Last Month's Poll Results, Plus Lots Of Assorted Updates!!

Before we begin today's post, I wanted to apologize for missing Mourning Wood's latest Reggie's Place shows on Thursday, Friday, and yesterday for coverage on the SMS this weekend, as they were announced on late notice after our weekend concert preview post, but before we had time for a new post. I wish they'd plug Reggie's shows publically more often, but we did plug the latter two on our Facebook page, and hopefully they were a blast!

Now, today's lead story is the results of last month's poll, which asked this question: "When attending a concert that doesn't solely feature bands, what kinds of entertainers would you most want to see?" The poll sadly only got 4 voters, and only 1 chose to vote for two options (we tried a multiple choice method last month), and the only choice to win 2 votes was solo musicians and/or rappers. One vote each went to open mic/jam performers, stand-up comedians, and "I just want to see live bands", while no one chose DJs/turntablists, spoken word/poetry, performance art, bingo/live audience games, "Indifferent/no opinion", or "Other". Obviously, with such a low voter turnout, it's hard to gauge this as a representative sample of readers, but you do most often see solo artists alongside bands over the other choices, and while their sound is usually more reserved (C.T.W. aside), their talents often speak for themselves. This all adds to a nice variety at local concerts, but thanks to everyone that voted!

With that said, I am reluctantly putting our regular monthly polls on hiatus due to increasingly low voter turnout. I 100% intend on continuing with our "favourite ____ of 2015" polls, but regular monthly polls aren't attracting the attention that they once were, and admittedly, there have been times where I struggled to come up with a new topic that we hadn't previously tackled. As a result, I'll likely shift our Defunct Local Band Profile to the 14th of each month just for balance, but might our Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile return in the near future? Time will tell, but look for our year-end polls in a few months, and who knows, regular polls may come back down the road!

To close this Sunday morning post, here's six assorted shorter stories from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist, event, or show name:

• If you had noticed that the short-lived 7L arts/music podcast had re-emerged via the restoration of it's Soundcloud page, that appears to have been temporary or reversed, as the page is down again. That said, host Teddy Syrette has since moved to Southern Ontario (no word on if that is a direct reason for 7L's apparent end or not), and the 7L Facebook page is being used to promote a reading he's doing in Toronto at the "Salon 203" event next weekend, notably at ex-Gore Street Cafe owner Sam Decter's new place. Sounds like a good time, hopefully it goes well!
• Local alternative/hard rock trio (and debut 7L podcast guests) The Din have posted three studio songs from their debut CD "Give In To The Din" to their Bandcamp page! Though The Din have opted not to post a full downloadable copy of the album there yet, fans can stream "In Search of The Perfect Moment", "Alleyways & Apartments", and "Potato" there to their hearts content in the meantime, so don't bypass it! This was briefly mentioned in our review of the album proper, but not in a news post, in case you're wondering why it's being covered twice.
• In a minor update to our "Other Local Metal Links", we have switched the link for local event promoters Maxx Entertainment from their website (which is down) to their Facebook page. Also, a planned amalgamation of their graphic design wing Maxx Graphix into the entertainment page under the "Choose Maxx" name won't affect our links unless the Maxx Graphix page is closed, though new customers would want to do their business on the combined page. Stay tuned for more from them, particularly regarding Toystock!
• We have removed local hardcore punk band Programmed To Fail (formerly The Transjenners) from our band links due to the quiet deletion of their Facebook and Soundcloud pages in recent months. The band didn't expand far beyond a pair of demo recordings and their name change, but they seemed to have some potential. Hopefully we hear more from Craig & Justin in the future!
• The eighth annual Soo Zombie Walk will return to The Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre on Saturday, October 22nd for a fourth year at the downtown museum, and bands will be a part of the pre-walk entertainment again at 4:00 PM! No word yet on who to look for, or if there will be an afterparty, but visit the official Facebook event page for details when they come in! For reference, last year's entertainment at both the walk & afterparty were an unplugged Sykotyk Rampage, Sudbury's Aggressive Acoustic, and Greg Callaghan.
• Speaking of Sykotyk Rampage, the veteran alternative/blues rock quartet have posted a new free "album" to their Reverbnation page! Entitled "50 Amazing Tales", it'a a greatest hits re-recordings package that would be 4 CDs in length if released in that format, split among a faux-live album, drinking songs, "blue Chinese" songs, and "metal crash punk" songs. This is a fun release that all Sykotyk diehards should check out, especially if you want to hear studio recordings of older songs with Tony Briglio on bass! However, note that it loads very slowly due to it's size.

