Today's post is devoted to two topics: LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (one on SHORT NOTICE) from one musician over the coming months, and a big change to our defunct local band links on the site, so here's what you should know on this Saturday morning!
Local classic/hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison will return to Misty's Fifties for matinee concerts TODAY and every two weeks into June! Apologies for the short notice on TODAY'S concert, we only heard about it earlier today via Tym sharing a Facebook event page covering the dates earlier this week. Of course, Tym debuted at the 658 Second Line West bar/restaurant back in December, and played sporadically there ever since, though a planned Wednesday nighter on Valentine's Day was quietly cancelled for unannounced reasons. Clearly, that wasn't a bad sign for Tym's relationship with Misty's, as he'll be back for more acoustic hard and classic rock favourites TODAY at 4:00 PM and then on these Saturdays to come: March 2nd, 16th, and 30th, April 13th & 27th, May 11th & 25th, and June 8th & 22nd. All of these shows are presumed 19+ events with no cover.
For the record, two of these gigs could tie in to holiday plans, as the March 16th show is the day before St. Patrick's Day (as it's a Sunday this year, many nightclubs may have events on the 16th instead), while the March 30th show is on the Easter long weekend. Tym is no stranger to weekly or bi-weekly events at the same venue like this, so don't miss out on all of the unplugged action starting TODAY at 4:00! Visit the above links for more details, and here's Tym live last year!
Next up, in advance of a big change that I'm making to the band links on the SMS, I'm starting by making a big one for an opposite reason. Since the SMS began in 2007, a big source for band pages for research and linking purposes was MySpace, as anyone around the local music scene in the 2000s will be well aware, but it (for all intents & purposes) died a slow and painful death starting with its forced redesign in 2010, which deleted all blog posts & biographies from accounts. I kept certain bands linked from MySpace on the basis of their hosted music/videos and pictures for history and information, if not necessity, as MySpace may still have been this band's fullest/only presence online. Eventually, a botched server migration forced all music on hosted accounts to be unplayable, and photos hosted there have slowly winnowed away too, leaving just captions with nothing viewable. Even the MySpace home page seems to have not been updated since 2022.
MySpace was very important to the SMS originally, and a lot of internet-using readers from the 2000s will have fond memories of it for personal use and for band pages, but unless intentionally looking up old bands, current usage of it died in 2010 and just got worse and worse (Destroilet did try to work around the 2010 redesign but they were a rare exception), with then-current and new bands looking to Facebook and elsewhere for their social media promotion. Quite frankly, linking old local bands via MySpace pages in 2023 is nearly useless, so I've decided to remove the remaining bands from our links that are only here because they didn't have surviving pages elsewhere and I clung to MySpace for this long. As such, these local bands are no longer linked on the SMS: 2wo Man Baand, A Fall From Innocence, Bring The Fallen, Despised Eyes, Foothill Road, Free Beer, Infrastrate, The Last Warrior Of Rock, Nebraska Arms, The Pisstanks, Renderware, ...
...Route 69, Smeltzer, and Stealing Kisses. From Sault Michigan & the E.U.P., I have also deleted 7/47, Absolute, Analog Deficiency, Clownsack, Condemned, Hands Of Betrayal, Lower S.E.S., Nixxon Dixxon, The Pick-Me-Ups, Shift, and Twisted Manikin. Just to be clear, some of these bands did have activity into the 2010s on now-deleted social media accounts or without launching new ones (i.e. Clownsack's 2011 CD "Funny Farm", Bring The Fallen's 2013 reunion concert & EP, Free Beer's return as Sarah's Valley, and Foothill Road's pandemic-era original song), but unless I have missed something, none of these bands have an extant social media presence elsewhere that has content worth linking to in 2024 for research/historical purposes. If I find something that I forgot about or didn't see before, or if one of these bands decides to reunite, I will absolutely re-link the band(s) in question.
Still, deleting these pages cleans up our links a good amount, and we'll fill them back up in no time, so stay tuned for more on that in the near future! That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site next week! Thanks everyone!
So as to focus on our (delayed) close to last month's poll and newly launched poll tomorrow, here's a second post on this Thursday, and it includes some assorted recent news, a new video and related apology, a music video from a prominent solo artist, and leading off, the last of our Easter weekend concert previews. Here's what you should know!
First, let's wrap up this weekend's hard rock concert previews with local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck's previously announced shows at The Esquire Club TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! After playing their last few concert weekends outside of their 2019 schedule posting, they're back with another pair of dates that had lots of advance notice, marking their first announced gigs there in two months. This frequently seen veteran group should have another solid weekend of hard rocking covers in store for fans at this west end venue this weekend, so keep Terry, Travis, Paul, and Glen's shows there in mind for your Easter weekend plans! As usual, these shows should have 19+ age limits, no cover charges, and 10:00 PM start times. Visit the Facebook event page for more details, and here's Soundcheck live!
