFC chat regardless of my ignorance. All right. Absolutely. I'm looking forward to it. Are you watching the Grey Cup today? I'm going to watch some of it. I've got two young kids, so watching sports is a luxury that I'm ill-afforded at times.

But I will watch as much of it as I can. I love the Grey Cup. I was at the Grey Cup last year with my son. We were in the last row and he had an ice cream and it was very Canadian because it was very cold outside and he had a drumstick. That was the dessert of choice.

All right, here's your first tough question. Did all TSN employees get a free ticket to the Grey Cup last year? I don't think so. Did you get one? Did you pay? I didn't pay. Okay, I needed some real talk right off the top.

I was lucky enough to be at the Eastern Conference Final at the BMO Field last week. And I didn't pay. So I figured if I'm not paying, Aaron Bronstetter's not paying. Well, I'm a high roller. And you got two tickets. Yeah, I brought my son. And he loved it. And he became an Ottawa Red Blacks fan.

Is that how it works? Yeah, as a result of that. But he's not a big sports fan. He's more into Star Wars. Okay, give me the ages here. I need a frame here. So how old is this ice cream-eating, Grey Cub watching son?

So he's seven. So he was six last year at the game. Seven, okay, so now he's seven. And how old is your youngest child? He's 20 months. And that is, as we discussed before we started recording, the exact same age as my youngest daughter. Yeah, we're a week apart.

That's amazing. It's pretty cool. They can have play dates together. But you're not a West Ender, right? No, I'm an East Ender. I'm actually closer to the lake than you are, but I'm on the east side. That's pretty close to the lake then because, yeah, we're about, I don't know, if I walk fast, I'm there in like four minutes, I'd say.

I'm there in two. Okay, you got me. But now our kids can't play together. Are they going to meet on Yonge Street? How close are you to Mimico Station? I can take them on a train ride. Pretty close. That's Royal York, and I can, yeah, Mimico's really close.

And when I went to that, no, I went to, no, that Argos game I biked to. I went to another Argos game earlier in the season, and we took the go, and I timed it. So it was like two minutes to go, and then six minutes, I think, was the amount of time. It's amazing. Yeah, for me, it's about 30 from the east end. So why are the Argos fans complaining about the location of BMO Field? Do you have any insight into that? Because people in the city complain about everything.

And that's why we can't get a transit system in Scarborough, because we have mayors that keep changing the infrastructure plan. Now we've got a subway that's going to cost $3 billion for one station. The most expensive station in the history of the world. Yeah, it's unbelievable. I mean, it's a terrible idea. Didn't we have a really smart,

I hate to use that word because it interferes with that smart track thing or whatever, but didn't we have a really clever LRT solution? Yeah, it was brilliant. It was perfect. It was exactly what everybody would have needed. It was approved. And then Rob Ford came and trashed it.

I can't believe he had that power. He just came and scrapped it. We're not going to do that anymore. Isn't he one vote on council? I don't cover. Ed Keenan's my next guest. He'll know the answer to this. He'll know the answer, yes.

I won't know the answer. I don't know how that got scrapped. But I think I looked at the original LRT plan after it got scrapped and saw the subway station. I was like, how did this not go through? Because people think LRTs are inferior to subways. That's right. Now you reminded me. Rob Ford got confused between an LRT and a streetcar, as I recall. Right. He thought it was just going to be on the streets. They were going to have to dig up all the streets, and it was going to be a problem for Scarborough commuters because the roads would get torn up like how they did

on St. Clair and Eglinton here. Not the brightest mayor we've ever had. That was too bad, actually. That's going to cost a fortune. But you would think and we'll move on because he's passed away now and this is ancient history. The day my son was born, actually. My youngest son.

We were in the hospital and it was on CP24. And then that was news item one, and then news item two is Aaron Bronstetter gives birth to a healthy baby boy. It overshadowed the whole day. Well, it's amazing, because you gave birth to a child. Men don't typically do that. Usually, the women give birth to a child. Yeah, it was a very rare circumstance.

Have you seen the movie Junior? Yes, I did. Yeah, we reenacted that, yes. And it worked. It worked perfectly. Nobody talked about it because of Rob Ford's death. Former governor of California was in that movie. Yes. I did. We reenacted that, yes. And it worked. It worked perfectly. Nobody talked about it because of Rob Ford's death. Former governor of California was in that movie.

Yes. Very good. So I always wonder if it's mandated at TSN that you have to watch the Grey Cup because that's probably... Correct me if I'm wrong.

Oh, wait. No, you're right because Bell Media has rights to the Super Bowl. Yep, Super Bowl and the Grey Cup. So the Super Bowl... And the BCS Bowl.

What's that again? Is that a college thing? Yeah, the NCAA. Yeah, the Super Bowl. Yep, Super Bowl and the Grey Cup. So the Super Bowl... And the BCS Bowl. What's that again? Is that a college thing? Yeah, the NCAA Championship. I know a little bit more about that than I do about UFC, but we'll get into that. So correct me if I'm wrong, but there will be millions of eyeballs

on this Grey Cup today, of course, but there are more eyeballs on the Super Bowl in Canada. Is that correct? I don't know. Honestly, I don't know. But yeah, I can't give you an answer. I know the World Juniors, I believe, gets more than both.

Is that right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. World Junior Finals of Canada's in the game. It might be, I think, the most viewed sporting event. And again, don't quote me on that, but I think it might be the most viewed sporting event in Canada in terms of eyeballs. The biggest three properties probably owned by TSN at this moment are probably the juniors you mentioned there, the Grey Cup, and the Super Bowl.

And we have the Masters also, the Masters. And that does well too, I take it, because that's a Father's Day thing, right? And then everybody gathers around for the Sunday. Father's Day is US Open, I believe. Is that right? Okay, see, oh man. I used to watch these majors when Tiger Woods was in contention. This is the eight-year anniversary of the big day.

So that's how long it's been. It's been eight, well, no, it's the eight-year anniversary of the day his life went off the rails. Oh, right, when, yes, that's right. I figured, found out about all the infidelity and all of that. Right, that's right. That's the beginning of the end. But he's back, right?

Is he back? He's playing at some, I think it's like his own tournament or something soon, in a couple of days. Might be next weekend. But I don't know. Tiger's not going to be, he'll be back, but he's not going to be the same Tiger.

He won't be contending for a major again, probably. I got to say though, that guy was able to, I'm not a golf guy. I've only played two rounds in my entire life. I'm not a golf guy at all, but he drew me in. So he's one of those, I'm trying to golf guy. I've only played two rounds in my entire life. I'm not a golf guy at all. But he drew me in. So he's one of those,

I'm trying to think in other sports, somebody who can bring in the non-diehards. Like Conor McGregor. I'll ring my own bell. Okay, well, we're going to get to that.

You're going to get your UFC time. I signed this agreement with you that UFC time. Yeah, minimum of 10 minutes of UFC time. Because I do know Conor McGregor's name

because he had that big boxing match. Yeah, that's what I mean. He brought in the eyeballs of the layman. And he made's name because he had that big boxing match. Yeah, that's what I mean. He brought in the eyeballs of the layman. And he made a lot of money on that, I hope. He has a lot of money.

So I want to clarify. So Grey Cup, I'll be watching, by the way. I watch, even though I'm not a big football fan in general, I always watch the Grey Cup even when the Argos

are not in it. So the fact the Argos are in it, I'm actually excited about it. And also, you work at TSN. We're going to get into what you do as a producer of talent relations. What the heck is that? We're going to find out.

But I am the face of the Argos because after the game-winning touchdown, and I mentioned this to David Schultz last episode, and this is the last time I'll mention it, but after the game-winning touchdown by the Argos, the TSN cameras went straight to me. They like to show celebrities during the game. It ups the profile of the Argonauts.

That's excellent. And I was the biggest celebrity of the 25,000. We've got Toronto Mike in attendance today. That's right. You always see, let's say CBS is broadcasting a game. This guy is the guy who stars in the CBS sitcom. And then it gets, like, cross-broadcast. Oh, baseball games, I noticed that, too.

If Fox has got the World Series game. Hey, there's, I don't know, Jenny Garth, and she's in a new Fox series, whatever. It's a good way to cross-promote. I'll throw another UFC thing in there, because they had a card in Shanghai that started at 3.45 a.m. yesterday, and they showed celebrities in the crowd, and it was like, Wimbledon winner Lee Na is in attendance here at UFC Shanghai. I remember when Lee Na won. That's funny. That's right. So now that I'm the face of Argos football,

I feel like an ambassador of sorts, like I need to promote the game now. But it's great. I actually enjoy it. The CFL is a lot of fun. It's an underrated sport. I think that, you know, I'd love to see the Argonauts get more traction in the city because I think the atmosphere at BMO Field compared to the Rogers Center, it's apples and oranges. It's unbelievable. It's a great experience, great in-game experience.

It's an intimate atmosphere if you've ever been to an NFL game comparatively. It's a very small outdoor stadium. And I think that that will, you know, again, once we get people in the seats for the Argos, I think that people are going to buy in. It's just a great atmosphere. And, you know, the tailgating, I'm not sure if it's really caught on, but it's, you know, we did do the tailgate at one point for the Argos, and it was a lot of fun. It's a great, again, I'm not just saying this because I'm a TSN employee. I think that the in-game experience for the Argonauts is really a lot of fun. And that's got to be annoying, too, in the sense that you're saying

that sincerely. And I'm not an employee of Bell. I've never worked a minute for Bell or Rogers or Telus or any of these. I don't work for any of them. Freedom Mobile? None of them. So I'm being sincere. You're absolutely right. And if you could get 20,000 in that stadium, it looks full. It's unlike the dome

where if you get 20,000 in the dome, it looks cavern It's unlike the dome where if you get 20,000 in the dome, it'll look cavernous and empty, right? So it's a great place. And I really thoroughly enjoy that. I mean, it's a high-stakes game. But I really... And we won with a last-minute touchdown. So it was ideal,

which was right in front of me, by the way. I remember. You were on TV. I got my moment of fame. I got a minute. I got to ask you about the ratings in a second. But where I'm going with this is it must be kind of annoying for you

as a Bell Media guy that if you do praise the Argos, you will be accused of towing the company line. I have to preface it. But the Rodgers guy, they get that with the Jays. If you're a Rodgers employee, if Wilner says something like, it's not over, what a shill.

At that point, he kind of was. It was pretty much. Why did he say that on the last game of this season? It's not over for the Browns yet. They have a nine quintillion and he kind of was. It was pretty much over. Yeah, why did he say that on the last game of this season? I mean, it's not over for the Browns yet. They have a nine quintillion and one chance of winning. So if there's a guy who works for the Cleveland Browns radio network, they can say, you know, we haven't won a game this year, but we're still in it if the perfect storm happens.

When it was clear that the Jays were out of it, my buddy Elvis was still tweeting at me, it's early because, you know, in Wilner's defense, what was it? Like a one and nine start? I can't remember anymore, but whatever that awful start was for the Jays,

like that horrendous start, it really was too early to say, I know. Oh yeah, they bounced back. Like they had a shot. They got within one game

of 500 in June or something. Yeah. But Cox, Damien Cox, will say that it was over at one and nine, but it wasn't over. It became,

it was actually, no. It was a 162 game season. Right. So in 1-9, but it wasn't over. Not in baseball. It was a 162-game season. Right. So in Wilner's defense, it wasn't over, and it was early in Wilner's defense. Someone's got to defend Wilner, so we'll do it. Yeah, 1-9. I'll go with that. I'll have Wilner's back on that one. They could have turned it around at that point.

Do you ever feel like you need to criticize the Argos and the CFL just to show people that you're not PR towing the company line. No. I don't think so. I'll praise the CFL. Do you play CFL Fantasy?

No, definitely not. Oh, it's a lot of fun. Do you have to know the players' names? No, it helped get me into the CFL. Because I'm not a big CFL guy, but playing it every week, I'd check in on the scores and see how my guys were doing. We had an internal CFL fantasy pool at TSN. I actually won one of the weeks and brought home a lovely TSN prize pack.

What does that consist of? I think it was like a Frisbee and a hat and a shirt. With James Duffy's face on it? It's a Frisbee shirt and hat I didn't have yesterday. But I won a week of CFL fantasy, and that's because I started following it. I started saying, oh, I can get Brad Sinopoli for $3,500 this week for my fantasy team. Let's do it.

That's great. I need to clarify something. I won't name names because somebody who works for the same company as you, Bell Media, by the way, but somebody was upset with something that happened on the last episode. Not the last episode, because that was a delightful chat with Alexandra Beaton, who is Kate Wheeler's daughter. She wasn't commenting on the last episode. Not the last episode, because that was a delightful chat with Alexandra Beaton,

who is Kate Wheeler's daughter. She wasn't commenting on the media climate of sports? She had nothing to say about Howard Berger, okay? But the previous episode with David Schultz, and I said this, I want to make sure people listening do this. Even if you have no interest in two hours of David Schultz, which was great, by the way. I thought it was

one of the better podcasts. I loved it. Okay, that's great. And the thing I loved about it is he really upped the quotient for Kick Out of the Jam. I thought a lot of these guys that are coming in are playing terrible music. Have you seen Howlin' Wolf? I have not. I think he died before I was born, but he's a big influencer of two of my favorite musicians, Captain Beefheart

and Tom Waits, who took a lot out of the Howlin' Wolf playbook. I was listening to Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis. Is that what the title wrong? The Tom Waits Christmas Classic. It's possible. I was listening to Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis. Is that what the, I got that title wrong, the Tom Waits Christmas Classic. It's possible. I was listening to it yesterday.

