LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Stiffler's Mom), Weekend Concert Previews, And More!!

Four posts in two days, we're off to a fast start for 2014! Today's post mostly relates to weekend concert previews, including a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for Saturday night, but we also have lineup notes and debuts for two hard rock bands playing this weekend, and some more assorted notes to round out today's post. As for Tym Morrison's weekly arrangement at The Harp, while I assume it'll continue tomorrow night, I am currently awaiting official confirmation, but when announced, that will be up on the site as soon as possible. Now, let's begin today's news/preview post!

Local party/hard rock mainstays Stiffler's Mom will kick off 2014 in style with a headlining concert THIS SATURDAY NIGHT at The Rockstar Bar! Apologies for the short notice, this show was only just announced on Monday, and I held it until today to avoid a redundant re-post. The first local concert date for Stiffler's Mom since we officially rolled them into our full coverage, Greg, Mike, and Jobn were last seen upstairs at The Rockstar Bar six weeks ago, and if you're familiar with their fun live concert dates and skilled experience, you'll know they'll be up to their usual tricks again in their first date of the new year! A $5 cover charge is likely for Saturday night, a 10:00 PM start time is likely as well, and you must be 19 to attend. For more details, visit the above links (as for one reason or another, this show doesn't have an event page like their late-2013 shows.) This should be an entertaining and often heavy show, so keep it in mind for THIS SATURDAY, and for a preview, here's the guys covering Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train"!



Now to the weekend's heavier dates that we knew about already, including the new Griphook lineup's public debut TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT at The Roosevelt Hotel! As you may remember, the band officially replaced Ottawa-bound frontman Jim O'Leary with bassist Dan Beaupre's former 100 Gran bandmate Joel Syrette last week, so this weekend's concerts will be the local hard/classic rock quartet's first verifiable live gigs with Joel up front and their first public non-stag & doe appearance since the Ray Brown benefit in October (not counting 7 Year Itch dates.) Last seen at The Rosie in April, it'll be interesting to hear how the new Griphook lineup does, but Joel & Dan have chemistry from the 100 Gran days, and while Joel isn't overly similar to Jim musically from what I've seen, he is a very talented singer & guitarist, so this should work well! Admission should be free for this weekend's 19+ dates, and a 10:00 PM start time is likely. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page, and for a preview, here's Griphook's original lineup covering AC/DC last year!

Finally for currently confirmable heavier shows this weekend, prolific Sault Michigan hard rockers RamWagon will debut a new lineup of their own TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT when they make their first 2014 stops at The Northern Pines Lounge at the St. Ignace Kewadin Casino! These will be RamWagon's first dates since replacing the departed Marcel Grengs with former Monkey's Uncle drummer Ron Suchey, and given Ron's past work in that band with RamWagon bandmate Nathan Switzer, there should be ready-made chemistry for the new lineup's debut this weekend! Also in lineup changes, the band appears to have parted ways with guitarist Cody Reed at some point late last year, as per his absence from their currently listed Facebook lineup. Unlike with Marcel, a reason has not been publically announced for Cody's departure, but it sounds like it happened somewhat recently, as Cody's personal Facebook page still has RamWagon's banner as his cover photo. He has not been replaced as of yet, but hopefully the split was amicable, and best of luck to Cody in the future!

With lots of wide-ranging modern and older hard rock covers in store, kick off 2014 in good order for the first heavier shows of 2014 across the river with RamWagon! Like usual, there's no announced cover charge, a 9:00 PM-ish start time, and a 21+ age limit. For more details, visit the above links, and for a preview, here's RamWagon's original lineup covering Cameo at LemmaFest last summer!



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

• If you didn't hear any more formal word on why Colosimo's Music Store closed, it's likely related to the closure of it's original Thunder Bay location last August due to declining business as a result of online shopping, as per this news article. Info on the Soo branch (which replaced the relocated Case's Music on Spring Street in 2012) isn't given there, but it definitely closed around the same time last summer. At least nothing bad happened locally, but best of luck to the former staff!
• Were you still curious as to the identity of The Debts, the new punk band that headlined the Danger Cats-featured X-Mess acoustic show at LopLops last month? I assume it's safe to say now that their lineup includes prolific local musician (and Case's Music owner) Jay Case, Blues Harvest/Pesto Shirts alum Jake Rendell, and his former Garage Inc. bandmate Ryan Seabrook. I know they're not a metal band, but I just wanted to answer an open question from our coverage of this event! My source is personal Facebook postings.
• "The original crash band" Sykotyk Rampage have announced a new album for release in 2014, that being a sequel to last year's "Environ-Mental Suits" (subtitled "Anvil of Antioch".) It's album cover was posted on their Facebook page on Tuesday, and it's considered their 45th album, indicating that at least one more is in the works for this year (as they have 43 officially so far.) Release details are forthcoming, but this will likely be a free release like their other recent albums. I'm curious to hear more, and stay tuned!

