After taking a few personal days off from the SMS (read our post from Sunday for more information), let's try to get back into a normal-ish schedule for posts on the site, or as normal as the ongoing pandemic will allow. Today's post is devoted to recent video uploads, including new solo performance videos, a live concert clip, and leading off, a lengthy look at a prominent metal band's Canadian tour from four years back!
Local/St. Catharine's grindcore trio Shit Liver have resurfaced with their long-belated second concert tour documentary! Entitled "Totally Fucked: The Lost Shit Liver Tour Tapes", this 38 minute video was uploaded to their YouTube channel on Friday, and it documents the happenings of their (and sister bluegrass band Dirtfight's) Number Two Tour that took place from April-June 2016 across all of the non-Atlantic provinces. Given the success of their 2015 tour documentary "A Long & Grinding Road", I'm surprised that the guys never compiled this footage in a similarly timely fashion, but perhaps the pandemic and lockdowns finally afforded them the chance (though the intro and this Facebook trailer imply that "the tapes were lost"). While this was a longer tour, the resulting documentary shorter than 2015's was, but there is still a lot to see! At the beginning, you will see Shit Liver setting up their trailer for the road, drying their new shirts, and clips from their tour kick-off party (with quite an irreverent pinata), and their Sudbury concert.
After some more on-the-road footage (including the return of screaming across bridges), Saultites will want to check out the 5:08 mark to see brief clips from their Oddfellows Hall stop on April 30th when they opened for Calgary hardcore punk band The Motherfuckers (read our review here.) You will get to see performance footage of the reunited Winkstinger and the headliners, plus some post-show content with a dalmatian, and a cameo from Jack Spades drummer Johnny Belanger. After gassing up, the tour heads west, and without spoiling anything, you'll see footage of the guys driving, enjoying the sights on the road, camping, eating, skateboarding, making use of a green-screen of sorts, playing games, setting off fireworks, witnessing a police shutdown in Saskatoon, and experiencing nature, with lots of clips of bands performing at the tour dates along the way. Shit Liver and company head back east for the final 13 minutes, with a lot more of the same content en route, plus vehicle repair issues, ...
...a lot of sandwiches, passing through home in St. Catharine's, and their tour finale in Quebec, before ending with an acoustic song summing up the tour. This is an entertaining look at Shit Liver's second D.I.Y. national tour, and there's certainly a lot of amusing shenanigans to take in, but be warned that actual clips of them performing are minimal (who do you think shot most of the videos?) The YouTube description says that "it is yet to be decided if Shit Liver will ever tour again" (they last played live in May of last year), but hopefully we'll see the guys back in some form or another post-pandemic! Give their new documentary a watch below!
Next up, here's a new video of local southern hard rock quintet Fort Creek's concert at Reggie's West this past Saturday! Live-streamed on their Facebook page, this is another rendition of the guys covering Blackberry Smoke's "Like I Am", which was previously seen being covered by Fort Creek in this fan-shot video from the original Reggie's. Musically, this version of "Like I Am" is sound, but the video was shot from the bar, which understandably restricts the view of the stage. At least the Reggievelt was as packed as current regulations allow, and give things a look below!
We'll close today with new videos from former No Arrow drummer Joe Falco's YouTube channel from the past week! One is a tribute video to the late great Eddie Van Halen where Joe shredded a number of Van Halen tunes from memory, and while he admitted to making errors, it was a nice gesture to honour such an influential musician. The other two videos are lengthy, including one where Joe shows his restoration job on a 2000 Ibanez RG350DX guitar, complete with a solid jam session and his commentary and thoughts on the guitar. Embedded below is the newest of these uploads, which just features Joe jamming on the aforementioned Ibanex RG350DX, which serves as fun playthrough for his birthday while also testing some of his patches. Strong and loose performances overall, and it's clear that Joe enjoyed restoring and playing this guitar, so these videos give it a solid platform. Give everything a watch above and below!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site later this week! Thanks everyone!
