Every musician dreams of performing at Carnegie Hall. Members of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra have been practising, practising, practising, and now their performance is coming up on May 8 as part of Spring for Music, a North American showcase of orchestras.
Click "open gallery," above, for some great New York selfies from orchestra members and fans alike.
The WSO was chosen from among more than 30 orchestras across the continent that applied. Selection was partly based on creative and innovative programming. The public was able to vote online for their favourite program, and the WSO's program bested the others by more than 1,000 votes.
The program includes a work for percussionist Evelyn Glennie written by composer-in-residence Vincent Ho called The Shaman: Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra, a hit from 2010 by Derek Charke called Thirteen Inuit Throat Song Games featuring Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq and R. Murray Schafer's Symphony No. 1.
"The program is really our soul," said music director Alexander Mickelthwate. "It's us — Winnipeg."
Glennie is thrilled to take The Shaman to Carnegie Hall.
"For us to take it onto a major platform in a major city in the States is very important indeed," she said. "It's a fantastic testament to the orchestra to be chosen to give a performance there."
Each day, Rich Terfry and Radio 2 Drive wraps up your day with music and stories about the interesting things going on in the world.
REAR VIEW MIRROR:
Every week, Rich Terfry looks back in our Rear-view Mirror at a great song from the good ol’ days. This week, Jimi Hendrix and "All Along The Watchtower."
What's your favorite Bob Dylan song? His is such an enormous and varied body of work that choosing a favorite can be very difficult. But what about Dylan himself? What's his favorite Bob Dylan song? One clue may be the song from his catalog he's performed the most over the years. And that song is "All Along the Watchtower".
Listen to Rich tell you the story behind "All Along The Watchtower."
The song appeared on his 1967 album John Wesley Harding, which was written while he recovered from his infamous 1966 motorcycle crash.
As soon as critics heard "All Along the Watchtower", they swooned. Many called it a masterpiece. Perhaps the song's biggest fan was guitar god, Jimi Hendrix. He said:
"Sometimes, I play Dylan's songs and they are so much like me that it seems to me that I wrote them. I have the feeling that Watchtower is a song I could have come up with, but I'm sure I would never have finished it. Thinking about Dylan, I often consider that I'd never be able to write the words he manages to come up with, but I'd like him to help me, because I have loads of songs I can't finish."
Hendrix recorded a version of the song for his Electric Ladyland album. Hearing Hendrix's interpretation was a big eye-opener for Dylan. Since its release, Dylan has consistently performed the song in a style much closer to Hendrix's version than his own original recording. And he performs it a lot. According to his official website - he performed it over 2,000 times between 1974 and 2012, more than any other song. Dylan said he was "overwhelmed" when he heard Hendrix's version. And in the liner notes of his 1985 Biograph album, he wrote: "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way... Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."
Here's the Jimi Hendrix version that in turn, inspired the man who wrote it. This is "All Along the Watchtower" by Jimi Hendrix on Rear View Mirror.
Here are some other great editions of Rear-view Mirror:
Like many others her age, Addy is a little girl who loves cotton candy, chocolate chip ice cream, sparkles and rainbows. But unlike many five-year-old girls, at age four, Addy was diagnosed with stage IV kidney cancer.
During her many hospital visits, chemotherapy and radiation treatments, Addy spent hours drawing and, when she felt up for it, practicing her singing and dancing.
She took inspiration from her favourite musicians; and when the Make-A-Wish Foundation offered to make one of her wishes come true, she asked to be a pop star performing in a video by her favourite artist, Katy Perry.
Inspired by the lyrics to Perry's hit song "Roar," Addy fought and beat cancer.
Montreal-based arts organization M for Montreal and Toronto-based Wavelength combined forces last night for a Canadian Music Week showcase at Toronto's Garrison nightclub, featuring five bands who all have names starting with M. The Children's Television Workshop would have been proud. Here are seven things you missed.
It was a little hard to tell what Moonwood were doing at first, but watching them build their wall of noise until it threatened to overtake us all was pretty impressive.
