"Going Underground: A Brief History Of Punk Rock In Small Town Canada" Review!!

It's now time for our second ever book review at The Sault Metal Scene! After delays from school and other such commitments, I've now been able to sit down and give a thorough read to a book I've had for a while now, and though not metal-centric, is very interesting! The book in question is "Going Underground: A Brief History Of Punk Rock In Small Town Canada", which was written by local photographer Paolo Colasacco and released through Paolo Paolo Media on January 22nd! Printed at Friesens Press, the book features writings from his concert experiences, with the included photos being taken at local concerts, events, and photo shoots from the 1980s through the early 2000s. The book details the stories and images Paolo has about the local music scene (mostly punk, though metal is discussed) during that time period, and clocks in at 408 pages long. "Going Underground" costs $30, and can be purchased at The Rad Zone in their Hole In The Wall section, or you can buy it online via PayPal for $45 ($48 international) at this location. Remember, I'm NOT a professional reviewer by any means, and have no formal experience in literary criticism, so make note of that in case you have critical comments.

I also was neither alive or old enough to experience the events chronicled in the book, so if I make any mistakes or don't add something, I apologize. I admit I'm not the ideal person to review it, but I figured I should give this era and work the attention it deserves, and tell you guys what you should know before you buy it. I'll try to keep comments on each story to a minimum to encourage you to actually buy & read the book as well. With that said, let's begin this review!

The book officially starts with a six and-a-half page story on the "first wave" of the local punk scene in the 1980s, along with Paolo's beginnings as a photographer. He goes into detail about how his love for photography blossomed, his first experiences in getting prints done, and eventually led to how he developed an appreciation of Rush, who friends of his covered in a late 1970s local band named Reefer, leading to some of his earliest band photography. He eventually discussed his experiences surrounding the rise of the local New Wave/punk band The Reggulars, whose hybrid sound wasn't anything you'd hear on the radio, and which quickly gained steam in local music circles. Their rise to playing gigs at the former Centennial Lanes (the old GLOW Nightclub's in that site now) is also followed, which seemed to signal other bands to play there. After brief discussion of slang terms (including calling metalheads "Gorrocks" at the time), Paolo talked about the images and clothing taken on in the early punk years, which was widely diverse depending on the person. He then discussed his first experiences with concert photography and the settings used to get good quality shots, along with his continued evolution as a photographer led to him creating and underground newspaper named "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!", including it's one-off metal parody that didn't work as an insult.

Paolo also added details on it's transformation after being sold, and briefly becoming Zombie A-Go-Go, which had a following but alsowas more restrictive and had issues with fighting in the crowds. This led into his eventual move to London to study other fields, and the nice re-connection he had with some old band acquaintances that I won't spoil here. The rest of the chapter is basically photos and related captions of the early bands, musicians, and concerts of the time, including such bands as The Reggulars, The Vox, Waldo Pepper & The Shakes, and Final Option, among others. The photos, though entirely black and white, are nice and large, and in good quality despite the age and nature of how many were taken. All of the right-hand pages after the included stories has one of Paolo's photos, while the left-hand pages include captions, credits of which band or musician was included & where, and assorted comments relating to their lineups, releases, shows, debuts, and so forth. Though I can't speak for the accuracy of the captions given that I wasn't alive yet, Paolo does give great detail on these photos, even saying what song was being played in certain shots, which is very interesting! The bands here aren't necessarily all punk, but the chapter gives a good insight into the birth of this scene, and the path it would take, and the photos guide everything really well!

The "second wave" is basically Chapter 2 of the book, which details the punk rock shows of the 1990s, where things get more aggressive and hard hitting compared to the early Centennial Lanes shows. Paolo's story for this chapter is only three and a half pages long, and it starts with Paolo's return to the Sault to study graphic design. He talks about meeting a local guitarist named Jeff Nisbet of the punk band The Spigots, and the rush of a revived punk scene he felt when he first saw them live. Paolo discusses how the "second wave" took place at The Windsor Park Hotel on Queen Street (now Algoma University housing), which had few issues despite it's location and motif. He praised the environment of the Windsor Park Hotel for concerts, as well as the advancement of the bands, who had more structure and professionalism compared to the 1908s bands he followed. This helped lead out-of-town bands like The Ripcordz to shows in the Soo, a development rarely seen from Centennial Lanes bands. Paolo would ten discuss the merchandice factor of this run of local bands, including The Spigots' recording sessions, and how they almost ended in disaster. He wrapped up with discussion of his new photo techniques of the time, the improved crowd environment and how they factored into his pictures, his work as a teacher at Sault College, and the Windsor Park Hotel's end as a concert venue.

