Room 206 - "2 Innies & 1 Outie" Album Review!!

It's now time for our final monthly CD review of 2021 on The Sault Metal Scene, and our milestone 150th total! We have quite a notable new-ish release to satisfy both markers, as the album in question is the brand new re-release of defunct local punk band Room 206's 1994 album "2 Innies & 1 Outie"! Surviving details on the original release are minimal, but this album was put out independently on cassette tapes at the time, before fan and prolific local punk musician Mikey Hawdon set plans in motion to give this Room 206 tape a proper remaster & re-release on vinyl, through his new boutique label Soolebrity Records. After months of teasers, the one-sided records were officially released on Wednesday, and I absolutely pre-ordered one well in advance! "2 Innies & 1 Outie" was originally recorded locally at Satellite Sound Studios with engineer/co-producer Bob McLeod, while the remastering was done by Steve Rizun at Drive Studios in Toronto.

The two bonus covers by modern super-groups were recorded separately, but the vocals were also tracked at Drive Studios, with guitar recorded locally with Dustin Jones at Tidal Records, and the songs were mixed by Scott James at Greyskull Musik in Sweden. Room 206 are represented here by singer/guitarist Mike Yorke and drummer Al Watson (both ex-Totally Confused) alongside bassist Brad "Example" Lacell, who has played alongside Soolebrity Records head Mikey Hawdon for years in The Inner City Surfers. The bonus songs feature Mikey on vocals & guitar, Room 206 alum & Surfers bandmate Dave Bahun on lead guitar, No Use For A Name's Matt Riddle on bass, and mixer Scott James on backing vocals. Ex-Goldfinger drummer Darren Pfeiffer features on "Good Enuff", while No Doubt's Adrian Young drums on "I'll Be Around", which also features backing vocals from Surfers frontman/Tidal Records owner Dustin Jones.

Given that the original tape run of "2 Innies & 1 Outie" is 27 years old, it's obviously out of print, and I've never seen it for sale in the wild, but the vinyl remaster retails at $40. Only 206 copies (a fitting number!) have been pressed, and limited copies were on sale at The Rad Zone, so check there or contact Mikey directly if you want to see about availability if you didn't pre-order. Yes, the album is available digitally, which has somewhat flown under the radar on social media, but you can buy it in mp3 copies from Amazon for $9.49, and you stream all 10 songs on Spotify, YouTube, and Amazon Music, with song names below linked from YouTube.

Featuring 10 songs running for about 27 minutes, let's begin this review with the album's opening song, "My Trip"! Complete with a live-style introduction where they seem to briefly forget the complete band name, this song is about striving for something new for a change of pace, and though Mike isn't specific, he invites you to experience it first hand with him. This a melodic skate punk song with a good upbeat energy and a nice drum showcase for Al at the end, and while there's not a lot of unique hooks compared to similar bands of the period & to come, it delivers the requisite punk blast to lead off! Next is "I'm Feelin' Fine", which seems to be about reassuring someone that everything's alright when it really isn't. A shorter and faster song, the catchy hooks and drum beats are in full force on this one, but the echo on Mike's vocals are a little overdone on the verses

Fun song while it lasts, and I can see it being a live favourite to sing along with thanks to it's relatively simple chorus, but again, it's over before you know it. The shortest song of the original tape is next, namely "Garden Of Life", whose lyrics are more introspective and optimistic, aiming to show a friend how life should be lived (this kinda feels like a companion to "My Trip"). A fast paced drum solo kicks off this distorted bass-laden song, which suffers from the scratchy instrumentation and repetitive chorus, though the aggressive, hardcore ending stretch gives it a solid exclamation point! Not my favourite song on the album, but it ends well! Fourth is "Ride My Rocketship Of Love", and despite the title's strong adult innuendos, the lyrics have nothing to do with that, instead being about looking forward to a bright future despite society trying to get you down and internalizing your issues.

