The Nameless Concert Preview, Plus New Videos!!

As promised, let's conclude this very busy weekend concert preview stretch in this morning's post, filled out with some new videos from acts from or playing on both sides of the border, so here's what you should know on this warm Saturday morning!

First in this post, we'll wrap up this weekend's hard rock concert previews by heading to Sault Michigan for local hard rock quintet The Nameless' return to The Merchants Bar for one night only TONIGHT! Fresh off of their Cedarville debut last week, this will be The Nameless' first hometown show in just over a month, and hopefully their hard rock covers go well as usual for Saultite fans at The Merch! If you can't make it or you live further south, The Nameless will make their Kewadin Casino debut at The Northern Pines Lounge in St. Ignace in two weeks. No frills to speak of at The Merch tonight, just a night of music beginning at 9:00 PM with no announced cover charge, and you must be 21 or older to attend. While The Nameless still only have the one (unembeddable) public video from way back in their debut concert, they are a talented young band, so don't miss out on tonight's concert if you're in the E.U.P.!

Next up, let's hop to Sault Ontario, where we have a brand new live video from local southern hard rock trio Bone Yard 225's unplugged (sorry, "uncorked") concert at The Water Tower Pub last night! Live-streamed directly to their Facebook page just after 10:30 PM, the horizontal video (a welcome rarity for Bone Yard) sees them covering Kid Rock's "All Summer Long". I won't pretend to like the original song, but it's strongly performed with good enthusiasm, and it's a well recorded clip, so fans of Bone Yard's acoustic gigs will take to it! Remember, they are not playing at Rotaryfest next weekend, but bassist Warren Reville will return as a member of The Associates during the Friday Night Blues program on Stage 2. Also, your local 225 revealed on Facebook on Thursday that "we got another one coming out soon", namely their second studio original song, and a 45 seconds-long teaser is on their website!

The song in question will be named "Gypsy Spell", and while I'll hold comment until the full song is released, it shouldn't be too long now. Give it a listen for yourself above, check out their new concert video below, and don't miss Bone Yard 225 re-corked at Reggie's Place in two weeks!

Also, let's head back to the E.U.P. for two teaser videos for the Ace Frehley-headlined '80s Rock Invasion concert outside of the Kewadin Casino in St. Ignace, Michigan next week! Yes, it's the same night as the last night of Rotaryfest in Sault Ontario, so how's that for a big day of live music in the area? Kewadin have teased having "epic shout-outs" every Friday in the lead-up to the concert from musicians playing it, but the first one was just last week, so unless they add in bonus videos in the next week, only three of the five acts will be represented. Yesterday's shout-out video was from Slaughter frontman Mark Slaughter, who did a very professional job plugging the show and bands, almost radio DJ-esque, so that's definitely welcomed! The one from last week is embedded below because it features all of Great White (the original Mark Kendall-led version) plugging the festivities. Rare when the whole band is in one of these!

While emphasis is oddly put on the "nace" in St. Ignace in the plugs, Great White hit the necessary notes for next week, and hopefully Hair Scare diehards have a blast with good weather next week! No word on whether Ace, Steven Adler('s solo band), or Vixen would be in the presumed final shout-out video on Friday, but we'll keep you posted when it's uploaded. Check out Great White's video below, see more from the show above, and tickets are still available at this link from the tenth row and back!

Finally, here's a surprise: A new demo original from defunct Sault Ontario hard rock band Foothill Road! If they had extant social media pages, I wouldn't be rushing to add them back to our active band links, as the description says that the song was recorded in 2021 and there's been no credited recent work from them, but thanks to ex-bassist Ron Pyette for letting me know that this was uploaded to guitarist Mark Oliverio's YouTube channel on July 4th! While not recording on this new song (named "Desperate Times"), Ron co-wrote it, which also features Mark (now of Tragically Hip tribute band The Luxury) alongside singer Ken Luxton, bassist Steve Cardiff, and drummer Rick Bain. These are the same credits given to their 2020 single "Heard Of It", and both songs can be heard on Mark's YouTube channel. Like on "Heard Of It", this is a lyric video. This song is a little heavier and will please fans of Foothill Road's mid-1990s run!

Not as bluesy, but it sounds like something that they realistically would have recorded during their original run with a good alternative edge and solo to boot. Even if the song is three years old now, kudos to Mark for uploading it and Ron for telling me about it, so give it a listen below!

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

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Tym Morrison) & A Farewell To MySpace Band Links On The SMS!!

Today's post is devoted to two topics: LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (one on SHORT NOTICE) from one musician over the coming months, and a big change to our defunct local band links on the site, so here's what you should know on this Saturday morning!

Local classic/hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison will return to Misty's Fifties for matinee concerts TODAY and every two weeks into June! Apologies for the short notice on TODAY'S concert, we only heard about it earlier today via Tym sharing a Facebook event page covering the dates earlier this week. Of course, Tym debuted at the 658 Second Line West bar/restaurant back in December, and played sporadically there ever since, though a planned Wednesday nighter on Valentine's Day was quietly cancelled for unannounced reasons. Clearly, that wasn't a bad sign for Tym's relationship with Misty's, as he'll be back for more acoustic hard and classic rock favourites TODAY at 4:00 PM and then on these Saturdays to come: March 2nd, 16th, and 30th, April 13th & 27th, May 11th & 25th, and June 8th & 22nd. All of these shows are presumed 19+ events with no cover.

For the record, two of these gigs could tie in to holiday plans, as the March 16th show is the day before St. Patrick's Day (as it's a Sunday this year, many nightclubs may have events on the 16th instead), while the March 30th show is on the Easter long weekend. Tym is no stranger to weekly or bi-weekly events at the same venue like this, so don't miss out on all of the unplugged action starting TODAY at 4:00! Visit the above links for more details, and here's Tym live last year!

Next up, in advance of a big change that I'm making to the band links on the SMS, I'm starting by making a big one for an opposite reason. Since the SMS began in 2007, a big source for band pages for research and linking purposes was MySpace, as anyone around the local music scene in the 2000s will be well aware, but it (for all intents & purposes) died a slow and painful death starting with its forced redesign in 2010, which deleted all blog posts & biographies from accounts. I kept certain bands linked from MySpace on the basis of their hosted music/videos and pictures for history and information, if not necessity, as MySpace may still have been this band's fullest/only presence online. Eventually, a botched server migration forced all music on hosted accounts to be unplayable, and photos hosted there have slowly winnowed away too, leaving just captions with nothing viewable. Even the MySpace home page seems to have not been updated since 2022.

MySpace was very important to the SMS originally, and a lot of internet-using readers from the 2000s will have fond memories of it for personal use and for band pages, but unless intentionally looking up old bands, current usage of it died in 2010 and just got worse and worse (Destroilet did try to work around the 2010 redesign but they were a rare exception), with then-current and new bands looking to Facebook and elsewhere for their social media promotion. Quite frankly, linking old local bands via MySpace pages in 2023 is nearly useless, so I've decided to remove the remaining bands from our links that are only here because they didn't have surviving pages elsewhere and I clung to MySpace for this long. As such, these local bands are no longer linked on the SMS: 2wo Man Baand, A Fall From Innocence, Bring The Fallen, Despised Eyes, Foothill Road, Free Beer, Infrastrate, The Last Warrior Of Rock, Nebraska Arms, The Pisstanks, Renderware, ...

