Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Manfred from Elephants and Stars: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1626

Episode Date: February 6, 2025

In this 1626th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike catches up with Manfred Sittmann from Elephants and Stars before he kicks out the jams. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

Welcome to episode 1626 of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma pasta, enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Recyclemyelectronics.ca committing to our planet's future

means properly recycling our electronics of the past. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. Building Toronto's Skyline, a podcast and book from Nick Gainey's, from Fusion Corp. And Redlee Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Joining me today, returning to kick out the jams is Manfred from Elephants and Stars. Hello. Welcome back, Manfred. Thank you for having me. I am donning a shirt.

I think you see photos I take with guests by Toronto Tree and you might see that every third photo or so, at least when the weather is warmer, I'm wearing my Elephants and Stars t-shirt. I love this shirt. Yeah, that particular design was more popular than some of the other ones we came up with. So I did bring you a new design that we have been selling at shows lately. Okay, well give it to me now then.

Give me this generous gift right now, Manfred. I love t-shirts. It's based on the Church of Satan's logo, and it's got the little, the elephant instead of the Balfamist head. So I gotta shout to the camera here. So, Manfred, I had on this program fairly recently a guy named Doug Broad, who is an editor at the Toronto Star, but he wrote a book about the founder of the Church of Satan. Anton Levin?

Yes. Okay. And it's an interesting book, and we had a long, there's a long discussion with Doug about Anton and the Church of Satan, and because of that episode, the next episode of Toast with Rob Proust and Bob Ouellette, we're kicking out our favorite, no, we did it already, last Toast we kicked out our favorite Devil Satan jams in honor of the Church of Satan. Oh nice, good. So I love it. Thank you so much. I'll be wearing it for many a Toronto mic photo. But for this photo, this is the Hamilton inspired model I have, right?

That's right. Love it so much. And how are you doing, buddy? I'm doing pretty well in town for a little acoustic thing tonight. And then... Where are you going to be tonight? We are at Baby G in Toronto. FOTM Simon Heads Band Four Square is reuniting with some new members to blast through some of their catalog. And he's asked for a low-key acoustic opener, which we're going to do.

Let's spend a moment talking about Simon. So, Simon I met because he does a lot of stuff for Lowest of the Low. Mm-hmm. He's their sound man among other things. Yes, and he, I don't know, I think it's a summer because I think that day I was about to go on a kayak trip, so I think it was the summer, summer 2024, Simon came over here with all of his video gear. He's got, you know, he's a videographer and we'll get to that in a minute. Cause I was watching some elephants and stars on YouTube.

And I saw, Oh, directed by Simon head. So we'll get back to that. But he came, Simon came over with all his video gear and like took shots of me in action down here. And I think at some point there might be like a mini doc or something about what's happening in this basement. Yeah that wouldn't surprise me. He's very prolific in his work and he has just thrown himself right into the filmmaking thing since the Low documentary which he did and he's done some stuff for us which

we'll talk about but I mean that's part of the reason that he's not really stuff for us, which we'll talk about, but I mean, that's part of the reason that he's not really a full-time member of our band. He's just too in demand with podcasts and documentaries and Lois the Lowe. Well, that's the, so I saw you at the premiere at the Rivoli. That's right, we were there. Subversives is the name of this Lois the Lowe doc

that Simon Head directed. Yeah, I loved it myself. Yeah, I loved it too. But being a humongous fan of the band, it's not that surprising. But I thought he did them really good justice. Absolutely. So Simon head is playing a role in under the earth and above

heaven. Yes. He's the keyboard player on it. He's sort of our side men. He's not really in the band by more his choice than ours, but uh, yeah. So all the keyboard tracks on there. And plus he shoots our videos. I mean, cause he's got a day job too too like Simon is the busiest guy in the city. Yeah between having a full-time day job being a videographer, filmographer, documentary filmmaker, lowest to low sound guy, being in like three bands and you know running a family and also he lives so far away so like I can't even imagine how much time he spends commuting.

Well, you know, Simon's one of the good FOTMs you are two men. Very glad to have you back. I was really happy to see you at that subversive, uh, well, premier at the Rivoli. I'm going to, you know, no, I'm going to crack the thing. And what order do I want to do? I want to crack my beer. Okay.

Let's do that. So on the mic, Great Lakes Brewery has sent over fresh craft beer. You've got yourself a lager? I do, a premium lager. Not just a regular one. Only the best for you, Manfred, okay. And I got myself my burst here.

Three, two, one. Oh, is there a better noise than that? All right, cheers to you. Cheers to you, sir, thank you. So we're going to be kicking out some jams, but off the top I wanted a little more info on new elephants and stars. So we've disclosed that Simon Head did some video direction as well as some keys there.

Shout out to Rob Proust. But maybe can I just, as I sip my first sips, which are my favorite sips of any fresh can of GLB, let me play a bit of music. Is that okay? Yes, please. And the thrones are passing away Doesn't look so good on you It's the last and the least you do And all the thoughts are strange They're the ones that you're facing now

As you're walking the toes in them Proof that it's breaking down The The ceiling! Is this like the lead single? It was the first single, yeah. So that this came out in December and we shot some video footage for it and that's been sort of making the rounds on social media, doing some promotion on it. Okay, amazing. And when exactly is Under the Earth and Above Heaven available?

It comes out a week tomorrow, Valentine's Day. We were planning to do like a whole Valentine's Day massacre ad campaign, but we got so busy with other stuff. It's one of the many things that just falls by the wayside. Geez man, you're up to good stuff with Elephants and Stars. You're not just a t-shirt production company. No, that's just one of the... We diversified.

We do music, we do t-shirts, we even do shows sometimes. No, very cool. The whole package. And I feel almost like maybe we buried the lead, but we talked last time you were over, by the way, the first time you were over here was a backyard episode. Yes, I think it was during COVID. I was trying to remember if that was during COVID.

Yeah, because I only did the backyard stuff. I pivoted to the backyard when I wasn't allowed to have people down here. Oh, right, right. So, and I remember, so this is your first visit to the basement. Yes. And right now I'm vamping mildly because I'm now searching for elephants. There you are. And I'm going to tell the listenership and I'm going to tell Lara in Spain. There you are. And I'm gonna tell the listenership and I'm gonna tell Laura in Spain. Do you know a Laura in Spain?

I don't. Or is it Laura in Spain? I could be messing that up. You don't know. But somebody has joined the live stream from Spain and says hi to you, Manfred. Oh, I wonder if it's Larissa from Spain. Maybe.

