Here's a new post to check out on this Saturday morning, and it includes some new videos from some familiar faces we haven't seen much of as of late, but leading off, here is a surprise local album discovery that hard rock fans of two decades ago may be very curious about!
The only(?) studio album for early-mid 2000s local hard rock quartet Redefined has finally surfaced in full online! The Oh!No Collective's Alex Moore uploaded his CD copy to his YouTube channel (which also hosts Stiffler's Mom's demo EP) yesterday, so huge thanks to him for posting it and letting me know about it in the first place! Entitled "Risk & Uncertainty", this album was independently released circa 2002, and features their classic lineup, including Parabol singer John Barber, Fort Creek guitarist Matt Sibilo, former Swamped bassist Josh St. Amour, and My Son The Hurricane drummer Danno O'Shea. The first 8 songs were recorded (locally?) at Eater Island Studio, while the last two were done at Metalworks Studios in Mississauga. Curiously, the album's liner notes do not list the 10 songs by their titles, but an archived copy of their old Geocities website features each track's lyrics, so I was able to get these to Alex, and alas, the site back-up didn't have flames or loud noises.
Note that track #3 ("M.T. Bundies") was included on Foggy Notions' 2003's "Foggy Style" compilation album. I now have everything ready for an eventual review of "Risk & Uncertainty" on the SMS, but will it be any time soon? I have no idea, but if members are playing live in some form in the near term, that could be a good sign. Give Redefined's CD a listen below for some early 2000s alternative and Tool-influenced hard rock action!
Next up, remember Northern Superior Brewing Co.'s "Songs & A Six-Pack" live-streamed Facebook concert series from the spring? Well, it's back in a couple of ways! On July 21st, the series abruptly resumed after a two month hiatus via an outdoor set from Ottawa folk musician John Allaire, described as being held on "the Gowans Imperial Pub patio". John's a very talented musician, so if you like folk, give his hour+ set a watch at this link! The other new installment of "Songs & A Six-Pack" took place last night, and is actually a make-up date of sorts, as this one features local acoustic hard rock band The Wyld Stallyns! You may recall their severely abbreviated set in episode #4 of "Songs & A Six-Pack" in April, which ended after just 13 minutes and two songs due to technical difficulties, so it is great to see the brewery and band coming together for a do-over! Unlike last time, guitarist Jesse Cook isn't stuck outside, but drummer Jonas Gasperas is nowhere to be found for unannounced reasons
The set proper starts with this 9 minute video, which mostly features setup and talking with the live viewers, and while they do cover Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride" with Rob Speers on lead vocals, the guitars are inaudible. Unlike in April, The Stallyns do launch a new live-stream feed afterwards (as embedded below), where they opted to switch to a cell phone camera. This may seem like a step down from their stationary setup, especially with the vertical camera angle that doesn't show Jesse, but at least the phone can pick up the guitars! This video features The Wyld Stallyns covering The Steve Miller Band's "Jet Airliner", Huey Lewis & The News' "If This Is It", Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead Or Alive", Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band's "Against The Wind", Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me A River", The Lonely Island's "Dick In A Box", Britney Spears' "Baby One More Time", Skid Row's "18 & Life", David Bowie's "Let's Dance", and The Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter"
Christina Speers sings lead on the Bon Jovi, Timberlake, Skid Row, and Bowie covers, Rob handles Steve Miller and Bob Seger, and they share lead vocals on the rest. Overall, this was a good set with a nice array of tunes to hear, and the Speers and Jesse were clearly having a lot of fun, but there didn't seem to be as many plugs for Northern Superior's beer selection as in other "Songs & A Six-Pack" episodes. Check out the whole live-stream above and below, and hopefully The Wyld Stallyns return to the stage at some point!
Finally for today, have you been wondering about the delayed next installment of local/Thompson, Manitoba solo musician Mike Haggith's #LockdownLive at-home concerts? Well, Mike finally updated everyone to the imminent plans via this Facebook video uploaded yesterday (and embedded below), where he confirmed that the renovations that postponed #LockdownLive XIV last month have concluded, and episode #14 will go live on Friday, August 28th at 7:30 PM! Mike didn't reveal a theme for the episode, but he did tease that it will have new and old songs, plus updates on new studio work. Give the video a watch below for more updates!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site next week! Thanks everyone!
