BTW -Micah Barnes, Midnight Shine, Sam Spiegel aka Sam I, JJ Wilde, Black Pumas, Melissa Bel, Beyonce

Fri Jun 26 2020
Micah Barnes

This week spotlighting
Churches on the Hill Food Bank:
230 St Clair Ave W, Toronto ON M4V 1R5
Phone: 416-967-3842

Mondays 6 pm. On account of CoVid19, please call before you go.

Toronto’s jazzmatazz Micah Barnes has a new album out and it debuted at #1 on iTunes Jazz Chart. Vegas Breeze is home to #1 chart-topping hits “That’s Life” and “When In Rome (I Do as the Romans Do)” is available all over.

Vegas Breeze sets the thematic stage immediately, transporting listeners back to Sin City’s yesteryear of legendary showrooms and iconic entertainers working ‘the strip.’

“Finding the songs for Vegas Breeze was a gas,” Barnes says of his meticulous search of 50s and 60s-era pop. “It meant hours and hours of enjoyment, discovering lesser known material of the classic showroom era.

Why One Manager Thinks Artists Are The Scumbags Of The Music Industry

Fri Jun 26 2020
Peter Åstedt

I got a call from a manager that I know on messenger. We usually talk once a week and especially now in the Corona lockdown.

“He dumped me,” was the first thing she said. “After five years he just dumped me!”

I knew exactly who it was, it was her favorite artist that she had been working with for five years. She had told me that the artist had been a bit "off" lately not answering on things and didn't want to take meetings. Still, she thought it was the Corona lockdown that was making the artists depressed.

Now she told me that suddenly she was disconnected as manager from the artist Spotify account, she thought it was odd, but since they weren't releasing anything right now she didn't think much about it. Then she was thrown out as admin on the Facebook page then she knew something was up.

Then she got a short email from the artist saying that he was thinking of releasing in another way now and taking care of his own business.

Corey Hart Offers a New Updated Version “Never Surrender”as an Athem for People's Strength During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Fri Jun 26, 2020

One of Corey Hart's most iconic hit singles, ‘Never Surrender’, has been reworked and inspired by people's unwavering strength during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Montreal-born performer says he's written and recorded an updated version of the track from his 1985 album Boy in the Box.

Never Surrender (Angels) 2020 takes a cue from the original, but Hart says it incorporates a new melody and lyrics that reflect his perspective as a songwriter today. "Since the pandemic began, I've received so many heartfelt messages from people all over the world telling me how much Never Surrender has meant to them during the journey of their lives, including into this new crucible we are all facing," he said in a statement.

"It thus spurred me on to release a reworked single and video."

Hart says his new version was recorded at Sanctuary Studios in Nassau, Bahamas, where he lives with his family, who all chipped in to make the video, which was directed by his wife, Julie Masse.

“As we are in a stringent lockdown here in the Bahamas we had no other alternative but do it ourselves,” he said.

BTW - Cocktails, Bombay Bicycle Club, Mayflower Madame, The All Canadian Soundclash, John Finley, Julian Taylor, K C Roberts &The Live Revolution, Downchild

Fri Jun 19 2020
Cocktails

This week we spotlight St James Food Basket at St James United Church
400 Burnhamthorpe Rd Toronto ON
Serves Everyone.

COVID-19 Alert:
Due to COVID-19, operational hours and services might have changed. Please call 416-622-4114 before visiting.
Typical Operating Hours Wednesday: 1:30pm - 5:30pm

Rolling out with San Fran indie power pop unit Cocktails and new album ‘Catastrophic Entertainment' on July 1

Check lead single “Bun E. Carlos"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLrF-kMXZ4c

‘Tis a scrappy little thing with garage pop in its genes and a welcome summertime vibe.

Cocktails makes power pop music that its forebears would be proud of. Moulded in the image of bands like The Rubinoos, The Records, and Shoes, Cocktails bring melody, harmony, and guitar rock in equal measures.

