Hempfest, BFGs, And Catgut Concert Previews!!

In our second post of the day, we're focused on more concert previews in an unusually drawn out stretch of shows, this time focusing on metal/hard rock concerts going down tomorrow and on Monday night! Yes, our Pop Evil preview is coming too, likely on Tuesday. Read on below for these previews (including a festival's return and two punk/metal gigs on Monday), and of course, check out this month's Defunct Local Band Profile on Infrastrate in the post below this one!

Regional marijuana culture festival Hempfest returned for it's 15th installment (and third under it's current ownership) on Monday, and TOMORROW'S last day will see the return of hard rock! Sure, there hasn't been a sizeable contingent of local or metal bands since 2011, but the lineup's much larger than last year, and there's a mix of both regular Hempfest performers and tribute bands to take in, including headliners Mama Kin! This Toronto-based Aerosmith tribute band are a popular local sight (last seen here in April 2012), and they have a faithful and entertaining take on the original songs and look of Aerosmith, so they're worth checking out for sure! Mama Kin will actually have two sets tomorrow night at 7:30 & 9:00 PM, bookending a set by rappers Radar & J. Frost at 8:30 PM. The rest of the lineup in descending order includes a comedian of some kind at 7:00 PM, Hamilton folk/ska quintet Blind Mule at 6:00 PM, Radar & Blind Mule again at 5:30 & 4:30 PM, the finals of this year's Willy High Games at 4:00 PM, Newmarket punk band The Salads at 2:15 PM, a live speaker of some kind at 1:45 PM, and Remedy, a Southern Ontario-based Black Crowes tribute opening at 12:00 PM.

As usual, Hempfest is in it's usual home of Poplardale Road in nearby Ophir, Ontario (an hour east of the Soo), and tickets are $40 at the door and $50 if you're going today too (click here for today's schedule, but there's no heavier bands), while attendees with federal marijuana exemptions get in free (if you show your paperwork on arrival.) This year's Hempfest is generally 18+, but minors can attend with a guardian. For all details for this year's remaining events, check the above links! While I'd love to see more local talent, the expanded lineup is great to see, and tribute bands have a lot of success, so hopefully this year's Hempfest is another hit, and don't miss the last days! For a preview, here's Mama Kin playing "Dream On" last year!



Now to a surprisingly busy Monday for original metal/punk concerts, starting with another new show at The New American Pub courtesy of local concert promoter & musician Jamie Vincent! While not all ages like his other concerts, an entertaining mix of grunge and punk will hit this Bay Street venue on Monday night, including headlining Edmonton grunge rockers Catgut! Featuring Jamie's old Flint bandmate Jesse Silkie on drums, Catgut's alternative sound and punk sensibility give them a solid 1990s-esque sound that fans should like, even if it's not the most aggressive sound! Jamie's own grunge project Bad Back (featuring him on vocals & guitar and his Fuller bandmate Nathan Sauve on drums) will open for Catgut in their second live concert set, while the show itself will begin with a half-Nebraska Arms reunion courtesy of an unplugged set from Wayne Watkins & Dave Prendergast (expect acoustic punk songs.) Admission will be $5 on Monday night for this 19+ show, and doors open at 8:00 PM, which is somewhat early. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page!

Though the 19+ nature is odd given the promoter, fans of punk and alternative hard rock should find a lot to like, and the success of this show could be telling for future original hard rock/metal concerts at The New A, so don't bypass it if you're not going to see the BFGs! Check the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's Catgut live in Edmonton last year!



Finally for the regional metal/hard rock concerts through Monday, Toronto hardcore punk legends The Bunchofuckingoofs will hit The Roosevelt Hotel that night for a well anticipated concert in itself! Thirty years into their run, their aggressive, reckless, and heavy originals should get some great mosh pits going at The Rosie, and it will be awesome to see Crazy Steve Goof and company laying down their classic material in the Soo on Monday! Victoria garage punk trio The Last of the V8 Interceptors will join them for their first of two local concerts this year (they're opening for The Dayglo Abortions next month too), and while I don't know a lot on their sound, their Mad Max themes and punk talents should fit in well! Local support will come courtesy of hardcore punk quintet Destroilet (in their third show of the year) and the Rosie return of local grindcore/death metal trio Shit Liver, and both should fit in very well for this feast of hardcore punk and metal! Originally scheduled to be held at The Algonquin Pub before being relocated, this show is a 19+ event with a 9:00 PM start time and a $10 entry fee. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page!

I won't recommend hitting either Catgut ot The BFGs preferably, as they're different kinds of shows, but The BFGs will appeal to the hardcore punk angle more, so if you prefer that, be at The Rosie, and keep in mind The BFGs notoriety and success over their lengthy run! Both should be great shows, so go occupy a venue, and for a preview, here's The Bunchofuckingoofs playing "Go Get Screwed" live a couple months ago!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for our Swampstravaganza review either tomorrow or early Monday! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Catgut), Bad Back & Sailor's Tongue Updates, And More!!

