Defunct Local Band Profile Series: The Guitar Gangsters & Choking On Appendages

It's now time for our final Defunct Local Band Profiles of 2025, and this month, we're doubling up, as the first randomly selected band doesn't have a lot to say from their brief run, so I added another random act in a similar state to fill things out. One is quite a stacked group who weren't destined for a long run, and the other is a promising solo project with a minimal online presence, so here's what you should know on both!

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The Guitar Gangsters

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Genre: Hard Rock/Metal

Lineup:

Erik "Buzz" Boissineau (Garden of Bedlam), vocals
Tiffany Stocco (The Knuckle City Dusters, Stegadeth), guitar
Jesse Cook (Handsome Sandwich, Jack Spades, Winkstinger), guitar
Mike Bird (Papa Fogals Chair, Sulfur), bass
Derek Turner (Even Flow, Garden of Bedlam, The Wyld Stallyns), drums

Info/Analysis: A late 2019 supergroup paying tribute to Danish hard rock band Volbeat, The Guitar Gangsters notably united multiple former members of Garden of Bedlam, Jack Spades, and Papa Fogals Chair, with this being the first time that Buzz & Derek played together in a local band since Garden of Bedlam's last gig in 2015. The Gangsters played live just twice, at J.D. Pearce's final annual Halloween party at The Rockstar Bar on November 1st (see them below covering "Heaven Nor Hell"), and at The Asylum in Sudbury on November 29th alongside Tiffany's then-Distillers tribute band Coral Fang. Their prospects were likely always short term given that Buzz and Tiff weren't living in town then (let alone the incoming pandemic), but this stacked lineup delivered Volbeat classics really well at their sole local gig!

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Choking On Appendages

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Genre: Hardcore Punk/Death Metal

Lineup:

Mikhal Muto (Hails, Agnosticism), all instruments

Info/Analysis: Separate from his acoustic folk punk output as Agnosticism, prolific young punk/rock musician and concert promoter Mikhal Muto released the EP "Macabre" from his heavier solo project Choking On Appendages in May of last year via Bandcamp. This and a YouTube posting of the album remain C.O.A.'s only public acts, possibly due to Mikhal's other commitments with multiple bands, though note that he has vanished from Facebook in recent months. Easily the heaviest project that he's worked on since emerging as a local musician (complete with some growled vocals), Choking On Appendages delivered a lot of brutal promise in their four song EP, even with way too short song lengths, and hopefully Mikhal revisits this project in the future!

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I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles! Next month in this series, we'll kick off 2026 back in Sault Michigan for our next randomly selected profile, and it's another recent one, namely 2023-2025 hard rock cover band Exit 808! Look for that on or around January 10th, and for weekend concert previews next! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Fort Creek), A Surprise Album Release, And Much More!!

In what will likely be our last news post of this painfully slow month at the SMS, we have some new videos, a couple of bands likely destined for our inactive band links, and a very surprising metal album release. Leading off are a pair of SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, and while this is a day earlier than usual, keep in mind how slow things have been this month, I have to slot in stories where I can. Here's what you should know!

Local southern hard rock quintet Fort Creek will return to Reggie's West for concerts on FRIDAY & SATURDAY NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, these dates were only announced via the band's Facebook page on Monday. One week removed from rocking the downtown Reggie's, this will be Fort Creek's second concert weekend at the former Rosie, following their debut gigs there over a month ago. Like this past weekend, FRIDAY & SATURDAY'S concerts will double as Christmas Cheer donation events, so if you have new/unopened toys or non-perishable food items, bring them with you to the Reggievelt to help those in need over the holidays! You can witness Fort Creek's brand of hard rocking covers on FRIDAY & SATURDAY at 9:30 PM with a 19+ age limit and no announced cover charges, but remember to respect the venue's social distancing protocols. See above for more details, and here's Fort Creek live at Reggie's West last month!