But I digress. So about the David Schultz episode, it is one part Canadian sports media discussion, which I think is interesting. But of course, some people don't care about Canadian sports media

and they won't care about that. But then it's a very interesting kick out the jams where Schultz has really deep knowledge on the blues and it's really like I got an education. I know you're a music guy. I felt the same way though. He played a lot of music that I hadn't

heard about and didn't know and that's what is appealing to me is to learn more about music. I listen to just strictly music podcasts a lot of the time like Sound Opinions for example is one of my favorite podcasts, because I learn about new albums and things like that. That's how we're discovering new stuff, because we don't have the same curated

radio, much music. Anyways, that's another story. But back to Schultz, I want to just say, even if you don't care about his wonderful kicking out of the jams, and even if you don't care about Canadian sports media, I just want everybody to download the Schultz episode and listen to the last 10 minutes. Just do that, and you'll know why after you listen.

But I'm just worried that some people will say, oh, it's two hours of Schultz, I'm going to skip. People like to cherry pick these apps. But don't skip. If you refuse to listen, do the last 10 minutes, please. Do yourself a service. But the clarification I want to make is on Howard Berger. Howard Berger, you know Howard Berger.

Of course, yeah. I interned at the fan when he was there. And I had two and a half hours with Berger on this program, and it was a delight. I enjoyed his company and the discussion, and I root for Berger, if you will. I like the guy. He has a blog, and on the blog, he wrote this entry about

Austin Matthews is on the trading block, and he quotes an insider at MLSE. And he's all these reasons why. You read it once, and you know it's ridiculous. This is garbage. But he doesn't present it as an April Fool's Day joke.

Yeah, it's on his site. He does it straight up. The, Insider tells me this, like, this, that, the other. We're going to do this. We're going to train him for a defenseman, this whole thing. And you're like,

A, either Berger lost his mind or Berger's, you know, lost his mojo. Like, he's, he's, this is, what the hell is this? And at some point later, he declares that, oh, ha ha, you fell for it,

you stupid idiot. Well, he got mad at Jonah from Toronto Sports Media for ripping him. And I just don't understand. And he made this whole post that was kind of pointing out to Jonah from Toronto Sports Media of all these credentials he's had over the years

and how long he's covered the sport for. And that's all well and good, but if you're going to present something as being from, I know that, again, it seems ridiculous that someone speaking on behalf of Lou Lamorello would say this, because if you know the Leafs organization, that's not going to happen. Of course. But for him to go out and say, oh, it was just a joke, and if you don't know that, then

you're being stupid. Yeah. And if you want to have integrity. People want to trust you. Right, right. That's right. You have a legacy, if you will, of being, you know, covering the team for a mainstream media outlet, the Fan 590.

covering the team for a mainstream media outlet, The Fan 590. And now you're still, like on your blog, you may not be affiliated anymore with the mainstream media, but just like myself, you can still have integrity in what you write. So I just feel like I had issues with the content of his blog entry

and I didn't think it was good satire, if you will. So I had a chat with Schultz about this. So the clarification I want to make, and I hope this came across in the episode, you can tell me, because somebody called me out on it, and I don't think it was fair. I hope this came clear. I have, I don't, how do I say this? He's changed careers now, Howard Berger, and he's doing some work with a funeral home. And I swear to you, I don't care if he serves me coffee at McDonald's. I swear to you. The guy who owns the company and the guy who waters the plants, I see them the same.

I've always been this way. You get the same respect. I don't have any of this. Tomorrow, I could be serving coffee at McDonald's, and I hope people don't judge me for it. We're making honest living. I'm happy for you, and I wish you success. A dollar for an extra large right now. Is that right?

Yeah. Well, let's pause this because there's one in New Toronto at Dwight. Let's pause you and I wish you success. Dollar for an extra large right now. Is that right? Yeah. Well, let's pause this because there's one in New Toronto at Dwight. Let's pause this and go get a car. I have one in my car actually. It's getting cool. We'll go get it. I got the extra large. Because I could be ranting about this for a while. Except to say, I'll wrap it up very quickly to say I hope that never, I don't know, you listen.

You tell me. I sure never had that thought in my head like, you know, oh, he's just you know, look at him now. I think Jonah took some shots at this and maybe I got caught up in this wave. I don't know why, because Jonah speaks for Jonah. You know, I don't, Jonah doesn't speak for anyone but Jonah. And you mentioned that Berger took a shot at Jonah, and then I think Jonah took some shots. And I think some people like pension plan puppets, and there was some piling on regarding Berger becoming a funeral director. I did not participate in that at all. All of my beef was

about his blog entry and discussing that. And maybe Schultz, I learned later, maybe Schultz has a little bit of a history with Berger and maybe some of that came across in what Schultz said, but David Schultz speaks for David Schultz. So to clarify, I sure would never, ever, ever in a million years have anything negative to say about a man who's changing careers or industry and doing, making an honest living doing anything. Yeah, and that's, I mean, that's just the reality of the situation as well right now in media is sometimes, you know, people have to seek something outside of the business.

I mean, it's reality. Stormy Norman's doing this now, and I wish him equal luck. Yeah, I used to work with him back at Hardcore Sports Radio and at The Fan. And what a pleasant guy that guy is. I love that guy. He's awesome. He's a wonderful man.

It is tough for people that age to find jobs in the industry when they're, you know, they're shrinking. I don't know if you know this. There's less jobs.

We won't be getting hammerhead alerts anymore, but that's just life. I love the hammerhead alerts. That was the best. He was on this show and I made him, I couldn't find an audio clip

of hammerhead alerts, so I made him do it so I could record it and at some point I planned to make it. Do you know the story of the hammerhead alert shirts? Tell me. So he used to give people that he thought were going it. Do you know the story of the Hammerhead Alert shirts? He used to give people

that he thought were going to be risers in the industry Hammerhead Alert shirts and said they were good luck. That people who had Hammerhead Alert shirts would get good luck in the industry. I thought that was cool. A friend of mine who's been on the show, David Alters, got one of them. To him, he was a big fan of RUMAC growing up. That meant so much to him.

Norm gave him one of these hammerhead alert shirts. Alter's a friend of the show. Alter is a friend of Elvis, who is a friend of mine, and I've had Alter on. They have some Western university. They won some big game yesterday. Did you hear this? I heard the Vanier Cup, yes.

Good for them, whatever. I got to say, I went to U of T. I've never had this moment where I feel like, oh, I cheer for U of T because I went there. I never had this. People really love the university they went to. That's their home team. And I mean, good for U of T because I went there. I never had this. People really love the university they went to. That's their home team. And I mean,

good for U of T, but I spent a lot of money to get a degree from there and I don't feel like, I don't know, that's not my team. They aren't my classmates. Good for them,

but I don't have the same love that these Western graduates seem to have. You're going to like this. Dave was the best man at my wedding. I've known Dave since we were 14.

I like David. We had a great time and he's at Canadian Press now? He's covering the hockey team? He's doing some work with Canadian Press. And he's, you know, Dave is just, he's a grinder. He's a hardworking guy. He's had a lot of jobs covering hockey.

But again, the media climate right now is very shaky. And he's had trouble. I think David's had a bit of bad luck. I completely agree with you. Because what? National Sports got rid of all their sports guys at once. Everybody at once. He was only there for a couple months.

Right. And he left another job to take that job. He's there for three months and they let him go. It's just it. And something happened at the Athletic. And I don't want to speak better. But I think Alter was hired by ownership at the beginning. And maybe there was management changes in the Toronto office.

And then he found himself on the outside of that. I don't think it's any reflection of Alter's work. I think his work is really good, and I'm glad he's covering hockey for Canadian press. But yeah, he's a friend of the show, as we say. He's your best man, which is amazing. Small world story. I want to ask

you about your job as... We're going to get to UFC in a minute, but you're producer of talent relations at TSN. Please tell me what that entails. All right, so let's rewind a little bit. So I got hired by TSN to book guests on Off the Record. Dave Krixt was the producer, and I worked with him at the score.

And he saw I had a knack for booking guests and brought me on to TSN. So I was booking guests guests regularly booking guests. And, um, I noticed that there were times where other shows in the building and radio had just moved to, uh, to, to Asian court out in Scarborough, we're getting guests and nobody knew about it. So there would be a guest on radio and off the record wouldn't know we'd have guests and radio wouldn't know. And people were like, well, what's going on here? So I went and spoke to, um, our VP, uh, Ken Bolden, who's, uh, one of the brightest people in the television industry, television industry and a very open

minded guy. And I said before I had started at TSN, when I was at the score, I actually interviewed for a job at ESPN, but I was disqualified because they didn't have an American visa. So I was a finalist for a job there to be a talent producer. And I

kept in touch with the person that interviewed me and they had the car wash system, they call it at ESPN, where when guests come in, you set up a schedule for them to go from place to place to place. Which makes sense. Yeah, which makes a lot of sense, especially when we're out in Scarborough, because people are driving 40 minutes to get to us. So I spoke to him and said, we need to implement this system at TSN and we have. So I've been working on that and making sure that guests when they come in are maximized across platforms. So I've been working on that and making sure that guests, when they come in, are maximized across platforms. And it's been very successful for us.

And it's a lot of fun because I get to hang out with a lot of different athletes and entertainers when they come in. And a lot of them are people, you know, I think one trait that I have that's really good is I'm not really, you know, I don't get starstruck very often. You know, when people come in, like Joe Montana was my favorite quarterback growing up. He came in and I took him around from place to place and he was just a guy to me at that day. You know, it's just part of my job. So I'm able to disassociate. Because I have a little bit of,

I don't have Joe Montana coming in, but you know, like at the very beginning, did you find that maybe you were a tiny bit like, oh my God, I'm with whatever. And then it just became like now nobody would really, you would never, you know, now that you're, not jaded, but you've adapted with whatever. And then it just became like now nobody would really, you would never, you know, now that you're, not jaded, but you've adapted or whatever. But do you think at the beginning maybe you had a little bit?

Maybe a little more than I do now, but not to an extreme where I wasn't able to do it in a capable manner and was unable to. Yeah, you're not going to fanboy on the guy. Yeah, when I have them sitting down, we talk just like you and I are talking right now. It's, you know, I ask them how their family's doing, what's's going on what are you up to in your life right now i don't talk about hey wait remember when you played against the 76ers in 2003 and you dropped 80 points on them you don't you don't you ask for a selfie um no i actually don't ask for pictures with them ever i think that um it you know sometimes people will say hey it blurs the line like got somebody with them, they'll say, hey, do you want a picture with them?

And then I'll say yes because I don't want to offend anybody. And that's about it. Actually, I had Dana White, the UFC president at TSN a while back. And Dana said, hey, let me take a picture with you. You look like a guy I know. I want to send it to him. And I thought that was kind of funny. He has to take a picture with me.

That is great. that is great that is great uh okay so can you so off the record's gone now did you know that yes i you know what last week i actually got it's um a request to have someone on the show it's been it's been out of production for two years and uh it was i hadn't gotten one of those in a while but it was someone so and so would love to be on off the record now uh off the record was i mean it went a long time. 18 seasons, yeah. More than the Beachcombers. Relic would be proud of your longevity on Off the Record. Now, that must have been

one of, I'm guessing, because of the nature of that show and you have the, was it four guests you had each episode or whatever? Well, it changed a little bit. You know, when Dave, the aforementioned Dave Christ, he came on and he wanted to make it more high-profile guest heavy, which I completely bought into

because I thought that the four-man panel, you know, could only last for so long where every episode you could do that. But yeah, that was the original format of the show. And when you think of all the popular sports talk shows now on ESPN, so many of them replicate that particular framework,

which is interesting. But didn't, like, so many of them replicate that particular framework, which is interesting. But didn't, like, that's, were you, I mean, this is probably before your time there, but off the record, wasn't there a model that it was modeled after some American show?

Or am I confusing myself? I'm not sure. Because I wasn't there in the early days. Todd Hayes could probably answer the question, but you know. I've become quite friendly with Todd.

We were talking before and you mentioned I should get a camera in here. If Todd's listening, I want for the record, Todd Hayes has been telling me that for years. I need to put a camera in here.