On this 55th straight day of SMS posts, we have new videos to check out from some familiar veteran faces, but let's lead off with some more updates to our concert calendar, albeit negative ones as usual. We'll start in Michigan, where Kewadin Casino announced on their Facebook page yesterday that their branches will all remain closed through the end of the month, with June 1st tentatively slated to be their re-opening date. As such, this wipes out the final May concerts we listed in the E.U.P., namely the May 29th weekend shows from Peril in the Soo and Highway 63 in St. Ignace. In Sault Ontario, nothing that we currently have listed has been visibly cancelled by the bands or promoters on social media, but I am reluctantly delisting the Anti-Queens concert at The Rockstar Bar on May 23rd, as everything around it this month has been called off, and many of The Anti-Queens later concert dates are getting postponed or cancelled elsewhere.
For full disclosure, the local show has not been publically cancelled by the band, promoter, or venue, but the likelihood of this concert and no others in May taking place seems slim-to-none, and there are definitely more cancellations and postponements ahead. If I happen to be wrong, I will redact this, but these are funny times that we're living in right now.
Next up, Northern Superior Brewing Co.'s sixth weekly "Songs & A Six-Pack" live-stream concert took place last night, and this week's host was Bone Yard frontman and (Choose) Maxx Entertainment head Greg Simpson! For the record, last week's show was headlined by country musician Brendan Hodgson, so genre fans will definitely want to check that one out at this link. Simultaneously, Greg's performance is the de facto sequel to his "Songs From The Smoke Room" live-stream last month, with it's planned follow-up on April 8th cancelled on short notice due to his father-in-law being in the hospital, which he acknowledged in last night's video, but thankfully, he is doing better now. Of course, it's great to see Greg back in the smoke room for more covers, albeit with Northern Superior advertising and plugs thrown in! Like last month, this set is more reflective of Greg's past work in classic/hard rock bands.
The 82 minute video starts with his slowed down acoustic cover of Kiss' "Rock & Roll All Nite", before moving to renditions of Kris
Kristofferson's "Me & Bobby McGee", Black Label Society's
"Spoke In The Wheel", Kid Rock's "All Summer Long", Bob Dylan's "Knockin' On Heaven's Door", The Tragically Hip's
"Fiddler's Green", Cinderella's "Shelter Me", Pink Floyd's "Wish You
Were Here", The 4 Non Blondes' "What's Up", Ray
LaMontagne's "Jolene", The Band's "The Weight", Jamey Johnson's "High Cost of Living", The Barenaked Ladies' "The Old Apartment", Prince & The Revolution's "Purple Rain", The Five Man Electric Band's "Signs", and Guns N' Roses' "Used To Love Her". If you get deja vu from Greg's live-stream last month, then I cannot blame you whatsoever, as only two songs from that set ("Wheat Kings" & "I
Took A Pill In Ibiza") were not reprised last night, and only the last five covers were brand new.
That all said, this is still an entertaining concert set, and Greg injects a lot of these songs with good energy and optimism, complete with more entertaining banter with his wife Kerry, helping out off-camera once again. Hopefully there's more on the horizon from Greg, but give his "Songs & A Six-Pack From The Smoke Room" a watch below!
Finally, here's a newly shared video of Greg's old classic/hard rock cover band That's Chester, albeit before he joined the group! This comes from Rotaryfest's main stage at Clergue Park in July 2006, and was uploaded onto drummer Ric Datson's YouTube channel on Tuesday. This features That's Chester with their original frontman Richard Fullerton (now of the Ottawa-based Led Zeppelin tribute band Mothership), and the video opens with an amusing intro by MC/local radio DJ James Warner-Smith where the guys get introduced as the "next" band in an increasingly silly list of musicians, and we even hear their early stage names too (all have "Chester" in them). Musically speaking, you can see Ritch, Eugene, Gabe, Aubrey, and Ric cover a number of different songs, though these were edited into a clip montage in post-production, so no full songs are presented. Fans will hear Sammy Hagar, The Tragically Hip, and AC/DC songs, among others.
I wish the song fragments were at least longer, and the editing quality gives me the impression that this isn't a brand new video, but it's nice to hear the original That's Chester lineup at their height before Richard left! Everyone sounds good, so fans of theirs would be well served to give this video a watch, and visit Ric's YouTube channel for more archive video uploads of his!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!
In our 41st straight day of new SMS posts, we're dipping into the video well once again, with new covers and live-streams for your viewing pleasure, so here's what you should know!
The fourth installment of Northern Superior Brewing Co.'s "Songs & A Six-Pack" live-streamed concert series took place last night, and this time, the host musicians were local acoustic hard rock band The Wyld Stallyns! Despite originally planning to play as a Speers-only duo (jokingly named "The Myld Stallyns") due to social distancing, they made due by getting guitarist Jesse Cook and drummer Jonas Gasperas to join in, albeit miced up outside of their home. The verbiage in the video and on their Facebook page ("half the band can still be fun, right?") is about as close to official as I have seen online that Jonas is officially a Stallyn, as their Facebook "About" page still doesn't list him in the band. In fact, their sister band The Elementsdon't list him yet either, but he's a natural fit to their live repertoire! As for the live-stream proper, this follows the third installment hosted by Jay Case last week, so if you haven't seen it, click here to watch his entertaining set.
