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To close out our 5th season, we're presenting a very dusty episode of the Completely Ignored podcast and in spite of a bit of audio crackle, we manage to pull out a fun chat with Canadian singer/songwriter Damhnait Doyle. The focus is Lucinda Williams and her much-decorated Car Wheels on a Gravel Road full-length. An album that doesn't sound any more or less fresh than it did 20 years ago, we chat Damhnait up about the enduring appeal of this style of music (Americana?!?) and the concept of being a "overnight sensation" after 10+ years in the industry (and yet we didn't really mention Shelby Lynne). There's also a shitload of talk about Steve Earle and lots of fun banter about interactions and little chats with Willie Nelson. 

Wikipedia calls him "a Canadian film, television, and voice-over actor as well as a producer of television, film and music". We call him a kick-ass guest. His name is Stu Stone and his album of choice is OK Computer, the 1997 opus from famously moody dudes Radiohead. This is a great episode about a great album with Stu talking about how his relationship with this band evolved through high school, his California years and back through the present day. There's also a few details about Stu and Cam moshing to Radiohead during The Bends tour (this show!!!), Chicago (the band, not the city), Cayne's Super Housewares and Billy Corgan hitting people in the head with guitars. Lots of range. 

From the inner circles of politics, art and activism to the friendly confines of the Completely Ignored Podcast, Canadian music advocate Lanrick Bennett Jr. brings plenty of humour and heart to this episode. In it, we're talking about the Dears and their 2008 full-length Missiles. Beyond just sharing his thoughts on why this album kicks much ass, Lanrick gets personal about how his whole family has embraced this band and its music over the years. He also offers his thoughts on various non-Dears topics, namely the state of live music in Toronto and general why art fucking matters. Very smart, sincere stuff here! 

I wanna be the girl with the most cake... and I want YOU to be amongst the first to listen our latest podcast. It features comedian Elisabeth Bailey and a deep dive into Hole's 1994 sophomore full-length Live Through This. This is a deep, thoughtful chat about one of the most loved and most miscategorized albums of the early-ish 1990s. Elisabeth gets personal with her own POVs about what it was like discovering this band and this album at a young age plus her thoughts on assumptions that Kurt Cobain actually "did" this album and many other topics. We also talk P.J. Harvey, Liz Phair, Echo and the Bunnymen and (strangely) Tina Yothers. Someday, you will ache like I ache... unless you give this a listen pronto! 

This episode is neither rosy nor grey as Toronto podcast icon Toronto Mike joins the fellas to talk Lowest of the Low. This, of course, is the band who has served as the longtime outro music on the Toronto Mike'd podcast and will be the musical guest at Mike's next Toronto Mike'd Listener Experience. Lots to like here as part of a deep discussion of the band's 1991 debut Shakespeare My Butt. Personally, we think the "Did LOTL resonate outside Toronto?" chats are most interesting with Sammy bringing plenty of Winnipeg POVs. We also talk about a pile of 1990s Toronto rockers (including hHead) and share memories, moods about the passing of Dave "Bookie" Bookman. 

After an (extended) break, Cam and Sammy roar back for Season 5 of the podcast. In fine style, they've brought in Toronto-based, world-renown rock icon Danko Jones to help prime the pump. In discussion is the late 20th century guitar weirdness of Blonde Redhead and their third full-length Fake Can Be Just as Good. A great chat that goes deep on some nerdy stuff and some gnarly stuff about indie music (and all music) at the turn of the last century. Also includes a deep chat about "brushes on drums" and how Steve Shelley inspired a small cohort of drum dorks to ditch their sticks for a time. 

In this special bonus episode, we spend over an hour with Canadian TV mainstay Pat Mastroianni, best known for his portrayal of the fedora-lovin’ Joey Jeremiah on Degrassi Jr. High, Degrassi High and Degrassi: The Next Generation. We talk about the music of the Degrassi universe, both the real stuff and the fake stuff: the Zit Remedy, the Gourmet Scum, the Savages (the fake Degrassi universe band), Savages (the real British indie band), the Pogues, Pink Floyd, Images in Vogue, the Spoons, Gowan, Harem Scarem, Drake and (strangely) Dean Martin. We also chat about the legendary Fantastic Voyage program from Ryerson's CKLN, how Jonathan Torrens played a key role in the Degrassi reboot (and eventually shapeshifted into “Shane”) and the healthy appetite for face time w/ Degrassi alumini amongst the Comic-Con/Fan Expo crowd.

