Morning Coffee with David Farrell, January 10

What Was Said

(Etobicoke, Canada’s) Cold Specks is Al Spx, which is pretty amusing because Al Spx is just as enigmatic as Cold Specks and she could have just left it at that. Not that there’s anything funny about Spx/Specks – this is deathly serious, eerily stark modern blues that harks back to old blues. It’s blues, basically. And it’s sung by Spx in such a way that you can picture the effect it’s going to have on people in this voice-obsessed age. As soon as she utters the opening phrase, “Rotterdam, goddamn”, on her debut single, Holland, you just know there will be one hell of a fuss about this woman and her vocal chords. Yup, she’s one of those. Remember Clare Maguire? Here’s this year’s one. Only without the 80s makeover, and kept raw. The Clare Maguire who was allowed to sound like her heroes – Mahalia Jackson and Sister Rosetta Tharpe – and not just namecheck them in interviews. – Paul Lester, Guardian UK

Record labels who ideally want to get things on the radio really only want to support bands that will sell … those that are the least risky, most mainstream, most commercial, above anything else. So in the case of McDonald’s, ultimately they only want to align themselves with music that’s going to sell McNuggets – Bethany Klein, author of “As Heard on TV: Popular Music in Adverting”

I was hoping to be better known as a writer than a singer. I didn’t get anywhere with it, but, hell, I tried it. I’ve got maybe 30 or 40 songs that never went anywhere, but they’re mine. – Canadian country singer-songwriter Len Nevin who died Friday at Sault Area Hospital after a brief illness. Nevin was 74.

Top DMDS Downloads:

1. Coldplay – Charlie Brown (EMI)

2. Shinedown – Bully (Warner)

3. Blake Shelton – Drink On It (Warner)

4. Kelly Clarkson – Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You) (Sony)

5. Staind – Eyes Wide Open (Warner)

6. Clayton Bellamy – Everyone’s A Dreamer (MDM/EMI/Dale Speaking Promo)

7. Our Lady Peace – Heavyweight (Warner)

8. Alyssa Reid – Talk Me Down (Wax/Warner)

9. DEV & Enrique – Naked (Universal)

10. Theory of a Deadman – Hurricane (604/Universal)

Most Active DMDS Indies:

1. Clayton Bellamy – Everyone’s A Dreamer (MDM/EMI/Dale Speaking Promo)

2. Brantley Gilbert – You Don’t Know Her Like I Do (Valory/Open Road)

3. Pauline Kyllonen – More Than A Kiss (Indie)

4. Jimmy Rankin – The Hurtin’ Part (Song Dog / Dale Spkg Promo)

5. Whitehorse – I’m On Fire (Six Shooter/SpinCount Promo)

6. Crystal Shawanda – Closer (Indie/P. Kennedy Promo)

7. Feist – How Come You Never Go There (Beck Remix) (Arts&Crafts)

8. One More Girl – Maybe (McKiller/A. Wilson Promo)

9. Jay Semko – Big Feet Big Shoes (Busted Flat/L. Tutty Promo)

10. Genevieve Fisher – Light Up the Night (Indie)

New Releases This Week, courtesy Tuesday Guide

Snow Patrol – Fallen Empires, Universal

The Little Willies featuring Norah Jones – For the Good Times, EMI

Etta James – The Dreamer, Universal

Nightwish – Imaginaerum, Warner Music

The MacCabees – Given To the Wild, Universal

> NEW YORK: Today TuneCore launched its industry changing flat fee, keep all your rights, get 100% of the revenues global music distribution service in Canada. Using TuneCore’s new Canadian site is priced in domestic currency and features no currency conversion on domestic sales. Don Hogarth is handling media inquiries for the Brooklyn, NY-based service: don@hogarthpr.com

> EDMONTON Transit hopes a music video it sponsored and shot on a bus will show passengers that flats on city vehicles aren’t always a problem. The video features Edmonton’s Colleen Brown performing Happy Love Song on an articulated bus loaded with musicians and extras, including Coun. Don Iveson, who runs to catch his ride after checking schedule details online. – View here

> CALGARY: The much ballyhooed multi-million dollar National Music Centre is hoping to raise some cash by selling the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame on the Stampede Grounds. For $150,000 + moving expenses the buyer gets a ready-made 5,000 square-foot, two-storey log cabin and a history of rhinestoned ghosts, big hats and yodelling train hoppers. It’s a steal from the original list price of $250,000, said Century 21 realtor Dennis Plintz, who is handling the sale. The hall of fame collection is now being stored at the Cantos Music Foundation until it can be moved to a permanent home at the new National Music Centre, likely in 2014. – Jamie Komarnicki, Calgary Herald (with video)

> Andy Frank, videographer, broadcaster and and co-founder of the website Roots Music Canada was recently diagnosed with colon cancer. He has interviewed, hosted, reviewed, webcast, documented or simply raved about the work of hundreds of independent musicians, helping them realize their own potential as creative artists. Now, the music community is about to return the favour.

