Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Michelle McAdorey: Toronto Mike'd #1368
Episode Date: November 20, 2023In this 1368th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Michelle McAdorey about her appearance in the video for Blue Rodeo's Try, Crash Vegas, going solo and more. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brough...t to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Electronic Products Recycling Association, Raymond James Canada and Moneris. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at mike@torontomike.com
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Today,
making her Toronto mic debut
is Michelle McAdory.
Hello. Welcome
Michelle. How are you doing? Oh, I'm doing
great. I'm very happy to be here.
A little cooler than it
was last week. I just spent the weekend in Montreal.
I got back like last night
and it seems like when I left,
it was like, I don't know,
12, 13, 14 degrees it felt like
and now it's winter time.
Montreal is such a great city.
Have you considered relocating
and living in Montreal?
I did at one time.
Yeah, I almost,
I thought I'm going to do that
and then things changed. But it's so beautiful there. I think they have, I mean, I'm going to do that. And then things changed.
But it's so beautiful there.
I think they have, I mean, it's such a romantic city.
It's a great city.
But Toronto's a pretty good city.
You're a Toronto gal.
I am.
So you're, what neck of the woods,
like what neighborhood are you from in this city?
Well, originally I grew up in the East End, in the beach, beaches, beach area.
What do you prefer?
I feel saying the beach seems a little like mildly pretentious.
I think so.
And I remember talking to my mother about this.
And she said, oh, no, it was originally the beach.
I'm like, no, I don't think it was.
I think it was the beaches. Anyways, I don't know't know from the beaches i thought that's what i would say and then
you know so who knows either or yeah the beach i agree the beach is just a little bit you know
when i so i my mom so we drove to montreal by the way, thank you, Hyundai. They lent me a Palisade and it was very roomy.
And I had, there were six of us going to Montreal and back.
So shout out to Hyundai.
Very roomy, very comfortable.
Lovely ride.
So, but I said to my mom, I said, oh, Michelle McAdory is coming over.
And then my mom went into this long speech about how much she loved Bob McAdory.
Are you related to Bob McAdory from 1050 Chum?
I am.
Yep. That was my uncle. Bob wasAdory. Are you related to Bob McAdory from 1050 Chum? I am. Yep.
Bob was my uncle.
I think that's, even though I actually knew this, but that is the first
fun fact. I feel like
I should pull some Bob. So,
Bob McAdory, who I actually remember, I don't remember
him from 1050 Chum, I'll be honest. I remember
Bob McAdory from Global. Like, he was
doing entertainment on the Global desk
and he was great and gone far too soon.
But you are his niece.
I am.
Yes, I'm one of his nieces.
And I know a lot of, he was unique, right?
In what he did, he had his own particular humor.
And I guess his hair, I don't know,
for some reason a lot of people would talk about his hair. Yeah, he guess his hair. I don't know, for some reason,
a lot of people would talk about his hair.
Yeah, he had great hair.
Yeah, but that it wasn't all, you know,
tightly coiffed, that it would sort of do its own thing.
And he did a lot of radio, too.
Yeah, a little before my time, too,
but I mean, he did some country radio, too,
like CFTM.
That's very possible.
Like, I wish I could get him on the show here
I have him on a list
of people like
Brian Linehan
all these guys I missed
I want to talk to
and I can't get
Bob McAdory on sadly
but it is a
you're kind of
carrying on the
McAdory legacy there
Michelle McAdory
trying
try
trying
did you say try
okay yeah
I don't know where
to start
but I'm going to
start here
and then we'll pick up what I don't know where to start, but I'm going to start here, and then we'll pick up what I missed.
But I want to start.
I was waiting to see, will Michelle McAdory naturally,
organically say the word try?
Because then I could play this and kind of get to your origin story.
But my mom also loves this song, so let's...
Don't tell me I'm wrong.
Let Jim Cuddy do his thing here for a moment.
I've been watching every move that you make.
Oh,
you steal and you make up the hill.
Trouble for the man that you date.
Every time you walk in the room. I don't even want to fade it down.
I'm digging it.
But okay, what do you think of the song Try?
Oh, it's a great song.
It seems like a classic.
You know, immediately, that's how that song always hit me.
Just the melody and everything about it.
Yeah,orgeous song.
So we're going to go pre-try and then we'll kind of talk about the fun fact regarding
you and the song, the video for the song Try.
But OK, so.
Where I pout my way through.
Well, yeah.
So, OK, so let's spill it now.
What do you have to do with the video for the song Try, Michelle?
What do you have to do with the video for the song Try, Michelle?
I guess I was the gal who was, yeah, trying.
That's amazing.
Look, all these fun facts related to Bob McAdory in the video for Try.
If that were your whole career, I'd say we'd have a great episode.
Well, they weren't my feet, though.
They had to, yeah, there was one,
they wanted to do some extra pickup shots or something and I wasn't around and they're like, well, what shoes were you wearing? Can you get us those shoes?
So they had someone else wear my shoes. And I remember sort of thinking, you know what?
My ankles aren't quite like that. You know, your ankles are better. Yeah. My ankles are better.
I feel the same way. I'm going to take a note here
because later I have to go to Wikipedia
and make this key update.
Those are not Michelle McAdory's feet.
Hold on.
Okay.
Taking a note here for Wikipedia later.
All right.
So, I mean, you tell me your story
because you did some cool shit
long before Blue Rodeo was recording,
even recording the word,
writing the word, the song Try.
Like, bring me back because, I mean, I want to hear,
like, if you don't mind.
I mean, you got some time, right?
We can get some detail here.
I mean, you weren't even Michelle McAdory.
I feel like you were Blanche McAdory.
Like, give me the story here.
Oh, my God, yeah, your homework.
So I took off from Toronto as a very young gal, person.
Human being?
Yeah, human.
And ended up, I was in New York and then I was in London.
I was supposed to be studying.
But eventually that ended and I had just sort of answered ads realized I wanted to
stay and live in London because I had this dual
citizenship and pursue music
and so eventually
I meet Kirstie McCall
that must be what you're talking about with Blanche
because I had taken
a trip to Spain
and on the plane back from Spain
we got held over in Valencia
and they were handing out all this shitty champagne,
which we started drinking.
And lo and behold, Kirstie was like across the aisle from me.
Wow.
And I don't even know how it happened,
but we just start, she's very, very funny,
funny, witty person.
And we just start going back and forth
and then singing and talking and we became fast friends. She's like, we, witty person. And we just start going back and forth and then singing and talking.
And we became fast friends.
She's like, we have to hang out.
So we did.
I'd never been in a recording studio.
I'm doing the real fast version.
And she was making a record.
And she said, you know,
I need to have you come in and sing with me.
Because we were always singing,
just fooling around, harmonizing,
especially waiting to get the play.
But this is key.
She could hear you sing and realize, oh, this girl can sing.
Yeah, you know?
How generous and cool, right, to do that.
I was 16, 17, and she just said, yeah, come on into the studio.
And so we would do all these weird accents
and one of them was our weird parody
on Streetcar Named Desire.
For some reason, I became Blanche
and so I'm credited as Blanche McAdory on that record.
That's wild.
We're heading into the Christmas music all the time era in this.
Because we're going to be inundated.
I mean, it's already started.
What is this, November 20? It's already started. fairy tale of new york is my favorite uh christmas song
of all time me too yeah i'm with you and uh can i make this bold statement you tell me if this is
bullshit no christy mccall no michelle mcadori like like how influential was her and you having
a career in music well it's that's that's interesting actually i mean i
was already pursuing stuff like kind of simultaneously but she opened up things i mean i
had another very fortuitous meeting um living i mean i had lots of them in london i don't know
it just seemed to happen but i I met Speedy Keene.
And do you know who he is?
No, I was, right now,
my brain is like checking all the databases
for the names of Speedy.
He is very, very important to me, actually.
Okay, tell me who he is.
So he, Speedy Keene and Thunderclap Newman.
Oh, yes.
And he kind of huge hits something in the air.
Yes, I know this song very well.
And then he was producing Motorhead and worked with Pete Townsend.
Anyway, so I meet him at this pub.
I'd started making these little tapes with a guy I'd met,
and he heard them, and he's like,
that's it, that's right, we've got to go make a record.
And so he just mentored me in the best way.
Yeah.
So he was also very pivotal to just learning, starting,
figuring out how to write songs and record.
And you're so young.
You're in London, England.
For a moment I thought, oh, what's so great about London, Ontario
that you can meet all these wonderful people?
But no, Michelle's in London, England.
That's a key detail here.
And you're a teenager and all this is going on.
I'm wondering why you even came back.
Like,
like why not just,
Hey,
you can stay there.
You can be like Chrissy Hynde or something and then start the pretenders.
You know,
I did stay for quite a while.
And then eventually we did this band I had.
We had this band.
We were called Cold Fish.
And then we were signed to CBS, Chapel Records.
I mean, Chapel for publishing.
But, you know, I really also had the classic experience.
I mean, I met a lot of interesting people
and there was lots of side stories that are interesting,
but I also had the classic experience of being totally ripped off
and just, as Speedy would always warn,
about all the sharks in the music business.
So in Canada, they wanted to release this record and this song
because we had Midjure from Ultravox.
Which is also huge.
Produce this song, which was also very freaky for me,
which is just because I remember thinking... Oh also very freaky for me which isn't just
because i remember thinking oh that's love me today yes okay okay yeah but it was released here
the label here which was cbs changed the name of our band is it because we had a fish
i don't like they don't you know you can't be your cold fish, F-I-S-H, by the way,
but there is a fish, P-H-I-S-H, I suppose.
I think it was just, again, you know, I didn't have really managed.
And there's a fish bone.
Like, what about fish bone?
They were worried.
How can we have a cold fish?
There's already a fish bone.
It was just crappy record execs making a, you know, bad call.
Let's change the name to correct spelling but we're
going to spell it incorrectly oh my god you guys are so clever really so how you know okay well
they were thinking ahead they knew one day you have to have a seo friendly name when people like
in lincoln park right you have to spell it wrong so you could have the domain name and own the
spelling when people google it correct spelling for the record was spelled with one r
incorrect yeah and you didn't get a say in the matter they just changed your name no that's
bullshit it's bullshit but i you know i was very young and you know maybe i should just hire a
lawyer now and just go after all this stuff okay love me today was okay so is love me today on
youtube like can i find love me today i don't? I don't know. You don't know.
Okay, because I feel like you would know if it was out there.
Yeah, just let it happen.
