Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - The History of New Wave in Canada: Toronto Mike'd #983

Episode Date: January 12, 2022

In this episode of the Progressing Past of Modern Melodies, Toronto Mike, Brother Bill and Cam Gordon chat with special guest Rob Preuss from The Spoons about the history of New Wave music in Canada. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, StickerYou, Ridley Funeral Home and Patrons like you.

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Pillars of the community since 1921. And patrons like you. Become a Toronto Mike patron today at patreon.com slash torontomike. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me for this week's episode of Progressive Past of Modern Melodies, where we dive deep into the history of new wave in Canada, is brother Bill, Cam Gordon,

and our very special guest, Spoons's keyboardist, Rob Pruce. Rob, you're one of us, man. You're just like a guy who absorbs and collects the pop culture info around him and knows how to succinctly package it and deliver it to the people. You are one of us. Well, I think I just love the same things you love.

And I guess I'm interested in them in the same way, like the retro Ontario stuff and all the sort of Southern Ontario stuff. And it comes from being some sort of, like having an attachment to your childhood and like happy memories of all that too, right? Well, it's an honor to have you on the program. You were a natural.

I think one day, heads up to the masses, to the FOTMs, but one day we're going to do a heavy metal episode of this podcast so just brace yourself brother Bill and Cam Oh I'm ready already Who had the heavy metal like the guys who did that book on

Martin Popoff? No they wrote a book about the Toronto heavy metal scene that came out. It was a continuation. There was a punk band called Tomorrow. Tomorrow is Too Late. Yeah, exactly. It was the same publishers, and I think this was like the metal version.

I'm trying to remember. Those guys were on some podcast. Maybe it was Johnny Dovercourt's podcast. Maybe. Yeah, that was very recent. I do think the guy, though. I do think the guy, though, I do think the guy for the heavy metal episode is Popoff, I think. Totally.

Because he's written so many books on the subject. Oh, my God. He writes like two books a day. His output is just insane, that guy. Rob, how many books do you have out? Out? None. I'm in a few books.

Gord, our leader of the of the spoons our lead vocalist he published a book several years ago and there's a really good book from um the guy who ran ckoc nevin grant yeah and published a really nice book before he passed away it came out like a few years before he passed away and there's a nice chapter on the spoons because we had i mean because we were from burlington and we used to go visit them and bring them our records and stuff oh wow so so i know sandy and gourd went to high school together and without getting too much into the the spoons we will i periodically hit and miss i guess uh or pick little spots but um you didn't go to high school with gordon sandy they went to went to school together, and then you joined later, right? Yes.

They're a little bit older than me. They're like five, six years older than me. So Derek, Sandy, and Gord went to high school together in the west end of Burlington in Aldershot. And then I was the younger one going to school in the east end. Oh, there you go. I met them, and they sort of formed the band while they were in school. Like the earliest beginnings of the band sort of began as they were finishing high school and then i joined all those years later because you but i was i was still in grade 12 you were like 15 when you joined weren't

you yeah i was in grade 11 we were just like just i was gonna say the tommy stinson of uh the spoons like the what was it derrick trucks yeah what was that show you were on? Like you played the clip of it when you were on before Rob. It was Going Great. Going Great. What a positive name for a show for one thing. What a fun little clip. Like that was awesome.

It was funny. And I mean, that show certainly didn't last very long, but it was a fun thing to sort of focus on kids at that point. And it was just good timing for us that they happened to find us and we were just releasing a single. So it worked out. So last week I had John Bora was on the program sitting right here.

And he talked about how he was playing like punk bars, Toronto punk bars when he was like 15, 16 years old. And then I brought up like you, Rob, and you were kind of having a similar. And it kind of will come full circle here because the last episode of Progressive Past of Modern Melodies was our punk episode. We dove deep into the history of punk in Canada, and our guest was Ralph Alfonso. And I got a note from you, Rob.

This is where I want to begin today. A lot of ground to cover, but you wrote me, it's funny, at the end of your Ralph Alfonso episode, when you say the diodes are the beginning and ending of punk today, I was also thinking that they're sort of at the start of new wave too. So Rob, let's start with you. And can you elaborate on that sentence as we kind of brilliantly segue from our history of punk to our history of new wave in Canada? As the past progresses. Canada as the past progresses. I was well, like I said, I felt like I was cramming for an exam, like going back through all these things at that at that point in my life.

And I guess what was the world of music as it was sort of going from what what you call 70s rock into what became the new wave and beyond. And I was listening to all like I would Google these these playlists of Canadian what would be called Canadian new wave or whatever. And the diodes came up and all these people that I was like, oh, like I would Google these playlists of what would be called Canadian New Wave or whatever. And the diodes came up and all these people that I was like, oh, yes, totally, totally. Violet Tones. Oh, yeah, Demics. And it was all kind of coming back.

And I was listening to the diodes. And what I realized was that they sound like sort of like a punk band, sort of like a new version of a rock band. But as soon as the freaking keyboard comes in, it feels like New Wave. And and to me it's sort of like a light bulb sort of in my head i thought that's sort of the sound like when i was 14 years old 15 years old all i wanted to do was sound like a farfisa because it was in blondie's music it was in the kings it was in the cars it was all those single name bands all this costello too yes of course and when i over the place and all that stuff and so it sort of struck me. Then I did a little research because I thought, oh, yeah, the Diodes.

I remember those guys. And then I Googled them, and I realized that that song came out in 78. So now every time I realize where that era began, I'm always a little bit more freaked out by how much earlier it was than when I tuned into it. But I realized in 77, 78, I was only 12, 13 years old. And I was still playing Kansas and I was playing Styx and I was playing Elton John and all that kind of stuff.

But there was this whole thing happening in the background. So my theory of the diodes was that 1978, you know, it's a really hazy sort of transition. But I think that's sort of the era when we were getting into what would have become called the new wave. So brother, punk begat new wave, essentially. Yeah, I mean, the new wave, if you want to define it,

the new wave actually comes from France in the 1950s and 60s. It was a theatrical movie movement from France. And then it obviously morphed into the music scene in the United Kingdom. And of course, the the the Americas as well. I just wanted to sidetrack for a second. You were talking about the gentleman that played all of the John Borah, did you say? Yeah, John Borah.

All the clubs. So all those punk clubs were the bars that I used to get get into with Fake ID when I was 16 the likes of the turning point ill dickos the bridge uh larry's hideaway all these all these places statue of limitations off on this illicit activity right brother here i know profession what a different times back then you could you know take a birth certificate and literally pass it to five of your buddies and all get in to the show at Larry's Hideaway. And we would see some rather interesting bands,

mostly punk bands, but there was some other stuff coming along as well. Kind of like what Rob is mentioning, the end of the, like the diodes and stuff like that was pretty much gone. This was the early 80s. And there were bands like Killing Joke playing Larry's Hideaway and yeah and the cramps and uh these bands that uh you know technically why don't

think i'd call them new wave bands but definitely alternative that probably influenced some of the new wave bands uh along the way like i'm sure rob gord would probably say he's a killing joke fan judging by the sounds the spoons made in their early days i mean i heard some info you can hear the british influences in the spoons music especially on like areas and symphonies and you know things like that that era yeah and if you if you go back like a year to our first album which is 1981 when we recorded that and it was released and and i look at it now and i think that really again is like where the new things were starting to happen the new sounds were coming in

in a bigger way is it hard to be the kind of man you want to be all options not left open Playing games for the benefit of those who watch The power of this world will turn out right Not like his mother, not like his wife, but right Not like the women he knew in his life And all the arts and symphonies

Music to his ears, little voice, in harmony Forming the hearts of all irons And symphonies ringing in his ears Everything's arranged Before it is played Is it hard To be the kind of girl you want to be All options not left open Acting rules

Just to pacify the dear old man The cup which is bathing those not white A bit like his mother, a bit like his wife Searches baby who knows how to write A bit like his mother, a bit like his wife Just like the way that we know that he's dying And arias and symphonies Music to her ears, they told us In harmony Falling down hearts of arias Her ears in Taurus, in harmony Holding their hearts, I'm Arias and Sylvanias

Ringing in her ears, everything's arranged And I'm head over heels Thank you. I don't know. No, no We're not hungry for more We're not hungry for arias and symphonies Ringing in my ears they told me the harmony pouring their hearts out Arias

and symphonies Arias and symphonies guitar solo Gord was more of like a he'll always tell the story of how he loved Genesis and he really loved progressive music and then the next step I think in the Gord was more of like a... He'll always tell the story of how he loved Genesis and he really loved progressive music. And then the next step, I think, in the bigger picture of where our band came

is that Gord loved Genesis and then the next thing was like Talking Heads and those kind of things were then... The new angularity of this new sound was what you could call the post-punk era, I guess, was happening. So a lot of the sounds that were coming out at the same time as us,

I think we just all kind of had the same influences as well. What was, what was starting in 1978 and 79 between the talking heads and television and Blondie and all those kinds of things. And then I look at that same era and I think, God, Gary Newman released his first albums at that time as well. And Ultravox was out at that time.

So Depeche Mode. And Depeche Mode. Right. Exactly. It goes on yeah you know you know it's a really interesting document of that era that kind of mushes everything together and i bet you guys have seen this erg a musical war yes i'm just looking at it right here it has almost like all those bands you mentioned the cramps oingo boingo dead kennedys gary newman Ubu, Wall of Voodoo, The Serpents. Klaus Nomi. Klaus Nomi, The Cure, Candice Ong, Martha and the Muffins, Echo and the Bunnymen,

UB40, like it's all in there. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. I'd say she's sort of none of those, but kind of punk in her own way. I'm glad you brought that up, Cam, because really with the exception of CFNY, the only way we we heard about those a lot of those bands was watching that movie ergo music war which i guess came out in 79

or somewhere around there it yeah it looks like 82 but like the footage is like over like several years yeah and and that was the only way that's how we heard about those bands you know and my era i mean rob we're probably close to the same age um you know radio was great cf and y in toronto you know played a lot of interesting new music um and then you'd be waiting for the latest edition of nme or music you know a music magazine which you would you would look really like for the next thing there but it would be a week remember it was a week behind all the time yeah always they always get the the addition from the weaker anyway um yeah so i mean with the exception of the radio with cfny in in toronto and the southern ontario area there really wasn't a lot of places other

than the melody maker and enemy and sounds to get the information about the new well and but and hopefully by that point you also then you're if you're into something that's sort of like obscure at that in that period you have friends and the friends are the ones that are informing you as well like for me i always had my friend and his older brother was the one who was like you know telling us what he was reading about and he was probably ahead of us on the curve you know for reading magazines and stuff as well i think the the most, sorry Cam, the most, I'll just finish with this at this point. The number one place people heard new music from

or new wave music or different music or alternative music was usually from an older sibling. Yeah, yeah, totally. Yeah. I was going to say and for either of you guys,

you probably have our mutual friend if only on Twitter, if not in real life,36 he's so he's always posting these old chum fm charts and there was that era where they seem to play like a lot of new wave like you'd see xtc or you might see teenage head where the spoons must have been in rotation on on chum back in the day like even even pretty early on not really early on i'm well i mean when i say early on it's only like a year after our first album so like when we released nova heart as our first like commercial single

that was where it began and so we were definitely on the charts from that point onwards but like like when i feel feel like uh thinking about the new wave beginnings i feel like by 82 it was already sort of moving on in a way like like the sound had caught on, which is why I felt like when I was listening to you guys with Ralph, I really felt more connected to what I would have called the early days of New Wave, which goes back like another year. Because by the time we're on the charts in 82, I'm like, oh yeah, well, you know, Laura Branigan's on the charts and Irene Cara's on the charts with Flashdance,

but there's the Human League and, you know, there's some modern sounds are still creeping into the mainstream. But I already felt like the alternative in that world was sort of over. For me, at least, it sort of seemed like that. So New Wave breaks basically in terms of top 40 success with, I guess, Blondie

and the Cars and the Knack and bands. And the Knack, yeah. And the Monks. The Monks. Yeah. That's late 70s for sure. That was 79 for sure. Sorry, Mike, I was going to say, and then it kind of takes a little bit of a turn again

when Duran Duran comes around. A lot of what they call the Blitz bands out of the UK and that movement was known as a subculture within the subculture of New Wave. It was called Blitz. And Duran Duran, Heaven 17. Visage. Visage.

Yeah. Those bands were all of a sudden. Blank Menage or whatever. Yeah. Blanc Mange. Blanc Mange. Whatever. And then brought sort of a dance kind of element to New Wave as well.

And that's where I kind of saw the spoons jumping on because obviously Nova Heart was the first song I had heard from the spoons. It's still a fantastic song to this day. Thank you. And the influence of New Wave was really obvious to me in your music, Rob. And I liked how you progressed past that, though. I know you, you know, Arias and Symphonies is its own individual sound, just like your first album was.

