New Quarantunes From Mikey & His Uke, Plus Lots Of SMS Link Updates!!

For this 84th straight daily post at the SMS, we're continuing our link cleanup that populated our post on Saturday, but let's start with the latest quarantune cover videos from Mikey (Hawdon) & his uke! Since we last looked at the local punk music veteran's daily ukelele covers on his YouTube channel, Mikey has posted seven new ones in the past week. Unusually for this current stage of the quarantune series, only two of these videos feature guests beyond Mikey and editor/sometime percussionist Dean Glover, but Dean did spice up the solo videos in varying ways! The new solo videos feature Mikey & his uke covering Madonna's "Material Girl", 2 Unlimited's "No Limit", The Dead Milkmen's "Punk Rock Girl", Willie Nelson's "On The Road Again" (featuring many familiar faces in the included photos), and Stompin' Tom Connors' "Algoma Central 69", which should please Inner City Surfers fans in particular. That said, what about the videos featuring special guests?

One is a cover of The Spice Girls' "Stop" featuring four female musicians who have guested in prior quarantunes (I'll let you figure out which spice is which), but embedded below is video #83 from Friday, where Mikey is joined by his Surfers bandmates Dustin Jones, Dave Bahun, and Brad Example for a special rendition of "Booze N' Doobs"! Mikey is even included a second time in the top right on "drums", which is a nice touch. Fun and loose cover, as all of these are in their own way, so give all of Mikey's 85 quarantunes to date a watch above and below, and stay tuned for more tomorrow!



Finally for today, here's nine assorted shorter updates, all via recent changes and deletions to our link sections on the SMS, relating to bands, concert venues, and more. As usual, these are in alphabetical order by band, venue, event, or business name:

• I have changed the link in our inactive concert venue listings for local natural foods restaurant and occasional concert venue Cafe Natura from their now-closed website to their Facebook page. However, Cafe Natura abruptly closed in June of last year, and has since been replaced at 75 Elgin Street by Georgie's Shawarma, which I don't believe has hosted live concerts. Kelly seemed to have a good thing going with Cafe Natura, and hopefully she and the former staff are in good spirits nowadays!
• I have removed Foggy Notions from our inactive concert venue listings as well due to the deletion of their Facebook (and last known surviving) online page. Of course, 708 Queen Street East has hosted Coch's Corner since it's move from the Days Inn in 2012, albeit with a much softer range of live music, and hopefully more concerts will occur there in time when things settle down!
• I have removed local music store Grooves Music from our "Other Sault Michigan Metal Links" section due to the deletion of it's Facebook page within the past year. The long-time 540 Ashmun Street business was sold to new owners in 2017 and re-opened as Crooked Music, before moving across the road to 539 Ashmun last year. Head to Crooked Music for all of your instrument, lesson, and vinyl needs, though use common sense given the pandemic!
• I have deleted Hempfest from our listing of local concert festivals due to the closure of their Facebook page in recent years, which was the annual marijuana culture/concert festival's last known online page. Readers may recall this annual event at the current Northern Vibe Festival site in Ophir, Ontario from 1999-2013 (save 2010) before organizers held it's last three installments in Moonbeam. Hopefully Robert, Willy-Jack, and everyone who made Hempfest possible are still doing well nowadays!
• I have changed the link for defunct local band management & promotion company New Era Design & Development in our "Other Sault Ontario Metal Links" section from their now-closed website to their Facebook page. Derek had solid ambition with New Era, including a working relationship with local hard rock band Stillbroke circa 2010, but their later activity was centered on digital media before New Era fell inactive by 2013.
• I have removed 2005 all-female alternative/punk trio Nowhere Fast from our defunct band links due to the quiet deletion of their Tripod (and only surviving) online page at some point in the past year. It would have been interesting to see Nowhere Fast make more of a local presence during their brief run, but hopefully their members are still musically active!
• I have removed mid-2000s punk band Oceania from our defunct band links due to the closure of BandSpace, which hosted their last surviving band page until that website quietly shut down three years ago. Oceania were a promising act, and hopefully LaR, Dilbert, and Chris re-emerge with new music down the road!
• I have replaced early 2010s punk/classical trio RedD Monkey's (sadly) deleted Facebook page in our band links with their Bandcamp page, which still hosts copies of their three studio albums. Steve, Pete, Kevin, and Joe have been missed locally in the last few years, and hopefully we hear of new music from them in the future!
• I have changed the link for defunct local nightclub/concert venue Smack Daddy's Bar & Grill (a.k.a. Bossy's Pub N' Grub) in our inactive venue listings from their now deleted Facebook group to their Smack Daddy's-era Facebook page. Sporadically active as a concert venue through 2011, Smack Daddy's closed in 2014, as the building was bought by new owners, torn down, and replaced by what's now Pim Street Dental. Hopefully they're doing strong business there, it's a good location!

