The Quiet Revolutionary Awards aim to address two things. The first is, when related to music, great music. Simple [and subjective] as that.
The second is change - or more specifically, innovation. I am a believer in the theory of creative destruction as popularized by Joseph Schumpeter [I plan to do a post sometime on creative destruction itself as related to the music industry].
the process of transformation that accompanies radical innovation
If the music industry wasn’t ripe for some creative destruction no industry is.
Categories for this first year’s awards include:
Artist [Local, Canadian, International]
Magazine
Label
Individual [Canadian, International]
Blog/Website [Canadian, International]
Double.Zero = The Worst of the Worst
INDIVIDUAL Canadian – Michael Geist
If a movement stops the Canadian version of DMCA being passed in Canada this year, you can be certain he will have had something to do with it.
THE source for Canadian matters related to copyright [thus covering much in music news of late ranging from lawsuits to existing laws impact on slowing innovation] Mr. Geist is spearheading a charge against any Canadian DMCA legislation. Legislation which a Moncton Times and Transcript editorial characterized as “one of the most regressive pieces of legislation ever enacted by the U.S. government” and urges Canadians to speak out against a Canadian DMCA.
For that alone you should thank him.
Ian Rogers must be one of the most forward thinking minds in music right now (explaining why he is not employed at a major label). Go Read the Convenience Wins post. There’s an open mind.
His endorsing of open media standards [second link posted] is itself very important. There’s simply too many worthwhile points between both posts to mention. Just read them, and keep an eye on his blog this year.
He is also a serious music fan [which is probably part of why he is indirectly on this list], for a sample of his tastes see Music Is The Best, 2007 Edition
MUSIC BLOG/SITE Canadian - i (heart) music
The gentleman behind the site clearly does (heart) music - focusing almost exclusively on profiling Canadian acts, and getting bonus points for digging through Radio3 archives to share sessions with us, and running the annual Hottest Canadian Artist poll - he does good.
International - The Daily Swarm
Daily Swarm gets the nod for seeing an opportunity and seizing it. Not even a year old [!!], the Daily Swarm has already cemented a place for itself in the online music community. They break real stories and cover a wide range of industry news from all perspectives. Recommended daily reading.
Blog I miss the most: IndieHQ
It is still there but the folks are busy. Hopefully sometime this year they can get back at it.
BAND Local - Risky Business
Mainly due to their ability to find ways to tour the US, Canada and Europe multiple times in the past two years with almost no local support/assistance that would accompany most bands from this region achieving similar goals. A call to bands that the opportunities are there if you are willing to make the necessary sacrifices, work hard and do what YOU need to do to achieve your goals.
Honorable mention: Video blogging their tours, recording and firing off videos left and right budgets be damned – they released some vinyl, set up their own free download system to pair with vinyl sales and received some industry recognition along the way. They, of course, are the Superfantastics
Canadian - Jane Siberry now Issa
More a historical observance than for recent [2007] activities, except for the point that others recent note-worthy activities are repeats in part of what she was doing years ago. Having been getting attention for pay what you want set-up back in 2005 [and again in 2006], here is to the former Ms.Siberry, a true innovator with her music and the selling of it.
International - Radiohead/NIN
Enough has been said about both acts in the press, on blogs and anywhere comments can be shared.
Both artists tried new ideas, Radiohead’s biggest was the donation based release of In Rainbows initially. While NIN launched an impressive ARG based campaign for Year Zero [see Wired below] – receiving praise such as it being “the way a viral campaign should be run”
While it may be difficult for indie acts to follow those two examples, there are plenty more between those two artists alone, and the idea of embracing experiments and trying new things can be applied to artists at any level and perhaps that is most important to remember.
LABEL
We’re throwing this one out to any and all indies that in these crazy times still start up, try new ideas, embrace new technology, and support true artists. The majors with all their cash and resources have never looked more helpless or lost.
MAGAZINE Wired
The best music magazine you ask? Well for all out music coverage, maybe not - but in a time of great change in the industry Wired has been one of the best sources of stories and general coverage of issues related to the music industry today. It should come as no shock [if you have been playing attention to what’s happening in the real world as related to music] that the best music coverage came from a tech focused magazine.
Honorable Mention: Paste
Not only having a CD sampler with each issue, but covering a wide range of music, they tried a pay what you want experiment of their own last year [sadly for US customers only], and then offered free gift subscriptions as well.
Double.Zero (0.0)
The Worst of the Worst in 2007:
This year gave us so many options it was really one of the toughest calls to make, so instead of leaving it to anyone company or individual, all the following people and/or organizations have plenty to learn in 2008:
SoundExchange – these are the people couldn’t find Public Enemy to pay them. But they did much worse last year than offer pathetic excuses regarding their inability on that point.
