Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Mark Teo Kicks Out the Jams: Toronto Mike'd #797

Episode Date: February 9, 2021

Mike catches up with Mark Teo before he kicks out the jams.

Welcome to episode 900 and sorry, it's 797. I had a little dyslexia there. 797 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times, and brewing amazing beer. CDN Technologies, your outsourced IT department. Contact Barb. She's Barb at cdntechnologies.com. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. StickerU.com. Create custom stickers, labels, tattoos, and decals for your home and your business. Ridley Funeral Home. Pillars of the community since 1921. And Mimico Mike.

Learn more at realestatelove.ca. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me this week is Mark Teo to kick out the jams. How's it going, Mark? Pretty good, Mike. How are you doing? Good. Did you catch any of the super bowl yesterday um i did kind of in passing like when yeah like definitely caught all of the weekend memes this morning right so okay so like out of curiosity like are you a uh like do you regularly watch nfl football like is that is that your jam? Not necessarily. I've been in, like, NFL football pools.

I would say that, like, I do pay attention. I was rooting for Kansas yesterday, but I would say I'm primarily a hockey fan. So I'm actually taking you away from Leafs versus Canucks, like, as we talk right now. I got the notifications on my phone it's all good we were up one nothing last time I checked yeah because uh well here's a like a fun thing is that I have a four-year-old who really doesn't care about hockey but her name is Morgan

so she gets very excited if Morgan Riley scores and but she her bedtime like she's already up there coming out of the bath getting put to bed right now. So Morgan Riley has got to score early for her to think something exciting happened with her Morgan Riley. And today he did that. So this is one of those rare days when Morgan Riley scored before her bedtime. So she's quite pleased.

Go Morgan Riley. Go Morgan Riley. What did you think of the weekend performance yesterday at the Super Bowl? Really good. It was really disorienting. It's really cool to... I think it's really cool to see the weekend actually hit a

stage that big. I mean, we know that the weekend is a giant international superstar at this point, but the mythology of the city is that he started working at American Apparel, right? And it's still just really cool and surreal, I think. We're super biased here.

I know I'm biased because he's a hometown guy, so I root for the hometown. Of course I root for the hometown guys. But does he have the weight? Is he big enough now that he could be the solo performance at a super bowl

halftime like it feels like he skipped a step am i uh wrong am i out to lunch here i don't know i feel like he's had he's had a pretty good arc i feel like like he went he went from i mean he obviously started out just being just kind of like a murky crime in the club kind of guy you know um but i mean he definitely had an arc where he kind of went into like Michael Jackson as pop. And then he just became a giant, giant superstar. Like,

like, yeah. He maybe rose a little faster than say like a Drake, but you think he's had a good arc. Okay. And that blinding lights, which is, I quite like,

cause it's got a bit of that. It's got a bit of that, of course, aha take on me in there, but it's also a lot of that it's got a bit of that of course aha take on me in there but it's also a lot of Rod Stewart's Young Turks in there I don't know if you've ever listened to them back to back but

I haven't Young Turks is a great song so I almost should do it now but if you think of Young Turks if you imagine Young Turks and then you think of Blinding Lights I think it's called very similar like there's some a lot of similarities there just throwing it out there Young Turks, and then you think of Blinding Lights, I think it's called. Very similar. There's a lot of similarities there.

Just throwing it out there. Not to take anything away from the weekend. I thought he was great too, but I was surprised that a lot of people... I guess it depends if you like the weekend or not. A lot of people thought it was great, and then there's a segment of the populace who thought it was not very good.

I don't know if you caught any of that feedback yeah for sure i mean i think that i think that you know like if you're playing the super bowl you're going to have a fair amount of uh supporters and detractors right like i think that people could have seen like you know beyonce playing for my formation of the super bowl and had a problem with it you know but um you know that's that's all That's all right, though. It's a matter of taste. Now, for the FOTMs out there, you might recognize this voice of Mark Teo because he's been on an episode of Toronto Mic'd in the past. Okay, if I have disturbances in the force there, I'll keep my eye on what's doing that.

But you appeared on episode 759, which was a pandemic Friday when we were kicking out big shiny jams because you my friend are the big shiny tunes uh expert you're the subject matter expert when it comes to big shiny tunes right i mean that's a very kind way of putting it yeah i did write a book on big shiny tunes it's called shine um and yeah i mean it is very focused on on the formation of the first compilation which kind of set the template for the rest of the series right the okay so let's tell people this very long name and make sure they pick up a copy and you can even tell them how they should do that but the book you wrote is called shine colon how a much music compilation came to define

canadian alternative music and sell a zillion copies and again if you haven't heard episode 759 where we kicked out the big shiny jams and had mark to on just to talk about big shiny tunes it's amazing mark you were amazing like i left that episode and i know it went long and you were on it the whole time, which was amazing. But I just said amazing like three times. That's how amazing it was. But I was like thinking at some point, I was thinking I got to get Mark Teo over

for a proper like one-on-one deep dive. And then, you know, now we're in like, not only is it a pandemic, but it's minus 100 outside. So we're going to zoom it tonight and you're gonna kick out the jams are any of your jams tonight uh songs that can be found on big shiny tunes there is one yes yeah um and it just happens to coincide with the 30th anniversary of that band okay that's a good good teaser for to come. So before we kick out the first jam, remind us a little bit about the Mark Teo bio.

Like, yeah, you wrote the book on Big Shiny Tunes and I guess this is also your opportunity to tell people how they should buy it. I've noticed with authors, like sometimes authors are like, I don't care, just buy it somewhere. And sometimes authors are super specific, like go to this website,

this exact website, and buy it directly from the publishers because of whatever. So tell us, A, how should people listening pick up, shine, how a much music compilation came to define Canadian alternative music

and sell a zillion copies? And then remind us, what the heck makes you a music expert, Mark? Well, first of all, i love your commitment to saying the entire title i just call it shine and i love that you say the entire title it's great um in terms of buying the book um you can you can get from my publisher uh they're called eternal cavalier press and they they put out a lot of good canadian books so along with my book they have books about you, you know, the Watchmen, the Tragically Hip. They have a book about like some of the women

who really defined the rise of alternative in the 90s. Yeah, and along with mine. So that's probably the best way to get the book. You can order it off Amazon. You can go check it out at the library if you'd like. All of those things are totally great. So in terms of my background, so I worked as a music journalist for a number of years. I would say that like, my first real job working in music

journalism was working for an alt weekly out in Calgary called Fast Forward. So I got to cover a lot of the music scene there. And then kind of work my way back to Toronto where I'm from. And I worked for a publication called Ox. So it used to, it did have, you know, like a TV property, but it also had a tablet magazine and a website. And we did a lot of writing on like regional scenes. We did a lot of writing on nostalgia and that's kind of where I came up with the idea for this book. And like from there, I ended up, I ended up working at the Toronto star like their entertainment entertainment section i worked on their tablet app um you know i remember that

previous oh sorry before you get back to ben ben who i get all the time over ben so you're involved in the famous star touch uh experiment i don't know f Fiasco? What word do you like? Yeah, the Star Touch thing, I guess. Yeah, yeah. So I spent a couple years working at the Star on that product. And yeah, I ended up working in the entertainment section. So I ended up working with a lot of Ben stories. And how did you get along with Ben Rayner? Did you find him to be a cool guy? What did you think of Ben? Honestly, like we sat in totally different parts of the office so i've only really had like small talk with him but he's always seemed like a great dude like definitely uh knew all the stuff brought

a lot of great bands to play in the newsroom um oh really he seemed like a real gem yeah okay uh can you shout out any bands that have played in the newsroom? We saw, he brought Weaves in to play there. I'm putting you on the spot here, I know. Yeah. I don't recall. Weaves was definitely the loudest one, though. Like, I remember just, like, sitting at my desk and just being like, what is going on?

