Brett Carruthers from A Primitive Evolution on My Frozen Headphones. The music, the new album, life in the band and an insider's view on Play Dead Cult, Toronto's alternative fashion store.
Check out the podcast here.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
CANCON, big plans, and the Google search for a National Identity...
Media and the Search for Identity
From Assessment to Application: An Introduction
Beyond entertainment there is one absolute role that the media, through any medium, continuously serves: the media is a means of identification. This is especially true in Canada, an opinion shared by the Honorable Flora MacDonald as stated in the 1988 Communications Canada report, Canadian Voices Canadian Choices. (See paragraph 5).
We identify ourselves through every item of media with which we come in contact. As individuals, as groups and as members of a shared national community, our individual response to media affects both our sense of community and our self-identification. Through the music Canadians listen to and the television shows we watch, the advertisements we respond to and the newspapers we read, each person is furthering their own identity. Statements such as “I read the National Post” or “My favorite band is The Arcade Fire” are declarations of self.
The media’s ability to influence the developing Canadian identity is power, and as it is universally understood that with power comes responsibility, it becomes of vital necessity to address the importance of that responsibility with specific attention to how the Canadian media behaves in this role.
In the case of music-focused terrestrial radio in Canada the media’s power to shape the Canadian identity is being abused. Subsequently, this form of radio is faltering as a favoured medium. Following is an examination the truth of this statement and the answer to the fundamental question of “how do we fix it?” How do we save music-focused terrestrial radio from irrelevancy and better direct its role as it shapes the Canadian identity?
Progressive Hopes for Canadian Content in Radio and the Search for The Canadian Identity
The Canadian broadcasting industry is a central necessity in the building of our national identity. Radio is found in 99 percent of Canadian homes,(1) thereby, as stated by the Honorable Flora MacDonald in Canadian Voices Canadian Choices, “the power of radio … to inform, sell products, sway opinions, create stars, above all to provide large numbers of people with a shared experience, is enormous. It is of fundamental importance to our … cultural sovereignty that our broadcasting system be an accurate reflection of who we are ... It plays a major role in defining our national, regional, local and even our individual identities.”(2) As this is the case it becomes clear that the CRTC’s Canadian Content regulations are necessary and powerful laws that uphold a valuable understanding: that Canadians should have free and readily available access to Canadian radio programming and that our musical artists should be thoroughly supported. The responsibility to meet this understanding lies in the hands of Canada’s terrestrial radio broadcasters, and is a responsibility that, for various reasons, is not being met. The shortcomings of the current Canadian Content regulations, and the resulting failings of the terrestrial radio broadcasting system, prove the need for a solution: CANCON Pro is that solution.
The current Canadian Content laws are severely out of date. The present requirements are based simply on percentage quotas. For example, 35 percent of content played on popular music radio stations must be Canadian.(3) These percentage styled quotas were instated 40 years ago when the main goal of the CRTC was simply to inspire growth in the Canadian recording industry.(4) This goal was achieved and Canada’s music industry exploded, producing huge international stars. Unfortunately, the attainment of this goal has resulted in an unforeseen backlash: broadcasters, rather than drawing from a variety of Canadian artists, have taken to playing solely the music of our international stars to reach their content quotas.(5) The lack of incentive for radio broadcasters to play emerging artists has resulted in extreme repetition in play lists and an excessive focus on Canada’s international stars. This damages the radio broadcasting industry’s effect on our search for our national identity in that these famous artists have attained such celebrity that they no longer retain any true semblance of connection to Canadian roots.
Furthermore, radio has lost its excitement as a medium- the excitement created by breaking new bands and pushing the bar for creativity and production quality within the Canadian music scene. In fact, according to Stats Canada, the excitement seeking teen and young adult audiences have the smallest listening time of all the age brackets.(6) As the radio has lost excitement, alternative forms of entertainment are winning young audiences over.
Overplay of Canadian international artists neither furthers our understanding of our national identity nor makes way for the necessary support needed for Canada’s emerging artists. The overall result is a sense of disconnection that is driving audiences away.
