Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Dave Bidini: Toronto Mike'd #526

Episode Date: October 10, 2019

Mike chats with Dave Bidini about Rheostatics, Etobicoke, Dave Bookman, Gord Downie, The West End Phoenix, radio and more.

Welcome to episode 526 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, StickerU.com, Brian Master from KW Realty, Capadia, LLP, CPAs, and Pumpkins After Dark. I'm Mike, from TorontoMike.com, and joining me this week is singer,

songwriter, author, newspaper dude, many, many, man of many, wears many hats, Dave Bedini. Welcome back to Etobicoke, Dave Bedini.

Well, I'm actually in Mimico officially. Which is in, well, you're not in Mimico. I'm not? No. Okay. You're in New Toronto. Yeah, okay. Once you get to numbered streets.

It smells like Mimico. It does. You know what? I hear that a lot. People think they're in Mimico. You're not alone there. Maybe it's just your house smells like Mimico. It's the lake effect.

But you do know, Mr. Bedini, that of course Mimico, New Toronto, Long Branch, they're part of Etobicoke. Not part of my Etobicoke. Not since 1967. See? Tell me about like what's your Etobicoke? What part of Etobicoke are you from?

I'm from Kipling and Dixon area, the West Way. I went to Power. Everything, honestly, like... Oh, did you? Yeah, not too far. That was a bit of the other side of the tracks. No, for me, every time I get... Anytime I get...

Honestly, anytime I get south of... I'm trying to think. Well, south of the Queensway. It's kind of like it's weird town to me just because i never i never really came here right and it was always like yeah down mimico's down there you don't want to go there um uh but i've since explored the wonders of you know south etobicoke but um anyways i think in my mind it's always been planted as as being mimico it's funny been planted as being Mimico. It's funny you mentioned Queensway.

That's kind of the demarcation line. I noticed, even myself, I've lived here six years, but before I moved down here, and I basically got priced out of all the other markets I wanted to live in. It's a great area to be in, though. I've grown to totally love it, but it's true. Once you're south of Queensway, you're like, where am I?

This is the part of the city you just don't know. And also, I think people think that the Queensway and the lakeshore are actually closer than they are but that's a hike man it's like in half well you got to jump over the highway right there's a lot in there completely different realities and it more german along the queensway more russian along the lakeshore russian yeah just yeah russian polish russian polish exactly you know absolutely that's right there's a lot of a lot of Polish. It's more Alpine up on the Queensway, right? There's a lot of Italian, too, going on. Yeah, a lot of Italians everywhere.

It's true. I always, you know, my high school, Michael Bauer, at the original location. Right. Yeah. The markup was like, it was 40% Italian descent, 40% Polish. Right. And then 20% the rest of us mixed up in there. Right, right.

For sure, for sure. Anyways, Mr. Bedini, I'm going to stop calling you Mr. Bedini. Please. I don't have to call you Mr. Bedini. No, no. Dave, glad you're finally here, man. It's wonderful.

Thanks, yeah. I'm going to put you in the, with Fred Penner, who's been on the show, and Ron Hawkins from Lowest to the Low. And I'm about to give you a gift regarding Lowest to the Low. But you're not wearing, you're known for your hats. Like I kind of thought you might wear one of those cool like pork pie hats.

Can't wear, well, fedoras. But you can't wear fedora with headphones, right? Definitely not. They haven't made, you know, we've made many things as humans, but we have not yet made a set of headphones that will fit over a fedora. What's wrong, world? It's really one of the great disappointments of humanity. Yeah, now that I think of it,

Penner did take his off, actually. Right. We've got to work on that. But it's fedora? Is it a... Fedora, Italian. Yeah. Don't confuse that with a pork pie hat. That's a completely different... Pork pie is British, fedora is Italian. Gotcha. Essentially. But, yeah. Fedora. Gotcha. Right. But yeah,

Fedora. Yeah. Now, I mean, the real statics, when I think of Etobicoke, I mean, there's a few,

I guess, but in fact, there's a few big Etobicoke bands, actually, but one of the biggest Etobicoke success stories is the real statics. Like you're like,

but you don't live in Etobicoke anymore. No. No, no. You've moved east. East of the Humber River. Yeah, we're in the city. That's right. It's true. We have're like, but you don't live in Etobicoke anymore. No. You've moved east. East of the Humber River. Yeah, we're in the city. That's right. It's true.

We have. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But we were born and raised here. And what high school did you go to? Kipling Collegiate. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

And where's that Kipling and what? Where's Kipling? It's not. Kipling Collegiate is Kipling and the West, the Westway. It's between Islington. It's, I'm sorry.

It's between Martin Grove and Kipling off of the Westway. It's between Islington. It's, I'm sorry. It's between Martin Grove and Kipling off of the West way. And that's, okay, so that would, if you were going to a Catholic school,

you would have gone to like Don Bosco. Am I right? Yeah. Yeah, there were people I knew who went to Muggapower too, but Don Bosco,

John, yeah, that's right. Yeah, those, those, I used to, you know,

go to Ridgeview Library, you know, and then, before we had the internet, you know, you had to get books. They had a good library, did they? Yeah, it was pretty good. No libraries at the internet, you know, you had to get books. They had a good library, did they?

Yeah, it was pretty good. No libraries of the Catholic school? I don't know. They don't care. All Bibles. Just shelves of Bibles. Right, exactly. Yeah.

That's no fun. No. I have a newspaper, personal delivery man who delivers your paper to me. I want to say hi to Mark Hebbshire, who is here twice a week. Yes. He'll be here tomorrow morning

and I see you brought me one but I actually That's great. for the Periscope anyways but we'll get into the paper later. I was going to fill that screen. Yeah, okay.

Let's both hold them up because they're big. Yeah, they're broadsheets. This is called a broadsheet. We put the broad back in broadsheets. We did. Look, when we get

to the West End Phoenix part of the podcast we'll talk about that. So there's lots to cover here. So could we please begin speaking of Etobicoke? Like, can I get the real statics origin story before I play this like wonderful clip of Dave Hodge on Toronto Mike?

Hmm. Well, origin story. Me, I was 15, maybe 15, 14. Um,

me and Tim Bestley, that our bass player is still probably my oldest friend. Um, we went to Kipling and, uh, geez, I don't know what made me really want to play rock and roll. Um,

I was forced upon me by my parents basically and um well that's all right because usually usually worse things are for they made a good call they made a good call and uh loved music anyways and then so the two of us started um our first drummer was rod westlake um and uh we at rod left the band because I called the police on his parents as a joke because they had stolen stop signs. They probably weren't even stolen. They were like abandoned road signs that they had,

and I picked up the phone and pretended to call the police. Oh, you pretended. I did. I picked up the call. I think I probably pressed zero or 911 or whatever, and pretended. I did. I picked up the call. I think I probably pressed 0 or 911 or whatever and I said, and then I hung up the phone and then a day later

him and his dad showed up at my house with my amp and Rod said he can't come over anymore because the cops had gone. They'd traced the call or something and they'd gone to his house and nobody got charged or anything. So that was the end of Rod. Rod's a pilot now's doing very well okay because he might he'd be like pissed about that

like you know considering real statics you know did something oh no no it ended up being fine his brother built a stage for us actually in his basement for us to hear son it was beautiful and then with graham kirkland was our our second drummer and graham's jazz was it is is yeah he's a investment banker now but anyways he was our second drummer. And Graham's jazz is... He's an investment banker now. But anyways, he was our second drummer. That didn't work out. And so he turned us on to Dave Clark, who was 15 at the time.

And we met Dave and played our first show in October 1980 at The Edge. So 40 years next year. Is that like a Gary's presentation? Yeah, Gary Topp. Because Gary Topp's coming in next week. So shout out to Gary. So the story is,

I was at the 1980, maybe 1979, I was wrote for this high school newspaper called the Sunshine News, and I had passes to the Festival of Festivals, which is what

the International Film Festival used to be called, and I went to a screening of Let There Be Rock, the ACDC documentary backed with Union City, which is a film starring Deborah Harry. And I was in the lobby having a Coke or whatever,

and Gary Topp came up to me and said, are you Dave Bedini? And I said, yeah, why does this man know my name? And he said, I just want to tell you, I listened to your tape, and I think it's really good, and I'd love to have you play The Edge. I had sent a demo tape to the Garys that summer, and he had called my house that day

and my mom had answered. And my mom had said, oh, he's actually at this screening. So Gary came down, found me at the screening and said, I want to book you guys at the Edge. It's the greatest day of my life. Called the guys and said,

it was our first show. And the Edge, I mean, we worship the Edge. We went there. And the great thing about the Edge is it was a restaurant. So you could be any age. You could be 13, 14 years old

and still go and see The Cure and The Cramps and Echo and the Bunnymen and the members and Killing Joke and all these incredible British bands

for four bucks right and well all these adult people were drinking and having rock and roll times you could be there eating your chicken wings and having your coke

anyway so we were that was our first show you know it's kind of amazing that you were you told a story about calling the police. And of course, the Garys called the police for the Horseshoe Tavern just before they broke. There it comes.

Yes, it did. Yeah, so listeners, be aware next week. So I've had Gary Cormier on the show. Yeah, they're amazing. But Gary Topp has never been on the show. But when I mentioned that I've had a couple of phone calls, I think before I pressed record, I told you. Last two episodes, I accidentally got a phone call and one of, when I mentioned that I've had a couple of phone calls, I think before I pressed record I told you, last two episodes I accidentally got a phone call and one of them was Gary Topp

who wanted to make sure everything was set up for his appearance. So Gary Topp will be on the show and I'll bring up this little... I owe him a great debt and many bands owe him a great debt.

For sure. Gary didn't give a shit. He really didn't. Which one? Well, I think Cormier gave a shit. A real, he really didn't. Which one? Well, I think, I don't think, I think,

I think Cormier gave a shit a bit more than Gary top, but Gary would just like Gary book bands on a, on a kind of a gut vibe. Okay. Right. He really didn't know what he was walking into in terms of them as people. But, um, but he listened,

he treated Ben so well. And you know, the Ramones talk about the first time they were ever put up in a nice hotel. They stayed at the Delta Chelsea and the Gary's put them there. He about the first time they were ever put up in a nice hotel, they stayed at the Delta Chelsea and the Garys put them there. It's the first time they ever stayed in a nice hotel and I actually have a photo

in my garage that was taken by Ralph Alfonso who's somebody else you should have on your show about and it's the only photo of the four Ramones smiling together. Wow.