After a surprisingly slow day given the usually busy month that we're in, we're back with more news on this Monday night, so what have we got today?  Along with some recent updates to one of our monthly feature series and some big updates for two very different local bands with shows coming up, we'll start with a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for next month, so here's what you need to know!

Local concert promoter Jamie Vincent's next hyped concert is now official, as Edmonton grunge/punk quartet Catgut will indeed make their local debut on Monday, August 12th! Featuring Jamie's former Flint bandmate Jesse Silkie on drums, Catgut have a unique and noisy blend of styles that calls to mind grunge and alt-rock from the late 1980s and early 1990s, and there's some solid heavier songs within, so check them out and see what you think! Two local bands will open for them, including local grunge duo Bad Back (more on them in a bit) and Small Town Rivals frontman Wayne Watkins (ex-Nebraska Arms, Renderware, etc.) in a solo acoustic punk set, and each should compliment Catgut's softer and faster songs well! My hunch on the location was correct, as the host venue will be The New American Pub House at 602 Bay Street (beside the Tim Hortons near the "Algoma's Friendliest City" sign), in the first heavier concert I've heard of here since starting the SMS! I have no clue on how it'll handle for a non-cover band, but fingers crossed it fits and will get further use for original acts!

Unfortunately, this will be Jamie's first 19+ show since starting his usually-all ages concert promotion agency (it is a pub, after all), but doors will still open at an earlier start time of 8:00 PM, and admission is just $5. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! This should be a different show for both location and bands, but grunge and alternative rock fans should find a lot to like, so don't miss it, and stay tuned for potential updates!

Next up, here's a bit more on the aforementioned Bad Back! Before going to see their second live show next month, video from their first is now online courtesy of member Jamie Vincent's AlgomA bandmate Boyd Rendell's YouTube channel (though the video is unlisted on YouTube for unknown reasons.) Filmed at their headlining show at The Oddfellows Hall on June 27th (and covertly uploaded on July 1st), it clears up a lot of unknowns on Bad Back, including their performing roles, as Jamie's actually their singer and guitarist, with his ex-Fuller bandmate Nathan Sauve on drums (with a sideways kit, a'la Robert Sweet from Stryper.) Both handle vocals, though Jamie appears to sing more. The video includes six songs, including originals named "Lung Bucket" and "Gotta Really Open Up", covers of The Refused's "Rather Be Dead" and "The Deadly Rhythm", and two more originals named "Breeding Weak" and "Drive My Way Home", so click each to go directly to the song! As for the video itself, it's black and white and filmed at a solid angle with a high quality camera, but the audio quality isn't that good, oddly enough.

The songs are heavy and have a punk edge to them too, but I can barely hear either sing through the often staticy audio, and I can't 100% comment until I hear them in clearer quality. Boyd also hinted at an EP release from Bad Back in the video's description, but I have yet to hear anything concrete on Bad Back recording sessions. I'll keep you guys posted for sure, but for now, check out Bad Back's first concert set below, and don't miss them at The New American on August 12th!

Next up, here's some news I thought people should know relating to local hard rock band Sailor's Tongue's set at Rotaryfest's Second Stage on Queen Street East on Saturday night! This news comes from frontman Kyle McKey's personal Facebook page, as the band's Facebook page hasn't been updated in 4 months. First off, Sailor's Tongue will perform as a quintet (for the first time?) on Saturday, as guitarist Blake Jackson will return to the fold this weekend after missing their reunion gig at last year's Rotaryfest. However, his replacement Liam Seymour has been retained, so we'll have three guitarists (counting Kyle) in their lineup now! Intriguing on it's own, but the other news that Kyle shared is that they'll have some kind of CDs available at Rotaryfest this year! I have no idea if they're being given away or sold (or if they're demos or fully packaged albums), but this isn't a huge surprise if you've followed the band, as drummer/Kyle's brother Dean McKey posted new Sailor's Tongue demo tracks on his SoundCloud page earlier this year, and they may be/comprise part of the hyped CDs.

I'd like to check out Sailor's Tongue's set (just their second since reuniting last year) and get a CD, as they're a very entertaining band! Unfortunately, it runs concurrently with Bushplane Musical Madness II, and when in doubt, I'll usually pick the show with more hard rock/metal bands, and the music surrounding Sailor's Tongue's 8:00 PM set on Saturday isn't really my thing. Hopefully they'll play again before next year's Rotaryfest, but if you're there, check out Sailor's Tongue and grab their CD if you can!