Hello everyone, just a heads up that my mother Mary passed away early this morning after a 5 year battle with ovarian cancer. If you're family or a friend on Facebook, you may already know more of the details, and I appreciate any and all condolences already made and yet to come. Though her musical tastes largely lied elsewhere, my mom was infinitely supportive of what I have been doing with The Sault Metal Scene over the past 13+ years, and her help in getting me to concerts when I didn't have a vehicle handy was a huge boon for our early concert reviews. I fondly remember her joking suggestions that I add a "Mom's Corner" feature on the SMS where she could review music she liked for a change. While not a musician herself, she had notable connections over the years, from working with and befriending members of The Danger Cats while managing Kelly's Hair Care, to her friendships with the Becker brothers of Sykotyk Rampage and Soundcheck drummer Glen Thomas.
Regarding the short-term future of The Sault Metal Scene... honestly, given the slow-down in news and updates from the metal/punk scene during the pandemic, there might not be much of a change. Lately, I feel like I've only been posting once every three days (my usual minimum guarantee) because there's been little to write about. In a sense, I am a slave to routine, but for obvious reasons, things could be delayed further for the time being as we sort out her affairs. I do have topics ready for a new post that, under normal circumstances, would have hit the site in a post tomorrow, but I don't know what tomorrow holds now. I will try to have something on the site by Wednesday, but in advance, I thank you for your patience, and keep my mom in your thoughts. R.I.P. Mom, I love and miss you.
News remains slow as of late, but we are back on this Friday morning with some new video uploads from this year (albeit mostly archive footage), but leading off, here are some SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS!!
Local southern hard rock cover quintet Fort Creek will make their first ever appearances at Reggie's West on Korah Road for concerts TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, these dates were only announced on the band's Facebook page on Wednesday. These shows come two weeks after Fort Creek rocked the original downtown Reggie's, and will mark their first ever formal concerts at a different location (albeit still under the Reggie's name). With their fan favourite hard and southern rock covers and their quickly growing fan base (with merchandise in tow), hopefully Fort Creek have a great weekend at the former Roosevelt Hotel TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT, despite the late notice! Going along with current pandemic restrictions on nightclubs, these shows are both 8:00 PM-midnight affairs with 19+ age limits and no announced cover charges, but mind all social distancing restrictions. Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's a couple of new videos from Fort Creek's last bookings, as per their Facebook page!
As quietly uploaded on October 5th, these videos include covers of Montrose's "Rock Candy", and as embedded below, Phil Collins' "In The Air Tonight". Filmed from similar vertical camera angles (though the latter is squarer), these covers are solidly done, and I like the more rock-based yet still moody take on "In The Air Tonight", but the muffled audio and blue lighting won't be for all tastes. Give these a watch above and below, and don't miss Fort Creek live TONIGHT & TOMORROW!
Next up, here's details on the rest of former No Arrow drummer Joe Falco's archive local concert uploads on his YouTube channel! We'll start with a true deep cut from over 20 years ago, namely over 2 hours and 40 minutes of footage of local death/thrash metal quintet Death Occasion! Filmed across four concerts (plus behind the scenes clips) between August 1999 & August 2000, the band was represented here by singer Todd Stevens, guitarists Rob Coleman (Machines Dream) and Curtis Faux (Detroit, Maximum RNR, et al.), future Winkstinger/HTs bassist Ryan Disano, and former Proposition 86 drummer David Gold, who we all better know from his later run as the leader of Woods of Ypres. I'm not the right person to assess Death Occasion on the basis of this video, as I was too young to see their nightclub gigs (10-11 years old), and the exceedingly muffled audio quality is not a help at all. That said, I did catch a BeeFMouTH poster at one point, and the August 11th, 2000 show was at The Canadian.
