Defunct Local Band Profile: SBD

It's now time for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile, as we again look at a past local metal, hard rock, or punk band in order to feature them and their run/material for modern readers! As usual, this month's band was randomly selected, and it gives us a short lived but familiar act from the turn of the 2010s, so here's what you should know on them!

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SBD

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Genre: Grunge/Psychedelic/Experimental Rock

Lineup:

Dann Pichette (No Arrow), vocals/guitar
Brad Griffith (Bizotic), bass
Shane Triplett (The Chintzy Slicks), drums

Audio/Video: SBD released one album named "Sonic Experiments", which was sold for $10 in a limited print run at their debut concert at Foggy Notions (now Coch's Corner) in May 2010. It was later slightly revised with a "Mulligan Edition" re-release that August at a return headlining date there, with the jewel cases even wrapped in tinfoil for sale that night. A mixture of songs from the album, alternate versions, and unreleased material can still be heard on SBD's Soundclick page, and a wide array of videos can be seen on their YouTube channel, including their "Rock Paper Scissors" jam session video series, numerous live videos from Foggy's, and some Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd covers. Select SBD videos, mostly re-uploads, can be found on Dann's YouTube channel as well. Here is SBD playing one of their heavier originals "It Just Won't Work" at their live debut!

Info/Analysis: Publically launched in December 2009, late in Dann & Brad's grunge/alternative trio No Arrow's run, SBD (named for its members first initials) were a distinct but still familiar act that built on No Arrow's sound with psychedelic and experimental styles, which came through in some of their videos' post-production effects. While best remembered today from their series of gigs at Foggy Notions in mid-late 2010, they also competed at May 2010's Downtown Showdown battle of the bands at The Oddfellows Hall, and opened at RedD Monkey's Green Christmas Party that year. However, SBD would drop out of all announced gigs in 2011 and focused solely on releasing new songs and videos that year before going on an indefinite hiatus, though Dann did post posthumous material on YouTube until 2013. I liked what SBD brought to the table, though they were definitely more experimental and trippy than No Arrow with less heavier tracks, and I did notice that many originals trailed off late and ran too long.

As an evolution of No Arrow, SBD had a solid base of originals and unexpected cover choices that I think had more legs locally had they stuck around as a live act into 2011, though with Dann & Brad (a.k.a. Wayek & Gortium85) expanding their musical presence via the independent/DIY musician communities on YouTube and social media in the 2020s, complete with No Arrow's "Souls For Sale" finally getting released earlier this year, could "Sonic Experiments" and other SBD material see a similar second life? Follow what they've been posting online and submitting regardless!

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I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profile! Next month in this series, our next randomly selected profile will be on late 1990s local punk veterans Room 206, who had some high profile resurrections over the years, so look for that on or around September 10th, and for more news and notes on the site this week! Thanks everyone!

A New Treble Charger Video Discovery & Much More News & Notes From The Last While!!

Let's get a new news post on the site on this Sunday morning, including some assorted shorter items, local musician appearances on two indie artist spotlight YouTube series, and leading off, a flashback 15 years back of a big local band in a somewhat unexepected setting. Here's what you should know!

Here's a neat find, a VHS recording of inactive local/Toronto indie/punk band Treble Charger playing a live acoustic concert in a record store back on June 14th, 1997! Recorded at the time by Brennan Manoakeesick and uploaded to YouTube user LaFarm's channel last week, this (as best as I can tell) was recorded at the old Musiplex store in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and presumably comes from Treble Charger's tour cycle in support of their then-new third album "Maybe It's Me". Bill noted that they were playing before a set by "The Amazing Transistor", which I believe referenced the Winnipeg indie rock band Transistor Sound & Lighting Co., who were labelmates of theirs. The 26 minute video features Treble Charger (minus Rosie) playing "10th Grade Love", "Friend of Mine", "Ever She Flows", "Fade", and "Morale", and it's definitely interesting hearing Treble Charger unplugged at this stage of their career!

Despite persistent "snow" on the video proper and some noisy static at times, the video and audio quality of this is really solid, and you do get some nice views of Musiplex, which looks like it was a huge record store with a great selection of albums! Fans were receptive to this short set, especially the kid taking pictures, and it's neat seeing a band as big as Treble Charger telling the sound guy what to fix with the levels, almost like they were back on the local circuit. If you love Treble Charger's Bill-led indie rock material, don't bypass this classic unplugged set below!

Next up, here's some more episodes of the YouTube series You Rock! with Thomas Christ, which is slowly getting more and more of a local flavour as Saultite musicians discover the series! In episode #18 from January 5th, Thomas heard and reviewed at least three songs by local artists live during the three & a half hours long episode, including Inner City Surfers bassist Brad Example's solo song "Someday" (46:28), marking his return to the series after appearing in earlier installments. While not a hard rock song (more of a bluesy folk number), Thomas praises his passion and songwriting! The ever-prolific Mike Haggith continues his regular run of You Rock! appearances later with "2145" (1:07:36) from his 2020 album "If Ever Comes The Day", and Thomas also gave it a strong recommendation for its beautiful vocals and melody, and how it would translate well to just a piano.