And we chatted about, the reason I've hesitated to put a camera in here is I feel it will change the dynamic. I'm trying to have a conversation with somebody and I feel like if there's a camera in here,

you're going to become self-aware. How do I look? They'll be aware of how they look. I didn't want to mess with the chemistry and the dynamic and you need lights and then when you have lights definitely need lights in here well well if you had a camera plug this light because i felt like there was too much light like i tried to make it dark like yeah i like that vibe better for sure and i i hear you on that i think that people when there's a camera on it seems more on the record also it seems more like an interrogation right they'll think yes right and then uh because my my the beauty of my show uh is that they get so

comfortable i think maybe they forget i'm recording it that's what i think because sometimes people say i look around and there's a bike and there's a banner and there's a public enemy shirt uh with a poppy on it right you know and there's some artwork and uh it takes you kind of you know what yeah an official you're right capacity in like an hour into the convo it's kind of out of an official capacity. And like an hour into the convo, it's kind of, you will slip into this comfort and then you have a good rapport with the person and you will probably say things that, you'll be like, you'll say things.

You might not say if there's big lights and you got your makeup on and the camera's going and you're so aware this is on the record, like speaking of off the record. Which, so I kind of don't want to mess with the mojo is where I'm at now. But yeah, Todd's been saying for years. And you worked with Todd at Off The Record. record but uh which so i kind of don't want to mess with the mojo is where i'm at now but yeah todd's been saying for years and you worked with todd at off the record uh no todd um i worked with

todd because he was at radio he moved over to radio at the time that i got hired for off the record so i didn't i never worked under todd okay gotcha gotcha but uh he says nothing but good things about you so i like todd a lot he's a good he's a good guy you're both good guys long-term long-term guy in the sports industry who's very respected. A lot of people respect Todd. And he started to blog about the stuff I love, which is the inside baseball.

I saw he made that great post about the Roy Halladay coverage. I thought it was really interesting. I did, and I shared that too, and I saw it got picked up by some big media personalities in the States, I noticed, retweeted it. Oh, I didn't know that.

That's great. I think, I can't remember their names now, but somebody big, I remember. But yeah yeah i thought that was really the kind of stuff i i'm hungry for like uh i know i'm a subset of a subset but i crave that kind of that's why i do this you listen to the richard dyche podcast that's more american that's the gentleman i think who uh richard dyche yeah yeah yeah yeah richard uh richard's podcast is fantastic if you're interested in the american sports but he also he once had bob mccall yeah i was gonna say he had bob mccall because he was he's a regular on Bob's show.

Right. Okay, yeah, yeah. That's exactly the, that's very interesting. I got to go back and listen to that McCallum episode. So now that Off the Record is gone, so what are the main shows that you're actually providing talent for at TSN? Well, the Sports Center is obviously the big one.

And then we've got all of our different radio programming. We do a lot for web, for tsn.ca. I help out CB24 with guests, CTV News channel. So it's not just Insular with TSN, it's Bell Media as a whole. What about Jay and Dan's show? Jay and Dan, yeah, we have guests for them. They come in late, though. So often when I book guests

for that show or help book a guest for that show, they have to come in at night at a time where I'm not sending other things out. Yeah, they're live, but sometimes they'll pre-date with guests if necessary. Okay. How are they doing?

Like, I had Jay on when they launched the show, when they came back, and there was, I mean, that was, to be honest, that was a lot of publicity behind a TSN show.

I don't know if, it's probably an unprecedented level of awareness going on by Bell Media PR. And it's going okay. It's going great. I don't know if it's probably unprecedented level of awareness going on by Bell Media PR. It's going okay. It's going great. I watch it every day. It's a lot of fun. It's great to have those guys back because they're so synonymous

with the TSN brand and with Canada and with SportsCenter. I think that the beauty of it playing overnight is that you get a choice. You can watch the Jay and Dan. It's kind of more quirky and fun. And you can watch SportsCenter with Kate and Natasha or whoever's hosting that night.

Usually it's them. And I think that that's really good because I think there were people back when Jay and Dan were doing the overnights that some people would say, oh, they're a little bit too off the wall. But now you can kind of pick your poison, right? You can watch both, you know, if you want to get a sense of, you know,

kind of more of the standardized sports center versus what they do, which I think is great. Now, I haven't had the pleasure of meeting Dan, so I've never met Dan, but I've met Jay. A, I find him sincerely funny. I think he's a funny guy, and he's a likable chap. Like, he's coming back to kick out the jams himself. Good, yeah, Jay's awesome, and he's... Is Dan awesome, thoughay's awesome and he's uh is dan awesome though i love the music quotient you know dan from my experience

with him is great but i've only met dan i think two or three times in my life is he more of the two of them is he the more little more introverted maybe than yeah yeah but i mean more more most people are more introverted than jay and dan is still pretty extroverted so you know when you're hanging out with the two of them it's not like Dan sitting off in a corner, you know, they're still chatting with you. And, you know, Dan's a good guy. He's a good family man. And he likes being out east of the city and... Way east. Yeah, way east. You know, and that's good. I like that about Dan. He's able to kind of separate being, you know, under the bright lights and then wanting to not want any attention out during his personal life, which is cool.

Dan's a little bit country. Jay's a little bit rock and roll. I think that's what they're going for there. In the words of the South Park creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone? Well, I think they stole it from the same place I did. Okay. Dark Guy.

Oh, yeah. First of all, Michael Landsberg. So you worked with Michael Landsberg at Off the Record. Now Michael Landsberg is the morning show host. That's a big slot too at TSN.

Yeah, Landsberg in the morning. Don't get me started on Michael because I love Michael. He's honestly the best guy I've worked with. Could you drive him to the show because he agreed to come on my show and then when the whole logistics...

Yeah, as soon as you have to... He has to leave the house. He's not coming. That's where I lost him. You know what? I'll talk to him because i think he should do the show because um i think that any opportunity he has and your podcast uh does you know does really well and maybe close to the let's talk time maybe like yeah for let's talk you might be able to to get some time with him then i mean that's really you know when you say to him he's gonna give you a really good platform to talk about mental health that's what what really gets Michael out of bed in the morning.

You know, he's been doing sports for a long time, and he loves sports, and he loves talking sports. But talking about mental health and raising awareness for mental health is really his passion. Well, like, sincerely, if we could, because he has, I have an email from him saying he'd love to do the show, but when it came time to, hey. He would love to do the show.

He just wouldn't like to be here and drive. So I got to bring all this gear to his house. Is that what I got to do? Yeah, or bring a recorder. Right. And he'd welcome you into his house. Like my colleague, Robin Black, wanted to interview him

when he was starting to do web videos. And he said, come over. And Robin was like, okay, I'll come over and do it. Maybe though, like you said, he's passionate about this cause. So maybe just before the Let's Talk time, whatever the Let's Talk day is, it's in February. Like just before that, maybe Talk time, whatever the Let's Talk day is, it's in February? Yeah.

Just before that, maybe if you can come on and talk about that, it would be a fantastic discussion, I think, to have Landsberg on the show. By the way, I wanted to ask how it's going. They're looking for a new co-host for Landsberg. I've heard, yeah. So do you know as much as I do, or do you have any insight? I know as much as you do. I've seen the posting

and that's about it. And I don't know who's applied and I don't know who's in the mix. I've heard rumors that Todd Shapiro's in the mix. Well, Shapiro's a big rumor, right? Yeah, from what Toronto Sports Media writes. And that's where I've heard that rumor. I've heard it from the same source as you. Back to Jonah. And I know Jeff McDonald really well, but that's not the kind of thing I'd ask him. That's his business.

He's not going to tell me anything, eh? But, you know, people in that show have said, do you have any ideas for who would be a good co-host so I've sent some to them but I don't know who's in the mix I think the perfect guy would be Paul Bissonette but he's employed in Arizona

he's doing great work out there and I don't think he wants to move from Arizona to come back here But do you think Landsberg needs a co-host? No, I think Landsberg can carry it on his own and I think that the breakfast club when he has guys sit in with him is good because he can feed off of them. And that's really where he's at his best when he can play off of people. So I think, you know, Oko certainly couldn't hurt.

I think that he likes to build a rapport and build dynamics with people. He's a day-woner. I think I just had, who was I talking to about this super recently? Do you think I could remember? Not Mike Hogan, but somebody from TSN. Oh, crap. That sucks that I can't remember. Van Horn, maybe?

Yeah, somebody more recent than that. But we talked about the day one. Oh, Paul Romanuk. Okay. That's right. What a great episode, by the way, Paul Romanuk. If anyone's listening, go back and listen to the Paul Romanuk episode. I haven't heard that one yet.

It's in my downloads. It's really good. Yeah. Because he's not a day one-er, but he's close. He's close to a day one-er. We talked about Paul Wells and we talked about some of the... Paul Wells or Peter Wells? Paul Wells.

Paul Wells, right. We talked about some of the day one-ers and yeah, Landsberg was there day one. So I'd love to talk to Landsberg. Dark Guy. Have you heard the Dark Guy show? I have not, but I'm... I think that the outrage about it is insane. And I can explain this to you. Yeah, go ahead.

So what were they playing when Dart Guy wasn't there? I don't know. They were playing syndicated American radio. Right. So suddenly they bring Dart Guy in. He's getting a check. Todd Shapiro is getting a check for hosting that show. Yeah.

Someone who's producing that show is getting a check. Someone who's behind the board is getting a check for hosting that show. Someone who's producing that show is getting a check. Someone who's behind the board is getting a check. So people are mad that there's now a show that's being done in studio on a weekend versus syndicated programming. Like you have local talk on the weekend. Right. So this is sort of like, this is like to me, it's like the guy who's vaping. You're like, hey, dude, vaping is not good for you. He's like, I used to smoke cigarettes.

Now I vape this is a great health improvement uh so you're calling this the show is the vaping of radio this is great for toronto radio that we have a live local show for two hours that we didn't have before yeah so the people who are complaining or people are like why didn't that job go to like people who went to journalism school and have been busting their hump for how long so i totally get your points that's a great point like this is the vaping of toronto radio well that's your point now that's not oh it's ironic we're talking about the vaping when a dark guy with my point is though is is we're servicing the listener like rather than playing

a syndicated show we're we're servicing the listener by playing by doing talking local talk on the weekends which they didn't have before so and again you've got a guy who wasn't doing anything at tsn radio before and todd shapiro who's earned the stripes as a as a broadcaster and he's getting more work as a result so we're not hurting anybody by doing this show we're in fact helping stimulate the local industry and and give the listeners more of a taste of local discussion on the weekends. And if you ever heard, I've heard Dark Guy talk. I might not tune in too often. I'm very busy on weekends like you.

I've got four kids and everything. But when I hear him talk, he's actually not as you'd expect. I think he's far better spoken. And he's not some guy who's having trouble stringing a sentence or a thought together. So yeah, Dark Guy is better than the syndicated U.S. programming. That's a definite improvement there, for sure. Yeah, and I think the outrage over it is... But the outrage is a very small group of people that do have a broadcasting background or journalism background.

And I understand their frustrations. It's hard to get a job in this industry right now. But at the same time, I don't think that the listener at home cares about that at all. Wait till they find out I'm getting a two-hour show on TSN. That's going to be great, actually. Wait till the outrage. Wait till you see that. I want to ask you about Tim and Sid real quickly here.

So you used to produce the Tim and Sid Uncut podcast. That's correct, yeah. Tell me about these guys because, you know, this is the Jonah episode. I think the third time we've dropped his name, but he says Tim and Sid are breaking up. Yeah, that's the rumor. I don't have any inside knowledge of this,

because I haven't discussed it with them at all, not even at length at all. But why would they correct me if I'm wrong, but Tim and Sid is the Rogers, Jay and Dan. Is this the attempt? Yeah, and you know, the strange thing to me is that they didn't use the, you know what Jay and Dan are doing now in terms of when they do the show. To me, Tim and Sid, you know, the strange thing to me is that they didn't use the, you know what Jay and Dan are doing now in terms of when they do the show.

To me, Tim and Sid, you know, they grew organically as hosts of Score Tonight. And I thought that that would have been the best fit for them is doing something overnight, just personally from a programming standpoint. But, yeah, I loved working with Tim and Sid because they're professionals and they're funny and their on-air chemistry is unbelievable. And, I mean, it would be a shame if they broke up. They like each other, right? Like, this is not a... You know, some people, the red light comes on and they pretend they like each other,

but they really, Tim and Sid like each other. Yeah, they like each other. I mean, I can't speak for their current relationship because, again, I don't know. I haven't worked with them in six years. And, you know, I've seen Sid recently, I guess within the last year. But, I mean, I don't know.

As far as I know, everything's fine. Everything's good, but I haven't heard anything otherwise. Again, my knowledge of it is what you've read from what Jonah's read. Right, right, right. So I don't want to speak on those guys potentially breaking up. I've read what you've read. It's like we're worried that the Beatles are going to break up next, Tim and Sid.

But I think it would be a real shame if that happened. I think that when you find somebody that you have that kind of chemistry with and you have a brand with, that it's difficult to break that up. I'm still reeling from... I mean, look at Mike and Mike in the States. That just broke up, right? Now, Wingo and Golik are doing a show in the morning, and Mike's doing his show.

And I think in a couple of years, we'll see how that works out. But they had a very successful Mike and Mike brand that a show and I think in a couple years we'll see how that works out but they had a very successful Mike and Mike brand that a lot of people were sad to see go. I'm still reeling from Hebsey leaving Sportsline. With Bubba. Well, no. The original Sportsline. Of course, with Taddy.