And just, like, walking in and Weaves was playing. Well, he's Ben fucking Rainer, of course. Now, by the way, just so you know, it's funny because you're on this show, so you can't watch this live, and it's not being recorded for on-demand viewing, actually, on this website. But some people are listening to us

and watching us live at live.torontomic.com. So I will periodically have comments from people that are kind of checking this out live. So I mentioned the star touch and somebody brought up the old star phone. Do you remember the star phone? And you would, you would call the touchtone phone and then you'd get like the, the bowl of a watch time,

you know, the time is a eight 14 and you can get sports scores and all that stuff. You might be a bit young for that one, Mark. Oh my gosh, that sounds awesome. No, I don't remember this, but I do love the idea of,

you know, it's the line where you can call and get some scores. Like, it's like 1-800-GOLF-TIP, but like way more useful. It was like, that was like the internet before the internet was our, you know, star phone. And I was a big, big user of it for sure. Okay, so-

I'm more popular than StarCatch. Start my, again, i won't i'm tired of even saying this except i had i have laptops okay several laptops okay and i had a tablet that ran windows of all things i know that's not common for tablets but it ran windows and i had an android phone and i had no way of getting star touch. Like I would have been like kind of your prime target audience, but I couldn't get the tech to work of anything I had. Yeah, they definitely have an Android app for the phone. Was it for the phone? I think,

I feel like they didn't have it for the phone, but continue. Sorry. I think if I remember correctly, I mean, it was like, I think they paid a lot more attention to the ipad app um but yeah no i think that you could see on your phone but it wouldn't be particularly a great experience because you know like it it didn't really scale down particularly well no i for some reason i remember maybe uh misremembering but it didn't it wouldn't work on my damn and maybe my Android phone for some reason didn't work. But bottom line is you're no longer at the start.

So where can we find you now? Where would we read your insights now? So I'd say the best place to find me is on Twitter. So that's my name is NotMarkTEO which is spelled N-O-T-M-A-R-K-T-E-O is assuredly me. My name is not Mark Teo, which is spelled N-O-T-M-A-R-K-T-E-O.

It is assuredly me. And I've been tagging you in all these tweets. So if people can kind of click through and then follow, that'd be cool. Now, basically how this works, Mark, and just in a production, real quick production note, every once in a while I get like a little dash of like almost like electrical feedback or something coming off of your end. I don know uh if you've ever experienced that before not a big deal but if it it comes in little like little blips little feedback blips but I don't know if you've ever experienced that before I have not but let me try a different set of headphones okay it's a difference because something Because something is doing something there.

And I watched the spike in the wave form here. Okay, so while you're doing that, I'll just set this up for everybody. Here, let me look at my Zoom. Quick adjustments on the fly because we're going to kick out the first jam. Now, apparently it's not being heard, so maybe the recording won't have it. So maybe it's just me hearing it. So we can proceed if you're, it's cool. So, Mark, do you know how this works?

So I'm going to play, I'm going to play like 45 seconds, maybe even up to 90 seconds, depending on the song. And when I get, I feel it's time to fade down. And when I fade it down, I mean, you'll know when I fade it down because you'll hear it, but basically it's time to fade down. And when I fade it down, I mean, you'll know when I fade it down because you'll hear it, but basically it's time to hear from you. Like, why did you choose that song? And anything you can share with us is awesome.

I'm freaking looking forward to this. So before I press play, though, I don't know if you, did you have a craft beer handy? Do you have anything that you want to drink? Are you going to go? Okay. Came prepared.

You came prepared. So I'm cracking open my Great Lakes beer today. So it's a burst. So cheers to you, Mark. Looking forward to this. Cheers to you. And actually, I'll thank a few more partners. So I was chatting with Great Lakes cause they have a birthday celebration

coming up on Friday. And if I did the math, I could tell you what that was. I think they 87, what are they? 30 something. They're in their early thirties Great Lakes brewery, but they're going to have a big party, a virtual safe party on, uh, on Friday. So happy birthday, Great Lakes beer, Palma pasta. I wish I could give you a lasagna right now my friend but that'll happen eventually we'll get you my backyard and we'll get you lasagna

I want to get you the Toronto Mike stickers from StickerU as well that would be awesome and who else do I want to thank Barb Paluskiewicz if anyone listening has a computer network that they're responsible for you should consider outsourcing your IT department to CDN Technologies. So contact Barb. She's a great FOTM. She supports the show.

Barb at cdntechnologies.com. Thank her for that. Ridley Funeral Home. I had a great convo with Ridley today and they said, you know what, this is a true story. So Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921 or something like that. We were chatting said, you know what? This is a true story. So Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921 or something like that. We were chatting about, you know, their sponsorship and they said, count us in for the remainder of 2021

which is really amazing for an independent podcaster to hear that. So Ridley Funeral Home, cheers to you. I know they're big fans of the Great Lakes here. And the latest sponsor I want to thank is Mike Majeski. He's in the know in Mimico. You can go to realestatelove.ca to contact Mimico Mike and let him know that Toronto Mike sent you. So here we go. Mark, are you ready to kick out the jams? I do have a question for you though.

Oh, okay. Where is that? So was the last guy to kick out the jams i do have a question for you though oh okay where is that so was the last guy to kick out the jam steve pagan yes oh geez i love that i'm following up because he had this just like great amazing classy list and my list is going to be like i love this song because it reminds me of like loitering outside of a becker trying to get adults to buy me cigarettes like it's going to be like it's going to be a contrast to Steve's wonderful list of this beautiful storytelling. You're in the right place, Mark, because yeah, we can class it up

and talk about Sinatra with Paken, but no, I want to hear those stories. I want to hear your stories too, man. And here, let's kick out this first jam because I love it too. Here's your first jam. I'm tired, so tired I'm tired of having tests So tired, I'm spread

So thin I don't know who I am Monday night I'm making gin Tuesday night I'm making men Wednesday night I'm making kessler So why can't I be naked? Wednesday night, I'll make a guess when the white Kentucky make it. Welcome to... I don't even want to fade to Denmark. What a great start. Were you a big Weezer guy, Mike?

Yes. Me too. I big weezer guy mike yes me too i will i love i love weezer i even think that a lot of weezers like newer albums are still pretty good i think they're kind of underrated okay i feel like i fell off many albums ago like i'm off the i'm off the bus right now but uh these days you're going back to what this is from pinkerton? Like, no, I listened to a lot. I caught them live several times. No, I was a big fan, man. But tell us why you chose Tired of Sex by Weezer. Okay, well, there's a lot of deliberation

because there are a lot of songs this era that I considered in this spot. Like 1979 by Smash Mumpkins, Hey Man Nice Shot by Filter, like Stars by Hum, a lot of songs I love from this era. But I think this song in particular summarizes what i like so much about not only alternative but also like but also power pop um so like i really really love this song but i have to admit that i am conflicted about it i'm conflicted about pinkerton as a whole because um before we get into

what i love, I think I was going to, I just want to throw out some of the things that I feel uncomfortable with. Okay, go ahead. So it's kind of like, it shows like, you know, kind of the ugly side of nerds, you know, like it's, especially when it comes to romance, you know, it's, there's, there's a lot of this alienation that leads to obsession on this song.

There's a lot of this alienation that leads to obsession on this song. There's a lot of the obsession with Asian women. There's a lot of this kind of like entitlement over love and relationships. And it's something that like the further I get away from when this was released, the more it kind of stands out to me. And it does actually kind of impact how much I like this song. And like, I love this song still but it's like it reminds me a little of like there's a subreddit called um I have sex okay which is like this this subreddit that where people kind of like you know overcompensate over the fact that they have had

sex and and it's just like like, it's people broadcasting it publicly as they can, that they have sex. And this song is kind of like that, you know? He's like literally counting down the days of the week and the names of the people he's having sex with. And I'm like, ah, Rivers, like, you know? I know that, and I know that like his whole thing is it's mostly self deprecating.

This album is self-immolating for him. But like, you know, you can still still like you can kind of be cognizant of being kind of a bad dude and still be a bad dude you know what i mean so like was there's there's a i feel it was a stand-up comic bit i can't remember who did it actually about like when somebody like like myself i have four kids so i'd be like yeah i have four kids and they're like this guy fucks right it's like that's like you know it's like i don't know that's what that whole subreddit reminds me of that but this album of course uh following uh i guess we call it the blue album i guess um was like a commercial disappointment and one of these albums that like as time went on became kind of the critical

darling of the uh the weezer catalog right the pinkerton yeah it's just all the fucks no but honestly there's there's so much i love those albums and i think that like yeah it was it definitely was a bit of a flop at the time like i remember the first time i heard this album um like my friend andrew in high school gave me this album and i was like and i'd already had a blue album and i loved it you know and i i loved it to shreds and i was like could this band possibly get better and the answer was like put this album on it was like yeah like okay but first time because i i gotta say coming off blue album your first time going through Pinkerton, did you love it right away?

