LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Gnaeus & Project 906), As It Stands Updates, And Much More!!

Here's a surprise second post on this Saturday, as we have a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT to tackle for TONIGHT, with new videos to boot! To round things out, we have one more new show coming up next month, a big posthumous release of an unreleased EP, and some assorted recent notes, so here's what you should know!

We can officially confirm and call TONIGHT'S Project 906 show, as they'll be playing at the local chapter of The Highland Clan Motorcycle Club's annual Summer Bash! Apologies for the short notice, we didn't call this as a show during our weekend concert previews as we weren't positive on if it was a public event, with Project 906 guitarist Joe Jenkins confirming that it was this morning. Taking place at 235 Magazine Street (minutes from The Satisfied Frog), this event follows a poker run from the HCMC that is ongoing as of this writing, so hopefully that's a hit as well, and Project 906 should deliver a solid set at the Summer Bash TONIGHT! While this may seem like an atypical concert for Project 906, remember that Joe's old band Exiled played a few motorcycle club events during their 2014 heyday, including one from the Highland Club. Note as well that the Facebook event page doesn't credit any events going on tonight (let alone Project 906's set), but the band's Facebook page announced their involvement earlier this week.

A 7:00 PM start time is in effect for TONIGHT'S Summer Bash, which has no announced cover charge or age limits, but have both in the back of your head just in case. For a preview, here's three new jam session videos, courtesy of Project 906's Facebook page in recent days! The videos are covers of Nena's "99 Red Balloons", Philip Sayce's "Morning Star", and as embedded below, Billy Squier's "Lonely Is The Night", and they sound good, but Billy's vocals can be hard to make out over heavier stretches, and Joe is often obscured by a pole in the jam room. Solid all the same, so check them out above & below, and don't miss TONIGHT's Highland Clan bash!

Next up, here's another new show, as local post-punk quartet Gnaeus will indeed hold their CD release show on Friday, August 5th when they officially launch "Meditations" with a headlining concert at The Rockstar Bar! A rare appearance for Gnaeus at The Algonquin Hotel, this is a fitting locale for the guys to launch their long-awaited debut CD, and while they have yet to reveal prices for physical copies, have cash on hand to get yours! In a reverse from the following week's "Give In To The Din" release show at The Tech, alternative hard rock trio The Din will return the favour as openers on the 5th, while indie rock quartet K.I.C.K. will open the proceedings on August 5th with their own skilled originals! One could call this a rescheduling of April's cancelled Summer Bash concert that Gnaeus and K.I.C.K. were supposed to play before the venue's renovations scuttled it, but it's not advertised as such.

There's no announced cover charges for this 19+ show, which will begin at 9:00 PM on August 5th, but make sure you bring money for both your copy of "Meditations" and for any potential admission fees. It's great to see Gnaeus finally announce their CD release show, and with them and The Din flipping roles for another release party a week following, it's a big month ahead for new local album releases! Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and stay tuned for updates!

Also, remember how defunct local hardcore quintet As It Stands were recording an EP in July 2011 that was never released prior to their 2014 dissolution? Well, the band has finally unveiled the tracks recorded that year, as per their Soundcloud page, so fans can finally hear what would have been their third & final EP! The apparently self-titled release was recorded at Metalworks Studios in Mississauga with producer Kevin Dietz, and while the posted tracks are raw & off the floor without final mixing, As It Stands felt it was time to finally let fans hear the songs. The tracks are "A Sinking Sinner", "Embay the Terrible", "Oh Herm, Herm Delish", their cover of Blink-182's "Stay Together For the Kids", and "One Less Than Wayne Gretzky", so click each link to hear each song! For reference, this confirms that the songs that As It Stands recorded at Stereo Soul Studios in 2009 and in Stoney Creek in 2010 were not intended for this particular album. This is a FREE posting, and at least at the moment, is not being formally sold.

It's not clear if As It Stands' earlier studio recordings (including their mid-2000s EPs "The Re-Occurring Nightmare" & "Kill The Music, Save The Children") will see a re-emergence too, as the band teased in April, but it's great to finally hear the 2011 recordings in full! These capture As It Stands at full strength and intensity from their arguable peak as musicians, and if you loved A.I.S. during their run, do yourselves a favour and check out their unreleased 2011 EP above, and hopefully there's more to come! Also, here's the Facebook preview video that the band shared prior to the Soundcloud unveiling, featuring a late snippet from "Embay the Terrible"!

