Handsome Sandwich, Soundcheck, And Vanity First Updates!!

Before we begin today's post, I wanted to apologize for missing a concert in this past weekend's previews, as local funk/hard rock cover sextet The Wyld Stallyns headed north for a gig at Searchmont Resort at their in-house venue The Kiln on Saturday night. The band did not promote this show on their Facebook page, and Searchmont's Facebook page only first mentioned it on Friday, later hyping up the campfire jam aesthetic and requests angle for it. Searchmont only host bands sporadically at The Kiln, so it's not a regular spot for me to look for concerts at, but I do apologize, I'd have plugged it on here had The Stallyns said something in advance! Now, here's what you should know from three active local bands!

After two months of public silence, local alternative hard rock quintet Handsome Sandwich posted on their Facebook page on Saturday to reveal that recording sessions for their debut album "Deconstructed" are complete! Now, they did say the same thing in November when attached to this picture, so clearly they fixed something up since then. The tracks will now be sent off to be mixed, and while they didn't specify details on Saturday, they confirmed in November that Jordan Zadorozny was going to mix the album at Skylark Park in Pembroke. The plan is still to release the album on Saturday, May 6th, which has been the plan since at least October when singer Taylor Emlaw announced it during The Soo's Got Talent (I believe I misheard her say "May 5th" at the time, my apologies). Regardless, publically setting such a specific album release date seven months out is kinda odd.

May 6th must hold some sort of special in-band meaning, but if they've announced it publically, it must have been in concerts only. A release show for the album is planned, which does imply that there will be physical copies to sell at one, but we'll keep you posted when more comes out on it! As a teaser, the band shared this video with the new Facebook post featuring a 12 second clip of one of their original songs, as set to footage of guitarist Jesse Cook laying on his back performing bicycle kicks to his bandmates' (and now our) amusement. Give it a look below, and stay tuned for more from Handsome Sandwich soon!

Next up, here's some big news from local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck, as they have added Obsession bassist Jim Michaud to their lineup, replacing Paul Belair. The band announced the news on their Facebook page yesterday, and while they did not publically explain his departure, they did note that he "will be missed huge". Drummer Glen Thomas did elaborate on his personal Facebook page on the amicable reasons Paul left, and as it turns out, he actually left the band in November, something that the band never announced on Facebook. Paul had been Soundcheck's bassist since replacing Robin Lee in 2017, but he increasingly missed gigs for personal reasons, leading to guests (usually RPM's Rob Gilmar) filling in, including Jim at their Esquire Club dates on the 20th & 21st. With the similarly ranged Obsession ending their eighteen year run at the same venue next month, Jim coming on board does make a lot of sense!

It's worth noting that Jim & Glen played together in Lyrx, albeit in 1982 & 1983! No word yet on when the new Soundcheck lineup will debut, but they did jokingly ask on Facebook if Rob could fill-in again this weekend, so if that's legit, we'll be on the lookout for a short notice announcement (let alone if Jim carries over Obsession's planned March-December dates to Soundcheck, the idea is not unheard of). Stay tuned for more from as it rolls in, and best of luck to Paul in whatever he has planned next!

Finally, here's some new videos from local punk trio Vanity First's Facebook page in the past week! One is actually a re-post of their 2021 cover of Pennywise's "Bro Hymn" that was first seen on their YouTube channel, notable as it features former bassist Nick McClelland (singer Andrew Beggs has pulled double duty since Nick left). Cool to see again, they tackle this punk staple well! Another video is a re-post from their TikTok page, under the pretense that Andrew's "father" demands to know what he's doing behind closed doors. Of course, it's not what it looks like, and "it" is Andrew listening to punk music, specifically their 2022 standalone single "Get Out". Cute promotion for what it is! The other new Facebook uploads on offer actually have Vanity First covering Rage Against The Machine, including a vertically shot video of them covering "Bombtrack" at Go Skateboarding Day at Queen Elizabeth Park in May of last year.

Notably, Andrew didn't play bass while rapping on this one, so it was up to guitarist Mikhal Muto & drummer Keeghan McAllister to fill in all of the gaps, The 24 second clip comes off well with good angles of the ramp-top stage, though I'm surprised it took this long to come to Facebook! While seemingly formatted for TikTok, that video is not posted on their TikTok page, with the only post-EP release video there that isn't on Facebook being this clip of Keeghan having a "drummer moment" during what appear to be rehearsals at the Sault Community Theatre Centre. Light and amusing, but I feel you have to be in on the joke to an extent. Embedded below is a new 33 second clip of them covering "Killing In The Name" when they opened for Gutter Creek at Soo Blaster in September, and this video is extra notable given what did and didn't happen during the runtime.

As the band noted in the video description, Andrew has epilepsy, and if you know someone with that disorder, you'll know that they're often recommended to not look at strobe lighting or other rapidly flashing light patterns, as that could cause them to have a seizure. During the song's bridge, strobe lighting went off at the venue, and thankfully, nothing serious medically happened to Andrew, who kept his composure and played the song off perfectly normally! If you didn't know he was epileptic, you still wouldn't have if the band never said. I find "Killing In The Name" to be severely overplayed, but credit to Andrew for powering through here, so give it a watch below, and stay tuned for more from Vanity First!

