We're back after a couple of quiet days with a new post devoted to recent videos from local solo musicians, and we'll start with local punk musician Mikey Hawdon's conclusion of his 100 days worth of quarantune videos on his YouTube channel! If you didn't catch the references in his descriptions on Facebook and YouTube, the daily videos of "Mikey & His Uke" ended yesterday with video #100, but he is not hanging up the ukelele, just dropping to a wider release schedule so he can work on new installments without a rushed deadline (and this is presumably easier with day jobs resuming too). As for the last three daily videos, Sunday's is of Blink-182's "Dammit" with guest musicians, while Monday's is of Goldfinger's "Wayne Gretzky" (fittingly as video #99) with that band's drummer Darren Pfeiffer on hand drums and his best full hockey equipment. Embedded below is video #100, a cover of Pennywise's "Bro Hymn" with a lot of special guests!
Like last week's cover of Operation Ivy's "Unity", this cover (Mikey's longest one yet) drops the ukelele pretense very early, and it has Mikey on lead vocals alongside members of Pennywise, The Offspring, Anti-Flag, Pulley, Good Riddance, and No Big Deal, plus Darren again, George Stroumboulopoulos (seriously), and lots of familiar faces providing the chorus "Whoas", including Mikey's old Lion Ride/Detroit bandmate Brenton Ellis (now of Slumshine.) Fittingly stacked closer to the series under it's original scheduling, and it's great to see how much it has grown over three past 3 months, so check out 'Bro Hymn" below, and see much more above!
Next up, Bridge Heads/ex-Haggith frontman Curtis McKenzie has thrown his hat into the live-streamed concert arena with an hour-long performance video on his Facebook page on Monday! Over three months after hyping a Twitch live-stream that never came, Curt began by making sure everything was in working order with his setup, and introduced his set by noting that he was open to taking questions (primarily about his music career) and requests from viewers. His set began with a cover of Weezer's "In The Garage", before mentioning his renewed promotion of his music and past band pages (he even reactivated PaperClip Productions' Facebook page!) Curtis next covers The Stone Temple Pilots' "Interstate Love Song", before discussing the current status of The Bridge Heads, who only played live once before the pandemic hit and guitarist Daniel Horton moved out of town for work reasons. Curt noted that The Bridge Heads are currently planning to proceed as a trio.
While he would ostensibly be their lead singer and guitarist short term, Curtis is open to focusing on one or the other should they bring on a fourth band member. Sounds like an adaptable plan, and hopefully we see Dan back on a local stage down the road! Curt covers Collective Soul's "December", Three Days Grace's "Wake Up", and Alice In Chains' "No Excuses" next, before reiterating his current music plans, which are primarily around The Bridge Heads rather than fully resuming his solo project (he noted earlier in the video that this live-stream was more to get updated content out there.) The set resumes with covers of Lifehouse's "Hanging By A Moment", Weezer's "My Name Is Jonas", and NOFX's "Bob", before Curtis reflects on his work with the band Haggith, running through a brief Cliffs Notes version of their history. He plays their original song "Clifton Hill" from their "Deuce" album, as well as the untitled bonus track at the album's end.
Curt moves back into covers to close, including The Stone Temple Pilots' "Plush", and two System of a Down songs ("Lonely Day" & "Toxicity"), as dedicated to his 2015-2017 hard rock band Eclipse. Overall, this was a fun set with lots of strong performances, but you can tell Curt is new to a live-streamed set like this, and a sequel should be smoother for between-song banter. Also, the flashing stage lighting is very distracting for an hour-long video, and I would scrap it or at least slow it down next time. Give Curt's whole live-stream a watch below!
Finally, fellow local hard rock solo musician Tym Morrison live-streamed his 23rd at-home concert on his YouTube channel yesterday! After an unusually long 10 minute wait past the "Starting Soon" screen, the show begins, but viewers will notice that the visuals are choppy once again, which won't bode well if you're expecting a 2 hour set. Tym starts by covering Richard Marx's "Now & Forever", Air Supply's "Here I Am (Just When I Thought I Was Over You)", and Frozen Ghost's "Dream Come True", after which Tym starts acknowledging the video issues. He plays an instrumental song next, followed by Berlin's "Take My Breath Away" and Roxette's "It Must Have Been Love", but Tym spends the rest of the runtime attempting to fix the video before bailing on the stream after just over a half hour. This is the fourth straight Tuesday night show from Tym to be cut short due to technical difficulties, alas.
The audio quality was just fine, and Tym sounded as solid as ever, but the laggy video issues were never in doubt. I do like that yesterday's covers (Roxette aside) were all debuting in his live-streamed series, as far as I can recall, and hopefully tomorrow's show goes off without a hitch! Thursdays seem to have a better success rate. Give yesterday's a watch below!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site soon! Thanks everyone!
