Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Andrew Stoakley KOTJ: Toronto Mike'd #250

Episode Date: July 10, 2017

Mike and Andrew play and discuss his ten favourite songs.

And right now, right now, right now it's time to... Take out the jams, 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 My city love me back for my city love Welcome to episode 250 of Toronto Mike A weekly podcast about anything and everything Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery A local independent brewery producing fresh craft beer, and propertyinthesix.com,

Toronto Real Estate Done Right. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me is audio guru, Andrew Stokely. Welcome back, Andrew. Thanks, Mike. You haven't been here in a while. Thanks, Mike. You haven't been here in a while. A long time. Because I wanted to do some homework.

So I'm like, oh, let me find out what episodes Andrew's been on. Because this is your fourth episode, I believe. Has it been that many? Because you had episode 11. Yeah. And we got the airplane two story. Right. In episode 11. Ken Finkelman, yes.

Right. Ken Finkelman, right. And then there was episode 50. And it's 50, maybe we just shot the shit. I can't even remember. But then episode 72 was your last appearance. And I think that is when you went off on Indy 88. Oh, I forgot about that episode. The Indy 88 versus Edge 102.1 episode episode and you had some very strong opinions you were disappointed in indie 88 back then i think that was an understatement could you want to update us like have you given them another try has your like thoughts on indie 88 uh changed at all since episode 72 um well you what? I guess because now it's about a year maybe, if not more.

After that episode, I actually got to speak with their program director. And I can't remember. Oh, and he left town. He went to Sonic in Edmonton. So this was before. So we actually got together and I went to the studios

and I went and chatted and met with them. Oh, in Liberty Village. Yeah, I went down. And had a great time and he was kind of just telling me why they're doing what they're doing. And I understand from a business standpoint, it was fine. Business versus reality of what I was hoping the station would be were completely off. And honestly, I don't think I've listened to the station once in the last two, three years. He did not persuade you to give it another try.

No. But think about that, though. You come on this podcast. You express passionate feelings about Indie 88 sort of not living up to your expectations, and the program director of Indie 88 hears you on this show and invites you personally to come to the studio for a chat.

That's kind of cool. It was cool, and he was really nice. Even though we don't remember his name. No, and I can't... Troy or something? No, I can't remember. Every time that I've been out in Edmonton, we've kind of chatted via email. I may have been out for a while, but I just appreciated

him reaching out. I don't know what the fall book is like or what the spring book has looked like. Honestly, I don't listen to a lot of terrestrial radio anymore. I actually don't really listen to a lot of radio at all. Mostly, if it is, it's Sirius, or I'm listening to CBC Radio 3 in my car, or I'm streaming Apple Music at home on my Sonos system, you know. And as mentioned in the, by the way, were your ears burning during the last episode? I did listen.

Yes, yeah, Mike and Alan. It's funny, because I mean, I've known them for so long. I've known Alan since, you know, I was a teen, basically 17. And I've known Michael since 2000 when he started at BNN might have been 2001 that he came to the station but he worked with my wife for a long time when she was at 680 News so we go back

we go back a long time and Mike's awesome and you know what I'm really happy I should have added of course the history of new music to the podcast but you know what? I'm really happy. I should have added, of course, the history of new music to the podcast. Oh, yeah. But you know what? The fact that you had one of his podcasts, I think his glass was half empty there.

Sure. It should have been like, oh, his three favorite podcasts and one of mine is one of them? Instead, he's like, why isn't the other one? That's negative. I know.

I know. But it's great. You know what? I'm happy for them. Talking with Michael offline, if you will, via email, I know how much work he puts into doing all the editing on Pro Tools. It's a big endeavor. I don't think people really realize how much work is involved

in actually editing and putting the whole thing together the way that they do it. For a guy who's technically not an audio professional, I think he does a fantastic job. Well, as another non-audio professional, I'm, wow, I'm like, I told him, I'm like, you know, I do it like live to tape. I'm going to like trim the ends and compress the file

and then I'm going to throw it on the web server because I don't have time for any editing. On that note, make sure you don't say anything you're going to regret. I don't want to have any, oh, Mike, you got to get rid of that whole spiel I did again. There's not enough people that really care what I say, so I think we're okay. Oh, that's nice to be your own boss and to be in charge of your own destiny like that. Yeah. So another quick update for everybody. Oh, so yeah, if you like Andrew's stories, and I'm telling you this Ken Finkelman one from episode 11,

like episode 11, like how many guests are coming over who are like, that's the ground floor, man. Episode 11, we're on 250 today. You know what?

I was thinking about the other day because Carrie was asking me, that's my wife, was asking me if I was coming in. I said, yeah. And she said,

when was the first time you did that? And I want to say it was literally about three to four months after we left this neighborhood. Yeah, right.

Because you moved to what, Niagara Falls area? Yeah, we're in the falls. You were around here. Yeah, and we were on 29th Street, which is literally, you know. Don't say exactly how many streets away. No, no. But it's if you come out of your street, you hang a left on Lakeshore and you go down there. Eventually you'll hit 29th.

Exactly. Yeah, and you actually gave me some tips on Il Paisano Pizza and some of the haunting grounds. There's not much I miss around here, and especially driving on Lakeshore today because I kind of came around. I'm like, holy shit. I can't believe all the construction, especially down near Browns Line. It's insane.

I don't know how people are going to be able to drive up and down on Lakeshore anytime soon. It's crazy. Well, that's Long Branch's problem. Well, yeah, true. I guess you don't have to worry about that. But you're right. There's a lot of stuff going on. But you know, if you ever go to our park lawn area, that's where I see the biggest change. That whole park lawn

Lakeshore area. If you could go back in time to when you could still smell that wonderful Christie's Bakery. That was the only reason you went down. And it depended on which way the wind was blowing, right? Oh, because there was the... The water treatment facility is across the road. So if it was blowing from the south up,

it was great. If it was blowing from the north, you held your breath. Have they started the construction yet at the Christie plant? I think so. Like, I bike by it every day, but I don't get a good view of it.

But there's definitely, definitely shut down the Christie's plant. Although, I don't know every day, but I don't get a good view of it. But there's definitely, definitely shut down the Christie's plant. Yeah. I don't know what they're going to do with like the signage or whatever. I don't know. I don't know.

Like that Tip Top Taylor's that's at like near, near, uh, yeah, you know, I'm strong in Lake, whatever. Yep. Uh, I noticed they kept the sign

completely like intact. Yeah. They just tacked the sign to the condos, which is kind of neat. Yeah. Yeah. You know.

I had a guy, one of the guys I worked with, he lived in there and he says, yeah, I know I live in the tip top Taylor building and people know where that is, right? If you could say,

yeah, I live in the Mr. Christie building, I think that'd be pretty cool. Yes. Come on, Mr. Christie. You make, I remember this line,

Mr. Christie, you make good cookies. Just don't mail them, you asshole. This is, who is that comic? I don't, I don't know.

But you can go to the Mr. Christie, you go by the seconds, right? They'd have the bins that you just go by bulk. It's kind of like the Vortman cookies out in Oakville. You can do the same thing. Oh, man, I need to know these tips, man. You've got to write a book on this. Yeah, the Vortman cookies,

they're the wafer cookies, right? The wafer cookies. By the way, so speaking of the Tip Top Tailors, it's fresh in my mind because I was telling my daughter, Michelle, the story of how there was a Tip Top Tailors here. That's the sign. They put up the condo, whatever, because we were biking yesterday to the Dome. I don't know if you know this, but I was at the game yesterday. I might have heard something, yes. So thanks to, I can say this now publicly, thanks to you, I had these kick-ass seats, like right down the third baseline, 22 rows up.

I had two seats, one for me, one for my daughter, and like primo seats for a beautiful Sunday afternoon game against the Houston Astros. What a wonderful viewpoint and a wonderful afternoon with my daughter. But what a horrible game This is the 19-1 game Which as you know If Ezekiel Carrera doesn't hit a homer

With two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning We're in the record books as the worst Shutout loss in franchise history Yeah I did that Honestly by about the sixth inning I had checked out It was a busy weekend. I don't know if you saw my Twitter feed, but it was... Was it because of F-bombs?