Next up, here's the third and final music video from Kinross/Mount Pleasant, Michigan solo artist Alex Traynor's debut EP "Crazy World", as posted to his YouTube channel on Monday! This is for his (somewhat) softer original song "What Everything Is Like (High Life)", which was also third on the EP, and the video was shot by Eric Cairns at Third Cinema Productions, a long-time collaborator of Alex's for solo and Banned projects. The video features Alex waking up on a playground carousel, before roaming through a park in the wintertime, singing in front of forest settings and a brick wall (even playing guitar at the end.) Many of the visuals mimic an older 8mm film camera, complete with letterboxing and pillarboxing to simulate smaller aspect ratios, so there's a nostalgic quality in some ways. Well shot and edited, this is a nice way to round out Alex's music video trilogy, and it'll be interesting to see where his original solo work goes from here! Check the video out below!
Also today, here's our belated first video look at Sault Ontario classic/hard rock cover quintet Fluid 5ive, courtesy of a show that they played on Friday, February 8th at... Room 21?! I profusely apologize for missing that concert on the site, the venue's coverage completely slipped us by at the time, though as best as I can tell, it had under a week's notice upon it's announcement, and the band's Facebook page never acknowledged it publically. I will definitely try and stay on top of Fluid 5ive bookings more in the future, but at least we have a video out of it! Live-streamed by the venue that same day, this is of Fluid 5ive covering Radiohead's "Creep", less than 3 months after indie rockers Man Feelings covered it in a prior live-stream. Fluid 5ive have a good handle on this song, though frontman Colin Nelson's vocals almost sound too casual, if that makes any sense, and you see a lot more of the bar's strip lighting than you do of drummer Jeff Pennett for the duration.
The vertical camera angle is unfortunate on the whole, but it's great to have a video of Fluid 5ive at long last, and as you can see in the video and the above image from the show, they definitely weren't lying about having a saxophone in their repertoire! Hopefully there's more videos and updates of Fluid 5ive down the line, but give their Radiohead cover a look below, and I apologize again for missing their Room 21 show in February!
Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news stories from
the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist
or website name:
Last week, defunct local horror punk quintet Frightlight posted on their Facebook page
to say that "it's been too long" and that they "have booked a show",
details forthcoming. In case this is another one-off like at Halloween,
I'll wait before making a change to their status, but what does
this apparent return show entail? Stay tuned!
The Internet Archive recently posted what they call the MySpace Dragon Hoard,
a 1.3+ terabyte batch of songs downloaded from MySpace as part of an
anonymous research study from 2008-2010. This is by no means
comprehensive for what used to be on MySpace before last year's song
deletions, but it's nice to see hundreds of thousands of songs saved!
The mechanism for the Dragon Hoard is a horrendous RAM hog, so make sure
your device isn't lacking for RAM, and copy & paste your search
inquiries for best results. I have found Woods of Ypres, Treble Charger,
and Clownsack songs, and there's likely more local acts.
Despite his announced retirement from live bands last summer, former Soundcheck/Turner Up drummer Scott McLurg posted on the Musicians Wanted Facebook group on April 1st to say that he was looking to play live once or twice a month, and to private message him at this link
for details. I waited to mention this here in case it was an April Fools
joke, but the posting is still up, so it looks serious. If Scott's able
to play live again with some regularity, I'd be glad to see him back out
there, and message him above for more details!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for last month's poll results and our new poll next! 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.
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!
Let's clear out all remaining backlogged stories for The Sault Metal Scene today, so what's in store? Along with some shorter recent items (including an upcoming EP release), we have some link restorations, a recap of short films by local metal artists that recently recieved their local debut, and first, some big news and updates concerning an upcoming album across the river, so here's what you need to know! (Updated at 7:34 PM)
Dafter, Michigan hard rock solo artist Ken "SweetKenny" Sutton has announced some larger details concerning his upcoming eighth solo album "Ink!", so what should you know? Scheduled for release on March 31st (three weeks from tomorrow), Ken describes it as "a 'heavy rock' fun album" with a mix of instrumentals and songs with vocals, and it features 10 tracks in total. Unlike his last two vocal-featured albums, there are no credited guest performers, though like his 2013 releases, streaming copies of all 10 songs are now available to check out at this link! Now, as we just reviewed SweetKenny's album "Perception" in November, I will hold our next review of one of his albums until May to maintain our minimum 6 month buffer between repeat reviews of the same artist, but if it comes out on time, "Ink!" will be next for his albums! For reference, we haven't reviewed his presently newest album "Cracks In The Wall" from last fall yet, but I chose "Ink!" because it's heavier on average. Watch out for that in two months, and pick up "Ink!" on CDBaby and other sites upon it's release!