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

Telephone & Address Concert Preview, SweetKenny Album Updates, Rotaryfest Notes, And More!!

With a special Wednesday night concert taking place TONIGHT, I threw a second post together today before we dive into weekend concert previews, so what's on tap? Some assorted recent notes, a few finds and notes relating to the newly released Rotaryfest schedule, and a new album release, but let's kick things off with that mid-week concert preview!

Local acoustic punk/grunge solo project Telephone & Address will return to The Gore Street Cafe TONIGHT as openers for Calgary indie/jazz rock quartet Fox Who Slept The Day Away to close the venue's Fortnight Festival! The Chris Shoust-led local solo act should be in good form with plenty of new and recent originals during this show, with Fox Who Slept The Day Away's soft, psychedelic originals sure to attract a good audience at the laundromat themselves, so give them a listen to see what you think also! This is the closing event for The Gore Street Cafe's Fortnight Festival, a two week sequel of sorts to the early-2016 Fishbowl Festival there, and with this being the only event this time around with a punk or hard rock act, it's great to see one just before the bell! Unless you already have a $25 pass for all Fortnight Festival events, admission is $5 at the door for tonight's ALL AGES event, which will start at 7:00 PM. Check the official Facebook event page & the above links for more details, and here's Telephone & Address live!

Next up, here's the latest from Dafter, Michigan solo hard rock musician Ken "SweetKenny" Sutton, who quietly released his 19th solo album "Gator's Bayou" onto his Bandcamp page on Monday! For the sixth time in his last seven studio album postings, "Gator's Bayou" is yet another instrumental album intended for use as a score in film, TV, or video games, which he says was inspired by 1960s and 1970s adventure films and cartoons. As well, his December 2015 compilation album "Comic Book!" is now available to the general public after previously being exclusive to paid yearly supporters on his Bandcamp page. It features 14 songs from prior SweetKenny albums, plus one exclusive original song ("Myra The Hunter") that isn't on any other release of his. Both are available for $7 via the above links, but can you expect a review of either on the site soon? For the latter, no, as precedence goes to original studio albums

For the former, we're leaning towards April's non-score album "In Your Face" for a review next, which could be as soon as next month, and assuming he continues releasing new albums at his fervent pace, we may only get to "Gator's Bayou" if "In Your Face" is delayed so far where it's not "new" anymore. In any event, check out SweetKenny's newest solo albums above for more of his prolific & varied hard rock originals and scores!

Also, I received my copy of Rotaryfest's program in the mail today (it's not online yet), and there's a few things to take away from it's Stage 1 & Stage 2 schedules that weren't previously online, so what should you know from the Sault Ontario summer festival? Thanks to the inclusion of pictures with most bands in the schedule, we can put faces to some of the newer and online pageless bands (like Jukebox Deluxe), but the most revealing picture of all may be the apparent album cover for Second Stage performers Gnaeus' upcoming debut CD "Meditations"! Though tiny and monochrome (I have a feeling the official cover is in colour), this confirms that the post-punk quartet completely discarded the original "Loomings" cover when they changed the album's name. Nice to see, so stay tuned for more on "Meditations" when announced! The program also confirms that Shaun Antler and Chelsie Parayko are back as the Stage 1 and Stage 2 directors respectively, and for what it's worth, the program makes no reference to the ongoing Stage 2 crowdfunding campaign.

