Thursday, May 30, 2019

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Tym Morrison), Weekend Concert Previews, And More!!

Before we begin today's weekend concert previews, just some scattered updates for this weekend. One is that the previously advertised Feel Good Jacket concert at The Rockstar Bar tomorrow night is no longer taking place, as the Alberta hard rock trio are now advertised for a private event in Edmonton tomorrow, source here. I haven't heard if this booking is due to or the cause of the cancellation, but it would have been nice to see Feel Good Jacket come east, and hopefully they get the chance down the line! The Rockstar Bar never advertised that event online, for what it's worth, but Phatstick fans may want to note that ex-frontman Jason Taillefer will headline an acoustic show there on Saturday, his second such gig in the past few weeks. I don't know if his modern solo gigs skew heavier like Phatstick did, but it's nice to see him back home! Now on to this weekend's concert previews, sans Monday night's River Jacks show, which will be tackled on Saturday or Sunday.

This is a quiet weekend for verified public hard rock or punk concerts in the Soo, but I do have some updates from a prominent solo artist to round things out, and some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS attached to one performer. Note that it is my 30th birthday tomorrow, so I cannot guarantee updates on the site or coverage of short notice concerts due to related plans and frivolities (the joys of May 31st being a Friday this year.) With all of that said, here is what you should know for this weekend and beyond!

Joining his regular Gliss Restaurant matinee gigs TOMORROW & SATURDAY and his latest Room 21 nighttime concert TOMORROW NIGHT, let's add acoustic hard rock solo artist Tym Morrison's full June concert slate to our listings today as well! Of course, Saturday's Gliss show will kick off the month, but Tym will be back at the Spring Street eatery for evening concerts on June 7th & 8th, 14th & 15th, 22nd & 23rd, and 28th & 29th, so fans have many more chances to see his prolific unplugged show as the summer season truly begins!  Tomorrow's Room 21 show is actually his last advertised concert there at press time (we'll let you know if he announces shows there for July and beyond), but Tym does have two more traditional nightclub shows in June, as he'll rock The Roadhouse Bar & Grill on Trunk Road for two Friday nighters on June 7th & 28th! Should be good chances for fans in the east end to enjoy his extensive setlist, so keep these and the new Gliss shows in mind!

As usual, tomorrow's, Saturday's, and beyond's Gliss shows are 6:00 PM matinees with no announced cover charges or age limits, while tomorrow night's Room 21 show and next month's Roadhouse gigs are all 10:00 PM affairs with 19+ age limits and no cover. Visit the Facebook event pages linked here, here , and here for more details, and here's Tym live!



Next up, here's this weekend's only other publically announced hard rock concerts in the Soo area, as Traverse City classic metal trio Peril will return to The Rapids Lounge at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino for shows TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! This will be the Scarkazm sister band's second concert weekend in Sault Ste. Marie this year, and unless something is added later, their last of 2019, with all later advertised E.U.P. weekends being at the St. Ignace Kewadin. This should be another prime weekend for Jeff, Adam, and Brooks' old school metal and hard rock covers, and fans should definitely consider a trip to The Rapids Lounge for all of this weekend's action! If you miss these shows, Peril will be in St. Ignace in early July, while Scarkazm will be there in a few weeks. This weekend's concerts have 9:00 PM start times, no announced cover charges, and 21+ age limits. See the above links for more details, and here's Peril live a few years back!



Let's close today's post with the latest updates from local experimental/metal solo project Awokest, and I apologize for the delays in some of this content! On May 3rd, project leader Chase Wigmore posted Awokest's compilation debut album "Enter The Nightlands" on Amazon for $9.49 as well as the Arabic streaming service Anghami, so if they're preferable to Bandcamp for your music downloading, keep these options in mind! On May 13th, Chase revealed that he considers Awokest to be a two man band, albeit with the second member being "a revolving door of guest appearances", so make of that what you will. Chase also revealed plans to debut a weekly half hour live stream on May 18th that would feature laid back conversation, musical experimentation, and other irreverent topics, but that didn't appear to launch on schedule. There's more to approach regarding Awokest's next full album plans, but for now, here's a 70 minute long video posted to their Facebook page on May 2nd.

The first 50 minutes of this monochrome live stream is of a suite called "Stray Dog Saga: The Art of Busking" before Chase closes with some unreleated bonus songs. Owing to the merger of his eponymous solo work into the Awokest page, this is more along the lines of Chase's unplugged folk punk material instead of Awokest's tech-extreme metal attack, though you will get a bit of screaming. There's a lot to take in here, but Chase's guitar skill and creative lyrics are on full display, as is his endurance & requisite intensity, so fans will definitely want to give this video a look! Stay tuned for more from Chase and Awokest on the site next month!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and updates on the site next month! Thanks everyone!

Wednesday, May 29, 2019

The Inner City Surfers' Debut CD Review!!

It's now time for our 119th monthly CD review at The Sault Metal Scene, and this month, we're taking a long overdue look at a CD by inactive local punk quartet The Inner City Surfers for the first time, namely their self-titled debut album! This is an archive review due to no new local heavier/punk album releases in May 2019, and I went with a Surfers album to tie in with frontman Dustin Jones' Music 4 Kayge set with The Rising Tide last week. I opted not to review a Rising Tide CD out of deference to their forthcoming album, so as to not delay it's review on the site. Independently released in 2000, "Inner City Surfers" (retroactively nicknamed "The Blue Album") was largely recorded in drummer Mikey Hawdon's basement with producer and Fistmagnet alum Garry Ingram aside from tracks #4 & #11, which were recorded with Wayne Lorenz, who mastered the album with Jeff Elliot at Reaction Studios in Toronto, while Wayne mixed 8 songs and Kite Eating Maples drummer Ryan Gassi mixed the other four.