The local contingent of that episode ends with defunct local grunge/psychedelic rock trio SBD (both Brad & Dann have submitted material for You Rock! before, so it's only natural) via a demo of their original song "Ess" (1:39:00), preceded by info about how SBD formed. Thomas complimented how fun the song sounded like it must have been to record and called it "very fun". Nice to see more local talent getting widespread exposure like this from a dedicated community of independent musicians, so give episode #17 of You Rock! a watch below!

As for the other YouTube series where a host checks out independently recorded original songs live with a dedicated community including Saultites (Your Music Live by Studio Live Today's Pete Johns), there's definitely been less of a local element in their last five episodes, though a Brad Example song does end episode #83. The aforementioned Mike Haggith did finally return to the series in episode #86  from Friday, with Pete checking out the title track from "If Ever Comes The Day" at the 44 minute mark. Pete praised the song's arrangement and melody, calling both it and Mike himself "very cool", so give all of that and loads more indie musician reviews a watch below!

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

 

• In a mild & locally unique variant of a name change, local indie/punk quintet Northwest have tacked "The" to the start of their name on their Facebook and Bandcamp pages, complete with a new band logo calling them The Northwest. A reason for the alteration wasn't publically announced, but it could be related to the commonality of Northwest as a band name (three other bands on Bandcamp are named that) or just signifying a fresh start after largely being dormant during the pandemic. We'll let you guys know when The Northwest announce their next plans!
• Relaunched local/Barrie punk/metal band Spades GT (née Jack Spades) will play in their new hometown on April 14th when they're among the openers for both The Dayglo Abortions and Random Killing at The Queens Nightclub! 2019 Oh!No festival performers The Speed Humps are also on the bill, FYI. This could be the first chance Greater Toronto has to see the new look Spades in action, so keep it in mind if you're in the area, and click here for more details!
• Sault Michigan hard rock quartet Tarnished will play their first publically advertised show of 2022 when they hit the road for frontman Alex Traynor's old Mount Pleasant home base on February 26th! The show will see them open for Mount Pleasant rock bands Venom of Virtue and Bang Up Tape Job at Rubble's Bar, and hopefully this Lower Peninsula gig goes well to help kick off a hopefully busy year! Visit the Facebook event page for more info!
  

 

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

YouTube Channel Profile Series: wayek

To keep our usual "one post every 3 days rule" alive, here's this month's YouTube Channel Profile, as we're kicking off 2021 in this series with another spotlight on a YouTube channel whose content is at least half devoted to local metal, hard rock, and/or punk artists and/or concerts! As usual, bands in this series are randomly selected. This month's selection is a channel featuring lots of solid content from a once prominent frontman in the local hard rock/alternative scene, so here's what you should know!

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wayek's Channel (http://youtube.com/user/wayek)

Owner: Former No Arrow/SBD singer/guitarist Dann Pichette

Channel Timeline: Launched on September 22nd, 2007; Videos uploaded from November of that year until January 2018

Channel Summary: A personal use channel, Dann made solid use of it as a de facto official channel for both of his primary local bands, including live and jam footage from both during their heydays. Other uploads from his local band period include two 2009 performances by a short-lived side project duo named The Beards and 6 episodes of "The Chett -n- Eshk Show" that he co-hosted in 2007 & 2008. Dann's last four uploads here were of brief video game footage he recorded, and have no local music ties.
 
Why You Should Watch: This is the best and most substantive source to see videos of Dann's work in No Arrow and SBD, and fans will get a nice dose of his grunge and alternative rock stylings here! The Beards had some promise too, and you may get some laughs out of The Chett -n- Eshk Show, though be advised of some adult language. The video game clips are short and not too substantial on their own. Note that some of Dann's No Arrow videos, along with some new-to-YouTube clips and footage originally from other channels, would be posted again on drummer Joe Falco's own YouTube channel in 2020.

 Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

 

No Arrow - Honey Bucket (Melvins cover): This was Dann's first upload on the wayek channel in November 2007, and it is by far his most popular video, garnering over 5,400 views, possibly as covers of The Melvins weren't too common on YouTube at this early stage. A jam session cover by his 2005-2011 grunge/hard rock trio No Arrow's best known lineup (Dann, bassist Harley Syrette, and drummer Joe Falco), this 40 second clip has a mostly solid reception from commenters, but it's length and very rough audio quality mean it doesn't hold up as well as other No Arrow videos on the channel. Dann's video of No Arrow playing their original "One On The Line" is a longer and slightly better quality take of them reheasing.

No Arrow - Sikkha: The live concert footage of No Arrow on offer here has not aged particularly well in the audio department, with rough & staticy sound quality being par for the course (remember, these were filmed and uploaded in 2007.) Visually speaking, the best videos are of a set No Arrow played at a Sault Area Wrestling event at The Elks Lodge on June 16th, 2007, benefiting greatly from daytime indoor lighting. Dann posted two songs from this gig ("Souls For Sale" and the slightly longer "Sikkha"), which both capture energetic and aggressive performances from No Arrow's peak! For a better quality listen to "Sikkha", check out the alternate mix he posted in 2013.

