Music Biz Headlines, March 7, 2022
Peach Pit (pictured) deliver a new album, Philip Glass has a premiere in Toronto, and Michael Bublé reinforces his Filipino connections. Others in the headlines include Harrison Kennedy, Betty Boo, Toronto venues, Propeller Arcade Bar, Betty Moon, Maylee Todd, the El Mocambo, Nicky 'Dread' Taylor, Daniel Wesley, UMG, Pussy Riot, Bandcamp, Don Letts, and Cary Baker.
By Kerry Doole
Toronto venues tread carefully into full capacity events
They may be open but venue owners say it may be a process for people to feel comfortable going back to clubs and live music. – Nick Krewen, Toronto Star
Vancouver’s Peach Pit get real with shimmering new album
After creating some of the most definitive indie-pop of the 2010s, summery rockers Peach Pit have become known as one of Canada’s coolest exports. – Rayne Fisher-Quan, NEXT
Packing up decades of music memories as The Pavilion becomes a shelter.
From 1998 to 2014, it was a full-time venue, offering Halifax music fans—and especially those fans younger than legal drinking age—everything from scrappy punk shows to sweaty DJ sets. From 2014 to the pandemic, shows happened sporadically; during Covid the venue’s officially been on hiatus. But that hiatus suddenly became final. – Morgan Mullin, The Coast
Michael Bublé reinforces his Filipino connections with a turn on Sing for the Stars
Michael Bublé is giving a boost to the Kumu app by judging an international singing competition. – Charlie Smith, Georgia Straight
Bluesman Harrison Kennedy has a new album coming
About to turn 80, the veteran Hamilton blues singer and former Chairmen of The Board member has a new album in the works and just played a show at the Corktown. – Graham Rockingham, The Spectator.
Philip Glass’s ‘Symphony No. 13’ will be introduced to the world in Toronto
Like most composers of recent vintage, Glass has not followed Gustav Mahler in expanding the symphony to enormous proportions. – William Littler, Toronto Star
Junos 2022: a more diverse nominees list?
Canada's music landscape is very different than they were when the Junos had their last in-person show. So how have the awards shifted to meet those times? The nominees for the 51st Juno Awards were announced a week ago, and it looks like they are making moves to better reflect the breadth and diversity of the music being released in these borders, even if there are still some head-scratchers. – Richard Trapunski, NOW
Toronto's historic music venues are being immortalized as miniature models
Andrew Smith's incredibly detailed builds capture 'Toronto, Lost Music City' – Exclaim!
Propeller Arcade Bar is levelling up on fun
As restrictions ease, the Gottingen Street space in Halifax plans live music, movie nights and wrestling matches. – Morgan Mullin, The Coast
Toronto artist Maylee Todd enters the metaverse on the dreamy future pop record ‘Maloo’
Todd’s fourth album is a collection of “science fiction lullabies” narrated from the perspective of a digital avatar who inhabits a utopian metaverse. – Richie Assaly, Toronto Star
Rising star Betty Moon on the five things needed to shine in the music industry
The Canadian rocker dispenses wisdom in an interview with Edward Sylvan. – Medium
Remembering longtime CFRU host Nicky 'Dread' Taylor and his four decades on air
Since 1981 Nicky 'Dread' Taylor was the voice of The Crooked Beat reggae show. He received the Peter Tosh Memorial Award for dedicated services to reggae in Canada at the Canadian Reggae Music Awards in 1998. –Daniel Caudle, Guelph Today
Segarini: Renovation or desecration?: Why this historic Toronto music venue needs a new name
8 years and a rumoured 31 million dollars later, for me, it is no longer the El Mocambo. How can it be? There is literally nothing left of the original club. Nothing recognizable, at any rate. May I suggest a name change to Wekerle's? – Bob Segarini, DBAWIS
Local singer-songwriter Daniel Wesley roars back from pandemic hiatus
With a pair of local concerts scheduled this weekend, Roberts Creek singer-songwriter Daniel Wesley plans to leap the threshold from his pandemic-enforced live performance hiatus to a high-velocity comeback tour. His road trip that will include more than 20 gigs at venues across B.C. and Alberta. – Coast Reporter
Bartees Strange shouts out Toronto on rousing new single, plus new music from Alice Glass, Kurt Vile, Joey Bada$$
This week’s playlist also features music from Curren$y, Luna Li and Katy Kirby.–Toronto Star
International
UMG reports a record breaking year with revenue topping €8.5B for 2021
After successfully separating from their parent Vivendi through a listing on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange, Universal Music Group reported record breaking annual revenue of more than €8.5B in 2021. The revenue represented growth of 17% year-over year for UMG, driven by strong performance in the company’s music publishing, and recorded music divisions, and double digital increases in all business segments. – Celebrity Access
NFT backed by Pussy Riot member raises $6.7 million for Ukraine
An NFT of Ukraine's flag has raised over $6.7 million for the country's defenses as cryptocurrency donations continue to flood in following the Russian invasion. Organized by UkraineDAO, an initiative backed by a member of the Russian activist group and feminist punk band Pussy Riot, the sale saw thousands of users bid for a share of the digital image. – Oscar Holland, CNN
Rebel Dread review – the eloquent self-making of punk film-maker Don Letts
A key cultural evangelist, the raconteur talks through his creative career since recording the 1970s punk scene on his Super-8 camera. – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
One of the music industry's most democratic platforms, Bandcamp has been bought by a tech giant
One of the Internet's most democratic—and, while this isn’t saying much—well-paying streaming service is now under the umbrella of one of the biggest tech enterprises in the world. Epic Games—a name that will be familiar to anyone who plays Fortnite—has purchased Bandcamp for an amount of money that has yet to be disclosed. – Mike Usinger, Georgia Straight
Veteran music publicist Cary Baker to retire after 42 years
Cary Baker has had a distinct niche in music publicity for a good portion of the 42 years he’s worked in the field. But come March 18, NPR's “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered” will have one less publicist’s pitches to consider. The L.A.-based Baker is hanging up his shingle and shutting down Conqueroo, the independent music PR firm he founded in 2004, and officially retiring. – Chris Willman, Variety
The 10 best avant-garde albums of all time
The world of the “avant-garde” is a curious one. Easy to dismiss, and easier still to mock, the genre has been pencilled as “high-brow” by its defenders, and “elitist” by its critics. But, the truth is, avant-garde music has infiltrated the very fabric of pop at almost every turn. Even The Beatles were seduced by the pure artistry of such music. – Eoghan Lyng, FarOut
John Mayer leaves Columbia Records after 21 years: ‘My best work still lies ahead’
“Hard as it is to say goodbye, I’m excited to pursue new avenues of making music,” Mayer wrote in an Instagram statement. – Tomas Mier, Rolling Stone
Betty Boo: ‘I think I’ve made the record I should have made when I was 25’
The 90s pop star on rapping with Public Enemy, her inspirational activist granny, and the joy of making music again in her 50s. – Jude Rogers, The Guardian
