SweetKenny Album Updates, New Videos, And More Recent Updates!!

We're now into battle week for this month's two battles of the bands just days away from commencing, but before we dive into our previews of each, here's a new news post for your Monday morning! Today, we have some assorted recent updates, new videos from two local bands and some extra notes on both, but first, here's a new album release!

Dafter, Michigan hard rock musician Kenneth "SweetKenny" Sutton has released his 17th official solo album onto his Bandcamp page on February 5th! Entitled "White Knuckles", it is Ken's fifth straight solo release to be themed as a score for use in films or video games, as has been his focus since last summer, with "White Knuckles" intended as music for a slasher-themed work. It's a relatively short release, but if you're a fan of SweetKenny's film score phase, this should be up your alley, so pick it up at the above links for $7! In terms of when you might see a review of this album or another from SweetKenny, the earliest that one might come would be in July, due to our 6 month buffer from our "Hitman Files" review in January, as to avoid a potential bias, but a review is very possible for July! Now, if you've been missing SweetKenny's regular song output since June's "Fleabag Hotel", a new song named "Blue Jeans" was posted onto Bandcamp today, so what should you know about it?

It's a blues rocker with vocals about a woman in the title clothing, and while it has posted artwork like it's an album of the same name, I can't confirm if it'll be on his next album or not, but official pages have credited titles like "Cartoons", "Epic Music", and (most recently) "In Your Face" for future releases. In any event, look for more from this prolific E.U.P. musician as the year progresses, and check out his release solo output above!

Next up, here's the latest from local alternative/grunge trio The Pixo Control, so what's been going on with Michael, Dustin, and Keeghan lately? While we await the reveal of their "Scratch" music video on March 25th, the guys shared this photo on their Facebook page yesterday of the guys performing with the caption "Demoing the new record." Did they mean they were practicing songs from December's debut "Probably Not", or is a sophomore album already in the works? We'll let you know if anything's said! In the meantime, The Pixo Control are the fifth band (and third local act) to perform on local concert promoters Six, Two, Oh.'s YouTube performance series "Live At Six, Two, Oh.", with their episode uploaded last week. Within, the guys play their songs "Tall Ships" & "Scratch" from their first CD, complete with a plug for the series in between, and the footage is filmed on multiple camera angles like with prior full-band episodes

This video is well edited and captures strong performances from this fast-rising local trio, so Pixo Control fans should be right at home here, especially as this is arguably their best quality performance clip with Dustin Goodall on bass yet! Give it a look below, and stay tuned for more from both The Pixo Control and Live At Six, Two, Oh. (which is now in our "Other Local Metal Links" section) in due course!



Also today, here's the latest from local pop punk quartet Stereo North, who as you may remember, will compete in this year's VM Radio Battle of the Bands once again THIS WEDNESDAY at The Canadian Nightclub! Frontman Andrew Pucci ran a contest among his Facebook friends last week to give away tickets to the battle (via liking the band on Facebook and commenting on his contest post), with the winner being decided/revealed in this video courtesy of 20-sided dice. Fun way to decide the winner, and it allows entrants to see it being done fairly! For reference, when we randomly choose feature profiles on the SMS, we use www.random.org. As well, Stereo North were recorded covering A Flock Of Seagulls' "I Ran" by PaperClip Productions at the end of their Fishbowl Festival acoustic set at The Gore Street Cafe this past Friday, as posted online yesterday. While in an intimate unplugged style, Stereo North fans should enjoy it, and it's well recorded, so give it a listen below, and don't miss Stereo North at the battle on Wednesday!



Finally for today, here's some assorted recent notes from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist or website name:

• Local glam/power pop trio Caroline Divine will guest as a backing band for local/Toronto indie rock musician Jesse Merineau during his set at THURSDAY'S Speak Easy Battle of the Bands! Jesse confirmed their involvement last monyh via his official Facebook event page for the battle. Though they're technically guests for Jesse's set (where he'll preview tracks for his upcoming debut album), this will be Caroline Divine's first public concert of the year if you count it as their own set. Can they help Jesse come out on top on Thursday at this fan-voted battle? Be there to find out!
• Local musician Peytan Andreola is looking for a bassist "to join in and jam the metal grooves", as per his Musicians Wanted Facebook group post from last week. No word on if this relates to the same band that Peytan was looking for a drummer for last summer, but if you're interested in being the bass slapper for this project, messaege him above or at this link!
• We have added local musician/Gore Street Cafe co-owner Sam Decter's blog The Tinderbox to our "Other Local Metal Links" section, as a number of his articles there cover hard rock and punk artists in varying forms, including via recent Fishbowl Festival coverage and articles with acts like The Pixo Control and Telephone & Address. Sam doesn't post on The Tinderbox all that often, but he has posted a lot of interesting articles on arts and culture there over the past year, so check everything out above!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for our preview of night #1 of the VM Radio Battle of the Bands next! Thanks everyone!