Cash on way for B.C. music industry
Creative B.C. will dole out more than $4m this year, including $3m for recording
Creative B.C. has pledged $4.41 million to assist the B.C. music industry this year. The arts incentive will give $1.41 million to Music B.C. with the other three million devoted to the sound-recording program. Out of the many applications received last year, 35 were awarded, the total money coming to $500,000. Among the recipients are Hey Ocean! and Jasper Sloan Yip, who performed at a recent Victoria news conference.
It was also learned that Vancouver is the third-largest music centre in Canada, no doubt behind Toronto and Montreal, and there are 80 indie labels in B.C., 123 studios and 6,400 artists. Last year, the local ministry received $400 million in revenue.
For more information, go to creativebc.com.
The Wild! prefaces its Wild at Heart album with leadoff track Ready to Roll. Indeed it is as Ready to Roll has that hard-rock swing that AC/DC’s Malcolm Young claims makes his AC/DC different from all the AC/DC copycats. It’s evasive, but it’s there. Album is out Feb. 17.
That’s the same day the reconstituted Age of Electric belatedly releases its EP We Are Busy Bodies; first single is Keys. The band’s 1997 LP More a Pest Than a Pet is being released as a vinyl double with an additional four songs from the same sessions.
Hannah Georgas’s new video is the title track of her album Evelyn. Although Evelyn is the name of her grandmother, the video concentrates elsewhere — on multiple images of Georgas. It illustrates how she has developed from a fairly simple pop-rocker to something more stylized. It has a luxurious backing track over an electronic beat.
The Railtown Sessions has its finale Friday at the Fox Cabaret. This is a Light Organ-backed album produced by Andy Bishop. Appearing are Sarah Jane Scouten, Johnny 99, Rob Butterfield and Debra-Jean Creelman and it mostly leans toward country and folk. Finale? Now the work of marketing and promoting begins.
Bruce Coughlan is about ready to record his solo album Waiting for Rain. With crowdfunding, he reached his $7,500 goal. Now he is writing applications for grants that will increase his recording budget.
Heavy metal specialist Test Your Metal presents its band Terrifier at the Rickshaw on Jan. 22.
The latest single from another specialist, this one electronic dance musicians East Van Digital, is Beardfight’s The Dream. Behind Beardfight is North Van’s Nathan Salloum.
The Rickshaw hosts a tribute to guitarist Paul Leahy, The Super Duper Show, on Jan. 27.
Another folk band turns 20. The anniversary of Wheat in the Barley will be staged at St. James Hall on Friday.
CD of the week
OK, almost nobody listens to CDs anymore, but The Garage does, which is why it’s grateful that The Evaporators have thought to send its new Ogopogo Punk. The CD isn’t The Evaporators’ preferred medium. Maybe vinyl is. And if so, that’s a statement of the virtues the band embraces. The Evaporators are Nardwuar The Human Serviette’s band. His instrument (a cheesy Ace Tone electric keyboard), his voice (chirpy), his songs (irreverent, but strangely conscientious) and ultimately his concept, which is rooted in ’60s garage rock and late-’70s punk, is aware of modern influences, such as the lazy rap that ends an otherwise punchy, frantic and short album. As The Evaporators have developed, that conceptual esthetic has become more refined, defined and distilled, while retaining a sense of fun. Sure, the songs are short, but the title track (all 2:07 of it) is sophisticated and the playing is purposeful.
Christmas
Lots of choral Christmas concerts. Among them is Christmas Classics by the Laudate Singers, Sunday at 3 p.m. at St. Andrew’s Church.
The Good Vibes Gospek Choir reports that its two Vancouver shows, Something to Treasure, are sold out. Its Richmond Show at the Fraserview MB church Sunday at 3 p.m. has tickets available.
White Rock’s Blue Frog Studios deserves a Christmas section to itself. Appearing were Timwalkers Christmas Show (Dec. 2); We Three Queens (Dec. 4); Sway, A Buble Christmas (Wednesday) and upcoming is Valdy’s Christmas Show (Dec. 16) — same night as the Mud Bay Blues Band’s Mud Bay Christmas Bash. And if you missed Uncle Wiggly’s Hot Shoes Blues Band’s Tribute To The Blues Songs Of Christmas at New Westminster’s Columbia Theatre, the band is reprising the show Dec. 17.
Gigs
On Fridays, the Crescent Beach Legion becomes a dance hall called Club 240. Cooler Kings appear this Friday; Dino DiNicolo (Friday, Deep Cove Brewery); Jerry Doucette (Dec. 15, Summit Theatre in the Cascades Casino); Tequila Mockingbird Orchestra (Jan. 12, Rickshaw); Chilliwack makes a post-Doug Edwards appearance (Jan. 26, Cascades Casino); Sonreal, who has scored platinum with Can I Get a Witness (Feb. 3, Commodore); Colin James (March 8, 2017, Orpheum); and Mother Mother (a whopping four shows, March 25, 26, 28, 29, Commodore).