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There’s Now A Certification That Honours Artists “Making It” On The Road

Jun 17, 2015

The Canadian Independent Music Association (CIMA) is excited to announce the launch of a new music industry certification program called Road Gold, and is celebrating today by presenting it to three great Canadian artists and bands.

In honour of CIMA’s 40th year as the voice of the independent music industry in Canada, CIMA is pleased to continue charting new territory by launching the first certification in Canada that recognizes the arduous road of ‘making it’ as a touring band.

CIMA’s first Road Gold artists are truly Canada’s rising stars and through great artistry, dedication and hard work have carved out their niche by hitting the road and filling venues from coast to coast. CIMA is proud to announce that USS (Coalition Music), Big Wreck (SRO-Anthem) and Matt Andersen (True North) are the first recipients of this new Road Gold certification.

“CIMA is excited to be driving an innovative way to recognize the deep talented pool of Canada’s music community who’ve been able to grow their fan bases through successful touring,” says CIMA President Stuart Johnston. “These road warriors who are being awarded the inaugural Road Gold certification are a testament to our industry’s ability to hit the road and achieve high levels of success.”

CIMA’s Road Gold certification is an acknowledgement of the dedication and drive artists must have to achieve success, broaden their fan base and express their artistry through strong public performances. It will be awarded to those Canadian artists who have achieved a high level of success during their Canadian tour(s) over the course of any 12-month period by meeting a certain level of ticket sales on headlining or co-headlining shows. Eligibility criteria details can be found here.

“Sales of recorded music do not tell the whole picture of an artist’s achievements and stature in the marketplace. Establishing a standard measurement of an artist’s touring business provides another relevant and important metric for quantifying success,” says Six Shooter Records President and CIMA Chair Shauna de Cartier. “Road Gold also recognizes the dedication and organization required of an artist and their support team to fill venues with people across the country, fuelling local music scenes in markets large and small.”

Ralph James, CEO of The Agency Group, agrees. “Touring cross-Canada is no small undertaking, and beyond building a fan base, for an independent act to sell 25,000+ tickets over the course of one year speaks to the economic impact live music can have across the board.”

“In a world dominated by chart positions, likes, and followers – people often forget that the true measure of a performing artist is “How many people will go see them live?” says Jay Parsons of USS. “We are honoured to be one of the first recipients of such an important award. As Canadian musicians, we have one of the most unforgiving touring circuits in the world, and to be recognized by CIMA for our efforts is truly humbling. Without our fans constantly supporting us in a live setting, absolutely none of this would be possible. Thank you all so much.”

The Road Gold certification is awarded by CIMA through an online application process.

Charles Mingus Created A Cat Toilet Training Program…Wait…What?

Jun 17, 2015

By some distance, Charles Mingus, the innovative jazz musician, did one of the strangest thing I’ve found on the net. He created and wrote The Charles Mingus Cat Toilet Training Program, a simple little guide created for cat owners everywhere. This lost treasure lives up to the magic and creativity of Mingus’s performances. The trick to potty training your cat comes down to edging the litter box closer to the bathroom, gradually moving the box on the potty, and then cutting a hole in the center of the box. I wonder if it’ll work on kids? Nevermind, don’t tell me.

Charles Mingus Cat Toilet Training Program

1

First, you must train your cat to use a home-made cardboard litter box, if you have not already done so. (If your box does not have a one-piece bottom, add a cardboard that fits inside, so you have a false bottom that is smooth and strong. This way the box will not become soggy and fall out at the bottom. The grocery store will have extra flat cardboards which you can cut down to fit exactly inside your box.)

Be sure to use torn up newspaper, not kitty litter. Stop using kitty litter. (When the time comes you cannot put sand in a toilet.)

Once your cat is trained to use a cardboard box, start moving the box around the room, towards the bathroom. If the box is in a corner, move it a few feet from the corner, but not very noticeably. If you move it too far, he may go to the bathroom in the original corner. Do it gradually. You’ve got to get him thinking. Then he will gradually follow the box as you move it to the bathroom. (Important: if you already have it there, move it out of the bathroom, around, and then back. He has to learn to follow it. If it is too close to the toilet, to begin with, he will not follow it up onto the toilet seat when you move it there.) A cat will look for his box. He smells it.

2

Now, as you move the box, also start cutting the brim of the box down, so the sides get lower. Do this gradually.

Finally, you reach the bathroom and, eventually, the toilet itself. Then, one day, prepare to put the box on top of the toilet. At each corner of the box, cut a little slash. You can run string around the box, through these slashes, and tie the box down to the toilet so it will not fall off. Your cat will see it there and jump up to the box, which is now sitting on top of the toilet (with the sides cut down to only an inch or so.)

