Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile: Public Animal

Before we get into this month's Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile, I wanted to state that, while I am aware of the unfortunate ending to this month's band's local concert at The Rockstar Bar last month, we won't acknowledge the show in this month's profile, out of respect to both the band & venue. I don't want to take sides on the matter, especially as I wasn't in attendance to offer a real opinion on it.

Now, this month's Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile continues our ongoing monthly feature series looking at a band that's based out of our area, but features a past or present Saultite in their lineup! Our last profile in this series before adding full punk bands into our selections, this month's band has achieved a solid following, and features a familiar face on drums, so read on below for this month's profile, and check out our Sault Michigan-heavy post from this afternoon in the post below this one! (Updated on November 27th)
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Public Animal (Toronto, Ontario)

Lineup: (Saultites in RED)

Ian Blurton (vocals/guitar)
Eric Larock (bass)
Ryan Gassi (drums)
Caitlin Dacey (keyboard/vocals)

Official Facebook page: http://facebook.com/thepublicanimal
Official Bandcamp page: http://publicanimal.bandcamp.com
Official Twitter page: http://www.twitter.com/thepublicanimal
Official YouTube channel: http://youtube.com/thepublicanimal1

Local Info: The Public Animal's only local member is drummer Ryan Gassi, who achieved a strong local notoriety in the late 1980s and early 1990s from his work with bands like blues rockers The Rhythm Rats and punk favourites The Kite Eating Maples. As featured in this SooToday article last month, Ryan later moved to the Toronto area, where he drummed for bands like Scissors For Erica, Memory Bank, and The Lying Cheats before joining Public Animal (his heaviest band yet) last year.

Band Bio: Named after an Alice Cooper song, Public Animal formed in 2012 before making their full public launch last year. Fronted by former C'Mon frontman Ian Blurton (who local fans may remember from a LopLops Lounge gig in 2011), Public Animal picked up where their predecessors left off, playing a number of notable concerts in Southern Ontario and beyond since mid-2013, including memorable Canadian tour dates in 2014, and sharing the stage with the likes of Cross Dog, Diemonds, and USA Out of Vietnam since their launch. Releasing their first full length CD "Habitat Animal" last month, Public Animal have also released assorted demo EPs and split albums since a pair of June 2013 releases, counting a Deep Purple tribute split with Peterborough rockers Mokomakai among them from this past April. Recently finishing another national headlining tour, the band are currently planning another CD, and further live concerts.

Memorable for their loud live concerts, Public Animal bring an engaging classic hard rock sound to the table, which mixes aggression with retro influences, and neat trade-off vocals from Ian and Caitlin that can often give the impression of a band that would have fit right in with the mid-1970s rock scene! With entertaining riffs, solid drumming, and gritty vocals from Ian, Public Animal's sound fits their name, and it will be interesting to see where they go in their future projects! Be sure to check out their albums at the above links, plus their array of live videos, and here are the guy playing their song "Automatic Ammunition" in Toronto last summer!


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I hope you guys liked this month's Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile! Next month's (hopefully not delayed) installment will likely be our first in a string of punk band profiles now that they're in our official coverage, so who's up first? The Fairmounts, the active Toronto punk band fronted by prolific local punk musician Mikey Hawdon! Watch out for that on or around August 26th, and for the curious, look for a "hardcore homecoming" in this series in September! That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and this month's CD review this week! Thanks everyone!

More Heart Concert Fallout, A Band Breakup, And Much More!!

Before we get too deep into this post, I'll send a special good luck to the guys in AlgomA, Bad Back, The Bear Hunters, Crucify The Whore, and Shit Liver as they all rock the Touch of Death Metal & Punk Festival in Cochrane this weekend! Knock it out of the park, and make the Soo proud! Today, we have new local ties from a recent local news article, a band breakup to note, and a new interview featuring a prolific local artist, but first, here's some more fallout from a major recent hard rock show!

We'll begin with some more fallout from last weekend's Heart/Jason Bonham concert at The Essar Center, including an interview with The Sault Star's Jeffery Ougler that was published on their website (and presumably in the newspaper proper) last Wednesday! Apologies for being so late with this, I only just found the article the other day. Entitled "Straight From The Heart", the interview is with Heart guitarist Nancy Wilson, and while it's largely based around the contents of Nancy and sister/lead singer Ann Wilson's new autobiography "Kicking & Dreaming: A Story of Heart, Soul and Rock & Roll", she does talk about the current tour and working with Jason Bonham too. Solid read, if not too focused on the local date, so read it at this link or in last week's paper (though note that you'll have to watch a 15 second advertisement for access to it online, which is new to me for Sault Star articles.) Lastly for the known Heart fallout are some new concert videos, so what should you know on them?