I do know Larissa from Spain. She's my high school girlfriend in grade nine. So the name's sort of trununcated but it's probably Larissa Let's hope so. So your grade 9 girlfriend has joined the live stream from Spain. Yes. Does that make you more nervous a Little bit sure. I mean everything makes me nervous. I'm sort of a bit of a fuss spot in that way. Well, hey Why change things up now? We got to be we got to be authentic here So I'm gonna let the listeners and Larissa know that episode seven, by the way,

I love this jam of yours in the background. I love it. It's good. You're good. One of the jams we're gonna kick out ties into this song. I tried to have stuff that sort of tied into stuff. Good, we'll cover more around then, but I wanna tell people episode 737. So

like a jet, you're 737. You drop by it was a backyard episode, but it was in person. And I love those backyard episodes in person. So we were in the backyard, and we talked about elephants and stars. But then we talked about your work with Ron Hawkins, speaking of lowest of the low. And we talked about you working with, like Ron Hawkins is a musical hero of mine, but so is Ian Blurton, like you're covering all of my favorites. Yeah and this record, Under the Earth, was produced again by Ian Blurton, and on March 20th we go into the studio for our next record and the producer will be Ron Hawkins, so we're just kind of flipping back and forth

between Canadian icons. Seriously though, but like two of the greats and You're prolific. We are prolific. That's what we lack in success. We make up for it in its quantity Not quality city. Yeah quantity not quality. That's what we're looking for here Hey, I'm kicking out because we're gonna kick out jams that aren't by elephants and stars But because I just found out Valentine's Day is the big day, you're dropping the new album and the new album produced by FOTM Ian Blurton is called this new album. It's called Under the Earth and Above Heaven and we're going to hear another track before we get to your jams. But yeah, so produced by Ian Blurton. That's amazing. The the videos by Simon Head, so it's like an When the whole thing is coming to you

You'll find out, even if you wanna take a walk Until it gets all through Slow down, it's cold now Is it really what you wanted now? So hang on, won't be long Is it really what we're going on? Strangers on a train. Is this a autobiographical? What's going on with strangers on a train? Yeah. I mean, they're all a little autobiographical. Generally they sort of start that way and then they sort of take on their own life form.

But yeah, this is just sort of about the notion of kind of going through life, not really paying attention. Like you're just sort of like looking at it pass you by through train windows. Why did it end for you and Larissa in grade nine? I think, and I don't want to spill anybody else's business, but I believe at that point, she decided she liked another person more than myself and sort of just, she just sort of traded up. Traded up. Okay. Did that guy, because I had a similar experience, did this guy have a

car? No, because we were in grade nine, so I don't think anybody's had her. Could have been like a 16 year old. Yeah, you know what? I'm sure he probably was kept back at some point, but I know I don't think so. I see what you did there. Okay, Larissa can speak for Larissa because she's on the live stream. Larissa, let us know why did you level up from Manfred back in grade nine? And to be fair, I think it's completely fair to level up from me. She's not the first or last to do it. You got to start somewhere, right? Yeah. I'm a

good entry port. And now look at you, producing great music with people like Ian Blurton and Ron Hawkins. I'm envious of you man. You're living the life. It's a the music side is a good life. And we covered a lot of this. So again, we're going to kick out jams here. So I don't want to do 90 minutes again like we did in the backyard, but people really should go back and hear your origin story.

And we got we had a great chat in that backyard I love that man yeah that was really fun that was like the most fun that I've had doing these because I do sort of oh doing these I like in your life that was the most fun well I just because generally hearing the sound of my own voice speaking drives me crazies but yeah good voice that didn't bother me at all I had so much fun I'd sort of just put that out of my head it's gonna say imagine you sounded like me and you had to hear your own voice every day for 12 years. But you've got that pro broadcast.

Do I? Oh, for sure. I'm just faking it, man. Wow. That's the non-authentic part of the program here. Okay, digging these jams, people, and Valentine's Day, how would you like people to get their ears on under the earth and above heaven? Well, whatever's most convenient for them.

Obviously, we're doing Spotify campaign and Apple music campaign. If they want to go ahead and just pay straight cash for bandcamp is the way to go. Bandcamp. You know, it's really it's it's whatever they like. We're actually going to be producing some physical media this time, but we're not doing that for another couple months because it is expensive. No, I hear you, man. I hear you. And I mean, I get, I mean, I had a guest last week, Bob Wagner, who gave me a CD afterwards and I was honored and happy to receive it, but I don't actually listen

to music on CDs. Me neither. Yeah. And I get vinyl, like, I mean, I got, I got, and I use them as sort of like parts of the conversation starters and I've got lots some of it was my old stuff when I did have a record player but this tragically hip road apples album I have which I love that album but I don't listen to the vinyl one the same way like I have vinyl of some of my favorite records but I don't own a record player right okay so I'm in the same boat I got some great albums here but I don't I have no way to actually play these and if I did have a way to play them I doubt I would because I have a premium YouTube account

and I typically just use that. Yeah, I think that's probably the majority of people just plug into something. So here, we're about to get to your first jam. By the way, you numbered them one to 10. Do I start at one or 10? I actually don't remember the order I put them in. So are they in no particular order?

I don't think they are in order. Okay, then I'm gonna go. I think I sort of grouped them that like, these are songs that like, directly influenced our record somehow, or someone associated with it, or whatever. Okay, so I'll just play them, and since it doesn't matter, I'll just play them. But here, so I'm gonna take this opportunity.

One is I wanna shout out another FOTM, who I believe you're working with. So you don't just work with Simon Head, and Ron Hawkins, and Ian Blurton, but the great legend that is Cam Carpenter The yeah, and that's been a real blessing for us He's been so great and supportive and he got us that show opening for Richard Lloyd and he's got us onto various radio Programs and just he's just one of those like old-school fans of what radio programs

The I'm just curious. Well coral Andrews played us in Kitchener Waterloo. Fowler's involved with that, right? That's the, is that the, uh, isn't he involved with that station? I think so. The lost Indy city, I think is on that state. Yeah. So let's just play it's like that. And I'm really bad at sort of recalling the actual specifics, but I do

remember don't start a podcast. Then you got to recall shit all the time. I, uh, I actually wanted to talk to you about that later I had an idea for one, but that's not that's okay. I just for another time Okay, because now you've got my attention here. Holy smokes Manfred. Okay, you want to get to these jam? No, sure No, so I've given you the Great Lakes beer. Mm-hmm. I saw you not the most recent TMLX at Palma's kitchen, but I have seen you attending a TMLX event. I did I went to the one Yes before that where it's over that store that has all the great Palma's

kitchen. Oh yeah. No, I bought, I ended up going downstairs and buying a bunch of stuff cause it was all delicious. I think I bought some eggplant. Do you want a large lasagna that's in my freezer right now from Palma pasta? I would love one. I had one in the first time and it was amazing. You're getting another one. I like the cut of your jib here. Okay. So shout out to Palma Pasta. Shout out to Great Lakes Beer. Ridley Funeral Home. There's a green measuring tape. There you go.

That's for you courtesy of Ridley Funeral Home. Cool. You can measure it, whatever you like. I don't need to know the details, but got a shout out Life's Undertaking, which is Brad Jones is excellent podcast. He's the funeral director at Ridley funeral home Speaking a great podcast. I want to shout out building Toronto skyline, which is by the newest sponsor of Toronto Mike a gentleman who? Stepped up to fuel the real talk his name is Nick Ienies and he's gonna be my guest tomorrow morning at 9 a.m So tomorrow 9 a.m. on the live stream,

live.torontomike.com. I'm sure Larissa will be back for that one. Hear from Nick Aines and Fusion Corp and why he raised his hand and what he's up to and it's gonna be a fun chat. Sounds good. And last but not least, recyclemyelectronics.ca. That's where you go, Manfred, if you have, I don't know,

you got old cables in a drawer somewhere? I have a giant blue bin full of cables that will never plug in anywhere ever again, so I'll have to definitely have them. Go to recyclemyelectronics.ca, stick in that postal code, and then find out where to drop it off, to be properly recycled so the chemicals do not end up in our landfill.