Was it a good song, Love Me Today, by Correct Spelling?
Well, you know, it became some sort of dance thing.
Would CFNY have played it?
I think it did.
Okay, because you were kind of new wavy.
Yeah, yeah.
No, it was.
It had, like, there was a dance mix that was done for the A side and the B side. The B side was Strange Boy. And it was a, you know, good hit in some of the sort of gay clubs. So that was really cool. That was one of the highlights for me.
Wow.
Yeah, it was played, you know.
Alongside maybe Spoons, like, you know, you're going to get in there.
Probably. spoons like you know you're gonna get it probably shout out to rob proust there okay very cool so
now you're uh something brings you back to trust what is it again that brought you back to toronto
oh let's see just you know heartache poverty uh just different you know disillusionment london's uh living in london not dissimilar to
new york there at least for me it was like this is the center of the universe you know and you're
the pressures of trying to keep it all together and you know do something get something happening
uh it it took its toll i guess so then i i had had met Greg Keeler from Blue Road and Jim a while back
because I used to try to sneak into clubs underage before I left to London.
And so we had stayed in touch and they were in New York,
but Greg, I think, had just moved back to Toronto.
And he was like, it's great here because it's nowhere, and it doesn't cost anything to live here, and I'm like, oh, okay.
What a time to be alive.
Do you know how to make blueberry pancakes? All right, I'm going to come back, so I did.
Okay, so you mentioned Greg. So what was your relationship like with Greg Keeler when you
come back?
What was your relationship like with Greg Keeler when you come back?
Well, we were just quite inseparable.
Really, like, best friends hanging out.
And again, he, like, I had these songs I'd started writing, and he was very encouraging of them.
And to keep going, he's like, come on, let's start a band.
I'm like, what?
Well, you've got
a band yeah no problem because blue rodeo was happening but not like you know he could manage
two bands for a while so he's like let's let's start a band and um so yeah we started a band
okay what's the name of the band you started crash vegas crash vegas okay this is you know
this is i'm trying to make this the definitive Crash Vegas deep dive. So you have a good memory of things. Like sometimes people
like, oh, I don't remember dates. What was this? Sylvia Tyson was just on the program and I'm like,
I'm trying to go back and I don't remember dates. I don't remember this. I'm like, but how is your
memory, Michelle McAdory? I think it's, you know, what, what, I mean, memory is quite fallible right we it seems to just morph and change into um
oh someone's calling in listen i am going to turn off my ringer i'm a very rude host it is now off
um memory is pretty good but i'm sure it's got its um giant black holes well listen when we find
these discrepancies i'll bring you back and we'll have a panel discussion
to find out the truth here.
But okay, you and Greg Keeler had a romantic relationship.
This is important.
So Greg Keeler and you, you start up Crash Vegas.
We did?
Did you?
I somehow forgot about that.
It's weird, the memory, how it works.
I just saw him at the premiere of this Much Music documentary.
It's called 299 Queen Street West.
And I mean, a lot of us were at this premiere.
It was at Roy Thompson, almost at Nathan Phillips Square.
It wasn't at Nathan Phillips Square.
It was at Roy Thompson Hall.
Don't confuse Nathan with Roy.
They're two different people.
But anyway, so I saw Greg Keeler there.
That's exciting for you.
But okay, he's not an FOTM,
which means he's never been on the program.
Although Jim Cuddy has.
But while Greg is in Blue Rode rodeo he's got a side hustle called
crash vegas exactly with uh sweet and pretty and talented michelle mcadori that's you by the way
oh yeah and what are you is it true you're also writing some blue rodeo stuff like i'm trying to
did you contribute anything to uh outskirts the big breakthrough album for Blue Rodeo? No, I never, I mean, later
a song that Greg and I wrote,
I think they ended up
recording, but no,
I did, I was in a couple of the
videos. Including Try,
which is, let's face it,
I say this to her. And Rose Colored Glasses
as well. That's a big one too. Look at you.
I know, I got all the good ones, you know.
Okay, you know, you did. Diamond Mine, I should have been in that. Really? Why didn't, yeah. Diamond Mine is my favorite Blue Rodeo song. a big one too. Look at you. I know. I got all the good ones. Diamond Mine. I should have been in that.
Really? Why didn't you? Diamond Mine is my
favorite Blue Rodeo song. Yeah. Me too.
Really? Yeah.
I like you already. Okay.
What was I going to say about this?
You don't know what I was going to say about this. In fact, I'll come back
to it actually. But
you guys start Crash Vegas.
I got a bunch of questions about
Crash Vegas. Who else is bunch of questions about Crash Vegas.
Who else is in Crash Vegas besides you, Michelle, and Greg Keeler?
Well, you are wearing a t-shirt right now.
I'm wearing my Martha and the Muffins t-shirts.
Exactly.
So I didn't know the full catalog of Martha and the Muffins,
but Echo Beach for me was just, it was such a cool song.
And it was, there weren't,
like trying to find cool Canadian music.
I mean, of course it was Joni Mitchell and Neil Young and things like that,
but sort of more contemporary new wave stuff.
And that really-
Blue Peter was pretty good.
Yeah, Blue Peter was good too.
So when I learned that Jocelyn, and that really... Blue Peter was pretty good. Yeah, Blue Peter was good too.
So when I learned that Jocelyn... I was really into the idea of playing with women too.
If I could find some other women that were playing
and I'd heard about Jocelyn
and so I got in touch with her through however I did
and yeah, Jocelyn played bass with Martha and the Muffins
and we were very lucky to get Jocelyn to come and play bass.
That's Lanwa.
That's a big name in Canadian musical circles.
You can get the name Lanwa.
It usually means you're well-connected here.
Yeah, and it's funny because I didn't know about her brother at all,
and supposedly that impressed her.
You had her at that.
Well, I think she felt so validated
that I was like, I wanted
to talk to her because I was
in awe and
sort of this
romance with her versus
oh, your brother.
Did you feel similarly when somebody
would be like, I don't know Bob McAdory.
I only know Michelle McAdory.
I'm like, what are you talking about?
It's my mom. I said, Michelle McAdory is coming over. My mom's like, I don't know Bob McAdory. I only know Michelle McAdory. I'm like, what are you talking about? It's my mom.
I said, Michelle McAdory's coming over.
Yeah, really?
And my mom's like, I love, she goes into this whole thing.
She loved listening to Bob McAdory on 1050 Chum.
And I heard this whole story.
And I'm like, yeah, this is Bob's niece.
And that was the fun fact.
She's like, what's a Crash Vegas?
Where did the name Crash Vegas come from?
That's an important detail to get on the record here.
Greg and I just sitting around, you know,
trying to figure out the band name.
We had some bad contenders.
And I think we were, you know,
it was trying to, we were trying to come up with something.
And, you know, anyways.
But you came up with, that's Crash Vegas, that works.
I will say the worst name I think I've ever heard for a band
might be correct spelling.
That might be the worst name I've ever heard for a band.
Exactly.
Like I'm so angry.
That's why I sort of never talked about it.
It was just blasphemous.
What can one say?
See?
Just shuts it all down.
I like the silence.
I had a Bergman here and there's a moment where we were talking about
his wife had passed away
and they were married a long time
and he wrote a song about her
and we played it
and he was weeping.
Like he's sitting there weeping
and there was a moment of silence
where he's like in his,
and I was like,
I'm sitting here
and now I've done this 1300 times
and I'm like,
I will ride the silence all day.
Like I will sit,
no edits.
Like I will have now 20,
if it's 25 minutes of silence
before Art says another word,
I'm going to ride the silence.
Like I was so.
It was a beautiful episode.
Oh yeah,
beautiful silence.
Did you hear it?
I've heard it.
Okay.
I didn't even want to assume.
I figured you're like,
Oh,
some,
some bozo in South Toronto invited me over.
I'll talk about crash Vegas.
What's this guy's problem?
So I'm,
so I'm sitting here,
you're there,
you're where art was.
I'm here.
And I'm like, this man, he suffered where Art was I'm here and I'm like
this man
he suffered a great loss
and he's remembering her now
and he's in this moment of silence
I'm gonna ride this
for 20 minutes
there was another gentleman
in the room
and I love this guy
but he's like the publicist
for Art
and there's like
two heartbeats
three heartbeats
and I'm telling you
I'm in
I'm like
I love this
they let the
you know
Art take his mind
he wasn't even gonna say that
just sit here
till Art says anything.
If it takes a half an hour,
that's fine.
Half an hour of silence.
You're on a run,
you're listening to Toronto Mike.
Why did I have
a half an hour of silence?
Because it happened in the room.
That's what happened.
Anyway,
Jason felt
four heartbeats was enough
and he interjected.
And I was sitting here
and I loved,
there's no,
no Jason,
no art on Toronto Mike.
Jason drove him here.
Jason made it happen. Jason's a great ally of the program. I love Jason Schne no no Jason no art on Toronto Mike Jason drove him here Jason made it happen
Jason's a great ally
of the program
love Jason Schneider
love that guy
but
I was thinking
didn't say it out loud
maybe till right now
Jason you son of a bitch
shut the hell up
I'm right in the silence
okay
let me have my silence
anyway
so that silence
I'm into the silence
is what I'm telling you
this is the new thing for the next 1000 episodes Toronto to make more silence is that a bad idea for a podcast
more silence ridiculous pretty good i'm ridiculous okay good you did i should have just let you ride
that silence okay when does colin crips enter the fray that's a big name. Colin Cripps. We realized that Greg could no longer hold down the guitar.
Jocelyn, Colin is from Hamilton, so is Jocelyn.
And she had seen, I guess he had been going,
she had this little studio set up with her and Malcolm and Dan,
this place called The Lab. And I guess Colin and his band had come in there,
and she had seen him, I guess at a couple of shows,
and she would say, it's crazy, he often takes his shirt off at the shows.
I'm like, oh no, I don't know.
And she's like, no, no, he's really, the guitar is great.
So sure enough, we were like, wow, he's really good.
Yeah, he can learn those parts and do that.
Let's get him in.
When does Greg exit?
Is he completely gone at this point?
Like you're like, no, Greg's heart is in Blue Rodeo
and we want to do something different.
Like, do you fire Greg Keeler from Crash Vegas?
What's going on there?
Yeah, no, it really just was a sort of obvious thing
because they're really, they've got a momentum.
And we started to, we had our first record recorded.
Is that Red Earth?
Yes, Red Earth.
We were down in New Orleans with Malcolm Byrne.
And we were sort of the, you know,
we were the first people to record there while they're working out all the issues.
