LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Barely Covered & The Wyld Stallyns), CBC Searchlight Info, And More!!

Before we begin today's post, just an acknowledgement that members of Soundcheck (specifically guitarist Terry Eaton, drummer Glen Thomas, and ex-drummer Steven Flint) hosted local blues rock trio Mojo's weekly jam night at Reggie's West last night, due to members' commitments with Maxx Entertainment running sound at the Jack DeKeyzer show at The Machine Shop. We don't consider jam and open mic nights to be "concerts", but had this had more notice, I'd have at least mentioned it on here, and I do apologize! Now, here's some recent news and notes, starting with LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, one on SHORT NOTICE!

Local acoustic hard rock trio The Wyld Stallyns will reportedly return to LopLops Lounge for one night only TOMORROW NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, we only learned of this concert via personal Facebook postings earlier this week, though it was quietly listed on the venue's website's events calendar (albeit spelling "Stallions" the non-Bill & Ted way). A one nighter due to the recent run of Friday concerts there by local folk/blues duo The Town Criers, this will be The Stallyns' first show since their Rockstar Bar cancellation last week due to a band member illness, but in longer terms, this will be their first announced show here since April. Unlike then, this show isn't on "Bad Idea Thursday", and there isn't an advertised "pizza and a pint" deal, but the Elements side project's wide array of covers should fit LopLips well TOMORROW! Expect a $5 cover for this 19+ show, which has a 9:30 PM start time. Visit the above links for more details, and here's The Wyld Stallyns live!



Next up, the aforementioned LopLops website's events calendar also listed a show on Saturday, February 29th by a new local band named Barely Covered, so what should you know in this regard? This show does have a Facebook event page, which describes this band as playing "rock, punk, and pop covers" from the 1980s-2000s. Meanwhile, LopLops' website lists a wide array of acts ranging from Nirvana to The Descendents to The Matthew Good Band among their live cover selection. In other words, they definitely fit our coverage, and I'd link them on the SMS if they had a known online page! Lineup-wise, this band is effectively succeeding the mid-2010s cover rock quartet Changing Lanes, though sound descriptions for that band were softer. Returning from that group are guitarist Steve Myers (ex-Sense of Truth/Parabol), bassist Josh Norling (of numerous other bands on bass & saxophone), and drummer Roy Kreutzberger (ex-Startlefish/Leaves Off Trees.)

In lieu of the relocated Buzz, the lead singer of Barely Covered is Maggie Gasparetto, who I am unfamiliar with from prior bands, though you may have seen her with the guys already, as Barely Covered made their live debut at LopLops on September 21st. I profusely apologize for missing that show on here, but now we know about them, and look for an entertaining show on Leap Day at month's end! Expect a 9:30 PM start time, $5 cover, and 19+ age limit once again. See above for more details, and hopefully we hear more from Barely Covered soon, online page or otherwise!

Also today, it's that time of year again, as CBC Music's annual Searchlight competition is back in it's annual quest to find Canada's best unsigned and undiscovered musical talent! Partnering with The Juno Awards this year, first round voting opened on Tuesday, and will run until next Thursday at 3:00 PM, with the 50 highest voted bands and 50 judges panel selections moving on to the second stage, which will be eventually whittled down to a first place winner on March 5th. The top prizes this year include a placement and industry showcase at this year's Allan Slaight Juno Master Class in Toronto, a week's residency at Studio Bell in Calgary, slots at JunoFest at this year's Junos in Saskatoon and at the CBC Music Festival in Toronto, and tickets to the Juno Awards proper. There's a lot to look forward to, but of course, this is the Sault Metal Scene, and there is a lot of local representation in the Ontario province to vote for, so who should you search & show your support for?