The Inner City Surfers are represented here by their classic lineup, including the aforementioned Dustin Jones on vocals & guitar, Dave Bahun on guitar, Brad Lacell (not yet called "Brad Example") on bass, and Mike (not yet Mikey) Hawdon on drums. This CD is long since out of print, but you can buy (for $7.99) and stream digital copies of it on services like Apple Music, Amazon, YouTube, and Spotify, and physical copies might surface at The Rad Zone, where I bought mine. Featuring 12 songs running for over 33 minutes in length, let's begin this review with it's opening track! "The Blue Album" begins with "Ford Upton", which opens with a solitary bass intro by Brad before Dustin's vocals kick in, and they are much rawer and plain than fans may expect compared to the last 20 years of his career. Once the song kicks in fully, it has a nice melodic bent while maintaining it's relatable punk attitude that served them well throughout their mid-2000s heyday, complete with an aggressive late stretch to add to it's variety.

What strikes me about this song is it's piecemeal, nontraditional structure with no true chorus, and which feels like a few songs chopped together, almost like The Surfers foreshadowed "Jesus of Suburbia". I don't love "Ford Upton" compared to some of their later and catchier fan favourites, but it has ambition and talent, even at this very early stage of their run! Second up is "Goin' Out", which fittingly starts with a car ignition slowly getting turned on. The song proper is more of a standard pop punk original that retains some of the folksy Tide-esque rhythms, and this serves as a good showcase for Dave & Dustin's solid riffing on the choruses! The chugging bridge is effective too, but I wish that the verses flowed more naturally, as the song feels stitched together at the seams here, albeit not in a progressive nature like on "Ford Upton". However, this is a more fun track for Surfers diehards, and delivers the goods that we came to expect on later albums!

That's followed by "Venture On", a relatively long surf rock instrumental, with the title presumably a reference to legendary surf rock quartet The Ventures. Unique concept for a local band of their young age in 2000, one has to assume! Dynowaves fans may want to take extra note. I'm not a surf rock scholar, but this sounds the part and the guys deliver well, with a fun and light guitar melody and solid drums to go around! That said, I do prefer The Surfers' edgier punk material. We more or less get that on the next song, "Been Done", though the laid back nature maintains, with Dustin's singing all at a lower, more reserved register. If anything, this song serves a good "example" of Brad's then-bass skill, and there's a nice extended guitar solo from Dave to boot, so the second half of the song improves to me! I just wish that the vocals and verses were more upbeat, and with the recording quality from 19 years ago, there is some mild distortion in the lyrics.

Song #5 is "4 Months", which is the hardest-driving and most skate punk-esque song yet, and that contrasts well with Dustin's softer, band-less singing in the verses! The music is firing on all cylinders, and Mikey's drumming is at it's best on the album so far, while the dual guitar attack compliments everything as well as you'd expect! However, I have two major drawbacks from it: The very quiet, lost-in-the-mix chorus vocals, and the song's fade-out, which comes out of nowhere during what feels like a bridge, yet still runs too long. Overall, a flawed but very entertaining song as we near the midpoint of the CD! Next is "A Few Drinks", a softer acoustic number which (I think) only features Brad on vocals. This is more of a drinking song to play at the bar, so the unplugged approach works for the intended vibe, which has a country/blues essence. It's not my cup of tea, but if you like homespun drinking songs, you should get enjoyment out of it!

The second half begins with "Sunday Drive", which is a return to upbeat modern punk form for The Surfers, and this has a full-on skate punk sound with nicely driving guitar riffs and more standout drumming from Mikey along the way, not to mention another of Dave's great guitar solos! Easily my favourite song on "The Blue Album" so far, I just wish that the vocals were louder in the mix to better compliment the heavier sound, but overall, this delivers the goods for fans of late 1990s/early 2000s original punk rock! Mikey's drumming kicks off the next song "Backwards", which is another nicely paced punk song with strong instrumentation, albeit here with more of a galloping quality. Again however, Dustin's vocals are not mixed well with the music, and he really sounds muddled here, not helped by his folksier singing for much of the track. I like the drum hits in the chorus, and it's a solidly composed song!

Ninth on "Inner City Surfers" is "Whole Lot Happier",  another strong skate punk number with a nice guitar riff, and it contains some of the most aggressive vocals yet in the chorus, contrasting well with Dustin's reserved singing in the verses (which are mixed louder here.) I sort of got an Alexisonfire vibe from the chorus yelling, as it was over top of softer music than the singing would seem to call for, if that makes sense. The song ends before I expected, alas, as it had a nice sonic balance while it lasted, and everyone performed well! That's followed by "Commandments" (renamed to "10 Commandments" for it's digital release), which more modern fans may recognize from Jack Spades' 2015 cover that Dustin actually produced. A fast and heavy track with very angry (but distorted & repetitive) vocals, this is the closest that The Surfers get to hardcore punk on the CD, and it's an effective blast, ending before it gets overdone! Solidly heavy guitar work, and Brad's bass playing fits like a glove!

The penultimate song is (ironically) "Last One", which is by far the album's longest track. In spite of that, this is a very fast song with nicely sung vocals from Dustin that contrast well with the harder-hitting instrumentation, though the slow bass stretch by Brad past the halfway mark does stall the momentum somewhat. The closing instrumental break is nicely done and has a folksy essence while still retaining a fast punk sound, and you get a nice showcase of everyone's musical abilities without things dragging on too long! Another highlight on the album, for sure! The actual last one is the 81 seconds-long "Mexican Porn Shop". I'm not sure what I expected going in, but it wasn't a hardcore punk song with lyrics exclusively in Spanish! Why am I getting a Suicidal Tendencies vibe from this one? I don't speak Spanish, so I don't know what Dustin's singing, but the title implies everything is very tongue-in-cheek. It's a chaotic and fun song while it lasts, but it ends the album with a lot of questions.

So, what are my final thoughts on The Inner City Surfers' debut album? While there was room to grow, this was a solid debut album from this very talented four-some, and it showcased their punk base while also diversifying well into other sounds! To me, The Surfers were at their best with fast-paced skate punk, and we got a lot of that on album highlights like "Goin' Out", "Sunday Drive", and "Last One", but things diversified into blues, hardcore, and even surf rock on certain tracks. Dustin Jones and Dave Bahun were a great match on guitar, Brad Lacell's bass work was always solid to set the tone, and Mike Hawdon's drum abilities were never in doubt! Dustin's singing was largely solid, but the mix of his vocals was inconsistent, with some songs burying his vocals, and others distorting them too much. I won't complain about the production quality otherwise (the CD is 19 years old, after all), but the vocals could have been clearer. If that's my big issue, that's a good sign!

