Ed Sheeran Adds More Concert Dates to North American Tour

Mar 31, 2015

Ed Sheeran, who is preparing to kick-off his North American tour in May, just announced he’s extending the nearly sold-out series of shows with another run through the States in September. He was also announced this week as the Host of the 2015 MuchMusic Video Awards.

The 14 new dates are below — pre-sale tickets will be available for select dates starting on April 6, followed by general public on-sale tickets starting on April 10. All the details can be found on Sheeran’s site.

SEPTEMBER

03 Houston, TX BBVA Compass Stadium
05 Dallas, TX Toyota Stadium
08 Orlando, FL Amway Center
09 Miami, FL American Airlines Arena
10 Tampa, FL Amalie Arena
12 Atlanta, GA Philips Arena
13 Nashville, TN Bridgestone Arena
15 St. Paul, MN Xcel Energy Center
16 Chicago, IL First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre
17 Cincinnati, OH Riverbend Music Center
18 Cleveland, OH Blossom Music Center
20 Toronto, ON Air Canada Center
22 Washington, DC Verizon Center
23 Washington, DC Verizon Center

Here`s The Full Text Of TIDAL’s “Declaration” Signed By Madonna, Kayne, Jay Z, Rihanna & Others

Mar 31, 2015

Tuesday’s relaunch of Jay Z’s TIDAL music service was a little short on details – which was planned, don`t worry, these superstars tend not to give up everything at once – Here is the declaration that Kanye West, Madonna, Nicki Minaj. Beyonce, Jack White, Alicia Keys, Rihanna, Chris Martin of Coldplay, Usher, Daft Punk, deadmau5, J Cole, Jason Aldean, Calvin Harris and Jay Z signed on stage during the event.

Throughout history, every movement began with a few individuals banding together with a shared vision – a vision to change the status quo.

That vision came to life with a first step. Our first step begins today through the platform TIDAL.

TIDAL is an artist majority owned company with a mission to reestablish the value of music and protect the sustainability of the music industry rooted in creativity and expression.

As part of our vision to introduce change to the current system, we will continue expanding this platform into an all-encompassing destination in the coming months. We are working diligently everyday to enhance the overall service.

Today, the site incorporates high quality sound, video and exclusive editorial, but there are more features on the way. In time, TIDAL will not just be a streaming service but an immersive platform with enhanced experiences.

With TIDAL we are making a commitment to build a platform that reflects ideas contributed directly from artists, providing an enriched experience. Music presented and heard the way the artists intended.

We want our mission with TIDAL to spark conversation and lay a foundation for tomorrow’sburgeoning stars.

Our movement is being led by a few who are inviting all to band together for a common cause, a movement to change the status quo.

Today marks the next step.

Stars, Dan Mangan, Plants and Animals, Murray McLauchlan, and The Spinney Brothers headline the Inaugural Credit Union May Run Music Festival

Mar 31, 2015

Music PEI is pleased to announce Stars, Dan Mangan, Plants and Animals, Murray McLauchlan, and The Spinney Brothers as the headlining acts for the inaugural Credit Union May Run Music Festival. Taking place in Charlottetown from May 13-17, the event celebrates the talents of PEI’s artists while featuring accomplished acts from across Canada.

Embracing nostalgia and named after the May Run long weekend, the festival happens in tandem with the Bell Aliant Canadian Song Conference, which takes place May 13-14. The new conference brings together leading music industry professionals from across North America to explore the art and commerce of songwriting.

Preceding the Bell Aliant Canadian Song Conference is a unique project called The Canadian Song Challenge. The result of support from Bell Media and a partnership between Music PEI and five provincial music industry associations, including Music BC, Alberta Music, SaskMusic, Manitoba Music, and Music Ontario, it pairs an artist from each of the five represented provinces with a PEI artist to write together for two days (May 11-12).

“We’re certainly looking forward to celebrating the achievements of our Island’s musicians while simultaneously engaging the industry and public with this year’s expanded event,” said Andrew King, President of the Music PEI Board of Directors. “Both the festival and conference have a lot of important eyes and ears directed our way, and we know we can deliver something special.”

The Credit Union May Run Music Festival kicks off with Bluegrass at the Brewery on May 14. Taking place at The PEI Brewing Company, the show features The Spinney Brothers along with Notre Dame de Grass from Montreal, local favourites Janet McGarry and Serge Bernard, and more.