...Route 69, Smeltzer, and Stealing Kisses. From Sault Michigan & the E.U.P., I have also deleted 7/47, Absolute, Analog Deficiency, Clownsack, Condemned, Hands Of Betrayal, Lower S.E.S., Nixxon Dixxon, The Pick-Me-Ups, Shift, and Twisted Manikin. Just to be clear, some of these bands did have activity into the 2010s on now-deleted social media accounts or without launching new ones (i.e. Clownsack's 2011 CD "Funny Farm", Bring The Fallen's 2013 reunion concert & EP, Free Beer's return as Sarah's Valley, and Foothill Road's pandemic-era original song), but unless I have missed something, none of these bands have an extant social media presence elsewhere that has content worth linking to in 2024 for research/historical purposes. If I find something that I forgot about or didn't see before, or if one of these bands decides to reunite, I will absolutely re-link the band(s) in question.

Still, deleting these pages cleans up our links a good amount, and we'll fill them back up in no time, so stay tuned for more on that in the near future! That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site next week! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (The Soo Fighters), New Videos, And Much More!!

On this twentieth anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks, make sure you never forget the horrible and extremely events that occured in the United States 20 years ago today, and the thousands of innocent lives lost as a result. Today's SMS post features some assorted recent news and notes, new videos, an apology for a missed concert, and leading off, a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for next month, so here's what you should know!

Local Foo Fighters tribute band The Soo Fighters will play their second show of the year (and with their new lineup) on Saturday, October 30th when they open for their new sister band Lockdown at The Rockstar Bar in a Halloween-themed concert! It's hard to say how the pandemic will look by the end of next month, but seeing a seasonal concert like this is very welcomed, even if it isn't the return of J.D. Pearce's annual Halloween party, which was last held in 2019 for obvious reasons (remember, he also moved out of town for work last year). Lockdown just debuted last month at The Northern Vibe Festival in Ophir, and while their initial video uploads on their Facebook group didn't point to a heavier base, they are definitely a talented group, and they feature 3/4ths of The Soo Fighters Mark 3, so seeing both bands here makes a lot of sense! Remember, The Soos debuted at J.D.'s Halloween party in the first place.

A costume contest and the usual (pandemic-adjusted?) Halloween frills will be in place for this concert, which will likely be a 10:00 PM affair with no cover charge and a 19+ age limit. Remember, please respect and honour any and all social distancing guidelines at The Rockstar Bar, wear a normal face mask beyond anything for a costume, and be aware that this show takes place after vaccine passports are mandatory for non-essential events, though we should be able to use the QR code version by then. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details!

Next up, I wanted to apologize for a recently missed concert, as Sault Michigan hard rock band Tarnished played an acoustic two man set at the Sault Ste. Marie Farmers' Market yesterday during the United Way of the Eastern Upper Peninsula's Foodies United fundraiser! Unfortunately, their involvement in this event was not publically acknowledged by the band, Farmers' Market, or United Way on Facebook... aside from Tarnished's Facebook "story", which is where I belatedly discovered that they played at the fundraiser. Alas, stories (the temporary content from friends and pages at the top of modern Facebook news feeds) do not have to be permanent posts, and unless they did so more than once, Tarnished only plugged their set on social media via their Facebook story yesterday. I'll be honest, I find Facebook stories to be a pointless artificial limitation, and unless double posted normally, they're impossible to use as a source for SMS purposes.

You can only look at a story once or twice before it vanishes forever (it will leave after 24 hours regardless), so unless you take a very fast screenshot or screen recording, you may not ever have proof that it was posted. Tarnished haven't posted anything on Facebook in over a month (at least, not that will self destruct), and it's great to see that they're still gigging, but I profusely apologize for both not promoting this show in advance & my lack of a concrete source for their set yesterday. I wish someone had said something permanent earlier, but Foodies United looked like a fun way for Michigan Saulities to get some local grub and support The United Way!

Also, here's some new video uploads on Fort Creek bassist Robin "Bones" Lee's YouTube channel from last month, and in these cases, they are not unlisted there! Both are titled "FC Opening", which appear to signal that these are pre-recorded opening tracks played before Fort Creek begin a concert/set (I can't 100% confirm that, as I have yet to see them live). "FC Opening 2 take 2" is a dramatic orchestral recording featuring a motivational message by podcaster/retired Navy SEAL Jocko Wi!link, while embedded below is "FC Opening 3", featuring warning sirens, a snippet of anti-Satanic rock music sermon by Pastor John Hagee, and emergency alert messages that end in an abrupt (if blue) way. These sound like they'd set the mood for a Fort Creek show well enough, if in different ways, so give both a listen above & 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 name:

• Staind frontman Aaron Lewis and his solo band The Stateliners will return to The Dreammakers Theatre at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino on Thursday, October 28th, marking his second Sault Michigan date during his solo career as a country musician, following a November 2014 show at the same venue. Aaron recently made the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 with "Am I The Only One", and he does cover Staind ballads live in his country shows (videos from the 2014 concert are on YouTube). Again, this is a country concert, but Staind fans may be curious to see Aaron live in the Soo again, so click here for ticket details! 
• I have moved Sault Ontario alternative hard rock band Foothill Road back to our inactive band links. The mid-1990s fan favourites surprisingly reunited in August of last year to record a solid new song named "Heard It", but no new social media pages followed, so if the guys did more in the past year+, it's not public knowledge. Hopefully this wasn't it, but we'll let you know if Ken, Mark, Steve, Rick, and Ron resurface in some form!
• Also, I have moved local hard rock quintet Skeyes of Seven back to our inactive band links. The guys returned in July 2020 after an almost 3 year hiatus to record a new song named "Detonate" for Corus Radio's $20,000 Summer Song Contest, but no public updates have followed since, possibly due to the pandemic. Sadly, the video was made private by Corus Radio after the contest ended, but hopefully they at least re-post "Detonate" somewhere, it was a good track! Hopefully we'll see Cory, Ron, Kyle, Al, and John on stage again when the time is right!

 

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

A Surprise Band Reunion, Tarnished Updates, Show Cancellations, And More!!

News remains slow as of late, but today's post is surprisingly stacked and eventful, including a lengthy live-stream, related concert cancellations, a rising young band's recent busy activity, and leading off, a band reunion almost a quarter century in the making! Here's what you should know!

Local/Hamilton alternative/hard rock band Foothill Road are back after a 24 year hiatus! In an e-mail, ex-bassist Ron Pyette alerted me to a brand new song that the band quietly recorded last year, before finally being produced this year and posted onto guitarist Mark Oliverio's new YouTube channel this past weekend. Entitled "Heard Of It", the song features Mark (last seen with Tripod The Dog) alongside original singer Ken Luxton and drummer Rick Bain, with veteran local musician Steve Cardiff on bass in lieu of Ron, though he was involved in the songwriting. Mark's former Glitch bandmate Mario Carlucci is not visibly back on guitar for the Foothill Road reunion. I have no idea if this will lead to a new album or concerts when available, but the song is promising, with a 1990s hard rock bent injected with some progressive and bluesy flourish, and their talents are still visible! It's easy to learn too, as this is a lyric video, which isn't common for local bands to post.

