Welcome to my weekly mixtape, a podcast that
takes the classic mixtape approach to building
a modern playlist. I'm your host, Brian Colburn.
Joining me once again as guest curator is fellow
Pantheon podcast network mate, Jason Whistle,
host of the It's Not That Bad and There Can Only
Be One podcast. Jason, welcome back to the show,
man. Oh, dude, thank you so much for bringing
me back. This is my fourth time now on the show,
so I feel like I have a timeshare. So it's time
for me to come back and visit. A series regular,
if you will. Well, first, I'd like to start by
thanking brand new Patreon mixtaper Tom Hutchinson
because he suggested the theme of this week's
episode, which is 90s Canadian artists. So, Tom,
first off, thank you so much for joining the
Patreon mixtaper family. And I look forward to
our future music discussions in the forum as
well as on the show itself. And if anyone listening
wants to suggest themes for future episodes.
visit the My Weekly Mixtape Patreon page at patreon
.com forward slash myweeklymixtape. Now, 90s
Canadian artists. I don't know. As soon as I
decided to pursue this episode after Tom and
I talked, you immediately came to mind because
A, we always have a great time talking music
and B, you kind of have home field advantage
for this one, eh? Well, I don't know how many
times I've been on your show, and I feel like
I have to apologize because my Canadian starts
the show with some of the picks. Even going back
to Playlist Wars and the songs of 1991, I think
I did whatever I could to make sure that I mentioned
certain Canadian artists. And I'm sitting there
looking at my list from that 1991 episode. I'm
like, there's a lot of Canada on here. I might
not want to put them all in. I guess this is
the one episode where I have zero shame in my
Canadian show. And I've got my poutine. I got
my Joe Louis and my ketchup chips. We are ready
to go. Well, as someone who grew up with much
music and a slew of Canadian artists that may
not have crossed the border into the U .S. tonight,
which is where my picks and choices are going
to be coming from that mindset. How hard was
it for you to find a focus for the songs you're
bringing to the table tonight? You assume that
I'm ever really focused. But the interesting
thing here is that. Squirrel. Squirrel. But the
funny thing is, when you think about the 90s,
I was in a band playing in the 90s, an original
band. And I was very fortunate. I had the opportunity
to open up for certain bands like Junk House
and Rusty. So some of my influences, of course,
are going to go into that. era but at the same
time i was also doing a lot of djing as a freelancer
so i had a lot of music that was you know not
necessarily from rock in my cd collection because
i needed it because people wanted to dance and
apparently not everyone dances to the music i
listen to harem scarum but you know um i'm just
saying i'm just saying i freaking love harem
scarum you just can't dance to them but yeah
so i wanted to get a good cross section and be
ready for pretty much anything I am coming from
a place of tons of research and tons of, huh,
I didn't realize they were Canadian moments over
the last month that I've been preparing for this
episode. So I'm really excited to see how many
times I surprise you with my Canadian music knowledge
and how many times I'm kind of on the nose. Well,
it's funny because when you think about some
of the past episodes on your show and on there
can only be one where you've been a guest on.
We pretty much have a good idea of each other's
musical interests. So I'd be curious to know
if you have guessed what my first song is going
to be. Well, I assume nothing less. It's going
to be Celine Dion. But let's pause for a minute.
and get down to business before we get to that
first pick. Tonight, as I mentioned at the top
of the show, Jason and I will be curating a 90s
Canadian artist's mixtape, and we'll use the
old cassette deck approach. Jason, as my special
guest, will begin side A with his first song
choice, and then I'll add a song that I feel
best follows up that choice. We'll then flip
-flop choosing songs until we've mapped out 10
songs for side A. We'll then give our mixtape
the proverbial flip, and we'll map outside B,
only this time I'll kick things off with Jason
choosing second. Our overall goal for this episode
is to craft the best 90s Canadian artist's mixtape
possible through only 20 songs. At the end of
the show, you can take our conversation to the
next level by visiting the episode page at myweeklymixtape
.com to give our final mixtape a listen via the
embedded playlist. And if you like what you're
hearing on the show, you can help me out by either
telling a friend, leaving the show a five -star
review wherever you're tuning in, or like I mentioned
earlier, becoming a Patreon mixtaper at patreon
.com forward slash myweeklymixtape. And a few
of the Patreon mixtapers chimed in with songs
that they would use to kick off tonight's episode.
And I want to give a shout out to a few of those.
Tom Hutchinson, the person who requested this
week's topic, chimed in with Bare Naked Lady's
Old Apartment. Chad LaMassa chimed in with Econoline
Crush's Hollow Man. Cactus Pete chimed in with
Rush's Virtuality, Bare Naked Lady's One Week,
and Snow's Informer. Seeker chimed in with the
Tea Party's Fire in the Head, the opening track
from their 95 album, The Edges of Twilight. And
Philip Bergman chimed in with Our Lady Peace's
Potato Girl. So with that, Jason, I'm officially
pressing the record button on our mixtape, and
the floor is yours. What song did you choose
to kick off Side A? Celine Dion? You would think.
But as we were talking before recording this
episode, As a Canadian, we apologize for Celine
Dion and Bryan Adams on a regular basis, like
it's our job. So no, Celine Dion is not my first
pick. There were some really good songs in that
list from the Patreon mixtapers, especially from
Chad LaMassa, who chimed in with a conline crush.
I was really fortunate to be able to open for
a conline crush a few years ago with my band,
the freaking Lola's. They were so much fun, and
I freaking love the Devil You Know album. But
I was flip -flopping between a couple of songs
to start this tape with. And then I was scrolling
through X and I saw a post that you put up today.
