If I Look Strong, You Look Strong Concert Preview, Plus New Treble Charger & Din Videos!!

As promised, today's post is being led off by a preview of a rare Tuesday night punk/metal concert, but to round things out, we have some new videos, one of a local band shooting for a new milestone, and two from a recently reunited band's most recent concert! Here's what you should know!

A special Tuesday night concert goes down TONIGHT at The New American Pub, where three different touring bands will take the stage for a night of punk and metal intensity! The lineup will include headlining Calgary noise/experimental trio If I Look Strong, You Look Strong, a curiously named though very talented twosome who have some aggressive elements in their progressive sound, so don't bypass I.I.L.S.Y.L.S. tonight! Also playing at The New A are Zaum, the Moncton, New Brunswick "Middle Eastern mantra doom" outfit best known locally from headlining Haggith's final concert at The Rednecks Saloon back in May 2015. Good to see Zaum back in our area after over 2 years, so prepare for some dark chanting-laden originals from them also! The other touring duo tonight are Ottawa/Pembroke hardcore punk rockers Flying Fortress, who'll bring aggressive but also somewhat more accessible originals to the stage, so don't be late for their set either! Apologies for earlier promotion hyping the three above bands as being duos, the headliners have since confirmed that they're currently touring as a three-piece.

Tonight's local openers are new local indie/hard rock trio Vol. (featuring 2/3rds of The Pixo Control's mid-2015 lineup), who will get a very intriguing show to make their public concert debut with, so come early to hear how they sound! Promoted by Six, Two, Oh., tonight's "Saul St Marie" stop has a 19+ age limit, 9:00 PM start time, and $7 cover charge. This is shaping up to be a nicely varied but constantly aggressive night of music, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details on tonight's concert, and here's If I Look Strong, You Look Strong live!



Next up, we have some new videos of local/Toronto indie/punk veterans Treble Charger to share on here, but not from last month's return show at LopLops! Though not visibly advertised on the band's few active online pages, they continued their teased tour run with a set at the third annual WTFest in Brantford on Saturday, July 29th, where they were among the openers for Our Lady Peace and Collective Soul at Lions Park. Looks like a solid event with a great turnout from what I've seen of WTFest, and hopefully their whole set was a hit! As best as I can tell, two YouTube users posted videos of Treble Charger's set, including wisptubeify, who filmed their rendition of "American Psycho" and posted it to his channel later that same day. The guys sound good on this punk-era classic of theirs, but they seem to be a bit restricted in movement given the stage setup, and the camera can have some blurry moments. Check it out below!



The other known YouTube video of Treble Charger's Brantford set last month comes via user Dure Yeah, who posted this video of their early hit song "Red" to his channel that same day as well. This softer Bill Priddle-sung original is very well done here, which will please fans of Treble Charger's first albums, and though the camera angle isn't as centered or close, it's actually clearer overall! Give it a look below as well, and see more from this year's WTFest at the above links, on YouTube, or via Brantford-area news media!



Finally for today, here's the latest from local alternative/hard rock trio The Din, so what have they been up to lately? Alongside continued studio demo recordings, a new photo shoot with Josh Pace, and a "HUGE surprise" relating to the impending one year anniversary of their debut studio album "Give In To The Din", the band has also been actively trying to reach 700 fans on their Facebook page. As part of that goal, this comedic new Facebook video was posted online on July 30th, and while I do apologize for the delay, at least it's still relevant to share, as they sit at 697 fans as of this writing. The nearly 6 minute-long video is a "field record", where drummer Brandan Glew proposes that, if the band launches rockets into space, that might be enough to push them over 700 fans. I won't spoil the details on the rockets, launches, or aftermath, but there is humour to be had throughout, plus a surprise ending! Give it a look below, and like The Din if you haven't already so you can help them shoot for 700!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes this week, plus this month's Defunct Local Band Profile! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (If I Look Strong, You Look Strong), A New Local Band, And More!!

Here's another new news post for your Sunday afternoon, as we continue to get caught up following one extremely busy weekend of concerts! Today's post features some assorted recent updates, a new solo cover video, and a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for next month, but leading off, here's initial details on a debuting local band playing that very concert!

We have a new local band to add to our active band links, and they are Vol. (pronounced "volume"), so what should you know on them? Self-describing themseles as an "indie rock" band, they cite Alexisonfire, Queens of the Stone Age, City & Colour, and Dinosaur Jr. as influences, so I would assume that a high volume noise/hard-alt sound would not come amiss when media turns up. Specifically, Vol. indicated on their Facebook page that their sound has "high energy, crispy tones, (and) crunchy distortion", so read into that however you will. Their lineup features original Pixo Control bassist Steve Edwards on vocals & guitar alongside their mid-2015 drummer Matthew Thibert, with their ranks filled out by former Aldous guitarist Shane Storozuk. Solid lineup, and it's great to see that Steve and Matt stuck together following their abrupt Pixo departure! Vol. quietly launched last year, but when can you see them live and on stage for the first time?

