Yesterday’s DIY panel was terrific. The goal was to come up with 10 things that indie bands need to be doing NOW. I think we had more than that, and we didn’t even get to all of the questions our lovely moderator had prepared. What an opportunity it was for attendees.

One thing I will note is that there’s a handful of east coast artists that I strongly believe have what it takes to break nationally, and out of the, say, 5-6 that I’m behind, 4 of them were in the audience for the panel. Very interesting that they’re taking time out of their day to learn and try and improve their careers.

Showcases were a blast. Can’t believe I didn’t get to catch Joel, Slowcoaster, or Paper Lions, though. My loss…

Plenty to do and see last night. Met with some very talented players who will be gracing the various columns in CM over the next few issues. Also got to see The Motorleague rock an overly-enthusiastic crowd, as well as The Sidewalks and Carleton Stone at the Rock Stage.

Today is conference day – lots of great ideas will be shared, as the ECMA has done a terrific job of bringing some of the strongest minds in the Canadian and International music scenes together. Bob Harris’ keynote today was terrific.

                                               I’ll certainly post after the DIY Town Hall panel. It’s supposed to be very informal and communal, which I’m really looking forward to. Then, tonight will be full of more music and hand-shaking. Updates soon…

Beautiful, albeit long, drive to Sydney today. Met up with my crew from the Music PEI awards – Kimberly and Kevin Sinclair from SpinCount, Will from UMAC, Nikkie, and Lou from ReverbNation. Fun, smart, and interesting bunch.

Going to see some showcases tonight and meeting up with old friends. PEI’s The Sidewalks, NB’s The Motorleague, and hopefully Tim Chaisson. We’ll see how far we get. Expect live photos from now on – I just haven’t been anywhere yet, and nobody wants to see pictures of my hotel room or unshaven face. For now, here’s The Motorleague by CM contributor Tony Dawe.

DIY panel tomorrow – it’ll be yours truly alongside my buddy Kreeft from Underground Operations Booking Agency, as well as some great folks from MapleMusic, Music NB, and more. See you there??

Hi everyone. How are you today? Just wanted to drop a quick note to let y’all know that SIRIUS Radio and Best Buy are putting on a contest to help YOU get out to the JUNO’s in St. John’s. The contest is called “Face The Music Challenge”. How do I win you ask? Well, it all comes down to your musical trivia abilities. The contest is a “Name That Tune” concept, where you have to either name the title of the song or the artist of the song, based on a short audio clip.

The grand prize consists of round trip travel and accommodation for two to St. John

I received an interesting story pitch this week about a duo from Winnipeg called Keith and Renee (that’s them in the photo). I had the pleasure of checking out their latest release, Detours, and must say it’s a charming little mix of songs worthy of some attention in its own right.

That said, a more appealing element to Keith and Renee is the fact that the pair recently embarked on a partnership with Free the Children, which brought them to Kenya to work with the program, following which they did a school tour discussing their experiences. Not only were they privy to a once-in-a-lifetime humbling experience, but the two also found an interesting way to bring their music to more people. Pretty clever if you ask me.

As we’ve continually stressed in CM, there are plenty of benefits that come with donating time towards meaningful and deserving causes. Not only are you working for the greater good, but you’re making your story more attractive to the music industry and listeners alike. Just make sure you’re in it for the right reasons, and the results should be fruitful.

Oh yeah, check out some tunes from Keith and Renee here: www.keithandrenee.com.

So the Olympics are over – two weeks of great music, great games, and what seems to have been great times. There were a few tragedies, injuries, upsets, and what have you, but the spirit of the games seemed generally positive throughout. Congrats to all Canadian athletes who took part, especially those who helped amass the record-breaking 14 gold medals.

Much to my surprise, I caught myself watching figure skating at the end of last week. I couldn’t help but feel that all of the music accompanying these skaters seemed a bit "safe." I think the sport is waiting for some Lady Gaga-looking werido that skates to "Ace of Spades" by Motorhead or something. Of course, even if he/she sucked, they could still make the annoying commentators discuss how "edgy" they are, or how they’re a "breath of fresh air" for the sport.

Attention Canadian figure skaters: this idea is yours for the taking.