So you inspired my first pick. Oh. Off the album
Bionic, I'm going with Sandbox's Curious. When
this album came out, I could not get enough of
it. And there's a little bit of Canadian royalty
in there because the singer is actually the cousin
of Anne Murray. Now, the reason why your post
actually inspired me is because you put a picture
of yourself with bubbles from the Trailer Park
Boys on X. Take a look at the video for Curious
very closely and you'll realize that the guitarist
from Sandbox. Is Bubbles from the Trailer Park
Boys. Yeah, I simply had to reply with that photo
because mixtaper David Owens chimed in using
a Bubbles gif. And I thought it would be funny
to reply with the photo saying, I think he sees
otherwise. But Sandbox is a great band. They
have that quintessential 90s indie. power pop
sound that kind of bleeds into alternative rock,
but doesn't necessarily lean into it heavy. It
was kind of a 95 to 99 type thing where in the
U S you had bands like the refreshments and new
radicals. You had super drag fountains of Wayne,
all of these kinds of power pop sounding bands
and sandbox fit right in with that vibe. And
I love that so, so much. That's a great pick
to start this off. Well, the other thing, too,
is they came out around the time that there was
a lot of music coming out of the Maritimes. Of
course, you had Sloan being one of the bigger
artists. You had Eric's Trip and Jail and the
Super Friends and some really, really good Maritime
-based bands that did. They had that power pop,
and it was around this time, too, that Trouble
Charger was also getting really big as well.
I cannot stress how important 1990s Much Music
was to anyone who grew up in that era and their
music tastes. If you go on Spotify and you look
up Big Shiny Tunes, that was the CD collection
that Much Music would put out every year. And
someone had made a playlist of all the Big Shiny
Tunes tracks. And it was like, if you DJed, if
you liked music, period, you had Big Shiny Tunes
CDs in your collection. Well, thinking of something
that might be on one of those big, shiny tune
CDs, I'm going to lean into this power pop a
little bit and go right to the end of the decade
and go with a legacy artist. Well, he had the
touch that Jacob Dillon from the Wallflowers
had as his father was rock royalty. And in 1999
and Tal Bachman, who is son. of Canadian rocker
Randy Bachman and nephew of Robbie Bachman of
Bachman Turner Overdrive put out one of the I'll
say it one of the greatest power pop songs of
the 90s and that is his massive hit She's So
High which if the song name sounds familiar it
was featured in the American Pie movie so it
had that touch to it where people kind of associate
the song with those late 90s kind of teen comedies
that were so huge at the time and for punk fans
out there four years strong in 2009 on their
explains it all album cover this song in a pop
punk version which is absolutely awesome but
the original is so infectious this is the type
of song that you knew was going to be a hit regardless
of who his parents were. But as soon as I heard
the name, I wondered to myself, is there some
kind of relation here? And sure enough, there
was. And this song is just I'll say it. It's
a perfect power pop song. So I think following
up Sandbox is curious. I'm going to go with Tal
Bachman. She's so high. There were certain songs
when they came out on the radio that kind of
tested your ability to sing along with them because
they were hitting. pretty high notes and this
coming from a guy who listens to a lot of dream
theater and early queens reich i'll fully admit
there's no way even in a falsetto i'm going to
hit those notes she's so high it's not that bad
as far as as you know a higher register goes
but it was definitely testing my ability to sing
along with it in the car but knowing that i think
i know where i'm going to go with this one and
i'm going to go to the opposite end of the vocal
registry spectrum here i'm going to go low I'm
going to go low with the dulcet tones of Brad
Roberts harmonizing with Ellen Reed. I'm going
to go with the crash test dummies and I'm going
to go with the ghosts that haunt me. A, it's
a wonderful song. Absolutely wonderful song.
When those first albums came out, like you think
about Superman song, it was such a iconic song
for them. And A, I love the fact that they're
still out there playing. And yes, admittedly,
if you weren't singing along with mmm, well,
you knew all the words anyway, so you were fine.
Ghosts That Haunt Me, though, just had such a
fun, almost, I almost want to say a Celtic vibe
to it. And again, there was a lot of those maritime
Celtic vibes that was going on in the 90s as
well. You know, not necessarily out of sandbox,
but there were a lot of bands like Spirit of
the West. Ashley MacIsaac, Melanie Doan, that
all had those maritime Celtic influences into
them. This definitely had that as well. Well,
you scooped me on the band. There was no way
we were getting through a 90s conversation and
not talking about crash test dummies. I had in
my bank. That was the massive hit in the US.
The one that was the go to song, the one that
weird out parodied in headline news. That's the
one that. really hit big for me. But that entire
album, actually everything the Crash Test Dummies
did in the 90s was epic. One of those bands that
I think is, at least from the U .S. perspective,
severely underrated. I'm not sure if they have
more of a footprint in Canada than they do here
in the U .S., but severely underrated here. Well,
that's always the surprising thing is bands that
are huge here and never get any play in the States.
I had Jesse Jackson on from the Set Lusting Bruce
podcast on to There Can Only Be One, talking
about Bruce Springsteen, of course. And he was
mentioning that someone introduced him to the
Tragically Hip, which is literally Canada's house
band, basically. And he had never actually heard
them. And, you know, every documentary about
a Canadian band, the pinnacle is always when
do they break it in the States? For Rush, when
do they make it big in the States? For Triumph,
when do they make it big in the States? What's
the state that broke them? You know, for Rush,
it was Ohio. For Triumph, it was Texas. Aside
from that, though, sometimes we kind of like
to keep bands to ourselves, I guess. I don't
know. But Crash Test Dummies, it does surprise
me that they didn't make it bigger on college
radio in the States. But I also understand it
as well. Well, following up the Crash Test Dummies,
I. think i'm gonna go back even further and go
with what is definitely a legacy artist because
in the 90s there was a resurgence of 70s artists
that were still putting out music in the 80s
but then had moments in the 90s that almost seemed
bigger than anything they had done in the 80s
first and foremost i think back to 1993 and meatloaf
bad out of hell 2 i will do anything for love
but i won't do that the song was just massive
and truly introduced an entire generation to
both bad out of hell 2 and 1 simultaneously because
a lot of the people our age didn't know bad out
of hell unless our parents played it along with
that you had Obviously, my favorite artist of
all time, Tom Petty. Full Moon Fever was the
80s, but he carried that into the 90s with the
insanely successful Into the Great Wide Open.
