• Yoko Ono: Still Walking On Thin Ice
• Ralph Stanley, A Man Of Constant Sorrow
• Toronto singer Talibah’s Nokia Phone Recordings
  
• A Coming Of Age For Ariana Gillis
• Cuddy and Keelor  Plug Twofer Album With Acoustic Gigs
  
• Three New Ventures Hope To Sell Online Music To America
  
• Spotify Calls For Music Licensing Change
• How To Solve the Internet Music Problem – Legalize It!
• Peer-To-Peer Passe, Credible Report Finds
• Video: Graphic Designer Vs Client
• Eight-Song Sampler Download From Tom Wait’s Nov. Live Album
• True North’s Canadian Songbook Tour Hits Lobster Land
  
• ECMA 2010 Registration Details Announced
• The Wilderness Of Manitoba Unravels the Past On Debut Album
• Letters Of Note: A Blog-based Archive of Fascinating Correspondence
• RCA Unearths Another Elvis Anniversary Set
  
• How To Stop A Nuclear Fallout, Using AM Power
• Plus A Goody Bag of Surprises
  

YOKO - by Sheryl Garratt, The Telegraph:  … People sometimes forget, when mocking her pleas to give peace a chance, that (Yoko) Ono’s own experiences of war were very real. She was in Japan when the bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Her father had been working in Vietnam and was imprisoned in a concentration camp there, but his wife and children were in Tokyo when it was razed by American firebombs in 1945, killing more than 100,000 people. Afterwards Ono and her younger brother were evacuated to the countryside, where they were shouted at by the local children for being too Westernised, and where food was so scarce that they often had to resort to begging.

‘I feel lucky to have experienced that,’ she says, with her gift for turning the negative into a positive. ‘When I came back to Tokyo, and my classmates were all talking about how they’d evacuated from one of the palaces to another, and how the food in this palace wasn’t so good, I realised I’d experienced something a bit more real.’

After the war, she told her father she had decided to become a composer. He pointed out that there had never been any great female composers and encouraged her to perform music instead. Ono tried training as a classical singer but didn’t enjoy it, so instead she became the first woman ever to study philosophy at Tokyo’s elite Gakushuin University. But when her father’s work again took the rest of the family to the US, she dropped out and went to join them, soon gravitating towards New York where she became part of the new avant garde. She collaborated with the experimental composer John Cage and the free jazz supremo Ornette Coleman, she held concerts and exhibitions in her downtown loft that were attended by art world figures such as Marcel Duchamp and Jasper Johns, and became part of the radical Fluxus group in the early 1960s, as well as creating her own events and shows. ‘It was the right time to be in New York City,’ she says. ‘All these things were happening, and I was part of it. It was very exciting.’

RALPH STANLEY (by Charles McGrath, NYT) is one of the last, and surely the purest, of the traditional country musicians. He’s such a stickler that he has no use for the dobro, let alone electrified instruments, and he’s not overly fond of the term bluegrass. He prefers to call what he performs “that old-time mountain music.” He plays the five-string banjo in the claw-hammer style he learned from his mother — or he used to, until arthritis caught up with him — and he sings in a raw, keening Appalachian tenor.

… Mr. Stanley, who has called himself Doctor ever since being awarded an honorary degree from Lincoln Memorial University in Tennessee in 1976, has been so busy, traveling and collecting awards — three Grammys (one for an a capella version of “O Death” on the soundtrack of the film “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”), the National Medal of Arts, a “Living Legend” designation from the Library of Congress — that he only just got around to writing his autobiography, with the help of the journalist Eddie Dean.

His book, “Man of Constant Sorrow: My Life and Times” (Gotham Books), which comes out on Thursday, takes its title from another famous song and is a lot like the man himself: warm, folksy, down to earth, plainspoken, a little blunt and prickly at times. (It has nothing good to say about the Nashville star Tim McGraw, who, Mr. Stanley notes, hasn’t “a lick of country” in him.)

NOKIA PHONE (Press Release):  On October 20th, Toronto singer Saidah Baba Talibah answers the call of her fans with The Phone Demos – an innovative 4 song EP where she used her cell phone to record the songs. A project that has raised enough buzz with Nokia that they have given the artist phones to help with the promotion of the release.

