Trust and loyalty is a very important lesson to learn in the music industry. Many don’t really understand this theory. Even the worst of  the mob were less hard in this area.

My guess is that over 70% of all careers are probably gone because of someone breaching these rules.

There is a test of younger children that is very cute, but interestingly you can find these homemade videos on YouTube search after “don’t eat the candy challenge”. In short, what they do is put a four-year-old in front of some candy. They tell the kid to not eat the candy and they will get more candy in return. The scientist though said to the kid that you can have the candy but if you wait until later you will get a whole bag of the same candy. Then they measure how far you are as a child in consequences. Some kids weren’t so far so they eat the candy and were not rewarded, some have matured more and waited and got a bigger reward.

My guess is that the kids that had not matured actually became artists. All of them. I have no proof but I have a  good hunch.

This week we spotlight Second Harvest Central Food Bank 1450 Lodestar Road Unit 18 Toronto, Ontario
Tel: 416-408-2594
email@secondharvest.ca

Member agencies have been coping with the new realities of providing emergency food relief during COVID. Many agencies have closed their doors, which has put further strain on the food resources of agencies that have remained open.

Support your local food bank.

Toronto Tabla Ensemble continue to entice ears and eyes with this, their new video for “Maryem’s Here”.

Fresh from their most recent release, Unexpected Guests, the track and video bring diverse musical traditions together — from Indian classical dance, to Japanese drumming, to Arabic singing, and Western classical instrumentation. The goal is simple: create compelling music and showcase it with visual flair.

Check out “Maryem’s Here” on YouTube here:

Right now is the best place to be in the music industry. At the same time the worst to be in the music industry. No, I am not talking about the COVID, sure it disrupts things and puts people out of business, still, I see that as good cleansing of holy alliances that we really don’t need anymore in the industry.

I am actually talking about the state the media is in right now. To be honest, media is the place where you can get many eyes and ears to listen to your music. Right now everything is so shattered. Social media is mainly just bubbles where very few people see what you are doing or in this case listening.

Doesn't matter if you have a  half-million followers, most people won’t know who you are. Yesterday I read in the normal media (also called old media) about a Swedish influencer that had died. I never have heard about him until I read in normal media, I guess sadly his fame came with his death.

This week we spotlight the Ryerson Food Bank 55 Gould Street.

Food bank runs Mondays and Fridays from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m.
The Ryerson University Students' Union supports the Good Food Centre at 55 Gould Street.

Spinning into the music with the new Lee Aaron album ''Radio On!'' On which the former Metal Queen returns to her head banging roots. It drops worldwide June 18th 2021and is a strong and commercially savvy body of tuneage. As per the title, Radio On! is a collection of 12 new originals written in one weekend.

“I had this crazy idea, that if we locked ourselves in a room for a couple days and the only agenda was to have FUN and tap into the influences that inspired us as teenagers, it would be interesting to see what happened. I think we even surprised ourselves!"

The tight musical bond that has been growing since 2016’s critically acclaimed Fire and Gasoline took a giant leap forward as Lee and her band (drummer John Cody, bassist Dave Reimer, and guitarist Sean Kelly)’s lost weekend of garage-band-style song writing was so successful it resulted in an entire album.

Billboard-featured RnB producer and artist Matell is making a bold statement in this, his new single “Fragile (Help Someone)”.

Heralded for previous releases like “I apologize 2u & u2,” “Quickly,” “Low expectations,” “I said I’m Gonna Go, Oops, Oops Upside Your Head” — and the strong response from the multi-licensed “My conversations with God” — the Colorado-based singer/songwriter aims to leverage “Fragile (Help Someone)” to send a heartfelt, intimate message against the violence that’s become normalized in recent years.

Check out “Fragile (Help Someone)” here:

One can assume the track’s crude, bare-bones approach aims at creating a sobering effect to the harsh reality that has become normality throughout Northern America, and the world. When asked, Matell indicated he was intending this piece as a “we are the world meets 2021.”

JUNO Award-winning Canadian songwriter, artist, author and MuchMusic original VJ Christopher Ward has recorded a new take on his most recognizable song, the Billboard #1 hit “Black Velvet” — available now.

The writers who have achieved a #1 single number in the hundreds. This songwriter’s take on the classic comes 31 years after this achievement. It is worthy of your attention.  

