Mikey & His Uke, Handsome Sandwich, Spades GT, And Wyld Stallyns Updates!!

Here's a new news post late on this Friday night, which features some new videos from some very familiar faces in the Soo and from afar, plus an entertaining and extensive article on a fast rising local band! There's a lot to get to, so here's what you should know!

The newest Mikey & His Uke cover video was posted to the project's YouTube channel on Valentine's Day, so what should you know here? A cover of The Bouncing Souls' "True Believers", this once again features the Soo's own Mikey Hawdon on guitar and (initially) ukelele, with the stacked lineup from afar also including Movin' In Stereo singer Scott Lamb (who also mixed the recordings here), Millencolin guitarist Matthias Farm, The Rabble guitarist Chazz Valentine, Slick Shoes bassist Jeremiah Brown, and MxPx drummer Yuri Ruley. Also, Mikey's Bookclub bandmate Erin Antonello guest stars on trumpet during the ukelele intro, a rare appearance by a local musician other than Mikey in the full band era of the project. Strongly done cover as you'd expect, and with talented musicians across the board, would you expect anything less? As a Millencolin fan in particular, it's neat seeing Matthias involved, especially given where they're from!

Note that Matthias' video is recorded in the back of a moving truck in a non-wintry area, while Mikey recorded his outside in heavy snow, which is an interesting contrast! Actually, of the plugged-in full-band footage, only Chazz and Yuri's videos were filmed indoors, Punk fans won't want to miss this well edited and well mixed cover video, so check it out below!

Next up, here's a lengthy new article on local alternative hard rock quintet Handsome Sandwich, courtesy of SooToday contributor/local musician Chris Belsito yesterday! While ostensibly to promote their "Bitter" music video, it touches on many more topics, including how singer Taylor Emlaw (credited as "Tea Emlaw") describes what she thinks a "handsome sandwich" is, how new bassist Rafael Medina met the band (his debut with them was at the Northern Vibe Festival last year), the band's evolution from Johnny Belanger & Jesse Cook's 2014-2015 acoustic gigs (beginning as "Sleigher" in late 2014), how their current lineup eventually came together (ex-bassist James White is even mentioned), insights about the "Deconstructed" recording sessions ("Bitter" wasn't their original choice for the first single), the D.I.Y. nature of the "Bitter" video shoot, and the feedback that they've received on the video/song so far.

In terms of scoops, Handsome Sandwich will return to the Northern Vibe Festival in Ophir in late August (date yet to be established), mixing for the album is being handled by Joao Carvalho Mastering, some scenes from the "Bitter" shoot were done at Fort Creek (the area, not the band), and "Better Off" will be their next single to be released (complete with video) next month, with one more preview single to come in April. Also, the article says that "Deconstructed" will come out on May 6th, despite May 5th also being given as the date in other sources. It's one or the other! No word on why either date was picked, but you learn a lot about Handsome Sandwich, so give this very informative article a read above!

Also today, here's some more new updates from local/Barrie crossover thrash band Spades GT's ongoing recording sessions for their new album! Firstly, guitarist Jay Sarrazin has not left the band, which fellow guitarist Daniel Horton confirmed to me in a Facebook conversation on Wednesday. Alas, their comment about "3 out of 4 ain't bad" led to some of the confusion, but thanks to Dan for the clarification! Apparently, Jay couldn't make it into the studio with the guys this week due to outside commitments, but he did track parts for the album at home that were sent in, and you can see him playing a lead guitar part in the video embedded below, which was posted to the band's Facebook page on Thursday. The dark lighting and muffled background audio don't help, but the guitar soloing proper sounds good, and note that he is playing along to a backing track, so fans can dissect the sample for yourselves below, and stay tuned for updates!

Finally for today, here's some newly discovered videos of local funk/hard rock cover sextet The Wyld Stallyns (featuring Jack Spades GT alumni Rob Speers & Jesse Cook) in their most recent live concert! Alas, I missed this one last week (belated apologies again), but The Stallyns rocked out at The Whisky Barrel on Gore Street this past Friday, and if you missed it too, never fear, as attendee Angela Erin filmed four videos from the set! All were shared publically in comments on the band's Facebook page this past Saturday, specifically in the comment thread of the share of this show's poster. I'm having no luck linking to or embedding the videos here, so click here to see all four at once. The videos include covers of The Eagles' "Take It Easy", J.J. Cale's "Cocaine", The Outfield's "Your Love" (the only one with singer Christina Speers on sole lead vocals), and Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love".

Notably, the videos are all sans drummer Derek Turner and saxophonist Josh Norling for unannounced reasons, and while shorthanded gigs at The Whisky Barrel are not uncommon, the above picture (featuring guest drummer & fellow Spades alum Johnny Belanger) proves that they can all fit on the small stage there. Despite the short runtimes (no longer than 40 seconds apiece) and vertical camera angles, The Wyld Stallyns sound good and melodic in the ways you hope for, so give all four clips a watch above, and stay tuned for more news on the site soon! Thanks everyone!