Recent News & Updates From Bone Yard 225, Eden Plague, And Fort Creek!!

For today's second post, let's continue clearing our our July backlog with some more recent news and updates from three local bands, so here's what you should know as the Civic Holiday long(?) weekend continues!

Let's go in alphabetical order by starting with southern hard rock trio Bone Yard 225, who released their fourth studio single (and first since January of last year) to major streaming platforms yesterday! I'll hold comment on the song for now, pending our review of Bone Yard's long-gestating debut album, but the song is named "Welcome To The ShitShow", which the guys have used as a tagline for live concert introductions in the past, and they have been playing it during their full-band plugged-in concerts. As per Distrokid, you can hear the song on Spotify, Apple Music, and (as embedded below) via YouTube Music, while it is definitely on Amazon Music too and a handful of smaller/foreign-targeted services. Without giving too much away, it is classic rock-tinged. No idea why it has taken well over a year and a half for them to release a new studio track, but it's good to see things progressing!

Of course, hopefully this weekend's Beck's concerts were a hit on all fronts, and if you want to hear the song live, your next chance will likely be at the Algoma Tree Services meet & greet concert on Saturday, preview forthcoming. Check out "Welcome To The ShitShow" (no space before "Show") below or on your major streaming platform of choice! 

Next up, here's the latest from local death metal quartet Eden Plague (née The Bear Hunters), so what's new from their camp? Following the fulfillment of their 11 year old petition to play on Stage 2 at Rotaryfest last month, the band revealed on their Facebook page on July 23rd that frontman Nik Deubel had "just finished recording vocals for our first two singles" (presumably referencing "Primal Genesis" & "Colony Of Parasites"). The attached photo features Nik standing in a mystery location, which the band noted "doesn't look like a studio", and invited suggestions as to where he was. Occam's Razor would (to me) suggest a music video shoot, but the band did share a "Story" on Facebook last month featuring Nik tracking vocals for one of the new songs at Dustin Jones' Mission Control Studios. Alas, "Stories" vanish forever after being seen once or twice, so as much as I'd prefer a permanent public source, you'll have to take my word for it.

On Tuesday, drummer Johnny Belanger starred in the video embedded below live from Beck's Bar where he and the members of Cornwall metal band Hellrager promoted that night's concert featuring the two bands. Fun promotion while it lasted, and interesting to see two very different eras of Jack Spades/Spades GT uniting with Johnny and Jay on camera together! Three videos of Eden Plague's set on Tuesday were also shared from Instagram user frutigeraerhoe's page, but either due to their privacy settings or the fact that they're tiled in a batch post, I can't embed them here. Well shot and with a familiar brutality that old Bear Hunters fans will appreciate, especially as I recognize the songs being played! Solid camera angles by frutigeraerhoe too from a side-stage angle that you don't often see at Beck's. The last of the new videos is another vertical update video, though external embedding of it is not allowed.

Why, I have no clue, but it stars guitarist Mitch Sirie, who rarely stars in online promotion like this. The video (shot while lying down with his cat) featured him complimenting the Hellrager show, even positively comparing it to the former Roosevelt Hotel metal nights, and then plugging the Krash concert at Blaster Powerhouse that they're helping open on Sunday, August 16th. He accidentally called fellow local openers ASDP "ADSP" twice (believe me, I have made that mistake a lot), but he hyped the show well and highly complimented Krash! See above and below for more from Eden Plague, and if you need $10 advance Krash tickets, contact the band A.S.A.P.!

Finally, we have new updates from local southern hard rock band Fort Creek, who had been largely silent on band matters since last year, so what's new in their camp? Last week, the band posted on their Facebook page to reveal that they were finally looking for a new bassist so that they can begin playing live concerts again, and they encouraged fans to pass the search along or suggest possible candidates. Fort Creek last played live when they opened for Josey Scott at The Rink at The Canal District in August 2023, with then-bassist Robin "Bones" Lee and drummer Anthony Fabiano quietly leaving shortly afterwards. The band opted to scrap original material written with them and start their debut album over fresh, with Fort Creek since adding a new drummer and releasing their first formal studio single ("One For The Road") last year, followed by a teaser for their next song "Sweet Rosie" in December.

