Back in the 1970s Toronto's CHUM-AM had only one close competitor for hit radio and that was CFTR 680. In 1993 the station went All News. Today they launched a YouTube broadcast teaser that picks up exactly in the spot where they ended their final music broadcast back in 1993. Brilliant marketing...but will this return to splendor last?
The man on the beat is Frank Gutch Jr. who covers more musical ground in his Wednesday 'Don't Believe A Word I Say' columns than most of the actual music magazines in a month. You can read his take on beer company music promotions, music industry anti-trust and new releases by required listening acts like Dala and Lisbee Stainton here.
But it's the Lisbee Stainton tune "Sidekick" that grabbed my attention today. Don't know why, but this song (and adorable video) about the female superhero zeitgeist gives me the warm and fuzzies. Thanks for the heads up, Frank.
Amherst, Nova Scotia's Travis Hatcher returns with another solid album of first person observations that fall somewhere between James Taylor, Ron Sexsmith, Lightfoot and Billy Bragg singer-songwriter folk tunes. Unlike his confessionaly constructed previous album 'Dark Nights', 'Pure Fire' is more accessible and ambitious. Maybe too ambitious. The disc boasts 15 songs and clocks in at 76 minutes - only two songs coming in under 4 minutes. But that's the troubadour spirit in him! "You're Not As Young As You Think", "The Bird Is Dead" (at a whopping 8 minutes plus), "You Wouldn't Know Me Now", "Things Have Changed (And They'll Change Again)" and the title track are amongst a varied play list showing Hatcher's continued growth as a songwriter and musician - he plays everything on the disc - and stretches out in his own personal growth. Someone needs to sign this guy NOW....he's prolific as hell. One disc is not enough to contain him.
There is a mini-Men Without Hats resurgence happening right now. First TIDE detergent scooped up "Pop Goes The World" and May 22nd was the official release date on iTunes of the brand new Men Without Hats album 'Love In the Age of War'. With the band now located in Vancouver, they tapped resident producer Dave Ogilvie (Skinny Puppy, 54.40) to toughen them up. Witness the new single "Head Above Water". Welcome back to 1982, guys.
Not wanting to let a little thing like the Mayan apocalypse get in the way, Gowan celebrates his third solo album, 'Great Dirty World', with a 25th anniversary re-master this year. The exact date hasn't been announced but his website now has a brand new 3 minute animated video to keep fans happy and ward off Mayan sacrifices.
Check out The Beginning
Only 17 years old (or at least that was her age when she wrote this song) and already a firebrand. Bif Naked with a guitar. Alanis Morissette with a leather jacket. It's Mena Hardy!
TOR Books has announced the release date of June 19 for Volume 2 of the graphic novel adaptation of fantasy author Robert Jordan's "Eye of the World" (the first book in his 'Wheel of Time' series). The story has been adapted by Chuck Dixon and illustrated by Andie Tong. See an 8-page sneak preview here
In what is either the boldest or most ridiculous movie casting since Kristen Stewart became Joan Jett in the Runaways' movie, Harry Potter's Rupert Grint will don leopard skin and black leather as Dead Boys guitarist Cheetah Chrome in a film about the early days of legendary New York punk club CBGB's. Stranger still is the casting of Alan Rickman (Potter's Severus Snape) as the club's owner Hilly Krystal - though Rickman's proved he can pull off a decent American accent as witnessed in the first 'Die Hard' film. No word on who will play Joey Ramone, Blondie's Deborah Harry, or Dead Boys frontman Stiv Bators.
In the 1980s Burlington, Ontario band The Spoons rocketed to stardom on the back of their massive radio hit "Nova Heart" - a track from their second album 'Arias & Symphonies'. The band's sound was synthesizer based but the memorable instrumental melody line was performed by keyboardist Rob Preuss on a mini-Moog. On the occasion of inventor Robert Moog's 78th birthday, yesterday, internet search engine giants Google paid homage to the instrument's creator by offering an animated recreation of the device that was not only playable (using a computer mouse) but the performance could be 'recorded' virtually. Rob Preuss revisited 'Nova Heart' and the mini-Moog that gave it its distinctive sound.
Musician and DJ Bob Segarini gives us some personal tales about working alongside The Bee Gees in the wake of the death of Robin Gibb this past weekend.
e-Book Science Fiction writing sensation Hugh Howey has managed to land a movie deal with 20th Century Fox to turn his best selling e-Book/self-published post-apocalyptic serial "Wool" into a feature film. Currently, Ridley and Tony Scott's names are attached to the project. Here's hoping they turn the novelization into a big screen blockbuster.
