Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Simon Head Kicks Out the Jams: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1497
Episode Date: May 28, 2024In this 1497th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike catches up with Simon Head while Simon kicks out the jams. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral... Home, The Advantaged Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada, The Yes, We Are Open podcast from Moneris, The Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Team and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. 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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Fuck it, we'll do it live.
We'll do it live.
Fucking dig sucks.
It's O'Reilly.
That's a great clip.
Welcome to episode 1497 of Toronto Miked, proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery,
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Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA.
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Join me on June 2nd, 2pm.
I'm throwing out the first pitch.
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This Sunday, be there.
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Season six of Yes We Are Open,
an award-winning Monaris podcast,
hosted by FOTM Al Greggo,
and Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1927. There's something subversive about you and me
There's a market value on love We're getting something for free
I don't know why but when we we're apart, something makes me want to start setting fires
and kicking down doors. I hope we never have to resort to dividing what is mine and what is yours.
Today, returning to Toronto Mike,
Today, returning to Toronto, Mike, to kick out the jams with me. It's Simon Head.
Welcome back, Simon.
It is, it's actually, I'm so stoked to be here.
I drove across town, I bought, I picked up some stuff.
I brought presents, my own presents for you.
Okay, because I'm going to give you a whole whack of stuff for making that long trek here.
I know that's a pain in the ass when people have to get across the city to visit me
But then I make it worthwhile. I give you a lot of swag
I love that and you've got stuff for me, which I love actually, but I'm playing this song on purpose
Because is today's the big day right today is the day that
Subversives the history of lowest of the low is available and you can buy it today on DVD. What's going on?
Yeah, it's on blu-ray and it's available
I didn't find out that it is on sunrise at Sunrise Records
You can pick it up coast to coast where okay cuz Cloverdale mall has a Sunrise Records and the manager is a great FOTM
Named Robert Lawson who's going to be on the mic on Sunday when I'm recording live from Christie Pitts during the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball
team baseball game Team is playing a game. They're playing a game Robert Lawson who's going to be on the mic on Sunday when I'm recording live from Christie Pitts during the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team.
The team is playing a game.
They're playing a game.
Yeah, yeah.
So I find that out.
I did a lot of my own research to find out where it's coming out and how it's coming
out and truthfully the whole thing about a Blu-ray for me was like, well, who has Blu-rays?
Who needs Blu-rays?
And what I found is people our age have kids with
Playstations and they have Blu-rays in them so you can watch it you can if you can pull the
Controller away from your kid for three minutes or hour and 51 minutes you can watch the movie on there
Also now, you know the age range of people I see at lowest of the low shows
It's vast, you know, the kids are there the grandparents are there
Shows it's vast, you know, the kids are there the grandparents are there But I'd say the core are guys like you and I gen Xers
And I feel like a good percentage of gen Xers are still watching DVDs. Am I out to lunch on that?
No, I think you're right. I truly believe that people want something to hold in their hand
That's why vinyl is so important and and now CDs eventually and cassettes and things that just so you can viscerally hold on to
I did make a book. I may I made so tangible. I made a I made a actually
printed a book to of the movie to sort of in lieu of the of the of a blu-ray and
That went really well. Actually people are really stoked about that
But then this whole thing about the blu-ray thing just came up and I was stoked
stoked about that. But then this whole thing about the
Blu-ray thing just came up and I was stoked.
Okay.
So it's, this is Blu-ray available now and you
can go to a sunrise records and there's
sunrises across this fine country.
You don't have to go to Cloverdale mall, but if
you do ask to speak to Robert Lawson and say,
I'm here to buy subversives, the history of
the lowest of the low, because I heard about it
on Toronto miked, let Robert Lawson know it.
He'll get a kick out of that.
And he's the official fact checker
of the Toronto Mic'd podcast.
Simon, we last saw each other at the concert hall.
That's right, yeah, yeah, yeah, the Lois Hello Show.
And it was good.
So tell the people, what is your day job?
So, I mean, you directed this documentary,
which I've seen and quite enjoyed,
and we'll kick out the jams
and we'll kind of talk about things between songs.
But what's your day job? I'm a production coordinator at Exhibition Place. I deal with
large and small events throughout exhibition. The space, I deal with the C&E, I deal with all the
tenants. So, Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Liberty Grand, Toronto Event Centre. I deal with a lot of things,
all things crew.
So if it's a production,
I help them bring in the right amount of crew
and make sure that they have the right amount
of unionized help.
Do you have anything to do with the upcoming
Toronto Festival of Beer?
I do not.
Okay, cause that's at the grandstand.
I just wondered if that would fall into your-
Yeah, I did the EV autonomy charging expo and then I do sort of
I'm supposed to be doing more of tenant stuff.
So I do like smaller things.
Did the, I did the motorcycle show things like that.
But it's to me, it's like, yeah, it's, it's,
it's a very small facet of what I've done in the past,
but it's, it's also kind of rewarding and it's a real job.
Yeah, it's a real job.
So what do you do for lowest?
What would you say you do for lowest of the low?
I'm the chief cat herder.
I deal with, I'm their tour manager, front house sound.
Recently, I just sort of helped them out with
booking some show or booking some hotels
and did some routing through their iron roses tour
in the Eastern part of the United States.
And I'm sort of their guy and feel like them. They're there. They're, I hold the flag and I, I plant it firmly and
I, I let people know about this great band.
You're the unofficial fifth member of this band. They do the math, right? Hold on.
I think you did. No way. Sixth member.
Is it sixth member? Right. I lose track here. Only two ever come over. I've noticed. I'm
starting to take it personally. Like there's only two members of lowest of
low that will come over and they're both sweethearts. I should shout out Ron
Hawkins and Lawrence Nichols who both come over all the time and you come
over and that's great and I've got to know you and I love your documentary
here on the lowest of the low. People should check it out. We'll talk more
about it, but I got to know a few notes when you were coming on, but one from
Manfred from Elephants and Stars and he was just saying tune in tomorrow to hear musician producer
documentarian extra
extraordinaire and
elephants and stars
keys slinger
Simon head plays some tunes and I imagine tells some cool stories in between so So what is this Keys slinger thing you've done?
I'm trying to figure out what a Keys slinger is.
Like have you done anything for Elephants and Stars?
I'm their sort of stand in keyboard player.
So whenever there's a show.
Okay, well that's a Keys slinger.
You're like the Rob Proust of Elephants and Stars.
Is that a slinger though?
Do you really sling keys?
I don't know.
It sounds like some slight of, I don't know.
Yeah, I've played with them.
Like it's so funny.
I never knew Manfred in the day,
because Manfred's been around forever, and so have I.
And we just met each other on Facebook,
and I was sort of just transitioning with work,
and a band I was in was sort of falling apart,
and so I was like, put my name out there,
and then I found out that there was
a keyboard position opening.
And it was, yeah,
it's a really rewarding thing to sort of go into something where I'm actually
not fully in charge. I can actually just play music.
And I kind of went out of my way at Manfred.
I'm letting the secret out to try not to learn the chords.
So I kind of jam on the, on that. And when we record it,
which I actually have 13 songs to record this week
They're in the middle of finishing off a record with Ian Blurton, which is it's love that guy
Blurred absolutely and it's a phenomenal sounding record. It's I'm very impressed
Well, Ian's involved and you're involved and Manfred's involved. It's got to be decent, right? It'll be good
Okay, so I told myself a long time ago might get to the jams quicker and we can talk in between the
jams. So we're gonna rock and roll here we're gonna kick out 10 of your favorite
songs of all time we're gonna talk about it we're gonna talk I have more lowest
of the low questions I have more questions about subversives I have
gifts for you I understand you might have gifts for me that makes me very
excited but I have one quick question before we go.
Simon Head, and there's only one agent Head, right?
Yeah, that's right.
Though I do have a Head affiliation actually.
Well, tell me, because Noah Mintz is an FOTM.
And then of course, I'm gonna see Hayden on Wednesday night
and he was buddies with Noah in high school, I believe,
and they were in a band together.
But what is your affiliation with Head?
I produced their first cassette, that Before Firemanman is happy on that. I don't know
Okay, cuz I don't know. Okay, so before fireman. Okay, I think they happy won them the new music search
1993 CF and wine new music search contest that low I think lowest of the low thought they were gonna win. Yes
There was a there's a story there. Yeah. No, I I produced their first cassette
I think was like a four or five song EP on cassette and I amazing
Yeah, yeah, and now Noah's like a mastering master lacquer channel. Yes. He's a he's a mastering slinger
He's a slinger of the master masters. So my one question for you is
This Simon
Are you ready to kick out the jams? I am
It's a great song you better think it's a great song because you chose a good song
Chords don't make sense in this
Like that part. So rad.
It's either this one or Up The Junction.
All right, talk to me here. What song are we listening to? Why did you choose it? And I
do love the fact you're a musician and can tell me things about, you know, things that
don't make sense because... Oh, here, well, let's get to the chorus here. Why Pulling
Muscles from a chum?
I remember being like eight years old and had 1050 Chum, the AM radio station, and
played hits in the day and listening to this song for the first time and it was songs that
like it was post-punk, you know what I mean, or it was like just at the end of punk rock
and where things were still a bit edgy. It wasn't a full keyboard takeover.
And it's just the song that's just it's so good.
Like it's sort of like I said, there's some chords in there
that shouldn't really go together.
It just came together and it worked.
It just worked. Pulling muscles for Michelle.
Squeeze, of course, the band here.
And I'm just now I'm trying to think.
So 1050 Chum was like top 40 until I think like 86 or something and then they went to like
Golden Oldies or some kind of greatest hits type deal. Yeah. But that so was
that your first favorite station? Like give me an idea what your first favorite
station would be. Yeah I remember being in camp and I had a transistor radio and
I would listen to only had AM on it and I was dreaming of having a cassette
recorder so I could record shows but I actually had this little transistor radio, didn't even have
an earpiece, it was just this thing I took to camp with me and I would listen to songs like this and
like Switchin' to Glide by the Kings, like all that type of music. And that song shouts out Toronto.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. There were so many great, like, I don't know.
It's just so, I don't know.
I think about Squeeze, what I learned later on
is like three amazing songwriters,
like three individual great songwriters
that all had different types of music.
It shouldn't have worked, right?
Maybe today's world, it won't, it wouldn't.
Here's some keys, well, Sloan does it.
That's true. Yes, they do,
but they haven't put a record out in a while. I'm just saying. Neither squeeze. Yeah, that's
a good point there. Who? Let me think of that on that for a moment. Like active bands with
like three people who can sing lead. I'll have to noodle that one because Sloan jumped
him ahead, but you're right. They haven't put out any new music in a while. Oh yeah, now we can say Trans-Canada Highwaymen
do that but they don't put out their own original music. No they don't. They do covers and their
own music. Yeah well we'll have to think because I know there's obviously people have their
own bands and then they collaborate and then they write songs and that becomes sort of
like a super group. Chris Murphy's in 10 of them. Oh yeah, yeah.