Doug Morris [representing all major label CEOs]–
“But I am not going to allow any of the people to infringe upon the rights of these artists and songwriters. That’s my job”. Doug Morris
That was cut and pasted from an interview with Mr. Morris on Reuters, and came be found in his response to the last question. Typo, misplaced punctuation, young music downloading intern transcribing, who knows. I don’t care really as I think it aptly fits.
“These devices [mp3 players] are just repositories for stolen music, and they all know it,” UMG chairman/CEO Doug Morris says. “So it’s time to get paid for it.”
“Its interesting that the record business doesn’t get any sympathy” - Doug Morris
Then there is also this embarrassing interview conducted with Wired. A must read if you have not seen it yet.
RIAA – where would we start really?
All the major labels – due to their ties to the RIAA alone, but the lack of innovation, waste and excess, and general cluelessness amounts to more than enough reason to wish them a quick demise to be replaced by rising indies.
Thanks for reading over the past year, I am already looking forward to doing this post next year now and seeing who stands out as an innovator - will Guy Hands shine or sink - what new companies are about to rise out of obscurity and change the way the industry works - if any -and what will artists do this year? Paul McGuinness has kicked off the year in fine style with his attempt to earn a Double.Zero placing for this year.
This is simply a number of songs that I either listened to plenty while working on this blog and or my own plans in the past year wondering why the powers that be couldn’t get their heads out of their collective asses and embrace some change.
Ok so Chuck Teed robbed me of my planned annual hottest bands on the east coast post [thanks Chuck!!]. So I came up with this instead for an annual recap of the year.
Truth be told, Chuck actually CALLED ME - no emails or Facebook messages there - to apologize for “stealing” “my idea” [which I ripped off i (heart) music, which was inspired by a blog in the US and so on]. Point being, Chuck is a stand up guy.
I really don’t know that many people as nice as Chuck Teed. You can read the Hottest East Coast acts and events of 2007 as compiled by Chuck Teed over on Giraffecycle
Hottest East Coast Acts 1) Julie Doiron 2)Jenn Grant 3) Wintersleep 4) The Superfantastics - Just watch their video for Tonight, Tonite [which we have posted over here] 5) Tanya Davis - I have yet to hear a guest appearance of hers’ that didn’t work - she fits in effortlessly where ever she goes. While her own works own a piece of the east coast all their own. 6) Share 7) Dog Day
Added based on this translated review of Night Group alone:
If we did a study longitudinal of pop music taking as it shows those discs of debut that, by their urgency, their simplicity and its enthusiasm, managed to captivate to all a generation of listeners, the results would be the following ones: at the end of the 70 the Three Imaginary Boys de The Cure. At the end of the 80 the Surfer Rosa de Pixies. In the 90 the blue one of Weezer. In second half of the 00 we have several examples and I am not thinking about the Artic Monkeys, rather in The Spinto Band or, the case that occupies to us, the debut of Dog Day. Rick White - Had a stellar year in his own right while much of the attention went to Ms. Doiron - in no disrespectful terms, easily a reflective moon to her bright sun. he worked on Woke Myself Up, joined Julie in a reunited Eric’s Trip, and oh yeah - had one of the best albums of the year you likely didn’t hear [Memoreaper]. 9) VKNGS 10) Don Brownrigg - We should all expect many good things from this humble yet talented songwriter in the future and hold him to them.
Hottest Canadian Bands 2007 Edition
From there we’ll hit the hottest Canadian acts of the year.
Once again i (heart) music contacted folks across the country for their take on who the hottest + best/whatever bands going were. Matthew was kind enough to ask me to contribute this year. My list is below and i (heart) music has the complete list.
1) Julie Doiron
With her most recent Polaris nominated release, loss be damned, which dealt with personal relationships on a level most of our relationships never reach, Julie gave us a highlight of her career that shows no end in sight with multiple projects on the go.
2) Jenn Grant
Where Woke Myself Up, is a career defining work for Ms. Doiron, Ms Grant puts everyone on notice with a debut almost too good to be a still developing artist’s introduction to us all with her Orchestra for the Moon.
3) Wintersleep and Welcome to The Night Sky
Poppier? Sure. Going to introduce them to a wider audience and lure them to their live show? Definitely and that will only be a great thing for both the band and fans. This album breaks them.
4) Caribou
Caribou’s Dan Snaith recorded an album drawn from the world of electronica that’s more organic and simply better, than most of the albums full bands put out this year.
5) C’Mon
The type of rock these guys [and gal] have mastered is one akin to walking a mine field where any misstep could lead to disaster. After 25 years Ian Blurton and company release as album [C’mon’s best yet] that should embarrass most young rock bands today.
6) The Superfantastics
Too cute for words maybe. Sugery sweet pop music. You would need a heart of coal to not smile upon viewing their video for Tonight, Tonite – the song itself a mini- pop master piece.
