Ongoing History Of New Music

Wait, There’s More is a daily Global News podcast released every afternoon just in time for your commute home. On this episode, protests have erupted in Hong Kong as tens of thousands of people speak out against legislation that would allow the territory’s citizens to be extradited to Mainland China. Demonstrators tried to storm government buildings and police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. Host Tamara Khandaker explores Hong Kong’s precarious relationship with China since the end of British governance in 1997 and what the implications of such a major change will mean for the safety of its citizens with the help of Crystal Yeung, a Canadian human rights lawyer living in Hong Kong; Grace Yeung, a Hong Kong resident, who has taken to the streets to protest; and BBC journalist Vincent Ni. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're taking a look back at the glorious days of Britpop. That incredible time in the 90's which lasted about  6 years where it seemed Cool Britannia ruled the airwaves and everyone was having a great time! London was swinging again and British acts were selling tens of millions of albums the world over. It was fresh, it was fun, and it was cool. And then it was over...collapsed by the weight of over exposure, boredom, and drugs. Lots and lots of drugs. Let's take a look back to see how this all happened. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to another episode in our series of having bands and musicians tell their history in their own words. This time we go back to our interview in 2009 for the amazing Franz Ferdinand! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The human body is basically a bag of water with a bunch of chemicals mixed in…that’s an over-simplification, of course, but it’s an accurate description of the squishy bits that make up us… It’s also true that every once in a while, something—or maybe a lot of things—go a little wonky with these squishy bits…yeah, we often hear of some guy up in the Ural Mountains who’s 117 years old who credits his longevity to bacon and unfiltered cigarettes…but that’s the exception… The rest of us have to constantly be vigilant about our health, eating right, sleeping enough, reducing stress—all that sort of stuff…but not everything is preventable…bad genes…disease…accidents… These same rules apply to the musicians we follow…they’re human, just like us…and every once in a while, we hear about their health challenges...and quite often, they’re very open about their issues…they want to be honest with their fans—and maybe by bringing attention to their situation, they can encourage awareness or those with similar health pr

Not all bands hit it out of the park right away…they need a few albums and a couple of long tours before things start to fall into place… Take the Red Hot Chili Peppers, for example…their career really didn’t start to blossom until their fourth album…same thing with Muse—at least in North America…they might have been playing arenas in Europe…but when it came to their fourth album, they were still playing clubs on this side of the Atlantic… Same thing with R.E.M...they had a strong cult following through four records before they were able to cross over into mainstream consciousness… And for The Black Keys?...it took until albums number six for them to have their big breakthrough… These success stories underscore the need for patience and foresight on behalf of record labels, managers, and everyone else associated with the welfare of a particular artist…if you honestly see potential, then you gotta play the long game, one that may stretch out over years… And then you gotta look at things from the artist’s

On the afternoon of October 1, 1982, Sony introduced a new home stereo gizmo… it was the world’s first compact disc player… they called it the CDP-101… Weird name, but if you take it apart, it makes sense…”CDP” stands for “compact disc player…and “101” is binary notation for the number 5…that’s because the head of the audio division considered this first model to be in the middle of Sony’s future lineup of cd players…so “5” on a scale of one to ten, I guess… Sony had been working on compact disc technology with a Dutch company called Philips for a number of years, which released their own machine, the cd100, about a month later… Compact disc technology was rolled out worldwide in march 1983…and for the next seventeen years, the recorded music industry experienced a boom unlike it had ever seen before…music fans were convinced to buy all their favourite albums again…and as the popularity of vinyl and cassettes waned, the cd became the currency of the realm… And lo, it was good…insane amounts of money were

