Fairly short update this week. Plenty more coming next week, and sometime in the next month you should see new interviews with a few of the East Coast’s biggest names.

Cheers,
Eric

Nova Scotia Music Week plans revealed

All kinds of news coming from Music Nova Scotia this week, as the music body is currently gearing up for Nova Scotia Music Week, being held this year Nov. 6-9 in Pictou County.

NSMW began in 1997, and it has grown in size and stature each year. This year, workshops, showcases, receptions, a trade show and more highlight the four-day event.

Country star and Pictou County native George Canyon is slated to host the event’s gala awards show at the John Brother MacDonald Stadium in New Glasgow on Nov. 9. The show will feature Dave Gunning, Meaghan Smith, David Myles, Gypsophilia, Old Man Luedecke, Jamie Sparks and Laura Peek and the Winning Hearts among others.

A songwriter’s circle is also planned during the event, featuring host J.P. Cormier, Dave Carroll, Andrew White, Ruth Minnikin, Christina Martin, Ian Sherwood and Grammy nominee Ronald Bourgeois.  The Songwriters Circle will be held at the deCoste Centre in Pictou on Nov. 8.

Those are just two of the highlights for the weekend. All details, full schedule and ticket info are available on Music Nova Scotia’s NSMW website.

MNS announces music/industry awards nominees

The lists are simply too long for me to reprint here when I can simply give you a link. But seriously, check out Music Nova Scotia’s website, if not for the NSMW schedule, then just for the lists of music and industry nominees. A quick glance through the list reminds one all over again how strong the Nova Scotia music market is. The list can be found here.

Leading with nominations are David Myles (a native NBer) and Old Man Luedecke, who are each up for five awards. Both are nominated for Male Artist of the Year, SOCAN Songwriter of the Year and the publicly voted Aliant Entertainer of the Year award.  Myles’ sophomore effort On the Line and Luedecke’s Proof of Love are also both nominated for Album of the Year and Folk Recording of the Year.

The Tom Fun Orchestra has four chances for an award, three times for their debut album, You Will Land With A Thud in the Album of the Year, New Artist/Group Recording of the Year and Group of the Year categories.  The nine-piece band is also nominated for Aliant Entertainer of the Year, and no disrespect to any of the other artists nominated for this one as they are all great, but Tom Fun has to be a lock for this one.

Wintersleep, Christina Martin, Chad Hatcher, Tomcat Combat and Jon McKiel are all nominated for three awards.

ECMA showcase deadline extended

The deadline to submit for the ECMA 2009 Showcase Stages has been extended until midnight AST Sunday, Sept. 28 (that’s this Sunday, for those of you who keep track of dates as well as I do).

Additionally, submissions are now open for the 2009 ECMA music award categories. You can submit for one on the ECMA website.

The ECMA is partnering with Ambassatours Gray Line to offer motor coach transportation to the 2009 event in Corner Brook.  The ECMA Fest Express will leave from each of the four Atlantic provinces picking passengers up along pre-set routes.  Cost per passenger is $235, and it includes ferry and return trip.  Taxes are extra. To book a seat, call the ECMA 2009 Housing Bureau at 1-877-847-3660 or e-mail info@visionatlantic.net

Les Païens to release fourth album

Moncton, N.B.’s jazz-rock group les Païens will be releasing their new album Épiphonde III : Pyramyd. This will be the final chapter of the Épiphonde trilogy that began with the 2001 release of Zrn’T’trn and followed up by the ECMA nominated Sphère in 2004.

The four-piece, consisting of Marc Arsenault, Sébastien Michaud, Denis Surette and Jean Surette, will release Pyramyd on Thursday, Oct. 30 at The Paramount Lounge in Moncton. Showtime is 9:30 p.m.

Les Païens are simply stunning live, each guy playing his instrument like it’s an extra limb. Seriously. If you’re into improv jams, tight grooves and a fusion of jazz and rock, check the guys out.