The Phone Demos started after Talibah used her cell phone to record a song she and her guitarist were working on. After sharing the recordings, the singer noted that people not only enjoyed the music but also the grainy texture of the sound which reminded them of vinyl recordings. Bolstered by reaction, she decided to share these songs for fans so they could follow her current journey of recording her debut, (S)Cream.

“The Phone Demos are a way for me to share the raw beginnings, the vulnerabilities, the flaws in the sound and, simply, the rough sketches of these songs. I think it’s a cool way to build relationships with people who are getting to know me, the artist, by being invited into getting to know me in all stages of creation.”

Talibah was a recent headliner at this year’s Manifesto festival, and known for her innovative ideas when it comes to sharing her music and hands-on approach to selling her albums. Make Me Wanna (S)Cream, is a loyalty program that she created for her fans and supporters to participate in the production of her debut (S)Cream and upcoming projects. The program consists of nine packages ranging from $15 – $3,000. Based on the level of contribution, participants can choose from a collection of gifts and opportunities from dinners to private acoustic performances in the privacy of their own home. Go to www.MakeMeWannaScream.com for more info and link to the picture to hear audio streams from the EP.

ARIANA GILLIS (Press Release):  Every half dozen years, a newcomer arrives on the scene, and people jump to attention. Usually, they’ve had years of experience behind them, playing in clubs and bars, but newly-turned 18-year-old Ariana Gillis can’t even claim that. She’s played conventions, concerts, tiny folk clubs, festivals and coffee houses. She started stepping out this summer, making strong appearances at Mariposa and performing for 2,000 people at the super-cool Hillside Festival in Guelph.

From Vineland, a small town in southern Ontario’s wine growing area, Ariana put out her first demo recording two years ago, but her new CD, To Make It Make Sense, is marked by the maturity of her songwriting. Her subjects include a romantic interlude as two terrorists fall in love as they build a bomb, the turmoil inside a Vietnam vet’s mind, a near-drowning experience that almost took her life, and a joyful romp inspired by the book Life of Pi.

She is also blessed with a unique voice, an unusual appearance, and a strong stage presence. The new C D includes contributions by an A-list of Toronto area players, including guitarist Kevin Breit, violinist Anne Lindsay, Gary Craig on drums, Mark McIntyre on bass and Rob Gusevs on keyboards.

Now she’s launching the CD at a special High’s Room concert on Tuesday October 20, with David Celia as the opening artist (he’ll also play with Ariana), and Kevin Breit and Gary Craig in her band.  Most visible, however, will be her father, David Gillis, who arranged and produced the CD. A renowned acoustic guitarist — with his own albums and solo career — he is certainly not a “show business parent.”

David Celia has long been a friend of the Gillis family. Based in Toronto, he tours frequently in the UK, Europe and the US, and has a strong local following.

CUDDY & KEELOR (Press Release) : Things We Left Behind, a 16-song double-album that is Blue Rodeo’s 12th studio recording, now has a release date on Tuesday, November 10.

“From the beginning when we first played the songs for each other, we knew we were going to do two records,” says Jim Cuddy.

As the recording commenced it became clear that in this age of digitally downloaded music, Blue Rodeo was actually making an old-fashioned vinyl album.

“We wanted to make a CD that represented the flip of a record,” continues Greg Keelor.

The Things We left Behind is the real deal.  It’s a double gate-fold sleeve, 12×12 cover and two discs with four distinct sides programmed to take the listener on a trip. The album will be in several configurations, including two CDs, double vinyl and a special iTunes LP–a digital package that will include interactive album notes, photos,  song  commentaries and four acoustic performances of songs included on the album.

The twofer was produced by BR at the band studio in Toronto.  The album opens with the sound of tympanis heralding the title track “All The Things That Are Left Behind”.  “It’s not like we’re going for a skate and just singing a whole pile of Blue Rodeo songs,” Keelor explains.  “There are a few curve balls on this record.”