You said for Travelling Wilbur, he's not in that.
Not yet.
You know, we kicked out so yesterday and I'll shout out Yes We Are Open.
That's an award winning podcast from Monaris that you should subscribe to.
In fact, let me give you your first of many gifts today, Simon.
That's a wireless speaker from Monaris so you can listen to Yes We Are Open.
Sweet. Hosted by Al Grego, who was here yesterday kicking out jams that are
related to episodes from season six.
And one of the songs we kicked out was Handel with Care by Traveling Wilburys.
That's a classic too.
And we were trying to think of the equivalent, like the Canadian equivalent.
Is there a Canadian equivalent to the Traveling Wilburys?
Trans-Canada Highwaymen.
But they don't write the wrong music.
That's true.
See, that's true.
See, that's the difference.
Let's see.
They should though.
They should.
Maybe we'll try to get it together.
We got like an Ian Hunter to get together with a Murray McLaughlin to get together with
a...
Wait, you mean Ian Blurden?
Ian Blurden.
Because Hunter's not...
Ian Hunter's not Canadian.
Isn't he not?
Okay then.
Ian Blurden.
He's from Cleveland, I think.
With John Kassner.
Yeah. And... From Doughboys.assner. Yeah. And the boys with the boys and will put
get Scott McCullough, Scott McCullough in there.
Yeah. Scott McCullough playing guitar.
Kassner, who's going to play bass?
I love this game.
Yeah. Yeah. Our super group.
And they got to write their own music.
They do have to.
And this is similar to the traveling Wilburys.
All right. So you got your speaker.
I'm rolling into your second jam
because it's kind of tight.
You talked about post-punk
and this kind of cool vibe scene going on here.
I think this fits right in.
Let's get to your second jam.
Oh, my baby
Oh, this has got the greatest intro.
I love you more than I can tell I don't think I can live without you
And I know that I never will
That's a real tapest there too Oh my baby, baby
I want you so it scares me to death
I can't say anymore that I love you
Everything else is a waste of breath. Hear that? False ending.
Hey!
I want you, you had your fun, you don't get well no more.
I want you, your fingernails go dragging down the wall
be careful darling you might fall
i want you yeah i woke up there's no chorus in this song
it just goes just this no Nowhere to fade down then, okay?
Tell me about your admiration for the real Elvis, Elvis Costello.
I, it's so funny, I was talking to somebody the other day about Elvis Costello and I realized
that I'm a Elvis Costello snob.
So Armed Forces, My Name is True.
Everything else is good, but this song, it hit me once I was on tour in the early 2000s.
And I, you know, I just about to get married and I missed my wife, still wife, so much
that I had this and I actually played this song over my phone, my Nokia 5130 or whatever
the hell it was, to my wife.
I'm like, this is the song I'm feeling right now.
And put it on her answering machine.
Wow, that's romantic. Yeah. And it's just this great. I'm like this is this is the song I'm feeling right now and put it on her answering machine
Yeah, and it's just this great and I think the end I think he just makes up words at the end I think you just you're like the conductor you can tell me to
To bring it up in the mix here. Absolutely, but
Love it. I want you Elvis Costello
and now and what and I'll say that by saying I'm still trying to read and finish the the
His biography and I just can't get through it because that's what I realized like I think only like to know you know
Mighty like a rose is good like they're all good, but it's so vast
Interesting and he married a Canadian did there he goes. He's a Canadian adjacent. We can put him in our super group
I mean, they made well Maybe not he married him he gets it to marriage Yeah, dude. There he goes. He's a Canadian adjacent. We can put him in our super group.
Well, maybe not.
He married him.
He gets into marriage.
Excellent.
On the live stream at live.torontomike.com, Jeremy Hopkins, the official historian of
the Toronto Mike podcast says he loves owning physical media, so he's not held hostage by
streaming services.
Now this begs the question, for those of us who, you know, want to stream subversives, where can we stream subversives?
You can get it on Apple TV presently in Canada, the United States, or this one.
You know he's just making that shit up. There you go, okay. Yeah, yeah, it sounds like a dude just like you know some four-track player whatever
Recorder recording himself of a guitar. I have an idea count me in. I don't know where they're going. Okay, just count me in
Shout out Dewey Cox walk hard
Yeah, you can watch it on Apple TV if you you don't have Apple TV, you don't need Apple TV. It's online Apple TV dot
Whatever it is, whatever your country is. It's out in Australia. I don't think we're being heard outside of Canada. I'm just kidding
I might have an expat or two
Yeah, yeah, so I think Ireland's coming but every time I talk with the people who who are in charge of it
I said it costs money every time we do this or he goes. Yes, it does. I'm like, okay, well let's not put it in like Lithuania or somewhere.
Well you might be big there. There are big deadheads in Lithuania, right?
Didn't the Grateful Dead buy them their basketball jersey or uniforms or something?
I have no idea, but that's a great...
And Bill Walton died yesterday. He was a big deadhead. And as he's in NBA,
he's in the Hall of Fame. The guy was an amazing basketball player, but he was like famous for being like an early deadhead amongst the most famous of the deadheads
Have you ever you know gone to a jam band and no I've never
Didn't never got the dead
But there was a guy that I knew in Thunder Bay who owned a record label called meathead records
His name is Eric and he put all these like headcramp records out and he's just
record label called Meathead Records. His name is Eric and he put all these like headcramp records out and these compilations. Right. And his roommate was
a full-on deadhead. So it was like fire and water like living
together because he would do cassette trading and he had a whole wall of
cassettes from live shows because that's a big deadhead thing. Yeah listen on a
Sunday I had Rob Pruss over here with Bob Willett and we we do this every month
It's called toast and we kicked out our favorite jam jams. So I kind of had to go in just for a couple of weeks
I was living in this world and I realized oh, it's really not for me like
Yeah, I think you know, I think you gotta be there and I think you gotta be high if you're not there
We're either or hundred percent. you got it sort of somehow vibe it
No, you got to be I think you need to consume some cannabis to to appreciate it
But shout out to Canada Kev who is a huge deadhead himself. Absolutely. I don't slight anybody who likes the Grateful Dead
No, but we had a song I played in a band called the Fairmounts
We had a song called dead heads and it kind of disparaging conversation about who the deadhead like it is
So I apologize on behalf of the Fairmounts and you know whatever floats your boat right yeah you
know when exactly did the lowest of the low become a ska band like did that
happen I noticed this and I saw the I you know I've been seeing them forever
but it's very ska now like obviously they still they still play Shakespeare my
butt and all that stuff but you could tell Ron is really into ska lately.
There's an interesting thing about that,
because a couple of albums ago,
I remember Ron telling me a story,
like we just play old ska songs at rehearsal,
and Lawrence kind of sticks his nose up in the air like,
bleh, but then they just, and Greg Smith, I believe,
is a huge ska fan, and they all sort of just started doing it,
and I think that's how they became a
Ska band, but I mean cheer up Charlie what a great song
You know the ska sounds great live and it mixes in nice with all the other stuff like I'm a I'm a big fan as you know
Love it
But it is it is interesting how like it just feels like there was a change at some point like in the last five years
Where you know, you know, they went hard on- I think there's a new direction coming.
I think there's a new record being recorded presently.
Norwegian death metal?
I hope so.
Is that the next phase?
One can hope.
Someone's gotta die.
Is this Ron's Norwegian death metal phase?
That's funny.
I'm not saying yes, but I'm not saying no.
I need to know what's going on.
Maybe they're gonna embrace like
80s hair metal or something.
I don't think they'll go that far. I think they will definitely like the music is very
That they do is always like I think Steve Cain put it in the in the documentary said like they never did the same thing
Twice and that's sort of like it's a thing
That's a very very important thing to say is that you don't right?
You don't just rest on your laurels and you just sort of keep pushing forward 100%
And you know, they have this punk ethos to them, right?
So it's, they always abide there.
And shout out to Elliot Lefkoe, who hopefully is listening
because he tells me he does listen to
Toronto Mic'd episodes to remember home.
I cannot get Elliot Lefkoe on Toronto Mic'd,
but you got Elliot Lefkoe for your documentaries.
So you beat me that time.
I got another Elliot thing too, affiliation.
We're working together on something else too.
Any clues?
Well, it's about a musician and it's not actually
in my wheelhouse of musical.
Oh, I know who it is.
So wink at me.
So just give me a sign.
You don't want me to spoil it
because I think I know exactly who you're talking about.
Yeah, I don't wanna.
Okay, I won't say it then.
Yeah, yeah. I'll tell you off cam. Because I know exactly who you're talking about. Yeah, I don't want to. OK, I won't say it then. Yeah, yeah.
Well, yeah, I'll tell you off, Ken.
Because I know I know it possibly is it an FOTM?
No, not an FOTM.
No, then I don't actually know he's a he's a he's a musician.
He's living in New York right now.
We flew down there to do an interview, three hours of interview,
and it flew immediately flew home.
Is this a Canadian?
No, he's well, his mother's includes.
I'm looking for his mother's Canadian.
OK, then I actually don't know who we're talking about.
So if I guess it correctly, it was just a guess.
Yeah. Who are you going to guess?
I was going to guess a husband of Amy Sky.
Oh, that was starting that.
And what is his name?
Mark, Mark Jordan.
I knew that. Who is that guy?
Living in Marina Del Rey.
Yeah. I know it turned out great, but then there's a book there's a book thing happening
So for me, it's I can't keep up with you Simon
I was sort of well
He was doing a book with another and I spoke with him and the author and it turned into like well
We're doing this and we haven't it just got complicated. So I was like, you know what? Let's just
Put that on the backburner. Do what Martin Scorsese did with the SCTV documentary.
Just shelve it and work on something else.
They say, in the industry, they say,
we'll put a pin in it.
Is that what they say?
Which is the nicest way of saying,
we're fucking moving on.
Yeah.
Right?
Yeah.
Let's put a pin in that.
Let's put a pin in that.
Okay, so Mark Jordan not getting the
I wish.
The low treatment, but somebody in New York
whose mother is Canadian,
can you give me one more clue
and then I'm gonna kick out your next jam
and then I'm gonna give you more gift.
He has been known to jam with people like Jimi Hendrix.
He's jammed with people like Brian Jones, Keith Richards.
He's a, he's very, we might have to just spoil it,
but we've started it.
We've started. But is there a reason you wouldn't want to spoil it?
Like why wouldn't you want to get wet people's appetite if it falls apart?
Like then it's Mark Jordan fell apart and we just talked about it.
We can say, uh, he's also, he did a whole record of Tom Waits covers.
Okay. That's a very good clue.
I'm going to figure this out.
You're going to look online.