And then your next album was as well. It was a completely different sound. Again, that's what I always liked about The Spoons is the progression that your band had. Right. Those modern melodies. And it's all in the past. It was in the past. But it's still modern.

And that's sort of one of my regrets in looking back in that era. And I think, I wonder what we would have done next. Because we were sort of getting a good progression. Like you said, everyone was sort of something different. We hadn't quite settled in to a definitive sound. I mean, in some ways we did because of Gord's vocals and sort of

the elements that we brought as individuals, but as far as working with different producers, we kept having different sounds come along. And who knows where it would have gone next. Sorry again, Cam. This is a question I've always wanted to ask you, Rob, and that is, how do you end up in Honeymoon Suite?

How does that happen? I auditioned for the band and I I crammed like I crammed for this into this conversation slash interview um I just felt like like at that point after I had left the spoons I didn't know uh really what I was going to do but I just sort of thought I needed to move on and I felt like well the only way to move on is to sort of just start all over and so I didn't get the call to audition for honeymoon suite until about nine months after i had left the spoons and by that point i was like i don't know what i'm gonna do like i was it was a bit of a midlife crisis even though i was only 20 i was like i'm not making any like i'm not doing anything to make any money at this point in my life and and i had considered like like taking things like I was looking in the newspapers,

like thinking, is there going to be anything that says like, we need you to come and write our score for our, our TV show or anything, or we need a jingle. I had done a few jingles and things, but, um,

I, I got this call out of the blue. Actually, the call was from a guy who worked with Ralph Alfonso, bringing it back to your last episode. One of the, one of the managers of honeymoon suite, um, who had actually just left working with the band,so, bringing it back to your last episode. One of the managers of Honeymoon Suite who had actually just left working with the band,

Jeff Rogers. You guys might know Jeff Rogers. He called and said they're auditioning keyboard players and that was how I got into the band. So that's, you know, we're way past the modern melodies of the new wave. Yeah, I do that. I like to take this all over the place.

Well, brother, clearly you didn't listen to 952 okay that's right you know i did but um i find that i listened to so many of your shows mike that i i i don't remember all points and i just wanted to get that one back in there again i you know not no disrespect to honeymoon suite they were good at what they did too and uh yeah i just found that you know i just found that you know i just thought the rob the spoons were such a keyboard based band especially second album yeah um but then honeymoon suite the keyboards were more of a back sort of in the background compared they were they were but they well they were but they weren't because sort of taking the lead from what happened in the new wave new wavy era of just a few years before the keyboards were bringing

sort of coming back to the forefront or at least to the equivalent of where the guitars were and honeymoon suite second album had fantastic keyboards ray coburn their keyboard player who left the band he co-wrote a couple of the songs one of their biggest hits feel it again was written by their keyboard player and he was really doing some good layering of synths which was kind of coming back to a 70s sound anyways um so for me, the leap from The Spoons to Honeymoon Suite wasn't so great for me because I had grown up in the 70s listening to Elton John and listening to Prism and listening to Max Webster and all the things, right? So from The Spoons era, and because I had a bit of a break, I thought, yeah, I kind of loved rock and roll when i was a kid and so this and i knew how many how many times they'd been like adding the keyboards in the

last few years before that so i just sort of said yeah i'll give it a shot okay i'm already already loving this uh already loving this but i just need to uh be the host of the most here and just establish the base like i gotta get this base established, and then we're going to really dive deep and get as nerdy as possible in terms of, like, the Vancouver new wave scene, the Toronto new wave scene, of course, of which the spoons were a big part, and the Montreal new wave scene,

and then anything else that you guys have. But I got to ask the big question. We kind of went off into 1950s French film, I think, at some point when I... But what exactly? Maybe, Cam, we start with you. Because I know you always do your homework. Define new wave music for me.

Well, for Canada or just in general? No, globally. Is it literally like a bunch of people who went and saw, I don't know, Sex Pistols in the Clash or the Ramones or something and said we got to start a band? Like, where does new wave come from

globally? And then we'll go into Canadian specific. Ramones or something and said we got to start a band like where does New Wave come from globally and then we'll go into Canadian specific. It's very hard to describe because whereas punk I feel like even if it's inaccurate you could say well it's sort of you know aggressive fast three chord rock

like New Wave could be anything from Depeche Mode to the Cars to the Talking Heads to OMD to The Psychedelic Furs to The Spoons. It's weird. The two bands I always think of, why aren't these bands New Wave? And we've talked about this on past Pandemic Fridays or PPMM. Cheap Trick and Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers. Cheap Trick and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers because how are they that different from

Tom Petty not that different from I don't know like REM Cheap Trick not that different than the Cars the Cars were probably more keyboard based but is keyboard the key? I'm glad Rob's here is that the fundamental key component here when we talk new wave is the keyboard?

I would say it's pretty important, but also not essential because... Well, like I said with the diodes, I felt like the diodes had established a sound that you could recognize as a punkish, rock punkish thing. But as soon as you bring in a keyboard, it takes it to a different place. And I feel like there's a different sort of a harmonic

that's coming into the music to sort of lift it up do you guys remember there was a toronto band called the government uh the song it was like a punky thing they had a song called the cn tower or flat tire was the flat tire yeah we played that yeah it was like super cool song but you know just nothing but but it was like a punky song and at the very end there's like one keyboard note at the very end and i think i think i must have heard that on cfny in those days and thought that's super cool the rest of it was like could have been any any sort of a punky band but the fact that you bring in a synthesizer or an organ or whatever that to me that becomes like the defining element of where that sound begins

funny yeah funny you mentioned that song because i remember that that piece of vinyl that we had was a 45 an independent 45 that we used to play uh of the government and flat tires about two minutes long the song wasn't that long yeah really catchy somebody gave me a flat tire so we ain't gonna go driving tonight somebody gave me a flat tire so we ain't going nowhere tonight. Nothing against you personally and nothing against you professionally. It's just that somebody gave me a flat tire, so we ain't gonna fool around on the freeway. Somebody gave me a flat tire, so don't make me have to honk my horn It ain't you in particular

It's just, you know, the circumstances It's like a flat tire It's a flat tire You gave me a flat tire You turned me into a flat tire I'm stuck A flat tire. You turned me into a flat tire. I'm stuck. Somebody gave me a flat tire so we can't hit this town tonight.

Somebody gave me a flat tire so we can't hit this town tonight. Somebody gave me a flat tire so we're gonna stay home and watch television. Maybe we'll do it another night, but we ain't gonna do it tonight. Tonight's a flat tire. It's a flat tire. You give me a flat tire You turn me into a flat tire No! Yes!

Okay, here's a question. Okay. Well, I'm going to make a statement here. To me, because I want to get to this eventually, when did New Wave end? To me, like, New Wave, the last New Wave band was, like, when the first Pet Shop Boys single came out. Maybe we can loop back to that later. So that's, like, 86?

That is 86, yeah. West End Girls? Okay, a band like the Smiths, is that a new wave band? Generally no keyboards in it. I don't think. Maybe a bit on certain songs, but generally a guitar band. Are they new?

Cam, here's my take. So Mike mentioned the Pistols in the UK, and of course when we talked to Ralph, we talked about the Ramones playing the New Yorker in 1977. I think that the definition of new wave is basically guys that probably originally heard the Ramones and the Sex Pistols and things like that, but were far too talented to be monotonized or monetized just with four chords.

Monotonized is a really good word. Monotonized, I just made that up. But they were too talented, and they wanted to add their own twist on the original bare-bones sound of the Pistols and the Ramones. And so they added things like keyboards and they added things like fashion and they added things like makeup and hair. And it naturally branched off from punk rock and became its own thing in the late 70s, early 80s. And then you could talk about the difference between the US.S. and Britain, totally different scenes.

And then we're from Canada, and I think Canada always had the advantage in all kinds of music because we were able to pick from both scenes and kind of make our own thing. And that's what I think Rob and the Spoons did, and that's what I think the Pucka Orchestra did, Martha and the Muffins. you know, they had their own thing going on. And the music was constantly evolving until it couldn't evolve anymore.

And that's when the Pet Shop Boys came out, I guess. That's my take. I like that. So how about this for an idea? And I'm just thinking out loud here, but maybe we start in Vancouver. Okay, let's begin in Vancouver. So we kind of established that this is kind of, we did this with Ralph Alfonso.

We talked a lot about DOA and some of the Vancouver punk scene, et cetera. But can we maybe begin speaking about a band? Like how about the Pointed Sticks? Sure. So Rob, you don't know I'm in Vancouver. That's where I am. I do know that you are there

yeah i've been here for almost 20 years now um and by vancouver you mean white rock right i'm in white rock that's not vancouver uh no it's not burlington's toronto come on and i'm in queens but i'm in new york city hey there you go there you go. There you go. So, okay. So I had to do research because frankly, I took a job at a commercial radio station out here that did not play new wave music. Matter of fact, you know, we talk about it, but it's, it's a hundred percent true. In our first episode with Ivor Hamilton, the music director of CFNY, we talked about how important and how special CFNY was as a radio station because of its format. Because I came out to work at a station called CFOX. Oh, sure. I remember this. Our background, you know, is Brian

Adams and Loverboy. It's not. And Honeymoon Suite. And Honeymoon Suite. Absolutely. It's not New Wave music. And frankly, it's odd. It's odd to me because Vancouver had such an amazing new wave scene here yet they didn't have any radio they didn't have any television but they had they had some art students that made some great videos and they had CITR which was the college station here which Nardwar the human serviette, worked for. And, you know, that's where people heard this kind of music and also watching Erga Music War and reading sounds and NME and Melody Maker. And there was also some labels, too, like Zulu Records is a record store out here in Vancouver that has seen just a ton of people come through its doors that went on to become very important in the Vancouver music scene. And there's also a CD called, sorry, it's called

Last Call History of Vancouver Independent Music, 1977 to 1988. Hey, there you go. So I'm holding up because no one will see this. Yeah, Randy Bachman, not New Wave. Yeah. So this is an Ardwar interview with Randy Bachman. So that's from Chart Magazine. I sent that to Mike, Chart Magazine, the top 50 Canadian albums of all time from 1997.

I found it. So thank you. Thank you, Brother Bill. This was a Christmas gift I received from the great Brother Bill, and I love it. So thank you. Sorry. Continue. You said Ardwar, so I had to share that. So, okay. So, continue. You said Nardwur, so I had to show that.

Okay, so yeah, so I mentioned, you know, the Vancouver New Wave scene. I mean, Zulu Records is so important. It still exists as far as I know, but you know what? I've never been there. I mean, to give you an idea how outside of the New Wave scene I am from Vancouver here,

because it was prior to my time. I moved here in 2004. Oh, 2004. But Resulu Records released albums from the likes of Bob's Your Uncle, which featured former MuchMusicVJ, Suk-In Lee. A band called Slow, who Cam, I know you know who they are.

Vancouver Punk Band, or Victoria Punk Band called No Means No. The Pointed Sticks, which I think Mike, you mentioned. And even FOTM, Art Bergman's former band, The Young Canadians. Sure. Order of Canada recipient.

There you go. So Zulu Records was one of the most important record stores. It was like the equivalent of the record peddler in Toronto, I guess. Nice. And just introducing people to music when they walked in the door, just what they were playing on the turntables and stuff. You know, so.

Love it. But there was a lot of new wave bands here too bands you've never heard of i mean did you know there actually was a popular front yeah i remember popular front oh so not not ron hawkins popular front this is the lowest of the low that's right the popular front out here at a song in 81 called synchronized swimming which is worth a listen but it doesn't sound anything like the lowest of the low. I'll tell you that. A band from Surrey that called themselves the Beatles of Surrey. Surrey is a suburb. It's like Scarborough.

And they were called No Fun. They were around from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s. And not a very good band. I heard some of their stuff, but you know what? They were there. But fuck it, they were New Wave. That's right. A band called The Shades. There was a whole bunch of bands out here and there was also clubs as well we you talked to the the lovely Kim

Clark Chapman who was going through the second round of cancer battle right now and it was frankly sometimes difficult to listen to that interview with him Mike I know you know his voice is is is in pretty rough shape. But, I mean, I didn't realize that Kim Clark Chapness worked at one of the legendary clubs out here called Love Affair. I mean, he was one of the big DJs. And another guy named David Hawks was as well.

And then we had clubs like the Smiling Booty Cabaret. And, of course, and I don't know if The Spoons ever made it out West. I presume you did a couple of times doing your own headlining shows rob yep yep our very we played the comp are you going to say the commodore that's what i was going to ask you play the commodore it was our very first time in vancouver we did a tour our first cross canada tour was fall of 82 coming on 40 years ago and our opening was images in vogue

wow and i still have i've seen the poster online like like the commodore and they had a really cool poster like you know with the two of us and yeah that was my first time visiting vancouver at all and then seeing those guys was amazing and having like listening to them yeah and of course kim clark champness was the manager of images in vogue yep that's right so i mean go ahead i'm sorry just quickly had a couple more clubs too i wanted to mention starfish room as well is where I saw Art Bergman and the Town Pump where I saw the lowest of the low do three nights out here in the 1990s.

