LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Tym Morrison & 415E), The Return Of The Issues, And More!!

Once again, we have news for a 64th straight day at the SMS, so what's on tap? Along with updates to one of our monthly feature series and some more recent shorter stories, we have a local metal band's return and LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS on both sides of the border, so here's what you need to know on this Tuesday evening!

Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison will return to The Road House Bar & Grill for a show on Friday, May 31st! It's odd to see a lot of advance notice like this for one of his shows here, but Tym's successful and prolific relationship with this Trunk Road restaurant/venue is working out well for his unplugged cover shows, and hopefully there's a big turnout at the end of the month! Admission should be free for this 19+ concert, and Tym will be on at 10:00 PM on the 31st. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! This should be another fun night of metal & hard rock classics from Tym Morrison at the end of May, so don't miss out on another packed night of acoustic covers, stay tuned for more from his solo work as it comes in, and stay tuned later this week for news on the Caveman Morrison band's return to the stage (sooner than you think!)

The other new concerts take place on July 12th & 13th at The Rapids Lounge at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino, as local metal/hard rock quartet 415E will take the stage! Though their online pages continue to hype a return to the stage next month following their debut at the Sebastian Bach concert in January, their first publically confirmed solo dates are in July at the Soo Kewadin. If the May dates don't pan out, we'll still see the new band featuring Splitshot & Highest of Fives alumni on stage this summer, and it will be great to see their Van Halen-influenced covers & originals back out there! These shows were quietly announced on Kewadin Casino's entertainment page in recent weeks, and just in case, no other new hard rock shows were announced at the local branches recently (unless the still unknown Sir Charge count.) The July shows should have no cover charge, 10:00 PM start times, and 21+ age limits, so check the above links for more details, and hopefully 415E rock the roof off of the lounge come July! Stay tuned for more from them!

In another recent development, do you guys remember the "derd rock" band The Issues that was active in the late 2000s? Well, they returned from a three year hiatus earlier this month! Just as a refresher, The Issues were a 2008-2010 studio-only metal project that were known for hidden identities, fake concert postings, often amusing posts, and entertaining Winkstinger-esque songs (which isn't a surprise, as Alan "Power" Wells sang for both bands), but they had been dormant until activity resumed on their Facebook page on May 3rd! Their new lineup includes singer Velvit Bretfield (a.k.a. Pillory/Lazer Queen drummer Bret Shuttleworth) and guitarist Robbie Rockit (Robert Sartini from Pillory & Crimson Crusade), along with founding members Vinyl Muto on bass and Mullet Studborne on drums, though their identities are still not clear. Their other former members have since departed, including at least two Winkstinger members, and late Pillory guitarist Andres "Denim" Duchesne.

The Issues had some creative and heavy metal & punk material in their original run, but I am curious to hear more from their current lineup, and maybe the relaunched band will play some real local concerts?I like where they were going, so check out Issues material at the links above, and stay tuned for updates!

Also, here's three recent shorter news stories from the last little while, and as always, these are in alphabetical order by artist or venue name:

• As it's now a host to two distinct local metal/hard rock shows (Bushplane Musical Madness last fall and Heavy North in September), I've added The Canadian Bushplane Heritage Center to our Sault Ontario concert venue listings on your left, so head there for contact information and their website! Here's hoping we see more shows there down the road!
• If you're curious for more details on ex-Lion Ride guitarist Mark Rand's new Cross Dog project (who are opening for The Dayglo Abortions locally in September), they are definitely Peterborough based, and they feature him on bass alongside his girlfriend Tracy Ashenden on vocals/guitar & Mark's ex-Lumbermen bandmate Mikey Reid on drums. My source is Tracy via Facebook conversations, and she told me their genre is "hardcore punk meets stoner rock fusion." Very interesting, I'm curious to hear more!
• Local singer Sara Densmore is apparently looking to get into a band, and while she emphasized that she likes country, she also can pull off Evanescence, Queen, and Paramore material. If you're interested in seeing if she'd fit your band, message her at this location or see her post on the Musicians Wanted Facebook group from April 18th!

Finally for today, here's some recent updates to our Battle of the Bands Rewind Profiles! First, on our Skid Row Battle profile, I updated the section on what the competitors did post-battle to reflect the return of Free Beer (now Sarah's Valley) and their run at the Rockstar Bar Battle of the Bands this past month, along with notes on the likely demise of Sue Inside. I also added extra details for winners Sense of Truth's run at the Kiss Battle of the Bands the following year, and noted guitarist Steve Myers' podium run with The Pesto Shirts at the Rockstar Bar Battle. Finally, I replaced The Business Suit Trappers in the section on performers' later bands with guitarist Mike Yakasovich's current punk band Crawfather. And for updates to our 2008 Case's Music Battle profile, I noted Behind Society drummer Josh Hatherley's battle finals run with Late & Loud this month, while also making some possibly confusing changes to the section on competitors' later bands. To sum it up, I renamed Unbound to their current name With Blood Build Character, while I removed the original band with that name and replaced them with their predecessors March Into Regression, who were longer lived & played live more. Stay tuned for more updates to profiles in this series soon!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news hopefully tomorrow, and if not, weekend concert previews on Thursday! Thanks everyone!