A New Solo Project Discovery, New Videos, And Much More!!

Today's post is almost going to run us dry for new content on the site, so good thing tomorrow's post has been ready to go for a bit, as we have some time to build up material for Wednesday! Below, you will find some assorted shorter stories, some new-ish solo content from a former local frontman, and a couple of videos, so let's get things rolling!

We have a new-ish solo project to add to our band links on the site, and this is The Dann Pichette Multi-Track Recording Extravaganza! Launched by the former No Arrow/SBD frontman back in 2012, this project isn't active anymore, but he linked me to his old solo material for something to cover on the site, and goodness knows, we sure need that right now! Ten songs are posted there, though only four exceed a minute in length, and there are (censored) expletives in many of the longer song names. The music on offer here is definitely more experimental compared to his old local bands, but if you miss No Arrow, "Always Tryin' To F*** With Me" will be the closest in spirit for grunge fans, and "Shut Up, You Stupid B***" will also have similarities there, albeit with sleepier vocals. Beyond that, "Wanna Be Like Dann" has more of a 1980s pop rock sound, and "Swass" sounds like a Primus demo, among other tracks. No song sounds like the others, which is good!

These don't have clean, professional recording quality, but they definitely showcase Dann's irreverent musical sensibilities, though given the solo angle, I'm surprised he didn't pay as much homage to early Pink Floyd as you may remember him doing in the SBD era. Dann moved out of town a few years ago, but if you were a fan of his local music work in the 2000s and early 2010s like I was, his Multi-Track Recording Extravaganza is worth a listen, which you can do above! Hopefully we hear more new music from him down the road!

Next up, here' the latest from prolific local folk punk/extreme metal solo musician Chase Wigmore, who has uploaded his entire discography to Google Drive for you to stream for free! This is totally official, Chase put this up all 22 albums for fans to have something to listen to during the pandemic, and it includes material released under his own name, plus Awokest, This Is Your Band On Drugs, The Black Lodge Masters, his splits with C.T.W., and any other project name you can think of. Not all of his back catalog is on Bandcamp and YouTube, so if you love Chase's diverse original music, you'll want to take advantage at the above links! As well, he did do a live-streamed performance on his Facebook page yesterday, which sees him cover a section of "Viral Counterpoint of the Coronavirus Spike Protein", an experimental classical piece by musician Markus J. Buehler, which attempts to turn the amino acid sequence of COVID-19 into a rather lengthy musical composition.

The video quality itself is oddly choppy for a live-stream, which may or not be helped by the filtered monochrome visuals, but musically, it's definitely something different! Very intricate playing, this as an oddly soothing essence, albeit one far from his usual sounds, so give it a watch below!



Also, here's one more new video from local/Elliot Lake punk solo project Ashoka at the Show, as uploaded on the 184Films YouTube channel yesterday, where frontman Darren MacDonald discusses what he's been up to since his originally lost access to this channel, how he got back into using this channel, and he promised to continue uploading "songs to quarantine to" daily while all of this is going on. You don't see too many videos like this where a YouTube channel owner apologizes for a hiatus, but it's good to keep fans updated, and hopefully we hear more of Ashoka at the Show soon!



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

• If you are wondering why we never covered local rap/metal trio The Apocalypse Afterparty's announced set at The Borderline's SMAC-19 live-streamed benefit concert earlier this month, it's because they quietly withdrew from the lineup for unannounced reasons. Hopefully nothing bad happened, but visit the Mike's Lunch Music Facebook group to see the other performances by a wide array of talented local musicians! You may have to dig for them, as they've been sharing a lot of Facebook performance videos there since.
• Northern Superior Brewing Co.'s "Songs & A Six-Pack" live-streamed concert series on Fridays did return last week, but it's actually not intended to be a one-artist showcase, so Greg Callaghan did not host the second installment (I apologize, wording from that week was ambiguous.) Instead, Rising Tide fiddle player Sheldon Jaaskelainen hosted, and you can see his episode, complete with Northern Superior plugs, at this link. Sheldon's vocal/acoustic guitar set contains no punk songs, but his talent is fully on display, including Boot Hill Crooners and Wild Turkeys renditions!
• In their first post since the cancellation of their March concerts, local folk-punk solo project Slumshine revealed on their Facebook page that they were helping pass the time by making up a run of CD copies of their debut album "SLMSHN", which was originally exclusive to cassette tapes in it's initial physical release last summer. The sleeves are perfectly in line with Brent's art style, but given social distancing, when and how will these be available to buy? Stay tuned!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for part 4 of our WLS0 9O.1 FM retrospective series on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

Woods Of Ypres Tribute Album Updates & New Mike Haggith Album Uploads!!