Nice. So, Rob, you were there. I got to ask you about some of these, the key new wave bands, and Cam, of course, you're always the smartest man in the Zoom room, so you chime in as desired. Just interrupt and chime in but uh what do you remember about the pointed sticks rob me not much i remember the name it's i mean funny when you when you had the other conversation about it and as i was

watching these these things about canadian post-punk i saw the name come up and it was like a dim memory and i thought oh yes i remember them And then I remembered they were from the West Coast. And then listening to them, I sort of remember, but I can't say honestly that I listened to them a lot. I knew of them in the scene. I feel like they were not dissimilar from the Diodes. Like, you know, Diodes, pointed sticks, cheap trick, all in a blender.

I mean, yeah, I mean, but they could all kind of go together. I could see that as a package tour. Yeah, the new wave bands out here in Vancouver were more influenced by American, what was going on in the U.S., and it continues to be. It'll always be that way on the West Coast. People here see more,

I think I've mentioned this before, they seem to be more in tune with Seattle and Portland and Los Angeles and San Francisco than they do with, say, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg or Toronto. I would say the one song from the West Coast that has remained as like a key new wave song would be

the Peolas, of course. Yeah, Eyes of the Stranger. Oh, right. Yeah. When our song, when Novahart was released, we were like on the charts at the same time and we were like the two Canadian songs sort of hitting up, you know? Yeah. I i listened to a top 40 radio in the uh you know early to mid 80s and eyes of a stranger was a staple like it was just like it was top 40 hit yeah it was a beer commercial too was it not i feel like i remember it from a movie called

valley girl it was a big part of that movie with Nicolas Cage. And this ties in, Cam, with our, you know, tears are not enough deep dive here, of course. So the Piolas are Paul Hyde and Bob Rock. The Bob Rock, by the way. So let's go there, Rob. Hopefully you remember

more of the Piolas than you do the Pointed Sticks because the Piolas are a big, big, you know, big successful Vancouver New Wave band. Yes yes and i mean they were successful and a big band that i would know only uh indirectly because you know we were doing the same thing at the same time but i knew of them don't think we ever crossed paths which is kind of weird like over the years that we were working yeah we never it was just never shows together or any opportunities to do anything. But I was a fan of the band. To this day, when that song starts,

and I realize it sort of starts like our song, Nova Heart. It starts with the drum machine. As soon as you start with the drum machine, everybody goes, whoo, because they know what's coming. Is it nothing but something I fear Will my heart take the strain Or will it break down again It's like sense of danger You've got the eyes of a stranger Have I been sleeping for all these years?

There's only magic that makes you appear When you walked in the room I felt my heart race Made you run with food, when I lifted your face Did you lose sight, sense, a danger? You've got the eyes of a stranger And you look like you see a danger You've got the eyes of a stranger In your lips I sense a daze

You've got the eyes of a stranger In your lips I see a daisy You've got the eyes of a stranger You've got the eyes of a stranger You've got the eyes of a stranger You've got the eyes of a stranger Thank you. Actually, one or two Canadian New Wave songs that I would say have not aged well would be the Paola's China Boys as well as Blue Peter, Chinese Graffiti. Yeah, well, that one was less of a known song, but the Paola song was on the radio, wasn't it? Yeah, China Boys, that was less of a known song, but the Paola song was on the radio, wasn't it?

Yeah, China Boys, that was closer to a punk song. It definitely had that shouty, and I think Paul Hyde was, because he was born in the UK, I believe. And I feel like he was sort of in the early punk crowd in the UK before he came to the US. That's true, yeah. So China Boys is, you're not going to hear that song on the radio anymore because it's outright racist to tell you the truth. Right. Right. Right. For 2021, if you listen to what he's saying, it's like rolling out the carpet for Asian immigration into Vancouver.

And it was a bit of a boom going on in the late 70s here in Vancouver. And it's not a pleasant song. It's not a pro song for Asian immigration. It's actually, I mean, we talk about the Forgotten Rebels and a song called Bomb the Boats, Feed the Fish, which is also a song that just would not get any radio play back then. But China Boys, yeah, if you listen to it, it's outright racist. It's a racist song and it doesn't have any place in 2022. So I don't think that's ever going to happen. a racist song, and it doesn't have any place in 2022, so I don't think that's ever going to happen. But fortunately enough, for Paul Hyde and Bob Rock,

even though Bob Rock does not need the money, you know, Eyes of a Stranger was such a massive hit that they were set for life. I mean, I don't know how it worked with The Spoons, Rob, but, I mean, in that day and age, were you talking about writing a, if you could get a top 10 hit, would it make you, would you be comfortable for a while with the money that you made off of the residuals from it? Well, it depends on the contracts that you sign when you're a teenager. So what you're saying is. But, you know, I don't know how big of a hit you have to have to be comfortable for a while

um but you know like like we're still making money off of the songs that we made all those years ago and and it's not huge amounts of money but it's fine and it's you know we certainly weren't making the music thinking of that and we weren't successful enough to not have to think about it either but um i would say probably a song like Eyes of a Stranger would be making a comfortable amount of money for them. My understanding, and you'll correct me if I'm wrong, but Eyes of a Stranger, big hit in Canada, but this is not an American hit.

I feel like it was. It was an American hit. Was it? Wrong, wrong. Are you sure? Because, okay, in my homework, it seemed like this band didn't break out of Canada. Pick up on this guy, the fucking amateur hour.

Please. I'm going to fact check this. Fact check that. I feel like the Paolas were a Canadian success story in Canada. That's what I feel. But you'll tell me if I'm wrong. What do you say there, brother? I think it was an international hit.

I think it was big in America. I think it was big in America. I think it was big in Australia. English-based countries. Cam's doing the homework. While he does the homework, who wants to name some, just to let the people who are learning from us today,

Bob Rock, of course, highly sought-after producer and some of the, who wants to name check some of the acts that he worked with? I'm sorry, number 22 on the US charts. It's not bad. Billboard?

Not bad. Better than I thought. Foreign Canada. Better than I thought. I thought it would have been bigger than that. So Bob Rock is the producer extraordinaire out of Vancouver. He worked with all these bands. He produced the Pointed Sticks and all that kind of stuff, all those bands he produced the Pointed Sticks

and all that kind of stuff, all those bands back in the day out of a little studio called Little Mountain Sound out here Vancouver is Rob you probably know this as a musician Vancouver has some of the premier recording studios in the world out here

the likes of The Warehouse which is still around and Little Little Mountain Sound, which was run by a guy whose name is escaping me right now, who passed away a number of years ago. But Bob Rock worked out of that studio and cut his teeth on all these early punk and new wave bands, and then

graduated, obviously, to the likes of Metallica, The Cults, and Aerosmith, and anyone else. Cher. Cher is a new wave band. Bonvi is bon jovi a new wave band yeah no but that was recorded out here slippery when wet was recorded in vancouver um yeah honeymoon suite did their second album out there as well before the album they did before i joined it was bruce fairburn and bruce fairburn that's the guy i'm trying to think of little mountain sound. Oh, okay.

A lot of Bruce's legendary producer. Now there's a guy named Mike Fraser who worked with Bob rock. Yeah. He used to be there. He started a little mountain sound, like cleaning toilets. And now he's one of the prime primary or premier engineers and producers out here. He works,

he worked on the last like 10 ACDC albums and stuff like that. He's a fantastic guy. I met Bob Rock once. He wasn't very nice to me. What are you going to do? I said, I'm a big fan of your work. He just stared at me and kind of scoffed. Next band. Cam Gordon.

Stop the press. Cam Gordon. Before we leave this, can we play just a quick round of dead spin remember some guys of like two later career paul hyde songs like remember this song sure one was the song america is sexy of course of course of course that was a bit that was a big much music she wears her hair gently or something uh what was she i feel okay and second one this is this is a favorite game toronto mike and I like to play by DM. Whoever is the Canadian version of this US band.

So remember the Traveling Wilberts, right? Sure. You got Bob Dylan, you got a little Tom Petty, George Harrison, Roy Orbison, and Jeff Lynn. Fantastic. Do you remember there was sort of a Canadian version, I would say, of that? And it was a three-way single called Let the Good Guys Win.

That was Tom Cochran, FOTM Murray McLaughlin, and Paul Hyde. The video for this song looked like the video for Handle with Care by the Traveling Wilderness. They're in a barn. They're all around a mic.

Keep them coming, Cam. This is why you're here. I here to get that i had to get that off my i love it please interrupt me anytime with any fun facts or mind blow shout out to stu's on the next band i want to talk about we already brought them up but let's dive a little deeper here especially since we could take advantage of having rob here and our white rock correspondent uh brother bill but uh shout out to kim clark champness and again he's speaking through a voice box so you're right it's tough but man i'm so fucking glad he did that because it's the only thing he's done since his uh larynx was removed in surgery and i was so like

grateful that i got him to share these stories because i think he's an underappreciated um artist and uh member of the music media in this country. And I just hope the guy lives forever. Agreed. Much love. But Images in Vogue. Let's dive a little deeper into Images in Vogue before I bring up another Vancouver New Wave band that I was listening to last night. And I'm like, fuck, these guys were big.

But let's start with Images in Vogue here. Sure. I mean, obviously from Vancouver, led by Dale Martindale, who is now, I think, living in Ontario, I believe. Once kissed me on the mouth. That's another story altogether. That's for Bill's OnlyFans. That's right.

Or the Jeff Woods again. That was an odd night. That involved Kevin Key from Skinny Puppy, Dale Martindale and Chris Shepard. I'll save that story for another time. But, you know, they were a band that never

progressed. They kind of released the same album three times, two or three times, and then it just, you know, you got to keep moving forward. This is what I mentioned earlier about Rob, about your band, The Spoons, is you always moved forward. The next album didn't sound like the last album. And I always appreciate that in a band. I think that's the way you should do it for longevity and success, ultimately. But Images in Vogue were a great new wave band, and they burst on the scene in early 1980s with songs like Call It Love and Lust for Love

and other songs about love. And I'm certain Rob had the 12-inch single for Lust for Love. No. Oh, my goodness. It hits hard No doubt When the truth lies there Like glass

Though unashamed Unstained I've never lied Or told the truth Don't mistake my lust for love Don't mistake my last fall love How do you look at me now? You can tell me how Should I leave

All the way around If there's a chance you'll change your mind All the way around All the way around You mistook my lust for love, didn't you? You mistook my lust for love, didn't you? Didn't you? I've been through this all before There's nothing new Run and hide

All disguised But the fact remains the same Don't mistake my lust for love Don't mistake my lust for love Oh, didn't you know My last fall of Did you? Could you? Why would you? it holds up i played it for kim i played it for Kim. I played it for Kim, and I was like, this is still fucking great.

They're a great band. They're a great band. But again, they didn't really get past where they needed to go to become this success, unfortunately. I think they have a lot of fans in Canada who appreciate them so much because they were there at the right time. And some people like that stability of sound. And I know what you mean about moving forward.

If you as an artist want to move forward, you, I guess you do, or you should, but I've always felt like they've stayed really true to that sound, which is something that I sort of appreciated about them over the years. And I remember when we were, like I said before,

when we were in Vancouver and they opened for us, I was like kind of jealous because we, people were calling us a synth pop band or like electro pop or whatever it was in 1982. before when we were in vancouver and they opened for us i was like kind of jealous because we people were calling us a synth pop band or like electro pop or whatever it was in 1982 and i always thought but we're not because i'm on stage i'm the only keyboard player and look at images and vogue there's five keyboards on that stage and i remember they would set up for their sound check and i was like like looking on the stage i was only 16 16. No, I just turned 17. Five memory MOOC synthesizers on the stage. And I was like, oh my God.

Like I should be in a band like that, but I wasn't. But I was a little envious. And so I've always appreciated the fact that their sound has sort of stayed true to that thing. How many keyboards did you have on stage with you at any given night you were performing, Rob? Only ever two. Well, the spoons, Honeymoon Suite was a different story.

With The Spoons, I started off with just one, and I was really excited and like sort of, it was a challenge for me to make our first album and only use one keyboard and just do all the different sounds and the different parts. But by the time we got to the second album, I decided we were getting a little more influenced by OMD and John Fox and

like a lot of more synthy kind of stuff. So I added my second synth and I only ever had two at a time. So, but then with honeymoon suite, I had like seven or eight. It was like Rick Wakeland territory. I was going to say, you didn't want to change into like Emerson Lake and Palmer or something. Like have the great gates of Kiev. Yeah, exactly.

But not really. Cause it's sort of like all the synths mixed with all the guitars. Or Rush. Remember Rush's era all the synths mixed with all the guitars. Or Rush. Remember Rush's era, the 1980s? And the keyboard, they went keyboard heavy on albums like Power Windows and stuff. Again, a very new wave.