And lastly, I've made the tough decision to stop classifying online pageless classic rock quartet RPM as a hard rock band in our primary SMS coverage. We had covered them as hard rock since their original Rock For Dimes set in 2013 based on reports at the time, but nothing I've seen since credits or describes them in our primary genre ranges (the program lists them as covering classic rock, blues, country, and top 40 pop.) That said, they're a talented band with a fan friendly sound, and be sure to check out Marcel, Dino, Ben, and Rob at Rotaryfest on July 16th at 3:00 PM!

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

• We have changed the link for local music/arts podcast 7L in our "Other Local Metal Links" from it's Soundcloud page to it's Facebook page, as the former is down or deleted. A reason hasn't been announced, but if 7L is done, it's a sudden move, as they had just posted a song by RedD Monkey alum Pete Mozarowski onto Soundcloud two weeks ago. For what it's worth, technical difficulties relating to broken equipment had kept full new episodes from going online since April. Hopefully 7L comes back, as Jordan and Teddy had a great thing going!
• This doesn't bear directly on the local metal scene, but it's worth noting: Former Gates of Winter bandmates Bryan Belleau and Brian Holmes will reunite on stage for the first time since (I believe) 2008 when Bryan and his wife, Fort Nelson, B.C. contemporary singer Melinda play an unplugged show at LopLops Lounge on July 30th, with Brian's local progressive rock band Machines Dream opening! Could there be an on-stage reunion between the two that night? Be there to find out, and click here for full details!
• Remember how we deleted defunct local music store Mister Disc from our "Other Local Metal Links" due to the deletion of it's Facebook page? Well, as it turns out, the Todd Gordon-owned store always had a Facebook group too serving very much the same purposes, including daily song dedications, so they are back with the "new" link! While I'm still not sure why the page was deleted, I apologize for not knowing about the Facebook group before!

That's all for today, but now stay tuned for weekend concert previews next! Thanks everyone!

New Van Halen Covers By Local Guitarists, Plus Lots Of Assorted Updates!!

(Updated at 3:11 PM) Before we begin this post, I wanted to apologize for a missed concert, as Munising, Michigan metal quartet Infathom (featuring former Half A Man singer Dillon Semasky) apparently played at Pickles Bar & Grill in Brimley on March 12th, marking their first E.U.P. concert appearance since 2014. I profusely apologize for missing it, Pickles is still not a common venue for our coverage, but hopefully it was a blast, and we will keep a better eye out for Infathom's next trips east! Now, today's post features some assorted recent updates, and first, some Van Halen cover videos from two local guitarists, starting with two instrumental renditions by 415E guitarist Chris Hubbard, as posted to his YouTube channel yesterday! Including covers of "Panama" and (as embedded below) "Jump", both feature Chris handling guitar, bass, and drums on multiple camera angles.

These covers are very strongly done by this huge local talent, who has proven his Van Halen fandom is not in vain time & time again, but the overhead camera angle is not a great view for when he plays guitar. Still, give Chris' solid new Van Halen covers a look above & below!



Next up, here's the first cover video from former Ashes To Dust guitarist Alex Hemy's YouTube channel in over a year, and fittingly, it's also of a Van Halen cover (in this case, "Panama" as well!) Playing along to what sounds like the original track minus the original guitar, Alex has a good grasp on the song, but the camera angles are a little odd. Still, it's nice to see a new performance video from Alex at last, so give it a look below!



