This week we spotlight Donnie Blais and his team at Rancho Relaxo restaurant. These thoughtful folk are putting out 500 meals a day to feed those in need. Please support Rancho Relaxo next time you’re up for the best Mexican food in Toronto. Blais has been feeding rock’n’rollin Toronto since the Nineties, both touring acts and local up and comers, many of the latter dining free courtesy of the man’s generous heart and community spirit.
ranchorelaxotogo.com/

In case ya missed it, here's the new single / music video 'Inside' from Rockshots Records latest signing Neroargento. The single is off upcoming album "Circles' due out later this summer. This album will be big for fans of Motionless In White, Falling In Reverse, Linkin Park. Dude cooks up a likeable brew of melodic metal, grunge and electronica.

Get ‘Inside’:

I read a great article on a site that sells email lists. They wrote that they get a lot of complaints that their lists don’t work. People didn’t get answers they sent to over 1000 emails and only got two answers. The site explained that you really need to check out the blog, radio station, record label, etc before you send it to them. Not just send an email. Yes, this takes time. It’s quite easy to just put emails into an email list and just send a generic e-mail. The problem is that it never fits everyone. The generic email almost never fits anyone.

You have to go into each site to see what’s it all about and adapt your email content. So instead of sending 1000 emails in one hour, you are down to be able to send maybe 30 emails a day if you are working efficiently.

Why don’t people answer? Here is a mail that came into one of the festivals we work with. On Facebook not even on the official email that goes to the bookers.

Dear,

Hope you're ok.

We contacted you before, last year, about a concert of ******** from USA, blues, bluesrock.

This week we spotlight a location that has the unfortunate distinction of being Toronto’s oldest continuously operating food bank.

The Scott Mission 502 Spadina Ave, Toronto

Morris Zeidman, an ordained Presbyterian minister who was born in Częstochowa, Poland, and converted to Christianity from Judaism, founded The Scott Mission with his wife Anne in 1941.It was their belief that the hunger of the physical body needed to be addressed as well as the hunger of the soul.

General Inquiries 416-923-8872 ; Women and Family Food and Clothing Bank 416-923-3916 ; Donation Line 416-923-2400 info@scottmission.com

Holly Thompson, Director of Public Relations, ph:416-923-8872 ext 295.

COVID-19 -- Food bank open Mon-Fri 9 am-12 noon pick up at north end of building *takeout hot meals available Mon-Sat 10 am-12 noon, pick up at laneway window at south end of building  bag lunch available Mon-Sun 4 pm at laneway door at south end of building *Shelter Open Mon-Sun

Right now I get up to ten friend requests on Facebook every day. No, I don't count the girls with scanty clothing that always are home alone who are looking for a male companion. Those are the ones who are just listening to bad Britney pop and have bad music taste my girlfriend tells me so I erase those. I don't want people with bad music taste in my feed. The ones that are adding me are real people. It's not that I'm popular either. I guess I'm listed somewhere.

Anyway, part of these is what I call drive-by shooters. People that just add you and then five minutes later send you a song to listen to. Just reminded me; I got one of those girls with fewer clothes playing ukelele the other day, oh well back to the subject, they send you a song but never tell you what to do with it. Okay, listen to it but what then? I have never encountered any of them that have ever been any good.

This week’s food bank spotlight:
St James Food Basket
400 Burnhamthorpe Rd Toronto ON

Please call St James Food Basket at 416-622-4114 before visiting in person.

Typical Operating Hours
Wednesday: 1:30pm - 5:30pm.We provide a full buffet meal starting at 1:30. If you live in this area, please donate if you can.

To date the Cashbox Canada Food Bank Initiative has raised $725.00 for neighbourhood food banks. Thank you for helping and keep up the good work!

Not often a seasoned artist announces a career defining new album but blame it on CoVid. Rockist singer/songwriter Liza Anne’s Bad Vacation out July 24 is meant to be just that. This collection of art rock anthems, new wave jams and power pop earworms is set to establish Liza as a breakthrough independent artist and a bold young voice in mental health self-awareness.

Rick Springfield and Vance DeGeneres “Ultimate Mini-Series: The 60-Second Guide to Songwriting with a Partner”, started off as a way for the two friends to have some fun online will home-sheltering during the current Covid-19 pandemic. But what began as a way to share a few laughs with their online communities grew into a popular 28-episode series and produced a rousing, uplifting universal anthem of hope and love. The song and video for “The Wall Will Fall” was released Friday, May 8 and all proceeds from the sale of the song will be going to benefit Feeding America.

Watch the video of ‘The Wall Will Fall’ here:
https://youtu.be/BMHI0KW39ho

The “Ultimate Mini-Series: The 60-Second Guide to Songwriting with a Partner”, series featured a very smart and witty back and forth between the two, veering from showcasing musical ideas, suggestions from some famous friends and hilarious revisionist music history lessons showcasing Rick’s impressive collection of Beatles memorabilia. 

“Things Fall Apart” was originally performed, recorded and released in 1995 by Random Order from the album ‘Not A Perfect World’. It was Random Order's first CD and was actually originally recorded on tape.

