YouTube Channel Profile Series: Bone Yard 225

After a slight delay, here's this month's YouTube Channel Profile, as we again take a look at a randomly selected YouTube channel whose content is at least half devoted to local metal, hard rock, and/or punk musicians/concerts! This month, we drew a channel from a prominent veteran local band who have been hard at work in the 2020s, so here's what you should know!

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Bone Yard 225 (http://youtube.com/boneyard225)

Owner: Likely Bone Yard 225 singer/drummer and local graphic designer/event organizer Greg Simpson

Channel Timeline: Launched on June 5th, 2024; Videos posted from the following month through January 2025

Channel Summary: Though active locally since their 2009 beginnings as a country cover band, Bone Yard only launched their own YouTube channel in 2024, coinciding with their expansion into original songwriting as a southern/hard rock trio. Their channel includes three lyric videos for their three released studio tracks so far, a brief clip from the 2024 Dragonfly Run featuring their music, and a teaser for a radio interview.

Why You Should Watch: "Boneheads" will likely be mostly interested in this channel for the YouTube copies (with lyrics!) of their original songs, as the Dragonfly Run video features one of those songs again and the interview teaser obviously doesn't have the full recording. While the guys haven't visibly updated this channel in over a year, your local 225 are far more active for posting and sharing videos on their Facebook page, and (recent break acknowledged) are still active, so hopefully we see some more YouTube activity and original music when the time is right!

 Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

 

Dragonfly Run: Bone Yard 225 are well known for their charitable involvement in Sault Ste. Marie, including performing at and promoting the annual Dragonfly Run (née Ride For ARCH), which made its debut at its current Grand Gardens homebase in August 2024. In their second upload to YouTube, the band shared this video of motorcycle riders hitting the road from the Grand Gardens to kick off that year's proper rally, with their debut original song "F.A.F.O." as backing music. complete with on-screen text to thank all involved. Kudos to Greg, Kerry, the rest of the band, and all staff and volunteers for supporting the hospice for so long!

 

 

Gypsy Spell Lyric Video: The three studio original songs posted here include the aforementioned "F.A.F.O." and "The F Word" (originally named "Fuck!"), but the most popular and longest of the three is "Gypsy Spell" from January 2025. Another lyric video, this features a slideshow of live photos, fans, logos, and promotional images, with the song being about being seduced by a woman under the titular spell. As on the other songs here, Greg is joined by guitarist Alex D'Ettore and bassist Warren Reville. I'll hold comment on this song proper pending our review of Bone Yard's album-in-progress, but fans of "the dirty three" will enjoy the danceable hard rock on offer!

 

 

Bone Yard 225 on the "Smart as Trees" Podcast on theborderline.ca radio!!! Wed Jan 29th @ 12 noon!: The title of this video does a lot of the explaining on its own, but this 67 seconds-long teaser (their last YouTube upload to date) features a slideshow of photos relating to Bone Yard's appearance on local internet radio station The Borderline, where they were interviewed by Adrian Vilaca for an episode of Smart As Trees. The band used "F.A.F.O." as backing music again, but spoken word studio bumpers that Greg, Alex, and Warren recorded at the time are also layered in. This was an informative 40-minute interview that outlines their then-current status and future aims well, if with some adult language, so give it a listen on demand above!

 

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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! Next month in this series, our latest randomly selected channel is that of Woodward Avenue Studios, the locally based recording studio owned and utilized by members of Convergence, so look for that on or around May 26th, and stay tuned for more news and this month's CD review soon! Thanks everyone!

The Realignment Project Updates, Plus Their Interview On The Borderline!!

It's high time that we play catch-up on what local industrial metal solo act The Realignment Project have been up to in early 2026, especially as my next EP review of theirs is coming up by month's end! In early January, "Bones & Dust" from their third EP "War Songs" was included in an episode of The Autopsy Report Rock & Metal Radio Show, a British-based podcast where host Hellwyck plays and spotlights independent & unsigned rock artists. Kudos to him for giving some attention to artists from across the pond, and click here to directly hear the episode with T.R.P.! On January 5th, project leader Matt Hicks confirmed that their fourth and newest EP "Let You Fall" would be released on vinyl via his indie label East London Recordings and ElasticStage, also confirming that both it and "War Songs" would get standalone vinyl releases with each having its songs split across two sides.

As you may recall, The Realignment Project's first two EPs were combined on one vinyl release, but as "The Frustration Sessions" exceeded 23 minutes in length, most songs were edited down to fit the limitations. Both "War Songs" & "Let You Fall" would have to have been similarly cut down to do the same, so Matt clearly decided to give each their own unedited spotlight on vinyl. CD copies of both of the latter EPs are also now on sale via ElasticStage, but at press time, you can't buy the first two EPs on compact disc. Work on T.R.P. EP #5 was ongoing in early January, with Matt teasing on the 10th that he was "working on something that's... a little bigger". Is he referencing a full length album, the scope of the music, or something else? As teased in this vertical video, Matt was interviewed about The Realignment Project on local internet radio station The Borderline, so what should you know there?