SBD - Rock Paper Scissors 1: Dann posted 13 videos of his 2009-2011 experimental rock trio SBD onto his channel from January-March 2010, all as credited to an extended original suite called "Rock Paper Scissors", but nine of the videos run for less than a minute, and only one exceeds 77 seconds. Featuring Dann alongside ex-No Arrow bassist (and future Bizotic frontman) Brad Griffith & former Chintzy Slicks drummer Shane Triplett, these videos showcase their grunge-reminiscent but more varied sound well enough, and the sounds on display do shift noticeably from video to video despite the short lengths of many of them, but audio clarity was still an issue.

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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! Next month in this series, our random selection will take us to the Sault Michigan area for a look at YouTube user halfamanvideo's channel, featuring lots of content from 2009-2013 Brimley metal band Half A Man! Look for that on or around February 26th, and for more news on the site by Thursday! Thanks everyone!

YouTube Channel Profile Series: SBD TV

It's now time for this month's YouTube Channel Profile, as we continue our monthly feature series on the YouTube channels most likely to pique the interest of local metal & hard rock fans! As usual, this series focuses on 1-3 randomly selected YouTube channels, in order to profile and promote their content and videos and encourage you to check them out and subscribe to them! This month's featured channel is our first of just one from Sault Ontario in 5 months, but grunge fans from the early 2010s will want to pay attention, so here's our newest profile!
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SBD TV (http://www.youtube.com/sbdxtv)

Owner: Former SBD & No Arrow frontman Dann Pichette

Channel Timeline: Launched on March 9th, 2010; Videos posted from that day through August 3rd of that year

Channel Summary: The official YouTube channel for defunct local experimental hard rock/grunge trio SBD, the No Arrow successors only actively updated it during their peak activity in mid-2010, posting no less than 57 videos there in just under 5 months (though it should be noted that 34 of them are under a minute in length.) The channel's first 25 videos are from jam sessions in the spring of 2010 (including their heavily fragmented 16 part "Rock Paper Scissors" series), and they were followed by 30 videos from their May 7th show at Foggy Notions (now Coch's Corner), featuring a mixture of full songs, trippy post-effects, and brief clips. The band's last two uploads that August were studio covers of Syd Barrett material.

Why Should You Watch: Fans should check out SBD's channel for the best surviving source of their live material, even if the high amount of short clips is a bit much to manage for the casual fan. SBD had a nice blend of alternative hard rock and 1960s psychedelia that might have been a couple years early for the maximum local impact, so don't sleep on the video postings here! Note however that original studio tracks from their album "Sonic Experiments" are not featured on this channel, but assorted studio recordings from it and other projects can be streamed at their Soundclick page. Also as a subscriber warning, note that this channel has not been actively used since SBD fell inactive in 2011.

Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

SBD - Lemme Get A Full Beer Over Here: One of the few substantial original clips from SBD's spring 2010 jam session uploads, this video from May 4th features frontman Dann Pichette, bassist Brad Griffith (Sounds From The Green Room), and drummer Shane Triplett (The Chintzy Slicks) playing their lengthy original song "Lemme Get A Full Beer Over Here", which solidly captures their marriage of grunge and experimental rock! The guys have a fun instrumental jam here, with effective tight camera angles and a nice free-flowing essence, though the pace and energy does largely slow down in the latter half. Keep an eye out for Dann playing the guitar with a drumstick as well early in the video!



SBD - POW! Right In The Kisser (live): Some of the most unique recent local hard rock concert videos came from the Foggy's show that May that SBD filmed, which they largely filtered in post-production with mirroring and kaleidoscope effects (such as on their song "Fractal Liquid/Into The Unknown"), along with various short clips of random goings on at the event, including intermission footage, and even a busking acoustic performer outside of the venue! Though well known for lengthy instrumentals, vocals were also featured on covers of the likes of Pink Floyd and Link Wray, and on a few originals like their mosh pit kickstarter "It Just Won't Work" and the featured "POW! Right In The Kisser", which (despite low vocal audibility) has SBD's trademark classic sound with an alternative bent!



SBD - Jugband Blues (Pink Floyd/Syd Barrett Cover):  As Dann Pichette is a long time fan and admirer of early Pink Floyd and founding member Syd Barrett, SBD frequently covered Pink Floyd songs like "Scream Thy Last Scream" & "Matilda Mother" in live concerts. The last uploads on SBD's channel that August were studio covers of Syd Barrett compositions, including of his solo song "Terrapin" and the channel's most popular posting, Pink Floyd's "Jugband Blues". An effective cover featuring a photo of Syd overlaid with film grain and changing colours, the song makes nice use of echoing vocal effects and a clear respect for the original material, though Dann did admit that the vocals were loud in the mix. Fans of 1960s-era Pink Floyd should be interested to check out SBD's take on their material though!


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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! Next month in this series, and through completely random selection, we'll look at a single Sault Michigan channel for a second time in three months, as next month's profile will be on 415E/ex-Nixxon Dixxon guitarist Chris Hubbard's YouTube channel, which has a nice sampling of his Van Halen covers and gear, so look out for that on or around May 22nd, and for a new news post on the site shortly! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Sugar Island Music Festival), Your First Look At Chronic Demonic, And More!!