Buddy, we can see your shirt through your bass. That's crazy.
3. Most People performing in front of a screen showing clips from the original Degrassi and Teen Wolf
At one point they exclaimed "Joey and Catlin forever" mid-song.
4. Most People securing their spot as the next great Canadian two-person band
Canada has a long, long history of two-person rock bands, from Death from Above 1979 to the Inbreds to Catl. Most People are the next great band to be part of this tradition. They marry the best parts of electronic music and traditional rock. One plays guitar, the other bass; they both toss their instruments aside occasionally to play drums. The whole thing is then put together live using a laptop and loop pedals and topped with an ethereal tenor and solidly written lyrics.
We weren't quite sure what Mas Aya, a side project from Not the Wind, Not the Flag's Brandon Miguel Valdivia, was going to look like. The project's artist bio describes it as "a lively and powerful percussion, flute and voice stage show, inviting communities to cast off the shroud of commodity-based living to empower themselves and each other through music, meditation, dance and celebration." It turned out to be a mixture of traditional Latin American flutes, looped and distorted, and syncopated drum patterns that created everything from borderline dub reggae to straight-up bangers.
6. Two women having an awesome blast of a time
Mozart's Sister is technically a one-woman band, but Calia Thompson-Hannant frequently brings some assistance for live shows. In this case, it was a second synth and drum machine player, who also did some back-up vocals. Spreading the load allowed both women a little more latitude to dance, and dance they did. They shimmied, two-stepped, leapt and bounced with reckless abandon.
7. The incredible voice of Calia Thompson-Hannant
Frankly, hipsterish synth-pop singers just aren't supposed to be able to sing as well as Thompson-Hannant does. She has an R&B-influenced delivery with almost Mariah-like range that goes from smokey whisper to near echolocation with no trouble at all.
Ever since Ask Ann Landers came to an end, there's been a gaping hole in the advice column world. Where to go for tips on love, etiquette, manners and more?
Good thing famed rapper Rick Ross has stepped in to fill the void — although the advice he offers in his new limited-time column in Rolling Stone is decidedly different from what Ms. Landers would advise.
If your brother wrote a Great Gatsby essay at a different school and aced it, should you submit it as your own? Of course; why waste your time? If your girlfriend complains about how much weed you're smoking, do you break up with her? No question. If you're a successful high school basketball coach and others are telling you how to do your job, should you tell them where to go? Let 'em have it.
Want to see all the tips Ross doles out? Check out the entire first — and deeply suspect — column here.
All throughout their 2014 North American tour, Arcade Fire have been paying tribute to local music heroes by covering a city-appropriate song during their sets.
We’ve tracked down all their live covers and listed them below. Check them out as the first half of Arcade Fire's tour winds down.
R.E.M., 'Radio Free Europe' in Atlanta, Ga. (May 2, 2014)
Chuck Berry, 'Roll Over Beethoven' in St. Louis, Mo. (April 28, 2014)
Kansas, 'Dust in the Wind' in Kansas City, Mo. (April 27, 2014)
Blondie, 'Heart of Glass' at Coachella Festival, Indio, Calif. (April 13, 2014)
Boyz II Men, 'Motown Philly' in Philadelphia, Pa. (March 16, 2014)
Stevie Wonder, 'Uptight' in Detroit, Mich. (March 10, 2014)
Prince, 'Controversy' in Minneapolis, Minn. (March 8, 2014)
INXS, 'Devil Inside' in Melbourne, Australia (Jan. 22, 2014)
The next North American leg of their tour brings them to Mountain View (Calif.), Seattle, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Washington, Boston, Brooklyn, Chicago and Montreal this summer. Which artists’ songs would you like to see them cover?
Montreal’s Antoine Gratton is a remarkable singer-songwriter, a talented multi-instrumentalist and also the man behind many of Quebec’s recent CD releases. Winner of a Juno Award in 2007 for his album called Il était une fois dans l’Est, Gratton is a coveted and very successful record producer, musician and arranger. He isJim Corcoran’s guest on A Propos this week.
