As It Stands are BACK! The local hardcore band last seen in January 2009 have reunited with their classic lineup intact, and have been announced as the local openers for September 2nd's Endast/Blood Drunk concert at Foggy Notions! Their involvement in this show is confirmed at both a brand new Facebook event page and at As It Stands' MySpace page. The event page also confirms that the concert will have a $5 cover charge and an unnaturally early start time for a show at Foggy's, that being 6:30 PM, running through 11:00 PM. Despite the start time, nothing I've read indicates any difference to the age limits, so it's probably still 19+. Check the above links for more, I can't wait for this concert! Great to see As It Stands back, they were one of the more prominent local hardcore bands of recent years, even releasing an EP at their peak! This will be their first show that I know of in almost 20 months, after which the band broke up and reformed as Out Of The Mouth Of Babes, with Josh McNally & Matt Maccarone singing at varying points. We only got to see OOTMOB live once, in February at Nite-Life Dance Club's portion of Algoma Hope4Haiti, and though I can't confirm whether OOTMOB are still active or not, As It Stands are definitely back in action! I'll keep you posted with updates on their return show with Endast and more, and IF ANYONE HAS A COPY OF THEIR EP, LET ME KNOW!!!Next up, I can confirm what I'm sure many of you were fearing: Nixxon Dixxon are breaking up. This past weekend's shows at The Bird were their last. As far as I can tell, the breakup is mostly due to Jake LaLonde's relocation to California to attend The Musicians Institute (no, I don't have word on if he made the finals yet), and though it's a shame that they're not staying together with at least a temporary drummer, I appreciate that they don't want to replace their friend and bandmate that easily! No statements have been made concerning their end on their MySpace page, but frontman Brandon Carr worded his thoughts very well on his personal Facebook page. Here's what he had to say:
"All those years in Jacob Lalonde's basement and Chris Hubbard's garage come full circle. And thanks to Kyle Beaumont, we sure had some good laughs. All that goofing around never felt we were trying to get better, just doing something that made sense to us. Through thick and thin we always have each other, and making music with ya guys sure helped push away a lot of those empty feelings. Nixxon Dixxon's last gig"
It's clear to me that Nixxon Dixxon loved playing together, and they've came a long way in the process. Once just a young local cover band, they've rapidly grown in recognition and success, and they are literally going out on top. Not many teenagers can say they opened for Bret Michaels, let alone twice, and they definitely had the talent to back it up! When I said they were one the most talented bands in Sault Michigan, I meant it! Age restrictions and my lack of a vehicle precluded me from seeing a full show of theirs, but I always enjoyed the YouTube videos I saw and the songs I heard on MySpace (frankly, they should repost them.) Sault Ontario music fans got a chance to see Nixxon Dixxon at December's Kiss Battle of the Bands, and the fact that a Sault Michigan band few had heard of made it to the finals surprised many, but not me. I had them as a dark horse to win, and deservingly so! I don't know what the future holds for them, but I wish Jake the best of luck in California, and I hope the rest of the guys get back in a new band soon, cause there's too much talent there to not use in music somehow! And if they do re-emerge in the local scene, we'll be watching!
Thirdly, remember 7/47, the young local hard rock quartet featuring Free Refill drummer Mike Pascoe on guitar? Well, we hadn't heard much from them since last August (their MySpace page is very outdated), but they never broke up, and recently played a set in Mackinac City with a new lineup! I have no idea what the occasion was for this show, but it appears to be recent, and you can see the banner on stage for The Guitar Studio Rock Camp, who 7/47 were formed through. I can't 100% verify who's in the current lineup, except for bassist Jack Slater, who uploaded three videos from said show onto his YouTube channel! I'm assuming that Mike Pascoe and drummer Joe North are still in 7/47, but going by photo evidence, it looks like Tyler Wall (Mike's former Free Refill bandmate) is not in 7/47 anymore. Of course, if I'm wrong, let me know! Most striking to me is 7/47's new female singer, who actually has a pretty good voice, though it got wavery at points on heavier rangier stuff. Jack uploaded videos in the past week of 7/47 covering Sublime's "Santeria", Seether's "Broken", and the video I'm embedding below, their rendition of Halestorm's "It's Not You"! Good stuff, check it out below, and hopefully we hear some updated information and local dates from 7/47 soon!
It's odd, this post is taking a roller coaster effect. A band returning, a band ending, a band returning, and now, a band that's already ended! As you know, I've been trying in recent months to include monthly feature posts, generally for band profiles and such. Well, I want to try and update old ones as new information about certain bands comes out, and that scenario recently came up for AtrophiA, the first band I profiled in our Defunct Local Band Profile Series. I went back and made some edits to my SMS profile on them, and because it's not a front page story, I'll tell you what I changed to bring it up to date! I added former bassist Ryan Gray to the lineup (you'll recognize him from bands like Sindicate and Batteries Not Included), I added that they used to be called Metal Militia, and biggest of all, I posted a video! I thought that the AtrophiA profile looked too bare without a video of some kind, so I ripped the videos that guitarist Andrew Chiarello posted on Facebook, combined them together into one video (as none were full songs), and posted it to our YouTube channel WITH COMPLETELY GOOD INTENT to give the profile an embeddable video to check out!NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED!! Besides, people should see these clips more, and YouTube videos are definitely more widespread than videos on Facebook! Good quality too, check the clips out below, and check out the newly updated SMS profile on AtrophiA by clicking here!
That's all for now, but stay tuned for news from Gates of Winter and Woods of Ypres (including, maybe, the answers to all the questions?) And yes, tomorrow will bring our newest Saultites In Out Of Town Bands profile, so watch out for that as well! Thanks everyone!
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