Defunct Local Band Profile Series: The Issues

It's now time for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile, as we round out another year in our monthly profile series on a local metal, hard rock, or punk band that deserves some current attention despite being disbanded or inactive! As always, this month's band was randomly selected, and there's some familiar faces within (if you can read past the censor bars over their eyes & mouths), so read on below for this month's Defunct Profile!
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The Issues

Genre: "Derd Rock"/Extreme Metal/Punk

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Members: (Members not in their last full lineup in italics; Real identities of some members are not 100% verifiable, particularly those of Vinyl Muto & Joey Velcro, while there may be missing ex-band members as well. Message us if you can confirm anything!)

Bret "Velvet Bretfield" Shuttleworth (Pillory, Lazer Queen), vocals
Robbie "Rockit" Sartini (Pillory, Crimson Crusade), lead guitar
"Vinyl Muto", bass/rhythm guitar
Chris "Mullet Studburn" Shelbourne, drums/vocals

Alan "Power" Wells (Winkstinger), vocals
Andres "Denim" Duchesne (Pillory, The Bear Hunters), guitar
"Leather" Luc Schmiedendorf (Bankshot), guitar
"Joey Velcro", guitar 

Audio/Video: While The Issues weren't a prolific live band (or one that released a formal album), they did record a number of original demos that were posted to their Facebook & MySpace pages with varying lineup formations. Four songs are on each, with two each solely on one page
 ("Kick" & "In The Past" on Facebook, and "Puppet On A String (Trixie)" & "Last Stand" on MySpace.) Stream them above, and here's one of their heaviest tracks, "Lambs To The Slaughter"!

Info/Analysis: A unique & somewhat mysterious project that was originally active from 2007-2009, The Issues made an impression with fans early on with their varied metal & punk originals, irreverent sense of humour, fake concert postings, and use of censor bars and aliases to disguise band member identities. Notably spawning future alumni of Winkstinger & Pillory, activity was mostly in studio until the band went on hiatus, only to reunite in April 2013 with a new lineup rounded out by late guitarist Andres Duchesne's Pillory bandmates. Despite this, future public postings were limited to archive song uploads with older lineups, and nothing has followed since March 2014, likely indicating that they're inactive once again. I wish The Issues had expanded to live concerts, as they had a fun range of songs, from the punkier "Dirty Baby" to the heavy "Last Stand", and their sense of humour was welcomed, but hopefully they bring their "derd rock" back in the future!
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I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profile! We'll start the year in Sault Michigan, as January 2016's randomly selected band in this series will be the recent hard rock duo Lift The Broken, but as they have no public media, we've added a second randomly chosen band from Sault Ontario with a similar lack of info (starting a new 2-1-3-1-2-1 pattern between the twin Saults) to fill things out. That band is defunct local punk quartet (and Shit Liver predecessors) OBCD, so check out this double band profile on or around January 10th, and stay tuned for more news this weekend! Thanks everyone!

Jack Spades & Destroilet's Kickstarter Campaign, The Return Of Skeyes Of Seven, And More!!

Before we get into this post, I wanted to acknowledge that the obituary for late Case's Music founder, country musician, and beloved music instructor Mike Case is now online at this link, which confirms that a celebration of life will be held at The Delta Waterfront Hotel on Friday at 7:00 PM, following a private family funeral, and the family's asking for Cancer Society contribitions in lieu of flowers. I know how important Mike was to the local music scene, and it's a shame that he was taken from us at just 55 years old, but his legacy will live on in everyone he taught, befriended, and performed with over the years. R.I.P. Mike!

Now, today's post features a band's return and new lineup, how a local band did at a recent out-of-town event, and three inactive bands to note for our listings, but first, here's big news on two local bands' next project!

The announced three-way split album between local metal/punk quintets Destroilet & Jack Spades and Montreal hardcore punk legends The Ripcordz is now beginning production, but YOU can help ensure it's released! Jack Spades frontman J.D. Pearce has launched a Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund the album, which will be a 15 track release with 5 songs from each band. J.D. cited that they've "decided to distill" the feeling of all three bands' playing "some of the most intense sweaty shows you could imagine" into this split, while the campaign is also intended to help Jack Spades (and Destroilet?) take a road trip to open for The Ripcordz in Montreal for a change. Like with most Kickstarter campaigns, there are incentives if you pledge to donate money to fund the album (they're looking to get $6,000 in two months), so what lies ahead if you pledge money to this cause?