Oh, or lakes. So we'll talk more about the new music and everything as we kick out these jams. But important question before I press play on jam number one, Manfred, are you ready to kick out the jams? I'm absolutely ready. I even read a book about the MC5 a couple of weeks ago just to get ready. We are now at the Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del Piazza del P I must have lived a lifetime without you You must have ended up somebody's angel I remember you loving the radio New waves and old songs Hey, hey little Tommy gun I guess we're never gonna end up the lucky ones Manfred, what are we listening to? So this is Brian Fallon, most known for being the frontman for Gaslight Anthem, the sort

of punk rock band. He went solo after they went on an extended hiatus and produced some of this great sort of acoustic rock pop and I think it's fantastic and I think more people should hear it. If you're a fan of Gaslight you'll probably like it because it's him and if you they're a little too punk rock for your for your taste then you have this he's got three records that are sort of all in this vein. I love the fact in the spoiler alert but you had a number of songs I'm not familiar with. Like sometimes people come over and kick out the jams and it's like, won't get fooled again by the

the who, it's Gimme Shelter by the Stones. You're like, I love these songs, but these are songs I have literally heard a thousand times each. I mean, it was odd because again, spoiler alert, I didn't put a Lois Lalo song on here as influential as they are, because everyone familiar with the Toronto Mike podcast has probably heard of Lois Lalo. So I mean, definitely if you don't go listen to them because they're literally one of the greatest fans.

What's your favorite Lois Lalo song? I go back and forth. It's either Salesman Cheats and Liars because that was the first song I heard. And when we It's either Salesman, Cheats and Liars because that was the first song I heard. And when we opened for them at Hamilton, I was able to get up on stage and sing that with them, which was so surreal. I think I left my body. But I think in terms of just a song that captures a mood is I love Gamble. I've always loved Gamble. I feel like Gamble's the one they submitted. It was a different version, but they submitted

Gamble for the new Rock Search. That's they submitted, it was a different version, but they submitted Gamble for the new rock search. That's right, and it was a different version. And then is that the one that Head won? Head did win that one. With Happy? F-O-T-E-M Noah Mintz. Noah Mintz, yeah. He's mastered a couple of our records.

You gotta keep dropping these names, buddy. I love what a small world we live in. Yeah, well, I mean that community is pretty small. Yeah, well, let's shout them all out Noah Mintz and then of course Brendan Canning. I got an email yesterday that Broken Social Scene is coming to town and they were it was like a promotional PR email so shout out to Brendan Canning who is not an FOTM. What's going on with that? I'm still holding out hope for that head reunion. You know what it's time man let's get happy together here. Happy together. Okay.

Ready for your second jam. Here's a band I'm more familiar with and I'm interested to hear what you have to say about them. I live up above of a McDonald's Sold my panties to some guy in Austin I eat every meal at my bodega Living off their egg and cheese and coffee Look on the screen and I meet my people I'm gonna start some shit in the chat room You in the back lights, I in the back light If I squint I can almost make you high I don't know why I'm enjoying this

I just know that I'm enjoying this I don't want to fade it down because I like the story here, but tell me what we're listening to Manfred. So this is the Beaches. This is one of the songs off one of the EPs they did in between albums. This song is called My People. I've loved these guys for years. I've seen them probably half a dozen times and it's been great because you know you see them in this teeny club and then you see them selling out the opera house and then you see them selling out

beaches yeah now it's but stage right sorry uh history yeah um and the the reason i picked this song is because if you listen to the guitar line that starts this song and then listen to the guitar line that starts the ceiling uh basically we were kicking around saying how much we like the way well you want to do it there what's the point of having a podcast? We love the way Kylie plays lead, like stylistically, just the really hooky lines. We said we should do something in that vein. Okay, so here is the opening of Elephants and Stars, my people here. Of course.

Yeah. All right. I love this breaking down the influences and inspiration. We weren't trying to steal from them so much as I just love the way... Because she comes up with guitar lines like that pretty regularly. And we really just were like, we should have something like that because I just love that style. I totally just had a band earlier this week. Was it Monday? It's funny. It's all a blur to me. I think it was earlier this week. No, this week just started. It was last week.

You know what? I'm so lost. What day of the week is it Thursday? It was earlier this week. This band was called High Teens. Well, they are called High Teens. And they had a single and I was playing it and I could hear Collective Souls Shine. And then the guy's like, my brother told me the same thing earlier today. Like, you can hear these elements. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. It's fun to kind of break it down and you know, there's nothing new under the sun. Yeah. And the good news is that was sort of intentional as opposed to just subconsciously stealing it. So I'm going to give them full credit for being an influence on a band twice their age. Does the Beaches have to, yeah right, does the Beaches have to rename themselves The Beach? No.

I don't think so. I think they're good. They're a fantastic band. Remind me about why you're named Elephants and Stars again. We took it from a book called The Moral Arc by Michael Shermer. It's this sort of history of mankind edging towards morality. And in the beginning, there's a thing about like, oh, the universe is broken down and the things you can see and things you can't see and the two things you sighted that you can see are elephants and stars. So we said, well, that'd be an all right name. And we really just didn't want to have that conversation so we're

like fine that'll be the name and our the manager we're working with at the time before we put out our first record the day was gonna go get pressed she's like are you a hundred percent sure that's what you want for the name. There's no going back. No there's not but it's like it. Oh do you? I like it. You don't like it? Not really. It's like it it's like, earlier this week, when High Teens were here, there was a drummer who started the band and he kind of put out the notice,

he had a singer. So it's like his band, he wanted High Teens and the other guys don't like the name. And it's like, it's interesting, like how a name works. Like sometimes it just sticks. And I just think,

I don't even think of you as Manfred. I'm like, oh, elephants and stars is here. Oh, well, yeah. I mean, well, a quarter or a fifth or. What, do you want to name check everybody? Sure. On guitar is here. Oh, well, yeah. I mean, well, a quarter or a fifth or. What, do you want to name check everybody? Sure. On guitar is Adam Seed, who will be playing with me tonight at Baby G. He's, I chickened out of playing it by myself

and asked him to come along. Mike McMillan is our bass player. Stuart is our drummer. Stuart, excuse me, sorry, I have to throw through McKinney. And then Simon on Keys. Simon on Keys, what a multi-talented son of a bitch that Simon Head is. He is, he's really sort of a modern Renaissance man.

And he has a good beard, like you grow a good beard? He's got a gorg fantastic, I cannot, my beard, I just get like the Hulk Hogan mustache, which is not that great these days, but yeah, no, he's got a fantastic beard. I once in a while, particularly during the pandemic, I had moments of like, I'll just grow the fucking beard. Like, what do I care?

And then I realized it's kind of like, remember in Cheers when Cliff Claven was growing that beard? Yeah. It was like this patch, I got these two parts here that don't seem to want to grow the hair and it just looks bad. I looked like Shaggy from Scooby-Doo. All right, love, yeah. who was played by Casey Kasem.

You know this, right? Okay, I can't tell you anything, man. He also did Robin on the Super Friends. Wow, I loved it. Was that with the Wonder Twin powers? I loved that show. Yeah, the Hall of Justice and the Wonder Twin and then one guy had to be like water-based.