A lot of people were really upset with the swearing. Is that right? Yeah, you know. They know why the mics are there, right? Well, that's what I had to explain. Without the mics behind home plate, you're not going to hear the bat on the ball, and I am not... Like there's no delay?

No, we don't have a delay but they're growing adults. I mean, I try to do the best I can. You know, if something really happens I'll kill the mics around there but if a guy swings out and as he's swinging is screaming at the top of his lungs facing my microphones

there's not a lot I can do. This is Tulo, right? Yeah. So, okay, so Troy Tulewitzki, you're right, a big boy playing a, you know, he's an adult and he knows there's kids in the stands and he knows people are watching on TV, you know, he's part, you know, he's Troy Tulewitzki. Yeah. And I guess he dropped an F-bomb when he struck out. Is that what happened?

Oh, yeah. A big one. So these real complaints or just some idiot on Twitter saying... Twitter warriors, I guess. Let's put it this way. I mean, it was loud enough that Wilner even commented on it that he heard it upstairs in the broadcast booth

and there on the 300 level. So the people who were right behind home plate, they were going to hear it whether my mics were there or not. This is where I always preach to fellow parents, like teach your kids about context.

Like it's just a word and in context, this was a man who was angry at his failure to execute and in the heat of the moment, he just a word, and in context, this was a man who was angry at his failure to execute, and in the heat of the moment, he dropped a word that you should not be saying in school or to grandma. But what did he do in his next bat, right? I don't remember. He knocked it out of the park.

On his next at plate, he hit a home run. Yeah, so maybe we should remind people why you know so much about the audio at Blue Jay Games. So tell us what you do for a living. I am a audio sound engineer, if you will. That's the easiest way. I mix live sports. And yeah, go ahead. And I say, and the easiest way to describe that is anything you hear at home, I am responsible for in the broadcast, whether it's microphones, whether it's effects, whether it's music, whether it's tape playback, anything that you hear comes out of my room. And that's if you're watching Sportsnet,

you're the guy often for not only home games, I noticed because you went to New York, right? So you do occasional road games. I'm doing some road games this year. But yeah, all of the Jays home games, a bunch of the road games, all the curling on Sportsnet, and a bunch of the curling on TSN. It really depends on what happens. You know, I'm a freelancer, so whoever's, as I like to say,

whoever calls first and whoever check clears, I'm available. And literally, I've seen this, so you're in a truck parked in the basement of the dome. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If we're near the handicap parking on the loading dock, it's a big 53-foot trailer. We have two of them there.

And we set up, and off we go. And, you know, Bob's your uncle. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of fun. I enjoy it. We have a great crew. I love Buck. I love Tabby. I love a lot of fun. I enjoy it. We have a great crew. I love Buck. I love Tabby.

I love our production crew. Hazel's awesome. Arash has been great. A lot of people seem to miss Barry. You know, those decisions are made way above my pay grade. You don't have a say. No. Can you believe it?

It's unbelievable how they wouldn't come to me and ask me. They just let Barry go without asking you first. Yeah. So you know those last three guys you mentioned, Arash, Hazel, and Barry have all been in this basement. Yeah. I know. That's a fun fact.

But no buck. I haven't had a professional athlete yet. That's a fun. We're on episode 250. Yeah. And I've yet to have a professional athlete, like a former professional athlete. So I don't even know how that occurred, but not even like a Kiprios. Yeah, just I haven't had one yet.

So we'll see who the first former pro or current pro athlete is to come on the show. I almost had Hazel's husband who played pro ball, but he didn't want to come on the microphone. He just sat there and gave me an evil look for 30 minutes. You know, Hazel and I talked about that when we were in Seattle. Did you? Yeah. And she said, you know what? I'm so sorry. I just had this time. And I said, Hazel, you got to do what you got to do. I think Mike was happy that you came on.

Oh, what was she apologizing for? Was she apologizing because her husband beat me up after that episode? I'm just kidding. No, Kevin Barker was nice. She just said, you know, I had this small window. Oh, 30 minutes. Yeah. I'd rather take a good solid 30 minutes of Hazel than nothing. Yeah.

No, it's great. She's fun. Like I said, I love our broadcast team. They're just great. You're never going to meet better humans than Buck and Tabby. And when you spend a lot of time together, that's really all that matters. Speaking of this 19-1 debacle

that I was lucky enough to be at yesterday, and of course I stayed for the whole game and my daughter enjoyed it, and thank you again. But they're coming out of commercials. I don't know which inning because I'm not watching it on TV. I'm watching it live. But suddenly my brother texted me. Jason Agnew and some other buds were DMing me,

and I started seeing tweets that I was on the telecast. So I realized, I said to Michelle, I said, we were just on the Sportsnet telecast. Yeah, national television. Did you have anything to do with that? I might have had a little bit. So how does that work? Because the truck, I guess you're next to the guys who are doing the video because you're the audio guy.

Yeah. So you just said, sitting in this seat is my buddy and his daughter. Yeah, I just asked. Do you think you could show them coming out of break? Yeah, I asked our camera guys if they can find you, because sometimes people are standing and you get blocked. But yeah, if there's a promo coming up, sometimes promos require certain things. Other times it doesn't.

And I just said, yeah, if you've got time, you're fine. And so they did. So I think you were on the Iowa Corn 300 NASCAR promo or Indy. With Hinchcliffe. Oh, yeah, sorry, IRL promo. Yeah, absolutely. And somebody, and I wish I remembered his name, but somebody on Twitter actually took video of this

and tweeted it at me. So during the game, I was playing it for my daughter, and it was pretty cool to see. And I'm bombing my head. I've got a jam in my head or whatever. Yeah, they must have had music, whatever, while I was in the dome. I don't know. I've got a jam in my head or whatever. Yeah, they must have had music whatever while I was in the Dome. I don't know.

I don't really listen to what's going on inside the building during the commercial breaks. I enjoyed it, apparently, because I watched that video a few times. And it's like I'm just bobbing my head to the tunes. Nice.

And at that point, I think it's only 6-0. So we still have this sliver of hope. There was hope. But they left how many runners in scoring? Anyway, you know what? It's terrible. It's the break. I don't have to talk about baseball for 14 days, so I'm off.

I'm about to check out and go far, very north and get away from all this very soon. How far north are you going to go? We're going, heading up to the north end of Lake Rosso, and then we're going up to northern Quebec for a bit.

Cool. Yeah. That's nice. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. It's been a very long... Normally, I get a good break between the curling season and baseball season. This year, it didn't happen. So I'm really looking forward to it.

Well, I'm glad that before you disappeared into the wilderness that you came here because you're going to be kicking out the jams. Yes. But first, a few notes for the listeners firstly go to patreon.com slash toronto mike to help uh crowdfund this i have this uh idea i'm going to start reaching out to patrons and see who's up for a quick skype chat with me uh to record maybe a little snippet of maybe the patron explaining why they're pledging money to this project or what they enjoy about Toronto Mike. And then during episodes,

I could play one or two little clips off the top. Sort of like you hear on like a Canada land. You ever hear this on Canada land? He's like, you don't listen to it. You're the guy. Good for you. Good for you. He's making all the Patreon money.

So we're all just trying to find some leftovers. So everyone go to patreon.com slash Toronto Mike and give what you can. You mentioned, Andrew, you used to live around here, which means you know that Great Lakes Beer is a local. Yes. Brewery. Yes.

Did you ever drink any Great Lakes Beer? Don't worry, you don't have to feed me BS if you never did, but did you ever drink any Great Lakes when you lived around here? Yes. See, that was the real answer too. Yeah, well, a lot of the places along the shore

used to carry it. So we would just have pints or whatever. Did you have a favorite variety of Great Lakes beer? I liked the Pompasale and I liked the lager. I'm trying to think what else.

They also have a seasonal that was really good. One of those, the IPAs? Yeah. I don't know if it was an IPA, but it was a seasonal. Okay. Well, the seasonals you got in your six-pack there, and it's really a—tell the people at home it's not a five-pack. It is a true six-pack. Thank you.

With a pint glass. Oh, yes. I'm going to tell you about the pint glass in just a sec. But the seasonals you got, you got the Sunny Side, which I think it's only a summertime offering. That's in there, but you definitely have some pompous ass in there. Oh, the Harry Porter. That's good.