Cam and Sammy wrap their 4th season of the podcast with a look at TV on the Radio and their third full-length, 2008’s Dear Science. Lots of New York talk and lots of talk about bands who can pull off sprawling multi-genre music… and bands who can’t. This somehow parlays into some words about the dying days of buying CDs, music collectible shows and vintage Canadian artists w/o large digital footprints, including the Sons of Freedom, Ray Condo, the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir and many more. It’s neat! The episode and the season ends with a quick chat about Boards of Canada and the greatness and the weirdness of Prince’s self-titled 1979 effort. See ya later! 

Let's get hazy, dreamy, swoony and spacey with Bloom, the 2012 fourth full-length from Beach House. Cam and Sammy love this band and it shows! They touch on the fleetingness of anticipating new music that comes with age, the timeliness of Beach House itself and do a 101 on French composer Michel Legrand and whether movie scores and title tracks qualify as "hits". The episode wraps with a chat about new tunes from Stephen Malkmus, a detailed discussion about the video for Phil Collins' "Against All Odds" (including the scary mask and scary James Woods parts) plus a really quick shoutout to Ric Ocasek and the Cars. 

We’re going to France and our passport... is... uh... music! It’s the third studio full-length from Air and it’s called Walkie Talkie, a sadly under-remembered album that sounds as smart and sophisticated in 2018 as it did in 2004. Cam and Sammy remember the times Air were basically the soundtrack to cafe livin’ in the late 1990s and early 2000s, why some bands (i.e. this band) don’t need to be seen live plus why comparing Air to Daft Punk is lame and lazy. The episode ends with a look at Lana Del Rey (her music and her marketing) plus Twin Shadow and a teeny tiny chat about Doug and the Slugs (again). 

The fur flies on this episode of the Completely Ignored Podcast as Ali Manion (partnership manager, Diply) joins us for a look back at the manufactured meows of the Pussycat Dolls and their 2005 debut PCD. Together, we unpack the concept of “a brand as a band”, ponder what pop music was like pre-social media and try to force a parallel to silly stage stuff like STOMP and Riverdance. We also have two random chats about Hard Candy (the Madonna-funded line of fitness studios, not the Counting Crows album) and Coyote Ugly (here, primarily why it was a trashy thing). Things end with a few words about new tunes from Miguel and First Aid Kit.  

A dense, deep chat about “The Boss” here as my high school pal Adam Sidenberg and I revisit Bruce Springsteen’s 2002 full-length The Rising. Spoiler alert: Lots of 9/11 talk in terms of musical responses and how that time and this album were a turning point in how we view this artist. We also assess about the murkiness of late 1980s and 1990s Bruce, whether his tribute to Joe Strummer on the Grammys “made sense” and if he’d make the cut in a totally-fake reboot of the Traveling Wilburys. We wrap by talking trash about U2 and whether their last two albums were actual crap or assumed crap. Hint: The latter. 

Another Completely Ignored first as Cam and Sammy talk about a mixtape: Live. Love. A$AP, the 2011 debut from Harlem lyrcist and fashion fave A$AP Rocky. After a bit of "What's a mixtape, anyway?" exposition, Cam and Sammy dig deep into what defines NYC hip-hop, why Clams Casino mixtapes are both trippy and awesome, and where/how A$AP slots (circa 2018) alongside Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, Danny Brown and other ascendents of the early 2010s. The guys also talk quite a bit about distribution (h/t to Rick Ross). The episode wraps with a short convo about why Chet Baker's music is 100% chill (even when his personal life was a GD wreck) plus a "remember these guys?" look back at Philly psych weirdos Barbo Pond.  