For the band’s fourth disc, they turned to a producer, Montréal composer / producer / guitarist Bernard Falaise (Klaxon Gueule, Papa Boa, Marie-Jo Thério, Miriodor and les Projectionnistes). Typically, the guys do everything themselves, so it will be interesting to see what an extra set of hands does to Les Païens’ sound.

Two Hours Traffic up for Polaris Prize

Good Luck to PEI’s Two Hours Traffic as they head to Toronto where the winner of the 2008 Polaris Prize will be announced on Monday.  The event – hosted by CBC’s Grant Lawrence – will feature live performances by several nominees including Two Hours Traffic. Sirius Satellite Radio and CBC radio3 will broadcast the gala live across North America on Sirius channel 86 and around the world on the web here.  The broadcast begins at 9 p.m. AST.

Hey Rosetta! wins Verge music award

Congrats to Hey Rosetta!, as the band won the album of the year award for Into our lungs at XM 52’s Satellite Radio’s inaugural The Verge Music Awards this week at Toronto’s Tattoo Rock Parlour . The winners in each category received $25,000.

The St. John’s, N.L. band were nominated in for artist and album of the year.

After 18 weeks of releasing a new track each week off its new album, Halifax-based group MIR is finally releasing that album, OK2GO!, this week. The album lands in stores on Tuesday, Sept. 16.

All summer long, the band has been releasing one track from the new album each week on its website. Every track is available for sampling/purchasing on the band’s site and the album will be in stores tomorrow.

Hospital Grade to release sophomore effort

Saint John, N.B.’s Hospital Grade will release its new album, Secrets and Sawdust (BBQ Records), next week, on Sept. 26. The band (Jason Ogden, Andrew Ogden, Mike MacAloon and Adam Kierstead) worked on the tracks that would become Secrets and Sawdust for the last two years.

The band formed in 2002 and released its first CD, Written Axe To Trigger, in 2004, on Kansas City, MO’s URININE Records.

Jill Barber preps new album, tour

Juno Award nominee and ECMA winner Jill Barber, who calls Halifax home, is set to release her new album, Chances, on Oct. 14. The folk songstress recorded most of the album in Blue Rodeo’s Woodshed Studios. The 10-track disc features guest appearances by the Good Lovelies, The Sojourners and Ron Sexsmith, who co-wrote some of the new disc along with Les Cooper.

Along with the new album, Barber has an extensive East Coast tour planned between Oct. 24 and Nov. 9, with dates in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Check out her website for tour dates.

We, The Undersigned announce changes, tour

Fredericton, N.B.-based We, the Undersigned is planning a month-long eastern Canadian tour with Kitchener, Ont.’s What’s He Building In There? The metal band will play shows in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Quebec and Ontario. Current planned shows are on the band’s myspace page and more are expected to be added.

The band recently underwent some personnel changes. Andy Stevens (I Am Error/Born Under Satellites) is filling in on guitar for the group after Brandon Larocque decided to leave the band in May. The band also features Tyler Feeney, Jai Sadler and Chris Gatza.

Indie Pop Night rocks the East Coast

Marc Xavier “bones” LeBlanc, a Moncton photographer, promoter and DJ, hosts regular Indie Pop Nights at Moncton’s Paramount Lounge. The show features Bones DJing, spinning pop tunes – everything from Top 40 to underground stuff you’re unlikely to hear anywhere else. Bones’ goal is to basically get the entire room dancing.

The next show coming up is Friday, Sept. 19 at the Paramount Lounge, but he has been taking his show on the road as well, so to keep up with where Bones will be next, search “((Indie Pop Night)) events with bones” on Facebook.

Great Big Sea goes gold

Warner Music Canada has announced that Newfoundland’s Great Big Sea, recently seen opening for Keith Urban in Halifax, has had its latest album, Fortune’s Favour, go gold.

I caught the band at the Urban show a few weeks ago and they sounded great. The crowd ate up the hits and seemed to respond well to the newer material. Nice to see that after nine albums and over 15 years together, the band still holds up well live and on the charts. Each of the band’s albums has gone gold or platinum. In November, the band will embark on another tour that will take them from Ontario to British Columbia. No East Coast dates have been announced thus far.