They don't carry that at my local in the Falls. So that's good. The pompous ale is right here. Oh, that's the Canadian? Yeah, that's the Pompous. The Canuck Pale Ale. Perfect. So enjoy that.

Thank you, I will. That's going home with you. Yeah, that's going to go up north with me. These guys, again, at Great Lakes, if you can drop by on a Friday, they have the meat trucks, the food trucks come on Fridays and you can kind of enjoy your meal on the patio

as you have your $5 pint. So it's a real cool scene. Nice. And you mentioned the pint glass. Well, let me tell you a bit about this pint glass. Yeah, I have it. I caught you by surprise there, but that pint glass is courtesy of Brian Gerstein, and you're taking that home with you. Great. You can drink the Great Lakes beer out of the pint glass. Lovely.

By the way, for those listening at home, you can call Brian at 416-873-0292 if you're planning to buy and or sell in the next six months. Just by meeting Brian, you'll receive and or sell in the next six months. Just by meeting Brian, you'll receive a free Property in the 6 pint glass and a six pack of Great Lakes beer. So visit propertyinthesix.com, reach out to Brian again at 416-873-0292 and meet up with him and have a conversation. It's definitely worthwhile. Brian is a real estate sales representative with PSR Brokerage. Sorry for cutting you off there, Andrew. I was excited to dive into the jingle. Well, I haven't been here since the jingle, so I've been hearing it on the podcast,

but to have it actually live in the headphones, it's a different experience. Maybe that's the trick. Everybody needs to put on good headphones when the jingle comes on. You should always have good headphones. But are these good headphones? Oh, so again, I feel like I mentioned you so often that I don't need to say everything on this episode, but these headphones, I purchased these exact headphones because you literally

wrote me, I can't remember if it was an email or if it was smoke signals, but you said, go buy these headphones from this guy at this address. Yeah. And I just took my MasterCard and went. I was just there at that guy. In fact, he just sent me an email. I'm buying some new windsocks for some new microphones I just got. But yeah, you know what?

This is great. This is a great little facility. The swing arms, I think, were a perfect addition. Makes a big difference. It makes a huge difference. Because you have to be on these mics. Yes. So it just makes it so much easier.

Yeah. That's why I got a couple of people who wrote me notes that last week's episode, the levels were off a bit when Alan was speaking. And that's because I only have two of the swing arms. And Alan got the old-style stationary microphone stand. And Alan doesn't remember that these are different mics than the ones he might be used to,

and he has to stay right on these things. Well, yeah, I mean, professional broadcast people, they have tools where if they wander off mic like I am here, it automatically brings the signal up and down. They're using compressors, they're using levelators, all sorts of stuff. And when I'm doing shows, when people are going off mic, I just, I can increase and decrease the level.

I can go along with them. But, you know, in your setup, and, you know, these microphones, there was a reason why I suggested these microphones, was because of where your location is, the fact that you're in the basement, you have noise upstairs, you have noise outside. You could have people coming downstairs. You do have small ones, right? I do. These are designed to be really super directional, good high-end quality broadcast quality microphones.

And when I'm on mic like this, I think they sound fantastic. Agreed. Yes. Andrew? Yeah? Are you ready to kick out the jam? Yeah, you know what? This is going to bring back some memories.

This is how I put myself through school. I DJed from the time I was about 15 all the way until I was about 25. So this is, you know, on top of the radio station stuff this is great I've been really enjoying these episodes blue jean baby

L.A. lady Seamstress for the band Pretty eyes Pirate smile You marry merry music man. Ballerina, you must have seen her dancing in the sand. Now she's in me Always with me Tiny dancer in my hand

Jesus freaks Maybe I'll fade it down, chat a little bit, and come back when we get that. Yeah, this goes on for a while. That's the hardest part of this job, is knowing when to fade it down and chat about it. But that, of course, is Elton John's Tiny Dancer. Yeah.

Tell us why you, well, what's not to love? But regardless, tell us why you love Tiny Dancing. A couple of reasons. My dad was a huge Elton John fan. So when I hear this song, I think about Saturday mornings at his house, waking up to the smell of bacon, the smell of coffee, of bacon, the smell of coffee, music on vinyl, of course, back then, cranking out through the speakers, and just being happy. I don't know, the song just makes me happy. It just brings back so many memories of childhood and so forth.

And because of that, because of my dad's love for Elton John, I've become a huge Elton John fan. I've seen him a number of times. I saw him, unfortunately, in that ill-fated concert at the Sky Dome when it first opened. I was there, too. 89. It's probably the worst sounding concert I've ever been to. And he was so apologetic to everybody in the crowd.

And since then, I've seen him a bunch of times. I've never got a chance to meet him. He's, you know... There we go. You had a busy day today Hold me close sometime Please continue, Andrew. By the way, Almost Famous gets some credit here

for making this the go-to sing-along jam. So this is the next thing. So I think we all know that scene, obviously. But I had for a long time not watched the movie. Just put it off for whatever reason. And Carrie kept telling me, you got to watch this. You got to watch this. You're going to love this.

I'm like, I don't want to watch it. And then I guess one day when I was by myself, I put it on. And then the scene came on and it just clicked, right? It's perfect. It's perfect. Great movie. Carrie, good on you for making him watch this. Yes. I this on DVD that's how much I have well now I have it on blu-ray I have DVD a special edition you name it um just fantastic you know just to see them in the

bus just starting and and everyone knows like I said if you've never seen the movie just watch this scene I'm sure it's available just on YouTube or something like that just to see that clip. But yeah, I mean, it's a timeless song. It's been covered by how many people? He plays it basically at every show. The version from live in Australia and Sydney is really good too. This is the original album version. You know, there's so many breaks there's so many choruses it's just a fantastic

and listen to his voice I mean his voice is just so clean so pure right now it's just fantastic it's a great track not a track you can actually you cannot physically listen to this

without singing along try it it's actually impossible impossible yes even as we recorded I was quietly lip syncing it because you have to. The story about

your dad was amazing. May I ask, is your father still with us? Yeah. He turns a big 8-0 next year. Really? Yeah. That's a milestone. That's a good one. Congrats to him. Yeah, I was there a couple weeks ago up at their place. Will he hear this? Will he hear you talk about this?

You won't edit it out and say, hey, press play here? I could probably clip it and have him, no, you know what? He won't listen to it. My dad, yeah. The worst thing I ever did was buy my father a computer. Oh, tell me about it. I have the same story with my mom. Yes, yes.

It's got false endings, right? Big crescendos. Great track. Yeah. You had a busy day today. You started us off with a bang today, Andrew. This is first of ten. And I can't get this one out of my head,

so we'll see how the other tracks go. It's almost done it's about five and a half minutes almost six minutes I think the full length version can I confess something which is that I was

this was just another Elton John song to me until Almost Famous it's like that movie took it from like oh that's a catchy little you know 70s radio track or whatever, to this epic, let's go, it's tiny dancer time.

Yeah, and I mean, Elton saw a huge resurgence because of this song and this album. Cameron Crowe was a huge Elton John fan. And, you know, when you have an artist who loves music, to be able to incorporate that. I mean, look at James Gunn with the Guardians of the Galaxy and the music that's in both those films. You know, music is so important. There's not a day go by that I don't have music cranked in my house. Awesome, awesome. And of course, anyone who watched Friends,

and I actually did not watch Friends, but even I'm familiar with this reference. Joey, I guess, would say, hold me closer, Tony Danza. Yeah, I think that's in the old part of the excuse me while I kiss this guy.

Which has a name because Norm, on the Mike Wilner episode, we talked about these and then I couldn't remember the name and Norm tweeted it at me. Monda, M-O-N-D.

Oh my God, I'm going to forget it again. I almost want to Google it. But Mondo something is the term Mondo greens when you when you

yeah when you mishear lyrics so you hear excuse me while I kiss this guy or there's a bathroom on the right right

you know what I mean those are Mondo greens yes alright well that's good let's hear your second jam Andrew Thank you. We'll be right back. I'm humming in a frenzy all the way down that line. Girls on film.

Girls on film. Girls on film. Girls on film. Duran Duran, Girls on Film. Take me back. July 13th, 1981. Three days from now, it's celebrating its, what, 36? 36 since its anniversary.