Premiering on January 21st, this was for an episode of Across The Tracks, the local musicians interview show hosted by Adrian Vilaca that last crossed SMS territory when he talked with the late Troy Isaac in 2024. The 51 minutes-long episode starts with Adrian asking Matt about the inspiration behind the Realignment Project name (he had the name in mind since 2003), his musical subgenres, his prolific EP release schedule, what brought him back to original songwriting, and the process behind writing the title track from "Let You Fall", which is played on air at 9:15. The interview resumes with Adrian asking Matt about the personal lyrical themes of his songs and his own frustrations, leading into the song "Where Did You Go?" (also from "Let You Fall") at 16:35. Afterwards, Matt discusses the background behind "Scatterbrain", which is played at 25:10 to start the second half of the episode.

Next, Adrian asks about Matt's usage of "they" as an ominous force being spoken up against in T.R.P.'s songs, and his views about original music acceptance in Sault Ste. Marie and trying to break a stigma that only cover acts can get regular attention. The next two songs played on air (at 32:45 and 38:20) are also cuts from "Let You Fall", namely "By Myself" and "The Last Time You See Me", with Adrian asking directly about the latter in between. In the last pre-song stretch, Adrian asks Matt about his vocal style and emotions in his songs, especially in regards to Matt being a father and what he's hoping for in the future. The last song heard in the episode is the last unheard song from "Let You Fall", namely "Find My Way Out" at the 46:25 mark, and this installment of "Across The Tracks" wraps up with the possibility of inviting Matt back to talk about their fifth EP in the future.

This was an entertaining interview and a personal one with Matt going into good detail about the background of his Realignment Project material! Note that, despite the description on The Borderline's website mentioning Matt's local band work in the the 2000s and early 2010s, Adrian does not ask about Dirty Virgin or Riverin in the interview proper, which is by and large about "Let You Fall". Of course, we'll be reviewing the preceding T.R.P.'s EP "War Songs" on the SMS this month, but fans of industrial rock and metal should definitely give Matt's solo music a spin and/or hear this interview at this link or at the above links! Thanks everyone!

Our Recap Of Troy Isaac's 2024 Across The Tracks Interview On The Borderline!!

Today's post was supposed to be this month's Defunct Local Band Profile, with the former local hard rock solo project Stone Smyth randomly selected for the honours last month. However, I am going to slightly delay it so we can belatedly take a look at frontman Troy Isaac's interview with Adrian Vilaca on his series Across The Tracks on local internet radio station The Borderline! This interview premiered on May 29th of last year, fifteen months before Troy lost his battle with cancer, and alas, I didn't knew he did an interview with The Borderline until shortly after his passing. Better late than never, and this will help with additional context and information for when the Defunct Profile on Stone Smyth goes live! Before this interview, Adrian hadn't met Troy before, but he first came to know who he was via his presence on the 1998 compilation CD "Local Steel", where he played "A Long Cold Rain Comin' Down".

Troy starts the discussion by elaborating on how he first got into playing music as a kid in British Columbia, what instruments he played early on, and his early run in the band Angel Dust. In his youth, he lived in West Germany as a time while his stepfather served in the military overseas, and he played in a band named Machine Head (no relation) while living there. He began songwriting at about 15 years old in the late 1970s, and followed a normal career path as opposed to chasing the musician dream, but eventually started recording his own music, and was taking advantage of at-home recording software now that it was much more affordable and accessible than it was. Aside from guest female singers, all of Stone Smyth's music was purely a solo operation. Troy next discusses the recording experience for "A Long Cold Rain Comin' Down", which led to the "Local Steel" release concert at the former Peachy's.

The re-recording of that song by Stone Smyth (now titled simply "Cold Rain") is played in full at the 9:45 mark, with the interview picking back up at around 14:50. After discussing why he re-recorded the track, Troy discusses the sounds and styles he liked incorporating in his music, Troy talks about some of the favourite concerts of his as an attendee, and his far flung times living all over Canada, before setting up the second full song played in the interview, Stone Smyth's "Hanging Onto Fire", which comes on 19:20 into the episode. The second half of the interview begins at 23:20, with Adrian asking about Troy's one-man operation and recording process, with Troy aiming to take Stone Smyth to live concert stages (it is sad that he never got to realize that goal), while addressing how the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns affected his music plans back in 2020.

At this stage of his life, Troy was focusing on doing what he loved artistically rather than money, and this leads into the third song played during the episode, "Last Chance Mountain" (27:15). Adrian picks things back up at 30:40 by talking about how much he likes Troy's new song "Summertime", and asking about what kinds of messages Troy wanted to convey in his original music. He did note that he wanted to have uplifting messages in his music more than political or divisive content. "Summertime" is played on air at 34:15, with the interview resuming at 37:40. When asked about his then-future plans, Troy noted that he had a stage setup built for eventual live gigs, and eight more songs (as of May 2024) ready to release, while also acknowledging the rings that he wore to the interview. After setting up the final song to be played on air ("Hari Cari"), we hear that at the 40:40 mark, and the last segment of the interview beginsat 44:05.

To close, Adrian asks where we can hear Troy online, and he finally addresses where the Stone Smyth name comes from here, specifically a play on "blacksmith" without using the same spelling as Aerosmith, and he used the name for his own studio and planned guitar line as well. Troy was also hoping to begin shooting live videos in the fall of 2024, Nice casual interview that helps explain a bit about who Troy was and what he was aiming for with his music, and it is a shame that he passed at just 63 before some of his bigger future plans could be fully realized. Hearing this finally will be good to fill in some blanks for our Defunct Local Band Profile, but give the full Borderline interview a listen at this link or above, and R.I.P. Troy!

