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Remember Creem magazine? Remember Lester Bangs? This week’s NSTS guest, author and rock critic Jeffrey Morgan, worked for both of them. His new book, Rock Critic Confidential, opens with the original handwritten letter Morgan received from Lester Bangs, on Creem letterhead, inviting him to write album reviews for the magazine in 1974. 

Rock Critic Confidential is a fantastic read done in the style of a magazine, and includes all of the greatest moments of Morgan’s writing and photography career. In Part One of my discussion with him, we talk book highlights – Morgan’s chat with KISS from 1974 when they played a Toronto strip club, the time he administered a Rorschach inkblot test to Gary Numan, his three-hour lunch with Lou Reed, and chats with Ted Nugent, Alice Cooper, Stan Lee,  and more.   

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Dark and mysterious Manic Street Preachers guitarist Richey Edwards vanished on February 1, 1995, and was never heard from again.  

Was it a suicide, or was it staged to look like one? This week NSTS examines the life of the intellectual poet, the events leading up to his disappearance, and the clues left behind that led some to believe Edwards is still alive.  

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It’s my privilege this week to be joined once again by Canadian great Murray McLauchlan, who returns to the show to discuss his new record Hourglass, available everywhere July 9. 

Murray always has some great stories for me, and he brings in another handful of songs that mean something to him. We chat about Sinatra, Tom Thomson, Ray Charles, the healing power of music, and what it really means when people crave fame. 

McLauchlan’s playlist (on Spotify):

Bob Dylan – Blowin’ in the Wind

Roy Orbison – Pretty Woman

Frank Sinatra – I’ve Got You Under My Skin

Ray Charles – Come Rain or Come Shine 

Blossom Dearie – Now At Last  

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This week on NSTS we look at the life and death of one of rock’s most polarizing icons, singer Scott Weiland. 

Weiland has always been an intriguing figure, with a voice like Bowie crossed with Lennon, a wild and chaotic stage persona, and a decidedly perplexing personality. This episode examines that personality in depth through Weiland’s own eyes, and also from the perspectives of those closest to him amidst the madness. 

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Alex Huard is the host of a great series called Release Day, a program that promotes new album releases by independent artists that don’t have the marketing reach of a major label. 

Alex and I have been talking about collaborating on something new for a while now, and we finally landed on something that came together very organically as a result of him listening to No Sleep ’til Sudbury. This new project, called Thursday Night Record Club, is going to be a lot of fun. We discuss the details of TNRC this week, along with Alex’s skin vibrating songs. Check it out! 

Huard’s playlist (on Spotify):     

Tom Petty – Learning to Fly

Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash – Girl From The North Country

Olafur Arnalds – 3055

James Taylor – Fire & Rain

Classified – All About You

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My old pal Zero from The Kings makes his return to the show this week to talk about what’s going with the band lately – new videos, new records, and a few pretty prestigious awards received for their classic single “This Beat Goes On/Switchin’ To Glide”. 

Z wanted to do something a little different for his skin vibration segment, and he did. These are the songs he listens to in the wee hours when he’s not rocking out – opera! 

Z’s playlist (in Spotify):

Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli – The Prayer

Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli – Time To Say Goodbye 

Pavarotti, Carrerras, and Domingo – Nessun Dorma

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This is an absolutely fascinating story.

A song appeared on the internet in 2007, with no information surrounding its name, the artist responsible for the song, or when and where it was recorded. To this day, despite the search for this information going viral, the mystery remains unsolved.  

This week on NSTS we dig into this phenomenon, and consider the notion of something being unknowable in such an information-rich age. 

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We could all use a little more ‘happy’, couldn’t we? And this week, an infusion of musical happiness comes compliments of Chris Stamper. 

Chris and I met through working together with The Awesome Music Project, an organization that promotes music’s influence in improved mental health. He recently wrote an article outlining how music contributes to maintaining a positive mental attitude, which included five of his ‘happy’ songs. So of course, it was a no-brainer to invite him to talk about them on NSTS. 

Stamper’s playlist (full playlist on Spotify):

The Rolling Stones – Start Me Up

The Go-Go’s – Our Lips Are Sealed

Bill Withers – Lovely Day

The Beatles – Eight Days A Week

Katrina & The Waves – Walking On Sunshine

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Rock documentary The Story of the Hard Luck 5 tells the fascinating tale of New Jersey band Rye Coalition, a group loved by Dave Grohl and signed by one of the world’s largest record labels. They seemed destined to take over the world, until it all imploded.

Rye Coalition drummer Dave Leto joins me this week to recount the unbelievable series of events the band experienced, along with some great stories about Dave Grohl and Interscope mogul Jimmy Iovine.     

Leto’s playlist (on Spotify):

Neil Young – Birds

Prince – The Beautiful Ones

Donny Hathaway – Jealous Guy

The Rolling Stones – She Smiled Sweetly

Pixies – Where Is My Mind

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