And I will say, you know, uh, I just said nobody's listening, but I really quick,
and I'm not gonna go into details right now,
except that I recorded an episode a couple of weeks ago
and I put something in the episode,
and literally an hour after it went live,
I realized from several very serious and good sources
that I made a huge mistake,
and I had to go back and beep out a whole bunch of stuff.
And I will just say this, and this is the teaser,
at some point I'll tell the story,
probably when Peter Gross drops by, wink, wink,
but somebody who was on that episode
was called before a judge yesterday morning.
And possibly the two of us were facing, ready for this?
Six months in jail and a $25,000 fine.
Ouch!
Let's kick it out of the jam!
Woo! Woo! Woo!
Woo!
Woo!
Woo!
Ah, this song, I forgot about this.
All of my songs have long intros.
Just like Rosie and Grey.
That's right.
So we can talk it up.
You wanna hit the posts?
You're listening to Toronto Bike Live.
This is a good one, back from 2001.
This is the new one back from 2001.
This is the new year. DJs do it right.
But they cheat.
You're listening to it on Toronto Mic Live
and someone's screaming out.
Oh shit, I screwed it up.
I have seen many a DJ in the last
25 years, they now cheat.
There's literally a timer to say here's the first post,
here's the second post,
and they're watching the timer.
I could hit the post with a fucking timer. I don't feel any different
The cracking of crystals It's a math error
Explosions are in the distance
In the distance Oh yeah.
Death Cab for Cutie.
Oh yeah.
Shout out to Ridley Funeral Home.
Yeah, good.
So this, I actually knew Death Cab before this album, Transatlanticism, and the photo
album. And I heard this album, Transatlanticism, and the photo album.
I heard this song, I was in Europe, it was the first time I was ever in Europe playing
with my band Foursquare.
We have this record, it was sort of a pre-release, hadn't been put out in Europe yet.
We were driving our own way to Holland to play a show with the weaker bands. Amazing.
And it was like, I heard this song and I tingled all over.
This part right here.
I'm tingling now.
Yeah, so I was thinking about it.
I was thinking about it.
I was thinking about it.
I was thinking about it.
I was thinking about it.
I was thinking about it.
I was thinking about it.
I was thinking about it.
I was thinking about it.
I was thinking about it.
I was thinking about it.
I was thinking about it.
I was thinking about it.
I was thinking about it. I was thinking about it. I was thinking about it. I was thinking about it. I just this this song it just reminds me of that first time I toured in Europe and
then when I was touring in Europe it wasn't my first tour that it felt like a first tour
again where we're all like in the van listening to this song.
Okay, this is Four Square, because we haven't really dove into your whole musician life
here, but Four Square was your band and you're touring with the Weaker Vans?
Yeah.
So, the story with the Weaker Vans is that I used to play in a band with Jason Tate,
and we were called Red Fisher, Fisher at Winnipeg and then I moved home, back home to Toronto area and I started this band
Foursquare with two members of a band called Two Line Filler and it's sort of like this 90s
power pop-y kind of band that I put a demo out to Bad Taste Records in Sweden and they're
like we want to put this out. So it was one of those things where I was in my
30s in Canada could not get arrested and then Europe came calling because they
don't care about how old you are. I mean it feels that way. So we put our record
out, we put two records on our label. It came out in Japan
and we got a little publishing deal. Like it turned in like a real thing. Yeah.
And then I had a young kid at the time and it just, for me it was like, I wanted to tour,
but I couldn't because I had a young child and it seemed very, very, you know, not a parental
thing to do. Musicians are inherently selfish and I understand that.
And I decided that, you know, I'm just gonna, I'll keep making songs, but I have to do it on my own,
my own merit rather than trying to get a bunch of guys to jump on a plane and fly to Europe and
play for no money.
And we'll talk more about weaker than's in a future jam that we're going to kick out.
But what's after Foursquare for you musically?
that we're gonna kick out. But what's after Foursquare for you musically?
I started, I just, I think Foursquare went all the way up
to around 2000 and I wanna say 2005-ish.
Our last record, I toured Europe in 2005.
We did some shows, we played actually,
it's funny we played two shows with Sum 41.
And that's sort of like, the way I make contacts is I end up working for the band or I play in one of the bands so I
got this great opportunity to go play what was supposed to be like three or
four shows and then there was a no that was 2010 okay we did two shows but we
took we toured with Sum 41 we played seven shows with them the original
members of the band and then we ended up going to I went back there and I put a band together from Italy,
which I thought was hilarious
because they kind of spoke English
and I did not speak Italian.
And we toured around and played shows and yeah.
You might not speak Italian, but do you eat Italian?
Oh, I love Italian.
Would you like a large frozen lasagna from Palma Pasta?
I like where this is going.
I have one of my freezer for you right now, Simon.
Very good. See I segue. I softballed you.
I was waiting. When will Simon say the word Italian?
Remember our pre-show meeting we had?
Were we talking about this?
Well, you said death cab for cutie
and I shouted out Ridley funeral home.
So here, this is like another gift for you.
This is a measuring tape from Ridley funeral home.
So you got measuring tape from Ridley funeral home.
You do have a lasagna from Palome pasta. And I do have Simon,
not just you, not just Ron Hawkins, not just Lawrence Nichols, not just anyone who's listening,
but everyone who's listening is invited to TML X 15 on June 27th from six to nine PM.
We're at Great Lakes Brewery in Southern Etobicoke. That's at 30 Queen Elizabeth Boulevard.
Lawrence and Ron once played live at a TMLX event. I think it was the third one. This
is the 15th one and we're all going to just collect. Palma Pasta will feed us. Great Lakes
will buy you your first beer. Great Lakes Brewery also has some fresh craft beer that's
going home with you, Simon.
Sweet. My son enjoyed it. I kind of quit drinking about two years ago.
So I threw out these home to my son and he's like,
why are they all different?
I'm like, oh.
It's like a variety pack.
It's called a variety pack.
Why are they all different?
Figure it out.
It's like a sampler here.
So you're bringing that home.
You've got a nice assortment there actually.
I love it.
The sunny side for your son anyway,
the sunny side session IPA, you got the Canuck Pale Ale,
you have the premium lager, I threw in a octopus wants to
fight one of my favorite IPA so bring that home with you enjoy are you ready
for a fourth jam? Let's do it! The sound of Tiawamutu had a truly sacred ring.
Now her parents are divorced and her friends committed suicide. That's a pet itself.
With a black and white TV.
To stop us from getting lonely.
I could not escape.
From the heart.
You know what it means to be.
Meant to me.
Meant to me.
Digging me some crowded house here.
Mean to me.
Mean to me.
Yeah, mean to me.
Sorry, go ahead, tell me about why you chose this song.
So I was 15 or 16 years old when this record came out
and I remember being in a basement party
at my friend Scott McLean's house in Pickering
and heard this for the first time and I thought this is super fresh and I had absolutely no
idea that it was a split like Neil Finn from Split Ends.
So I was like, oh, this sounds just like Split Ends.
And then I had no idea.
And then I went away, bought the record and then it took me like a couple of times to
really like this is this is Split Ends because I was a huge Split Ends fan as long as squeeze and Split Ends all that stuff
type of music with my my my jam as they say and I I love this song so much
because I saw it live actually on this tour I saw them at Kings of Music Theater
and we watched it from the grass from me not on grass we watched it from the
grass very back because I think I just want to see it and I realized I should
have actually been closer to the front because it's a spectacle. Their show is an absolute spectacle. And I think
Toronto really loved crowded house. Moses Neimer used to let them sleep on the floor of his
apartment or at a much music building. I didn't know that. That's a fun fact.
Yeah. And they just had these... I believe that he's famous for having a bed in his, uh, in his office. Where are you going with this?
I'm not going anywhere. He's got lots of lawyers. I'm just saying, I think I understand he has a
bed in his office. Yeah. So the crowd has to sleep there. People would sleep in the
much music building and 2 99 Queen street west. Absolutely. And I think when they came to Toronto,
when I saw them, they had just played the Phoenix like three or four months before well
I think was called was it called the Phoenix back to the diamond the diamond club club
Yeah, so they had just played like a smaller venue, and then they blew up like don't dream. It's over
Yeah, absolutely exploded and became like this is gonna be the big thing right and
The band they were riding that in excess wave. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. The Ozzie experience. Absolutely. And it was just such a, like such a fresh album. I remember
listening to that album all the way through and I've, I had it on cassette. I've had it on CD.
I've bought the stream. I, I anything like, and actually crowded house is putting out a brand new
record, like on the 31st called gravity stairs. Cool. Yeah. And they've been playing it and
promoting it.
And the cool thing about Crowder House is that
both of his sons are in the band.
His son, Elroy's drumming and his other son,
Liam is playing guitar, lead guitar,
and Mitchell Froome is playing keyboards.
Unbelievable.
Unbelievable.
I have a question about subversives.
Have you heard of this documentary?
Never heard of it.
I heard it sucked.
I heard it was too long, but about 10 minutes.
Which 10 minutes?
You decide.
I like how Art Bergman is just sitting outside his like Alberta stead or whatever.
Wasteland.
Oh, there's Art Bergman's and it's like, yeah, there's Art Bergman.
Now he's moved back to Vancouver now.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sadly, his wife passed away.
Yeah.
But Art Bergman, by the way, one of my favorite Toronto, my guests of all time
is Art in this basement and just like just the roller coaster ride that was Art
in the basement. You got to check that out when you get it.
He said it was like one of the best interviews he's ever done.
He said that. But then I wondered, I wonder if he says that to every interviewer.
Like maybe that's his line because he told me he told me straight up.
That was the best interview I've ever done.
That's amazing. And at first I was really flattered by it.
I think Alan Zweig was less flattered
because I think he's working on a documentary
about Art Bergman.
He's like, wait a minute.
But I then thought, oh, maybe that would be something
you would say to every interviewer
and they would feel great about it.
Like, you know what I mean?
Like I would drop that line after every interview.
I don't think Art panders to anybody.
No, you're right.
I realize now that's not Art's style. No, he's not. I think I'll tell my Art Bergman story. Let's hear
it. Because I actually, I flew to Calgary and then I flew to Vancouver to meet with art and then with
Frank Wiper and then inadvertently ended up meeting with Dave Gann. Anyways, so I land in
Calgary and I'm sitting there and I'm texting over like email.
I don't have a phone number.
And I'm texting through his wife Shelly's email and I'm like, I hope we get this because
I've just landed.
Sherry.
Sherry.
Sorry.
And so-
I'm the fact checker.
Thank you.
So I get in the rental car and I drive out where he gives me the address and I find the
place I drive up.
I'm knocking the door and he comes out and he's in pajamas right I go art
how you doing goes oh pretty good um can we go buy some beer I'm like okay so I
take him up the road to buy beer right we scout out places and where we are at
is like this old barn this old like acreage in this old farm right and it's
got his old truck there
and all sorts of crazy stuff.