Our Recap Of Bone Yard 225's Interview On The Borderline!!

It's been a while since we've talked about on-air content on local internet radio station The Borderline (they haven't had a lot of new hard rock/punk-leaning programming beyond what's in their music rotation in a good while), but on Wednesday, local southern hard rock trio Bone Yard 225 were interviewed by Adrian Vilaca on the Smart As Trees podcast! This is the first Smart As Trees episode that's really crossed the SMS' radar since their Clusterfolk episode in 2022, believe it or not. The interview is conducted by Adrian with all three members of Bone Yard, and just a warning before listening that there is some adult language. After introducing Greg, Alex, and Warren, the interview proper begins with frontman Greg Simpson acknowledging their beginnings in 2009 as a country cover band with him singing and playing guitar, with his old band Stiffler's Mom coming up along with Warren's own original music.

The reasoning behind tacking "225" to their name is finally brought up in an online context next, as the band wanted to differentiate themselves from the multiple other bands elsewhere named Bone Yard without rebranding fully, so a friend inspired them to add the number 225 based on placement of B and Y in the alphabet (B is the 2nd letter, Y the 25th), a'la biker codes, plus the existence of the angel number 225. Despite my initial assumption when the name extension was announced last year, it is not a reference to the United Steelworkers Local 2251, which I was corrected on at the time. After addressing the band's own colourful language and imagery, they introduced their debut original song "F.A.F.O." (as in, "fuck around & find out"), which is played on-air at the 7:10 mark. When the interview resumes, Adrian asks about the sing-along aspect for that track and how it went over when Bone Yard first played it live.

Next, we hear about their live shows and their recent runs of shows in Sudbury, plus planned on-the-road gigs in Thessalon and Kirkland Lake this summer, and Greg said that they're apparently exploring the possibility of playing shows in the United States. Warren did note that they're looking at writing new originals and working on a few new covers, seemingly implying that they might be doing a studio cover or two as well, and they're also trying to garner a loyal cult following as they continue getting their name out there. As of recording the interview, they had 79 shows booked for 2025, and the guys credited their support system as well, before their second single "Gypsy Spell" was played at the 18:45 mark. When the interview picks back up, Adrian asks the band about their charitable involvement in Toystock (for Christmas Cheer) and the Dragonfly Run (for ARCH), and what inspired them to support these causes.

The late Tyrone Souliere (Alex's former Mojo bandmate) is invoked here when discussing their support for ARCH and fighting cancer. Next, they discuss the fan support that they get, with the band criticizing the costs involved to both go out to see live music, and for venues to have the setups to host full rock bands, especially post-pandemic, while not being afraid to speak up about their issues with the state of live music in spite of the talent performing in the Soo. After discussing their belief to question things and debate the issues, Adrian plays their newest song "Fuck!" at the 35:35 mark. In the last three minutes of the interview, Adrian asks what Greg, Alex, and Warren's "desert island discs" would be (as in, if you were stranded on a desert island, what albums would you want to listen to indefinitely?), before closing with plugs for their social media and the guys giving Adrian a t-shirt, as seen in the teaser video below!

Uploaded to the band's YouTube channel prior to the interview's live debut on The Borderline, it features an on-air plug for the station from your local 225, plus photos from the interview and sample audio of their own music. Overall, this was a good interview that set things up well for fans of Bone Yard as they enter what should be their biggest year yet! Given how long they've been running, the fact that they're making such a push into original music and tour dates in 2025 is very neat, and while I did have some trouble differentiating Greg & Alex's voices, it's an informative listen for fans of "the dirty 3", so give the full interview a listen at this link, and stay tuned for more news and notes next week! Thanks everyone!

Our Recap Of Greig Nori's Interview On The Borderline From June 2023!!

With the recent announcement of a Treble Charger reunion concert at The Machine Shop on March 7th, now's as good a time as any to finally cover an audio interview that singer/guitarist Greig Nori took part in last June! I profusely apologize for the delay in this making the site, it fell through many cracks, but the timing is right given the reunion concert! This was for an episode of Rock N' Roll Heaven on The Borderline, as hosted by veteran local musician/photographer Brian Tremblay, and it runs for 76 minutes, albeit including eleven Treble Charger songs during the runtime, starting with "Takes Me Down". If you want to skip past Brian's introduction and this song, the interview proper begins at about 4:40 into the episode. Brian first asks Greig about when he decided to move back to Sault Ste. Marie full time and how his relationship began with the Algoma Conservatory of Music and The Loft, of which he is the general manager.

If you're only familiar with Greig as a musician, his work as a producer in Toronto comes up here, including where he got the idea to merge a studio with a live performance venue rather than his high-end studio in Toronto that was seeing a declining usage into the 2010s, with emphasis on bands taking advantage of the setup for social media purposes and promotion. The next two songs are "Don't Believe It All" & "Friend Of Mine", which sandwich more studio equipment talk. Greig next goes into his apparent involvement in an upcoming film soundtrack featuring some surprising attached names, before Brian begins asking about Treble Charger (if you're looking for that part, jump to the 20 minute mark). Greig brings up how Treble Charger formed, why they changed their name from nc-17, and how they technically weren't from the Soo originally, having formally joined forces down south.

