LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Crush) And Saturday Hard Rock Concert Previews!!

Before we begin this post, I waned to note that this Saturday's planned Soo Falls-hosted Oktoberfest concert at The Machine Shop was quietly cancelled, as per the end of ticket sales (source here) and lack of recent social media promotion. A reason for the cancellation was not publically announced, but remember that we did have two other Oktoberfest events in Sault Ontario earlier this fall. Hopefully we see BookcluB and Silent 9 back at it soon, and Nein German Guys at Oktoberfest events next year! Now, let's lead off this busy weekend's hard rock concert previews (Rust and Beck's Bar gigs aside) with a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!

New Sault Michigan hard rock trio (and Tarnished spin-off) Crush will make their Sault Ste. Marie debut THIS SATURDAY NIGHT with a multi-band concert at The Savoy Nightclub! Apologies for the short notice, this show was only announced via this teaser video from their Facebook page on Sunday where the band amusingly sampled a bottle of Josh wine (as Josh Fair is their guitarist). While Crush did play a downstate gig since then in Prescott on August 22nd, and will also hit the road tomorrow to open for deathcore band Godstine at a "Creepy Cheapy Halloween Bash" in Battle Creek, this will be just the second local gig since Alex, Josh, and Iggy formed Crush as their new original music outlet, leaving Tarnished in their current covers-centric formation. The Superior Whitefish Festival Battle of the Bands winners are the headliners on SATURDAY, and will be joined by the local debut of Rose City metal quintet Tribe989!

Crush had previously opened for Tribe989 at the aforementioned Prescott show last month (a fundraiser gig for this tour run), and Crush debuted at Bar-N Stock in Rose City in July (which Tribe989 also played at), not to mention Tarnished's past gigs there, so it's neat to see paths cross 3 hours north for a change. Tribe989 are a solid and melodic mixed-gender metal band, so don't bypass them! Newer local punk/hard rock trio About:Blank (featuring fellow Tarnished alumni Parker Talentino and Nathan Webber) will also take the stage on SATURDAY in their own first gig since the aforementioned Superior Whitefish Festival, though they were in the Music In The Park block, not the battle. Good to see About:Blank back out there, and hopefully their original tunes and sometimes surprising originals kick things off on the right foot! For the record, you may recall seeing Alex & Josh with Tarnished at the 117 West Portage Avenue bar back on July 4th.

SATURDAY'S concert (named "Destroy The Savoy") is at 7:00 PM, there is a 21+ age limit, and admission is $5 at the door. Not a bad deal all around for three originals-leaning Michigan hard rock/metal bands, and if you miss Tarnished's original material and more comedic social media videos/postings (we have to play catch-up on those), then Crush will be very much up your alley, let alone from their clear musical talent! Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and for a preview, here's Crush live!

Next up, let's head to Sault Ontario for a pair of previously announced concerts, starting with a matinee gig from prolific local classic/hard rock solo musician Tym Morrison, who will keep his busy slate at Misty's Fifties going with yet another early acoustic booking on SATURDAY! This is the second in a three week run of weekly Saturday matinees from the former Caveman Morrison and Nostalgic Band frontman, so whether you regularly see him live or haven't see his skilled mix of vocals and guitar talents as of late, head to the Second Line West nightclub on Saturday to check out the action! Tym will not be at Misty's over Halloween weekend, but he will have six more shows there in November & December. Saturday's concert is another 4:00 PM matinee with a 19+ age limit and no cover charge. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and for a preview, here's Tym live!

Finally for preview post #1, we'll head downtown to Gateway Casino, where classic/hard rock cover quartet Generations will return to the stage on SATURDAY NIGHT! After taking a two months-long break while drummer Tony Santoro recovered from carpal-tunnel surgery, this will be Generations' first casino gig in four months, and also their first show since they parted ways with guitarist Tony Kajnar. In his place, Smokehouse frontman Michael Yurich (a frequent fill-in between Brandon and Tony K.'s stints) will guest on guitar on Saturday, so come on down to see how he fits in with Valerie, Pierre, and Tony S. anew! A one-nighter as is standard at Gateway Casino (they don't book bands on Fridays at all), Saturday's concert has an 8:00 PM start time, a 19+ age limit, and no cover charge. Visit the above links for more details on Generations' return to the live scene, and here they are with Michael live!

That's all for now, but look for our Rust, Bone Yard 225, and Curtis McKenzie previews on the site next! Thanks everyone!

A New Music Video, Updates From A New Studio, And Much More!!