The solution is CANCON Pro (for Progressive), an idea created by Indie Pool President, Gregg Terrence. His Let's Fix CANCON campaign is “committed to encouraging the CRTC to modernize Canadian Content regulations placed on Canadian terrestrial radio broadcasters ... [The] goal is to create incentives within CANCON that encourage Canadian radio stations to play more new and developing Canadian artists.”(7)
The proposal is that the current Canadian Content quotas remain untouched and that radio stations receive incentives, called CANCON Credits, for including developing artists in their daily broadcast. The credit system is based on four tiers of artist establishment. Each level of establishment comes with a certain percentage towards a CANCON Credit. The levels and values are as follows: a Canadian International Artist is worth .75 percent of a CANCON credit, an Established Artist is worth 1.00 percent, a National Artist is 1.25 percent, while a Developing Artist, otherwise known as an unsigned or independent artist, is worth 1.50 percent.* The simple genius lies in that the more emerging artists a station puts into rotation, the faster they can reach their content quotas (incidentally solving a huge array of other tribulations).(8)
CANCON Pro will provide broadcasters with an incentive for choosing the lesser-known artist, providing support for our emerging musicians and giving a boost to the entire Canadian recording industry as the original Canadian Content regulations did in the 1970’s.(9) The effects of CANCON Pro will result in the return of terrestrial radio to a position of legitimacy and force within the music industry and the reinstatement of radio itself as an exciting medium.(10) If put in effect, CANCON Pro will breath new life into Canadian terrestrial radio and our ideas of our national identity. The search for our national identity is stronger upon us than ever before and the radio broadcasting industry, under the guide of CANCON Pro, can lead us to it.
* Artists are assigned a position in the points tier through a rigorous assessment process based on home play, international play, record sales and if they are signed to a FACTOR certified distributor.
References
Beyond entertainment there is one absolute role that the media, through any medium, continuously serves: the media is a means of identification. This is especially true in Canada, an opinion shared by the Honorable Flora MacDonald as stated in the 1988 Communications Canada report, Canadian Voices Canadian Choices. (See paragraph 5).
We identify ourselves through every item of media with which we come in contact. As individuals, as groups and as members of a shared national community, our individual response to media affects both our sense of community and our self-identification. Through the music Canadians listen to and the television shows we watch, the advertisements we respond to and the newspapers we read, each person is furthering their own identity. Statements such as “I read the National Post” or “My favorite band is The Arcade Fire” are declarations of self.
The media’s ability to influence the developing Canadian identity is power, and as it is universally understood that with power comes responsibility, it becomes of vital necessity to address the importance of that responsibility with specific attention to how the Canadian media behaves in this role.
In the case of music-focused terrestrial radio in Canada the media’s power to shape the Canadian identity is being abused. Subsequently, this form of radio is faltering as a favoured medium. Following is an examination the truth of this statement and the answer to the fundamental question of “how do we fix it?” How do we save music-focused terrestrial radio from irrelevancy and better direct its role as it shapes the Canadian identity?
Progressive Hopes for Canadian Content in Radio and the Search for The Canadian Identity
The Canadian broadcasting industry is a central necessity in the building of our national identity. Radio is found in 99 percent of Canadian homes,(1) thereby, as stated by the Honorable Flora MacDonald in Canadian Voices Canadian Choices, “the power of radio … to inform, sell products, sway opinions, create stars, above all to provide large numbers of people with a shared experience, is enormous. It is of fundamental importance to our … cultural sovereignty that our broadcasting system be an accurate reflection of who we are ... It plays a major role in defining our national, regional, local and even our individual identities.”(2) As this is the case it becomes clear that the CRTC’s Canadian Content regulations are necessary and powerful laws that uphold a valuable understanding: that Canadians should have free and readily available access to Canadian radio programming and that our musical artists should be thoroughly supported. The responsibility to meet this understanding lies in the hands of Canada’s terrestrial radio broadcasters, and is a responsibility that, for various reasons, is not being met. The shortcomings of the current Canadian Content regulations, and the resulting failings of the terrestrial radio broadcasting system, prove the need for a solution: CANCON Pro is that solution.The current Canadian Content laws are severely out of date. The present requirements are based simply on percentage quotas. For example, 35 percent of content played on popular music radio stations must be Canadian.(3) These percentage styled quotas were instated 40 years ago when the main goal of the CRTC was simply to inspire growth in the Canadian recording industry.(4) This goal was achieved and Canada’s music industry exploded, producing huge international stars. Unfortunately, the attainment of this goal has resulted in an unforeseen backlash: broadcasters, rather than drawing from a variety of Canadian artists, have taken to playing solely the music of our international stars to reach their content quotas.(5) The lack of incentive for radio broadcasters to play emerging artists has resulted in extreme repetition in play lists and an excessive focus on Canada’s international stars. This damages the radio broadcasting industry’s effect on our search for our national identity in that these famous artists have attained such celebrity that they no longer retain any true semblance of connection to Canadian roots.
Furthermore, radio has lost its excitement as a medium- the excitement created by breaking new bands and pushing the bar for creativity and production quality within the Canadian music scene. In fact, according to Stats Canada, the excitement seeking teen and young adult audiences have the smallest listening time of all the age brackets.(6) As the radio has lost excitement, alternative forms of entertainment are winning young audiences over.
Overplay of Canadian international artists neither furthers our understanding of our national identity nor makes way for the necessary support needed for Canada’s emerging artists. The overall result is a sense of disconnection that is driving audiences away.