Judy Collins & The Global Virtual Choir Re-Release Her Version of “Amazing Grace” in Aid of the WHO Solidarity Response Fund

Fri Jun 19, 2020

On the 50th Anniversary: Judy Collins & The Global Virtual Choir Re-Release Her Version of “Amazing Grace” in Aid of the WHO Solidarity Response Fund, a much needed monetary initiative in the current state of the world crisis.

Over the past few weeks, 1000 singers from across the globe — professional and amateur, alike — answered Judy Collins’ call to sing “Amazing Grace” with her as a sign of solidarity in this unprecedented time.

This new version of Judy’s historic recording is out now, and Ringo Starr, Alan Cumming, Judith Owen, Steve Earle, Madeleine Peyroux, Mandolin Orange, and Tift Merritt — plus internationally known choirs like The Sixteen, New York Choral Society, Voices International, and GOA University Choirare — are just some of the singers who participated in this Global Virtual Chorus event.

All proceeds raised from this single will be going to the World Health Organization Solidarity Response Fund: covid19responsefund.org/

Artie Pasquale of The Sopranos “Try the Impossible”

Fri Jun 19 2020
Artie Pasquale

I had the great pleasure and honour of speaking to Artie Pasquale at his home in New Jersey, and within minutes we were like old friends talking about music, life and of course his once in a lifetime role in The Sopranos.

A seasoned actor and producer, Artie Pasquale had landed the golden opportunity when he scored the role of Burt Gervasi in The Sopranos.

The Technical Shortcuts You Should Avoid!

Fri Jun 19 2020
Peter Åstedt

Yes, every time you see a new superstar they just appear. Or it seems like it. Most of the time they have been around for years. In the industry, you usually hear about the next star a year ahead. Before it was usually three years ahead, but things are going faster without internets no borders. Still, it never happens overnight, and it never happens as fast as you think.

Just a couple of examples. I had a meeting with Avicii:s manger at least two years before he even became big on the DJ market. After he became big there it took at least two to three years before he went on to the normal big pop market. My guess is that I knew the name at least five years before the coolest mainstream started to recognize him.

Halsey, we got from out American record label they where friends with Haley’s manager and they told us she was going somewhere. She just released Badlands and was going well. I guess the mainstream here in Sweden really does not know her yet.

DOWNCHILD Live Streaming Fundraiser Concert with Dan Aykroyd, Colin James & More

Tue Jun 16 2020
Live at Massey Hall

The Legendary Downchild Blues Band Present A Free Father's Day Charity Concert In support of The Unison Benevolent Fund with Special Guests - Dan Aykroyd, Colin James, James Cotton, Colin Linden, Jonas & Wayne Jackson Of The Memphis Horns.

In celebration of Father's Day and what would have been the final date of The Legendary Downchild Blues Band's 50th Anniversary Tour, the band are streaming their "Live At Massey Hall" concert in its entirety as a FREE SHOW for fans on Sunday, June 21, 2020 at 7:00 Pm (EST), all in support of a very important cause, the Unison Benevolent Fund.

Downchild were joined on stage by some very special guests for their historic "Live At Massey Hall" performance, including Hollywood Star Dan Aykroyd, blues/rock icon Colin James, American blues legend, James Cotton, Grammy Award winner Colin Linden, Montreal chart topping rocker Jonas and the one and only Wayne Jackson of The Memphis Horns.

BTW - This Week-NeroArgento, Paradas, Linda Carone, Julian Taylor, Melanie Peterson, Crystal Shawanda

Fri Jun 12 2020
Neroargento

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’:

Why The Industry is Not Answering

Fri Jun 12 2020
Peter Åstedt

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.

The Magnettes American!

Fri Jun 12, 2020

American The MagnettesSwedish alt-pop outfit The Magnettes, consisting of front duo Rebecka Digervall and Sanna Kalla and producer Tomas Bäcklund Tuneström reveal their new single “American”, a driving, anthemic Springsteen-esque runaway drama.