Then his massive Greatest Hits album, followed
by Wildflowers. Tom Petty's 90s outputs among
some of the best he's ever done. And then you
had Eric Clapton's 1992 Unplugged concert that
introduced that new version of Layla that was
originally by Derek and the Dominoes. So artists
and bands from the 70s were having a resurgence
in the 90s and falling in neck and neck. And
this artist is definitely one that did it throughout
the 90s. Canada's own Neil Young. who released
insanely killer albums in the 90s between 1990s
Ragged Glory, which contained the song F and
Up, which is something that Pearl Jam took into
their repertoire and have been using live for
many, many years. And then speaking of Pearl
Jam, you had 1995's Mirrorball, which featured
the band and the Merkin Ball single. So you had
that collaboration. But I'm going to have to
go with coming out of the crash test on these.
The beautiful follow -up to 1972's Harvest. And
I'm going to go with the title track, 1992, Harvest
Moon. Because at this part of a playlist, we've
got a few songs we could take it down and kind
of get a little mellow for a track. And I think
this is the perfect example of that. I did mention
that. I DJed a lot back then. Guaranteed, Harvest
Moon got played. a lot when it came time to all
right and people want to slow dance now i know
exactly what to put on it's just such a soft
soft song and when you watch the video too the
video is the perfect setting for it almost like
a barn dance and again another song that much
music really catapulted like people don't today
like right now you want to watch a video music
video you go on youtube it's whatever right The
idea of entire hours dedicated to specific genres
and because you had to fill that what was called
CanCon content. So the CRTC would make much music
and radio stations hit a what's called a CanCon
quota. percentage of every hour had to be Canadian
artists. So that's why you had a lot of these
up and coming bands getting played a lot as well.
There was something called Video Fact, which
was a government grant that was allowing up and
coming artists in order to be able to access
funding to create videos, to help promote their
music and help get them on the road. Not that
Neil Young needed Video Fact, but I'm just trying
to put it out. just how important much music
and video fact were in really shaping the landscape.
Had it not been for much music, Harvest Moon
still would have been a great song and still
would play it on radio, but not necessarily every
single radio station. That was the key thing,
right? If you like country, you were going to
listen to country radio. If you liked rock, you
were going to listen to rock radio. If you liked
music, period, full stop, you were watching much
music. And you wouldn't mind watching shows like
Rap City and The Power Hour and The Wedge and
getting a lot of different music thrown at you.
And it really broadened your horizons rather
than being stuck in, for lack of a better term,
a genre hole. By all means. And Neil Young definitely
crossed that barrier in the 90s. His relationship
with Pearl Jam really solidified him as an icon
in that grunge. alternative space and yet Harvest
Moon definitely lent itself to like the end of
the night album I always called it you were leaving
a party and you just wanted something mellow
to listen to on the way home but it had to be
good and let's be honest and if I'm being honest
with myself Neil Young's Harvest is probably
my favorite album of his of all time and Harvest
Moon is the perfect bookend to it so I just think
it's an amazing album that Could have been released
in the 70s, could have been released in the 90s
and could have been released yesterday and just
still checks all the boxes. So it's a timeless
song for me as well. But now I'm throwing it
back to you to follow that up, because I know
that takes us down several notches. So I'll be
curious to see how you kind of bounce off this
one. I thought we might end up kind of in this
side of things because Neil Young was always
going to be an option that was thrown in. So
I was ready for this one. I was fully ready for
this one. And I'm going to go all the way back
to 1990 and Blue Rodeo's Casino album and the
song Trust Yourself. I don't think that there
is any other band that was able to not just walk
that line between country and pop, but literally
dance on both sides of it and be accessible to
both country and pop music fans. Blue Rodeo is
just a stupidly, stupidly talented band. And
Jim Cuddy's voice is, no matter what he's singing,
it's solid. If you've ever heard the song Try,
Jim Cuddy's voice is the song, period. But Trust
Yourself, genre -wise, it fits with Neil Young,
but it does bring the tempo back up a little
bit. I love the fact that you mentioned the connection
to country music because Blue Rodeo definitely
is one of those bands that you could rock on
both a country playlist as well as a rock playlist.
And neither one seems out of place or out of
touch. They just have that definite crossover
appeal. And I think I have the perfect song to
come out of that. And I'm going to go up one
year to 1991. Now, this song was a massive pop
rock hit. However. Country music sunk its teeth
into it. And in 1998, Chris LeDoux recorded a
version for his One Road Man album. And then
a few years later, Rascal Flatts brought it back
and then some for the Cars soundtrack. And I
am going to go with Tom Cochran's Life is a Highway
from 1991's Mad Mad World. You could not escape
this song on Top 40 Radio. for all of 1991. And
to this day, when Colburn and company plays,
we open up with this drum beat, people immediately
pep up. It's just one of those songs that raises
eyebrows. And we've talked about this in the
band. It's a great song. And I think because
there's not a lot of country bands in New Jersey,
there are some that incorporate country into
their repertoire, but there's not a ton of. country
music artists that are out playing nothing but
country songs here in New Jersey. Life is a Highway
is just one of those songs that seems to be pleasing
both sides of the audience because the people
that listen to country know Chris Ledoux and
know Rascal Flatts. So they're pulling from that
version. And then the rock people are pulling
from Tom Cochran. So I think this is a nice fit
coming out of Blue Rodeo because it leans into
that. Is it rock? Is it country feel? So Life
is a Highway. Almost guaranteed at any given
time, if you tuned into a pop or a rock radio
station, every hour you were going to hear Life
is a Highway. You're just Canadian at that point.
It doesn't matter who you were, what province
you were in, what territory you were in. That
song was getting played ad nauseum to the point
that you were nauseous after hearing it. Now,
so many years later, we like it again. It's okay.
We're good with it again. But it was. It was
one of those songs that got played so much. It
was literally the biggest song of the year, and
justifiably so. It's an absolute, for lack of
a better term, it's a bop. It's a bop. Yeah.
