SweetKenny's New Album, New Solo Guitar Videos, And More!!

Before we post my review of last night's show at The Canadian Nightclub, we have a new news post on this Sunday morning! Today, we have assorted shorter recent news items, and a bunch of stories relating to local solo guitarists, including two new video uploads and a long awaited CD release, so here's what you need to know!

Dafter, Michigan solo hard rock musician Ken "SweetKenny" Sutton's new album "Cracks In The Wall" is finally on sale! After being delayed twice from the originally planned Halloween release date, his seventh original CD (and third of 2013) finally came out on Friday, and you can now buy it on CDBaby! The album goes for $12.97 on CD, $9.99 on mp3, or for 99¢ for each track individually, so check the above links to pick it up, or stream it for free at this location! Described as a "heavy rock blues style feel album", "Cracks In The Wall" (which was recorded this year at Waterfall Records) has just 6 songs, giving it the same EP length as "Doo Hickey" from earlier this year, but unlike it's preceding 2013 releases, the new CD is all instrumental with no credited guest performers. I got a good vibe from this CD on a first listen, so fans of SweetKenny's past work shouldn't be disappointed, but when is a formal review on the SMS coming?

As we just reviewed the slightly heavier & longer "Perception" earlier this month, a review of "Cracks In The Wall" won't happen until May 2014 at the earliest, as we don't review albums by the same band twice in a 6 month period out of fairness to other bands. Check it out though at the above links, as Ken's prolific and entertaining original material is well worth a listen!

Next up, here's a brand new video from prolific Sault Ontario experimental solo hard rock guitarist Mike Cliffe! Though he's kept busy with his AudioFumes podcast and many Reverbnation song postings in the interim, this is his first video posting on his YouTube channel in 7 months. Posted on Friday, this video is the result of crowd-sourced suggestions to build an original song, and he got some chords and time signatures for this improvised jazz rock instrumental, which he acknowledges and thanks AudioFumes listeners for suggesting and helping with in a 90 second introduction. The song itself is slow and has a neat atmosphere and essence, but it's very well performed and progressive (complete with some psychedelic visualizations laid on top), and fans of Mike's vast array of original material should like his newest video! Check it out below, and hear and see much more of his original music above!



Keeping with the theme of solo guitarists, Ashes To Dust's Alex Hemy posted a solo acoustic cover of Def Leppard's "Two Steps Behind" onto his YouTube channel on Saturday! I'm not a huge Def Leppard fan, but this is a well put together cover with nice layered backing vocals and camera angles, and Alex's singing voice fits the song & mood, so check out his newest solo cover track below!



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

• According to the new official poster for the event by Destroilet drummer Matt Waples, the Crued concert at The Rockstar Bar next Saturday will have $8 advance tickets (they jump to $10 at the door), with no announced opening bands. Get your tickets A.S.A.P. at The Algonquin Hotel to see this exciting Motley Crue tribute band!
• Sault Ontario industrial metal project Riverin (featuring Dirty Virgin alumni Matt Hicks & Matt Clement) have had an official Twitter page since 2010, but we only just found it the other day! As of November 9th, they were working on new music and looking for label backing, so it's good to see the Matts staying active with this project, and here's hoping we hear more soon! Follow them at the above links!
• Prolific local drummer Johnny Belanger filled in on drums for T-Rex Manning in place of Rick White at Thursday night's Diemonds-headlined concert at The Algonquin Pub, as per bassist Bill Bennett on the Facebook event page. A reason for Rick's absence hasn't been publicized, but he hasn't played a live concert since getting injured in that Roosevelt Hotel incident almost 3 months ago, so that may be related. Sounds like the show went well though, and it's nice to see 3/5ths of Jack Spades together as a result!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for my review of last night's Amy Ellis benefit show at The Canadian later today, hopefully before the Biipiigwan show! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (That's Chester), SweetKenny's New Album, And New Videos!!