Just for context, Foothill Road's original run was circa 1993-1996, before members moved on to the now-defunct Hamilton-based bands Sara Inksetter & Cousin It. Time will tell how much more we hear from Foothill Road 2.0, but give their new song a listen below, and amazingly, they are now in our active band links! Stay tuned for possible updates!

Next up, let's take a detour to Sault Michigan for the latest from local hard rock quartet Tarnished, so what have they been up to since Rock The Block? On August 4th, they played a private outdoor set for a graduation party (photos are on their Facebook page), and then on Friday, frontman Alex Traynor and bassist Josh Fair returned to Eagle 95.1 FM's morning show to promote their now-released debut EP "Down To The Wire", and play acoustic versions of "Shortcut" and a Creedence Clearwater Revival song. Bizarrely, this wasn't hyped in advance on social media, but hopefully it gave them and the CD some great exposure! And yes, I meant "CD", as physical copies of "Down To The Wire" can now be bought online at this link, so if you haven't had any luck at local retailers, here you go! CDs run for $10 American, and you can see the back cover of the case there as well. Finally, Tarnished got some big exposure on 9&10 News' lifestyle newsmagazine series The Four last week!

Much like Alex had for prior solo performances, Tarnished performed "Cocaine Riot" on their week-ending "Friday Sessions" last week, and yes, this was the full band with electric gear. It's always great seeing E.U.P. talent on the local news, and kudos to our local CBS affiliate for heading north to film Tarnished in action, from multiple solid angles to boot! Allegedly, Tarnished did more songs to be included in future episodes of The Four, so tune in on channel 10 (Spectrum) or 10.1 (antenna) on Fridays at 4:00 PM to see if Tarnished are that week's artist! View last Friday's performance at this link, as I cannot embed videos from 9&10 News here.

Finally, I was planning to preview Sault Ontario hard rock musician Tym Morrison's announced return to the Motley Market on Gore Street tomorrow, but his remaining August dates there (including on August 20th & 27th) have quietly been cancelled, as per the Facebook event page. A reason for their cancellation has not been announced by Tym or the venue, but remember that the pandemic is ongoing, and the market is still very new to the downtown sector, so one or both may have played a part. At least Tym is back playing public concerts of some form, and hopefully we'll see him there or elsewhere soon! As for his live-streamed concert series, the 35th installment did indeed take place live at the Motley Market this past Thursday, and it remains his most recent episode at press time, as Tym did not film an episode yesterday for (again) unannounced reasons. We'll let you know if he has one tomorrow, but for now, how did last Thursday's live-stream go?

As live-streamed on Tym's YouTube channel once again, this 1:40 episode is comparable in length to his at-home shows, but well short of the 3 hours the concert proper was advertised to run for (I believe this captures the second half of the set). The captured set proper begins about 5 minutes in with covers of Alice Cooper's "Only Women Bleed", The Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" & "Here Comes The Sun", Amanda Marshall's "Trust Me (This Is Love)", Bryan Adams' "Summer of '69", Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence", Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues", The Who's "Behind Blue Eyes", Cheap Trick's "I Want You To Want Me", Aerosmith's "Dream On", Toto's "Hold The Line", Roxette's "It Must Have Been Love", Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise", Berlin's "Take My Breath Away", Supertramp's "Breakfast In America", Imagine Dragons' "Radioactive", Yes' "Owner Of A Lonely Heart", Jim Croce's "Time In A Bottle", ...

... Bryan Adams' "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You", Yes' "Love Will Find A Way", 10cc's "I'm Not In Love", and finally, Tom Petty's "Yer So Bad". Entertaining set as usual for Tym, and it seemed like he was glad to be playing an actual concert again, but he is definitely chattier in the at-home streams. It's hard to gauge Motley Market as a venue given the camera angle, and the attendance didn't seem huge, but there were people coming and going. Note that 7 covers filmed on Thursday were already done in the previous Tuesday's live-stream. Give Thursday's video a watch below, and we'll let you know when Tym goes live next!



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

Defunct Local Band Profile Series: Foothill Road

It's now time for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile, our monthly feature series that spotlights one or two defunct/inactive local metal, hard rock, or punk acts for current readers, in order to give them new attention for current readers! This time, we had randomly selected two bands to look at due to my projecting that neither had enough content for a solo feature, but for a second straight month, I underestimated the first band, so we've promoted things to a single band profile once again. As such, I have bumped the planned second band (Kraken Mara) to the headline spot next month, but don't worry, they are coming! Now, here's this month's profile!
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Foothill Road

Genre: Hard/Alternative Rock

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie/Hamilton, Ontario (also listed from Copetown, a Hamilton suburb, in their EP booklet)

Members:

Ken Luxton (Spy vs. Spy, J.A.B.), vocals
Mario Carlucci (Sneaky Pete, Glitch), guitar
Mark Oliverio (Tripod the Dog, Boogie Fever), guitar
Ron Pyette, bass
Rick Bain (Sara Inksetter, Cousin It), drums

Audio/Video: Foothill Road released two studio albums, including their 1994 debut CD "Seventy" and a self-titled EP in 1996. The former was locally recorded at Satellite Sound Studios with producer Bob McLeod, while the latter was recorded at Comfort Sound Studios in Toronto with producer Andrew St. George. In 2005, Mario Carlucci compiled a posthumous final album, "Live: End of the Road", featuring live tracks, studio outtakes, and a Rush cover, as a means of bringing closure to their original run, while the EP & "Taste" from the last album can be heard on their posthumous MySpace page. However, with their run taking place over 20 years ago, public videos aren't known to circulate. Here's "Cavern" from their EP!

Info/Analysis: Active from circa 1993-1996, and named after a real west end street in Sault Ste. Marie, surviving public information on Foothill Road is in short supply, but they had a strong profile during their original run, including positive album reviews in Meat Magazine. The band relocated to Hamilton circa 1995, but disbanded shortly after their 1996 EP release. Not long after, Mario Carlucci & Rick Bain would join bassist Nancy Henrech (Rick's future wife) in the Hamilton rock bands Sara Inksetter & Cousin It, the latter alongside Ken Luxton too, and both had measures of success in that market. Of their studio albums, I prefer "Seventy" for it's heavier & rawer nature (plus Ken's rangier singing), but Foothill Road were a talented group who made strong use of 1990s grunge & alt-rock influences, and they showcased great chemistry during their run, with the guitar work always a highlight! Give Foothill Road a listen, and follow members' later local projects too (like Mark and Mario's later hard rock cover band Glitch!)
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I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profile! Next month in this series, we will spotlight Kraken Mara next as promised (deja vu from Foothill Road's postponement!), but as I am certain there won't be enough material for a solo profile on this prog-metal studio project, we will round things out with one more similarly limited-for-content band that we randomly selected, namely the late 2000s experimental metal trio Dreamscape! Look for both profiles on or around December 10th, and stay tuned for more news and notes on the site soon! Thanks everyone!