His partner in RootsMusic.ca, David Newland, was planning to launch his new CD at Hugh’s Room on Thursday Jan. 26, but, instead, he will host a benefit event to support his friend. Performers so far who have volunteered to “raise the roof and raise the rent” for Sandy Frank, who will be unable to work until after his treatment has concluded, include: Jay Aymar, Jon Brooks, Shawna Caspi, Annabelle Chvostek, Crabtree & Mills, Bill Garrett & Curly Boy Stubbs, Grit Laskin, Layah Jane, Rosemary Phelan, Rob Szabo, and Suzie Vinnick. Tickets: $18 advance/$20 at the door, available at Hugh’s Room (416) 531-6604/www.hughsroom.com. Dinner reservations recommended.

> OTTAWA showcase club The Live Lounge, at 128 York St. in the Byward Market, has closed after a five year run. The room has hosted acts such as Metric, Our Lady Peace, Daniel Lanoi, Broken Social Scene and Hawksley Workman as well as serving as stage for a series of well received CCD-funded broadcasts by Newcap-owned Live 88.5.

> Bit-torrent site Pirate Bay appears to be including what it calls the 2^nd round of “Oh Canada! – Celebrating Canadian Music” that includes “over 600 songs celebrating Canadian music for more than 50 years.” The tag with the link includes an invitation to “enjoy and please re-seed.”

> Tickets for the annual Music Managers Forum Honour Roll reception and dinner, at the Bymark Restaurant in Toronto, went on sale on Monday. Tickets for the March 23 event are limited and cost $100 + taxes.

> The TORONTO Music Industry Association in partnership with Music Managers Forum Canada presents an artist management workshop with a panel that includes Nathan Stein—Bedlam Mngt (Sheepdogs), Rob Lanni—Coalition Music (Our Lady Peace, Simple Plan), Aaron Miller—Arts & Crafts (The Darcys), Heather Kelly—MusiArtist Development (Brett Caswell), and Morgan Cameron Ross (MCR).

> A Canadian indie band has gone viral with a unique cover of Gotye‘s Somebody That I Used to Know. British indie singer Sarah Black-wood and Brampton, ON band Walk off the Earth, have garnered nearly 9 million hits for their cramped, creative efforts. The video features the five musicians crowded around and playing different parts of the song on one guitar.

> Sparks Music has just released the 1^st single (We Are the City) from Irish hitmakers Fred’s upcoming Leaving My Empire album, recorded at Hotel2Tango Studio in Montreal by Howard Bilerman (Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade) and mixed by Ben Hiller whose credits include Blur. On the last go-round Fred promoted the album Go God Go in Canada in various cities and at major events like CMW, NXNE, Hillside Festival and Toronto Indie Week. More of the same is expected with the release of the new album.

> Mark on Your Calendar: The 2012 Juno Awards nominees are to be announced at a by-invitation only soiree on Tue. Feb. 7. Doors open at 10am and announcements start promptly at 10:30.

Correction: Last Friday the column incorrectly dated Sacred Balance’s upcoming El Mocambo show. The correct date is Jan. 28.

International

> NEW YORK: Sony Music Entertainment has upped Dennis Kooker to president, global digital business and US sales. He will report directly to SME chairman-CEO Doug Morris.

> LONDON: HMV Group Plc (HMV), the UK’s biggest CD and DVD retailer, said sales in the five weeks to Dec. 31, the key Christmas period, were 8.2%Blower than a year earlier, because of a “challenging” trading environment.

Same-store sales declined 9.8% in the nine weeks to that date, the period since the fiscal first half, and doubts remain about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern, reported last month, Maidenhead, England-based HMV said in a regulatory statement. In June, HMV reported a US$198 million full-year loss after taking impairment charges on the sales of Canadian outlets and Waterstone’s book chain. — Bloomberg

> NEW YORK: Online crowd-funding platform Kickstarter raised $99,344,382 in pledges in 2011, and successfully funded nearly 12,000 projects, or 46% of those launched. The categories that raised the most funding were film, with $32.5 million in pledges, and music, with $19.8 million pledged.