They're out in their balcony like they're happier than pigs and shit and they play a show that night at the New Yorker and yeah, so Gary did that. I just like how when I've done 526 of these things

and everyone's connected. Like last episode was of Davnet Doyle. And one of her best friends is Gary Cormier's daughter. So it's just weird how it's all like that. Now, I'm going to play a clip. First of all, this tape that Gary Topp heard, is that the greatest hits? No, this is the 1980 demo tape

that we recorded, Evolution Sound 2000 in Brampton. Okay. Now calling this first, I guess, real album? Can I call that a great... Oh yeah, it was the first album. Yeah, totally.

So the calling it greatest hits is just you being like a dink, right? Idiots. We made it up in Buffalo. We were playing there and doing a show there and we were like, let's call our first album Greatest Hits.

It'll be hilarious. Well, I'm going to play a chat I had with a friend of the show, Dave Hodge, about a cut that's on this album, Greatest Hits. And then I want to talk about, play that song and talk about it. But let's hear 90 seconds of Dave Hodge and I want to play that song and talk about it. But let's hear 90 seconds of Dave Hodge and I.

So there you go. He's saying, well, I heard Wendell talking to Dave Hodge last night, and he said that he was confident and keen, and he said that Jacques Plante didn't die, so all of us could glide. He said that hard work is the ethic of the free. How does that sound being part of Canadian music history? Well, it's my favorite song that includes my name in the lyrics because you can guess the rest of the sentence. It is the only one that I know of. And so sure. And I, it was, it was brought to my attention. I didn't hear it first. That might've floored me if, but somebody said, you know, you know, the real statics. Yes. You're a fan. Yes. Uh, the Ballad of Wendell Clark. Okay. I'm, I'm vaguely familiar with it. Uh, but maybe I need to listen to it again. Yeah, you should listen to

it again. And so ever since it's, uh, and it's been, I mean, I've, I've been at shows and that's been a trivia question, uh, for somebody to, uh, you know, name the, name the song that included my name in, in, uh, in the lyrics and, uh And the Ballad of Wendell Clark wins, and a lot of hands go up. So good for the Rheostatics for popularizing that, and I guess it didn't hurt me either. There's Dave Hodge. So we were asked to do...

Jeez, I'm trying to think how we... Oh, Gary Green. So we were asked to play at Pat Burns' wake. At the Horseshoe. And him and Coach there, Mike Keenan, asked us to do it. So we were side stage, and somebody mentioned the ballad of Wendell Clark, and Bob McKenzie turned to Dave Hodge and said,

Dave, you know that song? Dave Hodge and said, Dave, you know that song? And Hodge said, no, it I'm in it. So it was a good line. And of course it's actually, again,

you know, you call the album greatest hits. Like that sounds like a troll move, but then you, the song's actually called the ballad of Wendell Clark part one and two. So I'm going to play a bit of it in the background. Cause I want to ask you about it. Sure.

Sure. part one and two. Yes. So there you go. Now I'm going to play a bit of it in the background because I want to ask you about it. Sure, sure. Now first,

I love Wendell Clark, first of all. All heart this guy. So do you want to share a little bit? There's so much great in here. I mean,

you actually sample or you play a little of the Hockey Night in Canada theme song. Well, it's martin tailey singing so he wrote part one he's different he's from rexdale it's different different like albion or yeah oh yeah i'll be in islington you know yeah yeah it's a whole other universe up there oh i know i actually uh would play slow pitch in a park up there and uh well i don't know what that's related to except it's the only park i've been at where we had to be careful

because people had daggers attached to kites that they were flying in this park. And it was like, you could die playing in this park, but please continue. Yes, death kite kiting. So he wrote the first tune. And then he, you know, just getting back to origin story, he joined our band in 1985, around there.

And yeah, our sound kind of was born from there and um this song i kind of give sort of the early or an early example of um us kind of writing together like collective writing you know as opposed to i got this song this is how it goes it was more like i kind of got this idea what do you guys think and then we kind of that's how we that's how generally we work but that was the first example of that kind of that kind of piece of music i think glorious references throughout i mean not just that dave hodge bit which is fantastic and all the wendell clark stuff but the video i like the video because i'm again i'll mention for the like the fifth time i went to power and i only bring that up because uh old mill donuts was a big deal great donut shop yeah it was at dundas and Islington? Yes.

Long gone. It's Starbucks now. Yeah, it's an MA. So the crawler, the French crawler, was a work of art. It was both heavy and light at the same time. Right. And I actually ended up meeting the guy who made that donut. Get out of here.

I'd have him on the show. I met him. You can. He's in jail. Get out of here. I'd have him on the show. I met him. You can. He's in jail. I'll do a phoner. He might be out now. I don't know. But I met him because he was running the donut shop at the corner of Sherbourne and Queen.

Because I did a donut odyssey for the start. Sorry. Okay. Because Kim's Convenience is right there now. If you ever want to go see the Kim's Convenience. It's a legendary corner for variety. It's always an adventure when I bike to Sherbourne. Yeah, it's swell, of course.

I joined in a center there, home of the homeless soccer team too. But anyways, that dude, so I interviewed him. We were just talking and stuff about what it's like to run a donut shop at the corner of Sherbourne Queen. He was like, well, I used to run this donut shop at Donetsk and Islington. I was like, Old Mill? He was like, yeah. I said, French Crawler? He was like, well, I used to run this donut shop at Donetsk and Islington. I was like, Old Mill? He was like, yeah. I said, French crawler. He's like, that was my invention.

I came to Canada and I brought this. That's amazing. Oh, he's brilliant. Then I went back to see him a month later to bring him a copy of the article, but he was in jail. Oh, well, sorry to hear that. They were selling dope out of that shop. I don't know whether he ended up doing a hard time.

But anyways. Well, it's good to hear that Galaxy Donuts didn't have the monopoly on dope sales in donut shops in this city because the Lansdowne and Bloor Galaxy Donuts, that was the spot. Now, I mentioned, why did I mention Old Mill Donuts?

Except if I ever want to see it, the only place I know of to really see it is in the video. The video is so bizarre. Like watching it now, it's like performance art or something. You know,

yeah, it's a strange, strange, and it's not film. It's not digital. It's rippling video. It's like full on, like 1985,

early video, portable video tape. But it's a bit of a love letter to Etobicoke. Like it's the most Etobicoke video. One of the most. Full on Etobicoke. We're proud, you videotape. But it's a bit of a love letter to Etobicoke. Like it's the most Etobicoke video. One of the most. Full on Etobicoke. We're proud, you know?

Sure. Weirdly proud. We probably didn't, we had probably an unreasonable amount of pride for that suburb, but. Well, why not? It's a fine place to grow up. Well, but I would say too, like,

well, yes and no. I mean, it's a great place to leave but i think we kind of embraced the um the dysfunction of the suburbs and and in a way kind of the detachment of of of life in the suburbs too and and uh and the loneliness that i think largely we felt as kind of teenagers adrift right from from from most teenagers And I just think we had to kind of try to find the art and we had to embrace that kind of narrative a little bit and write about it and tell stories about it. Right, I should probably point out that I'm not from Tobacco,

although I now live in Tobacco, but I'm not from here. So it's interesting. But I did go to high school here, so I knew a lot of friends who would like raise up whatever, Burnhamthorpe and East Mall or whatever, like all these places here. So now when you,

were you able to just use the Hockey Day in Canada theme without a problem? Like, did you have to give credit, like songwriting credit to Dolores Clayman or anything like that? We did not seek approval from Dolores Clayman. It's right in there. It's fantastic. Come after us, Dolores.

Now is your chance. Actually, it's kind of funny that, you know, you remember Bill bought it for TSN's hockey coverage. But now it's showing up in some Pepsi ad that I saw. Which is good. It's a great tune. Sure. Lovely song.

And Dolores Klayman did a great job. She's done some great Canadian songs here. Now, do you still organize those? I used to hear, I'd have musicians on and they, like, Ron Hawkins and stuff, they talk about, like, playing hockey games, like, pick up games of hockey. Are you the organizer of these, like,

Toronto rock and roll hockey games? Do you do that? I play in a league and our team started an artist's league called the Good Time Hockey League of the Arts. Our team is in our 24th year, I think. Okay. So the league's around 20-ish.

We have the Exclaim Cup Summit of the Arts tournament every Easter. And that's 40 teams from across Canada that play together. So yeah, totally. We were forerunners in that regard. And we tried to bridge that. We tried to bridge artists and jocks. We tried to find kind of a beautiful center. We tried to make it possible to be an artist

and to appreciate sports, but also to be a jock and respect that, the art that was made by people who also loved the games that they loved. But is it difficult? Because Ron McLean told me that all the Canadian musicians, not all of them obviously, but a lot of Canadian musicians are goaltenders.

He says there's a link between the Canadian musicians and playing net. Yeah, that's wrong theory, but the people that he mentioned honestly don't really play. They did at some point, but they don't play anymore. What was the list though? He did run down the list. I know that list, Alan Doyle and Keeler and stuff,

but those guys don't really play. What position do you play? I play goal on my Thursday mornings. I just played it. I smell like a goalie. I think you were on that list. Yeah, but I play traditionally as a defenseman. I'm kind of just moonlighting in goal.

Got you. But anyways, I don't know. I think Ron's theory has, I think there's some kind of historical weight to it, but I don't know if it still applies these days, honestly. No, I'm glad. That's why you're here for the real talk. We've got to set the record straight here.

We're here to debunk McLean. We're here to debunk McLean. Now, I'm going to get you to Melville, but first I want to give you a few gifts. Take a quick break. I mentioned Great Lakes Brewery. They are an Etobicoke Fresh Craft Brewery. Mike Lackey, Mike.

Oh, yeah. You know Mike. Oh, he plays at the... Mike Lackey played at our Wolf Island Hockey Tournament. I think he tried to climb into a sleeping bag with Dave Robinson

in the middle of the night. Lackey's the best. He's the brewmaster there. You're right. And he's been there forever. Jeff Merrick used to work at Great Lakes because he went to Humberside

with... It all goes back to Humberside. I think Peter Bullitt's from Humberside. It's a whole connection. So the Bullitt family owns Great Lakes Brewery. And I think Peter went there. Now, John K. from Steppenwolf

go to Humberside or Western Tech. I think he went to Western Tech. I could be wrong. We did a story in the Phoenix last year. Okay, cool. But good enough for Jeff Western Tech. I could be wrong. We did a story in the Phoenix last year. Okay, cool. But good enough for Jeff Merrick, good enough for me. So, and I don't know,

I always drop this fact, people are sick of it, but Jeff Merrick's favorite teacher at Humberside is Sofia Yurstakovich's father, Mr. J. So there you go. Okay, so you're taking home this. I'm going to drink it.