Fort Creek also revealed yesterday that they are planning to shoot a music video this month with Golden Scoundrels/ex-Shit Liver frontman Josh Penno's Spacebag Productions (who handled the "One For The Road" music video), and they are looking for an actress to play the flag girl for a drag racing scene. Is this for "Sweet Rosie" or a different song? Does this imply that they're shooting at Runway Park or somewhere else? In any event, click here for full details on the actress search, and for more updates from Fort Creek, who will hopefully end their 3 year concert hiatus soon! That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Project 906), Cory Marks Concert Videos, And An Inactive Band Note!!

One more SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT has fell into my lap, so to fill out a surprise Saturday evening post, we have new videos from a big recent concert and a solo project newly moved to our inactive links, so here's what you should know on all fronts!

Sault Michigan hard/blues rock cover quintet Project 906 will return to the stage TONIGHT at The Strongs Tavern in nearby Eckerman! Apologies for the short notice, the band first announced this one-night-only gig on their Facebook page on Sunday, but it slipped past me before our last two weekend concert preview posts went live. After taking a three month break from the stage (characterized by the band as "some much needed time off"), this will be 906's first show since rocking Hulbert Happy Hour in early March, with the band last playing at The Strongs Tavern at the end of February. Of course, this belatedly kicks off their annual "#summerof906", so more shows should be announced in due course, but since we last heard from Project 906 at The Strongs, they completed renovations in the spring, so hopefully things look as good as the rock will sound TONIGHT! Billy, Joe, Dustin, Jason, and Brian will take the stage TONIGHT at 8:00 PM with a 21+ age limit and no cover charge, as usual.

If you've missed the guys in recent months, and/or are up for the hour's drive west, don't miss out on their summer season kickoff! Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview of TONIGHT'S opening #summerof906 event, here's Project 906 live!

Next up, let's head north to Sault Ontario for some new videos from the Cory Marks concert at The Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre on June 11th! Last week, Cory uploaded a highlight video from the event to his Facebook page, where he highly praised the concert, which included a sold-out meet & greet session, and some fans driving 8+ hours to see it. Cory called the the Bushplane Museum's hangar "a dream concert setting for me", and if you weren't there, the hangar doors were open with the stage was set up inside, allowing for outside light to get inside and for some nice views while the North Bay country/hard rock musician rocked out. The highlight video (set to the studio version of his song "Are You With Me?") features clips of Cory at the meet-and-greet, including of him playing acoustic for VIP fans, before we see footage of the proper concert.

Good thing that we knew ahead of time where this was, as the video only has fleeting glimpses of bushplanes, which is a testament in a way to how well everyone got the hangar looking like a concert venue for more than just local bands! I would prefer hearing raw audio from the concert, but miraculously, Facebook didn't content match the studio track, so I can embed it below!

If you do want to see raw audio from the concert proper, good news, as Mike Blair's 705Live Sound Co. were on hand to take care of sound for Cory and crew, and a video of them playing "Blame It On The Double" was posted to 705Live's Facebook page! Mike doesn't do the "pan the camera up from the soundboard" thing this time, FYI. Alas, the video only runs for 46 seconds, but it does let us get more of a view of where exactly in the Bushplane Museum that the concert was set up at (and where the VIP pre-show area was). Of note, Cory actually grabs someone's cell phone from the crowd to film things mid-song, which would be neat for that fan! What Mike shot looks and sounds good, so if you like Cory's southern fried hard rock, you can relive a snippet of this high production concert for yourself below, and we'll let you know if Cory returns to the Soo for a fifth straight year in 2027!