And he gets into one of the buildings,
starts climbing up one of the trees.
And he has scoliosis.
Like he could break his back if he fell.
Like yeah, just if he fell off to the floor.
And I have like an iPhone of him trying to monkey up
this fucking tree.
And he gets, and then so we do the interview
and I fast, I soon realized like this is now,
Art doesn't know much about Lowe's to the Lowe,
but he likes talking on camera.
And he knows they wrote a song about him.
He knows that part.
But I have a 45 minute interview of Art,
just Art talking about Art.
And then all the footage,
which I think he's in there for 10 seconds that's
all he talked about the low and I did fly there did on a plane but did you consider
another document beating Alan to the punch doing a documentary about our brickman I did
think about the subject I did think about that and actually it's funny you'd say that
because people have say there's some people saying you should do an art because arts a
great guy I said I think there already is one started on art
I think well, you know
I'm gonna beat you both and I'm just gonna take that greatest interview we ever did and chop it up and I have visuals
Of that and I think that'll be my documentary in our Bergman
You got AI you know, you could do some sort of animation like like that Oasis doc where it's just right in there
It's just like animation and then talking right? No problem. Yeah, I'll help you with that. Yeah, absolutely
So I'm gonna release my art Bergman documentary soon. I'm gonna beat Alan. I'm gonna beat you. But Art, fascinating character. And he, right, he
wouldn't pander to anybody. So, and you know, we mentioned, just we mentioned that
crowded house sleeping at 299 Queen Street West. And now I have a question
for you. So 299 Queen Street West was a documentary. I say was, I mean, it exists somewhere
on someone's hard drive somewhere.
But I've seen it cause it was a-
You went to the premier didn't you?
I went to the Roy Thompson Hall premiere
and Sean Menard directed it and he is an FOTM
and he invited me and I enjoyed being there for that.
And by the way, Mark Jordan was there.
Oh, did he say hi?
He does, he's an FOTM.
So he said hi in his sleepy way. He's an FOTM. So you said hi.
He's a sleepy way.
He's like, what's Simon up to?
How he hasn't called me in a while.
And then I said, I'm going to make a Mark Jordan documentary and beat Simon to the punch.
And then I found out you abandoned it anyway.
Okay.
So where I'm going with this is Crave was promoting the fact they were going to stream
299 Queen Street West and they promoted this fact.
This was happening on a Friday or something and it never actually appeared on the service
And then you know a couple of days goes by it's still not there
Apparently there was music licensing issues like you'd have a man all and Britney Spears would be singing a song and
They thought they could just do that without clearing it or whatever because of fair use which may probably I don't know
I'm not a lawyer, but I don't think that actually exists
I don't think that's a thing, but they got some bad advice from maybe an American lawyer yada yada yada
I'm trying to get Sean to tell me what's going on
But he's very quiet about all this but bottom line is you can't see 29 in Queen Street West right now
So when you do a documentary about Louis the low and you're gonna have all the music in there from Shakespeare my butt
Etc
Like do you have to license these songs like what is the the, and again, I am curious, like to be above board,
what is the process for using Rosie and Gray
in your documentary?
It was a simple email to Ron saying,
oh, can I use all the music that you have?
All of it?
And he goes, absolutely.
And I'm like, I think it needs to be more legal than that.
Well, does Ron own his, I don't even know.
Ron owns all, yeah, all of his own publishing.
He owns Shakespeare My Butts Masters or whatever.
Yeah, he owns all the publishing to it.
There's nobody, he doesn't answer anybody
for the rights of the music.
Now, if 299 used his song on one of his songs,
then there might be an issue.
Of course.
But I feel that, you know, when I,
this is like a spit handshake.
I was like, hey, over the phone, like we were in spit handshake I was like hey over the phone like we were in in spits handshake
I said Ron we need to make this legitimate because you need to say like I
Do give you permission to use all this music right and and actually Brian Heatherman who from?
Oh shit, I'm blanking on the sonic envy owns the heap
He bought the Masters so for me to use like a blue ray,
I need to pay a mechanical royalty. Okay. Every time there's a, and then we,
we we'd settled on a price and it was like, it was like,
it's a nice meal at the keg, what it costs, you know,
fascinating.
Cause I was openly wondering like if I were going to make a documentary and I
wanted a documentary about Toronto Mike, let's say that's very self-serving
There could be one in the making
Your next is okay. You said no you said let's talk off-camera
So there's a documentary about Toronto Mike and then you know
I happen to close every episode of Rosie and Grey from Shakespeare my butt and I want that in the documentary that will be available
On DVD and I want to be above board because I've been known to not follow rules and I'm trying to do that properly
I would have to pay something a mechanical royalty or whatever you call it to whoever
owns the masters of Shakespeare, my butt.
Yeah.
And it's, it's, it's not enough for Ron to say you can use it for me to put this on DVD.
No.
And they would make a performance royalty because if it's played and it's so can has
taken has the music or ASCAP or over owns the rights to the, to the players rights,
then they would then monitor it and then make a price that would you pay into
it, whatever that so can fee is, which it's all it's weird.
It's like some weird algorithm that's been around for ages,
but the whole idea of what's called fair dealing in Canada is that it's not
supposed to support the
The script the show it's only supposed to be as just on as hide of what what's actually happening
So if you said I show a little bit of the kumbaya festival in the documentary
But it has nothing to do with the story of this and that's called fair dealing, you know, even though I
Specifically took the music out
because I didn't want, you know what I mean?
There were certain things that I did that I was sort of,
I had a little bit-
Shout out to Molly Johnson.
Yeah, I had some very nice counsel
from David Quinten Steinberg.
Oh yeah, good FOTM.
Absolutely.
And I sort of said, you know, there's a few things
as they talk about like, you know,
there's a little bit of slander,
but I'm one of the producer on the first second album.
Oh yeah, I know exactly.
You talk about and what I found out yet, Don Smith and what you can't find.
What he said is like, well, you can slander dead people, right?
Just can't just got to be true.
Yeah, of course.
Of course.
And I know exactly that Ron's told that story on Toronto Mike, but he said some not very
progressive things about people of color,
if I'm not correctly.
Yes. And also I think when you're dealing with the size of what I'm releasing, we're very small,
there's a very small eyeglass on it. So nobody's going to like, hold on a second,
what's this lowest of the low, like seven millions of units. I imagine it's turned into something
huge.
What you're saying is if your doc was about Britney Spears, for example, What's this lowest of the low like seven millions of units? I imagine if it turned into something huge
What you're saying is if your doc was about Britney Spears, for example
That's a different. Yeah arenas very hard because she doesn't know any music
She doesn't write any of it and to get use of it
That's why you have like there is there's some great YouTube like documentary style that on the Beatles and it's like all sound alike
Right and it's like oh what a letdown
that on the Beatles and it's like all sound alike right and it's like oh a little letdown right and that's why my Toronto Mike documentary I realize now
I got a pay in lasagna so whoever owns the masters for Rosie and Grey I can get
you some palma pasta yeah I love it and some fresh craft beer here hey let's
kick it another jam and then I'm gonna pester you with more questions and I have
more gifts for you and I got gifts coming my way. Can't wait. Let's kick it. You're a few years overdue.
I spent them waiting here for you.
Now your charity's refused.
I can't name a penance for abuse.
I'm a few years overdue.
I spent them waiting here for you.
Now your charity's refused.
I can't name a penance for abuse.
I spent them waiting here for you.
Now your charity's refused.
I can't name a penance for abuse.
I spent them waiting here for you.
Now your charity's refused.
I can't name a penance for abuse.
I spent them waiting here for you.
Now your charity's refused.
I spent them waiting here for you.
Now your charity's refused.
I spent them waiting here for you.
Now your charity's refused.
I spent them waiting here for you. Now your charity's refused. I spent them waiting here for you. Now your charity's refused. I spent them waiting here for you. I can't name a penance for abuse
24 years overdue
What kind of role model are you? Very least learn not to do
I think I might be over you
Do hope I won't learn to make the same mistakes that you would make me
The tightest rhythm section in rock and roll right there.
The only thing I need you to tell me about this group, I have to plead a little ignorance here.
I'm not cool like you, Simon. Who are we listening to?
This is the Get Up Kids. Get Up Kids started sort of in the mid 90s.
Sort of on the like they were a midwestern emo band that sort of before it had a name.
They actually are just celebrating a 25th anniversary of something to write home about.
Which was like it sounds nothing like this.
And they put they put a record out like this was completely opposite to what people were expecting and it's a great record
It's so good
Like I can't believe like they would just sort of do it the next record they put out was called guilt show
Because people were like saying give us give us get up kids
you know and they still put records out and this this this band kind of started like
That sort of era of like,
like what's his name from My Chemical Romance.
They hired the keyboard player in this band to take on tour
during the Black Parade Tour.
So they're a huge influential band
that no one really has heard of.
And this song is like one of those songs you hear
and you're like, oh.
Yeah, it's a great song.
It feels great. Overdue.
Yeah.
Beautiful.
Can you introduce me, what I like about Kick of the Jams is, yeah, you're going to talk
about Squeeze and Elvis Costello and Death Cab for Cutie and Crowded House, but then I'm going
to learn about the Get Up Kids. It was a tough list to make, man. How, like, did you go through
iterations to just whittle it down to like 20 and then you're making cuts? I kept it at 10 and then
I sort of started, oh, what about this song?
So then I'm like, well, what song doesn't belong here anymore? And so I kept it to 10
because otherwise it would just be like too much to. And when you're, when you're cutting
it to 10, are you thinking about, Oh, I would like to tell a story about this. Like, is
there any of that thought process going on? Yeah, absolutely. Like there's, there's, um,
for me, it's like, there's parts, like if I could play number of the beast by Iron Maiden
That's like a huge that's a change in my life of where my musical taste went to but you know
But that's not on your list
No
It's not on my list because it's it's like there's a few songs on there that should be on there
And I thought oh if it was like an error of my life
Then I could definitely right focus in because life changed in the late 80s.
For me, mid 80s, late 80s was a huge change in my musical tastes.
And I was introduced to a lot more music
because I wanted to find it rather than what my brothers would make me listen to.
Right. Yeah. You know, like as a kid, it was all like
Rush and Bob Seeger and and all these weird like
ZZ Top and all these like bands you're like yeah they were cool cuz or Leonard
Skinner like my brothers love Leonard Skinner like well I like Leonard Skinner
cuz my brother like Leonard Skinner but I must say that I introduced my
brothers to Stevie Ray Vaughan. There you go double trouble. Yeah right. Okay that
late great shout out to FOTM Colin James mentored by by that gentleman
I was so it was pointed out in the live stream that you and I have a little bit of a link that we both kind
of worked at the CNE because I was working as a game booth attendant as a teenager and I remember that day working at
the CNE when they
They told me that Stevie Ray Vaughan had died in a plane crash. I remember that day. Yeah. Yeah
No, that's yeah
It's hilarious that they still do the C&E even though that the things
are all sort of like being built around it, that it's becoming like smaller and smaller.
