No Sleep Til Sudbury With Brent Jensen

Former Lowest of the Low guitarist Stephen Stanley returns to the studio following his NSTS Xmas episode with a whole new batch of songs. We talk about our views on Clapton, what the backstage area is like at the Horseshoe Tavern, the nostalgic power of KISS, seated versus standing at a rock show, American rock music's sweet spot, and the peculiar production techniques used to motivate Clash guitarist Mick Jones.     Stanley's Playlist: Johnny Mathis - Moon River Eric Clapton - I Shot The Sheriff KISS - Detroit Rock City Tom Petty - Shadow of a Doubt The Clash - Spanish Bombs Bob Dylan - Simple Twist of Fate Shawn William Clarke - In Conversation   

Happy New Year, friends. We're back at it with none other than drum colossus Mike Portnoy, formerly of Dream Theater and now playing with rock supergroup Sons of Apollo. Mike is an elite musician, widely considered to be one of greatest drummers in the world. He's also a great guy and a great guest. During our conversation we geek out on Bowie, KISS, and Radiohead, and he shares his experiences playing drums for Twisted Sister, his theory about Rush fans, the recent spate of rock and roll deaths, and how Dream Theater was like a musical Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.    Portnoy's playlist: The Beatles - A Day in the Life The Who - We're Not Gonna Take It/See Me Feel Me/Listening To You David Bowie - Space Oddity Yes - Heart of the Sunrise Radiohead - Paranoid Android      

Alright, we're doing something a little different tonight. Episode 41 is a previously unreleased, impromptu episode recorded during a night of drinking with my neighbour and close friend, mister Johnny Belton. The episode was recorded in early 2017 and shelved, but I decided recently it would be fun to put out there. We had a lot of fun doing it, so I thought the listenership may enjoy this organic, more informal version of NSTS. And hey - it's Christmas. On that topic, this will be the last episode to air before the holiday break - NSTS will return Tuesday, January 9 with a very well-known rock star guest. I wish you the very best the holiday season can bring my friends, and I thank you sincerely for listening. Happy holidays!       Belton's playlist: Max Webster - The Party Soul Asylum - Misery Bruce Springsteen - Tenth Avenue Freeze Out The Clash - Train in Vain Frank Zappa - Why Does It Hurt When I Pee? Living Color - Cult of Personality The Rolling Stones - Waiting on a Friend        

Former Lowest of the Low frontman Stephen Stanley joins me on episode 40 to do a Christmas edition of No Sleep 'til Sudbury. We chat about his new group The Stephen Stanley Band and their excellent new record, Jimmy & The Moon, and then we get into the holiday tunes that make his skin vibrate.  Also discussed is the ironic fact that many Christmas songs were in fact written by Jewish composers, the amazing career of Darlene Love, and how Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime" continues to be reviled year after year. Poor Macca.   Stanley's playlist: Andy Williams - Sweet Little Jesus Boy Barbra Streisand - The Christmas Song Bob Dylan - Do You Hear What I Hear Elvis Presley - Holly Leaves and Christmas Trees  John Denver - Aspenglow Ray Coniff Singers - Jolly Old St Nick Medley Sandler & Young - Hark The Herald Angels Sing Darlene Love - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)    

Joining me on the show this week is author and radio & television host of Living Fearlessly Lisa McDonald, who brings in all manner of musical genres with her No Sleep 'til Sudbury skin vibration playlist.   We chat about Led Zeppelin drum samples, the Radiohead Toronto stage collapse disaster (she was there), and lovely "Mimi on the Beach" composer Jane Siberry. All this in less than 25 minutes - Lisa could have brought in a second playlist! And by the way, the name we can't come up with at the beginning of the program? It's Andrew Lloyd Webber.    McDonald's playlist:   Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman - Time To Say Goodbye   Enigma - Return to Innocence   Tori Amos - A Sorta Fairytale   Radiohead - High & Dry   Jane Siberry - Love is Everything  

Everyone's favourite curmudgeon Chris 'The Pink Chief' Long calls into the show - not to talk about songs that make his skin vibrate, but to share his view of the world from the DJ booth. He gets a pass for flouting the show format though, because music is still the theme, and the stories he tells about the people he's interacted with as a DJ are so sad, bewildering, and compelling. People may open up to the bartender, but according to Long, they REALLY open up to the guy responsible for their soundtrack for the evening.   And in some cases, pull the odd gun on him.     