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

• In their first public posting of the year, reunited Sault Michigan acoustic hard rock band The Creepy Little Coffee People revealed on their Facebook page yesterday that they made a guest appearance during an open mic night at The Merchant's Bar this past Thursday. This isn't their first live performance in such an event since reuniting, but it's the first to get public word that I've found. Hopefully we hear more from The C.L.C.P. soon!
• Sault Ontario alternative hard rock trio The Din played a set at the Fishbowl Festival's closing party last night at Outspoken Brewing on Queen Street, and photos from their set are available on their Facebook page! The closing party was a private event for volunteers and participants of the month-long festival, hence why we didn't plug it here (or know about The Din's involvement beforehand), but hopefully it was a blast, especially at the unique venue, and hopefully The Fishbowl Festival returns for 2017!
• Local alt-hard rock duo Infinity Grinder re-emerged for the first time this year via a bunch of new instrumental song postings on their SoundCloud page in the past month, including an extended track named "Quong" and a 9-track "Green Room Session" featuring Terrence and Brad jamming new originals alongside guest keyboardist "Rudeger Picklefeather" (which I presume is an alias, but I don't know his real identity.) The songs are strong and entertaining, but vocals would be a nice touch. Hopefully we hear much more from Infinity Grinder soon!
• The planned LemmaFest V meeting yesterday was cancelled for unannounced reasons, and will be rescheduled, as per the official Facebook page earlier today. Despite that, there is already visible interest to perform at the returning Sault Michigan festival from bands like Munising's Infathom, a possible Scofflaw reunion, and a local metal band named Stoned Ape Evolution, who have been together since 2014, wear masks on stage, and feature local musicians John Napoletano and Melvin Willis in their lineup, but don't have a known online page that I've found. The anticipation builds, so stay tuned for more LemmaFest 2016 updates!
• Former Bear Hunters guitarist Mike Vincent is looking to put together another new local metal band, preferably a death metal band with him on drums (as you've seen with Faceityoureametalband and Troubled Mind), though he's open to playing guitar if the band plays "an amazing genre". If you're interested in jamming with Mike, message him at this link or via his Musicians Wanted Facebook group post from yesterday!
• Apologies for the delay in mentioning these, but four new episodes of the 7L arts/music podcast have went up on their Soundcloud page in the past month! None are fully devoted to metal, hard rock, or punk topics, but host Teddy Syrette talks to friend Emily Youngsen about dreams, Cafe Natura owner Kelly Barton, local musician/writer Jeff Hinich, and a few local rappers in each. Musical performances by The Din (credited as "fill in blank") and Pillory frontman Robert Sartini (who actually fits nicely in an acoustic setting) are also included in the first two. All are fun listens, so check them out above, and stay tuned for more from 7L!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for our extended preview of Wednesday's VM Radio Battle of the Bands finals TOMORROW! Thanks everyone!

Project 421 & Bon Soo Updates, Plus More Updates & Notes!!

We're back with a new news post to kick off this last full week of January, so what's on tap? Some updates to one of our battle of the bands profiles, some assorted recent notes, and the latest from a new local arts podcast, but let's start with some new concert videos!

Local classic metal quintet Project 421 are the subject of some new videos that were uploaded to their Facebook page yesterday, all courtesy of their Rednecks Saloon concert on Friday! Attendee Chris Weber shot three videos at the show (and got lots of photos, albeit made black & white after the fact), and they include renditions of Black Sabbath's "N.I.B.", Kiss' "Cold Gin", and as embedded below, their first original "No One Rides For Free". Shot on a cell phone camera, the audio is scratchy, and the camera angle can be jittery, but these videos are our best look yet at the current Project 421 lineup, and you can definitely sense that they have a good grasp on these songs! The lighting isn't great though, only drummer Chris Thompson is well lit on stage. Give these a look above and below, and don't miss Project 421 at The Rockstar Bar next month!



Next up, the newest episode of the new local music/arts podcast 7L is now online via their Soundcloud page, so what should you know from it? The episode features host Teddy Syrette interviewing Bon Soo general manager Kerrie De Poli about next month's installment of our annual winter carnival, where Kerrie talks about the inception of Bon Soo, the extended 12-day lineup for this year, events to look for, how long Kerrie's been working with the festival, her background before joining Bon Soo, the merger with Passport To Unity, where to get Bon Soo buttons, and more. The episode closes with Kerrie reading a poem about Bon Soo, and Teddy singing likewise, which is a fun way to close the episode! It's good and fun promotion for this year's festival, but what do we learn about Bon Soo's concerts for this year? Only bare basics, with no visible lineup information confirmed for either The Marquee or Passport to Unity, but The Marquee will apparently be a one-night outdoor event again on Friday, February 5th at Mill Market.

