Hey guys! I’m withholding TGIF this week to instead let you know about a contest that I think anyone who makes music should be entering.

Hennessy is giving musicians a chance to perform at the 2013 Blues Passions Festival taking place in – where else but Cognac, France from July 2-7.

Last year Hennessy launched their first ‘Talent Quest’ to celebrate their love of music, culture and live performances – aka all the things that I too, endlessly love.  This year, they have opened up the competition to include submissions from Canadian and American bands.

To participate, just submit a video entry of your own original musical performance on Hennessy.com by April 30th. 

Staying true to the grassroots music and Blues heritage carried out by the Blues Passions Festival, all entries must fit into the musical genres of Blues, Soul, Funk, Folk, R & B, Boogie, Swing, Country, Gospel, Hip Hop, Slam or Rock’n’Roll. The contest is open to legal residents of Canada (excluding Quebec, Nova Scotia, Nunavut and Yukon).

As an added incentive for Canadian artists, Hennessy is offering contestants a chance to play at the 25^th Annual Beaches International Jazz Festival, North America’s largest free festival and one of Toronto’s most anticipated summer events, during StreetFest.  Entrants are invited to link their videos to the Beaches International Jazz Festival Youtube page as a comment.

Watch last year’s winner give some tips on how to win the coveted spot:

This post was sponsored by Hennessy. 

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Back in February I posted about the unbelievably awful experience I had with Best Buy over Christmas, and the two months they left me without a computer – only to give me back my laptop just as broken as it was when I first brought it in.

The situation was a shitshow from the start, and I’ll still never buy from a big box store again, BUT, after reading my post, the head office in Vancouver called me up and told me the store would be in contact with me to work something out.

The wonders of social media, friends.

So the store manager called me and apologized for the unnecessary wait, and he offered to set me up with a new computer. Thrilled that something good had finally come of this ordeal, I quickly accepted and he gave me some times to come into the store to see him directly.

Of course, this is the store that is full of fail, so when I got there during the time he told me he was working, dragging my super heavy 17 inch laptop with me, they told me he was already gone for the day because the other manager came in early. These people!!! The worst. 

So I dragged it in another day, and after a 10 minute wait he finally showed up, took a look at my computer and said he could give me a laptop for the current value of mine (600$). I wasn’t expecting to be able to choose one that day since on the phone he said they would have to look at mine and get approval, but now he said they could do it then and there.

Having no clue what I wanted other than a 17 inch screen, he gave me two options, and I went with a Samsung model he seemed to be pushing on me. Only upon looking at the receipt on my way out did I see this computer he recommended was on sale, and worth $160 less than my computer (it wasn’t even on display in the store). I had asked about an HP that was actually $600 but he told me Samsung lasts longer and that this particular HP was a cheaper model that would die sooner – having quite the love affair with my Samsung Galaxy SIII phone, I was inclined to believe him.

I’m still annoyed that I ended up with a cheaper sale computer, but the worst part is that it is running Windows 8. What a nightmare. While I’ve finally (mostly) gotten used to it, for about three weeks I really wanted my busted two year old laptop back just so I could have Windows 7 again. On the positive side, this laptop does have a faster processor and a lot more space than my old one, so I can’t really complain. If I could get the stupid right hand side panel to stop popping up EVERY single time I move the cursor slightly to the left I might not hate it so much.

Had I known when he first called me, that it really meant I’d have to give them my old computer to keep, and get Windows 8 instead, I’m not sure I would have agreed to it as fast as I did.

BUT they did make an effort to fix a major fuck up, and the new laptop is still a newer, better laptop without a busted hinge, so its still a nice little win against the corporations.

Have you ever complained to or about a brand and had them actually listen and fix their mistake? Share, please! 

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This song belongs to those of us who grew up in Ontario. It is one of Neil’s best songs of all time, and my favorite thing to listen to when visiting back home. Also, if you’ve never seen The Last Waltz, this clip is one very awesome example of why you should get on that today. Neil with The Band and Joni Mitchell backing him up. The best of Canada combined in one epic performance. Enough said.

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Hello! This is a very late TGIF because I’ve been busy hustlin for this Cinecoup entry that I would truly madly deeply love for you to go add to your watchlist, rate (hopefully positively – 10s make you my new BFF) and leave a nice comment.

If this film gets made I will be music supervising it – so you guys will be able to submit your songs to me for a film with a million dollar budget – meaning people will actually see it! As you are well aware – Canadian films take up less than 20% of Canadian cinema screens – truly a tragedy but not a surprise considering the lack of support there is for filmmakers outside Quebec. Cinecoup is doing a brilliant thing with this completely social media driven project.

Anyway, more on that in a full post at a later date – but for now – PLEASE go click on that link above and vote! You can help a Canadian film made by a team of WOMEN (another glaring rarity in film only highlighted by the fact that their entry is the only female team) actually get made. It goes without saying that women are the strongest and most active users of social media – so lets do this.

OH and FYI – all my mixtapes now have streams so go spend some time listening to the mixes (I’m having issues keeping the download link up because record labels are still stupid oldschool – if you have any suggestions for platforms that will solve this problem let me know). The monthly mix will be back in March now that I have a working computer again!