Gratton’s musical skills are large and inclusive. He's a great pianist, an impressive singer but also a multi-intrumentalist who is sought after for his orchestral arrangements. This week on A Propos, he presents songs from some of the many great records he has produced here in Quebec, recently. Here are a few of the artists with whom he has collaborated.
Brigitte Boisjoli
The most recent release of Gratton’s production is Brigitte Boisjoli’s sophomore solo album, Sans regret.
Boisjoli is an extraordinary singer who has a very diverse experience, including participating in Quebec’s Star Académie (the equivalent of Canadian Idol). She is a solid performer, and this album reveals the power of her voice. An all-star team of songwriters participated in this album: Alex Nevsky, Dumas, Betty Bonifaci, Ingrid St-Pierre, Yann Perreau and Amylie. It was recorded in a special context, on a tight schedule.
“The great thing about a singer like Brigitte is that she can deal with pressure. She’s not one of these tormented singers, she’s a pro,” says Gratton.
Amylie
Amylie is an original voice on the francophone musical landscape. She has a lot of soul in her voice and she is a solid songwriter.
“She’s got a very interesting way of writing songs," says Gratton. "She’s got the beat and the melody and nothing in between. So I had the great task of filling in the gap between the beats and the voice.”
Last year, she released her album Le royaume was produced by Gratton.This song, "Les filles," became a hit last summer.
Myëlle
Myëlle is a cellist and background vocalist who has been playing with many artists from Quebec. She’s a versatile and talented artist. Recently, she decided to record her first solo EP, inspired by Quentin Tarantino’s film Django Unchained. She approached Gratton for the arrangements and production of this album. The result is a collection of songs that are almost like movies. You can discover one of her songs, “Cheri,” below. And you’ll get to see Gratton at the piano, as well.
Simon Kearney
This very young guitarist has produced his first EP with Gratton.
“He plays the guitar like nothing I’ve ever seen. He’s got the power of youth and no fear with him. He’s a great guy to work with,” according to Gratton.
Discover Simon Kearney's music and expect a new album in the next year.
Chloé Lacasse
Gratton has also worked with Chloé Lacasse, a singer-songwriter who was revealed to the Montreal audience through the Francouvertes competition in 2011. In her most recent album entitled Lunes, she was inspired by nature to create her own style of alternative pop songs.
Tune in to find out more about these artists and about producing music in Quebec by listening to a friendly conversation between Antoine Gratton and host Jim Corcoran, this week on A Propos.
A Propos airs on Sunday at 4 p.m. (4:30 p.m. NT) on CBC Radio 2 and Saturday at 11 p.m. (6 p.m. AT, 6:30 p.m. NT) on CBC Radio One.
The 2014 edition of Searchlight was a tremendous success. We, at CBC Music, were introduced to a significant number of musical acts that, frankly, we might have never otherwise discovered. There's a wealth of talent and ambition in this country and we do our best to shine a light on it. According to the numbers, y'all were digging it, too.
St. Lawrence String Quartet Live at Jane Mallett Theatre, Toronto Recorded Jan. 9, 2014
"Listening to live chamber music guarantees you temporary relief from strain, pain and Rob Ford," explained violinist Mark Fewer just before his first Canadian performance as an official member of the St. Lawrence String Quartet.
Fewer replaced Scott St. John in the renowned Stanford-based quartet early this year. Shortly after, the ensemble showed off its new personnel with a varied program of Haydn, Martinů and Dvořák at the Jane Mallett Theatre, presented by Music Toronto.
Now you can listen to this, and more entire performances, on CBC Music's Concerts on Demand. Press play above to hear the St. Lawrence String Quartet recording.