Foothill Road EP Review!!

With a new year upon us, its time to get back to our monthly CD reviews at the SMS for 2012, and for our 31st formal CD review on here, we're dipping into the local archives due to a lack of new local metal releases this month. That said, with this band's guitarist rocking the area earlier this month, we're taking a look at defunct local hard rock band Foothill Road's self-titled second EP today! Released circa 1996 during the band's Copetown, Ontario-based period, "Foothill Road" was recorded at Comfort Sound Studio in Toronto with producer Andrew St. George, who also mixed the EP at Le Mix in Etobicoke. The band's lineup on this EP includes all of their members from their first disc "Seventy", including ex-Spy Vs. Spy frontman Ken Luxton, ex-Sneaky Pete guitarist Mario Carlucci, bassist & current Pittsburgh Penguins scout Ron Pyette, and drummer Rick Bain, alongside guitarist & backing singer Mark Oliverio (now of Boogie Fever), who had joined Foothill Road in between albums. This album is long since out of print, but contacting band members directly can probably score you at least the mp3 files, and the whole EP except "Red" is streamable on their posthumous MySpace page.

I've also posted the entire disc onto our YouTube channel, so click here or search for it on YouTube to stream it in full! Each song title below is linked to my YouTube upload of that song as well. Slightly smaller than "Seventy" with only 5 tracks at around 22 minutes in length, let's start this review with the opening song, "Cavern"! (Updated on September 29th)

"Cavern" leads off the "Foothill Road" EP with an interesting drum & bass intro that has a clear funk inspired sound, but some nice guitar from Mario Carlucci (I think) adds some rock flavour after a little bit! The opening riff has a funk-ish hard round sound, and Ken Luxton's Billy Corgan-inspired vocals fit well overtop of everything, though the lyrics (which seem to tell of what goes on deep in the mind) do get fairly repetitive. Mario's guitar solo is solid here too, but too short for my taste. It's not a terribly heavy or long song, but it definitely fits as a 1990s hard rock number with some added spice, and Mark Oliverio's presence does help fill things out a lot, as the lack of a second guitarist on "Seventy" was a big flaw. Good song, and it starts off this EP on a rocking note! Second on the disc is "Fifteen", which starts slowly with a Western-tinged intro, almost like you're journeying alone down a long road, but when the full song kicks in, it's a slow hard rocker with a good beat! The verses are reserved with soft singing from Ken, but the choruses pick up in intensity, and there's a nice contrast between these parts of the track. Ken's singing doesn't seem as rangy as I've remembered, but it flows well with the song's pacing, and though it's different from what I'm used to from Foothill Road, I enjoy this track more than "Cavern"! A guitar solo or some more audible bass work would have helped though.

Third on this EP is the longest featured track, "Elliptical Foam", which immediately gives a spacey vibe amidst the hard rock sounds before slowing down into a dreamlike verse. Ken's soft singing is nice here, and Rick's drumming suits the backing music well, but I'm not feeling the chorus as much. I'd like to hear more energy in the vocals as a contrast, and Ken's vocals in general sound muddy and lost in the mix of the rest of the band in the chorus. The bouncy guitar work is effective though, and musically, this probably shows Foothill Road's collective talents the best here, especially late in the track when the energy and speed pick up considerably! Here, everything seems to be firing better, but the guitars do sound a bit chaotic at points. "Elliptical Foam" isn't a bad track, but it's definitely not my favourite on the EP, and I would have liked it to be a bit heavier with more varied singing while retaining the same overall atmosphere.

The fourth song is "Ignorance", which has probably the best and most well thought out lyrics on the EP! The song starts with a soft ballad-ish vibe, which maintains throughout the track, though the choruses are a bit more energetic. Ken's singing fits well, and the guitar playing is nice and flows effectively (including the guitar solo), but if you're looking for heavy material, this song won't appeal to you the most. I like it more than "Elliptical Foam" as a sheer song, and there's a hint of aggression late, but it's basically a straight ballad, and though it's not heavy, I enjoyed it for what it was! "Foothill Road" closes with "Red", which ends the EP much like it started, with a heavier short rock number, and it's probably my favourite song on this disc! The lyrics are very repetitive, but Ken's singing hits the range and aggression more like we saw on "Seventy", and Mario & Mark's guitar work is really catchy throughout this song! I like the guitar solo too, and there honestly isn't much to complain about with this track beyond an abrupt ending, the length, and the repetitve lyrics. This feels like a natural progression from "Seventy", plus a much needed second guitarist, and it's definitely worth checking out!

So how does Foothill Road's second EP compare to "Seventy"? It's better in some ways, and a step back in others. On the positive side, the production's better and clearer than on "Seventy", the addition of Mark Oliverio was extremely welcome to fill out their sound, and nothing on "Foothill Road" is bad, especially on catchy songs like "Red" and "Fifteen". Mario and Mark's guitar work is good, as is Ron Pyette's standout bass lines and Rick's dependable drumming, and Ken's singing fits the material well! However, I found that this EP took a more reserved and less heavy style than on "Seventy", and when you compare this material to songs like "Adam Ate Evil" and "The Edge", there's a noticeable dropoff in heaviness and, in some respects, energy. I especially noted it in Ken Luxton's vocals, which weren't nearly as rangy as they had been. Maybe it was new influences or their sound progression, but honestly, I have to say that I enjoyed "Seventy" more. The production and added guitars is great, and the songs are solid, but I found this EP was missing the bite that was on "Seventy". Still, this is a very good EP from a talented local band, and hopefully you guys check it out in some way to enjoy some 1990s hard rock as only Foothill Road could deliver!

I hope you guys enjoyed this month's CD review! So, what CD is being reviewed on the SMS next month? Well, for February, I actually have some fairly good ideas of what could be reviewed next, so here's how I'm breaking it down. If a new CD comes out next month, it will probably be a review of that CD, and for what could be next on the local metal front, click here for this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post, which we're updating on Thursday. Mike Haggith's new album "Neighbourhood Watch" is a possibility, depending on how long the illness-related delays are, but I can't say for certain as of right now. I will say that next month's review will not be of a Woods of Ypres album ("Woods V" is tentatively lined up for March), Foothill Road's posthumous live CD, or (if I had it) Amethyst's debut cassette, as it'd be too soon from my last reviews of theirs. If nothing new comes out next month, I plan to review another of Sykotyk Rampage's 2011 albums, as it'll be six months since we reviewed "Zombiez" next month. If we cover the original crash band next, I'll likely review "Karrs" due to it's heaviness compared to their other 2011 albums, and I'm giving it priority as a review for the next month where nothing new in the local metal scene comes out due to the delay to review it. Stay tuned for more on our next CD review on the SMS over the next four weeks!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, Battle of the Bands updates, and more on the SMS tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Tym Morrison), New Videos, And More!!