After "Morale" is played on air, Brian asks about why Treble Charger broke up in 2004 (quite a leap in the timeline!), with Greig even admitting that he didn't really want to continue playing the pop punk-leaning music that Treble Charger was playing at that point. Their reunion show in Toronto in 2012 (Greig was off a couple years on the date) is brought up next before "Motor Control" is played. Next, they discuss the end of Greig's work with Sum 41 (he produced both "Does This Look Infected?" & "Chuck"), his time working on disBand on MuchMusic from 2008-2010, and why that show ended. We next hear "Red" to cap off the first half of the interview, after which Brian reads some statistics about how many songs get uploaded to (and heard from) streaming services, with Greig offering his advice to musicians hoping to get discovered. Treble Charger's biggest punk-era hit "American Psycho" is played on air next.

The discussion about helping rising newer musicians get noticed is continued afterwards, with Greig suggesting some specific routes that bands should take (he recommends the Canadian Musicians Co-operative), with this segment interrupted by a playing of "Brand New Low". After we hear "Business", Brian asks about Greig's current songwriting plans, albeit not attached to a specific project yet, along with his individual work songwriting with musicians who record at the Conservatory/Loft (the teased new Treble Charger album from the late 2010s is not brought up here). This is where the interview ends, but the episode ends with playings of "Favourite Worst Enemy" and "More's The Pity", sandwiching Brian's episode closing plugs and thank yous. Solid listen that, if a little heavy on industry talk, lets us hear from Greig on a wide range of topics! You don't hear him interviewed much nowadays.

This may be a perception thing more than reality, but the episode feels over-edited, like how the Treble Charger discussion leaps from their beginnings to their end without really talking about their heyday, while the Sum 41 chunk is only how that relationship ended. Is there an unedited cut with this stuff intact? I still think Brian should either place the songs in more natural spots or have more obvious transition markers so they don't come in so abruptly, but fans of Treble Charger will definitely want to hear this whole interview from last summer at this link or above! That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes soon! Thanks everyone!

Details On Dustin Jones' Interview On Across The Tracks On The Borderline!!

Back in June, two veteran local punk musicians were separately interviewed for radio shows on local internet radio station The Borderline, and I do apologize for both being so late to be covered on the SMS! We'll start with the June 23rd interview with Jonesy Land frontman/Bookclub bassist Dustin Jones, marking his second long-form interview with the station, following an episode of Sev's Cellar three years ago. This time, Dustin featured on Borderline founder Adrian Vilaca's interview series Across The Tracks, which focuses on detailing original songs, and the episode runs for 53 minutes. Conducted in studio, it's clear from the off that they've known each other for years, which helps for the comfort level! The interview started with Dustin explaining why he launched the Jonesy Land project apart from his bands, as well as the overall lighter/reserved tone of the project's debut album "Zoom-Out".

Like in past episodes of Across The Tracks, Adrian asks about the origins and themes behind songs by the interview subject, and while he does not stick to the release order of the album, the songs in question are played after that segment wraps up (though they are rarely directly introduced by Adrian, so that can catch you off guard at times). "Father Time" comes up first, but "Ode To The Boys" is discussed next, and it's neat hearing some insight as to The Inner City Surfers' heyday! The song actually wasn't directly about his old bands, moreso old friends, but Dustin does also give some advice to current musicians to start their careers, especially with how easy self-promotion and networking is compared to when he was younger. The debut single "Old Man" is next to be outlined, though note that the interview predates the music video for the song. Next, they discuss his love for Sault Ste. Marie and the Algoma District.

That ties directly into their discussion of the Jonesy Land track "Superior Sons" and some of his surprising inspiration in that song's composition. Adrian next asks about Dustin's own Mission Control Studio and his experiences working with musicians who record there, leading into talk of "Keep Trying", which featured Shannon Moan on guest vocals. Dustin next talks about his views on the local music scene at present, as well as his experiences running a local songwriters competition with Greg MacLachlan pre-pandemic, while explaining how he's approaching music as he gets older, and how this album has a different edge than on his prior albums. This led into "Lonely Boy", before Adrian asks Dustin about fatherhood and his experiences with his kids, while also noting the experience he had making this album and some of the (largely) positive reaction that he received from listeners.

Given the talk about his family, this naturally led into "Shine On" (written for his daughter Jett), and the interview naturally wrapped up with "Summer's End", which was written for his late stepfather and written in the style of music that he loved. The interview ends with Dustin thanking Adrian for all he does locally, as well as plugging Jonesy Land, Mission Control Studios, and Tidal Records, though no sign of a dedicated band page for Jonesy Land yet. Fun interview that really explores the "Zoom-Out" album in depth and Dustin's maturity as a songwriter, and while the album proper is light on "punk" content, you can see how his life's experiences as a whole shaped things on the final product! I'm kinda surprised that he didn't talk about Bookclub though, as they are is current live band, past teasers about Jonesy Land playing shows again acknowledged. Check out this Across The Tracks episode at the links above!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews next, and that other June interview with a local punk icon on The Borderline will be covered in an upcoming SMS post! Thanks everyone!

Our Recap Of Mike Haggith's Interview On Rock 'N Roll Heaven On The Borderline!!

Four days after the return of his monthly live-streams on Facebook, fans of local/Barrie alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith were spoiled again with another lengthy interview involving him, courtesy of the March 31st episode of Rock 'N Roll Heaven on local internet radio station The Borderline! While you may be more familiar with Sev's Cellar in terms of shows there interviewing heavier or punk musicians from the area, host and veteran local musician/photographer Brian Tremblay has interviewed some impressive names in recent years from both the Soo and far flung locations, so click here for the full archive of past episodes! Mike's interview with Brian runs for an hour and 54 minutes, and starts with Brian setting up the interview and key notes about Mike as a musician and re: his day job as a pilot, before playing "The Nature Of The Times" at the 1:37 mark. The interview proper begins next around 6 minutes in.