Next up, I wanted to give a mention to a pair of short films that were filmed by local metal musicians, as I attended their debut local screenings last night at Algoma University! One was from Frightlight bassist Mike Gingras (a.k.a. Eddie Fright) and Party Island Productions, and it was "The Kid Who Made The Face", the very same film from last summer's benefit show at The Rosie. It's a mockumentary about the fallout from & search for a kid who made such a horrible face at a Toronto mall 25 years ago that it changed the lives of everyone who saw it, including a character played by Mike's brother Dano Villano (of Howling Bullets fame.) Well made and full of amusing moments, it even featured some Frightlight in-jokes (a character wore a band shirt, and another complimented their stature), though Mike told me that no Frightlight music was included because all of their songs are already about movies. The second movie was "The Last Strand" by AlgomA frontman Boyd Rendell (a.k.a. Darby Wigwaus) & 62nd Chamber Productions, so how was that?
It was basically about a night in the life of two mall janitors, one eccentric & crude, the other serious and ill-tempered, until one hits their "last strand". If the credit date is accurate, the movie was filmed before AlgomA's launch, so there's no direct band references (though bassist Kevin Campbell has a small role as a mall employee.) It was a well made movie too with an interesting contrast of characters, and a nice familiar setting, though the audio sounded distorted for much of it. It was nice to get to see Mike & Boyd's hard work pay off, and look for physical copies of them in the coming months!
Also today, I wanted to let you guys know of a couple more restored MySpace links to our listings on the site, thanks to the website's recent revivals of old photos and videos! That said, I'm glad to return defunct Sault Ontario concert agency Big Voiced Records & former Sault Michigan studio Klusterfunk Productions to our "Other Local Metal Links" sections! That said, I opted not to restore the links for Adamantium Productions, the Bell Border Jam, Hitman Productions, Infamous Productions, idioRECORDS, Lucky Limb Studios, The Mistresses of Metal, or The Satisfied Frog, as they lack videos or relevant detailed photos, so their restoration would depend on MySpace bringing back profile information. Big Voiced Records was local musician Jeremy Hannah's former hardcore concert promotion agency, and their MySpace page is full of concert posters from 2007 & 2008 like this one, while Klusterfunk Productions worked with artists like Clownsack during their mid-2000s heyday. It's great to restore some old content to our links, even if just in two cases, so check the above links for more old/new info, and stay tuned in case there's more!
Finally, here's three assorted shorter news stories from the last little while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by band name:
Local death metal standouts The Bear Hunters will indeed play at this year's Sewer Swampstravaganza at The Oddfellows Hall on May 3rd, as confirmed on the Facebook event page yesterday! The fifth confirmed band, their addition (and RedD Monkey's hiatus) will make them the only act to play at all 4 Swampstravaganzas. Great addition as expected, and stay tuned for further lineup updates!
The now-London based djent metal project Hiroshima Mutant Mindframe has uploaded a handful of short clips and breakdown samples onto their Soundcloud page in the last few weeks! Though unfinished, all have promise and brutality, so even though Matt moved down south, give his very solid new audio previews a look above, along with older material!
Though a post on the Facebook event page post yesterday by singer J.D. Pearce indicated that local punk/metal quintet Jack Spades would release their debut EP at this Saturday's Anvil show at The Canadian Nightclub, he revealed on our Facebook page tonight that there was a "snag" in production, and they're now aiming for an April release. Disappointing, but look for some new originals from them on Saturday regardless!
That's all for today, but stay tuned TOMORROW for this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles! Thanks everyone!
Today at the SMS, we have some more assorted recent topics to touch on, including some random shorter recent items, new Facebook song postings, and some nice restorations on a popular social networking/band website, but first, here's the latest updates on a recently launched regular concert series!
It looks like plans to run the new Heavy Thursday series at The Roosevelt Hotel on a weekly basis have been scaled back. In a post on the series' Facebook group yesterday, promoter J.D. Pearce remarked that "there just aren't enough local acts" to cover the series weekly with three bands a night, but he does plan to continue Thursday bookings for local acts when available & when out of town bands play on a Thursday at The Rosie, so message him on Facebook or at the above links if you want in on a potential Thursday! The post leads me to think that there won't be a Heavy Thursday this week, but the next announced Thursday nighter at this venue will be on April 3rd with Babysitter and local openers, and we'll let you guys know if any are announced for this month. I did have a fear that this might happen with the new series, as the original Rosie metal nights started to be stretched thinner after they went weekly, with just one of the last 14 Dismembertainment promoted metal nights from July-October 2011 featuring more than two local bands.