The solution is CANCON Pro (for Progressive), an idea created by Indie Pool President, Gregg Terrence. His Let's Fix CANCON campaign is “committed to encouraging the CRTC to modernize Canadian Content regulations placed on Canadian terrestrial radio broadcasters ... [The] goal is to create incentives within CANCON that encourage Canadian radio stations to play more new and developing Canadian artists.”(7)
The proposal is that the current Canadian Content quotas remain untouched and that radio stations receive incentives, called CANCON Credits, for including developing artists in their daily broadcast. The credit system is based on four tiers of artist establishment. Each level of establishment comes with a certain percentage towards a CANCON Credit. The levels and values are as follows: a Canadian International Artist is worth .75 percent of a CANCON credit, an Established Artist is worth 1.00 percent, a National Artist is 1.25 percent, while a Developing Artist, otherwise known as an unsigned or independent artist, is worth 1.50 percent.* The simple genius lies in that the more emerging artists a station puts into rotation, the faster they can reach their content quotas (incidentally solving a huge array of other tribulations).(8)
CANCON Pro will provide broadcasters with an incentive for choosing the lesser-known artist, providing support for our emerging musicians and giving a boost to the entire Canadian recording industry as the original Canadian Content regulations did in the 1970’s.(9) The effects of CANCON Pro will result in the return of terrestrial radio to a position of legitimacy and force within the music industry and the reinstatement of radio itself as an exciting medium.(10) If put in effect, CANCON Pro will breath new life into Canadian terrestrial radio and our ideas of our national identity. The search for our national identity is stronger upon us than ever before and the radio broadcasting industry, under the guide of CANCON Pro, can lead us to it.
* Artists are assigned a position in the points tier through a rigorous assessment process based on home play, international play, record sales and if they are signed to a FACTOR certified distributor.
References
(1) Communications Canada. Canadian Voices: Canadian Choices. [The Honorable Flora
MacDonald]. Ottawa: Communications Canada, 1988. pg, 1.
(2) Communications Canada. Canadian Voices: Canadian Choices. [The Honorable Flora
MacDonald]. Ottawa: Communications Canada, 1988. pg, 5.
(3) CRTC, Commercial Radio Policy 1998, http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/1998/PB98-41.HTM.
(4) Terrence, Gregg. Let’s Fix CANCON. 1999-2007. Artifice, Inc. 13 October, 2008
(5) Friends of Canadian Broadcasting. [Interview: Gregg Terrence] Friends’ Media Monitor Digest.
(6) Statistics Canada, Radio Listening, http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/080918/d080918d.htm
(7) Terrence, Gregg. Let’s Fix CANCON. "The Problem". 1999-2007. Artifice, Inc. 13 October, 2008
(8) Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, Interview: Cancon is broken, says Indie Pool president Gregg Terrence, http://www.friendscb.org/print/News/Friends_News/archives/articles07190502.asp
(9) Terrence, Gregg. Let’s Fix CANCON. "The Fix". 1999-2007. Artifice, Inc. 13 October, 2008
(10) Terrence, Gregg. Let’s Fix CANCON. "The Fix". 1999-2007. Artifice, Inc. 13 October, 2008
MacDonald]. Ottawa: Communications Canada, 1988. pg, 1.
(2) Communications Canada. Canadian Voices: Canadian Choices. [The Honorable Flora
MacDonald]. Ottawa: Communications Canada, 1988. pg, 5.
(3) CRTC, Commercial Radio Policy 1998, http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/1998/PB98-41.HTM.
(4) Terrence, Gregg. Let’s Fix CANCON. 1999-2007. Artifice, Inc. 13 October, 2008
Friday, February 6, 2009
Podcast no. 2: Dinosaur Bones, the Super Bowl, and my new found modesty over my apparent gullibility...
I love the Horseshoe Tavern. She has been a good friend to me. She's never asked me for unrealistic amounts of money, she's provided me with tasty treats (and a subsequent place to pee), but most importantly, she has kept me brilliantly well stocked with access to the best live performances the Canadian Independent music scene has to offer. How could I not love ol' Horsie when it was under her stooped roof that I first came in contact with the gaping, haunted, and pulsating music of Toronto’s own Dinosaur Bones.
A five piece with a thrumming rhythm section, lyrics that balance spectacularly between poetry and candor, and entrancing melodies that have the uncanny ability to inspire out-of-body experiences, Dinosaur Bones is easily one of my top finds of 2008. Impressive, as 2008 was their first year as a band- something frontman Ben Fox, bassist Branko Seckic and yours truly sat down to talk about on Superbowl Sunday, two weeks after their 1 year anniversary performance at (that’s right) The Horseshoe Tavern.