And I actually will have a question. in the car on the way home. No, don't do that. I can't condone that activity. But I can tell you that when I do get to the West End Phoenix part of the podcast, I have a question from Troy at Great Lakes. Okay. So brace yourself. Thank you for the beer.

Thank you, Great Lakes, for giving Bedini the six-pack. And there is... This is... Sorry, go ahead. There's a Great Lakes van near where I live in Toronto. I wonder who... Can you give me the neighborhood you live in? Yeah, like we're in Bloordale, I guess they call it.

So like, you know, like a Ossington and Bloor kind of area. I'll find out. Do you know whose van that is? No, because I know... I don't know. It's always parked. It's always parked illegally. It's always just,

sometimes it'll just be like on a lawn somewhere. Like Troy's a Danforth guy, so it's not him. And then Barry, I know he's like a Jane and Annette guy. No. So it's not him.

So I will find out. Interesting. Maybe it's a stolen van or something. I wonder how many they got. They do have a surprising number of Ossington. Anyways, I can ask Mayberry. Maybe he can know

or Lackey will know. Lackey came to our George Chiavello party a couple months ago. Okay, that would be the Joel Goldberg guy. Yes, exactly. Okay, I think it's...

Did you get Joel on the show? Like three times. In fact, you know what's funny? I wanted Ziggy on because I was a big MuchMusic fan. And Ziggy was chaperoned, I guess you could say,

by her personal chauffeur, Joel Goldberg, who I call Jay Gold from his CFMT video show. Now, this is, I don't know if there's one here. Let me see. Okay. What you got there? Okay. Yeah, yeah.

So there you go. I'll take yours. Okay. I'll take mine. That's some rock and roll. That's the display. Oh, Electric Circus. Great, great.

Joel Goldberg is one of the creators of Electric Circus on Munch Music. And that's the Electric Circus beer from Great Lakes Brewery. And the cowboy who's... I know you're a hockey fan. You're a baseball fan? I know the cowboy. Okay.

Yeah, sure. I love baseball. Can you... You want to tell me, do you know who is the son of the cowboy, Kenrick? I don't want to say the last name because it'll give it away.

I do, but I can't recall it right now. Dalton Pompey. Yeah. Mrs. Sagan, who was... Oh, is he still? He's still. Who may never make it, but never say never.

Never say never. And his little brother is... I don't know if he's on the 40-man roster. I think he still is. I think he still is as well. And his little brother has a good... Tristan Pompey is actually a pretty good prospect. Yeah, that's good.

Totally. That's his pops? Yep. Isn't that one? Dad! It's all connected here. Where's dad going? He's going to dance in his shorts on television. He had a single in the early 90s. He had a dance single called Summertime, Summertime. He put out a 12-inch single there.

Has he been on the show? No. Dude. I'm working on it. I'm working on it. Now, this is the red box I'm pointing to right here is underneath your West End Phoenix. That is, I just took that out of the freezer like a minute before you got to the door. Yes.

It is a large lasagna. Nice. That's a lasagna from Palma Pasta. It's a big lasagna. Cool. It's a lot of food there. It's laced. It's laced with pure LSD, I'm told.

I can't comment on that but you will enjoy it and thank you Palma Pasta they're on skip the dishes if you want to give them a go and you should best authentic Italian food in the GTA I'm just going to go to the lake

pound that six pack and eat this frozen lasagna yeah it might break your teeth I'm thinking you probably want to wait to cook that up pretty tough dude but I will let the listenership know

that on December 7th, that's a Saturday, at noon, we will be recording an episode of Toronto Mike Live from Palmas Kitchen. Palmas Kitchen, December 7th,

noon. Everybody is invited and if you show up and wish to be on that episode, you can jump on a mic and have a chat with me. So please put that in your calendar. December 6th is a special day.

And why is December 6th? We are playing at the Danforth Music Hall on December 6th. So go to our show, you know, have a good time. I'll do that. Sleep in and then go talk to Mike. I'm into this. I'm into seeing you, yeah, on the Friday night and then hosting this event on the Saturday. I'm down.

I'm down. Good, good. What else you got? Okay, there's some stickers for you from stickeru.com. Okay. The contest ends, I'm going to look at the, I think it ends midnight tonight.

Okay, so if you're listening or live watching, you can tweet a photo that you took that you deemed to be like an iconic photo of Toronto. Tweet that at sticker you and toronto mike and put in the hashtag sticker uto sticker uto and you can win 100 bucks to spend on the queen street the sticker bricks and mortar store they just opened so that sticker is to commemorate the bricks and mortar store there's a temporary tattoo in case you want to get a real one do you have any tattoos no i. I don't have tattoos. I know. Yeah. But here's the temporary one for you.

I'm just, I'm afraid of. You're the only rock star without a tattoo. The pain. Although Davnet Doyle says she doesn't have one either. She's got,

she must, no, she doesn't, eh? No. Okay. That's the latest album from Lowest of the Low. It doesn't look like it's very small to be an album.

Don't put that in the, don't put that in the CD player. No. But it's a sticker and. Don't put that in your Cars cassette deck. That wouldn't's a sticker. Don't put that in your Cars cassette deck. That wouldn't be very good. This is a sticker? That is a sticker.

Okay. And there's a Toronto Mike sticker. This is the one I'm most excited about because I can't wait to see where it ends up. Let me know. Okay. But that is the highly desired Toronto Mike sticker. So thank you, StickerU.

That's fantastic. Sweet. One more thing to give you. This is going to be emailed to you pdf tickets i have for you two tickets to pumpkins after dark pumpkins after dark is 5 000 hand carved pumpkins that illuminate the skies at country heritage park in milton ontario uh it's already going now and it goes till november 3rd you can go to uh pumpkins after dark.com to book your time you want to to go. Again, 5,000 pumpkins, 100 sculptures, sound as well.

Two tickets for you, Dave Bedini. Listeners who want to get 10% off right now, just use the promo code pumpkinmike. Pumpkinmike. I heard there was going to be 6,000 pumpkins. You're telling me there's five now? I'm going to be the bearer of bad news. We're short 1,000 hand-carved pumpkins.

When is the pumpkin fest? This is happening now, man. You can go tonight. I'm busy. Make time for the pumpkins after dark. Okay, I'll email you the PDFs. Now, okay, tell me like how did greatest hits do for you guys? Because I'm going to play a jam from Melville in a moment.

It went platinum. And that's good. It didn't go platinum. I don't know. It went leather. Did they play? Because the ballad went to Clark. Yeah, it got played on the radio because the radio used to play music

because it simply existed. Right. Like CFNY would play it? Yeah, sure. CFNY and I think even some of the more conventional mainstream stations played it. Q107? Yeah, all those stations.

And of course the video got played and you'd see it on the new music, which was a great program on City TV. And yeah, I don't know where bands would get played these days. I don't know. Weird and rough music, you know, not recorded in, you know, not that music that really didn't even sound good, but sort of had guts, would get played.

So yeah. Places like this, maybe. Yeah, but this isn't really the radio. No, so yeah, so places like this, maybe. Yeah. But this isn't really the radio. No, it's definitely. Yeah. So,

um, yeah, that's, uh, so it did. Yes, it was lovely. And we went across Canada on our tour in 1987.

And, uh, we went, we went on tour to promote our album, but we actually didn't get the albums until we arrived back in Toronto after our tour. But it was an epic journey. We took two and a half months to get out to Vancouver and back

and met incredible people and played shows and nearly broke up and then got back together. And then we survived the tour, and we've been cashing in that experience for several decades because if you can survive touring Canada

then you can pretty much survive anything when it comes to music well I've seen Hardcore Logo but yeah

this country's tough to tour well you don't even have to do it in a musical capacity just simply driving the country is yeah it's tough right yeah I'm gonna play a jam from Melville what year does Melville come out? tough to tour. Well, you don't even have to do it in a musical capacity. Just simply driving the country is, yeah, it's tough.

Right. Yeah. I'm going to play a jam from Melville. What year does Melville come out? Melville came out in 1990, I think. All right. And this is your,

your second, your second album. Yes. Okay. There's a jam that got played quite a bit on 102.1, at least, what I was listening to.

Joey pulled himself to his feet hold his body back up the bank and look back down there and yeah feel free to interrupt anytime you wish okay I'll bring it down to here yeah that's fine that's fine okay

just giving people a little taste here. Yes. Sounds pretty good. Some popping and slapping by Tim Vesta there on the bass. Opening track, Melville. And a short track. Yeah, it's short. I love that it's short.

It's great. I love short songs. Anyways, yeah. It doesn't need any more than what's in there, really. And if they needed to kill a couple of minutes before the news break, this is what they stick on. Fit her right in there. Like Song 2 by Blur.

It was all calculated, right? Totally. Just fit her in there before the news, weather, and reggae. Right. Is it Sloan, The Good and Everyone? Is that some two-minute track from Sloan? We can't talk about Sloan. Because why?

I'm going to bring up Sloan later, but why not? Well, I've just been told by Chris Murphy, don't ever mention my band. Chris Murphy's been on Toronto Night. Oh, I'm leaving. I actually will very shortly try to stir up some can con controversy by bringing up sloan but i'm saving that it's in my back pocket here i'm gonna make you sweat it out a bit but here but record body count and oh and speaking of can con here actually let me bring

down the record body count and just talk to you with a longer a longer jam so that's that's like a buck i don't know a minute 50 i think or something record body count and then the wreck the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald is about eight and a half minutes plus or something like that. But we're not entirely, we're not responsible for the length of that song. No. Not our fault. No. Nor our problem. It's your problem, Mike.

Now Melville, is this your breakthrough? Is this the real static breakthrough, Melville? Yeah, I think it's the one where we kind of knew We found our voice on this record, I think, a little bit And yeah, it was a big record for us, for sure We were super proud of it and still are You know We should be, damn it

We, yeah, we just You know, in your early records You're trying to sound like other people a little bit This is kind of where we We kind of knew how we could sound like ourselves, I think. And didn't worry about that as much as we would have in the past. And it all came from touring across Canada, really. In 87, this is the record that kind of was inspired by that trip.