Finally, I have a local metal act to move to our inactive band links, namely local goregrind solo project Crucify The Whore. We have heard no public updates from C.T.W. since 2024, with their final album "Bummer" being released on Bandcamp that July, and more recent updates from their owned-and-operated indie label Blood Shed Productions dried up by the spring of 2025. Active since 2012 and led by singer/guitarist Tyler "Ringsnaps" Gibson, C.T.W. became one of the more unique underground sights among extreme metal fans of the early-mid 2010s, releasing lots of studio material online and at concerts, including many of the final Oddfellows Hall concerts, plus various private & house party events. Updates from C.T.W. (let alone Blood Shed) really tailed off after the pandemic, even for a one-man project, which wasn't helped by their Facebook pages being taken down, if not by Tyler's own hand.

C.T.W. were really a critic-proof act, as a one-man goregrind band with such explicit imagery, pig squealing vocals, extremely short song lengths, a drum machine, and an ardent "I play what I want to play" ethos made it difficult to look at them in comparison with most contemporary bands. I still believe that all of the early-mid 2010s Blood Shed 1-2 man bands had the collective talent to make a great five-piece death metal band, but Tyler did what he wanted and kept this project going for a strong length of time, with fun crowd reactions and a solid skill set as a guitarist & producer. Hopefully we hear more from him and the label down the road! That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes next week! Thanks everyone!

R.I.P. Austin McCrea (1995-2025)

The Sault Metal Scene would also like to offer our deepest condolences to the family and friends of local metal musician and rapper Austin McCrea, who just passed away in the past week, as per a number of personal Facebook postings. He was just 30 years old. This didn't cross my radar at the time, but Austin (a.k.a. Jayrald Micky) had been in hospital since September due to pancreatitis, and endured a number of devastating medical setbacks in the ensuing months, which you can read more about via this GoFundMe campaign that was launched on his behalf by his sister two weeks ago. As a local musician, Austin is arguably best known as the frontman of the goregrind/death metal band Brutally Fatal (once intentionally spelled "Brutaly Fatal"), who had two different incarnations between 2012 and 2019, and had brief and more mainstream turns under the names Re-Born and The Revolution.

Austin was a co-founder of the local goregrind/death metal/rap label Blood Shed Productions alongside his late-era Brutally Fatal bandmate Tyler Gibson, and his bands turned up multiple times at Blood Shed-affiliated concerts in the 2010s, be they late-era Oddfellows Hall concerts or house parties, while they also performed at the 2014 & 2015 Swampstravaganzas. Austin also dabbled in hip hop in the early-mid 2010s, rapping under the handle Miracle Man. While Austin primarily provided vocals, guitar, and bass in his best known bands, his most recent public music work was as the original drummer for local hard rock band Far From Fine (née Ravencore), performing with them at the 2022 Toystock and helping on their original material for their unfinished album, but he left that band by June 2023. Austin was also tapped to drum with Frightlight at The Northern Vibe Festival in 2023, but the horror punk band dropped out of that event and fell inactive afterwards.

I didn't know Austin well, but he was a talented and improving multi-instrumentalist who played the music he wanted to play without apologies, even if the imagery & lyrics weren't always to a wide audience's taste. When we profiled Brutally Fatal on the SMS four years ago, I linked to much of their known public music, including their demo EPs, while you can hear the originals he was working on with Far From Fine (albeit after he left) via their Lopstock 2023 set linked here. Losing someone over the holidays, let alone after this prolonged fight, is something I can't even imagine, and our thoughts are with the McCrea and Nadon families at this time. When details on services go public, I will let you know. R.I.P. Austin!

A New Local Metal Band & New Videos From Both Sides Of The Border!!

Let's clear out some more of our news backlog on this Wednesday night, and today's video-heavy post will go some ways towards that on both sides of the border! Just to clarify given national news, we're not going to stop covering Sault Michigan/the E.U.P. due to tariffs/a trade war. None of that is the fault of local musicians, and I want the Twin Saults to have stronger connections, not weaker ones. Now, here's what you should know!

