Canada's Band

With a title like that, most would think, "oh, he's going to have a nice little article on The Guess Who," or "I bet this will be about The Tragically Hip." Unfortunately, I'm not going to blog about The Guess Who or the Tragically Hip ... I'm going to do this post ... on Nickelback. Don't kid yourself, they're more popular than any other Canadian band to date ... for sure in the last 20 years.

Before I even begin ... I have to confess something ... I am a closet Nickelback fan. No, I don't like "Photograph" ... and no I don't care for "How You Remind Me." Actually, to be 100% honest, there are a TON of Nickelback songs that make me wanna throw up ... just a lil. In fact, there are a few written by Nickelback that if heard while driving ... make me want to veer into oncoming traffic. But ... I 'm still a Nickelback closet fan.

I'm a huge fan of songs like "Side of a Bullet,""Because of You,""Worthy to Say,""Animals,""Leader of Men," and "Old Enough." All that is great ... I just hate how they feel like they have to write ballads and love songs when they can write such good metal licks.

It has been an exciting couple of weeks leading up to the release of their first single. First we found out that they were working with Mutt Lange, a guy that has produced some of the best albums of all time including ACDC's Back in Black and Def Leppards Hysteria and Pyromania. Plus the guy married Shania Twain ... and then divorced her. I don't know why for sure, but I think its because she liked country music!!

Shortly after that we found out that they were going to release the album November 18th. Then we found out what they were going to call it... Dark Horse. It all lead up to this morning, their first single was going to be released to radio. I was super pumped. Why not, its Nickelback! The question that was in my head ... "what are they going to go with? Is it going to be something that will be commercially succesful or will they finally realize that its ok to put out some heavy stuff and make the closet fans appreciate you more!!"

Then it happened. I found out what the name of the single was and realized I had made a huge mistake. You know when a song is named "Gotta be Somebody" that its not going be the metal Nickelback that I love ... it's going to be the commercial Nickelback that 13 year old girls love.

I would compare it to "Photograph," "If Everyone Cared," or any other Nickelback song of that nature. Needless to say it was disappointing. I'm not even sure if we'll be able to play the song on the Eagle. It'll probably get spun heavily on our sister station Magic 97.

When the album drops November 18th, I know there will be some heavy stuff on it ... we'll just have to wait for a couple months to hear it because this new song is probably going to get played till 2010 before they release another single.

By the way, you can download "Gotta Be Somebody" for the next 24 hrs on their website. It's free ... which is a good thing ... because its not worth much more.