Who was the original? What was the original Sportsline? It was Hebsey and Jim Taddy. Yeah, that's what I thought. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Jim Taddy. Who? Jim Taddy's working at TSN. Yes, guy. Working at two TSNs. Right. He's in Hamilton.

Hamilton and Toronto. That's crazy. Give him a third. You can just collect them all. So, Tim, where was I going with the Tim? So, you produced a podcast. So, can you tell me really quickly the Canadian podcasts that you listen to? You don't have to give me the full list or anything.

Is there a few Canadian podcasts you want to recommend? I'm always curious, and I don't mean to put you on the spot here. And you don't have to say one is Toronto Mic'd if it's not true. No, it is true. I love Toronto Mic'd. I'm trying to think Canadian podcast. See, it's tough. This is really tough. Okay, go ahead. I'll pull out my list. I mean, I listen to Taggart and Torrance.

Okay, that's Canadian. Yeah, that's Canadian. That is their Canadianity. That's super Canadian. Yeah, what else. I'll pull out my list. I mean, I listen to Taggart and Torrance. Okay, that's Canadian. Yeah, that's Canadian. That is their Canadianity. That's super Canadian. Yeah, what else do I have here? And Taggart's a big friend of the TSN, too. Taggart's awesome. That guy's one of my favorite guys.

He's just such a nice guy. He's coming back to kick out the jams. Good, as he should. I'm sure his music selections will be great. I've got Jay and Dan here. I've got the main event podcast with Elias Theodoru. It's an MMA podcast. That's Canadian? That's Canadian. He's a Canadian fighter. Cool. And Jay and Dan here. I've got the main event podcast with Elias Theodoru. It's an MMA podcast. Is that Canadian? That's Canadian. He's a Canadian fighter.

And that's about it. It's tough, eh? Sorry, the Rubber Boots podcast I have here as well with James Duffy. I had James Duffy tell me the Rubber Boots story. That's fantastic. It is fantastic. I know he did it originally on the Jay and Dan podcast, but screw it. I want you to tell me it again when he was on my show, James. Tell it again.

I know that we could point people to the James. And not everybody listens to every podcast. And they got enough listeners. Tell me that story. I want it. But that rubber boots is great. Great, great. That guy in Toronto

who wears the I hate rubber boots shirt. Have you ever seen this guy in Toronto? So there's an I hate rubber boots guy in Toronto. And I always wonder if that's the same guy. Like how could there be these two rubber boots stories in Canada? But now it's your favorite part of the show because i'm going to ask you a little bit about ufc here all right and that's my hands rubbing together so just for the record you not only right not only are you producer of talent relations at tsn you are also the editor of ufc

content and yes that's right so you're editor of ufc content at content and, yes, that's right. So you're editor of UFC content at TSN. Yes, correct. And that's a, you are, so you're the guy when it comes to UFC content in the TSN universe. Yeah, one of the guys. I mean, Robin Black does some stuff with us occasionally, and Elias Theodorou has as well in the past. And we have a lot of writers on TSN.ca that know a lot about the UFC, that write articles.

But, yeah, I help a lot in terms of steering the direction of UFC coverage. And not only in an editorial capacity, but you will report as well, right? Yeah. So I'm actually going to the event one week from today. I'll be in Detroit, Michigan, and I'll be covering what should be an awesome event. UFC. Is today Sunday? I'll be coming home from Detroit, Michigan.

It's Grey Cup Sunday. Yeah. I'll be coming back from Detroit, Michigan, having covered Grey Cup Sunday. I'll be coming back from Detroit, Michigan, having covered UFC 218. Tell me why you love UFC. Well, the thing about the UFC is to the person watching at home for the first time,

I can understand why it's a hard sport to get into because at its core, it's a violent sport. It's people punching, kicking. It looks like they're going to hurt themselves. Getting submitted, getting knocked out. But I think really any sport at its core is what it is. Like soccer, you're trying to kick a ball into a net.

Hockey, you're using a stick to try to get a puck into a net, a rubber disc. Basketball, you're trying to put a ball into a hoop. In fighting, you're trying to hurt somebody. So when people are first watching it, that's the sense that they get. So if violence makes you squeamish, it'll be hard for you to stick with the sport long term. But to me, when I've been watching the sport for, you know, over 10 years, what I love about it is there's so much that goes into how, the how of how people are doing things. So how did that guy just get punched in the face and why? And what's he going to do as a reaction?

And all the different martial arts that go into it. When the UFC first started, it was can a kickboxer beat a karate guy? Can a karate guy beat a jiu-jitsu guy? Now you have to know everything. You have to be well-rounded. And there's so much that goes into every second of the action that's going on. You'll see a fight that people call boring, where it's five minutes of guys seemingly in a staring contest

where nobody's engaging. But there's a reason for that, because their strengths are offset by the other person's strengths and vice versa. So there's just so much going on in every single moment of every single fight that have dire ramifications. We're talking about health. We're talking about who's going to get paid double their salary

because usually in the UFC, if you win, your win bonus is what your show money is. So there's just so much at stake. And I also love the one-on-one aspect of it, that, you know, you learn and you invest in what the deal with this guy is, what makes him special or her special. And then there's also really a gender equality thing. You know, you've got women headlining cards that have men on them

and they are the headliner of that card and you really can't find that in any other sport tennis maybe but there's women's tennis and there's men's tennis you're absolutely right okay great now it's funny because you mentioned the violent aspect but I can watch like over the years I've got into

boxing matches like into boxing matches, like interesting boxing matches, and I will enjoy watching a boxing match. So it's, that's brutal. Like these are people punching each other in the face. Boxing is more brutal than MMA. Absolutely.

But when I watch MMA, I have this whole, like I want to call it squeamish, but I have, I've always had this thing in basketball. I have it and I watch a lot of basketball, but turning of the ankles, like I have have this like i can't watch all these things people watch with the basketball injuries where the bone comes out you know but it so seldom

happens in mma it happens just as much in basketball i know yeah but for some reason uh and i have tried and i do recognize that it is it is very popular and there's a great hunger for more ufc content that you provide. And I grew up as a kid. I'm looking at the Andre the Giant mug over here. I mean, WWF is my big thing. Yeah, me too. It was fake.

It was like a soap opera. I actually think that pro wrestling, WWE, is more dangerous than all of these sports. More dangerous than MMA and boxing and the NFL. Yeah, you know, but that's what turned me off. Because of the volume of how often these guys are doing it. It's just, you know, every day these guys are getting into a ring and landing on and the NFL. Yeah, but that's what turned me off football, too. Because of the volume of how often these guys are doing it. It's just every day these guys are getting into a ring and landing on their body parts, and a lot of them get addicted to opiates.

Sure. It's a brutal sport. Well, a lot of wrestlers die young. Yeah, yeah. And if you look at the UFC, these guys are fighting three, four times a year at most a lot of the times, whereas in wrestling, they're doing it three days a week.

Who's your favorite UFC fighter right now? Oh, wow, that's a tough question. I bring the tough questions here, Aaron. Well, because by picking a favorite, I'm getting rid of some journalistic integrity. Oh, you're right. That's why you've got to be careful, right? Yeah, because that means that, you know,

if I'm writing about somebody... Is Ken Shamrock still doing it? No. Oh, well, he has done it recently, though. Is that right? He's done it fairly recently. They rewound and redid the Hoist Gracie versus Ken Shamrock fight in Bellator, I think, two years ago.

Bellator is a rival organization to the UFC that are more prone to putting on circus fights. And they put that on and did great ratings on TV. Is there any MMA outside of UFC that is popular? Well, Bellator is fairly popular. They got okay ratings. They had Kimbo Slice, and Kimbo Slice was giving them good ratings before he passed away. And then they have their Ken Shamrock fights,

and Tito Ortiz was still hanging around there for a while. And then in Canada, we've got TKO, which is like a regional organization. Is that unaffiliated with UFC? Yeah, it's unaffiliated, although they air on UFC Fight Pass. Okay. When I was growing up,

I watched WWF wrestling. And I thought that was all wrestling. And then my friend gave me a magazine. And, you know, all these pictures of the bleeding and all these fighters and stuff. And, you know, Ric Flair and all these guys.

And I'm reading about it. That was NWA. Yeah. And you get the rankings. You'd be like, who's Jeff Jarrett? He's ranked number one in wrestling. I mean,

so I just listened to a Ric Flair documentary on a 30 for 30 podcast. It was American, of course. I missed the whole Ric Flair thing because I was a WWF owner. I grew out of it by like 89. So you weren't there for the hating of WCW. No, I missed all that.

But my point is, you're definitely a younger man here, for sure. That's why you've got the two kids around my age of my two kids but my second set you don't have the first set where my teenagers because that's our age gap there but the um the wrestling world ufc is the same way in a sense that i you know you think ufc is all mma but there's actually mma outside of ufc yes there's mma and then there's kickboxing outside of you know there's there's kickboxing as a sport.

I host a podcast at TSN with a guy named Joe Valtellini who is a Canadian kickboxing champion. He's still a young guy but he walked away because he had concerns about head injuries.

And he was, yeah, he was the world kickboxing champion at his weight class. And he's just a Canadian guy that trains five minutes from TSN. Claire, help me with this.

So, Georges St-Pierre is a champion now. Can you tell me, did he go down a division? He went up a division. So, he went from 170 to 185, and he won his second UFC champion. He's the fourth guy in UFC history to win in two different divisions over that career. I mean, I root for Canadians in all sports.

He's your guy then in the UFC. He is my guy. If I were to watch, I'd be a big GSP guy. You didn't watch the last GSP fight? No, no, no. But on Twitter, I saw lots of excitement about it. Yeah, absolutely. It does well on Twitter. Yeah, I think it's a younger fan base, I think. I get a sense it's a younger fan base.

I mean, they did a thing recently that came out that said that their fan base is from like 35 to 45, but I think that that's inaccurate. I think that a lot of people in their kind of late 20s have gotten into it. Now, before we kick out the jams, because, you know, we've done, you know, we did 50 minutes, and we haven't kicked out the jams yet, so I hope you don't have to pick up any kids anymore. This is going to be like the exodus of podcasts.

This is going to be good. You know, your jams are amazing. I can't wait to get to that. And I hear you're like a big music guy. Like, I've been told that, is this true, that you might be in your spare time booking bands at Toronto venues?

No, although I have done that. This rumor is out there. I did that when I was in high school. By the way, of all the rumors to have out about you, that's actually a pretty cool rumor. That I book concerts?

Yeah. Yeah. No, I have in the past, but my friend Eric Warner was actually one of the biggest promoters in the city for a while. And he started when he was like

14 booking shows. He was booking shows at Who's Emma and Kensington Market. Like they were these kind of ska and punk shows in like 90 person venues. And then he got to a point where he was booking, you know, at the Opera House and bigger venues in the city. You just remind me, my buddy was at the Liam Gallagher show at the Rebel, like this is like less than a week ago.

Yeah, that was very recent. He was upset because he said Liam did an hour and then left the venue. No encore, no goodbye. He does an hour and he leaves, but everybody thinks an encore is coming. Courtesy, right?

I was at the very last tour that the Pumpkins did. The original Smashing Pumpkins. The one at Massey? The original last. I know he's reformed. Pumpkins did before the original Smashing Pumpkins. The one at Massey? Oh, the last one. Yeah, yeah. Back in the day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The original last. I know he's reformed

and stuff. Yeah, like 1996 or whatever. Yeah, with Darcy's there and everybody. And they did no encore. And I thought that

was really weird. The whole set they did was kind of like a FU set where they changed, they rearranged their hits and stuff so you couldn't really

recognize their hits and stuff. That sounds like a Billy Corgan thing to do. Yeah, and then he just left and no encore. It's like, I've been to 100 concerts since then.

I think they all had an encore or two or three. But I guess Liam Gallagher had just left and I don't know what, I just was just reading my buddy's comments about it. He was ticked off. Like, first of all, it's an hour. We're used to more than an hour now. Not that every band has to do this,

but Guns N' Roses did three and a half hours. That's crazy. Yeah, it is crazy. I didn't think they have three and a half hours of material with the original. They did, yeah. I guess the semi-original lineup. They, yeah, it's really...

Well, I guess Use Your Illusion, both of those were like 75-minute albums. Yeah, and they did, you know, they got their Lies, and they got, of course, they have Appetite for Destruction. They play a lot of songs from Lies. Well, they did a few.

Used to Love Her, for sure. And we got, of course, the big one, Patience. Yeah, lot of songs from Lies? Well, they did a few. Used to Love Her, for sure. And we got, of course, the big one, Patience. Patience is from Lies, that's true. Yeah, Patience, by the way, and everybody's like, oh, Lies is just a filler,

whatever. I always have to say, Patience is on Lies. Well, Spaghetti Incident is filler. Yes, because it's all covers. In fact, there's a Charles Manson cover

on Spaghetti Incident. And a Rocket from the Tombs cover. And the great Hair of the Dog cover is on that thing too. That album was widely panned. By the way, the album I've never heard

was a couple of cuts off Chinese Democracy. Wow. Slash must have loved playing those songs live. That's when you catch your breath because you've got to sing along to all the other tracks.