Ballads such as “In My Bones,” “Gossip” and “Waiting For The World” contain some of the strongest performances of the group’s career while songs such as “Million Miles” and “Sheba” bare the unmistakable influence of groups like Fairport Convention and The Rolling Stones respectively.  Keelor’s “Never Look Back” reprises the sound of his and Jim’s pre-Rodeo post punk band the Hi Fi’s while quoting the Everly Brothers.  Cuddy steps up with a couple of great road songs, “Candice” and “Arizona Dust,” written during the band’s U.S. tour last year.

To promote the release, Cuddy and Keelor are  duoing for a set of performances at small clubs across the country with acoustic guitars and telling tall stories about the origins of the songs.  In contrast to those performances, Blue Rodeo will perform at the half-time show at the 2009 Grey Cup game held in Calgary, Alberta on November 29.

ONLINE MUSIC - by Brad Stone, New York Times: The idea of selling monthly subscriptions to a vast catalog of online music has met with only limited success. That isn’t stopping a new batch of entrepreneurs from trying to make it work.

The latest and perhaps most surprising entrants to the field are the European entrepreneurs Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. In 2001, they created and financed Kazaa, one of the original peer-to-peer file-sharing services that hurt the music industry. The two have created and financed a secretive start-up called Rdio, with offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

…Two other new music subscription companies will most likely beat Rdio to the United States market. Spotify, a year-old company that offers a free, ad-supported service … and Mog, a three-year-old blogging network that recently raised $5 million, led by the venture capital firm Menlo Ventures.

MUSIC OVER THE NET – Gerd Leonhard, Business Futurist: Traditional expectations and pre-internet licensing agreements are exactly what are holding up YouTube’s deals with the music rights organisations such as PRS and GEMA: this is what the rights organisations used to get paid for the music that is being copied, and this is what they want to get paid now. This impasse is causing significant friction in our media industries worldwide. Yet, below the top-line issue of money, there lurks an even more significant paradigm shift: the excruciating switch from a centralised system of domination and control to a new ecosystem based on open and collaborative models. This is the shift from monopolies and cartels to interconnected platforms where partnership and revenue sharing are standard procedures. In most countries, copyright law gives creators complete and unfettered control to say yes or no to the use of their work.

Rights-holders have been able to rule the ecosystem and, accordingly, ‘my way or the highway’ has been the quintessential operating paradigm of most large content companiesfor the past 50 years.

SPOTIFY (by Stewart Dredge, Mobile Entertainment) co-founder Daniel Ek has called for reforms in the way the music industry charges streaming music companies for every song played by their users.

“The industry needs to think outside of the box and realise that the new business model in music is a mix between ad-supported music, downloads, subscriptions, merchandising and ticketing where the user comes first and where the key to monetisation comes from portability and packaging access rights,” he writes in a blog post.

“I believe this is something that most people in the industry can agree to, but it can’t happen if the industry continues to enforce the per-play fees it has tried so hard to hold on to. The new model is about figuring out how to increase the revenue per user (RPU) between the different models – not squeeze as much as possible out of every single transaction.”

Spotify has started to face questions recently about the sustainability of its business model – whether it can make enough money from advertising and subscriptions to cover its music licensing costs.

P2P REPORT – by Ryan Singel, Wired: Peer-to-peer file sharing has been the bogeyman of the internet, but a new report suggests it’s destined become a fear of the past — replaced by cheap streaming video.

Rising from the ashes in the early 2000s of banned services like Napster, P2P soon became demonized as an imminent threat to software industry, Hollywood and the internet’s backbone, prompting high-profile piracy trials, federal government hearings on traffic management and hand-wringing from ISPs who said torrents of illicit traffic would overwhelm the net.

But peer-to-peer file sharing is falling out of favor quickly, according a new report from Arbor Networks, a network-management firm used by more than 70 percent of the world’s top ISPs. Falling out of favor so fast that the report declares that P2P is dead to ISPs.

“Globally P2P is declining and it is declining quickly,” said Craig Labovitz, the chief scientist at Arbor Networks, in a preview of a paper of findings from data collected by Arbor Networks from its customers. Arbor’s Atlas net monitoring tool analyzed traffic from 110 different ISPs, on nearly 3,000 routers, for a total of 264 exabytes of traffic. An exabyte is about a billion gigabytes. The company’s insight into the net’s core is probably only rivaled by the NSA, but they aren’t ones to speak.

