Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - The Watchmen: Toronto Mike'd #1224

Episode Date: March 24, 2023

In this 1224th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with The Watchmen's Danny Greaves and Sammy Kohn about Silent Radar on the 25th anniversary of the album's release. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home and Electronic Products Recycling Association.

My Life as a Stereo What songs do I know? Whatever happened to my plans? Whatever happened to life I thought I had? What up, Maya? Toronto. VK on the beat. I'm in Toronto where you wanna get a city love. I'm from Toronto where you wanna get a city love. Welcome to episode 1224 of Toronto Mic'd, proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times, and brewing amazing beer.

Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta, enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Electronic Products Recycling Association. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. And Ridley Funeral Home. Pillars of the community since 1921. Joining me today to dive deep into silent radar 25 years later is the Watchmen's Danny

Graves and my friend FOTM's Sammy Cohn. Hello, Mike. Sammy. Great to see you, Michael. Did I first meet you at Twitter Canada? Is that the first time we met? I know Cam invited us to talk on his completely ignored podcast. Is that the first time I met you?

Yeah, this is Sammy here. Danny is remote, shall I say. Sammy will join us in progress. Danny, you mean. Danny will join us in progress. This guy, Sammy, Danny, they almost rhyme. Daniel, Daniel Graves. Daniel Graves.

But yes, we met at Twitter Canada. Ages ago, I worked there in sales. I'm now in real estate, as you know. uh, in, uh, in sales. Um, I'm now in real estate as you know, but, uh, yeah, we met cause I, I did a, uh, I had a podcast for a couple of years called the completely ignored podcast and, uh, you were on it. So yes, but thank you for having me. This, this is an important day here, Mike, the 25th of March. Oh, you just want to dive right in. Uh, oh, do you, do you see that I'm wearing this, uh, yield t-shirt? Do you want me to tell you why i'm wearing this pearl jam t-shirt not really to be honest but i mean if you must you know i heard a bell so you listening at home when you hear that bell

i mean somebody has joined us remotely and i will introduce that uh not so secret guest in just a moment but i'm wearing this t-shirt because i bought this t-shirt in 1998 it's the only part of my wardrobe that i think i bought in 1998 that i still actually wear and we're gonna go back like this episode is gonna be very 1998 heavy because we're gonna truly dive deep into all things silent radar and then I understand you have like a super exciting announcement for all Watchmen fans about Silent Radar as we speak 25 years later. I do, yes. Do you want to tease it?

Sure. I mean, first of all, I like the shirt. I remember the album, 1998 Yield. I mean, you're talking about, just to sort of inform people, Silent Radar was the Watchmen's fourth album. I am the drummer in the band. And today we are releasing a super deluxe edition of the record.

And let's bring Danny in. I know I can hear him ringing too. There's many things to discuss in terms of this release. And I want to get into it with you. It's really, really exciting. Today is sort of the day it's out. So today's launch day? Excuse me, I should clarify. Right now, we've made it available. We've made the singles available. We have four versions of what is arguably our sort of most known song, stereo. We've got a radio edit of it. We've got an unmixed raw version of it.

There is a very, very good demo of it that I want to get into in terms of the demos we did for the record and also an acoustic version of stereo. So our signature song, some might say, and it's available right now on streaming platforms and then april 14th is the release date but okay so just to let the fotms listening at home before we say hello to the uh the other member of the watchman who has joined us remotely from an undisclosed location just

before we say hello to him i want to let everybody know this episode work i'm going to dig for details like i hope you and uh you and danny have uh remember these details but i'm going to dig for details. I hope you and Danny have remembered these details, but I'm going to go back to 98, ask them dumb questions. I'm going to play songs. Maybe with your permission, I can play one of those additional songs that will be available in April. We're just going to geek out on all things Silent Radar

and The Watchmen. But without further ado, I would like to say hello to a man who performed live at TMLXX, which was only, I guess it was September 1st, 2022, at Great Lakes Brewery. Hello to FOTM, Danny Graves. Hello, folks.

Can you hear me over there? Is that working out all right? Loud and clear. Nice to hear your voice. I wasn't sure if I was doing video on the way in. I don't know if people see. I can see you, but I put on my favorite hat. Well, listen, I can see you.

Sammy cannot see you, although I think he's seen you before. Have you met Sammy, Danny? Have you met Sammy Cole? I have, and we are are. We are close. We are close. I can't see him either, but I guess what he looks like. I've spent the last 30 years staring at this guy's ass on stage. So I've seen enough of him.

And you're welcome is my first response. Danny, I just told Sammy before you jumped on that I'm wearing the only T-shirt in my active rotation of T-shirts. It's a very large collection, but the only T-shirt that I actively wear that I purchased in 1998. So I wanted to just wear it in honor of 1998

because 1998 is the year Silent Radar was released. Is that Yield? Is that what that is? Yeah, that's exactly right. Is that a Pearl Jam record? Is that what it is? Correct. Oh, look at that. That summer I saw the Yield tour went through Barry's Molson Park. Oh, yes, yes. Danny, do you have any Molson Park memories?

I have lots, but more specifically, we played a show in Winnipeg. It was a festival that's no longer happening called Sunfest. Essentially, we warmed up Pearl Jam. That's what I say to people when they ask. That was probably 10, Sam, you could probably correct me

if I'm wrong. 91, 92, yeah. That was their big record, wasn't it? I would say that's their biggest record ever. I don't think they ever sold more copies of an album than they did of 10, I would argue. that was a big deal for for me i think we played like shit but

but i i i uh i love the fact that i can say yeah we played we warmed up pearl jam you know wow okay amazing uh now i'm going to be that annoying fanboy and just ask you and Sammy for some recollections. How strong is your memory of, you know, writing the songs and putting together these songs that would become Silent Radar? Sam? Well, given, yeah, I feel like I've got a pretty good memory, actually. given yeah i feel like i've got a pretty good memory actually i kept a lot of journals and uh i'm sort of the band's archivist in terms of the material that we're we actually have on this release so um i can give me some details sammy because i'm um interested in like how does it come together what were the songs that kind of came first or this like was there that moment uh

i was you know the album's about to be, you know, recorded and it's like, we need a hit, we need a hit. Danny, we need a hit. You know, the band was in a bit of a transition. We can sort of provide a little context that we had released an album called Brand New Day a couple of days, a couple of days,

a couple of years earlier. Right. That didn't really meet expectations. We were, our option, Universal's option to record another album with us was not renewed. So we were sort of free agents. We signed with EMI Canada and suddenly we had a bit of a new lease on life in terms of a label that was very enthusiastic about the band. And that coincided with us doing a lot of group new lease on life in terms of a label that was very enthusiastic about the band and that coincided with us doing a lot of group writing at the time and uh i remember it was for a good

two years or so uh some of us two of us lived in toronto two of us lived in winnipeg and we would spend but which two i need danny and i lived in winnipeg and Ken and Joey, bassist, guitarist, respectively, lived in Toronto. Joey's never been on this program. We've got to rectify that at some point. I'm three for four.