We have a new local death metal/grindcore project to add to our Sault Ontario band links, namely Three Grind Mice! Obviously a play on the nursery rhyme "Three Blind Mice", this is a new project from prolific local indie label Blood Shed Productions, one of their few brand new acts post-pandemic. I'm unsure if the band literally has three members or if it's a solo project, and while performer credits aren't given on their social media accounts, Blood Shed head Tyler Gibson (best known from Crucify The Whore and Rotopsy) has been sharing their content online, and he has multi-instrumental talent. The project is represented on social media by photos and brief animations of plush mice playing instruments, and so far, none of their music samples have vocals. Will the "mice" sing in death growls, and would they do the pitch-shifted chipmunk thing? An untitled & 92 seconds-long instrumental can be heard on their Bandcamp page.

That recording includes a brief cover of Gut's "Gia Paloma" plus an original song in progress, but embedded below is a drum sample clip from their new YouTube channel featuring one of the "mice" drumming on camera, and the emphasis suggests that they do have live drumming rather than programmed percussion (the video description credits the drummer as "Johnny Town-Mouse", a'la the Beatrix Potter character). It's too soon to accurately gauge 3GM, but there's promise there for fans of grindcore music! Vocals will definitely play a role into perception, let alone how far they take the mice conceit, but check them out for yourselves below!

Next up, the second advance single from reunited local emo band Fuller's upcoming sophomore album "II" was posted onto their YouTube channel on Friday! This time, the chosen song is "Kerosene", which they revealed on their Facebook page was "one of the last songs (that) we wrote as a band". For context, they disbanded originally in 2005, and by then, the band noted that "we were getting away from the midwestern emo stuff, and leaning more into post-hardcore and psych-rock". I'll hold comment on the song for now pending our eventual review of the album upon its release in "early 2025", but if the description piques your interest (or you loved/miss Fuller), check out "Kerosene" below, and look for the album soon!

Let's head south to Sault Michigan to wrap up this post, and we'll start with local hard rock cover quartet Dirty Musky, who rocked The Islander Bar in Hessel for the Les Cheneaux Islands Snowsfest's pub crawl on February 7th, and drummer Jamie Costner shared five videos from said gig to her personal Facebook page two days later, with the band subsequently sharing them on their own Facebook page. The videos (uploaded in a batch post and not individually) include Dirty Musky covering Tool's "Sober", A Perfect Circle's "Judith", guitarist Fran Blackwood playing a guitar solo, and Breaking Benjamin's "So Cold", which was filmed in two partial chunks (the longer first part is below, the second is linked here). All are short and vertical clips, but the band sounds good tackling some songs that you don't hear often in the E.U.P.. and Dave's voice holds up well for the most part, so give these videos a watch above & below, and look for more from them soon!

Finally for today, here's a new song from local metal solo project X's & Y's' YouTube channel! Entitled "Face The Moon, Forgive The Stars", this 7+ minute original track was actually uploaded twice on Valentine's Day, both in a version with vocals and a version without! The one with vocals (their first such song) is embedded below, but click here to check out the instrumental copy. This is a full-on doom metal song that drone-inclined fans are going to take to, and while it's not lyrically verbose, Jason gets the point across with processed and well layered aggressive vocals. It may take adjusting the video's speed to really make things out, but it's an impressive diversion, if an acquired taste, so check out X's & Y's' new song below!

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

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Generations), The Project 906 Concert Preview, And More!!

Let's wrap up this weekend's hard rock concert previews in today's second post, including a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, with some big recent updates from a prominent local band to round things out. Here's what you should know!

Local classic/hard rock cover quartet Generations will play at Jay's Piston Broke Pub for one night only TONIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, this show was only announced on their Facebook group on Monday. A one-nighter due to their focusing on their Rotaryfest Stage 1 debut tomorrow night, TONIGHT's show should be a solid way to check out Valerie, Brandon, Pierre, and Tony's classic and hard rock covers, whether you'd prefer being in the west end, don't want to risk any rain that may come tomorrow, or just don't want the hustle and bustle of a summer festival. Hopefully things go swimmingly TONIGHT for Generations at the former Reggie's West, but if you are planning on seeing them tomorrow regardless, their Clergue Park set begins at 6:15 PM. TONIGHT'S show at Jay's has a 9:30 PM start time, no cover, and a 19+ age limit. See above for more details, and here's Generations live earlier this year!