The slowest song so far on this album, the combo of Mike's melodic singing and the distorted, scratchy instrumentation doesn't really gel for me compared to preceding tracks, though Brad's bass playing is technically sound, and I like the drumming again! I would have either sped this track up or stripped it down even further, as it's in a bit of a gray area for me and not firing on all cylinders in either direction. Fifth on this album is "Anyways", which alludes to standing up for oneself and being your own person, away from the shadow of a bad influence. This is more of a Foo Fightersy power pop song, if slightly grittier, and while solidly performed, I wouldn't say this works as well for Room 206 as their faster, more punk-driven earlier songs, especially with the very abrupt ending. Not a bad song all the same, Mike's guitar work and vocals work well, but I do prefer them faster and punkier than this.

"Nature Calls" is next, with the title being a metaphor for escaping a bad situation, perhaps some sort of familial oppression. While not too far removed musically from "Anyways", this song is more aggressive and has a little more of a punk edge, plus some of Brad's better bass work on offer, and even a mini guitar solo during the bridge. Nothing groundbreaking, but this relatively long song has a lot of room to maneuver and include lots of strong components, and it's one of the better songs on the back half of the original album! Next is the longest song on offer, "Pretentious", with Mike giving advice about how to live, for better or worse, and honestly, the lyrics don't sound all that pretentious to me. This song is softer and relaxed (if not quite a "ballad"), augmented with heavier choruses, more great bass from Brad, and some strong and impassioned vocals from Mike, and some more progressive timing as the song ends.

While punk diehards aren't going to prefer "Pretentious", it's arguably the best song on the album in terms of showcasing Room 206 as musicians, so don't bypass it, even if it feels slow moving at first! The original tape concluded with "Pretend To Be", where you're invited to join in on a "flight", which may or may not be aided by alcohol to create the voyage in question. A little more of a grungy song with more of a melodic groove, this makes good use of Mike's vocal range and some more very solid drumming from Al, and it ends the 1994 version of the album on a high note! Again, the punk content slowed down on side B(?), but Room 206's talent was clear, even at this early stage! As for the bonus tracks, first is the very quick "Good Enuff", which Room 206 did record a studio version of for the 1995 Barely Legal Records compilation CD "Punk: The Next Generation".

For comparison's sake, I did listen to Room 206's version before the 2021 all-star cover, and both takes are about complacency in one's life when you should really be doing more, not just being a passive observer. It's almost an unfair fight given who recorded the new version, let alone with 27 years of production upgrades, but I definitely prefer the cover musically to the original, including a beefier, more dynamic sound, and how Mikey's vocals don't sound like they were recorded through a telephone! If you like Mikey's post-Lion Ride solo efforts as a punk frontman (especially The Fairmounts), this will be right up your alley, and he and Dave pair extra well on guitar! The remaster closes with the supergroup's cover of "I'll Be Around", which was called "Sit & Drool" on their posthumous MySpace page, though I forget if that was a studio recording or not.

Lyrically a defiant number about letting one set their own course when the time is right, this is another fun skate punk song that pairs extra well with the "Good Enuff" cover, especially with it's melodic guitar line, well timed backing vocals, and very solid drumming from Adrian, and it gets in & out without overstaying its welcome! It's not fair to compare these covers from 2021 to the original indie tape, but fans of Mikey & Dave's extensive local music catalog should eat both of these covers up, and they're a great bonus!

So, what are my final thoughts on Room 206's debut album('s new remaster)? Overall, this is a strong album that 1990s and skate punk fans will definitely enjoy, and even if you're not a genre diehard, there's some surprising diversity on offer too! For a 27 year old indie cassette tape to get re-born like this is a testament to it's quality, and everyone in Room 206 at the time delivered, with Al Watson's very underrated drumming, quality low-end bass lines by Brad Example, and strong guitar riffs & melodic vocals by Mike Yorke.  The first half of the album is more or less the punk half, before they spread their wings into more power pop and alternative stylings, and while I tended to prefer songs like "My Trip" and "I'm Feelin' Fine", the musicianship on songs like "Pretentious" can't be denied. On the flip side, the short song lengths were sometimes too short, and "Ride My Rocketship of Love" didn't know what it wanted to be.