But okay, I digress. One last fun fact before we kick out the jams is Orville is your nickname? Back when I was at Hardcore Sports Radio, people called me that, yeah. Because I used to when I produced Sports Radio with Gabe Maranci, who you should have on the show, by the way, because

he's got stories on stories. I would do that. He has a story that when he was a musician before he was on radio, and Dave Grohl slept on his couch, or on his floor, or something. Because Dave Grohl slept on his couch or on his floor or something. Dave Grohl was in the band, I think it was the band Death or something along those lines. It was his first band before Nirvana. He must have been really young, right? Because he was super young when he joined Nirvana.

Yeah. He was touring and Dave Grohl slept on his floor or something because Gabe was like a musician in his 20s and Gabe, I guess, is probably in his late 40s or 50s now. Yeah, if I had a story like that I wouldn't shut up about it yeah so Gabe has just stories on stories on stories but I

produced that show and I used to the show was from 11pm to 2am and I used to sit and eat popcorn during the show so they called me Orville like from Orville Redenbacher yeah okay that's where I thought so but I thought that's that's quite the nickname and now we're gonna my last thing is because you're you're a TSN guy,

what's the relationship like between talent at TSN and talent at Sportsnet? You're all friendly, right? How's that rivalry? Can you feel it when you're all in the same room? Or is it like, hey, we're all in the same game? I don't really have a frame of reference, really. I haven't been in a room with both Sportsnet and TSN.

I can make it happen. I'm friendly with both sides. Maybe you should make a podcast. You should have a podcast where you get a top Rogers guy and a top TSN guy and you guys sit down and talk. Talk it out.

How about this? And then both PR teams will come after you. That's right. That's right. I got to be careful. But I can get Stephen Brunt and Bob McKenzie

in the same room. They've both been on the show. I can do that. Yeah, I guess so. And I don't think... I think that the PR teams would get mad at you and not them.

You're right. They're not going to bother them about it. It's too easy to go at me, but maybe I'll do James Duffy and Ron McLean. That would be awesome to listen to.

They're both, by the way, I got to say. I don't want to really, I don't really want to push for this idea because I don't want to be the guy who was the conduit for this, but.

When they come at me, I'll say, Aaron Bronstetter. It was Bronstetter's idea. Call him. I will say, Aaron Bronstetter. It was Bronstetter's idea. Call him. I will say those four gentlemen I mentioned, McKenzie, Brunt, Duffy, and McLean are four sweethearts. Of course. Not of course. There are dinks out there.

I haven't come across any really, at TSN especially. I haven't come across anybody that have treated me as anything less than, even though I'm a producer or a guy who brings guests around or whatever it is. Everybody's so awesome. The people at TSN are just so first class people. They're just fantastic. And it was the same at the score. I was very low level

at the score when I was there and everybody was super nice. You know why? Because they're all Canadian. I think that's the secret. But here's one of the gems at TSN real quick. Tonight on Sports Desk, the Jays come through in the clutch and are the American League

East champions. Gino Reda. What a gent. I had this loaded up for his episode, so I thought I'd play it. But that's the good old Sports Desk days

before they rebranded everything. And Gino sits in the same area as me, so I see Gino every day. But where does his mustache sit? That's what I want to know Gino sits in the same area as me, so I see Gino every day. But where does his mustache sit? That's what I want to know. It sits in the archives of TSN. Jay and Dan had those mugs, and I asked Jay for a mug and he said, they're all gone. I need a mug.

If you can find any... We don't have any more at TSN shop? He claimed... Well, he hadn't... I don't know if he had started yet, but maybe... If there is one in the TSN shop, get Jay to bring it when he kicks out the jams. I want a Gino... The Gino Radom. I'll see if I can get you one. See if you can get me one.

Patreon.com slash Toronto Mike. That's where people should go if they want to help crowdfund this podcast. I want to give a very special thank you to somebody on Twitter named Crunchy Pics, which is a fantastic handle on Twitter. At Crunchy Pics. Is it Crunchy Pics or Crunchy Pics? I hope I have that right. But he didn't want to do Patreon, picks which is a fantastic handle on twitter at crunchy picks is it crunch picks or crunchy picks

i hope i have that right but he uh didn't want to do patreon uh but he wanted to help crowdfund the project so he actually emailed me uh some money and i want to say thank you to him that is uh extremely generous and i really appreciate it if anybody wants to crowdfund it with patreon it's patreon.com slash toronto mike And if you want to do it another way, reach out and we'll figure it out. But I also want to tell you, you're an East End guy, Aaron, but if you did make your way to the West End

on Sunday, December 10, when is that? Is that next Sunday? No, it's Sunday afternoon. Yeah, two Sundays from now. Two Sundays from now. Great Lakes Brewery is, they have like a documentary movie about their 30 years in the craft brewery business.

And there's a movie that they're going to view at the Kingsway Theater, which is like Bloor and, well, Kingsway actually, but yeah, between near Bloor and Royal York, if you will. But tickets are $25 and you get a commemorative gold-rimmed stemmed glass from Great Lakes Brewery. You get a couple of Great Lakes drinks, and you get to see the premiere in Hobnob with big celebrities

like Mr. Argo, Toronto Mike. I'm going to be there. It pays for itself. $25, you're getting beers and a mug. Right. And the Kingsway Theatre

is awesome, one of the last independent theatres in the city. You're absolutely right. So do that. It's a fully licensed venue, obviously. That's why you can do the beer garden.

They can have a beer garden set up with your tickets and everything. I see you have some beers here. Are these for me, or are these just on display for the bigger guests that come in? If I gave them to you, would you drink them? It depends what you have here. I'm not a big IPA guy, but what do you got here? What do we have? You tell me.

What is it? Oh, English ale. I'm all over. What do we got this? This is a Pilsner. Yeah, I would drink a Pilsner. Do you have any of those pumpkin ales? That's what I'm interested in. Yep. There might be two. What's the other one? Is it two pumpkin ales? One's a pumpkin ale. If you want

pumpkin ale, I can swap out that one for pumpkin ale. If we can swap out the IPA for a pumpkin ale, I'm in. Okay, remind me after this. I can 100% do that. I have more pumpkin ale. I like a good beer. I usually drink it in the summer. I'm more of a whiskey guy in the winter. Well, you're still taking that beer home with you.

You just have to keep it till the summer. If anyone from Forty Creek is listening. Well, Forty Creek, is that your... No, they're a Canadian. They're just a Canadian whiskey brewery. Oh, I got you. They're near here. They should sponsor this show.

They're about 20 minutes from here. Okay. Well, that beer is going home with you, courtesy of Great Lakes Brewery. Oh, I got you. They're new here. They should sponsor this show. They're about 20 minutes from here. Okay. Well, that beer's going home with you courtesy of Great Lakes Brewery. Enjoy. I hope that you find some to your liking there. I'll get you another pumpkin ale for sure. And I'm going to give you a pint glass. Well, I'm giving it

to you, but it's not from me. I did not pay for that quality pint glass. That is from Brian Gerstein. He is at propertyinthesix.com. Brian, I know he's listening because he told me his favorite episodes of Toronto Mic'd

are the sports media episodes. Okay. Because I don't only do sports media episodes, but I do a lot of them because I love sports and I'm familiar with sports media.

So I know Brian's listening. Brian's a great guy. You can call him at 416-873-0292 if you're planning to buy and or sell in the next six months. But I have a message from Brian. Let's hear Brian.

Property in the six dot com. Brian Gerstein here, sales representative with PSR Brokerage. With the country's bank regulator tightening the mortgage rules effective January 1st for all lenders, this will have a huge impact as it will affect those buyers with a down payment of 20% or more who were previously exempt. In January, expect your affordability to also drop by 20%. You can call me at 416-873-0292 for more information on the changes, as I fully expect a rush of buyers to purchase before you're in. I can also refer you to our in-house mortgage broker team, who can qualify you so you know how much purchasing power you have now and what the number will be in 2018.

This is not your first jam. If I had a Floyd song, it wouldn't be this one. Which one would it be? Probably something from Piper at the Gauge at Dawn. But the thing I don't like about Money is I don't feel like it fits with the rest of Dark Side on the Moon. Interesting. I think that it's an outlier. It's strange. I think it would have fit better on a different album.

You might be right about that, actually. That's still, by the way, that album's still one of the best-selling staples. But when you listen to it all the way through, when this song comes on, you're like, oh, this song came out of nowhere. Yeah, it takes you out of the mood, I suppose. But I'm playing this because Paytm

is an app designed to manage all of your bills in one spot. You don't have to visit each separate website to make a payment. All of your bills are on the Paytm app. And the best part is that Paytm will pay you money to pay your bills. You get 3% cash back on everyday goods like coffee at Tim Hortons and gas at Esso. So visit paytm.ca and download the Paytm app for free on your smartphone. And here's the important part for Toronto Mike listeners. If you use the promo code Toronto Mike, Paytm will give you $10 towards your first bill payment.

That's free money. So just download the app at paytm.ca and use the promo code Toronto Mike. All one word. Aaron Bronstetter, I have a question for you. All right, shoot.

Are you ready to kick out the jams? Absolutely. I like it better when Rob Tyner says it, but that's fine. This is a vinyl riff. You can hear the pops in the background.

You've got to set that mood. At my house, I've got no shackles. You can come and look if you want to Through the halls you'll see the mantels Where the light shines dim all around you And the streets are paved with gold And if someone asks you, you can call my name You're just a thought that someone Somewhere somehow feels you should be here And it's all for real

To touch, to smell, to feel To know that you are here And the streets are paved with gold And if someone asks you You can call my name You can call my name You can call my name I hear you calling my name Yeah

All right now Hey This is Love, A House Is Not A Motel. Yes. This is my favorite album of all time, Forever Changes by Love. It's 50 years old this year. best year of music in history, 1967. And there's a line in the song that I love so much.

It says, the news today will be the movies for tomorrow. And even 50 years later, right now, that resonates more true than ever. It's just, you know, it's a wonderful song. It's a lot about existentialism and really this whole album was, you know, the Vietnam War was going on at the time. And I think that Arthur was very scared that his life was going to end. Like a lot of the album is about what really the meaning of life is. And there it is. The news today will be the movies for tomorrow.

meaning of life is. And there it is. The news today will be the movies for tomorrow. Dare I say, it's a little bit obscure. I don't think many people listening are going to be familiar with Love.

Well, Love were the first band, first rock band ever signed to Elektra. And they were out in L.A. And Arthur Lee, the lead singer of this band, said to the head of Elektra Records, he said, you've got to go and listen to this band called The Doors.

He checked them out and checked out The Doors, and they signed them. Arthur's band never really got as popular as The Doors did, but he did throw Jim Morrison out of his house, because Jim Morrison used to go to his house all the time and disrupt. And actually, the title of the song, A House Is Not A Motel, stems a lot from that because guys like The Doors used to just stay at their big, they used to have this big castle on the Hollywood Hills, the band loved it. They all shared and they all lived in together.

They're still standing today. And they really resented all these musicians coming in and just staying there because Arthur was kind of a pretty introverted person. And he used to have these two big Irish wolfhounds that lived there, which are pretty much the size of Great Danes. And he liked to be more of a solitary person, and all these people used to stay at the house. And I think that's where the title of this song came from.

But this album is just, if you've never heard it, you've got to listen to it. It's way ahead of its time. It was really the first rock album to use a lot of symphonics. I mean, maybe Pet Sounds would probably get that designation, but this particular album did a lot of that, too. A house is not a motel.

And then, of course, The Doors had the Morrison Hotel. That's true. That's after he got kicked out of Arthur Lee's house and opened the Morrison Hotel. I visited Morrison's grave site in Paris. Oh, really? Are you a big Doors guy? Not a massive Doors guy, but I was in,

I went to Paris, I had a list of things to do, and I said, and who else was, a lot of interesting people actually buried in that particular cemetery. I didn't know Jim Morrison was buried in Paris. That's interesting. Yeah, Oscar Wilde is in the same cemetery, and who's the famous French singer,

La Vie en Rose? Serge Gainsbourg? No, close. The woman who, she's still played a lot, but it'll come to me later, but the famous French singer of earlier last century, and she's buried there as well. But I digress.

Let's hear your second jam. It's a great one. I love this song. My oldest loves this song. As do I. I would cast my favorite rap outfit of all time. Unbelievable. Caroline, Caroline See Caroline, all the guys would say she's mighty fine

But mighty fine only got you somewhere half the time And the other half either got you Cause daughter, coming up short Yeah, and they did cause now even though You need a golden calculator To divide The time it took to look inside And realize

That real guys Go for real Down to Mars, girls Yeah I know you'd like to thank Your shit don't stink But lean a little bit closer see Roses really smell like boo boo boo

Yeah, roses really smell like boo boo boo I know you'd like to thank your shit don't stank But lean a little bit closer see Roses. Tell me why this is your favorite Outkast jam. Well, I love Outkast, first and foremost. I think they're the best rap group ever. And Andre 3000, even now in his 40s,

he guests on all these people's albums and blows them out of the water. And I don't know why anybody would want Andre 3000 to guest on their album because he just makes them sound amateur. Right. When this album came out, I was, before this album came out, rather, I thought Stankonia was just such a groundbreaking a groundbreaking album in the world of hip-hop. In the world of pop. And then this album was talked about.

