Toronto, Ontario artists Jason Collett, Zeus and Bahamas have announced a North American revue tour featuring all three artists performing together and alone during a night long set of incredible music. The three acts have a long history of collaboration, as intertwined as their musical lineage. Instead of the typical show in which each act plays its own set, Collett, Zeus and Bahamas will all take the stage together, playing songs by all three. At times you will find Collett strumming softly on the guitar alone; Zeus pounding out their rich pop numbers; or Bahamas melting the rocks in your glass; then find them all back together again in full force. The energy, the creativity, the inherent knowledge each musician brings to the stage, of their fellow musician, will make for a unique and exciting night, each and every night along the tour. The Bonfire Ball will kick off first in March at Canadian Music Week in Toronto and then head to Austin for the SXSW Music Festival. The tour continues west from Seattle across Canada and the U.S. midwest, wrapping in Ontario, April 17. Dates are below. More to be announced.
Jason Collett will see the release of his fourth full-length, Rat A Tat Tat, March 9 on Arts & Crafts. Produced by Mike O’Brien and Carlin Nicholson of Zeus, Collett began writing the album last summer in rural Ontario with Afie Jurvanen aka Bahamas. Those bare-boned recordings made there in the cabin would spawn what is Collett’s most inspired album to date.
Zeus will release their debut full-length, Say Us, on February 23 through Arts & Crafts. Featuring three songwriter/vocalists, Mike O’Brien, Carlin Nicholson and Neil Quin, who swap between guitar, bass and organ, with drummer Rob Drake, Zeus emerged having performed as Collett’s backing band, then supporting band, in Fall 2008. Zeus released their debut, the Sounds Like Zeus ep, in June ’09, quickly building a loyal fanbase in Toronto and beyond. Exclaim! Magazine called them, “One of the best live acts around.” The track, “How Does It Feel?” was featured in a nationwide Nissan commercial and Zeus spent the Fall ’09 supporting Cuff the Duke in Canada before making their U.S. debut at the CMJ Music Marathon.
Bahamas is the solo project of Afie Jurvanen, whose debut, Pink Strat, was released in July of 2009 on Nevado Records . His previous band, Paso Mino, consisted of zeus members Rob Drake and Mike O’Brien and was Collett’s backing band for 2005′s Idols of Exile release. Following Collett’s touring cycle, he was asked to join Feist’s band, whose lengthy tour schedule eventuated in Paso Mino taking hiatus (leading to the eventual formation of zeus, which took over as Collett’s backing band). During the years he was on tour with Feist, Jurvanen continued to write songs, and upon his return spent a week in a cabin in rural Ontario recording Pink Strat. Response to Pink Strat has been excellent–Jurvanen was asked to play solo directly before Elvis Costello at last year’s Winnipeg Folk Fest and chosen as support for select dates of the upcoming Wilco tour. You can hear his guitar work on the albums of Hayden, Jason Collett, Amy Millan, The Stills, Buck 65, Feist, and many others.
Bonfire Ball Tour:
3/10/10 – Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace (CMW)
3/11/10 – Guelph, ON @ E-Bar
3/12/10 – London, ON @ Call The Office
3/13/10 – Hamilton, ON @ Casbah
3/17-20/10 – Austin, TX @ SXSW Music Festival
3/26/10 – Vancouver, BC @ The Biltmore
3/27/10 – Victoria, BC @ Sugar
3/29/10 – Canmore, BC @ Communitea
3/31/10 – Edmonton, AB @ The Pawn Shop
4/1/10 – Calgary, AB @ The Legion
4/2/10 – Regina, AB @ The Exchange
4/3/10 – Winnipeg, MB @ West End Cultural Ccentre
413/10 – Waterloo, ON @ Starlite
4/14/10 – Ottawa, ON @ Zaphod’s
4/15/10 – Montreal, PQ @ Petit Campus
4/16/10 – Peterborough, ON @ Red Dog Tavern
4/17/10 – Kingston, ON @ Grad Club
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