Today's news post is video-heavy, but we do have some assorted recent updates to wrap things up with. We'll start with the two newest solo vocal/ukelele cover videos from local punk musician Mikey Hawdon's YouTube channel, as his daily quarantunes have hit their 97th installment! In fact, both of the two new installments have a local relevance, including yesterday's cover of Jimmy Martin's "Ain't Nobody Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone", which was inspired by hearing the song live in Nashville when he and his mom vacationed there two years ago. The rendition features three of Mikey's Tidal Records colleagues, including Jay Case on the banjo, Frank Deresti on the bass, and his old Rising Tide bandmate Sheldon Jaaskelainen on the fiddle. Nice rendition with poignant lyrics, so give that a listen above! Embedded below is today's quarantune, where Mikey covers U2's "With Or Without You" with members of 1990s local punk band The Spigots!
The cover choice is fitting, as Mikey saw The Spigots in his first ever local concert back in 1993 at The Windsor Park Hotel, and "With Or Without You" was a staple of Spigots setlists. Mikey is on ukelele, guitar, and drums for this cover, alongside Spigots alumni Trevor Hartless on vocals and Frank Guidoccio on bass. The Spigots are well before my time, but this is a solid yet loose cover, albeit with a very repetitive chorus, and it must have been a thrill to revisit the dawn of Mikey's local punk fandom here! Give this quarantune a watch below, and look for more tomorrow!
Next up, local hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison live-streamed his 22nd at-home concert on his YouTube channel on Thursday, so let's do another full recap on the SMS! You may notice that I skipped over Tuesday's show, which Tym did attempt to start, but he doesn't get to play any songs due to technical difficulties. No, the video feed wasn't glitchy, but he was clearly having problems hearing the guitar and his setup on his end, and he attempted to fix it for 17 minutes before giving up on the stream. At home, we could hear his guitar, but Tym will know better than I if things aren't working right. This is the third straight Tuesday stream of Tym's to be abbreviated due to technical difficulties, which is a very odd coincidence, but hopefully next Tuesday's isn't cursed! He did resolve the issues in time for Thursday's live-stream (embedded below), though "Starting Soon" card aside, it falls 15 minute shy of 2 hours.
Strong set overall, and Tym performed to his usual standards despite the obviously warm temperatures! His story about "The Reason Why" and working with ex-Phatstick frontman Jason Taillefer was nice too, especially if you followed Tym's original career. However, if you're not instrumentally inclined, you may not appreciate the three vocal-less songs here, and Tym just did the Richard Marx & Billy Joel songs this past Thursday. Give the whole show a watch below, and fingers crossed Tuesday's live-stream is glitch free!
Finally, here's three assorted shorter news items from the last
while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist or event
name:
Mikey's Inner City Surfers bandmate Dustin Jones sent an acoustic cover of Cyndi Lauper's "True Colours" to SooToday for this article on Monday, which is tied into Pride Week festivities and for
something the whole community can enjoy. Nicely done rendition for a
great cause, so give it a look above! The video host SooToday used here
does not allow external embedding.
Sault Michigan classic/hard rock cover quartet Highway 63
have announced that they are cancelling their planned Rudyard Days
event and all other upcoming dates "until further notice" due to a
(non-COVID) health issue with one of their members, as per their Facebook page on Wednesday. The band had no shows left in our calendar as it was, but I
believe Rudyard Days was the community gathering/concert that Highway 63
had discussed in April, to be held once the shutdowns ended. Hopefully
we see Highway 63 back on stage in some way, shape, or form down the
line!
It goes without saying at this point, but the Northern Vibe Festival in nearby Ophir, Ontario will not take place as scheduled next month due to the coronavirus outbreak, as per their Facebook page
earlier this week. The Northern Vibe Festival only features heavier and
punk bands sporadically, but their diverse entertainment on the old
Hempfest grounds is always a great time, and hopefully they can return
better than ever in 2021!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site next week! Thanks everyone!
As you may have noticed by now, our daily posting streak during the
pandemic ended after Monday's 91st straight post on the SMS. Basically, I
ended the run to help us build up stories for future posts (we were
starting to run thin), and get them out on a more typical schedule like
what we were doing up to mid-March, especially as "the new normal" is
taking effect and the Sault area continues re-opening to the public. This regular run was
good to keep everyone engaged and informed during the lockdowns, and if
there is a second wave of COVID-19 forcing everything to be shut down
again, I may pick things back up daily! Now, let's get to some recent
updates, starting with the latest daily cover videos from veteran local punk musician Mikey Hawdon's YouTube channel! He posted three new "quarantunes" on there in as many days, including a cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Second Hand News" with guest singers, notably including his long-time bandmate Amy Gabba.