Completely floored me. Because like, specifically Tired of Sex, right? Like, it has all the ingredients of a Weezer song, right? You hear Buddy Holly, right? Like, and it has that same kind of like, kind of like analog synth, right? Has the same harmonies, has Rivers and Matt Sharp going in on harmonies,

except everything is so blown out and messy right like right off the bat and it sounds incredible right like the synth line once it comes in is so gross it just sounds like so filthy and like and you know and by the end of the song you know rivers cuomo is blowing out his voice um right and and it kind of just like one thing that really stuck with me is that like is that this was a band that sounded even better when they play really really hard and like when it's kind of like a lesson i carried with me when i played in crappy bands that i was like oh yeah it sounds sound way better when you play really really hard right like um and that's what the song's all about right like it sounds like it when you play really, really hard, right? And that's what the song's all about, right?

It kind of sounds like the song's recorded with a single mic in the middle of the room and the drums are overpowering and the guitars are wildly overdriven. And at the same time, it has the same beautiful like Weezer songwriting. It has Verbertskolln's really, really, it showcases his ability to write a really really strong hook and it's just like it's just contrast of being this thing is so

messy and about to fall apart yet also kind of a perfect weezer song and i think i kind of seek that in my music now right like things that have some some real you know pop perfection to them to it but also are playing played like they're just about to fall apart at any moment. Okay. You're in a band right now? I'm not, no. No. Okay. I've never played in any good bands or anything like that.

To be clear, I'm not much of a musician. Coincidentally, just before I kick out your second jam, I love this start. In the second jam, heads up, everybody. I believe this will be the big shiny jam that we've been waiting for but uh i was gonna say the last time and i said the last jam kicker was steve pakin because that's true but once a week these pandemic fridays we have these jam kicking themes and i can tell you that it was referenced in that episode with brother bill and cam gordon it was referenced that uh who you know, in El Scorcho,

half Japanese girls do it to me every time. Apparently that's a reference to a specific woman who did come up in the episode on last week, I guess it was. So this is two episodes in a row here. We've had Pinkerton references.

Love it. Which is cool. Love it. All right,. Red and that through line. Love it. All right, my friend, here's your second jam. Would you please welcome to the stage

Slava! Yeah, first off, here's what you do to me You get rough, I track my self-esteem It's not much, but it's a mess I've got All right. Talk to me about Sloan. Oh, geez. This song is so good. So I think, you know, this is the song of Big Shiny Tunes. And I think the further I get away from writing this book, the more I realize that I wrote that book because Big Shiny Tunes is a big gateway for me.

You know, it introduced me to a lot of new things I became really really obsessed with I really really love and you know and Sloan is I think a prime example of this like when this came out Sloan probably wasn't even my favorite band like I when I was you know in like 1996 I was obsessed with Rusty they were my favorite band love Rusty they so good but i love sloan too yeah and it's not necessarily a competition but i think that like you know like like rusty really introduced me to i think this idea that there was interesting things going on in my city despite the fact that the suburbs and and sloan was kind of the band that introduced me to the fact that there were really really interesting things happening you know at like all over the country so like you know i think that the video

for the song was really important you know like i i you know i would watch a lot of much you know like much west much east and and i and like i think that when it's all it's a video i didn't get the easy rider references at the time but i was like this is a band that looks freaking cool like you look at them and it was just like they you know they weren't billy corgan in a zero shirt you know what i mean they weren't crookery with the sunglasses they were a band that looked like they like had shopped at the dartmouth valley village and i thought that was like the coolest thing oh man no you had me uh i've had two members on toronto mike so far at some point i gotta collect the whole set but uh set, but that jam there that you played there,

that's one of those songs where if Humble and Fred needed two minutes before the top of the hour with the ad break or the news update or whatever, you could stick on The Good and Everyone and get you there. It's really short. It's about

2.18, I think, maybe a little shade under that. But good choice, man. Yeah. Love it. The amount of ideas they've talked about. No, I was going to ask you, but don't forget your thought. In the live chat, they know this show is sponsored by Great Lakes Brewery, and I'm

always drinking a Great Lakes beer, but we're cool to talk about other beers. Could you be specific and shout out the beer you're enjoying oh what a nice question so i'm drinking um a halo beer uh it's a it's called tokyo rose it's a brett saison with rose hips probably a little too spicy for a school night but you know um yeah highly recommended great lakes is awesome um definitely drinks great

lakes but you know if you're ever in the uh the junction triangle neighborhood check out halo dude they're really good okay now what was that you were gonna say before i interrupted you with the question there oh yeah it's just so like this song is you know a little over two minutes and um and the amount of ideas they pack into this song is awesome you know like it it opens up on this like discordy dc hardcore riff and like i saw a tweet by damian abraham today that was just like it was celebrating sloan's 30th and he was just like sloan or one of those bands that taught me that that almost everything i like comes from punk you know and like and i never clocked this until legitimately, like I was talking to Cam Lindsay, who used to be a researcher at The Wedge for my book.

And he was like, yeah, the intro is just like DC hardcore. And I was like, I never thought about that. Totally is. Then it goes into this awesome, just like two chord arena rock verse, like a perfect power pop chorus. And like, I don't know, because of a song like this, like, and you know, on big shiny tunes, I was like, this song could stand up to any of the other songs, right.

Like on that album. And because of that, I had this view, you know, like, you know, like 14 year old me really had this view that like Halifax was this, was an amazing place that I need to go, you know, it was like Pluto and Vancouver. I was like, I was like, the music scenes, these go you know and it was like pluto and vancouver i was like these i was like the music scenes these places are popping off and like honestly like i moved to halifax for a year in like 2009 and and like you know i still had this idea that like that that like halifax was a place i needed to go and and you know and it helped me discover so

much music from the east coast like this eventually you know, you know, like from this, you go to Eric's trip, you go to Julian Veron, you go to Joel Plaskett, you go to, you know, like when I was there, there were bands like York We Doubt were really great. And it was like, it was this really great introduction to this idea that regional music in Canada can be exceptionally strong. Amazing, amazing. Yeah, but then these bands get big in the East and they end up moving to Toronto. Yeah. The band was split up between the East Coast and Toronto for a second.

That's true. Alright, my friend. Love Sloan. Could talk about him all episode, but are you ready to kick out your third jam? I am. In a good place, buildings are worth fighting for My pride, your honor, everyone has a destiny I'll choose my own I will not be a victim

I'll choose my own My pride will go unheard I'll choose my own I've got to fight for myself I'll choose my own I've got to fight Fight for myself I'll choose my own And find my own So true Destiny

Were you ever into like Punk or hardcore? Or like metal? Uh not like Not deeply so Like the odd jam Would kind of resonate with me And I would kind of get into it

But no I wouldn't say This is my jam But I will say That I Like I have I have room in my heart for a song like this i need to hear about these guys like this is hate breed hate breed yes so they're this um so they're this band from new haven connecticut um and i discovered them much like sloan i shouldn't say but i discovered them on a compilation from victory records which is like a chic Chicago hardcore label. And, um, and, uh, like hardcore kind of became like,

there was a period in my life where it became very, very important to me. And I still have a, have a lot of time for a lot of hardcore. Um, and, and I got to say the first time I heard this song, it's like, I had an extremely visceral reaction to it. It sounded like the hardest thing that I'd ever heard you know like um and like the album is called satisfaction is the death of desire and and i heard the song and i was like what is that that sounds absolutely terrifying and like i need to i need to get into that now and like

jamie it's funny because like jamie jaston now is like the singer of this band is like, you know, kind of a metal media star, right? He had like, I believe he had like a show on MTV for a bit and stuff like that. But like this and Pinkerton were like my teenage albums. So like, I remember I saw them, the first time I saw Hatebreed, they're opening for Slayer of all bands. And like, you know, Slayer, legendary band. And they had, Slayer had these two two story high like amps and they would turn on the black lights and they would be painted with pentagrams. And like, you know,

older me would have been like, that's so cool. But like 17 year old me was like, I don't care. I just want to see Hey Breeze. Yeah. You know, it's funny how important these compilations albums are to your musical taste. You're right. This, this is your gateway. Like you're discovering all your favorite bands through compilations and etc yeah totally and like you know and i think that like what's really interesting is that there are a lot of bands i think i discovered during that time that didn't really stick with me but hatebreed definitely did and i didn't really know why aside from the fact that i just i like them you know like

um like like you know they were one they were really one why aside from the fact that i just i like them you know like um like like you know they were one they were really one of my first hardcore bands but i recently came across like a tape promo from victory records right and they were like yeah this band blends you know hardcore with death metal and i never thought of them as as a band had death metal influences but when i listen to the songs now i'm like yeah it's constructed like a hardcore song you know it goes right into a dance part it goes into a big call and response chorus that has like motivational lyrics that could work at a corporate retreat you know has this huge breakdown that seems like the apex of the song with you know with double bass drums and stuff like that wow um and I was like