This isn't peak Surfers (check out their also-self titled 2007 CD for that), but "The Blue Album" laid the foundation for a lot of great music to come, and for what this was, it's a solid entry point for the guys, and any fan of theirs will find a lot to like here! Give this CD a listen or buy it at the above links! I hope you guys liked this month's CD review, but what will we be reviewing on the site next month? I don't know yet, but here's what I can say. A new album release from a local metal, hard rock, or punk act will of course take precedence, and our next "Where Are The New Albums?" post on Sunday will give some ideas as to what may be released soon! If nothing comes out, we would dip into the archives, tying in a review with an artist playing live locally if at all possible, though time will tell what is next. If nothing fits, I'd go with a prominent local album I haven't reviewed yet, and I know there's a Woods of Ypres release I haven't done yet... we'll see, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews next, and much more as we enter June! Thanks everyone!

Tuesday, May 28, 2019

New Local Doom Metal Videos And Much More News & Updates!!

It feels like too long since our last post without concert previews or monthly feature content, so let's tackle some recent stories and postings on this Tuesday evening! Here, we have some assorted shorter topics, the latest from a prominent solo project, and leading off, here's some new video postings from a pair of local doom metal acts!

We'll start with 40 minutes of live concert action, courtesy of the return set from local doom/sludge metal trio AlgomA at the Dopethrone concert at The New American Pub last week! Appearing to capture their entire set, the video is entitled "Seven Old Favourites", reflecting their set's inclusion of only prior originals from their catalogue. In order, the video features Kevin, Boyd, and Jamie playing "Tertiary Syphillis", "Fell Down A Well", and "Bedsores" from their "Reclaimed By The Forest" EP, before tackling "Electric Fence" from their split with Chronobot, the yet-unreleased "The Longest Swim" & "Brazen Bull", and finally, "Failed Stunt Fatality" from their split with Hooded Menace. Allegedly filmed by "I've Seen Worse Moving Pictures", the video was heavily filtered in post-production, so what we get here is monochrome, high contrast footage complete with simulated CRT scan-lines and song titles.

While not a stationary camera, the angle filmed here is often too high, and the filtering is mostly to Jamie's visual detriment, but the music is crystal clear and will definitely appeal to fans of AlgomA's slow, doomy, and deliberate onslaught! No word on when "The Longest Swim" & "Brazen Bull" will get studio releases, but these will do for now, and AlgomA haven't lost a step after their 19 month stage absence! Give their set from last week a look below, and go to individual songs via the links above!



Next up, here's a new/old video of inactive doom/death metal band Giwakwa from a jam session back in November 2012! This appears to have been uploaded to the band's YouTube channel at the time, but after 6½ years, Chris finally made it public for fans to check out. Just as a referesher, Giwakwa were the band featuring Bring The Fallen, Lead The Dead, and Fitswitch alumni that was primarily active from mid-2012 through mid-2013, and this video features guitarist Chris Page, drummer Chris Thompson, and then-bassist Nolan Rainville, with original singer Josh Stephney not present for this recording. Audio quality on this original song named "Smoker" can be fairly scratchy here, but this is a solid jam that helps capture more of their doomier side, and you get some good closer views of the guys in action! This was plugged on their Facebook page on Saturday, marking Giwakwa's first post there in over four years, so is this a sign of public activity resuming for the band in 2019?

Well,  Chris Page has dropped hints on his personal Facebook page towards Giwakwa reuniting and/or still being active for some time. That said, if the only sign of life from a band is personal remarks or postings, I don't count that as a source unless given explicit permission. It'd be nice to see Giwakwa back in some form, they had a lot of promise, but give this 2012 jam clip a look below to see what they brought to the table back then!



Also today, let's cover some long overdue updates from local goregrind solo project Crucify the Whore, and I apologize for the delay in much of this content! Back on February 19th, the Tyler Gibson-led act released a new digital EP named "Crucifiction Inquisition" to their Bandcamp page, which features 5 songs running for just over 11 minutes, which, track for track, is relatively long for a C.T.W. release. Intentionally recorded in a low-fi manner, I won't share the cover artwork here to avoid potential offense with some readers, but the lyrical content, minimalist recordings, and pig squealing vocals remain acquired tastes if you're not already a goregrind fan. Things sound a little more aggressive this time out, and with a "name your price" model, Blood Shed diehards should be right at home with this release! In his latest updates, Tyler noted earlier this month on C.T.W.'s Facebook page that CDs have been printed for his 2016 release "The Beautiful Sounds of Nature".

After some quiet months from C.T.W. and Blood Shed Productions, 2019 is looking very much like a return to form for Tyler's minimalist metal pursuits, and he's definitely ambitious and bold, if sonically provocative! Buy or stream C.T.W.'s recent solo material above, and here's hoping there's more in the works from the Blood Shed camp over the summer!

Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news items from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist or venue name:

  • In their first Facebook page posting since 2016, local death metal duo Brutally Fatal (featuring the aforementioned Tyler Gibson) revealed on Monday that they have a "new album coming this summer", though they self-deprecatingly tempered expectations right afterward. We last heard from Tyler & Austin when they posted a free "album" on YouTube in February 2017, and it's great to hear that Brutally Fatal are back after a 2+ year hiatus, so they are back in our active band links!
  • Almost two years after a fire in an upstairs apartment forced the closure of Queen Street East nightclub/venue Reggie's Place, the fan favourite concert venue is expected to re-open this week! The news was broken in this SooToday article, where owner Reggie Daigle notes that the bar will look more or less the same as it did before the August 2017 fire. While not a regular venue for our coverage, the country-leaning tavern has hosted Soundcheck and predecessors Mourning Wood in the past, so might they pop up there again now? Stay tuned, but congratulations on the re-opening! 
  • I have reluctantly removed defunct local indie/hard rock band Vol. from our inactive band links due to the quiet deletion of their Facebook (and only online) page in recent months. Featuring alumni of The Pixo Control and Mik & Steve, Vol. had a promising local run in 2017 with some high profile appearances, but "rad things" in 2018 were superceded by lineup departures, and they disbanded in June of last year. I wish they hadn't deleted their page, but hopefully Steve, Shane, Mikaela, and Matthew surface again soon!

