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!

Another Metal Morpheus Episode Recap From The Borderline!!

With news slowing down for obvious reasons (both holiday related and otherwise), let's dive into another recent episodes of Metal Morpheus on local internet radio station The Borderline! Just a heads up though for listeners who have caught up to the current episodes, as there was not an episode on Sunday, December 12th for unannounced reasons (unless it was quietly taken down after its live airing), while this past Sunday's episode was just a re-posting of the "Amazing Solos" episode from September 26th, with the original aired version being taken down in place of the rerun airing, again for unannounced reasons. Hopefully this is just a holiday break and it isn't a sign of waning interest in recording new installments, especially given Josh's ambitious plans to go through lesser known countries in spotlight episodes! Now, let's start with the Metal Morpheus episode from November 14th, which is a sequel to the guitar heroes episode from October 3rd!

This extra-long 72 minute installment covers some similar ground to host Josh Amendola's other two guitarist-showcase episodes from the fall, but none of the guitarists/acts from October 3rd were repeated six weeks later. The first band spotlighted is jazz fusion group The Mahavishnu Orchestra and their lead guitarist John McLaughlin via their song "Birds of Fire" (0:35), though Josh gets increasingly hard to hear over the song's introduction. Irish blues rock guitarist Rory Gallagher is next with "A Million Miles Away" (6:40), followed by American rock virtuoso Eric Johnson's signature song "Cliffs of Dover" (14:10). We next hear late guitar icon Shawn Lane's "Epilogue For Lisa" (19:30), followed by Hee-Haw host and country music legend Roy Clark's "Roy's Guitar Boogie" (23:00), and for the record, neither of the last two songs are on Spotify. Legendary Australian acoustic guitarist Tommy Emmanuel is next with his cover of Mason Williams' "Classical Gas" (26:55).

The first half of the episode concludes with "redneck jazz" stalwart Danny Gatton's lengthy "Song of India" (32:35), which isn't on Spotify either. Highly regarded jazz guitarist & instructor Ted Greene is next with his song "They Can't Take That Away From Me" (43:00), followed by 1970s jazz fusion band The Tony Williams Lifetime with their song "Red Alert" (48:40), also featuring the late Allan Holdsworth. If you have patiently been waiting for metal, the last three songs will have you covered, albeit starting with softer material than you may expect. We next come to instrumental progressive metal trio Animals As Leaders & their guitarist Tosin Abasi, who are featured here with their song "The Future That Awaited Me" (55:05), though this is a softer song than normal for them. Led Zeppelin and their guitarist Jimmy Page follow with their underrated song "Ten Years After" (1:01:15).

The episode closes with that week's local selection, namely 2008-2011 death metal quintet Bring The Fallen, who featured Andrew Chiarello on lead guitar & Dan Souliere on rhythm guitar, and their song played here is "Defiling Despondence" from their posthumous 2013 EP "Stand Before". I believe Bring The Fallen were also in the deleted all-local October episode of Metal Morpheus, for what that's worth. Another entertaining and informative episode here, with Josh shining a deserved light on more virtuoso guitarists that may not have had mainstream stardom, but still had all the skills in the world! Again, this isn't the heaviest episode of Metal Morpheus ever, but guitarists like these influenced a lot of shredders to come. Give this episode a listen on-demand at the above links (assuming it doesn't get taken down for a rerun), and unless I missed something, another new episode will air on The Borderline this Sunday at 9:00 PM!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for a new post of some kind by Christmas Eve! Thanks everyone!

Our Recap Of Episode #14 Of Metal Morpheus On The Borderline!!

We're falling behind on recapping episodes of Metal Morpheus on local internet radio station The Borderline, so let's take a deep dive into some more, starting with episode #14 from October 3rd, where host Josh Amendola concluded his trilogy of guitar-centric episodes with one all album all about guitar heroes! Specifically, these are guitarists that Josh is a big fan of as musicians, and with one exception, none were previously featured in the preceding Metal Morpheus episodes on shred guitar or amazing solos. Also, most of these are not "metal" guitarists, so just a heads-up, but they were influential on metal guitarists to come. The 67 minute episode begins with Josh explaining his criteria for inclusion in the episode, and the first artist on offer is pioneering Mississippi blues guitarist Charley Patton's song "Poor Me" (0:50), followed by the father of jazz guitar, Eddie Lang and his song "April Kisses" (4:40).