You remember, like she'd be like a horse. She was an animal and he was water-based. So he'd be like ice and steam and That guy got fucked in that deal. I don't know very very specific powers You know, you got to be a certain age that's got to hit you like you got to be a certain age to have that chat about The Wonder Twins Wonder Twins that definitely ages you Wow. Okay. Here we go. Another jam from Manfred here. Every other ruse I've ever had a reason Or a punch I would sense I have them all the time You know I'd hate this season You say I'm a good little chance And it do get worse

Like a miracle I curse Just like talking to a wall The reason for the slide out is as follows the plug And brother I'm just almost unfaust So you feel it Just wrap it up and seal it And deal with it When the rain comes to love all So let's come to a conclusion He used to be the drummer in a death metal band called entombed and then he came out with this It was actually Ian that turned me on to them when we recorded together for the first time

He said oh my god, you have to hear that band. They're right up your alley and they are And the reason I picked this song is again similar to the beaches when we first wrote or when I first wrote strangers on a train It was written in all major chords Who's like C and G and it's very bright sounding. And I thought that really kind of belies what the song's about. And so I heard this song and I was like, oh yeah, what we could do is we'll actually change it to go half major, half minor chords. So that's a direct thank you to these guys. I love how you're kicking out jams that inspired the new music. Yeah. And these guys actually just put out a new record. I think it's called Overdriver last Friday. And it's fantastic.

And everyone should go listen to them too. And Helicopters is, you know, nowadays you needed like a domain name, you gotta make sure it's SEO ready. Like I feel like they intentionally misspell helicopters. Yeah, well they've been out for like 20 years. Okay, see I'm catching up here, man. The album Ian tipped me to originally was called High Velocity,

and I think it came out in like 2003. He's in another band called Imperial State Electric, too, this guy. He's one of those guys who's in like 800 bands. Well, Ian's in 800 bands. Ian is in 800 bands, and they all produce tons of music. I feel like an asshole because he's got so much,

so many projects going on, so much going on, and I'm like, when can he's got so much so many projects going on so much going on and I'm like When can I see change of heart? Well, you can see them. They're playing soon. I think cuz we've been Toronto. Yeah With the original lineup or one of the original lineups because we we had originally asked to open that and I think he took A hard pass on it. Who's opening the head of you man? I'll go I don't know what it is But I remember when I originally was in the studio of Ian I said oh when change of heart gets back together We we gotta open that show and he just looked at me goes our audience wouldn't like you Which if you know Ian is a very typical

Type of Ian Ian ish answer Really dig that guy and his visit much like yours man forfred, his visit was during the, the backyard session. That's true. I'm now calling them. So he's still another backyard guy. He told me after, cause we were in the studio not long after that. He had a really fun time.

He really enjoyed it. And I know that he's by generally doesn't love doing those. Well, that's praise from Caesar. The other guy who had a backyard session in the pouring rain, rain is a camp carpenter. Like it's before I figured it all out. So I threw him in the, and then skies opened up and I wasn't prepared for

like a torrential downpour and cam got soaked and you know, and he's like, I had, he had him, he was trying to like protect the mics and everything. I didn't want to lose, you know, thousands of dollars of gear. So all three of you got a backyard sessions. Coincidentally, I actually met cam carpenter for the first time in the 90s. I was invited by someone to like an after hours club, which I didn't even know was a thing. And I went there and they said,

oh, by the way, this is Cam Carpenter, he signed Sloan. I was like, ooh, I just said, congratulations, excellent work. And now I hear a Sloan song on a television commercial. That's right. Which is good for them. Yeah, that's great for them. Which hasn't been, I haven't been so excited

since I heard a Skydigger song in an ad last year. Oh, I haven't heard that one. Skydiggers, there's a song that was, I will give you everything, so. All right, let's kick out this next jam, which will tie back to Ron Hawkins anyways, maybe, but because then I'm gonna search the Google machine to find out where we can see a change of heart because I think I want to go see.

Yeah, I just saw that announced really recently. I'm going be a man When the flames lit go off, the home of the brave They stepped into war, the border was in vain Vases, palm faces, pale After all they said would make them great could not be scaled When the free my kin from the metal that's stuffed on the roofside by my side can a heart bleed into death?

I swear to Rembrandt I'll ask and feed these at invisible hell Say not all cops say not all men Yeah, you insist it's only 99% There's nothing new for you to learn Okay, sit back, relax and watch it all burn Colossal waste of energy

Talent upon the talented, freedom upon the free This whole damn beautiful life Wasted on you Manfred, what are we listening to, bud? So this is Canada's own Propagandi from Manitoba. I think they're one of the best bands ever, let alone from this country. And the reason I picked them, well they're not necessarily a direct influence obviously musically because they're like a lot heavier and faster than we are and let's be honest a lot better. They've just become one of my absolute favorite bands. When they first came out in the 90s I didn't really connect with them but they're one of those bands that every record they've gotten better and better and better and

they sort of moved away from that like fat records punk rock into like this kind of rock metal punk blend but they do influence us in certain ways like little ways like for one I love the little vocal inflections that Chris Hanna does like the little oh's and like little emphasis points. So I've started trying to work those in. And really the main influence is, they influenced me to try to be a better lyricist because this guy is one of the best lyricists, period.

Like he's up in the Ron Hawking category for me. Well, speaking of Ron, whenever he drops by with his guitar, I see the sticker for this band on his guitar. Yeah, well, I heard the story on your podcast when Ron was on once that he told the story that Chris Hanna from Propaganda and he used to write letters back and forth to one another. And I have so over romanticized what I think those letters were like because they're so smart and they're both so politically charged and informed. We can ask Ron nicely, he might show us those letters.

Yeah, like in my mind it's like you know when Jean-Jacques Rousseau was writing John Locke about you know the liberty of man. The age of enlightenment. I just, I would, that's how I built them up in my head. Well I'm with you man. That's a great jam, great band absolutely. Of course there's the famous John K. Sampson was in that band for a while. He was for two records, I think.

Fun fact, but I got a exciting small world. Sorry. Do you know the Toronto band? Guh. I do. So there is, I think it's the only one in the universe, but there is a deep dive in the Toronto mic'd archives.

There's a Guh deep dive with at least three members of that, uh, collective, uh,ep Dive with at least three members of that collective down in the basement here. And we kind of get the origin story. It all happens really close to, the origin story happens very close to the Galleria Mall at Dufferin in DuPont. Oh, neat. Which of course I worked at for five years around the time this band was forming.

So there. But the reason G came over for the Deep Dive is I saw G perform. I was with Cam Gordon and Cam Gordon's wife, MF, and my wife was there too, Monica. And we were at the Geary Street Art Crawl. So Geary Street is very close to Dufferin and DuPont. A cool strip and they closed it to vehicular traffic and there was a lot of cool artists and stuff, including a band was performing at... artists and stuff, including a band was performing at, there's pausing for dramatic effects, so I don't mess it up, the Sound Garage, which is 165 Geary Avenue. And that is a location.

Change of Heart is playing in April. Yeah, that, that was tied in very professionally. That whole story. Those pauses for effect had great effect. So, the change of heart at the Sound Garage, Saturday, April 26th at 7 p.m. Of course, because it's change of heart at the Sound Garage, it's a reasonably priced event for us regular people who can't afford these big ticketed events that have been plaguing our musical ecosystem here. And this is a record release of their the new Change

of Heart album in the Wreckage, which fun fact is the first Change of Heart LP in... do you want to guess how many years? Ooh, I would say twenty... maybe thirty years. Twenty-seven, you 30 years. 27. You're close. So there you go. First new album from change of heart in 27 years. And, uh, and I'm just taking a note here, uh, April 26th, that Saturday night.

