Mike Haggith Album & Live-Stream Updates, Plus New Sault Michigan-Area Videos!!

Here's a seemingly all-too-rare news post on this Tuesday evening, which is neatly divided between the Twin Saults, with new videos from two distinct E.U.P,. acts to round things out with, but let's start with lots of recent updates from a popular musician who appears to have a lot in the works!

Let's lead off with the latest from prolific local/Thompson, Manitoba alternative/hard rock musician Mike Haggith, who has been quiet and/or cryptic about his solo music plans for most of 2021, but we are learning more about what he's doing next! In between his semi-regular series of "morning jam" song recommendations, he has been more open about current and future plans this fall, and he may have gleaned some teasers in an interview he did with Adrian Vilaca on local internet radio station The Borderline when he was visiting in the Soo last month, but as best as I can tell, that interview is not yet available to stream on the station's website. We'll let you know when/if it gets posted there! As of September 25th, Mike was trying to update the history section on his Facebook page, while on Wednesday, he announced there that he will be resuming his scheduled Facebook live-stream concerts!

Fans may recall these as Mike's series of fourteen #LockdownLive at-home concerts, which primarily took place weekly from March-June 2020 during the first pandemic lockdown (often with succeeding post-shows), but when the lockdown ended, Mike's plans to do the series monthly led to only one further installment last August. After a 14 month hiatus, Mike will pick things back up on Sunday, October 24th at 7:30 PM, and he is planning to reinstate the weekly contest where the person who shares the video the most times gets to pick a mandatory cover song for the following week, as well as some form of a recurring giveaway. Great news, I did miss his live-streams, and tune in on the 24th to see what Mike has in store! On Thursday, Mike floated the idea of resuming his planned re-recording of his 2012 CD "Neighbourhood Watch", so give Mike feedback if you'd like to hear the revisiting of theat album still!

And as the picture above may indicate, the release of Mike's long-delayed next studio album "Bridges" is nearing, and with CD and vinyl copies to boot! A contest is underway to win a one-off test printing of the album on vinyl for anyone who likes, shares, and tags a friend in the post about the giveaway, and the winner will be unveiled during the livestream on the 24th. Depending on when the album gets released, you could be hearing "Bridges" before anyone else if you win! Mike did tease the vinyl pressing in this Facebook video on September 24th featuring 30 seconds of live audio off the turntable. Very cool, so stay tuned for full updates, and see more above & below!

Next up, let's head to Michigan's Eastern Upper Peninsula for a new music video from St. Ignace progressive metal band Heavy Lies The Crown's YouTube channel! Premiered there on Friday in another scheduled upload, this is for their song "Every Step Of The Way", which was previously uploaded in audio form only this past winter (showing how long their album has been in the works), but what is there to see in the video proper? Shot in a room with dark blue lighting and band members lit in green, you primarily see them performing one at a time in front of the same square patterened wall, albeit with trippy post-production effects peppered throughout. About 20 seconds at the end are reserved for a clip of the guys jamming in studio with ominous background music rather than the real audio, plus reminders to subscribe to their channel. Solid video overall that will help build anticipation for their album release, but is that all from their camp?

No, as their Facebook page has seen some sporadic updates this fall, including this 10 second video featuring a fragment of Brandon clean singing on one of their studio tracks, this 21 second video of Nathan jamming while sitting at a computer, a couple of merchandise giveaways, and some behind the scenes photos from the "Voices" video shoot. As of October 2nd, Heavy Lies The Crown's new album was "almost ready for release", and that it's on-sale date would follow "very soon", so of course, we will keep you guys posted whenever that occurs! Give H.L.T.C.'s new music video a look below, and get more updates on the new album above!

Finally, here's a new video from local classical metal project Theatre of Night's Facebook page, marking their first post there in nine months! Uploaded on October 2nd, this comes from what keyboardist Craig Harrison called "just a little writing session in Texas", though I have no idea if he was/is there for a vacation or for something longer term. The 30 second clip features Craig playing an original piano piece that is tagged as being "emotional music" and "Cusack music", so take that for what it's worth. Not "metal" by any stretch, but it's well performed and suits the intended mood, so give it a look below, and we'll let you know if Theatre of Night bring back their Christmas tour this year in some form!

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