The Passport To Unity multicultural festival will be at The Essar Center as usual, but now on Sunday, February 14th rather than May to fit the Bon Soo schedule. We have yet to find lineup information for either event, but when updates come out on both/either, we'll let you know! Give the new 7L episode a listen above, it's informative and worth checking out, but note that the teased acoustic punk segment is not featured, no word on if it's coming for episode #4. Stay tuned though!

Also today, here's three assorted shorter items from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphbetical order by artist name:

• If you've seen recent personal Facebook pictures of Havadder playing a recent gig without bassist Travis Sharpe, we can confirm that the show was a private event at The Rankin Arena, and with Travis unable to make the gig, local musician Brett Gottwald filled in for him. There are some videos from the event on Facebook, but unless the band shares them publically, we won't post them here. Brett filled in well though from what I saw, and give them a watch if they pop up on your news feed!
• Local musician Lee Catling is looking for a drummer for a Slayer tribute band that he's working on. He didn't offer any more details, but Slayer fans should be intrigued by this, so message Lee at this link or via his Musicians Wanted Facebook group post from yesterday if you're interested! 
• Honest Job bassist Drew Armstrong has been added as a performer with Like a Pisces during the Nirvana tribute concert at The Gore Street Cafe on February 20th during The Fishbowl Festival's opening night, as per the Facebook event page last week. However, it should be noted that the current wording of the performers lumps The Pixo Control in as one of the main acts, rather than as defined openers, so is this going to be a collaborative show with guests coming & going between songs? We'll let you know if there's clarification!

Finally for today, here's some big updates to one of our past Battle of the Bands Rewind Profiles (which return in March!) In our profile of December 2009's Algoma University Battle of the Bands, we noted The Fury's brief 2014 reunion and RedD Monkey's hiatus & posthumous activity in the section on competitors' later work, while we replaced Keep It Lit and Giwakwa with The Apocalypse Afterparty, Infinity Grinder, and Kaepora Gaebora in the section on performers' later bands to keep that more current. Finally, the trivia section now features notes on planned judges Anthony Fabiano & Dustin Jones' later work in battles of the bands (as Griphook's drummer in Spanish and as a VM Radio Battle judge/sponsor respectively), info on how The Apocalypse Afterparty & Infinity Grinder did at the battles in March 2015, and a note on Fury frontman Paul Stanghetta's debuting band Keep It Lit, who never played after dropping out of 2013's Viva La Battle. Hopefully that's up to date now, and stay tuned for updates of battles from the early 2010s soon!

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

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Like A Pisces), A New Local Festival, And A New Podcast!!

Today's post has some common threads in the topics, which largely devolve into word on a debuting local festival and a newer local arts podcast, but there are some extra bits to note within, including a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT and a partial band name change! Apologies for any delay in getting these on the site, but let's rectify that now and get this post underway!

Local alternative/grunge trio The Pixo Control will hit The Gore Street Cafe on Saturday, February 20th as the opening act for an apparent one-off Nirvana tribute band named Like A Pisces! The opening night of the debuting Fishbowl Festival (more on that in a second), this show coincides with what would have been late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain's 49th birthday, and will serve as a celebration of Nirvana, 1990s grunge, new wave, and alternative music. If things are what they seem to indicate on the Facebook event page, Like A Pisces (referencing lyrics from "Heart Shaped Box") will be comprised of local musicians Mister Tahti (Honest Job), Sam Decter (Boxes of Boom), and Lauren McClure, though instrument roles aren't listed. The Pixo Control's set will be their second local appearance of the year, and I believe their first at the fast-rising Gore Street venue, so keep them in mind for next month, as they're ideal openers in terms of sound!

