Today, I wanted to address the recent news that broke concerning the apparent loss of songs posted to MySpace between 2003 & 2015 due to a "server migration project." Many international news sources have been covering this story in the past few days (BBC News is one example), with varying degrees of skepticism as to MySpace's motives and handling of the content, and estimates say that up to 50 million songs have been lost as a result. As someone who frequently visits and researches social media pages featuring local bands, I know first hand that this isn't a shocking development for a couple of reasons. In recent months, readers will recall that we had acknowledged the demise of PureVolume and CBC Music's independent band page services, and neither was actively used by current local bands as it was. MySpace was very much in the same boat, as newer social media websites and applications have taken precedence in this regard.
As well, I know first hand that the media players on MySpace haven't worked in months and months, appearing to show musicians' uploaded songs, but never playing them, so I think that their "server migration project" is not a new development. Truth be told, local band pages that I have visited on MySpace today mostly look how they did before the news broke. Many photos still load, but videos don't appear to, and songs are apparently lost, despite appearances. When MySpace first had it's major layout overhauls in 2013, I backed up band pages that I could in a text document for research purposes, but alas, I am too late in 2019 to back up music, unless they can re-locate material from the server migration. With a couple of exceptions, MySpace was not a going concern for current local bands hoping to promote themselves in the mid-late 2010s, but this news does force me to make some noticeable changes to our band links.
A number of the local metal, hard rock, or punk artists that we linked on the SMS via MySpace were primarily because of their song postings, and if there's no described or substantive photos there, or official pages on other sites, I can't justify keeping them linked on here, as I only link to bands whose official page still has music, videos, or useful band information. If you see MySpace links on the SMS after today, it's either an oversight, or I felt they had enough content to remain listed.
I also dropped Mitch Sirie's solo act The Sorrow Fields from our active Sault Ontario links, as Mitch surprisingly doesn't have an active online page for them elsewhere, but this is still an active project. Regarding our "Other Sault Ontario/Michigan Metal Links" sections, I didn't have to remove anything there, aside from Sault Michigan's Klusterfunk Studios, best known to readers from Clownsack recording albums there. Also, I have replaced Scofflaw's link with their Facebook page,
and if any of the above bands have an official, self-created page that I
locate on another service, I'll definitely bring them back (Wayback Machine/Oocities archives, fan sites, news articles, and YouTube channels don't count.) Of course, there are some MySpace pages that remain linked, but this is predicated on no more deletions or "server migrations" causing any losses of data, or perhaps even an artist deleting their old page intentionally. We'll keep you posted when/if anything is found or learned.
While MySpace is still alive, it's a shell of it's former self, and any changes the site made in 2013 to make the service more music friendly just served to strip away anything that made it interesting for musicians before then. I can count the local bands who actively maintained their MySpace page in the mid-late 2010s on one hand (Destroilet is a good example), but even their page's songs don't work. In The Sault Metal Scene's earliest days, MySpace was our most important source of local band pages, and while Facebook would supercede it by the turn of the 2010s, it remained an important resource until band profiles were wiped out in 2013. The customization options, friendly culture, and wide footprint of 2000s era MySpace made my early Sault Metal Scene work so much easier, and I can still remember how much a profile's "Top 8" friends could create a rabbit hole trip to even more relevant bands and projects. For reference, here's what's left of The Sault Metal Scene's MySpace page.
I wish MySpace had warned users in advance that their old materials may be deleted, which would have gave me time in 2017 or so to back things up, but what's done is done. Hopefully everyone out there has backed up their media on MySpace (or just never deleted it), but if my hand must be forced into cleaning up our band links, at least things are more current and relevant for content across the board. Check the above links and your preferred news outlets for more on MySpace in 2019, and stay tuned for more news and notes on the SMS soon! Thanks everyone!
