Tarnished Concert Previews, A New Original Song, And Lots Of Recent Updates!!

Here's a rarity during the pandemic: TWO posts in ONE day! Due to the craziness of the Rotaryfest drive-thru weekend, I completely forgot about a pair of concerts taking place this weekend in Michigan's Eastern Upper Peninsula, so let's rush one more post before I'm partially late to the party! To round things out, we do have a new video and some recent news and notes to touch on, but here's what you should know!

Sault Michigan hard rock trio Tarnished will make their first post-lockdown appearances at The Northern Pines Lounge at the St. Ignace Kewadin Casino TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT! Originally announced last month by the band, with Kewadin confirming these and much more on their website, these shows were only minimally promoted by the band online this week, which is kind of odd given the locale. In any event, Alex, Nathan, and Josh have been honing their craft in various Northern Michigan gigs (largely outside of the E.U.P.) as of late, so hopefully their return to local quarters will prove a success with strong hard rocking covers and originals this weekend! Tonight & tomorrow's shows are at 9:00 PM with no cover charges or age limits, but please respect any public health guidelines at the casino to ensure everyone's safety. See above for more details, and here's Tarnished live!

Next up, here's a new original song from Inner City Surfers bassist/ex-Role Models frontman Brad Example's YouTube channel entitled "Reckless Life", but he had help to make this one from two familiar faces. Not only did his Surfers bandmate Dustin Jones mix, master, and produce the song (presumably at Mission Control Studios), but Slumshine frontman and prolific local punk musician Brenton Ellis provides guest vocals! This is reminiscent tonally of Brad's Atikokan-era solo music, where it's not overly heavy or punk inspired, but his gritty vocals add that extra something, and Brent's in-your-face delivery on the second verse sounds extracted from one of his old bands! The music is laid back with a good groove, almost reminding me of a 1990s trip hop song, though the video (featuring slow motion footage of a few conflicted guys seemingly contemplating their future) is open for interpretation. but seems to play into the lyrics a bit.

Fun song while it lasts (it's over in no time at all), but if you like Brad's modern-day solo output, you'll like what's on offer here, so give "Reckless Life" a look below, and hopefully we hear more from him solo and/or with The Inner City Surfers in the near future!

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

 

• A local singer named Drew Borchardt is looking to join or start a new band, and while he listens to everything from country to metal, he is looking to sing rather than scream or growl. Drew isn't an established local name (he is from Thunder Bay), but he has 15 years of experience singing in bands there like John Thomas, and he included a video of him covering Journey's "Wheel In The Sky" in concert in the comments of his Musicians Wanted Facebook group post from June 24th. Drew does have talent, and while he has attracted interest already, click here or above for more details!
• In their newest Facebook page postings, Handsome Sandwich have revealed that their planned debut album will be titled "Lettuce", and it is currently in pre-production at Unsalted Audio as of June 27th with producer Dustin Goodall, and no less than Treble Charger guitarist Bill Priddle is helping out as well! Other than that, all we have are teaser photos, but it's great to see that plans are quickly coming together for their new lineup! Stay tuned for updates!
• St. Ignace, Michigan progressive metal band Heavy Lies The Crown belatedly uploaded their debut EP "Scatter Brain" to their YouTube channel earlier this week, notably including lyrics for all four songs in the description and an alternate album cover that is way more to the left than what was on physical copies. Good to see the EP getting some more exposure, and hopefully their new album is still making solid progress behind the scenes!
  
• After a month or so of vague postings and meme shares, Sault Ontario noise metal solo project Molten Imp teased that they were working on a cover of Deep Purple's "Space Truckin'"that is 75% done and would feature guest vocals, but opted to hold it from completion after discovering that industrial metal legends Ministry (a personal influence of Boyd's) already covered it on their 2008 covers album "Cover Up". If it's different enough to stand alone, I don't see why Molten Imp's version can't come out, but voice your opinion either way on their Facebook page!
• Local punk trio Redundant revealed on their Facebook page on Tuesday that they are "hard at work at new material" (you can decide for yourself if anyone wore Crocs while songwriting), before plugging the rescheduled Buckcherry concert at Soo Blaster on October 19th, which they are still opening, as the show has seen a renewed social media push now that the pandemic is where it is in the province. Click here for full details on the show as of July 16th!
• New Sault Michigan hard rock quartet Rhythm & Brews do appear to have enlisted ex-415E bassist Brett Blackwood to replace Chris Leask in their lineup, as per tags from a photo of their debut concert on guitarist Chris Hubbard's personal Facebook page. My hunch was correct about the bassist's identity, but given his longer hair than I was used to, I didn't want to immediately say 100% that this was Brett until more confirmation turned up. Stay tuned for info on when Rhythm & Brews will hit the stage next!
  

 

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