Our Recap Of Bone Yard 225's Interview On The Borderline!!

It's been a while since we've talked about on-air content on local internet radio station The Borderline (they haven't had a lot of new hard rock/punk-leaning programming beyond what's in their music rotation in a good while), but on Wednesday, local southern hard rock trio Bone Yard 225 were interviewed by Adrian Vilaca on the Smart As Trees podcast! This is the first Smart As Trees episode that's really crossed the SMS' radar since their Clusterfolk episode in 2022, believe it or not. The interview is conducted by Adrian with all three members of Bone Yard, and just a warning before listening that there is some adult language. After introducing Greg, Alex, and Warren, the interview proper begins with frontman Greg Simpson acknowledging their beginnings in 2009 as a country cover band with him singing and playing guitar, with his old band Stiffler's Mom coming up along with Warren's own original music.

The reasoning behind tacking "225" to their name is finally brought up in an online context next, as the band wanted to differentiate themselves from the multiple other bands elsewhere named Bone Yard without rebranding fully, so a friend inspired them to add the number 225 based on placement of B and Y in the alphabet (B is the 2nd letter, Y the 25th), a'la biker codes, plus the existence of the angel number 225. Despite my initial assumption when the name extension was announced last year, it is not a reference to the United Steelworkers Local 2251, which I was corrected on at the time. After addressing the band's own colourful language and imagery, they introduced their debut original song "F.A.F.O." (as in, "fuck around & find out"), which is played on-air at the 7:10 mark. When the interview resumes, Adrian asks about the sing-along aspect for that track and how it went over when Bone Yard first played it live.

Next, we hear about their live shows and their recent runs of shows in Sudbury, plus planned on-the-road gigs in Thessalon and Kirkland Lake this summer, and Greg said that they're apparently exploring the possibility of playing shows in the United States. Warren did note that they're looking at writing new originals and working on a few new covers, seemingly implying that they might be doing a studio cover or two as well, and they're also trying to garner a loyal cult following as they continue getting their name out there. As of recording the interview, they had 79 shows booked for 2025, and the guys credited their support system as well, before their second single "Gypsy Spell" was played at the 18:45 mark. When the interview picks back up, Adrian asks the band about their charitable involvement in Toystock (for Christmas Cheer) and the Dragonfly Run (for ARCH), and what inspired them to support these causes.

The late Tyrone Souliere (Alex's former Mojo bandmate) is invoked here when discussing their support for ARCH and fighting cancer. Next, they discuss the fan support that they get, with the band criticizing the costs involved to both go out to see live music, and for venues to have the setups to host full rock bands, especially post-pandemic, while not being afraid to speak up about their issues with the state of live music in spite of the talent performing in the Soo. After discussing their belief to question things and debate the issues, Adrian plays their newest song "Fuck!" at the 35:35 mark. In the last three minutes of the interview, Adrian asks what Greg, Alex, and Warren's "desert island discs" would be (as in, if you were stranded on a desert island, what albums would you want to listen to indefinitely?), before closing with plugs for their social media and the guys giving Adrian a t-shirt, as seen in the teaser video below!

Uploaded to the band's YouTube channel prior to the interview's live debut on The Borderline, it features an on-air plug for the station from your local 225, plus photos from the interview and sample audio of their own music. Overall, this was a good interview that set things up well for fans of Bone Yard as they enter what should be their biggest year yet! Given how long they've been running, the fact that they're making such a push into original music and tour dates in 2025 is very neat, and while I did have some trouble differentiating Greg & Alex's voices, it's an informative listen for fans of "the dirty 3", so give the full interview a listen at this link, and stay tuned for more news and notes next week! Thanks everyone!

Details On Dustin Jones' Interview On Across The Tracks On The Borderline!!

Back in June, two veteran local punk musicians were separately interviewed for radio shows on local internet radio station The Borderline, and I do apologize for both being so late to be covered on the SMS! We'll start with the June 23rd interview with Jonesy Land frontman/Bookclub bassist Dustin Jones, marking his second long-form interview with the station, following an episode of Sev's Cellar three years ago. This time, Dustin featured on Borderline founder Adrian Vilaca's interview series Across The Tracks, which focuses on detailing original songs, and the episode runs for 53 minutes. Conducted in studio, it's clear from the off that they've known each other for years, which helps for the comfort level! The interview started with Dustin explaining why he launched the Jonesy Land project apart from his bands, as well as the overall lighter/reserved tone of the project's debut album "Zoom-Out".

Like in past episodes of Across The Tracks, Adrian asks about the origins and themes behind songs by the interview subject, and while he does not stick to the release order of the album, the songs in question are played after that segment wraps up (though they are rarely directly introduced by Adrian, so that can catch you off guard at times). "Father Time" comes up first, but "Ode To The Boys" is discussed next, and it's neat hearing some insight as to The Inner City Surfers' heyday! The song actually wasn't directly about his old bands, moreso old friends, but Dustin does also give some advice to current musicians to start their careers, especially with how easy self-promotion and networking is compared to when he was younger. The debut single "Old Man" is next to be outlined, though note that the interview predates the music video for the song. Next, they discuss his love for Sault Ste. Marie and the Algoma District.