Blues guitar legend Robert Johnson is next via his song "Hellhound On My Trail" (8:30), with Josh flipping back to jazz pioneers with his next two cut, they being legendary French guitarist Django Reinhardt's song "Nuages" (13:20) and American guitarist Charlie Christian's "Swing To Bop" (19:20). We go to Spain next via influential classical guitarist Andres Segovia with his relatively brief song "Bach Bouree" (23:20), followed by the flamenco musician Sabicas with "Arabian Dance" (25:20). The first half of the episode concludes with a shift to rock via the late great Jimi Hendrix with his song "Hear My Train A Comin'" (29:55). Next, Josh returns to flamenco via Spanish guitar virtuoso Paco de Lucia's song "Impetu" (36:10), before surprisingly playing a song by country guitar great Chet Atkins, namely "Dark Eyes" (39:00). We get back to a heavier track with the legendary hard rock band Van Halen! 

Featured the previous week in the episode on amazing solos, this time we get an Eddie Van Halen solo showcase via the minute-long "Spanish Fly" (42:25). Rap metal icons Rage Against The Machine and their guitarist Tom Morello are next via their song "Ashes In The Fall" (44:05), but we follow them with this episode's last divergence outside of metal, courtesy of late Canadian jazz/country guitarist Lenny Breau's "The Claw" (49:15). Metalheads will get their fix via the episode's penultimate song, namely British metal pioneers Black Sabbath and guitarist Tony Iommi's Dio-era cut "Computer God" (55:10), and the episode ends with that week's local artist pick, namely early 2010s local/Central Algoma death metal band Crimson Crusade! Their song here is "Pillage" (1:02:10) from their 2013 EP "Upon The Eve Of War", which featured Devon Lucier and Pillory frontman Robert Sartini sharing guitar duties.

Josh does wrap the episode up by implying that this is just "volume 1" for episodes on guitar heroes, with "many more to come" featuring guitar greats not mentioned on October 3rd, but the episodes to air so far have largely returned to band-centric topics, and we will get to those hopefully soon. While the metal quotient of this episode is definitely lacking compared to prior weeks, the purpose was to outline influential guitarits who paved the way, and to to ignore these guitarists' contribution to the modern day tropes of metal guitar playing would be foolish. If anything, I'd have considered going chronological with this episode to sort of count the steps as we got to metal and it's evolution, and Josh's pronunciation of some names was a little off, but this was an informative and entertaining listen, and tune in to The Borderline tonight at 9:00 PM for episode #19 of Metal Morpheus!

Of course, you can hear all previous and episodes on demand on their website, with tonight's episode following suit after the fact, and we'll look at episode #15 on the SMS soon as Josh returns to spotlighting bands rather than guitarists individually. That's all for today, but stay tuned for news on a big recent album release and more this week! Thanks everyone!

Our Recap Of Episode #13 Of Metal Morpheus On The Borderline!!

For our fourth post in as many days, let's try and get back on track for our recaps of episodes of Metal Morpheus, the weekly genre-centric radio show on local internet station The Borderline! We'll next look at episode #13 from September 26th, which was the second in a three episode run to focus on guitar mastery over sub-genres, this time for bands/songs with amazing guitar solos. Like last week, the episode started with a severely abbreviated intro & runs for well over an hour (almost 68 minutes), with host Josh Amendola kicking things off by looking at hard rock pioneers Deep Purple and founding guitarist Richie Blackmore with their Coverdale-era classic "Burn" (0:45). Next, Josh looks at one of their contemporaries, German legends The Scorpions and then-guitarist Uli John Roth via their early classic "The Sails of Charon" (7:55). The episode gets heavier next with Ozzy Osbourne and his original solo guitarist, the late Randy Rhoads.

From the Prince of Darkness, Josh plays his "Blizzard of Ozz" deep cut "Revelation (Mother Earth)" (12:35), and it's clear that Josh is a big fan of Randy's in the intro & outro! Listeners will next get Van Halen and late guitar icon/namesake Eddie Van Halen, from whom Josh plays their Roth-era cover of "Ice Cream Man" (20:55). NWOBHM legends Judas Priest follow with their speed metal classic "Painkiller" (25:50), featuring acclaimed dual solos from both K.K. Downing & Glenn Tipton, though neither gets mentioned by name, oddly. The second half of the episode leads off with the late great Dimebag Darrell courtesy of Pantera's classic "The Sleep" (32:50), followed by one of the big four of thrash, namely Megadeth, whose on-air song is "Tornado of Souls" (39:55) featuring the dueling guitar of Dave Mustaine and Marty Friedman.

