What a difference a few days makes. Ottawa – all of Canada really…has been awash in controversy.

Today…the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) deemed the 1985 classic rock song Money For Nothing by Dire Straits to be offensive. So they banned it from Canadian Radio.

This started when a gay man called CHOZ-FM in St. John’s and pointed out the use of the word “faggot” in the tune. The CBSC got involved, and the next thing you know….we’re never going to hear the song again if we’re in a car. Let’s face it – that’s the only place people really listen to the radio. This is a bummer for everyone in my generation. I’m sure I speak for many other adults born in the late seventies and early eighties, when I say the only reason I even knew about this song was because of the incredible computer animation and visual effects in it’s video. I remember actually watching The Last Starfighter and thinking that that movie had nothing on the video for Money For Nothing – and I was blown away by The Last Starfighter. Money For Nothing combined the best elements of Tron and cutting edge computer graphics, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t run home every day after school to watch Video Hits with Sam Taylor – waiting for another opportunity to watch that shit. You see…we didn’t have a VCR yet…so I couldn’t even tape the video. Considering the convenient nature of the internet these days, the effort required to appreciate these kinds of things from 25 years ago makes me a bit peeved about this decision to ban the song entirely from Canadian Radio now. Don’t you think this decision kind of excessive? I think there’s a difference between something that’s clearly meant to be malicious, and something that’s clearly meant to be sarcastic, witty, and written from a fictional character view. If you know the song…the verse in question is:

The little faggot with the earring and the makeup
Yeah buddy, that’s his own hair
That little faggot got his own jet airplane
That little faggot he’s a millionaire

Mark Knopfler was making a societal reference here and was writing the song from the perspective of a third person – back then – who was clearly dismissive of the 1980′s culture of excess, glam, and spoiled wealthy rock stars. He even said so in his 1985 Rolling Stone interview. I don’t think there’s an element of maliciousness associated with this, and never thought there was. Free speech or not – I mean really….I’m not going to write an essay here and spout baloney about the right to express ourselves…but what do you think? On the other hand – the CBSC’s decision is something that is making me feel pretty comfortable in light of some of the debate going on in the United States.

I’m liking these guys right now. For any of you who like Beck, especially in the Midnite Vultures era, or for that matter…Prince (regular comparison, no doubt) you’ll like MGMT. This Connecticut duo, now hailing from Brooklyn are doing all the hot festivals this summer. Check out the video for Electric Feel…I mean, I know this is not totally new, as I’ve heard this song around for a while now…but it’s still good. Check out their website too. It looks like something the Dust Brothers may have put together.

Dear Track Teamers,

I went to Toronto this weekend to visit with Steve Palmer. We decided to hightail it with some friends to check out the North By NorthEast Music Festival in the city that Al Waxman, Harry Rosen, and Eugene Levy think is the center of the universe. I’ve decided to give you the lowdown on what is one of the coolest music festivals in Canada. In many ways, this is the counterpart festival to the famed South By Southwest Music Festival. I wasn’t dissapointed.

We arrived and settled, and decided to catch some food at the famed Duff’s Wings. I initially thought that Duff McKagan from Guns’N'Roses had opened a wing joint, and was secretly hoping that we’d be served a pound of them while mentally air-guitaring to “Mr. Brownstone”. I’ve never had wings like this. The have a degrees of hotness with the wing sauce that is measured by something scientific called the “SHU”, short for the Scofield Heating Unit. Once the scientific stuff is introduced, and you realize that there is more to degrees of chili heat besides mild, medium, hot, and “suicide”…like every other sports bar in the world, then you begin to get curious. We had some standard fare at this place, but I asked for a small bowl of what they call “Armageddon”. To get an idea of how hot this wing sauce is…check this out. Here’s some perspective…HOT is about 100,000 Scofield Heating Units. “Armageddon” is about 850,000 Scofield Heating Units. It is very hot. I’m not sure how they harvested this wing sauce from the surface of the sun, but it’s painful. I slightly dipped a french fry in this hell, and the potato practically evaporated.

Our first stop was the Horseshoe Tavern where we caught opener Julie Dorion of Eric’s Trip and the headliner, Evan Dando. Julie was good…if you’ve never heard of her music, it’s a darker version of Feist, but I was looking for a bit of a pickmeup and found it a bit slow. We spotted Mike Keenan in the audience wearing a complete jean outfit and the niftiest pair of Sonny Crocket leather slip ons I’ve ever seen. After Julie closed her set, Evan Dando came on, looking very haggard, and sporting a beat up Gibson acoustic guitar. He proceeded to play a pretty stripped down acoustic version of Lemonheads classics like “It’s A Shame About Ray” and others…I pictured Johnny Depp from the video kicking back a Henieken in the club with us.

As we left the Horseshoe, a torrential rain began to shower us. We grabbed some Chinatown newspapers and hightailed it to the Silver Dollar Room to catch The Oholics. Didn’t really dig them that much. Stayed for about 30 minutes, and took a sip of a Black Russian. A drink I realize that I cannot ingest. After determining that…we gingerly quickstepped next door to the newly refurbished El Mocambo, where we proceeded to get ready to witness greatness. Canada’s loudest band, and what I consider to be one of the best rock shows I have ever seen, ever. Period. Conclusion. Montreal’s BIONIC. They raped my ears, and blew my face off. This band is so killer, that I recommend wearing earplugs unless you’re into being killed by riffs and amp buzz. So awesome. If you’re more into an act like Duncan Sheik, this would not have been the place for you to be.

Next night, we checked out ex-Ottawa natives, Clothes Make The Man. My band…The Setbacks, who are currently on hiatus because of our lead singer’s liquid paper addiction, played with CMTM often. I’ve always found them awesome, but the show that I caught at the Bovine Sex Club this night was almost like a re-introduction to the band that made me realize how talented a bunch of songwriters these guys are. They are totally awesome, and I can say that this music is something I am totally into right now. They rule. Check them out. Went back to The Silver Dollar Room later on in the night to catch Slim Twig. Interesting act, if you like rockabilly meets David Byrne, but I was pretty tired by the end of the night, and was getting ready for the high tail back to Ottawa at 5 a.m.

Besides the awesome music…I managed to check out “The Hulk“, the new feature film from the newly formed Marvel Studios. This is considered a reboot of Ang Lee’s take on the popular green giant. The industry generally considered the first movie adaptation of the comic book to be a major flop. It grossed 132 million dollars at the box office. Respectable numbers, but low grade considering the expectations that studio executives had for the film, especially with it’s 100+ million dollar price tag.

The new one features Ed Norton as Bruce Banner, Liv Tyler as Betty Ross, Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky/The Abomination, and Academy Award Winner William Hurt as Thunderbolt Ross. Tim Roth rules. He’s just got that cool factor that guys like Gary Oldman have. You can tell he’s a badass in real life to some degree. The movie is good overall. A solid 3 stars. It’s “comictainment”. My term for the direction that Marvel seems to be steering it’s movies now. They’re delivering good bang for the buck films that don’t dissapoint with the special effects. A cool thing about this movie was the cameo from RDJ as Tony Stark. It alludes to the Avengers movie coming out in two years.