Though the weekly convenience is awesome, I think the old series had better local lineup spreads and promotion when it was bi-weekly, so maybe J.D. could try promoting them on a regular bi-weekly or monthly basis? Either way, he's the right man to do a regular series right now in the Soo, and hopefully he's got some great cards up his sleeve for Thursdays at The Rosie as we enter the spring! Stay tuned for updates at the above links!
Next up, some old deleted MySpace media is back on old profiles, so we can restore some bands we deleted from our band links! In the past month, the social networking/music website has began restoring photos and videos to old profiles that don't violate current requirements or terms of use (source here), so if you've missed some MySpace videos and photos that weren't elsewhere, check again, as they're probably back! Biography information, blog postings, page comments, games, and applications remain absent though. With this revelation, a lot of source videos & photos for our back coverage is at access again, and I can add most (but not all) of the bands we deleted from our band links last summer back to the site, as some now have enough videos and/or informative photos to constitute a "relevant" link for our purposes. With that said, I'm pleased to re-welcome 7/47, The Pisstanks, Riot! By Night, Route 69, Savage Roar, Shift, Twisted Manikin, When They Fall, and Wild Fate back to our band links based on their restored content!
The artists that we didn't bring back were Askew'd, Caedis Omnis, Cherubic Red, Ephidel, Steven Flint, Traynwreck, and Wrathborne, as none have videos or effectively captioned photos, so their restoration to the site would depend on MySpace bringing back old profile information. Huge thanks to MySpace employees for bringing back the videos and photos, this makes our work a lot easier, and I know it will benefit the new music-centric focus of the site, so go check your old MySpace links to see what's "new"!
Also today, local "derd rock" project The Issues posted a couple more new/old original songs onto their Facebook page on Saturday! Uploaded as Facebook videos again, one is a re-post from their MySpace page entitled "Candy Store", and it's a slower and more deliberate song based on a true story that has a surprising maturity going for it! While "Puppets on a String (Trixie)" & "Last Stand" have not made it to Facebook yet, another old 2009 demo named "Kick" did that we haven't heard before, and it has a groove metal sound that I believe features ex-singer Alan "Power" Wells from Winkstinger, so the extreme nature should be of note! I still like the variance shown on their material, and they can handle a bunch of different styles effectively, but it remains to be seen how Mullet and Vinyl do on newer material. Check out "Kick" below, and hear more at the above links!
Finally for today, here's three more assorted shorter stories from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by band name:
Did you happen to notice a post on As It Stands' Facebook page
on January 28th that featured a photo album of a concert from earlier
that month that they were listed as playing? Just in case anyone was
confused, that show was in Edmonton and featured a hard rock band from
there named As It Standz
(with a "z"), so chalk that up to a tagging error. The local hardcore
As It Stands haven't played live in a year & a half, and have
issued no updates in over 4 months, but stay tuned just in case!
In a note we haven't elaborated on outside of this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post, local punk/metal quintet Jack Spades' debut EP is being produced by AlgomA drummer/Bad Back frontman Jamie Vincent! That should be interesting for sure, so stay tuned for updates! (My source is Jack Spades' Facebook page.)
Relocated local grindcore trio Shit Liver will finally play live in their new Southern Ontario homebase this Saturday in Niagara Falls as part of a breast cancer fundraiser (details here!) The date joins their Soo return date on May 4th at The Oddfellows Hall, as well as a return to the Touch of Death Festival in Cochrane in June. Nice to see the guys getting back into the live scheme of things again, and stay tuned as we hear more!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news this week, including hopefully something tomorrow! Thanks everyone!
Today's post at the SMS is focused mostly on Sault Ontario news and notes, including the complete schedule for a massive upcoming metal/punk show, and a preview for a special Tuesday night concert going down tomorrow, but we also have the last of our MySpace link changes & deletions to cover, mostly relating to Sault Michigan companies and venues. However, we're leading off with a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for next month featuring two bands playing tomorrow night, so here's what you need to know!
Local horror punk/metal quintet Frightlight will play their second concert of 2013 on Saturday, July 27th at The Algonquin Pub! Barring any interim announcements, this will be their first Algonquin stop since October, and first headlining gig since then, and it'll be great to see the guys again following their return to the stage tomorrow (more on that in a bit.) This show will serve as a benefit to (I assume) raise money for the short film "The Kid Who Made The Face", which is being produced by bassist Mike Gingras (a.k.a. Eddie Fright), and all attendees of the show will be credited in it as a result. Mike's been taking college courses in filmmaking in Toronto in the past year, and hopefully this film will show the fruits of his labour, so come on out to support this movie! Two local opening bands have been signed on as well for July 27th, including local melodic death metal quintet The Bear Hunters (in their Algonquin Pub debut) and local punk trio Redundant, who should both add nicely to the metal and punk sides of the audience next month, so don't miss them!
Doors open at 9:00 PM for this 19+ concert, and there's an admission price of $5. For more details, check the above links, and the commercial below that Mike posted on his YouTube channel on Saturday, which combines advertising for the show with clips from the movie "The Warriors". Nice little ad, and hopefully it hypes you up for the concert, so check it out below, and stay tuned for updates!
Next up, here's a preview for a special and very intriguing metal concert going down TOMORROW NIGHT at The Roosevelt Hotel, as Edmonton classic heavy metal quintet Striker will make their local debut with a hard hitting faced paced set of original songs! Comparable in sound to recent local favourites like Skull Fist and 3 Inches of Blood, Striker have an exciting and energetic sound that fans of early 1980s speed metal should eat up, so definitely don't miss this stop on their Heavy Metal Rampage Tour!! Three local opening bands will also be on board, and though none are perfect genre matches, there's a nice diverse mix of sounds to enjoy, including the long awaited return of Frightlight after an 8 month stage hiatus, the aforementioned Bear Hunters, and local sludge/death metal quartet Giwakwa in just their fourth live concert, so heavy metal fans will almost certainly find something to like, and Frightlight's return is extra notable in itself! Admission will be $5 at the door for this 19+ concert, with doors opening at 9:00 PM. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page!
Also, promoter/Frightlight frontman Johnny Pints is also hosting a contest for the best 1980s metal costume tomorrow night, so get in on that to compete for a prize! This should be an awesome concert full of different and very intense heavy metal, so don't miss it, and I hope to see you guys there TOMORROW! For a preview, here's 14 minutes of Striker playing live in Edmonton in April!
Also today, the complete schedule has been announced for the third annual Sewer Swampstravaganza all ages show on August 10th at The Oddfellows Hall! Note that the lineup has changed at least once since today, but as best as I can tell, it was a minor change. As you might expect, Montreal thrash trio Warsenal will headline the event at 11:00 PM, with local punk/classical trio RedD Monkey (also the event's hosts/promoters) taking the stage at 10:00 PM. Melodic death metal standouts The Bear Hunters will play at 9:00 PM, to be preceded by local grunge/alternative band Haggith at 8:00 PM, local punk trio The Northern Tragedy at 7:00 PM, stoner/death metal quartet Giwakwa at 6:00 PM, "blue Chinese metal crash punk" notables Sykotyk Rampage at 5:00 PM, extreme metal quartet Winkstinger at 4:00 PM, rising death metallers Crimson Crusade at 3:00 PM, and young local hard rock quartet Ashes To Dust opening the show at 2:00 PM.
Definitely a return to the metal-heavy lineup of the 2011 installment, but with seven new bands (to the series), and at least 22 performers who haven't played in past years, there'll be tons of recent talent to enjoy, and for just $5! Check the above links for more details, and stay tuned for updates!
Finally for today, here's the remainder of our recent MySpace page deletions and changes in our link & venue listings, due to the recent design overhaul and information removals. Firstly, I moved a bunch of Sault Michigan & area links from MySpace to Facebook, including for local concert venues The Corner Pub Bar & Grill, Golanka's Bar (The Bird), The Savoy Bar & Nightclub, and Zim's, local music store Steve's Music Center, and local label/studio Werehold Records. I also moved local lessons/rock camp The Guitar Studio from MySpace to their official website, while the rest of the changes were page deletions, as the other links were for companies & venues that didn't have other known online pages. The deletions included inactive Sault Ontario concert promotion agencies Adamantium Productions, Big Voiced Records,
Hitman Productions, and Infamous Productions, inactive regional recording studios idioRECORDS, Klusterfunk
Studios, and Lucky Limb Studios, former local concert festival Bell Border Jam, defunct radio show The Mistresses of Metal, and Sault Michigan venue The Satisfied Frog (though I left it in the venue links as it still actively hosts shows.)
I think that's the last of our changes related to MySpace's new direction, but I still wish they'd restore at least profile information, photos, and videos to at least the band pages, as they would further their aims of it being music-centric, but I'm not assuming that they ever will. I just want to keep you guys abreast of the changes, and hopefully next time a popular site for local band pages decides to delete/overhaul things like this, we'll know ahead of time. That's all for today, but stay tuned for some major Sault Michigan news that I know some of you are waiting for very soon. Thanks everyone!