There are definitely familiar songs being covered by Death Occasion in this long video, but the audio quality is levels beyond subpar, so it'd be fruitless to link to them here (the joys of VHS camcorders, alas). That said, it's great to see this footage resurface, especially given how rare local band footage of any genre can be from the 1990s, and Woods of Ypres fans in particular may appreciate this early look at David behind the kit. Kudos to Joe for getting all of this footage back in the day, and give it a watch below!
Also, here are three of Joe's videos that were filmed at a 2009 concert that he played at the aforementioned Reggie's Place with his then-classic rock band Flashback that he was a guitarist and (I believe) a keyboardist in. Joe didn't go into great detail on this band in the descriptions, but prolific local drummer T.J. Case was behind the kit at the time, and his late father Mike Case was filling in on guitar for this show. That said, the tight side-stage camera angle and dark lighting don't tell us much about the band's bassist or possible other band members. I cannot confirm if this Flashback shared any links with the mid-2010s cover band of the same name (seen here) or the local rock band who spelled their name Phlashback and released an album of original music in 2006. In any event, Joe's videos feature this Flashback covering Hootie & The Blowfish's "Let Her Cry" with Joe on vocals...
...and two songs with T.J. on vocals, namely Kid Rock's "All Summer Long" and, as embedded below, part of AC/DC's "TNT", which is a change of pace from his more familiar vocal rendition of "Highway To Hell" with other local bands (also, note that the "TNT" video is solely focused on T.J.) I wasn't overly familiar with the late 2000s Flashback, but these covers are well handled by more than capable musicians, so give them a watch also!
Finally for today, here's a new behind-the-scenes video from local alt-punk trio A Dire Setback's "Kicking & Screaming" music video shoot last year! Uploaded to their YouTube channel on Saturday, this is basically a fly-on-the-wall clip from the same location of this band photo, most notably capturing a scene where frontman Chris Nielsen dramatically throws a chair, and let's just say he needed more than one take. It's very interesting to see the video shoot in progress like this, so give it a watch below!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this weekend, I hope! Thanks everyone!
I hope all of our Canadian readers had a great Thanksgiving! We're back with a new news post on this Tuesday morning, including some shorter assorted stories, new videos from both sides of the border, and leading off, here's a notable band who have crossed our one year's inactivity threshold!
I have reluctantly moved local doom/sludge metal trio AlgomA to our inactive band links due to a year's inactivity. The band has not issued a public update since changing the business hours on their Facebook page on October 6th of last year, and while the effects of the ongoing pandemic are acknowledged, they have not played a live concert since opening for Dopethrone at The New A in May of last year (itself their only concert since 2017.) Launching in 2012 before debuting on stage at 180 Projects the following March, AlgomA united BeeFMoutH and Fuller alumni into a crushing package, giving the Sault area a much slower and doomier brand of metal that immediately set them apart, as heard on their 2014 EP "Reclaimed By The Forest" and their later splits with Chronobot, Hooded Menace, and the Soo's own Shit Liver. Local fans will recognize them from opening for bands like The Archaics, Beaver Slap, Biipiigwan, Fuck The Facts, and The Golers, often playing at shows under their own promotional banners.
As well, AlgomA found a far-flung audience of fans elsewhere in Canada and internationally via concerts in Southern Ontario, Sudbury, Quebec, and even in Europe, with their albums all getting solid press attention in metal news & review websites, partially owing to their label deal with Deadbeat Media. I definitely enjoyed AlgomA's slow and hard hitting brand of original metal, with lots of dark intensity packed into their generally long songs, and it was very encouraging to see local talent get so much exposure and fan support abroad at their peak. Hopefully this isn't the last we'll hear from AlgomA, but best of luck to Kevin, Boyd, and Jamie in the future!