They're going to try, they're going to break some eggs with Crash Vegas.
So when Bob Dylan shows up.
Exactly.
And all the people, right?
So it was fantastic to be there.
I'd never been in New Orleans and we were living there for three months.
It was, it was really amazing.
And then our record really does, you know,
they're going to give it a push and we're going to have to tour.
So there's no way Greg can be part of that.
The schedule just starts to get too demanding.
So see you later.
And, you know, Colin, you're the guy.
Wild.
That's wild.
Keep your shirt on.
Well, you know, it depends.
Okay.
Yeah, it was a depend.
Maybe you should pull the shirt off tonight colin we're
gonna need it right well you know you gotta do what you gotta do let me ask you a very personal
question okay michelle when does the romantic relationship with greg keeler like when does
that end in relation to like kicking him out of the band uh that happened well after the first record is released and doing well,
and yeah, we really, we start to,
we weren't even under contract for more records,
and suddenly we're a bit of a hot item,
and people are calling,
and Greg and I are living together,
but we're going to move out of the city.
And I'd say as vegas is on its own
kind of you know ascent of sorts um yeah the relationship is just not you know it's
sayonara or you know it happens who hasn't had a good relationship go sour? Yeah.
Uh-huh.
See, I was right in that silence there.
I'm into it.
I'm into the silence.
Yeah, so it was the end.
It was sort of the end as I was starting to make the second record,
which was weird timing.
Right, and that's the album you named after FOTM Hall of Famer Stu Stone.
That's Stone, right?
Yeah.
Okay.
What did you think of Art Bergman on Toronto Mic'd?
Before I play a big jam from the first album
and ask you many,
many more questions.
Oh, I mean,
I'm a huge fan of Art Bergman.
And so I just,
it's,
he's engaging
and like the,
it was great.
Funny, interesting.
His life is really interesting to me.
And yeah.
He just played White Rock.
Well, he's a, he lives in Vancouver, socouver so yeah he just played white rock and i saw that uh brother bill a good friend of the
program from cfny brother bill was at the show so shout out to brother bill you want to hear a big
crash vegas jam this is a big one and i when i heard this i'm like this is amazing. You ready? Okay, what is it? All right. How many times will you walk away? How many times will you walk away? Don't turn your back on me now It's so easy for you How many times will I hear those replies?
How many times your endless replies?
While you're sitting so cool
As everything crumples around you
But I walk down this road and I see all these people just passing
And I see all these people just passing
And I see all these people just passing
And I see all these people just passing
And I see all these people just passing
And I see all these people just passing
And I see all these people just passing
And I see all these people just passing
And I see all these people just passing
And I see all these people just passing
And I see all these people just passing
And I see all these people just passing
And I see all these people just passing
And I see all these people just passing
And I see all these people just passing
And I see all these people just passing
And I see all these people just passing And I see all these people just passing And I see all these people just passing And I see all these people just passing And I see all these people just passing so cool as everything crumbles around you but I walk down
this road and I see all these
people just passing
by
tomorrow's headlines
familiar crimes and I
wonder
it makes me wonder
inside
out I was crying Inside Out
I was crying
Inside Out
I was dying
Inside Out
I was lying
So was Inside Out, was that recorded in New Orleans?
Um, I...
Or is that a Hamilton record?
There was a good chunk of things.
I feel like it was recorded.
Here's my memory going.
I think some of it was recorded in Toronto.
Sorry, in Hamilton at the Lab.
And then we tweaked, you know,
added some stuff
and it was definitely mixed down in New Orleans.
But yeah, there was a chunk of stuff
that was recorded at the Lab.
Big jam.
I'm thinking of, you know,
you guys played Edgefest.
Do you remember playing Edgefest in 1990?
Any memory of Edgefest?
Yeah, or maybe.
It's all a blur to you.
Where was it?
In 1990,
would it be on the island in 1990?
They eventually moved this to Barrie,
but they don't move it to Barrie
for a few more years.
So I think maybe Toronto Island.
Does that ring a bell?
No?
Or by the harbor front maybe?
Is there even a...
We don't know where the hell that was.
But okay, Edgefest in 1990.
That was on Canada Day.
You're playing that.
But here, I got a couple of questions about something called,
and I even pulled the poster for this.
I'm very interested in how this came to be.
I'm looking at it right now.
A Gathering of the Tribes.
Oh.
And this was curated by Ian Ashbery from the cult.
And if I tell you the names of some of the bands that were on this,
Gathering of the Tribes, this is from 1990, October 1990.
It was in California, music festival.
And here are the acts I see on the poster.
I'm going to read them in order charlatans uk the cramps crash vegas iced tea iggy pop indigo girls the london choir boys
michelle shocked the mission uk public enemy queen latifah and Soundgarden. 1990, okay.
1990, I thought it was after that.
There you go.
October 6th, 1990.
Staring at the poster.
Really?
I think so.
It wasn't 92?
I'm going to stick with my poster unless they erroneously wrote October 1990.
We were very lucky to get on that
because we had new management.
There's this guy, again, no longer with us,
Bill Graham.
And he's a sort of music legend in the US.
Do you know about him?
I feel like he's a preacher. No? That's Billy Graham. in the U.S. Do you know about him?
I feel like he's a preacher.
No?
That's Billy Graham.
Yeah, Bill Graham.
Bill Graham presents,
and he had the Fillmore East.
He was a giant promoter and huge in the 60s,
like Jefferson Airplane and Hendrix.
Adores them all that.
Worked with all these people,
and he managed people.
So he heard our record, whatever,
and he's like, I'm going to manage you.
And it was just like, exactly.
We're like, okay.
Well, you probably heard that song.
That song, when you hear that song in your headphones,
I know you're close to that song, Inside Out.
That's a great, that's objectively a great single.
Hey, thanks.
What do you think?
Can you remove yourself from being part of the band and say, I'm hearing that now. That's some other band. What do you think? Can you remove yourself from being part of the
band and say, I'm hearing that now, that some other band, what do you think of that song?
That's a great song, right? I'm very happy with that song. Is that your humble Canadian way of
saying that song kicks some ass? No, no, I really, I think it stands up. It's one I'm very happy with
in terms of the lyric and the melody. And it's funny as i'm listening to it i'm thinking i was thinking again of kirsty like i can hear that influence and billy bragg
i was so into um talking poetry with the tax man like surely you know like i loved his uh
sense of melody and also that he was substance in his lyrics. There was something
political. He was always telling a story.
Something political.
The last two episodes, not the
last one because it's all about Rusty's Wake
Me. Maybe one day there'll be an episode about
Crash Vegas'
Inside Out. But the last two episodes
before that, actually we played a Billy Bragg song
on each of them because they
were kicked out by FOTMs.
It's one of their favorite songs we talked about.
And in both times, I think I said Ron Hawkins from Lowest of the Lowest, Canada's Billy Bragg.
Wow.
Cool.
I don't know.
That's what I said.
Okay.
But Billy Bragg, who is, of course, a New England.
Is that the song?
Christy McCall covers Billy Bragg.
Yes, that's right.
So there's a lot of crossover here.
Yeah, yeah.
But there's just a sense of melody
or something being in, you know, 5-4.
It's just a certain kind of thing.
But yes, I really like that song.
Great song.
Okay, now we're back to this festival.
You write some good ones and you write some shit ones.
You don't want to peak too early, right?
There you go.
Okay, so we're going to get back to it. You write some good ones and you write some shit ones. You don't want to peak too early, right? There you go. Okay.
So we're going to get back to it.
But so some, some, this promoter, Bill Graham is like,
I like the cut of your jib kids.
And he's like, I'm going to make you the next Moby Grape or whatever.
And therefore he puts you on that bill because I mean.
Yeah.
And we're the first ones on, right?
It's almost like we're testing out the sound system.
So, cause you can imagine.
Like Moby Grape at the Monterey Pop Festival in 67.
Moby Grape was the first band on
before Janis Joplin and, you know, all these big deals.
Well, that was us.
So we were there and yeah, it was amazing.
I mean, it was amazing just to be there,
to see all those artists that I was, you know, in awe of.
Ian Osbury has a Hamilton connection, right?
So he lives in Hamilton for a period of time.
Like, is this where it all, is there a Hamilton connection that, because he moved with his family to Hamilton in 1973 when he was 11 years old.
And he spent many years before becoming
a big rock star with the cult in
Hamilton, Ontario. Does that connect him
to Daniel Lanois, which connects him
somehow to Crash Vegas? Is that your
way into this festival? No, it was
Bill Graham. So that's why I've
never heard of the Ian
Asprey connection. He gets
all the credit for Gathering of the Trapped. It's weird.
If you look at it as more
like, I don't know the searches
on this, but it was
a Bill Graham
presents gathering of the tribes, but who knows?
For sure. Here's how we could be
not the be all end all, but
a gathering of the tribes was a two-day
music and cultural festival
organized by Ian Asprey
and promoter Bill Graham
held in California in October
1990.
It is considered the precursor to the
Lollapalooza touring festivals of
the 1990s. An opinion shared
by Asprey himself, of course he's going to think that,
talks about it was in Shoreline
Amphitheater in Mountain View
and the Pacific Amphitheater
in Costa Mesa
on October 7th. Okay, well, anyway.
The event, you were in
Mountain View. And it was supposed to
raise money for
awareness of Native American
related causes.
That's why it's called the Gathering of the Tribe.
And it's a heck of a lineup, but somebody had to go
first. And it's you. I mean, this is early Soundgarden,
but still, I think Bad Motorfinger.
Maybe that comes out in 1990.
But bottom line is,
you've got some big, you know,
big artists.
Public Enemy.
Public Enemy.
Chuck D's been on this program.
You're now following in the footsteps,
once again, of the great Chuck D.
But back to Crash Vegas here.
You were there,
and what happened with your relationship
with Bill Graham?
Like, did he lose graham like did he uh
lose the faith or did he keep keep rocking in the free world what's going on there
he died tragically in a helicopter crash it was really i can still remember that morning being
woken up and told it was really really tragic uh he in fact i'd say that that marked a real turn you know when looking back in the career
of of crash vegas the the trajectory of that band 19 october one year after this festival he dies
in that helicopter crash october 1991 what if he doesn't yeah Yeah, I know. You're blowing your mind, but I'm reading it right here.
What if he doesn't get on that helicopter?
What happens to Crash
Vegas?
Well, yeah, that's a whole
other thing. I mean,
exactly.
That's wild. We'll just leave that silence.