Those Rush albums, I feel like you could almost consider those new wave. They were veering into that territory. Well, when you guys were talking about the early days of it, my one big note from the diodes and the new wave the next step to me was street heart uh under my under my thumb and if you listen to their cover of under my thumb which is like 1979 there's a synth synthesizer in there that kind of goes throughout the song that happened exactly then with rush with spirit of radio and that little

break in the song where the keyboard goes, that little sound? Yeah. Just like Street Heart under my thumb. So to me, that was like, and the synthesizers started creeping in and I always felt like they're a little bit new wave at this point because they don't know what's happening.

It's like people trying to decide whether they should be disco in 1978. You know, Kiss doing Alchemy. Do you want to hear a hot take? Rush Subdivisions sounds like Alex likes Subdivisions. I wish Mark Daly.

Sounds like a little bit like Joy Division. Yeah. I agree. I don't even think that's a hot take. I actually hear that too, Cam. It's a lukewarm take. But Cam, before we get too far away from Images in Vogue, any relation to their guitarist?

Their guitarist is Don Gordon. Don, no. The only famous Gordon I'm related to is Kim. Kim. I'm Sonic Youth. Went to York University, I have to say. Next band I want to bring up here. And again, always feel free. If I go too fast, you guys just slow me down band i want to bring up here and uh again you always feel free

if i go too fast you guys just slow me down shout out to copyright but uh coming soon but strange advance look at that i wrote down three bands from vancouver i thought we'd talk about today the paolas images in vogue and strange we all did our homework i wish i did my homework in university but uh strange advance is like to, that's a big fucking name. I was last night listening to Strange Advance. And then when you hear We Run come on and I'm listening, I'm like, that's it. Like that to me, that's now we're in the heart of New Wave in Canada. You're on your own and meet a friend Who doesn't kill but wounds for life

The sun blinds you through the trees While watching clues fall from the skies And she smiles At the point of the knife You never see anyone How the strong will survive At the end of the gun We run

Frozen smiles swarm and return Frozen smiles form and return I never even left this place She kissed me softly on the cheek And the shadow cut across her face At the point of the night You never see anyone On the storm will survive At the end of the gun

Oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh I walked for miles and miles to the sea I know you've never tried to deceive At the point of the knife You never seek anyone How the strong will survive At the end of the gun Yeah, another Vancouver band that I don't know too much about. I know that in the early 80s, CFNY championed them as much as we championed the Spoons and Boys Brigade and Puck Orchestra and all of these up-and-coming bands. Martha and the Muffins.

Coming soon to the Ontario segment. Or the Toronto segment, I suppose. But Strange Advance were this Vancouver band who I don't hear too much about out here radio doesn't play their music of course radio in Vancouver I mean Loverboy is current rotation here so you know so I

don't know too much about Strange Advance other than We Run was a great song and they had a pretty good run there in the early 80s and I think put out three or four albums and I think they were one of those bands that had like a pocket of like fandom or pocket of success in a place like Japan or, or Norway or something like that. I just said,

Rob, I want to hear your, cause I know that a strange advance open for the spoons, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Share that story.

I guess after they had their first album, when the first singles were released. Yeah, World's Away. We did a show together like in, yeah, World's Away was the other song.

It's a fantastic song. Yeah. I think we played together in like Kingston, somewhere like that. And again, it was, for me, it was sort of like the Images in Vogue thing

where I saw this synth band and I thought, man, these guys are really cool. Like, of course, we had guitar, Gord was playing guitar for us too but i always appreciated the synth bands just being a keyboard player and yeah i always love their sounds they're still they're still active drew who was one of the two main guys in the band the band is still together and and they have released some new music and i believe they they're planning a tour and

stuff which i'm super excited well rob you should know that what's going on they're part of this new uh the new album that came out of uh spoons covers like a tribute of songs and strange advance or somebody from the band is uh recorded a spoon song do you know which song by any chance i can't remember okay i forgot that i forgot that they're on that that's right spoon's expert go ahead cam strange advance they also did that song because mike you and i talk about the glory days of 680 cfdr with tom rivers they had a big hit i remember when i first started listening to the radio love becomes electric world becomes electric world becomes a love course with the with the

memorable chorus where they're like wow yeah like that was a big fucking i just assumed and i'm kind of i'm so glad we're doing this episode because I'm getting an education. I just assumed Strange Advance was to Vancouver as the spoons were to Toronto. I know Burlington, but we'll call it Toronto. I wasn't here at the time, so I'm not sure. All I know is today it's not a name that I hear too much about.

Strange Advance. I mean, I know them from the CFNY days, and that's about it for me. I feel like they were on some of the CFNY retro compilations, I feel like. Could have been. Like We Run might have been on there. They were a big deal. So one thing I actually do remember, and Rob,

you can probably confirm this because you played with them a couple of times, and I remember them being extremely talented musicians, like session good, like the guys, the way Boston were all session guys who started a band. Toto. Strange Advance. I'm not sure about Toto, but there you go. So, but Strange Advance were very talented guys, and it kind of is the next kind of stage of progression,

I think, for New Wave was bands like Strange Advance and, say, The Fix. Yeah. Oh, yeah. They started getting away from New Wave, and it became almost the new top 40, if you will. Well, that's actually interesting to say that, because The Fix were on the radio around the same time, I believe.

Like, I guess when we did shows with them, it was like 85-ish. So coming to the end of my era with The Spoons anyways, but bands like Big Country were coming in. Right. And The Cult was, I mean, the single was out. But definitely there was a bit of a shift happening. I mean, the sound that The Cure was doing at that time was sort of coming more into focus. But Strange Advance definitely were still more in the synth era of it all.

But you're right. There was something about it that was sort of moving forwards, progressing. I think the big new wave bands that had albums in the 70s, when you think of the first Devo album, or the first XTC album, or even the first Cure album, I say this not in a pejorative sense, but it's pretty amateurish, that music. It's real raw, especially XTC,

just totally changed like it'd be like 10 times in their career totally but those early xtc albums are basically like punk albums so back to what i was saying i mean that's the you know you had these bands that saw the ramones of the pistols and then they you know they they created their own sound but then they kept progressing interpretation got better yeah you know yeah so toronto Mike here is itching to get us to Toronto, but since it's my show, I'm going to ask a couple of, just a couple of other bands that are kind of part of this Vancouver scene before we leave it, because you mentioned Slow.

So Slow, of course, becomes copyright. And any words about Slow? And then I heard Rob mention The Kings, and of course, switching to Glide is like a big, big hit. So Slow and the Kings. Any thoughts before we head east to Toronto? But wait, I'm asking a dumb question. But are the King, I should know,

but did the Kings originate on the West Coast? No, they're from Welland. Yeah, or Oakville. I thought they were like an Ontario band. That's why you guys are here. That's why you guys are here. That's why you guys are here. I have a mic. Okay, maybe it's...

Slow featured a guy named Ziggy. I can't remember his last name. And Ziggy went on to be the guitar player in a Conline crush. So you're saying Ziggy played guitar? Ziggy played guitar. He did. And shout out to Neil Young, of course,

because he caught a line. Drop that pen, Rob, and just walk away now, because that's the state. There's the quote of the day. Shout out to Dave Hobbs. Yeah, and happy 75th to David Bowie. But of course, yeah, no, sorry. I don't know too much about Slow.

They were one of those bands that their singer was a bit of an enigma, I guess. He was a bit of an odd guy, kind of did his own thing, and then they went on to become copywriter Circle C, depending on what you want to talk about. I remember they apparently had a legendary gig at Expo 86 that sent it into madness. And Mike, I know you just had Jason Schneider over with John Boer.

This is detailed in their fantastic book, Have Not Been the Same, The History of Canadian Rock, that features a whole chapter on the Vancouver scene and slow and more like bands like 5440 and more like 90s bands. Can I make one more comment before we leave Vancouver? Yeah. I do find it interesting, by the end of the New Wave era, you did have three bands

creeping in, who certainly were not New Wave, but 5440, Spirit of the West, and Grapes of Wrath all started digging. I mean, especially 5440, I feel like they went back to like, 82 or so, 83, like their early shows. Like, they must have over...

Rob, did you ever, like, play with them? Never did. Like, probably not, because they were almost more in the... They were in the punk circuit. shows like they must have over did rob did you ever like play with them like never did like probably not because they were almost more in the they're in the punk circuit it is punkish right yeah i mean i mean i mean without wanting to always be defining the genres at that time especially you would just have a club that would book everything right and so so it's a little bit of they probably weren't defining exactly what they were but i think you're right closer to the punky unlike now as well rob they guys it it it's they didn't like bands didn't share a bill like bands that were complete opposite now anybody can play with anybody you know it's like okay all right psychedelic furs are touring with uh you know uh the warrant

that's the way it is now you know it just tears for tears for fears with hall and oats there you go right i mean back then back then though um if you were a keyboard band you played with other keyboard bands and that's the way it went yeah i remember when the clash they took like bow diddly on the road and they took Grandmaster Flash too. And that was very provocative. Like this was like, whoa, what are they doing? Yeah. These aren't punk bands.

And they got booed off the stage. The Who brought Joe Jackson with them, played Exhibition Stadium many years ago. And someone threw a bottle. It went off of one of the pieces of equipment and knocked the drummer out. And that was the end of the Joe Jackson show that way. Wow. Crazy. You know,

so there wasn't very tolerant of different sounding bands. Although, as you mentioned, cam bands like the clash would say, well, we're going to bring these bands with us. The reggae band, like black you,

who, or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I was great to be able to do that, but it wasn't really overly accepted in those days. The exception rather than

the rule right breaking news on my little research here while you guys are talking uh the kings were formed in vancouver british columbia and this is interesting i'm on the wiki page and oakville ontario in the late 70s so this is god not to get sidetracked, the beat goes on slash switch into glide. Is that... Because they always get played together, but I always wonder, is that technically two songs? I think it's two songs. Two parts can con.

Yeah. Wow, so do you get double up, double points for that? I wonder. That's why it still gets played. Two parts can con, and it's six minutes long, so it's like playing two separate songs because they are two separate songs. Is that like New Mother Nature and No Sugar Tonight? Like they have to be united?

I think so. And Green Day, right? They had the two together. The only other song that I remember that was actually three parts CanCon is 2112 by Rush. Oh, wow. The Q107 used to love playing that because it was three songs in one.

I'm surprised that none of the spoons came up with an idea of, hey, let's get more Canadian content by putting two songs together. It's so funny. As you were saying that, I was trying to think, like when we released our first single,

it was Novahart slash Symmetry, but it was only Novahart. Although Novahart started out as the B-side. It was the second choice of a song to record. Interesting. Rob, before I forget, were you out of the spoons by the time the single Waterline came out?

I was not in the band, but I love that song. That's a fantastic song. I was hoping you were because I was saying to Mike, I remember specifically being at home, that came out much music and almost getting like weepy. I was like nine years old. I was like, what is like,

Oh, it was like, what a, what a heartfelt, a later career spoons track. It's a really beautiful song. And it, it's funny.

It feels like things that we had done. Like it's sort of an instinctive thing for Gord to write a song like that. And I think like, that's why I love it because I wasn't the part of it. And I listened to it and I think, Oh yeah, that's Gord. That's really cool.

Great, great video. It's just fucking great. All right, gentlemen. We're going to make our way to Toronto here. I'm very excited, but I'm going to crack open a fresh can of Great Lakes beer. This is a Burst, one of my favorite IPAs there. So here we go.

So cheers to you for joining me on this. What is this? Tuesday night? I've lost track here. Tuesday night, 1 a.m. It's still afternoon in the West, so I'm drinking water. All right, here's a band that Cam and I bring up on. We bring them up early and often,

be it whether we're talking about, you know, tears are not enough, or if it's just a pandemic Friday. By the way, Toast debuts on January 20th, so make sure you guys put that in your calendar. Toast debuts. Here we are. The band I want to talk about off the top of the Toronto New Wave scene is Platinum Blonde.

Yes. Who wants to begin with Platinum Blonde? There's lots of ground to cover here. Are they New Wave, though? That's my first question. I consider them, there are Duran Duran, right? I disagree.

I remember as Neil shared, the ongoing them trying to get on CFNY, it never happened. I feel like that's a good litmus test. If you need to point to something, they weren't on CFNY, therefore not new wave. There's a game, though. Sorry, Mike. There's a game that Cam likes to play, Rob,

where he mentions a whole bunch of bands and I stole it from him. It's coming up. Oh, is it? Okay, because I have some down here now. We might as well play this now, Cam. Well, tag team it, tag team it. Because my question is, were they New Wave?

