Starting today, you can hum, whistle, or sing a melody to Google to solve your earworm. On your mobile device, open the latest version of the Google app or find your Google Search widget, tap the mic icon and say “what’s this song?” or click the “Search a song” button. Then start humming for 10-15 seconds. …After you’re finished humming, our machine learning algorithm helps identify potential song matches. And don’t worry, you don’t need perfect pitch to use this feature. We’ll show you the most likely options based on the tune.
When you hum a melody into Search, our machine learning models transform the audio into a number-based sequence representing the song’s melody. Our models are trained to identify songs based on a variety of sources, including humans singing, whistling or humming, as well as studio recordings. The algorithms also take away all the other details, like accompanying instruments and the voice’s timbre and tone. What we’re left with is the song’s number-based sequence, or the fingerprint.
Just when you thought this year couldn’t have any more plot twists, it’s time to get another taste of award-winning Platinum-selling Canadian rockers, Universal Honey.
A double, in fact.
First up, co-fronts Johnny Sinclair and Leslie Stanwyck have their brand new EP, UH EP 2020, including lead single “Rolling Back Time” — PLUS a rollickin’ re-release of their holiday classic, Can’t Stop Thinking About Christmas.
It’s a holiday season throwback for the ages: Some 15+ years after its initial independent release, Can’t Stop Thinking About Christmas is officially and for the first time available on digital streaming platforms.
While paying homage to holiday classics like “Three Ships” — featuring Gerard Popma (Sin City Boys) and Clayton Denwood — the extended re-release includes some first-ever takes on a trio of yuletide classics, including “Little Drummer Boy,” “White Christmas,” and “Winter Wonderland.”
The album’s title track “Can’t Stop Thinking About Christmas” also got a second look with an all-new radio edit. “This song’s claim to fame is that it’s an acapella song, and it’s the only acapella song we’ve ever written and produced,” Sinclair says. “We didn’t know it was going to be all-vocals at first, but when Leslie started singing the bass line, we thought ‘let’s do this one with just voice.’”
“This album was produced during an especially creative period in our career,” Stanwyck recalls. “We had gathered in our home studio during a heatwave in July, of all times, to co-write some original holiday rock tunes.
“We wanted them to reflect our own power pop backgrounds while capturing Johnny’s distinct lyrical takes on the Christmas season. We were going for an uplifting and inspiring release; there’s a few heartfelt ballads, yes, but most of the songs are fun, funny, and engaging.”
“It was a hot summer and beautiful outside, and there we were inside conjuring up visions of sugar plums in our heads,” Sinclair adds. “But the album came about quickly once we got going…
“Seemingly, the hardest part was trying to find Egg Nog in the summer!”
“Writing Can’t Stop Thinking About Christmas was like writing songs for a play,” Stanwyck says. “We chose different subjects, which there are a lot of: Christmas shopping and the stress and rushing around for “The Celebration,’ or the sweetness of having your own Christmas tree and spending the time to dress it for ‘Little Christmas Tree.’
“We did not have a shortage of ideas to draw from!”
The release features the who’s-who of Canadian mainstays, including Kim Mitchell, Ron Sexsmith, Jim Cuddy, Tyler Stewart, Peter Timmins, and more. The success of the songs has endured: They continue to be regularly featured on holiday radio playlists, in films like The Road to Christmas and The Christmas Ornament, and rock n’ roll Hall of Fame-r Ronnie Spector liked the song “Best Christmas Ever,” she covered the song and named her 2010 holiday album after it.
“The number of artists that all came together to contribute to this album was amazing!” Stanwyck revels. “They each brought their own creativity to the process to make it special; for example, if you listen closely to Andy Maize’s vocals in the last chorus on ‘The Celebration,’ you can hear him say ‘enjoy me now’ instead of ‘join me now’ — he loved that turn-around of words, and he did such a great job singing that song.
“Another highlight for me is Ron Sexsmith’s singing on ‘Little Christmas Tree,’” she continues. “His voice is so comforting and the song is so sweet — it was a perfect combination.”