It's time for another new post in our 15th straight day of updates at the SMS, and we're mostly gonna focus on the local Kewadin Casino branches today, as they've confirmed the upcoming concert schedules for The Rapids Lounge in Sault Michigan and The Northern Pines Lounge in St. Ignace for concerts through June, via each venue's respective entertainment page! Not counting the previously announced shows in April & earlier, the new dates largely don't skew to heavier bands, but via the above links, you can read up on new dates from local solo musicians Jimmie Cowles & Perry Hatch, country rock band Bittermoon (with ex-Monkey's Uncle bassist Jim Belleau), classic rock bands Chump Change (featuring Oddfellow & Bucksaw alumni), Crossorads, and Handsome Sam & The Homewreckers, indie rock quartet The London Gentlemen (with half of Nixxon Dixxon's old lineup), new local rock quartet Toast (featuring Swayze Train & Clownsack alumni; genre confirmation forthcoming), and a yet-unknown band named Sir Charge (let me know if you have any information on them!)
As for the heavier-leaning new concerts, we'll start at The Northern Pines Lounge at the St. Ignace Kewadin Casino, where Cheboygan hard rock trio Driven will return on May 3rd & 4th! I believe these will be their first shows in the region of 2013 (if I missed any, my apologies), and these will also be their first shows since drummer Kurt Beard returned to their lineup, so loyal Driven fans should be sure to welcome him back later this spring! No word yet on any other regional shows (including possible returns to Sault Michigan or Timmy Lee's Pub), but hopefully we hear something on that front soon! Admission should be free for these 21+ concerts, and 10:00 PM-ish start times are to be expected. For more details, check the above links! It's great to see Driven bring their hard rocking cover sets back to the area for two more shows to kick off May, and hopefully their fans are out in full force for their first local show in too long! Stay tuned for more on Driven's next U.P. plans as I hear of it!
Next, we'll travel north for the only new metal shows in May & June at The Rapids Lounge at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino, as Charlevoix classic metal standouts Peril will return to the region for local shows on June 7th & 8th! These will be the band's first Sault Michigan concerts of 2013, and they come over 3 months after their first regional dates of the year at the St. Ignace Kewadin, so either way, we're due for Jeff, James, and Brooks to rock the area with some hard hitting covers! I'd expect 21+ age limits, no cover charge, and 10:00 PM start times to be in effect for Peril's June dates here as well, and like with Driven, check the above links for more information! Peril always deliver a solid weekend of metal classics when they make their way north for some U.P. action, so don't miss their next regional shows in June, and keep an eye out for local-related updates from Peril as they roll in!
Finally for the newly announced Kewadin Casino gigs, we'll head back down to St. Ignace for Powerslug's next Northern Pines Lounge dates, as the Sault Michigan hard rock trio are scheduled to return there on June 21st & 22nd! Their first St. Ignace dates in 5 months, these join the guys' upcoming Sault Kewadin gigs on March 22nd & 23rd, along with whatever shows we hear about in between via personal Facebook pages (they really need online pages to promote their shows.) Still, with members of Toast & Kilacel in their lineup, the talent is there for a solid night of hard rock covers (and perhaps originals?), so don't miss out on Powerslug's St. Ignace Kewadin dates in June, especially with this much advance word! Like the above shows, expect a 21+ age limit, no cover charge, and 10:00 PM-ish start times for both shows. Powerslug have the talent and veteran success to ensure a great show, so circle the June 21st weekend on your calendars, and stay tuned for Powerslug updates as they come in!
Finally for today, here's some assorted updates to links on the site, namely what's been added & replaced. In terms of additions, I've added links to local graphic design company Maxx Graphix (who have done work with and for metal/hard rock bands & shows) and inactive music management agency Escape Into Music into our "Other Sault Ontario Metal Links" section, while I also added The Sault Metal Scene's Twitter account into the new section listing SMS accounts on other music/social media websites. Me and Twitter have a love/hate relationship, and it's not widely used among local metal bands anyway, hence why I've phased out updating it frequently, but feel free to tag and follow, as I still log in to check for occasional Twitter-exclusive news! Finally, I replaced the link for the yet-released Woods of Ypres tribute album "A Heart of Gold", as it's Facebook page was quietly deleted for unknown reasons in the past few months, but it's Facebook group is still alive & well. If we find more links to add, remove, or change, I'll let you guys know!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news as the week rolls along! Thanks everyone!
