Toystock & Tarnished Updates, Plus More News & Notes!!

Here is our newest post on the SMS, keeping with our recent schedule of having a new SMS post every three days due to a lack of new material. At the moment, I am forecasting this month's YouTube Channel Profile hitting the site on Wednesday, but if I catch word of any short notice concerts for the upcoming weekend, I could bump the feature post ahead to likely end this very slow month. Time will tell, but let's kick things off with a big concert cancellation, followed by some more recent updates!

Despite an optimistic teaser post on their Facebook page on November 4th, the ninth annual Toystock charity concert has been cancelled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In a post shared from organizer/performer Greg Simpson's personal Facebook page yesterday, he noted that they were looking into hosting Toystock as a live-streamed event with one band playing online each day over a 10 day span, but fears from organizers and performers of coronavirus case increases, restrictions on indoor gathering allowances, and a potential second lockdown have led to this decision, as well as the reality of fundraising websites needing to take a percentage of donations. I fully understand Greg and company's call, especially if it hinders their ability to entertain while also facilitating Christmas Cheer donations as usual. That said, Greg promises to bring back "the biggest and best Toystock event yet" in 2021, and he strongly encourages everyone to donate new/unopened items to Christmas Cheer.

Were it not for COVID-19, Toystock IX likely would have been held this coming Sunday at The Grand Gardens North, FYI. This is definitely a disappointing announcement, but if you can't give Toystock your all for the great cause it supports, especially as a kick-off to Christmas season, postponing it to next year does make sense in that way. See above for more details on the Toystock cancellation, and donate what you can for Christmas Cheer to make the holidays brighter for those in need!

Next up, here's the latest from Sault Michigan hard rock quartet Tarnished, starting with the launch of their own YouTube channel! So far, there are four videos uploaded there, all re-shares from Facebook, including the previously seen behind-the-scenes clip from the "Metalyn" music video shoot. The most substantial of the others is embedded below, and it relates to a new merchandise give-away contest that the guys started last week, as teased via a series of Facebook page-exclusive videos. These were all short and primarily feature new pictures of band members alongside a lot of post-production clip-art and logos, with last Sunday's video's description noting that it has a "victory selfie from finishing recording at our studio." Did they record more studio material, or is this referencing work on the music video? Only one of the teaser clips actually has motion, namely the last one featuring a pan and scan of wintry conditions before bassist Josh Fair hypes the giveaway.

That all said, what should you know about the actual merch give-away? In the video, Tarnished (minus Gary) announced that they will hold draws starting on Wednesday, December 2nd for five merchandise bundles, and you can enter by liking, sharing, and/or commenting on the video, which will count for up to three entries. The five bundles will include signed copies of their debut CD "Down To The Wire" and frontman Alex Traynor's solo album "Crazy World", t-shirts, wristbands, and/or guitar picks, with one winner getting everything, and they'll do another set of giveaways if the video is shared 10,000 times. This sounds like a fun idea during this low point of the pandemic, and it may be a remedy for Tarnished to disperse some of their merchandise when they can't sell it live. In a follow-up "After Hours" video, you can see Alex, Josh, and Nathan jokingly discussing what their next plans are, albeit with some honesty about the pandemic-hit 2020 calendar.

There are more videos from Tarnished's Facebook and YouTube pages to share here, but to spread things out and ensure content for posts next week, I'll hold them for now. Tarnished are doing what they can to keep up fan interest at a rough point in the pandemic, and this contest should definitely help, so get more details on their current activity above & below!

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

• Local hard rock solo project Hubbard announced on their Facebook page last month that they have "been fine-tuning a lot of songs in the past few weeks", that there is "fun stuff to come next year", and to "stick around for new music". Given Chris' pedigree as a guitarist and his familiar local band work, the sporadic updates from his solo work are very surprising, but fingers crossed we hear more of his new original content in the near future!
  
• Back on June 1st, The Sault Community Theatre Centre's Facebook page announced that the Queen: It's A Kinda Magic tribute concert in Sault Ontario has been rescheduled for Wednesday, June 2nd of next year, exactly 50 weeks from the original June 17th date, obviously called off due to COVID-19. Hopefully the new date holds up, as this tribute band deliver the goods! Tickets bought for the original date should be honoured, and contact the S.C.T.C. box office for details on refunds if so desired.
• Local punk trio Redundant announced on their Facebook page on November 1st that they "spent some time writing tonight" and have "new songs coming your way", while later asking fans to suggest songs that they should cover. Nice to see that the guys are staying busy this fall, and hopefully the fruits of their labour will turn up at some point soon! See above for more details!
  

That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's YouTube Channel Profile by Wednesday, unless there's some concerts to preview! Thanks everyone!