Canadian Musician‘s Jason Raso connected with legendary bassist Billy Sheehan ahead of a pair of Canadian dates with Sons of Apollo, his new progressive metal project featuring some other monster players. The band hits Montreal on Thursday, April 19th and Toronto on Friday, April 20th.

Sons of Apollo finds Sheehan joining forces with former Dream Theater members Mike Portnoy (drums) and Derek Sherinian (keyboards), guitarist Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal (ex-Guns N’ Roses), and vocalist Jeff Scott Soto (ex-Journey, ex-Rising Force). Their debut album, Psychotic Symphony, dropped in the Fall of 2017 via InsideOutMusic/Sony Music.

Sheehan tells us how the band came together, his experiences playing with different drum icons, and more.

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Astrocolor performs and records live electronic music, fusing digital and organic sounds in a sonic collage that includes everything from funky house to balearic to breakbeat to ambient and more. In this exclusive #CMPremiere, we’re sharing the track “Smell of Acid (feat. Tyler Rowe)” from the third and final EP of their self-titled trilogy, available soon via Softtone/eOne.

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We’re thrilled to bring you this exclusive #CMPremiere of Nice Horse’s brand new video for “Mansplainin’,” the latest single from the high-energy country-pop outfit’s LP, There Goes the Neighbourhood. It’s no coincidence that we’ve launched the video for this feminist anthem on International Women’s Day (March 8th), or that the band tapped director Lisa Mann and a crew predominantly comprised of women to shoot it.

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Big Little Lions’ upcoming album, Alive and Well, is the duo of Helen Austin and Paul Otten’s most cohesive project to date, delivering their signature pop/folk shimmer and irresistible rhythms with a new lyrical edge inspired by the polarity of our world. In this exclusive #CMPremiere, you can stream this compelling collection in its entirety a few days ahead of its official release.

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Known for their innovative and seamless fusion of tradition folk instrumentation and energetic modern rock, B.C.’s Shred Kelly have produced their most ambitious offering to date with their fourth LP, Archipelago. In this exclusive #CMPremiere, we’re bringing you the brand new video for the album’s second single, “Don’t Ever Look Back.”

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Canadian singer-songwriter Alessia Cohle is set to release her new EP, Wild Eyed Wanderer, on October 27th.  Featuring the already-successful single “Wanderlust,” the EP was produced by award-winning producer Douglas Romanow (Justin Bieber, Johnny Reid) and we’re bringing you an exclusive stream of the six-song collection a little early in this #CMPremiere.

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We’re thrilled to have the boys from Cold Creek County on the cover of the upcoming November/December 2017 issue of Canadian Musician. To get you revved up for the read, we’ve got this exclusive #CMPremiere of the band performing “Money” for a massive crowd at Music in the Fields in Lucknow, ON earlier this summer. The track (which isn’t actually about money) comes from Cold Creek County’s 2017 EP Homemade and showcases this talented group of musicians in top form.

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Jan Vladimír Matějček, an iconic and longtime member of the Canadian music industry and the first-ever CEO of SOCAN, passed away peacefully on Saturday, Sept. 23rd, 2017 surrounded by his family.

Matějček was a lawyer, music editor, publisher, and administrator. He made a career of championing music and the rights of its creators, having begun his career as a Foreign Relations Secretary of the Guild of Czechoslovak Composers.

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Our good friend and regular Canadian Musician contributor Jason Raso recently had the chance to chat with internationally-acclaimed, Grammy-winning bassist Richard Bona. Over the course of his 35-plus year playing career, Bona has performed with the likes of Mike Stern, George Benson, Chaka Khan, Harry Belafonte, and Pat Metheny Group. The two spoke a few days ahead of Bona’s headlining show at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre in St. Catharines, ON. Details on the show are here, and you can check out Jason’s music here. Photo by Goetz Buehler.

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2017 Polaris Music Prize winner Lido Pimienta performs at the gala

Canadian Musician‘s Samantha Everts & Mark Matusoff were out at the Carlu in Toronto on Mon., Sept. 18th for the 2017 Polaris Music Prize gala. In what many considered a surprise, Colombian/Canadian artist Lido Pimienta took home the title & $50,000 award for her innovative Spanish-language album La Papessa. Check out some shots from the gala performers, Pimienta’s win & more.

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