Cameron Carpenter: The ABC’s Of Rock’n’Roll – The Current List

I don’t listen to much radio. When it is on in the house it is usually on 680 News for news and weather updates. Occasionally CBC Radio 1 or 2 will be heard in the kitchen or perhaps NewsTalk 1010. I never listen to radio on-line. I don’t listen to radio for new music. I will listen to rock radio if one of my artists doing a live interview. When I am out of the house I always have my iPod on. This is where I listen to new music but, obviously, I have to program the iPod with playlists and the one I listen to most often is simply called “Current”.

Nadia Elkharadly: The next big thing in 2013

When Cam wrote last week about the beauty of the list, I may or may not have stood up at my desk at my day job and given him a cheer.  Actually, all I did was smile and say an internal “yay, LISTS!”  As you may or may not have noticed in some of my past columns, I like to dabble in a little list making myself.  I also like to read other people’s lists (thanks Cam for sharing Now’s list and your own – I’ve got some record shopping to do!), and in my recent list reading adventures, I’ve noticed many people taking a shot at a little fortune telling.  The topic at which some writers are gearing their psychic powers towards has to do with what’s NEXT:  the “next big thing”.

Nadia Elkharadly: The Two Man Band

Maybe I’m late to the party, but there are a LOT of two person bands out there!  Whether this is a new or old phenomenon, I’m not sure, but it fascinates me.  The traditional rock band set up usually consists, at the very least, of a singer, a guitarist, a bassist and a drummer.  Now, traditional and rock and roll are two concepts that don’t tend to go together very often.  Rock is about rebellion, about breaking barriers and most of all about challenging conventional notions.  Whether it’s dropping a bassist, dropping a guitarist, or just dropping convention, these bands are some of the two person (in most cases) that have caught my ear.