Speak to his management. I don't know. He hates you. He said, I can't stand that guy. I'm never going to go on his show. So we wrote... What we did is we

just would honestly lock ourselves into a room together. I can't believe we didn't kill each other. We more or less did. But I mean, I think the mandate, you know, that was sort of foundational to this album, in my recollection, was that we wanted to kind of not dumb things down a bit, in my recollection was that we wanted to kind of not dumb things down a bit, but just simplify a bit, allow for some space, and write songs that were not as complex.

We were trying to get sort of clever with Brand New Day. And so what we did for a good two years is we'd spend two weeks in Winnipeg grinding, recording. So Danny and I slept in our own beds, not together, of course. And then we'd fly to Toronto, and the two of us, Danny and I, would stay at a hotel. I can't remember the name of it, Gavin. I don't know if you remember that hotel. Yeah, I'm not sure.

It was called the Blood from a Stone Method. That was the writing method at the time. And we definitely got some good stuff out of it. Got some blood. We got some good stuff out of it. Got some blood. We got some blood. And, yeah, it was definitely a challenge. You remember more of the specifics. I sort of, I think about, because I remember there was a building at,

it's now occupied by the Phoebeoebe uh condos that queen and uh young you mean no young and like uh no no no no i'm not talking about the hotel i'm i'm i'm moving on uh the the the the church what the town in is the hotel we stayed at but i'm i'm talking about the i just remember you remember that big building that we wrote maybe stereo and bright hell in? I thought that was off Yonge Street. It was like Yonge and College. No, no, no. It was, you know where the HMV was on Queen Street?

It was right down from there, and it was just the building. And Eric Korn, our collective friend, had a studio there, and I remember rehearsing there. It's now the Phoebe Town condos or whatever. But anyway, I digress. Well, listen, I'm the only broadcaster in the country who actually is interested in those details. Everybody else has turned this off by now. That's their loss as far as I'm concerned.

I was talking to Steve Paikin this morning, and Paikin likes Frank Sinatra turned this off by now. That's their loss as far as I'm concerned. I was talking to Steve Pagan this morning and Pagan likes Frank Sinatra and hates the alt-rock scene of the 90s that I absolutely adore, which I include you guys as a part of. And I was telling him, you know, Steve, you're

going to hate this episode because we're going to dive so deep into 1998's... What a setup mike at the blue jays game i had uh i had a corporate seat once once every three years i get a good seat right behind home plate and steve bacon had like the best seat in the house right well you know bacon's's salary is public record because he works for TVO, and there's a sunshine list

if you work for the province and you make over $100,000. So I can tell you that man is making about $400,000 a year. So that's public record. So he can afford the good seats. So if I could just back up for one second. Of course, man. Because I remember on one occasion just a quick story writing collectively as um as we did more or less at the time we were kind of hammering out what ended up

being any day now and i i just remember at the time gavin you daniel so So Gavin is like the family nickname. It's a family nickname. It's not worth exploring. It's just, but it's his name. Because that's the second time I heard Gavin and both times I'm like, I guess Danny's Gavin. Let's just leave it at that. So, but he, what Gavin would do,

you had a little dictaphone, I remember, and we recorded Any Day Now, just a little snippet of it. And the best songs at that time came from us just kind of trying to uh jam and try to kind of find a little crumble of of inspiration and i remember recording it and coming back to the hotel we were staying at you and i gab and you probably don't remember this probably ordering some thai food or, as we did. And I remember listening to this very, very raw little dictaphone recording and both of us saying, this is good.

This is actually quite good because it had a chorus, had the chorus. There was not much else, but it was just something we appreciated, so we knew it was good. So, Danny, one thing I remember about Sammy Cohen being on Toronto Mic is he's the only guest who has difficulty speaking over music. Like, the music seems, right? I can't chew gum and walk at the same time, Mike. I remember this.

So how am I supposed to listen to music in concert? But he can do both individually quite well, like a pro. Well, what I'm going to do now is I'm going to play a little Any Day Now. This might jog your memory as well, Danny. And then I'll bring it down to a point where Sammy can actually express a coherent thought about it. But here's a bit of Any Day Now from Silent Radar.

Nobody changes Wanna see them tonight Everybody Gather out Everybody Got around Everybody Drink it down

I'm feeling like a one-legged man Always made to take a stand. Any day now, it'll come. Any day now, it'll come. Any day now, it'll come. It'll come. How about that snare sound, eh? Wow.

Why don't you let Mr. Graves tell you about who's playing Hammond Organ on the song, because he was present for the recording of that. Mr. Graves? That's really neat. I forgot about that that I was lucky enough See, I'll back up a little bit before that I was Silent Radar was

The thing that I remember about it I mean, you're talking about the writing of the songs Of course, valuable as all get out But for me, it was It was just the most It was the most fun I've had doing what we've done. And from a recording standpoint, we spent a couple of months in Seattle, which is an amazing town. And it was sort of like the biggest producer that we nabbed at the time, who I think had just gotten off.

Like I say, this was Soundg in nirvana and pearl jam and it was just in it was in stone gossard studio in seattle um from pearl jam so it was just like just like holy moly like this was like the biggest the most money anybody spent on us you know going off and writing a record and and probably my favorite recording experience ever. So we, we, we, Adam Casper was the,

the gentleman's name who produced the record. And he, I guess he had some into, to Ben Montage, Ben Mont, Ben Montage. That's what it is. So Tom Petty's a Hammond, Hammond dude who,

you know, just sort of is it just littered all over several of his records and uh yeah and there was an opportunity it's like oh we got ben montange to play on a couple of a couple of tracks do you want to so i flew to la with adam casper and it was just this crazy, a crazy experience. And this dude, like I can only do it in LA cause I need my gear. Like it was going to be like $15,000 to fly his rig to wherever else. So it was like, just come to LA where I keep my shit and,

and, and I'll do it here. And like, I don't know, it wasn't even one take. It was even like half a take. Didn't he, I mean, if you listen, he plays on three songs. There's a song called Rooster.

He plays on Any Day Now and another song that happens to be my favorite on the album called On My Way. Does he play on that one too? He plays on On My Way beautifully. He plays piano and organ. And I remember you telling me this, Gavin, that his fee was 500 bucks a song. I remember that. That's a bargain at twice the price. Yeah.

