fake news

#584: Fake News

GETTING MORE TALE #584: Fake News

Fake news is not recent.  Fake news has been around as long as there were people!  Here is a list of fake news stories from the Record Store days.

In the mid 90s, many people actually believed that Marilyn Manson had his bottom ribs removed so he could bend over and blow himself.

From the same time period, word had spread that all five Backstreet Boys released solo albums on the same day, and that “Walmart has them.”

Bafflingly, and for many many years, people believed that Toronto got album releases before anywhere else in Canada.  As if albums were delivered by the Pony Express.

Levels of hoaxes so complex it’ll make your head spin.   SuperShadow was a supposed Star Wars inside informant who leaked prequel plots and characters.  He was a notoriously hated spreader of fake Star Wars news, but the layers of intrigue here go down to all the way to…me…who posed on MySpace as a “fake” SuperShadow, in hopes of smoking out the real one.  Fake news of fake news!

In an interview with Slash published in the March/April 1994 issue of M.E.A.T Magazine, the guitarist claimed the next Guns N’ Roses album would be out the following summer of 1995.  Heh.  Won’t get fooled again?

There are of course many “fake news” stories through the history of rock and roll.  “Paul is dead.”  “2 Pac is alive.”  “There are two Nikki Sixx’s.”  “Joey Tempest is a demon.”  What are your favourites?

Sunday Chuckle: Too Many Mikes

Hi!  I’m Mike!

Some people call me LeBrain.  Some of my friends in the radio community call me LaLoofah.  It doesn’t matter, I’ll answer to those, but I’m a Mike.  Always have been, since I was born actually.

As readers generally know by now, my radio friend Craig over at 107.5 DaveRocks has nicknames for most of his listeners.  He also likes to claim that he has “only 3.5 regular listeners” according to the last surveys.  I’m one, and there’s another one named “Ass Kisser Mike”.  Sometimes people mix the two of us up.  I’ve met Ass Kisser Mike.  He’s a really nice guy.  We actually met recently at a protest.  (You can read all about that here.)  At the time, I jokingly said that we should take a picture together to prove we’re not the same person.  However there was a lot going on and we never took the picture.

Fast forward to the April 12 2017 instalment of the Craig Fee Show.  Another Mike called in, a new Mike.  Craig feigned disbelief, he couldn’t have three callers named Mike out of 3.5 listeners, could he?  This led Craig to start the rumour that I and Ass Kisser Mike are the same person.  Fake news!  He also speculated that Ass Kisser Mike’s righteous beard may be fake.  And of course, I could not produce a photo of the two of us together.

I assure you, my faithful readers.  LeBrain and Ass Kisser Mike are two different people.  One day I’ll get a photo to prove it!

Not an actual photo of LeBrain and Ass Kisser Mike