If you're a Canadian music fan of my vintage, you'll surely remember The Spoons and Honeymoon Suite. Rob Preuss played keyboards in both those bands, and he tells some great stories from those days in Episode 37 of No Sleep 'til Sudbury. He joined The Spoons when he was only 15 (!), went on to Honeymoon Suite from there, and then later became the associate musical director for Broadway production Mamma Mia, and also played some piano in the Phantom of the Opera orchestra pit. During our conversation he stays true to the basic format of the show, talking about the songs that have made his skin vibrate over the course of his life and why. We also discuss our mutual childhood fondness for David Cassidy. Great guest, great chat.   Preuss' playlist: Honeymoon Suite - Bad Attitude Billy Joel - Scenes From An Italian Restaurant Helen Reddy - Angie Baby Genesis - Deep in the Motherlode The Partridge Family - Summer Days

Episode 36 of No Sleep Til Sudbury takes place in Wilton, Connecticut, conducted from two comfy chairs inside the home belonging to my pally from the valley, mister Ian O'Malley. I'd heard a lot of the hilarious stories from his VH1 days previously, but not these - among them his drunken nickname for Sting, Keith Richards' preferred method of quaffing scotch, and Roger Waters' rules when meeting fans. O'Malley is one hell of a storyteller, and he blends sentiment with humour without peer. You gotta hear this.    O'Malley's playlist: Pink Floyd - On The Turning Away The Rolling Stones - Slave The Police - Invisible Sun Tom Petty - Wildflowers Rush - 2112 

Want your mind blown? Listen to this episode. Semiotic researcher Charles Leech drops by to explain how and why we get goosebumps when we hear certain songs, and how rock music almost didn't exist if not for a guy called Palestrina. Charles relates some utterly fascinating facts and logic surrounding the science of music in this episode. I'm still shaking my head.   Leech's playlist: Palestrina - Missa Papae Marcelli   Richard Wagner - Prelude, and Liebestod New Order - The Perfect Kiss Grouplove - Tongue Tied The Beatles - She Loves You Dear Rouge - Wanna Wanna Silversun Pickups - Drained Annie Lennox - Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye Colin Hay - I Just Don't Think I'll Get Over You Nick Drake - River Man 

Jamie Blaine is a guy I could talk music with for days and days. In Episode 34, Jamie and I contemplate Halloween and talk about some Halloween-ish bands and their music. You know - KISS, Alice Cooper, Marilyn Manson, and so on. No real playlist this time, but the chat is great and gets a little deeper than I anticipated.   Happy Halloween! 

Hunters Bay Radio 88.7FM's on-air personality and afternoon drive host Sarah Coombs joins me for Episode 33 of the No Sleep 'til Sudbury episode series. Sarah is doing some very cool stuff at Hunters Bay Radio - no format! Just like WKRP! Sarah's playlist features a little bit of everything - some aggression, some sadness, some happiness, and some chill. And, something impossibly cool happens at 4:03. Check it out!     Coombs' playlist: Sinead O'Connor - Troy Rage Against The Machine - Killing In The Name Of... Nine Inch Nails - Something I Can Never Have The Pixies - Broken Face Martin Sexton - Diggin' Me

Making his triumphant return to the No Sleep 'til Sudbury show for episode 32 is mister Jay Jay French, back to talk about Lou Reed, David Bowie, The Beatles, and loads of other things. Jay Jay also concedes that the Canadian Rockies are better than the American Rockies, what he stole from Judas Priest, the songs he used to soundcheck with Twisted Sister, and the Eagles song they used to cover(!). He also gives me a metaphor that I'm totally stealing for my next book.   French's playlist: The Beatles - Side Two of Abbey Road David Bowie - Oh! You Pretty Things David Bowie - Changes AC/DC - Whole Lotta Rosie Mott The Hoople - All The Young Dudes Velvet Underground - White Light, White Heat Lou Reed - Walk on the Wild Side Lou Reed - Satellite of Love Oasis - Live Forever Oasis - Don't Look Back in Anger

Stephanie Riley drops by the show in NSTS Episode 31 to discuss some very personal sentiments related to her having read All My Favourite People Are Broken. I'm fascinated that her stories actually lend validation to the purpose of Broken, which is to urge people to look more deeply into the reasons why they're so emotionally compelled by certain songs. So not only are people actually reading my books, they're learning things from them!!  All this, folks, and the soothing calypso sounds of Boney M too.   Riley's playlist: Jose Feliciano - Feliz Navidad Boney M - The Brown Girl in the Ring Brenda Russell - Piano in the Dark Michael Jackson - Thriller Whitney Houston - Didn't We Almost Have It All Eric Carmen - Hungry Eyes The Dells - Heart is a House For Love Guns N' Roses - Sweet Child of Mine Taylor Dayne - Love Will Lead You Back Quincy Jones - You Put a Move On My Heart       

