Music Biz Headlines, April 30, 2018

By Kerry Doole

Canadian officials say arts orgs must be harassment-free to get funding

The Department of Canadian Heritage and the Canada Council for the Arts have requested that arts organizations that apply for funding have a no tolerance policy on harassment in place –   Karen Bliss, Billboard

Abba announce first new songs for 35 years

The Swedish four-piece takes to Instagram to chat-up two new tracks that will form part of an ‘avatar tour project’ –  Alex Needham, The Guardian

Donovan Woods's Danforth show was like a heartfelt hug

The Sarnia-born folk musician's stellar set provided some comfort to Torontonians reeling from the van attack –  Rachna Kaur, NOW

Deadly pop from Sc Mira

The Winnipeg indie rock band releases the Drug Warm Coma album. –  Erin Lebar, Winnipeg Free Press

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever making a big long name for themselves Down Under

Melbourne serves up another winner with this guitar-driven quintet playing the Garrison on May 8 –  Ben Rayner, Toronto Star

Sex, disco and fish on acid: how Continental Baths became the world's most influential gay club

Mick Jagger, Andy Warhol and Alfred Hitchcock all frequented the decadent New York bathhouse – as did the police who constantly raided it –  Sam Davies, The Guardian

Rich Aucoin bike blog #3: Gallup to Tucumcari, NM

"We no longer have a monoculture. The viral videos of late-aughts were the last vestiges of ubiquitous shared experience" –  Rich Aucoin, The Coast

The Last Word: Spinal Tap's Derek Smalls on avoiding impotence and what Napoleon taught him

With his first solo album, 'Smalls Change,' out now, the fictional bassist reflects on his life journey so far –  Kory Grow, Rolling Stone

Niia took her time to find her own voice

It took the celebrated singer several years to get used to the idea that music could be a way of connecting with other people –   Kate Wilson, Georgia Straight

Politically incorrect songs that'd be wildly controversial today

Unsurprisingly, the list of 20 includes Stones classic "Brown Sugar"  –  USA Today

Linton Kwesi Johnson: ‘It was a myth that immigrants didn’t want to fit into British society. We weren’t allowed’

As the Jamaican-born dub poet reflects on decades of race relations in the UK, from the Brixton riots to Windrush, he says young black men carry knives out of fear, and questions how much progress we have made since his time as a teenage Black Panther –  Decca Aitkenhead, The Guardian

Thinking person's rock band Fool's Tongue continues to evolve

If Sky is Fools Tongue's more concerted effort at a contemporary spin on rock trends, it's still a thinking person's rock unit –  Roger Levesque, Edmonton Journal

The Saskatoon Jazz Orchestra Getz its man

Stanley Gayetski, as he was known to his parents, was born in 1927 in Philadelphia. He was a straight-A student but took an instant liking to the sax at 13 and dropped out of school at one point. The SJO pays tribute to the jazz great  –  Cam Fuller, Saskatoon Star-Phoenix