The other two are punk songs, including an original song (a rarity for this series) named "I Did It All For The Dookie", and despite the Limp Bizkit allusion, it's a tribute to Green Day and their "Dookie" album. It's no secret that Mikey is a huge fan of theirs, as anyone who's seen him front the tribute band The Dookies knows, and this solo performance is fun and fits in the right spirit of the band! Comparatively speaking, it's a long video too, as Mikey's quarantunes don't generally exceed 3 minutes like this one. Embedded below is yesterday's video of Mikey & his uke, only here, his one is stacked with guest musicians! Mikey aside, this cover of Operation Ivy's "Unity" features members of Goldfinger, Less Than Jake, The Anti-Queens, Fishbone, Big D & The Kids Table, and No Big Deal. Fittingly, the acoustic ukelele pretense is dropped early for a full band performance, albeit remotely filmed.
Nice choice of song to cover, and with this all-star crew, you know everyone handles this classic very well! Strong editing by Dean too, allowing good looks at every performer, though the jumps from black and white to colour aren't ideal. Give Mikey and crew a watch below, and look for more quarantune videos above and on his YouTube channel tomorrow!
We'll finish today's post by diving into the results of last month's poll on the SMS, where we posed this question to you guys: What was your favourite local metal, hard rock, or punk concert of 2019?
Sadly, this poll only received 5 votes, but thanks to those who did
chime in, and there is a clear winner, so here are the final results from the past month!
Michale Graves at The Canadian Nightclub on September 28th (2 votes, 40%) Oh!No III (night #2) in Leeburn on September 7th (1 vote, 20%) Anvil, Striker, and Jack Spades at Soo Blaster on June 9th (1 vote, 20%) The Killer Dwarfs & Re:Born at Soo Blaster on April 27th (1 vote, 20%) Joni Radford Memorial at The Algonquin Hotel on March 2nd (0 votes) Parabol & The Elements at The Rockstar Bar on March 23rd (0 votes) The Tea Party at The Machine Shop on March 27th (0 votes) Dopethrone & AlgomA at The New American Pub on May 20th (0 votes) Random Killing & Jack Spades at The Rockstar Bar on July 5th (0 votes) Dany Laj & B.A. Johnston at The New A on November 9th (0 votes) Other (0 votes)
After
claiming the late 2019 poll last month with just as many votes, the
Michale Graves concert in September narrowly wins for the whole year! Of
course, 2 out of 5 votes is hardly representative, but it's encouraging
to see such a strong horror punk concert win out, esepcially given it's
attendance and the one year delay in the show taking place. Oh!No III's
second night and the mid-2019 Soo Blaster gigs from Anvil and The
Killer Dwarfs all got representation too, which won't surprise attendees
of those well received concerts I am most surprised that the Joni
Radford tribute concert, The Tea Party, and Random Killing didn't get
votes this time out, but alas, it's all in who votes in a given poll.
Thanks to everyone who did vote! For now, I will put our monthly polls
on the shelf due to the 2019 cycle ending and our recent polls recieving
low totals anyway. As for our usual "favourite concert in the first
half of the year" poll next month..... yeah, you probably know why I'm
postponing it, no point in reiterating the obvious.
It would hardly be fair of me to run a
poll on early 2020 concerts when we only had live concerts for two and a
half months before the coronavirus outbreak shut down the local concert
industry, and while there have been noises about social
distance-friendly concerts in the E.U.P., I fear we're a ways off from anything major up here, sadly. I will probably end up doing just one poll on all
concerts in 2020 down the line, and who knows what the rest of the year
will hold for that anyway. I'll keep you guys posted, and look for more news & notes on the site soon! Thanks everyone!
For this 84th straight daily post at the SMS, we're continuing our link cleanup that populated our post on Saturday, but let's start with the latest quarantune cover videos from Mikey (Hawdon) & his uke! Since we last looked at the local punk music veteran's daily ukelele covers on his YouTube channel, Mikey has posted seven new ones in the past week. Unusually for this current stage of the quarantune series, only two of these videos feature guests beyond Mikey and editor/sometime percussionist Dean Glover, but Dean did spice up the solo videos in varying ways! The new solo videos feature Mikey & his uke covering Madonna's "Material Girl", 2 Unlimited's "No Limit", The Dead Milkmen's "Punk Rock Girl", Willie Nelson's "On The Road Again" (featuring many familiar faces in the included photos), and Stompin' Tom Connors' "Algoma Central 69", which should please Inner City Surfers fans in particular. That said, what about the videos featuring special guests?
One is a cover of The Spice Girls' "Stop" featuring four female musicians who have guested in prior quarantunes (I'll let you figure out which spice is which), but embedded below is video #83 from Friday, where Mikey is joined by his Surfers bandmates Dustin Jones, Dave Bahun, and Brad Example for a special rendition of "Booze N' Doobs"! Mikey is even included a second time in the top right on "drums", which is a nice touch. Fun and loose cover, as all of these are in their own way, so give all of Mikey's 85 quarantunes to date a watch above and below, and stay tuned for more tomorrow!