As for the production quality, I can't 100% tell you how much better Soolebrity Records and Drive Studios made "2 Innies & 1 Outie" sound, as I've never owned the original tape, and the two songs from it on their MySpace page obviously no longer work, but the vinyl definitely sounds better than a cassette would! At the same time, the limitations of the original recording methods are present, as songs can sound tinny and scratchy, especially compared to the bonus covers, which obviously have way better production quality, but again, it's not a fair comparison. Mikey, Dave, Matt, Scott, and crew paid strong tribute to Room 206 with their take on two non-album originals (fittingly both skate punk songs at that), and in lieu of a Room 206 reunion, they're a very cool bonus for fans of theirs and of Mikey's extensive catalog! You just may have to stream the songs at this rate, or buy the mp3s on Amazon, given the very limited vinyl print run.

If you have any appreciation for the Windsor Park era of local punk music, then the remaster of "2 Innies & An Outie" will be very worth your time, and kudos to Mikey for bringing this important piece of his early fandom back like this! Hopefully Soolebrity does something similar for more classic local albums, but stream the whole thing for yourself above, and I hope you guys liked this month's album review! So, what will be our first monthly CD review of 2022? In all likelihood, we'll lead off the year with the brand new self-titled album from St. Ignace, Michigan metalcore band Heavy Lies The Crown, which is now available to buy in mp3 format on Amazon! It can also be streamed on Amazon Music too, but neither form of availability has been promoted by the band on Facebook. Look for that album review at some point in January, and stay tuned for either a new news post or our 2021 retrospective post on the site next! Thanks everyone!

Room 206 Vinyl Re-Release Information, A New Video, And Much More!!

Before everyone opens their presents under the Christmas tree, here's a new news post on this Friday morning, and it includes a new concert video, some assorted recent updates, and leading off, new details on a major album re-release for you classic punk fans! Here's what you should know!

As you may know by now, the long-anticipated vinyl reissue of defunct local punk band Room 206's 1994 album "2 Innies & An Outie" was officially released on Wednesday! Remastered and pressed on vinyl by veteran local punk musician Mikey Hawdon's new local boutique label Soolebrity Records, pre-orders for Saultite customers can be picked up at The Rad Zone, and surprisingly, there are limited copies for sale for $40, so there must have been less than 206 pre-orders, which is all that will be made. Unless I have missed something, there is not a digital streaming/download copy of the album (at least, not yet). I definitely pre-ordered one in the summer and I finally have the album in my possession (copy #72), making up for the fact that I've never seen a cassette copy of it in the wild. Elements of the album's contents have made their way to Facebook already, but what can I glean from it?

If you didn't see the photo teasers on the Mike's Lunch Music Facebook group, the album comes in a plastic sleeve with the information sticker in the bottom right, and inside, you get a sheet with a collage of band photos & documents on one side, and lyrics, credits, and liner notes on the other, as well as a Soolebrity Records sticker. The remaster-specific information includes the credits for the bonus covers of Room 206's "Good Enough" & "I'll Be Around", which feature Mikey himself on vocals & guitar and his Inner City Surfers bandmate Dave Bahun on lead guitar, plus No Use For A Name/Face To Face bassist Matt Riddle (no, not the wrestler), and mixer Scott James from Greyskull Records on backing vocals. Goldfinger's Darrin Pfieffer drums on the former and No Doubt's Adrian Young drums on the latter, which also features Surfers/Rising Tide frontman Dustin Jones on backing vocals.