The Songwriter Concert takes place on Friday, May 15th at Harmony House Theatre. Hosted by iconic Canadian folk artist Murray McLauchlan, the evening features performances from the five nominees for Music PEI SOCAN Songwriter of the Year, including Amy & Rachel Beck, Catherine MacLellan, Katie McGarry, Ten Strings and a Goat Skin, and The Meds. Friday also features another early show, The PEI Brewing Company House of Rock.

Saturday offers two more concerts: The Cavendish Beach Music Festival Country Jubilee at the Harbourfront Theatre in Summerside features Albertan cowboy crooner Tim Hus along with PEI artists to be announced. The second is The Dockside Concert in the Harbourview Room at the Delta Convention Centre. Fans in attendance will be treated to performances from Murray McLauchlan, Dan Mangan, and local talent to be announced. Music PEI also presents a free show for the family, the Confederation Court Mall Music in the Mall on Saturday afternoon.

On Friday and Saturday night, downtown Charlottetown comes alive with showcases at eight venues including: The Old Triangle, Hunter’s Ale House, The Factory, Fishbones, Marc’s Lounge, John Browns, The Guild, and the Olde Dublin Pub. Creative Saskatchewan is also presenting a special all Saskatchewan showcase Friday night at John Brown Richmond Street Grill.

Sunday’s Closing Concert is presented by AM Burgoyne Insurance and is split into two shows. The early portion features Dan Mangan (BC), Tim Hus (AB), Jay Semko of The Northern Pikes (SK), The Small Glories (MB), and their PEI counterparts from PEI the Canadian Song Challenge.

The late show finale sees Montreal indie pop/rock icons Stars and Plants and Animals take the stage along with Island artists to be announced.

The 2015 Music PEI Awards are presented at each concert and selected showcases during the Credit Union May Run Music Festival.

2015 Music PEI Award Nominees:

The Meds lead the 2015 Music PEI Award nominees with six nods, Catherine MacLellan and Coyote follow with five, and then Katie McGarry with four. The complete list of the 2015 Music PEI Award nominees is as follows:

Achievement in Classical or Jazz
Sirens – “Lost Voices”
PEI Symphony
Glen Strickey Quartet

Album of the Year
Catherine MacLellan – The Raven’s Sun (Producer: Chris Gauthier)
Gordie MacKeeman and His Rhythm Boys – Pickin’ n Clickin (Producer: Nathan Wiley)
Irish Mythen – Irish Mythen (Producer: Liam Corcoran, Irish Mythen)
Katie McGarry – Waiting On (Producer: Katie McGarry, Dan Currie, Jon Matthews)
The Meds – South America (Producer: Colin MacDonald & The Meds)

Bell Aliant Weekend Warrior of the Year
David Woodside
Johnny Oliver
Peggy Clinton
Plain Dirty Blues Band
Ryan Merry

Country Recording of the Year
Brian J. Dunn – Death Do Us Part
Johnny Oliver – Easy Come Easy Go
Katie McGarry – Waiting On
Peggy Clinton – Peggy Clinton

Entertainer of the Year
Coyote
Gordie MacKeeman and His Rhythm Boys
Paper Lions
Ten Strings and a Goat Skin
The Meds

Event of the Year
PEI 2014 – “The Celebration Zone”
PEI Symphony – “Celebrate Canada”
TD PEI Jazz and Blues Festival
The PEI Festival of Small Halls
Watermark Theatre – “Classic Music Reignited”

Female Solo Recording of the Year
Catherine MacLellan – The Raven’s Sun
Emma Doucette – Starling
Irish Mythen – Irish Mythen
Katie McGarry – Waiting On
Peggy Clinton – Peggy Clinton

Group Recording of the Year
Amy & Rachel Beck – Run
Coyote – Proof of Life
Death Valley Driver – Graveyard Dead
The East Pointers – The East Pointers
The Meds – South America

Male Solo Recording of the Year
Al Tuck – Stranger at the Wake
Brian J. Dunn – Death Do Us Part
Dennis Ellsworth – Love Knows Love
Gordon Belsher – Vagabond Minstrel
Johnny Oliver – Easy Come Easy Go

Media Person of the Year
Blair A. Dewar
Karen Mair
Maria McLean
PixbyLorne
Todd MacLean

Musician of the Year
Chris Gauthier
Dan Currie
Deryl Gallant
Nathan Condon

New Artist of the Year
Brian J. Dunn
Emma Doucette
Spencer Soloduka & The Tearaways Teem
The East Pointers

Pop Recording of the Year
Amy & Rachel Beck – Run
ARCHER – I’ll Never Let Go
Coyote – Proof of Life
Teem – Teem

