Photos: Canadian Music Week Day #5 - Born Ruffians, Young Rival, Parlovr

Born Ruffians @ The Phoenix w. Parlovr, Young Rival
March 14, 2010 as part of Canadian Music Week 2010

Photos by:
Jay Blackwood


For more CMW/CMF coverage and photos:
livemusicproject.blogspot.com
picasaweb.google.com/jason.blackwood

For a review of this show:
nxew.ca or
historyjen.blogspot.com

Photos: Canadian Music Week Day #4 - The Wooden Sky, Yukon Blonde, The Balconies, The Beauties, The Junction, Two Hours Traffic

CHARTattack Showcase @ The Horseshoe Tavern ft. Yukon Blonde, The Balconies, The Beauties, The Wooden Sky, Two Hours Traffic, The Junction - March 13, 2010

Photos by:

Jay Blackwood

For more CMW/CMF photos and coverage:
http://livemusicproject.blogspot.com
http://picasaweb.google.com/jason.blackwood

Live Review: Adaline @ Supermarket March 10, 2010 (Agency Showcase - CMW)

The few devotees to the SUPERMARKET were packed in early, as the singer laughed easily while being interviewed... This is a professional about to play a show; shes confident, and calm... And the audience doesn't know what will hit them.

From the first bars, Adaline had the casual show-goers in awe, the room silently filled, as she pushed through her first number. Simple orchestration, Cello, Piano, and Vocals seem to fill the space like so much more. Even hard rockers Dean Lickyr sit at the side of the stage completely taken - they would own that same stage later.

Her voice takes on an ethereal grasp of the small bar as she sings of lovers, and trying to forget lovers, and sits in contrast to side banter about former babysitters and back rubs, which instead of distracting the listener away, only adds some brevity and lightness, and makes her seem all that much more human, and vulnerable. 

She is truly versatile, being that she normally plays with a full backing band, and yet even acoustically, the sound is full and rich.

A definite pleasure. Check Her out!

http://www.myspace.com/adalinesmusic

Want To Get Signed? Indie label heads discuss the risks to labels and artists

"People in the music industry are essentially venture capitalists" says Tommy Silverman. "They invest in high risk long shots with high returns if they're successful." Risk is the underlying issue in the decisions artists and labels make when signing together. For the label, they need to understand the risk their getting in to with an artist. For artists, some see signing that label deal as a big risk also. So how do artists and labels figure it all out? How can you weigh the risk?

Friday's Indie Super Session panel discussion (part of Canadian Music Week) brought together some of independent music's biggest names to discuss how artists can get themselves noticed and signed as well as how the music industry is changing in the face of declining sales, the deteriorating desire for albums, and the levelling off of the digital market. Moderated by Tommy Silverman of Tommy Boy Records, the panel included higher ups from Arts & Crafts (home to Broken Social Scene, Feist), Glassnote (Justin Nozuka), Maplemusic (Joel Plaskett), Dew Process (Ben Lee, Mumford & Sons), Bonsound (Champion), Distort (Cancer Bats) and Bedlam (Alexisonfire, Arkells). Given the state of the industry (60% decline in sales according to Silverman), what are the indie's looking at?

For labels, the biggest risk is which bands to sign. And how do indie labels find their talent and assess that risk? David Glass of Glassnote wrote off what has been a typical submission process for some by stating, "handing us a CD is empty."
Maplemusic's GM Alan Reid echoed the sentiment. "It doesn't matter how you package it. It could have fireworks in it... it will probably be weeks before we get around to listening to it, if at all."

"It's just too risky to hear something and go from scratch these days," says Silverman.
Many labels are relying on local buzz. Through networks of colleagues and contacts, bands that can build a reliable fan base in their hometown are going to get noticed. That's when they get a listen. But how many get signed just off that listen? Hardly any. Almost every band signed to the labels represented on the panel had been signed from a live showcase or concert, which makes sense; live music accounts for almost 75% of revenue for an artist these days. But how do you go about making yourself known as a live act?
"Involve yourself in your community of artists" says Jeffery Remedios of Arts & Crafts. "You don't need the label to be in music." A comment that rings true for many of A&C's first signings, who were all part of one Toronto musical community, played together, supported each other and built a base in their hometown. Another recommendation was for artists to check out Saturday's "Primp My Performance" workshop with Tom Jackson. Break down the nuts and bolts of what you're doing and figure out what it is that you do that connects with people.