> NEW YORK: CBS-owned Last.fm saw its annual loss grow significantly in 2010 – the last year for which records are publically available. The annual loss grew from £2.89m in 2009 to over £5m in 2010. That was on a turnover of just £7.992m in 2010 (2009: £7.283m). Administrative expenses increased from £2.95m to over £8m.

> FACTOIDS, courtesy of Audio Federation

The music industry is down 64% from its peak.

The music industry is actually down 45% from where it was in 1973.

The CD peak was only 13% better than the vinyl peak.

10 years ago the average American spent almost 3 times as much on recorded music products as they do today.

26 years ago they spent almost twice as much as they do today.

Talent & Touring

> Rapper Dr. Dre will close the 2012 edition of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, to be held for the first time over two consecutive weeks in mid-April. Headliners for the multi-weekend, six-day affair include rock acts the Black Keys, Radiohead, Arctic Monkeys and Feist, as well hip-hop and dance acts Snoop Dogg, the Swedish House Mafia and Kaskade, among many others. Along with Feist, other Canucks announced so far include Weeknd and The Sheepdogs.

> Beijing-based indie folk band Shanren (literally “Mountain Men”) has announced having made the cut to perform at Slacker Canadian Music Week 2012 (CMW) in Toronto. Shanren’s CMW showcase is part of an inaugural North American tour. To help finance the tour, Shanren is launching a crowd-funding campaign through RocketHub, a launch pad and community for independent artists and entrepreneurs. Through the crowd-funding campaign, the band hopes to introduce new audiences to the rich culture of China’s southwestern Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, a region that has been known largely through myth and inspired the Shangri-La of Hilton’s classic novel, Lost Horizon.

> The Black Keys have added a second leg of dates to their first-ever arena tour of North America. Canadian dates kick off May 9 at Vancouver’s Rogers Arena, then play May 11 at Calgary’s Saddledome, May 12 at Edmonton’s Rexall Place, and close at Winnipeg’s MTS Centre on May 14.

> Van Halen hits the road in support of a new album (A Different Kind Of Truth, Interscope—Feb. 7) featuring frontman David Lee Roth next month, and Canadian dates announced so far include Montreal’s Bell Centre—March 15, Toronto ACC—17, Ottawa Scotiabank Place—21, Vancouver Rogers Arena—May 7, Calgary Saddledome—May 9, Edmonton Rexall Centre—11, and Winnipeg’s MTS Centre—17.

> Liberty Silver, recently on the road with Stevie Wonder, is back home and is set to appear in a concert that is part of the Collingwood Jan.-May Blue Mountain Blues Series. Others set to appear include Downchild harpist/vocalist Chuck Jackson, Shawne Jackson, Jay Douglas, Danny Brooks and Eddie Bullens.

> Check out a video of Feist covering Guns N’ Roses‘ “November Rain” here.

> Holly Cole releases a career wrap on Feb. 14, a joint CD-DVD collection that includes 9 tracks on the CD and 12 on the in-concert Steal the Night: Live At The Glenn Gould Studio video. The concert line-up included her original trio of Aaron Davis on piano and David Piltch on bass, augmented by Rob Piltch on guitar, Davide DiRenzo on drums, and John Johnson on horns. Cole has a new studio album scheduled for release later this spring.

> Following an exhaustive 2011 tour schedule across Europe and other global points, Montreal art-rock band Islands is set to release A Sleep & A Forgetting in Feb.– the long awaited follow-up to 2009’s acclaimed Vapours album. Tour dates in Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver have been announced. A set-up video for This Is Not a Song can be viewed here.

> EMI Canada has just released Fire It Up, the lead single from Johnny Reid’s forthcoming March 13 album of the same name. Reid kicks off a 28 date cross-Canada tour on April 10th. A full list of dates is available at www.johnnyreid.com.

Broadcasting & Media

> OTTAWA: Ron Cohen has grappled with Janet Jackson’s bejewelled Super Bowl nipple, Mark Knopfler’s satirical use of the word “faggot” and Canadian attitudes toward sex and the F-word. And as the official leading arbiter of good taste, he has had a profound influence on the moral compass that guides the nation’s radio and TV broadcasters.