I want to be on a Geary Avenue. I will probably be on Geary Avenue that night too. And would this be a good time, um, as any to announce here first as a world Exclusive that on Friday April 25th Elephants and Stars will be doing their first ever headlining show in Toronto at the bovine with FOTM Jean Champagne in support Oh my god. Okay now I'm weak in the knees. You're blowing my mind right now but these drumsticks given to me by Jean Champagne because these of course are

Teenage head drumsticks. Well, he's the drummer of every band in Hamilton. It's like the he's the killjoy He's in his band. He's the drummer and teenage head. He's now the drummer for the black halos I think it's just like a bylaw He'll be in the dirty nail before he almost died on us, You know, he almost did. That was pretty, I remember cause I'm friends ish Facebook friends and somewhat acquaintance with my treble cock and I know they were very, very worried. Absolutely. It was close, but he's going to be playing with you.

That's, that's amazing that you gave that a exclude. So that's the April 25th is you. April 26th is change of heart. Thank goodness. They're not the same night. No, that, that way I can go to both. I'd hate to have to miss my show to go watching him is change of heart.

The most underappreciated band in Canadian music history. They are in my mind, the second most underappreciated band. And we're going to kick out the jams of, of another one later in the show. Okay. You know what you're, you should be on the

radio because that's like a backselling or whatever the term is. I'm like teased. I'm now sucked in in I need to listen to the rest of this jam kicking just to hear What you deem to be the most underappreciated band in Canadian rock history? Yeah, I can't remember where I put them in the okay. Well, they're called order, but well, we'll see cuz let's kick out your fifth jam Jam. Last night, is it ever the last time? Then you start spinning in another stream of conscious mind And it's so complicated I can't keep track

We're swept alive With her feet nailed down to this unholy ground There's a new pair of promise When I die, please don't bury me in this town Said I'm leaving someday soon I said I know I'm leaving too And I can feel the distance already Now can we go get some food I'll take you back to Jackson

And maybe catch a movie too Just for a minute pretend Everything's cool This is the last night And it'll probably be the last time And it'll probably be the last time As you start spinning and other streams notch his line You have a style you gravitate towards and I dig it very much. I love this song. The funny thing about this song is when I first heard it, being a Who's Gidu fan when I was growing up,

I was like, oh my goodness, this sounds like Bob Mould singing a Grant Hart song. So I sent it to every one of my friends who knows Who's Cardoo, and I said, doesn't this sound like Bob Mould, you know, singing Grant Hart? And almost to a person, they all emailed me back and said, no, this sounds like your band. So.

Well, you know what it sounds like to me? Killjoys. Oh yeah, you know what that's it. Yeah there's definitely a Killjoys vibe. My brain started saying today I hate everyone. Yeah I guess and you know I hadn't I hadn't put that together but definitely I could hear that. Uh I don't know maybe everybody does this I've never asked but like I do hear songs come out of other songs and then those songs become a part of the song where there's a very famous Miley Cyrus song called Flowers. It's called Flowers? I think it's called Flowers. But it was everywhere a couple years ago. It was everywhere and my kids loved it but it reminded me of a Wham song. And if I

tell you that I'm having my baby I'll tell you that I'm happy if you want me to. Not freedom. It's not freedom. That one though, it's for make it big I think. But basically, if the song is on and the kids are singing along, and I have an eight year old who would be singing along to this flower song,

they would add my George Michael verse because that's now mashed into the song. And this song, that part, today I had part today when does this song New Junk City when does it come out approximately oh it's been out for over a year it would the another reason I picked it was you know Spotify gives you that this is what you listen to the most that was my most listened to song of 2024 apparently no I mean I'm digging the cut of your jib and absolutely that, it's a killjoy-esque. And shout out to Jean Champagne.

Always. Always, always. I'm digging this, man. You know, when I had the idea years ago, so I would have guests over and we would do the A to Z of their life and times. We did that with you in the backyard. And then I realized like,

there wasn't really any reason to bring someone back, but there were, of course, there were guests I had on I wanted to like have them over again. And then I was, I had been on Twitter back when I was on Twitter. And I saw Mike Wilner was tweeting about Pearl Jam's 10. Okay. Which is an album I love very much. Pearl Jam's 10. I probably listened to it a million times.

Love, still I heard it yesterday. I heard black, like I love Pearl Jam's 10. And blah, blah, blah. My brain goes, oh, I thought Wilner was an 80s guy. Wilner was really into 80s pop music, top 40, 80s stuff. I'm surprised Wilner's a Pearl Jam 10 song. So I'm on this bike ride. I'm like, I wonder what other songs Mike Wilner likes.

What are his jams? I'm like, oh, I could have him back where we play and discuss his 10 favorite songs of all time. And then I started doing a bunch of these, but over time it becomes a bit of a hassle. Like I love what we're doing here, but it is inevitable at some point I'm gonna get an email from Spotify.

Your friends at Spotify are gonna send me an email to say, if you can't prove you have the rights to play these songs, we're removing it from Spotify in 48 hours. Like, I'm going to get that kind of an email. Like, that's going to happen. Hundreds of Toronto Mic'd episodes have been removed from Spotify because I do this. And my thought is, I don't care. Like, this exists on a lot, all the other platforms. You know, I use Podcast Attic.

People will be able to hear this, but if you are a person who only listens to podcasts in Spotify, at some point, you're actually not gonna hear this episode. Like, that's just a cruel fact. That's very odd, though, considering they're playing it on Spotify, where you can hear those songs. So you'd think they would have a means of dealing with that.

But I guess they don't get compensated, because when I play this song, the artist doesn't get their one penny. Like one penny, more like one 100th of a penny. But I guess that's the reason. So if you go through the proper channel, they can at least document and compensate or whatever. Well, if it does get pulled down,

if you're hearing this, go listen to New Junk City from Georgia, I think they're from. And hopefully you're listening on a decent podcast app New Junk City from Georgia I think they're from. And hopefully you're listening on a decent podcast app. I think Spotify is a terrible podcast app anyways. What's your podcast app of choice, Manfred? Generally it's YouTube if it's available. Sometimes I'll just go to the site of the podcast, like the website where you can download

like generally when I listen to Toronto Mike, it's on the Toronto Mike website. Sure. Well, that's the best like I literally have a player an HTML5 player that just plays the mp3 from the server shout out to Ian service in Guelph and that way there actually is no like middle man like no middle tech bro interfering. Yeah I mean I listen to Spotify very begrudgingly I do it out of sheer laziness because it's easy I can fire it up and the entire universe of music is there But if there's any way like on audiobooks or podcasts or anything else I will get you if a band has a bank so I'll go listen to them there if I can so you know

