Videos & Updates From Four Different Mikes, And More Recent Notes!!

We're taking a Mike-heavy turn with our final news post of February 2018, as four local hard rock solo artists named Mike are featured in today's post in varying extents! Within, you'll find videos, general updates, and even some shorter updates from a couple of bands with no Mike involved, so here's what you should know, starting with former Din frontman/Haggith drummer Mike Haggith's newest solo original song! Posted to his Facebook page back on February 17th (apologies for the delay), the song is called "Bridges", and it's connected to both his wish to have a bridge to connect everyone he knows and loves that lives far away, while also acknowledging that people in despair can jump off bridges. An acoustic demo via this live performance clip, this is a softer ballad in this form, with Mike using a soft higher vocal register, and it's well performed with good emotion, so fans of Mike's more reserved music should take to this one! Give it a look below, and see more above!



Next up, here's some long overdue updates from local solo hard rock musician Mike McCleary (whose new album "Weight of the Truth" was just reviewed on here yesterday, and you can stream via a Facebook video at this link!) On February 11th, Mike launched the Northern Indies Podcast in an effort to help give more Northern Ontario independent musicians and bands a platform to share and promote their music, as well as publicize resources that could benefit independent musicians as they progress in their career. Mike plans to issue bi-weekly episodes of this podcast, with the first mini-episode being on musical resources, and the second being on Bananas Guerrillas frontman Andrew Pucci's solo project. This sounds like a great idea to promote many different artists, but it's still early days for the Northern Indies Podcast, so if you'd like to submit music for future episodes, or perform/be interviewed in one, click here! Transitioning back to Mike's own music, he has posted a couple of live performance videos onto his Facebook page!

Posted two weeks ago, these are solo acoustic renditions of Mike's original songs "The Working Poor" (complete with film grain effects), and as embedded below, "Be Us" from his "Hourglass" EP. The videos lag a bit, so the audio's out of sync with the visuals, but these are solid performance that capture Mike in a raw, casual setting (fitting for laundry day), and both songs are adapted well here! Give these videos a look above and below, and stay tuned for much more from Mike next month!

 
Also today, here's a solo YouTube video from another local guitarist/podcast host named Mike, namely Audiofumes showrunner Mike Cliffe! Posted to his YouTube channel on February 17th, this clip is of Mike working on a solo song named "Zombie Cowgirl Awakes", with him playing multiple acoustic tracks simultaneously via different videos in the same window (the second comes in at 0:26.) I'd have either centered the clips or made them portrait orientation to better fill the video resolution, but for an acoustic prog rock number, this is well played and intricate, so Audiofumes loyalists should like where this is going! Check out Mike's newest video below!



Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news iems from the last while, includine one more mini write-up on another Mike! As usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist name:

• After an apparent 5 month breakup, local instrumental jam/funk/hard rock quintet Gianni Gagoots have reactivated their Facebook page along with posting a status indicating that they have "been spotted on an ice floe... from an undisclosed location", and "will be back." The status is full of their creative irreverence, and while I have no idea why they disbanded last fall, this is very positive news! The Gagoots are back in our active band links, and stay tuned for more on their 2018 reunion!
• Ex-Skull After Betrayl frontman Mike Vincent has posted three more songs from his planned second solo album onto his Bandcamp page! Entitled "Vitality", "Opprobrious", and "Sentinels", these have some wildly different imagery for the picture on their Bandcamp copies, but fans of Mike's modern technical brutality should enjoy these songs, which continue to be well performed and produced, so give them a listen above, and hopefully there's more coming!
• On Saturday, local punk trio Stegadeth posted four photos onto their Facebook page that heavily imply that they are making studio recordings of some kind. Is a debut album in the works, or are they just making professional studio copies of their original songs? This should be interesting either way, so follow along for updates from Stegadeth's camp as they roll in!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews to start another new month tomorrow! Thanks everyone!