I love that but I also have as a hardcore song but but then And I was like, I love that. But I also thought it was a hardcore song. But then when I was thinking about the death metal that I eventually would get into, and I've been in a big death metal mood lately, and I love mid-tempo stuff. Like I've been really obsessed with this band called like Frozen Soul and Gate Creeper. And they're like, these are songs,

these are bands that are all kind of mid-tempo. And I started to hear it. I'm like, oh, I like that because I got into hate read. And like, you you know eventually this band kind of kind of like got me much more into hardcore and you discover stuff that from around here like no warning from toronto fucked up in toronto obviously you know final word from montreal bird alive from buffalo these were all like bands i was really into it and um and i think that i can all trace it back to hate breed and they still continue to inform what i like in music no i love it i love it that you got you know you're all over the place because i have must admit like you just right now introduced me to hate breed but

forevermore when i hear hate breed i'll be like oh yeah mark teo kicked out uh and for those for those who want to know what the name of that song was, I got to remember always to give it because it's not like The Good in Everyone, which everyone knows what that song is. This is Before Dishonor. So hate breeds before dishonor. And yeah, something a little different. I dig it.

Are you ready for your fourth jam? Yep. Yo, yo. I go by the name of Pharrell from the Neptunes And I just wanna let y'all know I'm your pusher The world is about to feel something that they never felt before From ghetto to ghetto to backyard to yard I sell it whip on whip and soft to hard I'm the neighborhood pusher, call me subwoofer Outro Music All right. Talk to me, Mark.

Oh, okay. So Clips is definitely one of my favorite hip hop acts of this era. And like they have an album called Hell Hath No Fury, which is one of my favorite rap albums. And this song is actually not on Hell Hath No Fury, but it's still, I think I chose this because it really defines what I like in a song. Like there's a type of song that I like, chose this because it really defines what I like in a song. Like there's a type

of song that I like, and this is one of them. So like Pusha T is an incredible storyteller. And I could hear, I could, I could honestly just hear him just like tell stories about dealing drugs all day. That's, and it's like, it's like, he's so incredibly talented. Like I saw him play at, do you remember the club Circa, i don't believe so so it's like circle was this club that was hey like you know where like on john street like where the theater is now yeah of course yes it's like we remember our chapters used to be adjacent to the theater yeah yeah yeah yeah so it used to be for a while it was like a club and they would put it and and they do these giant electronic and rap shows there and you a while it was like a club and they would put it and and they do these

giant electronic and rap shows there and you know there would be like three stories and you'd stare down at the stage and like i remember going to see clips there um you know and you know packed house and i remember just like listening to push a t rap and i was like this guy can tell a damn story this is like being at like an like like you know like going to see the moth at a club or something like that you know like it was like it's such a great storyteller but the thing that i that i think i like the most about this song is the production and like that's that's like all in the neptunes right there and pharrell and um and like it's just very very very minimal you know it manages to sound just like something that could completely destroy your speakers,

but it's minimal. Like I remember reading somewhere that it sounded like the sound of a door, like a car door closing, you know, and like, and someone, and someone just like, you know, just tapping on wood blocks. And, and, and it's, it kind of looks like, you know, it summarized like something i like my music i really really enjoy i think you know a certain type of minimalistic song that hits really really hard and there's a lot of songs this tradition like push these number on the board numbers on the board kanye produces a lot very much like this you know vince staples makes music like this hip

hop by dead prez is very much a song like this um and i and i just love things that are that simple like when this was coming out or when this came out i was listening to a lot more jazzy stuff so i like and i like you know like i like death jocks a lot like wu-tang a lot a lot of the crate digger stuff i liked a lot and um and this is a completely different approach to you know beat making like it was it was it was a song that didn't rely on a super cool sample obscure sample it was just you know a very hard driving beat and it's one of the things that kind of just like you know i listened to it and i was like oh i really enjoy the restraint on this song you know i really enjoy the fact that you can make a song sound incredible and full and

really really hard rushing with very few ingredients you know it's like less is more you know no totally so that song's called grinder what was the name of that club again uh what was the name again of that club it was called circa circa okay only because i want to i've been uh reading uh johnny dovercord's book and i want to see if it's referenced in there so circa okay i'll be checking that out for sure. And here we are. Your fifth jam. Yn ystod y dydd, roeddwn i'n gweithio yn ystod y dydd. Change your mind from now on then We could go and get 40's Fuck no winter party All the little fuck folks are away now I just go, you convince me

12, 51, that's the time I had to wait for him to say 1251. Okay. Got it. Great jam. Great jam. Love it. Yeah. I mean, it's okay. so let me ask you like what like what do you think of the strokes like what were your impressions of the strokes when they were coming

out oh i liked them right away like because i it just felt like um a throwback of sorts like it just felt like stripped down just kind of like garage rock or whatever so like i think the first song i heard with like a lot of people was last Night. And picked up that disc and dug it. And then this one, this album I thoroughly enjoyed. Hard to explain and all that stuff. I liked them. I thought they were great. I mean, they are great.

What do you think? Well, obviously you love them too, man. They're on your list. I absolutely do. And it's really funny because it took me a little while to get into the strokes. And I obviously liked last night and stuff and that and um but like 1251 um was the song that really turned me on to him like so maybe i had a bit of a bias against the strokes because a friend of mine would always refer to them as four car garage rock which is like i was like yeah fair enough right like like like but um

but this was a song where I think I really snapped into view what they were trying to do. And it felt pretty authentic to the life I was living at the time. So when I listened to the song a lot, I was in university in Montreal. And of course, the song is about drinking 40s. And that is the reality. That is like an 18-year like of like you know an 18 year old whatever in Montreal like and I was like oh man this like this you know four car garage rock band is singing

about drinking 40s but like but I think I think what really came into view for me was um was that was that like I came to really appreciate the strokes approach to making music so like you know they are they were a garage rock band and a lot of people were comparing them to you know television and valve underground bands like that um but you know i recently started reading meet me in the bathroom the book about the new york scene at that time yeah um it's just a really great book but But I remember, like, they really clarified what I think I like so much about about the strokes, right? Like, they play music, which on its face sounds like a relatively simple throwback, right? But when you

hear about the genesis of this band, right, they're like, they're like, they, they were the only band that played to a clicker, you know what I mean? Like, they like, despite the fact they played incredibly simple songs, they were like, we we everything not a hair can be off in the song like you know like every there's like this nursery rhyme melody to it right which they make and they make the guitars sound like synths and it's just like it's something that should be so simple but that they've they've like just honed down into a song that sounds so perfectly them you know and i really appreciate like i was saying i I really appreciate restraint, right? So like the strokes can absolutely play, you know,

they're absolutely great musicians, but I love that they don't necessarily flaunt the musicianship. Like they go after like, you know, perfection over opulence. And I think that that is like a really cool approach to a song. Shout out to Brian, Brian Shelley, who's on the live stream. And cool approach to a song. Shout out to Brian, who, uh, Brian Shelley, who's on the, uh,

live stream. And he says, great song. Yeah. And I haven't heard it in a while, in a long time. So, uh,

yeah, he agrees with me too. And again, when I was listening to it in the cans, I was like, yeah, this fucking sounds great, man.

That's a great selection. 12 51 from the strokes. Good stuff, man. All right. Go. Oh, sorry.

Uh, any, final strokes thoughts before I kick out number six? Oh no. I mean, man. All right. Oh, sorry. Any final Strokes thoughts before I kick out number six? Oh, no. I mean, I just think that they're a band that worked really, really, really hard to sound like they didn't care. And, you know...