This post is dedicated to outlining changes to one of our biggest band page sources, and what this means for our links and coverage at The Sault Metal Scene. In a nutshell, social networking website and popular band page resource MySpace had a new profile layout, format, and direction rolled out last weekend, which focuses on music and artists. You think this would be good for what we do on the site, especially as the past uses of it as a social networking portal have fallen by the wayside compared to Facebook and Twitter, but not quite. As part of the upgrades, almost everything has been deleted from old MySpace pages with the exception of songs (if you had any uploaded), your existing friends (now called "connections"), and your profile photo. Biography information, videos, blog postings, page comments, most external applications, and games are all gone, though other photos can be retrieved on request if you log in. I'll note that MySpace administrators did not give any advance warning about these deletions, and while there is a visible outcry from existing users, I have little faith that MySpace will bring the info back (though Microsoft did revert on some of it's unpopular Xbox One policies, so who knows.)
Now, what does this mean for the site and local metal/hard rock bands? This honestly won't have a direct bearing on most current artists, as few local bands primarily used MySpace for their online media anymore compared to Facebook or Reverbnation, but this is a major headache for me and local music fans who used MySpace to catch up on older local bands. Unlike the closure of GarageBand, MySpace didn't give advance warning that they were going to delete so much from pages, so we went from a vast resource of band information to a stripped down version that feels more like a glossed up Soundcloud out of nowhere. To be fair, there is potential for the new MySpace, as Sault Ontario hardcore band Destroilet have made effective use and updates of their MySpace page, but they lost all old info too when they upgraded early, and many bands had a lot of information, posts, details, and videos there that was really a benefit to fans of local music. If the goal is to turn MySpace music-centric, why delete things that would have supported that aim?
As a current use site, this won't be a major loss, but in terms of material and SMS usage, this is a huge blow, but to try and soften it as much as I could, I archived biography information and details on as many local metal/hard rock bands that I could using cached copies of each using Google, so save for blog posts and videos, I think I have much of what would be handy. However, I had to update, change, and in some cases, delete some band links due to the "updates", as they made almost all local band MySpace pages shells of their former selves, and no longer the most updated and representative page for their information, material, and concert listings. For some, I left their MySpace page linked here as it still had audio material, and still remains their most substantial (or only) online page, but I saved info for most via cached page copies. For an unlucky 15 bands, the MySpace changes eliminated all info that kept them in our listings, and because they have no songs there, or other surviving online pages, I had to regrettably delete them.
I also moved two bands from MySpace to SoundClick pages (No Remains & Traces), while the other switches were for single bands, which now link to 2wo Man Baand's Freewebs page, ApocalyptiCDistroyeR's Wix website, Bent Rollercoaster's OurStage page, and Woods of Ypres' Bandcamp page. As for page deletions, as these artists had no songs on MySpace or other existing online pages, I regrettably have deleted 15 metal/hard rock acts from our SMS band listings, including Sault Ontario artists Caedis Omnis, Ephidel, The Pisstanks, Route 69, Steven Flint, When They Fall, and Wrathborne, and Sault Michigan-regional artists 7/47, Cherubic Red, Riot! By Night, Savage Roar, Shift, Traynwreck, Twisted Manikin, and Wild Fate. Most weren't too active in their heyday (Shift & Route 69 being notable exceptions), but even though I hate deleting links, I had to so we didn't link to barren, uninformative pages for the sake of preservation. No offense is intended to these bands' members!
The last switches that I have to make relate to MySpace links for non-bands on the site, and I'll tackle that soon. I hope MySpace administrators listen to their fans and bring back at least previous profile information, photos, blogs, and videos, as all would benefit their music-centric aims and show that they listen to their users, but I'm not holding out hope that they will. I just wanted to let you guys know about what happened and how it affects the SMS, and if your band has a MySpace page, I'd say spruce it up and make use of the new features, even if what's old is lost, as I can see it having some good uses. It's just a frustrating no-warning change, but I think we'll be alright in the long run. Stay tuned for more news soon, and thanks for the patience!
It's time for some more news and notes on this Monday evening, but be sure to check out this morning's post below this one for news on a new concert and my Merves/Frightlight concert review! Here though, we've got news on a video I've moved to another site, uploads of the remainder of an unreleased local EP, and leading things off, some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for this weekend, so here's what you need to know!