(Updated at 8:53 PM) I have a new news post for you guys to check out on this Saturday morning, including some big updates from a fast rising local recording studio, a slideshow from a familiar band, and leading off, a new music video from a long awaited local album. Here's what you should know! (This post originally plugged an advertised Sunday matinee from Tym Morrison tomorrow at Reggie's Place, but that concert was postponed earlier today. Stay tuned for news on the rescheduling!)

Here's the newest single and music video from local Celtic punk quintet Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide's still-forthcoming new album! Abruptly teased on their Facebook page on Monday in their first post there in almost 9 months, the video premiered on label Tidal Records' YouTube channel the next day, and it's for their new song "No Control". Uniquely, the video is entirely seen on an old school CRT TV, complete with visual quality mimicking how it may have looked on that equipment. The video proper is a slightly slow motion clip of the entire band walking outside in the woods, and it fits the song well enough, though the audio doesn't seem to be synched 100% with the video (Dustin's singing is an easy way to tell.) I'll hold comments on the song proper for now, pending our presumed review of their new CD, but give the video a watch below!

Next up, here's some topics related to a new-ish local recording studio that recently launched, namely Relentless Audio! You may have seen discussion about this studio on social media in recent months, but this studio has actually existed since April 2018, so what should you know about them? Relentless Audio is headed by veteran local punk musician Ryan McLaughlin, who you may recognize from the emo-era As It Stands and Fist Fighting Stephen Hawking, among other projects. Ryan has recorded a number of audio demos through there, though visibly more to showcase his production, and much of his pre-2020 work was with acts not from the Soo, but he definitely has talent in mixing and producing regardless of artist locale! Ryan was writing under the band name Great West Falls last year, complete with guest vocals from the Nevada-based David Valles, but only their single "Better Than This" is still up (the other went down with their old Soundcloud page.)

If Great West Falls are still active and launch a social media/band page, they would easily fit our coverage, solid upbeat hard rock sound there! After months of sporadic updates, Relentless Audio resurfaced in July to announce that they were working on material with local musician Christopher Raginskis, later revealed to be under the project name 9 Times Dark, and their debut EP, entitled "Vicissitude", came out on August 26th! This completely flew under the radar (9 Times Dark's only online presence is via postings of the album), but click here for relevant links to every major online service hosting the EP. Musically speaking, 9 Times Dark are a punk act with a bit of a dark edge, and if they had a proper band page, I'd absolutely add them to our band links too! As such, this album is absolutely in the cards for an early 2021 review on the SMS, and it's great to see Chris finally get a band going after all these years! Give the opening song a listen below!

There is one more big local album project that Ryan is working on with some old friends of his, but we'll keep that for an upcoming post. In any event, Relentless Audio are now linked on the SMS, and hopefully Ryan keeps up the great work! We'll close today with a new slideshow video all about local punk trio Redundant! Drummer Rick White posted this to his YouTube channel on Wednesday, and it features photos of him, Justin, and Andrew on stage and having fun on & off stage, including some familiar local and out-of-town faces along the way, as set to "All By Myself" from their 2018 debut EP. Despite playing on the studio recording, former bassist James White is only sparingly featured here. Fun trip down memory lane even still, so give it a watch below, and stay tuned for more news and notes on the site next week! Thanks everyone!

Woods of Ypres, Frightlight, And Bad Side Updates, And More!!

Can you believe that this is my fifth SMS post in THREE DAYS?! The amount of news lately is nutty, and I still have at least three news posts to go before everything backlogged is cleared out! I love doing it though, and you guys need to know about all of this, so I don't mind! Today, we get to four bigger stories from my news desk, some of which have been postponed a few days thanks to the news pile I've had lately, but there's some exciting stuff here to check out! Let's begin, and remember to check out my first installment of our GarageBand Profile Mini-Series in the post below!

We start today with updates from Woods of Ypres as they continue their North American tour! Right now, they're in California, but these updates relate to the Western Canada branch of their tour! Firstly, bassist Shane Madden has launched an official tour diary over at Decibel Magazine, which you can read the first installment of at this location! Shane goes into great detail about the band's tour and the mishaps during it, though curiously doesn't go into enormous detail about the actual concerts, mostly the before and after parts. Great read though, embellished with Woods of Ypres videos/audio and some new concert pics to boot! Click here to check it out! If you check out the videos embedded with the tour diary, you'll notice a couple new videos, and I'll tell you about them too! Frontman David Gold uploaded a couple new concert videos onto his YouTube channel, which are the first full performance videos from the tour on his channel! One is yet another video of "The Sun Was In My Eyes (Part I)", though this time, it's from their Vancouver concert. Dark, but it's shot at a good angle, and the audio quality's good! The one I'm embedding here though is a video featuring the band performing two songs off of "Woods IV: The Green Album" ("Suicide Cargoload (Drag That Weight)" & "Halves & Quarters") from their concert in Prince George! It's filmed from the crowd, so it kinda feels like we were there! Great quality, check it out below!