The original plan was for this live-stream to be an hour or so long once again, but the video only runs for 13:41 due to technical difficulties, and if it was resumed, the remainder of the set was not posted on the band's Facebook page. We do get to hear The Stallyns cover Pharrell Williams' "Happy" and Prince's "Kiss" though, and plug some Northern Superior beer, albeit with some audio warping on the camera end. Everyone sounds good and enthusiastic while it lasts, and hopefully they get a chance to do an encore when the glitches are worked out! Watch what was filmed below!
Next up, let's head to Sault Michigan, where local hard rock band Tarnished performed two more short-handed live-streamed concerts on their Facebook page on Thursday and yesterday as scheduled! Unfortunately, the audio issues that plagued their first five live-streamed shows are still present, and honestly, even worse than on Tuesday, though your mileage may vary depending on your device or audio setup. For me, Audacity was required again to amplify the recordings so I could even hear Alex talking between songs, alas. Thursday's stream is largely a solo affair while Josh Fair works on the audio behind the scenes, while frontman Alex Traynor plays solo covers, including of Matchbox Twenty's "Push", Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead Or Alive", REO Speedwagon's "Take It On The Run", Darius Rucker's "Wagon Wheel", Matchbox Twenty's "Unwell", Santana's "Smooth", Fleetwood Mac's "Gold Dust Woman", REO Speedwagon's "Ride The Storm Out", ...
...and Days Of The New's "Touch, Peel, and Stand", before Josh rejoins Alex on camera for covers of AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long", Incubus' "Drive", and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' "Mary Jane's Last Dance." No original songs here, but a nice variety of covers, and if you like Rob Thomas, this one will suit your mood! Again, the audio quality is a massive liability, at least at my laptop with external speakers. Embedded below is yesterday's live-streamed concert, which features Josh on every song, and has slightly louder audio, but the sound quality still is not comparable to other recent local hard rock live-streams. In order, the guys cover Warrant's "Uncle Tom's Cabin", Alex's own solo song "Send My Soul Away", Ed Sheeran's "Don't", Oasis' "Wonderwall", Tom Petty's "Free Fallin'", Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band's "Old Time Rock and Roll", and Stone Sour's "Through Glass", before playing their original "Shortcut", which will be on their debut EP.
The guys did note beforehand that the EP proper will be named "Down To The Wire", which is also the name of a track heard in one of last week's live-streams. Yesterday's remaining covers include Skid Row's "18 & Life", Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary", Van Halen's "Ain't Talkin' Bout Love", Cameo's "Word Up", Everlast's "What It's Like", and Greg Kihn's "The Breakup Song (They Don't Write 'Em)". With slightly better audio, two originals, and a heavier setlist than on Thursday, this is my favourite of the two live-streams, so fans will want to give it a look below, but see more above, and might more be coming next week?
Finally for today, let's return to Sault Ontario for the latest cover songs by new local acoustic hard rock duo The Isolation Sessions, all via guitarist Arthur Lacasse's YouTube channel earlier this month! Alongside a YouTube copy of their "Plastic Man" cover, the channel includes two renditions of Three Days Grace's "Never Too Late", with one recorded before social distancing and one afterwards with singer Jordan Rains framed picture-in-picture. Despite the unplugged setting, I think they play that one a little too reserved, especially with the chorus not being sung in full voice until later on, but it's still effectively done. Embedded below is their cover of Highly Suspect's "Little One" (recorded before social distancing), which Art seems to adapt to this format in a more natural way, and Jordan's vocals are dialed in extra well here. Promising covers so far, so give these a watch above and below!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's YouTube Channel Profile on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!
The set proper starts with this 9 minute video, which mostly features setup and talking with the live viewers, and while they do cover Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride" with Rob Speers on lead vocals, the guitars are inaudible. Unlike in April, The Stallyns do launch a new live-stream feed afterwards (as embedded below), where they opted to switch to a cell phone camera. This may seem like a step down from their stationary setup, especially with the vertical camera angle that doesn't show Jesse, but at least the phone can pick up the guitars! This video features The Wyld Stallyns covering The Steve Miller Band's "Jet Airliner", Huey Lewis & The News' "If This Is It", Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead Or Alive", Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band's "Against The Wind", Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me A River", The Lonely Island's "Dick In A Box", Britney Spears' "Baby One More Time", Skid Row's "18 & Life", David Bowie's "Let's Dance", and The Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter"
