Wake Up and Smell the Maple Syrup - What are Your Favourite Canadian Songs of All-Time?

It's Canada Day, time to get out the good bacon and think about the great music that came from Canadian musicians in the rock and roll era. Rush, BTO, Guess Who, Joni Mitchell, Tragically Hip, Billy Talent... the list goes on and on. Which of your favorite Canadian tunes belong on this list?

• Heart of Gold - Neil Young ~ watch
  
• Big Yellow Taxi - Joni Mitchell ~ watch
  
• Suzanne - Leonard Cohen ~ watch
  
• Ironic - Alanis Morissette ~ watch
  
• Summer of 69 - Bryan Adams
• Working For The Weekend - Loverboy
• Tom Sawyer - Rush
• Steal My Sunshine - Len ~ watch
  
• Takin' Care of Business - BTO
• Fifty Mission Cap - Tragically Hip
• Try - Blue Rodeo ~ watch
  
• Hot Child In The City - Nick Gilder ~ watch
  
• Raise a Little Hell - Trooper
• Spaceship Superstar - Prism ~ watch
  
• American Woman - Guess Who
• Patio Lanterns - Kim Mitchell ~ watch
  
• You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet - BTO
• Wake Up - Arcade Fire
• You Oughta Know - Alanis Morissette
• Doesn't Really Matter - Platinum Blonde
• Life Is A Highway - Tom Cochrane
• New Orleans Is Sinking - Tragically Hip
• Safety Dance - Men Without Hats ~ watch
  
• Drinking In LA - Bran Van 3000 ~ watch
  
• Sunglasses at Night - Corey Hart
• Roller - April Wine
• Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald - Gordon Lightfoot
• If I Had a Million Dollars - Barenaked Ladies
• If I Had a Rocket Launcher - Bruce Cockurn
• Intervention - Arcade Fire
• 4 AM - Our Lady Peace ~ watch
  
• Tangerine - Moist ~ watch
• Gasoline - Moist ~ watch
  
• Silver - Moist ~ watch
• Push - Moist ~ watch
  
• The Grace - Neverending White Lights
• Black Black Heart - David Usher ~ watch
  
• Save Your Scissors - City & Colour ~ watch
  
• Lightning Is My Girl - Auf Der Maur
• One More Astronaut - I Mother Earth
• Keep on Rockin' in the Free World - Neil Young ~ watch
  
• Bobcaygeon - Tragically Hip ~ watch
  
• Some Kinda Fun - Teenage Head ~ watch
  
• Tonight is a Wonderful Time to Fall in Love - April Wine
• Paradise Skies - Max Webster ~ watch
  
• YYZ - Rush
• Born to be Wild - Steppenwolf ~ watch
  
• Having an Average Weekend - Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet
• Pain for Pleasure - Sum 41 ~ watch
  
• Nova Heart - The Spoons
• Switchin' to Glide - The Kings
• Summer Girl - Stereos ~ watch
  
• Boys In The Bright White Sports Car - Trooper
• New Girl Now - Honeymoon Suite
• Never Surrender - Corey Hart
• Metal Queen - Lee Aaron ~ watch
  
• Man, I Feel Like a Woman - Shania Twain ~ watch
  
• Whatcha Gonna Do - Chilliwack
• Turn Me Loose - Loverboy ~ watch
  
• Echo Beach - Martha & the Muffins
• Working Man - Rita MacNeil
• Snowbird - Anne Murray
• Diana - Paul Anka
• Don't Forget Me (When I'm Gone) - Glass Tiger ~ watch
  
• Hey Operator - Coney Hatch ~ watch
  
• Lager & Ale - Kim Mitchell
• Hold On - Triumph ~ watch
  
• Closer to the Heart - Rush
• Here Comes the Night - Streetheart ~ watch
  
• Pop Goes The World - Men Without Hats ~ watch
  
• Last Song - Edward Bear
• Hasn't Hit Me Yet - Blue Rodeo ~ watch
  
• Load Me Up - Matthew Good
• No Sugar Tonight - Guess Who
• One Day In Your Life - 54-40
• Nothing to Lose - Billy Talent ~ watch
  
• I'm Coming Home - City & Colour ~ watch
  
• New World Man - Rush ~ watch
  
• Spirit of Radio - Rush ~ watch
  
• Hey You - BTO
  
• Make Me Do Anything You Want - A Foot in Cold Water
• Oh What a Feeling - Crowbar
• Old Emotions - Spoons ~ watch
  
• Romantic Traffic - Spoons ~ watch
  
• Underwhelmed - Sloan
• The Good is Everyone - Sloan ~ watch
  
• Run To You - Bryan Adams ~ watch
  
• Fallen Leaves - Billy Talent ~ watch
  
• Just One More Time - Headpins ~ watch
  
• Don't It Make You Feel - Headpins
• Things I Do For Money - Northern Pikes ~ watch
  
• Sunny Days - Lighthouse
  
• Blow at High Dough - Tragically Hip ~ watch
  
• Barrett's Privateers - Stan Rogers ~ watch
  
• Sudbury Saturday Night - Stompin Tom Conners
• Magic Carpet Ride - Steppenwolf watch
  