Don’t bug the cat now, don’t rush him, because you might throw him off. Just let him relax and go there for awhile-maybe a week or two. Meanwhile, put less and less newspaper inside the box.

3

One day, cut a small hole in the very center of his box, less than an apple-about the size of a plum-and leave some paper in the box around the hole. Right away he will start aiming for the hole and possibly even try to make it bigger. Leave the paper for awhile to absorb the waste. When he jumps up he will not be afraid of the hole because he expects it. At this point you will realize that you have won. The most difficult part is over.

From now on, it is just a matter of time. In fact, once when I was cleaning the box and had removed it from the toilet, my cat jumped up anyway and almost fell in. To avoid this, have a temporary flat cardboard ready with a little hole, and slide it under the toilet lid so he can use it while you are cleaning, in case he wants to come and go, and so he will not fall in and be scared off completely. You might add some newspaper up there too, while you are cleaning, in case your cat is not as smart as Nightlife was.

4

Now cut the box down completely until there is no brim left. Put the flat cardboard, which is left, under the lid of the toilet seat, and pray. Leave a little newspaper, still. He will rake it into the hole anyway, after he goes to the bathroom. Eventually, you can simply get rid of the cardboard altogether. You will see when he has got his balance properly.

Don’t be surprised if you hear the toilet flush in the middle of the night. A cat can learn how to do it, spurred on by his instinct to cover up. His main thing is to cover up. If he hits the flush knob accidentally and sees that it cleans the bowl inside, he may remember and do it intentionally.

Also, be sure to turn the toilet paper roll around so that it won’t roll down easily if the cat paws it. The cat is apt to roll it into the toilet, again with the intention of covering up- the way he would if there were still kitty litter.

It took me about three or four weeks to toilet train my cat, Nightlife. Most of the time is spent moving the box very gradually to the bathroom. Do it very slowly and don’t confuse him. And, remember, once the box is on the toilet, leave it a week or even two. The main thing to remember is not to rush or confuse him.

Good luck. Charles Mingus

Two New 33 1/3s Books Out In September – Beat Happening And The Black Album

Jun 17, 2015

In September, the 33 1/3 series will be publishing two brand new books Bryan C. Parker’s book on Beat Happening and David Masciotra’s book on Metallica (The Black Album)! September is so far away, but console yourselves with a look at these two beautiful covers. What will it be in the ultimate battle of K Records v. Elektra?

Just kidding. You’re all obviously reading both.

This is the album that sent a shockwave of empowerment through the nation’s cultural underground. In 1985, Olympia, Washington band Beat Happening released their eponymous debut of lo-fi pop songs on K Records and challenged every conception held about music. At the center of the group was the enigmatic Calvin Johnson and his revolutionary vision of artistic creation. His foresight and industriousness allowed him to recruit to the K Records roster other free-spirited artists like Beck, Modest Mouse, and Built to Spill long before they gained widespread acclaim.

This book, structured as an alphabet book, breaks down the fundamental components that defined Beat Happening’s self-titled album. Organized in a light-hearted yet incisive format, each of the book’s chapters details a particular facet of the record-band members, historic shows, recording sessions, songs, and ideologies-parts reflecting the album as a whole. These alphabetic ingredients constitute a recipe book for feeding your creative spirit.
Here is the story of a band that popularized do-it-yourself projects and home recording with four-track tape machines decades before the digital revolution would extend an open hand to garage bands everywhere. This is the story of musical pioneers. This is Beat Happening.

In 1991, Metallica released their fifth studio album that would become known and beloved around the world as “The Black Album.” Since its release, it has sold 30 million copies, and become a towering monument in the pantheon of rock’s greatest records. With this book, readers will get unprecedented insight into the story behind an iconic album from one of the world’s most iconic bands. With direct and personal access to all members of Metallica and Bob Rock, the producer of The Black Album, David Masciotra is able to relay the results of his conversations with James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, Jason Newsted, and Rock.

Masciotra takes readers into the recording studio, giving them Metallica’s account of how their most successful and famous record was born and learned to walk into every radio station and stadium stage around the world. Masciotra not only talks to the band about the making of the album, but also the stories that inspired the songs. Readers will not only learn about “The Black Album,” but they will gain greater knowledge and familiarity with the men who created it.
This is a must read for any Metallica fan, and a compelling read for anyone interested in provocative musical criticism and journalism. With direct access to the band, Masciotra offers a fascinating and inspiring account of the creation of one of music’s best and best selling albums.

