Today is the opening celebration for Feed The Need In Durham! Pop by their open house from 3-5, or enjoy the evening celebration from 5-9. 94.9 The Rock proudly supports this wonderful cause, and we urge you to drop by with a non perishable food donation today. Info is below.


Feed the Need in Durham is a non-profit, charitable organization that is fighting to end hunger right here in Durham Region. Thousands of local people rely on food banks and soup kitchens to get the food necessary to sustain life. Feed the Need in Durham serves the majority of these people through our member agencies located in neighbourhoods across the Region. We believe that the right to food is the right to life. If you would like to join us in the fight to end hunger consider donating food, making a monetary donation, or volunteering your time.


http://www.ftndurham.ca

Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame....

Nomination News!

The Beastie Boys have once again been nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The Brooklyn based trio are among 14 nominees competing for induction into rock's pantheon. Artists become eligible for nomination after the 25th anniversary of their debut record. The "Sabotage" hitmakers didn't release their debut album until 1986, but did release a couple of singles in the early-1980s. Darlene Love, LL Cool J and Donna Summer are also nominees.

Artists become eligible for nomination after the 25th anniversary of their debut record. The "Sabotage" hitmakers didn't release their debut album until 1986, but did release a couple of singles in the early-1980s.

Darlene Love, LL Cool J, Donna Summer, the J. Geils Band, Tom Waits, Chuck Willis, Chic and Joe Tex join the Beastie Boys as return nominees.

The inductees will be announced in December.

The 2011 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees are listed below.

Alice Cooper

Beastie Boys

Bon Jovi

Chic

Neil Diamond

Donovan

Dr. John

J. Geils Band

LL Cool J

Darlene Love

Laura Nyro

Donna Summer

Joe Tex

Tom Waits

Chuck Willis

And, Good Night...

As much as I love the changing of the seasons, it usually brings along the commen cold too, which kicked me right in the butt on Sunday. This past weekend was a truly special one. As I've blogged in the past, my band The Champion Heartache, just released our second and final album. We celebrated with a CD Release party this past friday at Status Lounge in Oshawa. The club was not only very gracious to us and our guests, but the vibe was just beautiful. I've never had so many fans, friends and family in one room at one time. Our good friend Spyro at Sigma Sounds provided an amazing system for the band, and I really urge you to contact him if you have any needs for sound at shows. He's a class act.

This blog is really to be used for more radio chat, and music in general, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to thank everyone who has supported us in the past. Our new CD is available upon request, so drop me a line at matt@therock.fm and I'll personally drop one off to you.

As for new releases this week, I urge you to check out the new album by Deerhunter. It's called Halcyon Digest, and it's all I've been listening to for a few weeks now. Check out one of their tracks below. Of course, who could forget Neil Young, and Le Noise. It's really cool to think that this entire album is just Neil and his guitar. Produced by the one and only Daniel Lanois, it's self described as " just a man on a stool and me doing a nice job recording." Both are available now.

Listen here: Deerhunter: Halcyon Digest

Listen here: Neil Young: Le Noise

Friday Sept 24. 2010

After two years in the making, “INDOOR VOICES” is The Champion Heartache’s second full length release, and we’re celebrating by playing one final show before saying goodbye. Join us for a very special performance, including guest appearances, and more. Also, as a special treat, hot on the heels of her brand new record,... our own Trish Robb will be taking on opening duties. Please come and celebrate this special night with us on Friday Sept.24, 2010

Sigh...

Hey, I'm still a Leafs fan, but 5-0? Kind of a scary thought that we're right back where we started last season. Granted, we're trying out some new blood, and it's only pre-season, but I'm really tired of defending my love for this team to my co-workers around here. Aw well... go boys in blue ( not this guy over here.)

There's a few cool shows happening in the city tonight including Teenage Fanclub, The Strange Boys and M.I.A, so if you're not planning on crying in front of the T.V, go check one of them out.

Telephantasm

So yesterday I mentioned that today is new release day. Although there's one "unearthed" track on Soundgarden's best of collection titled Telephantasm, it's done it's job as far as picking and choosing some of the band's finest moments of their career. I think if you're a fan of alternative rock, you probably have some sort of small connection or memory with this band. Some of us were in the Nirvana camp, or Pearl Jam and Sonic Youth etc, but I have one distinct memory of being in my friend Dave's basement during a party at 3am and someone popped in Badmotorfinger, argueably their best recording, if not one of the 90's in general.

The intro to Rusty Cage was absolutle blasting through the big JVC tower speakers, and it kind of freaked me out a little. It's one of those songs that makes you want to jump in an old muscle car and tear up the desert or something. It just grabbed me and kicked the shit out of my ears. It was love at first listen. After that, it was pretty easy to guess why a song like Jesus Christ Pose became the next track that I was glued to for months on end.

After that album, Superunknown was all over the airwaves with tracks like Spoonman, and of course the trippy video of Black Hole Sun, complete with melting faces, and little girls with their ice cream cone. Very weird indeed. I urge any one of you to turn up the volume on a track like Fell on Black Days, and not have the hair stick up on the back of your neck. Good memories indeed. Now comes the debate of whether or not a band like this should do the whole reunion tour deal. Sure, Lollapalooza is one thing, but would you buy an expensive ticket to watch Kim, Matt, Chris and Ben relive the 90's? Well, let's put it this way, if someone buys me a ticket, I'm in. If not, back to the cd player I go...

Oh, and here's their new video.

PS - Who is KARKWA? Well apparently they won the Polaris Music Prize. Didn't see that one coming!

Polaris Music Prize etc.

Well, it looks like I'm back at my blog again. Man, time flies. It's been a while since I last posted, but I'm going to try to sincerely keep at it this time, and provide our listeners with music info, and lots of ear and eye candy. Tonight is the annual Polaris Music Prize award ceremony. The short list includes a couple of really amazing records that have been on my Ipod for quite some time now. You can view it here.

One of those nominees is Dundas Ontario native Dan Snaith, a.k.a Caribou. His album "Andorra" won the 2008 prize, so I'd be very shocked if he took it again, but his latest album, SWIM is brilliant and it's one of my fav releases of the year. I took my wife and a few friends to see Caribou this past friday at The Phoenix and it was a really amazing show. It seemed to fly by too fast, but perhaps I was just too busy dancing and enjoying myself a little too much! Two days before the show, I had the chance to speak with Dan over the phone about the album and his nomination etc. He was really kind, and always an interesting guy to speak with. Please check it out. There's a couple songs from the new album in this feature too.

Caribou Interview Sept 15 2010 by Matt Diamond's Interviews


Tomorrow is new release day! Nothing really special on the list other than My Darkest Days, which I only mention because we spin their new single, "Porn Star Dancing." There's another cool album by TV on The Radio's guitar player and mastermind Dave Steik, under the name Maximum Balloon. Should be pretty cool.

Next week sees the new album by Neil Young called Le Noise, and the best of Soundgarden, called Telephantasm. Awful name, great band. Please tour soon!

Nothing more to report other than the fact that my band The Champion Heartache are set to release our new album this friday. The party is happening at Status Lounge, downtown Oshawa. Our beloved David Marsden has been spinning one of the singles called "This Opportunity." You can check out some of the music at our myspace page.