Program
Franz Joseph Haydn: String Quartet in E flat, Op. 20 No. 1 i. Allegro Moderato ii. Menuetto: Allegretto iii. Affettuoso e sostenuto iv. Finale: Presto
Bohuslav Martinů: String Quartet No. 5 i. Allegro non troppo ii. Adagio iii. Allegro vivo iv. Lento: Allegro
Antonín Dvořák: String Quartet No. 11 i. Allegro ii. Poco adagio e molto cantabile iii. Allegro vivo iv. Finale: Vivace
Franz Joseph Haydn: String Quartet in D major, Op. 71 No. 2 iii. Menuetto: Allegro (encore)
St. Lawrence String Quartet Geoff Nutall, violin Mark Fewer, violin Lesley Robertson, viola Chris Costanza, cello
Doug Doctor, recording engineer/producer Steve Sweeney, assistant engineer
Mother's Day is on Sunday. If you didn't know that, you're welcome. There are lots of ways to show your mom you love her: flowers, a visit, a phone call, a card. One extra thing that would go a long way would be to share a song with her.
Chances are your mom is on Facebook. In fact, at this point Facebook is a site populated exclusively by moms (as well as your suddenly religious former classmates). We've come up with 10 songs that your mom would love you to post on her wall, depending on the kind of mom you have. Check them out in the gallery above.
A Brony Tale soundtrack sampler Featuring: We Are the City, Hey Ocean! and Chris Kelly Tracklist
Brent Hodge's feel-good documentary A Brony Tale, which follows actress and Hey Ocean! singer Ashleigh Ball as she travels to BronyCon (the world's largest My Little Pony fan convention), is still so fresh that only one small cohort of Tribeca Film Festival-goers can say they've experienced it.
But by this Sunday, a.k.a. Mother's Day, hundreds more filmgoers will have been introduced to the movie's rainbow-hued, life-affirming and winged world, when A Brony Tale closes the DOXA Documentary Film Festival in Vancouver.
Not only is Ball featured in the film, but Hey Ocean! also appears on the soundtrack, as well as fellow Canadians We Are the City and Chris Kelly (who is also a producer on CBC's This Is That). Hit play above to sample A Brony Tale's soundtrack, and check out the trailer below.
A Brony Tale is the story of young men who love My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, a registered property of the Hasbro toy company, and an enormously popular animated cartoon series intended for young girls aged two to 11.
The seed of the documentary idea was planted back in 2012 when Ball, who is lead singer of the popular Vancouver indie pop band Hey Ocean!, started getting fan mail from bronies (the fans' nickname) for her portrayal of Apple Jack and Rainbow Dash in the animated series.
"The pervert alarm for sure went off," said Ball, about her first impression of Brony fandom, but that didn't stop her from sharing the experience with her friend Hodge, now the creative force behind A Brony Tale.
"When Ash first told me what was happening, I knew I had to find a way to follow her to BronyCon and capture her interactions with bronies," said Hodge recently. "At the time I was listening a lot to Ash's band, and other West Coast Canadian bands like We Are the City. I've always been a fan of good pop music and knew their sounds would fit the tone of the doc perfectly."
Hodge's film has been getting copious press in publications including The New York Times, and got a shout-out by Tribeca originator Robert De Niro at a media launch. The movie also landed a distribution deal with Morgan Spurlock of Super Size Me fame, who signed on as executive producer.
Check out the gallery above to see some stills from the documentary, and some of the red carpet and after-party action at Tribeca.
Has a song ever given you chills? Whether it's a chord shift, a powerful chorus or a pointed lyric, there's just something in the song that stirs up an emotion within? It's called frisson, and while it can happen with almost any well crafted song, it's more powerful and inspiring when that song is attached to a poignant moment in history.
In the gallery above, we look back at 10 songs that had such an effect, from Bob Dylan's "Blowin in the Wind" to The-Dream's powerful anti-racist, anti-classist anthem "Black," which was recently released.
What song has sent chills down your spine? Share it with me on Twitter: @JesseKG
March 2, 2014, would have marked Lou Reed’s 72nd birthday, and on Saturday, March 1, the Canadian music industry joined Kevin Hearn, of Barenaked Ladies fame, in tribute to Reed, his work and influence.
Over the past several years, Hearn was Reed’s musical director and friend. His journey to land this coveted role as Reed’s right-hand man is a long and personal one. To say that Reed had an impact on Hearn’s life would be an understatement.