On Tuesday, August 8th, for a newly announced New American Pub concert from Six, Two, Oh., that's where! Vol. will debut as local openers for a trifecta of out of town metal duos, including headliners If I Look Strong, You Look Strong (yes, that's their name), an experimental noise rock duo from Calgary. Very creative and progressive sound with punk and hardcore tinges, so definitely give them a listen in advance of this show! Moncton, New Brunswick "Middle Eastern mantra doom" duo Zaum will play the Soo for the first time since their Rednecks headliner in May 2015 as this show's co-headliners, and their blend of dark metal and chanting vocals should appeal to genre fans once again, so don't bypass Zaum next month either! The other touring two man band is Ottawa/Pembroke hardcore punk outfit Flying Fortress, whose sound is arguably the most accessible of the the three groups, but still heavy and relentless, so don't be late for their fast-paced originals either!

A 19+ concert, this show has a $7 cover charge and a 9:00 PM start time. While one would assume that Rotopsy, Them, or Twistory as openers would have fit the two-man-band lineup better, Vol. have a solid showcase ahead for their debut, surprisingly as the night's largest band, so definitely keep this rare Tuesday nighter in mind for August 8th, and visit the official Facebook event page for more details!

Next up, here's a new solo cover video from ex-Elipzis bassist Ryan Harrison's YouTube channel on Wednesday, surprisingly his first upload there this year! A cover of "Drown" by the Texas-based modern rock band Fighting Gemini, the well-bearded Ryan sticks to vocals in this cover, and he showcases a solid voice (as old Riot! By Night fans can attest), and it's nice to see him tackle a song that uses more vocal range with such ease! That said, the black and white colouring and the raindrop filter effect can be distracting. Give Ryan's newest solo cover a look below, and hopefully more comes soon!



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

• Following a positive reception for their YouTube video for their song "Straus", local progressive metal project Kraken Mara have announced that all of the songs on their upcoming self-titled debut EP will have a music video made for them, and are fielding fan suggestions for locations to shoot them at. Sounds like a good plan to me, so message Brendan and/or Jacob at the band's Facebook page to suggest filming spots!
• Just as a house-cleaning note, I've replaced the link for local subscription crate company Ma Lady Menace from their website (which is currently blank) to their Facebook page. This company was supposed to promote the ambitious CureCon concert/convention next month, but haven't issued any updates on venue, lineup, or specific details since May when indicating website maintenance, and it's not clear if the company are still actively operating. Ma Lady Menace had promising ideas, and hopefully more comes out!
• If you're wondering why we didn't cover this year's Ride For Sight motorcycle rally and attached concerts on the site, it's because the musical lineup didn't feature a hard rock band for the first time since the local arm of the rally began in 2012. This year's musical entertainment featured country quartet Bone Yard and their acoustic side project The Bearded Lounge, alongside 1960s-themed classic rock band The Peace Vibe playing out at Stokely Creek Lodge over the July 7th weekend. Hopefully everything went well, it's a great event for a great cause!

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

The Reopening Of Coch's Corner, The Fate Of 97.9 FM, And Much More!!

Let's get a new news post up on the site to cover some other recent news! I'm going out of town tomorrow afternoon, so updates may be slower over the coming week, but I fully intend to have weekend concert previews and more news on the site over the next little while, so don't miss a thing over the coming days! So for today, we have news on a local concert venue's reopening & new home, the ultimate fate of one of our former rock radio stations, some new "Woods V" reviews, and this week's classic video, so here's what you need to know!

The new Coch's Corner is officially open for business, as of yesterday! The local bar & concert spot is now operating at it's new home, at the former Foggy Notions location at 708 Queen Street East, two months after they left the old Days Inn location on Bay Street, as per a bunch of recent postings on Facebook (though note that Coch's Corner's Facebook group has yet to publically confirm the news.) From what I understand, the bar is fully operational except for the restaurant, which isn't running yet but will be implemented. I have yet to see the newly renovated location to figure out how different it looks, or if there will still be a stage for bands, but you guys know I'll have more on that as I hear of it! The re-opening ends an almost 6 month hiatus for public activity at 708 Queen, following the end of Foggy's brief successor Feedback in January and the lease transfer, and it's good to finally hear that Paul and the rest of the staff are back up & running! Coch's and Foggy's fans should definitely be amped for the re-opening, and even if it'll be different given the merger of sorts for the two bars, hopefully Coch's Corner can avoid the noise complaint concerns and other petty things that hung up the previous bars at that spot. Stay tuned for updates as I hear of them, and head to the newly open Coch's Corner's new home tonight if you can!

Next up, I wanted to fill you guys in on what happened to a local radio station that had a lot of metal and hard rock relevance during it's run. As you may remember, Classic Rock: The Bear (WIHC, 97.9 FM) served the Sault Ste. Marie/Newberry, Michigan radio market for 8 years from 2002-2010 before Northern Star Broadcasting left the Upper Peninsula and sold most of their U.P. stations to Sovereign Communications, who now own most of the non-religious stations in the area. WIHC was the only U.P. station left out of the sale to avoid going over FCC limits for regional station ownership, but Northern Star Broadcasting took 97.9 FM dark in February 2010, as the station wasn't financially viable and was operating at a loss (source here.) We got the station back (sort of) a few months later when WLJZ (94.5 FM) out of Mackinaw City switched from a country format to a Bear simulcast, returning heavier music to that frequency, which once hosted the modern rock station The Zone in the mid-2000s. Better radios here can pick up The Bear on 94.5 FM, so it's worth scoping out to see where and if you can hear it here! That said, what ever happened to WIHC out of Newberry?

Well, it's back on the air, but in a very different format than what we remember. In November, West Central Michigan Media Ministries bought WIHC from Northern Star for $150,000, and they brought it back in March as Strong Tower Radio, a religious talk station simulcasted from Cadillac, making it the fifth Christian-based FM station in the Twin Sault markets. Click here for more info. I hardly see the need for that many religious radio stations in such a small market area, but at least this one seems to be talk radio based, so it is some variance from the four Christian contemporary music stations here. I hope the new format is a success for the owners and for the more religious radio listeners around here, but it still would be nice to hear even one more rock-ish station locally. Check the above links for more on the saga of 97.9 FM over the past couple of years!

Now, here's some more reviews of Woods of Ypres' last recorded studio album "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light", which is still attracting lots of critical notices! In January, Tom Dare from the metal website Thrash Hits gave "Woods V" a score of 5 out of 6, calling the songs "bloody good", though emphasizing the difficulty it takes to listen to the material given what happened to David Gold and the lyrical content. Nice insightful review, though filled with quotes, so check it out at this location! The following month, Khalil Mikael from the blog Melodic Reviews gave "Woods V" a 98% rating, highly praising it for it's brilliant instrumentation, musical variance, and philosophical lyrics, though I don't know if I agree with the HIM comparison on "Death Is Not an Exit". Another solid review, so click here to give it a look! Finally for today, "Khelek" from the website Metal Reviews gave this album a surprisingly low rating of 30%, criticizing Woods of Ypres for playing it safe, dumbing down their existing sound (he gave "Woods IV" 60%) into what he thought was a bland & monotonous style, and only recommended "W5" to existing fans. I applaud his honesty, but I'd say that he didn't really get into the right mindset to appreciate the album's mood. Still, check out his review at this location, and if you can't see the text, press Ctrl & A on your keyboard! Stay tuned for more "Woods V" reviews in the near future!

And finally, here's this week's classic video! With a light upcoming weekend for shows that I can project, we're dipping into the general archives once again for this latest video, which is of the former local metal quintet Lion Ride! The local/Toronto standouts brought their high impact blend of punk and metal to many concerts during their 5 year run, and this video comes from an earlier show of theirs on Boxing Day 2008 at the old Coch's Corner. One video from the same filmer is already on YouTube via frontman Mikey Lion's YouTube channel, of Lion Ride playing "Lock Me In" at this concert, but the other video is new to YouTube, and it's of Lion Ride playing their song "Slapdance"! Lion Ride's 2008-2009 lineup is represented here, including Mikey on vocals, guitarists Marky & Marco Lion, then-new bassist Diamond Brent Panther, and original drummer Marc "The Italian Stallion" Muto (in what may have been his last local show with Lion Ride.) The audio quality is this video's main downfall, as it's very distorted on the verses & choruses, which almost completely drowns out Mikey's singing. That said, the video quality isn't bad, and it's shot from a decent angle, with the guys making the most of the tables at the old Coch's!

This video was shot by a concert attendee and was uploaded to Facebook two days after the show at http://facebook.com/video/video.php?v=54331212992. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED!! All credit for this video goes to Lion Ride, I'm just trying to share it with a wider audience! Audio issues aside, their talents are visible and their energy is top notch, so give this new old Lion Ride video a look below!



That's probably all for today, but stay tuned for news and previews in the next little while! Thanks everyone!