Hey guys, just three notes before we begin: A., this month's Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile IS coming later today! B., I know a band being addressed in this post is playing downtown this weekend, but I'm gonna wait to cover it tomorrow rather than redundantly cover the same details on consecutive days. And C., while I know that a new local band named The Northern Tragedy (featuring at least one member of Changing Waves) is opening for Toronto punk band Dearly Beloved at The Rockstar Bar on October 8th, I can't confirm their genre, full lineup, or online pages yet, but if you can help fill in any blanks, let me know! Now, to today's news, including new concert videos, new songs from a local band, some link changes on the site, and just what happened to the design of the SMS yesterday, so here's what you need to know!
Four new videos of Los Angeles hard rock quintet Buckcherry's headlining concert at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino last month are newly available online! These come from local greeting card distributor Chris Paci's YouTube channel, and though these videos come over a month since Buckcherry rocked The Dreammaker's Theater on August 17th, it's great to finally see these! The videos are of Buckcherry playing their songs "Crazy Bitch", "Lit Up" (though it's incorrectly named "Cocaine"), "It's A Party", and (as embedded below) their set openers "Tired of You" & "Rescue Me", but how's the quality? Chris was far from the stage, and his camera work is shaky, but he gets solid audio and video quality for the most part! That said, Buckcherry frontman Josh Todd still sounds patchy (especially on "Lit Up"), but the band otherwise sounds alright, and kudos again to Chris for uploading these! Check out Buckcherry playing "Tired of You" and "Rescue Me" below, and keep an eye out for future Kewadin Casino concert updates!
Next up, local grunge quartet Haggith have already began uploading studio recordings for their second album "Deuce", despite the fact that their first album "Dragon Joy Ride" isn't even out yet! That said, knowing drummer Mike Haggith's prolific solo output, I expected this fast pace, but it is giving us lots of updates! Two songs from the band's planned second album are now on their YouTube channel, including a song named "Safe on the Outside" and an untitled track. The former song features the full band (minus Caleb Cachagee) and is a lighter hard rock number, while the untitled song is essentially an acoustic Mike Haggith solo track, with him on vocals & guitar. Both succeed at their intended sounds, and they're worth checking out if you like grunge or something a little softer and quieter! As it's a fuller track with more members, I've embedded "Safe on the Outside" below, so check it out and more at the above links, and stay tuned for updates on how to get limited edition band merchandise via their Facebook page!
Now, to address why the SMS looks different, and why the right hand side of the page is blue. So, what happened? Well, in recent weeks, I'd been contemplating cleaning up and reorganizing our listings for links, features, and so on, and I found that the best way to do it would be to completely divide up the page between the Twin Saults. This way, while nothing's lost, it'll be easier to navigate the site depending on what side of the border you're on or want to read about, while also giving Sault Michigan it's own dedicated section that will give them more promotion and attention. Hence the reason why our background now fades into blue on the right, which does have a cool look to it! This includes dividing up our reviews, feature profiles, and the video bar by each of the Twin Saults, with sections geared to either side of the border now on the left or right accordingly, but existing monthly schedules will be maintained. That said, as Sault Michigan has less bands and updates than Sault Ontario generally, I stuck ambiguous links and SMS site formalities on the bottom right to try and balance things, and I want to add more to the Sault Michigan side with time, so hopefully that quest will succeed as we move forward!
I hope you guys don't mind these changes, especially if you want to easily read or focus on one side of the border, or just navigate existing posts and links easier. I want to strengthen the bonds and focus of Sault Michigan and between both cities, so hopefully doing this on the site will help to that effect! While dividing up our "Other Local Metal Links" section (relevant links that aren't bands or active venues, stores, or stations), I did do some link additions and removals, so here's some of what's different! In the "Other Sault Ontario Metal Links", I've removed local bassist Nathan Bouliane's concert promotion group Bonology Lights & Sounds and recording studio Swallows Nest Productions, along with Half Past members' concert sound company Double A Sound, and Brendan Clace's recording studio Dimension Studios, all because their existing online pages either expired or were deleted. Disappointing, especially for Dimension Studios, but hopefully all involved in the above companies stays active in local music, and stay tuned for more site updates!
