GWNtertainment #28 by Jaimie Vernon

Lots of new music this week as post-summer tuneage is in full swing. Just ask Drake who now occupies half of the Top10 on the Billboard magazine charts. It’s also drawn battle lines between old pop music fans and new because Drake’s positioning on the charts breaks a handful of records previously set by The Beatles. Vitriol has been flying around social media dismissing Drake and his accomplishments. GWN celebrates any Canadian artist who has managed to raise the ire of a generation of music lovers who refuse to acknowledge that time has passed, and that a new generation also makes music that people love. We are here three times a month extolling the virtues of those new artists and that new music. Other music exists in the same universe as The Beatles…resistance is fertile.

GWNtertainment #5 by Jaimie Vernon

Buckle up kids, the winter is going to make itself very apparent this week throughout most of the already frozen tundra. Polar dippers were greeted with very stiff…water…on Lake Michigan last weekend. Even without a pandemic, this is the perfect time to put on the footie pajamas and snuggle with the fur babies, human babies, and man-babies to listen to some great Canadian music courtesy GWN’s sonic radar.

Pat Blythe – A Wedding, A Jam, A Concert (or two) and Indie Week Wrap-up

I’m going to start calling this column Pat’s Diary (nope, too blah), or maybe Zippy’s Musical Journey, or maybe….My Life As A Crazy Lady…..  Welcome to my world of music, pictures, and general mayhem. So we begin another 10 days of zipping (get it haha) around this wonderful city of ours enjoying the nightlife. I’m starting backwards…..

Roxanne Tellier: Nothing But the Tooth

Most of us take our clever bodies for granted, assuming that all our bits and pieces will do as they are told. The wonders of how all of our actions and bodily functions come together are something we don’t really think about.

Until something goes wrong.

JAIMIE VERNON – AN OPEN LETTER TO DRAKE

 

Dear Drake,

You and I have never met so I hesitate to call you by your given name, Aubrey, but it’s times like these where it’s important to talk to the man your Mama raised, and not the superstar visage the world has grown to know.

Pat Blythe – Women & Songs — Part Two

Radio – Same Ol’ Same Ol’

I don’t listen to the radio much these days…okay….sometimes when I’m driving but that’s mostly for road and weather reports. Music….not so much. What music I do hear is the rotation of the same songs or the same tired formula over and over and over…. I will admit I tune into Q107 but that’s more for the DJ banter and the stories than the music. ….and the commercials, on any station,  send me over the edge!

Doug Thompson – “MONEY, IT’S A GAS”

Anyone familiar with that Pink Floyd tune? (c’mon, who isn’t?  It’s from “Dark Side of The Moon” for crying out loud).  The album, released on March 1, 1973, made # 1 for only one week, but in total, spent 741 weeks on Billboard magazine’s album chart.  Let’s put that into years shall we?  “Dark Side of the Moon” remained on the charts from 1973 until 1988.  If you know the song, then you’ll know that the next lyrics to the title at the top of the page are:  “Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash.  New car, caviar, four star daydream, think I’ll buy me a football team.”

Justin Smallbridge: Drake Speaks! (Kind of….)

Editor’s Note: We encourage creativity here at DBAWIS, and the crew who write for you always step up to the plate.

Today’s column is a departure from our usual modus operandi, and I was thrilled to receive it from once-a-month contributor Justin Smallbridge, he of no small talent and a cutting wit. What else can I say about a man I met because of the review he wrote of my first Segarini album, “Gotta Have Pop”, which included the line, “This album sucks like a Hoover”. I liked the review so much I had it blown up to a 6ft. by 7ft. sign which hung in the offices of Bomb Records until the label folded.

Here’s Justin’s column.

Now I’m waiting to hear from Drake’s lawyers….

JAIMIE VERNON – DON’T TRY (CAREER) SUICIDE

Not since Marlon Brando and his moo moo ate their way through Hollywood on the back of non-returnable advances for movies he did everything possible to avoid making has there been so many entertainment types hell bent on changing career paths by killing off their meal tickets.

Thursday it came to light that Canadian rapper Drake was being a social mediot by bad mouthing Rolling Stone magazine for bumping his cover story in favour of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. News flash, Degrassi Boy: Hoffman has more cache dead than you will ever have alive. A simple “I’m disappointed in the turn of events, but understand Rolling Stone’s editorial decision. Respect PSH” would have sufficed. Instead, he show-boated. And like fellow rap asshat Kanye West, Drake will attempt to deflect now that people have taken to hating him more than they do already. He’ll mea culpa and return to his life shilling for the Toronto Raptors basketball team.