Here's a surprise news post on this Good Friday evening, which is half devoted to new punk videos featuring former Lion Ride bandmates, but leading off, here's two LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for next month!
Local classic/hard rock cover quartet Generations will return to the stage on Saturday, April 13th when they rock The Water Tower Pub! Unless something gets booked beforehand, this show (announced by drummer Tony Santoro on their Facebook group earlier today) will be their first since playing at Jay's in early March, and their first at The Water Tower Pub since a Friday nighter the previous week (the Great Northern Road nightclub historically hosts different nightly bands). Generations are celebrating their one year anniversary since succeeding Jus' Chillin last year (they debuted at Jay's on April 7th, 2023), and while they aren't returning to the origin site for this particular gig, hopefully Valerie, the Tonys, and Pierre's classic and hard rock covers find another receptive audience! This 19+ show will have an 8:00 PM start time and no cover charge. Visit the above links for more details on Generations' next gig!
Next up, local punk trio Vanity First will indeed release their new album "Identity Crisis" on Saturday, April 20th with a formal release party at Soo Blaster! Confirming the Facebook comment from drummer Keegan McAllister's dad earlier this week, the concert will indeed see Vanity selling CD copies (no word on pricing yet), but unlike the limited pressing of their 2020 demo CD, this album is getting a more professional treatment, as "Identity Crisis" is getting released through local/Barrie rock musician Mike Haggith's label MorningStar Records. Now you know how Mike "played a small part in bringing the album over the finish line"! The album will be available to order through MorningStar's website too via the Kunaki on-demand printing process, but if Vanity First have properly signed with the label, they/Mike haven't confirmed it yet. Local metal trio The BAG will open the proceedings on 4/20, and they'll set the tone well with their heavy attack!
As per the poster by Mikhal & Keeghan's Hails bandmate Brenton Ellis (more on him in a bit), this all ages & licensed concert will cost $10 if you buy advance tickets from Vanity First band members (Keeghan's dad reportedly had them too), but the price will jump to $15 at the door. The concert proper begins at 8:00 PM. It's great to see that Vanity First have gotten this far already, and hopefully everything goes according to plan next month! Visit the official Facebook event page for more info!
Also today, let's look at the newest video in Mikey & His Uke's ongoing cover series paying tribute to Green Day's breakthrough album "Dookie" for its 30th anniversary! After an unusually long 18 day gap between songs #5 and #6 in this series, the new video came just a week later on Monday, so we're back on the normal "6-8 days between videos" scheduling. Next up in track listing order on "Dookie" is Green Day's classic single "Basket Case", and here, the guest singer is none other than Descendents frontman Milo Aukerman in his fifth appearance with Mikey & His Uke and first since 2022. Mikey Hawdon plays guitar and (initially) ukelele once again, with ex-Goldfinger drummer Darren Pfieffer behind the drumkit once again, while Pennywise bassist Randy Bradbury returns for his third "Dookie" cut out of the last four. Everyone puts in a strong performance here, and Milo's intensity with the camera is noted throughout!
No major setting quirks or post-production effects here, but this video legitimately got shared on Instagram by no less than Billie Joe Armstrong himself, which has to be a huge feather in Mikey's toque! As a fan of sports jerseys and logos, I do think Darren could do better as Buffalo Sabres jerseys go, especially given their current set, but that's irrelevant to the cover. The next song in the "Dookie" series (track #8, their single "She") should arrive at any point between Sunday and April 12th, but the average gap between videos so far would place it on Wednesday. Punk fans will absolutely want to give this cover a watch below!
Finally for today, here's a throwback to local punk fans of the 1990s... remember Gutwrench? While their mid-1990s heyday long predated the SMS, their lineup included four very notable names, including current Hails/Slumshine frontman Brenton "B.G." Ellis on vocals and bass, guitarists Mike "Vinyl" Muto (ex-Issues/Band Camp Rejects) & Paul "Paulo Rage" Melanson (of newer Alberta-based metal bands like Castigate and Syryn), and Mike's brother Marc Muto (ex-Lion Ride) on drums. A lot of local bands of this era don't have much in the way of public media in the 2020s, but Gutwrench are now an exception, as Mike's son Mikhal (now on guitar in Ha!ls with Brent) has had three vintage cassette tapes of theirs to his personal YouTube channel for over two years now! These include their 1995 debut "Phantasmagoria" (recorded before Paul joined the band), and its 1996 follow-up "One Nation Under The Gun".
The other tape is a live bootleg from a show at the former Knights Of Columbus Hall (also, Mikhal posted a tape of fellow 1990s punk band The Kite Eating Maples but it has no imagery or information on the band/album there). With artwork (albeit with camera glare) and track listings on the two albums posted, the Gutwrench studio albums are absolutely eligible for reviews on the SMS once our new album backlog is cleared (perhaps this summer?), and given that Brent still plays live with his current projects, it could get priority on that basis when we do run out of new albums! Have a blast from the past with this fast paced local punk band above & below!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's CD review next, in all likelihood! Thanks everyone!
On this Saturday morning, we have a stacked new post to touch on, so what's in store for today? Some archive song finds from 20 years ago, recent concert video footage, and big updates for an upcoming show, but first, here's a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for later this summer!
