Aside

rock and roll will never kill

This week, after dusting off my Slayer albums, I revisited my old friend Dave Mustaine and His Megadeth.

The urge to kill did not rise.

Not noteworthy, you say? Correct. Yet, I feel it’s worthy of mention, because certain sentiments expressed in song by the man not generally referred to as the Pete Best of Metallica, could easily have become the topic of much discussion in recent months. Evidence, after all, might suggest that in the minds of certain Megadeth listeners, suppressing the urge to kill is a challenge. Just this month, a troubled young man from Moncton pleaded guilty to a brutal and calculated killing spree, launched moments after he had posted Megadeth lyrics to his Facebook page. It was, incredibly, the third instance in Canada of a young man embarking on a violent rampage shortly after quoting from the Book of Megadeth.

It’s the sort of tangential detail the press have been known to embrace.

Instead, passages from Mustaine’s poetic verse have been noted merely as a detail on the periphery of a handful of horrible, senseless events. Noteworthy, all but a few reporters concluded, it is not. Continue reading →

Leave a comment

August 21, 2014 · 3:53 pm
August 8, 2014 · 5:40 pm

give the drummer some

It’s been a difficult few weeks for drummers. Last month, we lost Tommy Ramone. This week, Ahmad Jamal’s go-to percussionist Idris Muhammad left us. And Woody Woodson, the man behind the kit for The Isley Brothers’ funky It’s Your Thing, says he can’t play until he gets a new leg. (Great drummer, Woody, but he’d never have made it in Def Leppard.)

Meanwhile, there was good and bad news for Slipknot’s new drummer. The good news: a new Slipknot song, the band’s first since parting ways with longtime timekeeper Joey Jordison, was unveiled. The bad news: the new drummer was not. According to Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor the band prefers to keep the identity of its newest member under wraps. “We want the music to speak for itself,” he says, free of the sort of distractions that come with knowing the name of that guy at the back of the stage.

And then there’s Finnish metal band Nightwish, whose drummer’s time with the band is evidently, uh, finished. He’s taking a much-needed break, it says here, to deal with chronic insomnia. Sure, rocking and rolling all night is desirable, but only provided one sleeps through part of every day.

This week also marked the 22nd anniversary of the passing of Jeff Porcaro in a bizarre gardening accident. A trusted session man, Porcaro was also a proud member of Toto; it’s safe to say had it not been for his dextrous drumming Rosanna would have sounded like just another lame ’80s hit. Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under Music

August 5, 2014 · 8:34 am

shame on me

Last night, for the third time in eight days, I did not play Spade Cooley on CKCU 93.1 FM.

Admittedly, I did not have a choice this time: after filling in for Joe Reilly five consecutive Monday evenings, I was relieved of my temporary duties by one Joe Reilly. Which is fair enough. (And did I not mention I’d be doing those shows on the Mighty 93? I meant to… about six weeks ago.) Or, rather, by Dave Alburger, on behalf of Joe. Close enough.

Last Wednesday, I presented a profile of the OKeh Records label on Roots and Rhythms. Spade Cooley recorded for said label, and was in the running until I opted to limit the hour-long profile to OKeh’s first incarnation, which called it a day in 1935. Cooley’s recordings were released a decade later.

The man’s music would have fit in perfectly, however, during a hillbilly and western swing set I played July 28. Great, spirited toe-tappers like Shame On You would appear to have been just the ticket. And I did consider bringing one of my Spade Cooley seven-inch square-dance singles to liven things up. Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under CKCU, Music

July 23, 2014 · 3:14 pm

Casey Casey Kasem, where are you?

Like you, I am outraged over what’s going on in Ukraine and what’s going on in Nigeria and what’s going on in Gaza. And like you, I intend to… Oh look, a fox asleep on a bus! How cute is that?

(Remember how, when you were a kid, major news outlets would build a story around a photo of a cute animal you’d made copies of and distributed to friends? Me neither.)

Now, where was I? Oh yes, mortality. Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under Media, Music

Tagged as

July 18, 2014 · 12:58 pm

the going gets Weird

I’d be the first to admit (had thousands not already admitted as much) that these are confusing — indeed confounding — times. Little on the international scene is making sense. The world is in turmoil, a situation that appears to grow worse each day. Heck, even the Mike Duffy saga took an unexpected turn or two this week. And the Old Duff was about the only thing we thought we could understand.

One likes to think cooler heads will ultimately prevail. At present, though, circumstances are ideal for a dangerous and destructive figure to rise from a smouldering political and social tinderbox to seize power. And that’s scary stuff. Not the anti-Christ, perhaps, but an ambitious figure poised to prey on a vulnerable global society. Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under Media