Tayogo is a new crowdfunded product that allows individuals to hear music through bone conduction, freeing of their ears to hear their surroundings.
This waterproof Bluetooth headset holds 8 GB of music and also tunes into local FM stations. And it also keeps track of your daily physical activities through an iOS or Android App.
It’s Canada’s 150th and Montreal 375th anniversary this year so I thought I’d recommend some of my favorite Canadian music history books:
– “Oh What A Feeling – The Next Generation” by Martin Melhuish
Originally released in conjunction with a four-CD compilation to commemorate the 25th anniversary of The Juno Awards, “Oh What A Feeling – A Vital History of Canadian Music” featured a year by year chronological account of Canada’s music history as well as information on the Juno Awards from 1971 to 1996.
“The Next Generation” is an updated version that was released in 2014, with additional information relating to upcomming artists, notable births and deaths, Hall Of Fame inductees and Juno Award Winners. Available from Amazon.ca / Amazon.com / Chapters-Indigo
– “Music From Far and Wide” – by multiple authors
This official Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences book was released in 2010 to celebrate the Juno Award’s 40th Aniversary and provides an in-depth history of the organisation and creation of the Juno Awards, with a list of Juno Award winners up to 2010 as well as a listing of Board of Directors from 1975 to 2010.
This book can be found at some local book stores, at Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.
– “Is This Live?” by Christopher Ward
As the Nation’s music station, Much Music had been the epicenter for music in Canada from the mid-1980’s to mid-1990’s. And this book by VJ and songwriter Christopher Ward not only discusses the history of the station but makes notes of many events that occurred at the infamous 899 Queen Street West.
This is a must for Canadian fans of 80’s music. Available from Amazon.ca / Amazon.com / Chapters-Indigo
– “Canadian Pop Music Encyclopedia” by Jaimie Vernon
Originally released as the “Encyclopedia of Canadian Rock Pop & Folk Music” in 2004 by Rick Jackson, this artist by artist account of Canadian music history has now become a multiple volume compilation, the first two listing artists alphabetically from “A Thru K” and “L thru Z“, respectively, and a recent celebration of the country’s “Vinyl Years“.
Published in 2011, the first two volumes include information on specific artists (brief history and discography) up to 2010 whilst the third volume concentrates on artists whose vinyl releases were popular up to 1996. All three volumes are available from Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.
– “Top 40 Hits” / “Top Albums” by Nanda Lwin
These reference guides list the chart activity of domestic and international artists in Canada up to 1999 for singles and 2003 for albums. These are of course a must for people who are interested in Canadian music history and altough they are out of print, you can still find “Top 40 Hits” at Alibris, Amazon.ca and Amazon.com. And other chart information can be obtained from the RMP database on Library and Archives Canada and from a blog simply entitled “Canadian Music Blog“, which also contains a wealth of chart information including the best selling singles and albums by year and decade.
In case you missed it yesterday, the Government of Ontario has proposed new regulations in regards to the resale of concert and event tickets within the province.
As stipulated in an official June 26th press release, the proposed measures include:
Also included in the proposed measures are new rules in regards to transparency:
The “Ticket Sales Act” will be introduced to the Provincial Parliament in the fall.
Years back I started framing and mounting some of my favorite album covers and although they look great on the wall, there were several issues I had to contend with.
If I had decided to mount the whole LP, the record and inner sleeve included, I would not able to play it regularly because to do so I’d need to take it off the wall and open up the frame to access the LP. And if I choose to make the frame lighter by not including the actual record and inner sleeve, I risked exposing the later to dust, fingerprints and general wear and tear.
What I ended up doing was buying used copies of my album to mount, to simply use the cover and disregards the rest. But this is of course not an environmentally friendly option in the long run. And I could have probably protected my exposed records more in a heavy duty carrying case.
Oh well. Live and learn.
Album collectors today of course have access to better options like the Snap Show and Use Vinyl Record Frame, the Art Vinyl Play and Display Record Frame, the Records on Walls slide in frame, the 12 Inch Art LP mounting kits and this new British Kickstarter crowdfunding project called Record Roots.
With Record Roots one can also easily remove and replace LPs, displaying eight albums at once. And the frame is modular so additional eight album modules can be added to each other.
Like the Art Vinyl Play and Display Record Frame and the Records on Walls slide in frame these hold double LPs. But it appears that the Art Vinyl Play and Display Record Frame is better for triple LPs.
Had I started mounting my favorite albums today I would have probably chosen to use the Record Roots system because I don’t have any double and triple LPs. I had sold those to upgrade to compact disc, back in the day, and my very favorite albums are single LPs anyway.
In case you’re curious, some of my favorite album art features paintings like Live’s “Throwing Copper“, Fleetwood Mac “Tango In The Night“, Queen’s “News of the World“, Heart’s “Dog & Butterfly” and Talk Talk’s “Natural History“.
I am also quite fond of Pink Floyd’s “Division Bell” and “Tree of Half Life“, as well as Def Leppard’s “Pyromania“, “Adrenalize” and “Retro-Active” cover art.
Those are of course the only ones I can think of, off the top of my head. And I managed to find album sized posters and promo posters for most of the above mentioned but I have just so much wall space. 🙂
By the way, if you’re a fan of album cover art you might like “Album Cover Album” by Roger Dean, “The Greatest Album Covers of All Times” by Barry Miles and “1000 Record Covers” by Michael Ochs.
Indigo is celebrating Canada’s 150th by giving out a $25,000 prize.
This contest is open to legal residents of Canada over the age of majority in their province and ends June 30th, 2017. Click here for additional details.