The Carnys are still there though.
The Conklin guys are never going anywhere.
All the trailers that they purposely take the wheels off so no one will like take the
trailer while they're sleeping in it.
I mean, I've shared these stories many times and people can find them, but I had great experiences with the Conkley, the Conklin Kearneys, because I worked for a different
outfit called Astro Zodiac Enterprises, owned and operated by Ardo Godaro, the scariest
man I ever met, actually. But he scared the shit out of us.
Did you have to join Scientology to?
Astro Zodiac, no. He has a great name, actually.
He has a pretty rad name.
Yeah. I think I even at some point asked him for the origin of the name and there's an episode from last
October with Ardo and his son because I needed to face my fear. I was so scared of this man
I was only 15 years old be scared the shit out of me Ardo Godaro even now thinking about him
I'm like pissing my pants. That's his real name Ardo. Good Ardo. Good. That's a good punk rock name actually
You have you can borrow that name right Ardo Godaro Ardo Godaro, and he That's a good punk rock name actually. You can borrow that name, right? Ardo Guadarro.
Ardo Guadarro and he used to just yell at us kids, man.
He was scary guy too.
My goodness, we're going to another jam
and then after this jam, because before the next jam,
I'm gonna give you another gift
and then you can give me my gifts
and I hope you're enjoying yourself
because I'm enjoying this.
This is awesome.
Simon Head kicking out the jizz.
One H in head everybody if you're Googling him.
Here we go.
Yeah.
I was never cool in school. Simon Head kicking out the jazz. One H in head everybody if you're Googling them. Here we go. ["I Was Never Cool In School"]
I was never cool in school.
Oh, that's your theme song.
I'm sure you don't remember me.
And now it's been 10 years.
Long intros in my jams.
And I'd love to mix in circles,
clicks in social code
A reason, that's me
Hand me my nose ring
Can we be happy?
Show me the mosh pit
Can we be happy?
You ready?
We can be happy underground
This is a key slinger.
He's a key slinger.
That's what we call slinging keys.
Right.
Who's got the looks?
Who's got the brains?
Who's got everything?
I got this pain in my heart, that's all.
Hey you, the laughing lonely face
There's gotta be something else
Let me tell you something else
There was a girl that passed me by
She gave a smile but I was shy
And I looked down, so down
Don't look down, no, no
Go, go underground And now there's a place to go Think about Ben Folds 5.
They write recognizable songs that you can sort of associate other times in your life.
Like that rundown is from something.
And they also like, Ben Folds is famous for writing songs
That kind of sound like something but he puts his own twist on it
And I I love sequencing like if there's always an you know
A method to the madness when it comes to sequencing and you you know, you followed up overdue
With a song called underground that was not intentional. I must say thank you for for making me... No, let's recut that.
Yeah, yeah, I really, I went out of my way to make songs like that.
Sometimes it's subconscious.
Absolutely.
Ben Folds 5, have you seen Ben Folds live?
I've seen Ben Folds 5. I saw Ben Folds 5 on the Whatever Never Tour at Lee's Palace.
June 6th, 1997.
Wow. Forever changed my life.
There's actually something happened that day that was like one of my best friends was actually
killed at work.
He died and I know like he was electrocuted.
And I heard this bad news.
That's traumatic.
It was very traumatic.
And then I went and I lived in the city at the time and my girlfriend, now wife, we sat
there and we got wasted at where I, at the studio. And then I went to go see Ben Folds five and we missed the
first couple of songs and there's an Elliott Lefkoe tie-in here because his
sister was running the door and I was like she's like well you can't get in
the guest list is closed I said well the tour manager put us on because he the
tour manager Ben Folds was the tour manager at one point for Cannibal Corpse
so there was this weird tie-in I had with...
So I got on the guest list and then I was like, I sort of had to say, well, something
very bad happened to me.
You have to let me in.
So we got in and we watched the show and it just for a little while in my life was just
like, this is great.
And how I discovered them was there's a guy named Ed Dobeck was in a band called Junior
Run Wild, original member.
And he had this record in 94 or 5 and I was touring with us in a few and he made a copy
of it for us and we just listened the shit out of this record on this one tour we did.
And it's this this record is just so good and they just this is the pure version that
Ben Folds always sort of sometimes comes back to which is this sort of three guys piano bass and drums
honestly got a lot of time for Ben Folds and this is fantastic yeah digging this
so much and your friend dying that's awful man it was awful it was very bad
and it was like you know I not a day goes by but you think and it was sort of
pre like you know when there was like a
health and safety.
Like when those PSAs would run with that, I still am haunted because a woman in a restaurant
was ever was carrying hot grease or something and slips in it.
Yeah.
Oh my God, I'm haunted.
I could just get shivers.
Yeah.
There's like this type of like, there's no joint health and safety committee.
And in sort of the, the sort of the whole thing at the end of that is that the company he worked for was held liable because he was wearing shorts and you shouldn't be wearing
shorts and you should be standing on a rubber that's why you have safety standards you have to so the
standards was he grounded out and he and he died oh my god and this is one of those things you know
and he was 29 you know and it's like now he'd be you know it was a long time ago now it's terrible
27 that's terrible that's far more terrible than this. Uh, this fact I'm going to share.
I learned on the live stream,
which is that Conklin's not at the CNE anymore. Did you know that?
I did not know that there are, I should know that, but I don't know that.
Yeah. So my, I mean, I'm going back to the, uh, one was like, uh, early nineties,
actually 89, 89, 90, 91, that kind of era there.
I was at the CNE and Conklin was running the show over there,
but they're gone apparently.
What is it now?
I don't know, but those carnies are something else.
They probably got absorbed into like some other type.
Where are the Conklin carnies?
We got original guys looking like you tell he's not no teeth and he's missing an ear.
Oh, they were the best though.
I needed them their help.
One day there's a drunken boyfriend of this woman.
I went to see a blue jay game with at the dome and went to a pizza pizza party before because I got these tickets for being
on the mic and I still remember he was coming for me he was inebriated and he was coming
for me very late as I was closing my booth I was a little skinny 15 year old kid or maybe
16 that year but I remember asking the carnies for help and they looked at me and said you
work for Ardo and I said yeah and they said okay boys you want to fight and he was pounding
this pipe into his hand and I know and Kearneys came to basically rescued me like say, and then that guy never bothered
me again.
So I don't know what the Kearneys did.
This, I've this story.
Oh my God.
I could tell you this tales from the X I've been used to write about this, but I got to
do a whole series tales from the X.
Maybe when the C and E comes back, I'll do it.
But I have a gift for you before we go to Winnipeg and kick out this great jam.
I would love to give you the history of the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team.
That book is going home with you, Simon.
Amazing.
And I will get through it rather than that Elvis Costello book.
That's a lot of fun facts in there.
A lot of good, that's not as dense as the Elvis one.
Does it get into mighty like a rose era?
Cause that's where I tuned out.
That's right.
You should know in the listenership should know that I will be at Christie Pitts
on Sunday to not only throw out the first pitch, but then I'm going to record live beyond
the left field fence. And I realized like I've been so busy, like family and episodes
and things and production and all this stuff. I forgot to actually like book guests for
Sunday. So I got to find some interesting cats
who want to chat with me live from Christie Pitts on Sunday. This is on my to-do list. So
reach out. I'm thinking maybe is Tyler Stewart in town or is he at his cottage? I need some people
who can waltz over to Christie Pitts. You should get Manfred. Oh, Manfred lives sort of far away.
Well, that's it. I need somebody who can get to Christie Pitts. Oh yeah, Manfred. He's left-handed.
You know, he's an FOTM. And he's left-handed. Okay. Well, that makes it. I need somebody who can get interesting. Oh, yeah, man, he's left-handed. You know, he's an FOTM and he's left-handed
Okay, well that makes him super unique some super unique. He's an FOTM. And of course Manfred now
He comes to many a tm-lx event. Love that guy
He knows that so you're gonna learn about the trauma a beliefs baseball people should check out Toronto Maple Leafs baseball live at Christie pits
There's no ticket you just show up being there's good good food good drink and you get great baseball and is there food trucks?
There's food trucks food good drink and you get great baseball and is there food trucks. There's food trucks
Yeah, absolutely. There's a brewery not Great Lakes Brewery, but another fine brewery called left field brewery are
Providing the food and the drink you can drink legally
alcohol while sitting on the hill and watching some semi pro baseball best baseball in the city outside the dome
Before I get my gift. Okay, this is interesting.
This book here, this is not a sponsor.
I took $0.00 and zero cents, but I said,
hey, you're publishing your own book.
And if I can just shout it out by giving a copy to my guests.
So Bruce Dobigan, who's an FOTM, a great writer,
him and his son wrote this book about the best,
like basically it's about the biggest hockey trades and they dive into this called Deal
With It about hockey trades and the Gilmore trade is in there, of course. Shout out to
killer number 93.
Put it in there.
Yeah, there you go. Okay. So Deal With It is available now. They published this, this
is a father and son who wrote this and published it and get a copy and support these independent
writers. That's so cool. Father and son team. Yeah. Yeah. I like that. It's cool. So no,
not only did I not take any money to give out this book, but I gave them beer and pasta.
So it's like, there you go. Literally. What a deal. You're a philanthropist. You ready to go to Winnipeg? Let's do this. Okay.
My city is still breathing but barely it's true
My city's still breathing but barely it's true Through buildings gone missing like teeth
The sidewalks are watching me think about you
Sparkled with broken glass
I'm back with scars to show
stars to show
Back with the streets I know
Will never take me anywhere but here
No, no chorus in this song either really
The weaker bands were great. Left and Leaning.
Leading.
What did I say?
Oh, Left and Leading, right.
Left and Leaning is how I operate.
That's the second single.
Left and Leaning.
Let's dedicate this song to another, well many big fans of the show, but let's dedicate
it to Tim Thompson, Boundless.
Nice.
I know he makes a lot of stuff for Lowest of the Low.
Yeah.
All right, talk to me about The Week of Dan.
So like I think I mentioned before, I used to play in a band with Jason Tate from The
Week of Dan called Red Fisher. And I left Winnipeg as John K Sampson had already released
like a solo thing, he was still kind of in Propagandi
and he had just left Propagandi
and started this Weaker Vans band.
They recorded and I was living, I was in 1997,
I was living in Toronto and John Sutton,
who was a bass player. He was in FOTM.
He is.
Because he's even rusty now.
He is.
And he basically, he was my roommate in Winnipeg.