How much time should I give it?
I chime in here. Okay. So, this is great.
Now, we talked. You don't remember Edge Fest,
but you do remember, thankfully,
that light just came on.
That's probably Bill Graham.
He's here.
Do you believe that?
Do you believe in any of that stuff?
You do?
You're nodding.
Everyone, she's nodding.
Okay.
So that light coming on,
that could be Bill Graham
just letting you know he's here
and he's listening.
There's an empty chair for Bill.
That's what Patti Smith did
when I saw her.
She pulled up a chair for Bill. That's what Patti Smith did when I saw her. She pulled up a chair for...
Jerry Garcia.
Exactly.
I almost called him Cherry Garcia.
That's like ice cream.
That's her nickname for him.
It should be an ice cream.
But it is, right?
Ben and Jerry's made a Cherry Garcia.
Yeah.
So she pulled up a seat for him and she was sure that he arrived.
So yeah, Bill.
Okay.
So Bill is with us.
I know, Bill.
Love it.
A gathering of the tribes.
Okay.
He would come to shows and then see you after the show.
And he had these little cards in his pocket and he'd pull them out and tell you his observations.
and he'd pull them out and tell you his observations.
Well, I will just do a shout-out to Ridley Funeral Home as we talk about the late, great Bill Graham,
who believed in your band.
So Red Earth, that's the big single, but there's more.
I'm just going to play.
You're here.
I'm going to play a little more here.
Inside Out was the big single.
Yeah, that's right.
Ah, small.
Just a little more.
I notice you kind of like one word that starts with S.
There seems to be a little bit of a theme.
Maybe, maybe not.
You can hear the Blue Rodeo, like, origin,
sort of, in the guitar work and everything.
Like, you can hear that kind of country Bach flavor.
Do you hear it?
Well, I'd say that if there was a sound happening in the city at that time,
it was that sort of alt-country folk.
Cowboy junkies.
Exactly.
It was all like Handsome Ned.
It was just a thing
and that twang.
Also,
just thinking of
other artists
that would have been
you know,
Neil Young
and
Gordon Lightfoot.
Great songwriters.
Yeah. Cool. Yeah.
Cool.
Yeah, I say.
So this is Smoke.
Mm-hmm. Goodbye Goodbye These are all like one syllable S words. Hmm. I know, I know.
I'm just really reaching here.
Okay.
Lenoir.
What happened with the aforementioned Lenoir?
Did she leave the band?
What's going on?
Yeah, we just had to part company.
Is there some real talk here?
And again, if it's private, just say it's none of your business, Mike.
That's fair game. But Jocelyn, this has been referred to as...
It's not a happy split or whatever.
What do you call that?
Is it acrimonious?
Yeah, I mean, I think we had gotten...
Sometimes bands are so much about chemistry.
It's a hard thing to do, you know, to be together, traveling all the time.
And I think we had just come to a point where we were, there were some internal struggles.
Strife?
Strife.
That's a great word.
Yes.
If you like this, one syllable S words. Strife. Strife. There we go. Strife? Strife. That's a great word. Yes. If you like this, one syllable S words. Strife is such a word.
There we go. Strife. And then
so we just, we made a
change.
Meanwhile, we didn't refer to this, but I know
Riskay Diskay.
How do you say that? Riskay Disc.
Riskay Disc. Because you spelt
like they rhyme, but they don't rhyme.
It's one of those tricky ones. Okay. Riskay Disc.
This is your label and this was like,
tell me if I'm wrong,
but Greg Keeler suggests this label for you guys,
and then they go bankrupt,
and it kind of fucks you over there.
Well, it was weird.
We also ended up not being fully signed,
so we get this successful record.
It gets distributed by Warners or with Warners,
but then we're kind of not under contract.
So then we are free agents after.
We ended up going to another label.
Whether that was, you know, hindsight, the best thing to do or not,
well, we could talk about that, you know, hindsight, of course.
It's 2020.
Yes.
It's just the past.
And that's okay. So we It's just the past.
And that's okay.
So we are going to talk about Stone,
but as we come off this debut album with Big Jam,
you're on this gathering of the tribes, and you're touring all over the place.
Did you open for any particularly interesting artists
as you're touring the United States and Canada?
Oh, God, yeah.
We were very
lucky in that regard. Toured a lot with the Tragically Hip. I mean, they were huge supporters.
We were great pals. Anybody, I think, who has been lucky enough to be on uh playing with the tragically hip will just they're just such
generous hosts they go out of their way it was amazing so we did a lot of shows with the with
the hip uh radio head we were really lucky to be on that the first time they come to north america
with their hit creep and that was fantastic because what a band. And people were just so excited about that band.
And then also we were sort of able to be on that show with them.
That's amazing.
It was.
And who else?
There was lots.
I could still keep going.
You could go.
I'm going to ride this silence until Michelle coughs up.
By the way, my daughter, the reason I went to Montreal is because my daughter lives there
because she's going to McGill.
So she's a student there and her girlfriends,
they rented this.
They're on the same street as Amy Milan from Stars.
Like they live on the same street.
Isn't that interesting?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And you could be there too if you had made the move to Montreal.
But her name is Michelle.
So that's,
I'm just bringing it up because I spent all weekend with my Michelle.
I could write a song my Michelle
you're a Michelle
you're a different Michelle
no one get confused
you're the niece
of Bob McAdory
that's how my mom knows you
Michelle McAdory
I hope she's listening
I hope he is too
because she's getting
some shout outs here
I just spent all weekend
with her
so time for a break
just kidding mom
okay
just kidding
just in case she's listening.
I'll have to make a rare edit here.
Okay.
So,
who did you sign with
after Risqué Disc
goes bankrupt?
We then go to,
excuse me,
London Records
in the US.
All right.
London.
Back in your life again.
Yes.
Wow.
I know.
I know, yeah.
Who replaces Jocelyn?
Darren Watson is the first replacement.
Okay, you didn't know this would be so tough here.
Tell me about, how does stone differ from red earth?
Like, is it in terms of tone and and any other differences that you recall wow it was quite i mean it was different we were in la that was different it i'd say that you know
you have all this time where you're working towards your first record, and then suddenly throwing in on our second record.
I think it was trying to be a little harder.
A lot of meddling started happening again,
where just like in my first experience,
where I'm supposed to be so naive,
which I was, and I learned,
a similar thing happens where the record company
kind of reaches
in and pulls out some songs and sends them off to the you know hot producer of the moment Butch Vig
and has him do some right mixing but like just because he's had a hit over there doesn't you know
this is a weird kind of approach sometimes that labels record execs could have not that there's
they're all bad some of those people are
very talented and really adept and sensitive at what they do but some just don't have a clue
but it is it also leads to an interesting debate on like like okay so let's take an album like
never mind okay so nirvana had a big album there right right? Yeah. Wow. But the question is, okay, so Nirvana, they write the songs,
they play the instruments.
They're their songs.
Then you get the Butch Vig treatment or whatever.
But how much of Nevermind's credit goes to a Butch Vig versus, you know,
a Kurt Cobain?
Like, where is the division there?
And can you just apply that producer to another band and then have a big album like Nevermind?
I don't think you can.
I mean, I think it's dangerous to think
that there is some kind of special,
I mean, there maybe is special formulas.
You hear about those people.
Yeah, it's this person
and I've written all these hits for all these people
and there are producers, I think,
that have a kind of consistency of the way they work.
But I think it can also be a very flawed thing
to just think, you know,
well, there's this piece of work that people have been working on,
but now we're going to send it over here
and hopefully that person will, you know,
this idea of fix it in the mix or...
Yeah, I don't know.
That's the part of the music biz uh that would make me
feel a bit crazy like i can't stand it i could see that and where's the exit because this no
longer is about music it seems so much about trying to fabricate manipulate some kind of hit. And I, it's an interesting question.
Like where does one end?
It's interesting.
It's like, you know,
Daniel Lanois.
So, okay.
So, you talked about
the Tragically Hip
and is it Don Smith?
Don Smith is the producer
that really helped
make the Tragically Hip.
I'm going to say,
speaking of Paul Lanois,
there's another Lanois for you. But I believe, it'd be Don Smith is the producer that helps make the Tragic Clip. I'm going to say, speaking of Paul Langlois, there's another Langlois for you,
but I believe it'd be Don Smith as the producer
that helps make the sound of the Tragic Clip.
But meanwhile, if you talk to the lowest of the low,
Don Smith produced their follow-up to Shakespeare, My Butt,
and they absolutely hated that experience so passionately
that they did stop liking their own songs
because of the bad experience they had making that album
with the same guy who kind of made the
Tread Clip. So absolutely, you can't just take
a Butch Vig, apply it to a Crash Vegas
and all this thing. Well, to even be fair,
Butch was not the producer
of that record. He mixed.
He mixed. But there was
John Porter
was the producer. And again,
we had selected him because of
his, you know, he'd been the bass player in Roxy Music.
He had produced this Canadian record.
There was a band called Circle C.
Do you know them at all?
I feel like I know Circle C.
Can you sing some Circle C?
No, but they made this record,
which I don't remember the name of.
I thought it was just such a brilliant record.
And so, oh, John Porter did that.
We've got to work with him.
And to me, it wasn't the right fit, if I'm perfectly honest.
I like things about Stone.
It's hard to, especially when people who listen and support your music might love it.
The last thing I'd want to do is... But it was a difficult record.
Whereas Red Earth, it seemed...
Even though you could have challenges in it,
it seemed like we were all the right people
with the same kind of mind,
like ushering this thing into being.
Whereas Stone, it was different.
And I think if Bill Graham had been there...
Anyways.
I didn't realize the Bill Graham.
This is interesting to me.
You're right.
Like this is a twist of fate.
Maybe Bill would have pulled the plug.
And we could have shifted a bit.
And then like I couldn't, you know.
But it does set in motion a whole bunch.
It's like you need to, I don't know if there's a sliding doors thing here
where you go and Bill doesn't get on that helicopter.
Like what events would it take?
This is your champion, right?
This is Bill Graham, champion of Crash Vegas.
If he had lived beyond October 1991,
what would it have became of Crash Vegas?
We'll never know.
It's just fascinating to sort of think about
where things shifted and changed as a result of that.
Yeah, it is.
It's interesting.
So Stone... For the next two hours, I want to talk Yeah, it is. It's interesting. So Stone...
For the next two hours,
I want to talk about the alternate universe.
I'm sorry.
So Stone,
no, you continue your thoughts on Stone.