Those who know know and this this episode will live forever on The the apps that are not going to remove it but but Spotify just a little fyi if you're a Spotify listener maybe think about another app because there are hundreds of fantastic kick of the gems episodes so all this before I kick out the next jam this is all to say that I haven't done as many lately because there's a bit of a hassle now involved that the the lawyers and algorithms are involved but I will say I absolutely love doing this like I love sitting down with you drinking my Great Lakes beer, listening to your jams and having you tell me why you chose them. I love it. This is a great

format for a follow-up episode for sure. Should I be recording this Manfred? Well because I think it's just two buds in the basement playing jams. Yeah I mean if people want to hear it absolutely. Alright I'm gonna start recording now. You ready? Here we go. Take it from me, you're a bleeder Your heart is written on your sleeve Compassionate spills out from your speech Take it from me, that you're honest They believe you when you speak That's a tough hurdle to live Take that from me I know he took that from you, he's a liar And he's been dining with the rats

And sponsoring the cowards I know he took that from you, but you're alright I'll just look at what you've built Light a fire to the gift The father, son and holy ghost That they don't talk to me no more We dance around like the Bratz sisters But we don't have to stay here anymore

What are we listening to here, bud? So this is a band called the Penske File in a clear Seinfeld reference. I've been listening to these guys for a couple years. I think they're fantastic. Their songs are catchy, great lyrics and I was telling Simon about them one day. We were out front on Queen Street. I think it was actually at the Subversives showing at the Rivoli yeah and I said oh I love this band and he said oh I know those guys and I'm like how do you know them because I didn't know anything about them and he said oh they're from Burlington Wow yeah and so I just like the spoons yeah so I reached out to them on Instagram or something I was just like oh I think you guys were the greatest. And they were very friendly about it.

But again, they're younger, younger guys. They probably don't want their dad's friend telling them how great their band is. But yeah, I... They should be grateful, regardless of age. They should be grateful that you have this appreciation for their art. I sent them a note saying that I was coming on here

and that I wanted to play one of their songs. Did they have a specific one they wanted me to play? Like are they sort of you know pushing one over the other? And they said no, they were just very appreciative and they said you know play whatever you like and hopefully they're hearing it and like it and they'd be a band I'd love to play with one day in a shameless, what would you call that, not a plug, a request. Yeah go ahead, go knock you, fill your boots. Now I'm thinking of bands named after like TV show references.

One that's jumping out at me right now is Fall Out Boy. Yeah, that's probably the biggest one. And I know that they really regretted that. Do they? Yeah. Because I'm not really a big Fall Out Boy guy, but I'm a big Simpsons guy. And of course, there's Fall Out Boy as a character of the Simpsons and then Penske Files, a pretty damn good TV reference.

I think there was a band for a while called Malibu Stacy too. Yeah. Um, that's a good sense. I did like the early fallout boy stuff. They kind of lost me in the last few records, but for a while I thought they were pretty good. I just read a book all about the history of the emo scene and very interesting and illuminating.

Does it all start with Weezer? Where does this all begin? Well, they sort of generally, everyone says the first emo band was Rites of Spring in the eighties. For For me the first emo band I ever heard would be Sunny Day Real Estate. But also they lump in bands like Jimmy World who to me are just a rock band. Oh the middle yeah. But there's a neat story in there about the band Panic at the Disco. They were signed never having played a show and never having made a demo tape. They were signed. They were signed at a rehearsal

Wow, yeah Sold like a million records. You're bringing the heat today man for you're gonna have the When you when you drop the next album, you're gonna have to come back and kick out more jam jams I didn't really fire the new down to ten, but you could do this. You have a new album These are the songs that inspired the new album. Sure. You know, see what I'm doing here? Yeah, that's what I tried to do. Now I'm thinking like, yeah, now I'm gonna be haunted by thinking of like bands named after television references,

but I can't get stuck in that rabbit hole right now because I got more jams to kick out with. And again, we call you Manfred like you're Cher or Madonna, right? Like you don't need a last name when your name is Manfred. No, people can only name there's Manfred Mann. Of course. I don't know any other Manfreds. The red Baron who I'm named after. That's who I'm named after.

Yeah. Cause that's a good German name. Yeah. You want to bring someone over and name them after like the enemy of their country. That's true. That's World War I though. So at least there's no Nazi. Yeah. There's no Nazi. That's where you got that going for you. All right, let's kick out

your seventh jam. Who would believe moving west would end up so deranged? They called us a party we couldn't have been more misnamed What a horrible joke, it smells like more than smoke Pack up your tents Everyone's fair Let's call it a day There's no singing in Canton tonight Let's call it a day There's no singing in Canton tonight

Let's call it a day There's no singing tonight. There's no singing tonight. Alright, I'm gonna call it now Manfred. We're gonna hear from you. This is your jam, but I'm gonna predict, I'm gonna guess, this is the most underappreciated band in Canadian music history as far as you're concerned. The most underrated band in history regardless of country. These guys are so great. I've been a fan of there since the early 90s. I saw them open for Los Lolo on New Year's Eve at the Palladium and I've liked everything they've done since. I think Vince is a fantastic songwriter. Have you named them yet? What's that? I was gonna say you gotta name this band because people are, we haven't named them yet? What's that? I was going to say, you got to name this band because people are, we haven't named them yet. I'm sorry.

This is Sour Landsight from Toronto, Ontario. And, excuse me. And yeah, I just liked everything they've ever done. I love how they kind of vacillate between like the punk of Pusker Dew and the jangle of R.A.M. and I will say Vince, this actually was produced by Ron Hawkins, this song. And Vince, who is the singer, hurt his hand. And so when they did their most recent show, they asked me to play guitar for them, which I did. And because I've not been told I'm no longer in the band, I'm now considering myself a full-time permanent member of Sour Landslide.

So they have to kick me out if they want me out. But I do love this band. So I pretty much most of my awareness of this band comes from the lowest of the low and having these chats with Lawrence Nichols and of course Ron Hawkins. And their appearance in subversives. Right. But I think the reason they're underappreciated is, and again this is just speaking for myself, but that scene which I was really into, I was like a daily listener of CFNY at this time, okay? And it's top

Thursday 30, shout out to the late great Martin Streak. We'd mentioned Pete Fowler early, he would co-host that show with Streak. But like this band, I'm not saying they weren't played on CFNY, but they weren't played in high rotation on CFNY to a point where I noticed them. Correct, like I think they were on one of the CFNY, you know, the contest deals. The new music search.

Yeah, they were on that. And I think they had an early song get played a little bit shy. But yeah, again, but that just speaks to how underrated they are. They should have been all over that station They should have been in heavy rotation, but they most yeah, you're right and they weren't so it's almost like because they weren't on CFY And they weren't on much music I didn't have like a buddy who I didn't have Ron Hawkins in my life to say you should be listening to these guys Yeah, and to be honest, I sort of fell into them by accident they were opening for a band I

wanted to see. I was originally not even gonna go see the opening band and my friend who I was going to the show with sort of bullied me into it he said let's go see what they are and I was like all right and then as soon as I walked in I they were on and you know the rest is his to wire. Absolutely here I'm now oh there's a Manfred Sitman. Yeah, I played that one show with them. So like I said, I'm a permanent member until they tell me otherwise. Wow, okay catching up here. Shout out to Chart Magazine, rest in peace. Okay, shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. So if people don't know Sour Landslide, Catch Up, but 1989 is when they were formed.