And one of the bands I wrote down was Platinum Blonde. Now, Rob, you obviously don't think that they were a New Wave band. I don't think so. But again that's like a bit of a fuzzy era because as we were trying to figure out when New Wave actually ended, I think maybe it ended with Platinum Blonde. Because they, I mean not them specifically

but they look like Duran Duran and quite often for a period there, people used to ask me if I was in Platinum Blonde because when people to ask me if i was in platinum blonde because when people had limited knowledge of the bands in in the scene in ontario i i sort of had a similar style to mark holmes you had big hair yeah it was like this like i had yeah i had volume um so i never considered them new wave though like i know they were they were popular with the girls and they had a huge following and we did a

show with them when they were brand new and i remember thinking man these guys are like they're like going for it in a like in a really uh admirable way but i didn't feel like there they were anything related to the kind of music we were making they were sort of more i always thought of them as a more rocky kind of a band because when i think it's popular right away like standing in the dark and doesn't really matter we're instant hits, like we're going back. Out of the gate, they gave the impression and they wanted to give the impression and create the impression that they were super successful,

which can often work in your advantage to make you successful. It worked on nine-year-old Mike. It worked on me. They came out with great confidence and like a game plan, like they'd already been around for five years. And I think it was a really cool thing.

Like I loved them, but I never felt like they were really our kind of band. I would say I thought of them differently because it took me probably at least two years when the band Crystal Castles did the cover of Not In Love with Robert Smith. Yes. I did not know for the longest time

that was a platinum blonde cover. Oh, cool. What the fuck? Right. And that was a cool version too right yeah it was also like a big hit yeah like it was I got a couple more for you if you don't mind

me I want to go through these ones too I know Cam you've got a list too I'll just add on to yours after Martha and the Muffins were they a new wave band yes idea like let me burn through my list here of the Toronto New Wave bands. And then at the end of that,

Brother and Cam, you guys empty your vault of like, are they New Wave bands? Yeah, mine are. I have some provocative names. I think for sure, Martha and the Muffins. I have them on my list too.

I think for certain. But I want to take... I agree too. This is the moment now though to acknowledge that perhaps the biggest New Wave band to come out of the GTA are the Spoons. I'd say that's valid. I would say the biggest.

Yeah, no, I don't really know that I would say that. Well, name a bigger one. Well, I would say Martha and the Muffins. I feel like if you're looking at a new wave band or a band... I mean, in a related way,

people always have these lists of one-hit wonders and they'll list the one-hit wonders from the 80s or the 70s and then people like to shit on these songs

and say, oh my God, it was a terrible song. But many times, all you need is one song to sort of set you off as a memorable part of an era and I feel like Martha and Muffins many people

don't know them beyond Echo Beach but I think that one song sort of does it for them as a new way of being Música សូវាប់ពីបានប់ពីបានប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពី I know it's out of fashion and a trifle uncool But I can't help it, I'm a romantic fool It's a habit of mine to watch the sun go down On Echo Beach, I watch the sun go down From nine to five I have to spend my time at work My job is very boring, I'm an office clerk The only thing that helps me pass the time away

Is knowing I'll be back at Echo Beach someday សូវាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប� On silent summer evening, the sky's in line with the lights A building in the distance It's a realistic sight On Echo Beach Waves make the only sound On Echo Beach There's not a soul around From nine to five I have to spend my time at work

My job is very boring I'm an office quirk The only thing that helps me pass the time away Is knowing I'll be back at Ecopy someday Echo Beach, far away in time Echo Beach, far away in time Echo Beach, far away in time Echo Beach, far away in time echo beach far away in time echo beach far away in time echo beach far away in time echo beach far away in time echo beach far away in time echo beach far away in time echo beach far away in time echo beach far away in time echo beach far away in time echo beach far away in time And the wind beats Far away in time What do you think about that? Go ahead, Ken.

What do you think about that? Well, I was just going to say, and Mike, I feel like Johnny Dovercourt might have touched on this when maybe his first episode of your podcast. Would you heard a lot of the music, like this sort of synthy indie stuff that got really popular in the early 2000s? Like it was so similar,

a lot of it to like Martha and the Muffins. Like structurally and like keyboards and guys and girls and and it's almost weird that they didn't become more of like a hipster name check ban and maybe because they were just like thought of and they still are as like a one-hit wonder which i don't really think they were because they did have other singles that they did and and once they become became m plus m you know that sometimes name name changes aren't great but i also feel like it's you can't become hipster checked when you got muffin in your name like oh there's you know there's something that's a little light-hearted about martha and the muffins and then you have

a song about echo beach and it's sort of setting everything into a into a time period the same way a video will lock you into a period of time no matter how cool how cool your music is if you made a video that that didn't look right people will always talk about the video no matter how good the song was okay and i feel like i'm glad that like for us as a video band i feel like like we could remove the music from the videos because of course we were trying to fit in with everybody as far as the looks but musically we were you'd start with the music first and then head to the videos you know so spoken like a true musician right now guys no argument echo beach is fucking epic like the jam holds up it's epic but just don't go classic i think it's in your nature as a canadian rob to

be a little humble here and i will just point out that you have a band here, The Spoons. We talked about areas and symphonies, but Nova Heart and Tell No Lies and Romantic Traffic and go on and on. So in my humble, not so expert opinion, there was no bigger New Wave band to come out of the GTA than The Spoons.

And I hope you're proud of what you accomplished with that band. I am. Thank you. I mean, I am proud of it. But, you know, I guess you're proud of what you accomplished with that band i am thank you thank you i mean i'm proud i am proud of it but you know i guess you're right maybe it's just it's the humble howard element i'm like yeah shout out to howard but and i feel the same thing like when i look at charts i posted a chart on facebook the other day from 1985 and romantic traffic was heading off the chart i don't i don't think we even got that high really um but i look at the rest of the songs and i feel like 35 or however many years but i look at the rest of the songs and i feel like 35 or however many years later i look at the rest of the songs and i think god those are it was there was such

great music in that era and then i see our song and i think oh yeah we were there too you know but because i guess to me it was just what we did and so i don't think of it in that same way but i think like when you talk about the songs and cam with the cool background from our video and i think oh yeah there's there's cool elements that sort of remain as time goes on. Diolch yn fawr iawn am wylio'r fideo. Sleep in your no-bombs As things come apart I'll hide Hide in your no-bombs At ease with the thoughts But this song I'll sing Please leave the thoughts that you've shown out

Oh, oh, oh Gentlemen On the wall Cynrychioli'r cyfnod. Edrychwch yn dda. O, o, o, o. Eich bod am ddysgu'ch ifanc. Ond byddwch yn gwneud hynny. Byddwch yn gwneud hynny. O, o, o, o. A byddwch yn gweithio. Byddwch yn gweithio yn eich holl eiliadau. Yn unig. Sleeping on your arms At ease

With the thought Of this storm on your arms Субтитры подогнал «Симон» And I'll still sleep in your room at night And I'll still come up at night I'll hide Hide in your Overheart At ease With my

Thoughts And I'll See See in your Overheart As things come apart And I'm resting Resting your lower heart

At ease with the thought That there's no more I'm With the fun But there's no more Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh As the past progresses

Can I ask you this, Rob, quickly? What was The Spoon's relationship with CFNY DJ Live Earl Jive? Because he was in one of the videos. He sure was. Oh, well, our relationship continues to this day. Oh, good. Yep. Good.

He's in LA, right? He is. And I actually saw Beverly Hills a couple of months ago. I was in LA at the end of September and we had lunch together. Oh, wow. So we have stayed in touch forever and ever and ever yeah well which video it's he's telling the lies yeah i was gonna say it's tell no lies he plays a pilot he plays a pilot and he does a couple of gags in in the video yeah is beverly in the video too she's in the beginning she's yeah she's in the very opening like there's a big opening shot that sort of pans and there's a whole bunch of people in there gourd's brother and derek's

brothers and my sister they're all in there as well it's funny because i i remember that video and i remember seeing earl i mean i i before i got into cf and y i was a huge fan and live earl jive was was my favorite dj him and yeah yeah and and i remember him being in the video and I thought what an interesting relationship between artist and DJ because in my era anyway in the 90s at CFNY that really didn't happen too much you'd see them in passing they'd come in maybe you'd go out for dinner but that was about it but I had the feeling that you know if you're inviting someone to be in your video there must be something a little bit more than just a relationship of and yeah and it was a it was a pretty quick relationship too because i think at some point

we we just realized we were like kindred spirits and i would come visit earl at the station and play music with him and take questions and do like answer phone calls and stuff and we were like friends right away yeah and the other person in our video was nash the slash who was oh yeah we even talked about the new wave element from, from bands like FM and Nash as well. But he was a part of our crew as well because he was touring with us and he was in the video. Right.

And he was, go ahead. Was he wearing the, the disguise or was he? Yeah, he was, he came out of a mummy, he came out of like a mummy's tomb,

like, but with a thing on his head dressed as a mummy. Sorry, he was Nash the Slash was in your crew? Well, you know, in the crowd. Oh, just like in the, okay. I thought you meant like he was in your stage crew when you were on tour. I'm trying to sound like a kid.

I'm trying to sound like the kids today, man. You're part of the crew. For those who haven't yet heard the second Johnny Dovercourt episode, which is only, I think he visited last week. No, we did on Zoom, but last week, Johnny Dovercourt. There's a lot of Nash the Slash talk in that episode, actually. Oh, cool.

FM is a good example of a band that, do you call them a new wave band or were they a rock band? Because they kind of straddled both sides. I know that CFNY and Q107 both played Phasers on Stun. Yeah. It was a massive song. It's one of the biggest songs probably this country's ever ever uh put out it really rides that line i mean i mean considering

the period when it was released remember they did that really cool tv ontario uh there was a night concert there was a thing that they did it was like 20 minutes or 25 minutes i gotta send you the link it's on youtube it might even be on retro ontario was nash the slash like he joined f he wasn't like a founding member like he joined after the fact it's possible um hugh marsh i i for some reason i feel like marsh might have been in the band but nash was in there pretty early on um but one of my greatest as you were mentioning nash and fm one of my greatest memories in the early days of the spoons playing larry's hideaway And the dressing room was like a, was a room like above the place. And I remember looking out the windows, people were leaving and cam from FM was leaving. Like he had ridden over on his bike and he was leaving the show.

And I just thought that's really cool. The guy from FM came to see us. Yeah. Their big hit was, uh, she does what she wants was the big, uh, FM. That was towards the end of their career. I think they had a great video. Uh, I think the song was called just Like You or something. And it was like a caper video.

And like National Slash was like in a car chase. That seems vaguely familiar. Check out much more music after. Oh yeah, by the way, coming soon to Toronto Mic, Bill Walichka. So get ready for that. So get into talking about why he paints his toenails. Oh oh that'll be my first

question i'll pull that clip oh yeah rob uh you are an fotm of course uh gourd is an fotm sandy's an fotm but chris wardman is an fotm so i'm hoping we could have a little conversation about uh blue peter yeah love blue peter we were label mates. They released an album before we released our first album. And for me as a 15-year-old, I would look at somebody else's albums and listen to, especially them, and I would look at the Ready Records logo on their record and think, God, we're going to have a record

that's going to have that same thing on it. And I was a fan of, they had a nice merging of the keyboards. Once Jason Snyderman joined the band, they had some nice synth action happening. And they're like a new wave band, they had some nice synth action happening and, and they're like a new wave band, but they were like an early new wave band based,

you know, on their first album, uh, test patterns for living. Like they're, they're a good example. Cause I remember when they're early singles, uh,

factory living. Yeah. No synths, like just straight up guitar rock almost sounded like, um, not like Jonathan Richmond, but like had a real like just 70s almost like a like folk rock is like not the right term but yeah just very like clean

sounding yeah like just a great song it's had nothing like you know walk on past and all right kind of typical sound Caught in this feeling, falling for this romance Life's all around us, won't you take a chance Now out of sight, it's out of mind Waiting for a second chance, a second time Don't walk on paths, don't walk on paths Don't walk on paths, don't break this heart Be strong my heart Carry this affair of mine

Will this moment Take up all my time Now out of sight Is our mind Waiting for a second chance Yr ardal sy'n ddim yn fyny Ymchwil am gyfansoddiad ail Cyfansoddiad ail Dwi ddim eisiau'r cyfansoddiad Dwi ddim eisiau'r cyfansoddiad

Dwi ddim eisiau'r cyfansoddiad Dwi ddim eisiau'r cyfansoddiad Don't break this heart I'm not going to make that. Don't walk on clouds Don't break his heart Don't walk on paths Don't walk on paths, don't break this heart Don't walk on paths, don't break his heart Thank you. And of course, Jason's dad is Sam the Record Man. I feel like we're obligated to point that out. That's right. Who worked at Sam the Record Man?