As far as resumes go, Ward’s is among the nation’s most prolific: To leap by decades, he was a recording artist throughout the 70s, a television icon and founding VJ through the 80s, and a hit songwriter in the 90s. He’s written songs for many — including Diana Ross, Amanda Marshall, Colin James, and the Backstreet Boys — as well as for CTV’s Instant Star, the Degrassi franchise, Cirque du Soleil, and more. His songs have been performed on Idol shows around the world, and he’s won a JUNO Award for Songwriter of the Year. Ward has also authored three novels, Is This Live?, and co-hosts a podcast, Famous Lost Words.

During the COVID, many have tried to take their conferences online. It’s a supplement to having a conference since COVID stopped us all from meeting personally. Of course, it’s not that hard to get people to sign up for an online conference. Especially if it’s for free. The problem is to get people to interact in a positive way.

How is that? Usually, I come back from a conference with at least a hundred new business cards! I love chatting and hanging around with people. With an online event it looks more and more like a cheap version of a dating service. When I’m at these conferences there is no small talk. Let’s pretend you are at a bar see someone that you like, and you want to make contact with this person. You wouldn’t just walk right up and tell the person that you are the best partner that has ever existed, and you now wonder what the person can do for you.

Online dating is kind of that in its worst form. Here you mainly go on a small piece of information that the other person has pimped up to get attention like a peacock. More or less you can guess that information is not really anything like reality, but hey that is what you are choosing from.

This week we spotlight Eastview Neighbourhood Community Centre 86 Blake Street, a member of the Daily Bread Food Bank that has been operating for over 40 years. Open Tuesday and Thursday from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Stepping in with the irrepressible Friendly Rich and what he dubs A Love Letter to Live Music from Friendly Rich

Friendly Rich & The Lollipop People unearthed a rare live recording of the band in their element, one Monday night in Toronto, September 2019.  This unique recording captures the distinct vibe of one of Canada's most important music venues on any given Monday night -- The Cameron House.

This new recording is available on all streaming platforms Friday April 16th.

"This recording is a love letter to live music and the people that it connects" professes Friendly Rich, who has been performing at The Cameron House regularly for the last two decades.  Although we all miss live music right now, releasing this buried treasure is bittersweet.” 

The relationship between gaming and music has been underway more than a decade now. It’s only going to increase in scope and numbers so here’s some input from the gaming community as to how and why that is.

We love to celebrate our favourite musical acts in weird and wonderful ways. Here are some of the legends we have chosen to immortalise in video game form.

We don’t often think about the overlap between music and games. However, since music is a major inspiration for many people in a variety of industries, it is unsurprising to find that some have chosen to immortalise their musical heroes in video game form. Let’s take a closer look at three legends of the music industry who are the subject of their own video games.

Why Make These Games?

The relationship between gaming and music has been underway more than a decade now. It’s only going to increase in scope and numbers so here’s some input from the gaming community as to how and why that is.

Music is a vital part of any game, there is no denying it. Here’s why music and gaming always go well together here.

We don’t go through life with music blasting at our every move, so why do we expect the same for gaming? There are so many games out there that are applauded for their soundtracks, and classic ditties and themes that we associate instantly with their games. It is clear that music is something that goes hand in hand with gaming, and always will.

Games Across All Genres

Less than a month after the release of his highly-anticipated sophomore EP, A Stranger Everywhere, French/Australian Montreal-based singer Joji Redback has released a brand-new music video for the project’s latest single, “Sa Mère”.

Check out “Sa Mère” on YouTube here:

Though he’s been releasing music since 2017, Joji began to blow up late last year after releasing the lead single off 2021’s A Stranger Everywhere, “Puerto.” The infectious tune was added to Spotify’s coveted Discover Weekly playlists and quickly racked up over 160,000+ Spotify streams alone, contributing to his 250,000+ total across all platforms.

The 24-year-old musician began making music at the mere age of six, but it wasn’t until his late adolescence that he began playing the drums and recording his vocals. Once he turned 19, music became Joji’s life.

I just read about a new company again that has what they think a brilliant idea that has you in music in the new blockchain technology. This is actually the fourth this week I read about. I just see a big hype right now that will rip off artists and make the music industry look like a shitty amateur camp.

This week we spotlight Churches on the Hill Food Bank 230 St Clair Ave W, Toronto.
416-967-3842  
christchurchdeerpark.org
Tuesdays & Thursdays open at 10:30 a.m.

Support your local food bank. The need is dire.

Denizens of the history-strewn streets of Halifax, The Bloody Hell has a new full-length in the works to follow their award-nominated 2018 self-titled debut album (Loud Recording of the Year” - Nova Scotia Music Awards 2018), and as they currently work on the sophomore release, they’re sharing a new music video for the single "When You're Gone".

