Not much more to report than that, except that Joel Plaskett is producing. From their Myspace Blog:
"hey gang
on sunday we head to halifax nova scotia to begin recording our new album. despite what you may have read it has no title as of yet. we're very lucky to be working alongside joel plaskett again. we've been busy recording demos with him for the past month or so trying to make sure everything will be as good as we can make it. the record will be mixed by our new pal howard redekopp, who has worked on some of our favorite albums. how can we go wrong...? we'll try and post an update or two from the studio depending on how well we can maintain our sanity.
full speed ahead!
andy"
Good news for a chilly day though, Two Hours Traffic actually manage to sound like patio season.
Now that I've finished explaining why the Junos are outdated and uninspiring I should also mention that Halifax's the Cost has launched their annual Music Reader's Poll and goes about it entirely differently than most music awards. Anyone can vote and there aren't even any nominations.
See already as impressive as the Juno list, and that's just Halifax.
I'd worry with a process this wide open that it would just be a popularity contest, but it beats the hell out of the Juno's system. I think some combination of open voting and critics picks would be best. At any rate go vote! You can win an X-Box.
Via JoelPlaskett.com (which also has full track listings for the new 3 album set "Three"). There is a special right now running through Maple Music: For $66 you can get a ticket to Joel's May 23 Massey Hall show and a signed copy of "Three".
If you're not in Toronto Plaskett promises more offers are to come for other locations. So, if you're in Toronto and want to get in on this visit Maple Music and if you're not in Toronto and you're saying "Where's my deal?" Follow joelplaskett.com.
CBC Radio 3 is reporting that Joel Plaskett is currently busy producing a new Two Hours Traffic disc. But come February (exact date unknown) he will release a three CD set entitled "Three" - each of the three discs will have 9 songs on it (3 x 3 songs = 9 x 3 CDs = a 27 song song collection called 3). Plaskett actually revealed all of this in an interview which you can listen to in its entirety here.
36 Hours until I move so not much time for blogging, but a few headlines for you all. First I should mention that I run alot of groups on facebook. Check them out and see if there are any of interest that you don't know about at http://www.publicbroadcasting.ca/justin/groups.html
Now, check these out.
The declining looney and the need to save money in the declining U.S. has the phones ringing again for Canada's film industry. Note to Mr. Harper, Even in a bad economy the arts and culture sector keeps going.
If separatism is finally done a Bloc/Liberal merger could form majority governments for a long time to come.
Before the election the CBC hired a private company to monitor it's election coverage and look for signs of bias. The report is in and no bias was found.
Thanks to Joel Plaskett for the heads up on this: The Berkeley sessions are coming to Bravo TV this fall. Recorded at Toronto's Berkeley Church the series will feature
Episode 1 (Sept. 10): Canadian indie-rocker Joel Plaskett performs, alongside his father Bill, the acoustic versions of his hits Nowhere With You and Happen Now.
Episode 2 (Sept. 17): Jon Langford, founder of the punk band The Mekons, wows the Berkeley Church audience with his unique brand of Brit-style alt-country. Langford is also joined by members of Toronto's The Sadies and the Burlington Male Welsh Choir.
Episode 3 (Sept. 24): Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah Slean and her expert trio perform old favorites and selections from her latest release The Baroness.
Episode 4 (Oct. 1): Southern songwriter and poet Jim White runs through an evocative set of his lyrically challenging, yet melodically appealing songs.
Episode 5 (Oct. 8): No mere strummer, American guitarist Kaki King uses every part of her instrument to create an astonishing range of sounds and rhythms.
Episode 6 (Oct. 15): Canadian singer-songwriter Pete Elkas, former member of the alternative rock band Local Rabbits, performs several of his haunting self-penned songs in his signature falsetto.
Since it is really the closest thing we have on television to CBC Radio, Bravo's Blog
Canadian Music is stronger than it has ever been. I don't even add 'arguably' to that statement anymore. Yet every time there is a big 'industry' event like NXNE or a new piece of legislation like the new Copyright Bill recording industry brass rush to their nearest podium to lament the impending death of the 'music industry'. At the same time all over Canada new labels are cropping up. According to CBC Radio 3 both Joel Plaskett and Two Hours Traffic have recently launched new record labels.
Halifax rocker Joel Plaskett announced today the launch of his very own New Scotland Records. The first release will be the debut solo album by his good friend Dave Marsh, drummer for the Joel Plaskett Emergency and Super Friendz. The True Love Rules will be released on July 29. Other releases on New Scotland will likely be on both CD and 7" vinyl, and will include other Plaskett pals like Peter Elkas and Al Tuck.