At the $2 minimum, you'll get credited in the album booklet, but for more money, you could get the split on CD, mp3, vinyl, or cassette(?!) copies, as well as a VIP pass to the release concert when announced, stickers, a t-shirt or back patch, or if you're really ambitious and have $2,000+ to donate, a concert at your house or the album named after you! If you want to help fund this split, click here for full details on each incentive level and to get more details, and hopefully we can reach the optimum goal by June 13th!

Next up, we have a surprise lineup addition for the fifth annual Swampstravaganza at The Canadian Nightclub on May 9th, as local hard rock quartet Skeyes of Seven were added to the lineup earlier today as the tenth band on the bill! As revealed on their Facebook page and the Swampfest event page, the band featuring Sense of Truth & Half Past alumni will be making just their third concert appearance since their 2012 debut, and their first live set in over two years, so this is way too long coming! This will also be their first show on a bill without Garden of Bedlam, their first since Alain Fletcher moved from guitar to bass to replace the departed Mike Mannarino, and in a surprise, their first since their recent drummer change, as the band has added former As It Stands drummer John Mignacca to their lineup, replacing Jonny Amendola.

A reason wasn't announced for Jonny's departure, but hopefully things were amicable, and best of luck to him in the future for sure, as he's very talented! John's addition is surprising, especially given his recent focus on solo techno material, but it's been way too long since his last show with As It Stands, and hopefully he adds well to Skeyes of Seven! The new lineup is featured in this new Facebook video as well, where John suggests an amusing intro move, frontman Cory Murchison formally welcomes him to the band, and he hypes their set on May 9th and new material. It's great to have Skeyes of Seven back finally, so see more above and below!

Also today, were you wondering about local participation in this past Saturday's Rock 'N Roar Battle of the Bands in Spanish? Oddly, promoters never revealed the full band lineup online, but we can now confirm via personal Facebook postings that local funk/hard rock quartet The Elements were among the competitors, marking their first appearance at this event! They also were joined by guitarist Jesse Cook's Jack Spades bandmate Johnny Belanger on guest drums, as Alex Hagerman couldn't make the trip east for the battle. However, they did not place in the top 3, and unlike past years, the 4th & 5th place bands weren't announced among the winning bands to join the Rock 'N Roar Festival lineup in August. For reference, the winning bands included Sudbury rock quintets Conflicted Minds & Forget The Circus in 1st and 2nd place, and they'll open for Platinum Blonde & Sass Jordan in Spanish on Saturday, August 15th.

Blind River rock band Drive placed third, and they'll open for 54-40 and Saga on night #1 on August 14th. We have no official word yet on the identities of the other bands, but Elliott Lake photographer Paul Kazulak was on hand getting photos of the competitors, so visit his Facebook page to see if he posts pictures of any more familiar acts! It's disappointing to see The Elements not make the podium, but hopefully they made lots of fans in Spanish on Saturday, and stay tuned for more from them!

Finally for today, here's three shorter news items, all related to bands being moved to our inactive band links, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist name:

• We have moved local hard rock quartet Ashes To Dust to our inactive band links due to a year's inactivity, having not posted any online updates since briefly being listed for the 2014 Swampstravaganza last spring. Best known from that event in 2012 and from various Superior Heights sets, A.T.D. had talent and a growing presence, but hopefully we hear more from Noah, Alex, Liam, David, and Kyle in the future!
• We've also moved local "derd rock" outfit The Issues to our inactive band links, as they haven't updated their Facebook page since March of last year. Active from 2008-2010 before reuniting in 2013, this amusing metal project featuring Winkstinger and Pillory alumni had a lot of promise and entertainment value, and it's a shame that they never played a real concert that I've heard. Best of luck to Chris, Vinyl, Bret, Robert, and other former members going forward!
• Lastly, we've moved local/London deathcore quartet Saints & Serpents to our inactive band links, as they haven't updated their Facebook page since February. The successors to the defunct Valentine's Day Massacre, Saints & Serpents played just one announced concert in London in December 2013 before activity quietly stopped. It's disappointing to see that Saints & Serpents never reached The V.D.M.'s heights, but best of luck to Steve, Andrew, Adam, and Ian in the future!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and weekend concert previews in the coming days! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (T-Rex Manning), Jack Spades EP News, And More!!