“The drums were recorded in Brampton at Mark Robinson’s Knobman Studios,” Sinclair details. “Mark is also the goalie on my hockey team, the Morningstars, along with other artists on the album like Stephen Stanley and Dave Bidini.
“Actually, the whole album is full of recreational hockey players who have played with or against me — Tyler Stewart, Jim Cuddy, Clayton Denwood, Darrin Pfeiffer…
“It’s a little bit of a Toronto musician Christmas Party.”
Re-energized by global events and sparked with a creative burst, Universal Honey are out with UH EP 2020 — a six-track album with their first new material in over a decade.
In it, the couple’s trademark melodic power-pop prowess is on full display — first and most notably on lead single, “Rolling Back Time.”
“It feels very ‘of the moment,’” Stanwyck offers of the song’s inspiration. “With all the uncertainties and questions of ‘today,’ it reminds us to keep moving forward and not become complacent or accepting of those energies that fear change.”
“It’s about looking forward and not getting caught in the trappings of past ideals,” Sinclair adds.
Joined on the recordings by fellow Canadian rock veterans Kurt Schefter (guitarist, Alannah Myles) and Don Kerr (drummer, Ron Sexsmith, Rheostatics), UH EP 2020 delivers the same distinct ear candy concoction Universal Honey has long been heralded for.
With seven albums and hundreds of tracks to their credit, UH EP 2020 marks the award-winning Platinum-selling artist’s first new release in over 15 years.
“After time away, we’ve always been asked if we’ll be doing another Universal Honey project, “ Sinclair shares. “It’s nice to find out we still have fans interested in our music.
“Our time away was spent being parents and raising our son — who also has a very strong love of music. So picking up now, after such a long break, we hope this is the natural progression from where our last album, Vicious Circles, left off.”
“The spare time provided by the pandemic lockdown found us immersed in many projects,” Stanwyck adds. “It inspired us to pursue and release this EP.”
Such inspiration is one of many as of late: Recently the pair have established their own production house and label, Honeytunes, and are in the process of mining the archives to re-release their catalogue in digital streaming format — including their 1995 debut, Magic Basement and 1996’s Earth Moon Transit.
Multi-award winning soul and blues singer/songwriter Miss Emily is Live at The Isabel for her first-ever live album release.
An enthralling compilation of songs, stories, and captivating moments, Emily Fennell’s live LP is a sonic snapshot spanning two+ years of record-setting sold-out performances at one of Ontario’s most prestigious venues, the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts.
Earlier this Fall, audiences heard their first preview of what was to come: single “The Sellout” soars thanks to Miss Emily’s signature breathtaking vocals and Rob Baker and Gord Sinclair’s stellar accompaniments — guitar and bass, respectively.
From there, Live at The Isabel mines Miss Emily’s most noted archives, documenting two extraordinary periods and cross-sections in her award-winning career, including 2014’s Rise and 2017’s In Between.
The backing band for Live at The Isabel is the same crew of road-tested musicians who supported her throughout 2019’s Maple Blues Award-winning festival circuit; guest appearances by Gord Sinclair and Rob Baker of The Tragically Hip, and CCMA-nominated artists Kelly Prescott and Chad Murphy add what Fennell dubs as “musical muscle” on many of the tracks.
“I’ve worked with many of these musicians for more than a decade and, when I’m on stage with them, it’s like easing back into your favourite armchair…
“Except,” she adds,” that armchair is an incredible group of talented musicians.”
Miss Emily has won 2019’s Maple Blues Female Artist of the Year, New Artist of the Year, and the Sapphire Video Award. A frequent favourite on festival and venue stages nationwide, KISS’ Gene Simmons describes her pipes as “the best we have ever heard in an unsigned artist!”
It’s all par for the course for the multi-talented artist; “being on stage is the most confident version of me,” Fennell shares. “Performing transports me to another place… A place best described as ‘Neverland.’”