• Today I Hate Everyone - The Killjoys ~ watch
  
• Home - Chantal Kreviazuk
• Surrounded - Chantal Kreviazuk ~ watch
  
• Before You - Chantal Kreviazuk ~ watch
  
• Clumsy - Our Lady Peace ~ watch
  
• Naveed - Our Lady Peace ~ watch
  
• Superman's Dead - Our Lady Peace ~watch
  
• Angel - Sarah McLachlan
• Ice Cream - Sarah McLachlan
• Sweet Surrender - Sarah McLachlan ~ watch
  
• Angel Eyes - Jeff Healey Band ~ watch
  
• See the Light - Jeff Healey Band
• I Will Remember You - Sarah McLachlan ~ watch
  
• Broken Arrow - Robbie Robertson
• Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm - Crash Test Dummies ~ watch
• Superman - Crash Test Dummies ~ watch
  
• Somewhere Down the Crazy River - Robbie Robertson watch
  

Music Y'all Should Hear - The Rumble Strips

Named after the small bumps that line the edges of the highway, British band The Rumble Strips are about to release their second album Welcome to the Walk Alone this July. The current lineup, of Charlie Waller (guitar, vocals), Tom Gorbutt (sax, vocals, guitar), Henry Clark (trumpet, piano), Matthew Wheeler (drums) and Sam Mansbridge (bass) have been together since 2004 and are signed to Fallout Records.

In 2005 they released the single Motorcycle and toured with Dirty Pretty Things and The Young Knives. In 2006 they released their second single Hate Me (You Do) and toured supporting The Zutons. Their first EP Cardboard Coloured Dreams followed in late 2006.

In 2007 they scored two hit singles on the UK charts, Alarm Clock got to #41 and a re-release of Motorcycle reaching #46. Their debut album Girls and Weather, followed in 2007 contained the single Girls and Boys in Love, which was also featured in the Simon Pegg film Run Fatboy Run.

In late 2008 the band began working with producer, Mark Ronson on their new album Welcome to the Walk Alone.

Listen to the RumbleStrips on their MySpace page or at RumpleStrips.com

My 51 Fave Albums of the 1980s

Ahhhh... I could not get it down to 50 no matter how brutal I was with my cuts. I started out with 120 albums and wound up with 5o plus 1.

1. Purple Rain - Prince & the Revolution
2. Appetite for Destruction - Guns n' Roses
3. Master of Puppets - Metallica
4. Brothers In Ams - Dire Straits
5. Synchronicity - The Police
6. Licensed to Ill - Beastie Boys
7. Welcome to the Pleasure Dome - Frankie Goes to Hollywood
8. 1984 - Van Halen
9. War - U2
10. Let's Dance – David Bowie
11. Joshua Tree - U2
12. Sweet Dreams – Eurythmics
13. Number of the Beast - Iron Maiden
14. Thriller - Michael Jackson
15. Pretenders – Pretenders
16. Music for the Masses - Depeche Mode
17. Faith - George Michael
18. Songs From the Big Chair - Tears for Fears
19. Born In the USA - Bruce Springsteen
20. Pyromania - Def Leppard
21. Private Dancer - Tina Turner
22. The Raw and the Cooked - Fine Young Cannibals
23. 1999 - Prince
24. Back in Black - AC/DC
25. Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel
26. Remain in Light - Talking Heads
27. The Head on the Door - The Cure
28. Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret - Soft Cell
29. Dare - Human League
30. Moving Pictures - Rush
31. Nebraska - Bruce Springsteen
32. Hounds of Love - Kate Bush
33. Meat is Murder - Smiths
34. Slippery When Wet - Bon Jovi
35. Queen is Dead – Smiths
36. Lexicon of Love - ABC
37. So - Peter Gabriel
38. Hysteria - Def Leppard
39. Strangeways Here We Come - Smiths
40. Sign O the Times - Prince
41. Pump - Aerosmith
42. Nothing''s Shocking - Jane's Addiction
43. Green - REM
44. Some Great Reward - Depeche Mode
45. Rain - Cult
46. 3 Feet High & Rising - De La Soul
47. Combat Rock - The Clash
48. Kick – INXS
49. Scarey Monsters - David Bowie
50. Disintegration – The Cure

and

51. The Hurting – Tears for Fears

Kasabian takes new album to UK #1

This week Kasabian returns and takes 'West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum ' to the top of the UK album chart. Here's the latest single for 'Fire' which remains in the Top 10 this week.

Jack White brings Dead Weather to the Horseshoe Tavern

On Friday afternoon the word was 'leaked' about a secret gig at The Horseshoe Tavern by Jack White's latest musical project Dead Weather. The group includes Alison Mosshart of the Kills on lead vocals, Dean Fertita of Queens of the Stone Age on guitar, White's Raconteurs partner Jack Lawrence on bass and Jack White himself on drums (yes, drums). Tickets would go on sale at 1pm on Sat afternoon at the Horseshoe for the fans with the resolve to stand in line.