Congratulations go out to the Canadian men's hockey team on winning gold this morning (and for our Yooper readers, the Americans put up a great game in the semifinals!) Today's second post features a new cover video, the latest from a returned local metal band, and some overdue notes on an upcoming CD release, but first, here's a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for later this week (and check out this month's YouTube Channel Profile in the post below this one!)

The next Heavy Thursday at The Roosevelt Hotel will indeed have a metal-featured band, as local punk/metal quartet T-Rex Manning have been added to THIS THURSDAY'S lineup! This will be the band's first live appearance of 2014, and it will also mark their first show with drummer Rick White since May of last year (he missed their two late 2013 dates during his injury recovery), so it's awesome to see the full lineup back together finally for the third Heavy Thursday! In fact, Rick will be pulling triple duty on Thursday, as his local punk bands Redundant and Fist Fighting Stephen Hawking will also be playing this show, so fans of Rick and his music will definitely not want to miss this show! This will be Redundant's first Rosie appearance in 6 months, while Fist Fighting Stephen Hawking (featuring Rick on guitar alongside alumni of Frightlight, Northwest, and As It Stands) will be playing their second ever live show following their debut at the Bon Soo Marquee

Admission will be $5 on Thursday night, you must be 19 to attend, and a 10:00 PM start time is expected. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! Very solid lineup, and while Rick will be busy in his Rosie return, I know he'll handle everything nicely despite the workload, so keep the third Heavy Thursday in mind for later this week!

Next up, we have some long overdue updates concerning T-Rex Manning members J.D. Pearce & Tiffany Stocco's other punk/metal band Jack Spades, as they've began work on their debut EP! According to their Facebook page, they've been working on it since at least last Monday (when guitarist Jesse Cook & drummer Johnny Belanger completed tracking), with Tiffany recording guitar parts last Thursday, bassist Justin Lam finishing bass parts today, and J.D. waiting until instrument tracking is finished before recording vocals (Johnny & Tiffany will handle backing vocals then too.) Indications point to the EP having 5 original songs, but details on the name, artwork, formats, release date, and such are not out yet. The EP news seemed to come out of nowhere unless you're close to the band, but I'm very curious to hear what's in store for this one! If The Bear Hunters' album finally comes out this year too, it'll prove to be a huge year for Justin and Johnny musically, so fingers crossed everything works out, and stay tuned for updates as they roll in!

Also today, here's the latest from Sault Ontario "derd rock" project The Issues, who recently came back from a 9 month public hiatus! On the lineup side of things, the band has quietly parted ways with singer Velvit Bretfield and guitarist Robbie Rockit (a.k.a. Pillory's Bret Shuttleworth & Robert Sartini) for unannounced reasons, as per their removal from their Facebook page's lineup. Disappointing news, especially with no media to show from their tenure, but hopefully things were amicable, as drummer Mullet Studborne did a solid job producing Pillory's EP! However, the band's remaining members (including bassist Vinyl Muto) are back working on at least 3 new studio tracks as per their Facebook page on Friday, and to go along with it, the band uploaded four old tracks as Facebook videos there as well! Three ("Dirty Baby", "Lambs to the Slaughter", and "That's When She Calls") are re-posts of songs from their MySpace page, but one named "In The Past" is new to either page.

The songs are all very different, with "Dirty Baby" having a punk feel, "Lambs to the Slaughter" benefiting from then-singer (and Winkstinger frontman) Alan "Power" Wells, and "That's When She Calls" having more of a folksy laid back sound (featuring ex-guitarist "Leather Luc", who I believe is Bankshot alum Lucas Schmiedendorf.) I've always enjoyed The Issues and their sense of humour, and I'd like to see them finally get a full lineup and play some real live dates, so hopefully the recent news helps with that! Check out their old/new hard rocker "In The Past" (featuring late founding guitarist Andres "Denim" Duchesne) below!



Finally for today, we have another solo cover video from Ashes To Dust guitarist Alex Hemy's YouTube channel, this time a cover of Passenger's "Let Her Go"! Uploaded last Monday, this returns to his recent trend of softer rock covers, but I like his continually improving skills at multiple instruments and at video editing (including a greater use of panning and zooming!) I'm not familiar with Passenger, but he does a good job for this style of song, so give Alex's newest solo cover a look below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news tomorrow as we clear out our news cache! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Tym Morrison & 415E), The Return Of The Issues, And More!!

