LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Tym Morrison), Plus New Videos!!

I have a new news post for your Sunday morning reading, and while it's mostly devoted to new videos, we have a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT to take note of first, so here's what you should know!

Local classic/hard rock solo musician Tym Morrison will play his first public concert of 2023 with an acoustic matinee gig TODAY at Reggie's Place! Apologies for the short notice, Tym only announced this event via its Facebook event page yesterday, though the venue's Facebook page mentioned it on Tuesday. Tym has been unusually quiet as far as live gigs go as of late, last hearing of him belatedly playing at a curling bonspiel in November, with his last Reggie's show coming in October. Hopefully all's well with him, and it's good to see him back out there with his deep setlist of rock classics at this familiar downtown venue TODAY! Remember, Tym tends to play Sunday matinees at Reggie's rather than nighttime concerts, he just hasn't done so since the fall. TODAY'S festivities are at 3:00 PM with no cover charge and a 19+ age limit. See above for more details, and here's Tym live!

Next up, here's the newest collaborative cover video from local punk project Mikey & His Uke's YouTube channel! Uploaded there on Thursday, this sees Mikey Hawdon back on ukelele (at first) and guitar covering Propagandhi's "Back To The Motor League", alongside Belvedere frontman Steven Rawles, Lagwagon guitarist Chris Rest, Pulley bassist Tyler Rebbe, and Papa Roach drummer/fellow Pulley alum Tony Palermo. For pure musical quality & my preferences, this is my favourite Mikey & His Uke cover since Mikey moved back home last year! Steven nails Chris Hannah's vocal style, and everyone handles this cover very nicely, so fans of early Propagandhi (and their October 2005 show at The Oddfellows Hall) will be in good hands! Without spoiling, extra local points for where Mikey filmed his electric guitar scenes. Very well performed and edited as you'd expect, so definitely check this out below, and stay tuned for more from Mikey!

Also, here's a new cover of Neil Young's "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)" courtesy of the ever prolific Chase Wigmore's YouTube channel last month! As close to folk punk as anything he's posted to YouTube as of late, this video is heavily filtered as usual, coming across as very grainy with cryptic pictures of the wilderness and deer rapidly changing overtop. This is an intense performance that suits the original's proto-grunge nature, with Chase even layering in some screams and some of his own trademark rapid guitar mastery, but his normal clean singing is often very quiet and hard to hear on normal volume levels. Give this cover a watch below!

Let's close with the latest from local/Toronto hard rock solo project Stone Smyth, who have been keeping busy in the studio since we last talked about them in the fall! As you may recall, the former StrykerGC posts samples of their songs on their YouTube channel accompanied by music videos made up of stock footage, often with teasers towards these songs being featured on an album/their planned debut concert tour, but despite references to posting tour dates on their Reverbnation page, nothing of the sort is public yet. Project leader Troy Isaac had previously teased that they would have 15 songs for their full live setlist, and all 15 can now be heard in full on Spotify. YouTube has the requisite 30 or 60 second music video samples, and since our last write-up on Stone Smyth, Troy has posted seven compilation videos of those samples ranging from 7-12 minutes in length, which is a handy way to watch most at once!

I'll embed "Compilation #14" here, which leads off with Stone Smyth's then-newest song "Lovin' You", as well as the conservative politically themed "Don & Ron For President", a presumed companion to the earlier "Uncle Ted For President". I try and keep the SMS apolitical, so just a heads up that these are partisan in tone and not written ironically. The music on offer is well written and will appeal to classic-leaning hard rock fans, but as I've said before, the processing on Troy's vocals is not ideal. Check out Stone Smyth's 15 original songs, in full or in part, above & below!

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