Finally for today, here's nine assorted shorter updates, all via recent changes and deletions to our link sections on the SMS, relating to bands, concert venues, and more. As usual, these are in alphabetical order by band, venue, event, or business name:
I have changed the link in our inactive concert venue listings for local natural foods restaurant and occasional concert venue Cafe Natura from their now-closed website to their Facebook page. However, Cafe Natura abruptly closed in June of last year, and has since been replaced at 75 Elgin Street by Georgie's Shawarma, which I don't believe has hosted live concerts. Kelly seemed to have a good thing going with Cafe Natura, and hopefully she and the former staff are in good spirits nowadays!
I have removed Foggy Notions from our inactive concert venue listings as well due to the deletion of their Facebook (and last known surviving) online page. Of course, 708 Queen Street East has hosted Coch's Corner since it's move from the Days Inn in 2012, albeit with a much softer range of live music, and hopefully more concerts will occur there in time when things settle down!
I have removed local music store Grooves Music from our "Other Sault Michigan Metal Links" section due to the deletion of it's Facebook page within the past year. The long-time 540 Ashmun Street business was sold to new owners in 2017 and re-opened as Crooked Music, before moving across the road to 539 Ashmun last year. Head to Crooked Music for all of your instrument, lesson, and vinyl needs, though use common sense given the pandemic!
I have deleted Hempfest from our listing of local concert festivals due to the closure of their Facebook page in recent years, which was the annual marijuana culture/concert festival's last known online page. Readers may recall this annual event at the current Northern Vibe Festival site in Ophir, Ontario from 1999-2013 (save 2010) before organizers held it's last three installments in Moonbeam. Hopefully Robert, Willy-Jack, and everyone who made Hempfest possible are still doing well nowadays!
I have changed the link for defunct local band management & promotion company New Era Design & Development in our "Other Sault Ontario Metal Links" section from their now-closed website to their Facebook page. Derek had solid ambition with New Era, including a working relationship with local hard rock band Stillbroke circa 2010, but their later activity was centered on digital media before New Era fell inactive by 2013.
I have removed 2005 all-female alternative/punk trio Nowhere Fast from our defunct band links due to the quiet deletion of their Tripod (and only surviving) online page at some point in the past year. It would have been interesting to see Nowhere Fast make more of a local presence during their brief run, but hopefully their members are still musically active!
I have removed mid-2000s punk band Oceania from our defunct band links due to the closure of BandSpace, which hosted their last surviving band page until that website quietly shut down three years ago. Oceania were a promising act, and hopefully LaR, Dilbert, and Chris re-emerge with new music down the road!
I have replaced early 2010s punk/classical trio RedD Monkey's (sadly) deleted Facebook page in our band links with their Bandcamp page, which still hosts copies of their three studio albums. Steve, Pete, Kevin, and Joe have been missed locally in the last few years, and hopefully we hear of new music from them in the future!
I have changed the link for defunct local nightclub/concert venue Smack Daddy's Bar & Grill (a.k.a. Bossy's Pub N' Grub) in our inactive venue listings from their now deleted Facebook group to their Smack Daddy's-era Facebook page. Sporadically active as a concert venue through 2011, Smack Daddy's closed in 2014, as the building was bought by new owners, torn down, and replaced by what's now Pim Street Dental. Hopefully they're doing strong business there, it's a good location!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this week! Thanks everyone!
Another month is upon us, so let's kick June off with our 77th straight daily post at the SMS! We have some new videos to touch on from a daily series of note, but let's lead off with the latest live-stream from a prominent band on the other side of the border, as well as their new lineup announcement!
Sault Michigan hard rock band Tarnished held their 15th live-streamed concert (and first in a week) on their Facebook page on Saturday night! The guys had announced that they'd only have one at-home show last week due to "planning and setting up for the summer, which will be full of our one of a kind complete band setup." Hopefully their optimism means good things re: formal public concerts of some kind later in 2020! As for the "complete band setup" line, that appears to be true once again, as Tarnished have quietly added former Half A Man bassist Gary Croad as their new drummer, replacing the already departed Tommy Korcal, as per the band's About page on Facebook. I'm not familiar with Gary as a drummer, but hopefully he's the right fit when Tarnished can finally play true live concerts again! Don't look for him or Nathan in the live-streams in the near term due to social distancing, alas.