Beyond Hearn’s relationship with Reed, many other Canadian musicians were touched and influenced by the late singer's music. On March 1, they came in droves to CBC's Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto to sing his songs.
'Walk on the Wild Side' by Kevin Hearn and friends
When Kevin Hearn was picking songs for the “I’ll Be Your Mirror” concert, “Original Wrapper” was among the top choices on his list and he knew exactly who was going to sing it. When Hearn asked his Barenaked Ladies bandmate Ed Robertson and East Coast rapper Buck 65 if they would duet on the song, they both jumped at the chance. Robertson warned the crowd that the version they would perform was not a new rendition of a Reed song but a straight-up cover. After watching this, be sure to check out the original version here.
"The Original Wrapper" by Buck 65 and Ed Robertson
There isn’t a more perfect Reed song for Measha Brueggergosman to perform than “Perfect Day.” And as is her style, Brueggergosman sings every word as if her life depends on its perfect delivery. With the help of some of Reed’s closest friends and bandmates behind her, Brueggergosman brings opera, soul and a little punk rock to this Reed classic.
"Perfect Day" by Measha Brueggergosman
Andy Kim has many claims to fame, but one of them, just in case you didn’t know, is that he wrote the Archies song “Sugar Sugar.” In 1973, Reed granted an interview to Lester Bangs, who said to Reed, “Why don’t you just get off all this crap and just try to be banal for a change? Why dontcha write a song like ‘Sugar Sugar’? That’d be something worthwhile.”
“I don’t know how. I would if I could. I wish I’d written it,” Reed replied.
Reed did write a song about something sweet, but it wasn’t quite the same as Kim’s “Sugar, Sugar.” Here is Kim performing the Velvet Underground’s “Sweet Jane.”
"Sweet Jane" by Andy Kim
“What’s Good” was the single from Reed’s 1992 album, Magic and Loss. It is also one of Reed’s most popular songs, having reached number one on Billboard’s Modern Rock chart and staying there for three weeks. Kevin Drew, much like Reed himself, knows how to bring the underbelly of rock ’n’ roll to the surface, and does just that in this stunning rendition of “What’s Good.”
We looked at concert listings from coast to coast, and pulled out the best shows happening in Canada this week, including everything from country to hip-hop to hardcore. Go see some live music already.
30. Hunting "Everything Will Be Okay" 29. Tough Age "The Heart of Juliet Jones" 28. The Two Koreas "LP Winer!" 27. Sonic Avenues "Waiting for a Change" 26. Young Rival "Elevator" 25. James Younger "A Little Bit Right" 24. Port Juvee "All Thatâs Fine" 23. Tokyo Police Club "Toy Guns" 22. Language Arts "Oh Tangible World" 21. Times Neue Roman "Way Way Down" 20. Born Ruffians "Oh Cecilia" 19. Teledrome "Boyfriend" 18. Wild Night "Indian Summer" 17. Astral Swans "You Carry A Sickness" 16. Fitness Club Fiasco "Goldmine" 15. Bestie "Asleep on the Bus" 14. Chad VanGaalen "Leaning On Bells" 13. Sabota "Stumble" 12. Dan Daly "Sirens" 11. Reef Shark "Frozen Beaches" 10. Odonis Odonis "Mr Smith" 9. Secret Broadcast "More Than Friends" 8. Timber Timbre "Curtains !?" 7. The Wet Secrets "Floating In The Sky" 6. Napalmpom "Make Me Cry" 5. Mounties "Tokyo Summer" 4. Young Liars "Night Windows" 3. The Ruffled Feathers "It Doesn't Last" 2. JPNSGRLS "Smalls" 1. Bend Sinister "I Got Love"
Every week we ask you to pick a few tracks to throw into set during the R3-30 broadcast. We take a little detour from the chart to play a few tracks you've chosen based around a theme, we call it the Listener List. This week you'll be hearing a dance set with songs chosen by you!
