Music Biz Headlines, Nov. 9, 2018

By Kerry Doole

With a little help from friends: Ottawa music industry rallies for tornado relief concert

 For the past five weeks,industry rivalries have been cast aside to pull together a show on Saturday that will raise thousands of dollars for people affected by the Sept. 21 tornadoes that hit the Ottawa-Gatineau region. – Lynn Saxberg, Ottawa Citizen

In a rare occurrence, a female conductor leads all Spanish concert with CPO

In her first visit to Calgary, there was JoAnn Falletta on the podium, her liveliness and long experience evident throughout the concert. It was the music of sunny Spain that entranced a large audience at the Jack Singer Hall recently.  – Kenneth DeLong, Calgary Herald

Review: Tory Lanez finds his perfect balance on Love Me Now

The Toronto singer/rapper cuts straight to his strengths – a concise collection of party anthems that demand heavy club play. – Claudia McNeilly, NOW

On Our Radar: Said the Whale impresses with the low-tech but innovative video for "UnAmerican"

Okay, this is just super cool. Homegrown faves Said the Whale just released a video for their new single, "UnAmerican", and while I could try to explain how director Johnny Jansen made it, it's probably better to just quote the band itself.  – John Lucas, Georgia Straight

The Northern Irish band bring their powerful political songs, infused with the raw enthusiasm of their punk rock roots, and their intensely raw and energetic stage show to Canada for the band’s first ever extensive tour here. – Jim Barber, Music Life Magazine

The Sadies: No new tricks, just a show pony in top form 

The group is twenty years deep into a recording career that has placed them in rarified air in Canadian music, as both a near-ubiquitous influence on a certain style of rock n’ roll, and still a vital group creating vibrant and original music. The Sadies are currently playing western dates. –  Mike Dunn, Beat Route

Britten’s War Requiem is a searing antidote to conflict fatigue

This week, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra is marking the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War with one of the most powerful pieces of music written in the 20th century. –John Terauds, Toronto Star

Joshua Redman keeps Old and New Dreams alive

Saxophonist Joshua Redman's latest project revisits the music of his late father, saxophonist Dewey Redman. He plays Chan Centre on Nov. 13.  – Stuart Derdeyn, Calgary Herald

George Martin's son remixes The White Album even if the Beatles 'ostracized my dad' while making it

Producer Giles Martin wasn’t even born when his famous Beatles’ producing father, George aka The Fifth Beatle, wrestled with The Fab Four while making their 1968 eponymous double-disc otherwise known as The White Album. – Jane Stevenson, Toronto Sun

Carly Rae Jepsen is Toronto's Queen of holiday window unveilings

The Canadian pop singer had a rare local performance at Hudson's Bay and Saks Fifth Avenue's holiday event, playing a wholesome four-song set. – Natalia Manzocco, NOW

Francesco Yates gets funky while Justin Timberlake gets plaid

Getting picked to open for Timberlake on his 46-date Man of the Woods Tour (one temporarily postponed) is a major coup for Yates. The 23-year-old Toronto musician has been on a roll since 2014, racking up chart-topping hits such as Sugar and opening for Carly Rae Jepsen on her Hello World road trip. – Stuart Derdeyn, Postmedia

Review: Drake brings bouncy ambassador act to Rogers Place

Drake delivered a raucous rhythmic display Tuesday night during his party, with fireworks blasting above and the stage transforming beneath his feet.  –  Ryan Garner, Edmonton Journal

Can you mash up Slayer and Benny Hill? Yes. Yes, you can.

The Internet is a source of amazing things that we just shouldn’t bother to question. Let’s enjoy this mashup of the heavy metal greats and Benny Hill’s theme music because–well, why not?  – A Journal of Musical Things

International

The best and worst pop culture in modern election history

We skipped the obvious stuff — we’re pretty sure you’re aware already that Morgan Freeman has played the president a lot — and sought out some of the weirder and more amusing nooks and crannies of popular culture. Billy Bragg makes the list. – Mel Magazine

Spotify Music Publishing Analytics launches in beta

Dubbed the first music streaming analytics tool built specifically for music publishers, the platform was developed in collaboration with a range of publishers to service the various roles that publishers play from A&R to administration. –  Hypebot

Move with the flow: The Janick way of knowledge (Part One)

The entrepreneur turned major-label mogul, who hit 40 earlier this year, retains the enthusiasm and determination he evidenced back in 1996, when, as an 18-year-old underclassman at the University of Florida, he launched ironically named DIY label Fueled by Ramen out of his dorm room. – Bud Scoppa, Hits Daily Double

One reason music's hottest CDs are out of stock: Manufacturing has moved to Mexico

During the last month, four hit titles issued by UMG have been swept off the shelves by fans and put on back order, or, in some cases, weren't even in stores on their release dates. –  Ed Christman, Billboard

YouTube paid the music industry $1.8B in the past year

The news came in a new Google report "How Google Fights Piracy."YouTube has paid the music industry $6 billion since launch.  – Hypebot

Glenn Gould’s Bach score surfaces, scrawls and all

His heavily marked-up score for Bach’s “Goldberg” Variations, used in his 1981 recording, will be sold at auction. It shows the nearly obsessive attention to detail Gould was famous for, especially after he stopped giving live performances to focus entirely on making recordings. – Michael Cooper, New York Times

Talent and touring

Review: SoCal rockabilly pioneer Larry Collins and friends pay tribute to his late sister, singer Lorrie Collins

The promoter of Saturday’s salute to early rockabilly sibling duo Lorrie and Larry Collins found a canny way to make the case that the reverence the act holds within the roots-rock community isn’t due to mere nostalgia or romanticized mythology. – Randy Lewis, LA Times

Moby rocked the vote on election day.

The Grammy-nominated artist played a surprise mini-tour of three Orange County cities in support of Democratic candidates. But he kept things short. “We’re only gonna play for a couple of minutes,” he said, “because you guys have way more important things to do with your time than listen to a middle-aged bald guy play music.” – LA Times

Sinead O'Connor calls white people 'disgusting' in bizarre rant

The Irish singer-songwriter, who goes by the name of Shuhada Davitt since her conversion to Islam, posted a series of rambling tweets on the social networking platform in which she described non-Muslims as “disgusting” and claimed “the reign of the white man” was over. – WENN

Moby wants to flee to Canada if Trump is re-elected

The DJ and left-wing activist said during a recent get-out-the-vote concert that he is researching ways to emigrate to Canada in case Democrats fail to retake the House of Representatives and President Donald Trump wins re-election in 2020. – Breitbart

Grimes says the release of new music is “imminent”

The artist – whose real name is Claire Boucher – released her last album, ‘Art Angels’, in November 2015. In a now-deleted tweet, Grimes recently posted: “Thank god I have new music imminent this is embarrassingly long time not to release an album, haha.”  – Tom Skinner, NME

Joni Mitchell at 75: Friends and admirers honour an icon at a moving tribute show

Graham Nash, Chaka Khan, James Taylor and many more surveyed Mitchell’s legendary songbook at L.A.’s Music Center. –  Steven J. Horowitz, Rolling Stone

Jack White condemns a homophobic incident at a recent Canadian show

Two female concertgoers were told they weren't allowed to kiss at his Edmonton performance.  – Matt Miller, Esquire

“The Bizarre World Of Frank Zappa” Hologram Tour releases a new promo video

The tour is set to launch in 2019 with a Frank Zappa hologram, alongside members of the Mothers of Invention. The hologram was created by Eyellusion, the company behind a hologram of Ronnie James Dio that embarked on a world tour last year. – Kendall Deflin, liveforlivemusic.com