As for the record proper, it is in a nice translucent gold vinyl, and confirming prior photos, all ten songs are on side A. There is no side B, it's completely smooth and does not have it's own label, which does strike me as odd given that "2 Innies & An Outie" was originally on a cassette tape (unless that was single-sided too?). It's great to finally have the Room 206 vinyl remaster for myself, so visit The Rad Zone A.S.A.P. (well, after the holidays) to see if they have any copies left in stock, and look for our review next week!

Next up, here's a new live video of local garage/hard rock quartet The Uncanny Valley during their Rockstar Bar debut back in August! For one reason or another, the video of this song (their new original "Fumbling Through") was only just posted to their YouTube channel on Monday, marking their first video there in over a year and their first from a public concert (their Rotaryfest video is on a separate personal YouTube channel). Our best look yet at The Uncanny Valley's current lineup, the video prominently shows a keyboard on stage, though I have not seen footage of them making use of that instrument yet, let alone which band member plays it.  The song proper is solidly composed with more of a southern rock bent and a deliberate pacing, so it should play well with fans, but the bright & warm stage lighting isn't optimal for viewing the band. Give their new live clip a watch below!

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

 

• Wyld Stallyns bandmates Jesse Cook & Jonas Gasperas are looking for a bass player to join their current band, and while they play all genres, "funk is a must". It is not clear whether this search is to fill a vacancy in The Stallyns (who featured Ben Garcia on bass after becoming an electric band this summer) or not, but note that they have not been seen live since August, pandemic acknowledged. If you want more details, message Jonas at this link or via his Musicians Wanted Facebook group post from Tuesday!
  
• Former local rock bassist Nathan (Jonna) Bouliane is back home in Sault Ste. Marie through early January, and he has his equipment on hand if any local musicians with studio recordings want to record a music video while he's in town, as per the Musicians Wanted Facebook group last week. Nathan has extensive work in film production via his own McBully Productions imprint, most recently via the video for Ottawa folk musician Almyr Jules' song "Don't Go", so message him here or above if you want any details on possibly shooting a video with him!
• I have removed 2011-2012 Sault Michigan hard rock band Swayze Train from our inactive band links, as their last surviving online page on Reverbnation doesn't have enough surviving band info to warrant an informative inclusion (their Facebook page has long since been taken down). The bridge between fellow early 2010s local bands Electric Motor Fish and Toast, Swayze Train had a talented lineup, and hopefully Melissa, Mike, Scott, Tony, and Tyler are doing well!

That's all for today, but have a Merry Christmas, and we'll see you guys with more news and notes on the site soon, including this month's YouTube Channel Profile on Sunday if all goes well! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Tym Morrison), Weekend Concert Previews, And Album Re-Release Updates!!

Let's get our first news post of the month rolling before it gets too late, and it's half devoted to weekend concert previews (one being a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT), and half to big updates on an upcoming album re-release. Now, here's what you should know!

Local classic/hard rock solo guitarist Tym Morrison will return to Reggie's Place for another early matinee concert THIS SUNDAY NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, Tym only announced this show via it's Facebook event page on Monday. After a three week break from public concerts at any locale, this will be Tym's first stop at the downtown Reggie's in about a month, and while I don't know if the scheduling is intentional, this is the third straight month where Tym was booked to play there on the first SUNDAY of said month. Should we be expecting him back there on January 2nd? Time will tell, but Tym's diverse and deep setlist of rock favourites and out-of-genre selections should go over well with Reggie's patrons and fans alike once again. Tym will be on at 3:00 PM THIS SUNDAY, there's no cover charge, prepare for a 19+ age limit, and vaccine passports are still mandatory for events like these. 

And as usual, please honour and respect Reggie's social distancing and public health measures to ensure everyone's safety, especially with the rise in case counts in the district and the new omicron variant emerging. Visit the above links for more details, and here's Tym live!