7) Bella
With their latest release from Mint Records I have been tripping over this band everywhere I go. Thankfully their synth covered indie dance pop is more than worth having stuck in my head.
Dog Day
9) Dragonette
What’s more rock and roll [or perhaps dance floor fun] than being in a band with your husband and singing songs about adultery? Not much. Thankfully Dragonette’s Galore has all that and more.
10) Fiest
I tried to avoid her. But her/her music are everywhere. She’d had made my list based on shear popularity if it wasn’t for My Moon My Man likely being stuck in my head this time next year.
The Rest of the Best
Rounding out the mix of what I most enjoyed from last year: everything else
Julie Doiron and Caribou make this list as well but are noted above so….
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Is Is EP
Mark Ronson - Version
White Stripes - Icky Thump + best live show of the year w/10th Anniversary performance
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass
Battles - Mirrored
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Holy Fuck - LP
Grinderman - self titled
Albums I need to reexamine most:
[Actually I would like to explore their all their releases]
The National’s Boxer
M.I.A. - have only heard parts of this once don’t know why I have never at least downloaded it to listen
Singles/Songs I listened To Plenty Tim Armstrong - Into Action
!!!!!!!!!!!Zoobombs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Raveonettes - Aly, Walk With Me
Fiest - My Moon My Man
Be Bad - (I’ve Got No) Positive Vibrations
Black Mountain - Angels
Best band button I have from 2007:
fuck buttons
Year’s Biggest Waste of Talent:
Amy Crackhouse
Non 2007 releases that got plenty of attention in 2007
The Loon - Tapes ‘n Tapes
Your a Woman, I’m a Machine - Death From Above 1979
Maximum Black - Mooney Suzuki
Planets Conspire - Meligrove Band
Already cued up for next year’s list - Black Mountain and possibly Hayden’s new one too.
The fine folks at Herohill have taken on an interesting project, I will be curious to see the future mixes roll out and what places like Manitoba, which you don’t normally hear a lot about, offer up.
Anyway. Back to the post. Shane and I are trying to do a little Canadian based project. The goal obviously is to keep showcasing the splendor that is Canadian music. So the goal is to make a mix for each province, and have you the readers decide who you think deserves to represent each province.
We are going to start with Nova Scotia, as we were born there and really spend a lot of our time trying to highlight the Halifax scene. So next Saturday we will be posting the first installment of this series (tentatively called The Big Doe-nair Rehab). If you have any bands that you think deserve to be added to the NS (or any other province), let us know.
* Mainly focused on bands based out of Halifax, while I am sure there are dozen of worthy bands from all parts of the province omitted, Company House Records in Cape Breton deserves a nod at least for being home to Carmen Townsend and the Shaky Deals, Slowcoaster and the Tom Fun Orchestra.
See that gray box on the left there with the blinking green dot - hover over it!
You now have a playlist for all the songs posted on the page you are viewing [leave the page, lose the music]. Super simple to install on your own site [see below], and straight forward to use for your site’s visitors. I consider it a definite improvement to this blog’s offerings.
The Yahoo! Media Player enhances your web site or blog by creating an embedded player for each audio link. All the links can be played with one click, turning the page into a playlist. This is done by adding our JavaScript to your page.
Be interesting to see what else Yahoo! has in store music-wise this year.
…It has been the worst thing imaginable for the art of music criticism.
It = the internet, in that case from the opening sentence. But he has definite issues with Pitchfork particularly, don’t worry, my summary of which follows:
My problem with Pitchfork boils down to this: Its contributors don’t seem to like music very much…The Comic Book Guy ‘tude annoys the hell out of me. I don’t see any point in playing along with Pitchfork’s sucks-sucks-GOOD game…Snark is boring; give me the incredibly literate enthusiasm …over the trademark Pitchfork hoity-toityness any day…I’m put off by the quality of Pitchfork’s writing, especially in its bread-and-butter reviews…Forget merely siccing a few members of the Bad-Writing Police on them; Pitchfork demands the assembly of a Federal Bad-Writing Task Force, complete with subpoena power and automatic weaponry.
He goes to mention issues regarding attracting advertisers [it is AdAge] but does give credit where he sees it due:
The site’s features fare much better in this regard, with the “Found Sound” recaps of rediscovered old records offering moments both warm and witty. Pitchfork also deserves props for updating its news section early and often as well as for its intuitive design, from which any number of minimally navigable music sites could learn something.
As far as the reviews go - I’d say I am in agreement - some of their writing is down right atrocious - I’ve commented on here before that they owe me some of my time back for reading some specific reviews and hating myself for doing so.
The one cruel irony for music lovers, or at least those that love their music loud/via earplugs/headphones, is that the thing they love can rob them of the ability to enjoy it.