Well, I wasn't expecting to have a second post today, but with a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for TONIGHT, I had to get this up, so read on below for that (plus a new song posting, ticket availability for some upcoming shows, and the first video from a newer local band), and check out some new concert announcements (including one for tomorrow) and more Sault Michigan weekend previews in the post below this one!

I completely forgot about this (blame slow updates for the schedule), but there will be one hard rock band at this year's Sugar Island Music Festival, as Kinross, Michigan quintet Banned will be playing at this annual event once again TONIGHT! This probably explains why Banned are only playing in Hessel tomorrow night rather than all weekend. The guys (and girl) will be on at 8:00 PM tonight, with new Dafter classic rock band Thieves In The Night headlining at 10:15 PM, and they're preceded by Flint duo 3-Zip at 9:30 PM, The Fosters Sportsmen's Club Band at 8:45 PM, Banned at 8:00 PM, Junior and the Dinosaurs at 7:15 PM, Hillsdale indie quartet All Arms at 6:30 PM, 3 and a Half Men at 5:45 PM, and local pop duo Missy & Chelsea opening at 5:00 PM. Apologies for not knowing about some bands, this is a recurring theme for the Sugar Island Festival's schedules. The rest of the schedules feature no heavier leaning bands that I can source, but everyone playing today except Banned and Thieves of the Night have another set coming up tomorrow or Sunday, so keep that in mind.

Emceed by Rudy Villareal, admission is $10 for the weekend (no single day options), while kids 12 and under get in FREE. For more details on events, schedules, games, and advance ticket locations, click here! Sure, there have been heavier years for metal/hard rock bands, but The Sugar Island Music Festival is a consistent success in the region, and it gives an American alternative to Buskerfest and Hempfest, so don't miss Banned and the other bands TONIGHT and this weekend! Remember, it's about 45 minutes east of the Soo, and for a preview, here's Banned at the 2011 Sugar Island Festival covering AC/DC!



Next up, remember last week's benefit concert at The Roosevelt Hotel to fund Frightlight bassist Mike Gingras' short film "The Kid Who Made The Face"? Well, aside from the previously announced bands (Frightlight, The Bear Hunters, and Redundant), two newer local metal/punk bands played surprise mini-sets at the show, including Jack Spades and Chronic Demonic! The former (featuring T-Rex Manning, Bear Hunters, and Asylum Country members) was confirmed through personal Facebook posts, and while I don't know much on what they played in their second preview set, Chronic Demonic confirmed their brief performance on their own Facebook page the following day, complete with a video! Featuring members of Frightlight and Faithless Sin in their lineup, the video (which was uploaded to Facebook and is unembeddable here) was filmed by attendee April Fogal, and while the song's name wasn't given, my first thoughts point to what Frightlight would sound like if they had a female singer (Ririe "Sabrina Strange" Lavoie), and it works on that level!

The audio quality isn't great, and make sure your speakers are low, but there is something there, and I'm curious to hear more when they make their full debut! Click here to check out Chronic Demonic's first video, and don't miss the full debut of Jack Spades on September 9th at The Rosie when they open for The Dayglo Abortions! Speaking of concerts promoted by Frightlight/Jack Spades frontman J.D. "Johnny Pints" Pearce, tickets for his upcoming Bunchofuckingoofs and Dayglo Abortions concerts are now on sale at both their host venue (The Roosevelt Hotel) and at The Rad Zone in the Wellington Square Mall, so get yours A.S.A.P., especially as the BFGs show is THIS MONDAY! J.D. also announced that if you buy tickets for the BFGs show and the Airbourne concert on August 19th, bring them with you to the Black Cat Attack-headlined show on the 17th and you will get in FREE! Sounds like a good deal to me, so keep that in mind, and don't miss the BFGs on Monday and the get more details on all of J.D.'s upcoming metal and punk shows at the above links!

Finally for today, here's a new YouTube song upload from defunct experimental/grunge trio SBD! Uploaded to frontman Dann Pichette's YouTube channel this past Saturday, it's of the No Arrow successors' original instrumental "Ess", though I don't know off hand if this is the same recording from their "Sonic Experiments" album. Nice psychedlic tinged take on alternative rock with solid instrumentation, but it does hint towards the largely instrumental nature of their album. I miss Dann's local music work since SBD's hiatus began in 2011, but hopefully this helps fill the void, so check out SBD's "Ess" below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned tomorrow for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile on Infrastrate! Thanks everyone!

Two Inactive Local Bands, New Grunge/Alternative Covers, And Some Deleted Links!!

Let's keep our recent busy stretch going at the SMS with another news post, but what's on the docket this time around? Along with some link deletions from the site, we also have new covers from a pair of inactive & linked grunge/alternative bands, but first, we have some bands to consider as now likely inactive, so here's what you need to know!