Although we wrote a lot of stuff for Whale Music while we were on that tour too. But yeah, this was a big one. music while we were on that tour too but um yeah this was a big one so what uh what is the main reason that you decided to cover uh some gordon lightfoot on this uh on this album we went to uh thunder bay we went to thunder bay to practice being on tour uh we booked one show out of town at crocs and rolls and thunder bay sandy pandya booked us and And so we went out there on the train with our equipment and we learned Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald for that trip to Thunder Bay because it's right on

Spirior. And played it and people really liked it. And then when we came back to Toronto we kept playing it and it became this kind of massive, long, epic, crazy wild piece. And then we recorded Melville and then the two people that kind of we worked with on a record label were like you should put mfs gerald on your record

and we were like oh we didn't write that one and they were like yeah but it's really good and you do it differently and then so we we recorded it after we recorded everything else tacked it on at the end and it became it sort of seemed to fit thematically too like and sonically as well and so yeah all, let's hear a little bit of it here. This is why I wanted you to have the headphones on, because I was going to blast some tunes on you. The wind and the wires made a tattletale sound As a wave broke over the rail And every man knew as the captain did too

That's got Dave Allen on violin and Louis Melville on pedal-skeleton guitar on it as well. The dawn came late, the breakfast had to wait Yeah, it's kind of a cool spin You introduce the song to a new generation too So it's always cool to do that Lightfoot hated it Did he? Yeah Does he still hate it?

Oh yeah That's disappointing You know they do that thing Yes and no Well maybe that's what you were going for I don't know No, I just think Oh, it was massively disappointing to us at the time You know, they do that thing. Yes and no. Well, maybe that's what you were going for. I don't know. No, I just think, oh, it was massively disappointing to us at the time.

But I think he's just, I think he was about preserving the memory of, you know, the people who perished. And I think he was worried that maybe we were taking that for granted through our interpretation of the song, but we were certainly trying to be respectful and reverential of the... In fact, we wanted the song at a certain level to sound like dying and to sound like a boat coming apart and lives in peril. But what an incredible piece of music. He's such an amazing person of music. Mm-hmm. Like what an amazing, he's such an amazing person,

great songwriter and stuff. And he can think however he wants to think. It's fine, fine with us. He doesn't play in your hockey league, so. But he loves hockey.

When I was, when I was, when I was thinking about writing the book Writing Gordon Lightfoot, which I, which is one of my books, I thought it would be fun

to write it at the gardens with him, just watching games and having him tell stories. But it didn't work out that way, unfortunately. But he's a hugely sent. There's that thing you do

where you say, what was number one on the billboard, Hot 100, the day you were born, or whatever. The answer for me is, and I can't remember

if you could read my mind or Sundown, one of those two was number one the day I was born. So I'm forever tied to that. See, I can't remember if you could read my mind or Sundown. One of those two was number one the day I was born. So I'm forever tied to that. See, I don't know if Sundown ever went to number one. Like in the States, I don't know if it did. Well, you know what?

Maybe it was then. If you could read my mind, which for sure was number one record. Right. Totally. Yeah. Cool. You might be right about Sundown not hitting number one on the Billboard. Just as my sense.

US charts. I don't know why Record Body Count didn't hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Life ain't fair. Alright, I'll bring down Gordon because I'm going to play Okay, so when Jeff Merrick was on Toronto Mic'd

at the end of it he just wanted to spin tunes and chat about them or whatever. And the tune he wanted played the most was this one. guitar solo The sixth sense of memory Runs a river The railroad

They travel Up the parkway Getting frozen In the snow What you see Is what you see Is what you see Is what you see

And only some will know Where the ragged people go Down to the edge By the gates Of the reservoir And those climb higher From their old familiar yards Hard to know when to fade it out because it's all so damn good.

For Jeffy here, what can you tell us about Dope Fiends and Boozehounds? I wrote that. That's an Etobicoke song full on. I wrote that one night shoveling the driveway as a teenager kid where I lived in Etobicoke. boy, as a teenager, a kid, you know, where I lived in Tobago. And that's about the solitude of the suburbs, you know, and the loneliness of being a kid in the suburbs, not having friends and then finding your friends, wanting to be together.

And we wrote that before we went on tour in 1987. And then we kind of worked on that song while we were on tour. Then came back and it's a beautiful vocal by Martin there. And Dave Clark, that drum beat, it's hard to find the one in that drum beat, because Dave's playing six over four, or four over six. But it's the closing piece, closing song on Whale Music, which is kind of our most popular record. But it's the first song, closing song on Whale Music, which is kind of our most popular record, but it's the first song that we recorded on that album. And I love playing it to this day.

And that riff is me trying to pretend to be Steve Howe from Yes. Okay, because it's familiar, but I can't, maybe it sounds like a hip tune or something. There's something familiar to it, but not carbon copy or anything, but just something it reminds me of. It's cool. Okay.

Yeah, that riff is me trying to be fancy, a fancy guitar player, and really not getting it right. Oh, you know what it's reminding me of, actually? And yours probably came first, so maybe I should talk to a good friend of the show, Danny Graves, about this. But I feel like All Uncovered has a

similar riff to it, you know? That's just the way All Uncovered Oh, this year. You know, this track from Boneyard Tree or from The Watchmen, if that means anything. Yeah, I know those guys, but I don't know that song. Okay, so it was like a big, big much music hitter. Yeah, we would have predated

those young lads, for sure. Totally. For sure. Okay sure okay so uh now yeah you know what that's what it's that's what's happening here i think they ripped you off i think i'm gonna have to go down to what's the motel bar yeah the motel bar and and uh parkdale and throw some shit around um yeah i think you want to go exactly to Queen Street, just a little bit west of Dufferin. That's Danny, right? Danny Graves. So Danny, we're doing a thing at the Gladstone on November 8th.

It's a night of a thousand Burtons. And Danny's going to sing Break It To Them Gently. He's going to do it acapella, I hope. Because that's his thing now. He does these acapella. Well, he'll have a little bit of a combo backing him up. I love that guy's voice. I think he's tremendous.

Me too. And I'm trying to get... Do you mean Burton or Danny? Well, I definitely mean Danny. With all respect to Burton. But nobody's as good as Burton. I'm a little bit young for... I had to guess

who's greatest hits. Well, explore Burton's solo oeuvre if you really want to spend There's one on that Juno box set don't go to the box set well I guess you could oh what a feeling it introduces you to a lot of stuff

it actually does yeah Stan Tall's a fucking Don McKellar's favorite song of all time it's a killer killer song so I got nothing but love for Bird in Hand. Yeah, cool. You're kicking ass

here at the Dope Fiends and Boozehead. Oh, yeah. Here's the heavy part. And what about your wife? She's involved in this song. Am I... Do you have a wife?

Do. She contributed a couple of lines to this song. It's true. She was always good for a couple of lines in an album and even some full songs, too.

Okay, we're going to bleed from dope to another song on whale music and then I'm going to segue over to Sloan if that's okay. Sloan music. Right. I love Sloan. I hope...

Sloan music was the original name of whale music then some band had to name themselves Sloan. So, they'll be hearing from our lawyers oh it's do you know this song sure do it's howell brothers it's desmond howell this song was written um out of a book, right? So we were asked to write the music to the film Whale Music and we had to write it all before any inch of film was made. Interesting.

And so we wrote this music from the novel by Paul Corington. Is that difficult? It's so liberating, actually. Because you're just using I mean listen people need lyrics and Paul's writing provided us with a lot of them that's for sure

we had a contest to see who could write the hit single that the Howell Brothers sing in the book and Tim won I don't know the answer to this and I don't think it matters

for the record but I'm kind of a trivia fan who likes to talk about what was number one and this and that but would you say this might be the real Static's biggest hit? It was our biggest hit. Totally. It's the one that people have named their children after

so yeah I think that kind of qualifies. Yeah. It was a lovely summer when this record came out. It was great to hear this song on the radio. I remember sitting in a dentist's office and because I was worried about whether we were softening

our sound a little bit on this record. Whether it was a little bit too soft. And I heard it in the dentist's office on one of those stations. I only listen to it when you're at the dentist. 104.5. Chum FM. It wasn't Chum though. It was another kind of a Chum wannabe. CHFI.

Maybe. And they played like Mix 99.9. They played some songs in there and then they played this and this sounded like this sounded like the Sex Pistols compared to the other stuff that they'd played. So I was like

good. So it still has this sort of noisy. Yes, still has a sort of noisy guitar solo is mixed high because Frank Zappa died as we were making this record so Michael Philip Voivoda who lives not far from here he cranked this Martin solo in the mix

Frank Zappa was too smart for this world what a cat. Can I try to stir up some, manufacture some controversy? Give me your bit. Take a big shot. Okay, okay, okay. So I love this song.

I really do. Thank you. Love it. This album's great, actually. This song, and I think, am I right? 97? I want to say 90. No, this album came out in 94,

I think. Yeah, 94. Okay, I'm way off. That's all right. So you're going to help me out. I'm going to play a song by another band. Is it Sloan? So I'm just going to bring down Claire. Yeah.

Which I love. Have I mentioned that? Okay. Heck, this might be their biggest hit. Yeah. Maybe. Twice removed. Will you ever believe the way you passed away I saw a widow speak on her fortune

She was feeling pretty pathetic Because we could just be Okay, now, this is not the Sloan episode. I'm ready. Come speak to me. Okay, now, this is not the Sloan episode. I'll bring that down. I just will tell you completely subjectively here that those two songs are intertwined in my mind. And sometimes when I sing one, I'll go into the other and come back. And I don't know.

I'm not a musicologist. I pretend to be one on a podcast sometimes but and I don't know what the similarities are maybe it's just a feeling for all I know but I think Sloane's

came first that's how my memory has it but I don't Introducing Happiness and Twice Removed came out the same year

interesting yeah and by the way I'm not even not suggesting that they're the same song or anything but they remind me of each other.

Have you ever heard that before? They share a feel, perhaps, you know? I don't know if theirs is an F or not. Ours is an F. Both beautiful. Two of the finest songs this country's ever produced. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, thanks.

And I love this piece of music, too. I love that record, and it's a great band, thanks. And I love this piece of music too. I love that record. It's a great band, obviously. But yeah, they both ride really nice. They have those summer vibes, Canada summer vibes happening. Right. For sure. Okay, did I get this one?

Yes, I did. Okay, because I have a question from a listener here for you. Okay. Okay. Well, legal age life at Variety Store. Dealing in dope by the exit door. Waiting to work like a worm at the core. Standing so long, so long and sore.

