I long believed that SiriusXM could have maintained a station solely for Punk Music. This was apparently not the case as the channel was taken off post-merger. Anyone looking for the Punk mix now has to get their fix from Sirius 28 Faction. Although I could easily live without some of the hip-hop and more recent alternative music that exists here, this station still carries a ton of punch and is a refreshing breath of air. 

Daredevil and Mixed Martial Artist Jason Ellis hosts a kick ass afternoon show weekdays at three on Faction. Jason, like the King of All Media, holds nothing back and shoots straight from the hip. Even people who are not necessarily fans of extreme sports may find what he has to say interesting.

Punk rock drumming legend Marky Ramone hosts a great show called the Punk Rock Blitzkrieg every Tuesday evening at 8 p.m. The Ramones were one of my personal favourite groups from this genre. The Ramones were responsible for generating many of the great riffs that would be later used by countless others in the 90′s alternative movement. 

There are other tremendous talents in the Punk Rock and Punk Metal world that can be heard on Faction. In addition to The Ramones, I would list the Glenn Danzig fronted Misfits as being another of the most influential and hard-hitting groups in the Punk world. Like the Ramones, the Misfits crossed over into influencing several Metal bands. While the Misfits are still going today with a different vocalist, one of the key components to its success was the brilliant songwriting and lyrics of Glenn Danzig. Worth checking out.

I should acknowledge Skateboarding great Tony Hawk for his Demolition Radio show. I have not listened to enough of this show yet, but plan to listen more since I grew up respecting Tony for his positive contribution to sport and fashion. 

For more information on Faction, head up to the Sirius Canada site or go to RadioFaction.com

Ask any bona-fide music fan what they think about the “Grunge” movement that tornadoed into the music world in the 1990′s and you will get a variety of personal opinions. Seattle Washington was already home to some of the most revered acts in louder music, noteably Traditional Metal masters Queensryche. A guitar-wielding drone voiced blond haired dude named Kurt Cobain along with Bassist Kirst Novoselic, Drummer David Grohl and Guitarist Jason Everman formed Nirvana. While it was not until Everman was gone from the group and the band’s genre defining record “Nevermind” came out that the world suddenly woke up to this sound.

Nirvana brought riffs and anger directly from many of the great classic punks like the Ramones and Misfits into a new audience. Alternative Rock became more mainstream literally overnight.

Metal bands from the area that were caught up in the Nirvana sweep thankfully received some great record sales and media attention as well, despite being re-categorized. Alice in Chains and Soundgarden, who are featured regularly on Lithium, were metal acts. During an awards ceremony where Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell accepted an award for a metal performance connected to a track from the band’s great album “Superunknown”, Cornell proudly proclaimed to the audience that they were metal.

I can argue with anyone the opinion that Soundgarden to me were one of the best Seattle metal acts since Queensryche, and Alice in Chains not far behind.

While I personally can acknowledge the great acts that came out of this era, I feel many acts heard on Litihum did not get the critical acclaim they truly deserved.  Some of these acts like Screaming Trees, were in my opinion much more original than some of the bigger names.

Listening to Lithium for a couple of hours these past few days, I have been able to get an entire scope of the music the channel represents. You get the great Seattle acts and tracks from some great artists. You also hear overtones and riffs from 70′s and 80′s punk that helped to define an anger a generation of teens and old school punks. I also have come to appreciate and accept the impact altnernative rock had on music, especially as someone who went to high school in the 90′s.