Listen to various streaming options of “Things Fall Apart” here:
randomorder.bandcamp.com/
www.smarturl.it/RandomOrder_Spotify
ffm.to/47b9dgo

I'm currently working with The Magnettes new single "American" and I just see all the logistics that show a DIY artist really can't release on their own. It's not even possible with them even knowing what is needed. In fact outlets most are actually out there available for free to grab. But they can't really access all these channels needed.

Sure, there are plenty of outlets for the DIY artist to reach ie Spotify and some other platforms. Why I mention Spotify is the fact that the general DIY artist just cares about Spotify and really nothing else. They think as long it's on Spotify it will somehow get discovered .

There are almost 40 000 releases uploaded to Spotify every day. So just start with that you need to have the knowledge to release on a Friday which is the official release day. Just this week I have seen at least twenty DIY artists upload and release on other days of the week. Sometimes even on holidays, like someone would take more notice on a holiday? Just that simple mistake can make the DIY release  just go wrong.

It’s a beautiful sunny day in Toronto. What better time to drop by your local food band and show it some love. Spotlighting: St Ninian's Anglican Church Food Bank 930 Bellamy Rd N Toronto ON, Canada M1H 1G9. Hours Tue 5 pm-8 pm, Wed 9 am-11:45 am

Please call St Ninian's Anglican Church Food Bank at 416-438-3750 before visiting in person.

Canadian artist Ashley Lyn gets direct — in more ways than one — for her newest single and video, “I Want It 2”.

The Toronto-based Jamaican-Chinese pop powerhouse is all-business, remiss to hold back in song (this one lands as a sultry, attitude-packed track and visual about curving dudes on her quest for true love), and her career (the track’s backstory serves as a manifesto of sorts — read on).

“I wrote ‘I Want It 2’ in a Starbucks with an old classmate of mine from back in University who is now a producer,” she starts. “The lyrical concept was to make a modern-day version of Cassie’s ‘Long Way 2 Go’ mixed with a few of my other influences like Fifth Harmony, Jasmine Villegas, Pia Mia, Tinashe, and Mabel.

Watch and listen to ‘I Want It 2’ here:

Just to have a high IQ is not always a good thing. I was just watching a game show on TV and the contestant  was in MENSA (a club for people with high IQ) and had a high IQ. Lost on the first question on how many legs a spider has. IQ shows how good you are on logical things. It doesn’t  really say if you are smart or successful.

Also, this contestant, you really felt that she was not someone you really wanted to have a conversation with. What she was lacking was quite a lot is EQ. Your EQ is the level of your ability to understand other people, what motivates them, and how to work cooperatively with them.  So, having one of these is good but you can perform badly on other things. Like you are super smart but friendly like a venomous snake. Or you get along with all people but not really see when people take advantage of you.

This week’s spotlight: Bluffs Food Bank  33 East Road, Toronto.

Thursdays 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., by appointment, the Bluffs Food Bank is open to give groceries to those who need help.  Sandwiches, hot soup, coffee & tea are available. Drop off grocery or boutique donations on “Welcome Wednesdays” 9 a.m.-12 p.m. Please help Scarborough’s most enduring food bank.

I just came out of a meeting for record labels. Yes, record labels have organization meetings just like all other business organizations. I have been a member for the past 25 years, so it was fun meeting people that actually do the same things like yourself and really indulge in record label nerd talks. Before the meeting, I met up with another label that used to be active in this local organization but now is in the bigger worldwide organization.

She just said “I don’t care any longer about the local chapter. It’s really too low a quality of members to be even taken seriously as working in the music business. In reality, they are worse than the artist themselves at their job. It is mainly a junkyard of people that are employed by organizations to give out music in a really bad way. My belief is that the artist would do it much better themselves then being pampered by these bogus so-called record labels."

Multi-award winning and Gold and Platinum-selling Canadian, ‘First Lady of the Guitar’ Liona Boyd is “Sending Love In The Time Of Corona” by way of a new single available now.

Watch and Listen here to “Sending Love In The Time Of Corona”

Proceeds from the song’s release will be directed to the Unison Benevolent Fund to help support musicians and industry professionals with counseling and emergency economic relief.

“While bicycling early one morning near my winter house in Palm Beach, Florida, I was anxiously thinking about my friends, family and fans scattered around the world and how we are all having to cope with rapidly changing times due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Boyd shares of the song and its heartfelt inspiration. “I began to hum the melody and lyrics to a little song, which would become ‘Sending Love In The Time Of Corona.’

This week spotlighting Oasis Dufferin Community Centre Food Bank

1219 Dufferin Street Office Hours::Monday - Thursday 9:30am - 3:30pm  Food Bank: Wednesdays 9:30 am to 12:30 pm - Lineup on Dufferin Street  Take-out dinner: Tuesdays starting at 5:30
https://oasisdufferin.org/

Bryant Didier, Brent Haynes & Evolutionary Music Co-operative support Oasis Dufferin CommunityCentre Food Bank

Always 'Cook-ing up' something, is our multi-award winning and internationally acclaimed guitarist, composer and producer Jesse Cook called on his tens of thousands of fans to collaborate on his newest song. The result was an overflowing inbox of contributions from around the globe and a new song, “One World, OneVoice , just out.

“I asked if we could sing a song, together, from all over the world,” Cook shares. “Initially, I wasn’t sure if anyone would take me up on my offer, so I was completely unprepared for the flood of videos that overwhelmed my inbox.”