I'm the king, I am therefore. What kind of fool am I? Well, legal age life at Variety Store. Legal age life at Variety Store. This is a question from Basement Dwellers. Basement Dwellers says, what was the real life inspiration for this song? Yeah, Westway Plaza at the corner of Kipling and Dixon, which was where I also had guitar lessons there.

That's where I learned to play guitar at Ken Jones Music in the back. Is this the one that has the coffee time? No, a country style? You know, I haven't. It's got the shoppers still there. There was a bowling alley where we had our first photo session. And they had a little arcade there. And there was a music shop in the back.

And there was a liquor store there, too. That was my neighborhood strip mall. My neighborhood plaza, basically. Did Doug Ford sell drugs there? Probably. Probably he did. He probably, though, would have spent more time in the mall at the corner of Dixon Road and Islington. Yeah.

Right. But, yeah. Or, no. No, I'm wrong. Yeah. Right. But, yeah. Or, no. Westway. No, I'm wrong. I'm wrong. Go ahead. I'm wrong.

Royal York Plaza is where the Royal York Drifters used to hang out. I know that because my girlfriend, now my wife, worked at Drugtown Pharmacy and the Fords were right near Clay Court,

which was right, which Doug Ford Park is right there, but it was right, yeah, that was there. That was their hood. Close, but no cigar. Okay, cigar okay so sorry i didn't mean to interrupt your story that's okay yeah yeah uh so so that's the inspiration for legal age life

at variety store how about them ford brothers oh and i i if it's okay if you we don't i mean i can no no no i just honestly i feel like i put my head against the wall. You brought it up. I do. In fact, I was on another podcast the other day, and they said, you don't talk politics on your show. I can't imagine anything more infuriating. No, I know. But I can't imagine... You know, you people come on,

and they're sort of set in their ways, and then you're set in different ways, and then you go back and forth, and then you both want to, like, shoot yourselves in the head. That's poor Jim Richards has to deal with that every day. Jim is such a great broadcaster. But it's tough.

Because 1010 has a lot of conservative listeners. They just have a lot. Talk radio in general is a land of right wing. Well, and also just opinion driven guests, I think. And they're all stuck in their car all day, which makes them angrier. Yes, that's true. Jim Richards is a very good broadcaster. Whenever I see Jim Richards, I just look around.

Is Strombo here too? Yeah. They both have great vibes, that's for sure. That whole crew, you know, Jim Richards, Jeff Merrick, Strombo, Bob Makowitz, like they were really great. They are still, but there's a lot of gifts in that coterie for sure. And interesting people with great taste in music and curious minds and really good at what they do.

They had that late night show on the Fan 590. Game. Game, right. Game was a mind blower. But you're right. Those guys came up. I mean. I stayed up and listened to game.

I would stay up, lie in bed, and listen to that show from top to tail. And I think they were inspired. Well, there was a connection definitely to what they did and what I did with Dave Bookman. It was mostly Dave. We had a show on CIUT called High and Outside in the 80s. And you're playing music underneath. Dave was the first broadcaster I ever knew to do that.

He started doing that on college radio and then of course he brought that over to The Edge and what he did. And so they were fans of Bookie and I think they went down the path that he had dug in the early days. My condolences.

I know you were close with Dave and your Facebook post was beautiful which you shared about David. I had my two guests ago, I guess it was Kim Hughes. And he talked about live in Toronto and we talked about how bookie kind of started, you know, you mentioned the CIUT there and he would call up and be like a

correspondent for live in Toronto. Totally. And yeah, we lost, lost this, this man far too soon. It's just, just terrible.

It's true. It's true. He was beloved by many around the world really. Musical communities everywhere and stuff. His legacy lives on. For sure. Thank you for naming a song Alamar. I think that's cool. Thanks. Robbie's the

cool one. Five tools. And you have a Wendell Clark song and you have an Alamar one. We just... Five tools. And you have a Wendell Clark song and you have an Alomar song. We do. Maybe my favorite Leaf and my favorite Blue Jay of all time, possibly. I am a George Bell guy,

but Alomar is the best. We have George's in one of our songs too called Delta 88 from Greatest Hits. Bell goes four for four. I think that's my wife's line actually in that tune. But yeah, George, George, I was talking the other day

so somebody was talking to me about Sports Illustrated and talking about the West End Phoenix was saying about how with Sports Illustrated for them, I couldn't wait to get it.

Yep. You know, and I remember the first time the Jays were on the cover of Sports Illustrated. They won the AL in 1985 and there's a shot of Lloyd Mosby rounding second base.

And the headline was Toronto takes off. I think I still have it. Like it was so, it was important to us. Yeah. That our team be on the cover of sports, of SI. Yeah.

That's, that is exciting. And I do remember that season just stole my heart because that was the, the drive of 85. And I, every day I would check, you know, when you would used to check the magic number in the paper, like I have memories every day looking at that was the drive of 85. And every day I would check, you know, when you used to check the magic number in the paper,

like I have memories every day looking at that number and it would shrink and I'd be like, this is happening. It was just magic. Dude, I was in Ireland. I was studying at Trinity College, Dublin. And so I was in another country pre-internet, obviously 1985. So the only way I could get scores, well,

there were three ways I could follow the Jays. One was people writing me letters from Canada. Right. The other was the International Herald Tribune, occasionally had box scores and occasionally would have a story about baseball, but hardly ever about the Jays, even though they were leading the league.

And then the third way was I managed to discover that the Canadian embassy was one of the old buildings along St. Stephen's Green, which is kind of a, it's a square park in the middle of Dublin. It's where, you know, it's in the works of Joyce and St. Stephen's Green is a place and Dubliners um and so I went to the Canadian Embassy one day and I said uh you have any Globe

mails and they were like oh yeah we get the Globe mail like we get yeah we get them all we get them get them a couple days late but so um I you know so every day I would show up and they would give me a two-day old Globe mail so when so when Tom Filer was called up and when they signed Dennis lamp, I, so I was able to follow them. And I remember getting home, um, last week of August,

uh, buying the globe mail on September 5th and the front, uh, a story on the front page of the sports was a full page and it was WP Kinsella essay about pennant races. And, um, uh, yeah, what a great, uh, a great, what a great summer that was for me, you know?

Wow. Yeah. That's still the most wins in any Blue Jays season ever, 99. I didn't know that, really. Which is, even those World Series years, we didn't actually win as many in the regular season. Yeah, I mean, and we were up three, as you know, I won't go too much, we were up 3-1 against the Royals. Yeah, we all, and we were up three, as you know, I won't go too much into it,

we were up 3-1 against the Royals. Yeah, we all know what happened. George fucking Brett is what I mean. Well, and also you see in this postseason too, you're reminded in baseball how hard it is to like close teams out. Oh yeah, well yeah, last night, yeah. Last night, man, man.

Shocking. I know. Shocking, you know. And it's Clayton Kershaw, too, you think. People have suggested it was one of the worst managed games in the history of the postseason. Because when Joe Kelly came in, there was nobody behind him for the rest of the game.

Which is beyond, that doesn't make any sense to me. Don't you at least have two of your guys up there, even if you're not planning on bringing them in? Right. You know, and it's again again it was like the buck show walter curse like uh um uh kenley jansen wasn't even like you know don't you shouldn't you have your closer in at least at some point in the deciding game you know and now correct me if i'm wrong the dodgers have not won since kirk gibson uh that so that to me this is sort of like a san jose shark thing going on here with this is a tremendous team in the regular season for years almost the braves did win it all in 95 so they

don't get on this list but they could have been on this list but it's just what a great team to never win the world series it's true yeah you're right and it's like yeah people have to start talking about in those terms because you're right it's not you know the Braves uh the drought and okay the Sharks the drought those aren't really like you know those aren't really I mean they're they're established teams but they're not iconic teams the Dodgers listen the Dodgers are an icon one of the four great teams in Major League Baseball history and yet the cards are in there again hey that's the thing about the cards they just managed to like you know you're so right and we'll. I know tonight we'll see if you can knock off the... If the Astros get knocked off.

Well, I mean, I always... I'm not much for predictions, but I did think we were in line for an LA-New York World Series. I really did. And I will say I went to sleep last night with the Dodgers up because I was exhausted. Free Cobb.

I woke up. I know. And I'm like like what happened and i watched they have this nice seven minute like recap and it was exciting to watch the seven minute sure recap of that game last night it's like what happened like that's heartbreaking but okay so yeah alomar awesome now uh let me okay i want to get into uh oh let me ask you this really quickly here um brave new waves this is kind of jumping around a little bit here, but can you tell me

about Brave New Waves? Like, first of all, why didn't they revive this thing? And did you have a, you had a role when you guest hosted? I was a replacement host for two summers there.

Yeah, when Brent Bambry would go on holidays, I would work there. Yeah, I was the replacement host twice. And possibly they played, that show plays a role in breaking the real statics, possibly, right? Yeah, well, I would say, yes, Brave New Waves. So we did the first ever host twice. And possibly that show plays a role in breaking the real statics possibly.

Yeah, well I would say Brave New Age, so we did the first ever CBC music session in 1988 I think. They had us down. It was a trial session, event to see if rock and roll could be original rock and roll music could be you know, and roll could be original rock and roll original rock and roll

music could could be could be you know if it could be useful to the cbc in terms of having recording bands so they tried it with us and and it was great um and so yeah the fact that they offered us that opportunity was huge and a lot of the songs that ended up on whale music and melville were um part of that session um so brave new waves and nightlines as well were two of that session. So Brave New Waves and Nightlines as well were two shows that were massive to us. And when we toured those early times, people came to see the band because they'd heard of us on the CBC.

Now every time it comes up, and it comes up pretty regularly, Brave New World, Brave New Waves, right, will come up and then we'll talk about it and then I'll be thinking, that sounds really cool. Like we should have that.

Like where is, like, you know, why is this not? Radio's so busted. Radio's broken. Like beyond repair? I don't think it's beyond repair. You just need some sort of leadership and vision.

But it is in really, really, really, it's in tragic, it's in a tragic state of disrepair. Yes. Well, pretty soon I'll be talking, I'll be playing Here Come the Wolves and we're going to have a little chat about some of that. Cool.

Very, very, very shortly. But here, let me take a moment. There's a gentleman named Brian Master. Brian Master, he's a longtime radio vet in the city. Yes, I know that name, sure. You'll know the voice probably too, but we talked earlier, I think he was on CHFI and maybe Chum FM.

