LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (The Wyld Stallyns), A New Video, And Much More!!

Here's a new news post for your Saturday evening, and it includes some assorted recent updates, a new solo performance video, and leading off, a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT and related news about said band's new look for a new year! Here's what you should know

Local cover hard rock band The Wyld Stallyns will rock Reggie's Place TONIGHT, after previously playing there last night! I profusely apologize for the short notice, we only heard about these dates yesterday via singer/guitarist Rob Speers' own advertising on Facebook, though I did completely miss the venue's Facebook page plugging the dates on Tuesday. I did plug both on our Facebook page yesterday to try and get some of the word out, but I didn't have quite enough topics to rush a post last night, hence why I am half late to the party today. Again, my apologies, I'd have plugged both on Thursday had I seen Reggie's own post about them! These dates are The Wyld Stallyns' first since Rotaryfest last month, and first at an indoor venue since they kicked off The Rockstar Bar's brief return of live concerts in August 2020. However, if you missed them at Rotaryfest, The Stallyns will look a little different.

 

For one, the group has quietly transformed from an acoustic band into an electric one, perhaps to make up for their plugged-in sister band The Elements' continued inactivity over the past 18 months. Going electric means they'll need a bassist, and The Wyld Stallyns debuted former Gully Yodelers bassist Ben Garcia as their fifth member at Rotaryfest. Bit of a surprise not seeing James White (the only Elements member not in The Stallyns) on bass, but don't miss him with Dealing Without when they finally make their live debut! Ben wasn't on The Gully Yodelers' "Innocence & Allegory" CD, but he was on their song from "Local Steel", and he is a talented bassist who should fill this role well with The Wyld Stallyns, so don't miss his third show with them TONIGHT! This show (and yesterday's) are/were 9:00 PM events with 19+ age limits and no cover charge, as usual for recent Reggie's concerts.

 

And as recently usual, please respect and honour any social distancing and mask mandates at the downtown Reggie's to ensure the safety of yourself and everyone else in attendance. Despite the late notice, hopefully The Wyld Stallyns had a great show last night, and hopefully Christina, Rob, Jesse, Ben, and Jonas have more of the same TONIGHT! Visit the above links for more details, and here's The Stallyns live and unplugged!

 

Next up, here's a new video of former Garden of Bedlam singer Erik "Buzz" Boissineau covering The Foo Fighters' "Times Like These", as uploaded to his YouTube channel last night! An acoustic vocal/guitar cover as usual for his recent videos, this is strongly performed as you'd expect given Buzz's vocal abilities and talent level, and it fits in line with The Foos' own acoustic version of this song! Give it a watch below!

 

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

 

• Prolific local extreme metal/folk punk musician Chase Wigmore has released twelve back catalog albums of his onto his Bandcamp page! Nothing is brand new, but these include prior albums under his own name plus Awokest, The Black Lodge Masters, and The Coyote Speedfreaks, and Chase did hint on his Facebook page last week that he was uploading "all of my albums" there. Does this mean that his increasingly large number of free-to-YouTube albums are going on sale at some point? Stay tuned!
• It looks like The Rednecks Saloon (formerly The Nicolet Tavern) closed at some point last year, despite their social media accounts never announcing it online. The 304 Albert Street West nightclub hasn't updated their social media accounts since 2017, we last reported on a show there when Chase Wigmore held a single release concert in September 2019, and Google lists the bar as "permanently closed". If true, it is sad to lose a familiar downtown venue like this, and Rednecks did host some strong concerts after it's 2013 rebranding. Hopefully the old staff is doing well nowadays!
• Young local garage/hard rock quartet The Uncanny Valley are the only heavier local band on the schedule for this year's virtual Fringe North International Theatre Festival over the August 19th weekend! It's being held on YouTube due to pandemic-related travel restrictions, given the event's heavy usage of buskers and performers from out of town. Click here to see the current performer lineup, and there are a few other identifiable local names. Even virtually, this should be strong exposure for The Uncanny Valley, so stay tuned for updates on how to watch their set!
  

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

Kraken Mara EP Updates, A New Local Metal Radio Show, And New Videos!!

Before we get into the meat of this post, today marks the 14th anniversary of The Sault Metal Scene's launch on July 4th, 2007, and I wanted to thank the vast, vast majority of you for your support and kind words over the years! I just wish that we weren't in a pandemic during the anniversary for a second straight year, so I won't get too self indulgent, but hopefully I can time it with a proper concert to mark year #15 in 2022! Today's sixth post in as many days (amazingly) has new videos, the impending launch of a new local internet radio show, and leading off, some new album releases (maybe?), so here's what you should know!

