It's the simple things like the robots Stevie G draws...

Hello Friends,

It's only Tuesday and there's already so much going on in Toronto. I personally had a late Monday so missed out on 2 big shows tonight including Billy Talent at The Horseshoe and The National at Massey Hall. Although seeing Billy Talent at The Shoe would have been amazing - it was well worth a rough start to a Tuesday morning for a late night seeing British rockers Athlete at Lee's Palace.

It's always strange to meet a band face-to-face as you really don't know what to say to them other than stating the obvious "I love your tunes". Thankfully most musicians really just want to chat about music...and these guys did just that. It was a pleasure to have now met them.

Athlete's now released 4 full length albums - each with its own collection of gems. I can't honestly remember how I heard about them - but it was likely via the hit single 'Wires' from the sophomore album Tourist back in 2004. I soon came to learn of the debut release Vehicles & Animals which housed many melodic greats as well. I've always been partial to the title track from that album and had totally pictured the lyrics to be about Liverpool FC midfielder Steven Gerrard. It turns out that Stevie G. is a mate of the band and and has nothing to do with Anfield's hero. Oh well - I guess that's the beauty of all music - it's open to interpretation.

The band and their crew were super friendly and an all round great night was had by all pre, post and during their tour stop in Toronto. Thanks lads.

Here's a quick beginner's guide to those of you who may not be familiar with Athlete body of work.

• Superhuman Touch
• Tokyo
• Wires
• Vehicles & Animals
• You Got The Style

In some sad news, Stuart Cable, the former drummer to Stereophonics passed away yesterday. I had the pleasure of meeting Stuart at one of their gigs at Toronto's Kool Haus back in 2003. He was a genuinely nice fella from what I recall. He provided a pulse to the early Phonics tunes and gave us some great music along the way, you will be missed.

Here's a few tunes to celebrate Stuart...

• Mr. Writer *Haunting track
• Pick a Part that's New
• I Wouldn't Believe Your Radio

Thanks for reading/listening,

Gregg Stewart

Couple of Top Tunes for a Friday

Hello Friends,

It's still happening. It's a great time in music right across the board from albums, singles, tours and classics. Maybe it's the weather? Whatever it is there's something great happening in music right now to make everyone smile.

This post is a quick one just to give you a few suggestions to get you through the day and ready for the weekend.

Here are a few killer new tracks and a couple of classics for you.

• Stornoway - 'Zorbing'
• INXS - 'Beautiful Girl'
• Muse - 'Undisclosed Desires'
• Broken Bells - 'Ghost Inside'
• Ladies of the Canyon - 'Haunted Woman'
• Florence and the Machine - 'Dog Days are Over'
• Oasis - 'Whatever' *being released as a single in North America for the first time :)
• Bruce Springsteen - 'Dancing in the Dark'

Have a great weekend!

Thanks for reading/listening,


Gregg

The Smiths

Hello Friends,

I've spent loads of time recently flipping through records in shops all around Toronto. It's become part of my routine and I've never been happier. Last week I found something I'd been looking for since god knows when - 'Definetly Maybe' on vinyl. A great find indeed - but whilst searching for this I have managed to rejog my memory and my love of some classic albums. The Smiths, The Stone Roses, Rod Stewart, The Jam, The Verve, Led Zeppelin, REM, U2, and Radiohead to name a few. The Smiths is the band I've had on repeat through.

The beginning guitar riffs on 'How Soon is Now' is one of Johnny Marr's finest works and still gives me chills today. This band formed and 1982 only ever releasing 4 studio albums before parting ways in 1987. A shame for sure - but the 4 recordings left behind are timeless masterpieces unlike anything to come before or after.

Each member of the band still continues to be involoved in music today and have had some great success as individuals on many levels.

Morrissey has released 9 solo albums, Marr has formed his own group and been involoved with many big names and projects from Modest Mouse to supergroup Electronic. Andy Rourke has recorded with The Pretenders and Badly Drawn Boy while Mike Joyce did some work with the likes of Sinead O'Connor and even Public Image Limited. Not a bad group of resumes that spans the past 30 or so years of British pop music history.

What made The Smiths so special was the leathal combination of lyrical genius and melodic beauty. Morrissey might very well be the most romantic singer-songwriter in the past 50 years. He's got the most sensitive words yet somehow even the hardest, toughest soccer hooligans still love him. Johnny Marr inspired generations of British kids to pick-up the guitar and emulate his ways in music and style. They may have only had 4 albums together - but the 4 recordings helped shape the future for that rainy little island they call the UK.

It's fun, singable, memorable music that will live on forever. Here's a quick top 5 Smiths tracks I'd like to recommend that you check out or try again for the first time.

