Keeping up to date with the news cycles is exhausting…so much comes at us from so many different directions that it’s impossible to know if we’re in the middle of something important or not…everything seems urgent, threatening, and life-changing…there’s precious little time for careful consideration, study, and analysis.

Keeping up with technology and its effect on society is another big challenge…one moment everyone seems caught up with a particular gadget or app—but a month or even a week later, that’s old news and everyone has moved on.

Remember how the world was supposed to end when the planet’s computers melted down over the Y2K bug?...wasn’t the world supposed to end with the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012?...weren’t we supposed to have run out of oil by now?

When you mix technology with the news cycle, our ever-shortening attention spans,  how the world is interconnected 24/7, and how we’re able to individualize everything that we take in, it’s easy to lose track of what the hell is happening…one of my favourite doomsday predictions had to do with the large hadron collider along the French-Swiss border…before it was switched on, people were saying that scientists risked creating an artificial black hole that would suck everyone into oblivion.

And don’t get me started on conspiracy theories…chemtrails…flat earthers…9/11 was an inside job…the U.S. government using a facility in Alaska to control the world’s weather.

This is why it’s important every once in a while, we stop and take stock of things…big picture stuff matters…long-term consequences matter…the knock-on effects of something that was once considered inconsequential and unnoticed matter.

It’s difficult enough to remember what exactly happened...it’s even more difficult to determine what really mattered over the long term...even so, what were merely transient distractions may have turned out to be groundbreaking in the long run…was that thing a fad or was it predictive of something bigger in the future?

And then there’s music…so much has changed in a very short period of time…and now that we’re a quarter of the way through the 21st century, enough time has passed so that we can look back with some clarity.

Welcome to a special “ongoing history of new music” series…these are the 100 most important moments in rock in the 21st century—so far—part one.

Songs in this episode:

The Police - Driven to Tears

Manskin - I Wanna Be Your Slave

Linkin Park - In The End

U2 - Vertigo (live at The Sphere)

Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill (live at Apollo Hammersmith 2014)

Blink 182 - Bored to Death

Silverchair - Tomorrow

Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc.

Pearl Jam - Animal (live in Montreal circa 2000)

Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor (Demo from MySpace)

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A couple of years ago, it became obvious that we were entering an era where music fans were increasingly going to be sad…that’s because our musical heroes are shuffling off this mortal coil.

It really hit hard in 2016—that was a bad year with the deaths of David Bowie and Prince—that really brought home the unfortunate reality that we will continue to lose people who have been making music for us for years, maybe decades.

We didn’t necessarily know any of these people personally…but it was through their music that learned something about ourselves…so when they die, a little bit of us might go with them.

I think it’s important that we remember those musicians who have passed on…that’s why we have this annual look at who died…we need to honour the work of these musicians and music people…and with so many of them going, we at the very least need to remember that they did indeed pass away.

This is the 2024 “In Memoriam” show…grab yourself a box of tissues.

Songs in this episode:

Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill

The MC5 - Kick Out The Jams

Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper - Elvis is Everywhere

World Party - Ship of Fools

The Raspberries - Go All The Way

Nirvana - Heart-Shaped Box

The Selector - On My Radio

Crazy Town - Butterfly

Greg Kihn Band - The Break-Up Song

My Chemical Romance - Welcome to the Black Parade

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One of the byproducts of doing a show like this for as long as I’ve been doing it is that it’s really hard to shut off your brain.

I’m always thinking about topic ideas, ways to connect facts and trivia, reading a lot of books, talking to a lot of people, and otherwise trying to come up with a constant stream of topics we can discuss.

The result of all this research and thinking and writing are some ideas and perspectives on music, music history, how music is made, how it’s consumed and distributed, and how seemingly small things have led to big changes…that’s one thing.

Another is the opinions formed by observing the opinions of others…why do people like some things and hate others?... another is a list of ideas that aren’t quite fully formed…it seems like I’ve almost grasped a concept. Still, it doesn’t feel right yet—but I feel there’s a germ of truth somewhere.

I’ve also learned that when you’re unsure about something, source the crowd…you might like the answers, but it’s better than living in your own head.

