Let's do some catch-up in today's post via long overdue updates from a talented local solo musician, and leading off, house cleaning notes on our active band links, so here's what you should know!
We have two bands to remove from our active local metal/punk band links today, the first being local death metal band Exploring Detritus, who have been returned to our inactive band links due to over a year's inactivity. Four
years after the former Kaepora Gaebora fell inactive, guitarist Dan
Souliere and original drummer Anthony Boudreau surprisingly brought the
group back in April of last year, but Exploring Detritus never progressed past jam
session videos despite some very promising lineups, last posting
on their Facebook page
in July 2022. Extreme metal hasn't been super prominent among local bands post-pandemic, but hopefully we hear more from Dan, Ryan, Justin, and
Anthony soon, and don't miss brief frontman Mitch Sirie in his array of
current projects, including his and Justin's recent Bear Hunters revival! As their only live gigs were under the Kaepora Gaebora name, they are listed on the SMS under that name anew.
Next up, local pop punk project Forever Will Be
have sadly been deleted outright from our band links, as they no longer have a
formal social media page centric to the band. As it was, their now-deleted
Facebook page was scarcely updated, with project leader Ryan McLaughlin
primarily posting Forever Will Be updates on his/their label Relentless Audio's Facebook page.
That said, Forever Will Be proper are likely still active, with Relentless Audio
last posting about the project in December, so even without a proper band page, hopefully we hear more from Forever Will Be soon! Note that Relentless Audio did post two Facebook videos in February to demonstrate what Ryan can do with his computer programs to make songs sound better, including this clip of him improving the quality of "Acolyte" by the inactive Cambridge, Ontario metalcore band The Intake Of Glass, but the other video didn't produce a song match on Shazam.
We'll close today with some the latest media and updates from prolific local extreme metal/folk punk musician Chase Wigmore! We haven't posted much about him since the winter, the Darsombra show aside, but back in February, he posted the second part of his trilogy of "The Pit" songs under the project name Manitou, as uploaded to his "Jason Walker" YouTube channel. Part 3 was belatedly uploaded in April, and while not extreme metal, these marry his guitar prowess and alternate influences fairly well, with part 2 dipping into Black Lodge Masters-esque techno stylings, and part 3 even had clean singing layered into the track. Effectively done and accentuated with trippy visuals, so don't bypass them (or part 1!). On April 5th, Chase noted that he'd been practicing and playing a few open mic nights, but had largely been "chilling out on music" in recent months.
His long-gestating and allegedly "last" solo album "The Chaotic Rite" is 75% complete, and Chase noted that it will only run 25-30 minutes (a big drop from the prior rock opera teasers for the former "Story About A Kid Named Todd"), but his aim here is to focus on quality over quantity. His planned book on the guitar "Ars Cithara" is "mostly done" but was then on a break, still needed to be edited & restructured, and could be split up into a trilogy. Basically, Chase wanted to take time to "step back and become a human being again" rather than "focusing 95% of my time in music", but he hopes to release both by year's end. Fingers crossed! Four new non-Manitou videos have been posted online in mid-2023, including this trippy animated piece on his Facebook page set to ominous techno music (is this AI art?), plus a new original song named "From Beyond The Clouds" featuring dark but cleanly sung vocals.
While not extreme metal, it's certainly an intense and well layered song with some eerie background effects that are accentuated by the images of forests and bad weather, so give it a listen above! The others have Chase performing unplugged on camera, including his older original drinking song named "Running Out Of Beer" and, as embedded below, him playing his song "The Guilt & Shame Of Being" from his most recent album, last fall's "We Are All Going To Die". This one is heavily filtered in monochrome and layered with dark imagery, but both songs play into Chase's live free-wheeling intensity and passion, and it's good to see him rocking out, so check everything out for yourselves above & below!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this week! Thanks everyone!
Today's post was going to be our latest Defunct Local Band Profile, but a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (partially missed, at that) hit my desk this morning, so we're pushing the feature post ahead slightly. To fill things out, there's also some new videos and a surprise new local punk band to take a look at, so here's what you should know!
