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.”

BTW This Week- KIIA, Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, John Borra, Gianni Bodo, Terry Guy, Junkowl, Bruce Cockburn, Jadyn Lamb

Fri May 22 2020
KIIA

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.

Pop Artist Ashley Lyn Gets Candid & Direct About Love & Career in “I Want It 2”

Fri May 22 2020
Ashley Lyn

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:

The IQ And EQ In The Music

Fri May 22 2020
Peter Åstedt

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.

BTW - Catbite, Omnigone, Liona Boyd, Matt Weidinger, Call Me Malcolm, Martha & Rufus Wainwright, Unison Benevolent Fund, Busty & The Bass

Fri May 15 2020
Catbite

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.

The Bogus Record Labels Are As Necessary As A Fish Needing A Bicycle

Fri May 15 2020
Peter Åstedt

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."

Julian Taylor and The Ridge

Fri May 15, 2020

It seems that Julian Taylor keeps evolving as an artist, covering different genres but he doesn’t really see it that way.

“I’m a singer/songwriter first and foremost and I’m comfortable in many genres.” 

Julian Taylor Online Tour Poster

 

 

So although to some Julian’s new CD ‘The Ridge’ may sound like a departure of his usual sound to some of us to Julian it’s just how he wants to express himself at this time. And it all makes sense. Labeling can be confusing and limiting. I remember talking to folk legend Eric Andersen about his folksinger legacy and he said he didn’t consider himself a folksinger he was a singer and a songwriter, no need to label it. 

Julian Taylor falls into that category.