And it probably took him two hours to do the whole session, don't you think? No, no, he did. And not even. It was just like, oh, yeah, I got it. Because whatever. Our band, we're not jazz players. I mean, it's all cowboy chords for us so it's like okay was it e a and d all right maybe i'll throw a g in there like it's it's not uh

it's not it's not rocket surgery as as they say adam casper so i'm just i know you ran down some of the artists but uh aerosmith mud honey nirvana, Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, The Tragically Hip, REM, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, and The Watchmen. That's like the Mount Rushmore right there. It was, yeah. It was such a lovely guy. He looked like Brad Pitt too, which is just as an aside. Oh, I know because I bump into him at the Handsome Men gatherings.

We have a club, and I do bump into him. No, it was really cool. I just remember at the time, and I throw to Sam with this, because the records that we had heard, there was, I guess, a thing in the 90s, like whenever we recorded that record, 96, 97, where the snare drum was really loud. Remember that, Sam? the thing in the 90s like whenever like 97 whenever we recorded that record 96 97 where like the snare drum was really loud remember that sam where it was like god this is like awesome like the snare like where it was just like that sound garden like the loudest thing in the mix

and and it was just so aggressive and so sort of fantastic and and i and I really, uh, it, it just, it added so much to our, our sort of thing, how it just the drums were so front and center. Obviously the vocals were on top. I know I'm, I don't want to. Vocals were okay, but those drums are why we bought silent radar. Well, he, uh, whatever it is, it was just, it was the style of sound that was happening at the time. And we were so excited to be a part of it, I guess. Yeah, I think it gave us a bit of a boost of confidence.

I mean, at the time, and I could sort of bring this back to part of the deluxe edition, is we did a very, very comprehensive set of demos for this album with a guy called Matt DiMatteo, who's worked with Big Wreck. He worked with Danko Jones. He's Rec. He worked with Danko Jones. He's done some amazing records with Danko Jones. And I would say he was the linchpin to getting us, gaining the interest of sort of world-class producers.

Because Matt, we did a session, it was probably over a weekend or something. Uh, remember Hala music, Gavin, remember, remember that place? That's what it was. Was it Hala or was it Presence? Oh, Presence. You're right. Sorry. Presence. You're right. It was, it was this little, little kind of like unassuming studio on, on King and Strong, Queen and Strong. And, um, they are incredible. They are absolutely incredibly been They've been sitting in a vault for 25 years. And I think they'll,

basically we demoed the whole album. The arrangements did not change from those demos to the end product because we were so rehearsed. Yeah. But I really have to put sort of hats off to Matt DiMatteo for the kind of the unsung hero of Silent Radar. It's like another version of Silent Radar that we're releasing on April 24th, April 14th, excuse me,

because they sound amazing. And I had forgotten how great they sound. I was sort of new in the back of my mind. We've got this great thing sitting in a vault, but it's going to see the light of day on the 14th and they sound great. Well, you know who's going to be first in line to buy that deluxe edition of Silent Radar is Jay Onright. So Jay Onright, who hails from, I've got to say this right, Athabasca, Alberta, which I guess is just outside of Edmonton. Yes. Shout out to my wife, Monica, who's from Edmonton.

Is that of Dan and Jay's fame? Correctamundo. That is him. Yeah. And Jay, we've had this chat many times especially because I had Sammy over and then I got Danny Graves to visit my home studio and then

that was a coup right there. But Jay Onright and I communicate, we DM each other about The Watchmen. I think he might be his favorite band of all time. So he's got good taste in music. And he'll be buying that deluxe edition.

Go ahead, Danny. He was him and Dan. Dan O'Toole. Dan O'Toole, yes. So Dan's a good buddy of mine. Both of them came to my bar.

I don't know. It's got to be pre-COVID. What's your bar called? A motel bar. Really? Where's it located? Interesting. It's on Queen Street, 1235 Queen Street.

1235. Do you know what I do when I'm not drumming in a band by any chance, Gavin? Do you drink at my bar? I sell real estate professionally. Anyway, sorry, I just thought we should catch up. Are these the shameless plugs? There'll be time for plugs. I wasn't trying to plug the club. I was just saying, yes, I know Dan.

He's a very good guy, and he pays his bills. Now, Danny, yeah, okay, awesome. Now, Danny, I actually, last week, I spoke with the Crash Test Dummies. Okay. And you might know them, too. They're from Winnipeg as well. But I was telling them all about Motel Bar. Like, there was a, we had a whole segment where I talked,

I said, if you ever want to see a Leafs versus Winnipeg Jets tilt, I said there's no better place for you Winnipeg fans in the city of Toronto than Motel Bar. There was that sort of awkward pause after you mentioned the bar, wasn't there? Sammy heard this episode, so he can... Sorry, to diverge,

who in the crash test, you were talking to Brad Roberts? Brad Roberts and Ellen Reed. Ellen? Yes. Right. Okay, the two of them. Are they... Yeah, no, Brad Roberts used to serve me coffee at the Blue Note Cafe on Main Street in Winnipeg.

He did, because I did ask if they had any Watchmen stories, and he did cough up memories of you. Absolutely. I think they always hated us, honestly. You know what? There was one time we were kind of rivalries, and then they just sort of,

it was like a rocket to the moon in the States for them. But I love those guys. They did great, and they put Winnipeg on the map a little bit too. Lots of room for all of these great Canadian artists here. I want to ask about MCA. So is it just that the album number three was disappointing commercially and MCA Records decided to move on?

Like, I'm just trying to understand. So why is this fourth album we're talking about today an EMI Music Canada release instead of an MCA Records release. Well, somebody said this to me once, and I never forgot it because it made sense. It was, I might've been a critic or something reviewing Silent Radar. And it said, it's clear to me why Universal

did not renew their option for another album in Canada. But it's as equally as clear to me that EMI decided to pick them up for their fourth album. So we had, it's sort of the age old story. They sort of threw a bunch of money, a couple of cheesy videos promoting Brand New Day and they probably just didn't recoup as much as their balance sheets wanted them to recoup.

Tough business. Yeah, we moved on and that coincided with us uh i mean looking at ourselves and and i think we really tried to buckle down and and work on our songwriting uh and uh so that coincided with emi making us a really really big priority at at that time and for this album. So it was just a perfect. Yeah, I would, I would second that. I always, you know, I've never, I haven't heard you say that before. Whatever the critic, the thing you were just talking about, Sam, but I've always thought like, when you look at, when you look at decades of music,

like the eighties were an answer to the seventies and the nineties, you know, the eighties, like the hair thing, the nineties were an answer to the eighties in terms of, Oh no, my style is no style. And I think that, uh, for us, silent radar was an answer to the, you know, we try, cause we, we came off in the trees and that was our only our only platinum selling uh record and it was like oh my god we can do whatever we want you know and and and then we tried to and it was okay you know it i there's a lot of a lot of fond memories of brand new day but i feel that uh that silent raider was an answer to, to what we felt we kind of got wrong or didn't,

you know, we just, it humbled us to say, okay, well let's, we got to write some, you know, we got,

we got to pack the tunes on, on, on this one. And, and it didn't feel the same way, I guess, for, for Brand New Day.