Next up, here's the latest from Sault Michigan hard rock quartet Tarnished, who recently got a third spotlight on 9&10 News' lifestyle newsmagazine program The Four! As you may have seen on channel 10 (Spectrum) or 10.1 (over the air) this past Friday, the guys were seen playing their original "Metalyn" for their third (and final?) appearance on The Four's week-ending Friday Sessions series of music performances by Northern Michigan artists. This was filmed in the same August sessions that gave us prior CBS-aired takes on "Cocaine Riot" & "Shortcut", but neither of those has a mandolin! High quality performances and well shot videos as you would expect, so give Tarnished's third go-around on TV a look at the above links! I cannot embed 9&10 News videos here. In the meantime, Tarnished are filming their first ever music video (also for "Metalyn") with Jay London Photography, as per their Facebook page, which should be interesting to see the final product of! Stay tuned for updates from their camp as they roll in!
Also today, here's some new solo performance videos from prolific local folk punk/extreme metal solo musician Chase Wigmore's Facebook page! While uploaded on September 27th & October 1st, these were allegedly recorded at an earlier point, and serve as "COVID jams" while he can't play normal live concerts. The first video is embedded below, but the second (and much longer) video can be watched at this link. The 36 minutes of content in these videos are along the lines of his intense folk punk work, with rapid guitar work and his usual passion and irreverence, so fans of this side of Chase's music career will absolutely want to watch both videos above & below!
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:
New local hard rock band The Isolation Sessions quietly added guitarist Todd Kidd to their lineup on their Facebook page last month, officially making them a quartet. As a result, Arthur Lacasse has moved from guitar to bass, much like he did with their predecessors Half Past. While Todd is unfamiliar locally, he was previously active in the Windsor-area metal bands 8ight Past Nine, King Misfit, and Against All Wisemen, and if you check out his work there, you'll see that he definitely has the chops! Stay tuned for more from The Isolation Sessions when it rolls in!
Bear Hunters/Skull After Betrayl alum Mike Vincent has again posted searches for band members on the Musicians Wanted Facebook group
this month. One post on October 1st was for a vocalist (and perhaps
second guitarist) for the pop punk band he has alluded to working on in
the past, while the other from last Tuesday was looking for
country/southern rock musicians he's interested in jamming with. Message
Mike at this link or above for more info!
I opted not to cover local acoustic hard rock musician Tym Morrison's presumed Motley Market show this past Saturday, as it was not promoted in advance by him or the venue on social media. Tym's prior Motley Market booking on Saturday the 3rd was cancelled outright, and he has not signalled that his weekly run there will resume, at least not publically, so I have removed October gigs there from our calendar for now. Hopefully nothing bad happened, but we'll let you know when he plays live next!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes in the coming days! Thanks everyone!
It's now time for this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles, continuing our monthly spotlight of randomly selected bands who are no longer active, but deserve a look back for modern readers! This month's bands include a promising tribute band from recent years and a talented solo project with an album to their name, so here's what you should know on both!
Tiffany Stocco (Jack Spades), vocals/guitar Bill "Orthae" Bennett (Stereo North), bass Johnny Belanger (The Bear Hunters), drums Brian Holmes (Gates of Winter), keyboard
Info/Analysis: All three members of local punk trio Stegadeth (plus keyboardist Brian Holmes) paid homage to Finnish goth rockers HIM as part of night #1 of J.D. Pearce's annual Halloween party concerts at The Rockstar Bar on October 27th, 2018. Here, they shared the stage with Tiffany & Johnny's other debuting tribute band, the Distillers-honouring Coral Fang. Surprisingly, both bands would continue forward after Halloween, even with Facebook pages, but Poison Girl only played one further concert at the same venue in May 2019, alongside the debuting Stoned To Deaf covering Rage Against The Machine. Public updates on Poison Girl did not follow, later complicated by Tiffany's move out of town last fall, though her other bands are still labeled as active on the SMS. Unfortunately, no public media has surfaced from Poison Girl's gigs, and while a HIM tribute may have been more appreciated locally a decade earlier, the talent was definitely there! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hiroshima Mutant Mindframe
Info/Analysis: Launched out of his London hometown circa 2010, Matt brought his solo project Hiroshima Mutant Mindframe with him when he moved to Sault Ste. Marie from around 2012, with new audio recordings posted frequently on the H.M.M. Soundcloud page and (more sparingly) on their YouTube channel. After briefly searching for a local band in late 2013, Matt released a Hiroshima Mutant Mindframe EP on Bandcamp that December, before moving back to London in 2014 and commencing work in bands there. New song uploads continued through February 2015, before the project fell inactive, but Matt did post some outside non-metal audio recordings on Soundcloud until early 2017. I enjoyed H.M.M.'s djent-laden technicality and musicianship on songs like "Whatever" & "Summit", and Matt was a musician who never got his deserved due while living here, but I would have liked to have heard longer songs with more solos. Here's Matt covering Horse The Band's "Arrive"!