As usual, indie punk quintet Northwest have thrown their hat in the ring, as have alt-rockers Man Feelings once again, and other locally relevant acts this year include Hannah Nicoletta, M.D. Dunn, Renee Landry, and former Shattervox frontman Eric Brombacher's current Toronto rock project Eric & The Soo. I could be missing others, but it's great to see this many local musicians alone in the running! Again, I think exposure for Searchlight would be greater locally if CBC Music had an FM signal in Sault Ste. Marie, but hopefully some local connections make the top 100! You can vote once a day per artist, so click here to search for and check out all of this year's entrants!

Finally for today, here's a lineup update for an upcoming Sault Michigan concert, as Detroit hard rock quintet The Lows have been added as the openers for the Candlebox concert at The Dreammakers Theater at the local Kewadin Casino on April 18th! The news was broken on the Facebook event page, and this will give The Lows an earlier than expected local debut before their "Rapids Sessions" gig at The Rapids Lounge on June 12th. Very nice platform for this band, and hopefully the Candlebox show boosts their attendance when they come back north! To promote the concert, Lows frontman Angelo Coppola shared this video on the event page on January 4th where he plays a solo blues rock song all about this particular concert. This goes above and beyond the usual plugs you see from touring acts toward a specific tour date here, and it's a well done (if short) while it lasts! Give it a look below, and get your tickets for $30-$35 each at this link!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and updates on the site in the coming days! Thanks everyone!

White Cowbell Oklahoma Concert Videos And Much More Recent News & Notes!!

Today's post is largely one to play catch-up on recent news and updates, including details on a national music contest, some assorted update, and a new metal song, but let's begin with some new videos from a recent show!

A handful of videos are now online from the White Cowbell Oklahoma show at LopLops Lounge last month! Christopher Paci was on hand to film seven videos of the Toronto southern hard rock veterans in action for his excellent YouTube channel, and these include their songs "San Antone", "Cheerleader", and "Shot A Gamblin' Man", plus their cover of Frank Zappa's "Magic Fingers", a longer song that I can't identify off-hand, and this clip of frontman Clem Clemsen using a flamethrower (you read that right!) Embedded below is their set-closing original "Put The South In Your Mouth", complete with angle-grinding action at the end. Solid videos for fans of their country-tinged hard rock sound, and the fans are clearly into everything! W.C.O.'s crowd favourite and high energy songs are always welcome around here, and you can relive that concert above & below!

Next up, CBC Music's annual Searchlight competition begun it's voting period yesterday, and at least two local acts are in the running! The ultimate prize this year includes the Allan Slaight Juno Master Class, a trip to next month's Juno Awards in London, a week of recording time at the National Music Centre in Calgary, and a chance to perform at this summer's 2019 CBC Music Festival, with airplay and exposure on CBC stations along the way. Compared to the last time Searchlight had a major thumbprint on SMS coverage (2015), things seem very streamlined, with artists seemingly in the same national pool, and you can only search by province or territory for entered bands. You can vote once per day, no registration needed, at this link, and the top 100 acts (50 by CBC's selection committee, 50 by fans) after Valentine's Day will proceed to the next stage on February 20th. As best as I can tell, only two local bands have enterted, so who can you vote for in this contest to find the next great Canadian music act?

As expected, one is local indie/punk quintet Northwest, who are looking to better their 2015 Northern Ontario region semifinal run, but new indie rockers Man Feelings (featuring Bizotic alum B.J. Swire) are also in, as is London musician and former Saultite Andy Chillman, potentially among others with local ties. Not having a CBC Music (formerly CBC Radio 2) station in the market doesn't help for contest advertising locally, but it'd be great to see a local act make a deep run, and you can do your part to help by voting at the above links! Best of luck all around in this first round!

Also today, here's the latest song from local experimental/death metal solo project Awokest's Facebook page, entitled "Machine God of Hate"! Inspired by the Harlan Ellison sci-fi story "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream", it's not clear how this fits into Awokest's/Chase's prolific album plans, but this will appeal to fans who like his more brutal and aggressive metal material! This has a black or noise metal quality with solid shrieking vocals, and is worth a listen for genre fans, so give it a listen below!



Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news items from the last while, and as usual for these short-form stories, these are in alphabetical order by artist name or event name:

• Local Celtic punk quintet Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide are recording a music video for their upcoming single "Lost & Found"! Two teaser photos were shared to their Facebook page from the shoot, which confirm that young local filmmakers Avery Obeng and Matt Hroch are behind the camera for this video, The Tide's first since "A Day Will Come" in 2012. It'll be interesting to see how this video stacks up to their prior ones, and stay tuned for updates!
• In their first Facebook post of the year, local promoters Six, Two, Oh. announced that they are already working on the third annual Oh!No concert festival, which will have some "deadly out of town acts", and will also feature co-organizing roles from fellow promoters Dryer Fire and Batchewana Bay mobile record store Oosik Records. No word on further details, but I have no reason to believe that Oh!No III won't be back at Robbie's Church in Leeburn in early September. Stay tuned for more on this fast rising festival!
• Local goregrind duo Rotopsy have announced another new concert via this Facebook event page, which will take place on Thursday, May 16th, venue to be announced (though note the Oddfellows Hall crowd shot as the cover photo.) Described as "a little shindig with music and other sounds claiming to also be music", the event name is "Degenerate Bastards Vol. 2", which seems to imply that Crucify the Whore and Chase Wigmore will at least be playing on this night, though is that it for connections to their prior split? Stay tuned!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and updates on the site soon! Thanks everyone!

Pop Evil Concert Preview, Plus Din & Project 421 Updates!!

Well, this post should have been up way before now, but I had a massive blonde moment. In recent days, you may have seen me reference TONIGHT'S Pop Evil concert as taking place on Tuesday, and that's just absent-minded on my part. I got this show mixed up with May's Alter Bridge show at the Soo Kewadin from the same promoters, as that show is on Tuesday. Huge apologies for the mix-up (and thanks to Chris Paci for alerting me to my error), so here's our delayed (though not late) preview of TONIGHT'S huge Sault Michigan concert, plus some big updates from two Sault Ontario bands!

The long anticipated return of North Muskegon, Michigan hard rock quintet Pop Evil will go down TONIGHT at The Dreammaler's Theater at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino! Apologies again for the lateness of this preview, there's no excuses for the day mix-up. Making their (at least) fourth local concert appearance, and first since August 2013's Jessica Jorgensen benefit show, this hard hitting band has became a staple of rock radio in the past few years, charting #1 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock charts four times since with hits like "Trenches" & "Deal With The Devil". This should be Pop Evil's biggest show yet in the Soo, so don't miss out tonight if you're still able to get tickets! Note that this will also be Pop Evil's first local gig with new drummer Hayley Cramer since replacing Joshua Marunde last year. Openers will include Los Angeles hard rock quartet Badflower, whose old school-flavoured originals should fit right in tonight, while female-fronted Detroit hard rock quintet Kaleido (replacing Ohio rockers Red Sun Rising) will kick the night off.

Kaleido's high energy, pop-infused modern rock will set the tone well to start this show, so don't miss out on them either! Promoted by Allstar Promotions (in their first concert since 2015), there are still a couple dozen tickets available in the outside sections, plus standing room only seating, so you can get hooked up on short notice at this link, at 1-800-KEWADIN, or at the in-person box office, and yes, tickets are still a great deal at just $23.50. This should be a huge show once again, especially given Pop Evil's fast rise in the mid-2010s, so don't miss out TONIGHT, apologies again for the lateness of our preview, stay tuned for fallout, and here's Pop Evil live in the Soo in 2013!