I have to do a little mop-up and get back to Stone
because I want to play a song from Stone.
I'm going to do the mop-up here.
So I want to shout out Cam Gordon.
He actually sent in a question,
which I asked.
I stole it from Cam.
I was going to ask it anyways.
But it was a gathering of the tribes.
I would love to know how they got booked on this show in 1990.
It was curated by Ian Asprey.
So, like, we did that.
Thank you, Bill Graham, for your influence there.
Although I have my own theory that somehow,
I want to say that because there was a Langlois and a Daniel Langlois
and a Hamilton connection,
and Ian Asprey had the Hamilton connection,
there was a Hamilton reason for Crash Vegas.
Like, this is my own conspiracy theory
that I have no proof.
This is all speculation.
It could just be an interesting coincidence.
Of course.
Because by then we are managed by Bill.
But I think Jocelyn had a crush on Ian.
Well, a lot of, so did I, I think.
Who knows?
Yeah, yeah.
Scott Turner. Do you know the name scott turner yeah he was at cfny
when did they shuffle him out of there they probably shuffled him out there in the early
or fairly early maybe 90 well he was in their early 90s so scott turner he was uh posting about
uh toronto concert history he does this and he did 30 days ago tonight. This is on November 1st. So he says,
on November 1st, 1993,
Radiohead played RPM.
I believe it was
their second Toronto show
after playing Edgefest
that summer.
If someone could confirm
if they played RPM
or Opera House,
Crash Vegas opened.
So you're just here
to tell us,
was it RPM?
He's not sure if it was...
RPM.
RPM.
Okay.
So Scott,
this answers your question you've had for 30 years,
whether that concert took place at RPM or the Opera House.
It was RPM.
I think.
You just ruined everything, Michelle.
No, it's RPM.
Okay.
More mop-up here.
I think this is kind of interesting.
VPSLs wrote in and said,
As a student between third and fourth year university,
I worked at the Hamilton Spectator
in their multimedia lab
and got to be on stage taking video of Crash Vegas
as they played at the Festival of Friends.
Do you know what that is, Festival of Friends?
Is that in Guelph?
I want to say it's in Hamilton.
Like why is Hamilton Spectator going to Guelph? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, right. I feel say it's in Hamilton. Like why is a Hamilton spectator going to Guelph?
Oh yeah,
yeah,
yeah.
Right.
I feel like it's in Hamilton.
It's yeah.
Do you have memories of the festival of friends?
It sounds familiar,
but I'm afraid I,
uh,
I don't know.
Michelle,
get the hell out of my basement.
Okay.
What are you here for?
Okay.
I don't need you.
I'm just going to read Wikipedia for the next half an hour here.
Nice. Okay. Let's get, just read Wikipedia for the next half an hour here. Nice.
Okay.
Let's get it.
Just kidding, everybody.
All right.
Let me play.
I played Smoke, right?
So let me play this. Flashy suit, cosmic world
Dancing in my head
Funny how I still remember things he said He said Now you're gone
The hours
Pass slow
Love hurts the worst
When you gotta let go
Cheap motel
I'm a heavy desert
Lying face down
September morning
It's 73
The day they found you
Empty bottles 73, the day they found you.
Empty bottles, over two numbers.
Burnt and gone.
I love some angel, lost in the morning sun.
Tell me what to do.
Why did I close the door? September morning.
We should just get our plaid shirts on.
It's nice.
No, yeah, totally like a country rocker. Was there a rivalry between you guys and Cowboy Junkies?
Did you guys get along?
No, I never really felt that no i do people feel that
um i'm gonna start a few i like to start the odd you know canada rock stand them oh yeah um
michael timmons on to trash talk you i just remember the producer pulling me aside at one
point and saying you know who's he was English, you know,
you should think about going solo
and doing country.
Just straight country.
And I remember just like,
like, that's not what I want to hear right now.
I don't want to do that.
I have to go solo now
and be the next Canada's Dolly Parton.
Like, what? Okay, this is a song. So this, I was reading the song. Yeah. I have to go solo now and be the next Canada's Dolly Parton or whatever. Like what?
Okay, this is a song.
So this,
I was reading the song.
Who wrote this song?
I did with Colin.
Colin Cripps.
Okay.
And this is a tribute
to Graham Parsons.
It is.
I'm telling you
what your song is about.
Yeah, thank you.
I'm mansplaining to you
what September Morning
is about here.
Did you read that book?
No.
By Rebecca Solnit?
Did you?
Yeah.
Can you give me the highlights
so I can talk like I read it?
Well, it just talks about
mansplaining.
It's a kind of critique
of all things like that.
Can I ask you a question then?
Sure.
There was a young woman
who was on sports radio.
She was like a sports media personality.
Very young woman.
And sports media in this country is very male dominated.
That's sort of an aside.
But this woman was here and I gave her what I'm going to give you right now.
So I'm going to give you a large frozen lasagna from Palma Pasta.
Oh my God.
Do you like lasagna?
Oh yeah.
I love to eat and I like Italian food.
My son will really like that.
How old is your son?
20.
I have a 21-year-old son and he also enjoys palma pasta.
He'll probably eat the whole thing himself.
He does a lot.
He shares a mom.
Okay, that's cool.
So you are getting a palma pasta lasagna.
Wow, thank you.
That's really nice.
But this is about a young woman on the show.
We'll call her Ashley, let's say, okay?
And I gave her the lasagna,
but at the beginning of that promotion,
I would often tell people how to make it.
Like now I don't do that,
but because I got scared off by this moment,
but I said, I would say,
oh, you just put it in the oven at 375 Fahrenheit,
put it in for 45 minutes. I said, it's going to be perfect. Like I just said that
like a line like that. And she sort of
looked at me like angrily and she said,
did you just mansplain to me how to make lasagna?
So my question to you
Michelle McAdory is,
I actually didn't consider her gender
when I said it, nor did I consider my gender.
I merely thought I should give
this like advice on how to make this
lasagna I was giving you
from Palma Pasta.
Was that mansplaining?
See, this is not silence
because there's music in the background.
I wouldn't have thought that, but
you know, I come from
maybe a different generation.
Is that part of it?
Well, maybe.
She is younger than I am.
I'm younger than us.
But I don't know.
But I've never given that advice since.
So you'll figure out how to make that on your own.
You're on your own.
But you are getting the lasagna.
But you did just actually tell me.
That's my secret side door activity here.
So there you go.
You can ponder that.
How did the rest of that interview go?
Not so good, Al.
Most of my conversations go pretty well,
but that one, there weren't a lot of warm fuzzies there for some reason.
I don't think she quite dug me, but that's okay.
You're digging me.
Speaking of Dugs, there's a Doug iverson who is reviewing uh your album stone
which has that lovely september morning on it and his quote that i was reading is that you guys um
juiced up cowboy junkies that's the quote you guys were juiced up cowboy junkies
so maybe uh that's where a lot of the cowboy junkies comparison comes from. Maybe.
It's hard to know.
I mean, I think that people can, you know, people make assumptions or comparisons.
Sometimes it's just easy because something is, you know, close by, proximity.
Toronto, there's a little guitar influence in there.
You'd like to think you're your own thing.
Sure.
But there's a way, I guess,
sometimes if someone's introducing you to something else,
they'll sometimes use the comparison like a tool
to locate something, I guess.
When you're writing the songs on stone,
how much of the breakup of Greg Keeler
is seeping its way into the music?
I think it was.
I certainly was feeling it.
Yeah, yeah.
I felt like the whole earth was kind of mirroring things.
When we were down in L. LA, there was a major flood,
there was an earthquake, and then a riot.
Right.
I got out just in time before they shut the airport down.
Wow.
Yeah.
So it just felt like, yeah, it was the mirror of my internal landscape.
It all had become externalized.
Just to go back for a moment,
Festival of Friends is an annual Hamilton thing.
And I did find the lineup from 1995 and you are indeed on it.
So I figured this out on that lineup.
I won't name them all.
There's literally dozens there,
but I am going to on Saturday,
I'm going to see the Sky Diggers perform and they were on the bill in 1995.
That's cool.
Yeah.
And also...
Here's a good thing.
Yeah.
All right.
So have you seen Blue Rodeo recently?
Fairly recently at the amphitheater.
I don't know when that was.
In the last 18 months,
I've seen Blue Rodeo a lot.
Are you aware of a song that Greg does
called Disappear or whatever?
Of course.
Okay.
And he goes into...
He does that preamble.
Yeah.
Right?
About the sand dollars yeah
right okay so that's me so i'm in la you know i don't want to see greg i don't want to talk to him
okay because we're in that breakup thing sure and so you know he's like oh can we meet and i
reluctantly i'm like yeah i know i'm gonna take him to Zuma Beach because that's where I like to go.
So I take him down there.
And finally, I get to tell the story, right?
So, yeah, but it is kind of true that I kept reaching into the ocean
and pulling out sand dollars.
He couldn't do it.
He kept trying.
And then I'd be like, oh, look, here's another one.
I pulled out like, I don't know, four, five, zero
for Greg. And then
yeah, this whole disappear thing.
I love it. I just want to point out that some people
are like, oh, you know, why do you need to talk
for an hour with somebody? It's because that's when you get
that story. That story doesn't come out
until you've been chatting with somebody for an hour.
You know, that's how it works. You don't just open
with that. Like you got to get comfy, get a little
trust going, you're going to chat. An hour in, you're going to be okay, I got just open with that. Like you got to get comfy, get a little trust going here, get chat.
And now we're in,
you're going to be,
okay, I got a story for you.
That's the goal, right?
Yeah, that's the goal.
Also of interest is that
on that Festival of Friends in 1995,
that the VP of sales was videotaping,
whatever he was doing,
was also Molly Johnson was on the bill.
Do you have a relationship
of any nature with Molly Johnson?
I don't currently, but I sure
remember some of the very first
shows that we ever did, like trying to test
out Crash Vegas, the early, early days
at the back of the Cameron, and
Molly would be living upstairs,
and she would come down and
like, oh, very encouraging.
Hey guys, that sounds really good. Keep
going. She was just always
really sweet. One more name, because I was chatting with somebody about him hey guys that sounds really good keep going you know she's just always really uh sweet
one more name because i was chatting with somebody about him last week ashley mckissick
sure did you have any yeah he was on the bill as well any uh any ashley mckissick stories
no ashley mckissick stories no ended up, when I start making solo records,
working with someone who had worked with him.
But I don't recall ever having the pleasure.
Okay.
So as we leave Stone, by the way, do you drink beer?