Next up, let's finish off this weekend's known hard rock concert previews by heading to Cedarville, Michigan, where Sault Ste. Marie blues/hard rock quartet Project 906 will take the stage at Snow's Bar & Grill for one night only TOMORROW NIGHT! A month+ removed from their last stop at the same venue, this will be their first Snow's booking with new drummer Jason VanLuven, who was double booked with Fake Chow last month, leading to Brian Duford filling in for that gig. 906's modern hard rock covers should find another solid audience 40 minutes due south of the Soo, so don't miss out on all of the action tomorrow night! A one-nighter due to or resulting in TONIGHT'S late notice Tarnished show, Project 906 are on tomorrow at 8:00 PM with no cover charge and a 21+ age limit. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and for a preview, here's Project 906 live!

Now let's head back north to Sault Ontario for topics that have nothing directly to do with local concerts this weekend, specifically the latest from local/Barrie crossover thrash quintet Spades GT! First, yet another "Reel" was uploaded to their Facebook page on Sunday featuring a clip of them playing their newer original "Red" in Oshawa last month, and as is always the case for "Reels" of theirs, I really wish that they'd upload the full video as a normal video, not a vertical, abbreviated, and unembeddable thing. It looks and sounds good while it lasts! Second guitarist Jay Sarrazin is not visible in either the Oshawa "Reel" or the band's official pictures from their belated album release party in Barrie on Sunday, but again, don't read anything too drastic into that, as he's a busy guy with at least three concurrent active bands on the go right now (two of which he's bringing to The Northern Vibe Festival in Ophir next month!)

Attendee Steve Tait filmed Spades GT playing "Succubus" on Sunday for a minute-long and square-dimensioned video posted in the comments of their pictures from that gig, but I can't find a way to embed it here. Not a bad video overall! Their newest announced show will see them open for Random Killing in another far flung hardcore homecoming, this time in Toronto at The Bovine Sex Club (yes, that is still its actual name) on Saturday, September 23rd, so keep that in mind if you'll happen to be in the area in two months! Long-time readers may recall seeing local bands like Lion Ride and Detroit playing at The Bovine over a decade ago. Of course, all of this is burying the lead a bit, as the former Jack Spades finally released their music video for "Final Girl", the lead single of "Sewer City Radio" on Monday (a day later than planned), so what should you know about the final product?

Posted to their YouTube channel, this was directed by the Soo's own Josh Penno (pictured with the band above) via his company Spacebag Productions, and true to the teasers, the plot of the video sees a titular "final girl" (played by actress Jessica Latour) being stalked by an axe wielding maniac played by bassist James Roy Daley in a mask, intermixed with footage of the full band playing inside a run-down (but well lit) barn. I'll hold comment on the song pending our full album review in September, but the video is excellently shot and edited, if a little too bright and sunny for such a horror-inspired plotline (at least for me), so give the full "Final Girl" video a watch for yourself below!

That's all for today, but I promise, the Rotaryfest Stage 1 set that went viral last night will be discussed on the SMS next! Thanks everyone!

Josey Scott's Saliva Concert Fallout & Videos!!

Today's post is devoted to Saturday night's Josey Scott's Saliva concert outside of The Machine Shop, so what should you know on this Monday evening? First off, while official promotion didn't make the exact staging of the show clear, it definitely wasn't at The Yard, nor was it completely outdoors as implied, as it took place under a roof at The Rink at The Train Station (f.k.a. The Rink at The Canal District), which sporadically hosts outdoor concerts when not serving as an ice skating rink. You may recall Outspoken Brewing's Oktoberfest being held here last fall. Luckily, it didn't rain on Saturday night, but the roof would have offered some protection that way, while still letting fans of the summer weather enjoy the warmer temperatures! In terms of videos, the only YouTube user so far to post videos is local DJ Ryan Hall, a.k.a. DJ-RJ, who uploaded eight (technically five) videos of the headlining Memphis, Tennessee hard rock band, though sadly, he did not film any of the openers.