 

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

• New local improv hard rock trio Gianni Gagoots have been added as the final openers for the Castle-headlined concert at The New American Pub on September 28th, as per the official Facebook event page. Solid choice for their second live concert appearance, so don't miss them late next month at The New A!
• Ex-Bankshot/12 Gauge Ready guitarist Lucas Schmiedendorf (a.k.a. Sal Velinus) is looking to form a new local band, and while he enjoys melodic punk and ska, he doesn't mind dabbling in folk or country. He has friends in mind for said band, likely a drummer and bassist at the moment, but he'd like to find musicians that could play guitar, horns, keyboard, or perhaps even a female vocalist. If you'd be interested in trying out or jamming with Lucas, message him at this link or via his Musicians Wanted Facebook group post from Tuesday!
• We have regrettably removed defunct local hard rock bands Meant To Last and These Sins of Time from our band links due to the quiet deletion of their Facebook pages, which were their only substantial online pages (both have surviving Twitter pages, but neither has enough to warrant linking them on the SMS.) These were the two recent hard rock bands from local singer Alexa LeClair, who is a talented artist, and hopefully she can get a band going with greater success in the future!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for much more news and notes next week! Thanks everyone!

Highway 63 Concert Previews, Skeyes Of Seven Updates, And More!!

Barring any super-short notice concert previews, let's round out this weekend's previews to lead off this Friday morning post, but we're filling things out with lots of recent updates from a local hard rock band, and some assorted recent notes! Now, let's get this post rolling!

Sault Michigan classic/hard rock cover quartet Highway 63 will return to The Rapids Lounge at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT for the first time this year! This talented and prolific local band will continue their busy year of Kewadin Casino gigs with their first Rapids Lounge shows in about two months, and if you know the guys' past work with bands like Jager and Power Slug, you'll know you're in for a solid time either night! However, I'll just note for clarification's sake that the band hasn't plugged this weekend's shows since originally announcing them a few weeks ago, but nothing indicates they're off. Of course, if you can't make it out to the Soo Kewadin this weekend, remember that Highway 63 will be back there for a weekend each month in 2016, plus St. Ignace in most months of the year. As usual for Highway 63's Kewadin shows, a 9:00 PM-ish start time, 21+ age limit, and no announced cover charges are in effect. For more details, visit the above links, and here's Highway 63 live at The Rapids Lounge last year!

Next up, local hard rock quartet Skeyes of Seven have finally confirmed that they are indeed recording their debut EP! After a number of posts showcasing recent recording sessions at Deluca Sound Productions, albeit without outright confirming that a debut release was in the works, the guys finally confirmed on their Facebook page on Wednesday that they have just one more track to record before sending the EP off to be mixed & mastered. Great to hear, and hopefully things work out so that Skeyes of Seven's EP is released successfully! Fans of Cory & Ron's old band Sense of Truth will relate to that regarding their unreleased CD. As well, Skeyes of Seven confirmed on Facebook that they have indeed parted ways with drummer John Mignacca, presumably due to his move to Sudbury last fall, which followed his only two shows with the band in mid-2015. John's a talented drummer (As It Stands fans can attest to that), and hopefully he's in another band down the line!

With John's departure, Skeyes of Seven are looking for a new drummer, and while they haven't begun an active search yet, message the band A.S.A.P. if you or someone you know are interested in trying out! For clarification, ex-drummer Johnny Amendola isn't back, despite his kit in the recent Cherry Crush jam videos still having S.O.S. drum head artwork. As for John Mignacca's participation on the Skeyes of Seven EP, he confirmed on his personal Facebook page that he did indeed provide the studio drum tracks, and you can get a preview of his work via two videos that he posted on Facebook in July, which the band subsequently shared on their own Facebook page, so what should you know on them? The clips (one seen here) are both short, and have loud steady beeps over them (presumably to keep tempo), but you do get a glimpse of John's skill, and it'll be interesting to hear more of the final product! Just have the volume up to hear his drumming, but also remember the beeps, as they may be distracting.

It's great to see Skeyes of Seven staying busy, and while they've played just four local concerts in the past four years, their talents and past band work speak for themselves, so hopefully things continue to turn upward for Cory, Al, Ron, John, and their next drummer! Check out John drumming below, see more above, and apologies for the delay on these!



Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter items from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist or station name:

• Energy Rock Radio is coming home for a special event in July! The Castlegar, B.C.-based internet rock station (which broadcasted in the Soo from 2008-2011) will be holding a special local broadcast when station head Ryan Kaarlela comes home in July, with a special subscriber-only episode of The Rated Ryeman Show airing late that month. Great to see Ryan back home, and if you're a loyal Brew Crew member, click here for full details on how to get in on this N.R.G. homecoming broadcast!
• Former Havadder bassist Lucas Bugyra is looking to start a new local rock band that would play older & new rock, plus some metal. He's looking for a couple of guitarists and a drummer (no word on if he's planning to sing or not), and he is hoping to give more variety at local bars via this band. If you're interested in trying out, message Luke at this link or via his Musicians Wanted Facebook group post from Tuesday!
• Local drummer Trey Piraino is again looking for musicians to jam with towards forming a progressive metal band. He had posted a similar search in August 2014, but hopefully this time, he gets some traction towards a prog-metal outfit, as he does sound serious about wanting to get one going! For details, message him at this link or via his Musicians Wanted Facebook group post from Wednesday!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and updates in the coming days! Thanks everyone!