I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles! Our next randomly selected band to be spotlighted will be a big one, namely local/Toronto indie punk veterans Treble Charger! Note that their online presence since their 2013 reunion has minimal, and if they resume public activity before November 10th, I will pick a different band. That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news on the site next week! Thanks everyone!
Just a heads up, this post is the first on the SMS that I've had to make using Blogger's new editor interface which was rolled out earlier this year. I am not an immediate fan of it, and I have already had to check online help forums to answer questions about where certain things are, so if anything looks amiss, that's why. Hopefully things are sorted out soon!
It's awesome seeing a lengthy No Arrow video like this, albeit 14 years later, and while the VHS camcorder quality isn't ideal (smartphones weren't ubiquitous yet), the raw intensity is on full display! Of course, any fans of Local H will want to give this a special look, especially as you don't hear them covered often nowadays. Give this video a watch below, and check out much more from No Arrow's mid-late 2000s heyday at the above links!
Speaking of bands that Jason and Joe were in together, let's now look at another old band that Joe has uploaded content from, namely their old 2005-2007 thrash metal band Faithless Sin! Here featuring Jason on vocals (a'la Operation: Killdozer) and Joe on guitar, this band also features guitarist Frank LaTassa (Quite Frankly), bassist Ryan Gratton (Chronic Demonic) and drummer Mark Parent in their lone video, but Mike DiPasquale preceded Frank in the band, and Gates of Winter alum Jonathan Harvey drummed in their brief 2010 reunion. Faithless Sin never got far off the ground, and have no known public concerts to their name, but some members did more collectively in their successor band Time of Ruin from 2007-2008. Joe has uploaded four videos representing Faithless Sin, including two crude audio copies of originals ("Chaos Reigns" & "River Flows Cold"), plus a better quality recording of two Slayer covers. Embedded below is Faithless Sin's only surviving video!
Also filmed via that VHS camcorder, this is very much a jam session recording, and Joe is very forthcoming in the video description if a song was a jam or rough, plus what he wishes the video would have captured from their setlist at the time. In order, the guys can be seen playing Slayer's "War Ensemble" as a soundcheck, Megadeth's "She-Wolf", In Flames' "Behind Space 99", Sepultura's "Refuse/Refist", their combined version of Slayer's "Die By The Sword" & "Black Magic", a jam of Pantera's "Fucking Hostile" from a different camera angle, another loose jam of Metallica's "My Friend of Misery" with Joe on vocals, two separate run-throughs of their original "Chaos Reigns" (a first-time jam and a proper performance), and finally, Metallica's "Blackened". Camera aside, this raw and brutal rehearsal captures a promising band that I'd have liked to have seen go further locally! Our view of Faithless Sin is only optimal on the Pantera cover though.
On songs that Joe doesn't give a disclaimer for, everyone sounds tight and dialed in, and Jay's groove-influenced growl adds the extra bark (that's a good comparison), and given that Frank had just joined the band, he fit right in on certain songs! Give Faithless Sin's archive videos a watch above and below, and stay tuned for more from Joe's channel in the coming days!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site soon! Thanks everyone!