DJ-RJ also filmed at the Summer Moon Fest, but these are his first concert videos to cross our radar. Three of his eight Saliva videos are "Shorts" (a.k.a. YouTube's answer to Facebook "Reels"), and are just vertical re-posts of his regular videos. Not sure the point unless "Shorts" are part of his marketing strategy for uploads there, given that it's mostly home to his own DJ mixes (check out this Treble Charger/Birdbrain mashup he just did!) The actual five videos see Josey and crew cover Rage Against The Machine's "Killing In The Name" and Chad Kroeger's "Hero" (which featured Josey Scott himself), while the Saliva originals filmed were "Superstar", "Broken Sunday", and as embedded below, "Survival of the Sickest". That Rage cover is the last one that I want bands to do (exceedingly overplayed), but Josey Scott's Saliva sound good here, and while Josey did struggle to hit some higher/longer notes, he still sounds the part!

How does he compare to Bobby Amaru (who replaced him in and still fronts the original Saliva)? Bobby has a raspier voice and energy to match, and he does justice to Josey-era songs, but you can tell that Josey was the original voice when you hear him. In terms of the venue setup at The Rink, you'd be hard pressed to tell that this was technically outdoors based on the professional staging, and it looks like there was a decent turnout for this one, no doubt helped by years of Saliva airplay on Rock 101! Give DJ-RJ's videos a watch above and below!

Next up, another video was uploaded from the show by former Shit Liver frontman Josh Penno's video production company Spacebag Productions (who filmed openers Spades GT's still-to-be-released music video), which was posted to the Spacebag Facebook page. Josh says that is his "event coverage" of the show, which he filmed for free as a means of getting his name out there as a professional videographer, and he asked that people like/share the video to "get this to the right people's eyes so I can continue to find work in a creative space". This is only 33 seconds long, features the studio version of Saliva's "Click Click Boom" rather than live concert audio (despite also showing the opening bands), and oddly has no video footage period for the first five seconds, but what Josh shot looks excellent, and I do hope that he posts the raw footage online in some fashion! The bands are shown in chronological order by when their set was.

You don't see a ton of Spades GT's set here, but you can probably tell that only four band members were present at The Rink, as rhythm guitarist Jay Sarrazin did not make the trip north for unannounced reasons (at least not online). Don't read anything negative into that, as Jay has a lot of bands on his plate, and he will be coming to the Northern Vibe Festival in August with his Southern Ontario bands Sierra Pilot & Hellrager (Spades GT themselves are not playing in Ophir this year). Give Josh's well shot and edited (if all too brief) video from the Saliva concert a look below!

Finally, sound at the show was provided by 705Live Sound Co. (not promoters Live705), and Mike Blair from 705Live did film one video for their Facebook page, namely this 36 second clip of them playing "Ladies & Gentlemen" (which I know best as the WrestleMania 23 theme song, the year I went in person!)  Further back by necessity (so much so that you can see daylight at the edge of the video), this sounds strong, which is a testament to the band, 705Live, and Mike's camera! If only this wasn't just 36 seconds long. Give it a watch below!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's YouTube Channel Profile next! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Generations), New Videos, And More!!

Before we begin this post, just a heads up that local funk/hard rock sextet The Wyld Stallyns are not playing at Shooters Downstairs Lounge tonight. Other than saying on their Facebook page that they "had to cancel", they did not publically elaborate as to why they dropped out, but hopefully all's well in their camp! Pop rock cover band L!me (who were playing at Shooters tomorrow anyway) are stepping in to play tonight instead, and don't miss The Stallyns at the Festival of Beer next month! Now, here's new videos and SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS tied to a new local band!