But I think I know where I'm going to go with
this one. I'm going to go back another year,
back to 1990, and a band called the Northern
Pikes. Vocal harmonies completely on point. And
I'm going to go with a song that's actually in
my band's current or my cover band's set list,
She Ain't Pretty. It has this very hippie, hippie
shake kind of rock bar kind of feel to it. It's
so much fun and almost self -knowingly just has
a bit of a laugh. And, you know, if you haven't
heard the song, by all means, go have a listen
to pretty much anything from the Northern Pikes
off of their Snow in June album, that album.
was huge i had like about three songs for the
northern pikes i was like whichever way we're
gonna go i'm gonna squeeze a northern pike song
in there because again their vocal harmonies
are always on point jason i knew this moment
was gonna happen at some point in this episode
and it's happening now and i think it's really
really cool because believe it or not i haven't
heard anything by the northern pikes And I am
so excited to finally get one that I'm like,
ooh, something to dig into. So now because of
the power of podcast editing, I'm going to snap
my finger and come back and know exactly what
song he's talking about. And with the snap of
a finger, we're back. And I now am familiar with
the Northern Pikes. Jason, this is actually kind
of cool because you get to hear my first impressions
of the band and their music, which is a first
on this show. And the first thing I'll say is
you hit the nail right on the head. Hippie hippie
shake. That is a classic barroom stomp blues
rocker. For me, I immediately think of Georgia
Satellites, Keep Your Hands to Yourself, which
is definitely a little slower, but it's one of
those Eddie and the Cruisers on the dark side.
Well, that's actually John Cafferty and the Beaver
Brown Band, but for all intents and purposes,
it's Eddie and the Cruisers. But I digress. This
is a barroom stomp kind of song. And I absolutely
love it. And I'm now going to be searching for
this album because I just totally dig this vibe.
So thank you, sir. You introduced me to a quote
unquote new to me Canadian artist today. And
I absolutely think that's amazing. Well, they
have a number of albums and they are still actually
putting music out today. Like I said, some of
the songs that I was thinking of bringing in,
some of them actually didn't qualify because.
their Big Blue Sky album was released in 1987.
So that eliminated their big song, Teen Land.
The other big album that I really wanted to talk
about was Neptune, their 1992 release. Because
if you like She Ain't Pretty, Twister also has
that same vibe, that same hippie, hippie, shake
vibe. But there's a few songs on there, like
Believe, that it's just, and Worlds Away. The
Northern Pikes, while they didn't hit as big
of a, name hit as like a tom cochran or a bare
naked ladies musically in the 90s they could
not be beat at least again that's personal opinion
looking through my bank of songs i don't have
a lot of canadian bar room stomp blues rock kind
of stuff however i'm gonna put on my cover band
cap for a minute and as somebody who also plays
in a cover band, you'll understand where my mentality
is going to head with this next song choice.
The Northern Pikes gets everybody up on the dance
floor. She Ain't Pretty is very much kind of
like that masculine type barroom stomper. Is
that a safe assumption? Having played that song
live? Yes, absolutely. Okay. So let's balance
that scale a little bit. And bring something
in from a female perspective that certainly keeps
the women up on the dance floor dancing. And
if the women are on the dance floor dancing,
chances are the guys are too. But I'm going to
follow the stomp of the bar room stomp. And mixtaper
David Owens is about to start celebrating his
ass off wherever he's listening. Because I am
going to go off of 1995's The Woman in Me. Shania
Twain, Any Man of Mine. Now, at this time, I
was in college in North Carolina. Shania Twain
broke with this song. It was all over radio.
Hell, Cletus T. Judd, who was like the country
version of Weird Al Yankovic, did a parody of
the song, If Shania Was Mine. This song was everywhere.
I would have to safely say that at least a few
years went by. This was, again, going back to
the 90s when we couldn't just Google something
instantly and get an answer. There was a good
period of time before people realized that she
was a Canadian artist. Everything she did with
Robert Mutt Lang on these albums really spoke
musically to the country music scene at the time.
And she was such an it person. I'll go ahead
and say it. Shania Twain was the Taylor Swift
of the 90s. especially in the U S and I still
feel like she holds onto a piece of that because
she went from a country sound that you heard
on any man of mine and then slowly morphed it
into stuff that was easily accessible on both
pop and country radio. So I didn't think we'd
get through tonight without talking about Shania
Twain. I didn't know how I'd fit it in, but coming
out of the Northern pikes from a cover band perspective,
any man of mine. I mentioned at the beginning
of the show that we Canadians, we apologize for
Celine Dion and Brian Adams on a regular basis.
We do not apologize for Shania Twain. We gave
her to the world. You're all welcome. It's funny.
Anytime, you know, and you'll probably recognize
this. Anytime you go out and you play at a show
and there's always someone who wants to hear
a song that maybe you don't really know how to
play and you do your best and then maybe in between
sets to try and quickly learn it and kind of
hash out a version. We were playing in Kitchener,
Ontario, and some guy came up to us and he's
like, do you take requests? And we're like, well,
if we know it, yeah, sure. Maybe we can figure
it out. And he says, I really want to hear some
Shania. I'm like, okay, okay, what Shania song?
He's like, I want you to play Man, I Feel Like
a Woman. It's my song. And I'm like, dude, that's
your song? Okay. really really wanted us to play
man i feel like a woman we had to learn it in
a very short span of time and dude lost his itch
like this was very much a we've got 15 minutes
in between sets let's very quickly figure out
how to play this song we probably butchered it
but it actually ended up in our set list and
does not matter the club that we play in that
song man i feel like a woman is going to get
people on the dance floor dancing no matter anything
Shania Twain does really is going to get people
on the dance floor it's you can't deny she was
and probably still is one of the biggest country
stars out there the fact that she's out and touring
again I was wondering if Shania Twain was going
to come up. And then I was like, OK, I know where
I'm going to go after Shania Twain, because there
was this story about Shania Twain playing the
show and bringing up this young girl from Napanee
on stage to sing with her. And that girl was
Avril Lavigne. But Avril's albums came out after
1999, so I couldn't actually go there. But I
know where I'm going to go with. And I'm going
to go with. Halifax, Nova Scotia's Melanie Doan
offered the album Adam's Rib. I'm going to go
with the title track. I mentioned that a lot
of the maritime artists had a very Celtic feel
to it, and Melanie Doan's Adam's Rib album had
a lot of violin work on it. The entire album,
if you like female singer -songwriters, this
album is a must. listened to and it got played
a lot not just on the radio but her songs off
of this album ended up in shows like party of
five baywatch buffy the vampire slayer brothers
and sisters resurrection boulevard like that
album hit everywhere and if you want some good
middle of the road not like feels but like medium
tempo violin influenced singer songwriter Pop
rock. This album is must listen to Adam's Rib
by Melanie Doan. What a great pick. I am familiar
with her stuff from Party of Five, but Adam's
Rib. This is kind of like at the time. Now I'm
thinking this is kind of like Canada's answer
to Sheryl Crow. Would that be a good comparison
at the time where musically this was headed?