So performing that kind of music, forming in 89, you're right in my wheelhouse where I should be all into you, but I missed you and that's on me, man. That's on me. Well, they're on Spotify, they're back catalogs there now. You wanna start with a record called Friends of Dracula, which- And that got some, I'm reading now catching up,

but apparently that got some CFY airplay that I just completely missed. Yeah, a little bit, but it's a fantastic record. I still listen to it all the time. I'm gonna catch up. That way next time I have Lawrence and Ron over, I can talk with great knowledge about Sour Landsight and get some cred credibility, some integrity points.

Oh for sure, you'll be king of the streets Cuz I am tired of not I'm tired of looking so uncool Manfred well, I mean I love Sour Landsight and I still don't look that cool So I don't know if that's gonna be the cure all for oh Larissa agrees from Spain here. Okay, so let's kick out another Manfred jam In a different world I was a leopard And you are high enough Staring from a mountaintop with the world Find yourselves a shelter Get up when it's time to go I wanna be your dirty sound Coming from the radio I wanna be your dirtest sound

Coming from the radio Run that frequency straight into the ground Don't go, don't go This is where we belong Don't go, just stay with me We'll rule the world Alright, what are we listening to? So this is Israeli-born Yodim Ben Horan. He's a singer-songwriter, originally from Israel. He was in the punk band Useless ID, and I love his solo stuff.

I do love the Useless ID stuff but it's quite different like they're quite punky and obviously this is more singer-songwriter focused. I put this on the list because originally we were going to do an acoustic version of this tonight but it just didn't really work out so we're not going to do this song but... Are you doing any covers tonight? We are doing two covers and without giving any away one of them is going to be one of the songs we've already played today. Wow! So if you liked any of them and you want to hear an odd acoustic rendition of it, tonight is your night.

And the other one is a Bruce Springsteen jam. Why? No. Well it's funny because the Gasset Anthem are humongous Bruce Springsteen fans or at least the singer is which you can you can clearly hear in their records. And remind people who are gonna jump on this as we record at like 3 p.m. on Thursday February 6th. What time tonight are you at the Baby G? We're at the Baby G. I believe the doors open at 7 and I've been told I'm hitting the stage promptly at 8 because they want the headliners to be on by 9 9 30 so everyone can get home and go to work tomorrow. Because people are

old. We are we're very old but I will be there I'm going to stay till the end and I'm already breaking my sort of alcohol ban here today having the delicious Well, your dry January is over man. This is February. Well, I didn't go full dry mine was kind of damp It was like a damp January. I tried to cut back from my my fully immersed underwater December So it was just like baby steps The baby G baby steps it all makes sense to me, but this song, dig it man. I'm digging your vibe here. You definitely have a vibe going here. And we have a penultimate jam coming up. I can't remember what it is. No, I kind of like it when you forget and then you're surprised and you're

like, Oh, cause this is the reaction, right? I'll play it. And you'll, I will be watching you and you'll be like, Oh, I like this song. Right. But you chose the fucking song. I know, but my memory is like a sieve. All right, let's kick it. He doesn't recognize it everybody. It keeps on raining, but that's okay Our messed up mind is overflowing today It's kinda cracked It's off of tracks Again, but it's clear for all to see

I'm almost in the me Yeah, it's clear for all to see I keep choosing, losing, yeah It's okay I keep on waking up all night To make it through You got to kill the light And move out of stress

And there's no rest inside me. But it's clear for all to see I'm my own worst enemy. Yeah, it's clear for all to see. I keep choosin', losin'. Yeah, it's clear for all to see. Fuzzed out, my own worst enemy. Yeah, and that voice might sound a little familiar to people. That's Patrick Pentland from Sloan. This is one of his side projects.

And the reason, well, I picked it because I'm a big Patrick Pentland fan, I'm a big Sloan fan, but I wanted to tie it into our band because we had a conversation a couple years ago with Patrick about maybe doing some producing for us. And he actually did pre-production on three songs. We sent him three demos and he kind of reworked them on his computer and sent them back. And then his schedule blew up and the whole thing kind of fell by the wayside. But I stayed in touch with them. And hopefully that's going gonna be something we do maybe even this year. Can you get him over here? I can sure try. He's not the most... What's that line from America? I'm one poor correspondent. Like usually when you send him an email you're gonna wait a few days before you get the response.

Well he's a holdout because I mean Chris Murphy's been over multiple times, Jay Ferguson's been over another backyard session. Fantastic. Where's my Patrick? I will send him a note. And look, we got Ian in here. We got Mike Trevilcock in here. Why not?

And Ian's not easy to get. I don't think Ian does a lot of stuff like that. No, he's not a big fan of it. So maybe the fact that he enjoyed it, we can use that as like a thing. A reference or whatever. You know who hates it and loved being here but absolutely hates doing it? He enjoyed it. We can use that as like a reference or whatever. Yeah. You know, hates it and loved loved being here, but absolutely hates doing it.

Hayden, I Hayden. Oh, he doesn't like it. No, he loved it. He loved it here. But he was surprised. He liked it here because he fucking hates doing any kind of press. Well, the thing is, like, I actually don't like doing interviews for the most part because I find people just don't prepare for interviews for the most part because I find

people just don't prepare for them and they sort of depend on you to sort of carry all the weight. Whereas this is the opposite of that. This is just very easy and fun as opposed to feeling like, okay, well, I have to talk for 20 minutes because these guys didn't want to look up our band. Also, you might feel, if you had, let's say you had five minutes, it's sort of a bit of pressure. You got to get certain things in you want to say I'm at baby G tonight my new album's coming out February whatever 14th Ian Blurton produced it you might talk about Simon Head on keys but you got things you want

to hit and then you got five minutes to kind of do it all like I feel like that would be pressure but here we're over an hour now and we're not done yet because we got another jam to go but you can kind of let it breathe a bit. Yeah, no, it's really laid back and plus you do a really good job of sort of like setting things up and like setting up questions. So it's kind of very natural and easy.

Thanks man. Like I said, a lot of people don't bother doing any of that. So like you sort of feel this pressure to like, I have to fill all the space. Why don't, is it because they are lazy or is it because they don't care? I think it's probably a good bit of both, quite frankly. A bit of column A, column B.

Yeah, because they always say like, oh, we want it to be just a conversation. I'm like, okay, well, sure, but it ends up being really boring and nobody ever listens to it, I'm sure. I love that fuzzed out track. I wasn't even, I mean mean I wasn't familiar with this song It's an SEO unfriendly song because everything comes up lit

It's no surprise to me. I am my own worst enemy And every now and then I kick the living shit out of me The smoke alarm is going off and there's a cigarette like this was a huge song and Pam Anderson was in the video I don't even remember the video. Yeah, I think she was big and they were small or vice versa. I don't remember. Well, because I remember lit being kind of like blink when a Kirkland brand blink one eighty two. Yeah, they were sort of like trailer park blink one eighty two. If I recall Kirkland's too high praise the yellow label blink one eighty two.

But that was a big song and they kind of, but my own worst enemy. Love it. Yeah, that was great. And we're going to get Patrick on Toronto mic to everybody. That's a commitment from Manfred here. If he wants to get another appearance, he's going to take my reputation as it were. Now that I know there's a new album coming out for the first time in 27 years, blurted in the basement. I have more questions. That'd be fantastic. I was, this is years ago now.

I think it was about four years ago, but I was biking like the near Humber Harborfront on Queens Quay and I'm biking alone like I do and I can see biking by me Ian Blurden and I was like it's like Ian he goes hey and he waves to me but Ian Blurden biking on the waterfront trail it's a beautiful thing. Yeah it's how he gets to the studio that's where his studio is right on the waterfront. Okay, that explains everything. And he's a fun guy to talk to because he's literally encyclopedic in his knowledge of music. It's ridiculous.