It's hard work to sound like you don't care. It's hard work. Totally. All right. Here we go. Something different. so all right mark what are we listening to here? We are listening to Justice's Let There Be Light. So I think this kind of happened. So Justice got really big, I think, in this period when electro was getting huge.

And that was probably the mid-late 2000s, I would say. And at that time, I was listening to a lot of guitar-based music, but I kind of got pulled into that scene because one of my best friends, Marianne, was really, really into the electro scene. That'll do it, man. Your best friend goes into something. That's why I listened to Poison from the years 1985 to 1989

was pure Poison because of my best friend. Poison had some tracks well i still i still like hear them in my head sometimes on bike rides and uh it'll just bounce around in there so there were some good jams in there for sure but uh yeah so your best friend was into justice now you're into justice yeah and like you know the big song from justice at the time was d-a-n-c-e which is like now you hear it played hockey games you know it's like songs like do the d-a-n-c-e one two three four five it's like but um and and it's a it's a great song and and justice at the core were kind of like a chopped and screwed like disco band right but um but like i specifically like this song because i think it

really starts me because of its placement on, on the album, which is called cross. So like, like, do you have, like, do you have any particular spots in albums that you listen to that really stand out to you?

Like, you mean in the order of things? Like, uh, what do you mean by spots? Like, you mean like the, the opening track of side two,

like, are we talking like that? Or what are you talking about? Yeah. Well, like some people like swear by the opening track and the strongest some people swear by the last track being the strongest some people are like the band stuff the best the best songs the last you know third of the album keep your attention yeah yeah right you know it's funny because this art is this art's

completely lost now it's like uh the youngsters are going to wonder what we're talking about in this streaming world, right? But I will say, like, when you were talking about Pinkerton, I was thinking about the Blue album, which I almost wore it out. And I still remember how it started. Like, I still remember that opening track just grabbed you and it took you on a ride or whatever. So I think that opening track of Side 1 is key.

Like, I feel you got to grab the listener and tell them what they're in store for in this album like that opening track is important totally yeah i i think it's one of the most important tracks on the album i've always been a big adherent to track two though right like and that's where it's just like the opening is the strong bit the track two is where a band tells you what they're all about. You know what I mean? Like they're like, this is what, like, like after that, we got your attention. Here's what we're all about.

And Let There Be Light was track two on Jess's album. So D.A.N.C. was their big single. That's track three. The first song was a song called, what was it called? I do not call it. I don't recall. But it sounds like the 20 the 21st century like fox like intro like it's like this big giant like like roman warmart set to

disco you know and um and so it has this big grand opening and right before you hit the pure sweet pop track you have this like this weird atonal track you know like this like and it really kind of subverted my expectations of what dance music could sound like you know like it still has a strong 404 beat and you can definitely dance to it but there's just like a tonal screech which is just like almost the basis of the song and you know by the end it morphs into a disco track but like it's like it's such a surprise listening to them. Cause it's like, it's kind of like if you bought a euro, you know, and you expected heart shaped box,

but then you encounter radio friendly unit shifter. No, it was like that, that kind of vibe where you're like, Oh, like this, this is very different than what I expected. Right. And like, so when this was kind of like when justice was a giant band when electro was big like i had taught english and korea for a while and um and my friend one of my best friends diok and i had an electro night we didn't know anything about dj you know so but like we had our laptops and we kind of learned and we learned about so you know find tracks with similar bpms and then we would learn to create loops then beat match, then crossfade things over.

And it was almost, like, too easy. Like, you know, like, it was like we would do, like, Daft Punk nights where you would mix two songs. It would be almost too easy. It would be so easy that you wouldn't even need to use your headphones, right? But this song was a song that you just could not do that because it was so discordant, you know? And, like, I always thought that that was, like, so, you know like and and like i always thought that was like so you know incredibly

cool this song just consistently like subverted what i expected of it for that i'll always love it now mark you so we know you're in the junction triangle and we know you lived in halifax for a bit in korea so how many different places is that it or are there other places you've lived in in your short life here so um i guess the bio is i i i was born and raised in toronto richmond hill specifically i i went to school in montreal for university um that's two yeah taught english for a year in seoul um that was like you know right after school i was like i need to get a job geez i'm not qualified for anything um i went to i went to journalism school in halifax uh moved to calgary work and then back here okay that's six to six different uh good for you that's uh that's good man i've always i was born and raised in the city and i've always lived in the 416 i think uh that's cool man

that you've been set you've lived in six different places so yeah i mean where'd you always lived in the 416. I think that's cool, man, that you've lived in six different places. Yeah, I mean, where'd you grow up in the city, Mike? Well, if we go by the boroughs, because I'm old enough that it was all boroughs, of course, but York, the borough of York. So a little bit north, I guess, of Toronto, and then you're a little bit east of Etobicoke because you're on the other side of the Humber River. And now, I mean, now, I mean, I'm talking to you now from Etobicoke. So I've been

here now for, I guess, seven or eight years, uh, in, in Southern Etobicoke. I love riding my bike in Southern Etobicoke. I love it too, man. I know that, that, that waterfront trail is fantastic. And, uh, I'm on it every day. It's awesome. What kind of riding do you do? Well, I think it was in the live chat. Somebody was like, you're not going out in this, are you? I did a 30K ride today. I layered up, put on my boots and my good gloves and my balaclava under my helmet and did, yeah, 30K. and my balaclava under my helmet and did, yeah, 30K. So I just got a hybrid bike, and I just do road cycling in the trails, basically.

So, you know, I use the Waterfront Trail a lot. I like the Humber Trail quite a bit. Once in a while, I'll make a trip to, you know, all the way to East York or something and then take the Don Valley Trail. But, yeah, I just stick to usually the trails or whatever. But, yeah, I get out there every day. I try to get out there every day anyway. Love it. take the dawn valley trail but i just stick to the usually the trails or whatever but uh yeah i get out there every day i try to get out there every day anyway love it what kind of biking do you do um i primarily do like road biking um but i also have like a grapple bike for when i want to do the trails and some off-road stuff and you know i like it's definitely something that i love riding the

winter too if you're as long as you're warm enough like you're, as long as you're warm enough, like, you know, like as long as you layer up, right? Like you warm up real fast. So it's great. Yeah. Oh man. Okay. I knew I liked you for a reason. Okay. You ready for,

let me do one, two, three, four, five, six, your seventh jam. Well, I know the cracks in the ceiling Like a cabbie knows the streets of this town

Where the plasters crumble from the couple upstairs Pounding their feet on the ground Where the paint runs off to a territory Where it really just shouldn't be That's a sloppy paint job But not so sloppy as the way that you do me I never come but it don't matter I could be any other girl

My head planted on that pillow My eyes fixed up above Is this what they meant When they said careless love What's the saying of You're all over the place, buddy. I love it. Yeah, think about it yeah think about it think about it we started with your weezer and you did sloan okay we're in the same kind of wheelhouse then hate breed which was

new to me a heavier thing and you did clips now we know you like your hip-hop back to the strokes that fits in fine whatever but then justice and now this this This is impressive diversity here. Tell me about this jam. Oh, well, I love $100. And their singer, Simone Schmidt, is like pound for pound one of my favorite lyricists. Probably ever, really. And they're from Toronto, which is great. I feel like it kind of came out, you know, kind of like the tail end of Torontopia.

You know, like when Broken Social Scene was a big thing. And when, you know, and when everyone was really optimistic about the cultural of like the tail end of Torontopia, you know, like when broken social scene was big thing. And when, you know, and when everyone was really optimistic about the cultural future of the city and, you know, and when everyone was reading Jane Jacobs and, you know, it was like, Oh, David Miller was the mayor, I believe. Stephen Miller. Yep. Totally. I feel like, I feel like Torontopia was into David Sochnacki. Right. Right. It doesn't seem that long ago, but at the same time, it seems like 100 years ago.

Totally. But like $100 for a band that kind of came out of the tail of that. And I remember I saw them at, speaking of Johnny Dovercourt, I saw them at Wavelength. Oh, yeah. I remember.

