More Facebook Videos From Solo Musicians & Familiar Bands!!

As we continue keeping the SMS updated regularly during the pandemic, here's another post devoted just to videos, starting with another live-streamed concert from Thursday, courtesy of Bone Yard/Bearded Lounge frontman Greg Simpson! This was streamed on his promotion company (Choose) Maxx Entertainment's Facebook page, and was shot in Greg's smoke room, nicely decked out in drum heads and posters from his prior events. Despite his current bands focusing on country covers, his acoustic set on Thursday was much more in line with his classic/hard rock work with Stiffer's Mom and That's Chester, so if you miss those bands, this video will have extra resonance. In performance order, Greg covered Kris Kristofferson's "Me & Bobby McGee", Kiss' "Rock and Roll All Nite", Bob Dylan's "Knockin' On Heaven's Door", Black Label Society's "Spoke In The Wheel", Kid Rock's "All Summer Long", ...

...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", The Hip's "Wheat Kings", Ray LaMontagne's "Jolene", The Band's "The Weight", and Mike Posner's "I Took A Pill In Ibiza". This live-stream seemed to go over well, as Greg is planning an encore for this Thursday night, and the video proper is a fun watch with lot of familiar and well done covers! Greg's rough-edged, to-the-point delivery and strong musical knowledge helps, and he has good rapport with his wife Kerry (off camera), so fans of Greg's prolific band work will definitely want to see this request-heavy set below!



Next up, here's a second acoustic solo performance by Northwest frontman Wayne Watkins, as uploaded to the band's Facebook page this morning, and it's a cover of "Sunshine Blues" by folk musician Bahamas. This song has extra personal meaning for Wayne, as he would rock his newborn daughters to sleep with it. As such, it's a departure from what you'd expect from Northwest, but this whole pandemic is a departure, let's be honest. Wayne puts solid emotion into this well played cover, so give it a look below!



Also today, here's a short new video from southern hard rock quintet Fort Creek's Facebook page last week, and while they'd be prepping for their formal concert debut on Friday in a sane world, we instead get a slow & ominous look at their studio, complete with eerie background music. The title even alludes to isolation making it feel like "a Walking Dead movie set." You do get an interesting look at their space here, and I hope they can get back to work there at some point soon, but give it a look below!

Finally for today, I might as well cover two short videos that I've been sitting on for way too long now, and with local hard rock & punk content naturally slowing down, this will help in that regard. Back in the summer of 2017, local alt-punk/genre-hating trio Handsome Sandwich posted two short non-musical videos on their Facebook page for humorous/teaser purposes, and I intentionally held off on covering them because I figured they would put up something more substantial, and I'd tie those two in with it then. Almost three years later, they have followed those videos with just three Facebook posts and zero new videos, and the 2 clips I mentioned have been sitting in my draft folders ever since, so let's finally give them their due. The June 2017 video is a 4 second clip of drummer Johnny Belanger showing how he practices drumming (spoiler: by rapidly whacking a cut of meat with a meat tenderizer.) Amusing sight gag, but it's over quick.

The other video from July 2017 runs for just 8 seconds, and it features Johnny dramatically whispering to the camera that "something is happening" while Jesse & James inspect gear in the background. Given the optics, was anything happening back then? Well, they did open for Vaultry at The Canadian the next night, but the video would seem to hint more towards a studio project. In any event, Handsome Sandwich updates became very sporadic for much of the late 2010s, including not posting on Facebook at all last year, so who knows how far the guys got into "something". Give these videos a look, at last, above & below, and stay tuned for updates!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site soon! Thanks veryone!

New Facebook Performance Videos From Northwest Members & The Isolation Sessions!!

Today's post is devoted just to recent Facebook videos from familiar local musicians stuck at home, and we're leading off with 2/5ths of indie punk quintet Northwest in their own separate performances! First off, let's talk about this video of frontman Wayne Watkins covering Brown Brigade frontman Chuck Coles' solo song "Bottom of a Well", as posted to Northwest's Facebook page yesterday morning. I wasn't familiar with the song going in, but Wayne's raw and direct take is well performed, so fans will want to give this acoustic rendition a watch below!



Next up, many readers may be familiar with Northwest guitarist Greg Callaghan's lengthy run as a solo musician and open mic night host, which largely diverts from his punk band work into a widely varied general playlist. Leading from that, Greg has teamed with Northern Superior Brewing Co. (where he has performed multiple times in their Taproom) to play a regular series of "Songs & A Six-Pack" live-streamed concerts that the brewery is sponsoring. Greg didn't specify what kind of schedule these will drop on, but the first one was streamed on Greg's Facebook page last night, and there are a few punk songs included! Running for 2 hours, Greg covered Raffi's "Baby Beluga", Bruce Springsteen's "Atlantic City", Bill Withers' "Lean On Me", Tom Petty's "Wildflowers", The Wonders' "That Thing You Do!", NSYNC's "Bye Bye Bye", The Outfield's "Your Love", Spirit of the West's "Home For A Rest", Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down", The Band's "The Weight", ...

...The Beatles' "Norwegian Wood", Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing In The Dark", NOFX's "Linoleum", Bob Dylan's "Changing of the Guards", Johnny Cash's "I Walk The Line", Toto's "Africa", Radiohead's "Creep", Billy Joel's "She's Always A Woman", Neil Young's "Heart of Gold", Jack Johnson's "Better Together", Oasis' "Wonderwall", Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Have You Ever Seen The Rain", Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine", The Tragically Hip's "Boots or Hearts", Jodi Benson's "Part of Your World", and Lagwagon's "Razor Burn". Sponsorship-wise, Greg does promote Northern Superior's selection of beer at certain points between songs, as well as off the top, and click here for details on the brewery's delivery services during the pandemic. Largely covering songs requested by fans and live viewers, Greg has a strong handle on a wide variety of covers, and his distinctively deep singing adds another dimension to the songs on offer!

Of course, it'd be nice to hear more punk tunes, but requests were a huge component, so if you want to influence the setlist in that regard, tune in next time Greg breaks out a "Songs & A Six-Pack" live-stream... maybe this coming Friday? Time will tell, but stream Greg's full set below!



Finally for today, here's a new video from new local acoustic hard rock project The Isolation Sessions, as uploaded to their Facebook page on Thursday! A cover of Fuel's "Bad Day", this audio-only cover had it's parts recorded separately by Jordan & Arthur due to social distancing, and they were combined in post (albeit with a free trial video program.) The guitar sounds a little distorted, but the cover is well done with solid vocal emotion, and it's great to see the guys adapting to the odd times! Give it a look below!



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

YouTube Channel Profile Series: TWCD

It's now time for this month's YouTube Channel Profile at the SMS! Like in past months, this monthly feature looks at 1-3 YouTube channels that have at least a 50% concentration of local metal, hard rock, or punk-relevant videos, in order to spotlight them and their content for current readers, and encourage subscription and views therein, with channels still being randomly selected! This month's random choice is a channel from a talented local punk musician, so read on below for this month's YouTube Channel Profile!
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TWCD (http://www.youtube.com/twcd)

Owner: Northwest singer/guitarist Wayne Watkins, also known from prior work with bands like A Fall From Innocence, The Blockade, Nebraska Arms, Renderware, The Small Town Rivals, and Why

Channel Timeline: Launched on December 26th, 2006; Videos posted from September 2008 until August 2014

Channel Summary: An apparent personal use channel for prolific local punk/indie musician Wayne Watkins (though the meaning of "TWCD" isn't clear), he has posted four videos there, including three focusing on two of his successful recent bands, and an Ice Bucket Challenge video from mid-2014 in support of the fight against A.L.S. (or Lou Gehrig's Disease.)

Why You Should Watch: Give Wayne's channel a look for some solid videos from a pair of recent musical projects, as he's a talented multi-instrumentalist with a lot of familiarity! However, no videos of his current band Northwest are featured (nor anything pre-2008) despite the channel's 2006 launch date, and it hasn't visibly been used in almost two years.

Our Recommended Videos To Check Out

Nebraksa Arms: Wayne's first video on his channel is a live clip of his then-new indie punk quartet Nebraska Arms playing their original song "Lighthouses" live at The Speak Easy at Algoma University on September 5th, 2008. Featuring Wayne on guitar alongside Hangdowns alum Guy Thiffault on vocals & bass, ex-Gilmour guitarist Dave Prendergast, and Wayne's old Renderware bandmate Adam Sauve on drums, this is a lively rendition of one of Nebraska Arms' better known songs, but despite a solid camera angle, the video suffers from grainy audio and inconsistent visuals when zoomed in.



Nebraska Arms: This channel's most viewed video is of a posthumous music video for their song "I Was a Writer", with it's studio version from their album "We'll Never Sleep Again" set to assorted band photos, and live video footage from their set at February 2010's Sault College/Scotties Tournament of Hearts Battle of the Bands (which was professionally shot by organizers) at what's now the Community First Curling Center. Posted online three years after the battle, this is a nice retrospective look at Nebraska Arms' two year run in the local scene, which quietly ended a few months after their battle set, and with a clear & well produced studio track to boot, fans of Nebraska Arms won't want to bypass it!



Small Town Rivals Heart Breaks & Fairy Tales: Wayne's other music-related upload is this preview music video for his defunct local/Whistler, B.C. pop punk band The Small Town Rivals' song "Heartbreaks & Fairytales". Posted a month after the release of the band's only studio album "East vs. West", the video features Wayne and company jamming, hanging out, and rehearsing in studio, with guitarist Jesse Nelson, bassist Scott Phillips, and drummer Liam Murray (all from their British Columbia lineup) representing the band here. Ending with some lighter outtakes and cut segments from the shoot, this is a well edited clip that captures The Small Town Rivals' studio process well, and while the band is now inactive, catch their local wing in Northwest!


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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! Next month in this series, we'll again look at a single channel that was randomly selected, and you've gotta love when things line up, as next month's channel actually features more video footage from the aforementioned Sault College Battle of the Bands! Next month, we'll take a look at the original crash band, Sykotyk Rampage's inactive YouTube channel, which has 5 in-house music videos of early studio favourites, so look for that on or around July 26th, and stay tuned for more news and notes soon! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Banned & RamWagon), Powerslug Concert Previews, And More Recent Updates!!

(UPDATED, 12:40 AM) In our first of two posts today, we're mostly focusing on more concert previews for the weekend, including SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for the Sault Michigan area, along with some more shorter news items from recent days and some left over concert previews for this weekend, so here's what you need to know!

Kinross classic/hard rock quintet Banned aren't just playing at The Sundown Lounge on Saturday, as they've also announced a gig for TONIGHT at The Cozy Corners Tavern & Grill in Barbeau, Michigan! I apologize for the short notice, they only just announced this show on their Facebook page last night, and as far as I know, it wasn't previously advertised (also, they don't mean The Cozy Inn in Brimley, as proven at The Cozy Corners Tavern's own website.) Last seen in Barbeau (a half hour south of the Soo, an hour north of St. Ignace) over 5 months ago, it'll be nice to see Banned's ever more diverse blend of hard rock and more general sounds back at The Cozy Corners tonight, so if you can't make the Pickford show tomorrow, you have an earlier alternative! There is a 9:00 PM start time for this 21+ concert, and there's no announced cover charge. For more details, visit the above links, and best of luck to Banned on their busy regional weekend! For a preview, here's Banned covering a Carrie Underwood song earlier this year!

Also in late notice Eastern U.P. hard rock shows, Sault Michigan hard rockers RamWagon will return to The Satisfied Frog in the Soo TONIGHT AND TOMORROW NIGHT! I apologize for the short notice, the band only announced the shows on their Facebook page 20 minutes or so ago. Essentially a splinter band from similar local band Full Throttle, RamWagon made their first Frog appearance three weeks ago (after debuting at LemmaFest in June), and their modern-leaning assemblage of covers should go over well in their return to this popular West Portage Avenue bar and concert spot! A 10:00 PM start time has been announced, you must be 21 or older to attend, and there's no announced cover charge. For more details, check the above links! Even though their solo shows have all seen relatively late notice announcements, I like what I'm hearing from RamWagon's lineup, so keep their Frog returns in mind this weekend, and see their only public video at the above links!

Next up, and in a bit of negligence on my part, I forgot to preview this weekend's "Powertoast" shows at The Corner Pub Bar & Grill in Sault Michigan yesterday! I plugged them last month when first announced, but somehow, they never made it to our concert listings, and for that, I profusely apologize! "Powertoast" refers to (I assume) a rare intentional double booking for Sault Michigan cover bands, as local hard rock trio Powerslug and the more general rock cover quartet Toast (both featuring drummer Bob Helsten) will share the stage at The Corner Pub TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT, though there is the possibility that this weekend's shows will feature a form of a combined lineup featuring members of each band. Regardless, Powerslug have a lot of great covers to chug your mug to, and Toast are quickly making a name for themselves with their more varied sound, so keep these shows in mind! There's no announced cover charges, you must be 21 to attend, a 9:00 PM start time is advertised, and I do not know if these are outdoor or indoor gigs. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page!

This should be an interesting weekend, be it a shared booking or a "two-off" band combo, but keep these shows in mind for some Sault Michigan hard rock action, and for a preview (as Powerslug have no known public videos), here's Toast covering Rev Theory at a recent concert!



Also today, here's three shorter assorted stories from the Ontario side of the border, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist name:

• We missed covering this at the time, but local death metal standouts The Bear Hunters were newly working on their debut CD again as of July 16th (as per their Facebook page), with ex-guitarist Josh Stephney completing his tracks in 2 days, Mitch Sirie starting his soon, and a name decision in the works as well. I'm not sure how this flew under the radar, but hopefully these latest sessions finally lead to a release of some kind, and stay tuned for more in tonight's "Where Are The New Albums?" post!
• New local band Jack Spades (featuring T-Rex Manning, Bear Hunters, and Asylum Country members) will apparently be an all-original band, despite playing a Pennywise cover for their preview at The Crusade in May (my source is frontman J.D. Pearce on a comment reply on the Musicians Wanted Facebook group yesterday.) This should be good news, especially if the songs turn out like old Fitswitch tracks or "She Banged The Mayor", so don't miss their full debut next month!
• Local indie/punk musician Wayne Watkins (now of The Small Town Rivals) will be joined by former Nebraska Arms bandmate Dave Prendergast for his acoustic opening set at the Catgut/Bad Back concert at The New American Tavern on August 12th, as per his addition to the Facebook event page a couple of days ago. Nice to see them back together, and hopefully they set the tone well for the grunge/punk onslaught to come that night!

Finally for today, here's some more updates to our Battle of the Bands Rewind Profiles! First, I updated our profile of 2009's YMCA Battle again to reflect that winners The Undead Warriors (later Bring The Fallen) finally released their debut EP "Stand Before" last month at their farewell/reunion show, as they won the recording time to record the included tracks at this battle. On our Kiss Battle of the Bands profile from that same year, I replaced the yet-to-debut Crawfather with the aforementioned Small Town Rivals in the section on competing members' later bands, and I noted that Madison's Pub (where winners Garden of Bedlam celebrated for their first post-battle concert) is now The Harp Bar & Grill. Finally, on our profile of the Sault Humane Society Battle of the Bands in 2012, I noted that winners Late & Loud and tied-fourth place finishers The Valentine's Day Massacre are both now inactive, and I also updated the lineups of Jack Spades & London death metal band D3athcharg3r to note the addition of other performers from this battle (bassist Justin Lam & guitarist Andrew Angelic respectively) in their current lineups in the section on performers' newer bands.

That's all for now, but stay tuned later tonight for this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post! Thanks everyone!