That's all for now, but stay tuned tonight for this month's Saultites in Out of Town Bands Profile on Beyond Haven! Thanks everyone!
As promised, here are the previews of this weekend's hard rock concerts in Sault Michigan! With such a high amount of concerts on both sides of the border this weekend in such a short span, I had to do it like this to keep things even and give the bands across the river the proper amount of attention. At the end, we have a housecleaning note concerning our band links as it amounts to the "active statuses" of bands we cover. Now, to the previews!!
Marquette hard rockers Nudge are returning to The Satisfied Frog in Sault Michigan this weekend! They'll be there tomorrow night & Saturday night in their first local concert stops since their two consecutive weekends at The Frog in June to deliver two great nights of hard rock and metal covers! The band haven't been promoting these shows as vigorously as their last few local shows, but they're definitely on, so take note of them (as well as frontman Danzo McCracken's acoustic solo set TONIGHT!) Both Nudge shows will start at 10:00 PM, you must be 21 to enter, and there's no announced cover charge. Check the above links for more details! Nudge should deliver some great tunes this weekend, as they are a very talented and hard rocking quartet who always leave an impression locally! Head to The Frog this weekend for the shows, and for a preview, here's Nudge covering System of a Down's "Violent Pornography" circa November 2008!
Also this weekend in Sault Michigan is the live debut of new local hard rockers NoXcape! The quintet featuring former Absolute bandmates Ben Huyck on guitar, bassist Bill Spence, and drummer Justin Lawless, plus singer Nick Landreville and Krosswalk guitarist Joey Beairl will head down to Dan's Place in nearby Rudyard for their debut show on Saturday night! I've heard promising things about the full lineup, and judging by their past bands, they should do great in their first concert! It looks to have a 10:00 PM-ish start time and a 21+ age limit, with no announced cover charge. Check the above links for more details! Always good to see a new band pop up, and hopefully NoXcape can go as far as possible! For a preview, check out some original demos featuring just Nick and Ben from their MK-Ultra days at this location! Very late 1990s vibe with this stuff, hopefully they keep this vibe going with NoXcape! Check them out in Rudyard on Saturday!
And finally for the weekend concert previews, Kinross hard rock trio Banned will make their first ever 21+ concert appearance this Saturday at The Sundown Lounge in Pickford! I'm not familiar with this bar in any way, but their address is 18664 S M 129, and I heard it's a nice establishment, so remember that if you go see Banned this weekend! The new and diverse group will have a solid slate of classic and hard rock covers for their fans at this show, and they proved to be entertaining and talented at their debut last month, so don't miss them! The show has a 9:30 PM start time, and there's no announced cover charge. Check the above link for more details! Should be fun, hopefully they do great in Pickford this weekend! For a preview, here's Banned covering Bad Company and The Red Hot Chili Peppers in Rudyard last month!
And finally, here's a note concerning our band links on the SMS. As part of our page redesign last month, we started segmenting bands in the twin Saults by whether they're active or inactive/defunct by placing them in separate sections. In case you weren't sure, my criteria for if a band is "inactive" is if they either officially declare they've broken up (i.e. State of Misery), most of the band forms a new band in lieu of the older group (i.e. Out Of The Mouth Of Babes), or if a band goes one complete year without a visible sign of activity (i.e. Detroit.) As such, our band links have been basically accurate since the re-sorting, but this month, we're going to start moving a few bands to the inactive band links due to, well, inactivity. Three bands (by my count) will have been inactive for a whole year this month, and the first one we'll likely move to the inactive links will be The Issues, the punk/metal project from a few current members of Winkstinger. The last sign of activity from them that I can verify is a song upload to their Facebook page on August 5th of last year, and with nothing since, we'll likely classify them as "inactive" starting tomorrow. They're a very entertaining band though, give them a listen at this location!