Before we begin this post, just a belated acknowledgement that Tym Morrison's Motley Market show on Saturday was cancelled, as per it's Facebook event page. A reason for the cancellation wasn't announced, but hopefully nothing bad happened! Unless otherwise stated, I'll leave Tym's presumed Saturday gigs for the remainder of the month in our listings for now. As for this post, here's some new some new songs and material from two local extreme metal solo artists, plus some new live concert videos from two bands braving the pandemic to play live in recent weeks!
We have a long new video from local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck's concert at Reggie's West on September 26 to share here! This was live-streamed on guitarist/vocalist Terry Eaton's personal Facebook page during their final set that night, and it was shared to the band's Facebook page the following day. Of course, you may have seen Soundcheck at the original downtown Reggie's on Friday with guest bassist Rob Gilmar (ex-RPM, Twin City Rollers, WFO, et al.), but their Reggievelt show last month was with regular bassist Paul Belair as normal. In order, the 49 minute video begins with Terry making light of the early closure of the bar due to provincial restrictions, followed by covers of Tom Petty's "You Wreck Me", Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son", John Mellencamp's "Hurts So Good", Midnight Oil's "Beds Are Burning", The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's "Fishin' In The Dark", Jimmy Eat World's "The Middle", ...
...John Mellencamp's "Wild Night", The Eagles' "Take It Easy", ZZ Top's "Tush", Billy Idol's "Rebel Yell", Sublime's "Santeria", and AC/DC's "Highway To Hell". Terry sings lead vocals on "You Wreck Me", "Beds Are Burning", "Wild Night", "Tush", and "Highway To Hell", while singer/acoustic guitarist Cameron Oliver handles the rest. Despite the mirrored camera and some muffled vocals, Soundcheck performs well on these covers, and it's nice to see Cameron's distinctive singing voice applied to this diverse array! Give the whole video a watch below, and hopefully we hear more from them soon!
Next up, prolific local extreme metal/folk punk musician Chase Wigmore
released one of his many upcoming new albums on Thursday, albeit as a free upload on his YouTube channel! Entitled "The Majestic Seagulls of Satan's Army", this was originally promoted on his side project Awokest's Facebook page in July, complete with album artwork that wasn't carried over to the final product, but it's now credited under his real name. Chase described this album as "guitar based", which is accurate (any vocals are heavily processed or used for background effects), and it will appeal to fans of his metal output, if more experimental and less blackened. Despite being instrumental, the seagull/war theme permeates through the amusing song titles, and musically, Chase has lots of room to show his musical skill! No word on when "Beyonder" or his other teased albums will come out (for free or otherwise), but give this new batch of songs a listen below, and yes, we'll touch on his new Facebook performance videos later this week!
Also today, here's some new videos from local southern/hard rock quintet Fort Creek's concert at Reggie's Place on Saturday night, courtesy of their Facebook page! One is just a brief 12 second clip of the fans in attendance, which will let curious readers see the interior of the re-opened Queen Street East venue and how Reggie's are adapting to current social distancing measures. No music to be had there, but attendee Sammy Maitland did film this clip of Fort Creek covering Blackberry Smoke's "Like I Am" for her personal Facebook page, which the band publically shared last night. The distant vertical angle and very blue lighting don't help, but this modern southern rock deep cut is well handled by the guys, and Sammy does zoom the camera in a bit late. Give these videos a look above and below, and stay tuned for more from Fort Creek when it rolls in!
Finally, here's a new song from local goregrind solo project Crucify The Whore, as posted on their label Blood Shed Productions' YouTube channel late last month! Entitled "Unsuccessful In The Mix", this is the YouTube premiere of a song from their May album release "P.C. Sells... But I Ain't Buyin'", and it runs for an abnormally long 6 minutes. This is more of an experimental track that only gets substantially heavy in the home stretch, and it's largely an instrumental, so keep that in mind whether you like their usual pig squeal vocals or if they're not your thing. Not a bad demonstration of Tyler's musical range, so give it a listen below!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this week! Thanks everyone!
