LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (The Bear Hunters), A New Album Release, And New Videos!!

Let's get some more news onto the site on this Sunday morning, so what's on tap? New videos from two very different August concerts, and another new digital album release, but first, here's a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for a special fundraising event next month!

A pair of heavier local bands are on the lineup for a special benefit concert at The Algonquin Pub on Saturday, October 3rd, with all proceeds going to the Soup Kitchen Community Center on James Street, which is a great cause! Though the listed headliners are sporadically seen local progressive rock quintet Machines Dream (whose frontman Craig West is promoting the show), they're actually the opening band due to logistical setup reasons, as per Craig's personal Facebook page, but it's nice to see them out of the studio after so long! The other listed bands include local death metal favourites The Bear Hunters, funk/hard rock quartet The Elements, and the recently reunited local classic rock quartet Nikkfitt, who feature Browbeat alumni Dutch Vanderploeg & James White (also of The Elements) in their lineup. Nikkfitt havn't really taken hold for a long time locally, but it's nice to see them back at it, and we'll have to see what all they play!

Admission is $5 at the door for this 19+ fundraiser concert, which is advertised to begin at 9:00 PM. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! Very diverse lineup, but the Soup Kitchen could always use some help, so definitely consider checking out this concert in two weeks!

Next up, remember how local grunge/hardcore duo Bad Back have been teasing recording a proper full-length album in recent months? Well, it's now out on their Bandcamp page! Entitled "ALbums" (again continuing with the extra capitals & gratuitous plurals from their late-2014 demos), it features eight songs, and was mixed and mastered by Cross Dog's Mark Rand, with frontman Jamie Vincent's AlgomA bandmate Kevin Campbell credited for assisting in production, though on Bandcamp, all names are given creative misspellings like "Naythang Sauvege". Save for "Shirt Tucker" & "Lung Bucket" (which were re-recorded), none of the songs are identical from what's on the 2014 demos' online copies, though remember that physical copies of the second demo also included "Number One Hit Single", and I can't speak for the first demo's CD versions to know if they had omitted tracks too. Digital copies are, like the demos, available on a "name your price" model, but it's yet to be established if physical copies will be on sale in some form or not.

Now, as you can now buy "ALbums" (or download it free, but support the band!), when can you expect a review of it on the SMS? Honestly, as we've already reviewed RedD Monkey's new album this month, and October will likely be set aside for the Jack Spades/Destroilet/Ripcordz split, Bad Back's album might be delayed until November for a review. It's definitely coming though, so stay tuned for more from Bad Back as it comes in!

We'll close today with new videos, including a new discovery from the short notice opening set by Shit Liver from the Golers concert at The New American Pub on August 9th! Apologies for the delay in getting this on here, we only just discovered it this weekend. Filmed by attendee Dawne Schryer and shared on the band's Facebook page the following day, it features the guys playing two predictably blistering originals, sandwiched around their comical cover of The 4 Non Blondes' "What's Going On", and while it's filmed on the vertical cell phone camera angle, you do get a nice clear (and oddly well-lit) view of Shit Liver's debut at the New A! Give this video a look below!



Finally for today, here's two new videos of pageless local classic/hard rock cover quartet RPM from their Summer Concert Series gig at The Roberta Bondar Pavilion last month! Filmed again by Sault Online's Mike Caruso and uploaded to his YouTube channel on August 22nd, the videos are of RPM covering Robert Palmer's "Bad Case of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor)" with drummer Ben Pascuzzi on vocals, and, as embedded below, Hank Williams Sr.'s "Move It On Over" (specifically, the George Thorogood version) with guitarist Dino Mazzuca on vocals. Solid quality videos on multiple cameras, but why wasn't the stationary camera more centered to the band? For most of the videos, all you can see of Lindsay Pugh is his bass head! Well done covers too, with some extra grit laid on, but the guys do still need to loosen up a bit on stage. Give their new videos a look above and below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes in the coming week! Thanks everyone!