It runs in the family…like father, like son (or mother like daughter…or some variation of that)…the apple never falls far from the tree… All these sayings have something to do with some sort of hereditary characteristics or learned abilities passed down from parent to child… I suppose if you grow up in a creative household, something is gonna run off, whether it be something in your genes or just because of what goes on around you as you’re growing up… Take the case of Patrick Schwarzenegger, son of Arnold…not only has he done some acting, but he’s got a clothing company called #project360 that donates a chunk of profits to charity… Duncan Jones is the son of David Bowie…he’s a really good film director…Sasha Spielberg is the daughter of Stephen and Kate Capshaw…she’s become quite the screenwriter…Ben Stiller is the son of Jerry Stiller…most people know Jerry as George’s father on “Seinfeld”… What about music?...Johnny Cash and daughter Roseanne…Billy Ray, dad of Miley Cyrus…Norah Jones is the daughter o

Every industry has its own language…think about what it’s like to be a doctor and all the terms and phrases you must learn if you’re going to communicate with your patients and other medical professionals…what’s the difference between and otolanryingolist and a nephrologist?...iatrogenic and idiopathic?...hypotension and hypertension?... What if you’re working in the world of finance?…you need to know about things like “shorts” and “yield curves” and my favourite, “ebidta”—earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization… Or maybe you’re a coder…think of all the jargon you use when you’re working on a project… I have a list of coder slang in front of me…I’m told these are real terms used in that world… “rubber ducking is a discussion with other engineers to solve a problem…a “jimmy” is a new and clueless new member of the team…and a “hydra” is a bug that can’t be fixed because every time you try something, two or more new bugs pop up… So you see what I’m saying about jargon and a language c

Maybe it was the first time you saw your favourite musical. Maybe they played a set list that you thought was perfection. Maybe you were front and centre and the singer crowd surfed right over your head! So sure...an absolutely legendary gig! But what about those gigs that redefined alt-rock? Those concerts or shows that stand out as legendary for what came after them? The bands they inspired or the lasting legacy of that show on the audience? Well we're going take a look at 8 of them and try to explain why they are so legendary in the history of alt-rock Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I’m really bad with jargon…I hate it…jargon is by its very nature exclusive…if you don’t know the language, don’t know the codes, don’t know the usage rules, then you’re locked out of the discussion… I remember one financial guy who wanted to talk to me about a retirement savings plan…and his schpiel went something like this: “When it comes to diversification of your asset classes, consider taking out some warrants on pink sheet stocks on the vix, backing them up with shorts on fang stocks for a few months before rebalancing your portfolio through dollar-cost averaging”…I have no idea what I just said… Now let’s switch to music…if you do any exploring of how the music business works, you inevitably run into words that seem important, but you don’t know what they mean…you could ask, but then it might show that you’re, err, lacking in knowledge… “Newbie!...ignoramus!...rookie!”…no one wants that, so you just keep it to yourself…no one wants to be made fun of…and if someone does deign to explain things to yo

Back in 2007, Trent Reznor did something a little different with the release of "Year Zero". He essentially created a game...a mystery...a unique marketing campaign. This was an incredibly complex campaign with clues buried all over the world.  Basically all of this was done because Trent was bored. He wanted to shake things up with his music, his concerts, his fans...and with his image.  This is the story behind Year Zero Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A band is like a plant…stay with me on this…like a plant, a band grows from seeds to maturity, bursts for with new seeds and then eventually withers and dies…it’s the cycle of life, you know?... But like plants (or animals or any other living thing), the lifespan of bands varies greatly…you could last as long as rehearsal—kinda like, what, a dandelion?…or you might find yourself on some kind of 50-year-anniversary tour—the equivalent of a bristlecone pine tree that can live as long as 5,000 years… Okay, I think we’ve tortured this metaphor long enough… Then we have bands that form, rise to a peak, hit something of a downhill slope, and break-up, only to reform again for—well, there could be any number of reasons…and this leads into completely new second act…and thus things begin again—and maybe even under better circumstances than anyone thought possible… Let’s do a case study…let’s have a specific band deconstruct their journey from formation to breakup to reunion…this is the history of Alexisonfire—in t

