Event Preview: Canadian Music Week 2008 MARCH 3 - 8 - by Karolina Rous - It’s almost that time of the year again, Toronto: Canadian Music Week is set to take over the city, bringing together the Canadian music industry, performers and fans from all over the country — and all over the world. CMW 2008 is poised to be the best year yet for the event, which is now in its 26th cycle. Impressive, we know! We here at SoundProof are gearing up for our CMW showcase on our birthday, March 7, at Sneaky Dee’s as well as for the extensive coverage we’ll be providing of the best bands and artists on the bill. With about 500 bands being advertised this year and 44 venues slotted to bring you the best new acts from Canada and from all over the world — from Finland to the U.S. to Brazil — the president of Canadian Music Week, Neill Dixon, is excited about taking the fest from four days to one week, spanning from Sunday to Sunday including all-new industry events and offerings, which are sure to take this ever-popular event to a whole new level. For starters, CMW opens on March 3 with a performance by the Hives, supported by the Donnas at the Kool Haus. The bonus of going to this show? “The tickets include a free wristband. So, if you go to the very first show of the festival, you buy your ticket for that, you get a free wristband to get into the whole festival,” says Dixon. Sounds pretty sweet! Other big acts include Steve Earle, Hawksley Workman, Hot Springs, Russian Futurists, Finger 11, Alanis Morissette, Sloan and Corb Lund, not to mention a little band you may have heard of called the Breeders. “We have the Breeders coming, which is cool. It’s their first show, essentially, in about five years. They have a new album coming out in April. And Canadian Music Week is sort of the start of their comeback. They’re gonna do CMW, and then SXSW, and then Coachella, and then some touring after that. But CMW is their first show, so we’re pretty excited about that,” says Paul Quigley, Festival Director. Plus, Quigley notes, you should check out the Indie Awards, too. “They are gonna be amazing. Tokyo Police Club and the New Pornographers are both going to play a full set at that show. That’s definitely gonna be an exciting one.” And, if that’s not enough to get you out to CMW this year, don’t forget about all the amazing new, and the already established bands, you’ll discover, ranging from the Superfantastics, Inward Eye, Attack in Black, Danko Jones, Lowest of the Low, Peter Katz, Alex Cuba, Maximum the Hormone, Pooma, Foxfire Forest, Les Breastfeeders, Proof of Ghosts, Sebastien Grainger et les Montagnes and Raised By Swans. You gotta check out CMW’s website for more, 'cause we just can’t list all the goods here! But to help you out, we'll be creating SoundPicks: CMW 2008. Make sure you check out our top five bands to see at CMW this year. The festival is so much more than just live performances and showcases at various venues across the city. This year, more conference elements have been added to CMW according to Dixon, such as the Millennials, which will help industry leaders focus on marketing to Gen X and Yers, baby boomers and everyone in between. “The Millennials is a one-day conference, and of course MySpace, YouTube, Second Life, all those kinds of companies will be there, which is kind of cool. And then during the main part of Canadian Music Week there’s always been a fair bit of digital programming, but we’ve now sort of made it into a super VIP executive level, it’s called DMS, or Digital Music and Media Summit.” Pretty damn cool — especially for those of you who want to get in on the business side of the music industry, which is a highly important aspect of CMW. When it comes to CMW, opportunities abound this year for all you musicians out there, too. Besides being an excellent opportunity for you to promote your music, CMW offers so much in terms of getting yourself heard by the right people, explains Dixon. “The first thing is that you’ve got 3,000 people in town, and 2,000 of them are from out of town. That collection of people will never be assembled that close to you again. Certainly if you are a Canadian artist, and if you’re closer to Toronto, then the more reason you should be there, only because it’s such an opportunity to get the chance to get mentored or discovered or signed. Who knows? It's good on every level, whether it’s management, publishing, recording, touring, you name it. Song placement: there’s movie and television producers in town, there’s so many people in town.” “So, first of all, if you’re not there at all, you’re not gonna have a chance to network or meet those people; that’s number one. And, two, if you’re not showcasing, again, another opportunity lost. Because it’s a lot easier to get people out to your showcase when they are two blocks away in a taxi than it is to invite them to Winnipeg in the middle of March. I just think it’s a collective energy level that you just won't get elsewhere,” says Dixon. Some of the new highlights you’ll see at CMW this year, as Dixon explains, “We’re gonna spotlight Latin America; there are 25 companies coming from Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile, so some of these people, this will be their first time to Canada, never mind Canadian Music Week. So all that kind of stuff to me is exciting; building contacts, helping develop the industry and seeing things grow.” If you’re in a band, or just a fan of music, make sure you attend this year — it’s going to be amazing. Definitely come out to SoundProof’s showcase to help celebrate our birthday and watch for our in-depth coverage of CMW 2008!