Moncton re-releases project

In one of the coolest East Coast undertakings I’ve ever heard of, two Moncton, N.B. based fellows are making rare, out-of-print Moncton releases freely available in mp3 format (whole albums tagged properly and zipped), complete with cover art and wiki entries.

Musician Don Levandier (ex-The Ditchpigs, The Motorleague) and producer Kyle MacDonald (HOPE, many others) are spearheading this via The Van Door Records.

The idea here is to dig up some old treasures and also promote Moncton’s new wikiMonctonLocals, an online archive of Moncton’s music history. It’s a volunteer project that Levandier started.

The first release through the new initiative is 1996’s Honeybucket - Honeybucket, the band’s second album. The album is now available at The Van Door website. Future releases planned are The Neutrinos and Super Dicky 66, as well as a live Iron Giant release.

ECMA 2009 music award submissions open soon

Deadline to submit for a 2009 East Coast Music Award is Oct. 15.  Submissions are opening soon with an announcement expected this week.

In other ECMA news, the deadline to submit for the ECMA 2009 Showcase Stages is Sept. 24. You can apply here.

Halifax festival seeks submissions

The In the Dead of Winter festival is an annual acoustic festival that will be held in Halifax, N.S. Jan. 27-29. The organizers are currently accepting submissions for performance consideration.  All artists will be compensated for their performances and some may receive travel and accommodations. For full details check out their website, and to submit for consideration, check this out. Deadline to submit is Oct. 1.

Pop Explosion to rock the coast

The Halifax Pop Explosion is presenting a short East Coast tour, Molson Canadian Rocks the Coast, which will feature Grand Theft Bus, Slowcoaster, Rich Aucoin and i see rowboats performing four shows this month across the Maritimes. Here are the dates:

Sept. 24 - Halifax, N.S. - The Marquee Club

Sept. 25 - Sydney, N.S. - Membertou  Convention Center

Sept. 26 - Moncton, N.B. - L’Osmose (Université de Moncton bar)

Sept. 27 - Fredericton, N.B. - UNB Sub Cafeteria

For more info on the shows, check ‘em out here.

SpinCount in business for East Coast artists

I was asked to spread word of a service available to East Coast musicians. Liverpool, N.S.-based SpinCount Music & Promotions is now offering digital music distribution services to Canadian musicians. This method of sending songs to radio stations throughout North America is possible due to the company’s partnership with DMDS, making SpinCount the distributor’s only active agent located east of Montreal. SpinCount distributes music instantaneously in a form similar to an e-mail to potentially hundreds of radio stations at once, along with the artists’ press release and marketing materials.

This method of distribution can save time and coin versus the traditional method of mailing a separate CD to radio stations across the country.

SpinCount also offers an array of promotional tools to artists to assist them in getting heard on radio. These services include radio tracking to follow up on song releases with each station and encourage the stations to listen to the track and consider adding the songs to their play lists; consulting on website design and social networking sites and marketing assistance through iTunes and CDBaby.

Owner Kimberly Sinclair also hosts a radio show, InSight, with live internet streaming radio from QCCR  in Liverpool.

(Photo contributed)

Three albums in and Antigonish, N.S. rockers The Trews continue to ride a wave of fame that has yet to slow. But at the same time, the band continues to grow – never drifting far from their tried and true form of radio-friendly pop-rock, but adding a little more lyrical depth and some different (and heavier) sounds to their arsenal.

The band – singer/guitarist Colin MacDonald, his brother John Angus on guitar, Jack Syperek on bass and Sean Dalton on drums - is currently in the middle of an East Coast tour that will see them play Saint John, N.B. tonight, Moncton, N.B. tomorrow night, Hubbards, N.S. on Thursday and Halifax, N.S. on Saturday.