Conducted by phone from Mike's current Barrie homebase, it starts with Brian asking about Mike's work as a pilot, the origins of him wanting to fly airplanes (much earlier than you may think), moving to the Soo to enroll in Sault College's aviation program, his extended stay here helping his musical career (The Din are promoted here), his move to Thompson, Manitoba in 2017, and his move to Barrie with WestJet, which abruptly cuts to his song "From The 55th Parallel" at the 12:30 point in the interview. When we come back to the interview, Brian compares Mike to major musicians who fly airplanes, and they stick to airplane talk next, including preferred planes to fly, if Mike brings guitars with him on flights, and his penultimate goal as a pilot, with "The Best You Never Had" playing next at 21:27, if less abruptly. Mike next talks about his marriage and recent one year wedding anniversary, before diving into his music career proper.

Brian asks Mike about his early beginnings with writing and recording music in his hometown of Windsor (this section has lots of amusement), as well as the early albums of Mike's that he has digitized and kept but never plans to release. At the 31:39 mark, we next hear Mike's song "2145", which is incorrectly labelled as "12" in the track listing on the episode page, before Brian asks about Mike's past bands and if some could ever come back. Mike did reveal that there were "limited talks" about The Din reuniting, but will likely leave that to archival releases now, but he did note that his old Windsor band S.C.A.R. could reunite, time permitting. Brian also asked if Mike would ever consider focusing on music as a 100% full time career rather than flying (Mike answered in the negative), before we next hear "Twist of Fate" at the 41:48 mark, which is from Mike's forthcoming album "All The Best In All You Do".

Yes, this is the studio take of the song, so if you're looking forward to that album, note this preview! Afterwards, Brian asks about Mike's work doing the soundtrack for the independent film Ashes of K (whose soundtrack featured existing songs from his solo and Din catalog), which actually ties in with talk of the Windsor Express basketball team, as Mike moonlighted as a broadcaster for them once! The first half of the interview ends with "Into The Setting Sun" at 51:26, before Brian asks about how Mike' family supported his music career, The next song is "Back Away Slowly" at 58:33, before we next get discussion about Mike's planned indie label MorningStar Records and his planned artist-friendly aims for the label, especially knowing what it was like as a local musician looking at contract offers and knowing that better can be done for the artists. "Blue Highway" is the next song up at 1:09:09.

The interview continues with Mike elaborating on print-on-demand methods for physical albums, and how Mike has used Kunaki for his solo catalog in recent years, extending into Mike's sales of his albums online and how this all ties in to the MorningStar Records plans. After we hear "Bridges" at 1:18:44, the MorningStar Records talk continues, including the optimism about the far flung artists who have expressed interest in signing on, before Brian asks about Mike's album "Bridges" and why it had such a delayed and eventually abrupt release. Mike talks about the songwriting and his moving to Thompson initially, broken up with the song "To Be With You" at 1:26:52, which ironically is not from "Bridges" (it's another new track that premiered on The Borderline). Afterwards, Mike outlines the recording of "Bridges" and his work in the Thompson rock band Between The Ditches.

Mike doesn't go into great detail about the personal matters that led to recording "If Ever Comes The Day" and releasing that in lieu of "Bridges", but he does address his decision to finally put that album out in 2021 in conjunction with his new website. The next song heard at 1:36:12 is "The Catalyst", which is from "Bridges" this time! He next discusses his new album "All The Best In All You Do", where he comes back around to the themes of "If Ever Comes The Day" and how it inspired the more optimistic & personally influenced album ahead. This wraps up the interview proper, before Brian plays "All You Do" from the new album at 1:45:47 (this might be that song's public premiere but don't quote me on that). After thanking Mike again, Brian teased that he and Mike will apparently be playing a "very intimate singer-songwriter evening" together next month, but details on the event are forthcoming. We'll keep you posted when more comes out!

After signing off, the Sinister Hearts frontman plays one more song of Mike's at 1:49:54, namely "MorningStar". This was an entertaining interview with lots of interesting tidbits and reveals throughout, and Mike came off well when talking about his musical and aviation careers! I would have took more time to gameplan which song plays where, let alone with the often abrupt jumps from interview to song and back (I'd have Brian introduce them on air for the songs to be added afterwards), but aside from that, fans will want to check it out at this link! That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this week! Thanks everyone!

Clusterfolk Music Festival Fallout, A Local Solo Musician's Return, And More!!

Before we begin today's post, I wanted to send our deepest condolences to the family and friends of veteran local bassist and Borderline radio host Mike Robillard, who just passed away after a battle with cancer at the age of 51. While not a hard rock musician, Mike will be familiar from his work performing with bands like Startlefish, The 4 Really Nice Guys, Spiderback, and Scissors For Erica over the years. More recently, he hosted The Taxi Passenger Revue on The Borderline in early 2020, which played off of his day job to interview local musicians like Tym Morrison, DJ Seith, and Colin Nelson before the pandemic complicated things. As revealed in this GoFundMe campaign, Mike was diagnosed with clear cell renal sarcoma (a form of kidney cancer) in December, and had been fighting it ever since. Having lost my mother to cancer at around the same age in 2020, I sadly know all too well what Mike's family has went through.