I've opted to move two linked Sault Ontario metal bands to our inactive band links, those being local hardcore/death metal acts March Into Regression & With Blood Builds Character. Neither has issued a public update since last summer, and most of their personnel have been busy in other projects lately (Ray Cowan & Christopher Neveau in Unbound, Josh Stephney in The Bear Hunters & Giwakwa, Jeremy Hannah with solo indie material, and Tyler St. Amour in Social Suicide), so both bands seem to be on the backburner, or worse. As you may remember, March Into Regression (formerly Bring The Misery in mid-2011) was relaunched by drummer Travis St. Amour last June with a new larger lineup & a looser jam feel for shows in Laird & at The Rosie, but they were essentially succeeded by With Blood Builds Character in July, who featured the same lineup (minus Josh & Travis), though all of March Into Regression's last members played in some form at W.B.B.C.'s only gig last August in Laird. Note that M.I.R.'s return last year coincided with Travis' return home from college last spring, but I've heard nothing about a similar resurrection of either of these bands in 2013 (at least, not yet.)

Despite the informal nature of their shows, I thought both March Into Regression & With Blood Builds Character had a lot of promise (their originals proved that), and I hoped that one of the bands would last longer than they did locally, but at least most of the guys are keeping active in the local scene. Best of luck to Jeremy, Josh, Ray, Christopher, Dan, Tyler, Travis, and other ex-members in the future, and here's hoping we see more from them all shortly!

Next up, a pair of inactive projects from local musician Dann Pichette have some new audio uploads to check out via his YouTube channel on Friday! One is a cover of The Beatles' "I'm Not Sleeping", which is credited to his old grunge band No Arrow (though Dann played all instruments on the track), and while I'm not a scholar of Beatles material, Dann did seem to put in a good sound and effort on this cover, even if it's not that heavy! The vocals are somewhat punk-inspired & listless, but it gives it vibe similar to that of Dann's later SBD work. Check out his "I'm Not Sleeping" cover below!



Also, Dann also uploaded this cover of Syd Barrett's "Octopus" (credited to his most recent local band project, alternative/grunge trio SBD) onto YouTube as well! Featuring bassist Brad Griffith on drums in place of Shane Triplett, this is in line with many of SBD's live covers (lots of early Pink Floyd/Syd Barrett songs), and it shows more originality and a closer link to their sound than The Beatles one arguably did, so I like it more on that basis alone! Check out SBD's new/old Syd Barrett cover below!



Finally for today, here's some notes on deleted links leading from our recent layout changes. One deleted page was that of Andrea Gosselin Photography (who did lots of local concert photography and the photos for Garden of Bedlam's latest album), as her website is currently unavailable. No word on why this happened, but with no indications of it being temporary (or replacement pages), I've deleted it from our links... at least for now. The other deletions are inactive local metal-relevant message boards, as the forums for both defunct hard rock band Renderware & the former regional music webzine Northern Rocks Magazine have been taken down by their respective hosts. No reason was publicized for Renderware's forum, but the Northern Rocks forum was a casualty of the migration of old Forumer-hosted boards to the newer Yuku platform, similarly to why the old Sault Music Scene forums were taken down. It can be saved & completely migrated if requested by March 21st, but seeing as the magazine hasn't been produced since mid-2009, the odds are extremely slim. (I really wish the magazine was still around though, it had great content and a great purpose!)

With these closures, we're down to 5 active local metal-relevant message boards that I know of (Woods of Ypres & Gates of Winter's forums, Freq's Music Planet, SooNet Musician Central, and the 705 Video Magazine forums), but the 705VM boards are currently down (possibly due to spam issues), and only Freq's Music Planet has been otherwise maintained in the past year. This seems odd to see the dropoff, but maybe social media is diminishing the need for forums? I think there's still a place for message boards (even if my own attempts failed), and hopefully more will pop up soon!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes shortly! Thanks everyone!

Another Inactive Local Band, New Ashes To Dust Videos, And Much More!!

Six posts in six days, that's a good way to start off the month to me! News has still been slow-ish from many of the usual sources from early 2012, but there is still stuff to cover, and today, that includes a rare vocal cover by a local metal frontman, our first glimpse at a local band's new lineup, and some assorted news and notes, but first, here's notes on another likely inactive local band!

First, I've reluctantly opted to move another band to our inactive Sault Ontario band links, that being local experimental grunge trio SBD. While we're not at a year's inactivity threshold for them yet (their Soundclick page was last visibly updated in December), they haven't played live since the end of 2010, and frontman Dann Pichette's move to Terrace Bay earlier this year leaves a reunion unlikely for the immediate future, especially with the "D" in SBD being out of town. SBD left a quick impact on the local scene, especially at their 2010 peak, which saw them play a few notable local concerts (including the Downtown Showdown battle of the bands & RedD Monkey's first Green Christmas Party), as well as releasing two versions of their only album "Sonic Experiments", before activity slowed to just song postings in 2011, with the band dropping out of some announced concerts. However, I will note that Dann is already working on a new solo project out of Terrace Bay named The Dann Pichette Multi-Track Recording Extravaganza, whose own Soundclick page features some similar original material and at least one older SBD track.

I've been a fan of Dann's local music dating back to No Arrow's peak, so I'm disappointed to see SBD fade out locally. While a lot more experimental and varied than his & bassist Brad Griffith's No Arrow work, there was a lot of heavier & faster material mixed in with SBD's originals, and the guys seemed to have good chemistry & momentum during their live heyday! Hopefully everything works out in Terrace Bay for Dann personally & musically, best of luck to Shane, Brad, and Dann in the future, and stay tuned for more on the members' next local work if I hear it!

