This Week in Music

As Canada passes its sixth week under lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, CJRU is highlighting the newest updates from the world of music as artists and musicians continue to produce a deluge of music for us, even whilst in quarantine.

New Music: Drake

Certainly the biggest development in music from this past week was the surprise release of a new mixtape from Drake: Dark Lane Demo Tapes. 14 tracks long and featuring collaborations with the likes of Future, Playboi Carti and Young Thug, the release is a reminder of the sound that Drake does best: richly melancholic star-studded R&B. Other new music out this week included the new album from Car Seat Headrest’s Will Toledo, Making a Door Less Open, and Vancouver musician White Poppy’s Paradise Garden.

Fighting Covid 19: Mogwai, Oasis

Dozens of artists have taken to releasing new music to benefit Covid-10 relief including Oasis, Mogwai and Bon Iver. A new compilation benefitting Groundswell Rapid Response Fund was released April 30th and includes a collection of b-sides, rarities and previously unreleased songs from Mount Eerie, Palehound, Speedy Ortiz’s Sadie Dupuis and more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Song is Coming from Inside the House is a 24-track COVID-19 charity compilation album benefitting the Groundswell Rapid Response Fund (@groundswellfund)- an organization working to address the deep problems and injustices that underlie our economy, political system and our communities. The album can be purchased on bandcamp exclusively (link in bio). Thank you so much to all the artists for participating and thanks also to Jessica George and Amber Carew for helping us out with this. The world is insane right now (and always) and organizations like Groundswell are on the front lines fighting back alongside the most vulnerable communities. Follow the link on bandcamp to read more about the incredibly important work they’re involved in. Thank you finally to bandcamp. The comp is out today and bandcamp is waiving part of their share of sales in perpetuity for this project. That being said, they are waiving their entire share of ALL sales tomorrow May 1st so if you had to pick 1 day to buy the comp, maybe tomorrow’s the best one? Amazing art by Mac Pogue. Thanks so much everyone.

 

A post shared by Strange Ranger The Band (@strange_ranger_) onApr 30, 2020 at 7:20am PDT

 

 

Supporting Artists Impacted by Covid-19

After Bandcamp waived its revenue shares for the second time on May 1, Bandcamp CEO and co-founder Ethan Diamond announced that $7.1 million dollars was spent on the site all of which went directly to the artists. “It may sound simple, but the best way to help artists is with your direct financial support,” said Diamond. “We hope you’ll join us through the coming months as we work to support artists in this challenging time. He also added that Bandcamp would once again be waiving their revenue shares for 24 hours on June 5 and July 3. Read his statement below.

 

Update on last Friday’s campaign: Fans paid artists $7.1 million in just 24 hours ($2.8m more than March 20th). Thank you for supporting artists impacted by Covid-19, and mark your calendars for the next #BandcampFriday on June 5th! https://t.co/hPhgm7WBR4

— bandcamp (@Bandcamp) May 4, 2020