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

Defunct Local Band Profile Series: Nowhere Fast & The Mourning Glory

It's now time for this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles, as we continue our monthly spotlighting of defunct and inactive metal, hard rock, and punk bands from the Sault Ste. Marie area for current readers, all as randomly selected from our band links. This month is a double profile due to the first band having no posted material, so we added a second band with little information to round things out. Both are intriguing bands that never realized a fuller potential, so here's what you should know on each group!
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Nowhere Fast

Genre: Alternative/Punk Rock

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Members: (It is unclear whether "Kel" in the band photo on the right is Andrea's replacement or successor in Nowhere Fast, or if that was actually her nickname. Let us know if you can fill in any blanks!)

Andrea Croft, vocals
Rhiannon "Rhi" Jones, guitar/bass
Jess Walls, drums

Audio/Video: No media of Nowhere Fast ever made it's way to the band's Tripod page, but postings there note that they were planning to cover acts ranging from Rise Against & Switchfoot to Sarah MacLachlan and Peter, Paul, and Mary, and they also had plans to write original material. However, as a band without a full time bassist at last update, they may not have been ready to release any recordings when they dissolved.

Info/Analysis: Only visibly active in the spring of 2005, Nowhere Fast never advanced past their Tripod page for public updates, but they did showcase a strong sense of humour throughout, and they did seem to have plans in place to progress the band. It's a shame that Nowhere Fast never got too far off the ground, as an all-female alt-punk band would have been a stand-out attraction in the local scene in the mid-2000s. I'm not familiar with any of the girls from other local bands, but hopefully there's material out there!
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The Mourning Glory

Genre: Progressive/Hard Rock/Blues

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Members:

Glen Thomas (Soundcheck, Flat Stanley, The Peace Vibe), all instruments
Tony Kajnar (Flat Stanley, The Peace Vibe), guitar

Audio/Video: This studio project was intended to focus on Reverbnation & iTunes distributed original material inspired by bands like King's X, Rush, and Porcupine Tree. Plans were to record with a number of guest musicians, but aside from 6 solo demo recordings by Glen on Reverbnation, nothing followed on either platform. That said, Glen did share this video of him playing the Mourning Glory original "Elastic Man" onto his YouTube channel in August 2012, so you can get a rough sense of how the band sounded!



Info/Analysis: Launched by veteran local rock drummer Glen Thomas in March 2012, The Mourning Glory saw a partial return to Glen's hard rock band work of the 1980s. Aside from adding his long-time bandmate Tony Kajnar in 2013, updates were sporadic at best, last coming in January 2016 on Glen's forum. This project is not to be confused with the classic/hard rock cover band Mourning Wood, who Glen drummed for from 2015-2017. Their rough demos showcase a promising brand of bluesy hard rock with some real creativity, but they could have used cleaner recording quality. The ambition was there, hopefully Glen revisits this material!
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I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles! This series will return on or around July 10th when we take a look at another randomly selected local band from the past, but not as far back as you may think, namely local indie/alternative quartet Bizotic! Look for that next month, and for more news and notes on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (The Go North Music Festival & West Of Hell), The Ozbourne Concert Preview, And More!!

As promised, we're capping off this weekend's hard rock concert previews today, but to fill things out, we have a pair of LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for the coming months, and leading off, a surprise band discovery from about 14 years back, so here's what you should know!

While this will hardly make up for the 50 or so bands removed from our band links earlier this week (thank you, Myspace), we do have a newly discovered band to add to our defunct Sault Ontario band links, namely Nowhere Fast! A young all-female alternative/punk trio that was only visibly active for a brief period from April-May 2005, their lineup was comprised of singer Andrea Crofts, guitarist/bassist Rhiannon "Rhi" Jones, and drummer Jess Walls, none of which I'm familiar with from other local bands. No word on if "Kel" in the band's sole picture is a former band member or a nickname of Andrea's, as I don't know any members personally. Their Tripod page is inconsistently detailed (only Rhi has a full biography or thank-yous here), and their sole blog posting isn't musically related, but they had a clear sense of humour throughout available posts. Nowhere Fast had planned to write original songs, while covers were listed from bands like Switchfoot and Rise Against to Edwin McCain and Sarah MacLachlan, among various others.

I have no way of knowing how Nowhere Fast would have sounded as a live band, and Rhi's shared band roles indicate that they may have still needed to add a full-time bassist before then anyway, but an all-female band was a local rarity in the mid-2000s, and it would have been interesting to see where they would have went! Give them a look at the above links!

