Why Was Heart Ever Considered to be a Canadian Band?

If you've spent any time at all with classic rock radio in Canada, you'll have heard countless plays of Heart's "Barracuda," "Crazy On You," "Dreamboat Annie," "Straight On" and many others.  

Why?  Because of Canadian content rules.  These songs have been important staples in maintaining the quota since the middle 70s.

"Wait," you're going to say, "Ann Wilson was born in San Diego.  Nancy was born several years later in San Francisco.  The band was based out of Seattle.  How the hell did they ever qualify as being Canadian?"

Great question.  The Huffington Post wanted to know the same thing. Here's the answer:

Click to read more ...

Listen! Early Smiths Rehearsal Tape

An old cassette of the Smiths dating back to May 1983 as they rehearsed in a Manchester warehouse has been uncovered.   The full story at Slicing Up Eyeballs.  Listen to the whole thing below.

Rare Tour Doc from Nine Inch Nails

If you have 75 minutes, it would be well spent with this tour doc taken from the middle 90s.  I'd post it, but there's a scary warning at the beginning and I don't want to get sued.  (So, um, why make it embeddable?)

But Trent isn't reticent about sharing material like this next video.  It's a rare acoustic version of "The Becoming."

(Via Rolling Stone)

The Top Irish Albums of All Time

A little late for St. Paddy's Day, but what the hell.  Note that U2 is NOT finish in top spot in this poll taken by a Dublin radio station.  (Thanks to Larry for the Link)

1 Heartworm - Whipping Boy
2 Achtung Baby - U2
3 Loveless - My Bloody Valentine
4 The Joshua Tree - U2
5 Astral Weeks - Van Morrison
6 O - Damien Rice
7 1977 - Ash
8 Jailbreak - Thin Lizzy
9 I Am The Greatest - A House
10 Rum, Sodomy and the Lash - The Pogues

Musician Maltreatment on the Titanic

Yesterday I had a story about a violin that had been used by someone in the dance band on the Titanic as the ship sank in the North Atlantic.  

Today, there's this piece from ArtsJournal.com that details how badly musicians were treated on the boat.

For example, all musicians were listed as second class passengers.  This way, the ship company could avoid paying them union rates.  

James Cameron?  Are you reading this?