Once again, we have news for a 64th straight day at the SMS, so what's on tap? Along with updates to one of our monthly feature series and some more recent shorter stories, we have a local metal band's return and LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS on both sides of the border, so here's what you need to know on this Tuesday evening!

Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison will return to The Road House Bar & Grill for a show on Friday, May 31st! It's odd to see a lot of advance notice like this for one of his shows here, but Tym's successful and prolific relationship with this Trunk Road restaurant/venue is working out well for his unplugged cover shows, and hopefully there's a big turnout at the end of the month! Admission should be free for this 19+ concert, and Tym will be on at 10:00 PM on the 31st. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! This should be another fun night of metal & hard rock classics from Tym Morrison at the end of May, so don't miss out on another packed night of acoustic covers, stay tuned for more from his solo work as it comes in, and stay tuned later this week for news on the Caveman Morrison band's return to the stage (sooner than you think!)

The other new concerts take place on July 12th & 13th at The Rapids Lounge at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino, as local metal/hard rock quartet 415E will take the stage! Though their online pages continue to hype a return to the stage next month following their debut at the Sebastian Bach concert in January, their first publically confirmed solo dates are in July at the Soo Kewadin. If the May dates don't pan out, we'll still see the new band featuring Splitshot & Highest of Fives alumni on stage this summer, and it will be great to see their Van Halen-influenced covers & originals back out there! These shows were quietly announced on Kewadin Casino's entertainment page in recent weeks, and just in case, no other new hard rock shows were announced at the local branches recently (unless the still unknown Sir Charge count.) The July shows should have no cover charge, 10:00 PM start times, and 21+ age limits, so check the above links for more details, and hopefully 415E rock the roof off of the lounge come July! Stay tuned for more from them!

In another recent development, do you guys remember the "derd rock" band The Issues that was active in the late 2000s? Well, they returned from a three year hiatus earlier this month! Just as a refresher, The Issues were a 2008-2010 studio-only metal project that were known for hidden identities, fake concert postings, often amusing posts, and entertaining Winkstinger-esque songs (which isn't a surprise, as Alan "Power" Wells sang for both bands), but they had been dormant until activity resumed on their Facebook page on May 3rd! Their new lineup includes singer Velvit Bretfield (a.k.a. Pillory/Lazer Queen drummer Bret Shuttleworth) and guitarist Robbie Rockit (Robert Sartini from Pillory & Crimson Crusade), along with founding members Vinyl Muto on bass and Mullet Studborne on drums, though their identities are still not clear. Their other former members have since departed, including at least two Winkstinger members, and late Pillory guitarist Andres "Denim" Duchesne.

The Issues had some creative and heavy metal & punk material in their original run, but I am curious to hear more from their current lineup, and maybe the relaunched band will play some real local concerts?I like where they were going, so check out Issues material at the links above, and stay tuned for updates!

Also, here's three recent shorter news stories from the last little while, and as always, these are in alphabetical order by artist or venue name:

• As it's now a host to two distinct local metal/hard rock shows (Bushplane Musical Madness last fall and Heavy North in September), I've added The Canadian Bushplane Heritage Center to our Sault Ontario concert venue listings on your left, so head there for contact information and their website! Here's hoping we see more shows there down the road!
• If you're curious for more details on ex-Lion Ride guitarist Mark Rand's new Cross Dog project (who are opening for The Dayglo Abortions locally in September), they are definitely Peterborough based, and they feature him on bass alongside his girlfriend Tracy Ashenden on vocals/guitar & Mark's ex-Lumbermen bandmate Mikey Reid on drums. My source is Tracy via Facebook conversations, and she told me their genre is "hardcore punk meets stoner rock fusion." Very interesting, I'm curious to hear more!
• Local singer Sara Densmore is apparently looking to get into a band, and while she emphasized that she likes country, she also can pull off Evanescence, Queen, and Paramore material. If you're interested in seeing if she'd fit your band, message her at this location or see her post on the Musicians Wanted Facebook group from April 18th!