He's currently on The Jewel, which is in Etobobicoke i call it an etobicoke station because it's on the dundas it's like near uh dundas and kipling are around there okay so it's from the evanoff group but okay so but he's not i'm not going to play him as radio personality i'm going to be playing him and let me get this right every episode there's specific words here I haven't memorized yet. So I need to actually dig this up here. Okay, come on, Mike, where the heck is it? Here it is. Brian Master is a salesperson with Keller Williams Realty Solutions Brokerage. And that's a mouthful. And then one day I will actually memorize that and I'll never have to read it again. But here's Brian. Hi, it's Brian Master, sales representative with Keller Williams to Realty Solutions Brokerage.

I like working by referral. I love working with people, finding out what they need and where they want to go. So every month I put out an item of value called the Client Appreciation Program. And this is really great material. It's all about, well, for one thing, the way the real estate market is, but other things like, well, for one thing, the way the real estate market is, but other things like, well, this month is how to turn your home into a smart home. We've also had things about how to throw a party on a budget, some travel tips. It's really great stuff, and it comes out once a month called the Client Appreciation Program. I'd love to get you on it. It's easy to do.

Send me an email to letsgetyouhomeatkw.com. And I'll send that out once a month via snail mail and follow it up with an email that's something related to the item of value. You can't miss. It's great information. It's something you can share with your friends. I'm Brian Master, sales representative with Keller Williams Realty Solutions Brokerage, thrilled to be on Toronto Mic'd. So thank you, Brian. And while Dave Bedini checks his messages, that's okay. I'm going to talk about Rupesh Kapadia, the rock star accountant who sees beyond the numbers. Dave, if you need any accountancy help,

there's a free consultation with Rupesh for you. You'd love him. Good to know. Good to know. Now I'm going to play. This is what we've been doing. Listeners have been sending in questions for Rupesh, and then Rupesh records his answers.

A listener who actually used a fake name, which is, you can do that too. We don't have to say your name on these recordings if you want to stay anonymous. But here is Rupesh and an answer for somebody who calls themselves Laura. Hi, I'm Rupesh Kapadia, the rockstar accountant who sees beer numbers. Today's Toronto Mike listener questions come from Laura. I think that's not her real name. But anyways, Laura would like to know, what is the use of life insurance if you have no dependents and no mortgages? Well, Laura, I would like to say that everybody likes some extra cash. In this case, it would be going to your spouse as a tax-free benefit.

The death benefit that is usually paid out at the end of the life of the insured person goes to the beneficiary on a tax-free basis. So think of it as an investment. Assuming one spouse survives, it should be a good way to invest some of your extra cash and not paying tax when you do receive the death benefit. I hope this answers your questions. Until next time, keep rocking. Bye. Thank you, Rupesh. Thank you. Now, why? Okay, so why do the real statics break up in 2007? Because you have a final show at Massey Hall in March 2007.

Why? Why, Dave? Why do we have a... Well, we were... Well, oh, we retired, I think, at that point. We were on our third drummer. Well, Pearl Jam's on their, like, sixth drummer. Yeah, no, listen, we were happy. That wasn't the reason.

No, we were.... That wasn't the reason. No, we were, but we kind of, we had cycled through life in music and I think we were just tired, really. I think we were, honestly, we were tired of each other. We were tired of the music we were making.

We were tired of touring. We were tired of recording. Like it was, you know, so we thought, so instead of really taking a break or a sabbatical, which is probably what we should have done, we just thought we'd break up.

So we did, and then years passed. And then we were kind of called forth to remount one of our albums, Music Inspired by the Group of Seven at the Art Gallery of Ontario, which we did. And we had three shows doing that, and they were great shows, and we loved doing it, and we loved being together.

And then that gave way to more sort of proper reassemblage of the band. And you were back. Back. And now, earlier we talked about losing the great Dave Bookman, but may I ask you just for a moment to talk about Gore Downie?

Yes. So, Gore Downie of the Tragically Hip. Could you share some thoughts? Another person we lost far, far too soon. Yeah, I spent a lot of time with Gord and we were friends. hilarious, beautiful, generous, introspective friend and brother, and supportive and respectful of what we did and what I did as well. We collaborated together occasionally and he was great to work with.

A real champ, you know, I would almost say honestly to a fault. You know, he was such a champion of others and a champion of his friends that there were times I think where he didn't leave enough for himself. And I think he kind of, that I think he wrestled with that. I mean, I think all artists do anyways,

kind of trying to come up with the material, you know, and find the time. And because, you know, his work was so consistently strong and so much was demanded of him as an artist. It was, you know, and because he gave of himself, I think that was sort of one of the challenges of being Gord Downie, but he always rose to it and always was able to make it happen. But I miss him like crazy. I miss him, you know, like Bookman too. You know, there's so many things that happen to me every day that exist even in the mundane, you know,

whether it's a band you hear on the radio or whether it's a story that is told that reminds you of something, you know, that reminds me of them. And they're a deep part of my consciousness as a person. You've had some heartbreak lately. That's rough. Yeah. Well, we all deal with it, that's rough. Yeah. Well,

we all deal with it, you know, I think. But you have to celebrate, you know, celebrate your friendships and celebrate your life while you can, you know. Every once in a while,

somebody would be like, well, where were you when, when the century changed? Like, where were you on? I know where I was. Right.

So do I. Okay. We were in the same building probably. Okay. Probably. Yeah. So, yeah. So when December 31 31st 1999 flipped over to 2000 i was at the air canada center and i was there because you were there the real statics were playing and the tragically hip were

headlining and it was fantastic night oh we were drinking the great thing about that was like we were drinking like full bottles of champagne like on the floor of the air canada center right it was super because there was a little bit of that the world might end type oh the y2k stuff i mean it wasn't real i don't know you never know till you got there right but it was i've never like the security was super low key and um once we all kind of came everybody was expunged from that building at the same time. And it was a real... It was like the Raptors parade. The scene outside the Air Canada Center was the closest. The Raptors parade reminded me most of that night. Because people realized the world hadn't ended.

All the computers hadn't blown up. No nuclear warheads had been launched. People were having a really good time. And people were celebrating just being in the city, having come from the show and stuff too. But yeah, it was fun. It was really fun. And I do remember we did the countdown together

and then right afterwards, they broke into a head by a century, which I thought was a pretty fantastic idea. So yes, so we were together when the millennium came. So there you go. It was fated that we would be meeting once again. Absolutely. By the way

what took you so long to appear on Toronto Mike that's episode 526 I feel like I feel like I've been trying to get you for a while now southern Etobicoke man

like it's tough for me it's tough for me but you're making the rounds like you've made I'm gonna just guess you've made a conscious decision

to do podcasts finally I feel like I've been such a jerk for like way too long in terms and it's tough because i'm you know uh busy everybody's very whatever it's busy so i'm like it's hard you know i because my thing when people invite me on podcast my thing is like can we do it on the phone it's like right so um but a lot of podcasts would be happy with that i'm yeah i'm the only one i don't know a lot of podcasts i know of would be ecstatic to get dave badin on the phone i'm the only one who would put his fist down and say i'm not totally do it on the phone phone is

i'll do it on the phone um but uh but um yeah i am trying to now honor all of my podcast requests so if you guys if you need, if you want me to come and be on your podcast, now is the time to do it. But how's it going so far? Like you've done a handful so far? How does your show measure up? Is that what you're asking?

Is this your finest? No, I don't want to shame any other podcast. So please don't answer the question. But your excursion to the podcasting community, what are your thoughts? I like it.

I like talking. I like meeting. I like it. I mean, talking is, I like talking. I like meeting, I like people. I'm in love with the world, but it's just a matter of like practically speaking, making it happen is tough. Right. Ah, yeah, I'll talk about, I'll talk about art and rock and roll and sports

and whatever you got. Well, you're a multi-talented freak because, yeah, there's a lot of this music we've been talking about and radio hosting and stuff, but you're also an excellent writer. Thank thank you like you're a renaissance man of sorts i like to write i like to do the the writing the writing is is interesting to me you you will be speaking of parkdale you will be at the parkdale library uh next wednesday between six and eight p.m reading from your book on a Cold Road. I'm all for the next two months.

I'm the musician in residence at the Toronto Public Library. So there's stuff happening at the Gladstone and Parkdale Library like all for two months. I'm a bunch of one-on-one workshop sessions. There's also sessions with Mishi Mi. Yes, she was on last week

and we talked about this. Brilliant, brilliant. She did a comic in the West End Phoenix last year. She's amazing. So Brilliant, brilliant. She did a comic in the West End Phoenix last year. She's amazing. So, yeah, so it's going to be... And she's in a thing

with Strombo. Are you aware of this? And Bob Mackiewicz Jr. Are you in this thing? Any cameo? I don't know what it is exactly. Not yet. I'm not sure either.

Watching the detectives. I've seen the trailer. Good. I've seen the trailer too. I hope it happens. Yeah, and Mishimi plays like Strombo's ex-wife or something

yeah I'm in love with that woman you kidding me she is amazing absolutely first ever hip hop artist in this country to get a US record deal

is Mishimi number one and by the way this is the anniversary of the DJ Ron Nelson episode of Toronto Mike because it showed up on my Facebook

on this date thing so that was exact I don't know what it was two years ago or something, but anyway. So shout out to DJ Ron Nelson. Okay. Also got the C, you know, he's CKLN, you're CIUT. Don't get those two confused. Okay. So let

me just say on a cold road to Tales of Adventure in Canadian Rock, Jake the Snake is a fervent listener of Toronto Mike and he wants to know why there was no mention of Helix. This is from Jake the Snake. a fervent listener of Toronto Mic'd, and he wants to know why there was no mention of Helix. This is from Jake the Snake. He goes, why was there no mention of Helix,

Canada's ultimate road warriors from the 70s and 80s, in his excellent book On a Long Cold Road? What would you say to Jake the Snake, Mr. Bedini? There's no killer dwarves in there either. I remember killer dwarves. Yeah, there's a lot of, you can't do everyone. That's the thing. Like, I think there's 60 voices in that book,

60 bands from that era. Yeah. Jake, that'll be the next one, The Untold Story of Helix. What was that, Killer Dwarves? There was one single I used to see on whatever they do, whatever the show was on Much Music, that was the hard rock, heavy metal show.

