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Curiouscast

Ongoing History of New Music looks at things from the alt-rock universe to hip hop, from artist profiles to various thematic explorations. It is Canada’s most well known music documentary hosted by the legendary Alan Cross. Whatever the episode, you’re definitely going to learn something that you might not find anywhere else. Trust us on this.

Ongoing History of New Music

On October 12, 1978, punk’s most infamous couple...Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols and Nancy Spungen...hit rock bottom at New York’s Chelsea Hotel. Nancy was found dead from a single stab wound in Room 100. Sid was charged with murder, but was he really the killer? 

Or was it someone else in their chaotic circle?

This is “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry”…and this time, it’s the wild story of the death of Nancy Spungen and the questions that still remain decades later…Was it a drug-fueled accident, a robbery gone wrong, or something darker?

 
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Introducing "Uncharted": Sid Vicious and Questions About the Murder of Nancy Spungen

We are going to talk about drummers on this show…i just want you to know right from the start just in case you wanna roll your eyes and go “really? Do we have to?”

 

Yes, we have to…there have been countless stories told about great guitarists and singers and keyboardists…drummers?... Not so much, unless your name is Dave Grohl. And we will get to him.

 

So this was going to a profile of my favourite drummers in alt-rock…but then I got to thinking: how much do we know what about drummers play?... How many histories of the electric guitar have been written?... Monographs, coffee table books, books on collectible guitars…

 

Now think about the books written about keyboards…there’s about three linear feet of bookshelf in my office taken up just by books on the history of synthesizers…

 

But what about the drums today’s drummers play?... 

 

No, I think it’s time that we not only talked about drummers but also drums…think about it: how did the modern drumkit come into being?...there’s a pretty standard sort of set-up…how did that come about?...why do we play drums the way we do?... And who should we thank for making drums into what they are today?...cymbals and foot pedals and snare…where did all that come from?...

 

See?...you’re curious now, aren’t you?...well, stand by…the history of the modern drumkit is coming up…this is stuff even most drummers don’t know…
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History of the Modern Drum Kit

I once had a conversation with someone about the craziest tours in the history of music…the usual names came up.

 

The who trashing hotel rooms…led zeppelin’s tours with their private jet, groupies, and tons of drugs…that time in Atlanta when Ozzy drank himself into oblivion, passed out in the wrong hotel room for 24 hours, and missed a show as a result.

 

In 1976, ZZ Top tried to take the entire Texas experience on the road, which involved transporting real live animals to every gig…a buffalo escaped and managed to wreck nine rented limos that were parked at the gig.

 

Around the same time, there was the disastrous Sex Pistols tour of America…there were also stories about The Rolling Stones, Metallica, Van Halen, and all the usual suspects.

But the conversation turned to the subject of the most depraved and dangerous tour of all time…who was responsible for that?... Motley Crue?...Marilyn Manson?...Oasis?

 

The debate when on for some time—until someone mentioned a road trip in 1993 that nearly killed every member of the group.

 

We’re not talking about any sort of violence…it was a tour featuring so much alcohol, so many drugs, and so much stupid behaviour that members suffered heart attacks, seizures, serious mental illness, and overdoses so serious that one member was clinically dead for two minutes.

 That was a summary of something called “The Devotional Tour”…at the centre of it was Depeche Mode…it has gone down in rock history as “the most debauched rock tour ever”.

 

This is episode 37 of “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry,” an inside look at the tour that nearly took down Depeche Mode forever…and it was all their fault.
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Introducing "Uncharted": Depeche Mode and the Debauched Devotional Tour

This is my annual data dump featuring music information you didn’t know you needed…over the last 12 months, I’ve collected this material on scraps of paper, post-it notes, on my iPhone’s “notes” app, and in various files on my computer…and these are the best 60 mind-blowing facts about music I can offer for 2025.

 This is the 11th year that I’ve been doing this…maybe there’s a book in here somewhere…i don’t know…maybe…one day…

Whatever…a lot of random information is about to come your way…do your best to ingest what you can…ready?....let’s go.
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60 Mind-Blowing Facts About Music in 40 or so Minutes (2025 Edition)

In this third and final chapter of our look at Why Bowie Still Matters, we explore the last two decades of his life and the innovations that cemented his legacy. 

From pioneering digital music distribution and launching BowieNet, to creating “Bowie Bonds”...something that changed the music business...Bowie was always ahead of the curve. 

We revisit his late-career albums, his secret comeback with "The Next Day", and the farewell gift of "Blackstar". 

Plus, the stories behind his art, his influence on countless genres, and why his impact continues to grow even ten years after his passing. 

Bowie didn’t just make music...he reshaped culture...and this is Why Bowie Still Matters.
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Why Bowie Still Matters - Part 3

David Bowie wasn’t just a rock star...he was a cultural architect who reinvented music, fashion, and identity. 

In part 2 of "Why Bowie Still Matters", we explore Bowie’s groundbreaking mid-70s to early-80s era: from the cocaine-fueled chaos of Station to Station and the birth of the Thin White Duke, his "Berlin Trilogy" with Brian Eno that shaped post-punk and electronic music. And we’ll explore how albums like Low, Heroes, and Lodger influenced everyone from Joy Division to Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, Radiohead and others.

Meanwhile, Bowie’s constant creativity sparked movements like New Wave and the New Romantics. And then we reach Bowie’s bold reinvention...again... in the 90s with Tin Machine and Trent Reznor. 