• How Soon is Now
• Ask
• Panic
• There's a Light that Never Goes Out
• This Charming Man
• *Radiohead pay their respects to The Smiths
• *Noel pays homage to The Smiths
• *Mark Ronson and Daniel Merriweather do too

"If there's something you'd like to try. If there's something you'd like to try. Ask me I won't say no, How could I."

Thanks for reading/listening.

Gregg

This is the sound of my soul, this is the sound...

Hello Friends,

Above are some classic lyrics from a song recorded almost 30 years ago. 27 to be exact. It's the 80's hit 'True' by Spandau Ballet . A powerful track indeed and stands-up to anything today. I hadn't heard this song in ages until watching the final season to the British series Skins. One of the characters plays it for a girl on a ukulele and it's a beauty scene. I also really liked P.M. Dawn's sampling of it on the 1991 R&B hit 'Set A Drift on Memory Bliss' . I digress...

Skins is simply the most amazingly accurate look at a teens life growing up in the UK. It's not all that different from teens growing up anywhere in the world actually. I personally fell in love with this show about a year and a half ago and watched it religiously for a few weeks to get through the first 2 seasons. The main thing for me was the music that was selected throughout.

It's unlike anything you would expect making it all stand-out ten folds. In the first episode they actually used some Lisa Stansfield . The 3rd episode had Gwen McCrae's 'Ninety Percent of Me is You' which blew my mind as this is such a killer track. The 4th episode used Gossip's 'Standing in the Way of Control' as seen here in the amazing trailer for the series.

Here's a quick look at some of the music that was used throughout the 4 seasons.

• Starship - 'We Built This City' season 1 episode 9
• Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - 'Spread Your Life' season 2 episode 2
• Sigur Ros - 'Untitled' season 2 episode 3
• Ben Harper - 'Steal My Kisses' season 2 episode 5
• Depeche Mode - 'I Feel You' season 2 episode 6
• Althea and Donna - 'Uptown Ranking' season 2 episode 8
• Adele - 'Hometown Glory' season 2 episode 9
• MGMT - 'Time to Pretend' season 2 episode 10
• Dr. Dre - 'Next Episode' season 3 episode 4
• The Clash - 'Bankrobber' season 3 episode 5
• The Velevet Underground - 'Sweet Jane' and Bon Iver's - 'Flume' season 3 episode 7
• Glasvegas - 'It's My Own Heart That Makes Me Cry' season 3 episode 9
• Mumford and Sons - 'The Cave' season 4 episode 1
• Temper Trap - 'Sweet Disposition' season 4 episode 2
• The Drums - 'Lets Go Surfing' season 4 episode 3
• Band of Skulls - 'Honest' season 4 episode 5
• Phil Collins - 'Easy Lover' season 4 episode 7 *why do all psychos listen to Phil?
• Kylie Minogue - 'Can't Get You Out of My Head' season 4 final episode *killer scene:)

I urge you to check out this series if you have a chance. Skins production and music teams have raised the bar as to how music can and should be used in television and film. Many bands have this series to thanks for their success and I am certain that many more will break onto the scene because of it.

Thanks for reading/listening.


Gregg

Why Radio Is Still Important To Me

Hello Friends,

In recent weeks I have rediscovered CBC Radio 2. It's been a while since I tuned in regularly but my god am I happy to be back. I forgot how great it can be and how many great tunes they play that I likely own - but never get to hear anymore. Radio is the best medium to be reminded of old gems and do it without the added pressure of finding the best track for that moment in your iTunes library.

I listen to lots of BBC Radio 1 and 2 and enjoy learning about artists and hearing the latest and greatest tracks at the same time. They are the master of this. Their DJs make it so exciting and tell you the stories you want to hear about rock stars and speak to the bands on a level in which they feel comfortable. This makes for the best interviews going and keeps my attention.

The same can be said for my 2 current favs on CBC - Bob Mackowycz and Rich Terfry (Buck 65) - they are truly wonderful and relevant spokesman for music. They too make things exciting.

The single best reason to give radio another chance is that these are experts tell you what they like. These people decided to make a life's love into a career and so they live and breathe music. Then they get on the airwaves and share this knowledge with you.

I'll keep this short - but here's a quick list of tunes I recently heard on CBC radio that has got me excited again.

• Neil Young - 'Lotta Love'
• The Fratellis - 'Whistle for the Choir'
• The Barenaked Ladies - 'Brian Wilson'
• Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - 'Love is a Long Road' *Fantastic Catalogue
• The Beatles - 'Run for your Life Little Girl'

Keep the music coming.

Thanks for reading/listening.