It was coming out. It was right when the internet was starting. You can get a lot of information on the internet. It was back in, I guess, 2003 or something along those lines. And it said Outkast is coming out with a double album. One album is going to be Andre 3000. One album is going to be Andre 3000. One album is going to be Big Boy. And Big Boy came out and said,

this song, Roses, is the best song that Andre's ever written. It's unbelievable. It's the best song we've ever had. Because he's actually, this is the only song on Andre's album that Big Boy was featured on. And this song came out, and I listened to it, and I was like, this is just such a brilliant, brilliant song. All the metaphors about love and about being

used and about relationships as a whole. It's just an unbelievable song. Roses smell like boo-boo. I mean, just think about it. Love stinks sometimes. Or sometimes when

someone presents themselves to you, don't let appearances fool you because underneath the surface, it might not be all roses. And I just think that this song is just such a great metaphor for that. It's a long song. I mean, in terms of hip hop,

I think, what, it's about seven minutes long? Maybe five and a half to six. It ended up being a single. I don't know if it's their best song because I love Outkast, and picking a best song for me is Sophie's choice. And as you know, when I sent you the list, I originally had ATL Eons as my Outkast song, and then I was like, you know what, I gotta go with Roses.

It's the more mainstream song, and sometimes I try to go out of my way to avoid a mainstream song, but I think this song is just so brilliant, and really deserves kudos. And this double album, I don't think you mentioned the name yet, but this is just so brilliant and really deserves kudos. And this double album I don't think you mentioned the name yet but this is The Speaker Box and The Love Below.

And I think it's the top selling rap album of all time. I was actually just looking this up. Oh you know what that is? That's because of

Hey Ya. Because Hey Ya was genre bending. One of those pop stations were playing it, the rap stations were playing it, the

rock stations were playing it. Yeah and Hey Ya was just a big party hit. I actually think Big Boy's album is better than Andre's album, surprisingly. Most people lean towards Andre's album. And Big Boy's put out so many good solo albums after Outkast.

But Outkast played at the Amphitheater a couple years ago, and I went by myself because I wanted to experience it alone. And I was singing along to every word, and I just, oh, I had the time of my life. I loved it. It's one of my favorite concerts of all time. all time it was you know you knew it was going to be the farewell tour i don't know if they'll ever play together again but um in terms of chemistry you know we talked about tim and sid and jay and dan big boy and andre had something special and um i you know i just don't i don't know that can ever be replicated again in hip-hop, because there are some unbelievable duos. There's Eric B and Rakim, Run DMC, although they're more of a trio.

But that kind of chemistry is just so hard to build. And Big Boi was able to have a very good solo career afterwards with some big hits, but I don't think that anybody would put it on the same pedestal and as as outcast I'm with you on outcast fantastic I prefer public enemy but I'm bit older than you but yeah you can call those guys a duo if you talk flavor flavor and Chuck D I'm a big public enemy guy too you know my method for picking this you know this list was difficult because what I wanted to do was pick songs that had specific meaning to me I didn't want to pick you know, this list was difficult because what I wanted to do was pick songs that had specific meaning to me. I didn't want to pick, you know, my 10 favorite band songs. I wanted to take songs that had, you know, a strong meaning to me. This one in particular

doesn't. I mean, it's, I think that it's a good metaphor for love and, you know, how things are. And, you know, a lot of these other songs don't either, but I just love them and they bring me back to a time in my life. Seeing this song is just you know it brings back butterflies and i just um anytime i get a chance to listen to outcast it's my go-to you're the second uh jam kicker to bring an outcast song with them i want to give a shout out to peter bullet who happens to own great leagues brewery for him what did he bring in miss jackson's oh that's an unbelievable that was the song that got me into outcast well that's stanc. That was the song that got me into OutKast. Well, that's Stankonia. You mentioned Stankonia earlier, but that album,

which it's my favorite OutKast album, and I still return to it all the time, but I think the first taste of OutKast I really was exposed to was Bombs Over Baghdad, I think. Yeah, also on Stankonia, yeah. It reminded me of Public Enemy because it was sort of like full throttle,

almost like the new rock. The new rock is rap, and this is just, it comes at you. Bombs Over Baghdad, it's frenetic, and it's just multi-layered, and it just blows your mind. Yeah, I do Bombs Over Baghdad

when I do karaoke, because I have the ability to talk very fast, and I'm able to get through it. It's a tough one to do, though. Can you do Eminem's Rap God? No, that I can't. You can't do that?

Keep practicing. I don't think I've listened to it enough. Whereas Bombs Over Baghdad, I've listened to it a million times. As a joke, I do it, but it's all gibberish when I do it. I do it for my son,

who's a big rap fan. But that's fantastic. Rose is outcast. Let's kick out. Your son should do a kick out the jazz. Are you kidding me? I've asked him a hundred times. He doesn't want to be on the podcast.

With his dad, I guess. Yeah, I guess. How old is he? He's turning 16. Yeah, he's too cool for school right now. Very cool for school. And he also, he knows that he's going to make me sound like,

he's got a very deep voice, like way, Oh, really? Like the voice I wish I had. And I think he just doesn't want to make me sound bad. I mean, you're the one taking the risk then. That's right. You should just do it. That's right.

You know, my three-year-old son, who thankfully his voice is not deeper than mine yet. I did let him kick out the jams, but I can't get the teenage boy to do it. Let's kick out another jam. You know that I can't wait From the ocean, yeah To the bottom of the sky I can't help, but I can't control I can't, you know that I can't

And he said I am not in that much danger Of keeping life going over and over You're burning me to death And she's had all burned you in there And he said, Modest Mouse, Teeth Like God's Shoe Shine. This song is like the bohemian rhapsody of indie rock. Here we go. It's going to get quiet. If you could combat your conscience And you might

If you could bottle and tell it, you might have done it And you might If you could compact your conscience and sell it Say it for another time, you know you might have to use it Get slower again. I love tempo changes in songs, by the way. I mean, this song, it comes at you like a bullet out of a gun, and then it just slows down, which I love.

And the song, it's... Modest notes to me, this album in particular is the best indie rock album ever made, an album that wasn't on a major label, that it's just, every song is just unbelievable, and this is the first song on that album, and it out it comes at you like I said like a bullet out of a gun it's just it's fast and furious and then it slows right down and really the songs about you know not taking for granted what you have and not wanting to

have everything and really about materialism and and you know sometimes we don't need all the extra stuff in life. Like, here comes the line. The malls are soon to be ghost towns. You know, it's kind of a utopian view of how he wants society to go, you know? And then it speeds up again. You can't get close to her, she's down inside Oh, you can add it up and give a shit, give a shit Don't the family doctor, it's all within, all within It's all around, and it's all around Oh, you can add it up when you hear this shit, hear this shit

I'm on the corner of death, death, death, death Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Here's the man with teeth like a shoe Shiny sparkles, shimmers, shuns So this is the guy, the used car dealer He's trying to sell you on everything And you want something that's nice and shiny

So you can talk about it with everybody But really at the end of the day We just need to try to make ends meet Do what we need to do to meet make ends meet do what we need to do to survive and live happily without needing all these little things in our lives that that make us feel good about ourselves because of what they are rather than what we are as people that's kind of what i take from this song i love how it's structured too and that it's kind of in the vein of like uh before that but like uh jesus ofurbia, like the Green Day tune where it's like you've

got multiple songs kind of merged together or going way back, Meatloaf's Paradise by the Dashboard. Yeah, and the song very much fits that structure. It's fast and fast and slow and frenetic and then it slows right down and it just takes you on a roller coaster, right? And I think that this album does that a lot. just takes you on a roller coaster right and i think that this album does that a lot you know this is um from uh a long i get my i get my album title screwed up and not as much because they're so long well yeah this is the lonesome crowded west and again the lonesome crowded west is in

itself a pretty crazy name because you've got you know it's about feeling isolated in a crowded place well this is the band that had the album Good News for People Who Love Bad News. They have fantastic album players. The Moon in Antarctica, that's one of their bigger ones. And then there's one of my favorites, also, A Long Drive for Someone With No Place to Go, something along those lines. This album and that album, I listen to them on road trips with my friends. Back when I was in university, we used to go on road trips every summer.

We'd drive up the east coast of the U.S. where it was all kind of isolated and foresty. Listening to Modest Mouse, that's where these songs take me back to in my head. It's just driving along the highway for a long time and talking and hanging out. Before there were smartphones, we had road maps. It just takes me back to that time in my life, which is what music is so great at. Now, just because I've been listening to this, it reminds me a little bit about Franz Ferdinand's Take Me Out.

You know how it's like, just say, this is what we are, but no, this is what you think the song is, but no, it's this. And then it kind of turns on you. So it's always cool when songs do that. Patience actually does that a little bit. It's like a ballad, and then it's like, hey, we're going to rock out a bit here. Yeah, at the end, yeah. Nice.

And Modest Mouse, if you can ever get the chance to see them live, watching Isaac Brock just go ballistic is fantastic. But did all the fans of indie Modest Mouse

turn on them when they became so big and mainstream? Yeah, a lot of them did. A lot of them did. Why did they do that? REM fans were doing that too. What's the point of that?

I love some of REM's later stuff. It's phenomenal. Like Accelerate too. What's the point of that? I love some of R.E.M.'s later stuff. It's phenomenal. Like, do you ever hear Accelerate? It's one of their later albums. It's just this 28-minute frenetic rock album. I don't know. Yeah, a lot of... But you know what?

When these guys were in this indie rock era, I guess, before Moon and Antarctica, it wasn't really when I was into them. I got into them around the time of Moon in Antarctica, and then Good News for People that love bad news. I think that we need to just listen to albums one at a time and judge them for what they are.

The Arcade Fire, a lot of people are turning on also because this album they released this year is kind of a flaming pile of garbage. Everything before that was just fantastic. Some of the best albums you'll hear. That Funeral album, I'll still stick it on. It's just one of my favorite They released this year as kind of a flaming pile of garbage. But everything before that was just fantastic. Some of the best albums you'll hear. Right. I mean, that Funeral album, I'll still stick it on. It's like, yeah, it's just one of my favorite Canadian albums of all time.

And me on Vinyl's great, too. Yeah, you're right. It's a great follow-up album. You're absolutely right. Let's kick out another jam. Now we go slow. Now we go slow. I love you more than I can tell. I don't think I can live without you.

And I know that I never will. Oh, my baby, baby I want you so it scares me to death I can't say any more Than I love you Nice love ballad. And then it gets nasty I want you

You had your fun You don't get well no more I want you Your fingernails go dragging down the wall Be careful darling, you might fall I want you, I woke up and one of us was crying. I want you. You said, young man, I do believe you're dying.

I want you. If you need a second opinion, as you seem to do these days, I want you. You can look in my eyes and you can count the ways. This is the greatest artist with the name Elvis. Elvis Costello. Sorry Elvis Presley.

I know we share a birthday but Mike's right on this one. I want you. Elvis Costello. Seeing this song live is a visceral experience. And this song is, you know, it's a song about really obsession and heartbreak and, you know, really his partner's having an affair. And he doesn't know what to do with himself

because he loves her so much. But he also is very, very resentful of what's going on and wishes her well, but also wishes her harm. You know, really, it's Elvis Costello himself said this is kind of a, you know, a pornographic song. You know, you're kind of a voyeur for this relationship he's having and there's broken glass and there's lipstick on the wall,

and those are his words about this song, and really, you can't disagree. It's just, Elvis Costello is such an unbelievable songwriter, and you can hear the pain in his voice when he's singing this. And I think this is from his best album, Blood and Chocolate, to me is the best Elvis Costello album,

even though he's had so many classics like This Year's Model, Imperial Bedroom. But this song is just, it gets me every time. It's just so powerful and personal and painful. I want you This might be the longest song of the ones I chose. I think this is, yeah, this is north of six minutes, I think. I was going to send you Tarot Plane, which is 21 minutes by Captain Beefheart, but I wanted to spare the listeners.

Oh, that's funny. Somebody recently kicked out a Dylan track. I guess it was only like 12 minutes or something. Yeah, only 12 minutes. I like longer tracks. I'm a big fan of krautrock, which is a German subgenre of rock and roll. I'm not familiar with krautrock. And a lot of the tracks are like 10, 15, 20 minutes.

Very jammy. If you're not aware of krautrock, there's a band called Can that you need to listen to. C-A-N. You should look them up. I occasionally find myself in Germany, but all I ever hear over there is Justin Bieber. I think the wrong stations are playing in the hotel lobby. These guys are more from the 70s.

I'm sure you've heard of Kraftwerk. Of course, Calculator. Yeah, they're part of the Kratrock movement. Oh, really? Yeah. All I can say nowadays is just, who's the Du Host band? Rammstein. Oh, Rammstein, yeah.

That's industrial, which is also huge in Germany. Right. You've got them and... KMFDM. Yeah, KMFDM. How Job. You know, what are some other ones? There's a lot of them.