What about the 20-year-old?
Does he drink beer?
Yeah, he does.
Okay, okay.
So you're bringing home for the 20-year-old,
you're bringing home some fresh craft beer from Great Lakes Brewery.
He's going to love his mama coming home with lasagna and beer.
It's going to be a big hit.
And, of course, a measuring tape from Ridley Funeral Home.
That's the green thing.
You never know.
You've got to measure something.
It's going to come in handy.
Michelle's very excited about this.
It is.
This song, you mentioned Neil Young earlier. I'm going to just play this
song as a bridge from, see how
smart I am, from Stone to
Aurora, which by the way,
VP of Sales, who we've already talked about quite a bit,
says is one of his favorite 90s
CanCon albums. Like he's got his
90s CanCon album chart, and
Aurora is right up there. So to
bridge us from Stone
to Aurora is right up there. So to bridge us from Stone to Aurora is this song right here.
Aurora Borealis
The icy sky at night
The paddles cut the water
In a long and hurrying fight
From the white man
To the fields of green
And the homeland
We've never seen
They killed us in a teepee
And they cut our women down
They might have left some babies
Crying on the ground
But the fire sticks
And the wagons come
And the night falls
On the setting sun
Michelle, do you have any memory at all
of a band called One Free Fall?
Does this at all ring any bells at all?
It's interesting.
When you say that, there's...
One free fall. So, one free fall.
Okay. There's a guy named Scott McAuliffe.
Oh, yeah.
Well, he was never in One Free Fall. So, Scott McAuliffe was in
Doughboys. Shout out to Montreal's
Doughboys. Yeah, Doughboys.
They kicked him out. Josh Kastner
kicked out Scott McCullough.
Why?
I don't know.
He wasn't showing up or something.
Something was going down.
I got the story from Scott, but I can't remember.
So Scott gets kicked out of Doughboys.
This is before the big shine and all the big hits from Doughboys.
So Scott comes to Toronto from Montreal,
and he becomes friends with a guy named Ken McNeil.
Ken McNeil was the lead singer for one free fall.
They form rusty.
Right.
So there you go.
Why do I bring that up?
Because Art Bergman performed on a one free fall song that made its way to
borrow tunes,
which was of course the tribute album to Neil Young.
Another great song and borrow tunes is this cover of Pocahontas
by...
Neil Young.
Oh, you mean our cover,
Crush Vegas.
Crush Vegas.
Yeah, yeah.
I was amazed
at the amount
of musicians
that would credit me
with, like,
that I wrote this song.
Oh, they think this is your song.
And I was like,
have you not heard?
You know, so anyways.
Yeah, I was surprised by that.
But, you know, people go through catalogs in different ways.
I was obsessive about Neil Young.
I love Neil Young too.
And this album, this Burrow Tunes is fascinating.
I feel like there's a deeper dive here we should do.
This came out in 1994, but it's worth noting. So all these names
are all interconnected, of course, because Canada's such a
small little village, but
you were the fourth track on
disc one. There's two discs. This is
Out of the Blue, disc one.
And you guys are sandwiched between
Jan Arden and Lawrence Gowan.
Amazing.
Who covered Heart of Gold, and Gowan
is an FOTM and Jan's not.
So what the fuck, Jan?
Okay.
But this is amazing.
So they just, the label asked you?
Because I feel like this is the gateway to this next album, Aurora, because of the label switch.
You had some bad luck with labels.
Am I right?
Yeah, we changed.
It was musical chairs with labels after London.
Then this was now back to Sony.
I should have,
I should have like raised some shit at Sony about that other stuff way,
way back when.
Why are you thinking of this now?
I don't know.
I got to call someone.
I'm going to do it.
Or if anyone out there can like,
okay,
get in touch.
I need management.
I need lawyers.
I need the whole thing.
A time machine.
Yeah.
That's what you need,
Michelle.
Okay.
So you end up on Sony?
Yes.
But this song comes first, right?
Like where is it in the order of things?
Because this is a Sony,
this is a Sony tribute album to Neil Young sort of.
Like Sony music is key in this borrowed tunes somehow.
Like there's a connection there.
Yeah.
I, I did they,
I guess they are the ones who were were i don't even know how actually that
record but there is a sony music canada link to the you know aforementioned borrowed tunes which
is a tribute album to neil young if i ran down i mean blue rodeo is on this thing you ever heard
of them holy smokes okay but this maybe this is how you end up on Sony. It's exactly what happened. We were invited to come in and do a song,
and then they were so into the song,
they said, would you make a record?
It sounded great.
Did you write that song, Pocahontas?
Oh, yeah.
You should just take credit for it.
Oh, yeah.
Be like, yeah, that's my song.
You know, deal with it.
I would do that.
Shout out to, I'm going to shout out just a couple.
So, by the way, Cowboy Junkies also on the Borrowed Tunes.
They're just following you everywhere.
But I just want to say the FOTM's on there.
So Mark Jordan is on there.
He's an FOTM.
FOTM, by the way, you know, what's Mike talking about?
Friend of Toronto Mike, you're now an FOTM.
Fantastic.
Do you have shirts?
Note to self, get shirts.
And just make one and send it to Michelle.
Because she might wear it.
Okay.
I will. Oh, Malcolm Burns on here too. This is wild, the connections here.
Real statics. Bourbon Tabernacle Choir is on this thing.
Everybody knows this is nowhere. Stephen Fearing, he's been over.
That ties into Colin Linden, but that also ties into my good friend Tom Wilson from Junkhouse. And I feel this is a time
to mention Junkhouse,
who I'm going to see on December 2nd at the Horseshoe Tavern.
You want to,
want to be my date?
yeah,
yeah,
I'll go with you.
And this shirt.
Yeah,
television.
Also have a connection to Hamilton.
Don't they?
Well,
he,
he just passed away.
Like maybe,
maybe in the last 18 months,
last 12,
12 months.
Didn't the drummer, trying'm trying to think, was the drummer?
The drummer of television has a Hamilton connection.
Yeah.
Does he?
Or is it just that Dave Rave was from Hamilton and knew that?
Ogilvy, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Dave Ogilvy.
Okay.
So here we are.
Billy.
Billy.
Is the drummer.
Yeah.
Fica. Right. Okay. Is the drummer. Yeah. Fika.
Right.
Where's he from?
Brooklyn.
I'm going to tell you right now where this guy is from.
This guy is from Delaware.
But, well, you don't know.
Maybe he visited Hamilton once or twice.
I'm just looking here.
So, yeah.
So Tom passed away like very recently.
Tom Verlaine.
I got to see them at their last show here.
Amazing. Yeah, it was amazing. amazing so i'm a huge television fan yeah well dave rave is your hammer guy so yeah and i think
he i think that's what it was is that he knew billy um maybe they even i got it here okay
is that what it was well yes okay drummer billy was featured on album an album by dave rave that's
what it is so they were connected good job see that's this is great the longer we talk the more
we're going to unveil here very good now i mentioned tom wilson because uh what you were
signed what is it sony wanted to get some like cool bands, basically. Exactly. They needed the cred.
Yeah.
So you and Junk House to the rescue.
Is that right?
Yeah, that's what it was.
Come on to the Horseshoe on December 2nd and see Junk House.
You'd have a good time.
Wow, it's going to be Junk House.
Cool.
Will Colin be playing?
Well, maybe.
I can't go then.
I can't commit to that.
Yeah, you and me.
All right.
We'll go somewhere else. Okay, I'm in. I can't commit to that. Yeah, you and me. All right?
We'll go somewhere else.
Okay.
I'm in.
We'll go to the Rivoli.
Neil Young's playing a private party for me. Yeah, yeah.
Okay, thanks.
I'll pay your date.
It's going to cost us.
You got $2 million we can put together for that?
We'll bring him some lasagna and stuff.
Stunned deal.
Thank you to Palma Pasta here.
I just realized when they're signing all these cool bands,
and I mentioned, I shouted out Junkhouse,
but Our Lady Peace was on the list.
You must know this, that Our Lady Peace was one of the bands
Sony signed to up their cred there.
Okay.
Okay.
Do you remember playing Edgefest in 1993?
I don't know that I remember it particularly.
You mentioned the hip earlier,
so we can shout out another roadside attraction.
You were on the bill with Midnight Oil and Hot House Flowers.
Yeah, that was a fantastic tour.
It was so much fun.
Did you get to know Gore Downie personally?
Yes.
And sadly, since I'll never get him on,
he's passed away, as we all know,
because the nation was in mourning.
We still are, potentially.
I learned a guy, I was in Montreal,
and I learned that their,
this is going to sound kind of weird to say out loud, actually,
but their Gord Downie just passed away.
They had a big French music band, Tremblay.
Yeah, I heard that.
And at 47, he just died of cancer.
And I mean, I'm telling you straight up i don't know
this band at all but uh these french language band massive in quebec yeah and around the world
yep i i followed that too and so uh yeah my heart's with quebec losing their gourd downy here
exactly but gourd uh any any memories of Gord? Sure
Gord and I love just
hanging out talking about literature
I was
there was lots of humor
I remember because I'm into sports
but they would
joke and say okay Michelle show me
how you hold a hockey stick
and I guess exactly that's the laugh that happened as I'd like try to,
you know,
mine the hockey stick.
I sure,
but no,
my,
I'm more like,
I'm quite obsessive about basketball and baseball at times,
but really right now I'd say it's like a huge basketball era for me.
The past years
and years just basketball
basketball amazing I didn't know that
that's cool I like basketball too
I like sports in general
but you didn't know how to hold a hockey stick
no so anyways and that would be
funny but you know it was about
here have your making me a
peanut butter jelly sandwich
after the show
just hanging out talking music and books and Here, have your making-me-a-peanut-butter-jelly-sandwich-after-the-show,
just hanging out, talking music and books. And, yeah, just really thoughtful, thoughtful, kind human. The sparks can burn your hand
Loudspeaker sends a sound
Shoots you out
Just like a satellite
on and on and on and on
tell me what is it
charges them up far beyond the alcohol
you can come and burn the rug to cinders
On and on and on and on
Late December sitting on this balcony
Watching the red stars flickering from afar
Earth is tilted, the whole sky shifted
On and on and on and on
My feet keep walking
So this is from Aurora.
Here's a quote from Dabnett Doyle.
Also been over, but she said,
she wrote in her book that
when she moved to Toronto from Newfoundland
in the mid-90s,
she'd play this song over and over and over again
with her friends,
and then she'd eventually cover this song with Shea.