A lot of Mike's major musical work either predates social media or didn't produce a widespread album, but he did record with Startlefish (notably on 2005's "Regretfully Yours"), so don't bypass him if you have access to his recordings, as he was a very capable musician, not to mention a kind and funny man by all accounts. I don't know if The Borderline will repost episodes of The Taxi Passenger Revue in his memory (oddly, they had all been taken down), but it'd be nice to see them resurface in his memory. Follow local news media for details on arrangements when appropriate, and R.I.P. Mike! Today's post otherwise looks at updates from a recent concert and a local musician's return, so here's what you should know!

Here's some belated updates from the returning Clusterfolk Music Festival at The Rockstar Bar from this past Saturday night! While not held there, Gore Street arts venue 180 Projects co-organized the event, and it looks like they did the brunt of the Facebook promotion for the concert proper (I don't believe promoter Jackson Reed is on Facebook nowadays). I profusely apologize for missing this, but there were lineup variances not reported on the Facebook event page (launched by The Rockstar Bar), most notably that headlining classic/hard rock quartet The Uncanny Valley did not play at Clusterfolk after all, which 180 Projects only announced the morning of the show. They cited "unforeseen circumstances" for their withdrawal, but did not go into further details. This would have been a big platform for them, hopefully nothing bad happened! As well, the planned slot from a Sudbury artist completely fell through, so what should you know there?

Original advertising had folk musician Will Powers playing on Saturday, but he was quietly replaced for unannounced reasons last week by fellow Sudbury folk duo The Bad Actors (who were not among the eight artists to get Clusterfolk music videos), only for them to also drop out for "unforeseen circumstances" on Saturday morning. Local acoustic folk duo Sainte Marie (also not filmed for Clusterfolk) were brought on as a last minute fill-in for both withdrawn bands, with guitarist Jacob Quarrell's other band Jupiter Marvelous promoted to headliners. Hopefully everything went well on Saturday, and stay tuned for more Clusterfolk coverage soon!

Finally, here's a surprise return, as local hard rock solo artist Mike McCleary has resumed working on new music! Over three years after deactivating his Facebook page (intentionally or otherwise), Mike brought it back last summer and quietly posted a "revised" version of his 2018 solo album "Weight of the Truth" to various online music platforms in August, as accessible via this DistroKid page. The revised version re-arranges the song order and includes two brand new songs ("Superstition" & "Solstice"), plus four songs were either rewritten & renamed or dropped outright. Mike is one to de-list past albums of his and re-record or rewrite them to better reflect his musical intent, talents, and messages, so I can't go back and tell you what's what, but "Wannabees" & "Be The One" are reworkings of two of these songs: "Clarity", "Snakes & Ladders", "Disease", and "Overkill", with the other two seemingly being scrapped.

Regardless of changes, "Weight of the Truth" remains a deeply personal album reflecting on Mike's mental health struggles, so it's good to see him addressing his story like this and perfecting it, as only he fully understands what he has went through! You can (re-)buy "Weight of the Truth" for $5.99 at this link or on a "name your price" model on Bandcamp. As I noted above for Mike delisting old albums, only the reworking of "Weight of the Truth" and a new version of the title track from his (former?) EP "Hourglass" are currently posted, and while I have no idea if albums like "In Ruins" and "Hourglass" will ever return in a recognizable form, he has taken to his Facebook page to reveal that he is working on a new album, specifically an instrumental album inspired by his creative pursuits outside of music. He acknowledged that this is a departure from the "controversial material" he's previously released

If you didn't know, many of Mike's prior songs reflected on his left-leaning political views and opinions therein, but such content is not (currently?) available to stream or buy on official channels. Mike does sound like he's having more fun working on his new music, but he didn't specify if he's recording or still songwriting at present. It's good to have Mike back at long last though, he's a talented hard rock musician and songwriter with interesting viewpoints and lyrics, so give his posted material and updates a look above! At press time, Facebook embed codes for videos aren't working on Blogger, but teaser clips from "Weight of the Truth" can be seen there.

That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's YouTube Channel Profile next, wth more news to follow! Thanks everyone!

Our Newest Metal Morpheus Episode Recap!!

Single topic post today, as another new episode of local metal radio show Metal Morpheus debuted on The Borderline on Sunday night, so what should you know about it? Following last week's heavily (and divisively) topical episode, host Josh Amendola brought back his planned series of alphabetical spotlights of the metal scenes of countries from around the world for this week, and after previously jumping ahead six countries to look at Austria for differing topical reasons, he headed back to the regular order yesterday to look at metal bands from Andorra, an extremely small (but highly developed) principality on the French/Spanish border. For context, Andorra is only barely more populated than Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario! I am surprised that Josh didn't lump Andorra in with the next A countries in line, which also have small metal scenes, but he made Andorra alone work by playing local bands for almost half of the episode's runtime.