Let's get to some more news as we hit the middle of the week! Today, we've got some new videos from some Sault Michigan area performers, a local hard rock album postponement, and the likely identity of this month's CD review on the SMS, but first, here's a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for this weekend! Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison's current weekly concert arrangement at Bossy's Pub N' Grub will continue on Saturday afternoon with another acoustic show! This will be Tym's fourth straight Saturday show at the former Smack Daddy's, and you know he'll have plenty of hard rocking unplugged covers in store for fans and Bossy's regulars this weekend! Admission should be free, this should be an all ages event, and Tym will be on from 2:00 PM to about 6:00 PM on Saturday. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! After finally getting to see Tym's solo show after two+ years, I can safely say that he'll impress with his wide mix of acoustic covers from metal to even country, so if you're free on Saturday afternoon, consider a trip down to Bossy's this weekend! Stay tuned for more Tym (and Caveman) Morrison updates as they come in! Next up, here's some updates on both our next CD review and an upcoming local metal album. You may remember that I tentatively slotted Sault Ontario solo artist Mike Haggith's new album "Neighbourhood Watch" for a review this month, seeing as it was slated to come out.... today. Well, the album has been postponed indefinitely, as revealed on a post on his Facebook page on Friday. The reason is due to illnesses that appear to have put a halt on the final recordings for the album, although Mike later confirmed that a new track named "Fading" will make the album as well upon it's release. As of right now, Mike says that "Neighbourhood Watch" will be completed "when it is", so there's no current timetable, and a release before the end of the month looks unlikely. This is disappointing, but hopefully Mike gets well soon so we can hear more new material, and click here for more on the album, including some preview demo tracks! That said, now that this album is on hold, what CD are we going to review this month? Barring a flash new release in the next week, we'll probably review defunct local hard rockers Foothill Road's second self-titled CD, as guitarist Mario Carlucci rocked the stage this month with Sneaky Pete, so that ties in well, so unless anything changes, look out for this month's CD review by Tuesday! Let's wrap up this post with some new videos, starting with another new video from Kinross hard rockers Banned! Once again from Ashley Traynor's YouTube channel, this is also from Banned's show at The Bird on Saturday night, and it's the first Banned video we've seen featuring new singer Mike Straw on actual lead vocals! It's of their cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Tuesday's Gone", and how does Mike (and the band) do on it? Mike's stage presence is stiff, but he doesn't do a bad job singing this song, even if it's not that heavy, and hopefully we'll hear more lead vocal work from Mike in the future! Thanks again to Ashley for these nice quality Banned concert videos, and check out their rendition of "Tuesday's Gone" below! And finally, here's a short 30 second video from Swayze Train guitarist Scott Savoie! It's just of Scott practicing some arpeggios on his guitar, which sound nice, but I wish the video was longer. Not too much to say, but Scott's definitely a talented guitarist, so check out his new video from Monday below, and if you're in the St. Ignace area, go see Swayze Train there this weekend at their Kewadin Casino! That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and weekend concert previews over the next few days! Thanks everyone!

Foothill Road - "Seventy" Review!!

Hey everyone, it's time once again for our 24th monthly CD review at The Sault Metal Scene! Because no brand new metal albums came out in the past month, and with the guitarist of this band rocking The Vibe Lounge earlier in the month with his current band, I've decided to finally take a look at "Seventy", the debut EP from defunct local hard rockers Foothill Road! Released circa 1994, it was recorded at Satellite Sound Studios with producer Bob McLeod. The album features Foothill Road's original lineup, including former Spy Vs. Spy frontman Ken Luxton, ex-Sneaky Pete guitarist Mario Carlucci, bassist Ron Pyette (now a scout for the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins), and drummer Rick Bain. Though the album is long since out of print, you can probably score at least the mp3s to this (and other) Foothill Road albums by contacting Mario directly at this location (he's how I got my copies!) For convenience sake, I have also uploaded the whole album to the Sault Metal Scene's YouTube channel so you can stream it there too! Just search for "Seventy" in the search field. The song titles below are hyperlinked to my uploads of the tracks for convenience too. With six tracks at around 24 minutes in total of music, let's start with the first track, "Centerpiece"! (Updated on September 28th, 2012)

"Centerpiece" starts off the EP with a good guitar riff and some light drumming before we hear some very Billy Corgan-esque vocals from Ken Luxton, which pick up in energy and harshness in the chorus. The song has a nice groove to it but it sounds empty, like it needs a second guitarist (which was remedied in the self-titled follow-up EP.) The song does also get a bit repetitive with reserved verses and more energetic choruses, but it's a catchy little song, especially from Ken's vocals! Rick Bain's drumming seems a bit too cymbal heavy, and the bass isn't terribly audible either, but it has a catchy quality going for it. Mario's guitar work is good too! Solid opener with a lighter groove, but it still rocks regardless! "Adam Ate Evil" follows it on the EP as the longest track of the six, and the opening screams Pearl Jam a lot. Just hear it, you can tell that was at least a vocal inspiration. In the verses though, Ken's singing is great, I like how he's using his range to keep a melodic rock tone throughout. The song, though not as heavy as "Centerpiece", sounds fuller than "Centerpiece", and the music has sort of a dreamlike quality underlying the singing. Rick's drumming is improved too, and Mario's guitar solo helps add some rock to the later stretches of the song. It's close, but I think I do like "Adam Ate Evil" more than "Centerpiece", but cause it sounds like a more complete song, with Ken's great range on full display!

Third is "Sow", which starts with a slow bass line and drumming before the guitar kicks in a slower interesting sounding riff. Ken's singing is at it's heaviest so far on this song, with a gritty slowness perfectly suited to the material! The chorus isn't as good as the verses though, with a low grungy sort of style that seems to take away from the harsher mood of the rest of the song. Solid song, it has a unique sort of sound compared to the rest of the EP! Mario's playing really well on here, though his solo is way too short, and Ron's bass work is at it's best so far! This is followed by "The Edge", which has a great experimental sounding opening before getting into some nice fast riffing! I really like the melodies in the early portion of the song, but the energy seems sucked out during the verses. Odd when Ken's singing is so good though, you think everything would be punched up! What a range he had, why isn't he in any bands nowadays? The latter half of the song helps build heavier and heavier, with a nice guitar solo and more aggressive drumming, though it ends way too abruptly. This is definitely a standout of the album, especially the last half of it, showing all of their strengths as a hard rock outfit very well!

"Accomplice" starts out fifth with an odd jazzy start, well played by Ron and Rick, with nice drumming and some solid bass work! In a flip from earlier songs, Ken's singing is more reserved than the music, returning to a Smashing Pumpkins-eqsue tone and a low key approach. The chorus picks up vocally though, while the music keeps on the same level, which honestly gets repetitive. The song is very well played and doesn't sound generic, but the instrument players don't change things up enough. I like the song, especially the choruses, but it needed something extra to boost it. "Seventy" ends with the shortest song on the EP, that being "Sword Fight", which starts rather softly despite it's title. When it kicks into gear, it's fast paced but not very heavy. Similarly to "Centerpiece", it's paced well and has aggressive singing, but it sounds empty and the bass is mixed too low. Ken's singing's on form, and I like the introduction of harmony vocals on the chorus, while Mario's guitar work is as good as it was on earlier tracks! It's catchy like "Centerpiece" too, and it's fitting that two songs so similar bookend "Seventy"! I would say "Sword Fight" is a bit more unique, and though it has issues (like another abrupt ending), it's a solid closer to Foothill Road's debut album!