Bands included in the photos from the second wave include The Spigots, Room 206, The Kite Eating Maples, The Sugarspun Sisters, and more, as you'd expect! These photos are better in multiple ways from the 1980s shots, in both photo quality (newer cameras) and the concert environments, which were larger, had more energetic looking and sounding bands, and had more diverse angles of the crowd and venue! Lots of shots of rowdy and passionate fans rocking out with some very talented punk bands of the time, including a couple with current members of The Inner City Surfers! The 1980s photos were cool, but the 1990s ones made me REALLY wish I could experience the second wave!

The "third wave" is the last and shortest chapter in the book, with it's story only taking up one page. Paolo discusses how the now vacant Club Princess became an active local concert venue for shows in the early 2000s, and it's different environment compared to the earlier discussed venues. He mentions the newer wave of bands and fans and how they were different in approach and age (19+ now) compared to the 1980s and 1990s, and how fans responded to shows there strikes a chord similar to how some are treated at current shows. He also talked about the decline of the punk scene in this wave, with similar sounding bands and shrinking crowd numbers, and closed the story with his nostalgia and rememberances of past waves and their connection to the scene as it then stood. His photos include shots of early 2000s bands like Blend, Suckerpunch, and The Late Night Weirdos, closing with pictures from The Spigots' last ever show. Very nice photos once again, and though the crowds look lively, there's something missing compared to the energy you could detect from photos in the second wave. Best quality photos of the book though, which benefited from newer equipment. The promo photos are great too, though they take up a larger ratio of the photos than they did in the earlier waves.

Paolo closes with two pages of personal reflections on the scene and punk music, including his hope that newer musicians and fans will use "Going Underground" as a do-it-yourself manual to help make an exciting music scene like he experienced locally. I don't know if it will be an instigator for such a revival, but what I do know is that this is a great book and a great time capsule to the local scene's past! You can tell Paolo had a deep appreciation for local music, local bands and musicians, and the punk scene at it's heights! Sure, he wasn't around the metal side of things much, but I give him kudos for mentioning the scene as it existed back then, and I'm sure bands that crossed the metal line played at The Windsor Park & Club Princess at the time! Reading this book, I developed interest in checking out a bunch of these bands, which is a sign that something's working! A few of the included bands have material posted online (Room 206 even have a MySpace page), but many don't have songs or videos that I've seen. Paolo or someone with the right connections should make a "Going Underground" CD about the punk scene, featuring the bands included in the book, I think it'd be successful!

I have some points to stress the book though. Much of the book's layout strikes me as wasted space, as the left hand caption pages are almost entirely blank save for words on the bottom and (sometimes) top. I would have put the captions and comments above & below the photos to save space. I think at least 100 pages could have been shaved if he'd done that. I figure colour photos would have been a good addition if Paolo had them for later shots, but I imagine all black and white would save costs. I also expected to see a wider expanse of bands in the included photographs, with only about 16 getting credited sections in the table of contents. Some names are misspelled as well, like Jeff Nisbet, Dave Bahun, and Brad Lacell, but hey, mistakes happen to us all. The thing that disappointed me the most is the lack of stories. Only about 13 and a half pages of the book feature Paolo's stories on the scene, which seems very small, especially given the fact that portions of a longer Centennial Lanes story were posted by him onto The Internet Archive in 2005, click here to see them (and more photos.) I was hoping to read the missing parts of that story in this book, which suggests that he might have had longer stories about the scene in mind at one point, but the photo heavy nature of it works too!

Still, this is a very entertaining time capsule look at the local punk scene from it's infancy to it's quiet later period, and Paolo offers many well written thoughts and observations from this time period! His photos are great and he helps give a voice and insight into a scene that many newer music fans locally don't know a lot about! Metal isn't the focus, but you'll definitely find connections and references that will get your mind going. I hope this book will encourage fans to get in touch with bands of the past, the musicians that still perform nowadays, how the scene once was, and how we can connect it to the scene of today. Very entertaining book, pick it up today!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news tomorrow, and yes, my review of "Soo Stories" by Duane Roy is coming up hopefully this week as well! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Turner Up), A New Contest, Videos, And More!!