Local Punk Video Showcase (Part 5)

It's been far too long since our last one of these, so let's finally get a new local punk video showcase up on the site, our fifth in total! Like before, this will take a look at four punk videos from local artists and concerts, and though we're sticking with similar bands from past installments to balance things out, there's some very solid videos to share today! Including live concert footage, studio material, and a jam session clip, read on below for this newest showcase!

We'll start with a trio of videos from veteran local punk musician Mikey Hawdon's YouTube channel, specifically of his very successful punk quartet The Inner City Surfers! Though two of them (both uploaded in August 2006) are credited to this band, they're just of Mikey jokingly singing along with The Fresh Prince of Bel Air's theme song and Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al", and they're a fun light view from this channel's early days! Featured below though is (surprisingly) the only Surfers concert video that I could find on Mikey's channel, which comes from their last headlining gig at Foggy Notions (now Coch's Corner) on March 15th, 2008. The show was notable as one of the last concerts held at Foggy's during it's original run (then-owner Patrick Casey closed shop at month's end), and though the venue returned the next year under it's first of three new owners, the Surfers never returned for a show there to my knowledge.

The video itself is of The Inner City Surfers playing their song "Never Ender Bender" as filmed on a tape camcorder from a high side-stage angle, and though the video quality isn't fantastic, it does capture a great crowd and a nice energetic rendition of one of their classic originals! The Surfers were a frequent band at Foggy's on both Bay & Queen Street through 2008, and though I was 2 months away from legal drinking age when the original era ended, you can feel the energy of the old run even here, and I bet fans miss those days! Give this video a look below!



Next for this all-video post, we'll take a look at Mikey and Surfers bandmate Dustin Jones' current band, the Celtic punk favourites Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide! Uploaded by YouTube user KelFable on November 3rd, 2011, these are presumably from the Maritimes leg of their tour dates that fall (if these were uploaded shortly after the show), though I can't verify the exact location. Her videos are mostly of covers, including The Tide putting their own spin on The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army" & House of Pain's "Jump Around", plus a snippet of their own self-titled original "Rising Tide", though all of these videos are incomplete (the latter running at just 23 seconds.) Embedded below though is Kel's longest video, a cover of Ben E. King's "Stand By Me", and while these covers are all against type for their genres, they're well done and effectively converted to their existing sound without much issue!

Aside from being mostly incomplete, these videos suffer most visually, as the lighting is poor and honestly makes it hard to make out the guys at points, but it's definitely Dustin and The Tide. The audio's solid though, so give these D.J.R.T. videos a look above and below, and remember not to miss their local return next month!



Third for this video showcase is a jam session clip from YouTube user Jamie Penno's channel, and this will be of particular note for fans of the defunct local punk band Bankshot, as it features that band's guitarists Christian Pasiak & Lucas Schmiedendorf! Uploaded in January 2007 and apparently filmed in a church, this features the guys jamming an acoustic punk song that appears to be an original song about a girlfriend always on one's mind, but I can't place the name or original band. The lighting is awful, but the audio quality is good, if you can get past the background talking, so give this solid jam clip from Bankshot's guitarists a look below!



We'll close this post with local/Toronto indie punk favourites Treble Charger, and I knew when we started these punk showcases that we'd have to at least address YouTube copies of their studio albums. I won't ignite any debates about buying music here, but fans should know that all of Treble Charger's albums are easily available online, and pretty much all of their studio albums can be streamed on YouTube, so if you're on the free side of the issue, you're covered! If you actively stream songs there, the best channel for Treble Charger albums is that of Fletcher Holland, who has uploaded four of their five studio albums (1995's "Self Title", 1997's "Maybe It's Me", 2000's "Wide Awake Bored", and 2002's "Detox") there, though their 1994 debut "nc17" isn't featured, and none of the albums there are grouped into playlists. I highly encourage buying these albums to support Treble Charger's work, but give YouTube a whirl if you want a free stream, and here's the first song from "Self Title", that being "Morale"!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

Mike Libertoski & Late And Loud Updates, Plus This Week's Classic Video!!

Let's keep the news rolling on this Thursday morning, and for the record, weekend hard rock/metal concert previews are coming either tonight or early tomorrow. For now, we have this week's classic video, a local concert's venue search, and a lot of updates related to posted media by a prominent local guitarist, so here's what you need to know!

