After a couple of single topic posts the last two days, here's a mix of stories on this Monday morning, including a local solo project's return with new material, lots of new YouTube videos from a prominent local cover band, but let's start with a new and very promising group to check out!
We have a new local hard rock band to add to our band links, namely Raincourt, a high school-age group that launched in August of last year! Raincourt's social media presence is spotty at best, so it took a bit of work to glean the information here, but you can get more on them via their Facebook page. Named for their lead guitarist Raine Rancourt, the lineup is comprised of current White Pines Collegiate students, all members of their school band The Pine Tones, and Raine is joined by singer/guitarist Elijah Russell, bassist Owen Dearing, and drummer Jakob Kuiack (a.k.a. Jakob Fice-Lesage). Curiously, their lineup is not given on their Facebook page, I had to get the credits from this video interview that Raine took part in with the local podcast series The Boar's Nest with Don Lewis last month. For the record, The Boar's Nest doesn't appear to be music-centric (wrestling moreso), but it's cool to see Don give Raincourt some early promotion!
Raincourt first posted on Facebook last fall via video covers (complete with face masks) of Black Sabbath's "Electric Funeral" & Bob Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower" at White Pines, resurfacing in March to tease the release of their debut original single "Penny Arcade" (embedded below), though again, curiously not linked on their Facebook page. This was recorded at Mission Control Studios with producer Dustin Jones, so Raincourt are aiming high and working with the right people from the start, and you can watch more from those recording sessions in January via this video on their new YouTube channel. Official band t-shirts are also now on sale, for the record. Raine's interview on The Boar's Nest will be the best source of information on Raincourt so far (it's 57 minutes long, FYI) where you'll learn about how the band formed, Raine's future aspirations in music, the inspiration of "Penny Arcade", the support from White Pines students/faculty so far, ...
...their songwriting process, aimed local concerts to play at, recording at Mission Control Studios, musical inspirations, future plans, and much more. For hearing just one song, Don sure shows his fandom for Raincourt so far, which is cool! "Penny Arcade" will appeal to modern hard rock fans with it's catchy guitar riffs, strong production, and tight structure, and as Don often noted, you can be very surprised that this song was recorded by teenagers! That said, this is one song, so unless you're a Wolverine, you'll have only seen this and the above covers. Hopefully we hear much more from Raincourt in due course, but give their videos a look above, and here's "Penny Arcade", which is also on Spotify!
Next up, let's take a somewhat overdue look at videos of local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck that have been uploaded to drummer Glen Thomas' YouTube channel since the fall! While some of these were uploaded to the band's Facebook page at the time, not all of them were, and it's odd that many have lived here without Soundcheck giving them a public push. Ten videos of Soundcheck (with Paul or Rob on bass) have made their way to Glen's channel in the past six months, including them covering The Black Keys' "Lonely Boy" at The Esquire Club & The Tragically Hip's "New Orleans Is Sinking" at Reggie's Place. From Shooters Downstairs Lounge, you can see Soundcheck cover Shania Twain's "Man! I Feel Like A Woman", John Mellencamp's "Hurts So Good", Kenny Chesney's "Young", and ZZ Top's "TV Dinners", while the other four are from Reggie's West shows, including two from a Thursday jam night & an overhead camera angle!
These include "Young" & "TV Dinners" again (the latter video uploaded twice), plus Harlequin's "Thinking of You" and David Wilcox's "My Eyes Keep Me In Trouble". Singer/guitarist Terry Eaton sings lead on all but the Black Keys, John Mellencamp, and Kenny Chesney songs, which were handled by Cameron Oliver, and notably, Cameron was not featured in any of the Reggievelt clips except "Young". For the wide screen resolution and Cameron's presence, I'll embed the Shania cover here, believe it or not, but all will deliver for fans of Soundcheck's workmanlike and diverse set with some good hard rock bits along the way, so give these a look!
Finally, let's head to Sault Michigan, as local metal solo project X's & Y's is back in action! Led by former Life's Eclipse guitarist and Werehold Records founder Jason Mills, the project's Facebook page had been quietly deactivated in mid-late 2020, but it came back by December of that year (apologies for not noticing that until now) with a teaser video of a Casio DG-20 guitar synth. Updates were extremely sporadic afterwards, but last night, Jason uploaded a full track from the planned debut X's & Y's EP (title now anglicized from “Þe Obsidian Sömnen” to "The Obsidian Dream"). The song is named "Solid Glass", and it's a very djent-heavy instrumental that Meshuggah fans will take to, and this comes honestly to Jason if you followed his Werehold-era music, or saw his prior upload of playing all of the songs from Meshuggah's new album "Immutable" simultaneously.
The technical brutality is great, but given all of the planned Werehold albums that never got a formal paid release, who knows when "The Obsidian Dream" will go on sale, but hopefully it bucks old trends! Give this a listen below, and X's & Y's are back in our active band links!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site soon! Thanks everyone!