The other two bands I have on "inactivity watch" for this month are from Sault Michigan, but we'll approach them as they come. I'm doing this to keep our band links relevant to the current state of the scene, so you guys know exactly which bands are active & alive and which bands are not, but are still worth checking out. That's all for today, but stay tuned tonight or early tomorrow for a HUGE post featuring an awesome LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, big news concerning a local band's next albums (how does SIX new albums sound?), and much more! Thanks everyone!
Hey everyone, here's a post to keep you guys entertained before the Super Bowl! Today, we have some long overdue SMS link updates to share, our weekly classic video (finally), and two LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, but first, here's another new local band!
This has to be the youngest band we've ever talked about on the SMS in terms of average age, and the band in question is Abstract from Sault Michigan! Formed last summer through Shift guitarist Joey Beairl's Guitar Studio rock camp, their ages range from 11 to 12! They were originally known as Aux, and I briefly mentioned them last year as a possible band to perform at the Kewadin Casino 25th Anniversary Summer Festival, which they did end up playing on. Abstract features singer/guitarist Jacob Hotlen, guitarist Kyle Burton, bassist Mike East, and drummer Ethan Twardy. They've actually racked up a lot of gigs so far, including shows in Mackinac City, a set at Oktoberfest, and even a show at The Satisfied Frog. They even have band t-shirts on sale at Pro Sports & Harmony Health Foods, which is cool! When I first found out about Aux/Abstract last year, I didn't talk much about them because the only video I found had the band covering The White Stripes & Weezer, neither of which are "metal". However, Abstract do cover The Scorpions (among likely others), they have tons of metal bands as influences, and Jacob Hotlen plays a Dean ML guitar live, which is awesome! Musically, they are very good for their age, and have a good grasp of their covers! If you're of a more critical mindset, don't be, remember the band's age.
I don't know what the future holds for Abstract, but an early start into rock of any type is never bad! Don't be discouraged by the lack of metal covers on the videos on their Facebook page, I have a feeling they have more than that during their live shows! Check the above links for more, and also, kudos to Joey Beairl for his rock camps! These are giving young area musicians a great start towards hopefully bright futures in music, and some real talents have been developed through there!
Now to our LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, and we'll start with a show at The Rockstar Bar on March 4th! On that night, Kitchener hard rockers The Saigon Hookers will hit Sault Ontario for a long awaited concert! In case you didn't know, The Saigon Hookers used to feature Lion Ride bassist Carmine "Cobra Carmander" Romano in their lineup before he joined Lion Ride full time in January, and the two bands are good friends, so there is some local good will for them! Full details on this concert haven't been unveiled yet, though "friends" will join them presumably as opening bands. Doors open at 9:00 PM (I'd assume it has a 10:00 PM start time), there's no listed cover charge, and you must be 19 to enter. It's nice to see The Saigon Hookers finally coming to Sault Ontario for a concert, I was wondering when they'd finally come to their Lion Ride friends' hometown for a show! Hopefully this goes well, as their punk/metal hybrid sound is sure to get fans out to The Rockstar Bar on March 4th! Check the above links for more, and I'll keep you guys posted when updates on this show come in!
Next up, here's another new concert that I have for you guys! When I was browsing the local concert listings on Reverbnation, I came across a concert scheduled for March 6th at The Vibe Lounge! The band in question is We, The Undersigned, a progressive metal trio from Fredericton, New Brunswick, and they have a good sound going for them! Chaotic energetic metal with unique vocals for their genre, they should impress on the live stage! This concert is announced to be taking place at The Vibe Lounge, the Goulais Avenue bar that has hosted the scattered metal show, on March 6th at 9:00 PM. 19+ and no cover charge are likely too. My source for this information is the band's official Reverbnation page, but note that We, The Undersigned still have the venue as "TBA" on their MySpace page, with a TBA local date for this Saturday listed as well. That show was moved to Thunder Bay though, so don't get your hopes up. I don't know a ton about this show, but if they say they're coming to The Vibe in March, then there must be a level of truth to it! I like their sound, they should pull in some fans next month! Check the above links for more!
