Melophiles with a love for urban lore are in for a treat with this month’s Season 2 podcast launch of Any Night of the Week: A Walking History of Toronto Music!

Check out Jonny Dovercourt reads from Any Night of the Week: A D.I.Y. History of Toronto Music, 1957-2001 trailer here:

With Episode 3 “Dundas West” newly available, Wavelength Music co-founder and Artistic / Executive Director Jonny Dovercourt is back hosting the ‘virtual walking tour,’ relaying stories about iconic venues and interviews with the influential artists and promoters that rocked them.

Canadian indie rocker Waves That Stray (Sean MacLean) shares the vulnerability of being locked in the creative process’ cage that is procrastination and self-doubt in a new single and video, “Inside My Head”. Check it out here:

Fusing the best parts of electronica and rock ‘n’ roll, “Inside My Head” gives nod to the distinct sound of early-aughts Brooklyn groups like TV On The Radio, LCD Soundsystem, and The Dirty Projectors. The loops are ethereal, the beats hypnotic, and yet the guitar still rocks, while the lyrics haunt.

I can't hear it
The music doesn't play anymore
I can see it
Washed up along the shore
It’s just a letter in a bottle
From the wreck it breaks your neck
And leaves you hanging
on the hard line

Canadian pop-rockers, The Honeyrunners, release the worldwide debut of their new music video for the single “Ghosts”. The track is a mash-up of New Orleans second line and Neo-Pop. The music is rooted in a bouncy rhythm, stitched together by Southern slide guitar, stride piano, and horn blasts teasing listeners’ sanity in a quilt of production that only grows more chaotic as the track rolls on.

Check out the video Ghosts here:

“We gathered friends from some of the hardest hit industries of the pandemic - nurses, musicians, small business owners, filmmakers - and asked them to scream point blank into a camera. It was the perfect allegory for Ghosts, a song built around anxiety. It was a catharsis for them, and I hope it will be for the viewer as well.”

I have just played fifteen songs that have come in one way or another in my different roles as editor, playlist maker, radio DJ, and festival curator. The problem I have is that none of the songs had that quality to make it any further. To be honest they all were in the demo stage in the songwriting process. They were recorded ok, not professionally but ok recorded.

In the end, it’s just not good enough. These songs can never find it’s way to a bigger audience. The craftsmanship is not there. It’s not enough that your mother and a couple of your friends find the songs well.

And here is the biggest mistake that artists are doing right now. They read about all the tips and tricks that industry professionals (just like me) are giving away for free on all different channels all the time. The problem is that we are all talking about when a song is good. When it’s a hidden gem that could with the right marketing reach a bigger audience. The biggest problem is that 97 % of all songs that are given out don’t have that quality. And for these songs, it would be like putting make-up on a pig to follow the instructions that these professionals are giving.

Jay Douglas revisits the classic Christmas tradition of big-band, soulful, crooner-esque Christmas songs that have swept the globe since radio started broadcasting holiday music with his new single, “Merry Christmas”.

Characteristic of Jay Douglas, “Merry Christmas” does a great job of painting a clear picture for the listener — all while feeling warm and inviting. The award-winning reggae legend’s unparalleled energy and charm culminates into the production that is “Merry Christmas” to create that perfect “back home for the holidays” feeling, with a dash of cinematic production traits. Watch it here on YouTube:

With the holidays fast approaching, radio will soon be on high rotation of the usual Christmas hits and the nostalgic classics.

At Cashbox Canada and Cashbox Radio, we have been receiving some great new Christmas tunes and I would like to share the first Top 10 songs that are now being played on Cashbox Radio.

We would really love if you give these songs a boost by listening to Cashbox Radio, and heading to our Request link here:
https://www.cashboxradio.ca/request-a-song-on-cashbox-radio/

Who knows? Maybe that future classic is right here on the first Top 10 – more to come next week!

Because at Cashbox Radio we believe someone has to play that future hit for the first time – and we want it to be us!

Soon we can put all the online events in the past. I just decided that after the New Year, if I am to be at an online event, then it has to be very special for me.  Even the worst in real-life events are better than the online versions.

I was just invited to another online conference. The problem now is that so many companies are doing these that it is making it so hard to reach info and sometimes it just becomes annoying. Just a simple thing to find the login page was a twenty-minute waste of time. When I went to the organizer's homepage there was no log-in for the conference part. Of course, they were streaming fifty bands that I have no interest in whatsoever to watch a show online at this point.  I’m barely watching shows with my favorite bands because the shows are not interesting enough to see on a screen. They are made to be seen live and in person. To see an unknown artist with totally new songs in an environment where you can’t get any interaction with an audience, sorry but it doesn’t work for me.