Well, we're gonna get him back. Okay, one jam to go. I can't believe it's ending here. Manfred, let's hit these promo points now before I kick out this last jam. You're tonight. Tonight at Baby G, an acoustic opening act for Four Square.

So. And that's Simon Head's band. That's Simon Head's band. And he's got like an all-star crew cranking these tunes out. Will Ron Hawkins be there? I am told Ron Hawkins is going to be there. So if you want to go meet him and get his autograph while I'm playing.

That's a big deal. That could be fun for you. And then April 25th on Friday we are headlining at the Bovine with Gene Champagne of the Killjoys and the Un-Teens and Teenage Head and Junior Achiever and probably 20 other bands will be in support. Probably some other bands might get added still. But it'll be really fun playing with Gene. We offered him the chance to be the headliner if you wanted But he demurred and so we're gonna do it beautiful Yeah

and If anyone wants tickets to either those like I can we can probably give away a couple of anyone besides Larissa's in the chat I don't know I don't you'll fly home. That's exciting. Yeah, so if you're in the chat you want to go either tonight or on the 25th just Plunk it in there and we'll give a couple away And if they're not like some people will just listen to this as a podcast on demand, like is there an email or something? I don't know, we didn't discuss this so maybe I don't know what I'm talking about, but is there any way to

get one of these tickets if it's not claimed in the live stream? Sure, just hit us on social media, we're pretty active on there. So Instagram, Elephants and Stars, Threads, what are the other ones? Facebook. Blue Sky. Blue Sky, we're on there. That's where I follow you. Yeah, we're not really doing the X thing anymore

for obvious reasons. That's a bunch of Nazis. Yeah, and it's just- It's a cesspool. Yeah, I just- And if I go on there to say something innocuous, I have people just wanting to start a fight in my comments. It's like, I'm too old for this shit.

Yeah, I don't really engage with that. We had a really funny thing happen to us on social media this week. Because the video for Strangers on the Train was, there's like a paid promotion thing happening. And people have been reacting, been really positive, this is great, being really nice and generous.

And someone wrote, I don't remember the word, it was like, Piesto or something like wrote, I don't remember the word, it was like pesto or something like that. I don't remember the actual word. And it was all in exclamation points. So I stood there, it was a compliment. So I said, oh, thank you very much. I looked it up and it meant pile of S-H-I-T. And so then I had to edit my comment and say like,

thank you, we'll try harder on the next one. That sounds like X to me. Oh my goodness. Okay. Now let's kick out this jam. I've loved this very much, Manfred. You know that. I have thoroughly enjoyed it. Okay, good. Let's see if your final jam is as good as those first nine. Here we go. The first thing I do when I get home from the road Is throw away that box of crazy blades The ones that belong to your baby daddy

Back in his carpet cutting days And I know you got your secrets too, what do they say to you? And I know you got your secrets too, what do they say to you? Tell me where are you on it too baby, won't you take me with you? Won't you take me with you? I've been holding the door open, I've been waiting to make an exit, But I don't have to take the jump when I know where the edge is. And I know you got your secrets too. What do they say to you? And I know you got your secrets too. What do they say to you? Tell me where are you running to?

And won't you take me with you? Won't you take me with you? Manfred, I love it. So before you tell me what we're listening to and why you chose it, it turns out Cam Carpenter was the lit PR guy at RCA. Oh, there he goes. Full circle. It's no surprise the Cam, he is their own worst enemy. As well as Shit From Hell, Warren Kinsella at the bovine. Oh that's right. Oh. I always call them SFH. Okay, Shit From Hell. We swear on this program. Oh, perfect. All right, tell me about this song. So this is Laura Jane Grace, who, if you recognize this very distinct voice, was the front person for Against Me, who I thought were one of the best bands of the early aughts. I thought White Crosses and New Way were, and

Transgender Dysphoria Blues were just three of the like for a band to have a run of three records like that was incredible. This is their solo work very recent I think this came out this year and to me it harkens back to the early early days of Against Me like the the Reinventing Axl Rose and that sort of thing so they've actually talked to us a little bit about doing some production. They bought the studio from Jay Farrar of the Jayhawks and they were very generous and kind and shared one of our songs with their Patreon membership and so we've just been in touch a little bit about maybe

going and having her produce one of our songs. So that would be fantastic, because I'm a major, major fan. Amazing. And I find it amazing that you're just now on Valentine's day, 2025, you're dropping the new album, but you're already like ready to go back in the studio and record the next album.

Yeah. Well, we said earlier quantity, not quality. That's it. We're just going to keep throwing stuff against the wall until it sticks and slides down. Is this just like, you just like, I want to work with fucking Ian Blurden and Ron Hawkins. So if this is how you do it, I'm just going to do it. You're living the dream. Yeah. You have to be shameless. You just ask for what you want and just get ready for a lot of nos. But then when you get the yes, it's amazing.

You know, you got some yeses, but you didn't get the yes to open for Change of Heart. No, they wouldn't. Their audience wouldn't like us from what I understand. Well, I like this man. This was cool. Yeah, it was really fun. Thank you for having me. By the way, this is, you mentioned a Burlington band, Penske File.

Shout out to George Costanza. Right. This is a cover of the lowest of the low song by Burlington's own Rob Bruce. Yes, of the Spoons fame. Of Spoons fame. And at one point Honeymoon Suite fame, I think. Yeah, 100%.

100%, he did at least one album with Honeymoon Suite. And he did the soundtrack song from Lethal Weapon. I did not know that. I know that almost every girl in my grade was absolutely in love with him. Very handsome. Well he had good hair. He still has good hair. He's just not as long. No. But he'll be here in a couple weeks so you can come back and play with his hair if you want. Well we'll ask him about that first but yeah say hi from me because I think he's fantastic too. And that brings us to the end of our 1626th show. Go to torontomike.com for all your Toronto Mike needs,

whatever they may be. And you can follow me on blue sky. I'm at torontomike.com. That's like where I hang out, but I totally post like new episodes on the following places. I post them, I do post them on X even though I fucking hate it there. I posted on Instagram, I posted on LinkedIn believe it or not, and I posted on Facebook as well as of course, Blue Sky, but follow me wherever and where would you like people

to follow Elephants and Stars? Did you say Instagram? Yes, we're on Instagram, threads, Blue Sky, we have a Facebook page, we're on X, but don't follow us there because we don't really post much there anymore. We just sort of keep it so no one can grab the name. Yeah, I'm with you. I'm with you. Okay, good for you. Continued success to you, Mr. Elephants and Stars. Thank you.

Much love to all who made this possible. That is Great Lakes Brewery, Thank you. AM, Nick Gainey's from Building Toronto Skyline. I got to grill him on what's going on. Why does he want to be a partner of this magnificent, fiercely independent operation over here? And then at 11 o'clock, Sir Jerry Levitan returns. We got a lot to talk about with a provincial election going on. We got a lot of shit we got to talk about with Sir Jerry. And we'll pay tribute to John Donobie because Sir Jerry and John Donnaby have something in common. They both interviewed John Lennon. So we'll discuss all of that. See you all then. The Music