Welcome to your MTV and MuchMusic generation. This band, I was 12 years old. This band was everything to me at 12. All of our friends, all of the guys I grew up with, all the girls I grew up with, this was them. To be able to put together the music with the fashion, with the look, with their videos um this one i was 12 years old right come on and there's two versions of this video i think everybody knows you know duran duran really took a genre that was new and really pushed the boundaries of what they thought

was appropriate for television. And I've seen both videos and I saw both videos back then which, you know, this, I can, as soon as I'm hearing the song I can picture the video. And you know, I know there's great artists who hate doing videos. Tom Petty hated videos because he hated the music being associated with the video, right? He wanted the song to be on its own. But I can't not picture this video and this song. It's only your second song,

and I'm going to drop my second Wilner reference, which is to say that apparently Norm Wilner, Mike Wilner's brother, was in the reflex video. Shot at the Gardens. Right, right. That's the last time. And also, of course, Mike Willner is a huge Duran Duran fan who had a Duran Duran track on his.

I think he had Wild Boys on his. I am on record, and it's fact, the first piece of vinyl I ever purchased in my life was Rio. The album Rio. The album Rio? Yeah. Great album from beginning to end this whole band I mean the new romantic era if you will really the foray of British pop and new wave and new

romantic music coming across the Atlantic to to us here in North America and mean Toronto rocks how many days how many days would mean Toronto Rocks how many days would you ever go or how many times would you watch John Major and it was like how many Duran Duran tracks we're going to have on this you had Samantha Taylor on the channel over because that was 7 in my house channel 7 was where I had Toronto Rocks

and channel 6 is where I had Samantha Taylor doing video hits video hits right of course I just remember I was a Toronto Rocks guy, mostly because I think I won Howard Jones tickets to see them, to see him at the Kingswood Music Theatre.

Don't try to live your life in one day. And that album, yeah, Dream Into Action. Huge, huge. But yeah, you know what, Duran Duran, like you said, Godding Cream did it every... Oh, Cry. That was a Cry video. They play that every day, I think.

Yeah. I mean, Duran Duran also had The Chauffeur. It was a little risque video. Come on, what 12, 13-year-old boy back then wasn't trying to scramble around jumbo video to buy the Duran Duran's greatest hits on video when you had to buy VHS because you couldn't get all the videos on MuchMusic that you

wanted back then. There was no YouTube, obviously. It just brings back their whole music catalog. And I've seen them a bunch of times. We missed them when they were playing at the casino a couple months ago here in Niagara. We couldn't get tickets to them. I noticed

they were at the Amphitheater. It was still named the Amphitheater back then. I think it was at the amphitheater. It was still named the amphitheater back then. I think it was last summer. I remember all the moms in the neighborhood wearing their Duran Duran t-shirts the next day. The 40-something-year-old moms just all kind of flocked to Duran Duran.

They all had buttons. It was who their favorite was on the button that they wear. It was just a great time. I loved the 80s. I didn't like the fashion, they wear. Oh, yeah. It was just a great time. I loved the 80s. Didn't like the fashion, but I loved the 80s. Well, let's hear your third jam. All right. Thank you. guitar solo Yesterday I got so old

I felt like I could die Yesterday I got so old It made me want to cry Go on, go on, just walk away Go on, go on, your choice is made Go on, go on, and disappear Go on, go on, and disappear. Go on, go on, and wave a bit. And I know I was wrong when I said it was true. That it couldn't be me or me far in between without you. Without you. The Cure, In Between Days.

Yeah. Speaking of the 80s. You know what? Here, in between days. Yeah. Speaking of the 80s. You know what? I have three brothers. I have two stepbrothers. I have a real brother, if you will. They've been my brothers since I was four.

But my natural brother, if you will, he's four years older. So he, I grew up in Brampton. What do you listen to when you grew up in Brampton? You listen to Chick FM and you listen to CFNY. And so with him being four years older, he really exposed me to the whole British invasion of New Wave. And this was one of his favorite bands and in turn became one of my favorite bands. I mean, Robert Smith, come on.

The hair, the Smith, come on. You know, the hair, the makeup, the look. It's just a great pop song, right? It's a great pop song. It's not too long. I think it's under three and a half minutes. I was thinking I might play the whole thing before I fade it down. Yeah, it's not very long. Robert

Smith, of course, the inspiration for Edward Scissorhands. Yes. Is that on the record? I think so. It's just a great track. This song, The C course, the inspiration for Edward Scissorhands. Yes. Is that on the record? I think so. It's just a great track. This song, The Cure, the band The Cure, not just this song, but the whole band really kind of pushed me in the direction of the music that I really love, which is Alternative, British New Wave, that whole era. And it's just a fun song. I used to play this in all of my sets whenever I would DJ.

In fact, I used to play Girls on Film a lot when I was DJing. I don't know if there's much more I can say about it. It's just a great track. Great track. Let's hear your fourth jam. your fourth jam. I would bear. Don't tell me all the things I wasn't could have made this big a difference to all the things you are. Grapes of Wrath, All the Things I Wasn't. Yeah.

This band, I have a really weird history with this band. Do tell. Okay, so when I tweeted it out, I said, you know, and I had this really great Grapes of Wrath story. I met them a few times

through CFNY doing a bunch of shows or whatever other than just listening to them. But I was in high school. My last year of high school, I did an exchange program with our sister school in England.

Cool. My stepfather was an executive with Air Canada, and so I was flying on corporate seats as opposed to a paid ticket. So when I was coming back, we were up in Manchester. When we were coming back, the flight that I was supposed to take out of Manchester was full, and they didn't have a seat available for me. So they said, listen, we can ship you off to Heathrow and then you'll be able to get it there's more flights back to Canada

and so forth I said okay so I left at 6 a.m. at a Manchester and got to Heathrow and I missed the flight direct flight to Toronto they said two hours later there's a flight going to Montreal well I get there I didn't get on that plane either so at four o'clock they said there's a flight going to Montreal. Well, I get there. I didn't get on that plane either. So at four o'clock, they said there's a flight leaving direct from Heathrow to go to Vancouver. I was like, holy crap, that's a long. Okay, well, I guess if I get home. So anyway, they put me on.

Now, because of my stepfather, whatever, they put me up into first class because this was a 747 because this would have been in 1991, the winter of 91, because it was my last year. And as I'm sitting down in my seat, I look over, and it's the guys from the Grapes of Wrath, and I'm sitting right next to them. And it was just weird. So the four guys in the band, Tom Hooper, the drummer, Kevin Hooper, Kevin Kane, and Vince Jones. They were the four guys.

Tom, who is the bass player and partial lead singer, like the 50-50 singer, was married to a woman named Suzanne, who was from the band Lava Hay. Yeah, I remember Lava Hay. Yeah, so Lava Hay, Suzanne used to actually come in. I don't know if her mother lived in Brampton or she had friends, but she used to come into the Music World store at Shopper's World where I worked, and so I knew her that way. So she's sitting there in the band, Tom's there, I'd met them a bunch of times at a whole bunch of CFNY events, and so we ended up just chatting. They were just leaving London, they had just been mixing just leaving uh london they had just been mixing and mastering their new album that was to come out called these days um which this song

obviously isn't this is from their first or their second album now and again um so we talked about that we had a great talk and then we get back and then i actually went and saw them a bunch of times on that these days tours and we had a good laugh they did a couple of nights at massey hall where they actually autographed it's one of the only autographs I have of music of the cover of the album and CD they've signed where they were, and I still have that. But this song, I mean, this was when I was in high school. Let's just say it was a special song for an old girlfriend in high school. Interesting. I was waiting for these stories.

Yeah, and then, you know, there's probably a couple other ones I could have chosen, but this one... Now we have to cut this out because Carrie won't want to hear this song ever again. No, no, no. It's fine. It was a long time ago. Carrie actually probably won't even listen to this.

But, you know, these guys... I used to play this at my dances a lot, too, especially high school dances. Just a great, and it's a great Canadian band. Yeah, they're from Saskatchewan, right? Is that where they're from? Where are they from?

Originally? No, they're all from the West Coast. Okay, why do I think they're from Saskatchewan? That's the Waltons you're thinking of. Lick My Tractor is the Waltons, right? And the Rain song. Yeah, great band.

