Spades GT & Handsome Sandwich Updates, Plus New Videos!!

Let's keep the news and content going on this Tuesday morning with another well stuffed post, including updates and new album details from two somewhat linked local bands, plus a new rehearsal video from a band taking the stage this weekend. Here's what you should know!

Let's start with more recent updates (the Saliva show aside) from local/Barrie crossover thrash quintet Spades GT, so what else is new in their camp? To promote their late notice gig opening for Aunest at Sneaky Dee's in Toronto on Friday, they posted this brief video (not a "Reel" either) of the band, minus Jay, giving a last push to get fans to come out while standing outside. Hopefully the concert went well for all involved! After the Brains/K-Man & The 45s show in Barrie next Thursday, Spades GT's next concert will see them return to Toronto on Saturday, June 3rd for Beer Bash 6, an annual all-day music festival at CineCycle that features free beer for ticket-buyers. That'll be quite a pull for some fans alone! Band announcements are ongoing, with six groups so far confirmed on the Facebook event page, though the only one familiar to local fans from concerts here is the former Jack Spades.

After posting some new promotional images, Spades GT unveiled the first single from their new album "Sewer City Radio" on Friday, and they went with "Hands" as the initial single, as embedded below via their new auto-generated YouTube Music channel. I'll hold comment on the song for now pending our eventual review of the album, which is currently targeted for the fall due to our current album release backlog (there has been no shortage of new albums to review in the past year+!) Tim Henderson from Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles promoted the album in this article on Saturday, which confirms some big new details on "Sewer City Radio". It is now planned to release on Friday, June 2nd, which is delayed from prior May projections, if not by much (no word on if they're counting Beer Bash 6 as the release show or not). A low-res image of the album's back cover is also shown, plus the track listing!

Part of me had a hunch that the album would heavily feature Jack Spades re-recordings, but the eight included songs appear to all be completely newer cuts that were not on "The First" or "Fed Up", and another advance single will be posted online on Friday at 12:00 PM. Sounds like things are definitely on the right track, so do visit the above links for much more on Spades GT's big mid-2023 plans, and here is "Hands"!

Next up, with the review of Saturday's release concert going live on the site yesterday, let's take some time to talk about local alt-hard rock quintet Handsome Sandwich's debut album "Deconstructed", which is now on sale and available to hear on (according to the band) "all streaming services"! In reality, it is definitely on Spotify, but I haven't seen 100% proven links for it on the services that hosted advance singles, those being Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, and YouTube. CD copies were on sale at The Loft on Saturday night for $15 apiece (the normal price for CDs will be $20), and while I don't know if The Rad Zone or somesuch physical store will carry them, definitely contact band members on Facebook or in person if you want one. The albums were made DIY in town, featuring artwork by bassist Rafael Medina, and the liner notes include lyrics to all eleven songs in different font sizes and colours!

The only guest musician credited is Wyld Stallyns saxophonist Josh Norling, and just in case you were wondering, he did not guest on "No Entry" at the release show (I believe someone said that his sax had a broken reed, but I may be wrong). That all said, when can you expect our review of "Deconstructed" on the SMS? I have it slotted in for July, as this month will be the "Pyrolytic Punishment" split, while next month will be No Funeral's debut EP, as I try to go in release date order. If Jonesy Land's "Zoom-Out" releases on time on May 31st with nothing SMS-suited beating it to market, that'd be in August, with Spades GT in September. Stay tuned for more from Handsome Sandwich when it rolls in!

To close, let's go from a band featuring two ex-(Jack) Spades band members to a band sharing the stage with Spades GT next month, namely local southern hard rock cover quintet Fort Creek! Two new videos have been posted to their Facebook page in the past week, and while I'll save one for this weekend's concert previews to avoid redundancy, the other is not of them in concert, so it's better suited for a standard post anyway. On Sunday, they noted that they ended the week with an acoustic band rehearsal, and they filmed this video of the band (minus Shane & Tony) covering Linkin Park's "Crawling" unplugged. The cover is heavily altered to suit the acoustic performance (no rapping, removing the first chorus, etc), but it comes through nicely! I can't say that I like the post-production though. The black & white colour scheme and film grain aren't too bad, but the jittery motion never lets up and feels really unnecessary.

I also found that the opening title cards ran way too long (20 seconds?), but adding "For Chester" at the end was a nice touch. Despite my post-production reservations, fans seemed to take to this cover, which is well handled musically, so give it a watch below, and don't miss the full plugged-in Fort Creek on Friday & Saturday at Jay's Piston Broke Pub!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile and more news & notes shortly! Thanks everyone!