We have a new local classic/hard rock cover band to add to our links, and they are Generations! This is the band that succeeded classic rock veterans Jus' Chillin, who only announced their dissolution earlier this month, with Generations re-appropriating their Facebook group as their own. This is not a renaming, Generations are considered to be a different band. Jus' Chillin never (knowingly?) crossed the hard rock line for SMS coverage, but Generations are getting off on the right foot in that regard, helped by former Obsession frontwoman Valerie Powley fronting this new group! We hadn't heard much from her in a rock band context since she left the now-defunct Obsession last summer, and she should fit in nicely in this new project! Their guitarist is recent Algoma University music program graduate Brandon Ruch, while long-time Jus' Chillin mainstays Pierre Anthony & Tony Santoro continue handling bass & drums here.

If you're curious, Jus' Chillin were a trio that whose guitarist appeared to change relatively frequently, though Brandon was on hand for their final gigs at Jay's Piston Broke Pub in February (they also often had guest musicians at their shows). Generations debuted at Jay's on April 7th-8th, and you can see videos from those nights on their Facebook group, including multiple shot by Sharilyn Van Scoy, including covers of Amanda Marshall's "Let It Rain", Linda Ronstadt's "When Will I Be Loved?", The Tragically Hip's "Little Bones" (with Brandon singing), and this song with Tony singing that I cannot make the words out for (which was also filmed by Dawn Santoro from further back). Dawn also shot them covering Stealers Wheel's "Stuck In The Middle With You" and a Brandon-sung take on Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' "Runnin' Down A Dream", but embedded below are two songs filmed by Mario Naccarato.

He taped covers of David Wilcox's "Riverboat Fantasy" with Pierre on vocals and The Doobie Brothers' "Long Train Running" with Valerie singing. Generations' third show was a one-nighter at Reggie's Place on Saturday, and their fourth and fifth shows comprise those SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, as they debut at The Esquire Club TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, these shows were announced on their Facebook group on the 10th but I only added them to our full coverage today. It is worth noting that this weekend's shows were originally advertised for Obsession as part of their planned 2023 concert slate, which was listed through June while Valerie was still in that band, so the correlation is noted, if unintentionally! TONIGHT & TOMORROW'S shows are at 9:30 PM with 19+ age limits and no cover charges, as usual at this location.

From what I have seen and heard of Generations so far, I don't think they are quite as heavy as Obsession often got, but they do seem further in that regard than Jus' Chillin from what I knew of them, and with Valerie's input and very strong vocals, that can not hurt their existing formula one bit! Don't miss them at The Esquire Club TONIGHT & TOMORROW to see what Generations bring to the table, and see more from them above & below!

Finally for today, I again feel like the last person in the city to talk about this, but local alt-hard rock quintet Handsome Sandwich's third and final advance single for their upcoming debut album "Deconstructed" was released to major streaming services as scheduled on Wednesday, complete with a music video on their YouTube channel! This is for "No Entry", and while it was teased via "Reels" on their Facebook page, we don't have to settle for those now! I'll hold comment on the song proper pending our review of the entire album, but the video was filmed by former Shit Liver frontman Josh Penno and his filmmaking company Spacebag Productions, and Josh (credited as "Penno Cash") has an acting role in the video. It cuts between performance footage of the band and acted scenes of them going to see Dr. Penno, a plastic surgeon who promises to make the band "handsome" (well, if the sandwich is handsome already, it's a natural extension!)

Singer Taylor Emlaw gets the most screen time during her appointment, but I won't dare spoil what happens with her, Josh, and the band. Note that Wyld Stallyns saxophonist Josh Norling (who was previously advertised to be guesting on this song) does not appear on camera or in the end-of-video credits. Fun video and well shot by Josh and his team, so do give it a watch below, and look for this and much more to be played at their album release show at The Loft two weeks from tomorrow!