After another day's break to let news gather, I have lots of stuff to get to today! In this post, we have our latest classic local video, a new hard rock cover from a local musician, news on a recent book release, and a contest that we're running, but first, here's some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS!!

Turner Up are back on the concert stage this weekend! The local classic hard rockers return to The Nicolet Tavern on Friday and Saturday night for a pair of entertaining nights of music! Apologies for the short notice, these were only just announced yesterday. Convenient timing though, as the Friday show coincides with guitarist Len Ward's birthday, so if you're out that day, wish him happy birthday! There is no cover charge for either night this weekend, both concerts have listed 9:30 PM start times, and you must be 19 to enter. For more details. visit the official Facebook event page! But that's not all, as they'll be back at The Nic on February 11th (no word on the 12th yet) for a Bon Soo-connected event! That night is 70s & 80s Night and Turner Up are the house band, with a planned costume contest as well for attendees dressed like their favourite rock stars! Sounds like fun, it's great to see them back with Bon Soo again, I'm fairly certain the band did a Bon Soo event last year as well! Same house rules should apply, but just in case, make sure you have a button. For more details on this special concert, check your official Bon Soo programs in this week's issue of Sault This Week! Stay tuned for more Turner Up news as it comes in!

Next up, here's a special announcement: We're running a contest! How would you guys like a $20 gift card for The Rad Zone at Wellington Square Mall? Len Ward from The Rad Zone (and Turner Up) graciously donated a $20 gift card for me to give away in a SMS contest, and you can use it to pick up any of the great items they have there, be it music, moves, games, skate products, clothes, books, or anything! I'm opening this contest up to you guys, the loyal SMS fans and readers, and I'm going to run this similarly to The Rad Zone's giveaway contests, as they seem to work well! Here's how you can win: Head to The Sault Metal Scene's Facebook page and post your name as a comment in reply to our posting about the contest. One entry per person, you must post your name for it to be a valid entry, and entries on other postings on our Facebook page won't be accepted. You'll have until 8:00 PM on February 2nd to enter (one week), and then I will randomly select one name from the eligible entries to win the gift card! So enter today at this location, cause I know someone out there could really use $20 at a great store like The Rad Zone! ENTER TODAY, you have one week!!

One more Rad Zone related note, as when I last stopped in, I finally picked up a copy of "Going Underground: A Brief History Of Punk Rock In Small Town Canada"! That's the book on the local punk scene in Sault Ontario that Paolo Colasacco launched and held a signing for on Saturday. I couldn't make the signing, but I have a copy, so here's some additional info on it for you guys! Released by Paolo Paolo Media and printed by Friesens Press, the book is 408 pages long, and takes a mostly photographic journey through the punk scene in Sault Ontario from 1985-2000. Each "wave" of the scene (roughly the late 80s, early 90s, and late 90s each) has loads of photos from concerts, photo shoots, and related events, along with some stories Paolo has from the scene from each time period. There are metal mentions, and though the book is primarily punk based, there's a lot of quality stuff in the book and a lot of bands I'd personally like to learn more about! I won't go into detail with my thoughts yet, as I want to formally review it in the near future, but it is worth checking out! Even if you were too young to be a part of the scene, why not educate yourself? It's at The Rad Zone in their Hole In The Wall book section for $30, pick it up today!

We'll close today with two videos, and first, here's a new hard rock cover from local musician Curtis J. McKenzie! We've profiled his work on here in the past, largely from his band projects like 20 Pack Of Marshmallows and Restricted Illusions, but since last year's last major updates, he's since moved to Wawa, where he continues to work as a solo artist. The old Restricted Illusions page was even taken down and now just links to his solo page, so I removed it from our band links. His solo work isn't very heavy, as we tended to get that more from his now-inactive local bands, but one of his newest videos has a local metal connection, as it's a Guns N' Roses cover! As a tribute to the band and to an unidentified person he cares for a lot, he recorded a solo cover of "So Fine" and uploaded it to his YouTube channel yesterday! That, if you guys aren't sure, was one of the few GNR songs sung by Duff McKagan, and Curtis does a good job with it, though his range is a bit high compared to what we're used to from the original. Check it out below, and for more from Curtis' solo and band projects, check the above links!



