I could have swore they were gonna be in-studio for the forseeable future, but hey, we thought the same about Garden of Bedlam before they booked an upcoming show, so yeah, here's what I know so far! According to new local band Groove Committee's Facebook group, local hard rockers Sense of Truth are apparently returning to the stage on February 26th! The show will be at The Canadian Nightclub, with support from Groove Committee. Guitarist Steve Myers has since confirmed the show on the band's Facebook group. This will be Sense of Truth's first concert since backing up Ultraviolence last month at Coch's Corner! I could have swore they wouldn't be back live anytime soon thanks to the recording of their EP, but hey, any concert news is welcome! I won't say I can go cause the last 3 times I got excited about a Sense of Truth concert, it backfired when something came up or I went away that same weekend. Let me just say this: If I can go, I will be one happy headbanger! I'll keep you posted as I hear more!As for that band Groove Committee, they appear to be the new project from former Scary Uncles guitarist Matt Sibilo. I can't confirm with any definite accuracy if they'd be "hard rock" enough for the SMS, but the band does suggest that they could play Pearl Jam and Led Zeppelin live...as well as Ween and Modest Mouse. We'll have to see about these guys! Check out their Facebook group at this location!
Now let's discuss the local radio situation, which sure has a lot of people up in arms. Sovereign Communications, the local company that owns Rock 101, Oldies 93, and two local AM stations, has purchased even more of the Upper Peninsula radio universe from Northern Star Broadcasting, including two more local stations: 99.5 YES FM and Big Country 105.5, as well as AM station Talk Radio 1400. 97.9 Classic Rock: The Bear will remain under ownership of Northern Star Broadcasting to avoid FCC violations for Sovereign's concentration of the local market, though reports suggest that Northern Star are getting out of the broadcast business, so The Bear's days could be numbered. The new purchases will not impact Sault Ontario radio stations, WLSO, or any local Christian/adult contemporary stations, as they aren't owned by Northern Star. On the surface, there may seem to be nothing drastically different, as they haven't announced (yet) that any of the new stations will be getting any format changes. So rest easy, Rock 101 fans, nothing's going on there! But here's where we should be concerned:
4 on-air personalities from 99.5 YES FM have been laid off amid this mess. How does this impact us, a metal-centric blog? Well, two of the laid off personalities are Bad Side frontwoman and guitarist Melissa Krahnke and Jason Mapes. As you may know if you listen to YES FM, Melissa's one of the DJs on the Soo Morning Crew, while Jason manned The Afternoon Drive block on the station, as well as DJing on The Bear. I admittedly don't listen to 99.5 most of the time, mainly because of my own musical tastes. But when I do listen, I notice the good work, intelligence, and professionalism that they (and the other fired DJs, Paul VanWagoner and Scott Nason) had over at YES FM. Especially when no just reason was given for the firings, it makes you wonder what a local company was thinking in firing local radio personalities. Is there some "new direction" excuse? Are they planning top to bottom changes? Do they not like Bad Side? I don't know, but answers would be appreciated.
I know some of you guys listen to 99.5 YES FM, Bad Side, or both, so I encourage you to join the cause to hopefully get Sovereign Communications to rehire everyone let go, or at least give us a good reason why they did what they did. A few Facebook groups have popped up in support of the fired DJs, the biggest of which has over 640 members! Click here to join it and voice your opinion! Hopefully our voices can be heard! Also make note of The Bear's situation. If it's true that Northern Star wants out of radio, then The Bear is likely on it's last legs. It would either have to be bought by another radio company, or go out of business all together. I'm a fan of The Bear, as are many of you I'm sure! Jason's a great DJ over there, they air lots of great classic songs, plus they have Bob and Tom and Alice Cooper too! Someone should start a group to support saving The Bear, cause we need all the rock we can get, and it'd be a shame to lose 97.9 over something like this! Make yourselves heard! Also, check out SooToday's article on the whole local radio mess by clicking here! (Also, if you're gonna boycott anything, don't boycott Rock 101, they have no part in this, their superiors do. Boycott the new purchases for not having the DJs you miss.)(EDIT: 1:23 PM) I think we have some more news about the radio mess: Apparently Sovereign Communications bought the old Northern Star stations for the physical assets rather than personnel. The employees were fired before the sale by Northern Star, and were not picked up by Sovereign because, and I quote "there are not as many jobs available, because staff is already in place." So there was staff already in place at Sovereign in the stations you JUST bought. That does not compute. Yet there was no firings from the stations they bought in the same deal in Iron Bridge and Marquette. Uh huh. No word on The Bear's status yet. Read the new article from The Soo Evening News at this location!
Now back to Sense of Truth. The concert wasn't why I mentioned I had news on them on Monday, I didn't hear about that until this morning. No, I had stuff about the recording of their EP! I've heard more than what I'm telling you, but I'm only going to report on what they've announced. Monday, Sense of Truth hit the studio with Miguel Gauthier at Stereo Soul Studios to record their debut EP, which will have 6 songs! Drummer Ryan Haryett has mentioned to be on the lookout for photos and maybe the odd video, so make sure to stay tuned to their Facebook group for anything like that! That's all I had on the Sense of Truth front! Should be a good spring/summer with new Sense of Truth and Garden of Bedlam releases coming out, both of which will get lots of press and my own reviews when they come out! I'll keep you posted!
And finally for today, Woods of Ypres updates! Firstly, you know the track listing on your copy of "Woods IV: The Green Album"? Get out your erasers, David Gold has decided to alter, lengthen, or shorten five of the track names! Here's what's different: "Shards of Love" now has the subtitle "(Hurt Forever)", "Dirty Window Of Opportunity" is now "Into Exile", with the subtitle "(Can You Get Here In 10 Days?)" still in place, "And I Am Pining (For You)" has had the "And I Am" removed, "To Long Life In The 'Limbo Union'" is now "Our Union (In Limbo)", and "Move On! (The Woman Will Always Leave The Man)" has had it's subtitle completely removed. Make edits of that where necessary so you're up to date! I even edited my review of W4 to reflect this. Thanks to this topic on the band's forum for the update. Speaking of "Woods IV", David's latest topic post on the band's forum hypes to make sure to buy and listen to the album between March 20th and June 19th, as this is the band's spring themed album, after all! He says "Let it rain! We're all in this together. ...We'll have a party at the end." Hey, I like parties! Buy the album, it's a real experience!That's all for now, more news coming very soon! Thanks everyone!
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