He's like, we're looking for, when I lived in Winnipeg, we're looking, we need, we're
mixing our record, Fallow, at Phase One Studios, can, got somewhere, let's see, come stay at
my place.
So they stayed in a one bedroom apartment, all three of them. I don't think Steve was even in the band at that point and
They go mix their record at phase one then come back to
Come back to our apartment listen to their mixes on our cassette player
And I remember our landlord lived in the main floor. He locked us out because he thought we were getting like roommates
I'm like, no, these are just visiting
out because he thought we were getting like roommates. I'm like no no no these they're just visiting. So they locked the door on us. That's not legal. No. Well
luckily it was the summer so so we had to beg him to let us come back into our
own apartment. That's wild. So but the first time I heard this song is when they
did the real statics did a residency at Ted's and I saw this then play the song
for the first time and at the time I
They were they stayed at my studio
I think at Ozington and Dundas and and I first time I saw this song
I I wept I openly wept and I told Ian Blurton this because we'd worked together on a four-square record and
And I said I talked about it goes you dude. I was there recording it
He was bawling as he was you know the words that John K Samson pulls from this
Yeah, I was just so such good imagery and such such a just paints pictures with minimal words
And I really appreciate that for someone to create
You know movies in your head
on just simple words
Beautiful song just tremendous and now I'm thinking okay, so John P. Sutton,
now with Rusty. How do we get like a lowest of the low Rusty double bill somewhere? Like, how do I
make that happen? They're doing a show actually, and aren't they doing something on the- Rusty?
Yeah, next week they're doing like an Oshawa show. Yeah, I did definitely saw the post. Yeah,
because I follow Scottie Mack on the socials and I saw that poster, but- I think it'd be easier
than you think, because I think Rusty's back to playing shows I used to work for Rusty I was
their sound guy for what era exactly early 2000s early 2000s okay okay I left
Rusty to go work for treble charger sideways move how come it took so long
to get to get these these names that you treble charger I love treble charger
red is still one of the greats it's a good song they could have recorded it just once
though that's true there are the most the rusty though so that's because
there when was empty cell was on the the follow-up to fluke which is the album I
keep going back to that's sort of like what those oh I love lowest a low albums
beyond Shakespeare my butt but for some reason I keep going back to Shakespeare my butt
Don't tell Ron I do that. Okay. Well, you just told everybody he's not listening
This is Lawrence might be listening, but I bet you're on hearing this but rusty similar story in that
I always go back to fluke
Yeah, and the second record they did was the one was more sort of 60s based
I think Matt DiMatteo produced it that's sort of when I worked for them. Was that late 90s? I want to say that was like 98, 99.
Because they don't last much longer, do they? I feel like they break up shortly thereafter.
They know there was an issue. I think yeah, early 2000s. I think I ended up going out
on tour with some 41 for like two years. Wow. There's a band of big American hits. Right?
And then, so yeah, and I remember them,
I heard stories, which I don't need to share,
but there was some sort of weird crazy stories
that were like happening with the band.
And that was, you know, they are the Art Bergmans of Toronto.
I mean, a lot of crazy stuff, a lot of crazy stories,
and they are famous for that type of like,
just being rusty being rusty.
Yeah, you can't be Ken.
I know Ken was working as like a short order cook in Blue or West Village
shortly after Rusty kind of dissolved or he's up in Sudbury now.
I think he works in the nickel mine.
I think he's a brick layer, brick layer.
Oh, maybe he's both.
We should have played brick by Ben Fultz five.
That would have really tied all this together to sad.
You said we go play army. OK, that's
that is on your fucking. Great jam there. Five that would really tied all this together to sad you said we go play army. Okay, that's Son you're fucking
Great jam there. Okay, so shout out to rusty. There's a lot of ground recovering here, but weaker than John K
Sampson, that's beautiful. They got to play more shows
I think they haven't officially broken up but they've officially stopped playing shows or songs about cats and more songs about cats and yeah
I mean, I love the fact that propaganda was just such a politically based everything was like here's some
facts and then they go anchor bliss it's like wow you just there's so vast and
crazy that John had to break out on his own and well if you see a little show
Ron Hawkins has that sticker has the still the gandy sticker on his guitar
yeah I think that's not propagandist one of the first times they played in Toronto and they played the amacamba and it was a shit show
like it was really like it was and they actually
Got off this one tour after their first album and they realized like they didn't know how to do play shows
So they actually practiced like every day like a job
They go in and they would practice for like eight hours a day, have lunch.
And then they became like, I'll talk more rock.
Is that the album?
Yeah, something like that.
No talk.
Yeah, more, less talk, more rock.
Less talk, more rock.
And then they just became this crazy juggernaut of a band.
All right.
Let's kick out your anti penultimate jam.
And then after this jam, I want my gifts and T and ultimate, and T penultimate. I'm not hungry. Your lexical
last July. Oh yeah.
What he says to drink a bottle of wolf blinds
and passed out in the tall grass
On part of Belleau Road
Yeah, the sky was alive
Held you like a gemstone
Got lost on the way home
And never told a soul That got right to business that one.
Yeah.
Nowhere to give you the weather and the time. Just a good excuse to take all I can get What is it? Two on now? What is he? One Dallas. Yeah. And you got another game coming up in Edmonton before they go back to that. But Edmonton's got to win this game.
Oh, it will come back. They have to.
They don't actually, I gotta say, I've seen a lot of oilers. The Leafs didn't look very good and they would have got killed by Florida in the next round if we had got by Boston the first round, they would have got smoked by Florida, I think.
But Edmonton doesn't look that impressive to me. Like I feel like Dallas should win this series
in like five or six games, but.
Yeah, you know, I am a bandwagon jumper.
I don't follow the season.
I should, because it sort of makes me inherently Canadian.
Well, you're not missing much.
No, I know, it's true.
It's like, you know what, actually,
I used to go to the Maple Leafs games,
like at the gardens when I was like eight and nine years old,
because the family around the corner from us had a nanny and the nanny would take me to
because they had season's tickets in the grays and on on Centerline so as I'd go
and I'd watch games like two or three a week felt like the Norris division
battles yeah right and before they had the net around the yeah where people get
pinged with yeah yeah I saw a lady get pinged so bad
it was during warm-up and they were playing the Kings and and he just deflected it and I saw it go and just
And it's like the JFK assassination like it felt like like
Yeah, there's a pruder film there. Yeah, absolutely second spitter theory if we go back to Seinfeld
Okay, so I want to hear about Gordy Samson, but I want my gift
Okay, I'm worried you're gonna forget to give me my gift. What do you want the gift first?
He won the Gordy Samson's do Gordy first. Okay, so first time I heard Gordy Gordy used to be in Ashley MacIsaac's band
He also is responsible for writing Jesus. Take the wheel. So he wrote that faith hill song
I feel I knew that from Kim Stockwood. Yeah, like I got that so he's this great
I feel I knew that from Kim Stockwood. I feel like I got that.
So he's this great songwriter who lived the Ashley McKyzee dream as well as I did for
a brief period of time.
I was Ashley's minder.
But because he came within a whisker of being here very recently.
Ashley?
Yeah, he does not do any.
He'd be my Elliot Lefkoe like for you.
Okay.
Well, hey, well, hey.
It almost happened, unless I was misled by, I think it was Jane Harbury who was setting this up from the Hughes Room.
But please continue because he's an interesting cat.
So I heard Gordy Sampson on cue with our friend, Jian Gomeshi.
And I saw, what I witnessed was a masterclass in how to do an interview Chiang Gomeshi. It was this brilliant, beautiful orchestration of like,
I'm not putting up with your shit and I saw that and I thought, oh, that's so cool.
And I, and so I actually didn't, wasn't really a fan.
I heard the music during the show. I'm like, this is kind of cool.
But I somehow I, if I,
I bring myself to musicians that I like as people and I'll like their music more.
Of course. I think that's natural. I think that's natural.
And it's funny that we opened up talk started by talking about head with two H's
and, and Noah mince because when Noah mince was on Toronto mic, he went off on G,
they went to high school together in a Thorin Lee, I think it is,
or some Thorin Hill high school far, far away from here.
But he went off on Gion Gomez and it was priceless.
Like if we go back to Noah mince, just to hear the Gion Gomezi.
You should throw that in, in the just that that tirade. I have my food. So, um, I have
a story, the Gion Gomezi story, the joke I made, uh, was that I still haven't forgiven
you for Moxie fruvis. That was the joke. And I, who was I, there was a standup comic playing
the, or the theater I used to work at. And I told him that joke and he told it lie. He say he stole my joke
It was like yeah, I still have it and then I started getting during that whole thing and it's a real it's tragic
Cuz he was he's a fucking monster, but you know, you can slander Gion Kameshi now, right? Yeah
Yeah, he was his mom might say hey, John is not convicted. We just need to point out He was not gonna know but but I actually there's there's certain people that I spoke to who were like
Who used to date him that tell crazy stories and and I'm like, oh yeah, okay no more. But anyways, yeah
pizza pizza John Ganeshi
What is it?
The mossy fruvis. Yeah
I will say this for a little while. I did like stuck in the nineties,
but I think it's, uh, I don't know. I just, but for a little while,
I did think that was a good song. I'm just putting that out there.
That's okay. I don't judge. It's fine. Yes. You're judging me right now.
I will say though, I was looking at your coffee cup,
which you got from a local independent coffee shop. And I see there's a, you know, marketing's everywhere.
That's everywhere.
There's literally, I wonder like, okay,
we'll buy you independent coffee shop.
We'll buy you the cups, but we're gonna put like a,
it's Charmin or whatever.
Here's another one.
He was at some coffee snob kind of like trade show
and they were giving out free samples
of what we have as these things. And he's like, I'm gonna grab a handful of these because these are free these things
Maybe because you know independent coffee shops
Bless their hearts, right? You got to compete with the Starbucks and all big little man
So I was called big little big little guys big little guy big guys big little guy big guys
Three big guys maybe three big guys
Okay, big I found it cuz I'm like, where's the closest coffee? mad. Three big guys maybe. Three big guys? No, I think it's called big.
I found it because I'm like, where's the closest coffee?
Well, when Steve Anthony was here, he said,
hey, is there a coffee shop I could have a meeting at?
And I sent him there because I liked the part of their gym.
It's got a bookstore kind of attached to it.
And it's like, and they play cool music.
And the guy is a big guy.
So there's no false advertising going on.
He's actually a big guy.
But it's wild for me to see their advertising
at Kleenex or something on the side of that thing.
And then I was thinking, oh, I'm going to see Neil Young at the Budweiser stage in early July and he refuses to have it referred to when he negotiated this deal
They aren't gonna call it Budweiser stage for his show
It's like because he won't do anything with the brand Budweiser or whatever. This is a song
I think isn't it this notes for you? Yeah ain't singing for Pepsi ain't singing for coke
But then he won't even let them sell Budweiser beers at his concert
So this is kind of the interesting the power he wields is he driving his electric car to the show?
