Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile: The Fairmounts

It's now time for this month's Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile, and in this ongoing monthly profile series on out of town bands with past or present Saultites in their lineup(s), we've finally added punk bands into our full selections in this series, via our addition of punk genres to our full coverage on the SMS last month! To kick off the new era of sorts, we're looking at a recently prominent Southern Ontario punk band featuring a very familiar face up front, so read on below for what you need to know! (Updated on November 27th)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Fairmounts (Toronto, Ontario)

Lineup: (Saultites in RED)

Mikey Hawdon (vocals/guitar)
Simon Head (guitar)
Phil Page (bass)
Andrew McMullen (drums)

Official website: http://www.fairmounts.ca
Official Facebook page: http://facebook.com/fairmounts
Official Bandcamp page: http://fairmounts.bandcamp.com
Official Twitter page: http://www.twitter.com/fairmounts
Official YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/fairmounts
Official Soundcloud page: http://soundcloud.com/fairmountsofficial

Local Info: Fairmounts frontman Mikey Hawdon is extremely well known in local punk circles for his extensive and skilled band work here and in Toronto! Best known locally as a drummer with The Inner City Surfers and as a singer with local metal standouts Lion Ride, Mikey has also lent his talents to Bin Hawdon & the Taliband, Detroit, The Bombed Squad, and various other older local projects. Since moving to Toronto, Mikey has established himself in various bands there, including local/Toronto celtic punk rockers Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide, Green Day tribute The Dookies, and Ramones/Joan Jett tribute The Merves, who share all but one member of the current active original band that he fronts, The Fairmounts! 

Band Bio: Launched by Mikey Hawdon and Simon Head in 2010, the pair recorded and released the first Fairmounts EP "Unfinished Business" that year, before adding Mikey's Merves bandmates Phil Page and Andrew McMullen for a full live lineup that began playing concerts in early 2011. The Fairmounts kept up a solid presence in concerts from Southern Ontario to Illinois since then via both headlining concerts and sets opening for the likes of SNFU, C.J. Ramone, and Face to Face. Mikey brought The Fairmounts home to the Soo in October 2012 as part of J.D. Pearce's annual Halloween party at The Algonquin Pub, while the band shot their music video for "I Don't Wanna Go To The Hospital" locally during that trip as well. The Fairmounts released their first full length CD "Kiddo" in February 2013, and followed that up with a split single and an appearance on a Methadones compilation album that same year. Recently jamming towards new originals, look for more from The Fairmounts in the coming months!

The Fairmounts will appeal to any ardent pop punk fans with their high energy originals and fun live shows, and if you like Mikey's other local bands, The Fairmounts won't deviate from what you're already a fan of! Mikey proves to be a solid frontman with nice gritty vocals that Lion Ride fans will appreciate, and I honestly find that his singing fits originals better than on his tribute band work, while he has great chemistry and songwriting with the rest of the Fairmounts! Phil Page's bass work standing out especially, and Simon and Mikey are a nice compliment on guitar. Recent songs like "AA Oh No!" and "Behind My Back" have a fun catchiness that improves on their original EP, and it's easy to see why The Fairmounts have attained a solid following since their debut! For reference, if you've ever wanted to hear The Merves play original songs, this would be the band you'd want to check out. Keep following The Fairmounts for more solid originals, and hopefully Mikey brings the band to the Soo in the near future!

There's plenty of media online from The Fairmounts via their website's store, where you can buy physical copies of all of their CDs (not counting The Methadones tribute compilation), while you can also buy "Kiddo" and their split single with Plan 37 on iTunes. Soundcloud offers "Kiddo" as a free stream, while numerous videos and songs can be seen and heard on assorted YouTube channels, including Mikey and Andrew's own personal channels, among others. Here's The Fairmounts' video for their song "I Don't Wann Go To The Hospital", as filmed here and directed by Tidal Records' Dan Nystedt!


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I hope you guys liked this month's Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile! Next month in this series, we're staying punk with a band who will make their long awaited homecoming in a few weeks, that being Toronto punk quartet Random Killing, featuring the Soo's own Andrew "Drool" Kiteley on lead vocals! Watch out for that on or around September 26th, and stay tuned for more news soon (and don't miss Random Killing's local return on the 13th!) Thanks everyone!