So it was an answer to the, to the, the previous record. Now, Any Day Now is a single number two off this album uh i'm hoping uh like think now is a good right number two okay that's right what was the first one well hey let's play the first one because i'm looking for any detail you can remember about this jam sammy said earlier that this might be your signature song. Am I putting words in your mouth?

I mean, sadly for me, I have visions of the mediocre video when I hear the song now, which I wish didn't happen, but what do you mean? The mediocre video of stereo? Are you kidding me? I don't know. Or any day now.

Both. It's just, it doesn't matter. Wow. Okay. Let's get to the jam and then we'll talk about all this. We have to unpack this. Here we go.

And I know the slow buildup means I should try to hit the post here, but I'm no DJ, so I'll just sit back and listen. You'll never do it. I can't even hit the post. Fucking love it, though. My life is a stereo. How loud does it go? What songs do I know? though My life is a stereo Kinda cheaply made though How bad does it show

Whatever did become of all my friends Whatever happened to the likes of all of you My life is a stereo Turn me on and let's go My life is hysterical Turn me on and let's go Turn me up louder I'll scream as loud and clear as I can scream And if you like what you're hearing

Please hang on to me I like being here And I'm all hooked up For all that hang on to me I'm one of a million One of a million One of a million Guys, this is a, what a jam. I mean, Any Day Now is actually a wonderful, beautiful song,

but Stereo gets the heart rate going. Woo! Yeah, it's a good one. It's a good one. It's a good one. It's a fucking great one. You know what's cool is I don't mean to harp on this, but the No, no, no.

I can't even hear the drums in the song. the deluxe, super deluxe edition includes a version and I'm saying this because I listened to it today because I wanted to hear how it sounded on Spotify. If you go to Spotify, there's something called a raw and unmixed version.

When you record an album, Mike, you over-record, meaning you do multiple tracks of lots of different things, vocals, guitars, you name it. And we were no exception to that when we recorded Silent Radar. And what I found, again, in our vaults was a version, an unmixed version of this album. And it's really, really remarkable for fans who know the songs. They're not going to know them kind of inside and out like we do,

but Stereo, for instance, it's got a, this unmixed version has multiple guitar tracks that are not in the final version. It's got different vocal overdubs. It's just kind of fascinating to hear. And this is all on the deluxe edition.

Yes, the deluxe edition. A Silent Radar, available April 14th. 14th. On the, yeah, it's... And I'm allowed to play? Yes, I Deluxe Edition. A Silent Radar, available April 14th. 14th. Yeah, it's... And I'm allowed to play? Yes, I sent you... Listen a bit.

Right now, on iTunes and all the other streaming services, we've put four versions of stereo, like I mentioned, and one of them is the unmixed version of stereo. And it's not immediately discernible. You have to listen carefully and you'll see, oh my God, there's this, there's that, there's another vocal harmony here, there's a here's some extra guitars that are louder and it's um yeah but yeah that is available now on itunes okay so because stereo

might be the signature song although i actually think it's all uncovered but stereo is definitely the the one that gets the heart rate going right that's the big uh the big fucking jam turn it up right now can we get super nerdy super geeky starting with the writing of this song and then you two just tell me uh how the song came together what was changed with the recording i know you're in seattle to to put this down uh just any detail about stereo i will back off the mic and listen all i the the memories that i have of stereo and really it's just it's stereo and it's brighter hell though those two those two songs on the record and again i i throw to the uh queen beverly it's queen and beverly where where the hmv was and so just just north just north of that where the phoebe condos are now was just like

it was a parking lot forever and this abandoned condo and our our friend i guess he had a sort of a studio of sorts and it was just where we were rehearsing and maybe sam it was the time that we were living in winnipeg i don't remember where I was living at that point. But so I remember those particular songs, and I'm sure more of them, coming from that spot, coming from those rehearsals. And for me, I remember just sort of just the line, my life is a stereo. That's it.

And it was just like, ah, that doesn't mean anything. What the fuck does that mean? That doesn't make any sense. But I kind of liked it. And so I just sort of extrapolated, you know, you know, how loud does it go? You know, what songs do I know? All my chords are tied up wrong. I just, I just sort of imagined, you know, I had one thought and I wrote, you know, you

know, lyrically anyway, I wrote two and a half minutes about what that might look like and again I will throw not just because he's uh on the other end of the line here but it was just just the beat that I always I always uh just the way I don't know you you describe what what's going on with the kick drum but but just, there was this cat, the reason why it gets your heart rate going in my opinions, because it just, there's this catching the, the, the, the bass, the kick drum has a catching its tail component and it just, it just propels the song forward in a way that, and there might be another song or two that we've used that, but it just,

it just sort of does that, just sort of it just keeps you on the balls of your feet, the edge of your seat you know, like we always said you know, we'll sell you the whole seat, but you'll only need the edge you know, and from a fan's perspective because of the way it starts and builds

up, like because you know what's coming there's this anticipation I find with that song, where it's like you know it right away, because you know what's coming, there's this anticipation I find with that song where it's like you know it right away and you know you got a little bit of a ramp up here, but you know what's coming. Like, I feel like the anticipation is a key part. Now, obviously, you don't get that the first time you hear it,

but every time subsequent you listen to that song, it's sort of like anticipating. It's just a great, great song. Sammy, why are you so humble? What's going on? Well, no, I'm not being humble. You know, I'm actually interested in Gavin's take on the words because, I mean, no, I'm serious.

I mean, on one hand, I feel like he was really coming into his own in terms of being a lyricist at the time. His role during most of those sessions was playing some piano, but improvising words and correct me if I'm wrong, Gavin, but I feel like the song is sort of slightly autobiographical where all my friends, you know. Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, that's, you know what, I remember Sting saying this a thousand years ago is just that it takes a lot

to write a song about, about not you, you know. It takes a lot to write an idea or to have an idea that isn't autobiographical in some standpoint. I don't feel I've gotten to that Sting point yet. Everything is about me, you know, or about the people around me. So that was, that was definitely, uh, uh, that's definitely part of it. You know, I think when you, when you said, sorry to interrupt you, but when you said, uh, you're in my face and I don't want you to be or something, I think you were referring to the band, weren't you?

We were in our faces at the time we were. Yeah. Yeah. When I've also also i've also corrected that and i usually blame like that part i usually blame on ken you know but uh but that's that's a bass player thing you'll never understand um not you sam but you mike but yeah seriously though i mean i i do would you agree that at the time you were gaining confidence as a lyricist? Yeah, I think that record entirely. I had a big thumbprint on a lot of the words that were said out loud on that record. And again, I'm sure we wrote other songs where i'm speaking of it

at queen and beverly but but stereo and brighter hell uh they're they're it's very specific i have a very specific memory of location you know and every time i drive by queen and beverly it's like god there used to be this rundown condo there and parking. And, you know, we wrote some of our, you know, most popular, most long-lasting songs ever. And so it was definitely, definitely, I agree. I guess I agree, but I'm doing it in, you know, maybe 1,500 more words than I should. Well, I need to pick up something that Sammy dropped earlier.