Next up, here's previews of shows this weekend that had plenty of advance notice (though I do apologize for not getting this preview up until just now), as Marquette, Michigan hard rock cover quartet Spun will play their second and final E.U.P. concert weekend of 2021 when they rock The Northern Pines Lounge at the St. Ignace Kewadin Casino TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT! Announced by the casino in the summer, fans may have seen the Nudge. successors at The Rapids Lounge at Sault Ste. Marie's Kewadin branch three months ago, ending Spun's three year break from shows in our neck of the woods. It's great to see Spun back already, and hopefully the guys deliver more crowd friendly hard rock hits for Mackinac County fans tonight & tomorrow! These are 9:00 PM gigs with no cover charges and 21+ age limits.

Again, please be mindful of public health measures from the casino/lounge and do your part to mask up where needed & make sensible choices so no one leaves sicker than when they arrived. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here's Spun live a few years back!

Let's head north to Sault Ontario to finish this post via big news on a highly anticipated album re-release! As we mentioned on the SMS back in May, veteran local punk musician Mikey Hawdon's new indie label Soolebrity Records were working on a remaster of early-mid 1990s local punk band Room 206's 1994 album "2 Innies & An Outie", limited to just 206 copies exclusively on vinyl records. You can get full details from this YouTube trailer for the remaster. Without social media accounts for Soolebrity Records or Room 206, public updates have been minimal since, but Mikey revealed on his personal Facebook page on November 24th that the remaster is finished and if you pre-ordered one, your copies can be picked up at The Rad Zone starting on December 22nd! This was shared to the Mike's Lunch Music Facebook group through The Borderline, so there's a public source for the details.

If you live out of town but pre-ordered a copy, Mikey probably contacted you by now, but message him on Facebook or through soolebrity@gmail.com if you have any questions, or want to order any of the remaining copies (they run for $40, but this is a limited time print run of only 206 records). As far as I know, you can't buy a copy from The Rad Zone, I believe they're just where pre-orderers will pick the album up. The pictures that Mikey shared with the post confirm the cover artwork (the above image is a Photoshop recreation) and track listing, which won't be a surprise if you have the original tape, but non-album songs "Good Enough" (from the "Punk: The Next Generation" compilation CD) and "I'll Be Around" are the bonus songs recorded by modern day supergroups. Intriguingly, the vinyl records are in a translucent gold colour, and they crammed all ten songs onto one side.

No word on if the other side of the disc is repeats, nothing, or something else entirely, but I'll be able to find out for myself in 19 days, as I absolutely pre-ordered a copy of "2 Innies & An Outie", and unless something really unforeseen happens, it will be our 150th monthly CD (well, album) review on the SMS later this month!  We'll keep you guys posted with more on this long awaited Room 206 remaster when it comes out, but see above for full details, and look for more news and notes on the site soon! Thanks everyone!

A New Local Band, A New EP Release, And A New Archive Punk Album Reissue!!

Before we get into the meat of today's post, just a heads up that today is Bandcamp Day (where Bandcamp waives their roytalty cut on music sales), but this year, a number of local musicians have pledged to give today's earnings to the Sault Area Hospital COVID-19 Emergency Fund. Wonderful cause, and you can click here to see the full roster of artists taking part, including local punk trio A Dire Setback and the first two bands we're talking about below! One's brand new, one has a new EP, and to wrap things up, we have big updates on a surprise classic album re-release. Here's what you should know, and buy local on Bandcamp today to help a great cause!

We have a new band to add to our Sault Ontario band links, namely These Magnificent Tentacles, the new Tidal Records-signed project from Slumshine/ex-Detroit frontman Brenton Ellis and former Vol. frontman/Pixo Control bassist Steve Edwards! As of this writing, T.M.T. are a two man studio project (not that they can play normal concerts yet anyway), with Brent on vocals, rhythm guitar, and bass, and Steve on lead guitar and drums. These Magnificent Tentacles publically launched earlier this week via their Facebook page, and released their debut original song "The Abyss" today on their Bandcamp page and on Brent's new YouTube channel. Mixed by Kyle Whittaker at Strange Pumpkin Studios in St. Catharines, the song is available for purchase for $3 (or more) on Bandcamp. "The Abyss" is not easily pinned down by genre (Bandcamp lists it as an acid, garage, indie, punk, and skate rock song), but if it's representative of the band, they'll definitely fit our coverage!