Toronto chanteuse, songwriter, performer and Zoomer radio host Lily Frost has earned her place in Canada’s music scene elite. With 14 critically acclaimed albums to date, her latest Retro-Moderne is an aptly named album that lovingly captures the best sounds of the '60s and '70s while updating them through Frost's unique perspective. The new video produced by Frost, for her single "Rock Me Baby" from that album, will be released on Friday, December 3, 2021.

“Rock Me Baby” is a long distance love song Lily co-wrote with Jesse Singer and Chris Soper during the tracking of her 2019 LP, Retro-Moderne. It might be the only song with that title that doesn't actually "rock." Instead, it finds Frost cooing sweet nothings into her lover's ear with a gentle sigh, breathy vocals. "I had a rough voice memo of the chorus which I played for them.

Check out “Rock Me Baby”  on YouTube here:

I was teaching at a music school a couple of years ago, talking about the importance of a good song. I told the students that whatever I told them was a tipoff on how to market their songs but it will not work if the song is not good. All I was saying was calculated by the fact that the song had to be great. One kid raised his hand and asked “I’m I not allowed to write a bad song?”

Volumes up and dance floors cleared: JUNO Award-nominated and chart-topping Markham/Richmond Hill/Hamilton, ON’s all-girl starlets Girl Pow-R soar with supercharged new remix of their hit single, “This Is Us”.

Watch and listen on YouTube to “This is Us” here:

The pop vets pumping out of your speakers are none other than a vibrant group of talented teens boasting a variety of ages, a diverse host of backgrounds, and storied life experiences — and therein lies their strength. These multi-talented dynamos ranging in age from 11 to 17 are a freight train of feel good, do good, be good vibes, setting a precedent for the fans who look up to them in every way.

This week you could possibly read that the Swedish pop star Zara Larsson had made a seven-figure amount on online merch on the platform Roblox. She commented that “it’s perfect, more environmentally friendly, and a new way to make money. Imagine how many flights it would take to reach four million people? Or how many trucks it would take to bring a pink lake house with me everywhere? And then having a couple of hundred people on a payroll, who also need accommodation and food and somewhere to sleep. Going online saves so much in carbon emissions." She stated to BBC.

She started on Roblox during the pandemic in May and held a virtual concert for 1.6 million people in Roblox but the money comes from her selling merch to avatars in the game. You can buy sunglasses and shirts and other stuff to dress your avatar with.

It’s a perfectly sunny and warm SoCal afternoon. You feel the soft breeze gently play across your face as you relax under a brightly coloured umbrella at a beachside café, watching people go by and wondering what their stories are as they wander along. This is the sublime scene that long-time Canadian entertainer Paul Saunders sets in his new single, “Afternoon Café” - available now, no travel required.

Reminiscent of the sunshine infused, forever memorable anthems that ‘70s supergroups like Chicago and Blood, Sweat & Tears brought us, “Afternoon Café” blends latin piano rhythms and percussion with sultry sax that open up into a guitar driven, tempo-shifted chorus like we’ve just jumped in our Mustang convertible to race up the PCH.

The day was shining on the water
The waves kept rhythm to the music
And the sounds
They fit right into the picture
Have I been here before or am I dreaming?

“This is a song I wrote a while ago in Venice Beach, California,” explains Saunders. ”When I revisited it, I felt the need to redo the vocals, then, tweak and remix it.”

Jesse Cook — the multi-Platinum/Gold award-winning and internationally acclaimed producer, composer, and guitarist — has announced his Canadian and U.S. “Tempest II” tour, alongside the release of his new music video for the song “Oran,” and another single, “Updraft”.

The two songs arrive ahead of Jesse Cook’s 11th studio album, Libre. Out Friday, December 3rd via Jesse’s own Coach House label imprint, distributed by Outside Music/Redeye, the 10-track album combines Cook’s iconic Spanish guitar flair with Algerian multi-instrumentalist Fethi Nadjem, modern trap rhythms and 808 beats.

“I wrote and recorded Libre during the pandemic when, like most people, I was longing for freedom,” Cook shares of the new project. “My music was my escape from the four walls that surrounded me, and the storm that was swirling outside.”

