A New Local Band, Battle Of The Bands Updates, And Much More!!

News has admittedly been kinda sporadic lately, which is half my fault due to personal commitments, but I've got a lot of stuff for today's news post, including battle of the bands updates, lots of videos from a prominent Sault Michigan band, and lots of assorted news stories, but let's start with a new local band, and also check out this month's Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile in the post below this one!

Yes, there's a new local band to touch on today, and it's The Mourning Glory, a new solo project from veteran local drummer Glen Thomas! This is a new experimental/progressive hard rock project that is different from his Flat Stanley & Wishbone fare, and though it's not a reversion to his 1980s and 1990s metal output, it's likely similar to his work in Route 69. It looks like Glen's using The Mourning Glory to experiment with an all-online distribution and promotion method, and songs may feature guest musicians if needed or asked. Influences for the project range from King's X and Rush to Porcupine Tree and Captain Beyond, and you can sample those influence via three incomplete rough demos posted on The Mourning Glory's Reverbnation page! "Dirt Cycle" is the heaviest of the three, and it has a nice slower groove, while "Traumatic Tire" has more blues influences, and "Fusion Core" is more experimental and progressive. Interesting stuff so far, but hopefully Glen posts longer and cleaner versions of these demos soon, as there's definitely something there! Stay tuned for more on The Mourning Glory as news comes in, and they're now in our Sault Ontario active band links on your left!

Next up, here's the latest updates on the Sault Humane Society Battle of the Bands on April 20th! Tickets for the event are now on sale at some extra locations, as local music stores Case's Music, Music Depot, and Northland Music, and The Rad Zone at The Wellington Square Mall have joined the Humane Society location itself and battle venue The Grand Theater as ticket junctions. Pick them up A.S.A.P. for $20 at any of the above locations! My source for the above information is the Facebook event page ran by Sykotyk Rampage, who have since confirmed that they're opening this battle only, and not closing it too. Note that their poster also includes Rock 101's logo, though whether this implies some official connection with our local rock radio station or not is currently unclear. Also newly confirmed: The battle will run from 5:00 PM to 1:00 AM on April 20th, and I have heard from Sykotyk Rampage frontman Dirk Becker (who is helping in the battle organizing) that bands will have 15 minute time limits for their set, and the band order looks to be randomly determined. Stay tuned for more information and details as they come in, as this will be a huge event, and I know I'll see you guys there next month! Check the above links for more on the event and the competing bands!

Also today is an awesome new source of videos of a prominent local band, that being Sault Michigan funk/hard rock quintet Clownsack! Activity from them has been sparse since the release of their "Funny Farm" EP last spring, but no less than 17 older videos of them in action have been posted onto YouTube in the past three weeks! These are courtesy of the YouTube channel of Broken Phonograph Media, a publishing company ran by local musician Fran Blackwood. You may recognize him from his musical talents in the local bands Electric Motor Fish and Kilgore's Army, along with work as the producer on Clownsack's latest EP and for video projects that the band has (and is) working on. His channel, which was launched last fall, is split in two directions, with half of the videos devoted to Kilgore's Army and his short film "Code Brown", and half devoted to Clownsack videos, mostly from live concerts in the mid-2000s with older lineups. These include videos from their 2005 debut concert, their sets opening for Ted Nugent in 2006 and Kiss in 2007 (both at Kewadin Casino), and videos everywhere from The Satisfied Frog across the river to Harpo's Concert Theater in Detroit! Most are of full songs, though assorted solo portions and amusing moments from some early shows also got uploads over the past few weeks.

It's great to see so many nice quality Clownsack videos posted online, as their videos were previously fairly scarce! Kudos to Fran for uploading these, though I'll note that a couple song titles are incorrect compared to what's listed on "Rotten Candy". I would like to see some post-2007 videos too, but for now, this works really well! All of these videos are worth checking out (including an early performance of "I Live In A Drawer" & a higher quality version of their "Clown Sauce" music video), so check the above links to watch all of these newly posted videos, but to share here, I've embedded one of only two live performances of their song "Sack O' Clown" from a 2006 show at The Frog, so give it a look below!



And finally for today, here's five assorted shorter news stories from the last little while, as a lot of shorter items have hit the news desk lately! As usual, these are in alphabetical order by band name:

• Local hard rock quartet Borderline Divine (formerly Stillbroke) are planning to unveil a new original song named "Vampire In The Night" shortly, along with a new official YouTube channel to host videos of them in action. My source is the band's Facebook page. Good to hear, so stay tuned for more updates as they come in!
• New Sault Michigan hard rockers Elements of Madness have already parted ways with drummer Landon Mattson, just weeks after they added him to their lineup last month. A reason for his departure wasn't announced, but if you're interested in trying out to drum for Elements of Madness, contact the band at this location!
• A local concert weekend featuring Detroit hard rockers Fifth Way (with former Saultite Zak Stelmaszek on guitar) and Brimley metal quartet Half A Man (in their first concerts in a year) is tentatively lined up for April 27th & 28th, with one hang-up: They need a venue for the April 27th show. Message Half A Man at this location if you can help, and stay tuned for more on these potential local concerts as I hear it!
• Blue Chinese metal crash punk quartet Sykotyk Rampage are the third local band confirmed for the Touch of Death Metal & Punk Festival in Cochrane, Ontario (6 hours north of Sudbury) from June 30th-July 2nd, joining fellow locals Shit Liver & RedD Monkey on this massive festival. Nice to see them play a rare out of town gig, and they should fit in well among all the chaos this summer, so keep them in mind if you're going!
• Woods of Ypres got some press in the latest episode of Extreme Metal Television, featuring brief plugs of "Woods V" and the Ypres Metal Fest on April 7th, clips of the David Gold tribute concert in Calgary last month (including Gales of Avalon's cover of "Wet Leather"), and some interview segments with performers at the event. Nice press, if brief, and I hope we see more from the Calgary tribute! Give this video a look at the above link!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news shortly, along with our Algoma University Battle profile and our "Woods V" review! Thanks everyone!