Next up, local death metal quintet The Bear Hunters have finally released their second studio album "The Dead Testament"! Over five years after recording sessions began at Mission Control Studios, and almost two years after the debut of their "I Fear No God" music video, the album was released on their Bandcamp page on Saturday on a "name your price" model, with all twelve previously teased songs present, though "The Forest of Forests" is no longer labelled as a "bonus track". In their new Facebook page posting, the band revealed that "the album has spent far too long sitting here ready to release", but a proper CD release party hasn't taken place due to personal life commitments and the ongoing pandemic. The guys admitted that "proper metal shows are probably still a long way off", and while they did want to finally get the album out there, they hope to be able to sell CDs at a normal live concert and play the album in full there when "the day finally comes".

Of course, The Bear Hunters have only played two concerts since the end of 2017, and until Saturday, they hadn't been publically heard from since the Lycanthro concert in April was cancelled. Though the circumstances certainly aren't ideal, it is great to see "The Dead Testament" finally on sale, and while you can download it for free, consider actually paying something for this labour of love! Not expecting any metal/punk albums to go on sale in November 2020, I already reviewed an archive album for this month, but "The Dead Testament" will be reviewed on the SMS in early December, I promise! Buy or stream the whole thing at the above links!

Also, let's head to Sault Michigan for more new videos from local hard rock quartet Tarnished's Facebook page, where they have been staying busy in in the last few days! Following the reveal of their planned merchandise give-away next month, the guys next uploaded a short video of them driving to the recording studio at night, which has some amusing moments while it lasts! Next was this short video of a band member(?) in a fox mask eating a shirt(?!), while three videos followed where the guys showed off a huge lot of Yooperlites (the syenite rocks found in this region that glow orange under blacklights) that they borrowed from discoverer Erik Rintamaki (yes, the former Half A Man frontman) to make their logo and other designs with. Fun and decidedly local idea, hopefully I'll find even one Yooperlite in my travels!

Lastly, Tarnished uploaded two blooper-reel videos from their merch give-away video shoot, including a short one featuring line flubs from Josh and Nathan. Embedded below is the first of the two, which is also on their YouTube channel, and features failed takes from Alex's appearances in the giveaway video (this and the "On The Road Again" video are the only new ones covered above to be uploaded on YouTube). Fun idea to generate some new content and make light of themselves, so give the blooper-reel videos and more a watch above and below, and also visit the the band's new TikTok page (that's a new one for the SMS!)

Finally for today, I wanted to acknowledge two Sault Ontario-based tribute bands that I will likely be moving to our inactive band links on Sunday due to a year's inactivity, namely Volbeat tribute quintet The Guitar Gangsters and Distillers tribute quartet Coral Fang. I'm lumping them together here because both bands share a common member (guitarist/vocalist Tiffany Stocco), and we last heard from either band when they both took a road trip to Sudbury for a joint concert on November 29th of last year. Naturally, the pandemic could be a big factor into both bands' public hiatuses, but with Tiff and Guitar Gangsters frontman Buzz living out of town, updates would naturally be slower on that basis already. Coral Fang debuted at J.D. Pearce's annual Halloween party in October 2018, and resurfaced at last year's Joni Radford memorial concert and Go Skateboarding Day, while The Guitar Gangsters played their only local date at J.D.'s Halloween party on November 1st of last year.

With familiar supergroup lineups behind both bands, and solid musicianship to make their tribute sets stand out, both Coral Fang & The Guitar Gangsters delivered for their limited live dates, and hopefully we'll see them (and/or their members) on stage again when the pandemic eases up! Best of luck to Buzz, Jesse, Mike, Derek, Tiffany, Chris, Adam, and Johnny in the future! That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's YouTube Channel Profile next, barring a sudden influx of stories in the days ahead! Thanks everyone!

The Rundown On Some New At-Home Performance Videos!!

Today's post is devoted to some overdue recent performance video content from some familiar local faces, so let's finally give a proper spotlight on them before things get further backlogged in this regard!!