Next up, we have tons of updates from local horror punk/metal band Frightlight! First up, the lineup has been finalized for Frightlight's benefit concert on July 17th at Foggy Notions, with a new local band named Jesus Chrysler joining The Fury as openers. No word on who's in Jesus Chrysler or what they play, but I'm told that they contain former members of Fitswitch, The Scary Uncles, and Strictly Classified. Good signs there, if the bands are any indication! It's also been announced that Inferno from local sideshow troupe Alowishes Grotesk's Traveling Tent Museum & Snake Oil Show will be there for a half hour of sideshow feats! I love sideshows, this'll be a fun and unique addition! It was also announced that there will be a potluck benefit before the concert at 1:00 PM to also raise money for Frightlight guitarist Rick White's nephew Logan, so if you want full details on that, click here! Keep up to date further on this benefit show at the Facebook event page and right here at the SMS!

While we're on the subject of Frightlight, here's a couple more updates. Remember their concert on July 10th at Coch's Corner? Well, Frightlight are now headlining it, as the previously planned openers, Toronto's The von Drats, had to pull out. That sucks, I wonder what happened? Tiny Trebuchet were originally announced as replacement openers, but they're out now too, so Frightlight need openers! Message the band at their Facebook group if you're interested in playing! It'll still be a great concert, and it now has a poster which you can check out on your right! Awesome work! Finally for Frightlight news, the band now have a Reverbnation page! It has band information, videos, their lineup (with stage names), appropriate links, and probably most exciting, songs! Four recordings from jam sessions are posted on the page, including the songs "Fright Night", "C.H.U.D.", "They All Float", and "Scream"! Quality's not fantastic, but it's great to hear more from Frightlight! Check them all out at this location, especially if you like Fitswitch, The Misfits, and horror punk!

Thirdly today are a bunch of updates from Sault Michigan's own Bad Side, who recently ended a months-long hiatus to return to the stage for a pair of shows in the Milwaukee area! On Monday, the band let fans know on their Facebook page that their performance at this year's Milwaukee SummerFest was filmed by a cable network named TheCoolTV, and will apparently air on said channel! As best as I can tell, it's not available in the Sault area yet, but keep it in mind! And most excitingly of all, their ENTIRE PERFORMANCE is now available to listen to on a music website called SoundCloud! 10 songs over 45 minutes, it's great quality audio too, and the band sound as good as ever! Haven't found video or anything else from SummerFest or the warm-up show, but having the whole concert in audio form works, and there's a couple other recordings there too! Click here to check it all out, and fingers crossed that they come back home for a show down the road! Also to quickly note, head to the band's official website for info on how to get one of the last remaining copies of their original tour shirts!

And finally for today, we have another band hoping to play in Sault Ontario! At Fall's End, a hardcore band from Belleville, will be on the road for shows on the August 27th weekend, and are open to play in Sault Ste. Marie that weekend! Guitarist Matt Demarell posted on our Facebook page asking for help to get a booking here, and they will play dirt cheap apparently! If you're interested in booking or helping book At Fall's End for a concert on the last weekend of August, contact Matt at this location or the band through their MySpace page! They sound pretty good, it's kind of like punk influenced metalcore, though their current stuff isn't completely representative of their sound, as Matt tells us that songs with their new singer will be posted on Saturday. Still, check them out, and if you like what you hear, help them get a local booking!

That's all for today, though it's a start to clearing out the rest of my backlogged news! At least special features are past us, for a couple days at least. Here's what to expect coming up: Tomorrow's post will have weekend concert previews and more news stories, and if I have to post a second time tomorrow, I will! At this rate, there will be a Friday news update too, and Saturday will be my second GarageBand Profile in this mini-series, all about Lee Maines' solo projects! My Phatstick concert review (with more news) will be Saturday or Sunday, depending on what day I go to see them. And finally, the SMS 3rd Anniversary is in only FOUR DAYS, so don't forget about that either! Until then, it's business as usual, just busier. Stay tuned for lots more!