The Ongoing History of New Music, Episode 767: Big Bands, Small Towns

I grew up in a small prairie town in the middle of nowhere. Me and a bunch of friends couldn’t wait to get out. Sure, we could have just bought a bus ticket, but that was too easy. Our way out was going to be as a famous rock band. Naturally, we got a lot of patronizing comments. “A band? Get real. No one from a town this size could ever become famous. Forget it. Deal with your lot in life.”

Turns out they were right. We never advanced beyond playing a few bars. But if there had been groups like Three Days Grace and Muse around back then, we might have taken inspiration from them and tried harder.

You don’t have to be from a big city to hit it big. You may have to relocate at some point, but there’s nothing that says you can’t start in a tiny town. This program will prove it.

Songs featured on this week’s show:

Modest Mouse, “Float On”

Strumbellas, “Spirits”

Nirvana, “Come As You Are”

Muse, “Madness”

Keane, “Somewhere Only We Know”

Three Days Grace, “I Hate Everything About You”

Three Doors Down, “Kryptonite”

Nine Inch Nails, “The Hand That Feeds”

Stereophonics, “Have a Nice Day”

Here’s the Spotify playlist of those songs as contributed by playlistist Eric Wilhite.

The Ongoing History of New Music can be heard on the following stations:

• 102.1 The Edge/Toronto – Sunday night at 7
• Live 88-5/Ottawa
• 107.5 Dave-FM/Kitchener
• FM96/London – Sunday night at 7, Monday night at 11
• The Drive/Kingston
• Power 97/Winnipeg (Sunday nights at 11)
• 98.1 The Bridge/Lethbridge – Saturday night at 6, Sunday morning at 10am
• Rock 97.7/Grand Prairie – Sunday nights at 6.
• 92X/Calgary
• Sonic 102.9/Edmonton
• The Zone/Victoria
• The Fox/Vancouver (Coming soon!)
• Live 105/Halifax

We’re still looking for more affiliates in Kamloops, Kelowna, Regina, Saskatoon, Brandon, Windsor,  Montreal, Charlottetown, Moncton, Fredericton, and St John’s and anywhere else with a transmitter. If you’re in any of those markets and you want the show, lemme know and I’ll see what I can do.