As for Tarnished's newest live-stream, the guys returned to a 2 hour-long model (give or take 7 minutes) after the previous week's two temperature-shortened concerts. Unfortunately, the ongoing audio issues for some users (myself included) are still very much in effect, including the usual pops, halts, and loud static, so crank your volume and/or have Audacity open to manipulate the ripped audio track. The first 8 songs played on Saturday are all solo performances by frontman Alex Traynor, as bandmate Josh Fair "(wasn't) quite here yet", and they included covers of Matchbox Twenty's "Push", Days of the New's "Push, Peel, and Stand", Panic! At The Disco's "I Write Sins, Not Tragedies", Warrant's "Uncle Tom's Cabin", Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead Or Alive", The Hollies' "Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress", Matchbox Twenty's "Unwell", and Ed Sheeran's "Don't". Josh finally joins the concert in-progress afterwards for covers of The Romantics' "What I Like About You", ...
...and Incubus' "Drive", before Josh trades his chair for a higher stool. The guys next tackle Van Halen's "Ain't Talkin' Bout Love", Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' "Mary Jane's Last Dance", Three Doors Down's "Kryptonite", Bob Seger's "Turn The Page", Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl", Sublime's "What I Got", and Anthrax's "Madhouse". After pausing for a couple minutes while Josh steps out, half of Tarnished finish up with covers of The Animals' "House of the Rising Sun", Bryan Adams' "Summer of '69", Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary", Alice In Chains' "Rooster", Lou Bega's "Mambo No. 5", and Metallica's "Fade To Black". Nice return to activity for Alex & Josh, and if you can get past the poor audio quality, they handle these covers well all around! That said, "What I Like About You" & "Mambo No. 5" were just played in their last live-stream before this one, and they didn't break out any originals on Saturday. Check everything out below!
We'll close today back in Ontario for the three latest "Mikey & His Uke" quarantune videos from local punk musician Mikey Hawdon's YouTube channel over the last three days! All featuring special guests, these covers include Johnny Thunders' "You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory", and Johnny & June Carter Cash's "Jackson" (alongside his frequent Toronto bandmate Amy Zucchetto), but embedded below is Saturday's cover of Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros' "Coma Girl" featuring Mikey's Surfers/ex-Tide bandmate Dustin Jones on vocals. This is a brief but fun and melodic cover with a nice punk spirit, so give it a look below, and hear much more above!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!
Day #72 of daily posts at the SMS during the pandemic gives us another video heavy excursion, including lots of live-streamed performance footage and some new daily acoustic content, so here's what you should know!
Entertaining set overall with a nice selection of classic rock covers, though last Thursday's live-stream had a heavier overall set and no major glitches or hang-ups. Also, seeing three songs repeated from Thursday was a little disappointing, but if you didn't like how early last Tuesday's set ended, Tym did do half of that curtailed set between the last two live-streams. Give both a watch above and below, and look for tomorrow's next live-stream!
We'll close today with veteran local punk musician Mikey Hawdon's five newest quarantunes, as posted onto his YouTube channel in as many days! All five videos feature guest musicians, frequently including Dean Glover on percussion, who has done the great post-production work seen as the series grew in quality and popularity. The newest videos of "Mikey & His Uke" include covers of Kiss' "Hard Luck Woman", Canned Heat's "Going Up The Country", The Rolling Stones' "Miss You", and "Blue Shadows On The Trail" from the movie Three Amigos. Embedded below is quarantune #72 from Monday, where Mikey covers The Dwarves' "Saturday Night" alongside that band's frontman Paul "Blag Dahlia" Cafaro and drummer Hunter "Down" Martinez! Now there's another big get, nice work! They perform alongside Maximum RNR guitarist Keith Carmen (who is no stranger to playing with Saultites) and Mikey's Inner City Surfers bandmate Dave Bahun on bass.
Predictably laid back rendition of this punk classic, though it's ironic that this wasn't uploaded on a Saturday! Everyone does well here, and be sure to give the rest of Mikey's new quarantunes a watch above and below! FYI, Mikey's CTV Northern Ontario appearance on Friday evening was just a re-broadcast of quarantune #58 from two weeks ago, where he covered Bonnie Tyler's "I'm Holding Out For A Hero" solo as a tribute to front line workers. Nice sentiment and exposure all around, kudos for all you're doing!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for a new news post on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!
Another work week ends today, and let's keep the consistent news rolling with the latest from a long-running extreme metal label, a new performance video, and to start, the latest from Mikey (Hawdon) & his uke! Matching his Global News piece on Monday, Mikey's "quarantune" videos will reportedly be spotlighted tonight on CTV News Northern Ontario's 6:00 PM broadcast! My source is Mikey's personal Facebook page, I don't imagine this is meant to be a surprise given the optics. Local readers can watch live on the former MCTV at 6:58 PM or so on channel 11 (Shaw Cable) or on it's channel number on Bell, with a likely internet link to the piece following, and I will discuss his appearance in an upcoming post. As for his daily ukelele covers, Mikey has posted three more onto his YouTube channel in as many days, including a solo cover of The Dukes of Hazzard theme song, plus a cover of The Wallflowers' "One Headlight" with guest musicians.