So I was an avid viewer of Much Music in the 90s. 1998, I'm still watching Much Music all the time. What is it you cringe about regarding the video, which was on high rotation, that stereo video? I don't cringe. I don't want to seem ungrateful for the support. I think Much Music brought us to a national stage. So huge gratitude for that.

But for me, and this is just a personal thing, unfortunately, I see the video in my head when I hear the song. And there's other songs in the album where we didn't do videos where that doesn't happen. And I prefer the latter. Including On My Way, which is your personal favorite. Yeah, exactly.

That's interesting. I kind of, I mean, I remember the video processes, you know, fondly, and it was just sort of, but there's something that you said, Sam, I don't know, it was years ago.

I can't figure it out, but just the fact that we did so much road work in the band, and you said that if video and radio gives you your success, then they can take it away. And with us, the main success that we had and how it started is that we went on the road. We played to, so, you know, with Brand New Day, it was commercially less successful as the other records,

but we'd still sell out Regina, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, whatever. Still do. Because radio and video didn't give us that success. We earned it and did it ourselves with like a million kilometers on our gmc van you know no it's something to be very proud of and uh i definitely feel that we are also this record came out at a time it was just prior to file sharing in napster right uh 2000 things just sort of thank god well i, you know, the album, it's a gold record. It was 50,000 copies in Canada, and that doesn't happen anymore.

I think gold, what's gold these days in Canada, like 2,500 or something? I think it's 30. But, I mean, that's funny, though. It's at least 30. It's 30 or 35, but they had to scale it down because nobody's bought fucking records. So, I mean, we have a little body of work, uh, right now there's, there's five records and there's, there's a bunch of extra tracks that are out there for, for fans.

And there's going to be four new tracks on this release. Well, I'm about to play one of those, uh, Spotify tracks to, to tease the, uh, deluxe edition here, but you mentioned, you know, file sharing. So I got to ask, like when you released silent radar, that was kind of a, you were embracing the internet, obviously pre file sharing,

but like the release of the CD, right. There is a like CD activated key to access multimedia material on the website. Like, can you tell me a bit like whose idea was it to, to kind of lean in on this, uh,

on the, on the internet, which was relatively new new in 1998 we were all just kind of getting online and uh you really embraced it in a big way either or do either of you know what the internet is i'm trying i'm remembering that it was the only it was the only much music award that that we won it was like an award for new technology it's like no you can't okay so here's what i say tokenism at its best well i'm gonna ask you about awards in a minute but uh i actually did a little homework here so you had three websites okay you had your like your your traditional watchmen website, but you had a new site that was dedicated to silent radar and another site which included WAG. You had an official magazine, WAG.

Don't believe everything you see on Wikipedia. Well, this is your chance to set the record straight. Honestly, I don't even know what you're talking about. Who wrote this? I'm trying to remember. Set the record straight here. I did do a little research in advance of this deluxe because i wanted to see what we did you know it's funny

because march 31st is literally march 31st 1998 is the 25th anniversary of this album coming out wow so we were coincident we were literally i was 10 years old when this album came out like but i'm bummed um that sweater was 10 years old yeah but um we we were in all seriousness it was the advent of the internet so we we were we were embracing it the record label had a lot of ideas about what to do about teasing cover art in advance of it and such i mean right this thing that we had this unlocking of this and that it was effectively a fucking website that's what it was but in 1998 that wins you a much music video award for uh ingenuity oh yeah i don't know is that what it was that what it was i invented that i feel like it just it just got us it got us in the door

because otherwise they wouldn't have allowed us in to the to the award i always said with much music here's my analogy of, of, of much music. And I'm, I've only thought about this. I've never actually said it. I've always said that we were successful enough to get into the building. Uh, they cared enough to let us into the building,

but we weren't successful enough that people gave a shit and stood outside while we were in the building. Was that about getting, no, this is real talk and again, I, you know what I think

of the watchman and the body of work. You guys know, but I just glanced, coincidentally, and this is not on purpose, I swear, but just,

I have a piece of vinyl to my right, which is road apples by the tragically hip. Was part of the problem living in the shadow of the hip? I have a theory on that

and Gavin, I'd like you to, well, I mean, I could go on forever. We had the same management company. I mean, one thing, one regret shadow of the hip i have a theory on that uh and gavin i'd like to hear too well i mean there i could go on forever we had the same management company i mean one thing one regret to be honest is that we were always on the same album cycle as the hip we always we lost we had three juno nominations and we lost probably to the hip every time we were in their shadow effectively our sound was not terribly dissimilar but if we weren't on the same album cycle,

I think maybe things might have been different. Well, why? So shout out to, and I don't know what the relationship is like today. I think it's okay. You can tell me if I'm wrong. But shout out to FOTM, Jake Gold. It's great.

I had lunch with him two weeks ago. Okay, because he's a big fan of this program. I'm glad to hear that. I had John Doerr on yesterday. John Doerr was the comic guy on Canadian Idol when Jake Gould was a judge. So there was a bit of Jake Gould talking about that. But your third

and final Juno nomination is actually for this album we're talking about today, Silent Radar. Who won it, Mike? Do you know? Yes, I do. I do know. Some band from Kingston, Ontario. Weeping Tile. band from Kingston, Ontario. The Tragically Hip. Weeping Tile.

No, no, no. I love Weeping Tile. Okay. Shout out to Sarah Harmon. It's an honor to be nominated. Yeah. But again, I think about it all the time. So many times, and again, I would go see The Hip, let's say, at Molson Amphitheater, okay?

But the opening for The Tragically Hip would be The Watchmenman for example which i loved because i get to hear an acoustic uh sweet baby james or something i fucking love seeing the watchman but it was the opening act for the hip and in that era the hip were so huge that if you're if your release cycles are in the same vein and you're kind of cut from the same cloth but you're clearly not the priority for the management company because they're pushing the hip or whatever. I can see that would affect.

I'm not pointing any fingers. I just, we were on the same label for universal for one. We weren't when we moved to EMI, but when you're on the same album cycle, what that means is you've got the same promotion people pushing at radio. You've got the same record company behind. You've got the same, in our case, the same management company.

