A Jann Arden Christmas at The Social co-hosts (l-r) Traci Melchor, Cynthia Loyst, Jann Arden, Lainey Lui and Melissa Grelo on set. Photo by Cherryl Bird
“People come up to me all the time and ask me: What are the girls like on The Social?” says the indelible eight-time Juno recipient and serial co-host Jann Arden, most notable for her ability to grab hold of our hearts in bittersweet lamentations of universal love, or about loosing your way and occasionally finding it again, in songs like Sleepless, Could I Be Your Girl, Good Mother, Insensitive, I Would Die For You, and Will You Remember Me. She answers her own question: “They are terrible.” The audience bursts into laughter because they are familiar with her other gift, her deprecating sense of humour.
A professional musician without swagger is like a guitarist who can’t play the first bar of Sweet Home Alabama. There are not many of them around. Self-confidence plays a significant role in success but there are plenty of examples of musicians who are drunk on swagger. Read the confessions of a music industry veteran and how overconfidence almost cost him the job.
How did Orin Isaacs get to DJ for the Pan Am Games, Toronto’s biggest party of the summer? Did he scope out an ad in DJ Times, respond to a LinkedIn job posting or did he cozy up to an insider like Kanye West or Serena Ryder to be invited in?
Musings on Stevie Wonder by a skinny little white girl who looked to Motown from across the river.
Stevie Wonder loves me. He told me so. Well, me and 10,000 other people at the Air Canada Centre (ACC) in Toronto on Oct 9. What a stupendous night of music and joy and love.
Dengue Fever embarked on a 12-day, 14-gig, 10-city tour about a week after the U.S. and international release of their latest album The Deepest Lake. Zac Holtzman, the band’s bearded guitarist/vocalist, talked to Core Magazines about their adventures on the road, how they ended up together and some memorable moments they’ve shared.
Salt Petal, if you haven’t yet heard, is the tropical rock band that has been establishing themselves as LA’s Latin Dance pop darlings. Playing everywhere from major festivals to local venues, they win over their audience at every performance.
It took a chance meeting and a bizarre collaboration with the elusive Canadian musician Mary Margaret O’Hara to propel performance artist Sara Porter back to the stage after dealing with physical challenges, raising three young boys, and surviving a solid “six years of not dancing at all.”
The original soundtrack by Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and 3D, one-half of Massive Attack, also known as Robert Del Naja, in collaboration with Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, Massive Attack producer-engineer Euan Dickinson and Elbow’s Guy Garvey for the documentary The UK Gold, an award-winning film about tax “avoidance”, was released for free on a UK protest site three days ago.