 

Local progressive metal duo Kraken Mara may have quietly released their debut EP "Press Start" for sale.... AND a second EP.... and I mean, quietly! The band has not publically announced anything regarding a release on their Facebook or Instagram pages (they haven't even posted on either since April), but at some point in the past month, Kraken Mara posted "Press Start" and a 3 song follow-up EP named "Game Over" on their website on Wix. Both appear to be on sale for $15 each, but when I attempted to click through to see what Wix's online storefront process is like (I have never heard of a heavier local band only putting out an album this way), neither allowed you to proceed past entering an e-mail address to get the files sent, so I am thinking that they haven't completely finalized the release. In any event, this confirms that both "Press Start" and "Game Over" are complete and fully streamable there, both remain instrumental releases, and like "Press Start", the second EP features session drummer Cliff Aubut.

"Game Over" features the song "Moon's Haunted" (a prior removal from "Press Start") and new tracks named "Escort Mission" & "Antipath", mostly shorter than what made the cut on the main EP. Even if their sale postings worked, I probably wouldn't be reviewing "Press Start" on the SMS until next month (Molten Imp are waiting in the wings already), but if you want to hear all eight songs for free until/unless you can properly buy them, click here or above, and we'll keep you posted when we hear more!

Next up, do you recall the occasional teaser from musician interviews on local internet radio station The Borderline where a guest was suggested/teased as the host of an upcoming metal-centric program? Well, one is finally debuting tonight! This has not been announced on the station's website at press time, but former Winkstinger/Twistory frontman Josh Amendola tells me that he will be hosting a metal-centric series named Metal Morpheus that debuts tonight at 9:00 PM! Naturally, the first episode will go through the roots of metal in the 1960s and 1970s, but Josh did say that local bands will be in the eventual playlist. If you can't tune in live, one imagines that episode #1 will be available for on-demand streaming after the fact, once Metal Morpheus appears on The Borderline's website. For obvious reasons, it's great that The Borderline finally has a metal show!

Adding some musical diversity beyond the occasional interview or one-off interview is very welcomed, and it's nice that it's slotted earlier than you may expect for a metal radio show on an otherwise non-metal station! There are unknowns yet, but tune in to Metal Morpheus tonight at 9:00 PM to hear how Josh does in episode #1, and I apologize again for the delay in mentioning this on the SMS! He originally caught me in a busy stretch what with all of the new concert announcements in the area, no hard feelings whatsoever!

We'll close today with new videos, starting with a new cover of Radiohead's "Fake Plastic Trees" from ex-Garden of Bedlam frontman Erik "Buzz" Boissineau's YouTube channel on Friday! His first upload there in three months, this vocal/acoustic guitar rendition lets you hear a higher and softer aspect of Buzz's range that isn't as apparent from his proper bands, and while I prefer later, more progressive Radiohead songs, this is well done across the board! Give Buzz's newest cover a watch below!

Finally, here's a new instrumental jam video from veteran local hard rock guitarist Mike Cliffe's YouTube channel on June 23rd! An progressive rock playthrough alongside pre-recorded drums by Washington-based drummer Bill Ray, Mike suggested in the description that this isn't finished and may have had a timing slip-up, but it sounds fine so far! Smooth and melodic, well handled by a prolific musician who knows complex prog rock very well, and it's nice to see more new content from Mike's YouTube channel, so give this video a watch below, and hopefully we hear more from Mike soon!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site later this week! Thanks everyone, and to all of our American readers, have a happy Fourth of July!

YouTube Channel Profile Series: themarkylion & Buzz Ineau's Channels

It's now time for our last monthly feature post of the first quarter of 2021, namely this month's YouTube Channel Profile! This series looks at 1-3 YouTube channels (two this month) that were randomly selected from our YouTube subscriptions of channels with at least half of their content devoted to local metal, hard rock, and punk musicians/concerts.As the first channel we randomly drew only had one actual locally based project in it's two uploads, I picked one with two distinct video kinds to fill things out, but both have familiar faces to many fans from their local work that you can check out through their channels! Here's what you should know!