Show of hands, right here. Really? Cool. I worked at Sam the Record Man in the Bramley City Center before I left CFNY. Wow. And there's one remaining in Quinte or something. A mall of... Yeah, they're trying to get like a tourist

designation or something. Because they want to sign off the highway. There's been articles about this. Oh, this is going to put Quinte on the map. Right. Probably not. the map. Right. Probably not. Finally. Okay, because I have dove deep with

the great Rob Pruce in the past, I know how close he is to Carol Pope. Carol Pope's a good friend of yours, right, Rob? F-O-R-P. Yep. And Quinty also lives in New york does she not yes she does she's in toronto often as well and she's also spends a lot of time in la as well she sort of bounces back and forth depending on which what she's working on but yeah we first met in new york uh it'll be 20 years ago actually this year that we first connected yeah okay so the question

i'm gonna ask and i hope you address this is uh is uh obvious question is rough trade is that a new wave band oh what they're on the leading edge they're definitely on the leading edge based on the time period and and when they began and i uh they were they were pointing the way for sure like i said with street heart and under your thumb you wouldn't associate rough Trade with Streetheart except in the greatest Canadian way, right? Our radio was allowing all these elements to sort of come together. And the fact that Carol and Rough

Trade were getting play for what they had as a single was amazing. And I feel like the first thing, and then they did that live direct-to-disc thing as well, which was like an EP with Birds of a Feather. Again, i feel like there might have been a tv ontario live performance thing as well i don't know if that's true shout out to lweos go ahead can i i think they're interesting because i feel like they got together initially it was her and uh i'm trying what's the

guy kevin kevin staples kevin so i was gonna say Shields, but that's my Bloody Valentine guy. Their roots go back to like 72. I always heard two things in there, especially High School Confidential. Dude, back to 68. I think Rough Trade goes back to the 60s. Roxy music, kind of like

certain sounds, and also the Rocky Horror Picture Show, because it was so theatrical, that song yeah i always thought i could i could hear like tim curry like singing high school confidential totally and i think carol she's always been that kind of a persona in her in her songs and her in her delivery and i think the thing that most surprised me when i first met her was that she was such a gentle person and she like i recognized her but then talking to her i was like almost a little afraid to like approach her the first time,

even though we had, I realized we had met many years before like at the UNO awards or Junos or something, but she's a super cool person in that way. And she's, she's like a different person, but yeah, she's like, she's got that Tim Curry sort of edge. I don't know what it is. It's that overt sexuality, I think. I feel like she's interesting because you do see her pop

up on what I'd call classic rock package things around Ontario where she'll be playing with Honeymoon Suite and Boulevard and the Headpins and David Wilcox, but could also play Pride Festival here in Toronto or could play...

I think she's fucking great. Rob, next time... I know she's been on my show and I told her this, but I just have so much respect for Carol Pope. I just love that woman. So let her know. I will.

There's some creepy guy in his basement in South Etobicoke who fucking loves Carol Pope. All right, here's a band that opened for The Spoons. So we'll start with you, Rob, our special guest

on this new wave deep dive here uh boys brigade oh yeah they're from they're from ottawa are they i claim them claim them go ahead but they really but i also claim blue peter and they're technically markham i believe really okay well markham's closer than ottawa that's true um i can bike to markham i can't bike to ottawa i guess i could well you could yeah it just it takes commitment but they opened for us at

I want to say the National Arts Center at the NAC they used to do gigs like in the lobby I have this memory of this show with them and it wasn't

an actual stage but it was like a stage had been set up and it was like a big space with stairs and stuff and I'm pretty sure that was the show

they opened for us. And they were really new at the time. I think maybe their first album had come out. And I love them. Like Malcolm Byrne is a genius. Who's going to ask? Yeah, Malcolm Byrne was the singer, right? Who had a solo career as well for a bit.

Yeah, and then he went to work with Daniel Anoine, became a producer in his own right. And he won a Grammy working with Emmylou Harris. And he's got like a whole other really sort of cool career beyond him as the leader of boys brigade but i always like i read when i first reconnected with him many years later i always have that memory of the show that we had done together wiki claims are a toronto band by the way i just want to point it out before we get too deep uh formed in in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. We just, sorry to interrupt, we actually just hit a very important

30th anniversary for something to do with Malcolm Byrne. Tangentially, and also involves The Spoons. It was the 30th anniversary on January 5th of the original airing of Degrassi Schools Out, the

made-for-TV movie that ended of Degrassi, Schools Out, the made-for-TV movie that ended the Degrassi series. Really? In a pivotal scene, the famous line, you fucked Tessa Campanelli, Joy Jeremiah, being a two-timer.

Caitlyn goes in the bedroom, she's crying, my life's over, how could this, you do this to me. The song playing in the background was Malcolm Byrne, a solo track called

House of Glass. But in that movie, there was also some late period spoons music in there. Really? Along with... Who's the band? I always forget. Svengali? Svengali? One of those bands was in it. Slick Toxic? No, Harem Scaram.

Harem Scaram. Cam, I haven't seen Schools Out. I'm missing out. I got to check this out at some point. That's a joke, everybody. We did twice. How long did we go? We did a huge deep dive into Schools Out.

Before we get to you, brother, I'm going to blow everyone's mind. You probably know the answer, Rob, but who do you think produced the first Boys Brigade album? You're asking me? Yeah, anyone. Anyone in the zoom room oh uh well was it was what what album did dan lanwa produce of the spoons he engineered our

very first album he was okay and that's a good guess that's a very good guess but um i i feel like i know this it's a mind blow, so prepare yourself. Can you give a hint? Well, just that this individual is in a band that's been mentioned today, and we talked about... Alex Leipzig. Oh, I have a guess. Go ahead.

Chris Wardman. That's a great guess, because he was doing Chalk Circle and a bunch of good stuff. Mike Boone. I wish, I wish. Geddy fucking Lee. Oh. Wow.

I think I remember that. Wow. That's a droppable name right there. I need a moment here. I need a moment. Excuse me. He produced the first Boys Brigade album. I remember when I first met you on a stormy night. Remember when I first met you on a stormy night?

I was wearing a long gray coat, had my hat pulled down on my eyes. I can still see you upon that stage in that brave feeling dress. And the mascara running down your face She looked such a mess And remember how it stood for hours Under city lights And the rain and the fields came pouring down And we couldn't hide The shadows of love and the neon lights of old Mannequin Caused release from a plastic shell of old Mannequin Time breaks up into tiny pieces and the seasons change

And the latest from Paris looks good on you, still I feel the same But the longing look that's in your eyes drawing me here and the crazy made up notion that fantasy could turn reality I could close my eyes

and concentrate and count to three and then be diagnosed as another case of insanity Shatters a glove and the neon lights are all mannequin Calls are released from a plastic shell, an old mannequin Shadows of love and the neon lights of old Mannequin Calls of police from a plastic shell of old Mannequin Shadows of love and the neon lights, a whole mannequin Calls of release from a plastic shell, a whole mannequin

Shadows of love and the neon lights, a whole mannequin A whole mannequin of love and the neon lights of Old Manican. Of Old Manican. Because he didn't do a lot of production work. No. No, he produced, yeah, it's a self-titled effort in, they only released one album, I think, Boys Brigade.

Wow. Am I crazy? I think they might have only released one album in 83, and yeah, produced by Geddy Lee of Rush. The Passion of Love and Melody were both on that album. Yeah, those two songs are fantastic. And don't forget Mannequin.

I always thought he sounded like Lou Reed. Melody. That's a great song. Good video, too. It's like in a seedy Toronto nightclub. Two guys are going to have a fight on the dance floor. I'll do three more, and then I'll go aside here

and listen to Cam and brother spit out the names to get Rob's take on all these. My last few here. New Wave or not. The Parachute Club. Commercially successful Toronto band. Are the Parachute Club, are they New Wave? No, not even a little bit.

Whoa! I think they are. Let's just... Rob cooking with gas now. So when you let them rise up, and I mean, you name it, dancing at the feet of the moon and everything. No, why not, Rob?

Yeah. Well, there's an edge to the... I mean, what I would consider the early New Wave stuff that became what you would just call 80s music, I guess. I feel like there's too much percussion and there's too much, I don't know. Like world music? It's a worldly thing, yes. And you wouldn't really call Peter Gabriel New Wave either, right? When you look at his solo work, what he was becoming from what he did in the 70s into the 80s he sort of became a genre of his own and I don't know what

you call that because it sort of kept evolving but I but parachute club is like a lighter version of and they have the Daniel Lanois connection which also comes to Peter Gabriel and I mean I love parachute club I just don't want to define them as New Wave because I feel like it takes away from what the New Wave was if you try to like lock it into a ever changing genre which it kind of is but I still don't think they're New Wave yeah interesting

I'm glad we're having this discussion here Stephen Wynne was a big supporter of the Parachute Club in the early days when nobody else was playing them which is a repeated term, I guess, for a lot of bands, including the Spoons, back in the early days. But yeah, I see the Parachute Club playing the bamboo,

whereas I wouldn't see the Spoons playing the bamboo. I'd see you playing the horseshoe or you mentioned Larry's Hideaway or something like that. It's like their rootsy take a new wave if you will yeah for sure i mean i mean it is definitely a segue from what was the new wave and who knows where it's going again you don't want to have to define it and then they did work with john oates produced an album of theirs so you've got a holland oats thing coming in where all of a sudden people are like looking for love and fire right this is a love and fire i think so yeah yeah um and it was cool because i mean he's a fantastic musician as well but i feel like

that was a place where music was just becoming music and the new wave was losing its definition okay i'm almost done my little part here and i'm going to step aside for cam and brother but uh here this this band we brought up but when michael barclay came in the backyard to kick out like 10 definitive toronto songs one of the songs and i agreed 100 with him one of the songs he kicked out was cherry beach express oh yeah so important to me ahead of its time just resonates it was what an important song what a great song of course pucca orchestra so uh speak to me they're another kind of rootsy new wave band i suppose pucca orchestra they feel more new wave to me they They're another kind of rootsy new wave band, I suppose. Puck Orchestra. They feel more new wave to me.

They feel more new wave than Parachute Club. And maybe it's just the simplicity of the arrangements of the music. It has a more bare bones kind of a thing that speaks to the new wave sort of spirit in a different way. They seem like they were very influenced by a lot of British. Yeah. spirit in a different way. They seem like they were very influenced by a lot of British, like the more sort of snarly Joe Jackson stuff, like I'm the man as opposed to like stepping out and all that. And like Tom Robinson and stuff like that.

Okay, well Tom Robinson, I was going to point out the fun fact, which we've shared on Pandemic Friday I think in the past there, Cam, but everybody, it blew my mind to learn that Listen to the Radio was not a Puckett Orchestra original, that that's a cover, a Tom Robinson cover. Tom Robinson, yeah. Sleeping by the concierge By the banks and up the stairs Snap the latch and creep into the room

Throw off your coat Pick up the post Put a coffee on Lie down on the bed Lay back your head Smoke a cigarette And listen to the radio Listen to the radio In the city late tonight

Double feature black and white Bitter tears and taxi to the glow Find a bar, avoid a fight Show your papers, be polite Walking home with nowhere else to go You throw off your coat Pick up my note Put another copy on Pick up my note, put another coffee on Lie down on the bed, lay back your head Smoke another cigarette

And listen to the radio Listen to the radio You throw off your coat Pick up my note Put another coffee on Lie down on the bed Lay back your head Smoke another cigarette Smoke another cigarette Smoking on a cigarette Smoking on a cigarette

Atmospherics after dark Noise and voices from the past Across the dial from Moscow to Cologne Interference in the night A thousand miles on either side Stations fading into the unknown So throw off your cup Butter some toast

Put another coffee on We'll lie down on the bed Lay back our heads Smoking on a cigarette And listen to the radio Listen to the radio Listen to the radio Listen to the radio Listen to the radio

Listen to the radio So, and Cherry Beach Express is interesting because if you get outside of Toronto, nobody's going to know what that song's about. Right. Which is, of course, the story of the police taking people down to the Cherry Beach area and beating them up and leaving them there.

Right, right, right. So it's an interesting take on a timestamp of Toronto that isn't necessarily the most sunniest. But I feel like they also have the other two, well, to me, immediately, the other two songs that I always think of, I think of them quicker, Might As Well Be On Mars mars and listen to the radio which i think was the first one that i remember hearing

probably off of course on cfny because who else was playing it at that time when that was released but it definitely spread and it definitely was a cool song listen to the radio was that the first single they had i think maybe it was. I was a listener too. I can't remember. It's the first one I heard but I wasn't there. I feel like those songs were a bit later too, like 84, 85

maybe. I could be wrong. Once we start getting time stamps, I'm like, I can't remember. You have to be there. I'm going to pass the baton after i bring up this one more band and i want to bring up this act because any chance i can get it's funny when you said uh do people know what cherry uh cherry beach express means outside of toronto i was thinking of bodie so there's bodie's a character in the wire and he says this line

he's on a road trip from i think they're going from baltimore to philadelphia for some reason uh anyway he says something like why would anyone ever want to leave baltimore this is what he says bode and it's like this line resonates to me and i'm like brother why would anyone ever want to leave toronto like like who cares if you don't get the reference like who cares anyways all this is the long-winded way of saying that Molly Johnson's brother, Clark Johnson, directed four episodes of The Wire. Molly

thinks he created the water, but I checked the liner notes. He invented The Wire. And he was on Homicide Life on the Streets, which was based in Baltimore. Or Washington. Washington. And he's in season four of The Wire. I should point out The Baltimore Sun. Oh, five actually. Season five of The Baltimore or Washington. Washington. And he's in season four of The Wire. I should point out the Baltimore Sun. Oh, five actually. Season five of the Baltimore Sun stuff.