But wait, yeah, great band, great song. Not in your top 10, but in your song. And this one though, this Grapes of Wrath song, I always loved this song. I would put this right up there with Treble Chargers Red

as great can-con from that era. You just never get tired of it. Like I said, the greatest lineup, the old Edgefest shows, the Canada 102.1 shows up at Molson Park. The 1990s show, I still personally think it's their best lineup they ever had.

And it was a great lineup. It was National Velvet, Lava Hay, The Sky Diggers, Grapes of Wrath, 5440, Sass Jordan, La Boite,

The Box, and of course, The Tragically Hip. But The Tragically Hip were the second band. They were not the headliners. The Box were the headliners that year. Because this is before Up To Here? Just as Up To Here was really...

Because that's like your threshold there with The Hip. It's like once Up To Here breaks, those days are over. That was 1990. You can see they have great tickets and all that. But I mean, that was fantastic. I think in terms of... Oh, The Pursuit of Happiness, too, were also there. I mean, at that era, the Canadian music was really, really taking off.

89, 90, 91, 92. It was Sloan, and you got all, yeah, just amazing. It was just a fantastic era of music. Let's hear your fifth jam. Now, this is a very specific version of this song. Thankfully, we got the right version before we started recording. So let's hear your fifth jam. All right.

Please welcome my favorite band, Counting Crows. We're going to start off with just Dave and I. Okay. Just about the front door like a ghost into the fog Where no one notices the contrast of white on white And in between the moon and you, the angels get a better view of the crumbling difference between wrong and right. Well, I walk in the air

between the rain, through myself and back again. Where? I don't know. But Maria says she's dying through the door I hear her crying. Why here, something radiates. When Maria came from Nashville with a suitcase in hand. That, of course, is Counting Crows, Around Here. Where's that version from?

So this is from a live album that they recorded in New York City. And hold on, I'd have to get you the date. Because it sounds great. Yeah, well, you know what? I love music

that's been stripped back. I mean, I want to hear, can a singer sing? You know, are they a singer or are they somebody who can sing that then computers help? Can a guitarist play? Can the bass player, you know, can you actually play your instruments? And I think this song really showcases Adam's voice as much if people like it or don't like it. I think you can't argue that it's not a good voice.

And his guitarist Dave, you know, it's an acoustic guitar in a big room with a whole bunch of people. Can you sing? Can you play? And, you know, that song, this song showcases that. Yeah, I would

like to apologize to you because on the episode recently with Bob Makowitz, Counting Crows came up. I think he had some disparaging remarks. And I said, but I think I said, but Bob, Long December is a beautiful song, like a great song. And he agreed, Long December. But I would like to amend my thoughts to suggest that Round Here is also an excellent song. Yeah, and the album version of August and Everything is great, too. I just,

this almost sounds to me like a demo, right? What's the base of the song? Where did the genesis of the song start? Was it you had great lyrics or was it a guitarist who had a great riff

or a lick, you know? And it just works. So this was recorded in New York City in December of 97. So this was a special album that came out. This was a big hit off August and everything after. Huge.

That album was massive when it came out. That was in 91, 92, I think, that album came out. And it's a great album front to back. It's in my top 10 of albums. Again, I wasn't a big fan of their stuff afterwards. There wasn't a lot that I didn't go out and buy. But this album, the time, the place. Music is all about time and place.

When you hear a song, where does that song take you back to in time and place. When you hear a song, where does that song take you back to in time and place? And I believe it's our second Friends reference of the day, which is that I'm pretty sure Adam Duritz dated Courtney Cox. That would be confirmed, yes. I think they were together for a while.

And is it true that he has apparently has washed his hair at least once in the past 20 years? If he has, I've never seen it. I've never noticed it. I don't know if there's bugs living in there or whatever, but it's... You know, I think most of these jokes are coming from things like when they covered Joni Mitchell. I don't know if you've heard.

Have you ever heard? Big Yellow Taxi. Yeah. And I did not like his ever heard Big Yellow Taxi? I did not like his cover of Big Yellow Taxi. But this Counting Crows song is fantastic. Around here.

And again, I love live music. Especially live recordings. I probably could have, on this list, done all the tracks on here in live form. But, you know, when you hear, I love going, when I go to a show, I want to hear

the live version. I don't want to hear the record version. I already have the record version at home. I want to hear how they interpret that song on stage. Interestingly, as I asked when Alan Cross came in last week, I said, bring your favorite song with you. Like yourself, he had a specific version.

He wanted the live version of the Peter Gabriel song. And probably similar reasons. And that's an awesome album. When I heard Alan play that, I was like, oh, good. Because it's a fantastic album. If you like Peter Gabriel. And even if not, it's just well done. And you can kill it because he starts to talk after this for a bit,

so you can kill it. I like the pretend this applause is for me. Oh, very good. Well done. Well done. All right, let's kick out another jam, Andrew. All right.

I look up this morning and the sun was gone Turned on some music to start my day And asked myself to look at me in the sun I closed my eyes and I slipped away It's more than a feeling I hear the lonesome waves More than a feeling And I begin dreaming More than a feeling

I see the air on the way I see the... Boston's More Than a Feeling. Couple of reasons. First, my dad owned a 1977 Monte Carlo. Blue, white leather top, white leather interior, and it had an 8-track. Two albums.

The greatest two albums of all time on 8-track. Boston's first album with this song. The second one, Meatloaf's Bad Outta Hell. Yes, okay, yes. If you had an 8-track player, or if you still have an 8-track player, you own those two albums. It's what I'm feeling What I'm feeling When I hear my own song

And you're so dead And I'm even dreaming What I'm feeling When I see my own What I'm feeling I see my Mary and walk away I'll see my Mary and walk away You've heard the stories that Kurt Cobain wasn't sure they should release Smells Like Teen Spirit because he said

the chords were just ripping off this track. And you hear it in that that whole, the chords awfully similar to... Yeah, the chord progression, yeah. It's just... It's one of the very first tracks that had really, really heavily distorted guitars

that made a lot of airplay. When this sound came out, this was like a, holy shit, what am I listening to moment. An 8-track wasn't exactly a great format, but in a 1977 Camaro with your dad and cranking the music, like I said, music takes you back to times and places. They bring you to memories that you have.

You associate music with memories. And this just brings back great memories. And it's also in one of the greatest episodes of television ever recorded. You know what I'm talking about? I should, right? You should. Well, I don't know, unless you're not a fan. So February 7th, 2006. A little show about Sacred Heart Hospital. Sacred Heart Hospital? Yeah.

Oh, shit, man. You're going to help me out. Scrubs. Oh, yeah. I've caught a few episodes. I enjoyed what I saw, but I'm far from it. I love that show. So there was an episode called My Half Acre,

and the janitor forms an air band guitar. And it's the janitor playing bass, it's the handyman playing drums, and it's Ted the lawyer is playing lead guitar. And they need a singer, so they're auditioning singers. And Turk auditions for it, but he auditions with Belbiff DeVos' Poison. Oh, yeah.

And it's great, but the song they actually do at the end of it is this song. And the way they just play, you know, the janitor's just playing the casual bass player, the drummer's just going out, and Ted is playing his electric guitar, but you can see him because they zoom out and just as they're getting into the chorus and the pre his electric guitar but you can see him because they zoom out and just as they're getting into the chorus and the pre-chorus you can see Ted with his air guitar on the ground getting ready to change the pedal sounds to go from distortion to non-distortion

while Turk is just out there singing and it's just the song just works really well in the episode and you know I know this song did really well on the charts it was huge but again you know if you can find this on the charts it was huge, but again if you can find this on 8-track you're never going to get the same

sonic quality as it would have on 8-track just that whole genre that whole era similar to your Elton John choice that's another track where you simply can't listen to more than a feeling without singing along or banging your head to that.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the classic rock stuff. But again, music, for me, just takes me back. And this song brings back just so many memories. Obviously, I wasn't in high school when this song came out. I was only a really small kid, so I have no high school or university memories associated to it. A lot of other people would. But it just brings me back to that time.

