The Weekend Roundup
A&R Online, Volume 4
As always, you can hear these tracks as you read about them by going to radiothatdoesntsuck and click on ‘A & R Online Vol 4′. This edition of A&R Online is a little different because I couldn’t announce the titles of the tunes due to my main computer being a dick. So, to make up for that, there are some little treats between tracks. Just my way of paying tribute to a legend that we lost this week.
Loverboy-I’m Alive
Wow. I didn’t know what to expect when I heard they were doing a new album, but this track confirms that they are still a rockin’, vital, band.
Everything is here. Great vocals, energetic and locked-in groove and performance, and so many hooks, you’d think they were going fishing. If Classic Rock stations don’t want to acknowledge new recordings by classic artists, maybe some forward thinking AAA’s and Mom and Pop’s will play this track for the Loverboy fans that still exist in droves. Even though the band is as recognizable as they always have been, this is just as fresh as anything out there. A winner.
- Rev Theory-Favorite Disease
As the rock music of the day continues to evolve, and embraces more of the elements that made it popular in the first place, tracks like this one are proving the old girl ain’t done yet. You can hear influences in here from the ‘70’s and ‘80’s, but the sound and delivery are pure now. Another band I want to see live…
- Krome-TurnItUp
This song mentions radio and cell phones and rocks it’s ass off while doing so. Dude, I totally LOVE this track. The hot mix, throwback guitar solo, and anthem like vocals make this puppy a lock. Like the band says, turn it up!
- Melanie Fiona-Give It To Me Right
Fans of the Zombies might get a little pissed when they first hear this, but I, for one, really like what Fiona and company have done here. Like M.C Hammer’s reinvention of Rick James’ ‘Super Freak’, this record takes the memorable track from a ‘60’s classic and plops a new melody and atmosphere on it that somehow works. It took a few listens, but now, I can’t get it out of my head. A ‘mashup’ that tips its hat to one of the hippest records ever recorded and brings a new sensibility to it that doesn’t sound forced or lame. Purists may blanche, but I suggest you give this track a chance. Call it new nostalgia if you must.
- Wyatt-Next To You
The lines between country and rock continue to blur, and this track really shows how well the two genres fit together. Imagine, if you will, Buffalo Springfield staying together and morphing into something akin to the Eagles, only with a little edgier sound. The duet lead vocal on this song harkens back to Springfield without sounding lifted or false. Once again, a band I look forward to seeing live.
- Emerson Drive-Believe
Another blend of country and rock, with a little sprinkle of electronically altered vocal hooks that probably wouldn’t look workable on paper, but sounds just great when you hear it. An infectious feel, and some classic chording make this danceable, hummable, and certainly a contender.
- Mystery Bonus Track
I’m not sure this track even got put in here, but if it wasn’t I’ll post it on Monday. It pays homage to a dear departed friend that influenced and entertained millions of people, and is directly connected to the little surprises between each of this edition’s songs. If it is there, it’ll be right at the end. This just in: It’s there.
Fails Of The Week
Ye Gads!
I’d like to give the same advice to Greg Gutfeld and Doug Benson I gave to Dane Cook: Comedy has to do with being funny. F-u-n-n-y. Look it up.
I appreciate the fact that you are all wildly successful in your chosen profession, but popularity sometimes has little to do with skill. May I name check Paris Hilton and Ronald Reagan as examples.
Some of us are not freshman in University, or slackers in a community college. To some of us, ‘Bong’ is what the clock does when it’s 1:00 o’clock. Some of us read magazines other than Maxim, and have actually seen scantily clad women in person that have more to say than the little sound bites under those pictures in the porn-lite magazines you read. Being in Canada, we don’t get VH-1 or pay much attention to Fox News, so most of us don’t know who you are. Benson, a reject from Last Comic Standing, comedy’s American Idol, and Gutfeld, an ex editor of the aforementioned magazine and mainstay of VH-1, the station stoner college students use as wall paper while they wait for the pizza guy to get to their dorm, have both made careers out of the time tested formula of manic, googly-eyed Dane Cook-ish smugness, and fall under the same category as a type of very popular saw.
Fox News, in its on-going quest to piss EVERYBODY off, allows Gutfeld to do a television show best described as The Daily Show for guys like Benson, who was allowed to guest on a show that he and Gutfled riffed on something they know so much about: Canada’s armed forces and our involvement in Afghanistan.
Like a verbal version of Jackass, this was worse than watching a guy staple his nuts to an ironing board in the name of funny, and twice as painful.
Make fun of our Military, our men and women fighting overseas for a just reason, and belittle the pain and loss suffered by the families and friends of our fallen soldiers again, and we’ll come down there and kick your fucking ass. Not only are Canadians putting their lives on the line for your safety, our comedians are something you are not.
Funny
Win of the week
Rick Bronson, owner of The Comic Strip in Edmonton.
Why?
In an effort to keep Doug Benson from having a series of ‘accidents’ while in Edmonton, home of one of Canada’s largest Military bases, Mr. Bronson has kindly cancelled a scheduled appearance by ‘comedian’ Doug Benson.
Thank you, Mr. Bronson…thank you.
Cheap Shots
CTV
Replacing Breakfast Television on CP24, and pulling the plug on Legendary radio station 1050 CHUM on the same day in order to broadcast carry CP24’s audio without so much as a thank you or a tribute of any kind.
Shame on you…
Soft Drinks
Will Coke and Pepsi EVER replace aspartame with Splenda in their diet products? Please.
March Madness
No disrespect for basketball fans intended, but my television viewing has been disrupted yet again by sports. For the money I spend every month, you would think I’d get the shows I pay to see instead of sports I have no interest in at all. Am I alone in this? Shouldn’t sports fans pay to see this stuff? Or give it a channel? Or anything…
Remember this week’s question: Name your favorite Radio station from your youth and why. Whether it was coming out of a transistor radio under the covers at night, your dad’s console radio when the folks were out to dinner, or in the car when it was the only way your parents could shut you up. The station with the hits, the Boss Jocks, the laid back fm pioneers, or the provider of the music that changed your life. What was that station, and why did you love it? Deadline is tonight, (Friday), at 11:59 pm.
Just email your thoughts to segarini@fyimusic.ca We will post your responses next Monday.
That’s enough for now. Email me at segarini@fyimusic.ca with your comments, complaints, and thoughts…and remember…don’t believe a word I say.
Bob “The Iceman†Segarini was in the bands The Family Tree, Roxy, The Wackers, The Dudes, and The Segarini Band and nominated for a Juno for production in 1978. He also hosted “Late Great Movies†on CITY TV, was a producer of Much Music, and an on-air personality on CHUM FM, Q107, SIRIUS Sat/Rad’s Iceberg 95, (now 85), and now provides content for radiothatdoesntsuck.com with RadioZombie, The Iceage, and PsychShack. Along with the love of his life, Jade (Pie) Dunlop, (who hosts and writes “I’ve Heard That Song Before†on RTDS), continues to write, make music, and record.