And finally, here is this week's classic video! Keeping with past trends, I am tying in this week's video with performers from an upcoming concert, and in this case, it's three of them! Those three are Bring The Fallen guitarist Dan Souliere & Bear Hunters members Nik Deubel and Justin Lam, all of whom are performing on FRIDAY at The Oddfellows Hall! As some of you may know, Dan, Nik, and Justin were all members of a defunct local black metal band named Dark Salvation, who were active in late 2007 and early 2008. A then short-haired Nik handled guitar, but Dan and Justin's instruments are no different. The lineup was rounded out by former Caedis Omnis singer Kevin Calder (you may recognize him as local wrestler Kevyn Kross) and backup vocalist Sam Mitchell, who filmed this video but doesn't contribute to the performance. Aside from Woods of Ypres, black metal is a genre we don't see a lot of local bands playing, so this was refreshing to see upon their inception. Unfortunately, their lineup was never publically completed before their demise, but this video shows some promise! It features 4/5ths of their lineup covering Dimmu Borgir's "Puritania" at a jam session from January 2008, and though they are playing along with the original audio track, they do a good if unrefined job! Kevin's got solid black metal vocals too, it's a wonder he hasn't popped up in another band since!

This was filmed by Sam Mitchell and uploaded onto her Facebook page in January 2008. The original link is at http://facebook.com/video/video.php?v=20195923496, and Sam deserves ALL CREDIT for this video! She did all the work, all I did was upload it to YouTube to expand it's audience! So check out our new classic video below, and we'll have another one in the middle of next week!



That's all for tonight, but stay tuned for more local metal news and notes soon, including weekend concert previews tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Half Past & That's Chester), A New Local Band, And More!!

We're on pace for our busiest month on the SMS since the summer, which is a great sign! Our march to another 30+ post month continues today with some more big news and notes from the past little while, including news on a notable local book, a previously unknown store for a local band, and two LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, but first, here's a new local band!

In November, you may remember us talking about a new local hard rock trio named The Quims, which featured frontman Justin Langlois (of Scary Uncles fame), Frightlight guitarist Rick White, and his brother James on bass, as you'll recognize from Browbeat. They looked promising and original for a local band, but we hadn't heard anything on them for over two months. Well, the other day, a new local band popped up on Facebook named Motion Carried which also featured Justin and Rick, but with Rick now on drums and a new bassist listed, veteran local musician Jamie Whalen (notably of Facedown). I can confirm that The Quims have broken up (thanks to Justin for confirming that), but without plainly visible sources, I won't say much else. Now, we have Motion Carried, a promising sounding band that describe themselves as an old fashioned rock n' roll band, with alcohol as a listed influence! Good sign! The band might be looking for a second guitarist, but aside from that and the existing info on their Facebook page, little else can be said yet, but keep an eye out! I have a feeling some good stuff will come from Motion Carried!

Now to our LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, and first, a notable local hard rock band have finally announced their long awaited return to the stage! That band is Half Past, who have booked a headlining concert at The Rockstar Bar on February 26th! This will be their first live concert in almost 11 months, following a lengthy break from the stage amidst the departure and return of bassist Arthur Lacasse, and the beginning of preparations for their debut album. It's about time they come back, they're a talented band with some really solid originals and many great covers, and they should deliver next month in their return! A start time of 10:30 PM is listed on the Facebook event page, there is no advertised cover charge, and you must be 19 to attend. Pencil me in to attend this concert if I'm in town (not sure about my March Break plans yet), but regardless, this should be a great concert! Stay tuned for more updates as they come in, and check the above links for more details!

The other new concerts today are from an upcoming concert weekend at Docks Riverfront Grill, where That's Chester will return for a pair of shows next month! A favourite stop of theirs, the local classic hard rockers will be back at Docks on February 11th and 12th, one weekend after Turner Up, so a nice string of classic hard rock cover bands is on the way at that venue! My source for these new concerts is a reply to a post on That's Chester's Facebook page, and they've proven to be correct and honest with upcoming concert claims in any form, so I wouldn't expect this to be altered. As is usual, I would expect a 19+ age limit, 10:00 PM start time, and no cover for both of these shows. These should be fun as well, as That's Chester have some great music and talents in store at every concert, and you guys should consider going if you need some live music next month! Stay tuned for more That's Chester news and updates as I hear them!