Before his final pair of live-streamed concerts for July 2020 hit his YouTube channel this week, let's cover former Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison's last two at-home shows on the site today! Unfortunately, external embedding of his live-streams remains blocked, but everything pertinent is linked to, as usual. We'll start with his 30th installment from last Tuesday, which begins about 3 minutes in with two Stone Temple Pilots covers ("Interstate Love Song" & "Plush") bookending Days of the New's "Shelf In The Room". Tym next moves on to renditions of Chicago's "Hard To Say I'm Sorry", Eric Clapton's "Tears In Heaven", Berlin's "Take My Breath Away", Frozen Ghost's "Dream Come True", Toto's "Hold The Line", The Who's "Pinball Wizard", Richard Marx's "Hold On To The Nights", Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters", and Billy Joel's "Piano Man", before playing 7 minutes of instrumental music. The covers wrap up with Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb", ...

...Kansas' "Dust In The Wind", Poison's "Every Rose Has It's Thorn",  and White Lion's "When The Children Cry", before Tym ends the stream 20 minutes early due to personal commitments. Solid show overall with lots of familiar tunes and some heavier bands strewn about for good measure, and with no major lag either, though you could tell it was hot in there, and his attempts at "Money For Nothing" could indeed use bass. Note that two songs ("Hold On To The Nights" &  "Comfortably Numb") were brought back from show #29 on the previous Thursday. As for this past Thursday's 31st live-streamed concert, this one did go the full 2 hours (plus!), and fully starts about 10 minutes in with covers of 10cc's "I'm Not In Love", Phil Collins' "One More Night", Radiohead's "Karma Police", Cheap Trick's "The Flame", Cutting Crew's "(I Just) Died In Your Arms", Yes' "Owner Of A Lonely Heart", Jim Croce's "Time In A Bottle", The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby" ...

...Ludwig van Beethoven's "Piano Sonata No. 14", Bryan Adams' "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You", Imagine Dragons' "Radioactive", Amy Holland's "Shootin' For The Moon", Fleetwood Mac's "Never Going Back Again", and Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence", before playing a snippet of his original "The Number of The Beast" (not to be confused with the Iron Maiden song). The covers resume with The Who's "Behind Blue Eyes", Cheap Trick's "I Want You To Want Me", The Beatles' "Here Comes The Sun", Amanda Marshall's "Trust Me (This Is Love)", Lonestar's "Amazed", The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's "Fishin' In The Dark", Journey's "Open Arms", The Bangles' "Eternal Flame",  Billy Joel's "She's Always A Woman", and finally, Kim Mitchell's "Patio Lanterns". Another fun selection of tunes (with no repeats from that Tuesday), and Tym's vocals and guitar work were strong as ever, but the video was getting laggy a bit late.  Give both episodes a watch at the above links, and look for episodes #32 & #33 as the week progresses!

Let's close today with a video that I can embed, namely a new cover performance by Guitar Gangsters bandmates Erik "Buzz" Boissineau and Tiffany Stocco! Uploaded to Buzz's new YouTube channel two weeks ago as it's second posting, this features the ex-Garden of Bedlam frontman and Stegadeth frontwoman covering The White Buffalo & The Forest Rangers’ “Come Join the Murder”, which you may have heard on Sons of Anarchy. A much lower-key, alt-country tune compared to what we typically hear from Buzz and Tiff, this is still well done overall, so give it a look below!



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

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (A Dire Setback & Northwest), Plus New Live Videos!!

I have a backlog of recent news to get through, so let's try and continue remedying that today, as this post contains some new live videos from a pair of prominent local bands on each side of the border, but leading off, here is a pair of Christmas-time LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for you punk fans!

Local indie/punk quintet Northwest will hit LopLops Lounge on Friday, December 20th for a holiday season headlining concert! Their Timmins road trip and CBC Searchlight aside, this has been a surprisingly quiet year for Northwest, who have not played a full-band indoor concert at all in 2019 so far (we only saw them outside at Rotaryfest and in partial acoustic form at the Joni Radford memorial concert.) If you've been missing Northwest's high-energy punk attack as of late, you won't want to bypass this show, which is a spiritual sequel to their EP release party at LopLops last December, but might some more new songs be ready next month again? The openers on December 20th will be new online page-less punk cover quartet The Sick Sons, fresh off of their set opening for The Ripcordz earlier this month, and they should provide a solid compliment in their LopLops debut! Visibly self-promoted, this 19+ show has a $10 cover charge and a 10:00 PM start time.

