Curtis McKenzie Updates, New Videos, And Battle Of The Bands Profle Updates!!

Before we get into this post, I wanted to acknowledge (albeit late, my apologies) that last Wednesday's planned third installment of punk rock bingo at The New American Pub was cancelled due to inclement weather (ironic given the "die, winter, die" theme.) The punk rock bingos have been cursed a bit, given that three installments have now been called off, but hopefully things work out for next time, as it's a fun event! Had they played, Sam Decter's planned band would have been called "Sammy D & The Morlocks", and had teased a post-punk element in their set. Now, we have some new videos, recent updates, and first, the latest from a talented local frontman, so here's what you should know!

Project 421/Eclipse frontman Curtis McKenzie has been busy of late in terms of his solo material, so what's he been up to? As per his solo Facebook page last week, he has announced that he plans to finally release a debut solo album in August 2016, with more details to follow. It's not clear what form this release will take, but note that he has hinted at working with local bassist Jason Morbin in the past, and he once advertised musician searches for a planned band that wouldn't play metal or hard rock, though it's unclear if these are linked. Given the latter, we don't even know if this will be a release that fits our coverage, or when recording will begin, but stay tuned for more! Remember, some originals from his old band Haggith began with earlier bands of his, so you never know if some will re-appear as new solo tracks. On a larger scale, Curtis has thrown his hat into the ring for The Stone Temple Pilots' contest to find a new lead singer, so what should you know on that?

While this is arguably a long shot, Curtis registered on the Indaba Music-hosted contest where the platinum selling hard rock band hopes to find their new lead singer through. To that end, Curt posted an audio track of him singing "Plush" along with the backing track, and he sounds good, as fans of his bands should know! Voting hasn't opened yet, but hear Curtis' version of "Plush" at this link, and stay tuned for when voting opens, as imagine how cool it would be to see him do well in this contest to find The Stone Temple Pilots' new frontman!

Next up, here's some new videos that were uploaded to YouTube in the last few days, including this clip of 415E guitarist Chris Hubbard covering Van Halen's "Light Up The Sky", with him handling guitar, bass, and drums! Uploaded to his YouTube channel yesterday, this showcases the Sault Michigan standout's multi-instrumental skill nicely, with an accurate tone and strong performances (especially on the guitar, as you'd expect), so give his newest solo video a look below!



Also, here's a new video of Sault Ontario solo musician and Audiofumes podcast host Mike Cliffe covering Black Sabbath's "Into the Void"! Uploaded to his YouTube channel on Saturday, this has the now clean-shaven Mike covering this Sabbath classic nicely, if a little rough around the edges, complete with an extended intro where he talks about the song and how he's playing it. Not badly done at all, so check it out below, and check out Audiofumes for some strong local and out-of-town original material!

Finally for today, here's some more updates to our past Battle of the Bands Rewind profiles! I have restored photos to our profiles of 2008's Skid Row and Case's Music Battles, and 2009's YMCA & Kiss Battles, as the links for those photos went dead after SooToday's design & layout changes from last month, so we've restored them with their new links. In our profile of 2009's Algoma University Battle of the Bands, we added a reference in the trivia to how current local rap/metal band The Apocalypse Afterparty have taken on originals from "songwriter" Paul Stanghetta's older band The Fury, who finished second in that battle. And for our profile of 2012's Sault Humane Society Battle, I added a link to the official poster to give it a "Sources/More Info" section, as it didn't have one at all before, though it's event pages and sites have all been taken down since. That'll cover things for now, but stay tuned for updates of later battles in due course!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and updates as the week rolls along! Thanks everyone!