And so it's, yeah, I mean, that's just one theory. I've got many other theories. Well, let's say Danny here. Or Gavin, sorry. I don't know what his name is anymore. I'm not sure either. Yeah, you know what? I think that from a management perspective,

you know, I feel that there were elements of Jake's thought process that said, oh, you know, and like I have the hip and had this other cool band with uh you know at the time an energetic singer not not anymore i don't i don't play tambourine anymore and and uh but i i i do feel like and i i think that that would be the other elements of of sammy's thought process as well it was sort of you know we we i remember you know playing these shows like play them to nobody and wherever tabor alberta or wherever it is and then but we would do those shows with

nobody and then but we'd have this sort of carrot at the end of the week where it's like oh we get to we're going to warm up the hip and at satan calgary And, and, and so there were always those sort of little carrots and I, I, I, I think we all a lot to, to, excuse me, to, to those, to those sort of moments because we would do, you know, the shows and, you know, the hip did a million of those as well, like playing a nobody and in small towns. And so we did a lot of that and then we would get this sort of, this real sort of boost saying, God, it's great to nobody in small towns. And so we did a lot of that. And then we would get this sort of, this real sort of boost saying,

God, it's great to play in front of people, you know? And so, you know, I think that that was, it was as detrimental as it was positive in terms of giving us the, because I do, I feel when I've thought about it now, like, you you know looking back that i i owe a lot to those to that to that band and those shows that we were thrown on i mean honestly and i i wasn't expecting to say this but i don't think they liked us very much i don't i

don't think they have liked liked our band very much but but he was like all right jake let's just throw the band on and and whatever and but we got uh we got a lot of uh we got a lot of traction from that and and uh and i love those guys and i've i've you know i remember a i've a ton probably the thing i remember the most are a lot of those those warm-up shows like like in the border towns, like Baltimore and I remember Baltimore particularly, I don't know why, but just those dangerous rough towns that I'd never in my life go to anymore. But yeah, it was, we were in terms of the U S work. I mean, we were as excited to see them in smaller clubs as the fans were. I mean, they were doing arenas in Canada and then we were right south of the border

watching them with 400 people in Chicago or something. But yeah, I, you know, they influenced everybody in the early nineties, Mike, and we were no exception. Their first album, our first album is, is, you know, we, we probably didn't even admit it to each other at the time. It was very influenced by the hip in terms of a stripped-down sound, a straight rock sound. They sort of interrupted, to Gavin's point earlier, about reactions in terms of decades in the 90s,

where it was probably 89, 90 when Up To Here came out. That was a reaction to The Spoons and to Martha and the Muffins and the FOTMs, right, Mike? All of them FOTMs. I'm aware. Martha and the Muffins and the FOTMs, right, Mike? All of them FOTMs. I'm aware.

But those were drum machine, computer-based, 80s synth bands, who I love, incidentally. But the hip responded to that. Rob Bruce is on the show next week, by the way. Cool. What does FOTM stand for? I'm sorry. Sammy, tell Danny. Shame on you.

Shame on you. What does it mean? Friend of Toronto Mike. Oh, Jesus. Okay, so I'm sorry. Shame on you. What does it mean? Friend of Toronto Mike. Oh, Jesus. Okay, so I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Love means never having to say you're sorry, Danny. Okay?

I thought it was something dirty. I thought it was something dirty. I'm glad. It's a good thing, Danny. So this and Me Too are the most popular hashtags of 2022 hashtag f-o-t-f for different reasons for different reasons so anyway that was my point that that they they they certainly influenced us like it sounds like to me hearing you guys talk about it now it's there's pros and cons one is they sorry yeah no please every every article in the first three years of

this band whether it be because of the same management label, whatever, we were referenced. And that was just a talking point that kind of spiraled a bit. And in defense of the band's third record, Brand New Day, I remember at the time trying to kick against that in a big way. And we did. And we did. and then it was really not an issue after that but then it didn't sell love it and then it's fucking tanks right okay

all right just before i'm gonna pull up i'm gonna actually go to the spotify link and play the uh well you'll choose it sam i'm gonna take a to take a moment here. I do take a moment. So Motel Bar, Danny, firstly, I don't know if I ever said this to you in person, but I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart that you made the drive to Great Lakes Brewery that day, just last September, September 1st. I'm not going to lie. He's still waiting for a reimbursement on his gas. Did you get his receipt? I didn't realize you had moved, though. When I asked you to play, I thought you lived in West Toronto, in my defense. I had

no idea. That's fine. Honestly, Mike, it was a pleasure. I got to play with Ron. Is it Prue? Do you predict? Rob Pruse, like Dr. Zeus. It's Rob Pruse. He was there, and that was great. Blair Packham from the Jitters Is it Prue? Do you remember? Prue's like Dr. Zeus. It's Rob Prue's. You also played with also.

Yeah. So he was there and that was great. And Blair Packham from the jitters was there. Of course. I remember that. And I just, I'll just say to paint a picture for those who weren't there, that it was a beautiful night,

like under the stars. Let's pretend the gardener wasn't a few feet away there. Yeah. I was going to say the gardener. Beautiful night under the stars and you were singing uh acapella and your voice you know what i think of your voice i think is the best voice in this country and you were amazing danny and i'll never forget it you did i think you gave us four songs and you took us home that night so just from the bottom of my heart thank you for that and i'm sorry about the drive you had to no that's fine you know honestly i was i was in town it was on the way i was i was 25 minutes closer to where i lived at

the at the point at the time uh no it was great honestly uh if i'm you know whatever it's it's like going to therapy like who doesn't like to talk about themselves for an hour, you know? So for me to sort of sing, it was, it was lovely. And I know, I know Blair and, and I hadn't met Rob previously, but he played a great, he's a much better piano player than I am, but he played a great version of the Highwaymen, which is a song that i that i love and and sing in my head when i'm not uh when i'm not even thinking about it and so yeah no it's great anyway beautiful night my pleasure and uh and i'll never do it again all right it's okay you you've just filled your quota there but

how often are you at the motel bar like uh now that you live wherever you're living here's enough about the motel well because i'm gonna get i'm going somewhere sammy listen you're the salesman you'll know where i'm going in a minute um i'm i'm there a couple times a week honestly it's more i i've worked myself out of a job a little bit i just go there to clean up the the vomit and vomit and to get the beer deliveries. And I do sell the beer can in your hand. Shout out to Great Lakes Beer. So you do serve Great Lakes Beer.

I just paid them. I just paid them about 15 minutes before I got on this call. You owe me 500 bucks. I wish you were here because I would be giving you some, although it sounds like you have beer, but you had to pay for it. I would give you some free beer. Mike, he would just resell it. I would.

I sold the lasagna you gave me last time. Are you kidding me? So Sammy's leaving with lasagna from Palma Pasta. Sammy loves it. Delicious. Fresh craft beer from Great Lakes. I was actually there yesterday at Great Lakes, the southern

Etobicoke location, and delicious fresh craft beer. That's where FOTMs get their beer. Go to Motel Bar and buy some Great Lakes. That's an order for all the FOTMs. I want to thank EPRA because they have a website called recyclemyelectronics.ca and if anyone listening has any old antiquated tech that they need to get

rid of, don't throw it in the garbage. We don't need those dangerous chemicals in the landfill. Go to recycle my electronics.ca and find out the nearest safe place to drop off all that old tech. And last but not least, Sammy. Oh,

you got one. Okay. I have something else for Sammy Cohn. I think he's excited to receive this Ridley Funeral Home tape measure. I'll show Danny because he's got a different camera. I wish I could give. So you never know when you have to measure something, right, Sammy? It sounds dark, though.

