New Additions & Removals To Our Band Links, Plus More Assorted Updates!!

Before we begin today's post, I wanted to apologize for a missed concert in this weekend's concert previews, as local acoustic hard rock quartet The Wyld Stallyns returned to The Whisky Barrel on Gore Street last night. The band did not announce this date on their Facebook page in advance, but the venue did announce the show last Sunday when revealing their full slate of live entertainment on weekends this month (The Stallyns are not advertised as playing the rest of the month there, FYI). I profusely apologize again, I'd have covered this had I checked the venue page or if the band had plugged it publically, but hopefully the show was a hit!

Now, today's post features some new videos, a few assorted updates, and new additions and removals to our band links, and we'll start positively with the new band, namely Sault Michigan hard rock quartet The Nameless! As our E.U.P. readers may recall, The Nameless debuted at Three One Three on Ashmun in April to open for the also-debuting Buddy Repperton & The Camaros, but their Facebook page presence has always been somewhat cryptic, still not even revealing their full lineup. I can confirm two band members (singer/guitarist Joshua LaCoursiere and ex-Tantrym Tyme bassist Michael McLeod), but their second guitarist and drummer haven't even been named on personal Facebook posts that I've located (the drummer isn't even in most pictures!) We'll let you know if we hear anything, but the band definitely crosses the hard rock line, and we now know that via their first proper video, so what can we see there?

Visually, not a lot, due to the dark stage lighting and placement of the band members, with the second guitarist not in frame whatsoever. Good thing Joshua was in white! Their near-hour long, all-covers set features many songs familiar to FM rock radio listeners, including (in order) Three Doors Down's "Kryptonite", Lit's "My Own Worst Enemy", System of a Down's "Lonely Day", The Offspring's "The Kids Aren't Alright", Chevelle's "The Red", The Animals' "The House Of The Rising Sun", Collective Soul's "December", 30 Seconds To Mars' "The Kill (Bury Me)", Kenny Wayne Shepherd's "Blue On Black", and Seven Mary Three's "Cumbersome", before closing with an instrumental that sounded kinda familiar. The guys didn't really introduce themselves or banter with the crowd between songs aside from encouraging fans to get on the floor once or twice, but Camaros frontman David Waite did take to the mic afterwards to thank them for the set.

If you believe David, he named them The Nameless in reference to their then-lack of a name! As for The Nameless as a band, they're quite promising and I like the diversity of their set while still injecting a heavy flavour, including a surprisingly high amount of screamed backing vocals on songs that didn't have them! The lighting and tight camera angle don't help this as something to watch, but there is something here, and hopefully The Nameless can make a real name for themselves in the E.U.P. as 2022 continues! Give their full Three One Three video at this link! I can't embed it here due to Facebook flagging it for copyrighted content, likely the Theory of a Deadman song played over the venue's P.A. at the very beginning.

Next up, here's the band that I have reluctantly moved to our inactive Sault Ontario band links, namely local acoustic punk solo project Slumshine. They have not issued any public updates or played an announced concert date since releasing their newest EP "Slumlord" in May of last year, perhaps not uncoincidentally the same week as when project leader Brenton Ellis launched his current band project These Magnificent Tentacles. Active off & on from 2017-2021, Brent donned a pink knit ski mask and employed plural pronouns with Slumshine, a folk-inspired punk project who opened for touring bands like Dany Laj & The Looks, The Faps, and The River Jacks in the late 2010s, while also appearing at the third Oh!No festival in Leeburn, and releasing their demo EP "SLMSHN" exclusively on cassette tapes in July 2019. After launching their Facebook page that January, Slumshine's 2020 plans were decimated by the pandemic.

Brent did resurface in the spring of 2021 with new studio material, but a teased second cassette tape release never occurred, and it looks like Brent has switched focus to These Magnificent Tentacles since. Slumshine definitely had a unique presence that was adaptable well to unplugged-friendly venues and electric punk shows alike, and the DIY nature influenced by Brent's own visual artwork also helped set them apart. Hopefully Slumshine resurface down the road, but follow These Magnificent Tentacles to see what Brent and crew are up to nowadays!

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

• The tenth annual Algoma Ride For Autism will take place on Saturday, June 18th with The Esquire Club as a home base, and local classic rock veterans Angry Joe & The Growlers as this year's featured band. The autism awareness/support motorcycle rally was never cancelled outright during the pandemic, but this year's looks to be a complete return to 2010s form after post-lockdown adjustments the last two years, and while there's no hard rock band this year, the charitable cause is obviously most important. Click here for full details on how to attend as a supporter or rider!
• Former Project 421/Re:Born guitarist Blair Burch is looking to get back into the live music scene, specifically via "an outlet" that doesn't require distortion or growled death metal vocals. Blair is accustomed to classic hard rock, hair metal, and power metal, and he'd be most comfortable in a band with a second guitarist. He also emphasized wanting to actually play music, not in a band where that's seemingly secondary to drinking alcohol. Given Blair's experience and talents, it should be easy to find a new band or at least someone to jam with, but message him at this link or via his Musicians Wanted group post from Wednesday if you want more details on Blair's return to the scene!
  
• As it turns out, singer/guitarist Mitch Sirie did leave revived local death metal band Exploring Detritus, a fact he confirmed with me in a Facebook conversation yesterday. Mitch said that he left due to his own busy personal schedule, which lines up given his ongoing work in Handsome Sandwich, These Magnificent Tentacles, and the teased new metal band he was looking for members for, not to mention The Bear Hunters if they resurface. No word on when Exploring Detritus will confirm their vocalist status, but guitarist Dan Souliere has been providing vocals in their recent jam session clips. We'll keep you posted when more comes out!
  

 

That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's Where Are The New Albums? post tomorrow, finally, I promise! Thanks everyone!