That's all for today, but stay tuned (if all goes according to plan) for this month's CD review tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

Sunday, May 26, 2019

YouTube Channel Profile Series: Tattoos and Scars & 3 Day Millionaires

It's now time for this month's YouTube Channel Profiles, as we continue our monthly spotlighting of YouTube channels whose content is at least half devoted to local metal, hard rock, and punk artists and/or concerts! As usual, this month's channels were randomly selected, and due to the first only having two distinct kinds of videos, I picked one more channel randomly with only one distinct video type to round things out with. We have a solid subsection of hard rock covers to focus on this month from two bands not seen as of late, so here's what you should know!
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Tattoos and Scars (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3SK_ofDsQH408Qfsy0fy5Q/)

Owner: Halfway Loaded/Tattoos & Scars guitarist Shane Biron

Channel Timeline: Launched on December 23rd, 2015; Videos posted from that day through May 2017

Channel Summary: This is (was?) the official YouTube channel for local hard rock band Halfway Loaded, and it features 8 videos of their in-studio jam sessions, six in a sit-down casual format and two in more of a full band presentation. Despite being launched under Halfway Loaded's name, and only featuring videos of that band, it has since been renamed to Tattoos & Scars, reflecting their acoustic side project duo that has seen more recent activity.

Why You Should Watch: As Halfway Loaded have only played private gigs and open mic nights to date, this is one of the few extant public sources to check out fuller versions of this band on video, and there is promising stuff here from this talented group that deserve a more active and prominent shot! While the "Tattoos and Scars" channel name is a misnomer at present, you can check out videos of Shane & Justin in an acoustic setting via pre-launch videos on Halfway Loaded's Facebook page.

Our Recommended Videos To Check Out

Simple man-Lynard Skynard/shinedown (cover): Six of Halfway Loaded's videos (all but one from late 2015-early 2016) feature Shane, singer Justin Grayson, and rhythm guitarist Ryan Mazzapica jamming hard rock covers in a laid back acoustic setting. These include renditions of Thriving Ivory's  "Angels on the Moon", Slipknot's "Snuff", Theory of a Deadman's "Santa Monica", Seether's "Broken", and Saving Abel's "The Sex Is Good", but featured here is their first & most popular video, a cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Simple Man", in what was allegedly just their second time playing together. Despite an unideal camera placement (admittedly improved on later videos), this southern rock ballad is well handled across the board, and their comfort and talent was expanded on in the covers linked above!



Monster truck - Dont tell me how to live (cover): The other two videos from March 2017 are of Halfway Loaded covering Seven Mary Three's "Cumbersome" and, as embedded below, Monster Truck's "Don't Tell Me How To Live". In these videos, Halfway Loaded are represented by Justin & Shane alongside ex-bassist Jesse Gottwald and former Mustang Sally drummer Dylan Newman, with Ryan absent on both. The covers are faithful, solid, and nicely fleshed out, but Ryan's absence is noted, and the camera placement isn't great again, with Justin's back to the camera, Dylan largely obscured, and lighting sometimes being a detriment to the view. Hopefully Highway Loaded resurface in the near future, there's something here!


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 Day Millionaires (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj2loBcCI2TPi317M3QffkA/)

Owner: A member of 2016-2018 local classic/hard rock cover quartet The 3 Day Millionaires, specific identity unclear

Channel Timeline: Launched on May 3rd, 2017; All videos posted that same day

Channel Summary: The 3 Day Millionaires' channel solely features videos from a Rockstar Bar concert of theirs from November 2016, featuring singer/bassist Steve Dowding (Boxcar Junction), guitarists Jeremey Salatuk (Wishbone) & the recently debuted Bill Brouillard (Sneaky Pete), and drummer Scott McLurg (Turner Up.) The videos feature The Millionaires covering Alice In Chains' "Man In The Box", Don Henley's "Boys of Summer", Radiohead's "Creep", Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game", and in one lengthy 3-song video, Candlebox's "Far Behind", Oasis' "Cigarettes & Alcohol", and The Romantics' "Talking In Your Sleep" (with Scott on vocals.) Featured here is their most popular video, a cover of The Flys' "Got You Where I Want You". These are well performed covers from a good stationary angle, if suffering a bit in vocal clarity, so fans of The 3 Day Millionares 2+ year run should be right at home with these clips, and hopefully they resurface down the road!
 
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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! This series will return on or around June 26th when we spotlight one randomly selected channel for a change, namely The Canadian, the slightly incorrectly named channel launched by Live705 featuring some 2016 videos from early concerts of theirs!  Look for that then, and for more news and this month's CD review on the site this week! Thanks everyone!

Thursday, May 23, 2019

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Fluid 5ive) & This Weekend's Hard Rock Concert Previews!!

Another concert weekend is upon us, and while things are quiet for hard rock shows in Sault Michigan (possibly thanks to their Memorial Day long weekend?), there's a fair amount of stuff going down for genre fans on the Canadian side of the border! Along with previously announced gigs, we have one SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT involving a replaced band for this weekend, so here's what you should know!

Local classic/hard rock cover quintet Fluid 5ive will reportedly be at The Rockstar Bar for one night only THIS SATURDAY NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, this show was only announced via the venue's Facebook group yesterday,  and the band hasn't publically acknowledged the gig on their own Facebook page at press time. Notably, this show replaces a Tripod the Dog concert that was previously advertised on The Algonquin Hotel's physical marquee board, and while a reason for the switch in bands hasn't been announced, keep in mind that the venue nor T.T.D. confirmed this gig publically online. SATURDAY'S Fluid 5ive concert will be their first since rocking The Esquire Club two weeks ago, and it will be their first Rockstar Bar show of 2019. This veteran band should deliver a crowd-pleasing set of favourite covers, so don't miss Fluid 5ive on SATURDAY for their sometimes sax-infused set! Expect a 10:00 PM start time, no cover, and a 19+ age limit. See above for more details, and here's Fluid 5ive live!