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And the funny thing
is, aside from being a phenomenal songwriter
in her own right, her brother. is also a drummer,
Creighton Doan, and has done a lot of work with
Harem Scarum, who, of course, I try and squeeze
in every possible chance I get whenever I get
to talk about music. Harem Scarum is one of those
bands that when we covered them on, there could
only be one. I realized, holy crap, there's 15
albums of Harem Scarum and just a wonderful collection
of music if you're into that. But Melanie Doan's
stuff is also so, so good. And this album, I
swear to God, I had it on repeat. in my Discman
as I was commuting to and from work. Whatever
you like, there's a song for you on this album.
And that is how I'm going to follow it up. We
had Shania Twain, we have Melanie Doan, and I
get to end Side A. So I'm going to go with an
album that in 1995, I could not turn off and
I could not stop listening to. Now, for me at
the time, this was... a brand new artist that
just so happened to be on one of my favorite
Nickelodeon shows growing up. However, to you
and the rest of Canada, this was her third album.
But to the United States, Jagged Little Pill.
was the introduction to Alanis Morissette. And
because it's the end of the side, I just want
to go home and end the side with a banger that
offsets Sandbox's Curious. So we'll go with You
Oughta Know, the song that she closes every show
with, the song that introduced this new version
of Alanis Morissette to Canada and Alanis Morissette
to the rest of the world. Obviously, I could
pick anything. off of Jagged Little Pill. My
favorite song from this album is actually Mary
Jane. I know that's a little bit of a deeper
cut, but that one always hit with me. I saw the
Jagged Little Pill tour in a facility in Raleigh,
North Carolina with about 500 people. The band
Loud Lucy opened up with Alanis Morissette. On
drums for Alanis Morissette, Taylor Hawkins.
And they played basically the album front to
back. And I fell in love with Alanis as an artist.
I fell in love with Taylor Hawkins drumming.
Like everything about it was perfect. A year
later, we were seeing her at an arena with garbage
opening for them. You can't talk about a Canadian's
impact on rock and pop music in the 90s without
talking about Alanis. So closing out Side A,
Alanis Morissette, you ought to know. And you
ought to know she was going to make this playlist.
Well, it's funny too, because Alanis. And I both
grew up in Ottawa. So we got to hear a lot of
those first two albums when they first came out.
Of course, she sang the anthem at the very first
Ottawa Senators home game where they actually
beat the Montreal Canadiens and then proceeded
to have one of the worst records that entire
NHL season. So, yay, I guess. But, you know.
But the funny thing is, when that album came
out. we were so used to hearing her dance stuff
you know never too hot and plastic and then all
of a sudden this album comes to like whoa what
the hell happened i'll agree with you that while
you want to know is a good song my favorite one
off that album one i actually had on my list
so you kind of scooped me on this one was forgiven
which ended one of the great oh so good My wife,
Carrie, and I actually recently went to go see
the Toronto production of Jagged Little Pill.
And if you have not had a chance to go see this
stage play, go see it. It takes a lot of her
music and reimagines it into the story to the
point of I would love to see this play. And Carrie
mentioned this on a recent episode of Keep Watch
Pass. We would love to see this play get the
Hamilton movie treatment where they just. tape
the stage play rather than turn it into a scripted
movie and because it is so well done Been on
my list to see. I'm hoping to make this year
the year I check it off my bucket list. And I'm
also hoping to make this year the year that you
stumble across those first two albums for me
because they're up in Canada. I can't find them
in all of my hunting here in the US. So I got
to throw you on a mission. I need to find Alanis'
first two albums on CD. So to my friend up in
Canada, maybe you can make that happen for me
this year. I'm going to have to put together
like a Canadian care package. There'll be some
Northern Pikes in there. There'll be some Atlanta.
We'll get a few in there for you. Rock and roll.
And that, folks, closes up side A of our ultimate
90s Canadian artists mixtape, which kicked off
with Sandbox's Curious. Tal Bachman's She's So
High, Crash Test Dummies' The Ghosts That Haunt
Me, Neil Young's Harvest Moon, Blue Rodeo's Trust
Yourself, Tom Cochran's Life is a Highway, The
Northern Pikes' She Ain't Pretty, Shania Twain's
Any Man of Mine, Melanie Doan's Adam's Rib, and
Alanis Morissette's You Oughta Know. Head over
to MyWeeklyMixtape .com to hear all the songs
we've discussed in this mix. through the playlist
embedded on the episode page. Now, before we
flip our proverbial mixtape over to Side B, Jason,
why don't you catch everybody up on what's been
happening over at It's Not That Bad and There
Can Only Be One because you had mentioned something
a little earlier about some new additions to
your family of pods. Yeah, we are growing the
shows. It feels exponentially at this point because
we have two new shows that are kind of out there.
On It's Not That Bad on Mondays, you now get
what's called Keep Watch Pass. And if you've
ever played Mary Boff Kill, and I'll say it that
way because, you know, we don't want to hit the
censor button. It's kind of the same theory where
we'll take a topic and we'll pick three movies,
one that you would keep, one that you would watch
and one that you would pass on. Obviously, you
kind of get the idea of how that goes. But then
over on there can only be one. There's that new
show that's coming every other week to fill the
gap because it takes a while to go through some
of these discographies and we have to fill in.
You know, you all deserve more than a show every
two weeks. So now on the off week, you get a
show called Spin, Shuffle, Skip. Same theory.