How A Simple Ask Invented FACTOR And The Star System In Canada

Jun 17, 2015

I love this story, especially because I’ve been telling people for years that in order to get anything done, it all starts with an ask, an action that is hard to do, but worthwhile. You let people help. You let people do what they do in order to both feel great, or achieve something you both wouldn’t be able to do on your own.

FYI Music has long wondered just how CIRPA managed to con-vince Canada’s broadcasters to fund FACTOR given the acrimony that came with the content regulations. Former Attic Records’ partner Tom Williams was central to the story and yesterday they reached out and asked him how it all came to be. The following is his response.

When we were chatting today on the phone, you asked me how a guy from an indie Canadian label convinced broadcasters to dip their hands in their back pocket to fund FACTOR, I flippantly replied, “It was easy.”
In fact, it was. I wasn’t just from Attic, I was president of CIRPA, which was giving the broadcasters a lot of grief at the time.
J Robert Wood at CHUM had been complaining for months that there weren’t enough Canadian records to choose from (I totally disagreed, of course).
I saw a story in the paper that CHUM was giving $50,000 that year to a stage band festival. I was only vaguely aware of the CRTC commitment that stations had to make so I took a closer look.
I made an appointment with “J. Bob” and went to see him. It is possible that Earl Rosen came with me, but I don’t remember for sure.
In any case, I essentially told him to take CHUM’s commitment money and put it into a recording fund, which would give him a lot of brownie points with the CRTC, provide him with more recordings, and provide our members and others with a source of funding.
My recollection is that he didn’t ask for time to think about it, but agreed to it in principal if I could get some other broadcasters involved.
I was going on a trip to Western Canada the following week, and phoned Moffat PD Chuck McCoy in Vancouver and outlined my idea and asked him to set up a meeting with a decision maker. Moffat’s head office was in Winnipeg, and Chuck set up a meeting with Jim McLaughlin, who was in charge. All three of us met in Jim’s office and, like Bob, he agreed right away.
This was pretty amazing that the two arch rivals decided to do something together.
When I got back to Toronto, I can’t remember if CHUM suggested I try to get Rogers involved or whether I did it on my own. The thinking was if we got the two biggest chains, why not go from broke.
I met with Jim Sward at CFTR and, like the others, he immediately agreed.
All broadcasters at that time hated giving that money away to projects, which did them little good so, in a way, this was a godsend to them.
An implied benefit at that time was that maybe CIRPA would back off a bit over license renewals. Implied only.
Once everyone had agreed, we set up a meeting of all three in the CHUM boardroom. No one from Rogers or Moffat had ever been inside the CHUM building before, and it was quite an event in Canadian Broadcasting and Music History.
I remember having some input into the structure of FACTOR, but the nuts and bolts were hammered out elsewhere by an appointed committee.
I sat on the board of FACTOR for several years, until I retired from Attic Records.
FACTOR, of course, has become much more than that little recording fund we had initially envisioned. I am not totally sure that has been healthy for the industry, but that is another discussion.

Tom

Pavement Announce ‘The Secret History Vol. 1’ Set For Release August 11

Jun 17, 2015

On August 11, Matador Records will release The Secret History Vol. 1, the first of five compilations in a new series of Pavement rarities. The 30 tracks, 25 of which will be available on vinyl for the first time ever, include b-sides, unreleased session tracks, John Peel sessions, and a 1992 live concert from the Slanted and Enchanted era (1990-1992). The deluxe double LP contains essays by Stephen Malkmus and Spiral Stairs, plus essays from Matador Records, Billions Corporation, and Drag City bosses, and a gorgeous gatefold designed by Rob Carmichael (Animal Collective, Dirty Projectors).
The strangest thing about Pavement? Not that there were ever many non-strange things about Pavement? Even though they made their era’s finest rock albums, the albums only told half their story. Pavement also made some of the Nineties’ best albums that never happened. Until now.

Every proper Pavement album, from the out-of-nowhere debut Slanted and Enchanted to the summer-upper Terror Twilight, was accompanied by a flurry of slay tracks and stray slack—songs that got scattered on B-sides, EPs, compilations, radio sessions. But Pavement were too busy writing and recording great songs to worry about where to stash them, and they moved too fast to leave a tidy trail. So they left these songs off their albums. Some never got released at all.

Pavement made five proper album-as-albums: Slanted and Enchanted (1992), Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (1994), Wowee Zowee (1995), Brighten The Corners (1997) and Terror Twilight (1999). Each has its own sound. Each has its own legend. But each of their official albums has a shadow album—and it’s usually as strong as the album that actually did come out. It’s time for the world to hear the albums Pavement could have made, if they’d been a little less ambitious about music and a little more ambitious about the music business. If they’d been the kind of band to sweat the legacy. But if they were that kind of band, would they have written so many great songs? Much less these great songs? No.

