New Paid & Free Local Album Releases, New Videos, And More!!

We're back with a new news post on this Sunday morning, including a look back at an almost 20 year old cover song from a local band from a major film soundtrack, recent videos from a prominent active band, and leading off, two sudden album releases, one free and one paid! Here's what you should know!

Revived local "shield rock" duo Swampgut have quietly released a proper self-titled debut album! Posted to their Bandcamp page on Friday, this confirms the vague hand-written teasers from vocalist/drummer Frank McCormick's visual arts page, and it features 11 songs, some that were previously available via the Bandcamp "jam room sessions" and elsewhere. The Bandcamp posting clarifies some of Frank & Rob's musical roles, while also confirming related personnel, including former 12 Gauge Ready bassist Dave "Beano" Barrett as a guest on two songs, and Oh!No co-owner Alex Moore as the "non-sinister minister of information". The album was recorded at Spiderpotty Records (I presume that's their home studio) and mixed by AlgomA bandmates Boyd Rendell & Kevin Campbell at 62nd Chamber Productions, who also provided sound effects. Nice to see them at it again!

As Swampgut are a studio-only project, releasing this during the pandemic won't come off as limited, so to speak, but it does appear to be a digital exclusive, with the album running for $5 (or more) in download copies. Yes, you can stream the whole thing for free there as well. It looks like Swampgut are getting their second run going on the right foot, and this is an early front-runner for this month's CD review at the SMS! Buy or stream Swampgut's true debut album above, and stay tuned for more from their camp!

Next up, let's stay in the realm of new album releases (albeit completely free in this case), as prolific local folk punk/metal musician Chase Wigmore has posted another free "album" to his YouTube channel! Basically an EP given it's 20 minute length, this is entitled "Ruins Of Life", and is credited mononymously under his last name. This appears to be one of the acoustic albums that Chase has teased on social media, but don't worry, this is basically an acoustic black metal release, with all of the manic guitarwork and shrieking vocals you could ask for. If you happen to like bands like Impaled Northern Moonforest, you'll be right at home with "Ruins Of Life"! Like his last few "album" releases, this is not for sale, but give Chase's new batch of original tunes a listen for free below!

Also, let's head to Sault Michigan to complete our look at local hard rock band Tarnished's TikTok video uploads so far! As of this writing, nothing new has been uploaded in the past month, though whether this is due to their focusing on recording their single or another factor is not for me to say. In any event, I still cannot get the TikTok video embed code to work on the SMS. On January 12th, frontman Alex Traynor starred in this non-musical video about paying it forward after his car got hit in a minor accident, while two days later, we got to see bassist Josh Fair's dog Barkley having a play date (very cute!) A January 17th slideshow video celebrated Tarnished hitting 200 TikTok followers, and the next day, we got to see their improvised quarantine recording studio in a surprise location, plus a hint from Alex towards something coming up tied into The Mandalorian, details forthcoming.

After a fourth installment of their series "A Note In Review" (with help from Barkley) on the 20th, uploads slowed to a crawl, including a video of Alex & Josh making ice cream (for real) on the 28th, and lastly, a video from February 7th of the guys working on their new single "SDR&R" in studio alongside producer Ryan Nicklas, with Alex playing guitar & drums in the clip. No sign of Nathan in any of these videos, but hopefully Tarnished continue posting entertaining content on TikTok when time and inspiration allows!

Finally, here's another song from local/Toronto indie/punk veterans Treble Charger that was exclusive to a compilation, and was not on one of their five studio albums! Many readers will be familiar with FUBAR, the 2002 Canadian mockumentary film about two metalhead best friends shotgunning beer and dealing with life's highs and lows. Myself, I didn't love the movie, but is has a strong cult following, and it led to a sequel and TV series. The original film had a companion soundtrack CD named "FUBAR: The Album", largely featuring covers of Canadian classic and hard rock bands by contemporary bands, interspersed with short audio clips from the movie. Most of the songs weren't in the film, but the soundtrack was well advertised at the time. Readers may best recall Sum 41 (as Pain For Pleasure) covering Helix's "Rock You", but many familiar bands like Gob and Sloan submitted covers for the CD.

Treble Charger themselves covered April Wine's "Roller", and it's done relatively faithfully to the original, which is a staple of Canadian hard rock in the 1970s, and you go get to see Greig hit some high notes that their originals didn't call for! Nothing too drastic to report otherwise, if you can picture punk-era Treble Charger covering "Roller", then you'll know what you're getting. "FUBAR: The Album" is not on Spotify, but thanks to YouTube user dfbhcf, you can hear their April Wine cover embedded below!

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