We have a new local screamo/pop punk project to add to our Sault Ontario band links, namely Forever Will Be! This act is led by former As It Stands/For July guitarist Ryan McLaughlin, though I don't know if this is the same project as his 2019 offering Great West Falls or not, or if anyone else performs on their material. Their Facebook page is mostly a shell so far, but Forever Will Be is considered "the home project" of Ryan's independent studio/label Relentless Audio, who have been covered on the SMS previously for working on his old band As It Stands' posthumous EP "The Lost Tapes" and Christopher Raginskis' online page-less punk solo project 9 Times Dark's debut album "Vicissitude", both from 2020. According to posts on Relentless Audio's Facebook page,
Forever Will Be's debut album from November 17th (entitled "Dead & Dishonest") has
been "a year in the making" and he hopes to take listeners back to 2004 with the songs.
You can hear the album for free on major streaming platforms linked via this Hearnow page, but it is
on sale on iTunes for $7.92, so consider buying it if you want the mp3s
and/or to support Ryan's work. I'll hold comment on the songs
until I review the album proper (likely next month), but definitely check out the album's preview videos on the Relentless Facebook page, and here's their first music video for "Nosedive" from their YouTube channel, set to clips of people in varying states of despair. If you like Ryan's past local band work, do check out Forever Will Be above & below!
Next up, here's that LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, as classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck will return to Reggie's Place for a concert TONIGHT, after previously playing there last night! I profusely apologize for the short notice and for missing yesterday's show in our concert preview post on Thursday, I just heard about both this morning via Reggie's Facebook page (who only announced them Wednesday night), and Soundcheck themselves have not mentioned them on their own Facebook page. Yesterday's and TONIGHT'S shows mark(ed) Soundcheck's first at Reggie's since mid-October, and hopefully their fan-friendly blend of classic, hard rock, and country covers found a strong audience last night, and will do so again TONIGHT! It is worth noting that Reggie's is now up for sale for $480,000, as per this SooToday article by Kenneth Armstrong on Monday, noting that Reggie Daigle himself actually still owns the property.
The sale "doesn't include the business", as from what I understand, Randy Lapossie is just managing bar operations, but whether the new owners would keep things as they have been since late 2020 is yet unknown. It sure seems like business as usual for now at Reggie's, but after Reggie sold Reggie's West, this can't be too surprising. We'll keep you posted! TONIGHT'S (and yesterday's) show has a 9:00 PM start time, no cover charge, and a 19+ age limit. See above for more details, apologies again for missing last night's concert, and here's Soundcheck live!
Also today, here's a couple of new videos from prolific local extreme metal/folk punk guitarist Chase Wigmore's Facebook page! One is just a Facebook copy of his original song "The Guilt And Shame In Being" from his newest solo album "We Are All Going To Die", and while I'll hold comment on it pending our review of the album later this month, Chase did clarify that this is "one of the quieter ones" on the album. The new video proper from Sunday is cryptically titled "$20", and features him playing the guitar solo from Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb". The grainy black & white filter combined with a poorly placed light over Chase's face don't add to the video, but he nails the solo, helping forget about the visual deficiencies. Check it out for yourself below, and stay tuned for more from Chase!
Finally for today, here's some new videos from local southern hard rock quintet Fort Creek's Facebook page, albeit not primarily focused on their "Christmas Blowout" at Soo Blastertonight. As they have done for a guitar last year, Fort Creek recently held a raffle on Facebook for a custom jazz bass donated by Tommy Lair, with proceeds going to the Algoma Regional Community Hospice (or ARCH). That, along with a giveaway for a band t-shirt and tickets to tonight's show also took place in the past couple of weeks, with bassist Robin "Bones" Lee and drummer Anthony Fabiano appearing in this one hyping all of their draws, and more band members turned up in this video to announce the winner of the shirt/tickets raffle. Be advised that some of these recent videos have awful audio that almost sounds like an old 78 RPM record, not sure what happened there.
