Nickeley Thornback

As a construction worker, one of my job responsibilities is to listen to rock music all day long.

Ask me, I prefer working with no musical accompaniment; time becomes more malleable and I enjoy an escape from clockwork distractions such as traffic reports, news bulletins, and top-of-the-hour, 30-minute, commercial-free rock-rides.

Regardless, the radio stays off only when Trev and I are boarding just the two of us. We share a love of peace and quiet, you see.

Trevor's brother Chad, on the other hand, needs screaming guitars, thumping drums, and an assortment of yelling men to "get him pumped" and keep him productive. Once, the guy indulged me and agreed to suffer eight hours of Christmas carols because hey, the season called for it and he's a giving chap. But most days, our exertions are scored by the sounds of CJAY 92, Cowtown's celebrated (and admirably community-minded) rock radio station, which chronicles its 30th anniversary this year.

Chad likes the CJAY.

As a result, I'm now shockingly familiar with the current rock Top 40 (the oldies I already know well from a pre-adolescent skidhood of banging my mulleted head and slamming air guitar to the hair metal of the 80s and trashy glam rock of up to two decades prior).

Today, CJAY has become such a cozy part of my aural makeup that if I'm walking along any given street downtown and my ears pick up longtime broadcaster Gerry Forbes making a sexist joke, or that partly-enjoyable cover of Genesis's "Land of Confusion" by Disturbed blaring from a nearby speaker, I know that if I turn my head to look, I will surely see a construction site, however small, no more than 20 feet away.

AND SO! IT FOLLOWS...

That for the month of March I'm only going to remix rock music.

Chad's fave is AC/DC, and I'd like to get some'a that in, since I'm also a big fan. Trev's choice is The Tragically Hip, so I've planned something for one of our country's finest (but mysteriously, least successful abroad) exports as well.

That said, this evening I'd like to kick things off with a minimix of some other Canuck offenders. The first originates just northeast of here in the small town of Hanna, where my sexiest ex also hails from. The second calls Toronto home, but they're signed to the record company owned by the throaty growler fronting the first outfit, Mr Chad Kroeger.

The bands, then, are Nickelback and Thornley, respectively. And though the former came out of "nowhere" to dominate the rock scene at least here at home, Thornley is itself a phoenix from the ashes of three other Canadian rock fixtures: Big Wreck, Big Sugar, and Three Days Grace. I must admit, they do sound a good deal to me like another recent (and recently disbanded) phoenix, Chris Cornell and Tom Morello's Audioslave. In fact, I thought Thornley was Audioslave the first time I heard them.

But more on Cornell and Morello later.

For now, here's Ian Thornley and Chad Kroeger trading sore throats and power chords for a couple minutes, courtesy of Board Brothers, CJAY 92, and your Mini Nerd.

And dedicated to Chad, of course.

So Far You Remind Me