Local Metal Video Showcase!!

News has been somewhat slow as of late, but I have cobbled together a video-centric post on this Sunday morning, largely on Sault Michigan acts. Alongside some new YouTube song postings and a familiar group from a recent concert, let's start with a new video from local classical/metal band Theatre of Night, who filmed a special televised performance on Grand Rapids-area cable access channel GRTV on Friday! I am not familiar with the channel to know if this was part of a specific program or not, let alone when you can catch it on TV there or online, but we do have a video look at them from that day, as shared to Theatre of Night's Facebook group via bassist Scott Andringa's wife Sara's personal Facebook page. The performance is of the Christmas carol "We Three Kings", and is our first video look at the band with Rachel Mender on vocals for this holiday season. The performance is solid, and while there is muffled audio, the final TV copy will no doubt remedy that.

You also get a brief look at the actual TV camera view late, and you do get a sense of their live concert scale this year, including Scott hitting a big drum for some added percussion dramatics, so one assumes this will be similar to what local fans see next month. In the meantime, give (part of?) Theatre of Night's GRTV performance a look below!



Next up, here's a 40 minute long live-streamed video of a one-off band from The Superior Cafe's Musicians Showcase event over the Halloween weekend! Alongside Project 906 & Raven Griffin, fans that night saw Das Spööky, who are actually a de facto reunion of the final full lineup of the 2013-2014 local alt-hard rock trio Plastic, with Crooked Music owner Zac Crook on vocals & guitar, Matt Williams on bass, and Superior Cafe manager Aaron DePalma on drums (Matt & Aaron have also served as instructors at Crooked Music themselves.) Plastic were a solid band that deserved a longer run, and while I have heard no public word about "Das Spööky" being more than a one-off, it's nice to see the guys back at it! As uploaded to Crooked Music's Facebook page three weeks ago, you'll see the guys covering (in order) The Misfits' "Ghouls Night Out", Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London", The Misfits' "London Dungeon", The White Stripes' "Dead Leaves & The Dirty Ground",  ...

...The Ramones' "Pet Sematary", The Who's "Boris the Spider", five more Misfits songs ("Return of the Fly", "Teenagers From Mars", "Children in Heat", "Horror Business", and "We Bite"), and an interpretation of Bobby Pickett's "Monster Mash" in almost a slow jazz/Wesley Willis-hybrid style, if you can make sense of that. If you love Danzig-era Misfits, this video will be extra notable, but Das Spooky/Plastic deliver a fun set full of Halloween-alluding covers, and while the vertical camera angle and dark lighting don't help, you should get enjoyment out of this set! Give Das Spooky a look below, and click here to see their White Stripes cover rehearsed that morning!



Also today, let's take a brief detour to Sault Ontario for the long awaited upload of local goregrind solo project Crucify the Whore's half of their "A Couple of Degenerate Bastards" split with Chase Wigmore from earlier this year! This was posted to label Blood Shed Productions' YouTube channel on November 7th, and it features 11 songs with such names as "Sudafederal Offense", "26", and "Big Boy in a Small Pond". Of course, some titles and lyrics could be seen as offensive by some readers, which is nothing new for C.T.W. original material, but these songs are slightly longer on average than you may expect, as their average length is about 2:35. The music on display here retains the usual minimalist grind hallmarks of Tyler's sound, including pig squeal vocals and noise effects, so this won't win over any prior detractors, but Blood Shed diehards should like the new music, and give it a listen if you want below!



Finally, here's the latest from Dafter, Michigan solo hard rock musician Kenneth "SweetKenny" Sutton, who is still our likely CD review topic for this month, but what has he been up to lately? While his album focus as of late has been towards his scores, he has posted five singles online this year that (largely) aren't attached to a credited new studio album, which you can stream at his website. Four are entitled "Pork N' Beans" (featuring guest guitarist Jamie Woodfin Jr.), "American Monster" (a 10 minute long score composition), and "Superhero", while two songs were posted for an intended album named "For The Love Of Funk", namely "Her Mama Put The Funk On Me" & "The Landing of George Funk", the latter about a fictional astronaut. Aside from the funk elements, these retain Ken's usual hard/jam rock hallmarks, albeit with some requisite score-fitting drama, and fans should give them a listen! In the meantime, SweetKenny's YouTube channel has seem some scattered updates this year, so what's new there?

Much of his recent postings there have been towards demonstrating his original material (largely songs I don't recall being released previously) as soundtrack music to outside video footage, often with attractive women in revealing clothing, as you can see in this "Monster" demo reel, this song for a planned video game, and this copy of his "Epic" song "Maddy's March" with a glossy presentation. Hopefully these uploads are getting Ken some attention in the score and soundtrack arena, but here's his "Her Mama Put The Funk On Me" video, and stay tuned for more from SweetKenny when it rolls in!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and updates on the site this week! Thanks everyone!