Across the Northumberland Strait on Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown band Two Hours Traffic have also launched their own label called Collagen Rock Records. The label roster so far features bands only from Maritime islands: PEI's Two Hours Traffic, the Danks and Smothered in Hugs, and from Cape Breton, Mardeen.
This comes hot on the heels of Sloan relaunching Murder Records. You would think that if the industry was dying, that people wouldn't be rushing in to join it. Do you ever think that maybe, just maybe artists and fans know something that the MBAs of the world haven't figured out yet?
I'll never understand why most Canadian Media outlets give extensive coverage to the Grammy Awards and hardly mention the East Coast Music Awards, even though they were on the same night. I suppose it has to do with the assumption in the media that Canadians aren't interested in Canadian artists unless they are succeeding in other countries. That may even be partially true, but if it is it is perpetuated in large part by the media who give extensive coverage to Canadians succeeding abroad and little to Canadians succeeding at home. In short, it's a self fulfilling prophecy. How can Canadians possibly get excited about things they don't know about?
Now that I've finished the Micro Rant: Congratulations to the Joel Plaskett Emergency who won Best Video (for Fashionable People), Songwriter of the Year, Group Recording of the Year, Rock Recording of the Year and Recording of the Year for "Ashtray Rock".
Aside from Plaskett's multiple wins George Canyon picked up the ECMA's 'Entertainer of the Year' award, Dave Gunning, the Rankin Family and Jamie sparks each won two awards and Stephanie Hardy won the 'Rising Star' award. Thom Swift won the award for Blues recording and the New Brunswick Youth orchestra won classical recording of the year. The Saddle River String Band took home top bluegrass artist, Nathan Wiley's "The City Destroyed Me" won Alternative Recording of the Year and the Country Recording of the Year went to the Divorcees.
The CBC will air a condensed version of the ECMA's hosted by Stephen Page on March 2nd. You can read CBC Radio 3's Grant Lawrence's take on the ECMA's here and the full breakdown from the Canadian Press over there.
"For the fifth year in a row Iraq was the deadliest dateline with 31 journalists killed, most of whom were targeted and murdered, the watchdog said. All but one of the journalists killed were Iraqi, with nine of those working for international organizations, including Reuters and The Associated Press."
"The band's 2007 album Ashtray Rock has three nominations, including recording of the year and its single Fashionable People earned nods for best single and songwriter of the year for Plaskett."
"Damn I love the end of the year... there's something about snow on the ground, a frozen ice world outside, frost that physically hurts, that makes a guy just want to curl up someplace warm, forget about every single outside obligation, and for the first time all year, take the time to nostalgically make reference to breakthrough/amazing music encompassing another completed year. Team Volcanoless recently experienced some warmth by the fire, partaking in mad discussion about 2007 and the albums that made us want to make another one."
"Peters's wife Ann, who was in the car at the time, said her husband only put his hands over his face after the officer punched him in the mouth, and that the officer used the Taser twice on her husband while he was still in the car. "John never hit the officer. He was never tased outside the car. He was tased both times inside the car.""
The new album from Gentleman Reg is just about done.
"And it became apparent that all the songs we had recorded, even though they were all good, didn't make up a complete album.So, in the last few months many adjustments have been made. Adding songs, taking some away, re-mixing, editing,,,adding horns....And it's finally feeling finished. This week we go through the mixes and pick our favorites, and then assemble the album.It has a name too. I'll tell you later."
"If passed, the proposal would give B.C. seven new MPs, Alberta five and Ontario only 10 – fully 11 fewer than if the province was treated the same as Canada's other fast-growing regions. This means effectively disenfranchising some 1 million Ontarians in the next decade, or approximately one in every 10 citizens of voting age."
"In April, Trent Reznor released Year Zero, a concept album about a future society teetering on the brink of apocalypse. It was supposed to be a grand work of fiction, but it could just as easily have been about the music industry in 2007 — a bleak, burned-out world where the sky fell on a daily basis and the rivers ran red with the blood of record execs. (That the album didn't sell well only furthers the analogy ...)"
In a country as musically rich and diverse as Canada, even to be nominated for the Polaris Prize is a huge achievement. The Polaris prize is, in my view, the greatest musical honour in Canada. It is not run by the record industry. Sales, marketing, and location have no bearing on the outcome. The prize is voted on by 170 (ish) music journalists - people who love music so much that they have devoted their careers to it.
Most especially congratulations to Patrick Watson for actually taking the thing home. If, like most of the world, you couldn't be at last night's Polaris award show - check out the Radio 3 Podcast from it with performances from the Besnard Lakes, Eric's Trip, Julie Doiron, Miracle Fortress, the Joel Plaskett Emergency, Chad VanGaalen and Patrick Watson.
Not much more to report than that, except that Joel Plaskett is producing. From their Myspace Blog:
