Songs that make us cry and other IndieCan news

[indie at indiecan.com]

This Week’s IndieCan Headlines:

The Singer who made Joe Chisholm cry!
Why I can’t hear the best songs being written
Three Bands rock IndieCan Wednesday Tonight

The Singer Who Made Joe Chisholm Cry!

Episode 122 starts a two-week look at Ontario’s Northland and the
performers in it.  This week – it’s the beauty – next week the beast. 
Angie Nussey is from a small town near a small city called Sudbury.  Among
many of her awards, Angie is a two-time winner of the Toronto Independent
Music Award Female Performer of the Year.  Every cold-hearted bastard has
one songwriter that reduces them to tears and for the cold hearted bastard
host of IndieCan Radio, Angie Nussey is the songstress that made Joe
Chisholm cry.  This week Angie performs a couple of songs from her current
record Little Tragedies and a “not yet recorded” song, Warm Hands.  Look
forward as I did to getting to know Angie Nussey a little bit better on
this weeks show.

Also this week, more from Peter Spellman, Director of Music Business
Solutions & Director of Career Development at Berklee College of Music on
CD sales in the 21st Century.  Peter co-authored a book with another
IndieCan friend, Dave Cool, called “Your Successful CD Release (which you
can download at http://www.idniecan.com/sor.htm)

Vancity’s Dave Righton is a one-man band called Roche Limit and we have a
track from the soon to be released CD, which won’t be toured so if you
like it, consider supporting the artist as part of your CD buying budget. 
But you can test-drive one infectious tune today.  South Africa is sending
us Parlotones who perform the Annex WreckRoom at CMW, so you can sample
them this week.  Make friends and welcome them at CMW, SXSW or on-line. 
Russell Leon was part of Winter Folk, Toronto’s free-February music
festival, so we’ll hear from his band today.  Also SAB – next week’s live
at IndieCan feature, Ember Swift, Peace Work and The DoneFors who have a
message to all bands and fans visiting the Great White North – “How to
Have Sex With Canadiens.”

Hear it Now:  http://www.indiecan.com/122IndieCanRadio.mp3
Read all about it:  http://www.indiecan.com/radio.htm
Reviews Events, including Podcamp Toronto, The Joys and more: 
http://www.indiecan.com


Why I Can’t Hear The Best Songs Being Written?

This week I challenge the system and I invite you to do the same.  We have
been hearing from industry insiders all about the new DIY (Do It Yourself)
world, where the recording artist is a producer and an engineer, a
publicist, booking agent, manager, radio tracker, accountant, financial
planner – an all round generalist.  Either you have to be all these things
to succeed or you have to evaluate and hire all these people in order to
succeed.  So the most successful artists are going to be accomplished
generalists – good business owners, well rounded.  This is the new
paradigm.  That’s just how it is – right?

But what if the best song writers aren’t generalists?  What if they aren’t
even well-rounded?  Could Janis Joplin (I don’t even know if she wrote
most of her own songs – but let’s use her as an example anyway) have been
a DIY artist?  Who can picture Bob Dylan booking shows or self-promoting
to radio station managers?  How about Jimmy Hendrix booking his first
European tour?

I know some great songwriters that could run any small business or launch
their own political campaign – they are that multi-talented.  But I also
know great songwriters who are organizationally retarded, too
self-effacing to endure press and industry rejection, lacking the
negotiating skills to master the multitudes of levels of bureaucracy to
book a tour or qualify for government funding.  Is it possible that the
best songwriters today or during any era are specialists, overcompensated
with creative skill but under-equipped with the basic social and business
acumen needed just to be heard today, let alone, be regarded as being the
best.

Was DIY a cure for a flawed system that was the recording industry or is
it a poorly thought out default to the void left behind by it’s
predecessor for bringing music to the market place – the major label
system?  If DIY is flawed, what will the new New Wave look like and what
can we do to bring it about?

A new phenomena Peter Spellman talks about is how music fans are feeling
more connected with artists and maybe some of the keener music fans will
find themselves offering their expertise and services to help out certain
artists that may not be the competent generalists that the new indie
requires but offer us important songwriting that I for one, hope can find
a way to market.  I don’t know the answer but if you agree with me that a
troublesome precedent is taking place, then we should start talking about
it.  What was called the golden era of music was also the golden era of
handlers when football size teams of marketing and admin help was
available to each artist to get the music from their note book to our
ears.

Get Some IndieCan live - tonight!

For those of you in Toronto, the rock ‘n’ roll weekend starts with
IndieCan Wednesdays at the Annex WreckRoom.  It’s always free, we have
three great bands, but we have great music every week – you can just show
up and satisfaction is guaranteed.  But for this Week’s like up check us
out on FaceBook:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2350203388#/event.php?eid=52856936686



Have a great week everyone!  Let’s talk in March – it’s almost here.

Joe Chisholm
Host
IndieCan Radio
http://www.indiecan.com
info at indiecan.com
http://www.myspace.com/indiecanmusic