Next up, we'll head to The Whiskey Barrel on Gore Street, where local acoustic hard rock trio The Wyld Stallyns will return for another night of "funktastic rock" TOMORROW NIGHT! This will be the
 Elements side project's second show at the former Konoba Tapas location this month, and their fan-favourite blend of covers should go over well with patrons of this newer Scottish-themed downtown pub tomorrow! Christina, Rob, and Jesse always put on a solid show full of crowd involvement, and that should be no different here, so expect lots of entertainment once again from The Stallyns! This is a Friday-only event, as The Whiskey Barrel is booking separate nightly acts a'la The Water Tower Pub. An early-ish start time of 8:00 PM is advertised for this 19+ show, which has no announced cover charge. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here's The Stallyns live!



Also, we have more acoustic music action downtown, as local hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison's long-term arrangement at Gliss Restaurant on Spring Street continues with matinee shows TOMORROW & SATURDAY! As usual, Tym has another double header of unplugged cover action in store for fans and restaurant patrons alike this weekend, so if you're up for his prolific and extensive setlist of classic and hard rock hits, you know exactly where to be this weekend! If you're hoping to see Tym in a traditional nighttime timeslot, he'll be at Room 21 next Friday after his usual Gliss gig, with no night concerts scheduled for this weekend elsewhere. You can take in Tym's entertaining acoustic attack tomorrow and Saturday at 6:00 PM with no announced age limits or cover charges, but mind the locale. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here's Tym live!



Finally, four local bands will join forces at The Roberta Bondar Pavilion on SATURDAY for a special charity concert! Entitled "Music 4 Kayge", this is one of many fundraiser events designed to raise money for Kayge Fowler, a 6 year old boy from the Soo who is in the midst of a battle with an aggressive type of brain cancer known as diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG). As well covered in local news and social media (such as this Facebook group), Kayge's family & the Kayge Fighters Against DIPG Foundation have been receiving donations from numerous fundraising efforts to help cover his medical treatments, which is the M.O. of this concert on Saturday. Local punk will be represented via the second show of 2019 from local Celtic punk quintet Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide in the 5:30 PM timeslot, while promoter Mark Tarantini will headline at 7:00 PM with a John Denver tribute set, and a backing band featuring 2 members of That's Chester for good measure. Also, jazz/blues veteran Jay Case will play a solo set of originals and covers at 4:30 PM, and readers should know his skill!

Lastly, new local rock cover band The Tilrays (featuring ex-Stiffler's Mom bandmates Mike Davies & Jon Ferguson) will replace Johnny & The Revelators in the 3:00 PM opening slot, details on that band hopefully forthcoming. Stacked and diverse lineup for a wonderful cause, and hopefully everyone delivers to help Kayge and his family at this difficult time! 705Live Sound Company will be on hand for this ALL AGES outdoor-ish concert, which has $10 tickets at Northland Music or by phone on the listed number on the Facebook event page. Definitely consider attending to show your support for Kayge, see above for more details, and here's The Tide live!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and updates over the weekend! Thanks everyone!

Wednesday, May 22, 2019

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Monster Truck) & Dopethrone Concert Videos!!

After a few quiet days, we're back with a new news post on this Wednesday night, and while it mostly focuses on new concert videos, we're leading off with a big LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, so here's what you should know!

Juno Award winning Hamilton southern hard rock quartet Monster Truck will make their local concert debut on Friday, June 28th when they rock Soo Blaster! Staples of Canadian rock radio since the early 2010s with hit singles like "Sweet Mountain River", "The Lion", "Seven Seas Blues", and "Evolution" (among others), Monster Truck's fan favourite blend of heavy rock aggression and a bluesy southern touch has served them well over the years (as NHL fans know from their cover of "Saturday Night" on Hockey Night In Canada.) If you ask me, it's long overdue to welcome Monster Truck to the Soo, and hopefully they deliver a huge concert late next month! Sudbury grunge/hard rock quartet The Fortunate Losers will open in their own local debut, though readers may remember them from briefly being scheduled to open for The Blackwood Sinners locally in October 2016 before dropping out of that concert. After a 2½ year wait, it'll be nice to see these Northern Ontario standouts back with the accessible yet heavy original attack at Soo Blaster!

Promoted by Loffredo & Associates out of Thunder Bay (much like this fall's Cancer Bats show), advance tickets run for $35 at the venue or at this link, albeit adding a $5 service fee. Sadly, this is a 19+ show, but an early 7:30 PM start time is advertised on the Facebook event page. This should be a great concert from one of Canada's best known modern hard rock bands, and while you're more likely to hear them on 92.7 Rock in Sudbury than on any local radio station, their reputation and talent speaks for itself! Visit the above links for more on Monster Truck's local concert next month!

Next up, we'll focus on videos from Monday night's Dopethrone-headlined concert at The New American Pub for the remainder of this post, as promoters Six, Two, Oh. live-streamed videos of all three bands on this Victoria Day event to their Facebook page! Seven videos were shot and posted during the show, including three of the headlining Montreal "slutch metal" band, though I apologize in advance for not titling the songs, I had a fair amount of trouble attempting to title them by myself. This clip comes in during a song (mid-mosh pit, even), while the other two (one linked here, one embedded below) come in before the song does. Dopethrone's sludgy, doomy, and downbeat original onslaught is well captured here, even if the dark lighting helps to obscure the visuals, and attending fans definitely look into the music! Give Six, Two, Oh.'s Dopethrone videos a look above & below!



In a mild surprise to the lineup order, local doom metal trio AlgomA got the co-headlining slot over Shit Liver, so we'll look at their videos next. Marking their return to the stage after 19 months off on this night, a Six, Two, Oh. representative filmed them in two videos, including this 4:29 clip, and as embedded below, a full 16 minutes of AlgomA playing multiple tracks. Watching these, you can hardly tell that AlgomA haven't played live since 2017, as their intense and crushing music (plus their serious stage presences) hold up as well as in their heyday, so give their videos a look also!



Finally, Six, Two, Oh.'s first two videos were of local/St. Catharine's grindcore trio Shit Liver's first local set in over a year, with two short videos of their blisteringly fast originals, one linked here, one embedded below (note the audio sample from My Dinner With Andre.) Fans of Shit Liver's grimy and crusty attack will be right at home with these performances, and what a way to start the night before the contrastingly doomy backs to come! Give Shit Liver's videos a look above and below as well, and hopefully we see them and AlgomA back in the area soon!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

Sunday, May 19, 2019

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Drowning Pool), Dopethrone Concert Preview, And Much More!!