Word is that the group put on a great show, check out this review by the Globe & Mail's J.D. Considine.

Here's a short video posted by a lucky fan who survived the lineups.

Beatles Rock Band - Why I Will Finally Buy an xBox 360! (maybe)

I'm not a huge gamer, I'm pretty satisfied tooling around Gran Turismo on my Playstation 2. I've messed around on Guitar Hero, but after seeing the great trailer and onscreen play of Beatles Rock Band I think I'm in need for an upgradee to an xBox 360. The trailer is gorgeous, made by Passion Pictures, famous for their work with Gorillaz. (I knew I recognized the style)

The game will be available worldwide September 9, and will feature replicas of Paul McCartney's famous Hofner bass, John Lennon's Rickenbacker guitar, George Harrison's Getsch guitar and even Ringo's Ludwig drums. The game also features support for three microphones to accommodate your attempt at following the Beatles vocal harmonies.



more game details here

My Favorite 50 Albums of the 70s

I was 7 years old when the 70s arrived. The AM radio was a constant on car rides with our family and depending on where we were we'd be listening to country and pop hits on CKCL in Truro, or more rock and R&B tunes on CJCH in Halifax. Monthly trips to my visit relatives exposed me to the album collection of my aunt Heather who was in her late teens at the time. Albums by Beatles, Monkees were there, but also strange ones artists named Led Zeppelin, Grand Funk and Alice Cooper. I would flip through the covers excited by the cover images and try to imagine what the songs sounded like.

Rock radio did not exist in Nova Scotia during this time, so magazines were the important platform for selling rock music to kids like me. Rolling Stone, Crawdaddy, Cream, Rock Scene and my favorite Circus featured colorful photos and articles of groups like Deep Purple, Yes, Uriah Heep, Jethro Tull and Led Zeppelin.

When I started getting into rock music, i was attracted by the shiny, the simple, the gimmicks... so of course I was wanting T-Rex, David Bowie and Alice Cooper. Luckily these groups also featured great songs and led to discovering other groups through the years. One thing you'll notice about my list of albums is that it doesn't include any R&B/Soul artists. I was also an avid buyer of 45s and that group of records was filled with rich 70s R&B artists like Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Temptations, etc.

Every decade is unique, but once I started looking at my list I realized two things had happened during the decade. Both music and me had grown.

The following is a list of my favorite albums of the 70s - I've debated myself on what to include, what to leave out, what warranted rating one album over another. I decided to imagine which I played the most, which I remember and which contained some of my favorite hits and album tracks of that time. :D

1. A Night at the Opera – Queen (1975)
2. Led Zeppelin IV – Led Zeppelin (1971)
3. Van Halen – Van Halen (1978)
4. Ziggy Stardust – David Bowie (1972)
5. Billion Dollar Babies – Alice Cooper (1973)
6. Hotel California – Eagles (1976)
7. Bat Out of Hell – Meatloaf (1977)
8. The Wall – Pink Floyd (1979)
9. Alive – Kiss (1975)
10. The Cars – The Cars (1978)
11. Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols – Sex Pistols (1977)
12. Killer – Alice Cooper (1971)
13. Dark Side of the Moon – Pink Floyd (1973)
14. The Stranger – Billy Joel (1977)
15. Live at Budokan – Cheap Trick (1978)
16. Destroyer – Kiss (1976)
17. My Aim Is True- Elvis Costello (1977)
18. Damn the Torpedoes – Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers (1979)
19. Rocks – Aerosmith (1976)
20. Ramones – Ramones (1976)
21. Some Girls – Rolling Stones (1978)
22. Rumours – Fleetwood Mac (1977)
23. Born to Run – Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band (1975)
24. This Year’s Model – Elvis Costello
25. London Calling – The Clash (1979)
26. Parallel Lines – Blondie (1978)
27. The Clash – The Clash (1977)
28. Boston – Boston (1976)
29. A New World Record – Electric Light Orchestra (1976)
30. Crime of the Century – Supertramp (1974)
31. More Songs about Buildings and Food – Talking Heads (1978)
32. B-52s – B-52s (1979)
33. Darkness on the Edge of Town – Bruce Springsteen (1978)
34. Breakfast In America – Supertramp (1979)
35. Outlando’s D’Amour – The Police (1978)
36. Pronounced Leh’-nerd Skin-‘erd – Lynyrd Skynrd (1973)
37. Dreamboat Annie – Heart (1976)
38. Wish You Were Here – Pink Floyd (1975)
39. Frampton Comes Alive – Peter Frampton (1976)
40. Fleetwood Mac – Fleetwood Mac (1975)
41. Physical Graffitti – Led Zeppelin (1975)
42. Aqualung – Jethro Tull (1971)
43. Heaven Tonight – Cheap Trick (1977)
44. Desolation Boulevard – The Sweet (1974)
45. Highway to Hell – AC/DC (1979)
46. 2112 – Rush (1976)
47. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway – Genesis (1974)
48. Animals – Pink Floyd (1977)
49. Harvest – Neil Young (1972)
50. Who’s Next – The Who (1971)