“We have a problem with America. Or maybe with ourselves. America is all about the things we love and the things we hate. Since we were babies, it taught us what love was and how to live the dream, and like junkies we swallowed it all in chunks.”

“Dylan, Denny’s and Dawson’s Creek, the twists and turns of teenage drama, extra salt, extra sugar. We viewed the world through that filter and plastered American Romance on our surroundings, until slowly but surely we realized what we already had was kind of OK too.”

BTW This Week-Band Ladies, St. Mars, Mike Janzen, Martha and the Muffins, The Pack A.D., Ondara, Terry O’Brien

Fri Jun 05 2020
Band Ladies

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

You Must Love the Fools

Fri Jun 05 2020
Peter Åstedt

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.

Micah Barnes Invites Us to Experience Vegas Breeze

Fri Jun 05, 2020

Born in Vienna and raised in Canada, Micah cut his teeth in the cabarets and jazz clubs of Toronto while still a teenager before joining A Capella Vocal group The Nylons in 1989. Recording & Touring with the guys brought Micah into the global music scene and a busy concert, TV and Media schedule throughout Europe, Asia and North America, introducing Micah’s rich soulful baritone voice to music fans around the world. 

Micah Barnes joined the globally popular Nylons  as a (baritone from 1990–1994 and In October 24, 1992, The Nylons sang “O Canada”at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia preceding Game 6 of the 1992 World Series in which their hometome team, the Toronto Blue Jays, won their first championship. May 30, 2014, the Nylons performed a show in Toronto which included the participation of every living past or present member of the band. In fall and winter 2016, The Nylons toured and performed their farewell show throughout Canada

BTW This Week-Liza Anne, Oxen, Mele Fleming, Gord Sinclair, Evangeline Gentle, Drake Jensen

Fri May 29 2020
Liza Anne

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 & Vance Degeneres “THE WALL WILL FALL” Raises Fund for Feeding America

Fri May 29 2020
Rick Springfield & Friends The Wall Will Fall

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. 

Lynx of Legendary Band Random Order Creates Re-release of “Things Fall Apart” to Critical Acclaim

Fri May 29 2020
Random Order

“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

This Is Why You Really Can't Release DIY

Fri May 29 2020
Peter Åstedt

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.

Thomas Wade is Back in the Saddle at Radio Now with Haggard and Jones

Fri May 29, 2020

In the late 90’s Thomas Wade was a household country radio name, like his hit record said he went from “Zero to Sixty” with Thomas Wade and Wayward, and between 1997 and 1999 they received seven CCMA Awards (winning best group and duo three times and independent single and song awards for ’97 and ’98. They were also nominated for three Juno Awards in ’97, ’98 and ’99, and placed twelve videos in the Top 20 on CMT.

And now he is back but let’s talk about what got him here – back to giving his fans a prime performance on his new single “Haggard and Jones” out to radio now – and as always Thomas Wade along with Colin Amey have nailed it.

Watch the video here:

Drake Jensen Burn The Floor

Fri May 22, 2020

When Drake Jensen started on his musical odyssey 10 years ago he had two mandates; one - he wanted to do the country music he grew up listening to in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, “I grew up listening to real country music, Patsy Cline, Hank Williams Sr and Merle Haggard.” And two - he wanted to stay true to his identity as a gay man. Being a country artist is a tough enough row to hoe  but being the first openly gay country artist doubled if not tripled his odds.

Drake was the first openly gay country artist in Canada and never once thought about not revealing his homosexuality to make the road easier, like some U.S. artists who built straight careers before coming out and that never really worked out so well.

“I’m proud of who I am and was not going to try and fool people about my preferences to get accepted. It took me a long time and lot of bullying and abuse to get the strength of my conviction. It’s not been easy but worth every minute.”