While the live performances are where Miss Emily feels most fearless, her production credits — especially as they relate to Live at The Isabel — are striking in and of themselves. To set the scene, Fennell released her most recent album, In Between, in the Fall of 2017. For touring, she felt it “only made sense,” she recalls, to produce the shows herself.
The result was back-to-back sellout shows at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts — a benchmark that has yet to be equaled, and one that prompted a second set of sold-out shows at the same venue, six in total.
“They were thrilling to perform and, when I reviewed the recordings from each show recently, I realized they had the makings of a live album that could help those nights live on forever.”
Blind music producer and recording artist Mattmac has harnessed his melodic pop-trap beats and inspiring story, quickly establishing himself as ‘one to watch’ on the national scene with his debut album, 20/20.
At 180,000+ streams across platforms, Mattmac’s premiere release features poppy vocals combined with hard-hitting trap beats, and thoughtfully honest lyrics that give listeners a glimpse into the mind of a blind creative as he paints vivid sonic pictures of struggle, healing, celebrating love, family and life on the rez.
The eight-track album’s lead single “Paradise” has risen to become a popular song in the Canadian music circuit; garnering more than 50,000+ streams on Spotify, it hit Top 3 on the NCI FM Indigenous Music Countdown hosted by SiriusXM, and Top 50 on the Mediabase radio charts. With heavy local support from Virgin Radio Winnipeg, the song has become both a national and local sensation — including features with CBC Indigenous, CTV National News, Winnipeg Sun, and more.
Hailing from Garden Hill First Nation, Manitoba, Mattmac has been blind from birth.
Mattmac began to struggle with depression at a young age, and credits music for helping him cope; he grew up surrounded by music both on the radio and singing in his community’s gospel choir.
A fully self-taught artist, he first began to make beats and write songs when he was 13 years old, and later taught himself how to play piano and guitar. He also has impressive skills with beat production software and equipment, and attributes his creative competencies to the support of the Blind & Famous group — a USA based collective of blind music artists who collaborate and connect with one another through the internet.
Mattmac was first launched into the music scene in 2016 when N’we Jinan, a travelling music studio program, visited his community and invited him to collaborate on a project. Pulling inspiration from his personal story, they created a song and video titled “Help You See” that has been watched early 250,000 times on YouTube and Facebook. Through this experience, he connected with International artist Nelly Furtado, and performed alongside her at Indigenous Day Live and We Day Canada Day in 2017; they continue to work together.
Mattmac hopes to continue to use his platform to inspire others to know that they can accomplish anything they set their mind to.
Kellindo is best known as energetic side-man and collaborator to Janelle Monae, playing guitar on her four GRAMMY Award-nominated records and touring the world on some of the biggest stages — including the Oscars and GRAMMYs, and for everyone from David Letterman to Karl Largerfeld to The 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama.
Not only is he currently putting the final touches to his epic rock-opera album debut, Shattered Rhapsody, but he can also be heard on Janelle’s new single, “Turntables.”
His musical story however, starts way before that…
Born from a gifted bloodline that includes James Brown band members Melvin and Maceo Parker, and the first black law professor at Columbia University — his father, Kellis Parker — Kellindo was just eight years old when he first picked up guitar.
Now, after over a decade of performing with geniuses like Prince and Stevie Wonder, he’s ready to strike out on his own with his own distinctive brand of soul inflected rock ’n’ roll.
A string of eclectic singles (including “When Flowers Could Dance,” which has been streamed over 125,000+ times) and the Summertime Remixes EP on Quickfix Recordings have led to this new release. “Long Gone” is a no-nonsense hook-and-riff driven rocker with a nice, big chorus and the kind of flashy fret work that made him stand out in the first place.
You will be humming it into your mask for days, and Kellindo will soon be a name with no need for associations.
Accidents are such a bad experience that we all ought to avoid. Sadly, they may occur every day. After being involved in an accident, you may suffer painful injuries. These injuries can have a long-term effect on your body. You may need to spend a lot of money to cater for medical expenses after being injured in an accident. If you were not the driver at fault during the accident, you need to file a case to seek compensation. Dealing with the legal compensation process on your own can be a task for you, especially when you are still recovering from the accident injuries. Therefore you need to hire an auto accident attorney to represent you and fight for your compensation rights.