Yeah. Totally band you see at Wavelength, right? Yeah, he's doing a Wavelength thing later this month. There's some virtual wavelength thing going on. But yeah, sorry, I digress. But people should listen to the Johnny Dovercourt episode from last week because he basically does these great walking tours

of concert venues, past and present. And I kind of put together kind of like a 90 minute version of what that might be like so just you just close your eyes and listen and you learn a whole lot but uh careless love okay so what were you saying oh yeah wavelength okay that's so so uh because I gotta I gotta confess and again I'm not I've never said I was a music expert or a critic or anyone beyond just a guy who you know likes what he likes but i'm not familiar with this band yeah i mean fair enough i mean like i feel like they weren't necessarily a huge band but they were kind of like they're very much a working band right they i feel like they were like they're a band that's toured canada but never got you know like a giant amount of fame um

but they really stood out to me and i think also just like i feel like wavelength bands were like that right like very much they were they were bands that um that had followings but maybe a lot of those bands you know didn't didn't become huge on a national stage or whatever but um but you know wavelength bands like i feel like they've always had a great eye for programming and um and hundred dollars is included in that too and i feel like you know there were a couple like i wasn't really into country um growing up and you know and i i think that a lot of people were in iraq like me did get into country like they got ryan adams and wilco and granddaddy and stuff like that but i never really got into country just because i never really felt themes connected to me you know what i mean like i Like I'm, for those listening, I'm just like, you know, I'm like a Chinese guy from the suburbs, you know?

Like, so it's like country is like, it didn't really feel like it was aimed at my demographic. I could really relate to that. You know, now that I think about it, cause we just lost Charlie Pride and, you know, growing up was like, Oh, Charlie Pride, look, country music's not just white people. Oh look, there's not just white white people oh look there's charlie pride has there ever have we had a uh uh an asian country music star yet not that i know of not that i mean i mean here's the thing i think i've learned that the country is a lot more flexible than i

than i initially imagined it to be so i i won't discount that okay it's time to break that uh that that uh glass ceiling there we gotta we gotta bust through that we need an asian country music star i think but please continue totally but i mean okay so simone schmidt you know not an asian person but she is uh but you know i think she was one of the first songwriters who really showed me that that the country was really flexible right and and and she has a really devastating way of writing lyrics. Like I think my favorite lyricists of this era were her and John K. Sampson from the Weaker Thens,

who I adore, but she had a real, and John K. Sampson could be on a bit of the twee end and she wrote stuff that was just devastatingly, just like personal, you know? So this song song like the lyrics are very very very vivid um they're they are uh and it really is just about just like joyless loveless sex and it's and it's it's really not a nice song right like there's it's really basic song it goes into the the chorus with slot with with the slides

but aside from that puts her lyrics at the forefront right she opens up talking about the cracks of the of the ceiling in a place it sounds really just grimy you know it could be it sounds like it could be in a motel it could be in in a really terrible apartment or an sro and it's really it's really vivid it's really visceral and when she talks about what sex is like you know um she's talking about about limp legs and guts and guts hitting each other and and the chorus is i never come but it doesn't matter i could be any other girl right like it's and it kind of introduced me to the types of perspectives that simone schmidt would end up writing about right like it's these aren't the types of things which, the types of stories which are typically told

in what I view as country songs, right? And as I kind of got into her bands, like she would take these country themes, you know, like escaping town and working and romance and kind of twist them into a really contemporary Canadian context, right? So she would have songs about, you know, oil workers at Fort McMurray who, despite the fact they were working in a boomtown, couldn't afford to pay rent.

She talked about migrant workers in Leamington tomato farms. And she has an album called Songs from Rockwood where she did a ton of research and wrote this album that was about this all-women's asylum for the criminally insane in the late 1800s. And she did all this work to imagine these stories. And it's the type of thing where it's just like, you know, we talk about Canadian identity and, you know, there are things that get bandied about. We're friendly. We like hockey, you know, like Tim Hortons, but then there's this other type of storytelling, which, which tells the stories that we don't hear as much about Canada.

Right. Like it's, and I think that's what she does. So, so, so well. of storytelling which which tells the stories that you don't hear as much about canada right like it and i think that's what she does so so so well and uh and she has a real nice way with words and she's always been this talented you know there's hundred dollars is the band that really got me on tour but she has a psychedelic country band called highest order she has a solo act called fiber and she is just a real gem who I think deserves it so much more. I think I missed out, man. This happens often. I'll just be honest here, where I just

completely missed something that I would totally love. So you're going to send me down the... And again, Simone Schmidt? Is that the name? Simone Schmidt, yeah, totally. Alright, and that band, just to make... I know we said it, but just to say it so people hear it that's $100 and that song

which was great by the way is called Careless Love and now your 8th jam Cynhyrchu'r cân Cynhyrchu'r cân Cynhyrchu'r cân Cynhyrchu'r cân Cynhyrchu'r cân

Cynhyrchu'r cân Cynhyrchu'r cwmpas. Cynhyrchu'r cwmpas. Cynhyrchu'r cwmpas. Cynhyrchu'r cwmpas. Cynhyrchu'r cwmpas. Cynhyrchu'r cwmpas. Cynhyrchu'r llwyth. Ni fyddwch chi'n gwneud unrhyw beth am y llwyth.

Yn y golygfeydd, gallwch weld y llwyth. All right. The pains of being pure at heart. All right. Talk to me, Mark. Sorry, I muted myself. myself oh you know what i was like you can now begin speaking mark it is now why don't you tell us why you like this jam oh i just listened to the song and i just i just get pumped listening to it i just it's um like pains of being pure at heart um like i feel like they're a band that had a really outsized impact on me.

Of this era, there were a lot of bands of this style, the indie pop style, that became a lot bigger. But I love bands like Being Pure at Heart. They're one of my favorites. When this came out, I think I was into a lot of garage stuff. I liked Exploding Hearts and stuff like that. And just listening to this record really put me down this five- you know, five year rabbit hole where all I want to listen to is indie pop. And like, and, you know, it's like, it was, they're the kind of band that like got me into Slumberland out from California and a lot of the Pacific Northwestern stuff. And maybe we just realized that it's just like, that like, you know, I like the Smiths, but I didn't love the smiths you know like and it really got me kind of in that mood so like the thing that i think is really cool about this song and the band in general

is that you can tell they're really studious like they know their stuff you know like so like i followed their singer tip berman on twitter and he has the greatest recommendations from like indie pop bands from indonesia and you're like how did you find this why are they so good why do you have the best taste in the world like oh wow but like yeah like if you could tell that he really sweats it you that they really sweated the song though right like where it's just like like it's the right amount of punchy the right amount of fuzz like they they have the solo which is just arpeggios you know what i mean like it's just like it's like obviously it's not as like sharp as something like johnny mara would play or whatever but it's it's perfect it's this perfect clean counterpunch to to this pretty messy song but

like the best part is like the weird intangibles you know what i mean like you're talking about like it's a song to me that sounds like youth you know what i mean like we're talking about rod stewart before right right and like you know like like young hearts be free tonight sounds like youth and this song to me also sounds like you you know like and i think the thing that points to it is that the song is basically all about like this this like unacceptable to the mainstream love you know what i mean it's about discovering kind of like, like what you're attracted to and your sexuality and like, and one lines of the song is, is like, you know, like, is about, is about meeting in a dark room, you know what I mean? And it's just like, and it really just reminds me of just like, of being super young and, and combating, you know, what's expected of you and who and who and what you're attracted to you know i mean it hits that on the nose and you know and it's it's really strangely special in that way and i think it'll it sounds weirdly timeless because that and like and like on a personal note like this band became so important for me that like you know i uh i love all their albums their second album by

the way if you like smashing pumpkins their second album is very indebted to Smashing Pumpkins, but, but, you know, I remember my, so my wife, my then girlfriend, we went to South by Southwest together and, and we saw Pains of Being Pure Heart and it was just like a perfect moment. And like, and we both love this band and we both, and we both, you know, like we, I think we, I think it was a really important moment in our relationship. Like we, and they remained really important to us.

Like we like, we played a pains of being pure heart song when we got married, you know what I mean? So it's like, this is a very important band to me. And you know, it's, it's yeah. I think it summarizes a lot though. What I like about music. Okay.