A $5 cover charge is in effect for this 7:00 PM concert, while there will also be packages available for all Fishbowl Festival events (which we'll get into next), and while there isn't an announced age limit, the early start time of 7:00 PM seems to hint that it may not be 19+. If we get confirmation, we'll let you know! This sounds like an intriguing concert, especially if you're a fan of Nirvana or the Seattle grunge scene, so definitely keep this show in mind as the Fishbowl Festival commences!

Now, just what exactly is The Fishbowl Festival? Announced two weeks ago, it's an intended "mid-winter festival of community, food, art, and culture" at The Gore Street Cafe, with the name likely deriving from it's scheduling from February 20th-March 20th, during stretch of the zodiac where the Pisces (or fish) sign falls. Masterminded by the aforementioned Sam Decter (a co-owner of The Gore Street Cafe), a number of varied events are planned for the month, from concerts to workshops to community meals, and Sam and the cafe/laundromat are also looking for people & artists interested in playing, hosting, or helping out with events during the Fishbowl Festival, so if you want in, click here to voice up! As of this writing, the aforementioned Like A Pisces show is the only fully confirmed event that fits our coverage on the SMS, but there are strong indications that Mike Haggith & The Din may be playing an event during the festival, possibly with Stereo North alongside. 

$25 ticket passes are available at The Gore Street Cafe which will get you free or discounted entry into all festival events, though some are already "pay what you can" deals like the venue usually offers. While this is very ambitious, it sounds like there's some fun and unique events for many different tastes in store for late February and March, with everything from a pajamas & cartoons brunch to another "really really free market" in store, so be sure to follow all of the currently announced Fishbowl Festival events at the above links, and get a hold of promoters A.S.A.P. if you want to play or put on any events of your own!

Next up, here's our long overdue look at a new local arts podcast named 7L! No word on what "7L" means yet, but this podcast was created by Pillory bassist Jordan Leach and local artist/LGBT advocate Teddy Syrette (who serves as the in-studio host), and two episodes were posted on it's Soundcloud page earlier this month, which encourage thinking outside the box as a tagline. The first episode (posted on January 7th) features Teddy talking with the aforementioned Sam Decter (who plugged the Fishbowl Festival and what would become Like A Pisces in the podcast), with an appearance by Honest Job drummer Jason Lloyd. Interesting listen, especially for fans of what Sam has been doing with The Gore Street Cafe and his own music projects, so definitely check it out! The second episode from last week fits our coverage more, as it focuses on an interview with all three members of the aforementioned Mike Haggith & The Din, so what should you know on that?

Well, in the interview, one of the first notes is that the band has officially contracted their name to simply The Din, as they're trying to carve their own identity that is separate from Mike's solo music & his prior work with the defunct band Haggith, while also noting that the simplified name rolls off the tongue easier. Makes sense for distinction and ease, and we've noted the change on the site! After that is noted, Teddy talks to The Din about how long they've been playing for, their beginnings as a looser jam outfit, their current setlist & sound, the late David Bowie's influence on the band, their opinions on the local music scene & it's evolution, where they've played in the Soo, current plans for 2016, and their advice for aspiring musicians. The episode concludes with The Din performing an acoustic version of their new original "Flux", which sounds promising and has good vocal harmonies, but the drums are a little loud in the mix.

Entertaining interview that tells us a lot about The Din's run and plans, and it has a nice loose feel, with Brandan Glew in particular giving some good and well thought answers! Check it out above, and what's in store for episode 3? If this proves to be a weekly series, it might go online tomorrow, and a recent Facebook page tease noted that it'll likely feature "some delicious acoustic punk" (Telephone & Address?) and "an exclusive Bon Soo interview" (The Marquee?) Stay tuned for more on the third episode, 7L is now in our "Other Local Metal Links", and stay tuned for weekend concert previews next! Thanks everyone!