INDIE NEWS BEAT
Week of October 31, 2003
* Yaya Diallo CD Release On Onzou Records West African Kanza Music
* "66 Hot 6Stringer" Gary Lucas' Upcoming Shows
* Award Winning Rock Band Pillar Releases New EP
* BMI Singer/Songwriter Elliott Smith Dies
* The Canadian Value Of Music Coalition And Harris Institute For The Arts Launch "Opening Act"
* Justice Through Music Host The Indie Music Video Festival
* NXNE Music & Film Festival And Industry Conference
* Muzik Reviewz.com Coming Soon to ALL ACCESS Magazine.com
* Kazaa Puts The Spotlight On Emerging Artists

Yaya Diallo CD Release On Onzou Records West African Kanza Music

VICTORIA, BC CANADA, Nov. 1 - Kanza is a new concept within the Minianka musical culture. This kind of music is a fusion of the past and the present opening the door to the future. Kanza music was conceived as a means of maintaining interest in traditional music.

Live at Club Soda takes a dramatic shift from Yaya's earlier traditional albums by transposing traditional village music to Occidental instruments. Yaya Diallo's innovative music gives solo voice to all the instruments within an African rhythmic structure. Recorded live in 1989 the sound is reminiscent of 1950's rock and roll, blues and jazz. Live at Club Soda will be available mid-November.

Scott Stevens, World Music Director of KAOS-FM, Olympia WA writes, "Yaya Diallo goes electric on Live at Club Soda with his band Kanza adding guitar, bass, drum set, sax, violin, backup singers, and more. The result is hypnotic dance music, with one foot planted in village music, the other kicking toward jazz and funk."

View the Yaya Diallo interactive Community Forum at http://yayadiallo.proboards20.com. Year 2003 Holiday Sale includes Yaya Diallo's new CD Live at Club Soda, Nangape and Dounoukan. For details visit Onzou Records, http://www.onzou.com.

"66 Hot 6Stringer" Gary Lucas' Upcoming Shows

Gary Lucas, recently cited as one of DownBeat's "66 Hot 6Stringers" (alongside John McLaughlin, Richard Thompson, Pat Metheny and others), just got back from a successful solo tour of Europe.

Highlights included a near sold-out 2 hour show in London at The Spitz, where he premiered new work, and was joined by members of Alabama 3 for an acoustic rendition of their theme from The Sopranos, "Woke Up This Morning". Gary's concert was picked, with photos, in both "Time Out London" and "The Metro", and received a 4 star review from The Guardian's John L. Walters.

While in London, Gary also recorded a session for BBC Radio 3's "World Routes" Show featuring his arrangements of 30's Chinese pop from his acclaimed album "The Edge of Heaven", to be broadcast October 18th. And he went into the studio with Alabama 3 to work on their new album. Gary's new compilation of older work "Operators are Standing By" just received 4 star UK reviews in both Mojo and Jazzwise.

Other tour highlights included an outdoor festival in Bordeaux...two nights in Paris at the Sunset Jazz Club, where his concert was a critic's pick in "Liberation", and where he jammed with the French accordion whiz Arna Methivier...and a well-received appearance at the Venice Biennale, where Gary fielded questions from the Italian national press the day before performing his live score (co-written with Walter Horn) to accompany the silent film 'The Golem'."

Award Winning Rock Band Pillar Releases New EP

On November 18, 2003, award winning rock band Pillar will be releasing "Broken Down: The EP." The EP features a new rip-your-face-off rock song called Bring Me Down and five acoustic versions of Pillar favorites, 4 of which were recorded live at a recent show in Tulsa, OK. The band also went in the studio and re-recorded Further From Myself from their hit record Fireproof with guest vocals by the uber-cool Tyler Burkum. In addition to the new tracks Broken Down comes enhanced with a new video for Further From Myself, an interview with Rob Beckley talking about the songs and an extensive photo gallery.

"Having Tyler Burkum (guitar/backing vocals), Brandon Estelle (percussion), and the string section jamming along with us brought the songs to a whole new level. This is the first Pillar recording with Lester playing drums and has the first song written with Lester (You Can't Bring Me Down)." says bassist, Kalel.

You can pre-order Broken Down: The EP now at http://www.buzzplant.com/pillar/. As a special bonus for fans check out the Pillar site (http://www.Pillarmusic.com) for details on how to be entered into a drawing to win one of three amazing prizes. They include a grand prize trip for one to visit Pillar in the studio for a day while they work on their next album or a copy of Pillar's very first indie CD "Metamorphosis," and finally a grip of Pillar gear worth over $200.

This EP is a follow-up to the incredibly successful FIREPROOF which generated a pair of #1 rock singles and won the band widespread acclaim. Produced by Travis Wyrick, FIREPROOF was fully remixed by ace producer/remixes Mudrock (Godsmack, Puya) and Rich Costey (Audioslave, RATM), and was re-released in June 2003 by MCA/Universal/Flicker (www.flickerrecords.com).

BMI Singer/Songwriter Elliott Smith Dies

Academy Award-nominated BMI songwriter Elliott Smith died October 21 of an apparent suicide, officials said. The melancholy performer, once called the "unhappiest man in the land," was found by his girlfriend in the kitchen of their Los Angeles apartment with a single stab wound to the chest. He was 34.