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themarkylion's Channel (http://youtube.com/themarkylion)

Owner: Prolific local punk musician Mark Rand (a.k.a. Marky Lion), who previously performed as a guitarist and bassist with local bands like Bin Hawdon & The Taliband, Bondar, DDPBB, Detroit, Fuller, hackthemodem, and Lion Ride (among many others), as well as a few bands in his current Southern Ontario homebase, most notably his current hardcore punk trio Cross Dog.

Channel Timeline: Launched on February 9th, 2008; Only videos posted in December 2009 & September 2010

Channel Summary: A personal use channel that hasn't been visibly updated in over a decade, Mark only posted two videos here from two different projects, and despite utilizing his Lion Ride moniker in his username, that band isn't one of them. One is a slideshow for his song "Question" from his 2010-2011 Southern Ontario-originated solo project (credited here to M.R.B., as in "Mark Rand Band"), which fans of his music should definitely enjoy! Featured here is Mark's upload of his local hardcore punk supergroup Detroit's minute-long 2009 original "Darth Vader" from their "Brace For Impact" EP, also featuring then-Lion Ride bandmates Brent Ellis & Mikey Hawdon on vocals and drums, plus fellow Saultite guitarist Curtis Faux. Blistering and explosive track for genre fans while it lasts, but you'll have to seek the rest of the EP out elsewhere on YouTube.

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Buzz Ineau (http://youtube.com/channel/UCRvcsVp2Fh0PSzemTFTsYjA)

Owner: Local alternative & hard rock singer/guitarist Erik "Buzz" Boissineau, best known locally for fronting bands like Barfly, Changing Lanes, Garden of Bedlam, and The Guitar Gangsters, as well as Toronto's Midnight Traffic.

Channel Timeline: Launched on May 2nd, 2020; Videos posted from July of last year through earlier this month

Channel Summary: Launched during the pandemic when he couldn't play live, Buzz has dedicated his channel to acoustic covers, presently including two solo performances from this month and two featuring his Guitar Gangsters bandmate Tiffany Stocco on second guitar from last summer.
 
Why You Should Watch: If you want to see current musical work from Buzz (and Tiffany), even in unplugged at-home form, this is the best spot to do so, and Buzz even got some MCTV airtime from these covers, so they're finding an audience! This is a rare case in this series where the channel we randomly picked is still very much in active use, so look for more videos here soon!

 Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

 

Nine Inch Nails (cover) “Hurt”: The most viewed video on Buzz's channel is of he and Tiffany covering Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" this past August, joining their preceding cover of The White Buffalo & The Forest Rangers’ “Come Join the Murder” (as seen on Sons of Anarchy). Buzz & Tiff handle "Hurt" well in this format, and Buzz does use his vocal range more than Trent did!

John Lennon (cover) “Imagine”: When Buzz resumed posting on his YouTube channel earlier this month, he did so via two solo acoustic covers of more emotional classics. His newest rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" has gotten more attention, but we just talked about it on the site 11 days ago, so let's shine a light on his less-viewed cover of "Imagine" by one of my mom's favourite musicians, John Lennon. Solidly effective cover that makes great use of Buzz's vocal range, despite it's sharply high camera angle, so fans of his dormant band work will want to see what he's up to here!

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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! This series will return on or around April 26th when we look at a single randomly selected channel, namely YouTube user metalmaster666's channel, featuring a handful of mid-2000s hard rock performances at Dunnplugged-related events! Watch for that then, and for a new news post of some kind in the coming days! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Soundcheck), An Inactive Band Note, And New Videos!!

It's rare as of late for the SMS to have posts in consecutive days, but as we have a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT to address, here we are! Of course, it is St. Patrick's Day tomorrow, so luckily there is a bit of live hard rock to take in despite the pandemic! A related apology for a missed concert is also tied in with that, while this post also features a note on a band moved to our inactive links, and two new videos, so here's what you should know!

Local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck will reportedly be at Reggie's West TOMORROW NIGHT as the musical entertainment for their St. Patrick's Day party! Apologies for the short notice, the venue only announced their involvement on their Facebook page yesterday, though note that Soundcheck proper have not confirmed this date on social media at press time. This will actually be Soundcheck's second Reggievelt date of 2021 so far, having played a one-nighter there on Friday, March 5th (a week and a half ago) that completely slipped us by for proper coverage on the site, partially because it's Facebook event page was only launched with six hours notice. In any event, I do apologize for missing that date, and hopefully it went as well as it could have under current circumstances! Had it had more notice, we would have covered it on the SMS!