Hey everyone, just a heads up that due to personal commitments today (specifically, my 29th birthday), this weekend concert preview post is an auto-post entirely written yesterday afternoon. A such, if there's any more late notice show announcements, I won't be able to get to them until Friday. With that said, there's a solid weekend of music in store to help kick off the month of June, so here's what you should know, starting with LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, partially on SHORT NOTICE! (Due to the amount of shows this weekend, our preview of Sunday's Dumpster Mummy concert will be in our next news post, coming on Friday or Saturday.)
Local acoustic hard rock trio The Wyld Stallyns will return to Room 21 for one night only TOMORROW NIGHT as part of their Finger Food Friday festivities! Apologies for the short notice, this show was only announced via it's Facebook event page last night. Two weeks removed from their Upper Deck Bar & Grill debut, the Elements side project will return to their favourite venue for the continuation of Room 21's new Finger Food Friday series, where appetizers will again be on hand for willing patrons to enjoy along with the live musical entertainment. Rob, Christina, and Jesse should have another fun night of hard and funk rock covers in store at the Low & Slow sister bar TOMORROW, so don't miss out on the unplugged action then! Expect a 10:00 PM start time, no announced cover charge, and a 19+ age limit TOMORROW NIGHT, so visit the above links for more details, and here's The Wyld Stallyns live earlier this year!
Next up, and with June about to begin, let's add Tym Morrison's latest array of acoustic hard rock solo concerts to our concert listings, including Gliss Steak & Seafood shows TOMORROW & SATURDAY, and then on June 8th-9th, 15th-16th, 22nd-23rd, and 29th-30th! Again, apologies for the short notice on this weekend's shows, remember that we take his Gliss bookings one month at a time due to their long term nature. Elsewhere this month, we knew of Tym's upcoming Mark's Breakfast Plus shows from June 11th-13th already, but there are two Thursday nighters to note in advance of his expected return to thrice-a-week Gliss gigs next month, as Tym will return to The Water Tower Pub for a rare solo show there on June 14th (as per this venue schedule), while he will play a special "Back to the 80s" concert on Thursday, June 21st at.... Burger Don?! Yes, the restaurant at 7 Great Northern Road (formerly Gigi's Bistro) does host live solo musicians on occasion, and this will be Tym's debut there!
With a 1980s rock-centric setlist expected for this themed concert, hopefully Tym has a great set at Burger Don in three weeks time, and might a successful night lead to more gigs there? Tym Morrison's Gliss shows (TOMORROW & SATURDAY included) are 6:00 PM matinees, while the Burger Don show on the 21st is at 8:00 PM, and the 19+ Water Tower Pub show on the 14th is at 9:30 PM. None of these dates have announced cover charges, but remember, both Gliss and Burger Don are sit-down restaurants, not traditional nightclubs. Visit the Gliss concerts' Facebook event page and the above links for more details, and here's Tym live!
Moving to previously announced concerts, we'll touch on the long awaited return of Live705 to local concert promotion after a 9+ month hiatus, as they're bringing Timmins punk quartet All The Wasted Years to The Rockstar Bar TOMORROW NIGHT for their local concert debut! Touring in support of their new album "High Blood Pressure", A.T.W.Y.'s upbeat and familiar punk rock style should be a fine fit in the Soo on Friday, so genre fans should be right at home when they take the stage to kick off the month! Local support will include Live705's flagship punk band A Dire Setback in just their second show of 2018 and third as a trio, while in a late confirmation, fellow local punk trio Stegadeth will take the stage tomorrow as well, replacing the already departed Skeyes of Seven. Solid choice that helps add to this show's punk-heavy nature, and they should have a fun set! Local heavy rock quintet Re:Born will play just their second live concert set as openers on Friday night, so prepare for an old school heavy attack before punk rock takes over!
Note that both All The Wasted Years & A Dire Setback will be heading back to Timmins on Saturday for the headliners' official CD release party, so good luck to both bands out east this weekend! As for the local show tomorrow, it is a 19+ affair with a $10 cover charge and an advertised 9:00 PM start time. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here's All The Wasted Years live a couple of years back!
Also this weekend, let's head south to Kinross, Michigan, where hometown classic/hard rock trio Banned will play their first of three special concerts at the Jack Passmore Grandstand at Kinross Speedpark during this summer's racing season THIS SATURDAY NIGHT! Specifically, Banned will be serving as the musical entertainment for Saturday's post-practice festivities, with the full season schedule commencing on Sunday, so whether you're in this for the fast driving action or Banned's hard rocking covers, entertainment is likely for Saturday! They'll be back at Kinross Speedpark in three weeks after practice for the Triple Crown event later this month, so keep that return in mind also. Saturday's show has a 9:00 PM start time with no age limit or cover charge (though the races proper have paid admission), while the race practice itself is from 12:00-4:00 PM. See the Facebook event page for more details, and here's Banned live!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes by this weekend! Thanks everyone!