Now, finally, it's this week's weekly classic video! It just got pushed back and back from filled posts over the last few days, but I at least got it uploaded last week! Again, I'm tying it in with an upcoming concert (well, it was upcoming last week), and it's of Sault Michigan hard rockers Monkey's Uncle! I've never seen a video of them on YouTube, and they deserve the views and attention, so I decided to upload one of their MySpace videos onto the SMS' YouTube channel! This is taken from a concert circa February 2008 at The Northern Pines Lounge at Kewadin Casino in St. Ignace, back when they were still known as Jager and had a second guitarist, and it's their cover of Nazareth's "Hair of the Dog"! The original video was filmed by a concert attendee and later uploaded onto Monkey's Uncle's MySpace page not long afterwards. The original video can be viewed at http://myspace.com/monkeysuncle3/videos/hair-of-the-dog/28440633, and I mean NO HARM OR INFRINGEMENT WITH THIS UPLOAD! Monkey's Uncle deserve extra attention, I want people to check them out more! They do a good job on this cover, no major quibbles, but I do like how Henry Switzer adapted his vocal range well to the song! Good stuff, check it out below, and I have more Monkey's Uncle news to share tomorrow!
And finally, I wanted to share some updates that I made to our links on the SMS. In the Sault Ontario concert venue info, I added The Big Cheese in Heyden and Docks Riverfront Grill, and moved The Algonquin Pub and Madison's Pub to the Other Local Metal Links, as neither have hosted a metal or hard rock concert in over a year. In the Sault Michigan concert venue info section, I added Joe's Bar in Rudyard, The Merchant's Bar, The Savoy Bar & Nightclub, and Zim's, while removing The Big Bear Arena, as I don't believe they've hosted a "metal" concert in a year either. All of the added venues include addresses, phone numbers, and internet links where applicable. I adjusted the old Sault This Week link in the Other Local Metal Links section to reflect the inactivity of the old Hot Spots section (now it links to the main page.) In the Sault Ontario music stores section, I added the new Facebook page for Gore Street music store Music Depot, and I corrected the phone numbers for Real Rock 105.1 & Classic Rock: The Bear in the local radio stations section, as they no longer share a number. I edited the Sault Metal Video Bar to remove channels with a now low percentage of local metal videos, and added 8 new YouTube channels. I also re-added a Facebook badge for our page on there, as well as a badge to link to our Reverbnation page. These were long overdue, hopefully everything's up to date now!
That's all for now, hope you guys enjoy the Super Bowl (I'm going for Pittsburgh), and I'll have a new post tomorrow! Thanks everyone!
Today, I wanted to address the recent news that broke concerning the apparent loss of songs posted to MySpace between 2003 & 2015 due to a "server migration project." Many international news sources have been covering this story in the past few days (BBC News is one example), with varying degrees of skepticism as to MySpace's motives and handling of the content, and estimates say that up to 50 million songs have been lost as a result. As someone who frequently visits and researches social media pages featuring local bands, I know first hand that this isn't a shocking development for a couple of reasons. In recent months, readers will recall that we had acknowledged the demise of PureVolume and CBC Music's independent band page services, and neither was actively used by current local bands as it was. MySpace was very much in the same boat, as newer social media websites and applications have taken precedence in this regard.
I also dropped Mitch Sirie's solo act The Sorrow Fields from our active Sault Ontario links, as Mitch surprisingly doesn't have an active online page for them elsewhere, but this is still an active project. Regarding our "Other Sault Ontario/Michigan Metal Links" sections, I didn't have to remove anything there, aside from Sault Michigan's Klusterfunk Studios, best known to readers from Clownsack recording albums there. Also, I have replaced Scofflaw's link with their Facebook page,
and if any of the above bands have an official, self-created page that I
locate on another service, I'll definitely bring them back (Wayback Machine/Oocities archives, fan sites, news articles, and YouTube channels don't count.) Of course, there are some MySpace pages that remain linked, but this is predicated on no more deletions or "server migrations" causing any losses of data, or perhaps even an artist deleting their old page intentionally. We'll keep you posted when/if anything is found or learned.