As for TOMORROW'S concert, you can see Terry, Cameron, Paul, and Glen rock out with their fan favourite covers at this popular west end venue at 7:30 PM, and there will be green-coloured food and beverages, plus specials. Of course, please respect Reggie's West's social distancing regulations, and remember that there will be an early closing time and capacity limits inside the bar proper. Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's Soundcheck live at this very location last fall!

Next up, I have moved local alternative rock/punk trio Handsome Sandwich to our inactive band links due to a year's inactivity. The band has not been heard from since their planned set opening for Jean-Paul de Roover at LopLops was cancelled just over one year ago due to the onset of the pandemic, and they hadn't posted on their Facebook page since February 15th of last year anyway. Formed by prior Elements, Jack Spades, and Caveman Morrison bandmates, this irreverently named trio debuted on stage in February 2017, and proudly claimed to have "no genre" and to not be a side project or have a similar sound to their prior bands, instead hewing closer to singer/drummer Johnny Belanger's mid-2010s solo concert sets. A relatively frequent sight into early 2018, you may recognize Handsome Sandwich from the 2017 Oh!No festival, opening for Jesse Stewart at Low & Slow, and playing multiple all-local concerts.

 

Handsome Sandwich's activity became very sporadic afterwards, primarily being seen in a looser jam setting, and a formal 2020 return was stunted last March after just two dates. Hopefully the pandemic is a key factor into Handsome Sandwich's status, as they had a lot to offer, and they were definitely a unique band on the scene (who else was covering Biffy Clyro AND Abba on the same night?) Best of luck to Johnny, Jesse, and James in the future, and here's hoping they're back when normal concerts resume! 

Also, remember how revived local progressive metal duo Kraken Mara had a "scheduled video" on their YouTube channel that was scheduled to go public on Friday? Well, here it is! A play-through of their song "Vibe Check" from their forthcoming debut EP (which will now be called "Press Start", according to the video description), this features guitarist Brendan Christie playing the track across multiple camera angles. I'll hold on commenting on the song proper for now, but the video is well shot and in nice quality, so fans of Brendan's local work and prog metal will want to check out Kraken Mara's play-through video below! Stay tuned for more from their camp!

We'll close today with another YouTube video from a familiar face that scheduled a video for a specific release date, namely ex-Garden of Bedlam frontman Erik "Buzz" Boissineau, whose cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" went up on his YouTube channel on March 7th! Featuring Buzz on vocals and acoustic guitar, this is a naturally strong & powerful rendition that makes great use of his vocal abilities (also, I have that exact "...And Justice For All" poster flag too!) Check out Buzz's rendition of "Hallelujah" below, and hopefully Buzz has more videos in the pipeline!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for last month's poll results and more on the site in the coming days! Thanks everyone!

Local Metal Video Showcase!!

For our first news post of 2021, we're dipping into the video well for some recent uploads from a handful of local musicians, and we'll start in the Sault Michigan area with new videos from local hard rock quartet Tarnished's Facebook page! After being absent from their "Run Rudolph Run" cover last month, drummer Gary Croad got a rare starring role in one this video uploaded last week, featuring him... riding a bike? Given the non-winter setting and the backing track by his long-defunct local band Set To Random, I severely doubt this video (entitled "To The Road And Back") was made recently, but Gary does tease a discussion topic at the end that never visibly arrives. It's nice to hear a bit of Set To Random, but as for your interest in seeing him ride a bike, who's to say! Embedded below is a new performance video live-streamed on New Year's Eve, filmed at what appears to be a private New Year's party (I hope they were minding social distancing recommendations.)

This video features frontman Alex Traynor and bassist Josh Fair (seen above celebrating their 600 Facebook fans milestone) in a garage acoustically covering Billy Idol's "Rebel Yell", and it's a solid rendition with MUCH better audio quality than their two-man unplugged shows from the spring lockdown! Whether an attendee's audible request for Imagine Dragons' "Radioactive" was met afterwards is not known, but give this New Year's jam a watch!

Next up, here's some new videos from Mackinaw Trail/ex-Highway 63 frontman Henry Switzer, as posted or shared to both bands' Facebook pages in the last couple of months! These videos (two shared from his personal Facebook page in recent weeks, one posted on his YouTube channel in November) are all classic rock covers that he's worked on in studio as of late. The Facebook videos are both of his tracking computer during the apparent mixing process for his covers of Boston's "Amanda" and Heart's "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You", the latter re-written from a male perspective. Henry has teased posting actual videos of him doing these songs, and though neither song's final video is up publically at press time, the sample clips have promise! Embedded below is his YouTube cover of "When I'm With You" by the Canadian arena rock band Sheriff, which he recorded as a gift for his wife.

