Music Biz Headlines, Nov. 11, 2019

By FYI Staff

Hamilton’s Teenage Head are true rock ‘n’ roll survivors

There was a time when Steve Mahon thought Teenage Head could no longer go on. – Richard Hutton, Niagara This Week

Roger Waters on ‘Another Brick in the Wall: The Opera,’ being ‘a slave to your emotions’ and more

Pink Floyd’s epochal 1979 double-album opus “The Wall” is often referred to as a “rock opera,” but that still doesn’t mean Roger Waters was entirely sold on turning it into an actual opera when approached with the idea by the folks at Opéra de Montréal a few years ago.  – Ben Rayner, The Star

Trading assets for branding

Canopy, Drake deal shows new use for old facilities. – Mark Rendel, Globe and Mail

What are Toronto’s most important music venues?

Daniel Tate and Rob Bowman, authors of the new book The Flyer Vault: 150 Years Of Toronto Concert History, pick four historical hot spots. – NOW

No words required for Bruce Cockburn to say something

Bruce Cockburn is no different than other writers who make their living through music. Some new compositions sit around for years. Others spend considerably less time on the shelf. – Mike Devlin, Times Colonist

Why studying music and the brain is so fascinating and so difficult

Studies are impacted by our personal interpretations of music, putting findings at risk. – Adam Miller, CBC News 

Lillix’s Louise Burns puts ‘crushed dreams’ of teen stardom to rest with new album

After spending the past decade establishing herself as a solo artist, the now Vancouver-based musician is reflecting on the ups-and-downs of her early career with her fourth album, Portraits. – Gregory Adams, Montecristo

‘The Pianist of Willesden Lane’ preserves memories of the Holocaust with music

Grammy-nominated pianist Mona Golabek was taught piano by her mother, and clearly gained a love of storytelling from her too. This 90-minute solo piece involves Golabek sitting at a piano playing works by many of the great classical composers and telling the eventful and inspiring story of her mother’s life. – Karen Fricker, The Star

International

"Warner Records cares about having the right artists, not the most artists"

An interview with the label head, Aaron Bay-Schuck, after his first year on the job. –Tim Ingham, MBW

Why hundreds of music stars are giving fans their phone numbers

OneRepublic is one of about 300 celebrity acts -- from Paul McCartney and Marshmello to Diddy and Jennifer Lopez -- who’ve given out their digits in recent months, asking fans to text them at seemingly personal numbers that often bear the area codes of their hometowns. Behind their outreach is a startup called Community, backed by Madonna’s longtime manager Guy Oseary. – Micah Singleton, Billboard

The spectacular, strange rise of music holograms

Dead musicians are taking the stage again in digital form. Is this the kind of encore we really want? – Washington Post

Gene Clark’s classic post-Byrds album, a flop in its time, gets a deluxe reissue

As this loving, expansive new reissue of Clark’s 1974 country-rock album attests, he was a master songwriter who at the peak of his powers created what’s now considered a classic of the genre. – Randy Roberts, LA Times

Who won A&R Awards in London last week?

It began, quite deliberately, with Keith Flint. The Prodigy’s Champions Of London boomed across the Grand Connaught Rooms in London at 8.45 pm,, ringing the opening bell on the UK-focused A&R Awards, presented by MBW in association with Abbey Road Studios. – Tim Ingham, MBW

Folk music hotspot Passim marks 60 years with benefit concert

The folk boom never ended. Well, if you spend a lot of time in Cambridge, it never ended. Since the opening of Club 47 in the ’50s and its transition to Club Passim in the ’60s, the Harvard Square music venue hosted Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, then Joni Mitchell and Tom Rush, then Chris Smither and Tom Waits. – Jed Gottlieb, Boston Herald

Booker T. Jones Is finally ready to dispel the myths of the Stax era

“We’re speaking out in the open now,” says the legendary R&B keyboardist, whose new book complicates the golden age of soul. – Jonathan Bernstein, Rolling Stone 

A Katy Perry song drops a gift in Harley-Davidson’s lap

“Harleys in Hawaii” has been streamed and viewed millions of times, by a demographic the motorcycle maker has had a hard time reaching. – Mark Gardiner, NYTimes

Learjet's famous brand is dying a ‘slow death’

The plane, modeled by inventor Bill Lear in the 1960s on a Swiss fighter jet, became almost generic for luxe private aircraft, celebrated in song by Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain” and Pink Floyd’s “Money." –  Thomas Black, Bloomberg