Before everyone celebrates Victoria Day, here's a new news post for this late Sunday night, and it includes some assorted recent updates, a musician search from a local guitarist, and a special Monday night show preview, but first, here's a big LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for later this summer!

Dallas metal quartet Drowning Pool will make their local concert debut on Friday, August 2nd when they rock The Dreammaker's Theater at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino! A platinum selling band best known from rock radio hits like "Step Up", "37 Stitches", "Feel Like I Do", and (of course) "Bodies", this fan favourite band has over a decade's worth of familiar tunes to bring to the table, and whether you liked their material with Dave, Gong, Ryan, or Jasen, you should get your fill of Drowning Pool later this summer! Los Angeles blues/hard rock quartet Joyous Wolf will bring their retro-tinged sound to the Soo as the opening band, and with their new EP "Place In Time" now on sale, they should impress with their well-influenced and catchy brand of music in August as well! Tickets for this all ages, 7:00 PM concert are $20, and interestingly, this show is standing room only with no assigned seating. No, this event is not publically tied to Allstar Promotions.

It is worth noting that if you buy tickets for the next night's Pop Evil/Buckcherry outdoor concert at the Sault Kewadin, you can knock $5 off of your Drowning Pool ticket as part of a bundle deal for both concerts, but whether that interests you or not, you can buy tickets at this link, at the in-person box office, or at 1-800-KEWADIN. This should be a fun concert in it's own right, especially in the lead up to Pop Evil for this stacked concert weekend, so check the above links for much more details!

Next up, here's our preview of a special Victoria Day concert TOMORROW NIGHT, as Montreal "slutch metal" quartet Dopethrone will make their Sault Ontario concert debut at The New American Pub! Fans of slow, grinding, and sludgy metal should easily take to Dopethrone's blend of doom and stoner metal, and in this stop on their Trans Canadian Tour, expect a pounding of brutal and deliberately paced original material from this prolific band at The New A! Support will include the return of both halves of the "Trading Spaces" split cassette tape from October 2017, including local/St. Catharine's grindcore trio Shit Liver in their first live appearance back home in over a year. Their intense, fast-paced hybrid of death metal and crust punk should prove to be a fitting compliment in this doom metal doubleheader, so don't miss Josh, Mike, and Matt tomorrow either! Joining them are local doom/sludge metal trio AlgomA, ending a 19 month hiatus dating back to the aforementioned split tape's release party at the same venue.

After missing all of 2018 from the local stage, it's awesome to see AlgomA back at it, and hopefully they set the tone well with their own well-traveled doom and sludge metal attack! Presented by AlgomA's own Six, Two, Oh., tomorrow's 19+ show has a $10 cover charge and a 9:00 PM start time. Despite the holiday timing, this is a school/work night for many, but if you can make it to The New A, the sludge metal onslaught should be worth the trip, so visit the official Facebook event page and this commercial for full details, and here's Dopethrone live!



Also today, here's a musician search that might pique some readers' interest, courtesy of the Musicians Wanted Facebook group on May 9th! On that day, a local metal guitarist named Shane Desjardins posted to say that he was looking to jam with other metal musicians and perhaps write some material. He shared this video of an instrumental deathcore original he recorded back in 2017 for his YouTube channel, and while I'm not familiar with him musically at all, he actually has nine solo instrumental recordings there (8 originals, plus one cover of The Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black", believe it or not), as well as three solo cover videos. Shane has a lot of positive responses and subscribers already, and he definitely has talent in deathcore and extreme metal music, but could a local band with him on board result from the above musician search? Contact him at this link for more details, and give his existing videos a look above & below to see what he offers!



Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news items from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist or event name:

  • The pre-ride party for this year's Algoma Ride For Autism will take place at The Canadian Nightclub on Friday, June 14th, as per it's Facebook event page. The pre-motorcycle rally festivities will include raffle draws and live music, and while bands have not been publically confirmed, remember that punk trio Redundant and/or frontman Justin Langlois have played A.R.4.A.-related events in each of the last 5 years. If they or other hard rock/punk acts sign on for this year's rally, we'll let you know!
  • After only posting twice (on the same day) on their Facebook page since November 2017, and letting it close earlier this year, local rap/party metal band The Apocalypse Afterparty posted on their revived page last week. In a shared post, "songwriter" Amanda Stanghetta (nee Brown) indicated that they're looking for a jam space (with or without a drumkit) to rehearse at in Toronto between this coming weekend and June 11th. Making the most of a trip, or are they relocating south? In any event, The Apocalypse Afterparty are back in our active band links, so stay tuned!
  • Local/Thompson, Manitoba hard rock musician Mike Haggith announced on his Facebook page on Wednesday that he is planning to remaster his 2014 solo album "A Place Of Our Own" for a digital re-release on current platforms, while also giving a longer description of the album's themes. As this is a remaster with no brand new content, I won't re-review the final product on here (visit this link for our original review), but hopefully this finds it's way on sale where "Neighbourhood Watch Revisited" did not!

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

Saturday, May 18, 2019

Last Month's Poll Results & Our Final Poll On Your Favourite Concerts Of 2018!!

It's now time to wrap up last month's poll and launch our final "favourite _____ of 2018" poll for another year! As you may recall, we posed this question to you guys last month: What was your favourite local metal, hard rock, or punk concert in the second half of 2018? Sadly, we only got 10 votes, but that is surprisingly over double our total from it's matching poll from the first half of last year, so thanks to everyone for getting that much higher numbers! Now, here are the final results!