The draw for the bass is ongoing until December 21st (or until all 100 allocated tickets are bought, whichever comes first), so visit their Facebook page for details on how to enter! As for the videos, I'll embed the one from November 29th here, which features a clip of Bones playing the bass to demonstrate its abilities and sound for prospective ticket buyers, as preceded by a clip of their studio original "Hammer Down" and an oddly echoed audio recording of him discussing the raffle. On the gear and performer's end, everything sounds good, so definitely check it out below, get details above, and don't miss Fort Creek tonight at Soo Blaster!
That's all for now, but stay tuned for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile on the site next! Thanks everyone!
As the second Ontario lockdown pushes forward, here's a new news post for your Sunday morning reading, and it's half devoted to lots of assorted shorter stories from recent weeks, but leading off, here's all you should know about a recent news piece/interview with a very familiar face!
Veteran local punk musician Mikey Hawdon was interviewed by fellow musician/SooToday contributor Chris Belsito on Thursday, so what should you know in this extended article? Early on, Mikey discusses "Eik Namo", the new album from his main Toronto-based punk band The Fairmounts, as well as discussing his popular Mikey & His Uke series, which famously evolved from solo ukelele "quarantunes" during the first pandemic lockdown into a collaborative series with far-flung musicians. Now, it's a once-a-month project where the ukelele pretense is dropped early on in favour of a full band cover, often with very recognizable non-local names joining in. Afterwards, Mikey talks about his love for Sault Ste. Marie, and apparently, he and his family plan to move back here, but that detail weren't elaborated on otherwise
This intertwines with more Fairmounts talk, including selling physical copies of "Eik Namo" while on Christmas vacation back home during the pandemic, and he also plugged one of his newer Toronto bands, the Huey Lewis & The News tribute group The Power Of Huey, who he played with at a drive-in concert there. The big reveal late in the article is that Mikey has launched his own independent label called Soolebrity Records, whose name alone will be a big hint towards local content, and their first release will apparently be a vinyl re-issue of an album by famed mid-1990s punk band Room 206! While they are admittedly before my time, their pedigree is well known among genre fans from that era, and Mikey would later perform with Room 206 alumni in The Inner City Surfers. I do know that they put out an album called "2 Innies & An Outie", but is that the tape that Soolebrity Records is re-releasing?
Assuming plans stay in place, I hope that the Room 206 vinyl sale does well (I hope to get one myself!), and even if Mikey's move back home isn't imminent, he's a talented guy who has managed to stay busy artistically with lots of irons in the fire here and there. I am surprised that the Surfers' reunion single "Excess Express" and their two new songs ahead weren't brought up, but there was so much ground to cover. Kudos to Chris for conducting this interview, and click here or see above for more details!
Finally for today, here's six assorted shorter news items from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist name:
I
have removed local classic/hard rock cover quintet Fluid 5ive from our
active band links due to the deletion of their Facebook (and only
online) page at some point last month, which would seemingly indicate
their dissolution. If accurate, a reason has not been announced, but
Fluid 5ive had not been publically heard from since their last concert
at The Water Tower Pub in February of last year, and who knows what
affect the ongoing pandemic had on the band as a whole. Fluid 5ive were a
talented group, and hopefully we hear from Colin, Liam, Rob, Jeff, Pierre,
and Joe again down the road!
Local musician Kiefer Barone is apparently looking to join a metal band as a rhythm guitarist, as per his posting on the Musicians Wanted Facebook group last month. Kiefer had posted searches on this group in the past, most recently a drummer search for a metalcore band in 2015 I'm not familiar with Kiefer musically, but message him at this link or above for more details!
The former members of local classic metal quartet Late & Loud have reunited... kind of! Jonathan, Brendan, Benn, and Josh have been collaborating on a podcast called Late & Legends since October, where they play a fantasy RPG game together, and you can even support the podcast via Patreon. Very surprising project, but creative at the same time, so give it a listen above or on Spotify to hear their adventures in Renlan!
As a promotional offer during the lockdown, Ryan McLaughlin at Relentless Audio is offering a deal for musicians looking to have studio material mixed & mastered without having to leave the house. If you heard the "new" As It Stands EP, you'll know the quality work Ryan does, so message him above or via his Musicians Wanted Facebook group post from last week for more information!
