No Sleep 'til Sudbury with Brent Jensen

Up-and-coming indie singer songwriter Shawn William Clarke joins me in downtown Toronto for No Sleep 'til Sudbury episode 45 with the songs that make his skin vibrate. Shawn and I talk about the subtle eeriness of Supertramp, Dylan's Sinatra turn, mysterious Scottish band The Blue Nile, the record shop scene in Cologne, the importance of album track listing, and the pros and cons of today's music...

Back for his No Sleep 'til Sudbury sophomore turn from the UK is my pal Joel McIver, one of my favourite writers and one hell of a good man. Joel proposed an idea for his second episode which I instantly liked - songs he believes will still be popular 100 years from now. Some of these song selections perplexed me when I first saw Joel's list, but the man's rationale stands up and it makes for some...

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 guita...

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 pl...

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 organi...

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,...

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 -...

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 ope...

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...

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 f...

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 -...

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...

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(!)....

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...

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. An...

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 th...

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 t...

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, W...

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....

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 -...

Twisted Sister founder and guitarist Jay Jay French joins me in episode 23 to discuss Sister, his slew of new and intriguing projects, and of course, his playlist. Jay Jay and I talk about my first ever concert (Twisted Sister opening for Iron Maiden) and his frigid trek across Canada in December 1984, how his guitars (like his wife's shoes) seem to copulate overnight, how Johnny Cash approached h...

Seattle editor and author of Welcome Thieves Sean Beaudoin joins me via Skype to talk about one of the most unique and compelling playlists ever submitted to the No Sleep Til Sudbury podcast series. Sean supports his playlist with eloquence, interesting facts, and hilarious stores surrounding his experiences with these songs. Listen along as he tells us what his father thought Husker Du really mea...

In the most candid episode of No Sleep Til Sudbury to date, comedian and Sirius XM on-air personality Allison Dore shares some very honest and personal insights from her formative years as reflected through the playlist she created for the show. Musically and emotionally, there's a little bit of everything. Allison takes us through her love/hate relationship with cowboys, her perspectives on Steve...