A New Local Punk Band & Album, New Videos, And Much More!!

We have a new news post on this Monday evening, which is half devoted to a new-ish band who you may remember seeing live last fall, while we also have lots of updates from a solo project, a new live concert video, and an apology for missing a show for previewing on the site last week. Here's what you should know!

We have a new local band to add to our Sault Ontario band links, and they are noise punk duo No Funeral! You may recall seeing this band at a Dryer Fire-promoted event at Outspoken Brewing in October, and they were scheduled for last month's cancelled Matthew Nadon memorial concert, but aside from being described as an "indie noise" act, little was public about them unless you saw their October set. I knew from personal Facebook postings that former AlgomA drummer Jamie Vincent was one half of this band, but No Funeral shares far more in common musically with his mid-2010s grunge/punk duo Bad Back, but with two key differences: More of a chaotic post-hardcore bent, and that Jamie isn't the frontman here. Rather, their singer/guitarist is Connor O'Brien, who played guitar in the defunct Edmonton noise punk band Flint, of which Jamie was a member on bass from 2009 until he moved back to the Soo in 2012.

The fact that Connor isn't local may explain why we've only seen No Funeral in concert once, but this project's existence is definitely more on the local side of things than Edmonton, especially given the credits for... their debut album!? Yes, No Funeral's self-titled debut album (and if you believe Jamie's personal Facebook page, their "only" album) was released to their new Bandcamp page yesterday, and the description there says in more graphic terms that the band has been in the works for two years, with the album coming together within a two week span before coming out. The album was produced by Dustin Goodall at Unsalted Audio last fall, with Dustin supplying backing vocals, additional bass, and "musical saw", while Saultite author Mat Laporte guests on saxophone on the two closing tracks and also provided the album artwork. Much like Bad Back's Bandcamp albums, "No Funeral" is on sale on a "name your price" model.

I'll hold comment on the album pending our eventual review of it (I currently have it pencilled in for June given our current backlog), but if you miss Bad Back in particular, don't bypass No Funeral! Of course, connections to Flint will be obvious if you're familiar with that band from before Jamie moved back home (or if you've lived in Edmonton), so if you want to hear Connor & Jamie's prior output, do check out Flint's Bandcamp page, as I believe Jamie factors on all but their newest two songs posted there. As best as I can tell, No Funeral's only public online page is on Bandcamp, but give it a look to see what they bring to the table, and consider paying something for the album to support their work!

Next up, I want to apologize for a concert that we missed in this past weekend's concert previews, as local funk/hard rock cover band The Wyld Stallyns returned to The Kiln at Searchmont Resort for a matinee concert on Saturday. The band did not announce this show on their Facebook page in advance, and I only learned that it was a thing when a video from attendee TerriDollie Williams' personal Facebook page was shared to the band's seldom updated Facebook group yesterday. Sensing that this likely wasn't from their Searchmont gig in January, I learned belatedly that the resort's Facebook page plugged it on Friday. Still on short notice, but at least someone got the word out. I have to do better re: Searchmont concerts, especially with The Stallyns not always plugging their own shows on Facebook, so my apologies again, I'd have plugged it had I known! That said, how about that video?

TerriDollie filmed the band (minus saxophonist Josh Norling, who apparently missed the January Kiln show too) covering The Outfield's "Your Love" with Christina Speers on lead vocals. Not a supremely heavy choice, but everyone handles it well, and I'd hope most attendees were familiar with the original song! The video is vertically shot, but as the video is as much to highlight a young relative getting into the song as it is the band proper, I won't nitpick the angle. Cute watch in that respect too, so check it out below, and apologies again for missing The Stallyns at The Kiln... again!

Finally, here's the latest from newer local rap rock solo project Less Than Zero, so what have they been up to since the fall? First off, in November, project leader/ex-Winkstinger guitarist Jason Ladouceur changed the band's name in In The Sun. According to their Bandlab page on December 6th, the new name is intended to make the project "more inspirational", though their sound and even their existing logo remain unchanged. If you're Facebook friends with Jason, you'll know very well that he is always posting material for In The Sun, and at the moment, fifteen unique songs can be heard on Bandlab, many being tweaked as time goes on, so you can tell that this is a labour of love for him. In fact, under the name "In The Sun1", three songs are now up on Spotify, while a couple dozen videos can be seen on their YouTube channel, and Jason did tease late last year that he wants to release an In The Sun album in the near future.

Embedded below is a recent take of their song "Factory Reset" (all of their songs except a cover of Megadeth's "Sweating Bullets" are original). Jason's method of frequently posting these songs and then adding to/editing them over time is helping the songs sound heavier and more fully realized, so if you do check out In The Sun's songs, definitely listen to the newest instance of each song on Bandlab or YouTube, not the oldest ones unless you want to see the journey. Vocals can still come off as unnatural and not as aggressive as the music calls for, but again, Jason's always working on these songs, so I doubt he's done yet. Check out much more from Less Than Zero In The Sun above & below!

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