I was big into industrial music in high school. See, so this jam, which, you're right, it's a slow jam, I Want You. It's a heavy jam, if you will, and it's six minutes long. That's a good way of putting it. It's a very heavy song in terms of the emotions and the songwriting, but it's a very slow song. I wonder if his, what do you call it? You don't have editors when you're a musician, right?

You have producers, right? Yes. I think the producer saw him get in front of the mic and sing this and said, keep going. Because it's just such a powerful song. Blood and Chocolate to me

is one of the all-time heartbreak albums. For a frame, is this a mid-70s album? Yeah, it's early 70s Blood and Chocolate. I think it might be later 70s, actually. Or even early 80s. I'm terrible with the chronology.

But I will say, this song is kind of timeless in a sense. It doesn't sound like an era. Sometimes you hear a song and it's like, oh, that's clearly a mid-70s track or whatever. But this song... Timeless. This was, I, I think a divorce album. Blood and Chocolate's good for that.

In terms of divorce albums, there's this, Blood on the Tracks by Dylan, Hear My Dear by Marvin Gaye is really the ultimate divorce album. The reason he called it Hear My Dear is because he was financially obligated to release another album so that his wife could get the royalties from it.

And he called it You're My Deer and it's about how their marriage fell apart. That's great. I want you I want you want you What a track. I feel bad talking over it.

I noticed with some guests they feel it's almost like it's David Schultz, like a little sacrilegious for me to speak over this particular track. It's good to walk people through it. Hold their hand a little bit. I think it's better to hear you so succinctly and elegantly

tell us why you love that jam while it's in the background, I think, than doing like six minutes now talk about it. And also, we don't really want this to be a three-hour podcast. We did an hour before we started kicking out the jam. So let's kick out. Let's keep going.

Let's go. Let's get the jams. So let's kick out. Let's keep going. Let's go. Let's get the train rolling. Norske Rundforskning Aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, aran, Hello my son Welcome to Earth May not be my last But you'll always be my friend Wish I'd done this ten years ago But how could I know How could I know How could I know

That the answer was so easy I've been told you measure a man For how much he loves When I hold you I treasure each moment I spend On this earth, under heaven's table Grandfather always said God's a fisher And now I know the reason why Time to have some fun. Let's go. And it means I don't love you Oh, how I wish I could be there every day Every day, every day

Cause when I'm gone It makes me so sad and blue And holding you Is the greatest love I've ever known Oh, when I get home It breaks my heart To see how much you've grown All on your own

Oh Sturgill Simpson, Welcome to Earth. Yeah, I wept the first time I heard this song, like a baby. I'm on the verge now, but it just makes me think of my kids. You know, I've got two boys, and even for work, I'm traveling a lot. And you get home, and he's got new words he's saying and doing new things. And that's a tough part of the job, of the traveling element of the job. But, yeah, it just reminds me of my boys.

And, you know, as we get older, music doesn't resonate as much with us, new music. This song's from last year. And like I said, the first time I heard this song, I just wept. And I loved it. And I think it was my album of the year last year was Sturgill's album. And this song is just, you can feel his pain when he's singing it. And I think he brings the horns in. They're from, you know Sharon Jones, the Dap Kings?

Yes. Or Dap Tones, rather? Yeah, she recently passed away. Yeah, she passed away while watching Trump win the election. That's a side note. But these are the horns. This is her horn section. And I think he really brought them in because he wanted to make a really sad part of his life seem upbeat.

Because he's out on the road touring. He had kids, I guess, a little bit later in life like you have with your second set. And I think that he wanted to add an element of happiness to a song that I think really pained him to write. You know, there's a great line in The Wire. You think it's one way, but it's the other. And I always think that line. I would apply that line to that song, Welcome to Earth. You think it's one way, but it's another.

What a great show, The Wire. Yeah, so you've seen The Wire. Oh, absolutely. The hardest thing for people to do is rank their favorite seasons of The Wire. I've done it, and you want me to do it with you? Yeah, so you've seen The Wire. Oh, absolutely. The hardest thing for people to do is rank their favorite seasons of The Wire. Like rank them from... I've done it, and you want me to do it with you? Yeah, sure.

Real quick. My favorite season of The Wire is season four. Which one was four? Four is the school. Yeah, four is number one for me. Okay, look at that. We have a lot in common. Four is number one for me.

My second favorite season of The Wire is, and this I could waffle on this, but it is number one because I loved the first season and then people get culture shock earlier in season two because all of a sudden you're on the docks. I think we're on the same page so far.

I'm pretty sure that's my one too. My third favorite season of The Wire is season three. We're on the same page. Okay, keep going. My fourth, and now we're going to be definitely right because everyone's got the same fifth favorite season.

So my fourth favorite season of The Wire is season two. See, I'm on the other page. So you're on five? I'm on five. Before two? Yeah, because of the journalism aspect of it.

I really enjoy it. I know, I like the journalism, but there's some stuff in season five. I thought two dragged too much. But two was good. Two with Ziggy, and the funny thing,

I just watched The Deuce. Have you seen The Deuce? So The Deuce has a lot of it's David Simon's new HBO show oh yeah yeah yeah no I haven't seen it yet he's a lot of the actors

you know and love but one of the main actors is the guy who plays Sabatka yeah Sabatka season two you know we used to make shit

in this country and Sabatka was in True Blood which fell off a cliff faster than any show in the history of television I was with it I think I did three seasons

and then I had to bail. I think it's how that went. But Dexter's another show that I did four seasons. After John Lithgow got off the show, that was when the show, it just plummeted. That last season is, if you want to watch a show just to see how bad you can take a good show and make it,

that last season of Dexter is a perfect example. See, I've never done it. I think I bailed at the right time. But it's funny because The Wire, what I like about The Wire is it's 60 episodes, five seasons. It never suffers from that.

You know, the worst season is season five, which is an excellent season. The reason I don't love season five like I love the other four is there's some, with McNulty and the serial killer

and there's some stuff that to me just seems a little bit more theatrical than I expect from The Wire, if that makes sense. It just seemed a little over the top, some of the stuff going on there. But,

great season regardless. All five seasons are great. Yeah, it's hard to choose a worse season of show where every season's great. It is my favorite and I've watched a lot of series and I loved speaking of the guy from Dexter, I loved Six Feet Under. Yeah, Six Feet Under. See, you don't dislike people working in the funeral industry. There's proof. Are you kidding me?

I hope I am lucky enough one day to work in the funeral. I think I'd be good. That's where people are at their most vulnerable and their most pain. And you're there to guide them through this. You'd be good at that. I agree with that. I think so. And I feel like even you mentioned you were crying with that song, Sturgill Simpson,

because it reminds you of your kids and stuff. And I was thinking, I feel something. I feel too much empathy, if you will. I really can feel someone else's pain to a point where i will tear up like david schultz's episode at the end of that episode i was you had trouble getting through that i i knew it was coming before he opened his mouth with just because i knew his story and i knew he had never been public because he's been three times he's been over here he's never mentioned the story and i knew from the words in that song and he also before he said he had them in the opposite

order. And he said at the last minute before we pressed record, David said to me, can you flip it and do the opposite order? That's smart. That's very smart. Yeah, I'm so glad he did that. So glad he did that. Also, I mean, it's hard to move. Yeah, it's hard to go to a song that's like, oh yeah, I saw this band play in 1979. You know, from that, it just would be

No, I'm glad he did that. And listening to that song, which I'd never heard before, listening to the lyrics of that song, the wind, knock the wind right out of me, bring him home to me, the whole, that whole lyric, I knew what was coming. I started, and David, who had been, you know, we've been, you can make eye contact here.

David and I had eye contact the whole episode, and that when the last jam was playing, David stopped looking at me, and I knew it was coming. Yeah, I knew that part of dave's life as well so when i heard those lyrics it hit me like a ton of bricks right away before he even had to you know got to explain what it was about and i could sense his hesitation to have that there and i'm glad that he shared that with with uh with the listeners i think it's i mean it's it's part of grieving but it's also people grieve differently right so k So kudos to Dave.

And this is, as he mentioned, the toughest week of his calendar year is this week right now. And this is the five year anniversary. And I, again, people should go back and listen to David talk about this at the end of his, his second,

no, his third appearance here, but let us, uh, now we have to segue from that. You probably heard this, the, uh, Casey Kasem clip. Oh yeah. Where he's high. I we have to segue from that. You probably heard this, the Casey Kasem clip. Oh, yeah.

The damn dog. I can't talk about that after someone's dog. Yeah. I think they come in out of a high tempo song and then they got to talk about a dead dog.

Yeah, an up-tempo freaking number. You know, I wanted to be Casey Kasem when I was a kid. That was, hi, I'm Casey Kasem. You know why you probably said that?

Because he was the voice of I'm Casey Kasem. You know why you probably said that? Because he was the voice of Scooby-Doo. Who's the guy from Scooby-Doo? Shaggy. And I think he did Scooby also, didn't he? I think he did both. I used to listen to the Top 100 every

weekend growing up. I wanted to be a radio disc jockey worse than anything as a kid. What was his catchphrase? Reach for the stars? Keep your feet on the ground and reach for the stars? Let's listen to another Aaron jam. Out in the country Far from all the subtle noise of the city

There's a village green Oh, it's been a long time Since I last sat by the church With a steeple down by the village green T'was there I met a girl called Daisy I miss the Village Green and all the simple people. I miss the Village Green, the church, the club, the steeple. I miss the morning view, fresh air and Sunday school. And now all the houses are rare antiquities. American tourists love to see the Village Green.

The kinks, Village Green. Good luck finding a better storyteller than Ray Davies. You know what? I'm surprised you don't love this album because I get a sense from listening to your show that you're big on nostalgia. Like you had Jesse and Gene on the show and you always like talking about moments in your life

that mean a lot to you. Yes. And this album, the Village Green Preservation Society, is basically a love letter to nostalgia. And the thing I love about this... Yes, but what decade was this recorded? No, but it's not about that decade.

It's about being nostalgic in life in general, really. It still holds up in terms of when it was written. It was written 1968. Another great year for music, 49 years ago. But, you know, the thing I love about this song is we all really crave, I think, nostalgia

and going back to times in our life where we felt a certain way and we felt young and free, especially kind of our younger years as kids. We all kind of want to go back and think back to the simpler times in our life when we weren't kind of controlled by these devices, cell phones.

And we rode our bikes places and rented a video and brought it home and watched the movie. That's why we watch Stranger Things, right? Yeah, exactly. But the thing about this particular song is he also shows that he's happy to go back and explore it and get that sense, but he's also happy that it's kind of, you know, nostalgia. It's not his current life. It's his old life.

I get that sense when I drive around the old neighborhood where I grew up as a kid. I'm back there every now and then. Every couple of years I drive around the neighborhood and I get that... You can smell the trees and you remember being in that area and what it was like being a kid. What neighborhood is this? It's in Thornhill. I'm not out in the country or anything.

I didn't particularly love living there. I would never move there now. But driving around there, it brings you back to these moments in your life where you remember doing things as a kid and enjoying that freedom

of not, you know, having to do your day-to-day and getting to have the independence of childhood and not having to, you know, really be restrained or self-aware. I think that's why we all kind of

gravitate towards nostalgia. And really, this whole album, The Village Green Preservation Society, is about that. That's why I love it so much. I think that it's important for us to be nostalgic and also think back to where we are now as opposed to where we were then and how we should be happy with really both of those things.

Absolutely. Let us listen to your seventh jam. Two, one, two, three, four. The only girl I've ever loved Was born to possess in her eyes But then they buried her alive On June the 1945 Because her sister had left her And on the leaves before the guns

All came and rained on everyone Now she's a little boy in spade lane The air is filled with paint All night he dreams around the sun All seem to say my dream has come Now we must pack up every piece Of the life we used to have Just to be ourselves and be some to carry on

And now you are the saddest of all And your dark brother acts in white And says it was good to be alive But now your heart's upon the flame It won't be coming back again We are the ones that have won this all Let's light a fire and let it burn He didn't mean to make you cry As much as he won't smile Empty dreams around your heart Neutral Milk Hotel.

That's Holland 1945. Yep. This part is the part that particularly gets me. Even our brothers and sisters Can't imagine the place Where their bodies come to a double many Oh, and it's so sad to see The world agree That they'd rather see their faces filled with lies Oh, I hope some day I'll keep

Writing roses in their eyes so the reason that one uh really hits me is it was basically my grandfather's life. He was a Holocaust survivor. And, you know, the part where it says, you know, it's so sad to see the world agree. They'd rather see their faces filled with flies. You know, people weren't doing anything about the Holocaust. And my grandfather lost eight siblings and his parents. Wow.