Given the personal nature, it's hard to say whether his other teased studio covers will resemble this one visually, but it's a well recorded cover that puts his strong singing voice to good use, and I'm sure his wife appreciated this kind gesture! Give this and more a look above & below!

Now, let's head to Sault Ontario, starting with some new videos from local hardcore punk quintet Destroilet, courtesy of drummer Matt Waples' YouTube channel! While their latest long-term concert hiatus is truly out of their hands, they have been staying busy by selling a new round of band t-shirts online, plus these new videos that Matt posted in the first couple days of the new year, which largely just feature a relevant (to varying degrees) photo in between a zoom out of the band's logo and relevant credits. These include half of their songs from the "Fed Up!" split ("iBomb", "Lifer", and their cover of The Rebel Spell's "Murderers"), plus their regular album track "End Me", and as embedded below, both their cover of The Fuckin' Burnouts' "Evil God Hater" and their own "Got Beat Up". Besides having two songs, I picked that one to feature here because it actually has a slideshow of Destroilet pictures!

This well edited video has lots of live concert clips, band photos in general, familiar cameos, memes, and even some outside stock images for effect (the kid plugging his ears among them. Maybe he's just too young for hardcore punk?) Definitely a good watch for fans, especially when we can't actually see Destroilet live in the near term, so give this a look below!

Finally, here's a new acoustic cover of John Lennon's "Imagine" by former Garden of Bedlam frontman Erik "Buzz" Boissineau, as posted on his YouTube channel on Sunday! The video starts with Buzz offering well wishes and a personal update to viewers, and you do get a sense of his honest feelings there! The cover proper is well done and has strong vocals, and given that my mom was a big John Lennon fan, I think she would have liked how this came out. That said, the high camera angle pointing down at Buzz isn't ideal. Give this a watch below, and hopefully we hear more from Buzz soon!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for a new post of some kind by Friday! Thanks everyone!

New Videos & Lots Of Assorted Updates!!

News has continued to be slow as of late, so let's tackle a bunch of shorter stories today, along with some new videos! We'll start with the first live concert footage of new-ish local southern/hard rock quintet Fort Creek, courtesy of their one-off gig at the newly re-opened Reggie's Place on Friday, September 4th! Filmed by attendee Justyne Gilbert and shared from her personal Facebook page onto the band's Facebook page, this has Fort Creek covering Thriving Ivory's "Angels On The Moon", which is in tribute to frontman Justin Grayson's grandmother, who passed away in 2007. The performance is well done and suitably emotional, if not a showcase of their heavier chops, and everyone tackles their instrument nicely! However, the vertical camera angle isn't ideal, and Robin's usually obscured from view. The new Reggie's looks good, though I assume the band is cordoned off due to social distancing. Give it a watch below!



Next up, here's a new acoustic cover video from Guitar Gangsters bandmates Erik "Buzz" Boissineau and Tiffany Stocco, courtesy of Buzz's YouTube channel on August 28th! Some viewers may have caught this on CTV News Northern Ontario two weeks ago at the end of the 6:00 PM newscast, but it's on YouTube for all to see, and it has the ex-Garden of Bedlam frontman and Stegadeth frontwoman covering Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" with Buzz on vocals. Nicely done cover of this dark ballad, and Buzz's singing is a nice match, so give it a watch below, and hopefully they have more in the works!



Finally, here's six assorted shorter news items from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist, company, or website name:

• Blood Shed Productions have announced that they will be hosting a private bonfire jam this Saturday entitled "For Bunk Sakes & Headaches". The event will take place at "the park", but you have to contact the label for the specific address. Message Blood Shed at this link or above for full details if you are interested in attending!
• Despite a shared Facebook post on February 4th indicating that frontman Henry Switzer wasn't ready to play a full concert due to health issues, now-defunct Sault Michigan classic/hard rock quartet Highway 63 did play at The Rapids Lounge at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino on Friday, March 13th, which was the last weekend before the full-scale lockdown, as per a comment thread by ex-Full Throttle guitarist Jason Lamoreaux on their Facebook page. Given Henry's earlier post, I opted not to cover this concert at the time on the SMS, which I learned went forward too late. My sincere apologies, hopefully it was a good show!
• Sault Ontario/Thompson, Manitoba alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith was interviewed by Camille Mola of the Philadelphia-based lifestyle blog Positive Publicity last month, where he discussed his experiences during the pandemic, his musical background, what inspired his new album "If Ever Comes The Day" (he's more candid than ever about it here), and his future plans. Entertaining and informative read, so give the interview a look at this link!
• SooToday's James Hopkin posted this article onto the local news website on August 28th, which discusses the transition back into hosting live music for local nightclubs. The article features interview remarks with the owners of Soo Blaster (which has resumed live music) and Coch's Corner & The Whiskey Barrel (both of which hadn't at press time), and it is a good read to see how different venues are adjusting to "the new normal" and social distancing limitations when trying to host even one band on a given night. This has been a rough year, but hopefully things will ease up before we know it!
• Sault Michigan hard rock trio Tarnished announced yesterday that their planned live-streamed concert on Facebook on Wednesday has been put on hold, due to concerns about reported changes to Facebook's terms of use agreement that would penalize or take down accounts that included copyrighted music in videos. News articles since seem to have cleared up the concerns of many Facebook content creators (covers seem to be alright, but not the original recordings), but in any event, Tarnished indicated that they'd look into doing live-streams on other platforms. Stay tuned for updates either way!
• I have deleted local extreme metal solo project X's & Y's from our Sault Michigan band links due to the quiet deletion of their Facebook (and only online) page at some point in the past two months. Led by Werehold Records founder and ex-Life's Eclipse guitarist Jason Mills, X's & Y's had sporadic updates between December and June, including a handful of videos. I was glad to see Jason working on new music again, and hopefully he resurfaces in some form!

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

The Rundown On Some New At-Home Performance Videos!!

Today's post is devoted to some overdue recent performance video content from some familiar local faces, so let's finally give a proper spotlight on them before things get further backlogged in this regard!!

Before his final pair of live-streamed concerts for July 2020 hit his YouTube channel this week, let's cover former Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison's last two at-home shows on the site today! Unfortunately, external embedding of his live-streams remains blocked, but everything pertinent is linked to, as usual. We'll start with his 30th installment from last Tuesday, which begins about 3 minutes in with two Stone Temple Pilots covers ("Interstate Love Song" & "Plush") bookending Days of the New's "Shelf In The Room". Tym next moves on to renditions of Chicago's "Hard To Say I'm Sorry", Eric Clapton's "Tears In Heaven", Berlin's "Take My Breath Away", Frozen Ghost's "Dream Come True", Toto's "Hold The Line", The Who's "Pinball Wizard", Richard Marx's "Hold On To The Nights", Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters", and Billy Joel's "Piano Man", before playing 7 minutes of instrumental music. The covers wrap up with Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb", ...

...Kansas' "Dust In The Wind", Poison's "Every Rose Has It's Thorn",  and White Lion's "When The Children Cry", before Tym ends the stream 20 minutes early due to personal commitments. Solid show overall with lots of familiar tunes and some heavier bands strewn about for good measure, and with no major lag either, though you could tell it was hot in there, and his attempts at "Money For Nothing" could indeed use bass. Note that two songs ("Hold On To The Nights" &  "Comfortably Numb") were brought back from show #29 on the previous Thursday. As for this past Thursday's 31st live-streamed concert, this one did go the full 2 hours (plus!), and fully starts about 10 minutes in with covers of 10cc's "I'm Not In Love", Phil Collins' "One More Night", Radiohead's "Karma Police", Cheap Trick's "The Flame", Cutting Crew's "(I Just) Died In Your Arms", Yes' "Owner Of A Lonely Heart", Jim Croce's "Time In A Bottle", The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby" ...

...Ludwig van Beethoven's "Piano Sonata No. 14", Bryan Adams' "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You", Imagine Dragons' "Radioactive", Amy Holland's "Shootin' For The Moon", Fleetwood Mac's "Never Going Back Again", and Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence", before playing a snippet of his original "The Number of The Beast" (not to be confused with the Iron Maiden song). The covers resume with The Who's "Behind Blue Eyes", Cheap Trick's "I Want You To Want Me", The Beatles' "Here Comes The Sun", Amanda Marshall's "Trust Me (This Is Love)", Lonestar's "Amazed", The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's "Fishin' In The Dark", Journey's "Open Arms", The Bangles' "Eternal Flame",  Billy Joel's "She's Always A Woman", and finally, Kim Mitchell's "Patio Lanterns". Another fun selection of tunes (with no repeats from that Tuesday), and Tym's vocals and guitar work were strong as ever, but the video was getting laggy a bit late.  Give both episodes a watch at the above links, and look for episodes #32 & #33 as the week progresses!