Howey has bucked the trends for not only sci-fi writers, but self-publishing in general. In less than 2 years he's turned what started as a short story on KINDLE platforms into Top20 gold - often appearing with multiple titles in Amazon's best sellers lists and often out-selling existing TV and movie adapted titles such as 'The Hunger Games' and 'Game of Thrones'.
Coventry, England power pop trio THE ENEMY return May 21st with their 3rd album 'Streets In the Sky' which finds them returning to the Mod-punk (The Jam, 999, Sham 69, Buzzcocks) energy of their debut 'We Live And Die In These Towns'. The band is doing a number of in-store appearances around England to push the new record including HMV Coventry (20th May) at 4pm, HMV Manchester (23rd) at 5pm, Fopp London (24th) at 5pm and HMV Glasgow (25th) at 5pm.
They're also making a run up and down the UK with new tour dates:
21st May - Coventry Kasbah
22st May - Coventry Kasbah
23rd May - Manchester Academy
24th May - London Shepherds Bush Empire
25th May - Glasgow Barrowlands
3rd June - Whitehaven Festival 2012
8th July - T in the Park
13th July - Somerset House
18th August - V Festival
19th August - V Festival
Here's hoping they'll bring the party to North America one day.
Dee Long (ex-Klaatu) presents a sneak peek of 10CC's "I'm Not In Love" from the upcoming Atomic Tracktor album "Run 4 Cover". http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_13251816 The album will be free to download soon
I’ve recently received a surprising number of CDs that stall out at five or six songs. It brings to mind a conversation I had several years ago with International Pop Overthrow Festival founder David Bash who, as a music connoisseur, doesn’t like EPs. I was never able to follow the reasoning – only that he will dismiss an artist’s release because it’s an unsatisfying teaser and a waste of his time. Ironically, less music means he’s SAVING time…but it got me thinking about how many acts may have been dismissed by the industry, media and fans for the same reason. Is it a perception that the artist isn’t committed enough or prolific enough to pull off a full album? Do they think the artist is lazy? Is it a perception of value for purchase price? After all, it costs the same amount of money to manufacture a CD with 10 songs as it does for six. The answer to these questions depend on the intent of the release in the first place.
Glad to see Tim Allen's "Last Man Standing" got renewed for a second season. The show did so well it had a 24 episode first season. If you haven't seen it, the show is basically a revised version of "Home Improvement" with Alan playing the father of three girls (rather than three boys) and Nancy Travis plays the wife. It's smarter and a lot hipper....with Allen running a chain of sporting goods stores. He doesn't play the doofus in this...he's the straight man....while the idiocy swirls around him. However, fans of Allen's mass destruction won't be disappointed. We were treated to an episode where he test drove a NASCAR and in the season finale he crushed a boat with a Sherman tank. ARR! ARR! ARR!
A remake of Mike Previti's song "Audio" by Jaimie Vernon from his 2008 album 'Nightmare @ 20,000 Watts'. Previti also sings back-ups. Produced by Brian Gagnon.
I met Canadian singer-songwriter and producer Tim Feehan in Los Angeles in 2004. We were seated together as part of a music supervisor workshop project sponsored by Variety & Billboard magazines. Following the seminars we discussed business and he impressed me with the in-roads he'd made as a Canadian in LA...working with former 1980s teen queen Tiffany in re-starting her career.
Tim has brought a new voice to my attention - Edmonton's Cadence Burns - who is already driving interest from power brokers stateside. This could be the dawning of a new music star.
Children’s book
author Maurice Sendak has passed away at the age of 83. His most enduring work –
“Where
The Wild Things Are” – inspired a generation of Baby Boomers to use
their imaginations. Sendak loved and respected his audience. Two quotes show
his great appreciation and understanding of who was reading his books:
"Kids don't know about best sellers," he said. "They go for what
they enjoy. They aren't star chasers and they don't suck up. It's why I like
them."
It was about a year ago that some columnist at some hipster rag (Wired? Pitchfork?) predicted or, rather, insisted that CDs would be dead by the end of 2012. And because this Nostradumbass was read by non-hipsters as well, it went viral and became the discussion du jour across the interwebs. A mass sheeple hysteria ensued that even gave pause to those making the decisions about the future of the format despite the fact that they knew it wasn’t true. Physical product still accounts for the lion’s share of overall international music sales. To eliminate the format would mean flushing half their annual profits down the drain. The labels, currently, have no plan B. They cannot survive on downloading revenues alone and so the compact disc remains.