One album. Three songs. One that you would spin
anytime. One that if it comes on during shuffle
play, yeah, all for it. And one that you would
actually hit the skip button on. Not necessarily
that it's a bad song, but sometimes you do have
to pick one. Sometimes you want to pick the whole
album, but that depends on the album. But the
nice thing about Spin, Shuffle, Skip is that
it allows us to... tackle artists that don't
have the five album prerequisite that we use
for there can only be one but it also allows
us to talk about soundtracks as well so there's
gonna be a lot of different artists that we're
now going to be able to talk about that we weren't
able to talk about before and you know brian
that we're going to have to drag you on there
for a few episodes well i've already sent my
list of like 25 or 50 albums over to you and
you know i've been wanting to talk the interrupters
for quite a while oh yes i can't wait to make
that happen Well, don't worry. We're going to
get the calendar. We're going to schedule that
one in. That's going to happen. Amen. And now
we're going to flip things over to side B and
I get to kick things off. And you know what?
I'm a sucker for album opening tracks. And I
know you and I both have this band in our list,
along with Patreon mixtape or Cactus Pete, who
also mentioned these guys. And I have to be the
scooper on this one. Because just a few weeks
ago, episode 52, we did the Ultimate Rush playlist.
And I get to go back to Rush. Of course, we're
going to talk about Rush. But I'm going to go
with the opening track from 1993's Counterparts.
And I'm going to go with Animate, one of my favorite
90s Rush tunes. this album kind of came at a
turning point for the band because music was
changing at the time this was in the 90s and
you were ushering out that 80s sound and ushering
in this new grunge and alternative sound and
rush has always been a band that was able to
follow Actually, I don't want to use the word
follow. They were able to respond in a rush way
to where the music scene was headed. So in the
80s, when synth became more popular, they were
able to evolve their sound to include that, but
still remain distinctly rush. And now in the
90s, when that was all getting stripped back,
they were able to do the same, but not strip
it back to the 70s sound. include where they
came from throughout the 80s and turn it into
something that was once again distinctly Rush.
And we talk about it more on episode 52. So if
you're a Rush fanatic, I highly suggest checking
that episode out. But man. There was no way we
weren't talking about Rush. I knew it was happening.
I apologize because I probably scooped your closer,
but we got to get some Animate love in there.
And, you know, it's kind of fitting because it's
the opening track on side B of our playlist and
it's the opening track on Counterparts. I will
say that you did scoop me on band, album and
song on that one because Animate might actually
be like. At some point, there's going to be a
rush that can only be one. And I will say that
Animate is a very strong contender for my only
one of their entire studio discography. That
song, that album, that whole album. Animate's
a great song. admittedly, nobody's hero was the
bigger single off of that one with this wonderful
video that was done in black and white by Matt
Meheran, who did a lot of work with Queensryche
at the time, because that was around that empire
time as well. So the video had that very, uh,
another rainy night without you kind of feel
to it. So the fact that that song was getting
a lot of airplay introduced a lot of us to the
song animate the minute we picked up that album
coming off of roll the bones too. It was such,
there was a. For lack of a better term, there's
a lot more hair on the balls on this album than
there was on Roll the Bones. Oh, they stripped
it down for Animate. And that's what I love about
it. It's that guitar sound that people were missing
from, I will say, all the way back as far as
moving pictures. Oh, yeah. This was the goodbye
to the synth era kind of feel and definitely
led into Vapor Trails afterwards very well. I
know where I'm going to go with this. And I've
been hoping that I get to say this band's name
because I still have the mindset of a 13 year
old boy and it makes me giggle. And I'm going
to go with another opening track from the Rainbow
Butt Monkeys. And if you don't know who the Rainbow
Butt Monkeys are, they had one album out. The
album was Letters from Chutney. Yep. Yep. The
Rainbow Butt Monkeys shortly thereafter changed
their name to Finger Eleven. So this is the very
first ever Finger Eleven album. The song is called
As Far As I Can Spit. And this album, A, the
fact that they were called the Rainbow Buttmonkeys
may be one of the worst slash best names ever
in music history, but it's so good. And recently,
as old as like five years ago or so ago, they
reunited, quote unquote, as the Rainbow Buttmonkeys
and performed this album at the Sound of Music
Festival in Burlington, Ontario. Fans of Letters
from Chutney, they got served. But I'm going
to go with As Far As I Can Spit. Love it, love
it, love it. One of the greatest. Honestly, I'll
say it. I like the name better than Finger Eleven.
And if you Google Rainbow Butt Monkeys right
now, you're getting Finger Eleven as your first
search result. Like, they're kind of synonymous.
And I love the fact that you went with that and
not one of the Finger Eleven songs. That's really
kind of going back deeper into the band's history.
And that is definitely a piece of the Canada
side of the band that I discovered after discovering
Finger Eleven in the US. I can just imagine people
calling up and trying to say with a straight
face, yeah, can you play some Rainbow Butt Monkey?
Again, brain of a 13 -year -old boy, I apologize.
Not at all. I love the pick. I love the song.
And I know exactly what I'm going to do because
we are going to start side B with a trio of album
opening songs. I have a feeling I'm scooping
you again here because we're leaning more rock.
So this is where I start to think, ooh, I'm definitely
probably. picking songs that you probably have
in your immediate hit list. And I want to give
a shout out one more time to Patreon mixtaper,
Philip Bergman. He chimed in with potato girl,
but I am going to go with our lady pieces, album
opening track from clumsy, the killer Superman's
dead. This song, the first time I heard it, I
said, this rocks like no other. And there was
this groove to it. that almost echoed Lachini's
Juice by Live. There was this kind of swagger
and groove to the song that was both heavy and
you bobbed your head to it. And I had a chance
to see Our Lady Peace, Oleander, and Creed the
night before Human Clay was released at Irving
Plaza in New York City. And when they played
Superman's Dead, they tore. the roof off of Irving
Plaza. I absolutely love this track. So following
up the rainbow, but monkeys can't believe I said
that our lady piece Superman's dead. Talk about
songs. When you sing along in your car, like
we did with, she's so high. Oh, you know, the
stuff he's doing with the owl. Like that's, that's
not easy to hit, but it's so. Amazing. Love this
track so much. And right now, every Canadian
sitting there going. I will say you scooped me
on the band, but all the songs that I had in
my back pocket were all off of the previous album,
Navid. Which I figured. Yeah, because especially
because the bass tone on that album was like
you listen to that first song or Navid, the title
track from that album and the bass tone on it
is so. nasty and tasty at the same time. So completely
agree that OLP needed to be on the list. But
the question is, where do I go from there? You
know what? I'm going to stick with the bass tone
idea, even though Superman's that isn't exactly
the bass tone song for them. But you're going
to get a twofer on this one. The song is called
Earth, Sky and Sea. From the phenomenal band,
I Mother Earth. But here's where the twofer comes
in. Because doing a little bit of the guitar
work on this song is Mr. Alex Lifeson from Rush.
