Cameron Carpenter – 10 CC – Single Me Out

Well, the show was not half bad. There were no cringe-worthy duets, the pace was pretty quick, the set looked good, there was no blatant pimping of other CTV properties and, for the most part, the performances were pretty good. The one major complaint I have is they need to go a little simpler on the camera work. There is no need for the 360 shot, followed by the zoom out, followed by the zoom in followed by the reverse 360 shot. Keep it simple. Focus on the performance, cut away for the solo (of there is anyone actually playing a solo), and then, come back to the performance. I don’t need to see crowd shots of people watching the show through their smart phones. Also, the annoying Google Play commercials reminded me of why I can’t stand karaoke.

Cameron Carpenter: Rock’n’Roll Rewind – Rating The Records

This week we rewind to 1977 and the first issue of Shades Magazine. My feature was a re-cap of all the new punk records that had been released.

“I realize a lot of the material I’m going to cover is somewhat dated, but this being the first edition, I thought I’d quickly go over some of the best new music to come out over the past few months. Next month’s reviews will be much longer and in-depth.”

JAIMIE VERNON – GODS OF THE HAMMER

Cameron Carpenter: The ABC’s Of Rock – Missing Music Venues

Let’s continue our journey of missing musical venues. We were (and still are) very fortunate in and around Toronto at the amount of great clubs at our disposal. Some of the best (and worst) are long gone. When all of these clubs were at their heights beer was cheap and usually sold in ten ounce glasses by the tray and there was outrage when the price of cigarettes went up to a dollar in the cigarette machines. The air was thick with smoke and the stale scent of smoke and beer soaked carpets hit you like a ton of bricks when you walked thru the door.