LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (i.o), A New-Ish Solo Project, New Videos, And More!!

Here's a new news post on this Sunday morning featuring some new videos, a new-ish band to tell you guys about, and a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT with some intriguing styles on display, so here's what you should know to kick off another week!

Victoria, British Columbia experimental noise project i.o and new-ish local emo/folk punk solo project Agnosticism will join forces for a concert TOMORROW NIGHT at... The Drawing Club? This is a new arts space at 128 Bruce Street that primarily serves as a community hotspot for artistic expression (click here for more on their mission), but they have been sporadically booking live music in 2023, with TOMORROW'S concert being part of Dryer Fire's summer concert series that was announced in April. As such, apologies for the short notice, I had no idea that any bands on this event would cross into the SMS' primary coverage. Led by drummer Max Patterson, i.o are a hard band to look up online based on their name alone, but their chaotic drum-led brand of instrumental noise rock will certainly be an intense change of pace, so do give them a listen before TOMORROW NIGHT!

If you want to read more on who Agnosticism are, read on below, but to wrap up previewing this concert proper, the opening act will be local/Toronto outsider folk musician Shae Tull (good to see her back in town!) This all ages concert begins TOMORROW at The Drawing Club (where Dryer Fire's 2019 pop-up venue was) at 7:30 PM. While the advertised admission fee is $15, "no one (will be) turned away for lack of funds", so keep that in mind. Tickets are on sale in advance at this link. This will certainly be an eclectic concert that builds in intensity quite rapidly, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here's i.o live! Trust me on this, Max puts on quite a show!

As for Agnosticism, they are a solo project from Vanity First/Hails guitarist Mikhal Muto, with him on vocals & acoustic guitar in folk punk trappings that fans of Chase Wigmore's will especially be interested in! We've never considered Instagram pages to be "official" as far as local band pages go on social media, as they're so personal & picture-driven by design, but you can see Mikhal performing as Agnosticism on their Instagram page, including an impromptu live performance at the Fishbowl Festival earlier this year. As it turns out, Agnosticism have quietly been active since 2021, and Mikhal actually put out a debut album for the project on major streaming services last October, entitled "Happy Pills"! He should have had an account on Facebook or something for Agnosticism, as that way, I would have talked about this well before now! You can hear all 12 songs on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music, plus their YouTube channel.

There are some standalone singles available above too, while the YouTube channel also has some early Vanity First covers (apparently, Agnosticism was their original name before things splintered into two projects), and one live video, venue unclear. Yes, this album is on sale on iTunes for $9.99, if you want to buy full mp3 copies, but as it's no longer "new", it doesn't get priority for an imminent monthly review on the SMS. When our backlog clears out though, it can easily slot in to tie in with a month where one of Mikhal's bands is playing live! This includes Hails, who (like Agnosticism) only seem to exist on social media via an Instragram page, despite being Vanity First with a different frontman (Brenton Ellis rather than Andrew Beggs). For the record, Hails have even less posted on Instagram than Agnosticism, only uploading pictures that primarily focus on Brent's artistic side.

From what I have seen and heard of Agnosticism, it's clear that Mikhal gets folk punk well and subgenre fans will be right at home with the lyric driven, direct, and unpolished songs on offer! He is a talented guitarist, and while his vocals may be underutilized to an extent on acoustic songs like this, it is supposed to be a separate project from his bands and it comes through well, though existing folk punk fans will have more to like from the off. Give Mikhal's live performance of "Unholy Matrihomie" (sic) a watch below, and stay tuned for more from all three of his current projects!

We'll close today with some new videos from new local hard rock quartet Far From Fine's Facebook page, specifically from their studio time late last month at Mission Control Studios! On Tuesday, they posted two videos of guitarist Mitch Sirie and bassist Matt Fronzi tracking material towards their planned debut album, and while both are short clips hovering around 30 seconds in length, they are our first glimpse of their original material! Click here for Mitch's slightly shorter video, which has him playing a guitar solo. I'm unsure if these are different songs, but Matt's video sounds quite punky, and Mitch's solo seems more dramatic. Promising regardless, so give them a watch above & below!

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