No comment on that measurement question. Well, thank you because I now have heard the joke, I can measure my body for the casket. I've heard that joke, I think, a hundred times at this point. I wasn't referring to that, but anyway. What are you measuring there, Sammy? I'm Jewish. Let's not go there.

I'm going to move on from that. I'm going to move on from that. I'm now going to give play-by-play to the listenership. We're winding down here. Danny, you've been great. Thanks for doing this from that. I'm going to move on from that. Okay, so I'm now going to, I'm going to give play-by-play to the listenership. We're winding down here. Danny, you've been great. Thanks for doing this. Sammy, I love seeing you.

I get warm fuzzies when I see you. Can I give you a gift? I brought you a gift. You bring me a gift while I get this Spotify link. And yes, I'd love it. I need half that lasagna. I'm sorry. I need half of the fucking lasagna.

I thought I'd be here for five minutes. I figured, okay, that's fine. Well, you can actually leave. I guess I can't stop you from leaving. No, no, stick around. I want to give this to Mike on behalf of the band, but you have to make me a promise you're going to put this up, okay, that's fine. Well, you can actually leave. I guess I can't stop you from leaving. No, no, stick around. I want to give this to Mike on behalf of the band, but you have to make me a promise you're going to put this up, okay? This is a little something. Mike

has been a Watchmen supporter for many, many years. He's had me on. He's had a bunch of us on. He's a friend at this point. You can name Ken Tizer. Ken Tizer, Joe. I made this for you, and you can show that. Brian Linehan. Read it out, Mike. Read it out mike read it out dear toronto

mike thank you for all the support over the years brian linehan would be proud of you love the watchman and there's a picture of brian linehan are you kidding me nice one it's gonna have i'm gonna make a spot for this in the studio and i will reference it often thank you sammy cone yes you're welcome and you what was the fctv thing where where there was a brock like how do you how do you know that you know great that was martin short right martin short did brock linehan that's right sammy you've been so good to me today i'm gonna play did you want by the way did you want the live acoustic the raw unmixed or the uh demo demo let do the acoustic. Let's do the acoustic or a bit of it. Okay. So I'm going to put on the acoustic. First, I need you to have an opportunity now, if there's anyone listening

who is interested in the GTA real estate market, like what's their, they're looking for a new home. Maybe they need to sell. Sammy, please, how can somebody interested in GTA real estate contact the great Sammy Cohn, who keeps winning these awards for being a wonderful real estate professional? Have you won awards, Sam? I have. I see them on Twitter. My question is, I thought you'd never ask, Mike. No, I mean, look, we're talking about stuff 20 years ago.

I am in the real estate business. I buy and sell real estate. So find me online, typical social, sammycone.com, whatnot. And I'm happy to answer any questions about your real estate needs. Because Sam, sir, hold on. Will you buy somebody's house if it doesn't sell? I'll stand on my head to do business with you yeah no i uh did your nephew leave the fucking sofa machine maker on all night and then you have to yeah that's a deep reference i don't know what the

hell you're talking about sofa or soda what the kern Hill Furniture Co-op. Oh, yeah, yeah. My nephew left the sofa machine on all night. I have to make a sale or whatever. You know, it's a wonderful city to do real estate. I've been doing it for about 12 years now. And, yeah, so look me up. But, yeah, here's stereo that's out right now on iTunes. Acoustic.

What songs do I know? Whatever happened to my life. Great voice. Whatever happened to the life I thought I had. I don't hear any drums, Sammy. No. We were fighting for this version. My life is stereo.

Kind of cheaply made though How bad is it sure? Whatever did become of all my friends Whatever happened to the likes of all of them? Yeah Stereo Mistake mistake mistake mistake I like being here And I'm all top

Wrong Hang on to me Though I'm one of a million One of a million One of a million. One of a million. Please hang on to me. What exactly? You said you were fighting for this? When was this recorded?

Tell me everything. I was joking about the fighting for the acoustic version. I don't know when that was recorded. Actually, Sam, you would know. I don't know. You know, what I do know is that we got very comfortable with acoustic versions of the songs. I think that was a big part of our sort of thought process

when writing this album, is we wanted songs that could be stripped down to acoustic versions that still sort of held up. And did a tour we were promoting the album in australia we flew down there for a good two and a half weeks i didn't even i didn't play drums for two weeks we did acoustic versions of playing spongos and we uh we got quite adept at uh playing these songs acoustically but it stands up nicely nicely. It doesn't sound too bad. Yeah, that was amazing, actually. I remember that tour, that Australian.

Sorry if you're running out of time. If you're up against the news here, Mike, I'm sorry. But I remember that Australian tour. We were there, I think, three years in like a year. If anyone's gone to Australia, that's like it's a big deal to go there three times in 12 months. And yeah, it was an acoustic radio tour. And, you know, it definitely bore fruit, as they say in the biz.

And it was amazing because we were able to sort of hear how these songs live without full band, you know, accompaniment. What was the deal with you guys in Australia? It's safe to say that's the country on this planet. You guys are the biggest outside of Canada, right? Correct. They just,

they, they just get it. There was label support. I mean, that's really what it boils down to. There was a release. We supported it with live work. And so we built a little bit of a fan base out there.

It's as simple as that. I remember something, and I've said this to a few people, that when we were in Australia, so it was EMI. So EMI Canada, but married to EMI worldwide. And we had a record out. It was the silent radar with stare with a single out. So stereo. And at the same time, the Foo Fighters, I don't know what, what record of theirs coincided with that. I know that Adam Casper worked with them after he worked with us directly, but I remember somebody saying to the art, we a guy uh graham ashton asho they called

him and he said the watchman the stereo had sold like i don't know i don't know what the numbers were we had sold like eight or nine thousand singles and whatever the foo fighter single had sold like two thousand more than that so according to to EMI, it was like, holy shit that these guys are, I just remember it's like, oh my God, like they're, they're looking at us and talking,

talking to us. Like we're, we're international record guys. And it was like, Jesus, we're just from Winnipeg, you know, like imposter syndrome.

It was, it was a really big deal to say like we had sold you know 18 less singles than than the foo fighters sold and and it went and to them it was like okay well we'll put as much you know almost as much money into these guys as those guys and it was a really uh it was just a big realization for me it It's like, God, like, you know, and those years of, of, of making that Australian money was a big deal. Wow.