We dedicating that song to her is that what we're doing yeah dedicate that song to charlotte it was not we didn't walk down to that song at our wedding but we walked down to definitely a bit of a lower key one because like you know weddings well yeah that's uh and that would have been a good song though because the title of course is uh this love is fucking right i think that would be appropriate for the wedding but uh penultimate did you know uh this is a fun fact um i i said something to stew stone a couple of weeks ago about his penultimate jam and he had never heard penultimate before he didn't know what i was talking about i thought penultimate was a pretty common word but anyway i'm sorry stew uh don't worry stew won't hear this one uh penultimate jam a pretty common word. But anyway, sorry, Stu. Don't worry, Stu won't hear this one.

Penultimate Jam for Mark Teo. Ooh, ooh, ooh Another walk above, after dark It's my point of view The sun could break your neck Climbing up behind you, oh, always coming and you never have a clue I never look behind, all the time I will wait forever, always looking straight Thinking, counting all the hours you wait

See you on the dark night Grimes yeah have you ever seen this video Mike only when you linked me to it for me to rip it for this episode it's a great video you know it's a great

you know honestly I've long great video you know it's a great you know honestly uh i've long believed that you know music sounded better in the headphones but every time i kick out the jams of someone i hear these songs and maybe it's because you know you're having a drink and you're enjoying hearing someone tell you why they love the song but this sounds great in the cans like it just sounded great like one of these rare songs too where like this song is it's definitely like also became like an arena rock song you know what i mean like it sounds sounds great in arena sounds great the headphones yeah so like crimes like geez okay so at that south by southwest i just referenced we saw pains of eating pure at heart the last act we saw was

grimes and like if you this is before she became mega famous but like if you really dig deep enough you can find a YouTube video of me like filming Grimes on an iPhone 3 like an interview where we're both exhausted talking about nothing and I'm just getting and if you look in the comment section I just get roasted by Grimes fans like who the hell is this stupid ass interviewer what the hell is he even talking about like so, but like a little bit of context, I think why the song felt really special is that like, I think I started paying attention to Grimes when I was in Calgary and working for Fast Forward Weekly.

And like, there was this kind of outcropping of Western acts that, you know, moved to Montreal and were starting to get really, really, really big, you know, and Grimes was one of them. She was from BC and Mac DeMarco was from Edmonton. And these were the kind of things where we were like, oh, like, you know, it's interesting that the West is creating these bands that are really, really talented and they move elsewhere and they got giant. And Grimes was one of them.

And I remember hearing her early on and thinking that she was a kind of like a you know like a bedroom electronic oddity where she would like she had a lot of tape hiss really low five you could clearly clearly hear she had like this pop ability like she could really really write a hook you know um and and then she became something totally different right like now she's married to elon musk and it's obviously very different but And then she became something totally different, right? Like now she's married to Elon Musk and it's obviously very different. But like, I remember when this song first came out,

it was like she kind of cleaned up those really weird songs, not entirely, but like, and then started to move really in this pop star direction, right? Like at its core, it's kind of a fairly simple electronic song. And she brings the vocals up in the mix, where she has some extreme Kate Bush vibes,

I've always thought, in this song. Yeah, I know what you mean. Exactly. I know exactly what you mean. Yes. And you watch the video of it, right? And she is just this strange person at a motocross event, at a football game with with mcgill's football

team with a bunch of like business shirtless business business students just like chugging beers and and the first thing you think about is that it's like okay this is a weird like like this is a weird juxtaposition of two very different ideas and then the more you listen to the song you start to realize that it isn't right that it's just like that's just like at first you think it's weird but then all of a sudden you're like wait but this song would totally make sense playing at a leafs game you know what i mean and like and i don't know if they played at least games but i feel like i've definitely heard it in in like an arena you know maybe mart maybe a marley's game or something but like it's like it also like in terms of the way that we thought about pop music i feel like this was part of a really

different way wave of pop like like pop stars essentially like i think around this time a lot of in music journalism i feel like a lot of people were talking about poptimism and about rediscovering you know celine dion and about how carly ray jefferson was really kick-ass which is all true but but this song was like i think you know part of the start of that of the really weird pop star and and you know like i've come to really appreciate it right i feel like it's really ushered in this type of pop of like you know of like fka twigs and arca and sophie rest in peace you know yeah right who who like you know who created this willingly really really weird pop and and it was kind of interesting to just see that come up and i think the song was really felt like a moment you know like where it was like

oh it's not just like you know grimes from bc who's doing cool stuff in montreal it's like this is a pop star you know like, like this is like, yeah. Do you want an update in the Leafs game? Yes. Are they losing? Nope. We're up 3-1. About 5 minutes and 20 seconds to play. And if we win, that's 10-2-1.

So let's keep rolling here. Anyways, yeah. So Auston Matthews has another goal. I mean, Auston Matthews doing Auston Matthews. On fire. I had Rick Vive on the show a couple weeks ago, and he's got the franchise record for goals in a season. And I'm telling you, it's without a doubt,

if we had an 82-game season this year, which we do not, but if we did and he stayed healthy, Auston would obliterate that record this year he's scoring at an incredible clip it's unbelievable it's unbelievable oh yeah and i love rick five um but you know it's like yeah austin matthews i think he's gonna break that record it's not like not this season it's only a matter of time we need to get some 82 game seasons in there because i think he could have done it maybe last season but they shortened it with the covid there so we need to get him some full seasons.

Before I play your last jam, Mark, would you take a moment and tell us your process here? How difficult was it for you to come up with 10 songs to kick out with us today? Oh, it was so hard. Oh my gosh. So I was listening to Steve Pickett episode just a couple of days ago

because I was like i was like oh i'm like i want to see what he picked and he was like this is the hardest thing maybe ever done and i was like it was really really hard for me too and like because you know it's there are many many many many songs i love and right i was i think that what i was really trying to do was i was trying to you know like I think that the songs I hold the dearest are gateway songs. Like, so they're not like the cool, like, like, like they're not the most classic or the coolest songs in the world, but the songs that really clarified, you know,

what I like about music or they really introduced me to a new sound or, you know, it's like, and like, I think a lot of people, you know, would like, you know, I, like, I really fought the urge to be like, I'm going to put together a list that's all Neil Young songs or something like that. You know what I mean? Or that's all like New Order songs. Because I love them.

But I mean, like, Neil Young and New Order didn't introduce me to things. I found them because I had gateways. You know what I mean? Like, yeah. No, and I love, and again, I love how you're, you know, sometimes you got, I get guests over and they're like, let's say they're 55 year old sports media journalists and it's, they've got, you know, they've got the Bob Seger is going to be there. There's going to be the Bruce Springsteen. Like you can almost kind of just, you can almost predict there's a certain, you know, we can almost predict. I like how yours,

I mean, it's kind of, it's different genres. There's, there's artists I've never heard of. Like this is quite the eclectic and that's good because you're introducing me to some stuff that I, I don't hear on a regular basis and I'll dive in and check out more because Mark Tio put it on his jam kicking list. So thanks for that. That's, it's been fun, man. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, thanks for having me on. And honestly, it's just like, I think a lot of it is like i don't you know i don't blame the like i like i really can't fault like

you know a 55 year old sports journalist for choosing bruce springsteen because like you know like i fought very hard to not include like thunder road or you know what i mean or like badlands on this list because i love bob cedar i love bruce springsteen sure but you know if i'm being honest with myself right i was just like it's like i definitely got introduced to that music through things that were very much you know like of my era because i didn't really have parents who could really really introduce me to bruce springsteen right so a lot of things i discovered you know i just i discovered bands that were currently active right and we talked about how you know compilation discs like big shiny tunes would kind of introduce you to different things and stuff like that but uh is that is it that is it that like tell us is it that and your buddies at school

is it much music is it the radio like what were the uh the sources of you know new new new music for you when you were young it was all that stuff really right like i watched i was very much a latchkey kid so i watched a lot of Much Music. And I watched all of it. You know, French Kiss, RSVP, Much East, Much West. Oh, well, Natalie Richard was... Oh, no, you know what? That's not... Who was it?

Natalie Richard? Yes, I guess that was the French Kiss host for a long time, Natalie Richard. She was amazing. So great. So great. No, sorry. You got me. Much Music.