I can't remember. It'll come to me. Rock U is Helix, right? Yes. Yeah. I can't remember. It'll come to me. Rock U is Helix, right? Yes. Yeah. I can't remember the dwarves, but they're great bands. I mean, there's other H bands,

Haywire too, I would have liked to get in there too, and Honeymoon Suite. But Anvil's in there? Just speaking of Etobicoke, Anvil? Anvil are the ultimate Etobicoke band. Is it a Russian Etobicoke band?

No, Willowdale. So Anvil, before Anvil were Anvil, they were Lips. They were called Lips. And they used to perform on McLean Hunter Cable 10 up at Osborne. Scarlet Road.

Am I right? No, it was on Airport Road. Okay. Yeah, that's where the studios were. Okay. And man, I remember tuning in as a kid and watching Lips do Ted Nugent covers from the studios of McLean Hunter.

Fantastic. And then I didn't really follow their career too much. And then, of course, the greatest rock and roll film of all time. Well, Spinal Tap is probably the greatest rock and roll film, but the greatest documentary of all time, Story of Anvil. It's excellent. It is. And those guys, I've been working on Lips to try to get him to do our comic for the

Phoenix. But he comes and goes on Facebook, messaging and stuff. Where's he living these days? I don't know. Okay. I don't know where he is living. But he's a beauty on Facebook, messaging and stuff. Where's he living these days? I don't know. Okay. I don't know where he is living. But he's a beauty. Yeah, I know.

That doc is amazing. He's amazing. That's mandatory viewing. He's got the right attitude about everything. Michael Moniz, another big fan of the podcast, says, For the record, I love The Real Statics and Dire Straits, Mark Knopfler, and trace my discovery and ultimate love of Stompin' Tom to his stories about him in said book!

I met a guy in Regina. Chip was his name. And I said, why did they call you Chip? And he said, because I got my teeth, and his teeth were all chipped. And I said, why do you have chipped teeth? And he was like, I'm a hockey player. I was like, oh, yeah. I said, where do you play now?

He said, I'm playing semi-pro up in Moose Jaw. I was like, what's that like? And he said, money for nothing and your sticks for free. That's great. So, Michael, there's your dire straits. That's how it all comes together there. Tell me about writing for newspapers. You were a columnist for The Star, right?

Star and The Post, yeah. A couple of years. Okay, now the Post thing. Wade, this is from Wade. He chimes in to say, Can you please let Dave know how much I miss his weekly Saturday column that used to run in the National Post? It was the only reason I would purchase that newspaper.

He is a hell of a writer with a special feeling for Canada. Thanks, Wade. I loved writing for that paper, too, and I loved doing that column. But, you know, the newspaper racket ain't what it used to be, that's for sure. I mean, they used to pay me

to write weird, weird, weird shit in their conservative newspaper. It was really, It spoke volumes about the possibility of newspapers presenting all points of view because there would be my point of view and then there would be Andrew Coyne's point of view. He's not a bad example. I've got a good example.

Barbara Kaye's point of view. So there was room for all these different voices and now things are completely messed up. Is it as broken as the radio? Because you said the radio is broken. Newspapers broken too? I think newspapers are probably doing a little bit better. Yeah.

But because there are still longstanding voices writing for many of those newspapers. But they aren't in radio. All the great broadcasters have gone, it seems. But pretty messed up, though. Media is pretty, media is messed up, man. And that's radio and papers.

Anyways. Well, here's a, here, I'll get it. Okay, media is messed up. We're going to talk about the West End Phoenix in a minute. Not messed up. We did the whole

George Bell thing and Alomar and stuff, but is it true? I think this is the funnest fact of all, and I trust my source on this. You wrote for the first issue of iWeekly

something about Cliff Johnson of the Toronto Blue Jays. I did. Heathcliff, yeah. I talked to Heathcliff. I used to spend a lot of time in the ballpark. Yeah, Cliff's a great guy. Yeah, double zero. He had two tours of duty in the city.

One says double zero, one says 44. See, they brought him back in 85 when I was in Dublin. And I remember opening the Globe and Mail and literally saying out loud to the people working in the consulate, they brought back Cliff Johnson. And that was huge. and he was a big part of those runs you know and he would like he'd swing at two pitches like out of the zone he

immediately went to oh and two and then club one in the dirt over the second baseman's head right i think in in baseballissimo i talk about him he um held a bat the way as if he just found a cardboard tube in a garbage heap on the street. Right. Right. He just picked it up. Yeah. And they were really heavy bats, too. Those were the big ones.

I talked to Heath. Yeah. So that was for Aya. That was pretty great. You know, can I just tell you one quick story? Maybe I've told this too often. If you're watching and you're listening and you've heard it all before, just you can go make a sandwich.

Never apologize for me telling a great story. Okay, but so, okay, I'll try to make this short. 1988, Exhibition Stadium. Meet a bunch of buddies sitting around. What do you want to do? I got some mushrooms. You want to do mushrooms? Sure.

I've never done mushrooms before. Okay, fine. So we did mushrooms and went to the ballpark and had a great time time as you can imagine and um uh eight eight five eight four let's call it eight four ninth inning um uh dave righetti is warming up for the yankees yankees lefty and um in the exhibition stadium, the bullpens were like, were right there against the thing. And you could basically go and like talk.

You could shout at the reliever. And there was no security back then. It was like, it was teenagers and windbreakers, right? And so we went down there and started giving Dave a hard time. And a really hard time for a couple innings that he's warming up.

And then he goes in to face George Bell with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth, and Bell takes some yard, and he hits a game-tying grand slam home run. And we're, my friends and I are like, we almost, when it happened, we were like, it was so magical. Yeah. We were so stoned.

Yeah. It's like, oh, my God, this is beautiful. And it was an incredible, like, you know, mid-September fall day, fall afternoon, Sunday or Saturday, I can't remember. Probably Sunday, because what do you do on Sundays when you're young? Do mushrooms. Right. So. Are you in the general admissions section?

No, sorry. We're along the first baseline. Okay. But further down. And I'm looking at Rigetti. He's on the mound. Rigetti turns on the mound, takes the ball, and throws it at at Rigetti. He's on the mound. Rigetti turns on the mound, takes the ball,

and throws it at us. Oh, wow. And the ball missed us. It sailed over our heads. And after it happened, like there was no other reaction beyond that. And after that happened, me and my friends turned to each other

and wondered if in fact it really happened. Oh, wow. So when I was researching, there was no account in the paper the next day or anything about this. So I guess didn't, I guess we hallucinated it. When I was researching Baseballissimo, I was reading a book called The Relievers or The Bullpen Gang or something like that. And there's a section on Dave Righetti, reading about rags.

And finally comes to this, you know, my most embarrassing day in baseball. My most embarrassing day in baseball happened at Exhibition Stadium. I was being ridden by a bunch of fans while warming up along the first baseline. I went into the game. I gave up a Grand Slam homer to George Bell

and I threw the ball at them. Wow. So when I read it, it was like this actually that would be surreal reading that but this is he recounts this as like his uh most embarrassing day and that's amazing it was amazing see i'm glad you told i'm glad you just you told the story and didn't you know assume that everyone's heard that because i just i would tell that story every day there you go go. Man, my kids are sick of it.

I would make t-shirts. I'd like to... Geddy knows people who know him well and I would like to... And I have a friend who knew Bochy really well and Rags was the Pigeon Coaster. I was like, I'd love to just meet Rags and tell him I'm instead. I was sorry.

Unbelievable. That's an amazing story. Joel Darling. Yep. Ask Dave an amazing story. Joel Darling. Yep. Ask Dave Bedini about sharing the musical stage of Brian Trottier over the last 10 years at Hockey Day in Canada. Always a big hit at this event. It's true.

The man. You know, Trott's so, he's such a beautiful guy. Valmarie, Saskatchewan, right? Like a great, a great's such a beautiful guy. Valmarie, Saskatchewan, right? Like a great dude, a good hang, a great bandmate, good musician. And you almost wonder, like, how could he have been the warrior that was able to go into the Philadelphia spectrum, Montreal forum and take back four Stanley cups because he's such a lovely dude.

And then, so I was looking for that face. I was looking for that. And then we were playing at the times changed in Winnipeg because we were out in Kenora doing hockey at a day a few years ago. And Brian lost his keys, his car keys. And I saw his face and it was like oh my god he had that mean focus um and i was like that's it he found his keys and then he was

just back to being the brian that we love um but we play play with him every year and we're playing we're going to yellow knife this year to celebrate hockey day in canada and stuff too and uh joel joel asked me to be on ice surfing if Joel's listening. I think I have a, I'm a musician in residence. I mentioned that. Yeah, part of the library. I think I have library responsibilities that night, but I'll text Joel and tell him.

Okay. But Joel puts together the Hockey Day. Well, thank you, Joel, for sending that my way. Very, very cool. Now let's talk West End Phoenix here. So West End Phoenix. Okay, well tell me like what inspired you to start West End, what it is, what inspired you to start it,

how it's going. Just bury me in some West End Phoenix info, if you don't mind. Two things. Two things. One is I was in Yellowknife writing about Yellowknife. I was working for the Yellowknife newspaper. That inspired me to start my own newspaper.

And also, there's this dearth of uh of local news reporting in the media um all the community newspapers were bought by metroland years ago and they were destroyed they were devoured so there's no real true community newspaper in the city and um so we we thought there was an appetite for it or there was a vacuum that needed to be filled before Before we printed a single page, I sold 800 subscriptions to my neighbors. And after I knew that at least 800 people would be interested in reading it,

we started to launch it. And now we have about 2,000 subscribers, 20,000 readers in the west end of Toronto. And we mail 400 across Canada. Where do you get this printed up? Oh, well, we get it printed up not far from here. Right up Islington Avenue, we get it printed by Les Weller, Weller Publishing.

He's amazing. It's a family business. Les is Hungarian. His parents had this shop and Les has continued to print. Advance, Advance. It's right, it's near where the new Dufflet place is. But John Moran, West End Offset are the people who print it,

who sponsor the printing, pay for the printing. Wow. And Les makes it happen. He does beautiful work. Now, it's a West End Phoenix. Are you allowed to even subscribe to this if you're east of Yonge Street? We deliver, yeah. We actually had so many East End subscribers

that we have East End delivery people, including Brad Wheeler, who writes about music for the Globe and Mail. He is one of our delivery people. So Brad Wheeler delivers, and Mark Hebbshire says he's a delivery guy. Mark Hebbshire is. Celebrity is here.

Brandon Kennedy is a delivery person. Totally. Cool. People love delivering the paper. It's so fun. Well, because it brings them back to their youth. It's a nostalgia, I think. It's a good outing.