Let's close today with a video that I can embed, namely a new cover performance by Guitar Gangsters bandmates Erik "Buzz" Boissineau and Tiffany Stocco! Uploaded to Buzz's new YouTube channel two weeks ago as it's second posting, this features the ex-Garden of Bedlam frontman and Stegadeth frontwoman covering The White Buffalo & The Forest Rangers’ “Come Join the Murder”, which you may have heard on Sons of Anarchy. A much lower-key, alt-country tune compared to what we typically hear from Buzz and Tiff, this is still well done overall, so give it a look below!



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

More New At-Home Performance Videos From Local Artists!!

In our 52nd straight daily post at the SMS, we have a nice swath of live video content from local hard rock and metal musicians to check out, and we'll start today with a 35 minute live-streamed concert from Guitar Gangsters/ex-Garden of Bedlam frontman Erik "Buzz" Boissineau! You may have seen this video in partially muted form (due to copyright bots) on Buzz's personal Facebook page, but this edited copy from his new YouTube channel seems to be musically intact, sans the lost context of his interactions with Facebook commenters. Given that he broke out an acoustic guitar for this one, the reserved nature of the performance is natural, but even compared to Barfly and Changing Lanes, this is softer in tone. Buzz tackles five covers in the video, including Eddie Vedder's "Society", Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", Tracy Chapman's "Baby Can I Hold You", Radiohead's "Fake Plastic Trees", and The Tragically Hip's "Bobcaygeon", and he sounds great!

Buzz's strong vocal range is put to fine use on these covers, especially as the set progresses, and his guitar playing suits the covers, so fans of his local and out of town music work should enjoy what's on offer! And yes, his Guitar Gangsters bandmate Tiffany Stocco (also of Jack Spades) helped set up the stream, both live in Val Caron at present. More might be coming in the future, but give Buzz's first set a look below!



Next up, local hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison's 10th live-streamed concert took place on his YouTube channel last night, so fans have another 2 hour block of acoustic covers to check out! This time, his set begins 7 minutes into the video, and Tym starts by covering Heart's "Alone" before pausing to tune his guitar. That's followed by covers of Styx's "Come Sail Away", A Great Big World's "Say Something", Billy Joel's "Just The Way You Are" & "She's Always A Woman", Tommy Tutone's "867-5309/Jenny", Kim Mitchell's "Patio Lanterns", and Celine Dion's "All By Myself", followed by an anecdote about a Michigan concert trip. Songs after that include Aerosmith's "Dream On", Peter Cetera's "Glory of Love", his Spanish guitar instrumental, Toto's "Africa", Abba's "The Winner Takes It All", The Scorpions' "Still Loving You", Amanda Marshall's "Trust Me (This Is Love)", Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise", Supertramp's "Breakfast In America", Imagine Dragons' "Radioactive"...

...Yes' "Owner Of A Lonely Heart", an untitled instrumental, Roxette's "It Must Have Been Love", and The Goo Goo Dolls' "Name". Three songs were repeated from last Thursday's live-stream, but Tym has a nice array of classic rock-leaning covers here once again, and his vocal & guitar work remains as strong as ever! Check the whole thing our below, and stay tuned for more live-streamed concerts on Thursday and beyond!



Also today, here's the first new video from local extreme metal/folk punk solo musician Chase Wigmore's Facebook page in almost a month, where he breaks in a new guitar purchase by playing some improvised riffs alongside backing drum tracks. Nice demonstration of Chase's guitar talents, even with the odd black bar on the left, and it's great to see him still working on music during the quarantine! Give it a watch below!



Finally, here's a new video of local rap/metal band The Apocalypse Afterparty (Stanghettas only) covering MGMT's "Kids", as uploaded to frontman Paul Stanghetta's YouTube channel on Sunday! This is another cover from the session that gave us their Say Anything cover over the weekend, though no word on if it will indeed pop up in SooToday's Couchella series. The vocals can be a little quiet, but this is a lively bass & drum rendition that fans of Paul's music career will enjoy, so check it out below!



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