So, I hope you enjoy the second installment of The Greyhound Diaries (a.k.a. The Greyhound Diaries: Layover Edition) as much as I enjoyed making it, and that you get to know the guys behind Dinosaur Bones just a little better for it. I know I did. For example: these two monsters had me believing that the recently released Life in Trees demo was written on commission for David Suzuki as part of a ‘Music To Save The Environment’ project. It wasn’t, and the colour I turned after being found so gullible must have been spectacular.So, do you know what I did?
I lit them on fire. Flaming bits of musician were EVERYWHERE.
Ok, so not actually. I in fact just kind of took it. What can I say? A fan’s devotion trumps all.
(The countdown continues with only 31 days left 'til Canadian Music Week.)
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Coming Soon To My Frozen Headphones...
...an interview with Ben and Branko of MAPL infused indie up'n'comers Dinosaur Bones, an examination of Gene Simmons' plan for Canadian Music and my bit of say on genre-splicing, CANCON and other things I've been alluding to but haven't gotten around to yet.
There was something involving a very important application and a certain downtown Toronto University that had to be dealt with first, but I'll be back soon with the goodies.
50 days 'til Canadian Music Week in Toronto. May the countdown begin.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Ariane Moffatt, genre-splicing and my displeasure at having been (slighlty) out of the loop...
Imagine going to sleep all snuggled up in your familiar bed. Now, you know that perfect way of waking up? When it’s not an alarm clock or the desperate need for the loo that jolts you into consciousness? And when your daily itinerary is blissfully blank? That way of waking up to nothing other than a bright, clear, waiting morning? Take that feeling, throw it in a bubble-making machine and right there you have La fille de l’iceberg, the first track on Ariane Moffatt’s newest album, astutely named Tous les sens. It is that feeling of weightlessness that carries the listener, frozen in transcendence, through this stunning and refreshing album.
In case you can’t tell yet, I’m a fan.
Usually when I see artists described as unidentifiable, or am told that they fit into far too many genres to list, a little part of me thinks that either they’re just like every other ‘boundary breaking’ band
that’s ever been not completely boring, or that the reviewer simply couldn’t think of anything more interesting to say. Especially in this day and age when it is nothing particularly impressive to be a genre-escaping act and, moreover, having that basic element of ambiguity is an elementary need to turn heads. Yet still, this genre-less tag is immediately one I must pin to Ariane Moffatt. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think she’s busting down walls exactly, but she’s definitely doing her bit in the rubble kicking throng. She possibly even has a wheelbarrow.An overall electro-pop sound is revitalized with touches of sassy piano, brassy circus-jazz and an overtone of sensual self-assurance that gives just the right amount of oomph. Even despite moments of Zellers commercial-esque tunes (see folksy track no. 2, Breiser un coeur) Tous les sens (aforementioned song included) is completely addictive in all its eclectic charm. Even Moffatt’s two song (arguably three song, if you include dance-pop track Jeudi, 17 mai) trip to urban land somehow feels completely at home with not only her ballads, but also her self-aware lullaby, Éternel Instant Présent, which opens with the winding of a child’s tinkling motorized mobile.
As I don’t yet speak enough French to get into a discussion of lyrics with any real authority, it is a subject I’ll leave for now. However, from what little I do understand I can see it is no coincidence that an infused sense of self-assurance comes through in Moffatt’s vocals. Synth-infused, reggae-pop track no. 3, Je veux tout, which in my opinion is the album’s stand out hit, is irresistibly hip rolling- something which is owed at least in part to the artist’s roughly translated demand that she “wants everything”. Well, with a sound like hers one would hard pressed not to give into any one of her demands. If you’re interested I did find this translation of the song; clever, beautiful, and delightfully cheeky.
Her confidence, however, is never predictable or static. A strange vulnerability s
eems to echo through Moffatt’s music, filtering most noticeably into piano ballad track no. 11, Perséides. Yet this vulnerability is not to be confused with meekness. Rather, it does even more to deliver the album’s carrying tone to a place of strength, something that is discovered through the artist’s unmistakable openness.This is Ariane Moffatt’s fourth album, a reasonably impressive feat as her first was only released in 2002 (as, hem, was her second…). What I am less than impressed by is the fact that I was not familiar with her work until recently. I am reluctant to blame myself for this oversight, while perhaps over-eager to look to the Canadian English radio stations for answers. How is it that I can hear Nickleback 20 times a day (if I would ever be so inclined) while there can be such obvious talent immediately under our noses, prepped and ready to fill the CANCON quotas without causing ears to bleed? It can’t possibly come down to language barriers as it’s not like any one can understand a word Lil’ Wayne says (for example).
Excuse my rant, CANCON and I have issues to be saved for another post.
On topic: Tous les sens is a gem- electrifying, tender and bold- and Ariane Moffatt is a songwriter and musician to be reveled in. Buy this album and show it to all your friends.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