Now for the links:

• Ottawa Blues Fest lineup is out, and it’s pretty solid. I don’t like Ottawa enough to spend 10 days there but I’m thinking of heading there for a few key bands. Are you going?
• Japandroids beat out Nickelback in Canucks entrance theme contest. Thank god. At least hockey fans have good taste in music!
• Do you fit these bizarre musical stereotypes? This thing is so random and inaccurate, but it’s still funny.
• This is an incredible resource for music festivals.
• Six reasons it’s so hard to buy concert tickets. And this is why I mostly stick to local shows. Support your scene, don’t support ticketmaster or scalpers.
• Digital music report of 2013. This is absolutely fascinating.
• Music sharing declined 17% in 2012. This is great news for musicians – less free downloading – more buying. Of course this is also because of subscription services like Rdio. We don’t need to download anymore because we can actually access all the music we want for the price of a CD a month. I love technology.
• How human language could have evolved from the birdsong. Whoa.
• Copy this “Oscar- ready” approach to boost your social media star power. It’s so very true that after the Oscars last Sunday, everyone wants to be Jennifer Lawrence’s best friend, and everyone hates Anne Hathaway. I have felt this way for a very long time, and that article explains why. Jennifer has always came off as the most genuine REAL endearing human on the planet, there is not a damn thing about her that feels fake – Anne on the other hand has screamed pageant fake since she started making princess movies. No doubt she can act, but saying “It came true!” when you win an Oscar 10/10 people predicted you were going to win is as fucking gross and as fake as it gets.
• Budweiser sued for watering down beer. Is anyone surprised? This probably should have happened a long time ago.
• Finally, watch this INCREDIBLE video about social media in 2013. I am so excited for the Digital Media Summit during CMW:

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Happy Friday! It’s Oscar weekend, have you seen all the nominated films yet? I still need to catch Zero Dark Thirty and Life of Pi before Sunday, not sure if I’ll be able to make that happen as the Folk Alliance conference is in town, but I’m gonna try. Anyone throwing an awesome Oscar party? There’s a cool pre-party happening at TIFF for members that I’m thinking of checking out.

Anyway, here’s what happened on my computer this week:

• Stream Hollerado’s new album White Paint! DO IT! Another great album from some of the nicest guys making music right now.
• The Juno nominations were announced. Must admit I’m only interested in about two categories this year, hence not giving it it’s own blog post. I don’t think it was a bad year for Canadian music, they just did a terrible job with these nominations.
• 20 things you didn’t know about Kurt Cobain. A lot of these aren’t that unknown to any Nirvana fan, but it’s nice to see someone write about him for his birthday.
• How are Passion Pit playing Madison Square Garden? Fascinating look at how indie bands are now playing stadiums. You couldn’t pay me to see Passion Pit in a stadium (I’ll never get the hype about them – average band at best), but I find the fact that the stadium isn’t just for Lady Gaga types anymore to be a positive thing, especially since live is where musicians make all their money now.
• Alan Cross blogged an interesting observation about the musicians take on technology, via Dave Grohl’s new documentary Sound City and an old Pink Floyd film.  It’s true, no matter how much the technology changes and improves, you have to bring the talent to the table. The tools are just tools – you have to know how to use them in interesting ways – they can’t make good music for you if you are a shitty musician to begin with.
• Early music lessons boost brain development. Put your kids in music lessons, seriously.
• 15 top tips for successful music crowdfunding and fan funding campaigns.
• Should you work for free? This article makes a great point about the difference between work and promotion – I won’t edit a boring sports article for free, but I will write for certain high profile blogs for free at least the first time, because there is a valuable promotional trade off. You have to look at what you’re getting out of it and if it will advance your career before you completely write something off.
• Billboard now takes YouTube video streams into consideration for the charts. It’s about time? I think many of us consume music this way – certainly music videos –  so it just makes sense that it should count as a play toward the chart ranking of the song.
• Op- Ed: The Next Music Business. “That live show that is surrounded by community-creating social media and personal connections afterward; that helps people feel part of a ‘tribe’ and that gives them a lift in everyday life is what will increasingly determine who is going to get those new revenue streams; and who is going to be sitting there mourning the demise of the way it used to be.” TRUTH. The live show, the community that comes from it, this is why live is so incredibly important. The live show is how the music industry truly connects – this is where my community lives in the real world.
• Retro gadgets: ten vintage style record players.
• Cabin Fever Collective is a new café in the west that sells vinyl – this is the kind of store I would want to one day run. Love that someone is doing this and wish it was closer to me!
• Wrangler introduces moisturizing jeans. There’s a joke between my friends about how long it takes me to get ready (I’m chronically late, and have been since I was about 9 years old, seriously, it’s my biggest fault) and therefore any product like this that exists to save me time is basically gold to me. I want these – where can I buy them?! Googling hasn’t found me any viable sellers.
• One of the most insane ad campaigns ever created.
• Finally, this is so neat. The history of music from the beginning until now, created by an artist in front of your eyes, with accompanying songs. The last minute is my favourite:

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