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

YouTube Channel Profile Series: Rik DVD

To wrap up another month at the SMS, here's this month's YouTube Channel Profile, our monthly spotlight feature on 1-3 YouTube channels whose content is half or more comprised of videos relevant to local metal, hard rock, and/or punk artists and/or concerts! I only realized when I got to work on this post that I did not pick our next featured channel last month, as usual for the series, so until I started writing this intro, I had no idea what channel I'd randomly select. I did randomly pick a channel now though, as well as the channel(s) for next month, so we're back on track, and let's take a dive into a channel with some interesting footage from two very different local periods!

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Rik DVD (http://www.youtube.com/rikdvd) 

Owner: Dell Bros. drummer Rick Dellavedova, also known as "Rick Widow", frontman of the defunct local glam metal band Amethyst

Channel Timeline: Launched on October 23rd, 2010; Videos uploaded from that day until April 2014

Channel Summary: Rick noted in the channel's description that it had "live performance music videos", which is largely correct. Five of his seven videos of local bands in action on stage, all filmed by himself for CML Productions, including one of original rock veterans Wishbone in 2014. The other two include a music video for an old band of his, and a 14 second clip of Crank Sound Distribution setting up their equipment before a 2010 concert that Rick filmed for his channel. While ostensibly for personal use, Rick did advertise his services for professional event filmography there.
 
Why You Should Watch: This channel will primarily interest fans of Garden of Bedlam, who are the focus of four of the videos and cameo on the Crank Sound Distribution clip, but fans of Amethyst and Wishbone will find something to like as well! Note that this channel has not been visibly updated in almost eight years, and it does not feature any videos of Rick with The Dell Bros. (f.k.a. The Paul Dellavedova Trio).

 Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

 

Amethyst - Snakeye Strut: Rick's first video is a posthumous music video/slideshow for Amethyst's song "Snakeye Strut" from their 1994 studio album "Innocent As Hell", and features a rare extant source of actual Amethyst video footage, especially with their "Waste of Time" music video being taken down from YouTube years back. Featuring Rick alongside guitarists Jose "Wales" Temperao & Mike Haas, bassist Gordon "Chipp" Robb, and drummer Phil Temperao, this video is well edited and gives solid highlights of Amethyst's heyday, and being set to a catchy old school hard rock number never hurts! This is the channel's most popular video aside from the Crank clip, and the entire "Innocent As Hell" album is on Reverbnation.

 

 

Garden Of Bedlam "Shallow" Live @ Foggy's: All but two of Rick's videos have something to do with 2007-2015 hard rock quartet Garden of Bedlam, who he had a working relationship with in 2010 to film their performances, though his videos of them weren't uploaded until 2011. One video on Rick's own channel features Buzz, the Belleaus, and Derek playing "Shallow" during their headlining set at Rotaryfest's Second Stage in July 2010, but the better quality videos are of them at Foggy Notions (now Coch's Corner) playing "New Rain" and (as featured here) "Shallow" again. These appear to be soundchecks before the show proper based on the sparse crowd, unloaded equipment, and dialogue with Crank Sound. In spite of that, these have solid recording quality with strong performances as you'd expect!

 

 

Garden Of Bedlam "New Rain" Live @ Essar Centre: After winning the Kiss Battle of the Bands in December 2009, Garden of Bedlam were tapped as the local openers for the long-delayed Kiss concert at The Essar Centre (now GFL Memorial Gardens) in August 2010, with Rick filming them from a side-stage angle. Note that this was originally uploaded in colour before being taken down to be converted to black & white. Still, this captures Garden of Bedlam performing to their fullest in their biggest ever concert set, and early fans were definitely into it! You can see more of Rick & CML's videos of the band on their own YouTube channel, including proper music videos.

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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! This series will return on or around March 26th, and unlike this month, I did remember to randomly select a channel (two in this case) ahead as normal! I first randomly picked Concert Channel, which features videos for 2019's Offspring/Sum 41 show at GFL Memorial Gardens, but there's not a lot of diversity there beyond just a few videos of both bands, so I chose an extra channel with only has one video to fill things out, namely Old Man Wyrn's channel, which has one song from inactive local black metal project Abhorrent Forest. Look for these next month, and for more news and notes on the site soon! 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!