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

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Banned & Exiled), A New Local Band, And New Videos!!

Busy day for me yesterday, but now let's touch on some back news items as we get up to speed! Today's post mostly relates to the Sault Michigan area, including LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS. a brand new local band, a new video, and a bassist change, but we have a cool Sault Ontario update to cap things off with. Now, here's what you need to know!

We have a new local band to add to our Sault Michigan band links, and they are a new hard rock trio named Exiled! Based out of nearby Rudyard, their lineup features former Absolute & NoXcape bandmates Donny Newell (most recently of the original Full Throttle) on vocals & bass and Justin Lawless on drums, alongside guitarist Johnny Mayer, who is presumably related to some of the other Mayer family members with regional music ties. A likely cover-centric band that tackles both classic & modern rock material, I assume they'll be musically similar to Donny & Justin's past collective bands, but no media is online yet to prove that. Exiled debuted at Dan's Place in Rudyard at some point earlier this month (apologies for missing that show), and in some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, their next announced concert will come on Saturday, September 6th when they play at The Bunker Bar & Grill at The Oaks at Kincheloe Golf Course (obviously in Kincheloe), which they'll follow with a full Friday-Saturday weekend back at Dan's Place in Rudyard on November 14th & 15th, so keep those in mind too!

Each show has an announced 9:00 PM start time, all are presumably 19+, and none have an announced cover charge (though for the sake of clarity, I'm not familiar with The Bunker as a concert venue at all.) Nice to see Exiled off to a quick start, and if the guys can recapture past magic and chemistry from older bands, things should be alright going forward! Check the above links for more details (and here for the Facebook event pages for these shows), and don't miss their unique golf course show in Kincheloe in a couple of weeks!

Next up, Kinross hard/classic rock trio Banned will return to the Chippewa County Fair in their hometown for a set THIS COMING FRIDAY! You may remember that the guys have played the fair in past years both by themselves and as part of the Rock Till You Drop charity battle of the bands, which I don't think is back this year (at the very least, it's not on the fair's schedule), but we'll let you know if we hear otherwise. It's good to see the guys back for this year's fair, so look for them at the pavilion near the Lions Club building on Friday at 4:00 PM! This is definitely ALL AGES, and click here for info on admission and ticket packages. While we're on the subject of Banned, singer/guitarist Alex Traynor has joined the wave of people participating in the Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS research (click here to see the video, hopefully more local musicians take part!), and a new video relating to their concerts is also on their YouTube channel now too, so what's there?

A cover of Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Pride & Joy" that was uploaded to their YouTube channel on Wednesday, this is an audio recording from a recent show at The Rapids Lounge at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino, as set to photos of their set by Holly Traynor (a relative of both Alex and drummer Don Traynor.) The video also confirms that Banned's current lineup no longer features bassist Jim Pentland, with former Bad Side bassist Wayne Lawrence taking over in his place at some point in recent months. A reason for Jim's departure hasn't been announced, but he was last visibly depicted online with Banned in April. Hopefully all's amicable, so best of luck to Jim going forward, and it's nice to see Wayne back in a local band again! As for the video itself, it's well put together and edited, but I do have to nitpick the cover in one aspect, as the vocals don't have the bluesy soul or deep tone that really "fits" a Stevie Ray Vaughan cover, but all's good otherwise! It's at least heavier than their recent modern indie rock postings. Check out Banned's new slideshow video below, and good luck in Gould City this weekend!



Lastly, we have a video of defunct Sault Ontario classic metal quartet Late & Loud from their farewell(?) concert at The Rockstar Bar three weeks ago! Courtesy of local music promotion company For The Music Inside (who also took many photos that you can see at this link), this is of the guys playing their original song "Fast As A Bitch" with a guest appearance by former Lust Boys guitarist Ben Kemp-Reynolds (a.k.a. Benny Blitz), who some of you may remember as a bandmate of bassist Benn Garside's in both The Glass Statues and in older CASS Cafe-era bands! Great to see Benny back in the area, and he looks and plays the part even in a guest role! The video's solid and close to the action, though the colour is very warm and almost too "red" from the lighting, but other than that, no complaints! I'm just surprised this took 3 weeks to make it to F.T.M.I.'s YouTube channel, but things relating to this show did come slowly to their online pages. It's here now though, so give it a look below, and watch for a cool solo from Benny at video's end!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for some more big news and updates shortly! Thanks everyone!

Newly Discovered Cinderella, Garden of Bedlam, Half Past, and Jim O'Leary Hard Rock Concert Videos!!