And now, time for a new theme. Punctuation! Band names and songs are filled with questions, exclamations and even the occasional period (Fun. I'm looking at you.) So what tracks should make the list for next week? You'll hear a few of my suggestions on the show.
Post those suggestions on the blog or tweet @CBCRadio3
Each day, Rich Terfry and Radio 2 Drive wraps up your day with music and stories about the interesting things going on in the world.
REAR VIEW MIRROR:
Every week, Rich Terfry looks back in our Rear-view Mirror at a great song from the good ol’ days. This week, Captain Beefheart with "Yellow Brick Road."
Was one of the most influential albums of the 60s written by a man who never existed? How could that be?
Listen to Rich tell you the incredible story of Captain Beefheart and the elusive Herb Bermann.
The debut album by Captain Beefheart, Safe As Milk, is hugely influential for its innovative, experimental lyrics and composition. It's said that the album was a big influence on the Beatles and that John Lennon was a big fan in particular. The album is also significant in that Ry Cooder, one of the greatest guitarists of all-time, made his debut on the album as part of Beefheart's Magic Band. But who wrote the songs on this classic album? Well that was a mystery for a very long time.
In the liner notes of the Safe As Milk album appears the name Herb Bermann, credited as a co-writer on eight of the album's songs. The inclusion of this name was a mystery to many, including Captain Beefheart himself. Asked who Bermann was, Beefheart said he had no idea! He said he never hired anyone by that name. This sparked an investigation. Not only could no one figure out exactly what Bermann did on the album, no one could determine his existence at all!
The mystery deepened four years later when the name appeared again - this time in the credits of an ill-fated screenplay for a film based on Neil Young's album, After the Gold Rush. Who was Herb Bermann?!
The answer to that question remained a mystery for 36 years when the very real, very much alive, Herb Bermann was located, interviewed and his involvement as a writer on the Safe As Milk album was confirmed. Very strange.
Maybe Herb Bermann had a hand in writing this one. From the classic album Safe As Milk, here's Captain Beefheart with "Yellow Brick Road" on Rear View Mirror.
Here are some other great editions of Rear-view Mirror:
More than 4,000 acts entered, spanning genres and regions, and creating a massive showcase for talent in this country. The odds for any of them to come out on top and be named Canada's best new musical act was around 1/50th of one per cent.
They have won $20,000 in new music equipment from Yamaha Canada Music, a showcase slot at the CBC Music Festival in Vancouver on Saturday June 14 along side Tegan and Sara and Spoon, and a professional recording session with CBC.
Their song, "I Lost Myself," couldn't be more appropriate. Lauren Mann wrote it at a time when she had stopped performing, without realizing what she had lost. The song and this win are milestones in a remarkable journey.
"I wrote 'I Lost Myself' a few years ago after I had just moved away from home for the first time, was getting married, and started a new job," she says. "So I had a bunch of changes happening in my life and it was kind of crazy and through it all I stopped playing music for a little while. I just forgot about it. I forgot that I wanted to play, and I just got busy and occupied with other things."
She left Calgary, her home of 12 years, to move to Rocky Mountain House, a camp in a provincial park, with her husband. The new phase in her life was exciting and distracted her from music, though she felt the loss mixed up with pangs caused by separation from her friends back home.
"It was beautiful but it was very isolated and there was only whoever was working at the camp around there," she says. "So you're in this very small community so I guess that kind of setting contributed to me feeling separated from my friends and family ... I do remember going for a walk in the evening and seeing all this beauty, and appreciating it, but still having this incomplete feeling. 'I really appreciate where I am and all that's around me, but I still feel like something's missing.'"
Mann says she wasn't fully aware of how much she missed music until she stumbled back into it with some prompting from her husband.
"One day my husband set up my piano for me and suggested I play, so I did, and one of the first songs I played was one I had written a few years previous about feeling at home in many different places. It made me realize that I loved playing music, and I had forgotten about the dreams I had of touring and recording. A few months later my husband and I left Alberta to travel across Canada, and through that, decided to pursue music full time. And that's how it all started!"