Sault Michigan hard rock quartet Tarnished have announced a new concert for 2021 (presumably conditional on the pandemic easing up), as they are scheduled to to take a road trip to Curtis on June 30th to play at the Erickson Centre For The Arts! Now, Curtis is 90 minutes west of the Soo, which is outside of our coverage range, but it is nice to see Tarnished have something planned, and hopefully it will stick! Visit the Facebook event page for more details!
Young Sault Ontario classic/hard rock band The Uncanny Valley have apparently parted ways with bassist Adam Fahrer, as per his removal from their lineup on their Facebook page's About section. A reason for his departure was not announced, but the band has not updated their Facebook page since posting their "Middle Man" single in October. This is a surprise to hear, especially as Adam
was presumably on the recordings for their upcoming debut album, but
hopefully we hear from him in music again in the future!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for our first 2020 wrap-up poll on the site next! Thanks everyone!
(Updated at 8:53 PM) I have a new news post for you guys to check out on this Saturday morning, including some big updates from a fast rising local recording studio, a slideshow from a familiar band, and leading off, a new music video from a long awaited local album. Here's what you should know! (This post originally plugged an advertised Sunday matinee from Tym Morrison tomorrow at Reggie's Place, but that concert was postponed earlier today. Stay tuned for news on the rescheduling!)
Here's the newest single and music video from local Celtic punk quintet Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide's still-forthcoming new album! Abruptly teased on their Facebook page on Monday in their first post there in almost 9 months, the video premiered on label Tidal Records' YouTube channel the next day, and it's for their new song "No Control". Uniquely, the video is entirely seen on an old school CRT TV, complete with visual quality mimicking how it may have looked on that equipment. The video proper is a slightly slow motion clip of the entire band walking outside in the woods, and it fits the song well enough, though the audio doesn't seem to be synched 100% with the video (Dustin's singing is an easy way to tell.) I'll hold comments on the song proper for now, pending our presumed review of their new CD, but give the video a watch below!
Next up, here's some topics related to a new-ish local recording studio that recently launched, namely Relentless Audio! You may have seen discussion about this studio on social media in recent months, but this studio has actually existed since April 2018, so what should you know about them? Relentless Audio is headed by veteran local punk musician Ryan McLaughlin, who you may recognize from the emo-era As It Stands and Fist Fighting Stephen Hawking, among other projects. Ryan has recorded a number of audio demos through there, though visibly more to showcase his production, and much of his pre-2020 work was with acts not from the Soo, but he definitely has talent in mixing and producing regardless of artist locale! Ryan was writing under the band name Great West Falls last year, complete with guest vocals from the Nevada-based David Valles, but only their single "Better Than This" is still up (the other went down with their old Soundcloud page.)
If Great West Falls are still active and launch a social media/band page, they would easily fit our coverage, solid upbeat hard rock sound there! After months of sporadic updates, Relentless Audio resurfaced in July to announce that they were working on material with local musician Christopher Raginskis, later revealed to be under the project name 9 Times Dark, and their debut EP, entitled "Vicissitude", came out on August 26th! This completely flew under the radar (9 Times Dark's only online presence is via postings of the album), but click here for relevant links to every major online service hosting the EP. Musically speaking, 9 Times Dark are a punk act with a bit of a dark edge, and if they had a proper band page, I'd absolutely add them to our band links too! As such, this album is absolutely in the cards for an early 2021 review on the SMS, and it's great to see Chris finally get a band going after all these years! Give the opening song a listen below!
There is one more big local album project that Ryan is working on with some old friends of his, but we'll keep that for an upcoming post. In any event, Relentless Audio are now linked on the SMS, and hopefully Ryan keeps up the great work! We'll close today with a new slideshow video all about local punk trio Redundant! Drummer Rick White posted this to his YouTube channel on Wednesday, and it features photos of him, Justin, and Andrew on stage and having fun on & off stage, including some familiar local and out-of-town faces along the way, as set to "All By Myself" from their 2018 debut EP. Despite playing on the studio recording, former bassist James White is only sparingly featured here. Fun trip down memory lane even still, so give it a watch below, and stay tuned for more news and notes on the site next week! Thanks everyone!
