Wednesday, January 26, 2011

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Turner Up), A New Contest, Videos, And More!!

After another day's break to let news gather, I have lots of stuff to get to today! In this post, we have our latest classic local video, a new hard rock cover from a local musician, news on a recent book release, and a contest that we're running, but first, here's some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS!!

Turner Up are back on the concert stage this weekend! The local classic hard rockers return to The Nicolet Tavern on Friday and Saturday night for a pair of entertaining nights of music! Apologies for the short notice, these were only just announced yesterday. Convenient timing though, as the Friday show coincides with guitarist Len Ward's birthday, so if you're out that day, wish him happy birthday! There is no cover charge for either night this weekend, both concerts have listed 9:30 PM start times, and you must be 19 to enter. For more details. visit the official Facebook event page! But that's not all, as they'll be back at The Nic on February 11th (no word on the 12th yet) for a Bon Soo-connected event! That night is 70s & 80s Night and Turner Up are the house band, with a planned costume contest as well for attendees dressed like their favourite rock stars! Sounds like fun, it's great to see them back with Bon Soo again, I'm fairly certain the band did a Bon Soo event last year as well! Same house rules should apply, but just in case, make sure you have a button. For more details on this special concert, check your official Bon Soo programs in this week's issue of Sault This Week! Stay tuned for more Turner Up news as it comes in!

Next up, here's a special announcement: We're running a contest! How would you guys like a $20 gift card for The Rad Zone at Wellington Square Mall? Len Ward from The Rad Zone (and Turner Up) graciously donated a $20 gift card for me to give away in a SMS contest, and you can use it to pick up any of the great items they have there, be it music, moves, games, skate products, clothes, books, or anything! I'm opening this contest up to you guys, the loyal SMS fans and readers, and I'm going to run this similarly to The Rad Zone's giveaway contests, as they seem to work well! Here's how you can win: Head to The Sault Metal Scene's Facebook page and post your name as a comment in reply to our posting about the contest. One entry per person, you must post your name for it to be a valid entry, and entries on other postings on our Facebook page won't be accepted. You'll have until 8:00 PM on February 2nd to enter (one week), and then I will randomly select one name from the eligible entries to win the gift card! So enter today at this location, cause I know someone out there could really use $20 at a great store like The Rad Zone! ENTER TODAY, you have one week!!

One more Rad Zone related note, as when I last stopped in, I finally picked up a copy of "Going Underground: A Brief History Of Punk Rock In Small Town Canada"! That's the book on the local punk scene in Sault Ontario that Paolo Colasacco launched and held a signing for on Saturday. I couldn't make the signing, but I have a copy, so here's some additional info on it for you guys! Released by Paolo Paolo Media and printed by Friesens Press, the book is 408 pages long, and takes a mostly photographic journey through the punk scene in Sault Ontario from 1985-2000. Each "wave" of the scene (roughly the late 80s, early 90s, and late 90s each) has loads of photos from concerts, photo shoots, and related events, along with some stories Paolo has from the scene from each time period. There are metal mentions, and though the book is primarily punk based, there's a lot of quality stuff in the book and a lot of bands I'd personally like to learn more about! I won't go into detail with my thoughts yet, as I want to formally review it in the near future, but it is worth checking out! Even if you were too young to be a part of the scene, why not educate yourself? It's at The Rad Zone in their Hole In The Wall book section for $30, pick it up today!

We'll close today with two videos, and first, here's a new hard rock cover from local musician Curtis J. McKenzie! We've profiled his work on here in the past, largely from his band projects like 20 Pack Of Marshmallows and Restricted Illusions, but since last year's last major updates, he's since moved to Wawa, where he continues to work as a solo artist. The old Restricted Illusions page was even taken down and now just links to his solo page, so I removed it from our band links. His solo work isn't very heavy, as we tended to get that more from his now-inactive local bands, but one of his newest videos has a local metal connection, as it's a Guns N' Roses cover! As a tribute to the band and to an unidentified person he cares for a lot, he recorded a solo cover of "So Fine" and uploaded it to his YouTube channel yesterday! That, if you guys aren't sure, was one of the few GNR songs sung by Duff McKagan, and Curtis does a good job with it, though his range is a bit high compared to what we're used to from the original. Check it out below, and for more from Curtis' solo and band projects, check the above links!



And finally, here is this week's classic video! Keeping with past trends, I am tying in this week's video with performers from an upcoming concert, and in this case, it's three of them! Those three are Bring The Fallen guitarist Dan Souliere & Bear Hunters members Nik Deubel and Justin Lam, all of whom are performing on FRIDAY at The Oddfellows Hall! As some of you may know, Dan, Nik, and Justin were all members of a defunct local black metal band named Dark Salvation, who were active in late 2007 and early 2008. A then short-haired Nik handled guitar, but Dan and Justin's instruments are no different. The lineup was rounded out by former Caedis Omnis singer Kevin Calder (you may recognize him as local wrestler Kevyn Kross) and backup vocalist Sam Mitchell, who filmed this video but doesn't contribute to the performance. Aside from Woods of Ypres, black metal is a genre we don't see a lot of local bands playing, so this was refreshing to see upon their inception. Unfortunately, their lineup was never publically completed before their demise, but this video shows some promise! It features 4/5ths of their lineup covering Dimmu Borgir's "Puritania" at a jam session from January 2008, and though they are playing along with the original audio track, they do a good if unrefined job! Kevin's got solid black metal vocals too, it's a wonder he hasn't popped up in another band since!

This was filmed by Sam Mitchell and uploaded onto her Facebook page in January 2008. The original link is at http://facebook.com/video/video.php?v=20195923496, and Sam deserves ALL CREDIT for this video! She did all the work, all I did was upload it to YouTube to expand it's audience! So check out our new classic video below, and we'll have another one in the middle of next week!



That's all for tonight, but stay tuned for more local metal news and notes soon, including weekend concert previews tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

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