It's great to see Northwest back for an increasingly rare live concert set over the holidays, and with The Sick Sons' talented and unpredictable set list preceding, good times should be had by all at LopLops next month! Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and stay tuned for more from Northwest soon, plus another seasonal gig that The Sick Sons are opening!

Next up, we have one more holiday punk-featured concert the very next day to tackle, as local alt-punk trio A Dire Setback will take part in the Oh!No Collective's fittingly-named Oh!Noel fundraiser event on Saturday, December 21st at The Rockstar Bar! Ostensibly a seasonal fundraiser for the fourth annual Oh!No concert festival in Leeburn next September, organizers will also be collecting canned good donations for The United Way's Harvest Algoma food resource center, which is a wonderful cause! As well, there will be an ugly sweater contest with prizes for the best (worst?) sweater among attendees, so keep that in mind. Fresh off of their own set opening for The Ripcordz, A Dire Setback are the only heavier or punk band on this varied bill, alongside surf rock instrumentalists The Dynowaves and rappers Rick E and Kodex. The former Six, Two, Oh. are no strangers to multi-genre events like this, and there's a little something to please everyone next month!

Also a 19+ event, an 8:00 PM start time is in effect, and while an admission fee of $10 is in effect, a canned good donation will knock $1 off, up to a maximum of 5, so if you bring 5 canned goods, you will get in for half price. Sound like a fun time for worthy causes in both the charitable and entertainment realms, so visit the Facebook event page for more details!

Moving towards some new videos, let's take a detour south to Sault Michigan for the latest from local hard rock band Tarnished, who have officially confirmed the addition of ex-Lift The Broken guitarist Nathan Webber to their lineup, making them a quartet. Nathan appears to have joined the band as early as November 10th based on a Facebook page tag, but his first full electric gig with Tarnished was in their Mount Pleasant show at Soaring Eagle Casino's Ascend nightclub this past Friday. As for bassist Josh Fair, he does appear to still be in Tarnished's full lineup, despite prior Biggby Coffee series advertising implying that he wasn't part of those gigs on the regular anymore. We do have a new acoustic video of Tarnished to share in the coming days, but embedded here is the first public video of Alex, Nathan, Josh, and Tommy on stage together, as they covered Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' "Runnin' Down A Dream" in Mount Pleasant, as shared from attendee Olivia Eden's personal Facebook page onto the band's Facebook page yesterday.

The vertical camera angle isn't optimal, but the quality is pretty good otherwise, and Nathan fits in well for a first plugged-in look! The cover is effectively rocked up with more varied singing from Alex to match, so give it a look below, and watch for more from Tarnished later this week!



Finally for today, let's return to Sault Ontario, courtesy of a new video of local Volbeat tribute quintet The Guitar Gangsters covering "Lola Montez" at J.D. Pearce's annual Halloween party at The Rockstar Bar on November 1st! Shared from bassist Mike Bird's wife Jennifer's personal Facebook page onto their own Facebook page on November 4th (apologies for the delay), this again has the vertical camera angle, but there are some nice close-ups as Buzz enters the costumed crowd, and the audio holds up pretty well! Give this video a look below, and good luck to them in Sudbury on Friday!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's YouTube Channel Profile on the site next! Thanks everyone!

Halloween Party XV Review!!

It's now time for our review of Friday night's fifteenth annual Halloween Party from local promoter/Jack Spades frontman J.D. Pearce, as held upstairs at The Rockstar Bar! Only a one night event this year, but a nice packed crowd was on hand for the festivities, and there were a lot of great costumes, including an evil rabbit, a mermaid, Mankind, the devil, Heath Ledger's Joker, and many more. If there was a costume contest, it was very late into the night. Alas, the first band didn't start until after 10:30 PM, so this was a late one, but how were the bands overall?

