A Pile Of Assorted News!!

As I promised, here's the rest of the news I had planned yesterday! Now that yesterday's stuff had time to sink in, I have a bunch more, so let's get you guys up to date!

First, a local band has made it's way to iTunes! Lion Ride's debut EP "Awesome" (which I reviewed in August) is now available for download there! If you have iTunes, follow this link to get to the download area! I don't have iTunes myself (no need for it), so I can't comment on the service itself too much. But I know a lot of you guys do download music (legal or otherwise), and if you can't buy the album or don't want to, now you have a way to legally get Lion Ride's EP! Also, anyone have word on any other local bands having their albums on iTunes as well? Give me a shout!

Next, I have some updates for the upcoming Sykotyk Rampage/Dysfunctional Kemystry show at The Outback on October 16th! Remember how the show is a Sault College fundraiser? Well, we know what the funds are going to now! Specifically, proceeds from this show will go towards next year's BScN graduating class, and towards sending students to Canadian Nursing Student Association conferences! Nice gesture! Also, this show will apparently also be a toga party! Not sure how much that will catch on, but it may be fun to play along with! No word yet on ticket prices, but I'll keep you guys posted! Get full details on this show at this location!

Now, I have some updates on two more local acts. First, Sault Ontario metal guitarist Brendan Christie has announced plans for his first solo album at his official MySpace blog! He apparently plans to call it "The Clock Is Ticking", and as you can see in the image to the right, this may be the album cover! He plans to have his song "The New World Order" as the first single, with "Get Out Of My Face" the only other confirmed song. Hopefully this can go all the way, I'd love to hear more from Brendan, he's a definite talent and it'd be great to see an album from him! Read his blog entry at this location, and check out some of his songs at his official MySpace page!

Two more quick news items to share before we get to some videos. Sault Michigan hard rockers Monkey's Uncle (formerly known as Jager) have announced their new lineup, which includes frontman Henry Switzer, bassist Jim Belleau (who was in the old Jager lineup) and drummer Ron Suchey from the Rudyard classic rock band Hair Trigger! Nice to see, hopefully they'll be back playing shows real soon! Also, Sault Ontario's own Stillbroke have re-posted their original song "Forget" on their official MySpace page. They had initially removed it last month and replaced it with "Tear Me To Pieces", but the songs have been re-replaced! If you haven't heard it yet, give it a listen, it's solid!

Now, I have some YouTube video-related updates, and firstly, I can finally upload videos onto YouTube! I recieved a new modem for my computer, and now, the internet doesn't cut out when I try to upload stuff! So now I can finally do more than favourite videos on the SMS YouTube account now! I will now begin to upload videos onto YouTube when the oppurtunity presents itself! Now when I say that, I will ONLY upload live video clips, songs that were never released for sale or are not sold anymore, and short preview clips of songs you can purchase. After all, I wanna expose everyone to our great local talent, but I also want you guys to support them and buy their songs too.

So I have begun by uploading Gates of Winter's debut EP onto YouTube, which is now out of print and not readily sold. Hopefully the upload of the EP will help give Gates some additional well-deserved exposure, even during the current hiatus. Stay tuned for more videos I'll be uploading onto YouTube, cause believe me, there's a ton of songs and bands that deserve additional exposure! Visit our YouTube channel for hundreds of local metal-related videos! And here's one of the songs off of the Gates EP, my personal favourite, "Hidden Enemy"!



But that's not all, for I found a ton of new live clips featuring Sault natives Detroit! YouTube user dnahahaha has uploaded SIXTEEN live clips from various Detroit concerts at The Bovine Sex Club in Toronto! Lots of solid performances to be found there, check them all out at the SMS' channel or at dnahahaha's channel! And I'll leave you guys for tonight with Detroit's performance of the song "Random Eyes" from a show in May! Thanks everyone, I'll have more news in the coming days!