Embedded below is today's cover, which sees Mikey cover Teenage Head's "Let's Shake" alongside his Gabba Heys bandmates Lucas Stagg & Cleave Anderson, though lead vocal duties are provided by Hamilton rockabilly/blues musician Ginger St. James. Fitting choice, given that Teenage Head are Hamilton punk icons! While running for only 77 seconds, this is a fun acoustic cover while it lasts, and Ginger's dog Chico adds a star quality too! Give it (and more) a watch above, below, and on MCTV tonight!
Next up, here's some overdue updates from local independent label Blood Shed Productions' Facebook page, as they have been staying busy during the quarantine! On May 4th, they announced that they had a "cpl (sic) new releases and some re-releases coming your way", and to inquire with the label about availability. All of these are projects featuring label founder Tyler Gibson and/or frequent collaborator Chase Wigmore, but you know how prolific they are. The advertised new material include a new full length release from Tyler's primary grindcore solo project Crucify the Whore entitled "P.C. Sells... But I Ain't Buyin'!", an eponymous solo album entitled "Instrumentally Unstable", a compilation called "BloodShred Vol. 1", and "episode 1" of Chase's "Stray Dog Howl", plus print runs of late 2010s material. Upcoming releases include "History of Shedding Blood Vol. 1" (featuring their early 2010s songs)" and a new Malignant Neoplasm release.
As well, they have new drum & bass releases in the works from Tyler's Alegendary project and a compilation of some kind. If you were hoping to hear the new C.T.W. studio album, then you are in luck, as it was released on Bandcamp on May 18th! "P.C. Sells... But I Ain't Buyin'!" is a slightly longer release in multiple aspects, as 8 of it's 18 songs exceed 2 minutes in length, and only one is under a minute long. Chase provides drum programming on the opening song "Crucified", while "Stab Alley" is a cover of a 2016 song from Tyler's dormant grind duo Rotopsy. Content-wise, C.T.W.'s polarizing one-man goregrind attack and pig squeal vocals will still not be for everyone, complete with song names I shouldn't reprint here, but Tyler's unapologetic grind attack retains a solid local following, and it's great to see him continuing his music during the pandemic! Get more information and hear the new tunes above, and also inquire about Blood Shed's new run of cassette tapes!
We'll close today with a new video from local/Thompson, Manitoba alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith's Facebook page on Tuesday, and unlike his usual video content during the pandemic, this one is not at his home. Mike was able to perform at the Rare Earth Greenery in Thompson, and can be seen here playing his original "Communique" inside a greenhouse. Some bongos and shakers can be heard being performed by someone, and a man can be seen playing harmonica (I think) outside the door, but I can't hear it if that's the case. Nice & unique rendition at a screwy time, so give it a watch below!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this weekend! Thanks everyone!
We're back with a news post on the site today, which goes in two paths, including proper updates on the early relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions in the Sault Ste. Marie area and what this means in the short term, plus some new videos from a prominent local musician who recently got a big media platform. Here's what you should know!
I wanted to begin today's post with the latest on the Ontario and Michigan shutdown orders and the status of concert venues in our area, specifically relating to Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer's announcement yesterday that bars and restaurants in the Upper Peninsula and much of Northern Michigan can start re-opening with precautions on Friday. Click here or visit your preferred state news source for full details on the announcement. Chippewa County only has 2 confirmed COVID-19 cases and no deaths, so it's easy to see why the Soo is part of the first sections of Michigan to start re-opening. If bars and restaurants choose to re-open on Friday, they must limit capacity to 50% and enforce social distancing guidelines and safety precautions. However, social gatherings are still limited to 10 or fewer people, and municipal governments can enforce stricter rules if necessary. That all said, what does this mean for concerts going forward?
As of late, our Sault Michigan concert calendar had been primarily centered around the local Kewadin Casinos and Tarnished's weekly matinees at Biggby Coffee, with some exceptions. Between such businesses having to run at half capacity in the near term, and the social gathering limitations, I would be surprised to see either rush into concerts as we know them, and Biggby have not addressed their imminent plans on Facebook at press time. Before yesterday's announcement, Kewadin had announced (after multiple prior delays) that they would be re-opening on June 1st, and Governor Whitmer did not directly cite casinos in the first wave of business re-openings, so that may hold true yet. Stay tuned to Kewadin Casino's online pages for further details, especially with three touring out of town bands (The Lows, Peril, and Tripp 'N' Dixie) still scheduled to play in Sault Ste. Marie and St. Ignace's lounges over the June 12th weekend, though I'd be very surprised if they occur as normal.