This episode's local content is next, courtesy of early 1990s glam metal quintet Amethyst with their song "Presence of Mind" (45:55) from their second & final album, 1994's "Innocent As Hell", featuring some solid lead guitar work by Jose "Wales" Temporao. That's followed by Black Label Society and their frontman/guitar god Zakk Wylde with their song "Stoned & Drunk" (51:25), while Josh begins to enter the home stretch by going more recent, including Finnish power/death metal band Children of Bodom and their late lamented singer/guitarist Alexi Laiho, whose song played on-air was "Follow The Reaper" (57:15). The last song of episode #13 is also via it's only instrumental act, namely progressive metal prodigies Animals As Leaders with guitarist Tosin Abasi, whose track here is "Song of Solomon" (1:02:25).

Another solid episode of Metal Morpheus with lots of entertaining metal & hard rock tracks to go around, and I think Josh did a good job picking out songs with quality guitar solos to showcase, with more consistent background info to boot! Sure, which solos are the "most" amazing will be very subjective, and you could easily go on & on taking songs/bands out and adding new/overlooked ones in, but different strokes for different folks. Josh's on-air hosting abilities and banter have definitely found a good animated groove, and genre/solo fans should find a lot to like in this episode, which you can hear at this link or above! Yes, we will be getting to more episodes soon, including the final of Metal Morpheus' three week guitar-centric trilogy next, but Josh does return to metal sub-genres for a couple weeks afterward, plus an intriguing themed episode from this past Sunday, all hitting the SMS in due course.

Tune in live to episode #18 on Sunday night at 9:00 PM on The Borderline, and all past episodes of the show are available to stream on demand via the station's website. That's all for today, but stay tuned for Halloween weekend concert previews on the site tomorrow! 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!

YouTube Channel Profile Series: Tiff107's Channel

It's now time for this month's YouTube Channel Profile, our monthly feature to spotlight 1-3 YouTube channels whose content is at least half devoted to local metal, hard rock, or punk artists and/or concerts, in order to promote them to current readers encourage views and new subscriptions! This month's randomly selected YouTube channel features solo performance clips from a talented local musician, so here's what you should know!
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Tiff107's Channel (http://youtube.com/tiff107)

Owner: Prolific local punk/metal guitarist Tiffany "Spades" Stocco, currently known as the frontwoman of Stegadeth, Coral Fang, and Poison Girl, as well as a guitarist with Jack Spades, and formerly with T-Rex Manning & Pools of Booze.

Channel Timeline: Launched on January 26th, 2006; Videos posted from December 2010 through October 2018

Channel Summary: A personal use channel that predates Tiffany's full-time emergence into the local punk & metal scenes, a total of 32 videos have been uploaded here, almost all focused on her own solo guitar covers of various metal and punk songs (with gear details often given in the descriptions), though two originals with vocals also made the cut. The channel's only non-musical video features Tiffany and a friend skating outdoors at night back in January 2011, months before her debut with T-Rex Manning.

Why You Should Watch: Fans of Tiffany's work in local bands in the 2010s would be well served to check out her channel, as her musical progression is very welcome to see throughout, and long-time fans of hers will recognize some familiar cover choices along the way! The channel is still actively used too, if not as frequently as she did in 8 or 9 years back. However, Tiffany has not posted any live videos of her various local bands here, but between YouTube and Facebook, most have footage elsewhere.

Our Recommended Videos To Check Out

Teenage Depression: As part of a prolific swath of initial video uploads in 2010 & 2011, Tiffany posted a couple of solo performance clips featuring her playing guitar as well as singing original lyrics, predating her lead vocal debut with Stegadeth by over 5 years. Alongside "Simple Person" (which is more rock-based), featured here is "Teenage Depression", which is markedly softer and more personal in nature. Compared to her live punk singing (which I often wish had more projection and confidence), her vocals here are surprisingly effective, giving a raw, melodic, and emotional feel that really suits this song. It'd be interesting to see Tiffany revisit these early originals!