The slightly shorter 55 minute episode begins with Josh noting that you can now hear The Borderline on FM radio locally at 107.5 FM, which is news to me! In checking around for details, they launched an FM transmitter downtown on or by January 22nd, and it is low power with an estimated distance of 5-7 km from the originating source, presumably their 527 Queen Street East home base. From my checks of the CRTC's website, there has been no public application for a new FM station at 107.5 FM, so the short range may indicate that their transmitter is the biggest they can get without needing a federal license. For the record, I did try to pick up The Borderline at 107.5 FM from about 2.5 km away, and the signal did not come in (disclosure, I didn't test it downtown), but if 5-7 km is just the furthest reported signal, the range could be comparable to the transmitters used at drive-in theaters. Your mileage may vary!

In any event, you can hear The Borderline 24/7 online at this link, but FM availability is great for anyone in range, and who knows what this could lead to! Back to the Metal Morpheus episode proper, Josh next gives some statistics about Andorra & its native music, before moving into the country's very small roster of prominent metal bands, so much so that the first FOUR songs come from the same band, namely melodic death metal sextet Persefone, including their songs "In Lak'ech" (3:00), "Underworld: The Fallen & The Butterfly - Act I: Clash of the Titans" (10:35), "Mind As Universe" (17:00), and "The Demise of Oblivion" (21:50). Josh finishes the Andorran half of the episode with a song from ambient black metal solo project De Veneficas Inferi, namely "Daemonic I, Stone Witches" (30:05). The final 21 minutes of this episode belong to local metal acts, so who got played in the back half?

In order, Josh plays defunct hardcore punk band The Harsh Heads' song "Carolly" (35:15) from their kinda-released album "First Hated Then Forgotten", three songs from mysterious mid-2000s extreme metal solo project Recognition (their self-titled track [39:05], "Flying Ashes" [43:00], and "First" [45:05]), late 1990s hardcore punk band Proposition 86's song "Another Lost Cause" from their EP (47:15), and defunct Sault Michigan groove metal band Lower S.E.S.' song "Bold" (51:00) from their EP. Before playing the final song, Josh did hint that he wants to do more themed episodes apart from the alphabetical country series once he finishes with the As, and for reference, 6 countries that start with A come after Andorra (obviously excluding the already-covered Austria), with Angola next in line if Josh stays in alphabetical order. Solid episode overall that takes Metal Morpheus back to its 2021 form with quality music all around!

Some of Josh's pronunciation of Catalan terms wasn't great (points for trying, of course), and for variety's sake, maybe he should have stretched out to include more than two Andorran bands, but Persefone are a strong and heavy group in their own right, and the locals on offer were fun to hear again! Hear this and other back episodes of Metal Morpheus at the above links, and tune in for the next episode (Angola or otherwise) on Sunday night at 9:00 PM and/or on-demand after the fact! That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site soon! Thanks everyone!

A Band Breakup, Plus The Return Of Metal Morpheus!!

Tonight's SMS post deals in two topics, including a surprise band dissolution that broke this afternoon and a local metal-centric radio show's return to production, so here's what you should know!

Local power rock band Re:Born have surprisingly announced their breakup, as per their Facebook page earlier today. In their statement, the band said that "it is time to move on to other projects", and "there is no bad blood or conflict", but did not elaborate further on why they have disbanded. Effectively the successors to mid-2010s classic metal band Project 421, Re:Born (no relation) launched in January 2018, and while they only played seven live concerts by my count (and only three of those with a full five piece lineup), they definitely made their mark opening for notable bands like The Killer Dwarfs, Anvil, Striker, and Archelon through the end of 2019. The band took a break after that year's Toystock that lasted way longer than anyone expected due to the pandemic, but despite occasional promising teasers and debuting a new lineup in November of last year, they never ended up playing live in the 2020s.

With either Robert or Elly on vocals, I thought Re:Born picked up 421's slack nicely with their hard hitting and melodic originals and covers, but unfortunate timing and lineup turnover helped stall their momentum despite playing some big concerts during their 2 years on the live circuit. Hopefully we hear much more from Elly, Blair, Elijah, Brandan, Robert, Frank, and Fred in due course, and follow A Dire Setback to see what Chris has been up to!

Next up, after a three month hiatus, local metal radio show Metal Morpheus has returned to their airwaves on local internet station The Borderline, so what should you know? Last seen with the revised local metal episode on December 5th followed by a month's worth of reruns, the series seemed to end out of nowhere with no on-air announcement in December or January, host Josh Amendola brought a brand new episode to the online airwaves on Sunday night at 9:00 PM, but I have to heavily preface this one. As you may know by now, I try to focus all SMS coverage on music and the performers of it, and I only get into personal lives, current news events, or politics if they directly link with relevant songs, concerts, or charitable efforts linked to their music career in some way. That said, this episode is not themed after a genre or national metal scene like we tended to see last year.

This episode is heavily themed around the Freedom Convoy trucker protests and Josh's support of that cause, with Josh linking them to metal in that he believes that the genre is about freedom as well, and songs played all come from countries who have had their own convoy. If you heard prior episodes of Metal Morpheus, he did make the occasional statement about his feelings on the pandemic and related restrictions, and this episode does start with a disclaimer that all beliefs expressed are those of the participants and don't reflect those of The Borderline.  I will not be going further into the connecting theme and discussion here, as the protests do not directly reflect on the local metal and punk scenes, but be advised of the content of the episode if you check this episode out, as the protests are mentioned a lot, but he does offer some brief thoughts on the bands themselves also.