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Why Bowie Still Matters - Part 2

It’s been nearly a decade since David Bowie left us, and the world hasn’t really been the same since.

In the first of a three part series, we explore why Bowie’s influence goes far beyond music...shaping fashion, art, technology, and even social movements. From his early days writing songs he would really rather forger about...to the birth of Ziggy Stardust...his role in shaping glam rock, gender expression, and even the evolution of punk.

Bowie changed everything.

David Bowie redefined what it meant to be a rock star...and this is why his legacy matters.
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Why Bowie Still Matters - Part 1

If there’s an official mission statement for the kind of music we all love, it’s “sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll” …these are the three main food groups in this world…

All three of these things affect the same portions of the brain: the amygdala, the nucleus accumbens, and the cerebellum…. All of them are involved in the secretion and regulation of dopamine, the “feel-good” hormone… 

Dopamine is a very addictive hormone…whenever our brains squirt it out, the body goes “this is good! I want more!” …it happens when we hear a great song….it happens with certain drugs and alcohol, which is the basis of addiction…and it happens with an orgasm…

Once you’re inside this bubble, you may find things rather permissive…as long as you’re producing, people will look the other way…there’s no one to tell you “no”…and it doesn’t take long for some people to get lost in this world, coming to believe that normal rules of polite society don’t apply….you’re special, meaning that you can do anything…

That’s when your judgement starts to become suspect…and that’s when things start to get strange…how strange?...well…

Welcome to a show all about rock’n’roll and weird tales of sex.
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Tales of Weird Rock’n’Roll Sex

Going on tour is hard…you’re away from home for months at a time…there’s little sleep, bad food, too many drugs, a surfeit of alcohol, late nights, temptations into bad behavior, crazy people, and that bass player who refuses to wash his feet, probably because he’s on his phone moaning to his girlfriend about how miserable he is…

 

All that occupies about 22 hours of the day…the best times come when you’re at the venue…there’s the excitement of the lead-up, the after-show satisfaction, and in between, the gig itself…

 

But every show is different…a different city…a different place to sleep…vans, buses, and, if you’re lucky, airplanes…for that time on the road, your sanctuary becomes the dressing room, the one place over which you have some measure of control—if you know what you’re doing…

 

This brings me to the concert rider, the part of the contract with the promoter that specifies what an act has to be provided with before, during, and after a show…

 

Once the band arrives, the road manager is the point-person…he or she has to make sure the promoter adheres to the terms of the rider…

 

Most of the details are pretty mundane because they’re basically logistical…the times of the load-in and load-out…electrical requirements and the number of local electricians required to make them happen…how many forklifts and drivers are needed to move gear around…catering for the crew…parking for the tour buses…how merch sales are going to work…that kind of thing…

 

Where things get interesting are the artist’s requirements, the things they need backstage to ensure they’re in a good headspace to play a great show…mess up the rider and the promoter runs the risk of having a pouty, petulant, and otherwise pissed off performance…

 

And i get it…if you’re an artist and you don’t get what you need before a gig, then you’re going to feel disrespected…

 

Coming up with a list of requests that can be enforced night after night, venue after venue, city after city, and country after country is a delicate and essential thing…and let’s just say that some bands are better than others at this sort of thing…

 

Welcome to the wild work of the backstage rider…
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The Backstage Rider

Why does music move us so deeply...even when we don’t hear it? 

From brain scans lighting up with musical memories to how songs can fight loneliness, boost productivity, and even repel mosquitoes, this episode dives into the strange science behind sound with another exploration into the medical mysteries of music.

🧠 Discover:

Why music survives memory loss in Alzheimer’s

 How your taste in music shifts with the time of day

 What your favourite song might say about your personality

 The truth behind earworms (and how to get rid of them)

 How music affects taste, mood, and even hearing loss

📲 Listen now wherever you get your podcasts🔗 ajournalofmusicalthings.com
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Medical Mysteries of Music - The Sixth Edition

There was nothing particular special about April 8, 1994…I came to work as usual, saw the usual people, and prepared for my radio show in the usual way…I made note that the Toronto Blue Jays were playing a sold-out home game…one of the stories in the news was that American troops were upset about a smoking ban that had come into effect on some military bases…that was about it…

But at about 1:45—fifteen minutes before airtime—Anita, who was working in the newsroom—popped her into the studio…

“Just a heads-up,” she said, “something’s going on in Seattle…it looks like it has something to do with Kurt Cobain”…

If I’m honest, most of us were prepared for some bad news…we knew that Kurt had his issues…his health problems…his heroin addiction…his crazy marriage to Courtney Love…the canceled European tour…and, of course, an apparent suicide attempt in a Rome hotel room about a month earlier…

Still, all that was abstract, gossip, stories in magazines…but over the next 90 minutes, everything resolved into harsh, terrible, awful, reality…

If you were around then, you probably remember exactly where you were and what you were doing when you heard the news… it was one of those rare, rare moments, the same sort of thing felt with the assassination of John Lennon on Monday, December 8, 1980, and the death of Elvis on Tuesday, August 16, 1977….

Was that really 25 years ago?...yes, it was…if you were there, let’s revisit things…if you weren’t, here’s how dramatic and sad it was…this is Kurt Cobain, 25 years after he died…
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Kurt Cobain: 25 Years Later

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