Yeah, does he memory I read that book that books a tough read. Okay
I I don't know if he is or not, but maybe he's flying his electric plane or something there
I don't know because he said doesn't I don't know I thought he spent a lot of time during the pandemic in the core.
Yeah
Omini area. Yeah, exactly. I know people in the quarters would do like Neil Young spotting like oh he's at this restaurant or whatever
Like I'm supposed to bike over there and say hi or something like that. Okay, this is the
So we did the anti penultimate. This is the penultimate jam, but you still haven't given me the gifts like
Let's do the gift. Okay first again. I have is this is produced by Ian Blurton
The first floor four square album. Okay, I found it in our basement along with 499 of them
And I I actually funny I threw out half of them because it's like what am I gonna do?
You bring them the tmlx 15 and everybody gets copy and they go. What do you want me to do with this?
I don't think someone that tmlx 15 will be like that amazing. They'll try to jam it into their phone
I think eventually now that I have this other thing I'm doing musically
I'm gonna probably start a Spotify thing and put it on Spotify because it's not on Spotify. It's a very
I'm the only one with cop. I'm gonna have to show you are the only one in Canada
I can I can play a CD on this thing
I'm pointing to and I can pipe it through the channel here. So theoretically I can play a CD
Technically, you know, the funny thing is it's probably it's been there in my crawlspace
I know no it's been in our baby barn, which which has I think some a family of skunks under and
And you know, it doesn't smell like skunk.
OK, and then so the next thing I have is there's more is is the the actual
physical copy of subversive.
The history of Los Alamos on Blu Ray disc.
So this is like hot off the press, right?
Is I went and picked it up this morning.
Are there because I know you put on social media, you're going to check it
to see if there were any typos. Yeah I find any no I am opening lucky for you
I'm not wearing my glasses like I actually cannot read that right now
I have to put it back there and then I can read there's some funny stories behind the proofing of that because the lady I spoke
To who was sort of my rep for to deal with this release was
She's like I was a huge Ronnie Ronnie Hawkins. Oh, I know where you go
She's like I was a huge Ronnie Ronnie Hawkins. Oh, I know where you're going
Which one are you talking about? Well, yeah, what are those stuff? He does? Well, I hate the burst your bubble lady, but
This is the different this isn't that Ronnie Hawkins you speak. How so highly of and from there? I mean, it's been a romp It's been fun
Ronnie Hawkins and there's a funny thing that gave me some artwork to proof and on the back
There's these screen grabs
They send us all the screen grabs in the movie and I put them in the back.
And when they showed me the artwork that was going to go to print,
it was other pictures from another movie.
I'm like, I was thinking about maybe I'll just leave that out there.
I see Stephen Stanley back here.
And Steve, he's a good FOTM.
That's a good boy. This weekend in my town, actually.
And and and so there was some very funny, like interesting,
like they've never
seen you tell like no one's watched the movie.
That's funny.
Because then the trailer
Not even like for QA purposes, they don't give this a go.
The trailer has, has like a picture of Mike McDonald from Junior Gone Wild. And he's the
thumbnail. And I'm like, you know, he's not in Lois and he's not in the band and anybody who knows that would probably know that that's not the guy and they go
Well, that's for the trailer. So when you go to Apple TV, you see a picture of Michael McDonald McDonald
From Junior Gone Wild and I've been trying a bit of hard to find
I'm lobbying so hard like can you just get him out of there? You just need someone who gives a shit
I've noticed this in my I've been living in this world now,
running my own show since 2018.
And the key, the truly the key is giving a shit.
Yeah.
If giving a shit means so much in your attention to detail and making sure that,
you know, you have a thumbnail that maybe a thumbnail of like the band playing or
something like that.
Or maybe Ron Hawkins or the actual artwork that's on the actual. That something like that. Or maybe Ron Hawkins. Or the actual artwork that's on the.
Or the actual.
That would be nice.
Shout out to Art Brugman.
It's such a funny, like, you know, I can't speak.
These people have taken this huge risk
to put this thing out.
It's a larger place that's putting out an obstructed view.
And I spoke with FOTM Jonathan Gross.
Oh yeah.
And he is responsible for this. Yeah. And he goes, you know, our big release
is Caligula this year. He goes, I'll try to see if I can throw you in with the press.
Right, because it's like the same kind of audience, I think, actually. Absolutely. Yeah. So I was
trying really hard to sort of like... I love Jonathan Gross. He's amazing. Sadly, his sister
died far too young, but co-wrote the Fusilli Jerry episode of
Seinfeld. Yeah. And it's very funny because I actually called him on the
phone and he's so he's so business, right?
Because you're like, you know, I kind of let you off the hook.
You don't need to make a blu-ray.
He goes, don't worry, Simon, I was going to make money.
I'm like, I'm not worried about making money.
I'm worried about losing money. Right.
That's what I'm worried about.
You got to get your expectations. So let's. And so there's like I said, he's got he's he's
confident that you know, there's 1500 of these made and he's coming to sell them at Lois
Alos shows, right? Yeah. I mean, at least two or three per show is the next Lois Alos
show. Oh, it's in it's in Buffalo on the eight. I'm not there because I'm riding the ride
to conquer cancer that weekend. Is this your first time you know, it's my seventh time
I did it once. Yeah, and I got I like a pinched nerve right here and I said
Oh, I think I'll stick to like 50 60k ride
You got to come do it next year with us you join our team our two left pedals team. Okay, I mean
5060 K I'll do just on like a Sunday
Yeah, but then when I get to like over a hundred I just find maybe because I just have like a $900 bike or whatever. Yeah. I mean, right here I'm touching, which no
one can see in the pocket. It just gets like a pinched nerve. And then it takes like a
week or so. Maybe it's your setup. Like maybe you need to sort of lower raise your bars,
maybe. Well, yeah, you know, that was a long many bikes ago. So maybe it's better. But
I know I will. I was going to actually reach out to you like earlier this year to say like,
do you want to do this? Because it's be fun because we can raise money and it does it's a it's a good ride
And it's a good and there's good people like every year now like when I did it we went from Ontario Place to Mohawk
College in Hamilton, but we go to
No, it's a Mohawk. It's the University
McMaster McMaster, okay, maybe it's moved. Yeah. You stay there for the night and then you ride onto, um, Niagara Falls.
Okay. Cause mine, yes, we had that option, but I didn't have to get home.
So I know. So you w when I did it, uh, we went through Milton.
So it was 125 K to get there, but we went to Mohawk college. We spent the night.
And then the next day came back. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cause you can do that.
You can actually return, but then they have shuttles.
Now they give you a, put you on a bus and take you back to now.
I would rather just bike it back.
Come on. Let's let's be.
You're not taking the shuttle.
I am taking the shuttle.
This is 230 kilometers over two days.
Oh, I know. I know.
Yeah, it was exact.
I measured it with my app.
It was exactly 226.
Yeah. Yeah.
And then they have this one called the hammer, which is like a longer version of the first day
and it takes you like an extra.
Well that's when you go through Milton, right?
Yeah, I think that's the longer ride.
And the funny thing, my cousin and I were riding
and we're usually in the back, we're not in a hurry.
And then these guys come flying bicycles,
well they must have been lost.
And you're like, no, no, no, they just took the long route.
They took the long way.
Yeah.
Oh, amazing.
And do you have like, what are you doing this on?
Just like a regular mountain bike?
I have a giant, do I have a regular mountain bike? I have a giant.
Do I have a giant? Yeah, I have a giant.
Just a just a medium grade hybrid.
Oh, no, it's a road bike.
It's the only reason I ride a road bike.
I usually ride like a hardtailed mountain bike through the rail trails up where I live,
which is like the TransCanada trail is there.
It's like this beautiful no cars experience.
Because road bikes in in
northern part of like Durham is some sort of like turf war between the dump
trucks in the yeah and the bike riders. They don't like bike riders and you know
what most automobile lists don't yeah and I you know what the bike riders have
it coming sometimes because you do like that sort of that staggered approach. Oh
you can take half a lane yeah Peloton or whatever they whatever they call it
It's like guys. Come on. You're not making it. You may make it hard for me. Can I go dump trucks? I'm by myself
It's like the Warriors, you know, you're stuck there by yourself and yeah, you just want to you know, I'm a ride man
Live to ride another day. Okay, man, that sounds amazing. Good luck to you on the ride to conquer cancer
This is your penultimate jam. Let's by way the way, thank you for the gifts. I appreciate it.
And I'm honored.
And I'm gonna put the DVD like on display here
as a conversation piece.
Cause that seems to be, I look over
and then I suddenly I'm talking about-
Cause you got nothing to play it on?
Well, no, I actually, that is true
because I can play a CD on this thing.
Yeah, I won't play Blue Rise.
But these laptops we buy in the last 10 years
don't come with CD-ROMs.
Like there is nothing in this house right now that will play a DVD, unfortunately.
Now you can just, yeah, you can sort of put it on display and go,
it's just what I thought would happen actually, mostly.
I mean, I got blown up here by Stu Stone and Jamie Kennedy and it comes up often
because I'm staring at Stu Stone's face over here. All right, let's kick out your penultimate jam.
That snare sound. Alright, let's kick out your penultimate jam. The truck behind me doesn't know Everything is in the balance Of a moment I can't control
And your sympathetic strings
Are like the stirrings in my soul
Ooh, I could go anytime
There's nothing safe about this life
I could go anytime
Find the meaning of the answer
Yeah, carrying on with the crowded house.
This is his second solo record that he put out and
called One All. But the Australian in that side of it was called One Nil. I guess they didn't
realize what Nil meant in North America. Zero. Zero. Yeah. One All is what it's called. But
what does Nil mean there? Isn't that a soccer term? One nothing.
So I guess one all is there.
Or one nothing wouldn't work.
I guess there was a lot of people talking around a table.
Like, now Neil, we up here in North America, we talk different.
Now this song, there's actually a version of this that's on a live album that I heard first
that has Johnny Marr playing guitar, Ed Steinbeck, and two guys from Radiohead and a guy from
Sulkoff. It's like this band he put together, Lisa Germano, and it's like he
put a lot, Eddie Vedder sings on it like it's this sort of it's called Seven
Worlds Collide and it's the first song on this album that hadn't been released
in North America yet. So when I heard this version I'm'm like, oh, this is the clean version of it.
This is like, you know, turn the page by Bob Seeger.
Of course. The live version is a bigger hit than the actual version.
When you hear the live version or the real version, you're like,
something wrong with this. Right.
It's not missing. Yeah. He's talking about the road.
So this is sort of like that song.
And it carries on like Neil Finn, Crowder House, anything he does,
he can crap on a piece of vinyl and I'll buy it.
Or amazing, I mean just do it at sunrise at Cloverdale Mall.