I guess it's been clear to anyone who listens to this program. I watched a lot of Much Music. So, please continue. It Much Music, I spent, I guess it's been clear to anyone who listens to this program, I watched a lot of Much Music, so please continue. It was so, I mean, so good, right? They actually had genre programming too, like Loud and Rap City, and it was good. But yeah, it was like me between that, and obviously friends who we would nerd out about music and stuff like that.

But the compilations were big. I've talked a lot about how I used to do the HMV scam a lot. I don't know if you're familiar with this. Let me guess, okay? This is where you could return discs. So let me guess. I'm going to guess you would buy the discs and you would burn them and then you'd return them?

Not quite. I wouldn't burn them, but you could return. They had a no questions asked policy on returns. It was like, they used to call it the Barnes and Noble scam and then you'd return them not quite i wouldn't burn them but you could return they would they had a no questions asked policy on returns it was like it was they used to call the barnes and noel scam in the states where and like where like you could bring any cd to them and be like uh i just want to return this is open just you know i won't get my money back but i'll get you know an in-store credit so i like i would do that all the time for season like for some used cds i was a real shithead as a teenager but it allowed me to discover a lot of music and risk-free and you know

as as kind of like file sharing came in place like you know like soul seek and kazaa were really really big for me right torrenting was big for me and you know and you know the music industry probably does not like to hear that but you know that it's how i discovered a lot of music right and um and and beyond that right like i think a lot of it for the local stuff right eventually you would i spent a lot of my time writing about local bands and you discover them through soundcloud band camp and by showing up to shows early and watching some some like an opening band you know like it's and you know and all that stuff

i think was really big because i didn't necessarily have like some people have older brothers who are like you know like listen to my black flag tape you know i didn't have that right no i hear you i know neither did i i know i hear you i hear you yeah amazing give me a sweet town garden shirt once and i was like oh i wish i had it that's cool that's cool love sound garden okay man you got one more jam to go here so let's kick this out and hear about it i see i should have trimmed the beginning oh here we go And it still ain't a goddamn thing they can tell me What could compel me to jump in? Get a piece of this bread pudding, wake up, cake up Walking in the form of my elders, I'm glowed up, glowed up

Bitch, don't I look like a pharaoh? Fuck your story, tell nigga, pull up Shit and piss on your head, nigga, clock in Grab my check out the mail, room them back in Papa, daddy wore bucks like Warhol With an A-ball and a paintbrush I'm AWOL, I'm AWOL, but I ain't done Full-time killin', bad hoedriller

Childhood for the kiddin', mellow yellow lemon I'm glowed up I'm glowed up i'm glowed up same time stealing same squad chilling baggy full of pit can't you see i'm living i'm glowed up i'm glowed up I feel like this was very much a conscious decision to include a newer song on my list. By newer, things came out in 2016. I find my musical discovery is slowing down, right. You get older, you learn about more things and your discovery slows down.

But every now and again, something really, really hits me. And I was like, this sounds like nothing I've heard before, you know, it sounds really singular. And I think Kate Renata is one of these producers, right? Like, like he's for my money, one money, one of the most unique sounding producers around, everything he touches is gold. Like all his songs are amazing. And he won a Polaris for this album.

And I think it was the most slam dunk Polaris I've ever seen. Like where I was like, no question, this should be the Canadian album of the year. So he's from Montreal by the way. So the album just came out on was called 99.9 percent and um and like you know and anderson pack is a rapper on the song who at the time had like you know the dr dre co-sign it was like he was all over dr dre's compton album and

um and right off the hop i feel like this is it establishes what's great about Cade Frenada, right? Like, he has a real, like, knack for percussion. Like, nothing quite sounds like him. And I remember reading an interview with him where he said that his dad said that he could hear his Haitian roots in these songs. And I thought that was really freaking adorable. That was like his dad just being like yeah this guy fuck this guy gets percussion my son gets percussion you know like but like there's something that's so unique about it right like he like he always has a slinking bass line um he clearly references a lot of classic soul and jazz um but there are touches that make him sound

like nothing else like he has has the UFO sounding synth. It sounds like a theremin, you know, that sounds like, you know, like Biggie's Juicy, you know, like, except tweaked, you know, like just screwed with. And it sounds like nothing else. And like, and the coolest part about the song, and I think it's just like a really perfect song.

And if you read the YouTube comments, it's just people like freaking out, just being like, what the hell is this song you know like it's so good like but it uses anderson pack's diversity um and katerinata's diversity and really elevates them both so like the first half is anderson pack rapping and you have like and you have katerinata's percussion like you have the slinkiness and it sounds like clubby you know it's not something you would hear at a club um but the back half of the song just turns into this melodic soul song where anderson pack is singing and you know and and you start to

realize that that's just like oh like these guys can do a club song these guys can do a headphone song you know like it's and the time i discovered this was at a really weird point in my life where like i was working at the toronto star working shift work and you get off at like 3 a.m you know what i mean and you'd be like ah it's time off work i'd love to just relax i would like i'm gonna go for a beer you know meet some friends whatever right and but there's 3 a.m no one was out you know what i mean like the streets were empty and and i thought it was really funny i listened to this and like jamie xs xx's album at the time and i was just like it was perfect because it was like it was kind of clubby enough to feel jubilant to feel like yes i'm off work i'm free but also but but also kind of like like you know

intimate smooth enough to be something that you would put in your headphones. So I will always remember just like being on the waterfront in like a humid August in Toronto with no one around at three in the morning, listening to Kay Frenada. So it felt like, it felt, it felt very fitting. You know what I mean? Like it really is like club music meant for solo listening i got a question for you from the the live chat and i hope i don't butcher this question

but uh what does mark think yeah is hyper pop like uh like hyper pop like 100 i don't even know how to say this question holy smokes 100 gecs 100 gecs okay i'm sorry man i don't know i don't so that's how you say it 100 gecs i'll have to edit this in post so i sound cool but what does mark think is hyperpop like 100 gecs um is that a question yeah totally you can chop and screw up a 0.182 song like it sounds extremely unique you know i mean like it sounds like uh to me it sounds like uh the internet in 2019 and 2020 you know 2021 man uh dude did you have a good time doing this this was so much fun thanks for having me on uh dude i gotta get you have a good time doing this? This was so much fun. Thanks for having me on. Dude, I got to get you here in person.

So when this weather turns, I'll find a reason to get you in the backyard. It's funny. When Johnny Dovercourt was on, I said I would get Michael Barclay, Johnny Dovercourt, and Alan Cross in the backyard. I could throw you in the mix. How would you like that? I would love that. That would be lovely.

And it would be really nice to meet in person. And then I can give you some beer to take home with you, some Great Lakes and some Palma Pasta. So, yeah, we definitely have to do that, man. That was great fun, man. I learned a lot from you. You know your shit, and that's all I'm looking for in a good guest.

So thanks so much. Thank you. That's very uh, you know, you're shit and that's all I'm looking for in a good guest. So thanks so much. Thank you. That's very kind of you to say. And also super cool. We got questions during the podcast. I love it. Yeah. Well,

I got to shout out Ian service if I haven't done so this episode and I haven't. Ian service has been doing some great dev work in the back end because, you know, we play these songs and they're unlicensed and Facebook and YouTube and Twitch and they shit all over me and block and mute because I don't, you know, I can't play these songs, but we're fucking pirates. You mentioned, you know, Kazaa, you know, and the Torrents, the Pirate Bay, et cetera. Well, we're fucking pirates here. So

live.torontomike.com. Whenever I have an episode where i know it's going to have a lot of music in it like pandemic fridays it happens on live.torontomike.com and the community can listen live watch us see you and they can ask questions and comment in real time it's fucking amazing so ian service excellent uh dare i say excellent service uh it's uh it's awesome buddy thanks for all this truly good developers good pasta and good beer is all you really need right like and that brings us to the end of our 797th show you You can follow me. I'm on Twitter at Toronto Mike. Now Mark, you said you were at not Mark Teo.

Not Mark Teo. Just to make sure people know it's not Mark Teo. And Teo is T-E-O, like it sounds. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U.

CDN Technologies are at CDN Technologies. Ridley Funeral Home is at Ridley FH. And Mimico Mike, he's on Instagram at Majeski Group Homes. See you all tomorrow when my guest is the man you know as Brittle Star. This podcast has been produced by TMDS and accelerated by Rome Phone. Rome Phone brings you the most reliable virtual phone service

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