Canadian Musician‘s publisher, Jim Norris, is one of the Co-Founders of Friends Of Music Therapy, an endowment fund that supports the privately-funded Music Therapy program at SickKids in Toronto. Visit FriendsOfMusicTherapy.com for more inforamtion about the initiative and Music Therapy in general. (You can also help spread the word.)

Canadian hip-hop sensation Drake is donating a portion of each ticket sold on his current North American tour to Friends Of Music Therapy and the initiative it’s supporting. I think that’s worthy of a "shout-out" as they call it in the game. If you were able to attend on of his Canadian dates (or are hitting an upcoming show), know that while you were enjoying what was likely a killer performance, you were also supporting a great cause thanks to this guy’s generosity. Drizzy gets the Andrew King Seal Of Approval.

Not even the election of Rob Ford as mayor or the forecasted

So it’s a crime for ANYONE living within a 5-hour radius of Halifax to miss out on the Halifax Pop Explosion, with an equal punishment for someone IN THE INDUSTRY who’s only able to attend for one day/night. That’s right, folks, guilty as charged. Despite the awesomeness of the lineup, the Music Matters Conference, and some of the great people that’ll be buzzing around the city this week/weekend, I’ll only be taking part in about 20% of it. For shame.

When life gives you lemons, though, as Atmosphere says, you turn that shit gold. I know that I’ll be seeing the amazing Rich Aucoin at the Audio Blood Media party, and after that, the only other ABSOLUTE MUST SEE is Tokyo Police Club, only because Champ has been rocking my socks off lately.

For anyone in town, what are you hitting today/tomorrow? May I suggest the "Breaking The Band" panel, happening at 1 pm at the Citadel Hotel? You know you wanna…

This is the CEO of TuneCore, who presents some interesting info. What do you think?

Today was the first day of the 2010 Halifax Pop Explosion, undoubtedly one of my favourite events of the year, even though I’ve never really had the opportunity to take full advantage of all it has to offer. That said, like last year, I’ll be sneaking down for some of the festivities this weekend. I’ll be moderating a panel as part of the Music Matters Conference on Saturday, October 23 at 1 p.m. at the Citadel Halifax Hotel. The panel is called "Enter The Blogosphere," and will discuss the emergence of blogging as a credible medium in today’s music industry. We’ve got chaps from Line Of Best Fit, Chromewaves, HeroHill, and You Ain’t No Picasso along with yours truly, so come on out for that and some of the other cool panels this year. More on the festival to come…

Our really good friends In-Flight Safety were on their way down to showcase at CMJ – a huge opportunity for these guys – when this happened. Van troubles are the bane of many a tour (my pals in The Sidewalks are currently amidst their aptly-named "One Van Per Tour Tour"), and it’s often the days following that really test what a band is made of. In-Flight is now on their way to NYC in two separate vehicles – maybe not the most effecient, but when the going gets tough… Any interesting van stories from the people?

Both the current and upcoming issues of Canadian Musician feature guitar columns by a young man named Jamie Robinson, and at 20 years old, this kid is definitely one to watch. If the quality of his lessons wasn’t indicative enough (if you don’t play guitar, just count the notes…), he’s just dropped a full-length album called Playing To Win that, as far as I can tell, he recorded himself.

Continue reading “This Kid Is "Playing To Win"”

Thanks to the fine folks at TheMegaPhone.ca, I was able to see one of my absolute favourite live acts here on my humble little home island. That’s right – the boys in Comeback Kid made the trip across the mighty Confederation Bridge to rock a (relatively) small-but-stoked crowd, and wouldn’t you know it, I was invited! Andrew Neufeld (vocals) and I had a really great chat in the dimly-lit bar above the venue, which you’ll be able to see very shortly.

Amidst the interview, I dropped a few names (with the best of intentions) of bands with whom CBK had been touring in order to talk about how a great performance can inspire others, regardless of genre. Andrew made a great point, noting that a lot of CM readers may not be familiar with bands like Madball or A Wilhelm Scream (though bassist Brian from the latter is a Canuck and included in our annual bass feature). And he’s right. What I’m hoping, though, is that even just a few of you check up on those bands after the interview. Even if you hate what you hear, we’ve introduced you to something new – and whether that’s a hardcore band, hidden bluegrass gem, jazz drummer, or even a new way of distributing your music online, that can’t be a bad thing.

Thanks to CBK, Tanner, Jen, and Revs for filming. Video coming soon…