So, let me bounce a few of these things off you, and you can tell me if I’m onto something, if I’m off base, or if I’ve completely lost the plot…

I call this episode “theories, thoughts, and half-baked ideas”.

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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder—or in the case of music, the ear…what’s pleasant to one person is nothing but noise to someone else…

This is where it’s good to have some patience…there are some forms of art whose beauty isn’t obvious at first…you need to stick with it…and after you’ve given it a chance and decided that it’s not for you, fine…

But what about those times when something happens—suddenly or slowly and either on your own or with the prompting of someone else—and you realize that the weird music you’re listening to is actually pretty good?...

This is the payoff…yeah, you really had to work for it—but it was worth it…with me so far?..

“Beauty” doesn’t mean “perfect”—at least in the technical sense…sometimes imperfection makes something more beautiful…or at least more interesting…

This brings me to the topic of singing voices…this is a very subjective area…how many times have you said, “Listen to that guy!... I can’t stand his voice!...how did he ever get a record deal?... I mean, listen to him!”

But then others hear the same thing and go, “wow…that’s really different…really expressive…it’s full of character and emotion…what a bold move giving this dude a chance to real millions of people… I love this guy!”…

These are the kind of singers we’re about to review: guys with some of the most unusual voices in the history of alt-rock.

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For a very long time—too long—women were locked in very defined roles when it came to rock’n’roll…girls were expected to look pretty and do little more than sing…okay, maybe shake a tambourine or something…but that was about it…

And when it came to singing, “Just stick with conventional stuff, dear…don’t get any crazy ideas in your head…this is a woman’s role in rock, and you should stick to it…that’s a nice little lady”…

But then along came punk rock in the 1970s…punk did many things for rock—including knocking down a lot of heretofore inviolable gender roles…the central tenet of punk was that anyone should have the right to say anything in any matter they want regardless of who they are…that included women and their right to self-expression…

The result was fantastic. Freed from all the old expectations, women were free to reinvent themselves as musicians in a million different ways leading to a wonderful array of female performers…

Some of my favourites are the ones who decided to spit in the face of virtually every rock’n’roll convention—women who (before punk came along and liberated everyone from the tyranny of “the way things ought to be”) developed styles that were different and unique and utterly unlike anything the world had ever heard before…

Yes, some of them were an acquired taste and took a little getting used to…but once people figured out what they were trying to do and what they were all about, it was inevitable that they would become addicted, enchanted, and inspired…

 We’re going to look at ten of these women…I call them “The Queens of Quirk”

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All right…I hope you’re ready because a lot of information—some of it important, some of it useless—is about to come your way in a rapid-fire way.

Again, this is material collected over the last 12 months while I was looking for “ongoing history” ideas…some of this info doesn’t fit with the mandate of the program…some of it is orphaned from programs that never quite took shape…and some of these items were just too weird to gloss over, so I made a note…what you do with what you’re about to hear is up to you.

Let us begin with 60 mind-blowing facts about music...the 2024 edition.

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The way I see it, there are three types of bands that stretch across a spectrum…first, there’s the extreme sort, a group that will do almost anything to attract attention…you’re probably thinking of some names right now.

Next to them are the traditional sort, and they comprise the vast majority of bands out there…these are groups that go out there, do their thing earnestly and honestly, and hope that this will be enough for music lovers…they occupy a huge part of this spectrum.

And then we have the third type: the quirky, eccentric, and weird…these groups come in all sorts of flavours, from mildly bent to the gloriously stupid and the confoundingly weird…these bands go a long way into making music fun and unpredictable.

Not all land with audiences—they’re too strange, not enough people get the joke, or maybe they’re just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

But there can be a balance between being quirky and fun and having songs that have widespread appeal…they have just enough of the nerd factor to set themselves apart while not being so nerdy that they’ll turn too many people off.

This is really hard to do…it takes songwriting skills, careful management of your image, and plenty of creativity and imagination, especially if you want to main things over more than just a couple of albums and touring cycles.

Among the very, very, very best of this class of band is Weezer…they’ve perfected a formula that includes musical talent, wit, self-deprecation, left-of-centre thinking, a desire to have fun, a willingness to experiment, some clever marketing, and above all, to let their fans in on everything…it’s an approach that has worked very, very well for decades.

