Borderline Radio Updates, New Videos From Sault Michigan, And Much More!!

75 straight days of Sault Metal Scene posts, now there's a neat milestone! My 31st birthday is tomorrow, and while I am planning to take the day off from the SMS as usual on May 31st each year, I may keep the streak going with an auto-post of some kind. In the meantime, we have some new videos from across the river, some assorted short stories, and some long overdue coverage of a local internet radio station, so here's what you should know!

I have slacked long enough on recent on-air appearances and rotation from local hard rock and punk musicians on new local internet radio station The Borderline Radio, so let's look at what they've been airing in this regard! Earlier this month, The Borderline added Mike Haggith's new album "If Ever Comes The Day" in full to their rotation (before it's release date, even), and Mike was interviewed by Mike Severin on Sev's Cellar on May 12th. Similarly, A Dire Setback's self-titled debut album got a full playback premiere on The Borderline late last month, though I don't believe they were interviewed on air. On May 19th, Jack Spades frontman J.D. Pearce (credited under his Frightlight stage name Johnny Pints) was interviewed for an episode of Sev's Cellar, while Fluid 5ive frontman Colin Nelson was interviewed by "driver" Mike Robillard on The Taxi Passenger Revue on April 13th. Of course, visit the Mike's Lunch Music Facebook group for more episode and playlist descriptions from this year.

Of course, the heavily local-centric rotation on The Borderline is a huge calling card for it, and if you love the idea of local music almost 24/7, you will definitely want to tune in at this link! In fact, they just played a song by defunct hard rock quartet Redefined on there (I still have to find a copy of "Risk & Uncertainty" one of these days.) Unfortunately, the station still doesn't have an outlet for on-demand copies of old shows, and I don't believe they're on a TuneIn Radio-esque service yet, but maybe in time.

Next up, let's head across to Sault Michigan to look at the last hard rock cover videos on Paradise Excuse frontman Mark Bowen's YouTube channel that we hadn't looked at yet! Last August, Mark uploaded a whopping thirteen videos of his eponymous Mark Bowen Band playing outdoors at the Wood-Dock Music Festival in Mackinac Island. This newspaper clipping from a later event seems to confirm that Mark is joined here by his Paradise Excuse bandmate Jason Haske, plus drummers Donny Sorenson (on the full kit) and Matt Myers (on the hand drums). Their wildly varying set on this day included renditions of Maroon 5's "Moves Like Jagger", The Stray Cats' "Stray Cat Strut", The Eagles' "One Of These Nights" & "Hotel California", Bob Seger's "Night Moves", Van Morrison's "Moondance" in two chunks (seen here & here), Pery Ribeiro's "The Girl From Ipanema", Dean Martin's "Sway", Journey's 'Don't Stop Believin'", Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy", ...

...James Brown's "I Feel Good", and as embedded below, Greta Van Fleet's "You're The One I Need". It's a shame that there's not more of a consistent crowd near where the band's set up, but the filmer did get some different angles of the guys in action, and the audio's nice and clear! While this isn't an optimal showcase for fans of Mark's heavier side, the performances are solid overall and very fan friendly, so give these a watch above and below!



Lastly from Mark's heavier videos we haven't looked at yet, he posted this video of him "shredding with low gain" back in August 2018. If you're only familiar with him fronting cover-centric bands, this nicely controlled guitar solo is a nice showcase of his skills, and it'd be interesting to see him post more clips like this! Give it a look below!



Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news items from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist name:

• I have moved Sault Ontario death metal duo Brutally Fatal back to our inactive band links, as they have not issued a public update since (self-deprecatingly) promoting an album release on their Facebook page on May 26th of last year, which has been their only public update of any kind since releasing their free "Blood of the Devil" album in February 2017. Hopefully we hear more music from Austin down the road, but follow Tyler's ongoing prolific work at Blood Shed Productions to see what he's working on!
• In their first Facebook page post since hyping a live-stream in March that never came, local punk/metal quintet Jack Spades announced on May 18th that they have "got some lineup news coming, and we are stoked!" They have not offered specifics yet, but note that Tiffany does still live out of town, and I have read personal Facebook postings in the past week alluding to another band member moving from the area. We'll let you know what's changing in the Spades camp when it goes public!
• Former Caveman Morrison/Half Past bassist Ryan Disano (Bryan Dychanno on Facebook) is looking to join or form a local band with a regular practice schedule, as per his Musicians Wanted Facebook group post on May 18th. I won't get into any social distancing arguments here, but he is a solid bassist, and if you're interested, message Ryan at this link or above for more details! Note that comments there asked if he'd be interested in rejoining a reunited Winkstinger, but that band has not publically returned otherwise.

That's all for today, but stay tuned for a new news post either tomorrow or on Monday! Thanks everyone!