Next up, here's a pair of LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, starting with the first true concert of 2019 from local metal promoters Six, Two, Oh., as Vancouver death metal quintet West of Hell will make their third local concert appearance on Wednesday, April 17th when they headline at The New American Pub! Last seen over 5 years ago at The Oddfellows Hall, this show will take place during their Infidels Tour of Canada, and their melodic brand of extreme metal will still be well primed for face melting next month! Fellow Vancouver metal quintet Expain are joining them for this tour, and they'll be bringing their own explosive blend of progressive thrash metal to the The New A as well, so be sure to check them out! Local openers will surprisingly include local cybergrind solo project Malignant Neoplasm (led by C.T.W.'s own Tyler Gibson.) I can't recall if Malignant Neoplasm have ever had a formal live concert set, so I'm curious to hear how their noise attack translates live!

The surprise opening act will be local rapper Conika, who may seem like a major outlier on an concert billed as having "1,000% Metal", but she is a talented MC, and Six, Two, Oh. are no strangers to booking musically disparate acts on the same bill. Hopefully she sets the tone nicely! A $5 cover charge is in effect for this 19+ concert, which has a 9:00 PM start time. Visit the official Facebook event page for full details on what should be a brutal night of extreme metal intensity, and stay tuned for potential updates!

Also newly announced, local Celtic punk quintet Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide will hit the road for Richards Landing on nearby St. Joseph Island (45 minutes southeast of Sault Ste. Marie) to take part in the third annual Go North Music Festival on Saturday, July 13th! As far as I know, The Tide are the first punk, metal, or hard rock band to ever play at this one-day festival, and with their folksier Celtic side, they should fit in well! Held at the Centennial Grounds at 1511 Richards Street (previously the site of Cornfest), this family-friendly event will feature food vendors, craft beer, local artisans, children's activities and entertainers, and overnight camping, so be sure to visit the official website and/or Facebook page for full non-musical details. The diverse musical lineup will also include Toronto alt-folk band Birds of Bellwoods, Juno-winning local country singer Crystal Shawanda, Toronto indie rock quintet Sun K, Toronto folk singer/songtwriter Skye Wallace, ...

...London rock singer/guitarist Sarah Smith, Hamilton indie rock quartet Another Crush, and local indie rock solo artist Jesse Merineau & his solo band, with The Rising Tide listed as the festival openers. Tickets run for $30 until March 30th, $40 in advance afterwards, and $50 at the gate, while youths 13-18 in age can get in for $15, and kids 12 and under are FREE. You can buy tickets and camping packages at this link or at regional merchants to be announced. Sounds like a fun time, especially if you love folk and indie rock, and hopefully Dustin & company set the tone well in Richards Landing this summer! Visit the above links for complete current details!

Finally for today, let's wrap up this weekend's hard rock concert previews, as Winnipeg-based Ozzy Osbourne/Black Sabbath tribute band OZbourne will make their Sault Ste. Marie debut TOMORROW NIGHT when they rock The Canadian Nightclub! 8 years removed from Blizzard of Ozz's show at the same venue, we can finally take in some more touring tribute action with OZbourne, whose sound is faithful in sound and visual appeal to satiate any Ozzy fan, so be sure to give them a look before you head to The Canadian tomorrow! The local openers are blues rock trio The Paul DellaVedova Band (replacing The Bearded Lounge) in a rare support appearance from them at a non-festival, and while they may not be your first thought as openers for an Ozzy tribute, remember that Paul and company have some hard rock songs in their setlist, and blues music was a big influence on Black Sabbath, so they should deliver strongly to kick things off!

Moved up to tomorrow from it's original March 29th scheduling, this 19+ concert has a likely 10:00 PM start time, and admission will be $15 at the door. If you love Ozzy and/or Sabbath, you'd be well served to check out Ozbourne tomorrow night, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and for a preview, here's Ozbourne live!



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

Battle Of The Bands Rewind Mini-Series: The Sault College/Scotties Tournament Of Hearts Battle Of The Bands

It's Friday, so it's time for our sixth of seven initial entries in our Battle of the Bands Rewind Mini-Series! We're nearing the end of this series' first run with one of two 2010 battles of the bands in Sault Ontario, and this one had a familiar lineup of local talent, with a notable sports event behind it all, so what went down? Who won? Where are the bands now? Find out below, and if you have any additions or corrections to improve this post, please let me know! (Updated on January 28th, 2016)
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The Sault College/Scotties Tournament of Hearts Battle of the Bands (February 3rd, 2010)

Background: Sault College, in cooperation with the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, joined forces to put on a battle of the bands on February 3rd, 2010 as part of the annual Canadian women's curling championship's festivities when Sault Ste. Marie hosted it that year. Auditions for the battle took place privately at Sault College's former bar The Outback on January 21st, 2010, after which four bands were selected to compete at the battle, which was held at The HeartStop Lounge inside The Soo Curlers Association's building on Anita Boulevard. Only bands with a Sault College student in their lineup were allowed to audition. At the battle itself, the competing bands received a half hour to play their material, after which prizes were awarded to the top 3 bands, though judging criteria wasn't explicitly posted online.