Six weeks after their first show at Feedback, the reborn Turner Up will apparently be rocking The Nicolet Tavern THIS FRIDAY & SATURDAY! An official online announcement from band sources hasn't been made yet, but Turner Up are advertised for this weekend on The Nic's marquee board, and guitarist Robert Brown alluded to playing with Turner Up this weekend on the event page for Sneaky Pete's concert on Saturday, so things are looking confirmed for them. This will be Turner Up's first show of 2012 and their first concert at The Nicolet Tavern since the new band formed last fall, though, most of the members' other band Havadder have been seen often in the interim, so click here for more on their next shows! I imagine these new concerts will have no cover charge, 19+ age limits, and 10:30 PM-ish start times. Stay tuned for updates and links pertaining to these new shows as they come in! Sounds good to me, and hopefully Turner Up kick off 2012 with a bang just like at their rebirth last year, so keep an eye out for more on these shows as they come in!
Also in new concerts this weekend is another solo acoustic concert from Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison! Continuing his successful weekly arrangement at Bossy's Pub N' Grub, Tym will be back at the Pim Street restaurant & bar on Saturday afternoon for his third straight acoustic show there, and you know from experience and past gigs that he'll have hours of hard rock and metal covers in store for fans and revelers this time around! As usual, there'll likely be no cover charge on Saturday, I doubt there'll be an age limit, and he'll be on at 2:00 PM. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! If you've missed Tym's recent solo gigs or Caveman Morrison concerts, definitely consider making out to his next one, especially as it'll be over before any of the night concerts! I believe this will finally be the day I see Tym's solo show again after way too long without, so hopefully I'll see you guys there, and stay tuned for more on this and all other concerts this weekend in our concert previews later in the week!
Next up today, do you remember when we capped off our Christmas season with surprise uploads of songs from Sense of Truth's unreleased debut EP? Well, I have copies of the rest of the prominent local hard rock quintet's studio material from this unreleased album, and I've posted them onto our YouTube channel! Singer Cory Murchison dropped off a burned copy of the album to me yesterday afternoon, and now I can tell you guys a bit more about what would have been in our hands had the EP came out before Sense of Truth disbanded last fall. The self-titled EP would actually have featured seven songs, not five as was rumoured, though only six would have been listed, including the previously posted "Crawling", "Vicious Cycle", and "Push & Pull", and three songs that haven't been available to publically stream in full until today, those being "Pieces of the Mirror", "Done It Again", and "Land Of Greed". As well, there would have been a seventh hidden track at the end of the EP, which was an instrumental hard rock number that I don't recall Sense of Truth playing live. Click the above links to hear each full song from the unreleased EP, and note that I deleted the old YouTube upload of the "Land of Greed" sample, now that we have the full copy. Thanks again to Cory for sending these my way!
It's great to have the full EP available now, and it jumpstarted some good memories, like "Done It Again", which I completely forgot about in the last year! The songs sound good overall, and the production by Miguel Gauthier at Stereo Soul Studios does these tracks justice, but it's still disappointing that this never got a formal release. Could this EP get a review at some point on here? Possibly, especially if I can tie it in with members' next public concerts, but time will tell! For now, check the above links to hear Sense of Truth's entire unreleased debut album, and here's "Pieces of the Mirror"!
And finally, here's a note on the whereabouts of one of our posted videos, and the possible destination others could take in the future. Recently, our classic video upload of Sault Michigan quartet Monkey's Uncle's cover of Jet's "Cold Hard Bitch" was muted due to copyright concerns. I don't believe copyright should be enforced on covers, but I'm not gonna test YouTube or skirt authority by trying to re-upload it, so I deleted it from YouTube and re-posted it on our MySpace page. I know this came from MySpace already, but I'm thinking about turning our MySpace page into a place for videos that either tripped copyright laws or could violate them there as an alternate spot. Besides, it's a good performance, so why punish you guys because it's a cover? Check out our "new" upload of this Monkey's Uncle video below, and when/if a new SMS-relevant video is posted on MySpace instead, I'll surely let you guys know!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for our next poll and last month's poll results on Wednesday, plus more news and notes as the week rolls on! Thanks everyone!
Hey there, metalheads! Here's some local metal news and notes for this Monday night, including ANOTHER new local band's website, a lineup change in a local hard rock band, some more music discoveries from a local band, and more, but first, here are some SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS!!!
New Sault Michigan hard rockers Splitshot have announced a pair of dates THIS WEEKEND at The Bird! This will be their second set of weekend dates since their inception, after playing at The Bird this past weekend. Details weren't specified, but judging by general tendencies of past shows at The Bird, this should have a rough start time of 10:00 PM with a 21+ age limit for both of these concerts, on Friday night and Saturday night. As usual for Sault Michigan bar shows, you must be 21 to enter. Apologies to everyone for the short notice, these shows were only just announced this afternoon on the band's Facebook page. Remember, Splitshot are the new local hard rock cover quintet featuring Nixxon Dixxon alumni Chris Hubbard and Kyle Beaumont, so you know there's some talent and good stuff in store! No audio or video of them in action yet, but make sure to check them out this weekend if you're in the mood for some live hard rock! Check the above links for more, and I'll have more on Splitshot as it comes in!