And the song, obviously, has become a classic. It's in the upper echelon. I think it's in the top 20 greatest songs ever recorded, according to Rolling Stone. There's a cartoon on Netflix called F is for Family. No, I haven't seen that one. So when I watch it and I enjoy it, to me, that's like guys who are 10 years older than me. When the guys

70s are my 80s. You know what I mean? That's the feeling you get. Boston more than a feeling. F is for Family. You got to check that out. Let's hear your seventh jam. I read the news today, oh boy About a lucky man who made the grade And though the news was rather sad Well, I just had to laugh

I saw the photograph He blew his mind out in a car I saw the photograph and He blew his mind out in a car He didn't notice that the lights had changed A crowd of people stood and stared They'd seen his face before Nobody was really sure If he was from the house of Thor I saw a villain today

Oh boy We'll do this again. We'll fade out, chat a bit, and then we'll come back. Sure, yeah. By the way, thank you. This might be my favorite Beatles song of all time. And I think it's on the list.

Most musicians or most rock historians would agree that they think this is their best song. I think it's their best song. It's my favorite Beatles song just because of the structure of the song, time changes, key changes. As much as the Beatles were a great band, I would love to have heard how they would have done without George Martin. You know, a band is only

as good as their producer. Listen to these strings. It just builds. It's building. And it's great with headphones, because you can hear it go back and forth right to left yeah it's great yeah because

this is the stereo version woke up fell out of bed Dragged a comb across my head Found my way downstairs and drank a cup And looking up, I noticed I was late Found my coat and grabbed my hat Made the bus in seconds flat

Found my way upstairs and had a smoke And somebody spoke and I went into a dream We should tell those who don't know, if there are any, this is A Day in the Life. A Day in the Life by The Beatles. I mean, what can I say? What can you say about this song? You could say, if this was my list and I haven't come up with my 10 yet, but this could very well be on it,

I would tell the story of how I would go to the Phoenix every Thursday night for years to listen to Strange Paradise, hosted by Andy Frost, of all people. And it always started at 10 p.m. of this track. And this song, when I hear it, they got the dry ice going, of all people. Yeah. And it always started at 10 p.m. of this track. Yeah. And this song, when I hear it,

I'm at the, they got the dry ice going, I'm at the Phoenix on a Thursday night. Yeah. You mentioned memories and times and places. And, you know, I obviously

never got to see them. My aunt saw them in 64 when they played The Garden. She couldn't hear them, but she saw them. I could have chosen, you know, Ticket to Ride, Drive My Car, Paperback Rider, Hey Jude.

You know, the list goes on and on and on and on and on. How many bands have been influenced by the Beatles? They are, you know, you had Elvis and you had the Beatles. And you either went one way or the other. My parents were Beatles fans. They were not Elvis fans. You want a really cool, funny Elvis story while this is kind of finishing up?

Of course. So in 19, whenever he died, my family... Was it 77? I think so. I think you're right, yeah, because we went... Anyway, we were on a trip of the southern U.S. All the way down, we were heading towards Florida, to Disney World. We were touring the Gettysburg National Cemetery.

We were on the Plains of Abraham. And in the old days, the ladies got the megaphone. All right, if you can come, you know, so we're standing around. And all of a sudden, she gets this call on her walkie and she she picks it up and she just started crying and people were like you know what's going on and you know i was five so i was you know i just knew that something was happening and somebody said what's wrong what's wrong and the lady just blurted out elvis presley has died all these people just started wailing. And like I said, my parents are not Elvis fans, so I didn't see my dad or my mother crying. So I'm like,

who's Elvis? No clue, no whatsoever. But I just remember grown adults just openly weeping in the middle of a national historic site. But again, I wasn't an Elvis fan. I mean, I was a Beatles fan. Well, you were very, and at that time, you were very, very young. Yes, extremely young. I'm just doing the math. Yes, yeah, I was very young.

I was very young. And the Beatles, you know, the love of the Beatles have stayed with me. And I used to play Beatles tracks in all the dances I used to do anyway, just because I wanted to. It's funny, you told the Elvis story after the Beatles track,

and the very first famous person I remember dying was John Lennon. So in my memory, thinking of the first famous death I learned about was John Lennon from the Beatles had died, 1980. Yeah, that was, yeah, that was, that sent a, yeah, that was horrible. Horrible, horrible time. I, you know, like again, I, anyway. The other Beatles track, and it happens to be a Landon song too,

In My Life is another track I simply adore from the Beatles. Yep. But, let's hear, and by the way, the Beatles has shown up on quite a few of us,

not surprisingly, quite a few of the jams that have been kicked out thus far have included Beatles songs. I think three out of the four now. Well, and I was like, okay,

what's Siobhan going to have? Because then I was thinking, I don't want to play the same track, even though I probably would have anyway. No, but you can't alter it. No, I know. It is what it is. It is what it is.

And again, this would have been it. And I'm hoping to get down. I've just heard that they've changed the Love Show up in Vegas. They've added some new music. So I'm hoping I can get down there to see it because I've probably seen it 10, 12 times.

Wow. Yeah, it's great. Let's kick out your eighth jam, Andrew. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it.

Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. It's like watching murder through your fingers at the theater It's like finding out Klaus Barbie was your neighbor Only weirder And when I saw you on the tube

With a six-foot cop on either side of you That's when I knew That's when I knew That's when I knew That's when I knew All the pain that was shacked up inside of you Well, so long, Bernie, old old friend I never knew and never will I never will

She didn't even know your name. But you put a six-inch blade inside her all the same. This won't be the last song by Lowest of Low we hear today. No. No. I always look forward to the end of your podcast. This is Lowest of the Low, So Long, Bernie. Yep. Well, now I know, Low, So Long Bernie. Yep. I never know No, no, no, no, no, no You're the beast inside us all

The straw that breaks The wire that snaps You're all the pressure built up in this pitiful machine Yeah, yeah, yeah Tell us why you love this track. This is track two on Shakespeare My Butt, for those people who don't know. Released in 1991, it's the greatest love song album to Toronto there is.

This album hit me in the CFNY days and then carried on as I went off to university. I got to know the guys, Steven over the years and Ron, met a number of times. I got to introduce them

seven, eight times when they played shows at Ryerson. Cool. We used to book them. Did you ever book Moxie Fruvis? No. Actually, Moxie Fruvis never played at Ryerson

as far as I know. But we did do one year where we had Lowest of the Low. We had, so I think it was Moist, The Waltons, Great Big Sea. But Low probably played five or six times if not more. And then on top of all the stuff we did at CFNY with them. This album, you know, for all that the yellow cassette did for the Barenaked Ladies, this

album did the same for them. Independent, released. It's my favorite album of all time. And again, because it takes me to a certain point in my life where I was on my own. You know, I had just left home. I'm out on my own living downtown Toronto, going to school, figuring things out for myself, if you will. And it's just a fantastic...

This is the, you know, if I have to go on a desert island, I can take one album with me. This is the one that goes. It's also one of the first songs I ever learned on guitar when I was teaching myself how to play. But you're right. There's really no more Toronto album than Shakespeare, My Butt by Louis de Ville.

No. And I know Alan's written extensively on it. You know, it's one of the biggest albums in Australia when these guys are huge. I mean, I was really upset when they left, when they broke up the first time. And then when they got back together, they went and did the 20th

anniversary tour, which I got to see. You were there the night after me. So that was before. And then December of 2012, they played a couple of shows at the Horseshoe when they were still the original, well, the three of the original four members. When Ron and Steven were still together.

Yeah, and Jason, the drummer, was there. It was only the original bass player who had left. And we played, and you know what? Like I said, that show that we played, or that they played, was awesome because we got down there early enough and we got to see this band called the Strumbellas who I'd never heard of before.

And they're on... And the rest is history. To see them where they were and where they are now, I'm just really happy for them. Your not-so-favorite station, 88.1, plays Spirits. I think they play every hour. Yeah. They've been doing so for a while.

Yeah, it's two years that song's been out now. And it's hard to believe it's been out that long. But it's that sound that they like, and it's CanCon. You can't lose. No, CanCon is key. I know they've relaxed the rules a little bit but still I don't think it's the same as what it used to be in the early 90s

which is what helped explode Canadian bands. Well I was going to say you mentioned CFNY and Lowest of the Low and I was an avid CFNY listener throughout the 90s and there were so many radio smash hits coming off of Shakespeare, My Butt.

Yep. I mean, Ron's been here, and we've talked about it. Yep. And they're all great. I hope you can get Steve in here to talk. It's funny. My wife and Steven used to work all together because he works, I believe, for Strategy Magazine.