Cam and Sammy (fake) travel to New York City and back to 2003 on this episode for a revisit of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs debut full-length Fever to Tell. We talk about where the YYYs slot in amongst the finest acts of “NYC in the 2000s”, when something becomes retro, how Jay Z retired a million years ago (and yet he’s still making music) and how The Who retired a hundred million years ago (and yet they’re still playing shows). The episode ends with a mini-chat about Deer Tick, which is layered with “they sound like the Replacements” comments, obvi. 

This podcast is a deep, deep dive in the Neil Young back catalogue and his 30th studio full-length Le Noise. Toronto-based digital expert Karim Kanji guests for a high-quality chat about what makes Neil Young Neil Young and why the dude is still able to create moments that connect four decades into his career. Cam and Karim also dig a bit on Daniel Lanois, Neil's tunes about Kurt and whether its wise to see a fave artist for the first time once they're well into their "golden years". Oh, and we briefly talk about Pono and CES too. We wrap with a quick gab about July Talk, the Black Panther soundtrack... and soundtrack albums, in general. 

Funeral was the 2004 debut full-legnth from the Arcade Fire and it's generally regarded as one of the strongest first efforts in recent memory. Toronto-based digital guru/ninja/svengali/person Lindsay Lynch seconds this "emotion". She joins Cam for this episode, talking about small bands that seem big, why concerts on Toronto Island were really not the greatest, the band (and the things) Islands and how her relationship with the Arcade Fire has evolved/maintained through their mushy middle ages. The episode wraps with a little chat about why it's fun to dance to Daniel Caeser in public and why it's now problematic to dance to Crystal Castles anywhere. 

The Completely Ignored podcast returns for a fourth season with a focus on 10 "Albums of the 2000s". Kicking things off is Massive Attack and its 2010 full-length Heligoland. Cam and Sammy both gush over the uniqueness and chill-AF excellence of this band. talk about how the infrequency of their music is a strength and ponder whether the "pile on the guest vocalists" approach had an influence over Damon Albarn for the third and fourth Gorillaz records. The show wraps with a quick chat about new tunes from MGMT and a less-quick chat about the passing of The Fall's Mark E. Smith, how a mere mortal can tackle The Fall's back catalogue plus reasons why Smith never got much credit for the LOLz he put into the tunes he wrote.

We take things back to the early months of 2002 and Original Pirate Material, the debut full-length from grime-y UK artist The Streets. A singularly unique time capsule of a time/place, Cam and Sammy look to unpack where this album fits in the annals of British music and why the gloomy, paranoid aura of this album still feels semi-fresh more than 15 years later. We also ponder why Mike Skinner took such a huge step back commercial within a few albums and shoot down any suggestion that he was the Eminem of Britain. We close things out with a random chat about Ken Burns' 10-part PBS documentary on jazz and whether Neii Young's "Powderfinger" sounds like a song that should've been written by The Band (spoiler: It totally does!). 

Not to be confused with Michael Jackson's dad (or the disgraced baseball player), Joe Jackson is the profilic British singer/songwriter and subject matter for S3, E5 of the podcast. His 1979 debut Look Sharp! is full of songs that are both bratty and precocious. Cam and Sammy unpack this era of UK songwriters stuck between New Wave and elsewhere with Sammy sharing why this album never gets old and why Joe Jackson is one of his fave all-time live acts. The guys also talk (again) about the deep impact of Much Music and the New Music plus briefly touch on how Joe Jackson looked kinda weird sometime. The episode closes with some chit-chat about Chris Stapleton, John Coltrane and which Mogwai albums feature the best noisy noises. 

It's our first episode about an album from the current century! Still, we're going way back to 2001 to talk about the much-hyped, much-loved first full-length from the Strokes, Is This It. We gently discuss whether this and other albums of its vintage are now "retro" and revisit how well them there NYC bands from 2000-2010 have aged. Cam and Sammy also each talk about individual encounters with various Strokes (spoiler: Fab and Albert, respectively) and whether the Strokes ACTUALLY sounded like the Velvet Underground. We close with some heavy randomness by talking about Concrete Blonde, the Travelling Wilburys and Grizzly Bear.