Brent's vocals firmly pin this one into genres we actively cover, but the song proper is deceivingly upbeat otherwise, and very different from what you tend to hear from local bands nowadays. The song is well performed overall, and it'll be interesting to see what These Magnificent Tentacles have in store next, but give the lyric video for "The Abyss" a watch below!

Next up, we're not done with new material from Brent-led projects, as his acoustic punk solo act Slumshine released their new EP "Slumlord" to their Bandcamp page yesterday, a day earlier than advertised! Their first paid release since their debut "SLMSHN" tape almost two years ago, "Slumlord" is on sale for $5 or more., and it features six tracks, though their newly released song "Believe In Hugs" is not one of them, and two songs that did make the cut run for under 40 seconds. No word yet on the previously teased cassette tape release for album #2, but given the short run time of "Slumlord" and the missing original, is Slumshine looking at releasing "Believe In Hugs" on a second digital EP, then putting them both on each side of a tape? Just hypothesizing on my part. Without reviewing the EP just yet (maybe later this month?), what does "Slumlord" offer musically?

"Slumlord" comes across as more experimental and varied than "SLMSHN" did, including via the two short tracks, added post-production effects, and more electric instruments, with only one of the four full tracks being 100% acoustic. It's great to see Brent staying so busy right now, especially at this stage of the pandemic, and buy or stream Slumshine's new and old material above! Also, the title track was also uploaded on Brent's YouTube channel, but we just featured it's Facebook video here on Wednesday.

Finally, this is a topic that I've definitely been aware of for a few months now, but I held off on discussing it until things went unequivocally public, and here we are: Early-mid 1990s local punk band Room 206's 1994 debut cassette-exclusive album "2 Innies & An Outie" is being re-released on vinyl later this year by veteran local punk musician Mikey Hawdon's new locally-focused independent label Soolebrity Records! Note the Princess Theatre-inspired logo, nice touch! If you know Mikey well, you'll know that Room 206 were a highly influential band for him as a young music fan, and this is a labour of love to give their original cassette tape a proper remastering, which Mikey had done at Drive Studios in Toronto. Room 206 are represented here by Totally Confused alumni Mike Yorke (vocals/guitar) and Al Watson (drums) alongside Mikey's Inner City Surfers bandmate Brad "Example" Lacell on bass.

Initial public details on the re-release can be found in the video embedded below, courtesy of Mikey's YouTube channel, featuring an intense announcer telling us about Room 206 and what to expect from the vinyl copies. They will have all eight songs from "2 Innies & An Outie", plus two newly recorded bonus tracks, which were both Room 206 originals that never saw a studio recording at the time. Here, they'll be covered by guest musicians, including the other three members of The Inner City Surfers plus members of No Doubt, Goldfinger, No Use For A Name, and Movin' In Stereo (exact lineup roles to be revealed). Note that Room 206's song "Good Enough" (from the "Punk: The Next Generation" compilation) was not on the original tape. If you're interested in buying a vinyl copy of "2 Innies & An Outie", contact Mikey Hawdon at this link A.S.A.P. to pre-order your copy for $40!

If you do want Room 206's album on vinyl, act fast, as there will only be 206 copies printed (naturally), and given the limited and special release, the $40 price tag is understandable. A release date or potential digital copy weren't specified either, but remember that we are still in a pandemic, and things can easily be thrown out of whack. I love the idea of bringing a classic album like this back, and if that ends up being the raison d'etre for Soolebrity Records, then I hope the Room 206 re-issue is a huge hit to encourage more releases like this! Get more details on the band and vinyl below!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile on the site by Monday! Thanks everyone!