The songs played on air are Bolivian metal sextet Alma Eterna's song "Mamita (Homenaje A Kalamarka)" (3:15), Finnish folk/death metal band Amorphis' early song "Of Rich & Poor" (9:05), Mexican metal band Luzbel's song "El Angel De La Lujuria" (14:55), Australian industrial metal band The Berzerker's song "Ignorance" (19:20), Balitimore death metal veterans Misery Index's song "The Killing Gods" (22:15), French power metal band Sortilege's song "Metamorphose" (32:30), Dutch death metal band Pestilence's song "Out Of The Body" (37:35), Czech power/thrash metal band Arakain's song "Schizofrenie" (42:55), and Toronto progressive rock icons Rush's classic single "Freewill" (53:00). For the first time in Metal Morpheus' history, no band featuring a local musician was played in this episode, but Josh did tease that "more variety" and interviews would be coming in future installments, next presumably on Sunday.

No, he didn't explain where the series went for 3 months aside from saying that it was "back from the grave" in the intro. Again, I will not be commenting on the protests here, as The Sault Metal Scene is devoted to local music, and other than this Metal Morpheus episode, there hasn't been any direct crossover to speak of. Musically, he did pick some solid songs to play (though I do prefer newer Amorphis), but I can't objectively comment on the theme, as my personal views & Josh's are not close. Visit the above links to hear the whole episode if you want, but again, be advised of the theme. That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews and more on the site next! Thanks everyone!

Our Recap Of The Last(?) Episode Of Metal Morpheus On The Borderline!!

Today on the SMS, let's finally cover the final(?) episode of the Metal Morpheus radio show on local internet radio station The Borderline! As you may know, Metal Morpheus ran for an hour (give or take) on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM from July-December of last year, with host/local metal singer Josh Amendola typically featuring a genre or national scene each week, with at least one metal act with local membership per episode. However, following a heavily revised version of October's all-local episode on December 5th, the series fell into reruns for a month, and no new episodes have been posted on the station website since re-airing the power metal episode on January 9th. I don't know what happened to Metal Morpheus, especially given that Josh was very early into a planned series of alphabetical spotlights of the scenes in various countries, and he was improving as an on-air personality as time went on, so hopefully he isn't 100% done!

The possibility exists that Metal Morpheus is just on an indefinite hiatus, and hopefully we see Josh pick things back up for the series in some form when the time is right! If not, ending with the Soo Metal episode is a good way to go out, even if it was severely altered from what originally aired! I never recapped the October version on the site due to only catching up to it in the timeline after it was taken down. Alas, I do apologize for that, but how would I have known that it'd be deleted and overhauled? Just as a disclaimer, Josh does reference both the SMS and myself in this episode, and while he did ask me for suggestions of local bands to play on air last year and for input on how episodes turned out, I never knew he was going to make an all-local episode. I was as surprised as everyone else! As of this writing, I have never been on The Borderline in any on-air or behind-the-scenes capacity.

As for the revised Soo Metal episode, it runs for just over an hour, and it starts with Josh playing defunct local alternative rock band (and Papa Fogals Chair predecessors) Sulfur's song "Our Glass Universe" (0:05) from their 1997 CD "How Empty I Am". Next, we get a song by old school local hardcore punk band The Big Kahunas with their original studio recording "The Fighting Princess Club" (3:55), before abruptly switching gears to inactive Vancouver grunge trio Denderah with their song "Sweetness" (5:50). I've never heard of Denderah, but their frontman Kwin Cymons is a Saultite, so his band's material clearly found its way to The Borderline's rotation before passing my radar! They're a solid group, give their album a listen at their Bandcamp page! A rare Sault Michigan act hits the episode next via inactive progressive metal project Life's Eclipse's song "Not Dead But Dreaming" (9:05).

Fondly remembered local hardcore punk band Fistmagnet's cover of "Live To Die" (17:15) is next, followed by local/London instrumental prog metal band Hiroshima Mutant Mindframe's song "All Roams Lead To Roads" (20:10) from their self-titled album. Prominent and dearly missed local hard rock quartet Garden of Bedlam follow with the title track from their full length album "Everything Will Die" (23:15), while the second half of the episode begins with death metal quartet The Bear Hunters' song "Transcend Judgement" (28:20) from 2020's "The Dead Testament", conveniently followed by ex-guitarist Josh Stephney's old hardcore band Bring The Fallen with the title track of their posthumous EP "Stand Before" (34:40). This episode's only live cut is next, courtesy of defunct local metal band Sativa Rose with their lengthy original song "Bellows of the Beast" (39:10).

Juno Award winning local/Toronto blackened doom metal band Woods of Ypres come next with their dark ballad "Finality" (48:10) from their final studio album "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light", before heading back to Sault Michigan for defunct local epic death metal band Integrated System of Machines' song "Road To Valhalla" (52:10) from their 2008 album "Apocalyptic Visions". The episode ends with one more song by Denderah, namely "Natal Lies" (57:35), and no, neither this episode nor the last 100% new one from the previous week left any hints that the series was ending or taking a break. While Josh did leave some gaps regarding band members' full names or back stories (especially with Life's Eclipse given how we've covered them and Werehold Records over the years), this was an entertaining episode and showed how Josh was trying to expand the range of local artists!

Definitely give this and other episodes of Metal Morpheus a listen at the above links, as it is (was?) a good series and helped fill the metal void on The Borderline's scheduled rotation, and if Josh doesn't return to record new episodes, hopefully we hear more from him in some form, let alone more metal, hard rock, or punk-centric programming on the station! That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews and more on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!