Next up, here's the latest from Sault Ontario classic metal band Project 421, as guitarist Blair Burch posted their first update since the departure of Curtis McKenzie onto their Facebook page on Wednesday. In the post, he notes that Curt's departure last fall "was building for months prior", though he still doesn't know everything that happened that night, and doesn't want to sort out the full details at this point, Afterwards, the band took the holidays off, started slowly getting back into place last month, and resumed full jams this month. For now, Blair will resume lead vocal duties with Project 421 (as he previously did upon their debut and after Curt's first departure), but the band does hope to find a new full-time lead singer. Musically, Project 421 are planning to drop glam and hair metal material and replace that with thrash and speed metal, in an effort to bring back "the attitude" and give Blair songs he can sing more effectively, while some older originals may be reworked to that end.

As for as return to the stage, a date isn't set yet, but Blair assures us "that we aren't going anywhere", and will be back with a fresh feel "before too much longer". It's great to see that Project 421 are pushing onward, especially after the ugly reports that followed their intended last show in November and the related dissolution of sister band Eclipse, and hopefully Project 421 can return in full force later this year, as they've been missed over the winter! Read Blair's full statement at the above links!

Finally for today, here's the latest from local alternative/hard rock trio The Din, starting with opener clarification for their Gore Street Cafe/Fishbowl Festival concert on March 10th (one week from Friday), as Stereo North frontman Andrew Pucci has been confirmed to kick off this show! Our source is the official Facebook event page in recent days. Though the wait continues for Stereo North's return from hiatus, Andrew is a solid choice to open, and he's developing more & more of a profile for his acoustic solo music, so don't be late on the 10th! Note that Mike Mikus and Jackson Reed were once advertised to open, but they either had to cancel, or moved their Fishbowl Festival involvement to this weekend's garage show. Also, The Din have entered this year's CBC Music Searchlight competition to find the best up & coming Canadian musicians, and if you recall how well Northwest did in Searchlight, then the sky's the limit for them!

You can vote for them at this link, and their chosen song to stream there is "Alleyways & Apartments". The Din are one of 24 Northern Ontario entries this year, and as far as I can tell, the only other local band competing is folk rock outfit Tea With Lincoln, who have since relocated to Southern Ontario, but are competing in their home district for Searchlight, so consider shooting them a vote also! First round voting actually ends tomorrow afternoon, so good luck to both bands in making the regional finals! Lastly, in continuing with their teased abundance of videos from last month's headlining gig at LopLops Lounge, two more videos from that show have been posted their YouTube channel in the past week! These feature Mike, Tammy, and Brandan playing their originals "Alleyways & Apartments", and as embedded below, "Up In The Air".

The quality here is no different from their prior videos from this show, given that these are from the same camera, but the capture The Din in solid form from this recent concert, so give them and more a look above & below, and cast your Searchlight votes before it's too late!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for our YouTube Channel Profiles next, and apologies again for the Pop Evil preview delay! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (The Ripcordz, Menstrual Munchies, And Stiffler's Mom) And More!!

With a new month upon us, let's continue the recent steady run of posts with our first full news post of May 2015, including some assorted updates and LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS from next week through this fall! Here's what you need to know in chronological order!!

Local party/classic hard rock trio Stiffler's Mom will rock The Rednecks Saloon for one night only next Saturday, May 9th! Our source is frontman Greg Simpson's promotion company Maxx Entertainment's website, which lists May dates for his bands. Fresh off of TOMORROW'S Rockstar Bar show, we actually can't find an online-referenced concert from these popular veterans at the former Nicolet Tavern in the past, so is this their debut there? I can't 100% confirm that, but it's been a long time coming either way, and hopefully Stiffler's Mom rock Rednecks hard next weekend! For reference, this is a one nighter due to Greg's country band Bone Yard playing at the same venue next Friday. There's no announced cover charge for next weekend's show, which is 19+ and will likely have a 10:00 PM start time. See the above links for more details, and don't miss Stiffler's Mom either of the next two Saturdays!

