Cameron Carpenter: The ABC’s Of Rock’n’Roll – R You Ready?

It is the time of year when time is at a premium. With NXNE right around the corner and the full weight of the NXNE Film Festival on my shoulders I am going to take the easy way out for the next few weeks here at DBAWIS. Fortunately I am at the letters R, S, T in the next three weeks and there aren’t too many easier letters to find bands for. Quick lists for the next little while. As always please have a look or listen at what Bob magically drops in for each band. Full disclosure, I supply the words and Bob supplies the links and photos. I am surprised every Thursday at the images and videos he comes up with.

Ready to roll with the R’s?

Frank Gutch Jr: The Best of the First Half of 2013,

Jesus, is 2013 great or what?  I’m dancing, crying, thinking, sweating, burping and bopping thanks to a handful of musicians who have me freaking out, they’re so good.  I know I said 2012 was good.  And it was!  Hell, it still is, musically.  Musicians put out some of the best music I’d heard last year, but goddamn it, 2013 is smokin’ hot!  Seriously!  And excuse me for a sec whilst I dance the happy dance.  You see, No Small Children‘s anthemic Might Get Up Slow is playing right now and will for a few times more because I need some uppers!  Shee-it, this is good!  In another time, this would be topping the charts and rocking kids out!  Even famed ex-radio disc jockey Robert W. Walker sez “Fuh-reeking great!”  Jeez, I’m sounding like Barnum & Bailey here, but sometimes you have to let loose, you know?

GARY PIG GOLD has 72 GOOD REASONS To CELEBRATE BOB DYLAN’s BIRTHDAY THIS YEAR

Usually, Darrell Vickers occupies this space on this week’s Monday, but Gary Pig Gold has asked to switch places this month to post his verrry deep Dylan column in honour of Mr. Zimmerman’s 72nd birthday on the 24th. So, with apologies to Mr. Vickers (whose column will run here next week) we turn the floor over to Mr. Pig Gold after this delightful little Dylan Primer from CNN…And for those of you who are not familiar with Mr. Zimmerman, “How does it feel…to be on your own.”

Roxanne Tellier: Toronto’s SideShow Rob

So … we’ve got this crazy mayor. This is not the first time. Toronto has lived through a lot of crazy mayors; electorally, our sense of humour seems to have the upper hand in the voting booth. We’ve had staid, boring mayors, and we’ve had Mel Lastman, the “Nooooo Body!” guy (and I’ll never figure out how that happened.  Well, at least we got a little bit of a subway out of him.)

JAIMIE VERNON – How Do You Sleep?

I’m tired. I’m really effin’ tired. It’s the “I’m so tired that I can’t even roll off my lover and rudely fall asleep beside her because I’ve already rudely fallen asleep on TOP of her tired.” [admit it, you’ve done this…at least ONCE.]

I started a new job in February.  And it’s sapping the fiber of my very being. I’ve had jobs that have made me tired before. But they were office gigs where the exhaustion was mostly mental – from dealing with asshat employers and bigger asshatted customers. In my current job I work alone, but for the first time in 30 years of employment I’m actually working. Up at 4.30 AM and usually home by 5 or 6PM. Eight to nine hours of driving and walking. When I finally get home I eat dinner, stare blankly at photos of cute cats, idiotic diatribes about Monsanto, Rob Ford, hockey and Chemtrail conspiracy theorists on Facebook. It’s all I can do to keep Mr. Sandman at bay. By 9PM I’m done. I haven’t accomplished much except kiss the cat and pet the family good night.

Cameron Carpenter: The ABC’s Of Rock’n’Roll – Quality Control

Quality Records was my training ground. Back in the seventies there were no school courses teaching the music business. If you wanted to work in a studio you hung around studios and hopefully someone would ask you to pick up a broom or maybe get the engineer a coffee. If you wanted to work at a record company you needed to know who to talk to and where they might hang out. A good in was getting to know the label publicists and the easiest way to do that was by writing album and live reviews for your school newspaper. I starting doing this in high school and by the time I reached college I had a couple of good ins at the labels (as well as lots of free albums and concert tickets).

Nadia Elkharadly: Come Together, Right Now

It was a sad night in Toronto this past Monday.  Leaf nation had to endure the biggest disappointment they’ve faced since ye old strike of 2012; the Toronto Maple Leafs lost their shot at the Stanley Cup.  Losing a 4-1 lead over Boston, the humiliation was solidified into a 4-5 loss in overtime.  The city was quiet, the dejection palpable in the downtown streets.  But for those of us lucky enough to be at Cherry Cola’s that same night, the disappointment was distracted and then washed away by a completely different form of entertainment; The Bobcast.

Frank Gutch Jr: Music On Film— Documentaries For The Music Fanatic, Plus Notes…..

Before I dive into this, I have to take a moment to point you towards one of the best “up” songs I have heard in some time:  No Small Children‘s Might Get Up Slow.  If radio had the impact that it did even 20 years ago, this would be blasting out of stereo and car speakers everywhere.  iThings too, if they had them (my brain is so numb, I couldn’t come close to a year those damn things took over our lives— I can hardly remember a kid without one).  The more I hear these ladies, the more I want to hear more.  Turn it up!  Like they said in the old days— Recorded loud to be played LOUD!  Listen to this!!!

Now, back to our regular programming.

Justin Smallbridge: Radio, Records, and England

In 1975, my radio listening was shifting from CHLO and the AM stations. I was being influenced by the pronouncements of my peers. It never occurred to me at the time that they didn’t know anything more than I did. They seemed so sure . . . like a grammar school friend who, in 9^th grade, dismissed David Bowie and everything he’d done because his older sisters had told him Bowie was gay. Because this friend of mine was to play the saxophone, and — as was a lot more common in southwestern Ontario and other places in 1975 — he was proudly homophobic, he was outraged that Bowie was depicted with a sax on the cover of Pin-Ups. I still liked Bowie. I just didn’t mention that to the guy who hated him.

Roxanne Tellier – You And Me Against The World

It’s been 21 years since I lost my mum, and still there are days when I think, “Oh, I must tell Mum! She’d get such a kick out of hearing about that!” Then I remember that she’s gone, and it hurts all over again.

But I am lucky. I had a terrific mother, who was funny and smart and strong and she loved me, despite my failings. Even when I was at my most hateful, a rebel without a clue, Mum encouraged me and found the good in my mutinous soul.