He's an art director. They worked for years, Cary never associated that. It was Steven. So it's funny. But yeah, I mean, there's 17 tracks, 17 tracks on the album. You know,

just look at the titles. Henry Needs a New Pair of Shoes, Bleed a Little Wild Tonight, Subversives, Eternal Fatalist, which was the lead single, if you will, 4 O'Clock Stop, Salesman

Cheats and Liars, What You End the Show With St. Brendan's Way, Letter from Bill Bale, it's under the Carlaw Bridge it's again if you've never heard this album and I'm sure if you listen to Toronto Mike

you have heard this album but if you haven't you need to listen to it you need to listen to it. You need to listen to it loud. And you need to be at the only, if it still exists, I don't know, or maybe go to Say What, have a couple of pints, put on your headphones and just listen to this album. What we know is if you do listen to Toronto Mike,

at least we know you've heard one cut from Shakespeare, My Body. Oh, that's true. Every episode closes with Rosie and Greg. Since day one, right? Yeah, since day one, because day one I was sitting beside a Rosie. It all made too much sense. Miss Rosie. How could you not?

So if Rosie's listening... I have not seen Rosie for a while. I miss Miss Rosie. Spends a lot of time in the York region. Yes. Very far away. Well, far away from me, but really far away from you. Extremely far. Yeah, I don't get to the York region that often. I don't get south of... Sorry. I don't get to the York region that often. I don't get south of,

I'm sorry, I don't get north of St. Clair that often, so I'm not getting up there either. But, hi, Rosie. All right, let's hear your ninth jam. Oh, the boss is coming You better look busy They're not paying you for nothing There's no time for loving And so in the city There's only room for the sweaty

There's only room for the sweaty Hey! Oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh Arkells Oh the Boss is coming I believe your Dave Hodge episode said that

in his opinion these guys were the best Canadian rock band currently I think I phrased it as is there a band out in Canada now that has the potential to become hip-like like the next Tragically Hip? I think that, and before he opened his mouth and said Arkells,

I heard him in my head saying Arkells, because it really felt like that was the answer. Yeah. And it was the, it is the answer. Their album that just came out, Morning Report, has been all over the place. But this, this was the answer. Their album that just came out, Morning Report, has been all over the place.

But this, this was the beginning, right? If you're going to get in in a band, the ground floor, and be able to go through their catalog, you start with this

and this album. And for me, I had never heard of them before. And I was doing this little TV show called The Vanier Cup in Hamilton in 08 at Iverwind, the old Iverwind Stadium, and the producer of the show came in to me and he handed me a four-track EP on CD and said, Hey, Andrew, these guys are playing the halftime show,

and we need to promote them. I need you to find a track, and can you cut, like, a 30-second promo clip? And I'm like, I don't know who they are. And he says, yeah, I think the single's called, is number two, which was, oh, the boss is coming. And I put this into the CD player, and I put it on the speakers, and I was like,

holy shit, what am I listening to? And if anybody wants, they can go onto YouTube and type 2008 Vanier Cup Arkells Halftime Show, and you can actually see somebody's posted it from the score. You can actually see them perform the show and how young they look. I mean, it's 10 years. You know, five guys from Hamilton went to Mac,

got together, and the rest is history. I mean, this song is a love song, if you will, to hardworking Steel Town. It was about that same time period. Somebody I worked with, a friend of mine, we were at, where were we exactly? We were out for lunch in Mississauga and she said oh i know these guys and she went to the next booth it might have been like a pizza hut or something yeah might have in fact i believe it was a pizza hut and the arkells were sitting there and she was friendly with them somehow and just uh you know hey the arkells and i had heard this is the only track at the time i'd

ever heard from these guys i'm like i know that song like i know these guys and all i've witnessed over the last several years that these guys got bigger and bigger, I know that song. I know these guys. All I've witnessed over the last several years is these guys got bigger and bigger and now I'm hearing they're selling out shows and they're just, they are very big right now. They're huge. In fact, as funny as it is,

this morning at 10 o'clock they announced a special show at the Key to Bala on August 3rd. It's a fundraiser for Jay's Care. So I bought two tickets, so we're going to go up and see them. We're going to see them at the art park at the end of August on the 18th. I don't know how many times I've seen them before that.

I didn't get a chance to be on their show. Unfortunately, I was working. What's the relationship? The relationship, remind you know, when you told me your three favorite podcasts and one was geeks and beats and one is Toronto Mike. Yes. One was Taggart and Torrance. Yes. What's the relationship?

Is it, is a member of the Arkells editing that show? Yeah. So, um, uh, the drummer, uh, Tim is the, uh, is their editor for them. for them their sound editor their engineer if you will and they record both pieces record on a computer and ship it off to tim and tim edits it um gotcha yeah it you know it's again music takes you back to a time i know i keep coming back to this but it's true and if you haven't heard it i mean they had they so they did um they had the the first album uh then they had uh michigan left which i think some people when they heard it they wanted to hear what was on uh the first album and obviously they wanted to go somewhere else and

then they ended up um they had a uh a member leave the band, and Anthony showed up, and High Noon came out, and that's kind of where they went from 5 to 10, if you will. High Noon really rocketed them, if you will, into the echelon of upper Canadian rock music, and then they started getting more U.S. play, and they lit up the stage at the Junos in Hamilton, obviously, in front of their home crowd, and they've just gone straight vertical.

We've heard nine of your tracks so far, and Arkells are the most modern of your nine bands so far. I would say, yeah. No, I'm not even going to say I know, because I'm staring at the names and the only name that is of, yeah, Arkells are definitely the newest band to crack your list.

Yes. Let's hear But again, when you're talking music, unless somebody really like, these are supposed to be my favorite songs of all time. Yes. A song that's only been out for six to eight months, I really couldn't say that's my favorite of all time.

It needs length. It needs breadth. It needs the seasoning, if you will, to move into your soul, to put it into place. So that's why. The time gives it some perspective. And this is nine years old. So if that's my earliest one,

it's nine years old. That's pretty good. Let's hear your number one jam. Sure, and this is my ringtone. 🎵 Words like violence break the silence Come crashing in, into my little world Painful to me, it's right through me Don't you understand, oh my little girl

All I ever wanted, all I ever needed is here in my arms. Words are very unnecessary. They can only do harm. Depeche Mode, enjoy the silence. Yep. If Duran Duran was my band of my early form years between 8 and 13, Duran Duran was from 13 to 23.

Sorry, Depeche Mode. sorry, Depeche Mode these guys they were the huge, big British new wave alternative band if you will, music for the masses strange love

people are people just this album Violator with Personal Jesus, Policy of Truth, this track. I don't think there was anyone bigger. Remember the show, the Depeche Mode 101 album from Pasadena, 100,000 people for four or five nights. Double album.

You know, women throwing things at Dave Gahan all night long. And they were a great band. I mean, you know, look at great bands of the past. Great music, but you have to have a frontman. Queen, Led Zeppelin, In Excess, you know, these were great bands. But if it wasn't, if you took, well, I mean, it happened, right? You take Michael Hutchins out in excess, and what happened to the band? Here, you had three guys playing keyboards.

Doesn't lend a lot for them to be able to get out behind their machines, but then you have this enigmatic front man. It's funny how you, when hearing you, because that's absolutely true. And then I think about sort of an exception to the rule, if you will, would be like Joy Division loses their front guy, and suddenly you have, from the ashes, you have New Order. Yep.

And I bring that up mainly because in my mind, when I look back at my early high school years, you cannot understate how popular Depeche Mode was. No. But New Order, and I remember the cult, and there were certain bands that were so popular when I was like 9 and 10. Yep.

Absolutely. And hearing this now, just like a time machine, takes you right back. Yeah, I mean, this song came out, I want to say it was 1990, I think. Could have been, yeah, it was 1990. So when I DJed, I used to open up all of my dances. Didn't matter where, didn't matter where I was playing, who I was playing for.