We're back with another news post on this fine Saturday morning, but we only have two stories. Why? Because the first one has a lot to address and cover, I've given it some due space to cover what's new and notable, but we also have some new/old album uploads to share from a prolific local musician, so read on below for what you need to know!

The final track listing for the Woods of Ypres tribute album "A Heart of Gold: A Tribute to Woods of Ypres" has been revealed! It was posted onto the project's Facebook page & group on October 5th, and confirms that it will be a two disc set, though not in chronological release order so the songs flow better. The set will feature 19 Woods of Ypres covers from 19 talented acts, though four songs have been removed from the previous track listing that was available, including "Your Ontario Town Is A Burial Ground" by Unbowed, "The Northern Cold" by Deathmarch, and "You Were The Light" by Svarte Krake. Disappointing that those songs won't be on the album, especially "Your Ontario Town...", but hopefully we'll hear them in some form in the future, even if not on the tribute! The other removed track is local death metal quintet The Bear Hunters' cover of the second half of "Kiss My Ashes (Goodbye)", and while I have not heard anything on why their cover won't be on the album, I'll note that they've offered no real band updates since August. If I hear anything on what they're up to, I'll let you guys know!

Now, here's the final track listing in order (according to official Facebook postings), and I hope I have the bands correctly labelled and ordered from older postings (the newest track listing didn't include the bands), but if I'm wrong on anything, please let me know!

Disc 1

Catuvolcus - Thrill Of The Struggle

Raphael Weinroth-Browne (Musk Ox) - Adora Vivos

Earthen - Lightning & Snow

Canopy - Falling Apart

Panzerfaust - A Meeting Place & Time

Kuhrzarth - Finality

Anemic - The Sun Was In My Eyes (Part Doom)

Albieron - Retrosleep In The Morning Calm

Gypsy Chief Goliath - Suicide Cargoload (Drag That Weight)

Reliquis - Career Suicide (Is Not Real Suicide)

Disc 2

Novembers Doom - Wet Leather

Eclipse Eternal - Crossing The 45th Parallel

Amaranth - Allure Of The Earth

Pagan Ritual - Intro: The Shams Of Optimism

Joel Violette & Rae Amitay - Silver

Begotten - The Sea Of Immeasurable Loss

Empyrean Plague - Shedding The Deadwood

Justin Bender (Into Eternity) - Trillium: The Third Of Three Winters, 2004-2007

The Governor & Friends - Intro: The Looming Of Dust In The Dark

Of note for the tracklisting: 7 of the 19 contributing bands participated at the David Gold tribute concerts in April (all of which are doing a Woods song they covered at the events), while (at least) Raphael Weinroth-Browne, Kuhrzarth's Paul Kuhr, and Amaranth's Mark Howitt played at one or both while in other bands. The only Woods alumni on the album that I know of are Joel Violette & Rae Amitay, though Raphael guested on the band's last two albums. In terms of the song makeup, the tribute album will feature four songs each from "Woods I" & "Woods II", two songs from "Woods III", three from "Woods IV", five from "Woods V", and "Falling Apart" from their "Home" single/"Woods 4.5" sessions. The final 19 songs have all been sent for mastering with Dan Swano, and I'm hearing very positive things from album organizers on how it's turning out! It'd have been nice to have seen some local representation, and (on a personal note) some more "Woods III" tracks, but this is shaping up to be quite a package, and as further details on the final product and ordering comes out, I'll be sure to have it here, so stay tuned! David would be proud!

Finally for today, Haggith drummer (and local solo musician) Mike Haggith uploaded two more of his studio albums onto his YouTube channel a few days ago for fans to stream for free! Similarly to his recent free posting of his newest solo album "Neighbourhood Watch", he's posted two other albums (2009's "Hotel For Transients" & 2011's "Suspended Animation") in their entirety, with both featured in full as their own dedicated audio file. The former is one of his many releases before relocating to Sault Ontario in 2010 (so it's not overly familiar locally compared to his newer output), while the latter was Mike's most recent solo work before his latest album came out last week. It's great to see Mike post some more archive albums for free on YouTube, but of course, if you like what you hear, please buy these (and maybe other) albums through his Reverbnation store! I wonder if we'll see any more of Mike's prolific back catalog get a similar treatment? As it's less familiar, I've embedded "Hotel For Transients" below, so give it and the rest of his diverse (and often heavy) solo work a look below & at the above links!



That's probably all for today, but keep your eyes peeled for a new news post either tomorrow or Monday! Thanks everyone!