Producer of the Year
Chris Gauthier
Colin Buchanan
Dan Currie
Jon Matthews
Tim Chaisson

Rock Recording of the Year
Banner Year – People Ruin Everything
Corey Poirier – Evil Anthems
Mindwaves – Horizons
Plain Dirty Blues Band – Slow Burn
The Meds – South America

SpinCount Roots Contemporary Recording of the Year
Al Tuck – Stranger at the Wake
Catherine MacLellan – The Raven’s Sun
Dennis Ellsworth – Love Knows Love
Irish Mythen – Irish Mythen
The Roots Project – Family

Roots Traditional Recording of the Year
Emma Doucette – Starling
The East Pointers – The East Pointers
The MacDonald Sisters – The Journey
The Ross Family – Puppet Strings

SOCAN Songwriter of the Year
Amy & Rachel Beck – “Run” (Composers: Amy & Rachel Beck)
Catherine MacLellan – “The Raven’s Sun” (Composer: Catherine MacLellan)
Katie McGarry – “Waiting On” (Composer: Katie McGarry)
Ten Strings And A Goat Skin – “The Night They Moved The House” (Composers: Lennie Gallant & Rowen Gallant)
The Meds – “South America” (Composer: Kyle Drake)

Touring Artist of the Year
Coyote
Gordie MacKeeman and His Rhythm Boys
Paper Lions
Ten Strings and a Goat Skin
Tim Chaisson

Urban Recording of the Year
Cavy – The Country Roads
High School Drama Teacher – オンラインデート
HoodHaikus – High School Trappin’ Vol. 2
Spencer Soloduka & The Tearaways – Spencer Soloduka & The Tearaways

Venue of the Year
Harmony House Theatre
PEI 2014 Celebration Zone
St. Mary’s Church
The Albert & Crown Pub & Eatery Watermark Theatre

Video of the Year
Catherine MacLellan – “Tell Me Luella” (Director: Millefiore Clarkes)
Coyote – “Proof of Life” (Director: Mikey Wasnidge & Millefiore Clarkes)
Dennis Ellsworth – “Hazy Sunshine” (Director: Millefiore Clarkes)
Nudie – “Stompin’Tom Connors.com” (Director: Joey Wheale)
The Meds – “South America” (Director: Kyle Simpson)

Visual Artist of the Year
Darrell Theriault
Louise Vessey
Moe Chandler
PixbyLorne

Voting is now open for the awards. Full details are available at www.musicpei.com. Voting closes on April 20, 2015.

“The City of Charlottetown applauds the efforts of Music PEI to establish a new, annual festival and conference during a time of year when the tourism impact can be maximized,” said Charlottetown Mayor, Clifford Lee. “The Credit Union May Run Music Festival and Bell Aliant Canadian Song Conference will energize our city during the May holiday weekend and serve as a platform for our residents to get out to celebrate this country’s rich music scene and support Island artists.”

Ticket Information:

Tickets are now on sale via Ticketpro. A limited number of Festival Passes (early bird – $95) and Friday and Saturday Showcase Wristbands ($40) are now available along with individual concert tickets. Ticket details can be found at ticketpro.com or musicpei.com.

Hear Kim Gordon reading from her memoir Girl in a Band

Mar 31, 2015

Kim Gordon, founding member of Sonic Youth, fashion icon, and role model for a generation of women, now tells her story—a memoir of life as an artist, of music, marriage, motherhood, independence, and as one of the first women of rock and roll, written with the lyricism and haunting beauty of Patti Smith’s Just Kids.

Often described as aloof, Kim Gordon opens up as never before in Girl in a Band. Telling the story of her family, growing up in California in the ’60s and ’70s, her life in visual art, her move to New York City, the men in her life, her marriage, her relationship with her daughter, her music, and her band, Girl in a Band is a rich and beautifully written memoir.

Gordon takes us back to the lost New York of the 1980s and ’90s that gave rise to Sonic Youth, and the Alternative revolution in popular music. The band helped build a vocabulary of music—paving the way for Nirvana, Hole, Smashing Pumpkins and many other acts. But at its core, Girl in a Band examines the route from girl to woman in uncharted territory, music, art career, what partnership means—and what happens when that identity dissolves.

Evocative and edgy, filled with the sights and sounds of a changing world and a transformative life, Girl in a Band is the fascinating chronicle of a remarkable journey and an extraordinary artist.

This is part one of five exclusive clips, to be published every day this week at 5pm GMT.