I would always have like kind of just crappy background music before the quote dance actually started and then i would cut everything and i would use the imperial march from star wars on vinyl right because back then i was using turntables with vinyl and the odd cd and then i would play this theme to get people going why is he playing the star wars theme and then i would spin the disc and then I would hit this really hard and it hits you fast and I would bring up the tempo a little bit just to bring it up. And this song, like I said, it's the ringtone on my phone and it has been for as long as I've been able

to do a custom ringtone. It just gets me in a happy mood. The song just makes me want to dance. But there's no loss of irony in the fact that you are an audio guru who has a song here called Enjoy the Silence. Thank you. I wasn't sure if you were going to pick up on that or if anybody

else... Remember, I get emails from you. What is your signature in the email? No one cares about audio until they can't hear it. I love the silence, too. But, you know, cranking this song up, whether it's if it's been a long day,

it's been a 14 or 15 hour shoot, and I just need something to pick me up, this is the song I put on. And to see people dancing, you know, one of the largest shows I ever did was up at Trent during their winter festival called Bon Ton in the Champlain College cafeteria, which holds about 1,800 people. And having them, I mean, they were pretty liquored up at that point.

But, you know, to have them mingling around with some other stuff and then cutting the music, playing this Star Wars theme, and everybody kind of looking up, and then really hit it hard with that, and then to see the place explode, that's what you want, right? As a DJ or somebody who was playing music, you want people to dance.

There's nothing worse than playing music and nobody out on the floor dancing. And I always found this song, didn't matter what they liked, it got people the floor dancing. And I always found this song, didn't matter what they liked, it got people up and dancing. You know, this, hearing you play your 10 jams and talk about it is so much fun. I'm surprised this is legal. I'm sure it's not,

because this is a hell of a lot of fun. I thoroughly enjoyed that. Do you want, before I play us out with some more lows to the low, do you want to drop a few honorable mentions? Yeah, I had five that was really close, and we won't have to talk about them all. But Closer to Fine by the Indigo Girls.

Again, trying to teach myself to play guitar. It was just really nice, easy music. And I got to meet Emily and the other names, drawing me blank, at a couple of shows when I used to direct the video screens at the amphitheater. I got to meet them

a bunch of times and talk about that. I did not have a hip song in the top ten. Okay, so this is the thread that has ended now. So Hebsey had a hip song. Yeah.

Wilner had a hip song. Yeah. Siobhan Morris had a hip song. Yeah. Andrew Stokely does not have a hip song. I really liked the hip, but it never got above that for me.

We are not owed an explanation because as I keep reminding people in the comments at TorontoMic.com is your 10 favorite songs are your 10 favorite songs. If the hip aren't there, you can't artificially put them in there just to keep the thread going.

No, no. And so 38 Years Old would have been a track, which is one I know they don't play anymore in concert. I saw it in concert. They did play it and they had it like, but you're right, it was like a 13 year gap or something. It's probably 1990 at Barry at Molson was probably the last time i saw them play okay you might be right because it was probably about 2003 when i saw them play that at fort york 38 years old yeah so there's that one um siobhan talked about uh music theater i know she uh i my whole family has been theater nerds their whole life. And Les Mis is my favorite,

so it would have been on my own like she had said, but I didn't want to play that. It's just a different, I mean, music for theater and show tunes is a completely different genre than this. Not everyone likes it. It's not their cup of tea, but I grew up in the theater, and my niece currently right

now is going through musical performance at Ithaca College, and so we have continued to share our love for that. A band that, again, first heard in 2012, the Strumbellas. It's not Spirits. It's their first track that I heard, which was called The Sheriff, which is off their album The Hunter, their first track that I heard, which was called The Sheriff, which is off their album The Hunter, My Father the Hunter. Honestly, if you guys haven't, obviously you've heard them because of like you said, Indie88 plays the hell out of

even, does CFNY play them? I believe so. Yeah, well, it's a hit CanCon song, why wouldn't? I'm sure CHFI, they all play it. But their first two albums were great. They won a bunch of Junos for those albums, for Folk, and so forth.

And their big hit before the Spirits thing took off, Sail? Sailing. Sailing, that's right. Yeah, which was off the second album. Which is a great track. Which is a great track. The second album was really good.

When we saw them in 12, they were starting to play some of the tracks off that album in their shows. But again, we had never seen them. We happened to get to the shoe early because we were coming from out of town and we were staying downtown. So we went and saw them. And there was a big snowstorm that night, right?

Huge snowstorm, yeah. I remember. I was glad we were staying downtown. But here's an opening act I've never seen before. And usually for the opening act, you're standing around the bar, you're drinking, you're standing around the bar, you're drinking, you're not doing anything. These guys held me from the minute the first note,

uh, came out. And honestly, if they'd come back on and play it again, I would have been like, this has been a great night. Uh, I got to talk with the guys after the show cause they were kind of mingling

around before, before the low came on really good guys. I'm really happy for them from where they started as a kind of an conglomeration to where they are. And then finally, in 1991, I was still working at CFNY

while I was going to university. Or 1990. And the music in 88, 89 was really crap. I mean, it was a bad time of music. I think we can all agree. That pre-grunge we were looking for. We had a lot of hair metal still going on,

a lot of Poison, Motley Crue. The biggest artist. Dr. Feelgood. Paula Abdul was huge. New Kids on the Block. We had Aerosmith's Pump, though. I think that was around. But you're right, it was a tough period.

It was a tough period of time. And working at NY in that weird time frame when it was bought out and i know alan talked about on his show and rob johnson's johnston's talked about any of the cfny people you know who are really involved have talked about that era uh and this is when they would have to they would play like madonna for example the thursday 30 you know it went from one thursday 30 you went New Order, Depeche Mode, the cult, all that, to the next week it was Madonna,

New Kids on the Block, and Paula Abdul, and you're going, what the fuck just happened? I think it was Reiner Schwartz who comes in to start to clean it up a bit, I think. Yeah, McLean Hunter.

Yeah, you can go back to those episodes of Alan and everybody to... Yeah, just to go through the full history of what happened there. But then I remember, because I was doing some promotion stuff, and I was working in the music department for Earl Jive when he was there in Beverly Hills. And Alan came in and said, this is it.

This is the song we've been waiting for. And it was Smells Like Teen Spirit from Nirvana. And I remember hearing it for the first time and i thought first of all what did i just hear and i need to hear it again and i need to hear it again and i need to hear it again and on because i'm right with you 100 but in addition it had like the perfect video for the song. Something about the anarchy cheerleaders and something about that whole... The video encapsulated this scene

and we're teenagers and it's like, boom, this is what we've been waiting for and then the rest is history. And that was, honestly, it was between Elton John and Smells Like Teen Spirit for the top 10, if you will.

But the Elton John song just has more memories, if you will, associated with it. You can't beat a good father and son memory. Nothing beats that. Nope. Even taking your daughter to a 19 to 1 loss. You guys are troopers because if I could have, I would have left in the fifth inning. But unfortunately, it would have sounded really quiet. Well, when you only get to like one game a year, you can't leave early. No, no, no, no. It's true. And you don it would have sounded really quiet. You only get to one game a year.

You can't leave early. No, that's true. And you don't have that far to go. And if I was with a pal or whatever, and it was a shit game, we'd go do something else. But I wanted every moment with my daughter to soak in all that dome goodness. And you never know. Maybe Andrew Stokely will get you on Sportsnet National

Television. There we go. So thank you for that. And thank you for these tracks. Yeah. I hope people enjoyed it. I sure did. Good, yeah. I mean, it was tough. It was a tough slog,

but I was really happy after I finally refined it all. And that brings us to the end of our 250th show. You've also been on the 50th show, so you're on all these milestones. I feel truly honored, and you know what? For what you did down here, and it's in great shape.

I think it's one of the best sounding podcasts out there. You know, I don't want to toot my own horn, but I think I got you to buy some good gear. I hear from people who listen to a lot of podcasts, they tell me, your show sounds great and I always say my MasterCard played a role but Andrew Stokely is the man who told me what to buy

nothing worse nothing worse than shitty audio let's be honest you can follow me on Twitter I'm at Toronto Mike Andrew are you uh what are you at audio Stokely what are you, at audio Stokely? What are you? At Stokely Audio. I should have known that. That's fine. At Stokely Audio. With an A though. S-T-O-A-K-L-E-Y. Audio.

And he loves it when you tweet your audio questions at him. Oh, yeah. Fellow podcasters with questions. Yes. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. And propertyinthesix.com is at Brian Gerstein. That's B-R-I-N-S-T-E-I-N. See you all next week. Everything is coming up rosy and gray. Yeah, the wind is cold, but the smell of snow won't stay today.

And your smile is fine.