Smith, who earned an Oscar nod in 1997 for the original song "Miss Misery" from the film Good Will Hunting, had been battling drug and alcohol addiction for years but was supposedly sober for the past year. "He was in the middle of writing his next record. He had recorded a good chunk of it. He was incredibly optimistic," DreamWorks executive Luke Woode told Reuters. He was working on his sixth studio album, tentatively titled From A Basement On The Hill.

The Canadian Value Of Music Coalition And Harris Institute For The Arts Launch "Opening Act"

The Canadian Value of Music Coalition (CVOMC), along with the students at Toronto's Harris Institute for the Arts, are offering an awesome opportunity for unsigned artists and bands to stream their music on the www.keepmusiccoming.com' Web site.

12 successful entrants to the project called "Opening Act" will have their song featured on www.keepmusiccoming.com' starting in January 2004. The selected artists or bands will each receive 100 copies of a compilation CD featuring the winning tracks as well as publicity about their success.

"The only way for music to evolve is through the support of new artists," remarks John Harris, President of Harris Institute for the Arts. "But you have to find them first! I think the Web is one of the most innovative tools available for finding new and original music."

Justice Through Music Host The Indie Music Video Festival

Justice Through Music, a Bethesda based non-profit, is hosting the Indie Music Video Festival for the first time in the DC Metro area. The festival comprises the best 25 independent music videos during 2003 from throughout the world with countries represented including the United States, Australia, Sweden, Canada, Norway, Germany and Malta. The event will be shown at the new AFI Silver Theater in Silver Spring, MD at 9:00 pm on Saturday, November 15, 2003 and tickets range from $7.50 to $8.50. A screening for the press will be held on Monday, November 3 at 3pm. Contact Joan Kirby at the AFI at (301) 495-6747 for arrangements.

The festival, dedicated exclusively to independent music videos, first aired last year, and is the brainchild of two well-known film companies from Vancouver, Canada, Cinestir Productions and Rumbletone Productions, and Directors Nicole Steen, Marcus Rogers and Frank Yahr. This year, hundreds of videos were submitted from which 50 were selected for a festival tour, which started in Canada and worked its way down the West Coast. Viewers from Vancouver, Victoria, Toronto and Seattle selected their 25 favorites and those were then packaged in a Best of Fest that Justice Through Music will present at the AFI in the Washington, DC area.

NXNE Music & Film Festival And Industry Conference

Attention all emerging music artists across Canada and throughout the world: The North By Northeast Music Festival and Conference (NXNE), the biggest and most prestigious music festival of its kind in Canada, will begin accepting artist and band showcase submission packages on November 1, 2003 for performance slots at NXNE 2004 the 10th Anniversary year. Don't put it off until the last moment, as your package must be postmarked by December 31, 2003 for a shot at being part of Canada's leading new music premiere showcase event.

When submitting early you qualify for an early bird price. As we celebrate our tenth amazing year North By Northeast continues it's promise and dedication to the emerging artist and will take over clubs, outdoor venues, theatres and special stages throughout downtown Toronto from June 10 - 12, 2004.

Starting November 1st all aspiring musical stars of tomorrow are invited to send in their demos for showcase consideration. With last year's festival being the most successful yet, 2004 could be the year YOU get to perform in front of a huge crowd of national and international music industry movers and shakers, as well as thousands of enthusiastic music fans.

Muzik Reviewz.com Coming Soon to ALL ACCESS Magazine.com

Muzik Reviewz on November 13th 2003 will proudly be calling ALL ACCESS Magazine.com home. Thanks to Debra Stocker, Editor of ALL ACCESS Magazine.com Muzik Reviewz' will soon meet one of their top and priority goals, although you have seen Muzik Reviewz' cd reviews and interviews in ALL ACCESS Magazine.com, the new Muzik Reviewz las vegas section will be an mixture of the happenings that go on in Las Vegas/Laughlin NV. And also the publishing of those artists/bands that Muzik Reviewz post on their website. Of course Muzik Reviewz will offering advertising in their section, and our main goal is to become the Magazine that AAM has become and always to be connected to AAM.com long term.

Mary Rudy Founder/Editor of Muzik Reviewz, since the onset of Muzik Reviewz has worked hard to make Muzik Reviewz a place for the Artist/Bands/Musicians to be proud of and to call home. Mary Rudy's life has been focused around musicians being that as a young girl she was involved in the music scene as a daughter of a musician. Mary states "If I can be of help in any way to musicians/bands rather I have helped in a small or large part, then I have done my job. Their success in their careers is my ultimate goal and the one main reason for Muzik Reviewz' existence"

Kazaa Puts The Spotlight On Emerging Artists

Sharman Networks, publishers and distributors of Kazaa, today launched the Kazaa "Emerging Artists Channel," an initiative that enables emerging artists to promote and sell music using peer-to-peer technology. This new feature of Kazaa demonstrates the power and flexibility of peer-to-peer technology as a universal commercial platform for promoting and selling music, especially for independent musicians.

Developed in partnership with Altnet Inc, the leading provider of secure digital media via peer-to-peer technology, and Cornerband.com, a self-service online label for musicians, the Emerging Artists Channel provides a new music 'incubator' within Kazaa, allowing independent artists around the world to promote and sell their music directly to an estimated 60 million music lovers worldwide.

The Emerging Artists Channel showcases the latest and greatest independent music from around the world. Music fans can download songs, share and build playlists, vote in a "best bands" competition, and listen to a free streaming radio player. Popular songs appear in a "Top 100" style hit list, ranked according to their popularity with Kazaa users.

Provided by the MusicDish Network. Copyright © Tag It 2003 - Republished with Permission