As they did in 2017, revived local Foo Fighters tribute band The Soo Fighters opened the proceedings on Friday, in just their third live concert set and their first since the departure of 3/4ths of their original lineup. If you missed their first run, you'll be glad to know that their brand of Foos covers went over swimmingly, ranging from early hits like "This Is A Call" & "Big Me" (with Footos) to more recent songs like "Run" & "The Sky Is A Neighbourhood." Frontman Jules Cote still rocks the Dave Grohl wig and fittingly handled the frontman role as such, so we were in good hands there! Of course, with Jeremey and the Amendolas out, new members Wes Greco, Max Ambeault, and Jonas Gasperas filled the lineup out with solid musicianship, though I do not recall Taylor Hawkins wearing PBR armor (and there was more of that to come!) If you love the Foos, there was nothing to worry about from The Soo Fighters' new look relaunch, and here's hoping they have a fourth show in the works!

Second on the night was the debuting local-ish Volbeat tribute quintet The Guitar Gangsters, who delivered a show-stealing set of familiar hits from the Danish hard rock stars! Dipping mostly into older originals like "Still Counting", "Fallen", and "The Human Instrument" over their more somewhat softer newer material, most of the band had experience with Volbeat songs between Garden of Bedlam and Pools of Booze, and it showed on Friday. This was the first time we've seen Garden of Bedlam frontman Erik "Buzz" Boissineau on a local stage in over 4 years, and I'm glad to say that his voice is as strong as ever, and it was great to see him back with drummer Derek Turner for the night! Derek's old PFC bandmate Mike Bird's bass work was solid, and Tiffany Stocco and Jesse Cook (King Torontankhamen?) handled the guitar professionally and with great energy! Volbeat fans ate up The Guitar Gangsters' set, and good luck to them on their road trip to Sudbury later this month!

As for the headliners (an advertised Me First & The Gimme Gimmes tribute), my prediction that they would be Jack Spades was incorrect, making this a rare installment of J.D. Pearce's annual Halloween Party where he was not a lead singer for any bands. Instead, his bandmate Rob Speers fronted his funk/hard rock quartet The Elements for a set of punk covers of non-punk songs, and that worked out well, even if the crowd seemed to be less lively as it passed 1:00 AM. No word on if The Elements would have been the Rob/White Zombie tribute from initial advertising, but they gave a lively, harder-edged take on Paula Abdul, Dolly Parton, and John Denver songs, among many others, and everyone played to their strengths! Interesting spandex Gomez Addams look on James, and Jonas was fully mechanized on drums to start the set! I couldn't stay for the whole set, but The Elements ended things with a bang, and here's hoping for more soon!

Overall, this was a fun Halloween concert, if unfortunately delayed for it's start time, and even with the one night, post-Halloween format, they packed a lot of hard hitting covers into 3+ hours!  You can check out our photos from Friday night at this link and at our Facebook page, and as for videos, here's The Soo Fighters playing "Rope", The Guitar Gangsters playing "Heaven Nor Hell", and The Elements covering Culture Club's "Karma Chameleon"!







That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and updates on the site this week! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Halloween Party), A New Local Band, And Much More!!

We're back with a new news post on this Sunday afternoon, and it includes some new video footage from a recent concert, a preview of a special Tuesday nighter downtown, and a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for an annual holiday tradition, but first, here's info on a new band playing that event!

We have a new local metal band to add to our Sault Ontario band links, and they are The Guitar Gangsters, who just so happen to be the Volbeat cover band playing at J.D. Pearce's annual Halloween Party on Friday, November 1st! Taking their name from Volbeat's 2008 album and song "Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood", this is a local supergroup if their ever was one, notably featuring ex-Garden of Bedlam bandmates Erik "Buzz" Boissineau and Derek Turner on vocals and drums. Buzz's involvement is a massive surprise, given that I believe he still lives in Southern Ontario (where he fronts Midnight Traffic), but it'll be great to see him and Derek together on stage again after over 4 years away, and remember that Garden of Bedlam covered Volbeat a fair amount, including "Guitar Gangsters..."! Derek's Stanley Hill/Papa Fogals Chair bandmate Mike Bird will also be in this band on bass, as will the twin guitar attack of Jesse Cook (The Elements, Winkstinger, etc.) and his old Jack Spades bandmate Tiffany Stocco.

