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FYI

Music Biz Headlines, Feb. 4, 2019

Music Biz Headlines, Feb. 4, 2019

By Kerry Doole

People apparently preferred SpongeBob to Maroon 5

One Twitter user even showed where fans' allegiances lied with a simple poll. For Spongebob he asked people to retweet his tweet and for Maroon 5 he asked them to like it. Spongebob won...by a landslide. – Johnni Macke, eOnline


The artless spectacle of Maroon 5 at the Super Bowl

Adam Levine can be magnetic onstage, but his songs sound benign and computer-generated, smoothed to the point of incomprehensibility. There is simply no way to find purchase in them. You hear them playing faintly as you disembark the elliptical machine, and you forget them by the time you whip your towel into the laundry bin. – Amanda Petrusich, The New Yorker

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How the NFL blew it with the Super Bowl

With this year’s game being held in Atlanta, one of the capitals of hip-hop and one of the most important black-majority cities in America, it was hoped that talent would jump at the opportunity. That never happened. – Alan Cross, Global News

Maroon 5 supply Super Bowl with a ‘WTF was that’ moment

The Super Bowl felt like an early April Fool’s joke with Maroon 5 turning in the least innovative performance of all-time at the major event.  – Paul Cashmere, Noise11.com

'More than just a stage': why performers at the Super Bowl are in the hot seat

Entertainers engaged in Super Bowl festivities in Atlanta this past weekend simply can't avoid the elephant in the room: the National Football League's ongoing treatment of Colin Kaepernick, a former star quarterback who remains unemployed after protesting against racial inequality.  –Jessica Wong, CBC News

Neil Young gets the band back together for a pair of Winnipeg shows

The Winnipeg shows come with the added bonus of also playing with Crazy Horse in the more intimate venues. – Kevin King, Winnipeg Sun

How to watch Neil Young's Winnipeg concert from home

Neil Young Archives will livestream Monday's concert with Crazy Horse on Facebook.   – CBC News

The death of Buddy Holly foreshadowed the greatest, most inspired rush of rock music in history

Sixty years ago Sunday a tiny plane carrying Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens crashed into a snow-specked Iowa cornfield. – Joel Rubinoff, Torstar News Service

Local Hero: Kiana "Rookz" Eastmond takes the helm at Manifesto

The festival and urban arts organization's newly minted executive director has big plans for building sustainability and bringing it back to its roots. – Chaka Grier, NOW

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Beyonce will give you free concert tickets for life if you'll only put down that goddamn delicious rack of lamb

Today, the one-woman empire known as Beyoncé has stepped up. Queen Bey is offering fans the chance to win tickets for life for all concerts featuring her and/or her equally high-wattage husband, Jay-Z.  The initiative is part of the Greenprint Project, which looks to improve the environment by getting people to switch to plant-based meals. – Mike Usinger, Georgia Straight

The best Toronto concerts to catch in February 2019

The always unpredictable Deerhunter, the end of a party institution, one of hip-hop's best live acts and more shows we're looking forward to this month. – Staff, NOW

Cultural confusion spawns a celebration of roots for Cree singer-songwriter

“A lot of us are trying to grasp and find our cultures again but there's a mixture of colonized attitudes that mingle with it — one elder will say one thing, another will say something else — so you don't really understand where you are. It's a lifelong learning path.” – Kristen McArthur on her Cree background. – Roger Levesque, Edmonton Journal 

Attention music lovers: N.S. radio station selling its entire vinyl collection

Mix 94.1 and Zed 97.9 are going digital and need to offload thousands of records. – CBC News 

Xenia concerts carve out a place to bring classical music to autistic children

An anxious mother chases after her laughing daughter as she dances around the grand piano. A smiling father sweeps his daughter into his arms after she playfully swats the keyboard. –  Willam Littler, Toronto Star

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International

B-sides that became big hits

"Black Water" became the Doobie Brothers' first-ever No. 1 song when a savvy Virginia disc jockey discovered it after he flipped over one of their singles. WROV-AM was situated near a tributary of the Roanoke River called the Blackwater, and listeners quickly made the song a local anthem. – ultimateclassicrock.