These are 9 new Heart videos from YouTube user hbogie123, who only had 4 up on their Youtube channel when our original post was written up (it was auto-posted during the Anciients show, and the last of these videos went up yesterday.) All incomplete, the new videos include Heart playing their originals "These Dreams", "Alone", "Magic Man" (in parts linked here & here), and "Crazy On You" (also in 2 parts, here & here), plus covers of Led Zeppelin's "The Battle of Evermore" & "Four Sticks", but embedded below is one of the longer videos, of Heart covering "No Quarter". Like before, these videos have a good quality and angle from close to the stage, so check out hbogie123's new videos above & below!



Next up, Haggith drummer & local solo musician Mike Haggith received some cool promotion the other day as the featured artist on Betty on the Go, an online music webseries from XEAYZ.TV out of his Windsor hometown. As originally streamed on Thursday evening, it's now posted to watch on YouTube, so what should you know? After introductions, host Betty Gudel and Mike talk about numerous topics in this half hour video, including his recent work towards becoming a licensed pilot & what that could mean for his music career, his songwriting inspirations, his musical beginnings & preferences, his work with Paperclip Productions and the band Haggith, among other subjects. This runs for about 20 minutes before Betty does some local advertisements (with Mike providing some running thoughts), and after a brief clip of a local summer theater camp, Mike sings his original song "This Potato May Be Used As A Flotation Device" from his newest EP "A Place Of Our Own", which you can jump straight to at this link if you're interested.

There isn't a lot in terms of breaking news for future shows & such, but Mike did elaborate on the formats of his earliest out-of-print albums, and detailed the story of how he joined what became Haggith in the interview. While I'm a little surprised that Mike didn't go into details about his Windsor-era band work with bands like S.C.A.R., this was a solid interview, and way more extensive than I'd have guessed going in! The webstream video quality is what it is, but Mike sings well at the end, and it's nice to see him get this kind of a feature, so check out the full interview below!

Also, I have deleted local hard rock duo Re-Born (formerly the original Brutaly Fatal) from our band links due to the closure of their Facebook (and only online) page in recent weeks, which was likely related to the band's recent breakup. A reason for either has not been announced, but there was a falling out between members & Blood Shed Productions co-founders Tyler Gibson & Austin McCrea after Austin and the second version of Brutaly Fatal (now The Revolution) left the label last month. Out of respect to both parties, I won't go into further details on the split, but it didn't sound amicable. The original Brutaly Fatal (which was largely Austin's solo project) were one of the launch acts for Blood Shed Productions in late 2012, releasing a handful of demo CDs and playing a few live sets through last fall. In early 2014, Tyler joined on drums, and they changed their name to Re-Born, along with drifting to hard rock & punk covers, but their activity was limited to scattered video posts & some unannounced gigs, last making an online update in February.

While their original solo death metal style was an acquired taste (and I never understood the missing L from "brutally"), Austin always had bass talent and growling ability, and if he can shore up his stage presence, he should go far with The Revolution! Re-Born might always be one of those "what if?" projects due to the minimal online media and lack of announced shows, but hopefully things aren't as bad as they appeared late last month. Tyler's also got a good thing going with his current grind projects, so look for more from both this year, and best of luck all around!

Finally for today, remember how Toronto hard rock quartet Public Animal headlined at The Rockstar Bar yesterday? Well, there were more local ties beyond The Role Models' opening set and the C'Mon show two years ago, as Public Animal drummer Ryan Gassi is actually from Sault Ste. Marie! As outlined in a new SooToday article from Donna Hopper,  Ryan drummed for notable local bands like blues rockers The Rhythm Rats and punk notables The Kite-Eating Maples before moving to Toronto, where played in bands like The Lying Cheats & Memory Bank. In the article, Ryan discussed how he was almost going to quit drumming in bands before frontman Ian Blurton asked if he wanted to join his new band Public Animal, who are heavier than Ryan's past bands. I'm not sure how I didn't connect the dots before on Ryan's local past when researching Public Animal, but it's great to see him still playing and coming back home for a show! In fact, Public Animal will be the next band profiled in our Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile Series next month, so look out for that, and hopefully Public Animal come back to the Soo down the road!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news soon, plus our review of Mike Haggith's new EP by Monday! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Tym Morrison), Sault Ontario Weekend Concert Previews, And More!!