There are a lot of songs about Murder...but what about actual events where there are real killings involving real personalities in music?Well we've gathered a bunch. Actions are motivated by jealousy or sex or fear or revenge or anger...or someone just gets very unlucky. And in the end...someone ends up dead! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There was nothing particular special about April 8, 1994…I came to work as usual, saw the usual people, and prepared for my radio show in the usual way…I made note that the Toronto Blue Jays were playing a sold-out home game…one of the stories in the news was that American troops were upset about a smoking ban that had come into effect on some military bases…that was about it… But at about 1:45—fifteen minutes before airtime—Anita, who was working in the newsroom—popped her into the studio… “Just a heads-up,” she said, “something’s going on in Seattle…it looks like it has something to do with Kurt Cobain”… If I’m honest, most of us were prepared for some bad news…we knew that Kurt had his issues…his health problems…his heroin addiction…his crazy marriage to Courtney Love…the canceled European tour…and, of course, an apparent suicide attempt in a Rome hotel room about a month earlier… Still, all that was abstract, gossip, stories in magazines…but over the next 90 minutes, everything resolved into harsh, te

Just because you're a successful musician or are in a band doesn't mean you don't want to try something else. Maybe you want to open up your own side business in something related to music. Maybe it's in a completely different part of the economy.  Whatever the case...you want to try something different while still doing your day-job. In this podcast we look at various side business that musicians have tried over the years. Now granted this show was done a number of years ago, and some of these business may no longer exist, but what it shows is how musicians have taken on more than just touring over the years. These are musicians who moonlight.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Like we said before, from time to time we have the opportunity to get a band or a musician into a studio and have them walk us through their career. What comes out of these interviews can be  honest and pure conversations about the ups and downs, trials and tribulations, and challenges that come with being a musician trying to keep it all together in the madness and chaos of recording, touring and living. On this second episode we pick up the story with Matt from the last days of the Matthew Good Band through the start of his solo career.   This is Matt Good...in his own words. Part 2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From time to time we have the opportunity to get a band or a musician into a studio and have them walk us through their career. What comes out of these interviews can be  honest and pure conversations about the ups and downs, trials and tribulations, and challenges that come with being a musician trying to keep it all together in the madness and chaos of recording, touring and living. What you hear from Matt Good is one of the most honest and true conversations you might ever hear from a musician. This is Matt Good...in his own words. Part 1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Maybe this isn't a topic you thought about in New Rock, but it's time for us to take a look at New Rock Hair. Seriously... We've dug back into the archives and found this one from 2006 where we have a dive into the hairstyles of New Rock. Dreadlocks, Mullet's, Punk, Bowie...and of course Robert Smith among others. This is a good one! Trust us...   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Let’s make a list of all the things we did not have on January 1, 2000…ready?...iTunes, iPods, iPhones…YouTube, Facebook, Twitter…Snapchat, Spotify, smartphones… There was no Netflix (at least as we know it now)…no MySpace…no Instagram Well, what didwe have?...dial-up modems…Windows 98 (if you were lucky) or Windows 95 (if you weren’t)…Apple?...still mostly a corporate basket case…even Google was less than 18 months old… If we look at music, we were mad for compact discs…they were selling by the hundreds of millions, ensuring that the music industry was drowning in money… Vinyl?....dead, dead, dead…the only thing that was keeping that format on life support were club djs who still preferred the feel and action of records over CDs in the booth… We had MP3s and we’d begun to trade music files online, but that was still a clunky and frustrating experience for most people—unless you’d discovered this new thing called “Napster” that had been out for about six months… Now fast-forward ten years to December 31

Crime Beat” is a new investigative podcast series hosted by Crime Reporter Nancy Hixt. She's been covering cases for over the past 20 years and knows her hometown by the crime scenes she's been to. Journey deep inside some of Canada’s most high-profile criminal cases. Each bi-weekly episode will take you inside the story to give you details you didn't hear on the news.   Here’s a sneak peek from episode 2 of the series…. and while you’re listening, search and subscribe to “Crime Beat” for free at Curiouscast.ca or wherever you’re enjoying this podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices