LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Lion Ride), Sykotyk Rampage's New Album, A Newly Discovered Local Band, & More!

Here's an eventful post for this evening, lots of cool and exciting stuff to get to, and let us begin with a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!!!

According to an upcoming lineup schedule for The Rockstar Bar & this band's MySpace page, Lion Ride will be back in Sault Ste. Marie at the end of the month! The band appear to have scheduled a concert for December 27th at The Rockstar Bar, with a start time of 10:00 PM! This is enough proof to call it as a definite concert, but I still don't know total details. When I hear more, I'll let you guys know! My other proof is from this image that shows the upcoming concert listings at The Rockstar Bar, which is booking a lot of other good stuff this month too! This will be Lion Ride's first local appearance since their heartbreaking loss to Garden of Bedlam at the Kiss Battle of the Bands, and their first full concert set since the last edition of Hempfest! I should be at this show, the end of the month is shaping up nicely for concerts, including Half Past at The Rockstar Bar & Detroit's CD release concert too! I'll keep you guys posted!

Next up, after months of waiting, Sykotyk Rampage's 22nd album (appropriately named "22") is finally available for purchase! Not sure how you can obtain CDs, though contacting band members should work, and the album's also available online to purchase! You can snag your copy for $7.99 (or 75¢ for an individual song), and trust me when I say that this is one of the more unique albums you'll come across this year! Sites are giving November 28th as the release date, which is also the day that the band uploaded the album onto their Soundclick page for streaming and purchase (songs off of it are available on other sites too!) As promised, the album has 22 songs, 6 of which are new live re-recordings of band classics like "Drinking On The Weekend" & "Called In Dead"! Among the new songs, there's loads of "blue Chinese metal crash punk" to go around, coming from many different influences! Drummer Paul Becker handles most of the singing, though guitarist Dirk Becker chimes in with lead singing on some tracks too, and Paul's daughter Krista even provides guest vocals on a song!

Their style and sound are so unique that I couldn't sum it up here without a proper review (I still need to fit this in on my review schedule!) So I recommend at least head to their Soundclick page to check out every song in their back catalog, especially the new album, and if you like what you hear, buy the albums! Great value for the money, and you're guaranteed to be entertained by at least one song!

What else to share tonight...well, I did come across another local band from back in the day! Flat Stanley drummer Glen Thomas, an invaluable resource for old local music info, found a local group by the name of Foothill Road on MySpace, and told me about them, and now I'm passing them on to you guys! Formed in 1994 or earlier, Foothill Road were a local hard rock group who eventually moved to Hamilton to further pursue their musical goals. Though the band endured some lineup changes and a name change to Cousin It, they managed to record not one, but TWO albums in the mid 90s, entitled "Seventy" and "Foothill Road" (cover pictured.) The band originally featured former Spy Vs. Spy frontman Ken Luxton (who vocally reminds me of Billy Corgan) and Sneaky Pete guitarist Mario Carlucci, among others! Now this is a band I've got to find out more about, they had a good hard rock sound going for them, and it's great to see an old band member (possibly drummer Rick Bain?) post a page to bring the back to the masses! Check out some of Foothill Road's solid original material at this location, and they're now in the local metal band links to your left! Thanks for the find, Glen!

Here's something cool: Have you ever wondered what it looks like where they broadcast Rock 101? Here's a glimpse of it, a live video taken from a recent installment of "The Hair Scare", the hair metal block hosted by Scott Cook that airs on Saturday nights! Let me say this: I NEVER would have guessed that they did radio broadcasts from a yellow room! But hey, it's cool seeing the inner workings of local radio! Usually we just picture radio DJs as random voices coming out of speakers! This is also notable for another reason, as local author and metal fan Duane Roy was on to talk about his book "Castle Stories: A Rock N' Roll Scrapbook", which details the concert history from the old Castle Farms in Charlevoix, Michigan! I've already plugged the book on here, but it's worth mentioning again, especially with this cool radio feature that Duane got on Rock 101! Details on how to buy "Castle Stories" at this location, and check out Scott Cook and Duane Roy on "The Hair Scare" immediately below!



And finally, for those of you Kiss fans still on the hunt for a ticket for the December 15th show with Garden of Bedlam at The Essar Center, I have discovered a possible way to get tickets! When browsing the Entertainment page on SooToday, I saw listings on the entertainment schedule hyping this: The Upper Deck Bar & Grill above The Canadian Nightclub is holding a draw for a chance to win two Kiss tickets! Just head upstairs at The Canadian A.S.A.P. to fill out a ballot for your chance to win! The entries are drawn ONE WEEK FROM TODAY (December 14th) at midnight, so if you want to take a chance on this draw, head to The Canadian today! My source is every link on the "What's Happening" area of the entertainment page that says "Draw for 2 KISS tickets!!" That's all for tonight, stay tuned for my preview of tomorrow's Three Days Grace concert later today! Thanks everyone!