That ties directly into their discussion of the Jonesy Land track "Superior Sons" and some of his surprising inspiration in that song's composition. Adrian next asks about Dustin's own Mission Control Studio and his experiences working with musicians who record there, leading into talk of "Keep Trying", which featured Shannon Moan on guest vocals. Dustin next talks about his views on the local music scene at present, as well as his experiences running a local songwriters competition with Greg MacLachlan pre-pandemic, while explaining how he's approaching music as he gets older, and how this album has a different edge than on his prior albums. This led into "Lonely Boy", before Adrian asks Dustin about fatherhood and his experiences with his kids, while also noting the experience he had making this album and some of the (largely) positive reaction that he received from listeners.

Given the talk about his family, this naturally led into "Shine On" (written for his daughter Jett), and the interview naturally wrapped up with "Summer's End", which was written for his late stepfather and written in the style of music that he loved. The interview ends with Dustin thanking Adrian for all he does locally, as well as plugging Jonesy Land, Mission Control Studios, and Tidal Records, though no sign of a dedicated band page for Jonesy Land yet. Fun interview that really explores the "Zoom-Out" album in depth and Dustin's maturity as a songwriter, and while the album proper is light on "punk" content, you can see how his life's experiences as a whole shaped things on the final product! I'm kinda surprised that he didn't talk about Bookclub though, as they are is current live band, past teasers about Jonesy Land playing shows again acknowledged. Check out this Across The Tracks episode at the links above!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews next, and that other June interview with a local punk icon on The Borderline will be covered in an upcoming SMS post! Thanks everyone!

The Soo's Got Talent 2022 Finals Recap (Part 1!!)

At long last, let's begin looking at the final results of this year's Soo's Got Talent competition, which ended on Friday, October 21st with the final round at Soo Blaster as expected! I do apologize for the delays in this making the site, Passion Video Productions uploaded their videos from the event on October 25th, but life and other SMS posts got in the way over the past two weeks. Everything pertinent from the six finalists, guest performers, and announcements can be seen on the T.S.G.T. Facebook page, so if you weren't in attendance on the 21st, what went down? Enough material for at least two SMS posts, that's what! The first video features introduction of the judges from co-organizer Barbara Rajnovich, and out first guest performance of the evening, courtesy of judge/ex-Obsession frontwoman Valerie Powley covering The Motels' "Only The Lonely". Not as hard rocking as Obsession often got with her, but strongly sung as you'd expect!

The opening performance of each of the six finalists (all singers only unless otherwise stated) and their respective judges' remarks were held next, starting with Nanette Garcia covering Adele's "Rolling In The Deep", followed by singer/guitarist Colin Gasparelli playing an apparent original song, possibly named "It's Alright". Xavier Pelletier LeBeouf (who was also a finalist in 2019 under a different first name) covered Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)" next, with Ali Nisbett covering "Rolling In The Deep" again as the fourth performer, but with a twist. Here, she's singing the song overtop an instrumental backing track of Survivor's "Eye Of The Tiger", a mash-up that has existed online since not long after the Adele song came out. At least this way, Nanette and Ali didn't verbatim do the same song, so hopefully there was no conflict, but the slower intro for Nanette's is also a variation.

"Eye of the Tiger" is a hard rock song, overplayed as it may be, so hearing a totally different song fit it so well is neat, and Ali sings this one very well! Remember that she did cover Journey in the semifinals too, so classic rock is not entirely unexpected from her. Give Ali's mashup cover a look below!

Fifth up was Amanda Phillips covering Andra Day's "Rise Up", and the first half of the finalist performances ended with Maharlika Joy (or M.J.) Servillon covering The Fugees' version of "Killing Me Softly". Next we got the intermission performance by local alternative hard rock quintet Handsome Sandwich, who played two original songs, namely "No Idea" (which is brand new unless it's only been played live) and their early, pre-Rafael original "Bitter". Very fun and lively performances from Handsome Sandwich, which will no doubt continue the good momentum towards the release of "Lettuce" (albeit allegedly not coming until May), and this gives Taylor a chance to sing before handing the mic off to the other finalists! We'll save those performances for our next post due to the amount, as I want to spotlight all six on the site, but give Handsome Sandwich's intermission songs a watch below!

To close today's post, let's jump ahead to the judges' deliberations, where 2019 Soo's Got Talent winner Adrian Sullivan returned for two guest songs! This mirrors that year's event, when then-reigning 2018 champion Daniella Brewer returned for a guest performance at the finals, so might this year's winner do the same next fall? At the time of his win in 2019, Adrian was working on his to-debut local band The Uncanny Valley, whose psychedelic-tinged hard rock has become a popular rising sight at local concerts, but neither of his songs here ("Carry On" & "Bleeding Soul") are familiar as Uncanny Valley originals. That said, you can hear "Carry On" and many other early solo songs of Adrian's on his Soundcloud page (under the name "Adrian Taylor"), which he updated through the spring of 2020. As acoustic performances, neither is overly heavy in this form, but both are well done!