Like just like, it's a small country, but just having that extra, that extra little oomph, it really, really, really made things different for us. So I'm just,

you know, I talked to lots of Canadian musicians that had big days in the 90s. That's what Toronto Mic does, basically. Give me all the Canadian musicians who you know, why not? But a couple of artists, one is actually post-90s of course, but a couple of artists that

have similar stories of Australia. One is the Tea Party. So Jeff Martin lives in Australia now. That's where he lives. The Tea Party can also claim Australia as a hotbed. But another guy who, I guess outside of Canada, his biggest market is Australia, is Sam Roberts. So just, I don't know what the common thread is between you guys, Sam Roberts,

other than being Canadian and the Tea Party. But yeah, Australia is like a big hotbed for Sammy. Sammy Cohen and Sam Roberts, all the Sammies. Okay. I think I've heard when that was happening, like in the 90s, late 90s, it was just, there was a similar, I don't know, there is even like take music out of it.

I think that a lot of Canadians enjoy Australia and vice versa. I mean, if you ever go to Banff and try and get a Lyft ticket on the hill in Whistler, they're all Aussies. You know, like they love it here. And I feel there is a reciprocation in that regard. Similar histories, I suppose, we were former. Other than the prison colony thing. I mean, they were prison colonies, so I don't know how that goes.

Okay, I don't want to bury the lead here because I want to make sure everybody knows Silent Radar, the super deluxe anniversary edition. This is being released on April 14, but you can actually go to, sounds like you can go to Spotify right now and hear four new renditions of stereo, which may or may not be, depending on your 14, but you can actually go to Spotify right now and hear four new renditions of

stereo, which may or may not be, depending on your perspective, the biggest signature jam from the Watchmen. That's a debate I'd be willing to have. Who knows? But it's a big one. I know Sammy's been shy with the details here, but yes, of course.

He's very shy. I'm excited about it yeah he's excited because of course part of the deluxe anniversary edition of silent radar is the original remastered album itself okay so there's 12 tracks on that we played a couple today but we you know i could use other big hits on that too but i'm gonna just run down really quickly just some of the extras before we say goodbye and again i think i did this to danny i think i told danny pop on for 10 minutes i think i said that to danny and danny's been here for an hour now and you know danny what a sweetheart this is why i sing your praises at every opportunity but well the invoice is in the mail you know i just just so

you know i mean i'm my accountant's on it uh here's something and sammy you know this better than anybody but um the i'm blind yes uh all these you know the radio edit of stereo which is a bit different is it less ramp up at the beginning i know it's the acoustic it's right to it you don't have that uh big build up at the beginning yeah you know when i jump in sorry sam i'm cutting you off and i probably have all all morning but i'm blind. I played bass. I don't actually play. The only thing remarkable about it is that I don't play bass, but I played bass on that song.

Sammy's shaking his head, by the way. I know you can't see Sammy. Queen East. We're at Queen East. What's the opera house? The opera house. Remember that, Sam? No, that was on a song called I Like It. Okay, fair enough. Same song, though, really. Same song called I Like It. Okay, fair enough.

Same song, though, really. Same song. I love it. Okay, the radio edit of Any Day Now, the radio edit of Brighter Hell, live acoustic, we just heard it, stereo, Say Something, which was recorded at the Horseshoe in 98, Brighter Hell recorded at the Horseshoe in 98.

You got 75, which was live in studio. That's previously unreleased. Speaking of previously unreleased, Elementary, which was live in studio. That's previously unreleased. Speaking of previously unreleased, Elementary, which was live in studio. You, you had a rehearsal take of You. God, there's just I don't know many of those songs, honestly. There's a Lost album here, which

basically, Do It, Who Am I, some other songs, you know, Come Around, He's Gone, Say Something, I'm Waiting. Man, okay. Love you guys. You know, I mean, you know, Come Around, He's Gone, Say Something, I'm Waiting. Man, okay, love you guys. You know, I mean, you know, you guys and Crash Test Dummies, I call myself Winnipeg Mike now. I just got to get the guess who on this program, and I think I've got the trifecta there.

But this was amazing. Any final words from you, Sammy Cohn, before we say goodbye? I hope you enjoyed the coffee I made you. I don't do that for every guest. Thank you. Danny didn't ask me for a coffee when he came over i got my own i told you before i asked you i said it's my mom always said it's rude to ask but uh do you mind pouring me a cup well mark wiseblood always asked me for coffee too so i don't have any i don't know i want to thank you mike i know

you're a genuine fine thing i just want to i just want to respond to gavin just in terms of the text i received from him earlier so just to respond you, you are welcome to the cream, but you can't use my applicator. Fair enough. Okay. So instead of texting you back, I thought I would just. No, no, no. You got to end with a home run. You got to end with a home run.

That's how they do it. That's how the pros do it. Danny, as we say goodbye here, any final words for the FOTMs listening and the Watchmen fans who are tuning in?

Okay, well, the first one is I'm sorry I didn't know what FOTM stood for. There's so many, like I text my kids, like what is, because like,

you know, that whole thing where it's like, oh, you know, my, I had a family member pass away. And then you text LOL, lots of love, but it's not lots of love. You know, it's laughing out loud.

Right. So I have to text my kids for all of the, for all of the acronyms that are happening these days. Anyway, what was your question? Any final words for the listenership on our way out here? The final words is come to a motel bar. The first round's for free.

Second round is double the price. And there's a two-drink minimum. And there's a two-drink minimum. Very good. That's funny, Mike. And that! And that! very good that's funny Mike and that brings us to the end of our 1,223

do you remember Sammy? I don't know I should know this I'm going to check I was going to ask you that 1,224 episodes of Toronto Mike Danny and you do one every six months? Or is it every...

I've been doing this for 360 years. Absolutely. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Sammy's at Sammy Cohn, K-O-H-N. Danny's like, listen to D-G, right? Listen to D-G. Yeah, that makes sense.

And the Watchmen are... What is it? Watchmen Music, Sammy, at Watchmen Music? On Twitter. Yes, I believe it is, yes. Great Lakes Brewery, the preferred beer of Motel Bar in Parkdale. They're at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta.

Sammy's already licking his lips, but he got to invite Danny or Gavin over for that Palma Pasta lasagna they're at Palma Pasta Recycle My Electronics are at EPRA underscore Canada and Ridley Funeral Home are at Ridley FH see you all

should I check who's on next let me do it real quick see you all Monday when my special should I check who's on next? Let me do it real quick. See you all Monday when my special, oh god, I got a double header Monday, but the first guest you'll hear is Wayne Webster, a long time radio guy in this market. He's got lots of great

stories about Boom and elsewhere. I hope Boom plays stereo. If not, I'll talk to Wayne Webster and make sure that gets on high rotation. See you all then! Thanks, folks. Remember that song? Is that one of our songs that you're playing right there? That's Lowest of the Lows, Rosie and Gray. Okay, thank you.