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When I was a teenager, I pitied Americans. I would turn on the radio and half of what I heard was Canadian music that Americans had no idea about. We got everything they did plus a whole host of music they never heard. It made me wonder about how empty and bland the US must be — at least when it comes to rock music. Am listening to Hawksley Workman today and am reminded about that thought process. I mean, seriously, what did you guys listen to without all of those bands I loved?

Back in my teens? Great hip-hop and house music. My Canadian friends in my teens were sorely lacking exposure to a lot of this great stuff. Of course nowadays I don’t know, since Canadians seem to get all the same hip-hop and dance music now too.

Yeah, I agree, I don’t buy “guilty pleasure,” either.

Like whatever you want to like.

Just don’t say that something that you like is good because you liked it (NOTE: The converse applies, as well).

I have guilty pleasures all over the place. But I was raised Catholic. Guilt’s our thing. Combine that with Woody Allen levels of neuroses, and you get– well, a comics blogger.

I mean, seriously, what did you guys listen to without all of those bands I loved?

depending on when you were a teen ager probably just listening to metallica over and over again. good thing no one has to rely on solely the radio to find good music anymore, regardless of the national origin of its creators.

Geez, when I became a teen the Beatles were still together … and Jim Morrison wasn’t dead yet … and Steppenwolf was cool … then a couple of years later it was disco (ick). I listened to the Rolling Stones, the Doors, Otis Redding, the Beatles, Janis Joplin, Simon & Garfinkle, Jimi Hendrix, …

And as a librarian who has worked with kids and teens for most of my career, I tell them “never apologize for your reading choices.”

We may not have had all of your music, but we Americans did get the first 5 issues of new comics. Back then Canadians didn’t get American comics until they’d put out at least 6 issues, which is why Anthology titles were so popular back then(they could dump the Teen Titans from “The Brave and the Bold” and replace them with Batman team-ups without starting a new series). It was only after you Canadians started getting early issues that DC and Marvel starting using whatever cheap excuse they could come up with to restart a series at “Issue 1.”

The guilty pleasures talk reminded me of this article:

http://www.esquire.com/features/ESQ1104-NOV_AMERICA

which basically says what you say, but much longer.

Well, you say you got “all” of our music, plus lots of your music that we didn’t have… and I didn’t grow up in Canada so I would have no way of testing this myself, but I would imagine that we had lots of cool stuff that never made it onto Canadian radio because it wasn’t popular enough; whether it was hip-hop, indie, metal, or whatever, whatever didn’t fit into the 66% (or was it 33%?) that Canadian airtime allowed for.

The UK and Ireland play lots and lots of music on their radio and TV, but there’s still a lot of stuff that was quite popular over here, whether it was stuff that wasn’t mainstream enough when it was released (Violent Femmes, Morphine, Sunny Day Real Estate, Jane’s Addiction, most good American rap music), or even music within the mainstream that just didn’t get layed over there for some reason, (it’s fairly often I’ll refer to super-popular pop song from my youth that Rachel doesn’t know, but right now Jesus Jones’ “Right Here Right Now” is the only one I can think of) that just didn’t get played over there for some reason. Or in some cases, wound up being discovered simply much later, on that side of the pond.

And yeah, we had a lot more rap music down here too, especially in the cities.

I was a teenager in the early-mid ’90s, and rock radio (at least in the Boston area) was pretty good. You had stations playing grunge and metal as well as stations playing indie or “alternative” stuff (before the word lost all meaning) like The Pixies & Dinosaur Jr. British bands were gaining heat. Even classic rock radio wasn’t always terrible; it was more late-’60s awesomeness, less ’70s cheese. Plus, you had every other conventional genre of music, several college stations that would flicker in and out, and the occasional surprise. My exposure to Canadian bands was limited, I suppose (I like the Cowboy Junkies, though), but I never lacked for good music.

Rock radio started to suck when the Seattle bands stopped making music, the poser bands (e.g. Bush, Silverchair, Live) took over, and Oasis was on every 5 minutes. Then came Korn, Limp Bizkit, and Creed, oh my. I was stuck with a car with no tape deck or cd player in 1999 and 2000, and it was painful.

On a different note, I can’t wait to get Captain America 601. Gene Colan is my favorite artist, and it’s been a long time since we’ve had a new comic from him. I’ll probably get the black & white version, as his art benefits from b&w. He’s so good with light and shadow, and I don’t want the subtlety of his pencil work to be lost. Did i read somewhere that Cap 601 will probably be his last full-length effort? If so, it’s sad. Still, I’m sure the book will be gorgeous, and a fitting endcap to an amazing career.

jjc — I’ve read that. I love Klosterman’s writing.