Gregg

It Got Loud

Hey Friends,

I am embarrassed that it took me this long to watch the critically acclaimed music documentary 'It Might Get Loud'. This is the doc about Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White as seen here.

I was searching HBO's recent selection of on demand movies and was ecstatic to see this one listed. I owe you again HBO my old friend.

It's exactly what you would think it is and then some. The film maker takes a look at all 3 of these guitar gods lives and brings you on a journey as they detail how and when they picked up an axe for the first time. It gives you insight as to their influences and sounds that moved them. Pretty amazing to learn how young Jimmy Page was when he started - and that U2 had no idea how to play their instruments when they started.

I was never a big White Stripes fan before this - although they did release some epic videos and I understand how talented Jack is. The only song I loved by this band was Hotel Yorba - but I will go back and give his work another try after watching this.

The biggest benefit to having watched this was that I instantly needed a Zeppelin fix. I went to the collection (I have at least 2500 CDs and 13,925 tracks in my iTunes library) only to find I only had 'How The West Was Won' 3 CD set. That alone scared me - but I guess I had their tunes on cassette - so it make sense. In all fairness I had not really listened to much Zep in recent years. I got my fill in the 90s and kinda put them on the back burner. I promise to never do this again. I went to Vortex Records the next morning and bought 'Mothership' :)

Everyone needs to go through a Led Zeppelin phase in their lives. Drugs or not - Led Zeppelin is for everyone. The band were epic and untouchable in what they did and what they did was fuckin rock.

Here's a quick hit list of must hear Zeppelin from me...

• Tangerine
• Going to California *should be mandatory that any music festival have this over loud speakers
• Ramble On
• In My Time of Dying
• The Ocean
• Stairway to Heaven *such an important song for the history books. also great for a slow-jams tape.

Here's a couple of suggestions for you to check out from the other 2 gents...

The Edge - unmistakable riffs and sound. You can tell it's him with one note

• Unforgettable Fire *My all time fav U2 track
• Electrical Storm
• Please

As I said - I was never a big fan - but they sounded like the future of punk the first time I heard 'Fell in Love with a Girl'. Talent oozes from this guy. (Meg's his sister BTW)

• Fell in Love with a Girl *incredible video
• Hotel Yorba *I love this track

I would love to thank Wes' uncle Big C. for introducing myself and friends to Led Zeppelin at such an early age. That was a true TSN turning point to my love of music.

Thanks for reading and listening.

Gregg

Best Video, Best Song, Best Album, Best Band Ever?

Hello Friends,

With a mere 4 albums under their belts they decided to call it a day. Drugs, band squabbles, or creative differences - whatever the case may be - The Verve created some amazing music since they formed in 1990.

I was backpacking around Europe in 1997 when the album 'Urban Hymns' was released. Radiohead also released 'Ok Computer' that same year...so being in and around the UK at that time was electric indeed. It was a time when you relied on radio, word of mouth and HMV charts in the store to determine what was hot. They were all on these 2 albums - it's all you heard throughout Europe. Seems like a lifetime ago really.

The thing that doesn't seem like a lifetime ago is the music that was on these 2 albums. While Radiohead's 'Ok Computer' is definitely one of my favourite albums of all time The Verve's 'Urban Hymns' is in fact the #1 album of all time on my albums list. I don't care how many times I've heard 'Bittersweet Symphony' - it always sounds brand new. The video for this song is also my favourite video of all time. It is the most perfect mix of pop, rock and classical music out there (IMHO).

Because this album was released in a time before MP3s - it really gave you the chance, want and need to listen to a full album. I know that sounds like an old dinosaur thing to say - but you youngster need to listen and appreciate full albums. The artists you love don't create one amazing song and then record 10 more tracks to make up the rest of an album. They spend months, years and sometimes longer to ensure that the album sequencing is perfect. They want you to hear the album the way they designed it. I digress - but please do yourself a favour and listen to 'Urban Hymns' from start to finish.

This album opens with 'Bittersweet Symphony' and closes with 'Come on'.

It's a shame that the band's come back was brief a few year's back- but the album entitled 'Forth' (Forth album they released) was not without its own hits. You've likely heard 'Love is Noise' but check out 'Appalachian Springs'.

Anyway - here's links to each individual track. All you have to do now is click and listen...

1. Bittersweet Symphony
2. Sonnet
3. The Rolling People
4. The Drugs Don't Work
5. Catching the Butterfly
6. Neon Wilderness
7. Space and Time
8. Weeping Willow
9. Lucky Man
10. One Day
11. This Time
12. Velvet Morning
13. Come On

So on my checklist these guys have garnered 3 out of 4 best evers. Sorry lads - Oasis is the best band ever...you can't have that one.

Thanks for reading.

Gregg