Music News Digest, Oct. 25, 2019

By FYI Staff

– Juno-winning rockers The Beaches have announced The Professional Tour, a 16-date cross-Canada headline tour in support of recent EP, The Professional. Starting on Feb. 6 in Victoria, BC, the trek culminates in back-to-back hometown Toronto shows at The Danforth Music Hall on Feb. 28 and 29. Support acts on various stops include HUNNY, Valley, Fade Awaays and Goodbye Honolulu. A full list of tour dates here. General tix on sale today (Oct. 25). The group also performs as the SiriusXM Kickoff Show act for the 107th Grey Cup in Calgary on Nov, 24. In early 2020, The Beaches will release the follow-up to debut album Late Show and will begin a full US tour in May.

– UK-based Rock Candy Records has released remastered editions of the first 3 Goddo albums (Goddo, Who Cares and An Act of Goddo), classics in the trio’s nine album catalogue that contain enduring gems including Under My Hat, Tough Times, Sweet Thing, There Goes My Baby, Too Much Carousin’, Chantal, and So Walk On. Charismatic mastermind Greg Godovitz is shopping the three, which includes an Eddie Kramer remix of the eponymously titled debut, along with his Paul Dean-produced aMuseMe solo long-player. There’s also a sequel to his hilarious Travels with My Aunt memoir that is seeking a publisher. Any and all interest: rocktalk@shaw.ca

–  Snow has been vacationing in South America and returns to complete his long-anticipated follow-up to his ’02 album, Two Hands Clapping. His reluctance to perform on stage and intermittent record releases have dimmed his profile, but his rep amongst dancehall and R&B artists continues, the most recent example being Puerto Rican rapper Daddy Yankee including him in a reggaeton version of Informer, released as Con Calma with Katy Perry. The song has been a chart smash in the US and in Central and South America. NKOTB have also proven to be big fans of the reluctant Canadian rapper, welcoming him on stage at a recent Toronto arena show. Paul Farberman is stick-handling contract deals for him these days.

–An impressive turnout of music industry VIPs showed at The Hideout in Toronto last night for a showcase by the four acts selected for the 2019/2020 Allan Slaight Juno Master Class: AIZA, Fintan, Shopé, and Sam Lynch. All impressed with their professionalism and commercial potential. At the event, Allan Reid, President and CEO, CARAS/The Juno Awards, praised the mentorship program, citing the Polaris Prize win of Class graduate Haviah Mighty as an example of its effectiveness. It was announced there that Slaight Music has committed to another four years of Juno Master Class. Partnering in the initiative are Canada's Music Incubator and CBC Music. Those spied at the event included Ralph James, Jack Ross, Jake Gold, Kim Stockwood, Vel Omazic, Eric Lawrence, Stephen McGrath, and Slaight Music's Derrick Ross, Barnaby Marshall, and Mike Renaud.

–  Frank Marino has released an epic six-hour, three-CD single Blu-ray DVD concert set recorded at Cleveland’s Agora Theatre in 2010. The doorstopper comes with a 170-page book to-boot and, as can be imagined, getting it finished for Mahogany Rush’s frontman has not been an easy task. Apart from the enormity of the package itself, early on Marino discovered that the otherwise faultless audio transcription was marred by corrupted drum tracks, and that led him to scrupulously spent hundreds of hours in his Montreal studio getting them right. It’s done, finished and available for purchase on Marino’s dedicated Live At the Agorawebsite that includes a video preview.

Enthusiast Pete Pardo reviews the package and lets us in on some of the backstories that led to Live At the Agora’s completion.

– Music•Musique NB celebrated a year in music, and the Prix MNB Awards' Tenth anniversary, at the Aberdeen Cultural Centre in Moncton, NB, last night. 19 awards were handed out to New Brunswick artists and music industry professionals. Les Hôtesses d'Hilaire was the biggest winner of the evening, picking up five statuettes, while Motherhood, Adyn Townes, and Which Witch is Witch were other notable victors. See the full list here

– Toronto female hip-hop group The Sorority has announced it is calling it quits. Formed in 2016 by four rappers, Haviah Mighty, Keysha Freshh, Lex Leosis and pHoenix Pagliacci,  The Sorority released an acclaimed debut album, Pledge, in 2018. Pagliacci left earlier this year, and Mighty made a splash by winning the 2019 Polaris Prize as a solo artist. A recent single, Switch, will be their last as a group, and the end comes once a tour with Snotty Nose Rez Kids concludes. Dates here. Source: NOW

– Drake's collection of bling now has one impressive addition, a Raptors NBA championship ring. The Star reports that the team's global ambassador "had a voice" in the design of the ring, one featuring 14 carats of diamonds (over 650 of them) in what is described as the largest championship ring ever made.

– Andy Shauf releases his next album, The Neon Skyline, on Jan. 24 via Arts & Crafts, with a North American and European tour immediately following. Full tour dates here. Tix on sale today (Oct. 25) here. Check out this new track.

– The folks behind the long-running IRIE Music Festival present the inaugural Sauga City Music Fest in Mississauga, ON,  this weekend (Oct. 25-27) at the Living Arts Centre. The free event features culturally diverse and emerging artists from the region, and, in a real coup, is headlined by recent Polaris Music Prize winner, Haviah Mighty. Other featured artists include S4G4, Noyz MC, YESWAY, Renée Wynter, Liv Marie, and Sheldon Sabastian and more. SCMF also hosts a series of panel discussions and a film retrospective. More info here 

– Madonna's Madame X Tour kicked off with a sold-out 16-show run at Brooklyn’s Howard Gilman Opera House and brought in serious coin. Billboard Boxscore reports that the shows combined to gross US$9.6M and sold 31,401 tickets. That averages out to $601,985 and 1,963 tickets per show. Based on the New York run’s final figures, the average ticket sold for $306.73 -- a sharp increase from Madonna's career average of $115.81.

– The TD Discovery Series Special Projects is now accepting submissions until Nov. 29. In its tenth year, the initiative provides successful applicants with marketing and public relations support, including a bursary, from Toronto Downtown Jazz (TDJ). Four projects will be selected for support that is designed to encourage participants to showcase their work and bring original programming to the stage.