Due to the amount of hard rock/metal concerts this weekend (and to give proper emphasis to TOMORROW'S Alice Cooper show), we're breaking up this weekend's concert previews into two posts, with the Sault Michigan half coming tonight, so look for that then! As a result, I'll also postpone this month's Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile on Gatgas to tomorrow, so look for it then so it's not lost in the shuffle! Now, we have previews of Sault Ontario shows this weekend (including a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT), plus a bonus new concert video, so here's what you need to know!

While his weekly concert arrangement at The Harp Pub & Grill will enter it's 30th straight week THIS FRIDAY & SATURDAY, Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison has added a late notice new show to his schedule, as he'll be playing at The Water Tower Pub at 360 Great Northern Road TONIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, Tym just announced this show via it's official Facebook event page yesterday. Until this month, Tym had not played a public solo concert outside of The Harp in 2014, but tonight's "Acoustic Thursday" set will actually be his second straight Thursday nighter at a different venue, following a return to The Road House Bar & Grill on Trunk Road last week for their monthly customer appreciation night, which was only announced on his website's calendar and not on Facebook. Our sincere apologies for missing it, hopefully it was a huge hit! Tonight's Water Tower Inn gig won't be Tym's first live set there (he & Caveman Morrison played there last year), but like with his Harp run, tonight's show will double as the Water Tower Pub's weekly jam night, which has different weekly hosts.

And like usual, Tym will be rocking The Harp on Pine Street on Friday and Saturday (the former as the jam night, the latter as a normal solo gig), so whatever your favourite location, keep all three of this weekend's shows in mind! TONIGHT's show at the Water Tower Inn starts at 9:00 PM & both Harp shows start at 10:00 PM, while all three have no announced cover charge and 19+ age limits. For more details, check the above links and the Facebook event page for the Harp shows, and here's Tym live at The Service Grill!



Moving to 100% previously announced shows, a "Rock and Roll Mindwarp" will hit The Rockstar Bar TOMORROW NIGHT when Toronto hard/garage rock quartet Public Animal take the stage in their local debut! Featuring former C'Mon frontman Ian Blurton on vocals & guitar, he should bring similar energy and talent to the stage tomorrow as C'Mon did a few years back, as Public Animal have a nice mix of classic rock and heavier action (plus nice complimentary keyboard work & female vocals), so do not bypass them tomorrow night! The local openers will be a reunion of local punk supergroup Brad Example & The Role Models, who were last seen opening for The Saigon Hookers in 2011 at the same venue. Their current lineup merges Inner City Surfers alumni Brad "Example" Lacell (apparently also this show's promoter) & Dave Bahun with Lion Ride alumni Marco Pedalino and Marc Muto, and Brad has told me that the band has been working on original material, so might The Role Models' current reunited form lead to some big new things? Be there tomorrow to find out!

The Rock & Roll Mindwarp will kick off at 10:00 PM tomorrow, there is a likely $5 cover charge, and you must be 19 to attend. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! Fans of Black Wizard from Tuesday's metal show at The Canadian will be right at home with Public Animal's classic-influenced sound, so don't miss this show TOMORROW NIGHT, and for a preview, here they are live in Toronto last year!



Lastly for announced hard rock shows in Sault Ontario this weekend is what could be the first annual installment of a new concert festival, as local concert promoters Ears & Eyes Online are hosting Lopstock THIS SATURDAY at, of course, LopLops Lounge! A self-described "bohemian conclave" that's taking obvious inspiration from Woodstock, this event will see 5+ live acts playing music from noon-7:00 PM on Saturday, and while the final lineup isn't known yet, there will be one hard rock band playing at Lopstock, that being alternative rock trio The Pixo Control! Fresh off of their set opening for Jon McKiel earlier this month, Michael, Steve, and Keeghan should have a solid set of grungy originals in store for Saturday, so don't miss them if you're going! The Pixo Control are currently slotted in the second slot for bands at Lopstock, behind local blues rock quartet The Frasiers, while the other known acts are a band named Mashagama (genre & identity yet unknown), acoustic rock trio K.I.C.K., and newer garage punk quartet Gnaeus. All of the known bands are very talented in their genre, so be sure to check them out!

More acts have been teased online, but it's unclear whether a late announcement of them is forthcoming, or if they'll remain secret until showtime. If anything comes out, we'll have it here! Lopstock is definitely ALL AGES, the festivities kick off at 12:00 PM on Saturday, and there is a $10 cover charge. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! If the reports of the Rotaryfest Second Stage ending are substantiated (still awaiting official word), Lopstock could become a replacement of sorts given the common LopLops ties, and hopefully Jackson Reed and all the bands have a great first go on Saturday! For a preview, here's The Pixo Control live at Superior Heights earlier this year!