Finally for today, here's some recent updates to our Battle of the Bands Rewind Profiles! First, on our Skid Row Battle profile, I updated the section on what the competitors did post-battle to reflect the return of Free Beer (now Sarah's Valley) and their run at the Rockstar Bar Battle of the Bands this past month, along with notes on the likely demise of Sue Inside. I also added extra details for winners Sense of Truth's run at the Kiss Battle of the Bands the following year, and noted guitarist Steve Myers' podium run with The Pesto Shirts at the Rockstar Bar Battle. Finally, I replaced The Business Suit Trappers in the section on performers' later bands with guitarist Mike Yakasovich's current punk band Crawfather. And for updates to our 2008 Case's Music Battle profile, I noted Behind Society drummer Josh Hatherley's battle finals run with Late & Loud this month, while also making some possibly confusing changes to the section on competitors' later bands. To sum it up, I renamed Unbound to their current name With Blood Build Character, while I removed the original band with that name and replaced them with their predecessors March Into Regression, who were longer lived & played live more. Stay tuned for more updates to profiles in this series soon!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news hopefully tomorrow, and if not, weekend concert previews on Thursday! Thanks everyone!

Sault Michigan Weekend Concert Previews And A Note On Our Band Links!!

As promised, here are the previews of this weekend's hard rock concerts in Sault Michigan! With such a high amount of concerts on both sides of the border this weekend in such a short span, I had to do it like this to keep things even and give the bands across the river the proper amount of attention. At the end, we have a housecleaning note concerning our band links as it amounts to the "active statuses" of bands we cover. Now, to the previews!!

Marquette hard rockers Nudge are returning to The Satisfied Frog in Sault Michigan this weekend! They'll be there tomorrow night & Saturday night in their first local concert stops since their two consecutive weekends at The Frog in June to deliver two great nights of hard rock and metal covers! The band haven't been promoting these shows as vigorously as their last few local shows, but they're definitely on, so take note of them (as well as frontman Danzo McCracken's acoustic solo set TONIGHT!) Both Nudge shows will start at 10:00 PM, you must be 21 to enter, and there's no announced cover charge. Check the above links for more details! Nudge should deliver some great tunes this weekend, as they are a very talented and hard rocking quartet who always leave an impression locally! Head to The Frog this weekend for the shows, and for a preview, here's Nudge covering System of a Down's "Violent Pornography" circa November 2008!



Also this weekend in Sault Michigan is the live debut of new local hard rockers NoXcape! The quintet featuring former Absolute bandmates Ben Huyck on guitar, bassist Bill Spence, and drummer Justin Lawless, plus singer Nick Landreville and Krosswalk guitarist Joey Beairl will head down to Dan's Place in nearby Rudyard for their debut show on Saturday night! I've heard promising things about the full lineup, and judging by their past bands, they should do great in their first concert! It looks to have a 10:00 PM-ish start time and a 21+ age limit, with no announced cover charge. Check the above links for more details! Always good to see a new band pop up, and hopefully NoXcape can go as far as possible! For a preview, check out some original demos featuring just Nick and Ben from their MK-Ultra days at this location! Very late 1990s vibe with this stuff, hopefully they keep this vibe going with NoXcape! Check them out in Rudyard on Saturday!

And finally for the weekend concert previews, Kinross hard rock trio Banned will make their first ever 21+ concert appearance this Saturday at The Sundown Lounge in Pickford! I'm not familiar with this bar in any way, but their address is 18664 S M 129, and I heard it's a nice establishment, so remember that if you go see Banned this weekend! The new and diverse group will have a solid slate of classic and hard rock covers for their fans at this show, and they proved to be entertaining and talented at their debut last month, so don't miss them! The show has a 9:30 PM start time, and there's no announced cover charge. Check the above link for more details! Should be fun, hopefully they do great in Pickford this weekend! For a preview, here's Banned covering Bad Company and The Red Hot Chili Peppers in Rudyard last month!



And finally, here's a note concerning our band links on the SMS. As part of our page redesign last month, we started segmenting bands in the twin Saults by whether they're active or inactive/defunct by placing them in separate sections. In case you weren't sure, my criteria for if a band is "inactive" is if they either officially declare they've broken up (i.e. State of Misery), most of the band forms a new band in lieu of the older group (i.e. Out Of The Mouth Of Babes), or if a band goes one complete year without a visible sign of activity (i.e. Detroit.) As such, our band links have been basically accurate since the re-sorting, but this month, we're going to start moving a few bands to the inactive band links due to, well, inactivity. Three bands (by my count) will have been inactive for a whole year this month, and the first one we'll likely move to the inactive links will be The Issues, the punk/metal project from a few current members of Winkstinger. The last sign of activity from them that I can verify is a song upload to their Facebook page on August 5th of last year, and with nothing since, we'll likely classify them as "inactive" starting tomorrow. They're a very entertaining band though, give them a listen at this location!