Hey, Mike. By the way, you just planted a couple of big fucking Easter eggs for a couple of names that are going to come up on New Wave or not. So just stay tuned. Well, I'm bringing up Molly.

Okay, good. Because I'm bringing up Molly because I would like to... Thank you because I'm going to pass the baton to you right after this. But Altamoda. Not Aldo Nova. Thank you, because I'm going to pass the baton to you right after this, but Alta Moda. Not Aldo Nova. Right, yes, right, right.

So complex. So Alta Moda, of course, you know, vocalist. That's Molly Johnson's band, right? That's Molly Johnson. Is that a new wave band? I go with Rob and say probably same vein as the parachute club so i wouldn't call them a new wave man i don't know what do you think rob well i i feel like what always happens to me as as the years have gone on and i look back at the transitions of the music i sort of missed out on

the period of bands like uh the cure let's say for example. I actually, maybe because I had moved on to Honeymoon Suite and I was now moving back into more mainstream kind of sounds, I feel like those things were happening to the left of me and I wasn't really paying as much attention. And I feel like Ultimoda might fit more into what was happening as far as merging away from the new wave. Parachute Club was happening. Ultimoda was happening.

There were a lot of different, like, I mean, the world was opening up to more opportunities and more types of sound. So I would say not new wave, but, but coming from the new wave for sure. They seem like they're right.

Almost right in the middle of the parachute club and like 10,000 maniacs. Yeah. Like, think about that. You meet in the middle, you got all the, all the, all the Nova. Think about that. You meet in the middle, you got Alta Nova or Alda Nova? Alta Moda.

Alta Moda with an M as in Mike. I will never not mix up these two things. Okay, gents, here I am straw stirring the drink here wondering maybe we bang off a few big new wave bands to come out of Montreal and then brother

bill and cam gordon hit us with all the uh leftovers our debate to debate like because like like montreal i don't want to uh disrespect we did a lot of vancouver a lot of toronto but maybe we talk about men without hats yeah the biggest band new wave band to come out of montreal and also they were a pop band too and then there were a 90s grunge band. So they kind of had three genres. Yeah. Crazy. I think I missed the grunge part because the last thing I remember from those guys was Pop Goes the World.

No, in 1991 they put out an album that featured a song called Sideways that we played at The Edge. And I remember them playing The Spectrum on Danforth in and around that time i mean ivan and i don't remember his last name is men devorchuk is is men without hats it's his name his band um boy i'd like to know i interviewed a band a guy named john wozniak

was in a band called marcy playground of course They had a song in 1995 called Sex and Candy. And I asked him, I didn't want to get too much into the finances, but I always was fascinated with knowing how much money a big song would make somebody. And I remember John Wozniak saying to me on the radio, he was at CFOX at the time, he said, well, I won't tell you how much I made, but I will say this, Sex and Candy has its own accountant. accountant wow so you're speaking of safety dance we can dance if we want to we can leave your friends behind because your friends don't dance and if they don't dance well they're no friends of mine

see we can go where we want to place where they will never find And we can act like we come from out of this world, be the real one far behind We can dance, dance and sing We can go where we want to, night is young and so am I And we can dress real neat, from our hearts to our feet And surprise them with a victory cry See, we can act if we want to, if we don't nobody will And you can act real rude and totally removed And I can act like an imbecile

See, we can dance, we can dance, everything's out of control We can dance, we can dance, do it if we're bored to pull We can dance, we can dance, everybody look at your hands We can dance, we can dance, everybody's taking the chance Safe to dance, oh it's safe to dance Yes, it's safe to dance? Oh, is it safe to dance? Yes, it's safe to dance We can dance if we want to We've got all your life in mind

As long as we abuse it We're never gonna lose it Everything will work out right I say, we can dance if we want to We can leave your friends behind Because your friends don't dance And if they don't dance, well, they're no friends of mine I say, we can dance, we can dance Everything's out of control We can dance, we can dance We're doing it from pole to pole We can dance, we can dance, we're doing it from pole to pole We can dance, we can dance, everybody look at your hands

We can dance, we can dance, everybody's taking a chance Well, it's safe to dance, yes, it's safe to dance Well, it's safe to dance, well, it's safe to dance dance So I'm thinking pop goes the world in safety dance. And I believe Ivan may have been involved with a Celine Dion song or two. He may have had some writing. So I'm assuming that that man's probably financially blessed. Well, safety dance is a massive international hit. I feel like it's just, it's spanned into, like, all the, like, ringtones and video games and advertising.

It's just that dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee. Like, it's just, it's so iconic. And, like, the video is just so, like, ridiculous. Like, kind of the peasants and the dancing and the gestures. It's just awesome just without a doubt so we did men without hats of course and the other band i always think of if i think of like montreal new wave uh the box yeah yeah that was another band that we uh in the last year that i was with the spoons we toured together in quebec um and they opened for us because they had just released

their album and they were another one of those bands I loved because they had all the synthesizers on the stage and I thought, man, those guys are so cool. So both you guys, Rob and Neil, like both New Wave, The Box? The Box is a New Wave band? No, I don't think so. But I also don't really,

I think the Men With Out Hats are on the leading, leaving edge of the New Wave as well. And the pop. Yeah, the synth pop era, but definitely there's an influence from the new wave era. Do you guys remember, sorry, before I leave Men With A Head's Hat,

their single Hey Men. Yeah. Yeah, which is also like very guitar-driven. Yeah, and they were just like, yeah, it was like, and they had Osala Mio from that same album. They had a sneaky amount of hits that were kind of big at the time. I think we just don't hear anymore.

No, but they're still going too. I know that they're managed by a guy named Brian Heatherman now, who was a record label guy for years. They continue to tour. There was touring plans for Men Without Hats across the world until COVID.

So, I mean, they're, they're not done by any means, but yeah, he's got a, he's got a long list of songs that did fairly well, but when you have a monster,

monster, monster hit, like, like Ivan did, I guess they kind of get a little overshadowed, but boy, he is still here. You turn on a radio in any given uh format

and you're gonna hear pop goes the world or you're gonna hear safety dance it's like weddings like yeah like to the stone everywhere so why don't you why don't we go to you cam cam do you have any uh acts you want to bring up that we could debate whether they're new i have several you've struck a couple off my list actually had the box and Altamoda, whatever. Let's go through these. In the interest of time, why don't we go through these really quick, and Neil and Rob, you can just say yay or nay, yes or no,

new wave or not. Rapid Fire, Trans X. Living on video. Speak if one out wonders. I'll say no. i'll say no as well wow pop synth pop as as rob would say uh bb gabor hey yet yet soviet soviet jewelry definitely yes absolutely very good um oh god i might have butchered the name of this band with a punk band, Seven Seconds.

Eight Seconds? Eight Seconds from Ottawa. Kiss You When It's Dangerous. New Wave or not? Not really. I'm with Rob again. I love the band, but not really New Wave. Top 40.

Cats Can Fly. Flip into the A-side. Flipping to the A-side. Love that song. Hey. Can't believe I knew that. I would say New Wave Spirit, even though they came along sort of what I would call sort of post-New Wave,

they brought the spirit back and they were a really fun band. Okay. I'll disagree with Rob on this one. I don't think they were New Wave. They were a top 40 band. Okay. Do you Rob on this one. I don't think they were a new wave. They were a top 40 band. Do you think they were fun, though? Oh, yeah, for sure. For what they were. That's not my kind of thing, but I'm sure they had an audience.

We're going to take it down a notch here. Idle Eyes. Tokyo Rose. Tokyo Rose? Yeah. Great song. Not new wave. Agre song. Tokyo Rose. Yeah. Not New Wave. Not New Wave. Agreed.

Agreed. Top 40. We're going to go a bit more subterranean before coming back up here. I'm curious if you guys know this band. Roman Grey. Yes. Roman Grey had a song called Shangri-La. Not the kink song, Shangri-La. It's like the kind of music

that doesn't come right into my head immediately, but I can sort of picture, like a picture of the cover of the record. And it was a little Japan synthy, I think, but I don't know if it was new wavy. Yeah, a bit, what's the band, I just heard the video looked a bit like Life in a Northern Town,

whoever that was. Yeah. Dream Academy. Dream Academy. Yeah. Dream Academy. Right. A little bit of that.

Great song. Okay. So we'll say no to Roman Gray. Speaking of Molly Johnson, she did some backing vocals for this band, The Breeding Ground. Oh, yeah. Wow. Breeding Ground.

I was in a band we opened for breeding ground once in lair we got booed off the stage wow wow yeah their new wave their new wave they're in the new in the family okay yeah more of the kind of i'd say they're they were sort of on the like the cure side of things they kind of had that darkness about them and we we had a couple big song happy now i know i remember that's a big one know i remember a great song called the business they had uh which we played which was more towards the latter end of their career you know it's funny you as you mentioned that song happy now i know all of a sudden it reminded me of the band spiritualized oh which you know in the 90s as they came along and they had sort of like they brought in some sort of a weird gospel-y punky new wave element but that that breeding ground sound feels like that was sort of something

that was heading towards where spiritualized went in a way interesting yeah i agree i agree with that yeah like spiritualized is like i'm shooting heroin but i'm also in church exactly at the back of the church exactly and isn't molly john Johnson the female voice in Happy Now I Know? She is. Yeah. Absolutely. Okay. Just a few more here.

This is partially getting silly, but I'm curious. Luba. It's not that silly, I don't think, though. I don't think it's that silly. It's not silly, but she was great. You know, yeah. I mean, definitely not New Wave, but I don't know what she was. She was just making good music.

Let it go? Let it go? No, that's more like Parachute Club style. Give it away a miracle? Yeah. Again, top 40 for me. I would say they're

tinged, because I'm going to bring up a band in a minute that's tinged with New Wave. Cam, we'll get back to your list, but the Northern Pikes, like early Pikes. What about them? We'll get back to your list, but the Northern Pikes, like early pikes. Yeah. What about them? New wave, yay or nay?

What do you mean, what about them? Like teen land. The things I do for money. Yeah, and teen land sounds new wave to me. Am I going nuts here? Like I'm not talking about the later stuff, like she ain't pretty and all that stuff. I'm talking about the teen land stuff but then but then the question becomes if you're good if you want to look beyond the Canadian borders would you say that REM is a new wave band

because I feel like however the music was was evolving it was taking the elements of the new wave which took elements of the 70s like you know a variety of 70s things it's not really new wave specifically but is this when people started calling alternative alternative like well and who who was that band who sang a million miles away the plimsolls from los angeles because that sort of sounded like teen lion and here we come around full. So the Plimsolls are the band on the stage playing in the movie Valley Girl that I mentioned earlier. They're the band on stage. There you go.

Fun fact. Amazing. Love it. Okay, I got five more. Let's do these really quick. Do it. Chalk Circle. Yes. One of Mike's first ever concerts. I say yes because April Fool, like I say yes. What do you say, Rob? You're the guy who was there. I'll say sure. I mean, that's sort of past our era, but I love

the music, and I would say if that's where New Wave was going, then sure, that's New Wave, and it's nine days of New Wave. I'm going to go with no. My friend Darren, the guy I grew up with, we were talking back and forth on a group text the other day, and there's that Chalk Circle album

where they're taking in front of the Scarborough Bluffs there. Sure. I think it's, was it this morning? Is that the album? Yeah, this morning. That's right. M-O-U-R.

Yeah. And my friend Darren called them the Bluff Mullets. And I thought that was kind of funny. Anyway, I wanted to turn that on. But I wouldn't consider them a new wave band. This is a side. I feel like there was a song called This Morning with that same spelling on the first Portishead album.

Oh, I think you might be right. I think you might be right. Okay, a few more. The Jitters. No, because then you have to get into Doug and the Slugs talk. Is Doug and the Slugs new wave? I'll say that the Jitters have a little bit of new wave only because I played on two songs on their first album.

Shout out to Blair Packham. You should listen to Rob. Listen to the Blair Packham episode of Trotter. When the fever breaks. All right. Great track. Is Doug and the Slugs not New Wave? Any Doug and the Slugs New Wave?

No. No, they were a bar band. Okay, well, Jitters can't be New Wave. They were an original ska band. Got a lot of radio play in Vancouver, Doug and the Slugs. Do you want a quick fun fact though uh i think most people know this fact but i'll share it anyways that uh dug in no okay huey lewis and news which i consider to be dug in so huey lewis and news was america's dug in the

right but declan mcmanus aka elvis costello his backing His backing band was Huey Lewis and the News. Minus Huey Lewis, I believe. Get out of town. They were called Clover at the time. Yeah, so they just rebranded, and then they became Huey Lewis and the News. Wow, that's a mind blow. I did not know that at all.