Live in store. I remember I met Neil Finn at HMV, no was it Sam's? No, it was either Sam's or HMV on Yonge Street and they was doing a record signing and he was playing at the what's the place around here the
Perida. Oh, yeah
Yeah, I'd bike by it every yeah. Yeah, and I have like I have a live CD collection from Sloan Yeah, yeah from the Halle Royale Halle Royale thing
So so I was going to see the Palais Royale and my buddy came with it
We waited in line and I gave him that Ian Blurton F square. And he goes, I'm gonna listen to this. I'm like, bullshit, you're not gonna listen to this.
So that's how long ago that was. And then I actually got a guest list for
Neil Finchow at the Palais Royal because I actually had mixed a show
there for Ashley MacIsaac just out of the blue and there was a guy, George, that
ran the place. And I go, hey, Neil Finch is playing here next week, can I get in?
He goes, absolutely. And there was a guy, George, that ran the place. And I go, hey, Neil Finchley here next week. Can I get any? Absolutely.
Amazing. Now I'm wondering, maybe for assignment for you, Simon,
is to reach out to Ian Blurton and see if he can be at Christie Pits on Sunday at 2 p.m.
I will do my best. I want a second.
Like he was in the backyard during Covid and we had a great chat.
But I want to catch up with Ian Blurton at Christie Pits during the Toronto Maple Leafs
baseball game. That's what I want.
I'm just throwing it into the universe.
Into the universe. That's what Steve Jobs did all'm just throwing it into the universe, into the universe.
That's what Steve Jobs did all the time.
And he did that.
He'd wish it and it would happen.
Well, I'm wishing it.
We'll see if it happens.
Steve, what happened to Steve Jobs?
Where's your picture?
Don't you have like a flip chart thing?
It's like this is a picture of me and there's a picture of me being famous.
OK, well, I'm going to put a picture of me and Ian.
There is one because we took one by the tree.
We're going to take one in a moment and then I'm going to I'm going to tweet that out and see what happens. Okay. And then we'll just talk about you
and Manfred for like, you know, by the way, do you think change your heart might be the most
underappreciated, underrated band in Canadian music history? I totally agree. I mean, and he's
also, Ian's doing a record now, I think with all the, all of the members, like I think there's like
four bass players and
everybody who played in Change Your Heart is now part of this record that he's...
Even John Bora?
I don't know. Maybe. That's a name I don't know.
There's a name you don't know. He's at the Cameron House right now playing.
We're going to go check it out.
So all these people are joining the band, just playing on this record that he's putting
together. Yeah, it's going to be good.
See, it's stuff we could talk about at Christie Christie Pitts. Okay Last jam. So thank you so much for doing this. I loved I learned so much more about you by kicking out the jams
It's your second visit, but it won't be your last and just remember me every time lowest at a low play in the GTA
And what else can I say just that if you have old?
Electronics like an old phone. Maybe you have your old DVD player that doesn't work anymore
electronics like an old phone, maybe you have your old DVD player that doesn't work anymore. Don't throw it in the garbage because those chemicals end up in our landfill. Go to recyclemyelectronics.ca
and then you can put in your postal code and then find out where you can drop it off to
be properly recycled. Okay, so now you have two assignments. You're going to go to recyclemyelectronics.ca
and you're going to get Ian Blurton to Christy Pitz.
I'm writing this down as we speak. You're writing it down? All right, let's kick out your final jam.
Oh, this I forgot.
Speaking of Scientology.
Oh yeah, great.
Turn, turn away.
It's so good.
From the sound of your long voice. It is my album of the year.
Grammy.
It's like a David Gilmore song. Sounds great in the headphones.
Oh yeah.
This is, I play this on every PA I come to with Los Aló to hear what a PA sounds like.
This is my Steely Dan.
Well that's right, I was gonna say that's what the Steely Bands, Steely Dan songs.
Yeah, right.
It's the flattest sounding. But this sounds so much low end, that's how you can really gauge so much low end.
The other thing about this record is I-
It's Beck by the way.
It's Beck, yeah. I watched the Grammys, very rarely watch them, I watched them one album of the year.
And he was, who came up there? What's his name? Yee. Yee came up and he was who came up there what's his name ye ye came up and
he knew Kanye Kanye said like he basically pulled a Taylor Swift on him
like he came up and said this is bullshit whatever and back was like no
no talk and then so there was this weird shit can fuffle that happened I do
remember yes who would have thought Kanye would do anything yeah I know you
crazy and then so I found out that this record I can listen to this I do remember this who would have thought Kanye would do anything. Yeah, I know you're crazy
And then so I found out that this record I can listen to this record if I want to go to sleep
I can listen to this record if I want to exercise
I ride my bike ever like used to ride my bike a lot with earbuds and you listen this and you get to this part
And there's like three songs to go and you're just like yeah, just such a Zen
Yeah, great sounding record and I think it's a companion to, there was another record he did that has, it's very
similar.
And he did this whole record in his house and it's, everything I like about music and
recording is wrapped into this album.
Love it so much.
Now on our way out here, remind everybody like where they should go.
So you're saying go
to like a Sunrise location to buy the Subversive's DVD. Yeah, I mean they're distributing it. I'm not
saying to sit in their front rack, but you might need to go and order it. You can ask Robert Lawson
where it is. Yeah, they'll probably say, well we can get it in for you. So if y'all go to a Sunrise
and say I'd like to buy this TV or this blu-ray they will
order it and you can get it like and it's and I think it'd be cheaper than
getting it from a record from the label because they have to pay for shipping
and all that good stuff so subversives the history of lowest of the low and you
said Apple TV Apple TV go to their so yeah Google Play is coming soon okay I
don't think Amazon Prime does documentaries anymore. I think they've
somehow gotten out of it. Yeah, and then there's going to be a few different things that are
hopefully going to come down the pike and other projects and it's exciting.
And give my love to the band, Lowest of the Low. Dave Hodge once referred to them as the
Toronto Mic'd House Band, so give my love. And I love your documentary. your documentary. Tell Elliot Lefkoe to get his ass over here one day.
Oh, I got a shout out to his brother who is a good FOTM, Perry Lefkoe. So I have a Lefkoe,
just one Lefkoe. Not the other Lefkoe. Lefkoe in leaving. Left of Lefkoe.
Left of the left leaning left go
But thanks for doing this simon. I appreciate mike. Thank you for doing this don't leave about your lasagna. It's in my freezer I've already thought about that
And don't eat it when it's frozen. You'll break your teeth. Yeah, i'll tell you my way a conklin carnie
I saw you had um, I saw you had a honeyman sweetened. I'll tell you i'll tell you my wave baby story next time
I one of my favorite videos as a preteen was wave babies. Do you think I can get it done in under a minute?
Okay, the way baby on so I was their guitar tech for one show for Honeymoon
Sweet like in the late 90s early 2000s and we're playing Kingston
Okay
and at the time they were playing against April wine was in town so nobody came to the
Honeymoon suite show so it was. And then so I was tuning guitars
that I've never touched before.
And I'm tuning the Wave Babies guitar
because it's the one with the tire tread on it.
And there was something wrong with it.
There was, it wasn't tuning right.
So I'm like, the guy, like we're so close to the stage,
like he goes, give me the Wave Babies guitars,
Wave Babies time.
And I'm like, oh, you're gonna have to do one more song
because this thing is something wrong with it. So then it's like, okay, next song, Wave Bab time. And I'm like, are you going to have to do one more song? Cause this thing is something wrong with it.
So then it's like, okay, next song wave babies.
And I just gave him the guitar and it was so piss poor out of tune.
That's Derry who was Derry.
Yeah. And then he paid me my money and I go,
you must fucking hate me right now. I apologize for.
And everyone's at miles Goodwin there in the April wine show.
That's right. They're all at the April wine show. I go, Oh, you know.
So it was like, it was like one of those moments of pure, like I'm embarrassed for you, but you know,
yeah, I got over it. Yeah. Yeah. I had Dairy and Johnny in the, uh,
the basement. They've really hit a Renaissance too with their music.
It's like, it's all coming around again, right? Everything old is new again.
And uh, you know, he's got a new girl now, so it's all good. Okay. All right.
And that brings us, you know, he's got a new girl now, so it's all good. Okay. All right. Good tie-in. And that brings us, you know, the original version of New Girl Now that won the award
on the Q107 Homegrown Contest. It wasn't a hot summer night.
Cold winter night.
Cold winter nights.
That's right.
One of the greatest lyrical changes in the history of rock and roll.
Absolutely. It's seasonal.
And that brings us to the end of our 1,497th show. What will episode 1500 be?
You'll have to find out. You're gonna find out this week, by the way. That's how
fast we're cooking here. You can follow me on Twitter and BlueSkyOla, the place
I'm at, Toronto Mike. Hey, do you want to send people somewhere to learn more
about the Simon Head universe, or where do you want to send them? Yeah, I'm on
Instagram, pictures of my bike. It's called at called at Simon head 666 that's all I do
it's not that's not hyperbolic that's just pictures of my bike. I do that too
yeah I put my bike somewhere and take pictures. I was thinking I can't do
the ride to conquer cancer with that bike because that is a single speed bike
and we got to climb the escarpment hill. It's a onesie they call it heart attack hill
now because somebody had a heart attack on it last year. Oh my god. Yeah. Yeah. With that bike,
I'd be walking up the hill. No problem. I could probably do it. You're strong. I got big calves.
I got the biggest calves. Much love to all who made this possible. That is Great Lakes Brewery.
Don't forget your fresh beer there for your son. Palma P pasta, RecycleMyElectronics.ca, the Toronto Maple
Leafs baseball team, get blurred into Christie Pitts, Monaris, season six of Yes We Are Open,
listen to Al Grego on Toronto Mike yesterday, you get the vibe of all that, he was fantastic,
and Ridley, Funeral Home, did you know this lyric coming up is about Cunnilingus?
Oh, I did know that. I'm now an expert on Louisville, though I don't know if you know this lyric coming up is about kind of lingus oh I did know that I'm an hour an expert on Louis hello I don't know if you know that I
did not know that but I just learned that as soon as you do a documentary
you're supposed to be an expert well listen I always fade out before not
laughter they care about that lyric but it's funny I rarely get this deep in the
song anymore because I used to play the whole song and then somebody said you
know when I'm biking or running or whatever maybe you just cut it and I said okay I'll fade down when I finish so I rarely
get to it who do you answer to Mike you're right I'm gonna fucking play the
whole thing twice I'm gonna play it again see you all tomorrow making her
Toronto Mike debut is singer Lori Cullen who is married to Kurt Swinghammer? Did you know that? I did not know that. That's a fun fact
I know that now who I met at Blair Packham's house just a couple weeks ago Blair Packham plays with David Quentin Steinberg at
Club called the sauce your timer is counting down. See you all then