Now for a couple news stories from the last little while to fill out this post, and we'll start with a surprising find I never realized existed! News from local crash music quartet Sykotyk Rampage has been slow recently despite no less than two albums in the works for release, but I did find something pretty cool that I never noticed before when I was browsing their pages: A store, and not just for music! The band's Reverbnation page has a surprisingly extensive store where you can buy band t-shirts, hoodies, hats, water bottles, mugs, tank tops, and canvas bags! The designs range from band logos to the front cover of their newest album "Bella Disgusta", but note that some of the graphics are pretty distorted depending on the product. I assume this is more like CafePress than something with extensive band input. The above links will take you to their store, where you can buy official Sykotyk Rampage merchandise, but note that things are slightly expensive compared to similar products from other bands. Still, if you love the sound of baboons eating peanut butter or stars decaying, you might wanna pick up some of this stuff! Stay tuned for more Sykotyk Rampage news as I hear it!

And finally, this is a news item that isn't entirely metal-centric, but it's really cool and has a lot of historic noteworthiness to the local scene, so I have to mention it. Do you guys remember in July when I talked about some cool short stories from the local music scene in the 1980s written by local photographer Paolo Colasacco? They dealt with the concert scene in the 1980s, mostly concerning punk bands and shows at Centennial Lanes, but they were insightful looks back into an era many local music lovers remember fondly, and you can check them out by clicking here. I hoped they'd amount to something big in the future, but with their posting taking place in 2005, I honestly wasn't too hopeful. However, Paolo has finished a book entitled "Going Underground: A Brief History Of Punk Rock In Small Town Canada" which compiles (I assume) the short stories above and many more, along with a bunch of his concert photography into a book about the Sault music scene from 1985-2000. It looks to have a punk focus and bent towards all ages concerts from that 15 year spread, but the articles I read and posted in July did have metal references, so there should be more mentions of it! I was regrettably too young to be a part of the scene during the time period Paolo's featuring in "Going Underground", but I always want to learn, and I have a hunch this will be a must read book!

"Going Underground" goes on sale THIS SATURDAY at The Rad Zone at Wellington Square Mall for $30, which may seem steep, but don't look at it like that. This should prove to be a great collection and flashback to the local scene that I'm sure many people regard fondly, so I expect it should be worth the money! In conjunction with the book signing, Paolo will be on hand from 1:00-4:00 PM on Saturday to autograph copies of "Going Underground", so if you want a signed copy, that's when to attend! For more details, visit the book's official Facebook page and The Rad Zone's Facebook page as well! I think I will pick up a copy, and if things go according to plan, we may just have a new book review this year! Stay tuned!

That's all for today, but I will see you guys at The Rosie TONIGHT for Metal Night! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Tym Morrison), A New Local Band, A 1980s Local Scene Short Story, And More!!

And today, we hit 30 posts for the month of July! Very busy month, and we have some more exciting news today, including a VERY cool local scene-relevant short story, Kewadin Festival updates, the identity of one of the bands from there, and new material from a local band! But first, here's a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!!!

Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison has scheduled another solo acoustic date for August 6th! Once again, he'll be rocking out at The Roosevelt Hotel for a day full of acoustic metal covers to have a drink to! Note that I said "day", not "night", because this concert starts at 4:00 PM and runs until around 8:00 PM, unlike most Tym/Caveman Morrison shows. I think this show is tied to an event of some kind, especially with the "free dinner and meat draw" plugged on the Facebook event page, but I'm not entirely sure what the occasion is. What I do know is that if you wanna chill out with some great renditions of your favourite hard rock hits from one of the area's better known guitarists, head to The Rosie on August 6th! Check the above links for more details on this show and on Tym Morrison's musical projects!

Next up, I have found a VERY cool short story that fans of the local music scene from the 1980s will absolutely want to read! This was a completely random find on some Google searching I conducted the other day, and it's the second part of an (at least) five part short story from local concert photographer Paolo Colasacco. It's about the concerts and experiences at the old Centennial Lanes venue on Gore Street (Nite-Life Dance Club is now in it's old location), and it really is a cool read! Paolo discusses the genre divisions of concertgoers from shows there, the environment that Centennial Lanes gave to create a "new music scene", what it was like at the concerts in terms of what people did, what the alcohol policies were, what bands you'd typically see, and just how much fun people had! A good deal of it is spent talking about that band Riggy Zomba that I mentioned in yesterday's post, and Paolo's description of their two separate fanbases is noteworthy! He also notes that metalheads tended to frequent the Eastgate Hotel way back for concerts. The grammar and spelling isn't perfect, but believe me, this is another awesome window to the past of the local scene, and you'll wanna check it out!