TALENT & TOURING:

THE WILDERNESS OF MANITOBA (Press Release): Last year Will Whitwham, Scott Bouwmeester, Stefan Banjevic and Melissa Dalton created an album of acoustic-based songs that were minimalist and full of vocal layers that became the foundation of the band now known as The Wilderness of Manitoba. They would gather together on random winter nights to drink tea, record and play music. The collection of songs that makes up Hymns Of Love & Spirits was written while some of the members were experiencing real changes in their lives including the passing of Will’s mother and Scott’s grandfather. The songs began to take on a deeper meaning and a much greater importance to them. The recordings were the band’s best attempt to capture those feelings and emotions on disc. That’s what the press release says of the up-coming album release, set for October 29 at The Garrison in Winnipeg. Bio, audio streams and much more here and video at foot of page.

SONIC CONCERTS presents every kid’s fave,  The Backyardigans,  at the Metro Centre in Halifax this Sunday, October 18  No doubt they will be selling merch up the wazoo … Canadian Smooth Jazz Female Vocalist of the Year Daniela Nardi, her band and special guest Ron Davis are set to play the legendary Old Mill Dining Room after returning from a 6 week residency in New York on Oct. 24 … Halifax-based singer-songwriter Linda Brooks will perform at The Carleton in Halifax on Sunday, November 8 in support of new album The Spaces in Between, available on iTunes, Oct. 20 … Sonic Concerts has added a second Serena Ryder concert at St. Matthew’s Church in Halifax, Nov. 28 … East Coast Music Award nominees Idlers are set to hit the road November 6, 2009 kicking off a tour of Eastern and Central Canada in support of their new album Keep Out. The eleven-piece Newfoundland based band has its new album, Keep Out, set for release on November 10 …

Mike Williams

Voice and former MuchMusic VJ Mike Williams has himself a shindig at Samovar in the Winchester Hotel in Toronto tonight and tomorrow (14/15) at 8 PM. MW is the guest dj, and opening is top draw percussionist Vinx (you can Google him but he’s played with all the cool cats, including Sting, Herbie Hancock and Stevie Wonder). Best part is the gigs are FREE.

CTV has yet to announce the re-launch date for Spectacle: Elvis Costello With – but has announced up-coming guests include Bono, The Edge, Springsteen, Sheryl Crow, Lyle Lovett, John Prine, Levon Helm and Allen Toussaint, Neko Case, Jesse Winchester, Ray LaMontagne, Nick Lowe, Richard Thompson, and Ron Sexsmith …

Kingston’s pride and joy Everlea will headline the Mod Club in Toronto on November 21st … After completing their month-long adventurous tour entitled “Bedrooms and Backstreets” in August, The Wooden Sky is eager to share their experiences with audiences everywhere. With the help of producer and director Scott Cudmore, a documentary capturing the beautiful and strange reality behind the unconventional tour is being released in ten parts, with Part One accessible now on Vimeo.com. You can download or stream The Wooden Sky’s new album, “If I Don’t Come Home You’ll Know I’m Gone” here and download The Wooden Sky’s “Something Hiding For Us In The Night” mp3 here

While finishing off her album, Canadian country songwriter Madison Kozak is hosting her own radio show out of Nashville (NBRN-FM) that focuses on Canadian artists and is broadcast every Thursday evening around the world.

Following the Fab Four re-kindling album sales the world over, the long expired King of Rock ‘n’ Roll is getting the royal boxed treatment (again). Legacy Recordings is marking Elvis Presley’s 75th birthday in January with a 100-song container set called “Elvis 75: Good Rockin’ Tonight.” The four-disc set arrives December 8 and comes with a rare duet with Jesus …

KISS fans, take note: Michael Hann has this to say of the greasepaint monkeys’ new album package in The Guardian: “The 19th studio album from Kiss – their first for 11 years – sees them boasting of a return to their classic 70s sound. That’s all well and good, but their classic 70s sound was little better than their rather iffy 80s sound, or their downright ropey 90s sound…” … Susan Boyle’’s eager fans can now get their first glimpse of her longawaited I Dreamed A Dream album, set for release next month. Frumpy & Bumpy is already topping the charts on both sides of the Atlantic on pre-orders, with her advance sales outstripping The Beatles.