The listeners certainly supported her decision, as the band powered its way to the top of the Calgary regional contest and into the national round. The judges immediately took note, though the group had enough voter support to make the national top 10 without being saved from elimination by the judges.
When the time came for the judges to pick, Sarah Slean chose to take them into the finals.
"The reason I chose them as my pick," Slean says, "they could really blossom and evolve and become a classic killer live group. I could see them writing the Blue Rodeo songs of tomorrow, where you know every word. They're made for that."
"I could see this song being played in festivals around the world," he says. "It's one of those songs to me that has the most widespread appeal. I think that this group has the best chance to become one of our biggest exports."
Torquil Campbell says the group is tailor-made for a Canadian audience.
"There is a history of song in this country, it's what we are addicted to," he says. "People in Canada would love that band, for many years ... they're going to find an audience. The investment will be paid back because that's a band that will find an audience in this country."
Now, Mann has completed a journey she started on a piano bench in northern Alberta. Her next tasks will include sharing a bill with Spoon and Tegan and Sara at the CBC Music Festival in Vancouver, and choosing $20,000 worth of gear from Yamaha Canada Music.
"We've thoroughly been enjoying being part of this contest, not just for the increased connections with our fans, but it's been great to connect and re-connect with some amazing acts across Canada," Mann says. "It's so great to see that even in a competition, Canadian artists and bands are so supportive of each other."
That support will be one more thing to help Lauren Mann and the Fairly Odd Folk as they continue their pursuit of musical dreams.
What do you think of the Searchlight 2014 winner? Who were you rooting for? Let us know in the comments below!
Maybe it's a rhetorical question, maybe she is actually seeking out an answer, but whatever the case, Emma-Lee's song "What Would Tom Petty Do?" is not only gaining her lots of new fans, it has also reached the ears of those very close to her rock 'n' roll idol. Perhaps a duet with Tom Petty is in Emma-Lee's future? For now, she'll have to settle for a number nine debut on the Radio 2 Top 20.
The Black Keys hold on to the number 1 spot
The Black Keys have said that they were suffering from a case of post-success doldrums after releasing El Camino back in 2011. Now, they are back and better than ever with a new album called Turn Blue. "Fever" remains in the top spot this week and the bonus: another great video from the creative duo.
Slow Leaves gets deep
The latest song from Winnipeg's Slow Leaves is delicate and introspective. The video that accompanies the song follows the tiny inner life of a bird/man in the grips of an existential crisis. Yup, it’s actually just as odd as it sounds, but it's also quite awesome. Oddsome.
Would you like some sweet soul music with your fish and chips?
Up until a few years ago, Paolo Nutini thought he'd be taking over his dad's fish-and-chip shop, but a fateful night of karaoke changed all that. Nutini realized that deep inside his Italian/Glaswegian soul was a Motown crooner. Nutini enters the chart at 20 with "Numpty."
Here's your classical disc of the week for May 11. Each week CBC Radio 2's In Concert looks at new classical music releases and selects one recording that you need to know about.
Repertoire: Three sonatas by Brahms, plus bonus material.
Label: Decca
What would it be like to meet someone brilliant and famous in their home, casually attired, cup of tea in hand? A new recording by Leonidas Kavakos and Yuja Wang offers up this sort of opportunity.
Kavakos is a major artist, in demand as a soloist with the great orchestras of the world and recognized as a musician of rare ability. Wang is a superstar pianist, so brilliant that not even her impossibly small performance dresses can distract from her musical abilities.
This new recording of the Brahms violin sonatas takes them away from the big stage spotlight to the world of chamber music. This is a quiet place, where deep thoughts can happen, where the musicians can reach out and touch you:
Listen to Leonidas Kavakos and Yuja Wang play the first movement of Brahms' first violin sonata.
Chamber music is meant for the intimacy of smaller spaces and the music that Johannes Brahms wrote for this medium is especially powerful. In these violin sonatas, the conversations that unfold between Kavakos and Wang are intense and personal. There's a hush — you can feel the chemistry, the thinking and a whole new understanding of these artists and the music of Brahms comes forth.