Finally, there has been no comparable announcement from the Ontario government at press time regarding bars & nightclubs, though Premier Doug Ford had already announced that, as of today, stores with a street entrance can start re-opening with appropriate guidelines (source here.) As such, SMS-relevant retailers like The Rad Zone and Vintage Games N' Junque have started re-opening with a minimum capacity. If you choose to go out to a re-opened store this week, please use common sense to keep yourself and everyone else safe and coronavirus-free. We'll have more on the pandemic as it relates to bands and concerts when it rolls in!
Let's move into a happier topic to finish this post, specifically from Fairmounts frontman/Inner City Surfers drummer Mikey Hawdon, whose series of "Quarantunes" (a.k.a. "Mikey & His Uke" videos) are definitely gaining steam now that they are on YouTube! Yesterday, Mikey got some major attention on Global News at 5:30 PM, which you may have saw locally on channel 3 on Shaw Cable or 12.2 on an over-the-air antenna. The 2½ minute piece by long-time Global correspondent Susan Hay features Mikey talking about how he re-discovered his ukelele, the pandemic's impact on his day job, the spread of his quarantune videos, and their impact on him personally. No mention of his individual bands, but he does rep for home with a Greyhounds toque! This is a well done report that will hopefully get Mikey even more attention for this daily series, and while Global doesn't allow external embedding of their videos, click here to see the whole thing!
Since we last covered Mikey's quarantunes on Thursday, he had uploaded 5 more to YouTube and social media, all featuring special guests. These include covers of the WKRP In Cincinnati and Monkees theme songs, and three punk tracks, namely NOFX's "Eat The Meek", Screeching Weasel's "Hey Suburbia" (featuring ex-guitarist John "Jughead" Pierson), and as embedded below, the Joey Ramone version of Louis Armstrong's "What A Wonderful World". Fittingly, this video's guest musicians are Lucas Stagg & Amy "Gabba" Zuccheto, who played with Mikey in his Toronto-based Ramones tribute bands The Gabba Heys and/or The Merves, and all three share vocals. This is a nice optimistic rendition of this Joey Ramone classic, and his other new quarantunes are fun escapist listens during this stressful time for punk and classic TV fans, so give all of Mikey's past and present videos with his uke a watch above and below, and stay tuned for video #66!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!
Over the past two months, friends of veteran local punk musician Mikey Hawdon will have seen his (mostly) daily series of "quarantunes" on his personal Facebook page, where he does video covers on vocals and ukelele. We addressed his publically shared Monty Python cover on the site last month, but the floodgates are now open for the Inner City Surfers drummer's quarantune videos, as Mikey has slowly been uploading them to his YouTube channel over the past week! All 60 videos (to date) can now be watched there, and you do get a sense of the series' progression, starting with spare solo performances and increasingly featuring special guests filmed remotely. Each video is bite-sized, with most running for under 2 minutes, and none exceed 3 minutes, so it won't take much time at all to see all of these. The first episode of Mikey and his uke saw him cover Bad Religion's "Infected", but there is a lot more to see than just that cover!
Punk, hard rock, and metal fans will be interested in seeing Mikey's acoustic take on songs by The Beastie Boys, Blind Melon, The Clash, The Dickies, Green Day, The Misfits, Motley Crue, Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana, No Doubt, The Offspring, Queen, Rancid, The Salads, and even his own current Toronto punk band The Fairmounts, but songs in our genre range are not the majority. If you peruse Mikey's channel, you'll find pop, comedy, indie, classic rock, reggae, and country tunes, and even TV show themes, so there's something for every taste! A number of name musicians do turn up in the quarantunes from #23 onward, including many of his past and present bandmates, and while many are not from the Soo (Mikey lives in Toronto), there are lots of familiar faces. For example, look for Tidal Records colleagues like Jay Case, Frank Deresti, and Sheldon Jaaskelainen in guest spots, among others. Given Mikey's vast music connections, there are some huge gets along the way as well!
His cover of The Offspring's 'The Kids Aren't Alright" features that band's guitarist Noodles, members of The Salads factor on multiple videos (particularly "Get Loose"), and arguably the most notable of all sees Mikey and friends covering The Penguins' "Earth Angel" in a throwback to Mikey's favourite movie, Back To The Future (if you know him well, you know how much he loves that franchise.) This cover just so happens to feature lead vocals from Harry Waters Jr., who played Marvin Berry, the frontman of The Starlighters during the Enchantment Under The Sea Dance in 1955 Hill Valley, where they played "Earth Angel" with Marty McFly. I'm sure most of you know the scene, but just in case some readers needed context! Mikey outlines how this cover came together in this SooToday article from Chris Belsito earlier today, and it's a great read if you're curious about the quarantunes series, it's growth during the pandemic, and it's future!
