It’s not everyday that an investor uses a magazine like Canadian Business to extend an invitation to any reader with $25 million to spare to wash their hands of an iconic entertainment brand — but so goes Death Row Records, whose music catalogue was unexpectedly won at a bankruptcy auction in early 2009 by a private Toronto bank, New Solutions Capital Group, headed by Robert Thompson-So. “This is just another commercial loan transaction that started as a workout and continues to be a workout,” he says. “Please — step up to the table and take us out.” He has a rival in Lara Lavi, the American woman hired to shape WIDEawake Entertainment into a player on the urban music scene, using reissues by the gangsta rap stable assembled in the mid-1990s by Suge Knight to establish their credibility. “I’d suggest the words to use for a company like New Solutions in the context of this is ‘financial vampires,’” Lavi says today, court ordered to steer clear of the 6,000 square foot studios and event space in Liberty Village that the company opened earlier this month. But now Lavi asserts that they didn’t know what they were doing, even while she entangled herself in their complex financial arrangement, which reportedly led the others involved in the Death Row resurrection to contend with her ego: she signed her name in emails as “Lara, gangsta soccer mom.” Now she claims to be ready to settle, and acquire the label herself — not disclosing how she plans to finance it. Regardless, when this is settled, the ghost of Tupac Shakur’s stint in Toronto will likely have proven as fleeting as the past local residencies of George Clinton or Rick James.

Canadian Music Week, the industry conference concurrent with the public Canadian Music Fest, will again pack many conference rooms at the Fairmont Royal York with satin-jacketed 20th century refugees wondering what comes next. For the live music business, though, the future involves a trend that few of those executives seem too willing to admit exists: the big-ticket legitimization of the tribute act.  While collective media enthusiasm is feigned for a few hundred indie bands slogging it out, all of that practice, practice, practice won’t lead to playing Massey Hall — especially when they’re up against shows like Queen — It’s A Kinda Magic, reaching that stage on March 19. (Coincidentally, the same night, an orchestral Music of Queen show is booked at Casino Rama.) This production from Australia, starring Craig Pesco as Freddie Mercury, prominently touts an endorsement from the late Queen singer’s 12-year personal assistant, Peter Freestone: “It’s wonderful to see the poses, and arm and hand movements again.” He has seen the future of rock and roll and its name is necrophilia. Continue Reading

“If Justin Bieber is Coming To Rosedale, Then Let’s See Him Play ‘Giant Steps’“ is the name of a Facebook group started over the weekend — not referring to Rosedale the high-class neighbourhood, where the 16-year-old pop star and his 35-year-old mom can afford real estate until his belated puberty kicks in, but Rosedale Heights School of the Arts. Suggesting that their potential celebrity classmate needs to show off his John Coltrane chops as part of a hazing ritual to prove he can transcend Auto-Tune sounds like a script ready to be written by a 21st century John Hughes. But those writing on the group’s wall are generally put off by the snobbery, like this recent graduate: “The fact that not only is it believed he must meet a standard, but that the standard set by this group is one of the most difficult jazz standards ever written is an act of such snobbery that I have to consciously restrain myself from pressing capslock and virtually screaming for a page and a half. If this is how you believe Rosedale students SHOULD be judged, then let’s see you play ‘Giant Steps’.” Continue Reading

Considering that it was nominated for a Grammy last month — if ultimately losing to “Boom Boom Pow” by the Black Eyed Peas — it’s no surprise that “Mr. Hurricane” by Montreal group Beast (see above) is nominated for Video of the Year in the 2010 Juno Awards . But a category that might have been as star-studded as such a ceremony could get ends up being on the more interesting fringes — along with a category that is equally enigmatic in the digital era of music, Recording Package of the Year. So, let’s be servicey and put the four other short-form nominations in one place. Continue Reading