Matador is finally releasing a series of these shadow albums. The first, naturally, is The Secret History, Vol. 1, collecting the songs that got away during the era of Slanted and Enchanted, which Stephen Malkmus, Scott Kannberg and Gary Young recorded on the cheaper-than-cheap in January 1991. The Secret History, Vol. 1 collects gems from Peel Sessions (“Kentucky Cocktail,” “Circa 1762”) and seven-inches (“Baptist Blacktick”) as well as live slop from the first European tours, with Mark Ibold and Bob Nastanovich in the fold. Some are outtakes from Slanted—imagine leaving these tunes off your first album, when as far as you know or imagine, it’s your only album. These tracks (some of which had never been rumored among Pavement freaks) came out on the 2002 Slanted and Enchanted: Luxe & Reduxe double CD reissue. But they’ve never been separately available as an album in their own right, and many of them have never been on vinyl before.

TRACKLISTING:
1. Sue Me Jack
2. So Stark (You’re A Skyscraper)
3. Summer Babe (7” Version)
4. Mercy Snack: The Laundromat
5. Baptiss Blacktick
6. My First Mine
7. Nothing Ever Happens
8. Here (Alternate Mix)
9. Greenlander
10. Circa 1762 (Peel Session 1)
11. Kentucky Cocktail (Peel Session 1)
12. Secret Knowledge Of Backroads (Peel Session 1)
13. Here (Peel Session 1)
14. Rain Ammunition (Peel Session 2)
15. Drunks With Guns (Peel Session 2)
16. Ed Ames (Peel Session 2)
17. The List Of Dorms (Peel Session 2)
18. Conduit For Sale [Live Brixton 1992]
19. Fame Throwa [Live Brixton 1992]
20. Home [Live Brixton 1992]
21. Perfume V [Live Brixton 1992]
22. Summer Babe [Live Brixton 1992]
23. Frontwards [Live Brixton 1992]
24. Angel Carver Blues Mellow Jazz Docent [Live Brixton 1992]
25. Two States [Live Brixton 1992]
26. No Life Singed Her [Live Brixton 1992]
27. So Stark (You’re A Skyscraper) [Live Brixton 1992]
28. Box Elder [Live Brixton 1992]
29. Baby Yeah [Live Brixton 1992]
30. In The Mouth Of A Desert [Live Brixton 1992]

Frank Sinatra’s ‘social bible’ sells for $8,960

Jun 17, 2015

Frank Sinatra’s little black book spanning the 1970s until the 1990s has sold at auction for $8,960 (£5,767.57).

Described by Man of the World magazine as an “oxblood leather social bible that reads like a who’s who of the jet set’s gilded age,” the diary reportedly comprises of personal information regarding his many A-list associates.

Said to be “bulging with annotated contacts,” the front cover of the book features an image of a fortune cookie message that reads: “Beware of friends who are false and deceitful.” Inside, its pages consist of information regarding the likes of John Wayne, Sidney Poitier, US Ambassador to the United Kingdom under Ronald Reagan, Charles H Price II, Elvis Presley’s promoter Jerry Weintraub and songwriter Jimmy Webb.

Via The Guardian

Infographic: What Apple Music Means to Artists and Fans

Jun 16, 2015

Streaming is changing the way the music industry operates, and this week it’s in the news again. Tech giant Apple announced that they will be offering a new music streaming service, Apple Music, at the end of this month. TakeLessons.com has revealed what their service will offer, and what fans and artists can expect…

Ed Sheeran Performs Fetty Wap’s “Trap Queen” With The Roots On The Tonight Show.

Jun 16, 2015

Ed Sheeran performs an acoustic version of Fetty Wap’s “Trap Queen” with The Roots while backstage in the Tonight Show music room.

Bach’s “Crab Canon” is played backwards and forward. Mind Blown.

Jun 16, 2015

The enigmatic Canon 1 à 2 from J. S. Bachs Musical Offering’s manuscript from 1747 depicts a single musical sequence that is to be played front to back and back to front. Mind blown.

Young Woman Talks About Effective Altruism At TEDx

Jun 16, 2015

Beth Barnes is a student at Exeter College, and won a competition to speak at TEDxExeter 2015. She describes a system that allows us to direct our resources to what we think will do the most good.

Beth became involved in the Effective Altruism movement last year, and took the Giving What We Can pledge. This year she started Exeter Effective Altruism Society. Next year she hopes to go on to study Biological Natural Sciences at Cambridge, and is currently considering pathways to making a difference and careers such as research into biosecurity, working to combat neglected tropical diseases, or biological software engineering.