Next up, here's the latest videos from local hard rock quartet Ashes To Dust! Uploaded to their YouTube channel yesterday, these are from a recent set at Superior Heights Collegiate & Vocational School, and make up the first video footage of the band with with new second guitarist Liam Yeomans & with frontman Noah Morden on bass. The videos are of Ashes To Dust covering Blink-182's "Up All Night" (sans Liam) and The Foo Fighters' "The Pretender" (with Noah on vocals only), so click each link to check them out! Not the heaviest songs in their repertoire, but from what I've seen, their school sets aren't as heavy as ones elsewhere. They handle both songs well, and Noah seems like a capable bassist on stretches when he's playing it only, but the choruses on "The Pretender" don't fit his vocal style. Liam seems to be a good fit himself on guitar, and he helps fill out their sound, but I have to ask, why were all the extra guys on stage during "Up All Night"? Couldn't the sound have been worked on before A.T.D.'s set? Check out their cover of "The Pretender" below, and stay tuned for more Ashes To Dust news as I hear it!

Also today, here's something we don't share much: A vocal cover by a local metal singer! Yesterday, Valentine's Day Massacre singer Steve Rhodes uploaded this video to his new YouTube channel of him covering the Black Dahila Murder song "Deathmask Divine" (as recorded at his current London homebase), and it sounds pretty good! I'm not a huge BDM fan, but Steve's growling and screaming fit well for the song, though I'd have boosted the original audio more if possible, it's very quiet. We haven't heard much from The Valentine's Day Massacre since they all moved to London for college last month, but it's good to see new activity from any of the members, so check it out below, and if you like what you hear, give Steve some recommendations for new songs to cover!



And finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news stories from the last little while, and as always, these are in alphabetical order by band or site name:

• New Sault Michigan metal band The Eleventh Hour (formerly Angelic Genocide) have posted new band logos and art onto their Facebook page, all of which were done by clean singer Cathy Burgos. Not bad at all, so check them out above, and stay tuned for updates from them hopefully soon!
• In case you guys haven't noticed lately, Facebook recently made new mandatory changes to photo albums on Facebook pages, personal or otherwise, to flow better with the Timeline profile format. This affects any local bands with Facebook pages, and while I'm OK with the changes, I wish the default photo page would be albums and not in direct order of upload (and a video tab would be nice too.) Other than that, it's clean and well integrated, so keep it in mind!
• I recently added two new links to our Other Sault Michigan Metal Links section after we split them from the Sault Ontario links, and those are The Soo Evening News & The St. Ignace News! They are of course the regional newspapers in the Sault Michigan area, and both sporadically cover local metal/hard rock concerts and bands, and like Sault Ontario papers, articles do go up in print & online, so follow each to stay in the loop for local news and maybe some music talk!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for even more news and notes over the next while! Thanks everyone!

Battle Of The Bands Rewind Mini-Series: Downtown Showdown

It's time to end the initial run of our Battle of the Bands Rewind Mini-Series, and one week off from the first Sault Ontario battle of the bands in almost two years, we're looking at the most recent one today! As we've done over the past six weeks, we're looking at the circumstances, bands, results, happenings, and aftermath of this local battle, and I apologize for the lack of photos of the placing bands (Bring The Fallen aside.) Though only 4 bands competed, a lot went down, so read on below for what you need to know, and check out previews of this weekend's metal/hard rock concerts and some cancellation notes in the post below this one! (Updated on January 28th, 2015)
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Downtown Showdown (May 28th, 2010)

Background: On May 28th, 2010, the Sault Youth Association (in cooperation with the Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre) held the Downtown Showdown battle of the bands at The Oddfellows Hall as a non-profit promotional event to help give bands and local youths a better understanding of entrepreneurship and self-employment in the local arts & entertainment sectors. Four bands were chosen to compete, and each performed three songs for the attendees, after which judges picked the top 3 bands to receive varying prizes. To compete in Downtown Showdown, each band had to have an average of age of 25 or less for it's members, in keeping with the Sault Youth Association's target demographic.

Prizes: The winning band would receive a cover story in The Sault Youth Association's free quarterly newspaper The Fresh Magazine and a photo shoot to go along with it, as well as recording time at a local studio. The second place act received a $100 Music Depot gift certificate and a professional photo shoot, while the third place band also received a photography session of their own. Each placing band also won various gift cards, including ones from Future Shop, although details on those prizes weren't elaborated on prior to the battle.

Competitors: Four young local bands from widely varying genres signed up to compete at Downtown Showdown, including death metal quintet Bring The Fallen, drum & bass/punk trio The Fury, experimental hard rockers SBD, and indie rock quintet The Tenagens.

Results: Bring The Fallen won their third battle of the bands in a 14 month span by claiming top spot at Downtown Showdown, with The Fury finishing in second place for a second straight battle. The Tenagens ended up in the third position, while SBD finished in fourth overall.