Rivers of Nihil & Alterbeast at The Rockstar Bar on July 6th (4 votes, 40%)
Oh!No II at Robbie's Church in Leeburn on September 8th (3 votes, 30%)
The Gabba Heys at LopLops Lounge on September 22nd (2 votes, 20%)
The Din & A Dire Setback at LopLops Lounge on July 21st (1 vote, 10%)
Treble Charger at Rotaryfest Stage 1 on July 20th (0 votes)
Id Iota & Great Chamberlain at LopLops Lounge on July 20th (0 votes)
The Costanzas & Stegadeth at The Rockstar Bar on August 4th (0 votes)
Ten Foot Pole at The Rockstar Bar on October 25th (0 votes)
Halloween Party #1 at The Rockstar Bar on October 27th (0 votes)
Halloween Party #2 at The Rockstar Bar on October 28th (0 votes)
Shit Liver at The New American Pub on November 22nd (0 votes)
Parabol & The Elements at The Rockstar Bar on December 14th (0 votes)
The Cover-Up at LopLops Lounge on December 21st (0 votes)
Northwest & K.I.C.K. at LopLops Lounge on December 22nd (0 votes)
Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide at LopLops on December 28th (0 votes)
Other (0 votes)

What do you guys think? Well, for the non-voted shows (almost all in the last quartet of 2018), I am most surprised that the Treble Charger-headlined Rotaryfest lineup didn't get any attention, same for Shit Liver's New A show in November, but it's all in who votes! At least "Other" didn't get any votes. The Din's high profile reunion show last July got a vote, which is great to see and helps validate their talent and recognition locally, while the Gabba Heys concert made the podium with two votes, which is mildly surprising, but it's always an event when Mikey comes home to front one of his bands! The second annual Oh!No festival got a good vote total as expected, finishing in second place, and after that huge lineup and fan-friendly camaraderie, how could it not? However, the winner of the half-year poll was the Rivers of Nihil-headlined concert in July at The Rockstar Bar, which speaks to how brutal and entertaining that death metal blast was just after our 11th anniversary, and here's hoping more big shows are in the works from Live705! Maybe Rivers of Nihil will return down the line?

Thanks to everyone for voting, but now we enter our final year-end poll from last year by posing this question to you guys: What was your favourite local metal, hard rock, or punk concert of 2018? As always, we combine the vote getters from last July's poll on the first half of 2018 with those that recieved votes in the second-half poll above, in order to determine a winner for the whole year. If a show you would prefer to vote for isn't listed below, you should have voted in the prior polls! That said, "Other" is an option as usual. Now, here are your final choices from all of 2018!

Bands: Big Wreck & Attica Riots
Venue: The Machine Shop
Date: February 13th
Info:
Over 16 years after last rocking Sault Ste. Marie, Juno Award-winning Toronto/Boston hard rock band Big Wreck returned for a well attended and received headlining show at The Machine Shop last February, with Winnipeg alt-rockers Attica Riots along for the ride! The Ian Thornley-led group brought fans back to the 1990s by playing their entire "In Loving Memory Of..." album on this winter night, and fan response was very positive, but can you vouch for this concert?

Bands: Archelon, Jack Spades, Doors & Fours, and Re:Born
Venue: The Rockstar Bar
Date:
March 10th
Info:
The first promoted concert of the year from J.D. Pearce saw Sudbury metal quartet Archelon  play their first local set in over 3 years, alongside Hamilton grunge/punk trio Doors & Fours, and the 2018 debuts of local punk/metal favourites Jack Spades and Project 421-successors Re:Born, who impressed early fans with their power rock covers and originals. Despite medium attendance, fans at The Rockstar Bar responded well to this four pack, but would you pick it in this poll?

Bands: I Mother Earth, Finger Eleven, and J.J. Thompson
Venue: The Machine Shop
Date: April 18th
Info:
Just when you thought the Big Wreck concert was a big deal, The Machine Shop played host to I Mother Earth and Finger Eleven on April 18th for a massive night of hits from these Juno-winning hard rock standouts! Alongside their own sets, fans were also treated to two joint sets from the headliners, including a V.I.P. acoustic pre-show and a plugged-in encore, ensuring that fans got their money's worth from this major package! Would you vote for this concert?

Bands: Rivers of Nihil, Alterbeast, Inferi, and Pillory
Venue: The Rockstar Bar
Date: July 6th
Info:
One of the heaviest shows of last year saw a trifecta of American death metal bands make their way to The Rockstar Bar in July, with Reading, Pennsylvania's own Rivers of Nihil inciting a huge circle pit for their brutal original headlining attack! Alterbeast and Inferi were more than up to the challenge as openers, while local death/thrash metal trio Pillory impressed in their only public show in the past 18 months. Was this extreme metal blast your preferred choice?

Bands: Treble Charger, Mustang Heart, Turner Up, Road Fever, and Tripod The Dog
Venue: Clergue Park (Rotaryfest Stage 1)
Date: July 20th
Info:
As part of their "Rotaryfest Rewind" theme of band reunions at the covers-centric main stage last year, our local summer festival loaded up the schedule each night, with a very SMS-friendly Friday lineup to boot! Featuring prominent indie/punk quartet Treble Charger, a one-off Turner Up reunion, and the return of Tripod the Dog alongside festival regulars Mustang Heart and a reunited Road Fever, fans ate up this day's roster, but would you vote for it in this month's poll?

Bands: The Din & A Dire Setback
Venue: LopLops Lounge
Date:
July 21st
Info:
The second post-Rotaryfest show from LopLops last year saw a surprise reunion set from defunct alt-hard rock trio The Din, marking their first local concert appearance since their "Suburban Sendoff" at the same venue last fall! Also featuring their friends in pop punk trio A Dire Setback fresh off of their own Stage 2 set, this "Dinunion" reminded LopLops patrons how big of an attraction The Din were in their heyday, but was it your favourite 2019 show featured here?

Bands: Garbageface, Cross Dog, The Therapists, The Franquilizers, Lightmares, Beaver Slap, Fat Cop, Forest City Aurora, Planet Rock, Pointless, The Dynowaves, Jack Spades, Mik & Steve, Winkstinger, A Dire Setback, The Elements, Jackson Reed, and Shae Tull
Venue: Robbie Adamson's Church in Leeburn
Date: September 8th
Info:
Local promoters Six, Two, Oh. brought back their Oh!No concert festival to the familiar church locale in nearby Leeburn on September 8th, and delivered with an even bigger day of music than in 2017! Featuring the long awaited local return of Mark Rand's Cross Dog, the Soo debut of The Therapists, fan favourite returnees from Oh!No I, Beaver Slap karaoke, and even a piano bonfire, would you vote for this fast-rising festival?

