Spotlight on Walk off the Earth

At the time of this post, this video has already well surpassed 82 million hits. Though they don’t seem like they need my help to succeed, Walk off the Earth is the band that I am spotlighting today. As the video has already gone viral and as they have already appeared on Ellen, what is the purpose for their spotlight? Surly, a brief post in my blog of few viewers will prove inconsequential. This is very true, but as a guitarist, myself, I am amazed with what they did with that guitar and thus the reason for the spotlight.

Not only has the video gone viral, but Somebody that I used to know, a Gotye cover, made it to the top 5 on Billboard. This is truly an amazing feat, for one lady and four guys from Burlington, Ontario. Hovering over a single guitar, this quintet makes this one guitar sound like there is a full band backing up their awesome vocals.

The true test for this quintet is yet to come. There is no argument that this group has both a sound and talent, but will they crash and burn as a one hit wonder? Personally, I hope to hear more from this group, so I hope there is more to follow. While it is true that most groups make it on their own material, artists such as Elvis totally relied on the material of others for success. The next few months will be interesting to see what, if anything, is next for Walk off the Earth. Musically Connected wishes them all the best in their future projects.

Junos 2012, an April Fool's Joke

I have been looking forward to the Junos for months. As a huge music fan, there is always something special about celebrating home grown talent. Well I should not be surprised that an awards show taking place on April fool’s day would be a huge joke.

So, what were the organizers thinking asking 81 year old, has-been, William Shatner to host this year’s Junos? What, was Preston Manning busy? Let’s face it the jokes weren’t funny. I guess on one level it doesn’t really matter that Shatner isn’t a musician, but he didn’t have to fully illustrate his musical ineptness.

Nickelback is one of my favs in the Canadian Music Industry. Though the young crowd appeared to love their opening performance, and it was tight, for me, it was on the noisy side. To be honest, I am not sure if it was a sound or band issue. Either way I didn’t care for it. I will give the band the benefit of the doubt, not to mention that I wasn’t there to feel the whole vibe.

Now that I’ve dissed the Junos, itself, I will hardly stop there. That would be no fun at all. While Michael Bublé’s Christmas Album was magical, it was not worthy of receiving “best album of the year”. Though I didn’t like Nickleback’s opening, they are an amazing band. I find it difficult to believe that they didn’t receive even one juno. After all, they were nominated in four categories.

It is no secret that artists have tumultuous schedules and spend a great deal of time touring. That said, the date of the Junos 2012 were announced in July 2011. From the amount of notable artists missing in action, such as Michael Bublé and Justin Bieber, perhaps more notice might be an order. If more notice was given, I wonder if that would have made a difference; or are the Juno’s not important enough for artists to book the event into their schedules?  If not, that it is too bad. If more artists showed, who knows it might have been a better show. Naa, William Shatner was still the host. From Shatner’s appointment as host, the Juno’s 2012 were doomed to go down in history as a joke.