Our last post of July is a showcase of live metal & hard rock concert videos from a YouTube channel that I recently came across that hadn't appeared to get a lot of attention (possibly because many videos didn't have descriptive titles.) Uploaded by YouTube user leather1972 (who I believe is Brenda "Leather" Roy, sister of "Soo Stories" author Duane Roy), this channel has had videos since 2007, but Brenda's only been posting live concert videos since February 2012, with the channel mainly based around karaoke performances beforehand (some of which were in Sault Michigan!) A few dozen videos are on her channel from concerts, including non-metal acts like Obsession, Lorrie Morgan, and Greg Lamothe, so be sure to check out Brenda's channel at this location to see her other clips! Today, we'll look at most of the acts on this channel with metal/hard rock performances, and out of fairness, we'll look at them in chronological order (with the latest videos in an upcoming post), so here's what you need to know!

Brenda's earliest concert videos come from Rotaryfest's Second Stage on Queen Street East from July 17th, 2010, as she filmed two videos of headliners Garden of Bedlam's set that night! They're of the prominent local metal band playing their songs "Everything Will Die" (albeit cut at the end) and, as embedded below, "Your Disgrace", and they turned out pretty well! The big flaw is the lighting combined with her camera angle, especially on "Everything Will Die" (way too far from the stage), but she came closer during the second video. This was a well filmed set for the guys, but it's nice to get more angles, so check out more above, and here's Brenda's video of "Your Disgrace" from Rotaryfest 2010!



Also in delayed local concert videos posted last February, she posted four videos from a Rockstar Bar concert by defunct local hard rock band Half Past, which I believe came from singer Luke LeBlanc's last show with them on February 26th, 2011. Brenda's filmed videos were of Half Past (also featuring Skeyes of Seven's Alain Fletcher & Frightlight's Chris Thompson) covering Staind's "For You", 10 Years' "Wasteland", System of a Down's "Aerials", and (as embedded below) Disturbed's "Down With The Sickness", complete with a guest vocalist on a specific part of the song. The videos do suffer from very dark lighting & muffled audio (and the 10 Years & S.O.A.D. songs aren't filmed in full), but the songs are clearly identifiable, and their talents are clear, especially with Alain's guitar work! They're also a good reminder of Luke's vocal talent, and in a perfect world, he'd be on stage rather than in the hopsital. Check out Half Past's Disturbed cover below, see more at the above links, and remember to donate to help Luke's medical funds in his cancer battle by clicking here!



Lastly for her batch of February 2012 postings, Brenda uploaded four videos from Pennsylvania glam metal legends Cinderella's headlining show at The Dreammaker's Theater at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino on April 14th, 2011! The videos are of Cinderella playing their songs "Shelter Me", "Gypsy Road", "Shake Me", and (as embedded below) "Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone)", but how did they turn out? Not spectacularly, though she did have a good angle from the left of the stage. The videos are visually grainy, and the audio has stuttering loud portions that make them hard to listen to, which is a shame, as they sounded fine otherwise. Nice to see them all the same, so check out more above & below!



Finally for today's coverage of Brenda's video uploads, we jump forward to last month, as she filmed three songs that Griphook frontman Jim O'Leary and friends (including Obsession's Valerie Powley) played at the Faces of the Soup Kitchen fundraising event at The Machine Shop at Mill Square (the former St. Mary's Paper site) on June 1st. Uploaded two weeks after the event, the videos include Jim & friends covering Sheryl Crow's "If It Makes You Happy", The Band's "The Weight", and (as embedded below) Nazareth's "Sunshine"! You may remember "Sunshine" from Local2's video covering this event's artists, and while it's nothing we haven't seen, it's a nice different angle of their set with solid audio quality and a good close angle, so check out the gang covering this Nazareth classic below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews and more updates soon, including the remaining hard rock videos from this channel! Thanks everyone!

R.I.P. Jimmy Smith

The Sault Metal Scene sends it's deepest condolences to the family and friends of former local hard rock bassist Jimmy Smith, who unexpectedly passed away on June 4th at the age of 47. Apologies for the late mention, I only just heard about this the other day. His obituary can be read on SooToday at this link, and his funeral was held this past Tuesday at The O’Sullivan Donnelly Funeral Home with Reverend Bruce McLeish presiding. Donations are asked to be sent to charities of choice, and a benefit for Jim will be held at the Breakaway Bar & Grill at 68 Dennis Street on Saturday, with doors opening at 6:00 PM, but I have no word at present on a potential live musical component. Though not a recent sight in the local music scene, Jim was known locally as the bassist in the early 1980s progressive hard rock band Thansis Colle, alongside Sault native & prominent folk solo artist Kevin Closs, guitarist Paul Tikkanen (now of the Peterborough band Azriahl), and current Flat Stanley drummer Glen Thomas. I didn't know Jimmy, but what I've heard is good in regards to his character and personality, and it's just a shame that yet another local musician is lost at such a young age.

He was definitely a skilled bassist, and he'd have to be to match up with the creative time signatures and instrumentation that Thansis Colle were known for, and that their surviving members have kept up in the following years. One track of theirs (an instrumental take of their song "This Machine") was posted onto Glen Thomas' YouTube channel in 2009, and it's a fun progressive metal track to be sure, so give it a listen below, keep his family in your thoughts, remember the benefit on Saturday, and hopefully we'll hear more of his local music work down the road! R.I.P. Jimmy!