Below are the benefits you get for hiring an auto accident attorney:
Communicate with the at-fault driver’s insurance company.
The attorney will notify the at-fault driver’s insurance company on your behalf about the accident. Insurance companies mostly aim to spend the least amount of money when paying compensation to victims. They can even deny your compensation claims and blame you for being the at-fault driver. Hiring an auto accident attorney will ensure the insurance company takes your request and you get fair compensation.
Collect evidence to support your claim.
You need to show evidence of the accident to prove you were not the at-fault driver. Your personalinjury lawyer will help you by collecting police reports, pictures of the accident scene, looking for people who witnessed the accident happen, your damaged car photos, and your medical information.
Help to collect your medical information.
When filing a claim, your lawyer will collect your medical information. Your doctor gives the lawyer this information. This information helps you know how much the insurance company will compensate you for medical expenses after an accident. This medical report includes severe injuries like brain damage, nerve damage, spinal damage, fractures, and amputations. This information will also help you know the extent of your injuries and their effects in the future.
Help to file your legal claim.
If you have no idea about the relevant procedure after an accident, it will benefit if you hire a lawyer. A lawyer who knows auto accident laws will help you to file your claim to seek compensation. The lawyer will help determine how much your claim needs to be compensated based on the accident injuries. They ensure you file your claim before the state deadline. The insurance company will not pay for late-filed claims.
Help to negotiate for your claim settlements.
After you file your claim, an auto accident attorney will negotiate a fair settlement for you. The attorney will send a demand letter to the insurance company, asking them for compensation. The insurance company will compensate for the medical expenses you have incurred, property damaged, wages you lost due to accident injuries, and any other future expenses you will incur caused by accident injuries. Your lawyer will negotiate with the insurance company to ensure you get a fair amount to compensate for your losses.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience began to record their version of Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” on January 21, 1968, at Olympic Studios in London. According to engineer Andy Johns, Jimi Hendrix had been given a tape of Dylan’s recording by publicist Michael Goldstein, who worked for Dylan’s manager Albert Grossman. “(Hendrix) came in with these Dylan tapes and we all heard them for the first time in the studio”, recalled Johns.
Samples of more than 60 songs from 1992 mixed together into one 3½-minute song by The Hood Internet, featuring (takes a deeeeeeep breath) 10,000 Maniacs, 4 Non Blondes, Alice in Chains, Annie Lennox, Aphex Twin, Arrested Development, Beastie Boys, Black Crowes, Blind Melon, Charles & Eddie, The Cure, Das EFX, Def Leppard, Digable Planets, Dr. Dre, Dream Theater, En Vogue, Faith No More, Geto Boys, House of Pain, Ice Cube, INXS, Jade, King Missile, Kris Kross, L7, Mary J. Blige, Megadeth, Neil Young, Opus III, Paperboy, Peabo Bryson & Regina Belle, Pearl Jam, Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth, Pharcyde, Positive K, Prince, R.E.M., Radiohead, Rage Against The Machine, Screaming Trees, Sir Mix-a-Lot, Snap, Sophie B. Hawkins, Soul Asylum, Stereo MC’s, Stone Temple Pilots, Sublime, Sublime, Ugly Kid Joe, Us3, White Zombie, Whitney Houston, Wreckx-N-Effect, Wu-Tang Clan.
William Maranci continues his strokes of genius by combining the Beastie Boys song “Intergalactic” with the perfectly funky “Ghostbusters” theme song by Ray Parker Jr.
TwinsthenewTrend listened to Bob Dylan, the 60’s counter-culture icon, after seeing his name mentioned in President Obama’s book A Promised Land. They also got to ask President Obama a few questions, and they’ll ask him even more on the December episode of BookTube only on YouTube December 16, 2020.