Listen to Leonidas Kavakos and Yuja Wang play the final movement of Brahms' second violin sonata.
Though this new recording of Brahms violin sonatas gets us up close and personal with two of the superstars of today's classical music world, it may be Johannes Brahms we really get to know best.
Looking for more? Here's a video excerpt of Kavakos and Wang with a passionate segment of Brahms' Violin Sonata No. 3:
It was a big night for Canadian hip-hop at Canadian Music Week, as four rising Toronto rap acts — A-Game, the Airplane Boys, Tre Mission and Naturally Born Strangers — played to a packed house at Toronto's Tattoo, as part of a showcase put on by blogger/DJ/tastemaker/first Drake fan Karla "Hustlegrl" Moy and Vice's music arm, Noisey. Here are seven things you missed.
1. The whole affair starting almost two hours behind schedule
At one point, some 90 minutes after the first act was scheduled to hit the stage, and a half hour after the second act was supposed to perform, we started to wonder if this was some sort of weird send up of hip-hop shows never starting on time. It wasn't. That said, the aforementioned Hustlegrl did an admirable job of keeping the crowd warm, or at least placated, until show time.
The Toronto stand-up comic was the host for the evening, and did a pretty solid job setting a profane-but-hilarious tone, repeatedly telling off the audience for not being "turnt up" enough, and occasionally making fun of some of the MC's more outlandish boasts, like asking A-Game where they had their yacht parked after they performed the particularly braggadocious "Money Made Me Do It."
For the past couple years, the Airplane Boys, or APB to their fans, have been tapped as the city's next breakout hip-hop stars. The fact that they opened for Snoop Dogg on a tour of Asia and Europe, and have played festivals like Coachella and Osheaga, proves that they may have already broken. For CMW, the duo came out accompanied by a four-piece band that gave their already rich instrumentals a whole range of new sounds that ranged from new wave-y to industrial. That, and it was pretty fun to watch MCs Beck Motley and Bon Voyage freak out as their guitarist soloed.
4. The Airplane Boys absolutely tearing the house down
The infectious enthusiasm of Motley and Voyage whipped the crowd into a frenzy. They jumped, flailed, danced, crowd surfed and generally threw themselves around, and the crowd gave that energy back tenfold.
5. Tre Mission's pinpoint accurate lyricism
Tre Mission is basically rap's Crystal Castles, in that he's a Canadian artist who is way, way bigger in the U.K. than he is at home. We're still not totally sure why that is, because he's one of the best technical MCs the country has to offer right now. His style is fast, densely packed and unforgiving. While other MCs might have room to screw around or get off beat when performing live, he doesn't. Thankfully, the battle-honed Mission doesn't miss much. He dropped bar after bar of rapid-fire, staccato, complex rhymes and awed the crowd to the point that one guy started yelling "TRE MOTHERF--KING MISSION!" between every song
6. Naturally Born Strangers reveling in their status as the people's champs
"Indie-rap supergroup" is kind of an oxymoron, but there's no other way to describe Naturally Born Strangers. By combining their efforts, longtime Toronto rap mainstays Rich Kidd, Adam Bomb and Tona have morphed into full-fledged celebrities in their city, and garnered attention from hip-hop blogs across the border. At Tattoo, they got the whole crowd rapping along to binge-drinking tribute "Jameson Ave.," wandered into the crowd multiple times and just generally looked like they were having the time of their lives.
7. Proof that Toronto is no longer the Screwface Capital
Toronto got the hip-hop nickname "the Screwface Capital" thanks to a history of crowds that came to shows with an attitude ranging from mild hostility to benign indifference. Local acts usually got the worst of that negativity. (Local rapper Arcee referred to Toronto as the city where "we'll pay $20 to boo ya." Recently, some local hip-hop heads have speculated that the city finally embracing Drake was evidence that things were starting to change. Watching a packed room get loud and rowdy for four local acts who aren't multi-platinum superstars is further proof that the hostility is a thing of the past.
