A New Local Hard Rock Band, Plus Shit Liver's Album Release!!

I know many of you guys are expecting our review of Saturday night's Dank Fest, and it's coming, but I thought I'd put a new news post up first just to keep things rolling, as yesterday was a lost day due to uploading 10 videos (which can be a slow process with Facebook.) Also, I know that Jack Spades' album saw it's digital release yesterday too, but as I don't want it to get buried in this post, we'll give it full coverage in our next news post to give it proper attention (pick it up at this link though, it sounds great!) Now, we have another local album release and a new band to mention, so here's what you need to know!

We're pleased to officially add newer local alternative/grunge trio The Pixo Control to our official coverage on the SMS! Though active since October of last year, we had stalled a bit due to many of their older song postings and shows being acoustic and softer in tone, but as you saw at Dank Fest on Saturday night, they rock hard and have enough aggression to go around! Originally named Junkie Nation, their lineup features Fever Tops frontman Michael Mikus on vocals & guitar, Steve Edwards (who replaced Anthony Marcello) on bass, and Social Suicide alum Keeghan Rosso on drums, and some fans may recognize them from a number of appearances at Superior Heights Collegiate's Funnplugged concert series since their December live debut. In the past two months, they've also played a number of dates at Gusto's Bar & Grill in the Wellington Square Mall, while the guys also rocked the east end mall on Saturday afternoon before Dank Fest as part of The Rad Zone's Record Store Day festivities.

We'll cover full thoughts on their Dank Fest set tonight, but if you like bands like Haggith and No Arrow, The Pixo Control should fit right in! They already have a solid slate of original recordings via Michael's YouTube channel, including original songs like "Quick Little Quarter" and "Tall Ships", plus Michael's solo material and some older Fever Tops songs, and there's a nice freewheeling alternative sound that definitely benefits in a live setting with an audience, but they tone things down well for softer settings. There are some rough patches at times, but they have a solid sound and energy, and as they're still young, they have plenty of time to shore up things! In fact, they already got some recent press via the new episode of Local2's web series Tuned with Donna Hopper, which leads off with Record Store Day interviews with The Rad Zone's Paul Muncaster & Evan Belleau (a.k.a. Garden of Bedlam's bassist) and store patrons (including Toronto radio host & Saultite Andrew Keachie), so be sure to check those out if you're love vinyl, as it's a huge day every April 19th!

A short clip before the episode-capping bloopers covers The Pixo Control's aforementioned Record Store Day set, which definitely shows some Nirvana influence in the featured songs, though it'd have been nice to have some interview clips with them. Another solid episode of Tuned (there's also some rap footage and non-metal concert calendar mentions midway through), but for some new full live footage of The Pixo Control, here's the guys live at Superior Heights earlier this month playing their song "Land of the Moles"! Far camera angle and scratchy audio, but it has a folksy alternative nature that works well, so check it out below!

Finally, no less than two local metal albums came out yesterday (adding to Rotopsy's demo EP from Friday, it was a huge weekend on that front), and one was the expected release of Shit Liver's self-titled debut album! Two years after sessions began, the local/St. Catharines grimecore trio posted digital copies of their self-titled album to their new Bandcamp page yesterday, as well as posting streaming copies of the album (in individual song & full album files) onto their YouTube channel. This is the final cover (the full artwork can be seen here), and the half hour album features 15 songs (more than previously indicated), and they are "You're Scared", "Shit Liver", "Sooer Livin'", "Hellen Kellers", "Shift Liver", "Pennotration", "(Friendly Old) Uncle Joe", "Fabricated Nonsense", "It's Not My Problem", "Survival of the Shittest", "Hateroleum", "Or What", "Contribute or Perish", "Drowning In Shit", and "Shit Will Prevail", with "Liverated" and old OBCD covers like "You Speak of Weak" as notable omissions.

The band said on their Facebook page yesterday that a physical release is delayed due to the holiday weekend (no word on possible release shows), but the Bandcamp digital copy is available on a "name your price" model (a'la Insipid Brutality's album), so you can pay nothing or anything you want! Though it's a little odd that they don't credit their local ties much on Bandcamp (or list any album credits there), it's great to finally see Shit Liver's album come out, as it's been far too long! Check out the full album's YouTube posting below, and pick it up at the above links, or keep posted for news on local physical availability!



That's all for now, but stay tuned TONIGHT for our Dank Fest review, plus this month's YouTube Channel Profiles tomorrow, and full coverage of Jack Spades' EP release and more in our next full news post! Thanks everyone!