Mikey does plan to continue posting quarantune videos with his uke as long as the pandemic continues, and I hope to cover them more regularly now that they have a public outlet on his YouTube channel (including 5 proto-installments recorded in Hawaii two years ago.) Mikey's a good punk singer, and while his chosen cover songs vary in suitability to the ukelele, most work in fun and/or poignant ways, and it's great to see collaborations that wouldn't be readily possible if it weren't for the internet! To feature in this post, I wanted to pick the most relevant cover for the local punk scene given Mikey's deep local roots, and I settled on last week's quarantune cover of The Misfits' "Some Kinda Hate", which features Mikey on ukelele alongside Anti-Queens frontwoman Valerie Knox on lead vocals, Mikey's ex-Lion Ride bandmate Mark Rand on bass, his wife/Cross Dog bandmate Tracy on backing vocals, and Mikey & Mark's old Taliband bandmate Aaron Mooney on percussion (not really drums.)
In this format, the cover has a very indie/pop rock vibe, and it's a fun (if short) listen! I like how the musicians pop into frame in separate windows, though I'd have oriented them more like Black Flag's logo. I don't know if this will make up for this month's cancelled Anti-Queens concert in the Soo, but it's nice to see Valerie grace a virtual stage with Saultites, at least! Give this cover a watch below, see much more at the above links, and kudos to Mikey for giving everyone something to look forward to every day during this nonsense! I hope to feature more of these videos on the SMS soon, but look for a new news post tomorrow! Thanks everyone!
Ending a surprisingly busy month at the SMS with a post every day in April 2020, we have some new videos to look at today, with a heavy emphasis on Tidal Records-affiliated artists, so here's what you should know!
We'll start with a huge collaborative cover of The Beatles' "Hey Jude" featuring numerous local musicians to help support the fight against COVID-19! Sort of an epilogue to SooToday's Come Together YouTube concert last week, this at-home cover features many of the same musicians that took part in that event. 3/5ths of Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide take part from afar here, with only Liam and Marshall absent, and other familar faces on the roster include Jay Case (who leads off vocally), Frank Deresti, Tracey Hilderley, and Huckster alum Sean Halliday, among many others. The recording quality is uneven, but seeing all of these talented musicians working together like this is great to see, and donations to the Algoma COVID-19 Response Fund & the Sault Area Hospital Emergency Fund are more than welcomed. Check out the full cover below!
Next up, if you're a friend of veteran local punk musician Mikey Hawdon on Facebook, you may recall seeing his (more or less) daily series of "Quarantunes", where the Fairmounts frontman & Inner City Surfers drummer covers songs on vocals & ukelele in videos on his personal Facebook page. As best as I can tell, these have not been shared publically on his band pages, hence why I haven't featured them until now, but last night, local promoters Live705 shared Mikey's 46th "quarantune" video on their Facebook page, so I feel comfortable sharing that one. This is an 82 second cover of "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" from Monty Python's Life of Brian, which is a great message at this confusing time, and Mikey projects a nice optimistic feeling with this cover too! Give it a look below, and if you're his friend on Facebook, go see his other 45 "quarantunes", including a number of collaborations with friends!
We'll next go from a former Rising Tide member to a current one, and while he didn't take part in the "Hey Jude" cover above, guitarist Liam Seymour does have a new at-home concert set to check out! This was live-streamed on his personal Facebook page on Sunday, and almost simultaneously shared on Tidal Records' own Facebook page, so it's good to go in the public sense. Liam did warn viewers about issues with the stream, so expect frequent audio drop-outs. After an initial instrumental jam, Liam's set (which is shorter than his April 5th live-stream) includes renditions of The Barn Board Trio's "This Big City", Jerry Reed's "Amos Moses", Junior Brown's "Highway Patrol", Marty Stuart's "Branded", David Wilcox's "Downtown Came Uptown", Johnny Bush's "Whiskey River", The Weeknd's "Earned It", another instrumental, and Steve Earle's "Copperhead Road". The surprise Weeknd cover aside, blues & country renditions seemed to be the theme of the evening.
The constant audio drop-outs are very unfortunate, as the streaming quality is otherwise fine and comprable to his April 5th show, but this eclectic selection of songs you don't hear covered every day should be of interest to many readers and fans! Give it a watch below, and stay tuned for more updates from him and The Tide as they roll in!
We'll close today outside of the Tidal umbrella with the latest video from local/Elliot Lake alternative/punk solo project Ashoka At The Show (courtesy of the 184Films YouTube channel earlier today), and it's an acoustic cover of Pennywise's "Alien". The camera's obviously mirrored (the Blackhawks logo on his shirt gives it away), but the cover's solid, and he does this Pennywise classic justice in this form, so give it a watch below!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for a new news post to kick off the month of May tomorrow! Thanks everyone!