So how do I grade Foothill Road's debut EP? Well, it's a solid hard rock release with a lot of grunge and early 1990s influences that help shape it's sound! The band was very talented, from the really good range of Ken Luxton to Mario Carlucci's catchy riffing, while Ron Pyette and Rick Bain shone as well on the included tracks! Seeming to take a lot of cues from bands like Pearl Jam, they still carved out their own sound that stood on it's own in the local scene from the early and mid 1990s! Without comparing to their next EP, I will say that "Seventy" had flaws. The production doesn't help the material in terms of heaviness, and a few songs sound empty, almost like they were written with a second guitarist in mind. Rick's drumming seems too cymbal-oriented, and I can't make out Ron's bass work more often than not, though his talent was ever present! Plus, the songs do seem dated to the time, and don't sound too unique if you're familiar with grunge and similar genres. The right pieces are present on "Seventy" for a great album, and they delivered a fun and very listenable EP that they would hopefully improve on with their self-titled follow-up a few years later! Don't let this 1990s gem slip you by, give it a listen at the above links, or contact Mario to get this (and other) Foothill Road albums!

So there's this month's CD review, and what will we review next month? Well, if anything new comes out before July 27th, it will be a new release from a local band, and if two (or more) come out, we'll go by band prominence. The only exception would be a potential new Woods of Ypres CD, as it's too soon from when we reviewed "Woods I". If nothing new comes out, we will likely review Gates of Winter's 2008 full length album "Lux Aeterna", as it ties in well with keyboardist Brian Holmes' scheduled concerts next month with his progressive rock band Machines Dream. So whether we review "Lux Aeterna" or something new, stay tuned next month for our 25th monthly CD review! That's all for tonight, but stay tuned for a new news post tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Splitshot), Our New Monthly Poll, And This Month's CD Review!!

Alright, now that my computer issues are finally put on hold for one day (I really need to bring it in for an overheating fix), we can now get back to news, and today we have three main topics: LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, the return of our monthly polls, and the identity of TOMORROW'S CD review for this month! So let's get everything started! Sault Michigan hard rockers Splitshot have added a new weekend engagement at The Rapids Lounge at Kewadin Casino to their concert calendar! The local quintet featuring half of the old Nixxon Dixxon lineup will now also be playing at Kewadin on July 22nd and 23rd, adding a July weekend to their busy 2011 schedule. Though not announced on their Facebook page, Kewadin's entertainment page lists the shows, which weren't previously included on their Rapids Lounge show schedule. Like with Splitshot's other stops at Kewadin Casino, these concerts should have 9:00 PM start times, no cover charge, and 21+ age limits. Check the above links for more details! These should be entertaining shows, as we know the talent that these guys have, but I still wish I had some audio or video samples at hand to share with you guys. Still, make note of these new shows for Splitshot next month, and stay tuned for band updates as they come in! And now, finally, here's the return of our monthly SMS polls! After the three month March Mayhem tournament experiment, it's back to business as usual for our polls, so here's what you should know for this month! When I was thinking up questions to ask this month, I debated whether to ask a normal poll question involving band comparisons and opinions, and decided to give it a shot this month. Hopefully no one takes it badly or with some sort of bias! We have a great (and growing) local metal scene, but there's a bunch of bands that have broken up or went inactive in recent years that I'm sure many of you guys miss. I wanted to see what bands would garner the best reaction in the event they ever re-emerged on a local stage, so I am posing this question to you guys this month: Which of these defunct or recently inactive bands would you most want to hit the stage again? For this poll, I have chosen 19 local bands that have either broken up, went inactive, or haven't played a live concert in recent months, that you guys might especially want to see back on stage. Hopefully there's no qualms with the choices, but "Other" is present as a 20th choice if you wanna use it. For fairness sake, I didn't include bands that were essentially renamed (like Out Of The Mouth Of Babes or Turner Up) or bands that just recently broke up (like State of Misery or Bring The Fallen), especially when members quickly re-emerged in new groups. Now, let's go over the choices! AtrophiA: This local metal band rocked the area from around 2006-2008, and featured future members of Bring The Fallen, Bring The Misery, and Quite Frankly in it's lineups. With a high energy metal style and good covers, AtrophiA rocked the scene pretty well, but do you miss them enough to want them to reunite? Browbeat: Though I know they only broke up in the spring, Browbeat's inactive periods were much longer than their active periods in recent years, so including them seemed fair. This hard rock trio led by frontman Dutch Vanderploeg kept fans grooving from the mid 2000s through 2011 under different names and lineups. With loads of entertaining and catchy originals for their fans, does the end of Browbeat have you longing for a return? Detroit: From 2008-2010, members of Lion Ride & The Labour Of... grabbed the Soo by the throat with a fast and relentless hardcore attack called Detroit! Despite sporadic live performances, this talented quartet gave us some great live shows and two demo releases before going inactive early last year. Though Brenton Ellis' new band Maximum RNR gives us a similar sound, does the absence of Detroit still bum you out? Dirty Virgin: I'm aware that they just reunited to open for Crued in April, but I've heard nothing to suggest this was anything more than a one-off show, so they fit here...for now. This glam/punk quartet brought a nice classic sound to the local scene from 2008-2009 before a lengthy absence since the spring of 2009 that was only interrupted by two gigs at The Canadian Nightclub. Would you want to see Dirty Virgin back gigging regularly? Driving Dave Home: From at least 2007-2008, this local hard rock band kept fans entertained with a bunch of cool hard rock covers at a number of shows! Though members have moved on to notable bands like Sense of Truth, Fingerbone, The Scary Uncles, Renegades, and Turner Up, do you still miss the solid sounds of Driving Dave Home? Fitswitch: If you're lucky, you can still see an occasional Fitswitch reunion, but most of the band's classic lineup now rocks the local scene in Frightlight. However, Fitswitch's raw alcohol-fueled & Misfits-inspired punk/metal sounds were a local favourite throughout the mid-2000s! I was a big fan of theirs, but what about you guys? Gates of Winter: Last seen on a local stage in the fall of 2008, Gates of Winter soon entered into a year long hiatus before re-emerging to work on a new studio album. With some band members living out of town, new concerts aren't on the horizon, but with new material slowly leaking, there's lots of anticipation in the air for future Gates of Winter activity! Are you hoping for a live return down the road? Infrastrate: Though later based in Ottawa, local hard rock outfit Infrastrate formed in Sault Ontario in 2003. With some major local successes in their run, they later released the EP "Phase I: Commencement" circa 2005, but quietly appeared to dissolve afterwards. A reunion seems unlikely, with members living in separate towns, but they were a talented young band, and would you want to see them reunite? No Arrow: Like Dirty Virgin, I know that No Arrow recently reunited for a show (in February at Foggy Notions), but again, nothing indicates it was more than a one-off, so they count here. Dann Pichette and varying collaborators have brought grunge to a local audience over the past bunch of years with some success, but recent activity has been scattered at best, with their debut CD still unreleased. Do you want No Arrow back on stage for good? Paraside: A local hardcore band from the late-2000s, you may recognize Paraside as the former band for current Changing Waves bandmates Mike & Alex Hagerman. During their run, Paraside opened for everyone from The Imports to The Rebel Spell to Dead & Divine, unleashing hardcore fury in their 2007-2009 local run! Is Paraside a band you wish returned to the stage? Quite Frankly: Former members of No Arrow, Faithless Sin, and D.O.T.H. (among others) joined forces in this local hard rock band from 2009 to early 2010 before quietly going inactive. Powered by the awesome vocals of Jacky Alisat, Quite Frankly made a good local impression in their short life, but do you want them back on the local stage? Renderware: When Tom Waits meets Motorhead, you're left with Renderware, a popular local rock quartet that made their local mark in the mid-2000s with a number of notable concerts! Featuring future members of Nebraska Arms, Talk Shit, and A Fall From Innocence in their lineups, no band sounded like Renderware did, but does their unique style make you wish they came back? SBD: They may not be truly "inactive", but this experimental trio featuring No Arrow, Chintzy Slicks, and Sounds From The Green Room alumni haven't been heard from in six months, with a lone 2011 show being called off. With some notable live show experience and a debut album released, things should be hopping for Shane, Brad, and Dann, but would a local resurgence be something you'd wanna see? Sense of Truth: Is it surprising to note that this prominent (and active) hard rock band haven't seen the stage in 13 months? Work commitments, upcoming EP artwork issues, and the departure of Steve Myers haven't helped matters, but Sense of Truth are still together, and you know that when they do return to the stage, we'll be eager to support them again! Do you want to see the Skid Row battle winners back on the local scene the most? Soldiers of Misfortune: Metalheads from the local scene in the mid-2000s are bound to remember Soldiers of Misfortune! Featuring Winkstinger's Jesse Cook & Jonas Gasperas (among other talented musicians), Soldiers of Misfortune rocked fans with many blistering metal covers at varying shows, including many Oddfellows Hall concerts! I can't be alone in saying I miss them, so do you wish they'd reunite at some point? Stillbroke: Last seen on the local stage in February 2010, all we've heard from this hard rock quartet since has been the band's numerous bassist switches and a new Facebook page with minimal updates. Their absence is odd, especially given their quick rise and talent in the Sault area from 2008 onward. Do you want to see Jesse Frigault and company back for some local shows more than any other band? Sue Inside: Though never broken up, Sue Inside haven't been seen in town since the spring of 2009. Since then, frontman Shane Lipsit-Fraser moved to Oil Springs, Ontario, taking the band with him. Updates and new material have came sporadically since, but no local gigs have taken place since Shane moved. Do you miss their two-piece metal attack enough to want them back gigging locally? Time of Ruin: One of the many metal bands fronted by former Fitswitch/No Arrow bassist Jason Bourcier, Time of Ruin were a solid sight in the local scene in the mid-late 2000s along with preceding (and succeeding) bands like Faithless Sin. Notable for featuring Dismembertainment head Rich Moreland in their lineup, would their brutal metal assault be welcome for a local return? Other: Do you have another local metal band from the past in mind? Wanna go back even further for a band like Amethyst or Carbon Black? How about a newly broken up band that you're still bitter over? Or did I just make an error missing your favourite old band? This is the choice for you! VOTE TODAY, you have one month to get your votes in and make your voices heard! As I am regrettably a day late to get the poll up (my bad), the voting will wrap up on July 19th, before returning to our usual 18th day of the month schedule in August. The voting form is in red on the left of the page, so get your votes in A.S.A.P. and make them count! And finally, if you've followed our CD review schedule closely, you'll notice that this month's CD review is scheduled for TOMORROW! That will stand, my word is good, but what CD are we reviewing? With no new albums released (to my knowledge) in the past month, I've decided to finally take a look at one of the three albums released by defunct Sault Ontario hard rockers Foothill Road! I've promised a CD review of theirs for a while, but with guitarist Mario Carlucci rocking The Vibe Lounge this month with Sneaky Pete, and nothing new in my hands, the perfect time is now to head all the way back to 1994 for this review! It's of their debut EP "Seventy", featuring their original lineup, including Mario, former Spy vs. Spy frontman Ken Luxton on vocals, current Pittsburgh Penguins scout Ron Pyette on bass, and drummer Rick Bain. With six songs, this should be a quicker review, but it's a solid album, so definitely stay tuned for the review tomorrow! For a preview, check out the whole EP at this location, just search for "Seventy", and stay tuned for our next CD review tomorrow!!

