Mike Haggith & Spades GT Updates, Plus More Recent Notes!!

New news post for you guys on this late Tuesday night, as we continue clearing out our news backlog, if slowly! Assorted shorter topics round things out, but let's first look at some recent updates from two local acts who coincidentally both relocated to Barrie!

Local/Barrie alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith is definitely staying busy as of late, and while we do have both his Face To Face concert live-stream and a recent video interview to look at (hopefully) soon, let's lead off with the big news, as Mike's new studio album "All The Best In All You Do" has an official release date of Thursday, July 13th! You can pre-save it on Spotify at this link, though remember that he plans to include Bandcamp-exclusive bonus tracks for the paid release there. An offical lyric video for "Carousel" from the new album went up as a scheduled upload earlier today on Mike's YouTube channel, which features Mike (one assumes) writing out the song lyrics with a Sharpie on pieces of paper, with late input from rose petals. Is the destruction of flowers an intentional visual motif for the album? Note the film grain and the VCR graphics too, albeit in widescreen.

No word on the album cover, but note the release date of July 13th coincides with his Rotaryfest Stage 1 set that same day, so we get the de facto release concert! Mike should have physical copies in tow that weekend. While the lyric video is embedded below, Mike also uploaded this "Shorts" video to YouTube as well to hype the album, which includes an audio sample and recommendations to fans of Tears For Fears, Louis Tomlinson, U2, Coldplay, and Train. In other words, don't expect The Din III here, but the jury's out on the full product yet! Assuming this date holds, and nothing new from metal or hard rock acts beats it to market beforehand, "All The Best In All You Do" is currently slated for an SMS review in... November, alas. We have quite a backlog of new albums to look at, and I don't want to usurp anyone in line from release date, but Mike is absolutely in line, and I know that fans are highly anticipating this one!

Of course, I will hold comment on "Carousel" pending our eventual review of the album, but you know that Mike is moving up in the world when he's putting out a proper lyric video with production values like this for one of his singles! Visit his official website for much more on "All The Best In All You Do", stay tuned for more from him soon, and here's "Carousel"!

Next up, here's some recent non-"Reel" updates from local/Barrie crossover thrash quintet Spades GT's Facebook page! In terms of concerts, their Toronto gigs at Beer Bash VI on June 3rd and Indie Night In Canada last week (allegedly their last Toronto show "for some time") both went really well according to the band, and you can see lots of photos (and, yes, "Reels") from them on Facebook! Apparently, live clips from their Indie Night In Canada set were played on Wallygator's Rock & Roll Swamp on CGCM Rock Radio this past Saturday, continuing their positive relationship with that internet station, so consider giving them a listen, as you never know if you'll hear some "Sewer City Radio" there! Spades GT's next show will see them and guitarist Daniel Horton's other band The Fast Life join forces at Rhythm & Brews (no relation) in Cambridge on Friday, so click here for details!

Note that none of these shows were branded as a release party for "Sewer City Radio", though I guess Beer Bash VI was the de facto one, as it was a day after the album came out. There are some new "Reels" too, but rather than nitpick the enterprise again, let's hold those for a future post and feature a Spades GT video that I can embed on the SMS! This was filmed by attendee Amanda Schilz and publically shared to the former Jack Spades' Facebook page on June 3rd as part of a batch post of Beer Bash photos. It runs for just 17 seconds, it is sadly vertical, and it mostly focuses on fans before slowly panning to the stage, but it sounds good while it lasts, so Spades GT fans can check it out below!

Finally for today, here's three shorter assorted news items from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist name:

• Local hard rock quartet Half Past announced the addition of guitarist Al Fletcher's old Skeyes of Seven bandmate Johnny Amendola to their lineup on their Facebook page on Saturday, replacing Jamie Labreche. A reason for Jamie's departure was not announced, but they have yet to play a live concert since their fall 2021 reunion despite him coming on board at the time. Hopefully nothing bad happened with Jamie, but it's good to see Johnny (also of Cherry Crush and Tripod The Dog fame) back out there, and hopefully we hear more from Half Past soon!
• New and online page-less local classic metal/hard rock trio Nostalgia have slightly amended their name to Nostalgic, as per this Facebook event page for their Reggie's shows this past weekend. A reason for the name change wasn't announced, but it's one letter (the last letter, at that), so I can see it blowing right by some fans. Stay tuned for more from Nostalgic when it comes in!
• SaultOnline's Heidi Ivany covered the Queen: It's A Kinda Magic concert at The Sault Community Theatre Centre last month for this article, where she highly praised the band, stage show, and overall attention to detail for recreating Queen's 1986 world tour. 23 pictures from the concert were also featured, as well as a note that the band promises to return to the Soo on their Canadian tour next year. Good read, so give it a look above! As best as I can tell, there were no Facebook videos on SaultOnline's end here.
   

 

That's all for today, but stay tuned for much more on the site in the coming days! Thanks everyone!