Watch and listen to Jesse Cook “Oran” ft. Fethi Nadjem:

Country music is overwhelmingly associated with the American South and Southwest regions. Around the world, street acts and major concerts that feature banjos and cowboy hats are also likely to feature American flags on merchandise and stage design. 

Still, country music is a North American tradition that stretches back over a century for the US, Canada, and parts of Mexico. In fact, American country singers owe quite a bit to their southern neighbors—from cowboy boots to wide-brim hats to certain acoustic guitar maneuvers.

The same goes for Canadian country music. The sector has its own unique traditions which date back over a century, related to musical preference and lyrical content. Shania Twain may be the poster child for Canadian country sensations, but she represents the union of the Canadian and American country music scenes. 

It seems like people don’t understand that making a career as an artist is the same as getting a business going. We go back to my favorite subject that I should open a restaurant.

Imagine that you hear about a new restaurant that should be really good and you want to get a reservation to eat there in a couple of days. You go to the restaurant's homepage and there you have the menu, some pictures of what it looks like, but it’s missing the address where it’s located and there are no contact details or instructions on how you book a table?

There are links to social media everywhere, but it seems kind of strange to send a message on Facebook or Instagram to book a table if it doesn’t clearly say so. And you don’t know really who is behind the social media accounts it could be their PR agency. After looking through you find info at address in one of the corners and you send it to that address.

Award-winning singer-songwriter, recording artist, published author, and ELMNT FM radio broadcaster Christa Couture releases her realistic but celebratory single and accompanying lyric video "To Us" on Friday, November 26th, on all major platforms. It was recorded at each player’s home, pandemic style, with the Henhouse Express band: Steve Dawson, Gary Craig, and Jeremy Holmes. For more information please visit any of the links below or her website.

Christa Couture understands, through challenging life-long experience, what it feels like to face adversity. Proudly queer, disabled, and Indigenous (mixed Cree and Scandanvian), Couture survived childhood cancer, which led to the amputation of her left leg; her two sons died as infants; her marriage ended in divorce after that; and most recently, thyroid cancer threatened her career as a singer.

It’s interesting to see how technology or trends are dictating how the artists write songs. The past year's songs have been very long. The majority has been close or over four minutes. Sometimes even though the radio usually doesn’t take long songs people have released up to five to six minutes. Why you ask is it a trend? Not really it was that many believed that to keep the listener you needed to make a longer song.  If they finally got in there and listened to your song, then you should keep them as long as possible. Also, short songs were always under scrutiny by Spotify.

Originally from Vancouver, the now Toronto-based Ian Lake, is a National Theatre School of Canada alumnus. He’s played Macbeth at the illustrious Stratford Festival; played the lead role of Guy in the Mirvish Theatre’s Toronto production of the hit Broadway musical Once; and garnered a massive role in the upcoming second and third seasons of the popular Netflix drama Locke and Key. Now, as he steps into the Canadian music landscape, Lake stays true to his nature, revealing his personal stories of love, struggle, and lessons learned, in his songs.

JUNO nominated and drummer for several Grammy and Latin Grammy-nominated releases, Toronto-based drummer, composer, and producer Marito Marques’ new track “Manjerico” bridges cultural gaps through collaboration with traditional Portuguese cante alentejano group "Os Vocalistas,” and MARO (from Jacob Collier).

“Manjerico” — pronounced (‘Mun-Juh-rEE-co’) — is the latest to land from the multi-talented artist’s newest LP, A Ponte.

Check out “Manjerico”  here:

Drawing melodies from original compositions and lyrics that are 200 - 400 years old, the vocals are inspired by genre cante alentejano — which is listed in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. Marques’ timeless tunes, modern style, and decision to produce the album by collaborating with both Portuguese and Canadian musicians, makes it accessible to both international Portuguese communities, and the greater public.

Sabrina Fallah is a rock singer, songwriter and guitarist from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. She grew up listening to Michelle Branch, Avril Lavigne, Kelly Clarkson, Simple Plan, etc. Her influences are Green Day, Bon Jovi and Billy Idol. She has been told that when she sings with her raspy, edgy, and powerful voice, she sounds like Joan Jett, Pat Benatar, The Cranberries and Melissa Etheridge.

Check out “Hurt” on YouTube here:

The single “Hurt” is a currently a featured song on Cashbox Radio and you can request it at cashboxradio.ca/request-a-song-on-cashbox-radio/