Tiffany's involvement is also logical given her past work in the T-Rex Manning side project Pools of Booze (who also covered Volbeat frequently), but she did reveal on her personal Facebook page recently that she was moving out of town, though she would come home to at least play with Jack Spades. What this means for Stegadeth and her now three local cover bands isn't clear, but it'd be great to see The Guitar Gangsters thrive while working around Buzz and Tiffany not living here full time, as this is a stacked lineup who should have a great handle on Volbeat hits!

There's not a lot up yet on The Guitar Gangsters beyond the lineup and their first two show dates, including a surprise Sudbury road trip on November 2nd, but their Facebook page's "About" section reveals that The Halloween Party will take place at The Rockstar Bar, seemingly confirming the venue which still isn't listed on that show's Facebook event page. As such, consider this a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT! If accurate, this will be the seventh time in 8 years that J.D.'s annual Halloween concert(s) took place on a floor of The Algonquin Hotel, only excepting 2013. This 15th annual installment will harbour a fifth straight year of an all-cover band format, albeit on one night only this time, with costumes and a requisite contest encouraged as always. The Guitar Gangsters will be joined by reunited Foo Fighters tribute band The Soo Fighters & their new lineup, though we await a reveal of the third band, who will cover White Zombie & Rob Zombie.

For what it's worth, J.D. himself typically fronts a band at this event, so will he portray Rob Zombie for the evening, or could we be surprised further? We'll let you know! Expect a 19+ age limit, $10 cover charge, and likely 9:00 PM start time on November 1st. This should be a great bash as usual, and with The Guitar Gangsters' very intriguing debut, that just adds to the excitement! Visit the above links for more on them and this concert!

Next up, here's our preview of a special matinee concert THIS TUESDAY, as local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck will rock The Roberta Bondar Pavilion as part of this year's Summer Concert Series under the big tent! This will be the fourth show in a six day span for Soundcheck, following their Esquire Club concerts this weekend, as well as a set at another charity car show outside of the newer A&W on Thursday. I profusely apologize for missing it in our last weekend concert previews, but Soundcheck didn't plug it on their Facebook page until 5:13 PM that day, after their first set began. Had they given this event any kind of advance notice, we'd have covered it, but hopefully it was a great turnout once again! Luckily, if you want FREE outdoor cover action with prior notice, Soundcheck will have plenty of that on Tuesday, so look for Travis, Terry, Paul, and Glen's hard rocking classics then! This is a special 7:00 PM matinee with no age limits or cover charges. See above for more details, and here's Soundcheck live!

Finally for today, we'll stick with concert action at The Roberta Bondar Pavilion, as let's finally close out our look at videos from last week's Fringe North/Up The Arts Festival concerts there, courtesy of the Arts Council's Facebook page! Of course, Sunday's performers (primarily acoustic ones and buskers) are up too, as are eight videos of Crystal Shawanda's headlining set on Saturday, but if you're looking for hard rock covers, four clips of local classic rock cover veterans Mustang Heart's opening set were streamed that Saturday! I would normally share a hard rock cover here, as they did tackle one or two that were filmed, but the video qualities are wildly inconsistent. One video is of Mustang Heart covering The Tragically Hip's "New Orleans Is Sinking", Roy Orbison's "Pretty Woman", and Elvis Presley's "Don't Be Cruel", but the distant vertical camera angle and distorted audio don't help matters.

Also filmed vertically was their covers of Guns N' Roses "Sweet Child O Mine" and Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'", but the GNR video was taken from even further away, and while the Journey cover was shot much closer, both of these live-streams are choppy, so if you watch them and wonder why the video is stuttering and stopping, it is not your fault! Embedded here is the only video with decent audio & video quality combined, which is this slower and horizontally shot cover that I can't immediately identify. If you can look past the angles and the two choppy clips, Mustang Heart sound good here, so give their Fringe North videos a look above & below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's YouTube Channel Profile next! Thanks everyone!