Shortly before hitting the road for the East Coast, Colin MacDonald spoke to East Coast Noise about the band’s latest album, No Time For Later, touring and the flak the band has received from some for getting a little political on the new disc.

It’s been a busy summer for the band since the new album came out.

“We’re doing the biggest shows we’ve done of our careers in terms of headlining, doing a lot of outdoor summer festivals everywhere,” he says of the band’s recent exploits. “We’ve been to pretty much every major city in Canada this summer. It’s been going great. We’re not really an opening band for anybody anymore. We’re just doing our own shows and getting thousands of people out.”

MacDonald says the band isn’t on the level of headlining the arena shows they were regularly opening a few years ago, but their audiences continue to grow in Canada as they pursue the same success stateside and overseas.

“It’s a lot more gratifying now to be doing our own shows and have people knowing all the songs and being there only for The Trews,” he admits.

While things are going well, the band has received some flak over the lyrical content of their latest disc, where the band got a little political at times. Single “Paranoid Freak” is about the paranoia spread by media, whether it’s the latest outbreak of a virus or another overseas war. But the touchy track is “Gun Control,” a heavier tune that tackles the issue of school shootings. It was written in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings last year.

The band is known for lighthearted rockers or “songs about girls” as MacDonald calls them, but the singer says as he hit his late-20s he began picking up on more and more of what is going on in the world around him, some of which was disturbing.

A lyric in “Gun Control,” which describes a school shooting, reads, “Freedom to take other people’s freedom away, is this what has become of the U.S.A, why oh why do they second guess, gun control, my my my what an ugly mess …”.

MacDonald says the song drew “a line in the sand” on the issue for the band, and gave the normally carefree, fun tunes of The Trews some extra weight that some listeners don’t like.

“You kind of maybe alienate some people, people that either don’t believe in gun control or people who think that I’ve got no right as a rock n’ roll singer to have an opinion on events in the world,” he says. “But I certainly felt at the time that I needed to say that stuff. I couldn’t muster up any more songs about girls at the time.

“I remember I was in New York City one night, and this guy came up to me and said, ‘Look man, I like your band and you guys really rock, but you’re from Canada and it’s not really your place to talk about our gun control laws.’ And I’m like, ‘yeah, but I’m not really talking about that. I’m talking about senseless killings of kids at school.’

“I think it’s a pretty universal topic. I’m not just saying, ‘Oh, the United States is good, or the United States is bad,’ I’m saying like no, ‘this is wrong, and if this kid couldn’t get a gun, then it would have been prevented, at least in my opinion.’”
Not all of the songs on No Time For Later are political. The title track is a carefree rocker, while new single “Man of Two Minds” is about a guy torn (or not so torn) between two loves.

Each of the band’s albums thus far has been produced by different producers. Ex-Big Sugar and current Grady frontman helmed the band’s debut House of Ill Fame, while veteran producer Jack Douglas (Aerosmith, Cheap Trick, Alice Cooper) worked with the band on sophomore album Den of Thieves. Gus Van Go and Werner F. (The Stills, Priestess) produced No Time For Later.

MacDonald says The Trews have been a unit “forever” and they’d like to stay that way, so to keep things fresh and moving along, they bring in new people to work with each time.

“We have to throw new people into the mix as producers, we have an extra guy on the keyboards (Jeff Heisholt), I’ve written with some other people … we’re constantly trying to reinvent ourselves, or at least try to push ourselves artistically so we can keep feeling excited about what we’re doing, you know. And with every new producer, I like that kind of feeling of the unknown.”

The new album has been out for a few months now and it’s on its third single. Once the band wraps up the East Coast tour and some university dates, they plan to release No Time For Later in the U.S. and overseas, where they will spend some time touring.

While the band lives in Ontario now, MacDonald says they make it home to Nova Scotia regularly.

“We still consider ourselves an East Coast band, and until (Detroit Red Wings assistant coach) Paul MacLean brought home the Stanley Cup (recently), we were the pride of Antigonish,” he says with a laugh.