But more importantly, Mike, you get to know your neighbors too, and you get to explore the neighborhood. And it's $70 a year to subscribe. Okay, but where should they, if somebody listening now is like, I want to support this community endeavor, which sounds like a good idea to throw $70 at that a year, where should they go?

Is there a website? Go to westendphoenix.com and you click on subscribe. It's super easy. And can I do a special thing? Yeah, yeah, of course. For people who are listening right now and watching right now,

if you enter the code thanks 15 you'll get 15 off look at that special podcast price well i must say too you know um alex leifson did our musicians memoir comic the first year mishimi did it last year lucas silvera is doing it this year margaret atwood michael winter claudia day are all contributors michael barkley is writing in this new issue. So we have really good writers. Yeah, and also that Margaret Atwood's got,

there's a big ad in there for Atwood. For the Testaments, that's right. So that's another way to help the project. Now, question. This is a question

about the billboard at Bloor and Bathurst. Yeah. Okay, Nick, is that, did somebody donate that? Yeah, we had a patron. I need the real talk here.

We had a patron who was worried about the election coming up and who just wanted to make, wanted to remind people that, you know, voting is important. But they also wanted to publicize the paper and we're also all about raising awareness when it comes to just activating people's, you know, spirit in terms of how we participate in this world and how our voices are, are, are, are here to be, to be voiced, to be used. So, um, so the billboard is a promotes the paper, but also, um, readers make good voters is the,

is the slogan on that. So we're trying to get people out. Cool. Now I mentioned it off the top and we talked about the beer. Yes, Mike Lackey. Oh, well, Mike Lackey. I said Troy. Oh, well, Mike Lackey. Oh, Troy, Troy, Troy. By the way, Mike Lackey, there's a beer. It's a seasonal.

It's coming out soon, I guess, called Shinny Pants. And I think the picture is Mike Lackey playing at Rennie Park. Probably. Makes a lot of sense.

Yeah. But Troy there, he's also a good guy at GLB. He says, he says, please tell Dave Bedini that Great Lakes Brewery should carry the West

End Phoenix. Like in their shop? Yeah. Like I don't know how that can you sell copies? Do you have to be a subscriber? No, so we sell copies at the Gladstone Hotel. And if they want to do it, just have Troy

email me or something. Because I know that Great Lakes, they're also really involved in the community, and this is the West End Phoenix. They're big fans of the spirit of what you're doing there. Maybe we could do a kind of thing for their Great Lake brewer. Sorry, we do a thing where a patron of the brewery, like for every six-pack they get, they can somehow support the brewery, like for every six pack they get,

they can somehow support the paper or something like that. We'll figure it out. I'll tell you what, I'll get Troy to contact you. Is it true that Mike Lackey is going to be brewing a sleeping bag beer or not? That's going to be a dirty, dirty beer.

He's a talented man, Mike Lackey, for sure. Doesn't stay in his own sleeping bag, though. I follow him on Instagram. He's all over the place. He just travels quite a bit. He's got a good life, that guy. He's just going from sleeping bag to sleeping bag, Mike. And one of my kids

would have games at George Bell Arena right before... No, at soccer games at Renamade Park. And then I would see Lackey kind of, he always brought the beer to the games. You knew he was there. Now, okay, Mike, here come the wolves.

Good tune. Let's hear a bit of it. And then I have a question from Sid V. I don't know if it's Sid Vicious, it's just Sid V, but I have a question about this from Sid V. They're coming with their touches. they're coming with their touches they're coming with their verse they're coming through a single glassy eye into the echo chamber a mob begins to form so crowded they are swallowing the sky Here come the wolves Here come the wolves Sid V says,

Here come the wolves is an outstanding tune and the entire album is solid. In parentheses, he says, I bought the CD shortly after release. It is interesting that many of the Rheostatix contemporaries are also releasing new music after long absences from recording. Was there a specific driver that brought the band back to the studio in 2019?

There's a lot of parts to this question. Did band members have a bunch of pre-written Rheostatix songs pretty much fully formed before getting together, or were these musical ideas developed collaboratively during recording um i think it's a bit of both i think there was some stuff that was fully formed and there was some stuff that we kind of hacked out none of it's ever really fully formed because everybody's kind of contributing to it and kicking it kicking it around a little bit and shaping it. But music inspired

by the group of seven, which is the reason we kind of came together, was largely Kevin Hearn was the one who kind of suggested we try to do this thing again. This show that we'd only done

a handful of times anyways in the mid-90s. So he was kind of a great organizer and igniter for that. He's like a part of every Canadian band, isn't he? I think so. I don't know. He plays a lot. I had James B. in here and he was like, a great um organizer and igniter he's like a part of every canadian band i don't know i had james b in here and he's like i talk with the look people first yeah

yeah it's great good old b yeah all right um so tell me okay so and what then is the sorry the album is it called here comes it is this is the titular track yes yes yes that's a fun word to say a lot of tits in that track. Right. Yep. I was going to say. Now, what's going on with, I follow you on Twitter, and hockey-esque. And what's going on with CBC Music and this album?

Can you tell me what's going on there? I don't know, but they're not playing it, really. I mean, I think individually each show can play it, but it's not playlisted, unfortunately. So you won't hear it on Drive, and you won't hear it on Tom's show. And there's a few shows... Yeah, so it's not in the general kind of playlist, but whatever.

But I mean, you had an album, like a group of seven inspired songs, which makes you the most Canadian band we have. It's embarrassing. I think it makes them look really bad, whoever is responsible for... And again, I think that's endemic. It's a problem.

There's, you know, and you find that in a lot of industries. There's four people that decide what music lives and what music dies and what music is heard. And it's the same in the book industry with prizes, where you have the Giller Prize, three people decide what books are worthy of being put forward for those prizes. Playlisting, I remember the days,

WRKP did a series, did a show about playlisters, and about how, because there was a service provided to corporate radio stations where an individual or a group of individuals would just decide what 40 songs that they should be playing. And it limited the DJ's ability to just play songs that they loved. And the public broadcaster should not be framed by those same set of rules. The public broadcaster exists for us. So if your weird uncle's got a cool tune that he recorded in his garage,

we should be hearing that on the radio. And we should be hearing music that's created right across the board from all the different communities in our countries. Instead of the 25 tracks that three people instead of the you know instead of like the 25 tracks that people have decided that you have to hear

it's just you know it's bad it looks bad on them I think look I'm I think I'm right on this I think there might be one show left in the country where the person who puts it together chooses the music he plays that's right and that's, it's Trombo.

That's right. And that's why it's a great show. Yeah. Because the Sunday nights. Yeah. Because you have a host who loves music and spends most of their time trying to discover and listen to every piece of music and their personality is reflected too often in media. It's about, it's about, you know uh shaving down that that that limiting that personality um and uh and and and the medium suffers like uh almost like they're sanitizing the character

like sort of like what rogers did the city tv you know how they just slowly like dismantle any kind of personality should and i mean i think on the news side, this really exists in radio. CBC has a license to be as weird and strange and expressive and progressive and interesting as it wants. It's decided at some point down the line, it decided to run in the complete opposite direction. So bizarre. And it's unfortunate.

They have a mandate, right? Yeah. And they've betrayed that mandate. I think. What do we do? Revolution? What do mandate, right? Yeah, and they've betrayed that mandate, I think. What do we do? Revolution? What do we do here?

What do we do? I think people have, unfortunately, people have expressed their views by not listening in general. And that's too bad. I was just in Vancouver, like late August. And this song is called Vancouver. About my trip. No, not about my trip, but this is the title track.

So now, okay. So if people want to pick up the new real statics, like do you have a preference as to how they purchase this music? No. You can buy the vinyl, which is nice. It's nice to have a record. But no, I don't. But do you have a preference whether Um, but no, I don't.

But do you have a preference whether they buy it versus stream it? Yeah. Yeah. It's better for us. If you buy the record, if you go to six shooter and buy it.com and, and buy it. Um,

but at the end of the day, I mean, so not everybody can afford that either. So if you're on a tight budget, you know, drop the buck 99. Maybe after you buy your subscription to the West End Phoenix, go pick up this album.

Totally. Sixshooter.com. Yep. Exactly. Is there anything else you'd like to promote real statics wise or share before? I don't know. You were amazing.

I want to say thanks for finally uh making the trek this far west it was was it worth it southwest it's worth it right talk you kidding me i love these episodes of the uh great great i don't call you the 90s band or anything because you're still making great music in 2019 but and that is that tough that you know for every i have i was jet with the lowest of the low like they're still producing fantastic music ron hawkins the latest album which came out in 2019 agit pop is full of great songs which you'll never hear it anywhere maybe cbc but you won't hear it anywhere else but people want to hear like shakespeare my butt right oh it's each week you know what i mean like like how does that like you're still producing great art but people want

to go back and listen to both ron and steven stanley they don't play together but they're both writing incredible songs. You know, Steve's band is amazing. Stephen Stanley band. He kicked out the jams here, yeah? Yeah. I wrote a song for Steve that he plays in his set. Ron is fantastic.

He's always been great. And, you know, listen. Listen, knock wood, maybe we'll, in a couple of decades, we could do like the 90s at 90. Will you let Sloan in on that, Bill? Yes. Quick final thing to say before I do play some, some, in fact, we'll start it up. Lowest of the load plays out.

Let me just say that earlier in 2019, there was a show, the Danforth Music Hall, where you're going to be playing soon with it's the Watchmen. The Watchmen played there. Speaking of Danny Graves and the gang and Ron Hawkins opened, not lowest of the low, but Ron Hawkins and Stephen Stanley came on stage and heckled Ron and then

played with Ron. So there is a, there's some, you know, there's some shit's happening. Shit's happening there, man. It's good.

Dave Bedini, keep doing what you do, man. We shit's happening. Shit's happening there, man. It's good. Dave Bedini, keep doing what you do, man. We need you in the city. Keep writing, singing, creating the art. And thanks again

for dropping by. Thanks for listening, everyone. And that brings us to the end of our 526th show. You can follow me on Twitter.

I'm at Toronto Mike. Dave is at Hockey Esk. Esk is E-S-Q-U-E in case you can't figure that out. It's too cool for school. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. Brian Master is, you email him at letsgetyouhome at kw.com to get on his mailing list. Capadia LLP is at Capadia LLP and Pumpkins After Dark are at PumpkinsAfterDark.com. See you all next time. Well, you've been under my skin for more than eight years. It's been eight years of laughter and eight years of tears.

I'm such a...