Everyone — I wasn’t a fan of hip-hop or house, so I honestly can’t say what was played here then. But, judging from my knowledge of music now, we didn’t really miss out on anything rock/alternative during the ’90s (which is when I was a teenager).

It made me wonder about how empty and bland the US must be — at least when it comes to rock music.

In Australia when I was a teen, we got the best of the American rock, the best of British Britpop, and the Australian scene kicked up some great bands, making the 90′s pretty damn good on the music front – we missed out on the whole ‘post-Nirvana’ nothing really happening stage, due to the amount of variety.

That said, few Canadian bands ever caught on, despite some trying.

Well Chad, as a french Canadian, i can just imagine all that great french music I used to listen to when I was a teen that never made it into the rest of Canada (although we’ve had more exposure to Celine Dion, she’s been a… star here in Quebec since the early eighties, so there is a flip side to all this).

But then i think about all the great french comics that you’ll never have the opportunity to read (or read properly, since the ones they print in English seem to be out of order) and that makes me pity you!

As a teen, I listened to Built to Spill, Ben Folds, Elliott Smith, Wilco, and Jim O’Rourke.

None of which were on the radio.

Kicking babies: I feel pretty guilty doing it, but DAMN it sure is fun!

“…an issue of The Avengers where Kang rips out Captain America’s spine…”

Is that why they brought back Cap?

Çteve — That is so true. Quebec is actually placed in the exact right spot to take advantage of a LOT of entertainment from various countries in differing languages.

Guilty pleasure, to me, always meant something akin to a really fattening, but delicious food. Definitely pleasurable, but you’re going to regret it later. I’d never use it in the “I know this is bad but I like it anyway” sense. Bio-Dome is just a pleasure of mine!

Can’t comment on America, but in England we were drowning in new bands as we always are.

I do wonder about that though – is there a wealth of great hidden Canadian music I never get to hear? How come I don’t hear any amazing French music? Is there amazing more underground stuff from America that never quite crosses over to Canada, and vice versa? I guess this is getting less and less all the time with the internet, but still I do wonder to what extent national borders control what we get to hear.

Personally, here in the UK, off the top of my head I can think of quite a few Canadian bands that I listen to and have got decent exposure over here, at least on specialist music channels? radio shows (eg NME, MTV2, Zane Lowe, none of which will mean anything to non-Brits) For instance: Death From Above 1979, Metric, Crystal Castles, Broken Social Scene, Feist,

Which Canadian bands are we talking about here?

While I agree that there seem to be a dis-proportionately high number of good Canadian rock bands (Nickelback and Bryan Adams notwithstanding), Hawksley Workman has to be one of the poorest examples of that that I’ve read in quite some time. How about some of the ones wil mentioned above, or, say, The Constantines, Wolf Parade, or my fave, The New Pornographers?

Living in Detroit means you get some Canadian Bands as the biggest Modern Rock station transmitted from Windsor.

Hence why I love me some Sloan, Our Lady Peace(till they started to suck), well shit thats about the only two I can name right now.

And the latest word is that Morrison and Lee intend to finish Wildcats in OGN form, as that first issue was tight.

I am so depr(i/a)ved because I was denied exposure to the Tragically Hip during my formative years. :’(

Truly, Canadians are the luckiest humans of all.

Funny that Stefan should mention Jesus Jones as ‘unknown’ by his girlfriend, considering they were actually British and fairly well played over here.

A partial list of great Canadian bands/artists from the ’90s and early ’00s. Of course, some of these bands/artists gained exposure in the US or toured there/received slight radio play, but I’m talking about the more mainstream/larger success…

Tragically Hip, Barenaked Ladies (pre-Stunt), Our Lady Peace (ironically, they gained US popularity just as they began to suck…), the Headstones, the Tea Party, Big Wreck, Danko Jones (big in Europe, though), Sam Roberts, the Dears, Sloan, the Matthew Good Band/Matthew Good, Hot Hot Heat, k-os, Thrush Hermit/Joel Plaskett, Sarah Slean, Bif Naked, Ron Sexsmith, Moist/David Usher, the Trews, Treble Charger, Econoline Crush, I Mother Earth, and various one-hit wonder type of acts. Like I said, not a complete list, but stuff I dug/springs to mind. Others could no doubt add plenty of others.