This song, as a bassist, you're going to completely
geek out on this because there's a ton of slap
bass on this. There's a phenomenal breakdown
in the middle of the song. It closes the Scenery
and Fish album. And this was actually the last
album before Edwin went off to do a solo career
and they had to change singers. Now Edwin's back
with I Mother Earth. So we're all good there.
Things are back to normal. Earth, Sky and Sea,
I think, is my favorite song from their entire
discography. I think you and I are on the exact
same page there. It is my favorite song from
them. As soon as you said the song name, I'm
like, we're going with some Alex Lyson here.
All right. I love it. Fantastic song coming out
of. Our Lady piece. I love the, dare I call it,
almost tribal -like opening to the song before
the funky rhythm kind of kicks in. It really
kind of eases you into this track. And this is
a longer track. This is seven minutes. This has
got a lot to digest, but it's all so damn good.
The challenge here lies in the fact that this
is an album closing track, and it's pretty friggin'
epic. It's kind of hard to... pivot off of, but
I'm going to do my best and try to pivot us a
little bit because this kind of, you know, we
got that little Prague kind of tinge going through
here a little bit, but we haven't brought any
female artists onto this side. And I feel like
we need to do that. The one thing's for certain
with I Mother Earth, there's an energy to this
song that's undeniable. And I think that's what
I'm going to tap into for the song I'm heading
to next. So I'm going to kind of lean a little
bit towards the latter half of the decade and
go back to 1998. And I would call this artist
Canada's answer to Garbage and Republica. And
I'm going to go with Biff Naked and Spaceman
from Ibificus. To me, that was such a essential
sound of the 90s. rock fused with a little bit
of dance fused with a little bit of punk thrown
in for good measure and it created this sound
that was very much a moment of the 90s and to
me listening to Garbage's i'm only happy when
it rains into republica's ready to go into biff
naked spaceman Just works as a vibe So I know
it's a little bit of a pivot here musically,
but the energy is what I'm going for here. And
that simply can't be denied. Spaceman from Biff
Naked. Oh, I mean, Biff Naked, A, just cool as
hell. Absolutely cool as hell. And that album,
like, oh, Lucky Ones off that album is such a
phenomenal ballad. And then, of course, doing
her song, I Love Myself Today, you know, shortly
after that. Again, phenomenal, phenomenal. Holy
crap, where do I go from there? I think I know
where I want to go from there. Oh, no, I know.
I know exactly where I'm going to go from there.
Maybe you haven't heard this artist yet, but
we're going to stay in the female rock genre.
And I'm going to go with Holly McNarland off
of her 1997 album Stuff. And I'm going to go
with Numb, the lead track off of this one. It
was a harder, not necessarily hard as far as
like metal goes, but a harder, raw kind of rock
singer songwriter kind of feel. She's been compared
to a Lance Morissette and Fiona Apple as well
around that time. So if you're looking for another
good and this is her debut album and it blew
everyone away, at least her debut major label
album, I should I should point that out. This
is definitely one of those artists that I wonder
how in a world where the cranberries were so
massive. She did not gain as much appeal in the
US because that is definitely more an artist
that I feel like stayed in the Canada space more
than actually making the jump into the US. Oh,
I mean, that album, that stuff album had a lot
of. not necessarily like linger cranberries kind
of feel, but songs like salvation and zombie.
That was the kind of feel you were getting off
of this album. It was raw. It was in your face
and you couldn't escape just how good that album
was. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to
lean into an artist following up Holly McNarland
and Biff naked. I'm going to, we're going to
do another trio of the ladies on side B as well.
And I'm going to go with a song that depending
on where you were, you discovered at different
times. If you were from Canada, you discovered
this song in 1993 on one album. And if you're
in the U S you discovered it in 1994 on another.
And that song is called. I would die for you.
The artist is Jan Arden. And in 1993, it was
released on her time for mercy album. However,
1994's Living in June was how I discovered the
track because it was a bonus track on the international
version of the release, meaning in the US. I
Would Die for You is not on Canada's version
of Living Under June as it was a hit a year earlier
from Time for Mercy. But when they were making
a push with Jan Arden and Insensitive in the
US, they included this song on. living under
june and to me it's just a gorgeous beautiful
90s acoustic tune it's very dreamy it's very
it's very sweet it's delicate it's just a beautiful
track and i felt like we had that with harvest
moon on side a so i kind of wanted to give us
that moment here on side b as well with jan arden's
i would die for you jan arden is one of those
stupidly talented singers. And now she's transitioned
into more of a TV career as opposed to the singing
career. But yes, when she was out there, you
know, when you think about some of the artists
that are out around that time, artists like Holly
Cole and Nora Jones, Jan Arden really kind of
fit into that era of singer songwriter. I know
exactly where I'm going to go with this. And
it's right in your wheelhouse because it's a
cover song. All right. One of the biggest. female
Canadian artists in the nineties is also the
person that helped put together the Lilith fair.
And that's Sarah McLaughlin. So off of her 1996
EP rarity, besides and other stuff, I'm going
to go with her cover of ecstasy's dear God. It
was so good. Now. honestly anyone who's got this
album is going to sit there and say oh that's
the one with i will remember you because we've
all heard i will remember you but it's her cover
of dear god that really sold this album for me
and yes there's a remix of possession on there
yes there's a remix of into the fire and some
of her bigger songs from previous albums but
this cover better than i will remember you maybe
it's because it's overplayed but i'm all for
it man Four female tracks in a row, and they're
all incredible. And you hit me with the cover.
I absolutely love it. But I feel like Jan Arden
and Sarah McLachlan's Dear God kind of bring
the vibe down a little bit. And we've only got
two songs left. So we need that cover band moment
of we're nearing the end of the night. Let's
get everybody up and back out on the dance floor
immediately. And I think I can do that in nine
words. I am going to echo Cactus Pete with this
one. It's been one week since you looked at me.