I Only Wanna Be With You: Volbeat guitar cover: The most popular video on Tiffany's channel (with over 3,700 views), this is a 3:00 AM cover of Volbeat's version of the Dusty Springfield classic "I Only Wanna Be With You", as filmed in October 2012. Likely a reflection of her Volbeat cover work with her 2012 T-Rex Manning side project Pools of Booze, the audio quality is mixed at best, but if you can pick out her playing over top of the original track, you'll see that she had a solid grasp of this cover overall! Tiffany also covered Volbeat's original song "Pools of Booze" (where the above band's name originated) earlier that same month.



Bad Religion:Sinister Rouge: Video uploads have slowed down in recent years, but Tiffany's recording quality and guitar talents have both went up as the years have progressed. One of her more recent covers from February 2017 is of Bad Religion's "Sinister Rouge", a live staple in Stegadeth sets, so fans will know already that she has this classic of theirs down pat! The backing audio is a little muffled, but it accentuates Tiffany's playing as a result, and it's a highlight of her channel's more recent content!


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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! This series will return on or around April 26th with a look at multiple channels, as the first one that we randomly chose only has 9 videos from the same album, so I would only source two videos from it for the profile proper, and one more channel was added to fill it out. As such, we'll be looking at the YouTube channels of users malaise666 (featuring most of Woods of Ypres' last CD) and Angela U (featuring a Treble Charger concert video from 2015), so look for these next month, and for more news and notes soon! Thanks everyone!

Local Solo Performance Video Showcase!!

In our last post before we begin previewing this week's two battles of the bands, here's a special local metal video showcase that features recent solo performance YouTube videos from four local musicians, all notable from out of town work as well! This is a combination of overdue features and new finds, but there's solid talent throughout, and on both sides of the border, so check everything out below, and see this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post below this one! We'll start in alphabetical order with former Sativa Rose/Valentine's Day Massacre bassist Adam Veale, who's featured in two new solo cover videos from his dad John's YouTube channel! Uploaded last week, they're the first videos featuring Adam playing live to be posted there in over a year, and are of acoustic guitar/vocal covers of Bob Seger's "Turn The Page" and Nazareth's "Love Hurts" (both complete with dedications to a loved one.)

Both are well performed and softer covers, and they showcase Adam's diverse talent that we don't see a whole lot of, but his singing voice can be a little off compared to the original songs. Hopefully we hear more from him sooner or later, but check out his "Love Hurts" cover below and more above!



Next up, here's a new solo drumming video from London Gentlemen/former Nixxon Dixxon drummer Jake Lalonde, who uploaded his first solo video in 2 years to his YouTube channel yesterday! A short 61 second video demonstrating linear grooves & fills, it's a nice showcase of Jake's talent, with solid rapid fire drumming on display, so fans of his Sault Michigan-area band work should be right at home! Also, it's nice to get a non-overhead angle for a change. Give Jake's new video a look below!



Heading back to Canada, here's a bunch of videos from Lethbridge, Alberta metal guitarist Paul Melanson, a Sault Ontario native who you may remember from past local bands like Frapperteterhead, Malediction, Gutwrench, and Under The Gun! Most recently seen in the Lethbridge cover band Bottoms Up and the Metallica tribute Damage Inc., Paul posted a steady amount of solo videos outside of his Alberta band work to his YouTube channel last year, so what can be seen there? Among the highlights, there's a bass cover of Metallica's "The Shortest Straw", guitar covers of the likes of Pantera & Ozzy Osbourne, and numerous solo guitar compositions, which partially are planned for a teased solo EP. Paul's a great guitarist, and it's nice to see him staying heavy with his recent solo work, which does showcase skill in both songwriting and cover knowledge! It'll be interesting to see what he has in store next, but see the above links for more, and here's his cover of the solos in Metallica's "Fade To Black"!



Finally, here's the newest solo acoustic vocal/guitar cover from former Elipzis/RedStone Riot bassist Ryan Harrison, as per his new YouTube channel (not his old "freakwoog" channel) last week! Despite the new channel, this cover of Counting Crows' "Goodnight Elisabeth" is similar to his past solo videos from his current Muskegon homebase, albeit in a sepia tone and sporting his impressive recent beard. I'm not a Counting Crows fan, but Ryan handles this cover well and with nice melodic vocals that fans of his old Riot! By Night work should appreciate, so give his newest solo cover a look below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for our preview of Wednesday's night #1 of the VM Radio Battle of the Bands TOMORROW! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (The Strange Coyotes, Griphook, And Banned), And More!!