I’ve lost track of the hours I have spent at the Rock Garden with bands blasting away in the back ground. Dozens of raves sans ear plus, as well as who knows how many concerts and bar shows where more often than not I was without ear plugs. Add to that the hours spent listening to music with headphones, and just cranked on the stereo since I was little kid and the odds are good I have suffered damage.
It is funny as this subject came up earlier this week and then just now browsing Delicious, I noticed a number of recent links saved regarding hearing loss. They are all old, but such advice does not really stop being practical. Here’s just a few you may want to consider browsing to remind yourself to watch volumes [typed as the Hot Snakes is currently BLASTING at me - ok so I just turned it down a touch…see how long that lasts…], take ear plugs to shows, give your ears a break when jamming/recording/ at shows.
Deaf sentence - focuses on choosing earbuds/headphones
Music Making Fans Deaf? - How the iPod generation may be losing its hearing without even knowing it
A quick post as a heads up to the Radio3 interview this afternoon at 4:20 [ha!] as well as the airing of the 100th episode at 5:10 on CKDU.
Congrats to Mat, Dave and Tom!
Somehow we’ve managed to make 100 episodes. Today we will be celebrating the Jubilee episode. Theres a bunch of funny interviews to be heard. Including such favorites as:
Nardwuar
Mike O’neill
Grant Lawrence
Paul Aucoin
and Our Moms
5:10 today on ckdu is where it all goes down. also for anyone who tunes into radio3 (online or on sirius I guess) we’ll be on grant lawrence’s show doing an interview at 4:20pm.
you can also get the show on our site
www.letsgetbaked.ckdu.ca
Dreamsploitation on Myspace.com
Tomorrow [Thursday night] you will have the opportunity to catch the latest addition to the From Here To There family, Dreamsploitation at the Marquee Club [he should be on around 11-11:30]. Cover is $5.
Chuck Blazevic is the person behind Dreamsploitation. An accomplished musician he is also currently a member of the Heavy Blinkers. Although young, he is very serious about his music. Thankfully, as you can see from the video below, as serious as he is, he thoroughly enjoys himself while sharing his music.
As far as his music goes, I don’t know how much this comparison will mean to most but imagine Caribou-meets-Madlib. It is beautiful melodic music, yet some of his songs would perfectly accommodate an MC. He creates extremely organic electronica.
How’s this for a vision about your own music [taken from his MySpace]:
Lost legends float in and out of the waves, momentary magic from the moonlighting pit band, 3/4 of a measure re-contextualized from an arranger’s finest hour at the close of the 1960’s, a failed (but right on) ruff disco vamp, an italian b-movie & its physical and sonic vixen, a swedish vocal session with love to brazil, one lady without her three men (not that they were bad at all!), and a sliver from the turn-of-the-century arpeggiated liquid sound - among others - sound for imagery appropriated and made into an imagery generator (and booty shaker?!?)
Forward looking but backwards facing, Dreamsploitation is all about the love of music - past, present and (most importantly) future; this is music for music lovers.
We are very excited to be working with Chuck. We have lots of plans and even more ideas for him and his music and he has no shortage himself.
You can see his debut live performance from an open mic show below for a taste of his live performance, while his MySpace has plenty additional music. His live setup is one not likely seen by many folks. If you are wondering what exactly it is, it is a digital interface [specifically a Monome 256] allowing for the manipulation of samples loaded from his harddrive.
Little slow on all year-end/best of posts so starting with this hopefully I get those all out today.
A couple of the top ten have songs included as well [tried to get tracks for each album but having issues uploading - sorry].
* indicates Canadian artist.
** indicates local artist.
1) DOG DAY** Night Group (Black Mountain Music) Dog Day - oh dead life - MP3
2) THE GOT TO GET GOT** Canadian Arts Collective Blues/Huge Zig Zag (Noyes)
3) LAURA PEEK AND THE WINNING HEARTS** From The Photographs (Just Friends)
4) THE MEMORIES ATTACK** The Memories Attack (Little Mafia)
5) JENN GRANT** Orchestra For The Moon (Paris 1919)
6) RICH AUCOIN** Personal Publication (Independent)
7) JULIE DOIRON* Woke Myself Up (Endearing) GHETTOSOCKS** Get Some Friends (Droppin’ Science)
9) THE ARCADE FIRE* Neon Bible (Merge)
10) BE BAD** Vision Correction (Divorce) Be Bad - I’ve Got No Positive Vibrations - MP3
Continue reading to see the rest of the top 100 (more…)
Rick White - Had a stellar year in his own right while much of the attention went to Ms. Doiron - in no disrespectful terms, easily a reflective moon to her bright sun. he worked on Woke Myself Up, joined Julie in a reunited Eric’s Trip, and oh yeah - had one of the best albums of the year you likely didn’t hear [Memoreaper].
