LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Tym Morrison), As It Stands' New EP, And Much More!!

We're back with a new post on this Friday night, including new videos, details on a new EP release, and leading off, a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for this weekend! Here's what you should know!

Local acoustic hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison will play a special matinee concert THIS SUNDAY at Reggie's Place on Queen Street East! Apologies for the short notice, Tym announced this gig via it's official Facebook event page on Saturday, and given our slow news pace as of late, I held it for a post closer to showtime. This is the booking that was postponed from this past Sunday for publically unannounced reasons (perhaps just a date mix-up?), and it marks his first public concert since the abrupt cancellation of his Motley Market arrangement in the fall, as well as his first scheduled booking at the original downtown Reggie's in memory. Of course, Tym does have country covers in his extensive playlist, but he does not primarily play that genre, so will this be a reasonably tailored matinee, or is this another sign that the new Reggie's ownership aren't as country-centric as before? Find out on SUNDAY!

This booking is in Reggie's regular SUNDAY matinee timeslot of 3:00 PM, which will be old hat for regulars, but is relatively new for us. In any event, expect this to have a 19+ age limit, no cover charge, and the usual social distancing/mask requirements that venues hosting live music must abide by at present. Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, Tym has two new original songs posted on his YouTube channel to check out! The first one was posted on Saturday, and it is entitled "Jesus Everywhere", which will be a massive hint to the lyrical content. The video proper has a slideshow with lyrics, and the song is a softer, mellower number that is well composed with good harmonics in the vocals. That said, if you want something heavy, his brand new instrumental "The Holy War" will be up your alley!

Thematically about the battle between good & evil, this is a solid and suitably dramatic piece of power metal that fans of his old original band work will be right at home with, though I somehow doubt we'll see an acoustic cover of it at Reggie's on SUNDAY. Cool stuff, especially with fantasy-laden slideshow to match, so give it a listen below, and see much more above!

Next up, it's official: As It Stands' long, long awaited third EP "The Lost Tapes" is now on sale! As promised, it dropped at midnight today on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music, and you can also buy it for $1.99 on Amazon. The release 100% confirms that this includes songs from the defunct local hardcore quintet's Metalworks Studio sessions with producer Kevin Dietz in June 2011, and from no others, so I was largely right on my prediction from Tuesday's post! However, the EP only features four of the songs recorded there 9½ years ago, omitting their studio cover of Blink-182's "Stay Together For The Kids", presumably over copyright concerns. Why not re-post it on Soundcloud to stream, at least? For the record, they haven't confirmed if Relentless Audio did indeed provide the final mix, at least not on Facebook. This has been a long wait for As It Stands to finally put this out, especially given that this is their first paid EP release since 2007! 

It is very encouraging to see them finally right a wrong from their well received second active period, and while it would be nice to have seen them include the songs recorded in their 2010 studio sessions, or even digitally release their first two discs, just be glad that we got these "Lost Tapes" at all! Baby steps! Will this be our first CD review on the SMS in 2021? I don't see why not, so stay tuned for that in the new year, and buy or stream As It Stands' new EP (at long last) at the above links!

Finally for today, here's a couple of new videos from Sault Michigan hard rock band Tarnished's Facebook page! While not plugged there in advance, the guys (minus Gary) returned as guests on local classic hits radio station Eagle 95.1 FM's morning show with host/station owner Tim Ellis a few days ago. Apologies for not plugging that on here, I would have had Tarnished mentioned it beforehand! The band uploaded two videos on Facebook on Wednesday, including one of frontman Alex Traynor and bassist Josh Fair playing an acoustic rendition of their own "Metalyn", and as embedded below, one of Alex and guitarist Nathan Webber covering Chuck Berry's "Run Run Rudolph". Normally, I'd embed the original over a cover, but it's the Christmas season! The guys handle these acoustic versions well, so give them a look above & below, and stay tuned for more from Tarnished!

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