Bare Naked Ladies, 1998 stunt, inescapable, no
matter what country you were in. This was the
song that truly launched Bare Naked Ladies into
the stratosphere musically. Now, I know that.
Tom Hutchinson chimed in with old apartment.
I could have easily went with if I had a million
dollars here, especially coming out of Jan Arden
and Sarah McLachlan. But I feel like I wanted
to pick the party back up and not lean into the
more mellow half of the side. So, yes, it's a
total record scratch moment. But hell, who knows?
Maybe you'll close things out with Snow's Informer
now because of the weird way I took this. But
I got to go with. I mean, come on. When you talk
about songs, that's fun to attempt to sing along
with. This is one of them. Again, you think about
the movies like American Pie. This song was synonymous
with those movies. And it's just, I'll say it's
just so much frigging fun. The song never got
old to me. I could hear it a million times and
it always puts a smile on my face. It always
makes me happy. And yeah, that's as my last pick
of the night. Bare Naked Ladies one week. Always
baffles me that it took that long for the Barenaked
Ladies to make it big in the States. Because
I remember when the yellow tape came out. And
this was in 1991. And, you know, everyone was
hearing If I Had a Million Dollars. And, of course,
that also had Be My Yoko Ono and Brian Wilson
on it. And, of course, this is also around the
same time that they did their cover of Bruce
Coburn's Lovers in a Dangerous Time. Yes. Everyone.
Everyone I knew had the yellow cassette, especially
because it also had their cover of Fight the
Power. So the fact that they were pulling off
those kind of covers, phenomenal. And Gordon,
the minute Gordon came out and hit the stores,
like as a DJ, I was playing those songs every
night. Like I actually had Old Apartment and
Enid both on my list because anything off of
Gordon was going to. was definitely going to
be called for. And again, from a Canadian perspective,
it's fascinating that it took one week to hit.
And of course, now anyone who watches reruns
of the Big Bang Theory gets their Barenaked Ladies
kick every episode because, of course, they did
the theme song. I'll say this. Barenaked Ladies
was a college radio staple up until one week.
One week is the song that put them into the mainstream
overnight in the US. At the time, I was in high
school. We were all familiar with it from the
college radio stations in the area. But mainstream
radio fell in love with them at one week, at
least here in the U .S. Coming off of one week,
and you wanted to pick things up. Normally, you
know me. I like to kind of. Land the plane softly
when we get to the end of the cassette. Celine
Dion. No, not Celine Dion. We're still not doing
Celine Dion. I feel bad because the Celine Dion
fans listening are going to be mad at us, you
realize. Well, this cassette will go on. But
here we go. Volume two. Oh, trust me. I have
enough songs for volume two. So if we ever get
back to this, absolutely. I think I know I'm
going to end it. I had about three or four songs
that were earmarked for the ending. But I think
I'm going to go with a song that's, again, in
my band's set list. That if we're not ending
the night with Sweet Caroline, we're ending the
night with this song. So allow me to quote. You'll
have to excuse me. I'm not at my best. I've been
gone for a week. I've been drunk since I left.
And these so -called vacations will soon be my
death. I'm so sick from the drink. I need home
for a rest. From Spirit. And I feel like it works
well because we started off the cassette with
more of that maritime Celtic kind of feel. This
song, it entered our set list because we needed
something to play for a St. Patrick's Day show.
And then we saw how people absolutely lost their
ish every time we play this. This is the ultimate
party drinking song if you are Canadian. And
if you haven't heard it. Please go listen to
it. To me, Spirit of the West is kind of ending
the night on a dropkick Murphy's end in the Massachusetts,
Boston area. It has that same vibe. They're cut
kind of from the same cloth, and it's definitely
a raise your glass and everybody singing along
at the top of their lungs. Kind of track. Oh,
yeah. It definitely brings the same kind of response
as a shipping up to Boston would for sure. And
again, it's just one of those ones where people
are going to lock their arms and spin around
in a circle on the dance floor and probably spill
a lot of beer and make the floor really sticky
as we load out at the end of the night. Not complaining.
Not complaining. Maybe complaining a little.
But again, you've got the Celtic feel. You've
got the maritime sounds. And. Still, to this
day, because remember, this song came out early
90s as well. To this day, it still gets people
on the dance floor. Perfect way to close things
out tonight for Side B, which kicked off with
Rush's Animate, Rainbow Butt Monkeys' As Far
As I Could Spit, Our Lady Peace, Superman's Dead,
I'm Mother Earth, Earth, Sky, and Sea, Biff Naked's
Spaceman, Holly McNarland's Numb. Jan Arden's
I Would Die For You, Sarah McLachlan's Dear God,
Bare Naked Ladies One Week. and Spirit of the
West, Home for a Rest. Head over to myweeklymixtape
.com to hear all the songs we've discussed in
this mix through the playlist embedded on the
episode page. Jason, once again, it's always
a pleasure having you on. Why don't you remind
listeners where they can connect with you and
check out It's Not That Bad and There Can Only
Be One. Well, Brian, thank you again so much.
And thank you to the Patreon mixtapers that chimed
in with their songs and for suggesting this because...
you got a canadian up here who likes to talk
about canadian music so that's okay if you want
to find it's not that bad where we review bad
movies at least critically pinned movies not
saying they're bad because the show's not it's
not that bad you can find us on social media
at not that bad cast that's where you can also
find keep watch pass for the music shows there
can only be one and spin shuffle skip you can
find us on social media at only one cast or you
can Find it all at our website, not that bad
cast .com. Well, Jason, this is always a pleasure.
Thank you again for joining me and looking forward
to our next crossover, which will probably be
happening. I don't know, next week or something.
Don't worry. The plate is set at the table for
you. We're good. Remember, Mixtapers, you can
find My Weekly Mixtape on almost all the social
media haunts at My Weekly Mixtape. You can also
head to MyWeeklyMixtape .com to check out the
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finally, if you like what you're hearing on the
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Mixtaper at Patreon .com forward slash My Weekly
Mixtape. That's all for this week. Thanks again
for listening. Until next time. Enjoy the tunes.