Jordan Wright of City of Sound talks new EP and technology 

Jordan Wright of the alternative rock band City of Sound chatted with Digital Journal about their new EP "Silent Empire 1," and he spoke about the impact of technology on the music industry. – Markos Papadats, Digital Journal  

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John Scofield: ‘There was all this great music in the 60s when I became a music fanatic and all that stuff led me to jazz’

For a guitarist who has spent a lifetime performing with some of the biggest names in jazz, from Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker to Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock, John Scofield sounds strangely wary of the prospect of stepping out onstage alone. – Yorkshire Evening Post

Oscars to feature all Best Song nominees on telecast after all 

As recently as last week, reps for three of the tunes were being told there was no time for them, but nominee solidarity may have factored in.  – Jon Burlingame,  Variety

Ken Burns’ ‘Country Music’ documentary to premiere Sept. 15

The eight-part, 16-hour series on the history and significance of the country music genre, will premiere Sunday, Sept. 15 through Wednesday, Sept. 18, and Sunday, Sept. 22 through Wednesday, Sept. 25 at 8 p.m.-10 p.m. ET on PBS. – Jessica Nicholson, Music Row

The state of stardom

Everybody does not know your name. No one is as big as they used to be in the pre-internet era. No one reaches everybody, no one is known by everybody, never have individual stars meant less. Platforms are the stars, from Spotify to Facebook to Amazon. You can be famous and broke. –  Bob Lefsetz, Celebrity Access

Shelved: Fiona Apple’s Extraordinary Machine

The album was shelved, perhaps by Apple’s label, or, according to her own admission, by Apple herself. – Tom MaxwellLongreads 

Snoop Dogg facing legal issues from Canadian hockey team over weed company logo

The Toronto Maple Leafs think the Leafs by Snoop trademark too closely resembles their own branding and will “confuse” people. – High Times

Mariah Carey's Saudi Arabia performance pleases youth, anguishes women activists

The international pop sensation had earlier defied the call of Saudi Arabia based women rights activists to boycott the concert and called her performance a step towards promoting gender equality. – international Business Times

Marshmello just played a live set to 10M people in the video game Fortnite

Fortnite players could watch the virtual show for free, so long as they made sure their avatar available at the concert’s location (Pleasant Park). – Tim Ingham, MBW

Killer Mike runs wild on Netflix

Killer Mike is not a conventional rapper — or a conventional thinker for that matter. The 43-year-old Atlanta- based Grammy Award winner, entrepreneur and social activist decided to channel his unorthodox views into a six-part docuseries on Netflix called Trigger Warning with Killer Mike. It recently debuted and is available to all subscribers. –  Rodney Ho, Cox

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Kobalt signs worldwide admin deal with the Gregg Allman Estate

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KAYTRANADA feat. Childish Gambino "Witchy"
Courtesy Photo

KAYTRANADA feat. Childish Gambino "Witchy"

Music News

Kaytranada & Childish Gambino Show Off Their Supernatural Dance Moves in ‘Witchy’ Music Video: Watch

Kaytranada and Childish Gambino suit up for a supernatural experience in their new "Witchy" music video, which dropped on Wednesday (Oct. 2).

Kaytranada and Childish Gambino suit up for a supernatural experience in their new “Witchy” music video, which dropped on Wednesday (Oct. 2).

The collaborators and RCA labelmates post up in an intimate studio while an assortment of mesmerizing characters (and a white cat) — like four ballerinas who magically transform into an incredibly flexible male dancer — leave them in a trance from the other side of the glass. Kaytranada and Gambino (also known as Donald Glover) catch a vibe with their synchronized moves and custom Gucci suits, courtesy of stylist Von Ford.

This article was originally published by Billboard U.S.

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