Next up, the long teased Menstural Munchies-headlined Heavy North Entertainment concert on Thursday, June 25th now has a confirmed venue, as it will take place at The Oddfellows Hall! That seemed like the most likely option given past H.N.E. events, as all have basically been there or via a house party. The headliners at 11:00 PM are an Ohio-based "cyber pornoslam" duo that are a favourite of Blood Shed Productions head Tyler Gibson, who is reportedly working on a split release of some kind with Menstrual Munchies (that's their name, don't shoot the messenger!), and while their music is an acquired taste, Blood Shed fans will enjoy their extreme sound! Though a second out of town band was teased, the openers are all local, and they'll include local classic metal quartet Project 421 at 10:00 PM and death metal favourites The Bear Hunters at 9:00 PM.

Blood Shed-affiliated acts populate the rest of the lineup, including goregrind duo Rotopsy at 8:30 PM, newer thrash/grind trio Them at 8:00 PM, death metal duo Brutally Fatal at 7:30 PM, goregrind solo project Crucify The Whore at 7:00 PM, and rappers Phat Boii & Mikey Thomas at 6:30 & 6:00 PM. Advance tickets for this ALL AGES show will be $7 when announced or $10 at the door, and for more details, visit the official Facebook event page! Blood Shed fans will definitely not want to miss this show, as there's lots of extreme metal mayhem ahead in June, so see the above links for more info!

Lastly for new concert announcements is the expected release party for the upcoming Ripcordz/Jack Spades/Destroilet three-way split album, which will take place on Saturday, October 24th at The Algonquin Pub during Jack Spades frontman J.D. Pearce's Gonqshow concert series there this year! The newest (and possibly last?) show of the series will fittingly see all three bands on the split rocking out at The Algonquin this fall, with The Ripcordz bringing their hardcore punk classics back to the Soo for the first time since last October's Rad Zone anniversary concert, and Jack Spades & Destroilet joining forces again 5 months after their fundraising concert at The Algonquin at the end of the month (also, remember to help out with the bands' Kickstarter campaign for the split!) Nice to hear we have a target date in mind, and I can't wait to hear the final product! One more extra opening band is also to be announced.

Note that the Gonqshow series and J.D.'s promotional concert group are now branded as "Tidal Records Presents...", indicating officially that J.D. is now a part of and promoting shows through local independent label Tidal Records. After their successful work together at the VM Radio Battle of the Bands, it's a natural move, and hopefully this partnership is a success! October's release concert has $10 advance tickets, but the price jumps to $13 at the door, while it is a 19+ show with a likely 10:00 PM start time. For more details, visit the above links, and stay tuned for more updates on this highly anticipated CD as they come in!

Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news items from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist or company name:

• Local hard rock quartet Long Shot will make their first concert appearance out of town when the Speak Easy Battle runners up are among the musical entertainment at this year's Captain Kidd Days festival in Corunna, Ontario (near Sarnia) on August 1st! The Dawe brothers are originally from Corunna, hence the connection. Should be a great spotlight for Long Shot, so click here for more details on the event!
• The CBC Searchlight contest run for local indie/punk quintet Northwest has ended, as they and 8 other Northern Ontario bands lost out to Sudbury bluegrass band Murder Murder in the regional finals, sending them to the national stage of the competiton to find Canada's best new band. Disappointing, but they had a great run to get this far, and kudos to Northwest for what they accomplished!
• Local photography company RAD.imagery (who did some sporadic concert photography in the early 2010s) are running a contest where a local band could win a FREE one hour professional photo shoot! To enter, all members of your band must like RAD.imagery's Facebook page, and join & share the official Facebook event page. This could be a big opportunity, so see the above links for more details!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post next! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Gnaeus & Ten Kings), Plus More Recent Updates!!

Here's another news post for your Friday, and before anyone asks, yes, I am aware of the announced Shit Liver-headlined house party concert scheduled for tomorrow, but as of this writing, promoters hadn't secured a venue for it, so we're waiting for official word on that before plugging it on here. Now, today's post features a new concert video posting, a local band's continued national contest run, and LOCAL CONCERT ALERTs for next month and TONIGHT, so here's what you should know!