Paolo uploaded this portion of his Centennial Lanes story onto The Internet Archive five years ago, and you can click here for the download link! Note that it's a WordPerfect file, but programs like Microsoft Word can also open it. Paolo has uploaded many other files onto The Internet Archive in the past, including some concert photos and the fifth part of the Centennial Lanes story, click here for more of his work! Part 5 doesn't deal much with metal, mostly concerning the walk home from a punk show headlined by classic local band The Reggulars, but read it too! This is great stuff that people should be more aware of, but I wonder what happened to the other parts of the Centennial Lanes story? I'll let you guys know if I hear more!

Next up, we have some new Kewadin Casino 25th Anniversary Summer Festival updates to share! Kewadin's Facebook page now features tons of photos from Bret Michaels, Vince Neil, Three Doors Down, and Meat Loaf's sets, and more! Good quality, but I have one major complaint about the photos: Most of them are sideways! That is a nuisance, but they're good photos, click here to check them out! SooNews.ca also has new Kewadin Festival-related stuff online, courtesy of a new article and video from Winging It! host Tami Fremlin! The video, which isn't embeddable, features some quality performance clips from the festival of Three Doors Down and assorted other events, as well as portions of interviews with many of the acts and performers, including members of Clownsack and Nixxon Dixxon, among many others! Tami asks good questions, though she has a soft voice that can be hard to hear on lower volumes. Expect to see extended versions of these interviews and pieces when the new episode of Winging It! come online on SooNews.ca. For now though, check out the video at this location!

Yes, there's also some new YouTube videos from the festival, though none are of the metal/hard rock performers. YouTube user tishialee uploaded two videos from Meat Loaf's set onto her channel, user pltreasures has a Meat Loaf video and two Three Doors Down clips, user daliellepeters has a parking lot video that shows the festival atmosphere and tents, and user Kylerawesome has a video of his band performing at the festival, named Attaca. Judging by their apparent ages and the stage setup, it looks like these guys were one of the "Rock Camp" youth groups that performed on the third stage on July 22nd and/or 23rd. And my assumption that the youth groups were from Shift guitarist Joey Beairl's Guitar Studio was a correct one, as you can see the upper half of the Guitar Studio logo in a banner on the far left of the stage in the Attaca video. These kids do have talent, so check out the video, but don't expect metal, as they cover The Ramones, The White Stripes, and Green Day in the clip. Click all of the above links for the newest Kewadin Festival footage!

Finally today, one more Kewadin Festival-related note. Remember the local band Elipzis that played at the festival on the Saturday as one of the Meat Loaf supporting bands? Well, I now know what's up with this band, and yes, they are SMS-coverable! The band consists of frontwoman Rachel Kiger, guitarist Chris Webster from the inactive Muskegon hard rock band Kilacel, bassist Ryan Harrison (former Riot! By Night frontman, more on that in a second), and drummer Bob "Orb Hearthstone" Helsten, who you'll best recognize as Integrated System of Machines' original frontman! They only just launched a MySpace page on July 13th, and it doesn't mention Sault Ste. Marie at all, which probably explains why it's taken me so long to find out details on this band. Musically, they list influences ranging from Stuck Mojo, Fates Warning, and Iced Earth (I heavily approve!) to The Police and Johnny Cash! Interesting, especially with a female singer, that'll give the band a different flavour! Looks like these guys have a lot of promise, I now have them in the SMS band links, and I'll definitely try to update you guys on their upcoming shows and events from here on out!

Thanks to Ryan Harrison and the anonymous commenter on my June 29th post for some of the above information, as well as the above links! I have some cool stuff coming up on some of the bands and outfits related to Elipzis members in the next while, but I want to quickly add that yes, Ryan Harrison is no longer in Riot! By Night. Their MySpace page hasn't been recently updated at all, but I have heard rumours that Absolute, the band that most of Riot! By Night was in immediately beforehand, may be reuniting. I'll keep you posted if there's any truth to that, but it sucks that Riot! By Night may have ended, cause they sounded very promising and I heard nothing but good things about their shows!

That's all for today, my next post will (in all likelihood) be my next local metal CD review! Remember, it's an album from a band that I've already reviewed an album for, so get speculating! Stay tuned for that, and more, in the coming days!