Prizes: The first place band walked away with $750 and the right to play an encore set that night, with $500 going to second place, and the third place band winning $150. Prize money was donated by the Scotties Tournament organizers, with the battle itself charging free admission.

Competitors: The four competing bands came from a wide array of genres, including folk rock standouts Blackwater, classic rockers Middle of Nowhere, indie punk quartet Nebraska Arms, and "blue Chinese metal crash punk" band Sykotyk Rampage. Notably, each of these bands (except Blackwater) had competed in the Kiss Battle of the Bands at The Canadian Nightclub two months before this event, where Nebraska Arms was the only band of the three to make the finals. Bands that auditioned for this battle were not publically revealed, adding to the audition's private nature.

Results: In the end, Blackwater pulled out the victory at this battle of the bands, with Nebraska Arms coming in a close second place. Sykotyk Rampage scored a solid third place finish, with Middle of Nowhere ending up in fourth place.

Aftermath: Blackwater continued to play numerous concerts and events in the Sault area through mid 2010, and though they're now inactive, frontman Cody McMillan still plays Blackwater material & sells their self-titled CD at his solo concerts, even holding a CD release party for it and his later solo releases in September 2012. Sykotyk Rampage remain a prolific and unique sight on the local scene, recording dozens of original new albums, and continuing to play scattered concerts in the area, while Nebraska Arms and Middle of Nowhere both quietly went inactive later on in 2010.

Some Notable Performers' Newer Bands (Metal/hard rock in italics):

Aggressive Acoustic (Brian Cattapan from Sykotyk Rampage; Based out of Sudbury)
The Business Suit Trappers (Guy Thiffault & Adam Sauve from Nebraska Arms)
Cody McMillan (Cody McMillan from Blackwater; Based out of Toronto)
Fusion (Lino D'Orazio from Middle of Nowhere)
The Mark Rand Band (Guy Thiffault & Dave Prendergast from Nebraska Arms)
The Moves (Cody McMillan & Dave Pihlaja from Blackwater)
Northwest (Wayne Watkins from Nebraska Arms)
The Small Town Rivals (Wayne Watkins from Nebraska Arms)
The Soft Shoe Shufflers (Cody McMillan & Dave Pihlaja from Blackwater)
The Strange Coyotes (James Watterworth from Blackwater)

Trivia:

• This battle of the bands was notable for it's high production values compared to other recent battles in the Sault area. This was especially evident by the presence of giant video screens on each side of the stage, which shown professionally filmed footage of each band's set as it happened. The bands received some of their footage from their sets after the fact, which Sykotyk Rampage edited to create some new music videos on their YouTube channel.
• Sykotyk Rampage put in the extra effort to drum up crowd support at this battle, including making many posters for fans to hold up in the crowd, and giving away free t-shirts in paper bags that lined the stage during their song "Bag On Your Face".
• With their second place finish, Nebraska Arms members Wayne Watkins & Adam Sauve ensured that they would either make the finals or win an award at a local battle of the bands in three consecutive years. They previously made the finals of the Skid Row Battle in March 2008 (as members of The Blockade), and the finals of the Kiss Battle with Nebraska Arms in December 2009, with the three battles taking place within a 2 year span.
• Sykotyk Rampage returned to another local battle of the bands, this time hosted by the Sault Humane Society, on April 20th, 2012 at The Grand Theater. However, they didn't compete at the event, serving instead as an opening band. Cody McMillan and Dave Pihlaja from Blackwater were scheduled to compete at the same battle with their newer blues rock band The Moves, but they quietly pulled out of the event due to external commitments.
• Sykotyk Rampage (now featuring ex-The Fury bassist Tony Briglio in place of Brian Cattapan) returned to competing at a battle of the bands at April 2013's Rockstar Bar Battle of the Bands, though they did not see the same success, finishing in third out of three bands in their April 17th semifinal, and missing the next week's final round.
• Nebraska Arms bassist Wayne Watkins repeated his second place finish at Viva La Battle at The Canadian Nightclub on November 13th, 2013, when he scored another runner-up placement with his newer indie/punk quintet Northwest, albeit as their singer & guitarist.

Videos:
Sykotyk Rampage video from The Sault Metal Scene
Three Sykotyk Rampage videos from their YouTube channel



Sources/More Info:
The Facebook event page for the battle auditions
The Facebook event page for the battle itself
Pre-audition coverage from The Sault Star
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We're almost done this series' initial run, as next Friday's profile of the Downtown Showdown battle from May 2010 will close up the seven weeks of looks back at recent battles of the bands! Then, of course, the Sault Humane Society Battle rocks The Grand Theater on April 20th, so there's lots of band battling action to come, so stay tuned for all of that, and keep an eye out later today or early tomorrow for our Ypres Metal Fest preview and more news! Thanks everyone!