VM Radio Battle winning post-punk/garage rock quartet Gnaeus will return to LopLops Lounge TONIGHT during the kickoff of the downtown venue's fourth annual Festival of Beer! Apologies for the short notice, the band only announced their involvement on their Facebook page this afternoon. Recently launching their own official website as well (more on that in the coming days), this will be Gnaeus' fourth LopLops hosted or promoted concert of the month, and tonight's set will help wrap up day #1 this weekend's festivities, which will see craft and microbreweries sampling and promoting their wares for attendees at The Bushplane Museum, and if you're a beer fan or aficionado, you'll want to check out this successful event today or tomorrow! The above links have full details on the F.O.B. itself and admission, but the Gnaeus concert will be at LopLops.

TONIGHT'S Gnaeus show has a $5 admission, 10:00 PM start time, and 19+ age limit, so again, see above for more details! Given the annual nature of the Festival of Beer, I'm surprised this is such a short notice announcement, but Gnaeus are a very talented young band and you can see why at LopLops TONIGHT! For a preview, here's the guys live at LopLops last year!

Next up, Sault Michigan hard rock quartet Ten Kings will return to the stage in two weeks when they rock The Northern Pines Lounge at the St. Ignace Kewadin Casino on Friday, May 8th & Saturday, May 9th! These will be the first shows in almost two months for this new supergroup, and while I have no idea where they've been throughout April, it's great to see the guys back at it for another weekend of hard rock action next month! With alumni of Nixxon Dixxon, Scofflaw, and The Bottom Line on board, how could you go wrong? For reference, Kewadin's entertainment page lists the May 9th weekend as to be announced, but it hasn't been visibly updated recently to even include past Ten Kings dates. These 21+ dates have a likely 9:00 PM start time and no announced cover charge, so see the above links for more details, and stay tuned for more from Ten Kings as it rolls in!

Also today, Sault Ontario indie/punk quintet Northwest have indeed made the regional finals of CBC's Searchlight competition to find Canada's best new artist! The fan votes have put them through the Northern Ontario region's top 10 (and last 226 bands nationally), and they remain the only locally based band in the competition, so be sure to vote for them A.S.A.P. to ensure that they make the next stage! You can vote five times a day per region, so do so at the above links, as only the #1 band in Northern Ontario will join the other 24 regional winners in the next phase, where fan votes will send 5 bands to join a Canadian musicians panel's 5 choices in the national finals of CBC Searchlight. For reference, Gates of Winter guitarist Bryan Belleau's wife Melinda didn't advance to this round for the Vancouver region, but give her work a listen if you haven't already! Voting for the Northern Ontario regional finals ends Monday at 3:00 PM, so VOTE A.S.A.P.!

Finally for today, here's a newly posted video of another local indie/punk band, the Juno nominated Treble Charger, from their reunion concert set in Toronto in May 2012 during that year's Canadian Music Week! Uploaded by the Canadian Music Week YouTube channel yesterday, this is a professionally shot video of Treble Charger playing their classic "American Psycho" at The Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto via multiple cameras, and it's definitely the best footage I've seen yet from this show! The video does focus heavily on Greig Nori over anyone else, but kudos to C.M.W. for this quality upload, and check it out below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for a new news post tomorrow, and more next week! Thanks everyone!

Rotopsy Updates, Northwest's Searchlight Run, And Much More!!