Cohen retired last week after almost two decades as chairman of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) — the self-regulating body created by Canada’s private broadcasters in the early 1990s and built with legal precision by Cohen into an influential model for broadcasters across the world. – Chris Cobb, Ottawa Citizen

Ten Landmark CBSC Decisions – Ottawa Citizen

> Even though he’s only been Apple’s CEO for a few months, Tim Cook received a compensation package valued at $378 million at the end of Aug.

> Consumer electronics sales are forecast to climb by 5% in 2012 and, as a result, exceed $1 trillion for the first time. In 2011, revenues increased by 8% to $993 billion, a survey by GfK Digital World and the Consumer Electronics

Obits

Northern Ontario Country Music Hall of Famer Len Nevin, a largely unsung singer-songwriter, aged 74.
Pianist Alexis Weissenberg, 82

Omus Hirshbein, Classical Music Impresario, Dead At 77

Worth Reading

Soundstreams grows Canada’s musical reputation worldwide

By Michael Posner — While most arts groups are struggling to maintain budgetary status quo in the face of government cutbacks, Soundstreams has quietly built a programming powerhouse that has become the biggest global producer of new Canadian music, bringing highbrow concerts to international audiences – as well as a model for creative sustainability in tough times.

Heather’s Fix: Books are making way for more stylish ‘lifestyle’ products at Heather Reisman’s Indigo chain

By Anne Kingston – Speculation swirls around the book industry that Heather Reisman and billionaire husband Gerry Schwartz are planning on diluting the dominant Canadian book chain’s inventory, thus skirting cultural laws restricting foreign ownership. With an inventory mix of 60% stuff and 40% books, the 261 store chain that employs 6,700 could be sold to anyone anywhere for a price.

Artists and Brands, McDonald’s seek unknown rap, R&B talent

By Gerrick D. Kennedy — Producer Rodney Jerkins is a heavyweight in the pop music world who’s worked with an array of A-list artists, including Jennifer Lopez, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Mary J. Blige and Britney Spears. But now, the urban music hit maker has set his sites on a new kind of star — one who can sing the praises of two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese…. Well, you know the rest.

All-News Helps Keep AM Alive in Canada

By James Careless — Across Canada, the AM band has been losing listeners for decades, as listeners move to stereo-friendly FM, the Web and audio streamed to smartphones. But the all-news format has been holding its own on the AM band. Now a younger audience is discovering AM for the first time, having learned about it from FM and the web.

Commentary: The difference between big banks and the arts

Robert Priest, NowToronto.com — What do big banks and art have in common? They’re both too big to fail. They both need bailouts, or as the financial community likes to call them, liquidity injections. The difference is, in the arts they’re known as grants. Even if an artist is lucky enough to get one of the biggest ones there are, it’s just enough for survival (average annual wage of a Canadian artist: $23,500), but not enough to breed public confidence in the art bubble. Whatever word you use, artists do with their stimulus money what the banks don’t: they spend it, usually locally and often immediately. In the banking sector, piles of money sit in vaults uninvested. But I don’t hold onto my grant money. As soon as it hits my hand, it’s gone on to the next hand, spent on frivolous things like rent, food, paper. This is poetry money rising up and tripling itself and then diving right back into the economy.

12 Canadians changing the way we think

By Olivia Ward — The world needs more Canada?

Not according to Foreign Policy magazine, the must-read for the world’s wonks and wannabes. The respected journal published by the Washington Post has listed 100 top global thinkers of 2011 from America to Yemen — and there’s not a single Canuck.

But here’s the reality check: a more modest list (appropriately Canadian) of a dozen whose thoughts influence the way the world works, or could. Just a few of those who, in different ways, shone lights into our 21st-century murk of doubt, confusion, disillusionment and ebbing aspirations during the past year.

The Futility Of Arguing For Government Arts Funding

By Doug McLennan — The ways we make the argument don’t work. That’s because it’s not about what we’re arguing….

Careers

Office Administrator — Western Canadian Music Alliance / BreakOut West Festival, Awards and Conference, Winnipeg

Director, Audience Development – Winnipeg Free Press

Promotions Coordinator – CJOB, Power 97, 99.1 FM Winnipeg

Reporter/Editor – EDMONTON, AB – CBC Radio

Reporter Editor – CBC Radio, Toronto

Promotions Representative (STAR FM) Chilliwack – Rogers Radio

Host (Edmonton Weekend News, English Services) – EDM00266 – CBC

Writer/Producer — Global TV, Regina

Reporter/Anchor – Global TVV, Regina