Next up, we have a brand new local metal band page to share! They're not a new band, we first told you about them in August, but only now do they have an actual page. The band is Sativa Rose, the local metal cover trio featuring singer/guitarist Andrew Angelic, singer/bassist Adam Veale, and former Dreamscape drummer Alex Palmer, and they are now officially on Facebook, thanks to their new Facebook page! There's lots of band info there, including listed genres ranging from thrash metal to punk, booking info, some live photos, and information on their next live concert on Christmas at Foggy Notions! It's great to see them finally launch an actual page, maybe this will help get them some more well deserved exposure! There's no audio or video posted there, but check out Adam Veale's dad John's YouTube channel to check out live videos from Sativa Rose, including some with guest singers Jason Roy from Havadder and Tym Morrison! Stay tuned for more Sativa Rose news as it comes in!
Thirdly today, have you been wondering where Stillbroke have been lately? The only things we've heard about them since May have revolved around the bassist position, and in this new update on the local hard quartet, that's where we go right back to. Stillbroke have parted ways with bassist Nathan Bouliane (again) and replaced him with Bear Hunters guitarist Mitch Sirie! Nathan actually told me at the Total Chaos show that he left for musical differences, more or less, so that explains his departure, but I won't go into too much detail without online sourcing. Now, official statements from the band haven't been made, with their old Facebook page deleted and their MySpace page untouched since Kyle McKey was still on bass, but Mitch told me about his involvement in Facebook conversations. Those close to the band backed this up in the same conversation, and Mitch's personal Facebook page confirms his involvement. It will be very interesting to hear what Mitch has to offer in Stillbroke, as he has shown he's more than capable on bass with his April Eyes solo project (yes, it was re-renamed from Animas again.) I sense a heavier Stillbroke, am I alone in thinking that? Here's hoping they're gigging again soon, and that they update their MySpace page too! Stay tuned for more as it comes in!
Fourthly, remember yesterday when I shown you guys the various solo songs that Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison had posted on his official website? Well, I hinted towards some extra music from Caveman Morrison that I wanted to share later, and later is now! If you head to the music page on Caveman Morrison's official website, you'll get three Caveman Morrison studio quality covers, of Megadeth's "Symphony of Destruction", Judas Priest's "Living After Midnight", and Black Sabbath's "Paranoid"! These have programmed drums and feature Tym Morrison's very talented guitar playing, but you may notice that the Judas Priest and Black Sabbath covers feature a different singer. It at least sounds like someone else, I know how Tym sounds both live and in studio. I think it's former Caveman Morrison singer Dean Duguay, who sang with the band through their last local run and in their Calgary period, but that's not stated for me to be verifiably sure. Still good though, the vocals suit each song, and each track is heavy! You can of course hear these songs in current Caveman Morrison setlists as well! Good stuff, Tym should make more studio covers of metal songs! There's also a sample of Tym's solo original "Moon Patrol" there from his "next album" that we saw on his solo music page, in case you're interested! Check it all out at the above links!
And finally, here's three quicker updates to get to. These are in alphabetical order by artist or topic name, as usual!:
Anyone out there want a Lion Ride calendar? Their Facebook page is hyping sales of an official 2011 band calendar, and though I can't tell what form it'd take or if it's even a serious statement, it'd be cool to see! If you want one, click here and show your support!
Local experimental hard rock solo artist Mike Cliffe has posted a new song on his Reverbnation page! Entitled "Gollum Jam", it's a straightforward bluesy rock jam tune, with one major difference: Gollum from The Lord of The Rings is singing! Actually, it's just some very strange vocal effects to create a robotic high pitched voice that sounds a but like Gollum. Very odd and original, but worth checking out, click here to do so!
Here's a note for those of you who use MySpace for personal or band pages. Today, MySpace started changing ALL profiles to the new profile layout. Note this if you have a MySpace page you don't update frequently or haven't switched over, because this will basically kill your old custom HTML profile themes, though songs, photos, and information are left alone. Head to MySpace A.S.A.P. to re-customize your profiles and get caught up! Yes, it's an inconvenience, but hey, do you want a white blank shell of a MySpace page?
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news very soon, and our December update of our "Where Are The New Albums?" post on or around Thursday! Thanks everyone! MIKEY BISHOP