Adrian has a good handle on 1970s singer-songwriter type music, and if these were adapted to The Uncanny Valley, they could easily be pumped up to match! Good stuff, so give Adrian's performance a look below! Full disclosure, returning guest judge Tim Murphy did not perform a song as advertised on the event posters (if he did, Passion Video didn't upload it).

Our next T.S.G.T. post(s?) will cover the second song from the finalists, where they all performed with the instrumentalists in Handsome Sandwich for a song each, so how do they do with a live band? Find out then, with other news and notes to follow on the site also! Thanks everyone!

The Soo's Got Talent Finals Results & Video!!

Before we preview tomorrow's Black Mastiff concert and cover some more recent updates, here's our long awaited fallout/results post from the finale of a major local entertainment competition (and ARCH fundraiser) that wrapped up over a week ago, so here's what you should know!

After four weeks of exciting performances, the second annual Soo's Got Talent competition ended at Soo Blaster on Friday, October 11th, with singer/guitarist Adrian Sullivan being named as the winner! Apologies for the delay, we were waiting for video from the finals to turn up online before making a full wrte-up. As outlined in this SooToday article by Darren Taylor, Adrian narrowly edged out vocalist Juliana Regan for the top spot, as determined by judges Darren Robertson, Mike Severin, Lesley Walsh Tibben, and guest Tim Murphy. Adrian picked up $1,000 for the top prize, and judges actually announced everyone's final ranking publically, including a strong third place showing for resurgent rap/metal trio The Apocalypse Afterparty, which is supremely encouraging given their long layoff and outlier status! Their finish was better than at the VM Radio Battle finals run in 2015, if you want to compare the events.

Also, kudos to Coulson Perri (a wild card finalist, mind you) placing in fourth! Adrian is briefly interviewed in the above article (which includes photos of all seven finalist acts), where he notes that he has solo music on Soundcloud, he's currently in an up & coming local band named The Uncanny Valley, and he is primarily inspired by classic rock bands like Led Zeppelin & The Who. We didn't see Adrian tackle any heavier bands in his covers during The Soo's Got Talent, but he is a very talented musician with a bright future ahead of him, and it'll be very interesting to see what he has in store down the line! As for the final round video, SaultOnline and ONNtv outdid themselves to cover the last round, as partly due to each finalist playing two songs, the last episode runs for over two and a half hours! As aired on ONNtv on Wednesday and posted on their YouTube channel on Friday, what all can you see in the final round?

The video starts with Tim Murphy covering "This Is The Moment" from the Jekyll & Hyde musical,  before moving into the finalists, who are each starting with a song picked by the judges. Robert "Killabeatz" Drolet (5th place) opens with an interpolation of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song", which includes pre-recorded vocals of his and live beatboxing. Interesting approach, and he worked with what he was given, but I think his regular repertoire suits him better. Other "judges pick" covers include Bethany Pelletier LeBeouf (7th place) singing Alessia Cara's "Scars To Your Beautiful" & The Dancing Divas (6th place) performing Jessie J's "Price Tag", followed by the impeccably dressed Apocalypse Afterparty covering R.E.M.'s "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)", and the rapid fire vocals and lyrical content suits their sound really well! Coulson Perri is next singing Alice Cooper's "Only Women Bleed", and he plays the part nicely, complete with Alice-esque costuming and makeup!

Juliana Regan is next doing Sinead O'Connor's version of "Nothing Compares 2 U", with Adrian Sullivan rounding out the first half by covering George Michael's "Faith". In between halves, the "surprise celebrity tribute artist" was actually local Elvis Presley impersonator Jimmy Fiore covering "Burning Love" & "Can't Help Falling In Love". I'm not a big Elvis fan, so judge for yourselves how he compares! The second half performance order is identical to the first, and it features Killabeatz doing a parody of "A Whole New World" from Aladdin leading into a beatboxing performance, Bethany covering Sarah MacLachlan's "Angel", and The Dancing Divas covering Wilson Phillips' "Hold On", before The Apocalypse Afterparty played a laid back yet hard-edged original song that suits their approach! We also get Coulson (sans makeup) covering Duran Duran's "Hungry Like The Wolf" and Juliana tackling Postmodern Jukebox's jazz cover of The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army".

Adrian closed the competition with his own original song "Something To Believe In", before 2018 Soo's Got Talent winner Daniella Brewer returned to update everyone on what she's done in the past year, and to sing her cover of Lewis Capaldi's "Bruises". Afterwards, we got an unadvertised guest song from the rapper who performed with Killabeatz in earlier rounds, accompanied by Apocalypse Afterparty frontman Paul Stanghetta on drums. The video ends with the judges announcing the winners and their closing remarks. I will say, the video proper started going out of sync with the audio track after a while, but there's a lot to take in here, hence why this post is only devoted to the finals. A lot of promising young talent took the stage for year #2 of The Soo's Got Talent, and it will be very interesting to see how everyone's careers progress as a result, but congratulations again to Adrian on his big win, and be sure to watch the video below and the above links for much more from this event!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for our Black Mastiff preview and more next! Thanks everyone!