The Dock 104.1FM on-air personality Josh Duncan joins me in Episode 30 to talk Motorhead, Sabbath, Nirvana, and a little Simon & Garfunkel. Josh and I have a great chat, including the strange emotional dichotomy of The Hip's final show, the last record I was actually excited about buying upon its release, the irony of alternative becoming mainstream, and Ozzy's unfortunate 80s Bea Arthur phase. And by the way, Josh's dog is named Ronnie James Dio. True fact.     Duncan's playlist: Motorhead - Ace of Spades Simon & Garfunkel - Sounds of Silence The Tragically Hip - Grace, Too Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit Black Sabbath - War Pigs Bob Marley - Three Little Birds Steppenwolf - Snowblind Friend Bad Religion - New Dark Ages   

In Episode 029 of No Sleep Til Sudbury, my pal and massive punk rock fan Colin Lumsden returns to the studio to further discuss the songs that stir him emotionally, all the while continuing to impress me with incredible degrees of knowledge.  During our discussion we consider the contradictions of punk as a mainstream concept, that the lack of musicality in punk is in fact the entire point, and the fact that I may or may not have a soul. Not many people I know get more out of music than Lumsden does. Towards the end of the interview he makes some very powerful confessions with brutal honesty, in turn capturing the very essence of everything I've tried to do with this show.     Lumsden's playlist: Oasis - Don't Look Back in Anger Rancid - Honor Is All We Know Sex Pistols - Anarchy in the UK Social Distortion - I Was Wrong John Lennon - Imagine 

It's my distinct pleasure to host one of the nicest guys in rock and roll in Episode 28 of NSTS, Def Leppard guitarist extraordinaire Phil Collen. Phil and I cover a lot of ground in our chat - Hysteria's 30th anniversary, Sting's sublime bass lines, that he was asked to join Iron Maiden in 1981, his blues band Delta Deep, what he learned about being a guitar player from Mutt Lange, and the fact that my high school art class pencil sketch of he and Steve Clark was given an A+. Wish I had saved that thing.    Collen's playlist: David Bowie - Moonage Daydream Sex Pistols - God Save The Queen Al Green - Tired of Being Alone The Police - Walking on the Moon Sly and the Family Stone - If You Want Me To Stay Jimi Hendrix - Fire Led Zeppelin - When The Levee Breaks        

In Episode 27 of NSTS, Brad Jemmett and Kent Bailey both return to the studio for the fourth and final installment of their Golden Age of Hip Hop segment, and it's Bailey's turn to trash talk Jemmett's playlist. And he doesn't pull punches. House of Pain, 2 Live Crew, and Jeru the Damaja all get talked about, but Bailey saves the best for last when he critiques Jemmett's last pick. Check it out!               

My jackass friends Brad 'Jammer' Jemmett and Kent 'Blaze' Bailey are back for the third installment of their little hip hop exercise, and after we finish winding Blaze up for playing the French horn in high school band, Jammer goes through Blaze's playlist from Episode 10. Quite critically. Lots of trash talk.  Listen along as we talk Beastie Boys, A Tribe Called Quest, Public Enemy, Slick Rick, Wu Tang Clan, and how Blaze's high school girlfriend looked like MC Lyte.         

Colin Lumsden is a personal friend, a highly intelligent business executive currently working in the field of higher education, and a massive music fan. In the first of this two-part series with Colin, he eloquently shares his deep knowledge of punk rock, the personal reasons why it compelled him so much as a younger man, as well as some incredibly insightful perspectives on the genre and others.     We also discuss the very unique and scientific way in which he derived his playlist, which impressed but did not surprise me. This is a really great chat.    Lumsden's playlist: The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever Arctic Monkeys - When The Sun Goes Down Dead Kennedys - Where Do Ya Draw The Line The Fratellis - For The Girl Green Day - Coming Clean  

Canadian rock journalist Mitch Lafon joins me in NSTS episode 24 with a classic hair metal playlist that brings me back to my high school days. Join us as Mitch talks about the disappointment that was Montreal rock radio in the 80s, and why he's tight with Slash and Alice Cooper. He even teaches me a dirty little secret I didn't know about German rockers Scorpions!   Lafon's playlist:  Bon Jovi - Wanted Dead or Alive Metallica - Enter Sandman Whitesnake - Still of the Night Scorpions - Big City Nights Poison - Talk Dirty To Me Honeymoon Suite - All Along You Knew Alice Cooper - Ballad of Dwight Fry Bryan Adams - Heat of the Night