A New Local Band, New Sewer Swampstravaganja Videos, And More!!

Here's another news post for this Monday evening! Our consecutive streak of new posts snapped yesterday due to my computer issues, but the news certainly hasn't quelled, and today, we have news on a possible hard rock connection to the Soo Greyhounds, and new videos from last night's Sewer Swampstravaganja concert, but first, how's about a new local band?

Yes, here's the newest metal project out of Sault Michigan, entitled Galactic Alignment! This is the newest metal project from local solo artist, former Slackjawed Rats frontman, and area guitar instructor Mike Libertoski, and he describes Galactic Alignment as "a jazz influenced technical-death-metal project". Mike only plans to play guitar full time in this band, and is looking for additional members to form a full lineup. 5 songs from a planned 6 song demo are currently posted on the band's Reverbnation page, with plans to add vocals in the near future once a singer is obtained. How do the demos sound? Really good and very technical, with fast riffs, unique time signatures, and solid drum tracks! Reminds me of a few progressive death metal and technical metal bands, but I do find that the songs are overall very similar in style. Maybe with vocals and refinement, things will sound more varied, but these are sill really promising demos, and show Mike Libertoski's talent really well! Check the above links for more on Galactic Alignment, and also become a fan of their new Facebook page!

Next up, here's some more new videos from Saturday night's Sewer Swampstravaganja all ages show at The Oddfellows Hall! Firstly, here's the latest video footage from classic metal quartet Sativa Rose, who of course had bassist Adam Veale's dad John present to film them in action! Videos of their originals from last night were uploaded onto John's YouTube channel yesterday, those of course being "Fall From Grace" and "Bellows Of The Beast"! Better video quality than what I shot, that's for sure, and John got a better angle of the band than I had too! These songs are really well written, and have a fast paced nature that really suits them! Very solid stuff, I can't wait to hear more original material from Sativa Rose! "Fall From Grace" is linked above, but because it's a much longer and (at times) more technical song, I've embedded "Bellows Of The Beast" below, so check it out! You'll be glad you did!