We're back with a new news post on this Remembrance & Veterans Day, so make sure to never forget the sacrifices of our veterans on either side of the border on this day, and don't forget your poppies! Today, we have new videos from a recent metal concert, and info on both a forthcoming album release and the identity of our next CD review, but first, here's LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for the end of the month!

Sault Ontario classic hard rock quintet That's Chester will play their first public concerts since Rotaryfest on Friday, November 29th & Saturday, November 30th at Docks Riverfront Grill! Though they've played live in the interim in Batchewana and at the Comfort Suites Conference Centre, those were private events (the latter being a firefighter retirement party on Saturday), so it's nice to see them playing to a general audience again after 4 months! Notably, these shows (in advance of their December 1st set at Toystock) will be their first normal bar weekend gigs since reuniting this summer, and their first at Docks since March 2012, which is a long time coming itself! The post plugging these shows on their Facebook page teases that they have some "new surprises", but does that mean new setlist additions and/or something else? Be there at the end of the month to find out! A $4 cover charge is likely for both nights, you must be 19 to attend, and 10:00 PM start times are likely. For more details, check the above links!

It's great to have a more traditional slate of shows from That's Chester to end the month, and hopefully they're a good warmup for Toystock, so don't miss their busy weekend of hard rocking covers in three weeks time, and stay tuned for updates!

Next up, Dafter, Michigan hard rock artist Ken Sutton (a.k.a. SweetKenny) has uploaded his seventh solo album "Cracks In The Wall" to listen to for free on his website at this link! The follow up to "Doo Hickey" & "Perception" from earlier this year, it's still scheduled for it's paid release on Friday, but fans can now stream the songs beforehand to see what they think. Recorded at Waterfall Records, Ken describes "Cracks in the Wall" as a "heavy rock blues style feel album", and unlike his last two releases, it's all-instrumental with no vocals or guest musicians, though he emphasizes the freestyle nature of it. Length-wise, it's basically an EP with only 6 songs (similarly to "Doo Hickey" in that regard), and the songs on it are "Can't Drive", "Some Kinda Song", "Big D", "Goose", "Booze & Broads", and "The Scorpion King", so click each link to hear them! Now, given that it's paid release is impending, will "Cracks In The Wall" be this month's CD review at the SMS? Actually, we're actually going to review his last album "Perception" first, as it's slightly heavier, and in cases where we have two unreviewed new albums from a band in the queue, the heavier one gets priority.

A review of "Cracks In The Wall" is still possible for next year, but "Perception" deserves a look in itself, so watch out for that review this month, and check out SweetKenny's new album at the above links before it goes on sale, which we'll have info on hopefully on Friday!

We'll close today's post with new videos, yet again from the Devil's Night all ages concert at The Oddfellows Hall! One comes from local death metal quartet The Bear Hunters' headlining set (again as filmed by Stillbroke alum Sam DeDominicis on the high quality camera), and this time, it's of their song "Bloodthirst"! Posted onto the band's YouTube channel on Saturday, the quality is as good as the earlier official videos from this show, though for this one, Sam sticks to a side stage angle beside Mitch Sirie. Brutal and well filmed like before, so check out their recent performance of "Bloodthirst" below, and don't miss them at Viva La Battle on Wednesday!



Finally, we have a new video from what I believe was the half of James Watterworth's solo set where he was joined by now-Strange Coyotes bandmates Chase Wigmore & Mike Haggith! Uploaded to promoters Blood Shed Productions' YouTube channel on Saturday, the title credits the performance to The Strange Coyotes, but that band formed as a result of this gig's success, and as I can't detect Chase singing, I don't think it was from Project Legion's abbreviated last set. The video is low quality (taken at a very red side-stage angle), but the audio works well for this funk rock track, so give this proto-Strange Coyotes performance a look below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned tomorrow for our special extended preview of Viva La Battle, where The Bear Hunters and new local bands Keep It Lit, North West, and Punch will compete for the last opening slot at next month's Bam Margera/Fuckface Unstoppable concert! Thanks everyone!