Montreal hardcore punk legends The Ripcordz will return to Sault Ste. Marie for a headlining concert on Saturday, August 13th at The Canadian Nightclub! Talk of an ALL AGES Ripcordz show in the Soo has been teased in recent months, but this is the apparent fruition of the idea, so if you want some all ages punk and metal action with Paul Gott and company, you know where to be this summer! This will be The Ripcordz' first local stop since the release party for their "Fed Up!" split CD with local punk/metal quintet Jack Spades and hardcore punk quintet Destroilet at The Algonquin Pub in October, and in a fitting encore, both local bands will be back to open on August 13th as well! While Jack Spades have been seen often lately, this will be Destroilet's first announced concert appearance since the "Fed Up!" release show. No idea where they've been in the past year & a half, but hopefully Destroilet tear up the stage in this rare Canadian Nightclub appearance later this summer!
Unlike in October, an additional opening band is to be announced, and we'll let you know when they are publically confirmed. This ALL AGES stop on The Ripcordz' Night of the Living Punks tour will have a door opening time of 7:00 PM, as well as $10 advance tickets (availability to be announced), with the door price jumping to $15. This sounds like a great concert for hardcore punk fans, and a nice make-up date if you missed the "Fed Up"! release party, so keep it in mind for in three months time, and visit the official Facebook event page for more info!
Next up, here's some big updates for the Iskra-headlined
concert at The Moose Lodge on Thursday, July 14th, starting with it's
relocation from The Moose Lodge to The Oddfellows Hall, as per the show's new Facebook event page!
A reason for the move wasn't announced, but it followed the surprising
deletion of
the original event page, leaving some fans worried that the show was
cancelled. All is well, it's just downtown now, and it's still ALL AGES!
The lineup and start time are unchanged, but the bands' set-times are now
confirmed, with the Victoria, B.C. goregrind headliners on at 11:30 PM,
local death/thrashers Pillory co-headlining at 10:45 PM, goregrind duo Rotopsy on at 10:00 PM, and in a surprising placement, doom metal trio AlgomA opening the show at 9:15 PM. Given that members are promoting the show with Six, Two, Oh.,
maybe this is intentional so they can get back to running the event?
However, ticket fees have been hiked up from $5 to $8 (again, for
unannounced reasons), with the door charge now at $10.
Advance
tickets are on sale at The Rad Zone and through AlgomA members, and the
tickets will also serve a double purpose, namely as tickets for a
planned door prize: AlgomA's split vinyl EP with Chronobot,
or if you have it already or don't want it, $20 of AlgomA merchandise.
Despite the raise in admission fees, things seem to be shaping up well
for July's Iskra show, so visit the above links for full current
details, and stay tuned for confirmation on the planned August 2nd Iskra show when/if it's venue is confirmed!
Also, here's an almost full concert video from local alternative/hard rock trio The Din, courtesy of their set opening for Sulfur City at LopLops Lounge last week! Filmed at a stationary camera angle, the video was uploaded to the band's YouTube channel on Monday, and features audio remastered by Pretoria Hill Productions, the upstart independent studio where The Din's debut CD is largely being recorded. The 36 minute set is notably 100% comprised of original compositions (be they from The Din, Mike Haggith's solo material, or the defunct band Haggith), with covers reserved in case there was an encore. In order, The Din played "75" (complete with the lengthy intro labelled as "Leamington, Ontario" from "The Din Does Laundry"), "In Search of the Perfect Moment", the newer "Alleyways & Apartments", "Out Of My League", "Differences", and most of "Analog Palace", and after a brief Star Wars-esque intermission to restart the camera, "Flux" & "This Potato May Be Used As A Flotation Device".
Overall, this video is very solid for fans of Mike and company's original compositions, with solid audio quality, fun banter between songs, and a nice view of the band, though it's a little tight, so Mike sometimes wasn't in view when he left his microphone's area. Fans of The Din will be right at home, so give their full set a look below, click the above song names to go directly to individual songs, and stay tuned for more from their Facebook page soon!
Finally for today, here's a neat find from the local metal scene's past, as YouTube user schwazemoto has uploaded 10 studio-recorded songs by defunct local punk band Gutwrench to their YouTube channel in the past week! Given that their original run ended no later than 2002, and no online pages survive (or ever existed?) for them, I can't verify a whole lot on this band with existing online sources, but their lineup did include future Hangdowns guitarist Jordan Cumming (pictured) and drummer Marc Muto (ex-Lion Ride) alongside guitarist Paul Melanson, who's now a prolific metal usician in the Lethbridge, Alberta area. The Gutwrench songs on YouTube are dated from 1996, and include various paintings as the featured picture (if these were from an album of some kind, the cover isn't included.) The included songs are titled "Stranded", "Pictures Blur", "Phobia", "Part II", "Identity", "Human Nature", "Good Riddance", "D.S.U.F.", "Another Song", and as embedded below, "Dead", so click each link to hear each song!
Gutwrench have an entertaining skate/speed punk sound that hasn't aged badly at all, with good enthusiasm and strong guitar work, and good production to boot, and it'd be interesting to see or find more from Gutwrench at some point! And yes, this is definitely the local Gutwrench, not one of the out of town bands with the same name, Paul and Marc were reminiscing on one of these uploads on Facebook. Give Gutwrench's studio tracks a listen above & below!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more updates and reviews shortly! Thanks everyone!