That's all for today, but stay tuned tomorrow in case there's any late-notice concerts to plug, with other news also lying in wait! Thanks everyone!

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

YouTube Channel Profile Series: genesyco & ElementsOfMadness' Channels

Well guys, we're a day late this month for our latest YouTube Channel Profile (thanks to forgetfulness and my rush to get the Battle of the Bands recap up), but the series isn't stopping, and we've got some quality videos to look at today! In this monthly series where we profile YouTube channels with at least a 50% concentration of local metal-relevant videos, we're profiling two (not one or three) channels for the first time in this series, as the first channel I randomly selected only had two videos, so I needed one more to fill things out. Read on below for all you need to know on these coincidentally Sault Michigan-centric channels! (Updated on August 28th, 2013)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
genesyco's Channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/genesyco)

Owner: YouTube user & likely Sault Michigan resident genesyco (real name unknown. His first name is likely Gene, but that could be a Kiss reference, given his uploaded videos)

Channel Timeline: Launched on January 28th, 2006; Videos posted on July 21st, 2007

Channel Summary: One of a few YouTube channels featuring videos from Kiss' headlining concert at Kewadin Casino on July 20th, 2007, both of the videos posted here were ripped from Donna Hopper's review of the show on SooToday shortly after it was posted, and you can view the original videos at the above links. Despite originally being from an outside source, and not knowing who genesyco is, it's good to see him put these videos on YouTube for a wider audience, as each video has attracted at least 19,000 hits!

Why Should You Watch: Because these are a more convenient source to check out two nice videos from Kiss' show at Kewadin Casino in 2007, and being a notable and well attended concert, there's a definite audience for them! They're also notable for being older SooToday-filmed concert videos, something that they don't do frequently anymore at reviewed shows. Note that genesyco hasn't uploaded a new video since these Kiss videos were posted, but he still actively uses the channel for personal needs.

Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

kiss live 07/20/07: Originally titled "KISS Video Hightlights" on SooToday, this 2:38-long video features a montage of clips from the concert, fans in attendance, merchandise tables, and portions of the opening songs from their set that night. The video quality is pretty good, though I'd have liked to have heard real audio of the fans prior to the actual concert footage, and some clips of the opening bands (Clownsack among them) wouldn't have came amiss. Still, this is a nicely compiled collection of footage from Kiss' first local stop in 2007!



kiss backstage at Sault Ste. Marie 07/20/07: With over 45,000 views, this is by far the most popular of the two genesyco/SooToday videos from the 2007 Kiss concert, and like an earlier video from the old Kewadin Casino YouTube channel, this is from the pre-show ceremony where Kiss received the key to the city of Sault Michigan! Entitled "Exclusive Footage" on SooToday, look out for City Commissioner (and ex-Rock 101 DJ) Ray Bauer hosting the proceedings, and also look out for footage from the meet & greet with Kiss at the end of this solid video that shows Kiss' popularity and influence well!


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ElementsOfMadness (http://youtube.com/user/elementsofmadness)

Owner: Elements of Madness guitarist Cody Rosebohm

Channel Timeline: Launched on March 20th, 2011; Only video posted that same day

Channel Summary: This is the official YouTube channel for inactive Sault Michigan hard rock band Elements of Madness, but it did not prove to be actively used for band-related material compared to Cody's personal YouTube channel, which features at least five videos of his solo guitar work, including a second copy of the only video on the actual Elements of Madness channel. Entitled 'Guitar for "Falling"', it's of Cody playing a "work in progress" acoustic riff towards their original song "Falling", and though there's little to go on, it sounds like it could be promising if expanded on! Definitely follow the above links for more band-related videos, and click here for another solo portion of "Falling" from Cody's personal channel!


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I hope you guys enjoyed this month's YouTube Channel Profiles, and hopefully we'll be back on time for a May 22nd posting next month! What channel are we looking at next though? Through random selection, I've chosen the YouTube channel of Ashley Traynor, the sister/daughter of Alex & Don Traynor from the Kinross hard rock quartet Banned! She's filmed over a dozen videos of Alex & Don's live concerts (Banned or otherwise) since last year, and this should supply a solid profile next month as our run of Sault Michigan-centric channels continues, so watch out for this profile late next month! That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news shortly! Thanks everyone!