Bands: The Gabba Heys, The Cover-Up, and Amy Gabba
Venue: LopLops Lounge
Date:
September 22nd
Info:
After an almost 2 year hiatus from fronting bands locally, veteran local punk musician Mikey Hawdon returned home in September with his new Ramones tribute band The Gabba Heys (not the same band as the former Merves), with his AMY/DC bandmate Amy Zucchetto breaking out a Joan Jett tribute set for good measure! Also featuring the online page-less Cover-Up for a set of their own punk classics, was this punk rock lineup your preferred show out of all others in the poll? 


Other: Did we miss a preferred concert that you saw locally last year? For reference, metal, hard rock, or punk artists like All The Wasted Years, The Bananas Guerrillas, The Bear Hunters, Carried Away, Chase Wigmore, Coral Fang, The Costanzas, Crucify the Whore, Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide, Electric Church, The Elements, The Faps, Fluid 5ive, Frightlight, Handsome Sandwich, Id Iota, James Watterworth, Northwest, Parabol, Poison Girl, Redundant, Shit Liver, Soundcheck, Stegadeth, The Steves, The Suicide Kings, Ten Foot Pole, That's Chester, The Therapists, The 3 Day Millionaires, The Truth Of All Death, Tym Morrison, Who Made Who, Whoop-Szo, and The Wyld Stallyns all played live last year, not to mention shows from Sault Michigan-area acts, and un-listed concerts featuring bands already in the poll. If, for whatever reason, the show you want to vote for isn't here, vote for "Other"!

VOTE TODAY!! You have until June 18th to cast your votes, and hopefully we get a decent turnout to wrap up another year of polls with, as a lot of good shows happened in the area last year! That's all for today, but stay tuned for a new news post tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

Friday, May 17, 2019

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Peril, 415E, Highway 63, And Soundcheck!!)

Today's post is fully devoted to LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for the coming months, via two long-term concert announcement sources, and while these are mostly in the E.U.P., we will cap things off with some Sault Ontario shows. With all of that said, here's what you should know!

As part of their newly renovated website and changed URLs for their Sault Michigan and St. Ignace branches' entertainment pages (links on the site are sufficiently updated), the concert calendars for Kewadin Casino's local lounges have been announced through the end of the year, and while most of the confirmed acts fall out of our verified metal/hard rock range, three bands have new show confirmations from one/both lounges. In rough chronological order, we'll start with Traverse City classic metal trio Peril, who now have show listings from Kewadin proper to match sister band Scarkazm's 2019 slate! At The Rapids Lounge in the Soo, fans can see Peril's old school attack on May 31st & June 1st, but their remaining new weekends are all at The Northern Pines Lounge in St. Ignace, where you can see Jeff, Adam, and Brooks in action on July 5th & 6th and the 26th & 27th (yes, four shows in the same month), plus on September 13th & 14th and on November 8th & 9th.

Nice to see Peril returning north of the Mac for another nice selection of concerts this year, and of course, they'll be back there in two weeks, so don't miss their hard rocking covers then and beyond! As usual, these are 9:00 PM events with no announced cover charges and 21+ age limits. See the above links for more details, and stay tuned for more from Peril & Scarkazm!

Next up, Sault Ste. Marie classic/hard rock quintet Highway 63 will return to the local & St. Ignace Kewadin lounges for six more concert weekends in 2019, including a slight date change to note for their next gigs at The Northern Pines Lounge, as their previously announced June 14th & 15th gigs there appear to have been moved up two weeks to June 28th & 29th. A reason for the shift wasn't announced, but for what it's worth, St. John's country group The Louie Longoria Band are now scheduled on the 14th & 15th. Keep the altered Highway 63 dates in mind for next month! Beyond those gigs, Highway 63 will play The Rapids Lounge in the Soo on July 19th & 20th and then on August 2nd & 3rd, before returning to the St. Ignace Kewadin for gigs on September 20th & 21st, October 25th & 26th, and December 6th & 7th. Notably, the July 19th-20th shows will be their first in the Soo since Russell Mayer replaced Justin Lawless behind the drumkit, so keep that angle in mind in advance of that weekend.

Like with the above Peril shows, these are 9:00 PM events with 21+ age limits and no announced cover charges. It's great to see Highway 63 ramping up bookings now that they've settled on their Mamas Boys hybrid lineup, and hopefully there's more in the pipeline from this fan favourite hard rock cover outfit, so check the above links for more details!

Lastly for new Kewadin Casino show announcements, sporadically seen local hard rock quartet 415E have a scant three shows listed for the remainder of 2019. In terms of the St. Ignace branch, fans can see Dave, Chris, Brett, and Jason rock The Northern Pines Lounge on July 12th & 13th in their first shows there since February, while they'll play their only 2019 Rapids Lounge date in Sault Ste. Marie at the last possible moment, as they'll be the featured band for the venue's New Year's Eve festivities on Tuesday, December 31st! I don't know why 415E have been so infrequently seen on stage since reuniting last fall, but if you don't want to miss out on their Van Halen-influenced cover attack, don't bypass their shows in July and December! As above, these are 21+ concerts with 9:00 PM start times and no announced cover charges. See the above links for more details if they come in!

Finally for today's post, let's head north to Sault Ontario, as we'll add more of local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck's concerts to our listings! These were all previously announced via this concert calendar on their Facebook page, but to spread things our and avoid an all-Soundcheck glut later in the year for our listings, I've been waiting until other bands got show announcements, so we'll go as far as the Cancer Bats show in September for now. To start, fans can check out the Mourning Wood successors at Reggie's West on August 16th & 17th, while they are also confirmed to return to The Esquire Club on August 22nd & 23rd, and then on September 6th & 7th. There are more to come deeper into the fall and winter, so stay tuned for confirmation on those and other gigs to be announced. Travis, Terry, Paul, and Glen should be up to their usual fan favourite tricks on these six nights, so look for them then at around 10:00 PM with 19+ age limits and no cover. See above for more details, and don't miss their next shows at The Reggievelt TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for last month's poll results and our new poll tomorrow! Thanks everyone!