Aftermath: Bring The Fallen continued to sporadically play live concerts, including many of the early Roosevelt Hotel metal nights, until their disbandment in April 2011 following numerous breakup rumours, though they reunited for a one-off gig in July 2013. The Fury weren't far behind, going inactive in their own right by the summer of 2011, though they did briefly reunite in 2014. The Tenagens would be a frequent sight at many concerts through mid-2011, though aside from a brief mid-2012 return, they've largely been inactive. SBD would re-release their debut CD "Sonic Experiments" later that year and would play at scattered live dates through 2010, though activity drastically slowed in 2011, and they're now defunct.

Some Notable Performers' Newer Bands (Metal/hard rock in italics):
The Apocalypse Afterparty (Paul Stanghetta from The Fury)
The Bear Hunters (Josh Stephney* from Bring The Fallen)
Five Oceans (Patrick Dal Cin from The Tenagens; Based out of London)
Giwakwa (Josh Stephney* from Bring The Fallen)
Infinity Grinder (Brad Griffith from SBD)
No Arrow (Dann Pichette from SBD)
Paterson Hall (Josh White, Jesse Harding, and Patrick Bonne from The Tenagens; Based out of Ottawa)
RedD Monkey (Joe Bumbacco from The Fury)
Shit Liver (Mike Kyle from Bring The Fallen' lineup that night)
Sykotyk Rampage (Tony Briglio from The Fury)

Trivia:

• The judges for Downtown Showdown included then-Turner Up guitarist and long-time Rad Zone staple Len Ward, local artist & Economy Studs member Robbie Adamson, and Emma Piirtoniemi from the local Youth Advisory Committee. Len would later return to battle judging at the Rockstar Bar Battle of the Bands in April 2013.
• Keeping with the youth-friendly nature of this battle, organizers offered free admission for all ages, refreshment sales, and prize draws at Downtown Showdown, with unsold pizza being freely distributed to attendees after the winners were announced.
• Bring The Fallen won their third & final battle of the bands out of four tries at Downtown Showdown, dating back to their YMCA Battle win in their March 2009 live debut. Similarly to that battle, Bring The Fallen performed at Downtown Showdown without a band member, as bassist Nolan Rainville was out of town. Filling in for him was former OBCD bassist Mike Kyle, who would later become a prominent sight at local metal concerts for his work in the death metal trio Shit Liver.
• Results repeated themselves in the upper half of this battle, as just like at the Algoma University Battle in December 2010, Bring The Fallen & The Fury finished in first & second place each. In another ironic twist, both groups had different bassists the second time around, with Mike Kyle filling in for Nolan Rainville, and Tony Briglio playing for The Fury as a replacement for the departed Josh McNally.
• Bring The Fallen's interview in The Fresh Magazine would be part of their fall 2010 issue, where the interviewed band member(s) discussed their battle of the bands success, what they were looking for out of record labels, the local metal scene & it's future, their unreleased EP, and local concert venues, among other topics. Despite earlier implications, they weren't on the cover for that issue, but a photo from their shoot was included with the article, which you can read at this link. No word ever came out on if Bring The Fallen used the recording time they won at this battle.
• This would be the last battle of the bands to take place in Sault Ontario until the Sault Humane Society Battle of the Bands on April 20th, 2012, a break of almost two years after seeing at least 9 battle of the bands take place in Sault Ontario between 2007 & 2010. Only one performer from Downtown Showdown (Bring The Fallen frontman Josh Stephney) performed at this battle, as The Bear Hunters' then-rhythm guitarist, but they fell just a point short of a third place tie.
• Bring The Fallen's then-guest bassist Mike Kyle almost got a second crack at a local battle of the bands in June 2012, as he was originally lined up to play the Battle For The Blood with his current band Shit Liver at The Roosevelt Hotel that month. However, they quietly dropped out of the event for unknown reasons around the time of the battle's date change to June 19th.
• Two performers from this battle (Bring The Fallen's Josh Stephney & The Fury's Tony Briglio) returned to compete at The Rockstar Bar Battle of the Bands' last 3 band-semifinal on April 17th, 2013, with Tony playing bass for Sykotyk Rampage, and Josh playing guitar for The Bear Hunters & fronting Giwakwa. The Bear Hunters won and made the finals (where they finished 5th overall), with second place Giwakwa and third place Sykotyk Rampage falling short of making the finals themselves.
• The Fury frontman Paul Stanghetta almost competed at Viva La Battle at The Canadian Nightclub on November 13th, 2013 with then-band Keep It Lit, but they dropped out on short notice due to a member breaking their arm, and quietly dissolved the following year without ever playing live. Though The Bear Hunters won the battle, the aforementioned Josh Stephney did not compete with them due to moving to Brampton a few months prior, but he did join them to take part in their first place prize: an opening slot for Bam Margera's Fuckface Unstoppable the following month.
• SBD bassist Brad Griffith returned to battles of the bands when he competed in March 2015's Speak Easy Battle with his recent alternative hard rock duo Infinity Grinder, but they did not place in that event.
• The Fury bassist Paul Stanghetta at last competed in another battle of the bands when his current band The Apocalypse Afterparty made the finals of the VM Radio Battle of the Bands at The Canadian Nightclub in March 2015, where they finished in fourth place, and covered old Fury originals in their set. The Bear Hunters finished in second in the same battle (and in third place at the Speak Easy battle as well), but Josh Stephney was out of town for both.