Before we kick off this post, I wanted to offer our deepest condolences to the family and friends of former Foggy Notions owner & bartender Patrick Casey, who suddenly passed away this weekend, as per numerous personal Facebook postings yesterday. Details on services are likely forthcoming, so keep an eye out for more info where appropriate. Though arguably better known from his steady and friendly presence slinging smashlovs at many local concerts, Patrick (alongside Alec Colyer and John Doucette) bought Foggy's from Jon Ferguson in early 2007, maintaining it for the next year before it's first closure in March 2008, though it would re-open in late 2009 under a succession of new owners and names, currently as Coch's Corner. I admittedly can't comment on the original 11 year run of Foggy Notions, as it closed before I turned 19, but I did recognize Pat from his bartending work, and he was always a liked and welcome presence for concert-goers and bar regulars alike!

Just a week after losing Mike Case, it's a shame that another local music scene fixture has passed so soon, but with all of the good memories of Patrick as a friend, fan, or deliverer of shots to the stage, I'm sure he'll be in many people's thoughts for a long time to come. R.I.P. Pat!

Now, today's post will mostly help clear out some recent backlogged news items, including a local band's contest run and some assorted updates, but first, here's the latest from local independent goregrind duo Rotopsy's first full length demo "Sexual Assault Rifle" (they titled it, not me!) on Saturday, which was actually two days ahead of schedule, but it may have been intended for a Dank Fest II release before that show's cancellation. The album (whose cover art isn't embedded here due to potentially offensive content) costs $5 through band members, Blood Shed Productions, or at future concerts, while t-shirts with the cover are also now on sale for $10, so keep them in mind! Remember, two songs from it are now on their Bandcamp page, while a third ("Live at Oddfellows Hall 3") is new to their label's YouTube channel, though no word on when/if we'll see the rest of the songs in a digital format.

A Sudbury concert to be announced has also been hinted at for Rotopsy, and while I won't embed the new YouTube song here due to the cover art, fans of Rotopsy's bass-heavy grind action should enjoy every second, so give everything a look above, and message Tyler or Dylan A.S.A.P. if you want this disc before their next show!

Also today, local indie/punk quintet Northwest have made the semifinals of a national music contest, so what should you know? While a handful of local bands (like Jack Spades, Machines Dream, and Mannapool) entered, only Northwest have made it to the regional semifinals of CBC's Searchlight competition, which is looking for the best new Canadian music act. This fan-voted stage ends tomorrow at 3:00 PM, with Northwest among 25 bands in the Northern Ontario region at this stage, and among 545 national bands remaining in the competition. Finalists will be announced on Tuesday, so VOTE A.S.A.P. at their official CBC Music page to help them make the finals, as the top voted bands will get judged by a panel of Canadian music professionals for the top prize! If they win, Northwest will win $20,000 towards new Yamaha equipment, an opening slot at an upcoming CBC event, and a recording session with CBC.

Note as well that Gates of Winter guitarist Bryan Belleau plays & records with his new wife, Vancouver region semifinalist Melinda Belleau, so throw her some votes as well if you can, as she's a great singer in her own right! Hopefully Northwest can make the top 10 for Northern Ontario and keep the local cause going in CBC Searchlight, so vote for them A.S.A.P., and click here for the recent SooToday article on their run in this competition!

Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter items from thelast while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist or show name:

• Though announced on short notice, Kinross, Michigan hard rock trio Banned returned to The Northwoods Restaurant & Bar in Drummond Island (which is out of our coverage range) for a show on Friday night. Hopefully it went well, and don't miss them on the May 15th weekend in St. Ignace!
• Sault Ontario alternative/hard rock quartet Haggith will finally release their long anticipated fourth studio album "Apocalypse II" on May 10th (two weeks from today), as per new postings on their Facebook page. You can stream it beforehand on their YouTube channel, but no word yet on when we'll see their EP "XIV". Stay tuned for more as we approach the release date!
• The newest episode of Local2's music webseries Tuned with Donna Hopper went online on Thursday, but it entirely focuses on the recent God Made Me Funky concert at LopLops Lounge with no extra segments. G.M.M.F. have a fun sound and definitely have a solid local following, so give the new Tuned episode a look if you're a fan!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for much more as the week progresses! Thanks everyone!