PREVIEW From Tom Waits’ Glitter & Doom Live Disc

CANADIAN SONGBOOK: Murray McLauchlan, Barney Bentall, Catherine MacLellan and Nathan Rogers are appearing on the same stage as part of the highly successful True North- promoted Canadian Songbook road show this month on Canada’s east coast, performing eight shows in eight cities between St. John, NB and Glace Bay, NS – and including the Rebecca Cohn and Capitol Theatre in Halifax and Moncton.

ECMA: On-line registration for the 2010 East Coast Music Awards, Festival & Conference is now available via www.ecma.com. Special early bird rates are in effect for those who register before Friday, January 14, 2010. Pre-registration deadline for the event is Friday, February 26, 2010. After this date, delegate passes will be sold on-site only.

• ECMA Members Registration Packages:
• Early Bird Conference Pass – $100 (regular $170)
• Early Bird Executive Delegate Pass – $385 (regular $460)
• For Non-Members
• Early Bird Conference Pass – $210 (regular $250)
• Early Bird Executive Delegate Pass – $445 (regular $530)

Conference Pass entitles purchaser to all 2010 conference sessions, workshops andseminars. It also provides access to the Discovery Stage and Post Awards Party.

The Executive Delegate Pass entitles purchaser to all conference sessions, workshops and seminars. It also provides access to all ECMA Official showcases (Rock Stage, Roots Room, Songwriter’s Circle, Bluebird North Showcase, and Rising Star Showcase) and the Post Awards Party.

CLIENT VS DESIGNER: And now for something completely different…

MEDIA & BROADCASTING: Four applicants are in the running in the contest to build an AM station in Rockland County NY to assure that there will be emergency broadcast service for residents near the Indian Point nuclear power plant. The area in question is along the Hudson River in the lower portion of upstate New York, not far from New Jersey.

It’s not every day that the China Syndrome is the basis for a station auction, although of course there could be a lesser event that would warrant evacuating the area just in case. But the winner must be prepared to cover an event it sincerely hopes never takes place. RBR.com

– After three years at the helm, founder Mike Bax is handing the reigns of London, ON-based rich medi-FAZER Magazine to multi-published author and journalist Laurie Lonsdale, FAZER’s former editor. The current version of the website and the structure of the magazine are undergoing changes as this transition takes place, and readers can expect extensive upgrades and expansions. With a name change to FAZER Magazine.com, “a new and improved” website launch is set for next month.

Evening Music Video from Tyson Rose on Vimeo.

CORRESPONDENCE OF NOTE: THE BLOG

I leave it in your capable hands
For their ninth studio album, Sticky Fingers, The Rolling Stones asked Andy Warhol to design what would become one of the most popular album covers of all time. The sleeve featured a shot of Joe Dallesandro’s crotch, with workable zip, and for the first time showcased the band’s tongue and lips logo, as designed by John Pasche. Below is a letter from Jagger to Warhol, concerning the work, in which he politely warns the artist of production difficulties associated with complex sleeve designs. Warhol obviously took no notice and produced a cover which caused all manner of problems, most notably scratched copies of the record itself and damage to any albums which were placed on top of Sticky Fingers during distribution.

Source

Transcript

21st April, 1969

Andy Warhol,
33 Union Square,
W.N.Y.10003
NEW YORK

Dear Andy,

I’m really pleased you can do the art-work for our new hits album. Here are 2 boxes of material which you can use, and the record.

In my short sweet experience, the more complicated the format of the album, e.g. more complex than just pages or fold-out, the more fucked-up the reproduction and agonising the delays. But, having said that, I leave it in your capable hands to do what ever you want………..and please write back saying how much money you would like.

Doubtless a Mr.Al Steckler will contact you in New York, with any further information. He will probably look nervous and say “Hurry up” but take little notice.

Love,

(Signed)

MICK JAGGER

RETRO MOMENT