Swayze Train & Galactic Alignment guitarist Mike Libertoski has created a new YouTube channel, and unlike his inactive solo project's YouTube channel, this one is so far solely devoted to solo covers of metal tracks! Three videos have been uploaded there, all posted last month, and they include Mike's covers of Animals As Leaders' "The Price Of Everything & The Value Of Nothing", a short cover of Beneath The Massacre's "Lithium Overdose", and (as embedded below) his cover of The Faceless' "Legions Of The Serpent"! Mike's talent is on full display, and he seems to have a firm grasp on these songs, but I'd have turned down the original song from the recordings, as it can drown out Mike's playing at times, especially on the Animals As Leaders cover. Still, these show Mike's excellent guitar skills well, and you can check out all of Mike's newest videos at the above links, or check out his Faceless cover below!



Also in Mike Libertoski news, I recently came across some new media from his Galactic Alignment tech-metal solo project, but not from official band pages. Mike's old Slackjawed Rats bandmate Jared Lucas (who now lives in Big Rapids, Michigan while attending Ferris State University) has his own SoundCloud page, where he's revealed that he's an aspiring producer & sound engineer. His page has a number of tracks that he's produced, but there are a couple of tracks that Jared uploaded with local metal ties, the most recent of which being a recently remixed version of Galactic Alignment's original "Radiated Infinite Oblivion"! Jared supplies some bass on this track & produced it, and it sounds very brutal, with some nice progressive and technical elements! The other local metal-related video there is a song called "Deluxe 3" from December 2010 that Mike & Jared recorded with Mike's Swayze Train bandmate Scott Savoie (pictured.) Here, Scott played most instruments, with Mike handling lead guitar & drum programming, and Jared on (really good) death metal singing. I don't know how far that band arrangement ever got, but they have good chemistry & are extremely heavy, so check out that and the new Galactic Alignment song at the above links, and stay tuned for more from Mike's projects!

We'll close today with topics related to Sault Ontario classic metal quartet Late & Loud, who will of course rock Coch's Corner THIS SATURDAY! As you may remember, it was confirmed last month that Late & Loud would be opening for Victoria, British Columbia sleaze metal quintet The Lust Boys in Sault Ontario on March 30th, and though posters for their "Tour Before Dishonour 2012" say they're playing at The Canadian Nightclub, that doesn't appear to be final at present. No venue is absolutely confirmed yet for this show, and while I did send guitarist Brendan Christie some venue contacts, any press will help, so I'm spreading the word once again to help secure a Lust Boys date here on March 30th! Remember, The Lust Boys have a great old school mix of punk and hair metal, and former Saultite Ben Kemp-Reynolds (a.k.a. Benny Blitz) is their guitarist, and an ex-bandmate of Late & Loud's Benn Garside & Josh Hatherly from The Glass Statues, so along with their quality sleaze sounds, they have local ties too! It'll be awesome to see them here, but if you can help secure a venue or booking for this show (at The Canadian or elsewhere), give Brendan a shout at this location, and fingers crossed this show goes down! For now, I've removed it from our concert listings due to the venue uncertainty, but if anything new is announced, I'll have it here!

And finally, here's this week's classic video! For the second time in three weeks, we're tying in the current upload with Late & Loud, but only this time is it thanks to a concert (go see them on Saturday night!) As you may remember last January, one of our first classic video postings was of Late & Loud guitarist Jonathan Tiberi's short-lived local metal band Losing Ground (featuring State of Misery alumni Kevin D'Orazio & Nick Kainula) from 2009, and while that video was a cover of Pentagram's "Forever My Queen", they had one more video worth uploading from Facebook! This time, however, it was an instrumental original named "The Wizard's Pipe", and it honestly sounds better than the Pentagram cover! It's got nice speed and pacing, and it has a good classic sound going for it, though I'm curious to hear vocals with it, and the excess video effects can be detracting. Similarly to the first video of Losing Ground, this is from a late 2009 jam session sans guitarist Kevin Koprash, and Jonathan posted this onto his personal Facebook page on December 17th, 2009 at http://facebook.com/photo.php?v=1309568737634. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED!! All credit for this video goes to the ex-members of Losing Ground, I'm just sharing this video with a wider audience like it deserves!

I know this wasn't the most accomplished band from Jon, Kevin, or Nick's musical resumes, but "The Wizard's Pipe" has a lot of promise, and it'd be interesting to see it expanded on, so give it a listen for some catchy instrumental classic metal below, and stay tuned for more from Late & Loud and related projects as it comes in!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews either tonight or tomorrow morning! Thanks everyone!