This is part two of “Rivers Cuomo and Weezer: alt-rock’s nerd heroes”.

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If Rivers Cuomo of Weezer were to walk past you on the street, you probably wouldn’t notice him…if you did, you might think that this stranger kinda looked like Louis Tully, the nebbish accountant played by Rick Moranis in a couple of “Ghostbusters” movie.

Chances are he’d be wearing skinny jeans, a t-shirt, a hoody, maybe a baseball cap, indistinguishable from a hundred other short, slight, guys with glasses that you encountered that day…and that’s just the way he likes it.

But Rivers Cuomo is an unlikely sort of rock star and is extremely committed to being a rock star—or at least doing the things that he hopes will keep him at that level.

He’s highly educated, deeply introspective, very private, and always looking to learn something new, be studying the mysteries of writing the perfect song to computer programming to intense forms of meditation to careful study of the music industry… and one day, he wants to make a weezer movie—not a tour film, but some kind of actual movie.

Weezer has been together for more than 30 years…there have been no break-ups and reunions…there haven’t even been any official hiatuses.

But Rivers has also taken up pickleball with a vengeance…he’s a very good chess player, too…he’s fascinated with Japanese culture.

What else?...PETA once voted him “the sexiest celebrity vegetarian,” although he confesses to hating carrots…he doesn’t have a middle name because his parents wanted him to choose one when he got old enough—but he never got around to it.

Fox filmed a pilot for a tv show based on the years rivers went to harvard…and he once had a pet squirrel named “Mr. Peanutbutter.

That’s just a start…think we can fill up an entire program with fascinating facts about Rivers Cuomo and Weezer …I bet we can.

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We’re about to get all dreamy and floaty and all blissed out by taking a look at another specific genre…a post-punk genre called “dream pop”…it’s a thing unto itself but it’s also related to other genres where atmosphere, sonic textures, and (in some cases) sheer volume reign supreme…and from its origins in the early 80s, dream pop has had a profound effect on music that is felt even today.

It touches on and overlaps with other alt-rock subgenres including shoegaze and anything resembling modern psychedelic material…it has a volume continuum that ranges from barely-there softness to somewhere beyond a jet engine…but at the same time, it never loses touch with melody.

So, complicated stuff—and i haven’t even mentioned vocal styles, guitar effects, production methods, and all the other goodness that goes into making something dreamy—or in extreme cases, nightmarish.

Here…let me show you.

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This is an episode all about bust-ups and break-ups, those times when tensions within a band get so high that things get weird and violent and—well, let’s just say “regrettable”.

Some of these incidents resulted in nothing more than an airing of the grievances…steam was let off, people calmed down, and it was back to business as usual…other times, though, the damage of was irreparable and it marked the end of the group forever—or at least something close to it…

You want stories?... You want drama?... You want weird…stand by…i got the stories ---and they are not pretty.

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We’ve all sat listening to music and though to ourselves “what does this song mean?...what’s the singer (or the band) trying to say?”.

Sometimes it’s nothing…it’s just a bunch of words strung together in a way that sounds fun…other times, lyrics to a song may be just some kind of stream of consciousness thing that somehow made sense to the singer or the lyricist at the time…or maybe it didn’t…lots of songs are written in altered states.

A song could be an oblique and opaque form of poetry that’s supposed to resolve itself in the brains of each individual listener…there have been many times when I’ve asked a singer “what does this song mean?”… and their answer is “well, what does it mean to you?...whatever you say is the right answer”.

Okay, i get it…it’s art…art is supposed to be open to personal interpretation…when you hear something beautiful or provocative or inspiring, who cares what the initial intent was—if there even was one…all that matters is that the song somehow hits you on some kind of emotional level that’s difficult or impossible to quantify or describe.

Then again, some songs have a very specific point…they tell a story…or they’re inspired by something that happened in real life and the composer is trying to capture what he or she felt and saw.

And then there are the stories of the creation of the songs themselves…something happened for that song to be born…what was it?...and what were the circumstances, the serendipity, the accidents, the crazy coincidences that needed to manifest for a great song to come to life?.

Let’s explore that…this is another episode of stories behind songs.

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