Also for new videos, these were honestly an accidental find as there's nothing indicating they're local videos in the titles, but they sure are! YouTube user Chantal Hopper was in attendance for this show, and posted four videos from it onto her YouTube channel yesterday as well! One is of another band, I'll have that in a future post, but three are from As It Stands' set, which I sadly misserd due to the Lion Ride show, so it's great to see footage of it online! The three videos are a 25 second clip of "Big People, Little Lock City", a 4 minute video of a mosh pit during one of their originals (I can't make out which one due to the audio quality), and the video I'm embedding below! This is an over 9 minute long video and it features their original song "Conception" and (surprisingly enough) what sounds like a cover of Blink-182's "Stay Together For The Kids"! Again, this is bad quality audio, so I could be wrong, but I believe I have the song's name right. The video quality's decent, and you get great angles of the crowd, but the audio is NOT very clear. It's very scratchy and sounds distorted at parts, but still, these are decent videos of their set, and hopefully we can hear more from As It Stands real soon! Check out the new video below, and stay tuned for the other new local metal video from Chantal's channel very soon! (Credit to Amanda Petrocco for the picture)



And finally, here's some news on the Soo Greyhounds' search for a new general manager! With the search to replace Dave Torrie underway, rumours have narrowed onto a few candidates and... what, you don't know why we're talking about hockey on the SMS? Well, here's why. Late last year, you may remember when I mentioned that former Foothill Road bassist Ron Pyette has since moved on to become a Stanley Cup winning scout for the Pittsburgh Penguins (he's also previously worked for Hockey Canada.) Well, wouldn't you know it, Ron is apparently the favourite to become the Greyhounds' new GM! Ron, who is obviously a Sault Ontario native, has been interviewed about the GM position in recent weeks, and an announcement on the new Greyhounds GM could be made as early as this Friday. For more details on the reports, check out recent articles on SooToday, The Sault Star, and Sault This Week. This would be cool to see if the reports have truth! He's a nice guy and he's done some good work as a scout in the hockey world, and I have a hunch he'd do well in the job if he gets it! Of course, check the above links for more, and click here for more on Foothill Road, who were a very entertaining local hard rock band from the mid 1990s! Good bass work too!

That's all for now, but I have more news and notes to come very soon, including tons of Woods of Ypres news, so stay tuned! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Mama Kin & Crush), Plus More Assorted News!!

Hey guys, I have more local metal news and notes today, including more word on what will happen to The Eastgate Hotel, the latest news on Mike Cliffe's solo projects, and whatever happened to a notable local musician, but first, here's two LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS!!!

I apologize for the short notice of these shows, I only first heard about them today in a Facebook e-mail from The Canadian Nightclub's Mary Lou Johnston, which alerted group members to these concerts. In the e-mail, Mary Lou hyped this weekend as a "tribute weekend" featuring two hard rock tribute bands, and it kicks off on Friday night with Toronto-based Aerosmith tribute band Mama Kin! You'll likely recognize them as one of the featured bands at last year's Hempfest, and if memory serves me correctly, they've played in town at least one other time before that. They have a very nice sound that sounds enough like Aerosmith to get fans excited, and they should do good on Friday! I should note that this show is NOT listed on their official website or on any other band pages that I've seen, and this isn't the first time that The Canadian Nightclub has announced a band that didn't personally mention coming, but there must be some truth to this if it's plugged in the e-mail! So take it with a grain of salt just in case, but until I hear otherwise, it's on and listed here! This concert will have a $5 cover, a 10:00 PM start time, and a 19+ age limit. Get more details at the links above, and Aerosmith fans won't wanna miss a thing on Friday!

The other new show mentioned in Mary Lou's e-mail is one I can 100% confirm, and if you're a fan of Bon Jovi, pay attention! Three months after Keep The Faith's last show here, another Toronto-based Bon Jovi tribute band will make their way to Sault Ontario on Saturday night. This time, the tribute band will be Crush: The Best of Bon Jovi, in their first ever show in the Soo, and if you wanna hear some authentic Bon Jovi hits, these guys will do the job well! They hold their own compared to Keep The Faith, and cover enough of their 1980s output to keep you hair metal fans happy! Unlike Mama Kin, Crush DO plug this show on their official Facebook group, and even launched an event page to hype the show! They're not on MySpace, so that likely explains why I never came across this show until today, so my apologies! This concert will take place on Saturday night, and the same house rules apply here as they will on Friday: $5 cover, 10:00 PM start time, 19+ age limit. Check all of the above links for more information! This should be fun also, and though I'm not a huge Bon Jovi fan, these guys will deliver the goods! So there you go, a weekend full of tribute bands at The Canadian, consider hitting one or both!

Next up, it's official: The Eastgate Hotel will be demolished. All remaining offers to purchase the former local metal concert venue have either been voluntarily withdrawn or not accepted by City Council at yesterday's council meeting, and there are now just two options left. Either Algoma Insurance buys the property, demolishes the building, and uses the space for parking (their building's across the road), or the city itself will buy the property, demolish the building, and sell the vacant lot afterwards. City Council did accept Algoma Insurance's offer yesterday, but nothing is 100% final. I imagine this will probably give many of you guys some disappointing emotions, given The Eastgate's history as a concert venue through the mid 2000s. It hosted numerous metal concerts in it's heyday, and it's a shame that I wasn't around to enjoy it then. I never assumed that a buyer would magically pop up to bring it back to it's old state, but it'd have been nice to see it saved in some fashion. When info comes online about the next steps, I'll try and have it for you guys, but for now, check out SooToday's Carol Martin's coverage of this story by clicking here, and here for The Sault Star's article from Elaine Della-Mattia.

Fourth today is some interesting news and updates from two local musicians, those being local solo guitarist Mike Cliffe and noted local drummer Glen Thomas, a veteran of a few metal bands from the scene's past. You may remember checking out "Bad Regime", an original song that Mike and Glen recorded with Swedish singer Karin Beckerus that was released onto Mike's Reverbnation page. Well, Mike and Glen are continuing with their collaborative work, and a new instrumental song by them is now online! Entitled "Dog's Breakfast", it has a nice bouncy progressive feel to it, with some nice liberal use of varying time signatures and tempos! Good stuff, Mike's really shining on guitar here, and Glen's as good as ever on drums! Definitely check it out at the above link to Mike's page on Reverbnation!

Also note that Glen profiled his recent collaborations with Mike on his music blog, The Barking Eye, where he shared some insight into how they got together in this project, and what it takes to make these songs! Despite their local residences and long history in the scene, they've amazingly never met, and the recordings took place from their respective homes through track exchanges! Glen also clarifies that this is a fun project for people to check out only if they want to, but I think it deserves a bit more credit than that! Check out Glen's article on the Mike Cliffe/Glen Thomas project (and more) at this location!

Finally for today, I want you guys to check out this photo on your right. That's Ron Pyette, an amateur scout for the Pittsburgh Penguins, hoisting The Stanley Cup that the Penguins won in 2009. Now I know many of you like hockey, but why am I mentioning an NHL scout on The Sault Metal Scene? Well, maybe it's because Ron was the original bassist for local hard rock quartet Foothill Road! That's right, a notable local hard rock musician went on to work for an NHL team! I never clued in until the other day, when Ron e-mailed me to thank me for posting the Foothill Road albums on YouTube and for covering the band, and I noticed that his e-mail address ended in "@pittsburghpenguins.com". A bit of internet searching later, and yep, it's the same guy! Ron played on all three of Foothill Road's albums, and remained with the band through their 1996 break-up, later being replaced by Nancy Henrech in the successor band Cousin It. It's cool to see how far Ron's went in his career, even if it's not in music! Kudos to him and for the Cup win, and make sure to check out his work with Foothill Road at their MySpace page and at The Sault Metal Scene's YouTube channel!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more very soon, including our next poll, weekend concert previews, and much more! Thanks everyone!