For a second straight day, we have a short notice second post on the site, as like yesterday, there's a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for tonight that is linked to a public show from yesterday and is getting a fair amount of Facebook advertising! Also read on for full public LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for next weekend and some more assorted notes, so here's what you need to know, and check out lots of VM Radio updates (and the new Tuned episode) in the post below this one! (Updated at 9:24 PM)

Remember how Blood Shed Productions & Heavy North Entertainment hosted a publically advertised house party concert last night on Weldon Avenue? Well, that show was reportedly cut short due to a Foggy's-esque noise complaint and police visit, which cancelled plans for a Strange Coyotes headlining set and forced Rotopsy to only play one song. With that in mind, promoters are giving a short notice second try at this show TONIGHT at a different location, though still centrally located! Once scheduled to be held at an Oakbine Avenue location, the show was moved back to it's original 110 Pentagon Boulevard location for unannounced reasons on very short notice. Hopefully things go smoother for everyone tonight, despite the location jumbling! All performers except Telephone & Address and Mikey Thomas are back for tonight, which will definitely see The Strange Coyotes headlining in their first announced show since confirming their reunion, with Rotopsy, Crucify The Whore, Brutaly Fatal, and a "surprise special guest appearance" also teased.

The Facebook event page has current details for this show, which is ALL AGES, will start at 8:00 PM tonight, and will have no announced cover. Don't miss out if you love the Blood Shed, and hopefully they don't have similar issues tonight! For a preview, here's The Strange Coyotes live in January!

Next up, Kinross, Michigan hard/classic rock trio Banned have announced a surprise show for this Thursday, as they'll make their first ever advertised appearance at The Raber Bay Bar 'N Restaurant in nearby Goetzville! Our source is Banned's Facebook page yesterday, which added the show to their existing fall calendar. We've never plugged a show in Goetzville before, so in case you didn't know, Goetzville is a small Chippewa County community that's roughly an hour southeast of the Soo and 24 minutes east of Cedarville, and was among the areas of the E.U.P. added when we expanded our coverage range on the site two years ago. Given the Thursday setting, I'm unsure on if there's a special occasion to cause the booking, but it adds to a busy weekend for them, as Banned will be at The Runway Bar in Hessel (a half hour west of Goetzville) over the next two nights. A 9:00 PM start time is in effect on Thursday, you must be 21 to attend, and there's no announced cover charge. See above for more info, and stay tuned for updates on their Raber Bay Bar show!

Also in new show announcements, local classic/hard rock cover quartet Griphook will apparently return to the stage this Friday at The Rednecks Saloon! Though the band has yet to confirm this show online, the marquee board outside of the former Nicolet Tavern has advertised it for at least the last few days, and that has proven to be a reliable source for accurate show dates in the past. If this booking is still on, this will be Griphook's first concert set of the fall, and their first outside of Rotaryfest since playing at Rednecks in April, so if you've been missing Joel, Brian, Dan, and Tony in recent months, you'll want to mark this Friday's show down for a night of entertaining and often heavy covers! No word on why they're not playing on Saturday though, but the marquee at the saloon didn't list that day's entertainment. There's no announced cover charge on Friday, you must be 19 to attend, and there's a likely 10:00 PM start time in effect. For more details, visit the above links, and if we hear any changes, we'll let you know!

Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter items from the last little while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist name:

• A new instrumental song by the aforementioned Crucify The Whore was uploaded to their new Bandcamp page earlier this week, which fans will want to check out, but due to a name that some readers may find offensive, we won't post it here. Give it a listen if you want, and note that their other demos can also be streamed there!
• I've removed The Guitar Studio from our "Other Sault Michigan Links" section due to the expiry of their website and only substantial online page. Featuring prolific local guitarist Joey Beairl among it's staff, The Guitar Studio was notable for providing both music lessons and a summer rock camp that spawned real youth rock bands such as Tantrym Tyme, but online updates have been slow in recent years. If a new link turns up, we'll re-add them to our listings!
• Our congratulations go out to Sailor's Tongue frontman Kyle McKey, who will be inducted into the Great Northern Opry of the Northern Ontario Country Music Association tonight during their annual awards ceremony! Kyle joins fellow hard rock alum Ric Datson (That's Chester) among the dozens of regional country notables in the opry. If you've followed all of Kyle's music work in the area, you'll know this is very deserving, so congratulations once again, and click here for more info!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and updates in the next few days! Thanks everyone!