Finally for today, here's a new concert video upload from local goregrind duo Rotopsy! Uploaded to label Blood Shed Productions' YouTube channel on Tuesday, this is from their set at the Commencing Human Desperation show at The Oddfellows Hall on March 21st, and the video is of them playing their original "T.F.T." (full name: "The Funky Track".) The audio is very tinny and inconsistent, and the lighting is only what it is, but the filmer got a nice close-up of Tyler & Dylan in action, so if you're a fan of Rotopsy or the label, give their newest video a look below!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for Sault Michigan concert previews (including the return of Alice Cooper) later tonight! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Public Animal), A Likely Inactive Band, And New Videos!!

In what might be our last post of the month, we have some recent news to touch on today, including new videos from some familiar faces, a band that we're moving to our inactive links, and first, a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for next month, so here's what you need to know!

Toronto hard rock quartet Public Animal will make their way north to our neck of the woods on Friday, June 27th for a headlining gig at The Rockstar Bar! Though unfamiliar on the surface, some fans may remember seeing frontman Ian Blurton at LopLops Lounge a couple years ago with C'mon, and a similar talent level can be found with Public Animal, a hard/garage rock quartet with a distinct old school feel and solid trade-off vocals with keyboardist Caitlin Dacey, so they should find an audience on June 27th! As best as I can tell, the openers will be a reunion of dormant local punk supergroup Brad Example & The Role Models, who you may remember from opening for The Saigon Hookers at this venue twice in 2011, among some prior gigs. Fronted by Inner City Surfers bassist Brad "Example" Lacell, this band had a rotating supporting cast, but their 2011 gigs both included Brad's longtime bandmate Dave Bahun and current Glitch giutarist Marco Pedalino, so might we see them back for this gig? Time will tell!

Apparently promoted by Brad (who's calling the show "Rock and Roll Mindwarp"), this 19+ show has a 10:00 PM start time, and there's a likely $5 cover charge in effect. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! This should be an intriguing concert, especially for the classic heavy mix of Public Animal and the Role Models reunion, so keep it in mind for next month, and stay tuned for potential updates!

Next up, I've reluctantly decided to move a local metal band to our defunct Sault Ontario links, that being local extreme metal quartet Winkstinger. The band hasn't made a public statement since opening for Sleep When You're Dead at The Oddfellows Hall exactly one year & one day ago, which itself is their only concert in the past 22 months, so it's not looking great for their active status. Succeeding the similar Operation: Killdozer upon their early 2010 launch, Winkstinger (featuring Soldiers of Misfortune and Issues alumni) became a popular sight at local concerts throughout the early 2010s, including 6 appearances at Roosevelt Hotel metal nights, sets at the first two Sewer Swampstravaganzas, and winning the Battle for the Blood in June 2012 to open for 3 Inches of Blood, while recording songs for an unreleased EP during that time. I'm not sure what exactly happened to Winkstinger, but their chaotic extreme metal sound was always a fun and welcomed presence on the local stage, and despite their increasingly sporadic dates by 2012, I always enjoyed seeing them in concert!

I hope I'm wrong on them no longer being active (we'll let you guys know if they re-emerge), but in the meantime, you can see guitarist Jesse Cook with both Jack Spades & The Elements, and best of luck to Alan, Jesse, Jason, Jonas, and all of their other former members in the future!

We'll close today with new videos, including some new solo guitar clips from former Bring The Fallen guitarist Andrew Chiarello! While largely inactive from local bands since Bring The Fallen's 2011 breakup (last year's reunion show aside), Andrew has recently re-emerged with a new YouTube channel to post some solo videos, so what should you know on these? One from two weeks ago is of him playing an instrumental shred piece named "RockBro", while the other video from earlier this week (embedded below) is his cover of Metallica's "Master of Puppets". Both are shot at multiple camera angles with transitions that showcase his gear nicely, and his talent hasn't wavered since his band heyday! If anything, his guitar could be louder on the Metallica cover, but it's nice to see Andrew playing again, and hopefully there's more to come in some form, so check out his new videos above and below!



Finally for today, Skeyes of Seven bandmates Cory Murchison and Alain Fletcher have recorded another acoustic cover for Alain's YouTube channel, as posted on Tuesday! This time, it's a cover of Slipknot's ballad "Snuff", and like before, it's well performed, but Cory's singing seems a bit slow and shaky. It's a nice teaser while the wait continues for Skeyes of Seven's live return, so check it out below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news shortly! Thanks everyone!