Finally for today, here's some new updates to our past Battle of the Bands Rewind profiles to make them more updated and current! First, I changed many MySpace links (due to their content deletions from their "upgrades") and made videos embedded on each larger (as the post area on the site is now bigger) on each profile. On our Skid Row Battle profile, I replaced the still-undebuted Crawfather with Scary Uncles frontman Justin Langlois' newest band The Thrill Junkies in the section on battle alumni's later bands. In both our 2008 Case's Music & Algoma University Battle profiles, I updated info referencing Fountain of Betrayal/Bring The Fallen drummer Travis St. Amour's run with the latter band, as he wasn't B.T.F.'s drummer at the time of their YMCA Battle win in March 2009. It was actually Joey Graham (who missed the event with a sprained wrist), and I also noted that in that battle's profile, along with replacing the defunct Faithless Sin with Operation: Killdozer bassist Justin Lam's newest band Jack Spades in the newer bands section. Finally for now, on all profiles on battles that Bring The Fallen was in, I noted their upcoming reunion set at The Oddfellows Hall on July 26th!

I have some more updates for this and other series to make, and I'll outline more of those in an upcoming news post, but that's all for today! Stay tuned for more news, last month's poll results and our next poll, previews of a huge concert weekend in the area (Rotaryfest, Shinedown, Bushplane Musical Madness, etc.), and more soon! Thanks everyone!

A New Local Grunge Band, New Song Postings, And Much More!!

Keeping the news coming on this Tuesday afternoon, we've got an assortment of updates to get to today, including new song uploads from two very different local bands (one defunct, one active), and more assorted notes from the last week or so, along with a new band discovery, so here's what you need to know!

We have a new Sault Ontario band to add to our band links, and they are new local grunge duo Bad Back! You may remember them as the de facto headliners at the June 27th Oddfellows Hall concert that was to have featured Ahna & Powercup, and while they've had a Twitter page since February that I already knew about, it completely slipped my mind until now to plug on here (blame my limited use of Twitter.) The posts seem to back up the band's lineup, featuring AlgomA drummer Jamie Vincent and his former Fuller bandmate Nathan Sauve (also known as Lion Ride's original bassist), though I'm not sure who sings lead. Described alternately as grunge and "Sooludge" on Twitter, their Twitter page (which I believe Jamie runs) revealed last week that they were "almost ready to record", although anything more specific isn't known, nor is any media samples of their sound or their debut last month. However, Bad Back did reveal on Saturday that they've found "a new venue" that they'll try out for the previously hyped August 12th show that Jamie was promoting featuring Edmonton grunge band Catgut, closing the tweet by saying "THE NEW A!!!"

Are they referencing The New American Pub House on the corner of Bay & Brock Street, or does that have an alternate meaning? Either way, that looks like Bad Back's next show, and we'll keep you posted when something more official is announced! I'm intrigued by the idea of a new local hard rock band with just two members, as I did see value out of similar past acts like Sue Inside & Sounds From The Green Room, but we'll have to see what comes next for Bad Back in terms of media, gigs, and updates. Stay tuned for more as it comes in!

Next up, here's a surprise new song upload from defunct local hard rock cover quartet Sneaky Pete! Over a year after their sudden breakup, guitarist Mario Carlucci uploaded this recording of the band covering The Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Dani California" onto his YouTube channel on Sunday, which is similar though not exactly the same as the version on their old MySpace page (the different guitar work after the first chorus is clear proof.) However, both are well performed (if not exceedingly heavy), and Mario and the guys show solid instrumental skills, but Mike Oakley's vocals are noticeably stronger on the verses compared to the choruses. It's ironic that this gets posted just days away from our Defunct Local Band Profile on them (coming tomorrow), but it's nice to hear some new media from their two year run, and give this new-ish recording a listen below!



Also today, here's the latest song posting from local death/grind solo project Brutaly Fatal, as their song "Stomp Your Brains Out" from their first demo was posted onto their label Blood Shed Productions' YouTube channel on June 26th! It's mostly a 72 second exercise in bass playing with limited death growling, and it's a bit too minimal for my liking (even compared to Austin's other Brutaly Fatal work), but there's still something there and it's not as ripe for controversy as some other Blood Shed songs. Check out Brutaly Fatal's new song below!



Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news stories from the last little while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by band name:

• New local metal/punk quartet Chronic Demonic (featuring Frightlight and Faithless Sin alumni) have announced the names of four original songs being worked on via their Facebook page last week, and they're called "Dance With The Devil", "God Hates Fangs", "Follow The Bottle", and "War". Good signs, hopefully they'll be ready to rock the stage soon!
• This is obviously late given their sudden breakup on Sunday, but former local death metal band Crimson Crusade's only EP "Upon The Eve Of War" was uploaded in full onto frontman Devon Lucier's YouTube channel last month, so stream it there for a convenient (if slightly redundant) source of their only release! Best of luck to the guys going forward, I know they'll do great things!
• Newer local classic hard rock band The Thrill Junkies (essentially the successors to Turner Up & Havadder) have quietly parted ways with bassist Jamie Cameron, as per a post by guitarist Robert Brown on the Musicians Wanted Facebook group on Saturday. A reason for Jamie's departure has not been publicized, but to be fair, they don't have any online pages yet to do so either. If you're interested in trying out, message Robert on Facebook at this location or via the above link!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile on the aforementioned Sneaky Pete tomorrow! Thanks everyone!