I know, I heard that and
that's such a cool thing. I love that idea.
Like the fact that you write something and it goes out there and other people
might, I mean besides people either listening and
liking, loving something, but that they then go and do a version of it. That's
really amazing. Do you think this might be your second biggest hit would this be number two i think it's number
three okay what's number two uh inside out and smoke right we're i guess from that first record
and then yes i guess it would be, other than also the cover of the...
Pocahontas, the song you wrote?
Yeah, our version.
Who is in the band now?
You'd be surprised.
You would be shocked.
The people who think you wrote that.
The musicians that said,
that was an amazing song you wrote, the lyrics.
The scary thing is,
Colin Cripps thinks you wrote that song,
so that's what concerns me.
Okay. I'm going to text
Tom and tell him Colin can't be in
Junkhouse on December 2nd when I come
with you. So
who's in the band now? I've lost track
because you and Colin are still there
but is everyone else gone?
No, it's Eric Chenault
and Gavin Brown who's like Mr.
Big Producer Man.
Okay, so what's going on?
You're having difficulty keeping personnel in this band.
Yeah, you know, it's interesting what was going on.
It's like a vibe thing.
Again, chemistry.
Someone wants to do something else, this, that.
So you just make the changes.
And, yeah, that's what happened
okay but meanwhile this is on
high rotation on much music
and this is getting a lot of
airplay in this country but what about outside the borders
of Canada they don't even know this song
happened right on and on Lodestar
this is Canada only was there
something's going on with distributing
how do you say that word, distributing this album
beyond the borders of the great white north here?
Yeah, I mean, a lot of this comes down to, you know,
who's your team, what are the politics at the label,
like there's so many other things at play.
You can have great songs, music,
but if you don't have the full team
pulling levers, you know.
I mean, there's so many different ways. Now, of course,
people can go online, post something
and whatever. It goes viral, I guess.
I hear about this.
You needed Bill Graham.
I did.
He's right here. The light came on.
And that is a true story.
The light did come on when we were talking about
Bill Graham here. I didn't write. And that is a true story. People can make you mad. The light did come on when we were talking about Bill Graham here.
I didn't write down
who wrote this,
but somebody,
oh, no,
let's save it for the solo.
We got a little bit more
of a solo time.
Maybe that's cool with you.
Yeah.
I do want to just give you
another gift here
before I go beyond
Crash Vegas
and find out why
Crash Vegas crashes
and burns.
What's going on?
This is a wireless speaker
courtesy of Mineris
and Michelle,
you bring that home. You can listen. Yeah, you you can listen to uh man when am i coming back again what are you doing
tomorrow okay that's why does manaris want you to have a speaker well they want you to be happy
you can listen to anything you want but you also should definitely listen to season five of yes we
are open because award-winning podcaster al grego has been, he went east this time.
So Maritimes and Newfoundland,
and he talks to small business owners and he collects their great stories
and he shares them with us on the podcast, the free podcast.
Yes, we are open to inspire the heck out of us.
That's the kind of good work they're doing at Moneris
and that's what Al is doing and that's why you have a wireless speaker.
Wow, thank you.
Again. You're speechless. I like the silence.
That's right. It's amazing.
Can I give you something?
Yes, you can. Is it the right time?
Yeah, sure. There's no script here.
Alright, here you go.
How dare you interrupt me?
Okay, Michelle, I'm going to play by play. This is for you.
Oh, thank you so much. Okay, I'm going
to play. You know what? Because I have this in my hand and because I'm going to play by play. This is for you. Oh, thank you so much. Okay, I'm going to play.
You know what?
Because I have this in my hand and because I'm going to do this right now.
I am playing a song for this album.
It's called Into Her Future.
And this will be a fantastic segue to your solo life.
And there you are in the back.
Thank you very much.
You're welcome. Found a window that looked right out into her future
Saw it clear as crystal when the light makes rainbows off its tips.
She to dip her hand and steal water from an open well.
Making a dash for hills These hills were actually mountains
Kept moving over the slippery fields
Of tears and rain
Sewed herself a silver thread
and returned forever changed
This life
blows by This life goes by like a fast wind.
Michelle, this is beautiful.
Into Her Future.
Thanks.
You wrote this song.
I did.
Do I hear some Greg Keeler on this song Greg uh yeah he helped bring
this record into being uh yeah he was it was really great I was like going through so much
uh oh my god it was such a time but so I had all these songs and just going out to greg's place which
is where i'd originally lived in the ones but like left way back when but anyways here we are again
so we're pals and how did you become pals again well because you know we i don't know about you
mike but like how many of your exes are you friends with?
Like friends, friends?
Like let's go see Junkhouse at the Horseshoe Tavern?
Yeah, or, you know, different.
Mostly I have had friendships after.
There's a couple of, but anyway, so Greg and I have always been just kind of more like family and good to each other, even though, you know, he might have.
I broke his heart way back when, and then he, I guess, tried to retaliate in some way.
And then, but anyway, I'm glad he's not here.
Maybe you should get us both here sometime.
But we've just always maintained.
That's an episode right there.
Yeah, a friendship
and a very good friendship
and so yeah
he had this set up at his place
which he doesn't anymore
but where I guess Blue Rodeo
had been recording there, different people
lots of people had been making records at his place
I made my first solo record there
Whirl
Where is this place?
It's about an hour east of
the city.
It's just my water.
As long as it's not the beer.
Yeah, no. Oops, I started
drinking one.
Anyways, so yeah, like an hour east
of the city and
it's just a really comfortable place.
It doesn't feel like a
recording studio in the classic sense.
So yeah, he was very instrumental in this record being born.
I like hearing this.
I'm so happy he helped birth this album of yours.
Absolutely.
So okay, well let's say goodbye to your band here
because we need some closure here.
So why does Crash Vegas come to an end?
Truthfully?
No, lie to me.
I think Colin and I were feeling a kind of divergence of aesthetic kind of direction. I also felt very disillusioned, I'd say, with
with the just the way how we were going about things, music business. And I think Colin,
I don't want to speak for him, but I think he also wanted to go in a different direction.
And so it just, you know, it was one of those things
where it was kind of sad,
but also felt really like the right thing at the time.
Now earlier you made a little aside comment
about is Colin going to be there
because he was going to be in Junk House
and Junk House, I'm going to see Junk House.
But was that a joke or is that
like, can you guys,
are you guys friendly? Are you civil?
What's going on with Colin Crooks and Michelle Magna?
We need to know. Canada Music Scene needs to know.
We would be friendly.
Okay. It would all be fake, but we would be
friendly.
No, we would be friendly.
We would be friendly. Okay.
We had a reunion.
Tell me about the reunion.
We, basically, Warners decided to re-release Red Earth.
And so, as a result of that, we did a reunion show at the Danforth Music Hall.
And that was really fun.
What year was this?
That would have been 2017, I think.
Okay.
Yeah. All right.
I think so.
By the way, just before we say goodbye to Aurora,
I want to shout out FOTM John Borah.
He's on that album, right?
John Borah, exactly.
He played all over Aurora, and so did great drummer...
Mike Slosky.
Mike Slosky.
Fantastic drummer.
Okay.
Oh, my God.
He was so great.
So, yeah, Gavin and Eric would be the touring band.
They didn't play on the record, but John and Mike Slasky did.
You played in Change of Heart for a little while.
Ian Blurton's stories for me? What's going on?
No, I don't. He is.
I'm afraid I don't have any stories other than
just sort of being, you know,
I remember... For your return, I just want...
I know you don't have any, but collect
Ian Blurton's stories and just come back and share them.
Alright, I'll go. I'll start calling
or, you know, figure out where he is. You can produce the Ian Blurton. Well, he's been share them. All right, I'll go. I'll start calling or figure out where he is. Do a little bit.
You can produce the Ian Blurton.
Well, he's been on, but I want to get the perspective
from others here. Okay. I do not
know who wrote this, but somebody said,
I bought Whirl in 2000
when it first came out. An astonishing record
that is still one of my favorites.
Wow. Well, thank you.
Okay. So what, so like
obviously when Crash Vegas comes to an end and you and Colin go your separate
ways or whatnot, you decide, I'm just going to,
I don't know if you're going to make country music obviously,
but you're going to go solo.
Yeah. Yeah. I start, I go freight train riding and, uh,
Ride in the rails.
I do. I do. I had a friend who was doing that i couldn't believe it
and then he's like all right come along like a hobo well he he's an artist but yeah i guess
you could say like or like you have that stick with the bag at the end like a poet like al purdy
um it just seemed like it was something that happened in another era and some other
yeah universe but the fact that it happened and I've always had an obsession about trains, because I used to ride
them when I was really little to go see my grandmother.
Where did your grandmother live? Woodstock. And I had another grandmother
who would take me to Niagara Falls, so I would, like, trains were just
just love them. So I got to
ride some freight trains, and and then I remember recording sounds
actually this is funny so Sarah McLaughlin I'm now solo and she's like okay I'm gonna put together
this festival Lilith Fair will you come and be on you know play Lilith Fair and I'm like oh yeah
of course I'll come wow thank you so meanwhile I have these new songs but i decide i'm gonna open
with my spoken word piece and i have this loop of crazy recorded freight train sounds
and so i remember i knew the sound guy thank god and he like the soundtrack was wild and it's in a
big stadium and uh i just remember
looking at people who were like what the hell's happening and i'm reciting my poetry that's
amazing it's kind of amazing actually that's kind of amazing and of course you know what happened
to her neil young had a uh i don't know if i think he might have sold a bunch of it but he had a
massive like model train collection yeah just bringing it all back to Neil.
That's what I do right now.
Exactly.
And you also know this, Michelle,
because you are a talented musician in the city of Toronto,
but you know that you cannot jump a jet plane
like you can a freight train.
Like, you know this.
This is just a fact.
Yeah, you can't.
No.
Okay, so I love the idea of you riding the rails.
Like, this is like, and this is pre-sun, right?
I'm doing the math in my head. Yes, that's right. I have, so I love the idea of you riding the rails. And this is pre-sun, right? I'm doing the math in my head.
Yes, that's right.
So I mentioned I have kids.
They ruin everything.
You can't be riding rails all the time.
When you got a kid, you got to feed and take care of it.
It really does mess everything up.
But you have that period of time pre-kid where you can ride the rails.
Yeah, it was amazing.
It was amazing.
It was an important thing to do. whirl came out of that time and um i'm really happy about world so thank you for the i wish i
wrote down who said that yeah that was nice um because i really liked that record of it was an
important record it was the first record I made post-Crash Vegas.
