Next up, let's head to the U.S.A. for some new videos from former Bad Side guitarist and The Bear/Yes FM DJ Jason Mapes! We haven't heard much locally from Jason since 2010, when he was let go from his radio gigs in the wake of the Sovereign/Northern Star buyout, with Bad Side dissolving that summer. Jason has since moved to Nashville and has continued recording as a solo musician, releasing his star-studded debut album "The Devil Plays Guitar" in July. Bad Side fans will like that it features drummer Jonah Brockman on each track, while fellow Bad Side alumni Dan Furmanik, Rob Johnson, and Paxton Olney all feature as guest musicians. The songs resemble Bad Side's 1980s-influenced bluesy hard rock stylistically, obviously differed by having Jason on vocals, and while his solo project isn't locally based, don't bypass his strong recent output! In terms of videos, Jason does have two new performance clips to check out on his YouTube channel!Credited to a series named "Songs From The Squeaky Floor" (I think I can tell why they're called that), these are new at-home covers of Whitesnake's "Here I Go Again" and, as embedded below, Bon Jovi's "Superman Tonight". The motion blur effect doesn't feel necessary, but these covers (on a double-necked guitar!) are effective and make good use of his higher but edgy vocal range, and it's great to see that Jason is staying busy with quality solo music in the past decade! Give his new covers a look below, and buy/stream "The Devil Plays Guitar" at the above links!
Let's head back to Ontario for a new cover of Fall Out Boy's "Thriller" by local/Elliot Lake alt-punk solo project Ashoka At The Show, as uploaded to the 184Films YouTube channel earlier today! I'm not a Fall Out Boy fan, but Darren matches it nicely to an unplugged form factor, and the recording quality is as great as ever, so give it a watch below!
Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news items from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by band or event name:
- The fourth annual Go North Music Festival in Richards Landing on St. Joseph Island has been cancelled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as per their Facebook page, and tickets are refundable at point of purchase. Had the festival take place, it would have expanded to a two night format over the July 10th weekend, and some of the scheduled touring bands were tagged in the post about the cancellation, though no word on if The Rising Tide or other punk/hard rock acts would have played too. Very disappointing, but look for the festival's expected return in July 2021!
- I have removed next week's Numbing-headlined concert at The New American Pub from our concert calendar due to the extension of Ontario's emergency order until May 19th, which means that non-essential businesses like nightclubs will be closed until at least that date. Click here for details on the emergency order. For full disclosure, this concert has not been publically called off by Numbing, The New A, or promoters Dryer Fire, but it's status was on thin ice at best given what's going on in the world.
- Reports of local Tool tribute band Parabol's demise are premature! While their Facebook page was indeed taken down over the winter, it was due to Facebook flagging the page for copyright violations, as per Facebook comment replies. In other words, their Tool covers were too close to the real thing! That said, Parabol still haven't played a public concert since headlining at Soo Blaster in October, and I don't think they have replaced that page yet, but in the coronavirus era, that may be of secondary concern. We'll let you know when they publically resurface!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and updates in the coming days! Thanks everyone!
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