Videos:
Bring The Fallen playing their original "Stand Before"
SBD playing their instrumental "Ess"



Sources/More Info:
Downtown Showdown's Facebook event page
The Sault Youth Association's press release on Downtown Showdown
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And so ends our first run of this series! I'll continue to update the entries on these 7 local battles as things are discovered, corrected, or change, so I'll of course update you guys as I do that to ensure they're 100% accurate. Barring the obtainment of sufficient info to warrant an older battle addition (i.e. a Bon Soo battle, the other Case's Music battles, any in Sault Michigan, etc.), our next entry to this series won't be until April 2013, when we look back at next week's Sault Humane Society battle, but until then, go see it at The Grand Theater this coming Friday! I hope you guys enjoyed our looks back at these battles of the bands, and stay tuned for a new news post either tonight or early tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Tym Morrison), A New Local Metal Album, And Lots More!!

It's time for another news post at The Sault Metal Scene, but first, I wanted to note that if you were invited to a Frightlight-headlined fundraiser event at The Canadian Nightclub next month on Facebook, then don't expect it in this post. The Facebook event page for it was deleted yesterday afternoon for unknown reasons, but if this gets re-announced in some fashion, I'll plug it here for sure! However, we do have news on an upcoming album release, new Half A Man videos, and lots of updates from local bands on Soundclick, but first for today, here's a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!!! Tym Morrison's solo acoustic show is back at Bossy's Pub N' Grub THIS AFTERNOON! I apologize for the short notice, he only just announced this concert yesterday. This will be the Caveman Morrison frontman's sixth straight Saturday matinee concert at the Pim Street restaurant, and as always, he should have a solid afternoon's worth of metal and hard rock covers to go around for fans and regulars! Tym's hoping for a good turnout today to keep this latest weekly arrangement happening, so if you're up for some hard rocking and good tunes, a swing by Bossy's would likely be a good bet! Admission will be free, there's no age limit, and Tym will be on as usual at 2:00 PM. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! This should be another solid solo concert from Tym, and hopefully some of you guys can make it out to see him rock Bossy's! For a preview, here's Tym covering Eric Clapton's "Tears From Heaven" at the former Foggy Notions in 2009! Next up, a new local metal album is apparently nearing release, and no, we're not talking about "Woods V" at the moment. That sees it's first official release next week, but right now, I mean End of Existence's debut album! Over a year after plans to release an EP named "Sun Is Gone" drifted into just some free song postings, the Sault Michigan/Grand Rapids epic metal quintet are apparently planning to release a 13 song debut album on February 29th (two weeks from Wednesday), and it's definitely been well plugged on the band's Facebook page recently! A promo track of this likely self-titled CD can now be streamed at End of Existence's Reverbnation page, and it features 30-40 second clips of 8 tracks from the album, and after doing some quick math, I think there will be at least a few featured songs that we haven't heard before. Of course, recordings of original songs are no secret, as we've seen and heard new media from End of Existence a lot over the last year, but it's nice to see plans out there to formally compile these tracks on an album of some kind! If this happens according to plan, I think we're in for a very heavy treat at the end of the month, and you know I'll keep you guys posted as updates come in for it! That said, will it come out in time for it to be this month's CD review at The Sault Metal Scene? Probably not, and only because I'm at school all day on the 29th, so I probably can't make time to review it so soon. Honestly, with the late February release and "Woods V" tentatively reserved for March, we might not get to an End of Existence CD review until early April, but it'll be worth the wait if it comes to that! No matter what though, stay tuned for updates on this and other new CDs as the weeks roll along! Thirdly, here's some new videos from Brimley metal quartet Half A Man! Drummer Mikey Bishop uploaded four new jam videos onto his YouTube channel on Thursday, and though none have a real "title", they all show some promising jams towards what I assume are new original songs! The videos are all short (only one breaks 1:50 in length) and singer Dillion Semasky isn't featured, but these videos do show some solid metal instrumentals that I can't wait to see expanded on, so click the above link to see all four of the new videos, and here's the longest new video to check out here! Finally for today, here's some random shorter stories from the last little while, and conveniently, all relate to the popular music site Soundclick and local bands with pages on it. As usual, these stories are in alphabetical order by band name:

• If you've missed the sample of the Gates of Winter song "The Stars Call My True Name" since it's deletion from YouTube, then good news, as the band's Soundclick page (which is new to me) features a 2 minute clip of that song! Or, is it called "Dimensions"? Either way, it was posted there in September 2010, along with an album cover-ish image named "Veil of the Abyss". Stream this very heavy & very promising clip at the above links or at this location if you wanna!
• We haven't heard much from experimental hard rock trio SBD since they dropped out of the Sewer Swampstravaganja last spring, but they're still alive, as they posted a new original song onto their Soundclick page in December! Colourfly titled "Shut Up, You Stupid B****", it's an odd mix of energetic punk music with low melodic clean singing. It's not bad though, and it's catchy enough, so check it out above or by clicking here!

That's all for now, but we've got more news to come over the next few days, so keep an eye out for it! Thanks everyone!