But what if you don't care about the risks to the label? What about foregoing it all together and taking the Do-It-Yourself approach? If you already have that great live show, the community and the local fan base, a basement recording studio and pro-tools, you might ask yourself the same questions The UK paper The Independent recently asked in an article; "Who needs record labels?" Independent writer Fiona Sturges fumed about labels proclaiming their necessity in the information age. With the marketing potential of social networking and the growth of niche markets, it might be easy to think that as an artist, you can go it alone and have big success. Sturges was speaking of the major labels of course; of the multi-album deals, the ironclad contracts with failsafes that according to Remedios have been in place on the basis that "everyone in the industry is a crook" and that the deals "keep us from ripping each other off." It is after all a high-risk investment. So what about the indies? Silverman claims their less risk adversed, but does that mean they are worth your while as an artist? It was put to the panel, "Are record labels necessary? Are they the devil?" Now Silverman acknowledged that every man sitting on that panel was in fact the devil, but here's what they had to say...

"It's harder to break through the glut these days... there are so many releases," Silverman says, bemoaning the downside of Chris Andersons 'long tail' theory, citing the success of Amazon or Netflix wherein less popular items are sold more frequently at low volumes to generate revenue. "It's harder now than it was 10-12 years ago."

"You don't need a label per se, but you need a team. You need people filling in all the roles. You need guidance and expertise," says Alan Reid.

Stated Paul Piticco of Dew Process, "It's about the services a label gives you. Ever without the label you still require certain things in place to be successful."

"Indies are also nimble and quicker to react to change because we're smaller," said Reid.

"The music industry changes so fast. The deals are changing, becoming smarter," says Remedios. "But I've always gone by the theory that you can't make a caged bird sing. If you don't want to work with us, we don't want to work with you."

But Peticco cut the biggest difference between the majors and the indies as far as the artists fears were concerned; "Major labels are handling upwards of 10 releases every week. It's large and hard to manage the details. Independent labels can pay attention to an artists career. Maybe that will be the direction of the industry, where labels act more as management companies."

Ultimately the question comes down to what do you want; the ambition of the band and the desire to be big or not. "I want to look at an artist. I want to know what your ambition is. Lots of artists are lazy. They have small expectations and they want to be small," Glass mentioned. But Silverman answered the "to sign or not to sign" debate with this:

"In the US in 2008, only 1500 out of the tens of thousands of albums released passed 10,000 units sold. This is considered the line of obscurity, this 10,000 units mark. Of those only 12 were do-it-yourself. If you look at those albums, one was financed by an NFL player, another had hundreds of thousands from an investor, others were previous American Idol finalists; they weren't from scratch. The stats show you can't do it yourself from scratch."

"Focus on building your career," was Remedios' best advice. "That's the fastest path."

"For us the live show is everything," said Greg Below of Distort.

"Major labels want a band that's already going 50mph" Silverman added. "Indie labels, we are willing to look at bands that are going 20, maybe 30." So you don't have to be huge in 10 markets, selling hundreds of tickets a night. You don't have to be the biggest thing on MySpace. But you do have to want it."

- Jay Blackwood

http://livemusicproject.blogspot.com

Photos: Canadian Music Week Day #3 - Plants and Animals, The Acorn, Think About Life, Russian Futurists, Winter Gloves

Billions Showcase @ Lee's Palace ft. Winter Gloves, The Russian Futurists, The Acorn, Plants and Animals, Think About Life - March 12, 2010

Photos by:

Jay Blackwood

For more CMW/CMF coverage and photos:
http://livemusicproject.blogspot.com

http://picasaweb.google.com/jason.blackwood

Breaking Neue's

We at nxew.ca are happy to be the first to announce that Toronto band Times Neue Roman have signed to YYZ Records fresh off their smash set at Sneaky Dee's on March 11th as part of Canadian Music Fest. Members of the band and management were at the YYZ Records showcase last night at Wrongbar.

http://www.myspace.com/timesneueroman

http://yyzrecords.com/

USS and The Stables take the Highway To Health

U.S.S. are hooking up with The Stables for the Highway To Health Tour. Starting in Brantford ON March 19 the tour will take the two bands right across the country to Courtenay B.C. for April 1. The Stables will continue on to Cortez Islands for a date with Trakpantz at The Sunset on April 3. The Stables will be playing St. Patrick's Day at the Thirsty Monk in Oshawa.

March 17th. The Mansion House, Barrie, ON (no Stables for this show)
March 19. Jackhammers, Brantford, ON
March 20. The Red Dog, Peterborough, ON
March 22. Jack's, Thunder Bay, ON
March 23. WECC, Winnipeg, MB
March 24. Red Deer College, Red Deer, AB
March 25. Starlite Room, Edmonton, AB
March 26. SAIT - Gateway, Calgary, AB
March 27. University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB
March 29. Media Club, Vancouver, BC
March 31. Element, Victoria, BC
April 1. Avalanche Bar, Courtenay, BC
April 3. The Sunset, Cortes Island, BC (The Stables & Trakpantz for this show)

LINKS:
Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker
The Stables