The band has teamed up once again with stop motion animator Diane Lindo who did their 2019 video "Out of Our Minds”, nominated for an Independent Music Video of The Year Award by Dropoutentertainment.ca.

I recently saw an interview with the Swedish megastar Zara Larsson. It was some famous magazine that was getting the grand tour of her apartment. Then she was in various Swedish media coverage saying that she had been smoking a lot of weed lately but has now stopped doing that.  Strange thing is I first noticed that we haven’t heard from Zara for long while. I looked in both interviews but none said anything about new music.

Then just days later I saw an ad for her new album “Postergirl”. Of course Zara Larsson has great, smart teams working around her to get her exposure. The two interview looks like they are just taken out of the blue, that she just one day felt like showing off her apartment for a magazine or doing a “dark” confession. The truth is that in today’s media world the fact that you release new music is not good enough news.

When you’ve been making music for as long as folk music icon Judy Collins, songs become more than just familiar melodies, they’re treasured memories connecting you to people and places of your past. For her newest collection of recent recordings, White Bird - Anthology Of Favorites, Collins has hand-selected a number of songs that remain dear to her heart so much so that she can still remember exactly where she was the first time she heard them. Take for instance, this story Collins shares about one of her best-known, most beloved songs, “It was 1967 when I received a phone call at three in the morning from Al Cooper, the founder of Blood Sweat & Tears. He said he followed this girl home from a bar where she had told him she was a songwriter. She played him some of her songs and after she played him one particular song, he picked up the phone and called me. He put the girl on the phone and Joni Mitchell sang me her great song ‘Both Sides Now.’”

This week we highlight ICNA Relief Food Bank 6120 Montevideo Rd. Unit #4
Mississauga, Tel: 905-858-1067
Email: mississaugafb@icnareliefcanada.ca Because of CoVid, please contact before going.

Support your local food bank. The need is real.

Spring has sprung

And this new death is still among Us. 

Please, mask up, keep your distance. The light is in sight but we’re still in the tunnel.

Stepping in with a soulful talent comes with a side of brash, Toronto musician Taylor Abrahamse has just released new single, “I Don't Care Anymore", a sunny ballad with a Seventies lyrical sweet spot between James Taylor and Randy Newman, on a bed of beautiful melodic instrumentation. "I Don't Care Anymore" dropped Monday, March 22nd.

Check the heart tugging falsetto of ‘I Don’t Care Anymore’ live

Hell no. This Toronto foursome reaches way, way back to the Golden Era of rockabilly bad-asses like The Big Bopper, Link Wray, Gene Vincent, Carl Perkins and Sonny Burgess as inspiration for their surly and unruly brand of rockabilly.

Here’s how they see it. “Shook Boys are a wild rockabilly band. They don’t play music to fall in love to, they play nasty stuff that boils primitive urges to the surface - like when you’re feeling right but doin’ wrong.”

“ Distilled from the Toronto’s rockin’ scene and forming in the summer of 2019 they got Murry up front; making people scream before he opens his mouth, Paddy on drums just banging and yellin’, Steve beating out notes on the double bass, and Big Mark with the amplified guitar - not thinking,  just keepin’ the chords live. Always impeccably dressed, when the band hits the floor during their electrifying live shows, vintage clothing enthusiasts get squirrely at the sight of filthy stage grime being ground into gabardine… and they don’t treat their instruments any better.”

Check out Shook Boys Live here:

Okay in Sweden the booking scene is kind of strange. It’s not working as the rest of the world since the agencies are often the promoters and also the bookers. Still, I can easily see what happens here might eventually happen to the rest of the world.

Of course, the COVID situation has left most of these companies in a tailspin. We don’t know how many they really laid off. And like the rest of the world,  some have jumped off and started new secret companies not yet to be seen in the light. What has been very evident is that the artist has been changing companies like crazy. The agencies have been more or less competing to get newsletters out with their latest signings. Still, it’s the same old artist-changing agency that probably won’t survive anyway when the whole system and network changes in a couple of months.

This week we salute ICNA Relief Food Bank 6120 Montevideo Rd. Unit #4
Mississauga, Tel: 905-858-1067
Email: mississaugafb@icnareliefcanada.ca
Because of COVID, please contact before going.

Support your local food bank. The need is real.

Stepping in with action from Alabama Shakes drivin’ wheel Brittany Howard. The high flying singer/guitarist shares a cover of Jackie Wilson’s "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" available on Amazon Music as part of the service’s programming for Women’s History Month.

Listen to Brittany Howard’s "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher"
amzn.to/BrittanyHoward