Wow, man. Yeah. So that's why that song is important to me. It hits me like a ton of bricks every time I hear it. Holland, 1945. What was going on in Holland in 1945? The first verse is actually about Anne Frank. So the lead singer of this band, Jeff Mangum,

was obsessed with the Diary band, Frank. And this album, actually, all of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, which was, I mean, I called The Modest Mouse album earlier one of the best indie rock albums ever. This one's in the mix also. It's all about the Diary of Anne Frank and how he kind of is almost in love with Anne Frank,

which is kind of strange, but he's really in love with her story. And there's a lot of elements to this song. I recently read the second verse of this song is actually about Julian Kotzer, who's a member of the band. His brother killed himself. With your dark brother wrapped in white,

says it was good to be alive, but now he rides a calm as flame and won't be coming back again. He wrote that as a way to comfort his friend who was a member, his band member. But then the first verse is all about kind of Anne Frank and her being reincarnated into a boy, a little boy in Spain playing pianos

filled with flames, which is kind of an interesting metaphor. And then the third verse is about, you know, here's where your mother sleeps, here's the room where your brothers were born, invitations in the sheets where their bodies once moved but don't move anymore. You know, it's, the family was exterminated by the Nazis. Well, I love it when, like, first of all, it. You know, it's, the family was exterminated by the Nazis.

Well, I love it when like, first of all, it's a great, great song. Like when you can, but it's so upbeat, right?

Like you would never know that that's what it's about. It's like, you know, earlier we talked about, I hate to make the comparison. This is far more heavy, but Hey Yeah by, by Outkast is a,

you think it's a, it's a, you listen to it. It's like a fun dance. You just want to dance, but everything, you listen to the words and it's like really sad. You know, it's like a fun dance, you just want to dance, but then you listen to the words, and it's like really sad. Yeah.

You know, it's like one of those, it kind of. Until they shake like a polaroid picture, and then life moves on. Right. But man, that's heavy, that story about your grandfather. Wow. In Holland, 1955, I recently went to the Tulip Festival in Ottawa a couple of summers ago,

and those are, that's a gift from Queen Juliana. Juliana? Yeah, Queen Juliana from Holland. Well, it's the Netherlands, but Holland is two provinces. Anyway, people call it Holland, but it's the Netherlands. But anyway, the tulips are a gift

to thank Canada for liberating them from the Nazis in World War II. So that's a great track, that's a great track and that's a great, you know, story about how it hits you like a ton of bricks. Yeah. Yeah, it's just, it's his story, right? He wrote a book

and he was part of the Spielberg Project and told the story pretty openly later in life. He passed away about eight years ago or actually just, yeah it'll be eight year anniversary in january um but um yeah that's um that's why that song just hits me it's his his life story is unbelievable i actually recently in the last couple years i watched a video of him telling a story and trans and didn't transcribe but made like point like kind of point form notes about it yeah um and i'd love you know as I get older to, you know, and Holocaust survivors start to

die off as they are, because again, 1945 was 70 years ago. And a lot of them are, you know, winding down in life. To be able to kind of tell his story would be something I'd like to do later on in my life, just because, you know, as misinformation starts to get spread in this world, people start talking about how the Holocaust wasn't what it was, and that it was kind of a hoax. But to the people who would utter such garbage

are the same people who say, Sandy Hook never happened. But there's a large movement of people that are starting to really buy into these theories. And it's very dangerous. It's a very dangerous line of thinking. And I think it's important that people realize that in the last hundred years,

this is something that happened. They tried to exterminate an entire group of people. And the world kind of stood by and let it happen for far longer than they should have. And this song kind of encapsulates that. That being said, I mean, the spread of news back then was a lot different than, you know,

how readily available it is now. But we sit by and we watch people get exterminated in other parts of the world and we sit back. I just read this.

Great. Somebody said, you know, whenever people talk about, you know, if you had a time machine, what would you do? People tell you,

I'll go back and I'll shoot Hitler. Okay. And they said, you know, right now there is atrocities happening. A genocide is happening

on planet Earth right now where you don't need a time machine to go shoot the evil dictator. You can buy a plane ticket and do it. And you would never consider doing that. You would never go shoot. Like Robert Mugabe just resigned last week from Zimbabwe. And he's been torturing people for decades. Right, or Assad.

There's a bunch of people you could go right now and if you don't get a plane ticket and shoot them in the head. So you'll go back and shoot Hitler. Like you don't need. And then what happens? Then whoever's working under him is even more motivated to bring out his plan. So it's a short sighted answer. Never forget.

No, never forget. Let's listen to your eighth jam. I'll turn my beliefs To have you, baby I'll dress like an east And wash your swollen feet Yes Just Darling Darling I'm not living I'm just killing time You're tiny and Your tiny hands So I showed this list of songs to a friend of mine

who lives in New York. And he goes, why'd you pick this Radiohead song? And, you know, the reason he'd asked that question is because this is, like, from their most recent album last year. It was the last song on their most recent album. And I said, well, it's the perfect Radiohead song. He goes, you know, why is that?

I go, well, the song was first performed 20 years ago when the Bends came out in 1997. It goes out and performs this song, and for years they're trying to perfect the song. They're really trying to record it and get it perfect, and they're never able to do it. They tried doing it during the Kid A sessions and during the OK Computer sessions,

and they can't nail down how Tom York wants to present the song. But let's go through the narrative of the song. So this song's written 20 years ago. He's getting into a relationship with Rachel Owen. Rachel Owen's his future wife. And this song is a love song. It's a lot faster paced. It's, you know, doesn't want her to leave.

He loves all these things about her. And then we fast forward to 20 years later when they're recording this, or probably 18 years later, they're recording this for A Moon Shaped Pool. This is the 100th song, studio song that they've released. And at that time, his marriage with Rachel Owens, or his relationship, I don't think they ever that time, his marriage with Rachel Owens, or his relationship, I don't think they ever got married,

his relationship with Rachel Owens, they've had kids together, it's falling apart. So the song morphs from this wonderful optimistic love song to this kind of pessimistic song about heartbreak. And they split up, and a year later she dies of cancer. So, I mean, if that's not heavy, I don't know what is. But I've just always been such a big Radiohead fan. And Tom York's always written in a lot of metaphors.

Like that last lyric, true love lives on lollipops and crisps. The story behind that is there was a kid that was left behind by his parents for two weeks. And they found the kid and he was living off of lollipops and crisps. There were lollipops and chips in the house and that's how he survived. So it's a very heavy line. It's a hauntingly beautiful song with heavy texture. Yeah. Absolutely.

And that's what I love about it. It's a song that really encapsulates the metamorphosis of Radiohead as a band, of Tom York's life, of really the song as a whole morphed. The meaning of it changed, but it kind of is a metaphor for life. It's, you know, where you are 20 years ago and where you are now is you're a different person.

And that's really why I love this song is it really encapsulates humanity and our lives and how time moves on, how the meaning of things to us changes. Beautiful, man. I could not have said that better.

That's great. You ready for your ninth jam? Let's hear it. I'll see you next time. This will be our year Took a long time to come And I won't forget The way you held me up When I was down And I won't forget The way you said Dad I love you

You gave me faith to go Now we're there And we've only just begun This will be our year Took a long time to come The Zombies This will be our year Yeah Took a long time to come. The Zombies, This Will Be Our Year. Yeah, you know, this album, Odyssey and Oracle,

is one of the best ever written. I think it's also from 67, which, as I mentioned, I think is the best year of music. Yeah, you love that era. That's fantastic. So, I mean, I had Roses and I had I Want You, which is kind of vitriolic songs, and just had True Love Waits. This song is just an upbeat, happy song

that reminds me of my wife and my married life. You know, every year you want your relationship to just get better and better. And this will be our year is, you know, how I feel about every new year going into my marriage. It's just I want it to get better and better and better. And we experience dark moments in our lives every year. And you just hope that things are always going

to be optimistic and looking up you know warmth of her smile and um you know this song just every time i hear it just makes me think of her um and in our relationship and you know this this album has a lot of uh different songs you know some are about heartbreak some are about love um you know the the biggest song off this particular album is it's the time of the season season for loving which is the big zombies hit yes which actually wasn't a hit until like 10 years after this album was released so they had broken up time of the season comes out it renews them and now they're back together again the zombies and they just played uh the 50th anniversary show for odyssey and oracle this year

um and i went to that with a colleague of mine, actually, in the industry, Glenn McDonald, who's, everybody who's listening to this in the industry knows Glenn McDonald. Right now, he works at the Fight Network, but worked at Sportsnet and the score previously, and everybody loves Glennie Mack, but

him and I went to this show, and I was just enthralled listening to all of Odyssey and Oracle live. They brought back two of the original members and then they played a second set of just other nice, you know, big zombies hits. And then there's also,

you know, Argent played, you know, Hold Your Head Up is the big Argent song and they played that live. It's such a good experience seeing those guys live.

And Colin Blundstone, who's like in his 70s now, his voice still sounds like this. He's just a marvel. I don't know how he does it. He's, you know, he's, you know, he's, you know, he's, again,

a phenom. I don't know how he keeps his voice as good as it is at that age. You opened up some longer tracks as we talked about. Yeah, this was like

two and a half minutes. I don't even know. Barely two minutes and the Kinks track was really short too. So the average has come down substantially. Yeah, yeah.

And now we jump right back to Heartbreak into the next song. We're looking forward to it. Well, let's love Ann Heartbreak. Yeah, and now we jump right back to Heartbreak in the next song. We're looking forward to it. Well, it's love and heartbreak. Yeah, absolutely. One note about This Will Be Our Year is, it's funny, it came out in 1967,

the last time the Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup because at the beginning of every season, you can leave fans unite and say, this will be our year. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, in 67, that's a good metaphor. I like that. It's good sports.

Bring it back to sports. Let's close out with your final jam. Good hand and a bunny in a can Slipping and sliding, you feel yourself asking Why would you want me to try? Squeezing your wrist and she's pulling you closer Down where the devils are dying with laughter And led to a place where there's no form of pleasure She blows you a kiss from her lips

She's your baby She's your baby She's your baby Ween, She's Your Baby. Are you familiar with Ween? No. She gets familiar. They're so good.

I hear, it's one of the things, just like, sort of just like Neutral Milk Honey, I hear such great things about this band and I've never taken the time to dive in. Weenum, they kind of are one of these bands that people from all different walks are into. You know, people that are into jam bands are into Ween. They're a very comedic band. A lot of their stuff is very light. And things started to get heavy at a time. You know, with this album White Pepper and Quebec. You know, Quebec was kind of

Gene Ween's divorce album and this was the last track on White Pepper. You could see that it was going in that direction for him. This is an interesting song. The She's Your Baby part is about his daughter. I did a deep dive on this song. There's not a lot of information about it. I just love it so much. It's one of my favorite Ween songs.

It talks about how he loves his daughter, but she's so unaware of kind of what's going on in his life with his partner and her mom. And because she's a kid, there's, you know, an innocence there that they don't really know what's happening beneath the surface. And I just think that that's what makes the song so good it kind of takes you into his life

gives you kind of a look at what's going on and how he's trying to kind of shield his daughter from all of these things that are going on that she doesn't know about because he loves her so much but then in reality things are kind of falling apart for him and unbeknownst to her

things are falling apart for her also because her parents are splitting. So, you know, I've never been divorced. But, you know, I imagine it's a very difficult thing for people to go through. And I think this song kind of explains why. Aaron, welcome to the Two Hour Club. It's a very exclusive club. You know, I can count on one hand, I think, the number of guests who hit the two-hour mark.

Bob Elliott was the first. He's like the four-minute mile guy. Who was the first? What's the name of the guy who first ran the four-minute mile? Oh, yeah. I've read about this recently, actually. This is a famous name. Yeah, I read about this very recently, and I can't remember.

That's awful. But Bob Elliott was first, and then people like the aforementioned Howard Berger, and there's been several now. But you're still a very small club of people to hit two hours. And the reason I think I thoroughly enjoyed most of the jam kicking.

I love jam kicking, but kicking out the jams with you has been a treat because you're a deep thinker. Just the way you articulate why you love the jams, there's deep thought and you're introspective, and I find that very interesting to listen to. Well, music, I think for people, should be a very introspective thing.

It should make you... I mean, that's why music is music. It's there to make you feel. You know, and a lot of the songs that I left out were like Miles Davis blues songs that just make me feel a certain way, but you can't really talk that much about them. Yeah, but Aaron, some people just like the Pitbull song, Fireball, and it just makes them want to dance or whatever. And that's the end of the story. Yeah, well, music's supposed to make you feel good, right?

But I think a lot of people, they shy away from how music can make them feel. You said music's supposed to make you feel good. I disagree. I think music's supposed to make you feel, period. A lot of songs we love, and I heard in your description, a lot of the songs you love are because they make you feel either maybe melancholy or sad or bring back a memory. Bring you back to a certain memory or the first time you heard that song.

Thanks for doing this, Aaron. My pleasure. That was a great pleasure. And that, that brings us to the end of our 286th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Aaron is at Aaron Braunstetter.

B-R-O-N-S-T-E-T-E-R. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery or at Great Lakes Beer and propertyinthesix.com is at Brian Gerstein. And Paytm is at Paytm Canada. See you all next week. Arrgh! Check out his command Ah, where you been? Because everything is kind of

rosy and green Yeah, the wind is cold But the snow, snow Wants me to dance And your smile is fine And it's just like mine And it won't go away Because everything is

rosy and green Well you've been under my skin For more than eight years It's been eight years of laughter And eight years