KIM GORDON: GIRL IN A BAND | 1. Chapter One by Rough Trade on Mixcloud

You can now play Pac-Man in Google Maps

Mar 31, 2015

You can now play the classic arcade game PAC-MAN in Google Maps with streets as your maze. Avoid Blinky, Pinky, Inky, (and Clyde!) as you swerve the streets of some famous places around the world. But eat the pac-dots fast, because this game will only be around for a little while.

Click here to start!

Leonard Cohen Gets It Right On Doing Your Art For Purpose, Not Profit

Mar 29, 2015

It [has] to do with two things. One is economic urgency. I just never made enough money to say, “Oh, man, I think I’m gonna get a yacht now and scuba-dive.” I never had those kinds of funds available to me to make radical decisions about what I might do in life. Besides that, I was trained in what later became known as the Montreal School of Poetry.

Before there were prizes, before there were grants, before there were even girls who cared about what I did. We would meet, a loosely defined group of people. There were no prizes, as I said, no rewards other than the work itself. We would read each other poems. We were passionately involved with poems and our lives were involved with this occupation…

We had in our minds the examples of poets who continued to work their whole lives. There was never any sense of a raid on the marketplace, that you should come up with a hit and get out. That kind of sensibility simply did not take root in my mind until very recently…

So I always had the sense of being in this for keeps, if your health lasts you. And you’re fortunate enough to have the days at your disposal so you can keep on doing this. I never had the sense that there was an end. That there was a retirement or that there was a jackpot.

What a beautiful testament to the creative spirit and its true motives, to creative contribution coming from a place of purpose rather than a hunger for profit. – Leonard Cohen in Paul Zollo’s book, Songwriters on Songwriting

Flowchart: What romantic movie should you watch?

Mar 29, 2015

The romance genre is brimming with adventure, plot twists, heartbreak, joy and—hopefully—a happy ending. But with so many options to choose from, it’s not easy to find the right flick for your movie night. Unless, of course, you have Shari’s Berries’ fun and fabulous flowchart. You can pine for Ryan Gosling with your girlfriends, entertain your boyfriend with a Judd Apatow romcom or introduce your family to a classic love tale like The Princess Bride.

The Beatles’ Isolated Guitar Track for “I Feel Fine”

Mar 29, 2015

John Lennon plays I Feel Fine’s main riff on his Gibson while George Harrison sometimes doubles, and other times plays rhythm on his Gretsch Tennessean. At the time of the song’s recording, the Beatles, having mastered the studio basics, had begun to explore new sources of inspiration in noises previously eliminated as mistakes (such as electronic goofs, twisted tapes, and talkback). I Feel Fine marks one of the earliest examples of the use of feedback as a recording effect in popular music. Artists such as the Kinks and the Who had already used feedback live, but Lennon remained proud of the fact that the Beatles were perhaps the first group to deliberately put it on vinyl.

Pretty Cool Documentary on The Yorkville Music Scene in Toronto

Mar 29, 2015

If you want to know one thing about Toronto, let it be what went on in Yorkville during the 1960s.

When New York City found its artists burrowing in Greenwich Village, and while artists were flocking to Haight-Ashbury on the San Francisco scene, the hippies of Toronto were building their own cultural haven in Yorkville.

Located in the dead centre of the city, the neighbourhood became a place for Canadian musicians, writers, and political activists to form a community in one of their country’s largest metropolises. Singers like Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and Gordon Lightfoot found themselves in the same cafes and clubs as migrated Americans including Rick James, Ronnie Hawkins, and Leon Redbone before making a name for themselves in the mainstream. Draft dodgers mixed in with curious Canadian youths, and a presence was born that shocked and alarmed the Silent Generation as the 1960s counterculture grew.

But after a few years of a flourishing arts scene and political demonstrations, the creation of an experimental university started Yorkville on its short road to decay. But could an educational experiment gone wrong be enough to destroy one of the most prominent cultures in Canadian history?

Check out the documentary preview below. An Indiegogo campaign didn’t quite make the goal for the production team, but keep an eye on their official website for more details.

The Windows 95 Launch Hosted By Jay Leno

Mar 29, 2015

August 24, 1995 was a historic occasion for the computer industry as Microsoft introduced Windows 95 at a gala launch event. The long awaited new operating system not only sparked the explosion of the Internet, but for the first time computers became home-based tools that would make our lives better. Forever.

Hosted by Bill Gates, the launch was beamed simultaneously to 43 other events in cities around the world, not an easy feat to do back in 1995. Microsoft enlisted late night talk show host, Jay Leno, who cracked that Windows 95 was ‘so powerful that it can keep track of all of OJ’s alibis at once’.”