That's what we're here for, brother. Okay. Well done. Well done. Three more names. I'm just going to say these in succession. You just tell me if any of these. You got the Partland Brothers.

Oh, get out of here. Annette Ducharme. And a band. If this band didn't exist, we wouldn't have Alanis. Do you know who I'm talking about? One to one. Not New Wave. But a good band.

There was an elevator in the video. Not New Wave. No, Ottawa's one to one. But a good band. Elevator. There was an elevator in the video. Angel in Pocket and Hold Me Now. Okay, we're going to Brother Bill. Can I interrupt to just say from the bottom of my heart, first of all, thank you three for being a part of this episode

because I don't know if I've enjoyed recording a Toronto Mic'd episode more than I did this one. I'm going to add music to this. So when this thing drops, there's going to be jams. It's epic. It's Paul Jans. No. I go to pieces.

Shout out to CFTR, Tom Rivers. I just had a conversation with somebody who was at CFTR, but okay, I digress. No, you know what? I was talking to Gord Rennie about CFTR. That's right. Shout out to Gord Rennie. So I just want to say thank you to Palma Pasta. Right. Well, I need to promote

cross-market. You know how this works, Mr. Communications. Okay. Palma Pasta. What wonderful supporters they are. Anthony Petrucci and the Petrucci family. I can't wait, Rob, I can't wait to get you a Palma Pasta lasagna. And you too, brother, when you guys can't wait. Rob, I can't wait to get you a Palmapasta lasagna and you too, brother,

when you guys are in town and, uh, Cam, I'll try to get one for you for toast. Okay. Thank you. Palmapasta. And I want to say thank you to sticker you.com because when I need

stickers and decals and badges and, uh, temporary tattoos, I go out to my web browser and I type in sticker you.com. I upload my image and I get a whole bunch of great stuff delivered right to my door. And last but not least, the people at Ridley Funeral Home have been so damn supportive, helping to fuel this real talk. Much love to Brad Jones and the gang at Ridley Funeral Home.

Brother Bill, you want to drain your list here before we wrap up? I only have a couple of names left uh i don't know if you guys will even remember this one rob maybe you will do you remember the band tick tock and a song called 20 questions yes vaguely but i'd have to google it or like you know youtube it but the name is definitely familiar it was a kesha song 83 well it was a kesha song it was a big Kesha jam. Actually, 1236 slipped us a bit of stuff about TikTok and not the...

Well, they're not really a competitor to Twitter. Not the app. TikTok. I almost called Bill. Neil, there was another song, Waiting on the Picnic or Waiting for the Picnic or Heading for a Picnic or something. Is that supposed to be TikTok?

I'm not sure looking i went looking for information about tick tock there is literally nothing about that i don't remember that you when you do your homework aka google all you get is like some band from puerto rico and kesha that's all you get these guys have just disappeared yet there's a video there for this song, 20 Questions and it's very commercial looking and I wouldn't call them a new wave band. And the last one is

FOTM, probably one of the most popular episodes you've ever done, Mike. Gino Vanelli. So I'm watching some of Gino's early stuff. And he's got the look. He's got the fashion.

But are the songs new wave? I say no, but... But are you talking late 70s, Gino? Yeah, I'm talking about late 70s. No, that's more yacht rock. Yeah, I guess so. But it wasn't really defined at the time, though. I mean, it's funny when I see the term yacht rock now, I feel bad for loving so much of the music.

When I read the names of the songs, it's like reading the list of one hit wonders in that way. But again, Gino rides that era where it's late seventies. There's a lot of cool synthesizers in there, which might lead you to think it's new wave ish. But yeah, he's more like,

he's like steely Dan heading to the new wave somehow, you know, I don't know. I don't know why but are there any crossover between Yacht Rock and new wave I think music maybe I was gonna say oh my god I said Mike what was it like more than this or Avalon

like I said on the Yacht Rock episode yeah I know the ultimate crossover I know the inflection point you guys ready Joe Jackson stepping out oh yeah that's like totally like yeah rock it's a beautiful album and and you wouldn't call it new wave at all but it's it's his uh intensity and his energy keeps it in the new wave spirit for sure even though he's got percussion and he's got just piano like i mean from, when that came out, that album,

I was one of my favorites of all time. I think Joe, I was just gonna say Joe Jackson between that album, uh, his talented kid, Michael Jackson and his baseball career. Yeah. What a, what a,

what a lot of range. Great song off that album was stepping out called real man. I don't know if you've ever heard that song. Such a brilliant song for the times just beyond it's, it's lyrical content was just not called Real Man. I don't know if you've ever heard that song. Such a brilliant song for the times. Just beyond its lyrical content was just not for the times. I was just thinking, is she really going out with him? That was like a very

early New Wave song, but if Billy Joel had put out that song, that almost seemed like sort of a plaintive Billy Joel song. Yeah, you're right. It was an easier time hmm well not really like that almost seemed like sort of a plaintive billy joel joel song yeah a little bit like you're right i mean i mean it was an easier it was an easier time to uh pigeonhole and market something if you dress the right way sting sting always tells

the stories about the police and when you know how they were all older when they started the police and they were like we're gonna fit into this this thing that's happening now so we're gonna bleach our hair we're gonna cut it short we going to add a little bit of the reggae to it. Meanwhile, they were really accomplished musicians, but they just recognized the way that they could sort of dumb it down in a way to fit into a place and then sort of lift the audience up with them. Because you think of how Sting has matured over the years. Man, I mean, musically, you know,

he started off in a place where he kept it pretty simple. But he grew with the music as well that's to say nothing of all the uh tantric sex he's been having that's right for hours on end shout out to the ladies yeah one week went to number one like sting on tantric one week is like uh you can last that guy the insurance wow okay so i recently did an episode with other fotms in which we argued what was the greatest year for music releases and the obvious and this is obvious to everyone listening but i'll state the obvious because what the hell it's my show but you know the mute the best music of your life is the music you kind of fall in love with when you're like a

teenager like when you when that's when music means for most people, typically that's when music means the most to you and you have the time for it and you take it straight to heart and it never really fucking leaves you. So there's a whole whack of people listening to us right now who came, who were of that age when new wave breaks. And I think we made a lot of these people smile as they look back at some of these great jams. And I just want to say again, and I said it earlier,

but Rob, the spoons were a massive part of that scene. And they're top of mind when I think of Canadian New Wave. The first thought I have is your band, The Spoons. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. I would agree with that too. Absolutely.

I was going to say seconded, thirded. Thirded. Anything you guys don't want left on the cutting room floor? I know we all did a lot of homework here. Before lowest to the low, is lowest to the low a new wave band? No, I didn't think so. If the Clash are, then the lowest to the low are.

The Clash are everything. They're a reggae band. They're a punk band. They're a rock. They're all over the place. They're a pop band. Actually, Rob, could I ask, this question is like apropos of nothing, but it's something i wanted to ask earlier and it's kind of a weird

place to end but i'm just curious because mike like we've you know we've talked to sammy cone talked to neil osborne all the great 90s rockers how important the campus and like the university scene was for all the frosh weeks and stuff was that the same for the spoons in the 80s like there must be a lot of like university gigs oh absolutely i mean i mean our whole uh inspiration to to continue after our first album was the fact that the first album was really embraced by our peers i mean the audience was older than me because i was only 15 but they were and a little bit younger than gordon sandy and derrick so like for the of 81, we went to number one on the college charts, like the campus charts. As the stations were continuing through the summers and stuff,

we definitely were embraced by that community, which was our peers. And I think the CFNY audience, which was growing at that time in the Toronto area, was the same thing. So we played all the universities and all the colleges and that was always our place to go and our place to start. Like even the early kind of gigs where we were able to open for some cool acts, like we opened for OMD at Mohawk college in 19, it was early 82. And definitely that was a stepping stone for us was to stay with the college crowds. Cause that was where the cool music was getting played. It wasn't on the mainstream. us was to stay with the college crowds because that was where the cool music was getting played it wasn't on the mainstream the new music did a great piece on the spoons and recorded a bunch of

live stuff from the concert hall a show you did at the concert hall i remember that and i remember that because this guy who was in uh my friend in high school uh his older brother was a really big fan of the spoons and new wave and he's's predominantly in the video. He's the guy, if you ever go back and watch it, he's the guy wearing sort of the tuxedo in the crowd swaying back and forth. I go back and watch that every once in a while just to see him. And, but also I noticed the, you know, you must go back and watch these videos and, and, and just think, my God,

first of all, how young you are in that era, but also just like, my God, first of all, how young you are in that era. But also just like, you know, you got an inside sort of edge on the rest of us knowing what the band was going through at the time and how exciting that moment must have been for you with the release of the second album. And, you know, it must have been a great time for the Spoons at that era. It was definitely a really exciting time. And it kind of moved fast in that way too because i feel like the whole trajectory of of my time with the band was only five years really um but but like those specific

things like the city tv simulcast and it's like all those things were evolving in the culture at the same time because like that that show was even before the era of like watching something in stereo on television like it was simulcast with chum fm right so you know it was a simulcast it was so you'd have to tune in to city tv at the right time and you'd have to turn to chum fm at the right time and hope your reception is good and then you can hear that and it was really mixed well and and apparently moses nimer used that performance as like in his application for Much Music, he used the live concert as like an example of sort of what he wants to envision happening going forward.

Wow. It's unbelievable how scarce like cool stuff like that used to be. I know. The sheer effort to go through like people these days would think it's like unimaginable. That's right. Gentlemen, here's how I'd like to conclude this

episode of progressive past of modern melodies our deep dive into new wave in Canada which by the way thank you all for participating and thank you again Rob it was amazing but I want to just say that I've been thinking I know I'm holding up Georgie Animal Steel

because this was gifted to me at the Pandemic Friday finale on the patio of Great Lakes Brewery. We're going back to August 2021. This was gifted to me in the final moments of that Pandemic Friday, 76, by Stewstone, our friend, at least a good friend of Brother Bill

and Camordon and mine and then i heard that the d i heard that the d is silent that was on one of your episodes i right there's a there's a whole backstory to that it's legal yeah so okay so after i play lois hello which i'm about to play in a moment here, I then decide, just spontaneously, I decided to play Rollin' with Saget. So I press play on Rollin' with Saget, which is, of course, it's Jamie Kennedy and Stu Stone, F-O-T-M, Stu Stone, and Bob Saget.

And he's got a cameo in the video, and he's in the song, and it's awesome, to be quite frank. I have the CD here because Mark Weisblot left it when he was last here, which was only a couple of weeks ago. So shout out to 1236, his own Mark Weisblot, who left me blowing up. So all this is to say, Stu Stone, we'll see you on January 20 when we debut Toast, but we're all thinking of you because Stu of course became fast friends with Bob Saget and that

relationship went beyond the recording of that video which you can Google and watch it's fantastic but I know Stu and Bob kept in touch because Cam you may remember on some pandemic Fridays Stu would be like I was chatting with Bob Saget last night and we'd be like yeah just casually put him on the freaking zoom

let's talk to Bob Saget like it almost kind of happened i think it might have happened and we lost bob saget far too soon so i just want to let uh stew know we're thinking of them and uh that just terrible news on uh what happened to bob saget at the young age of 65 totally and on that happy note shout out to Ridley Funeral Home gentlemen thanks again it's the third time I'm thanking you but you deserve it you guys kicked ass thanks for doing your homework too thank you this was awesome

yeah you guys it's been amazing hey the new wave wet leg chase long if you haven't heard it yet nope gotta hear it and that Hey, the new wave. Wet leg. Chase long if you haven't heard it yet. Nope. Gotta hear it. And that. Oh, in honor of Stu Stone. Quick, quick, quick rapid fire.

Gowan. Is he new wave? No. New wave hair. Lawrence Gowan. You're not new wave, but you're close. You're more prog rock maybe like a super tramp-esque

actually he's sort of like the meatloaf of Canada like so theatrical and that now I'm hungry and that brings us to the end of our 983rd show you can follow me on twitter I'm at

Toronto Mike Brother Bill is at this is confusing for those who know him as Brother Bill third show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Brother Bill is at, this is confusing for those who know him as Brother Bill, but he's at Neil Talks because apparently Neil is his real first name. So go to at Neil Talks to follow Brother Bill. Cam is less confusing because it's Cam

underscore Gordon on Twitter. He knows a thing or two about that social media company. Rob, remind me, is it at Rob Pruse X? Yeah. There's an X on the end. I don't know why, but there is. Make sure you get that X in there. Great Lakes Brewery.

This was a great fresh beer I've enjoyed during this episode. They're at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. And Ridley Funeral Home, they're at RidleyFH. See you all next week.