Local Metal/Punk Video Showcase!!

News remains glacially slow around the SMS, but I've cobbled together a video-centric post for you guys to check out on this Monday evening, including a solo cover, a new studio track, a podcast with some familiar faces, and leading off, a prominent solo artist's recent hosting gig on local TV!

Have you been wondering what local/Thompson, Manitoba alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith has been up to as of late? This won't entirely answer that, but Mike recently hosted Thompson's virtual community Christmas concert, which aired on their Shaw Spotlight affiliate yesterday! As teased via this TV commercial and this teaser video on his Facebook page, the full concert was indeed streamed online via the Shaw Community Link YouTube channel, and Mike's hosting segments are often full of bad one liners, to the point that he jokingly walks out between acts to complain about their quality! In other words, if you liked his #LockdownLive concerts, you'll be right at home in this regard! I do like that the Shaw Spotlight staff there let Mike joke around and inject some personality as host, you don't always get that!

Much like virtual concerts we've seen in the Soo this year, there is a wide array of performers from Thompson and area in this video, so local interest here may be limited unless you want to discover unknown talent. However, Mike does perform near the end of the concert (66 minutes or so in), specifically a cover of Elvis Presley's "Blue Christmas", while the concert proper closes with Mike playing a version of "Have A Holly Jolly Christmas" that goes off into a tangent about the weather in Thompson and social distancing. Looks like everything was well handled under the circumstances, so give Thompson's virtual community concert a watch below!

Next up, here's the first full song from St. Ignace, Michigan progressive metal quintet Heavy Lies The Crown's upcoming full length album! Entitled "Every Step Of The Way", this was uploaded to their YouTube channel yesterday, and it is also available on Spotify, while H.L.T.C. have teased more singles to come in advance of the release, schedule to be determined. I'll hold full comments on the song for now, pending our presumed review of the album in 2021, but give "Every Step Of The Way" a listen below!

Also, here's a bit of a surprise from Sault Ontario: a podcast from Redundant drummer Rick White's YouTube channel two weeks ago, where he interviewed his bandmates (with input by friends of the band) using funny job interview questions that he found online. This is over an hour long, so it'll be a time commitment to check out, but it's a funny and clearly unscripted listen that Redundant fans should get a kick out of, especially during this screwy time we're in right now! I wish Rick would have edited out the background hiss with Audacity or something, but give it a listen below!

Finally, veteran local hard rock/jam guitarist Mike Cliffe has posted another Christmas carol cover on his YouTube channel, this time featuring him playing "What Child Is This?" in two different acoustic tracks combined in post production. A lot of wasted space in the video proper as a result, but Mike handles this carol well in a soft & intricate way, so give it a watch below!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for a new post of some kind by Christmas Eve! Thanks everyone!