GWNtertainment #28 by Jaimie Vernon

Lots of new music this week as post-summer tuneage is in full swing. Just ask Drake who now occupies half of the Top10 on the Billboard magazine charts. It’s also drawn battle lines between old pop music fans and new because Drake’s positioning on the charts breaks a handful of records previously set by The Beatles. Vitriol has been flying around social media dismissing Drake and his accomplishments. GWN celebrates any Canadian artist who has managed to raise the ire of a generation of music lovers who refuse to acknowledge that time has passed, and that a new generation also makes music that people love. We are here three times a month extolling the virtues of those new artists and that new music. Other music exists in the same universe as The Beatles…resistance is fertile.

Segarini – Q: Are we not Men? A: We are Demo, D-E-M-O …PLUS – Another Format Free Music Mix

 

In the housing industry, DEMO is shorthand for DEMOLISH, the procedure used by renovators and construction workers to tear down that which is to be replaced in order to upgrade a property and increase its value

In the recording industry, DEMO is shorthand for DEMONSTRATION, the procedure used by artists, labels, producers, and songwriters to preview a song or musical project in order to choose what to record or continue to tweak before committing the time and money to realize a finished product or artistic statement.

There are other definitions of DEMO aside from these two, but when it comes to music, the definitions can oft-times be interchangeable …in, and out, of order.

Roxanne Tellier – Mid August

Mid August, and most days I feel like, this year, summer never really got started. Maybe it’s the weather, or the political climate, but something feels off-kilter. My potted veg and herbs are in shock; it’s been either torrential rain or temps in the 90s – sometimes in the same 24 hours – every day since they were planted. Sodden pots sit cheek by jowl with containers so arid they threaten to burst into flame. There won’t be much of a harvest this year.

Pat Blythe – Canada Turns 150? and Canadian Music Reminders…..

A weekend (and a year) of celebrations across Canada….150 years young…..but is it really?

Oh how I love history! An item on my “to do” list before I pop my clogs is to work towards, and obtain, my BA Mediaeval History. Cambridge University is where I’d love to be (I do love England) but University of St. Michaels College here in Toronto is also an excellent choice and know for their studies in Mediaval history. The bucket list is not long, just really big projects.

Frank Gutch Jr: Reprise Is Not a Label… Plus Notes

Before we get into the meat of this column, let’s talk Winterpills.  I have been a fan since hearing their 2010 EP Tuxedo of Ashes and have followed them since.  Their one album of covers, Echolalia, was good enough to make me toss aside my disdain of this current trend, their arrangements making up for the usual lack of creativity on most bands parts.  No such problem here.  Love Songs is an all-original triumph, Philip Price writing his best songs since Tuxedo, and the band is  in A-1 shape.

Pat Blythe – What a Rush!

OMG!!! I can barely contain myself from bouncing around in my seat. There is not one part of my body that is not vibrating. Finally, unencumbered by my theatre seat, the urge gives way to pure, uninhibited “singing and dancing in the aisles”. I just about vaulted over my seatmate beside me to rush the stage and boogie up a storm. It is so liberating to let it just take over. What an encore!!!! Thankfully, my good friend and date for the evening, Pat Kelly, encourages this irrational behaviour. Gotta love him.

Roxanne Tellier: Oh What a Feeling!

I don’t get out much. Living in suburbia is bad enough; being unable to drive only compounds the isolation.  Still, there are times when I brave Toronto’s transit and hit the big city. This is about one such time, just this week.

JAIMIE VERNON – OH! CANADA? THE OTHER SONGS OF MY PEOPLE

Tuesday marks the 147th birthday of this great Dominion known as Canada.  Though we’re not quite as old as our brother to the south, our European lineage dates back to May 2, 1670 when the Dread Pirate Ernie Hudson got his ship stranded in the northern waters of the arctic looking for a direct passage to Santa’s Workshop. He and the crew survived on nothing but Her Queen’s Own Biscuits, Tea Candles and striped blankets knitted from the wool of extinct mammoths. The native population had already been here 11,000 years longer and resented the idea that you now had to trade 10 beaver pelts to get a birch bark canoe. We’ve come a long way since then but still pride ourselves on our cultural diversity, beavers, hockey and fornicating while watching hockey. Oh, and we seem to be able to write a mean ditty (not “diddy” you internet meme idiots).

Frank Gutch Jr: Fun With 45s (Into the Depths of Hell), Jess Pillmore Breaks Her Silence, and Notes…..

That’s what one of my old girlfriends used to call hanging out at my place.  The Depths of Hell.  Of course, as far as I could tell, anyplace which did not exclusively play everything Los Angeles was hell to her.  Linda Ronstadt.  The Eagles.  Joni Mitchell.  Jackson Browne.  Gawd, but I always thought if there was a hell on Earth, it was Los Angeles.  Soft Rock hell.  Bland hell.  Mediocre hell.  Just plain hell.

Frank Gutch Jr: We Are the World Done Local, Mining 45s, and Notes…..

Quick!  Without searching, answer a few questions.  Who recorded We Are the World?  Who benefited?  Who wrote it?  Was there a B-side?  Were there other projects similar?  Does anyone care?  Did anyone care?

For those born after the fact, it may surprise you to know that plenty cared.  Over 20 million people worldwide bought the record.  I mean, Michael Jackson and Lionel Ritchie, the writers of the song, were huge at the time.  So were producers Quincy Jones and Michael Omartian, though Jones significantly more than Omartian.