And I did that with Eric Chenault.
Actually, we did it at Greg's.
And Greg plays on it.
He plays on Mona.
Does he play on anything else?
I don't know if he does.
But he plays drums, actually.
Okay.
Yeah.
And on the song Mona, which is a really cool song and um it was just an important record for me to make because it was the first one sure sure and it's all you now this is
this is michelle macadori niece of bob macadori that's what it said in the smaller font right
underneath michelle macadori that's right who as your mom would say come on big honestly and then again again i know i'm from
global i know back to bob that's how we close a full circle almost uh perfect circle chalk circle
chalk circle chris wardman produced that album of april fool and he was the guy from blue peter
so it all comes back okay also produced fluke for rusty which one of the great albums of all time.
Wow, amazing.
Fluke by Rusty.
Okay, so shout out to Chris Wardman,
also been on this program.
But, and it doesn't even matter where I was going
because I just want to shout out one more podcast here.
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Michelle McAdory pursue your most important goals,
which might be riding the rail.
Now he's 20.
You can ride those rails again.
Yeah, I think it's
changed it's well i probably could somewhere but i don't know well yeah uh it has changed because i
wanted to last year i went to visit my daughter in montreal i took via rail and uh this year it
was going to be 250 bucks a person to get to Montreal and back and it actually it just didn't
make sense like financially because uh I ended up borrowing a car and getting there on the 401
because it was gonna you know six of us going 250 a pop it just became kind of ridiculous so
it's not the same as it used to be riding the rails it's too bad it's such a great way to travel i know that when i go up north like the northlander
northland line they they stopped that and uh there's talk of it coming back i hope it comes
back oh you reminded me of a place i want to go before we say goodbye but i want to read uh a note
that came in from pt players p Players says, we need another Crash Vegas reunion
and a new album from Michelle,
still enjoying Into Her Future.
How long ago did Into Her Future,
I'm holding it right now, vinyl,
thank you very much, Michelle,
but how old is this album now?
That album came out late 2016.
So I had hoped to start making something new
like 2020
but we all know what happened then
so
I'm working on something
you're actively working on a new
album I want to make the announcement right here
I haven't started recording it yet
but I'm in some
rehearsals and working on all these
songs that I love
I don't know I can't say it you can't say it yet I'm in some rehearsals and working on all these songs. Any special guests?
I don't know.
I can't say it.
You can't say it yet.
Will it be produced by Greg Keeler?
I don't know.
I can't say it.
It should be decided.
Okay.
Do you have a title for this album yet?
It hasn't come to me yet.
It hasn't come to you yet.
Okay.
But this is something that we might be able to hear in 2024.
That would be amazing.
I wonder if I can get it together that fast.
Yeah.
I want to know if I can make the call on that.
I want to say that maybe you come back in about a year to unveil like a
listener party.
We play the new album,
we talk about it and we catch up and then we can find out what happened with
Ontario place because I do follow you on Twitter and I want to close with
this because one of the main,
are they called architects?
What do they call the people who, planners?
Organizers? No, they plan parks and stuff. He worked on Chilean parking.
City planners? Whatever they do. These important
people who plan public space
and stuff. He quit the team
he said that
they would be cutting down 800
trees to build the private spa.
And he says, if you want to be back to nature,
the trees will do far more good than the private spa.
This is all obvious stuff.
And I've been ranting and raving on Twitter about this for a while
because I can't believe we're going to spend taxpayer money.
I can't believe the private spa is going to go on Ontario Place site.
Hey, go put it on somewhere else.
Like get off the waterfront and put it somewhere else.
I don't want it at the X.
I know this is
this sort of other proposal.
That's what they're saying, yeah.
And I just,
why stick this giant spa
in the downtown core?
It should be out.
And where does this passion come from?
That's where the smell comes off.
There's a stink on this.
Because where is this
massive passion
from this government
to have the public spa
in the first place?
Like, is there a massive outcry from Ontarians that say, we need more private spas?
Like, is this something I just miss?
I mean, I don't really know Doug Ford, but it seems to me his aesthetic is more of a kind of, you know, suburban aesthetic.
At least from Etobicoke.
You know, out, and I've been recently going back to Manhattan,
and I just, I love New York City.
It's one of my favorite places ever,
and I walk around there,
and I just think they've got a lot of things that are right.
I mean, you could critique lots of things,
but I think it's so important what we do in this city. And yeah, hopefully
we're going to preserve
that land down there and make it really
amazing. Now, he did reverse
decisions he made
regarding the Greenbelt because
they were unpopular. Because he's corrupt. Right.
He's allegedly greasy
as fuck. I just said it. Yeah, yeah.
Let's just say it now. He's allegedly
greasy as fuck. But the Ontario
place, here's my concern here before we
say goodbye, is that right now the outcry
about Ontario place is coming from
Torontonians, okay? So this land
is owned by, you know, it's Ontario's land.
So it's the province's land and Doug Ford is the
premier of Ontario. His party had the majority
for the second time, blah, blah, blah.
So Toronto being
mad about this doesn't hurt doug ford
because toronto except for where you are right now there's very very very few pockets where the mpp
in the 416 is actually from the pc party so most the overwhelming majority of toronto they went
liberal or ndp we don't typically vote in a conservative government in the 416,
except in this neighborhood you're in right now, which is another story I'll talk to you about later. But so therefore, I feel, I feel, my just anecdotal kind of observation is that Doug Ford
is less likely to act because Toronto is mad, because it won't hurt him where it matters,
which is at the polls when the next election happens.
So we really kind of need the rest of Ontario to get a sniff of this
and to start to get angry with how much, you know,
taxpayer money would be going into this private spa and parking spot on Ontario Place.
We need people beyond Toronto to say, hey, this stinks.
Exactly. I mean, I think with the attention
that the Greenbelt issue has garnered
and the fact that we've had that
integrity commissioner's report and whatnot,
and now there's being one, I guess.
There is one coming, yes.
Yeah, so maybe it's just about everything
sort of stacking up and finally people go,
okay, maybe this isn't the right approach in general. I don't know.
It's some days I feel a kind of, you know,
hopefulness and other days I get a little cynical about it, but.
Well use that when you're writing this new album.
I feel like a little like cynic-ness,
cynical-ness helps with songwriting.
I feel that's a good thing for a songwriter.
You can write a song about this.
You don't have to call it, you know,
Toronto Mike's, you can call it whatever you want,
but maybe a line or two in there about your experience.
I'm going to be teaching some song writing.
Okay, well, yeah.
What are you up to these days?
Obviously, you're working on the album,
but what else are you up to?
And how was this experience for you?
Well, it's great coming here, actually, and doing this.
I've just started to get turned on to some podcasts.
And I've listened to your podcast, Mike.
So this is great.
It's great to see you do your ads live.
That's really fun.
And what else am I doing?
Yeah, working on music and teaching a songwriting.
Anyone wants to learn songwriting through U of T?
That's cool.
At the University of Toronto Continuing Education School.
So that'll be in 2024.
Wouldn't it be funny if I take this class?
Michelle McAvoy teach me how to write a song here.
So that's cool.
I went to U of T.
I can come back and take a songwriting course.
There you go. That's it. Other than that, you T. I can come back and take a songwriting course. There you go.
That's it.
Other than that, you know, plowing away on the songs and yeah.
And making lasagna.
Yeah.
How do I do that again?
I knew you were going to ask.
Okay.
Let me explain it to you one more time, Michelle.
I can't believe I have to do this.
You know it's 375 for 45 minutes.
Okay.
Write that down. I'll write it down
for you. I'll send you an email. Oh, thank you.
Let me mansplain this to you one more
time. Okay, you got your beer, you got your lasagna,
you got your smart speaker, you got
your measuring tape. I just want
to quickly shout out
recyclemyelectronics.ca
because Michelle, if you have any old electronics
you need to get rid of, don't throw it in the garbage.
Those chemicals end up in our landfill.
It's bad for everybody, okay?
True enough.
Go to recyclemyelectronics.ca
and find a place near you
where you can drop them off to be properly recycled.
It's been accredited by the EPRA.
You can't go wrong.
That's great.
Good to know.
Do it.
And when the new album comes out, you come back here.
All right.
You understand?
And I'll give you more lasagna.
I'd love that.
And I'll explain again how to make it.
Yeah.
375,
45 minutes.
Michelle McAdory,
niece of Bob McAdory.
It was an absolute pleasure.
I loved our crash,
uh,
Vegas deep dive.
And then we got to learn about your solo work and I really enjoyed this.
Thank you for doing this.
Me too.
Thank you for having me.
And that brings us to the end of our 1,368th show.
You can follow me.
I'm on Twitter and I'm on Blue Sky.
I'm at Toronto Mike and Michelle is at M. McAdory.
That's right.
M. McAdory.
Mm-hmm.
You can hear her takes on Ontario Place and more.
You and I should chain ourselves to the trees.
Let's do it.
Although, if that will impede my ability to go visit Manhattan, I don't know.
Okay, it might.
We could be there a while.
Yeah, well, especially if I get arrested.
Right.
That's okay.
You're always thinking ahead.
That's why you're a great visionary.
That's my son's voice.
He's right. Listen to him.
Thanks to all who made this
possible.
That's Great Lakes Brewery.
That's Palma Pasta. That's
Raymond James Canada. That's Mineris.
That's Recycle My Electronics. And that's
Ridley Funeral Home.
See you all. You won't believe this, Michelle, but
later today, another Toronto mic will drop.
Wow. Featuring Jason Priestley. Jeez. Wow. You missed him believe this, Michelle, but later today, another Toronto mic will drop. Wow. Featuring Jason Priestley.
Jeez.
Wow.
You missed him by this much.
Oh, my God.
But first,
I got to pick up my youngest daughter
to get her cast removed.
She wore a cast for six weeks.
And here's my thing.
I am not certain
how long that will take.
I might be standing up,
Jason Priestley,
because I'm stuck at St. Joe's
in the fracture clinic.
He's probably been stood up before.
Shout out to Tori Spelling.
See you all soon.
I wonder who.
Yeah, I wonder who.
Maybe the ones that didn't realize there's a thousand shades of grey.
Cause I know that's true.
Yes, I do. I know it's true.
I know it's true.
How about you?
I'm picking up trash and then putting down roads.
And they're brokering stocks, the class struggle explodes.
And I'll play this guitar
Just the best that I can
Maybe I'm not
And maybe I am
But who gives a damn
Because everything is coming