The other two bands I have on "inactivity watch" for this month are from Sault Michigan, but we'll approach them as they come. I'm doing this to keep our band links relevant to the current state of the scene, so you guys know exactly which bands are active & alive and which bands are not, but are still worth checking out. That's all for today, but stay tuned tonight or early tomorrow for a HUGE post featuring an awesome LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, big news concerning a local band's next albums (how does SIX new albums sound?), and much more! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Garden of Bedlam), Lion Ride News, The Return Of The Issues, And More!

Good evening everyone, time to update you all on some more news-like things, including a local band's return, even more news from Lion Ride, and a clarification on The Bear's status, but first, a very important LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!!!

(NOTE: This fundraiser concert has been postponed due to an unfortunate loss to the Garden River community. It's postponed out of respect for the family and their wishes to use the community center for the funeral arrangements. Thanks to Buzz's Facebook status for the update! The info on the concert will remain up as it's postponed, not cancelled. Stay tuned to the SMS for updates!)

On SATURDAY NIGHT, Garden of Bedlam will hit The Garden River Community Center in Garden River for a special fundraiser concert! This is to raise funds towards the recording sessions for their first full length LP, so they'd love to see all you fans make it out for this show! Not only is it a Garden of Bedlam concert, but there will also be a spaghetti dinner, door prizes, and raffle draws for prizes from local establishments like The Rad Zone, Forsaken Tattoo Studio, and Wal-Mart! This all starts at 5:00 PM on Saturday, with the bar opening at 7:00 PM, and a dance to follow Garden of Bedlam's set. Saying that you can't get home at the end of the night, or are too drunk to drive, a charter bus back to Sault Ste. Marie will be available at 12:30 AM to head back home on. Tickets are $10 for this very special fundraiser show, and they are available to purchase from all members of the band and Nathalie Belleau, contact any of them on Facebook to inquire about getting a ticket! For full details, visit the Facebook event page!

Now I know Garden River may be far out compared to where you usually go for concerts, and $10 may seem steep, but throw those worries out the window, this is for a good cause! After all, some members of Garden of Bedlam live out there, and the more money that is raised, the less they have to pony up for the recording sessions for their next album! And we all know from hearing new songs live that this will be one hell of a CD, so damnit, support your local musicians and at least try to show up! Plus, you'll get supper, you can enter draws, and you'll help towards the making of this album! As long as I can secure a ride, I'll try and make it to this, every bit helps, and hopefully all you guys will be there too! I'll keep you all posted with any updates I have!

Next up, even more Lion Ride related updates! Guitarist Marky Lion has posted a new blog entry onto MySpace, which updates us all on some things that recently happened, and some exciting things to look out for! It starts with mention of their Kiss Battle loss (Shows how often they post blog entries), before mentioning that Lion Ride will hit the studio on April 26th to record their second album! They'll be at BWC Studios in Toronto with Greg Dawson producing, same as when Lion Ride members recorded the newest Detroit EP! According to Marky, the band's been through a lot and we should "expect a heavier roar." I can't wait! Then it goes into a bit of detail about the out of town shows I mentioned a couple days ago, so if you're in Southern Ontario, Lion Ride are coming to your area soon! Interesting news and stuff to watch out for! Read Marky's full blog entry at this location!

Speaking of things I found on MySpace, it looks like a local metal band is back from inactivity! Remember The Issues? Well, the band have posted two new demo tracks onto their MySpace page, entitled "Lambs To The Slaughter" and "Last Stand"! The first track has a hardcore-ish sound, the vocals are nice and aggressive though they don't kick in til late in the song. Sounds good, though it doesn't really have much of a "punch" to it. "Last Stand" has some nice drumwork and it's pretty catchy, this would go over well at a concert if they booked one! That's about all new from The Issues that I've heard in months, but it's signs of life, and I welcome it1 If you're not aware, The Issues are a punk/hardcore/metal band from Sault Ontario (or "The Sewer" as they affectionately call it.) Known by aliases and not usually revealing their full faces, the band have an good sense of humour, especially from when they often posted fake concert listings for shows in "The Sewer" and elsewhere, at typically fake venues. Good band, it'd be cool to see them at a full real concert one of these days, hopefully there's more from The Issues on the horizon! Check out more from them at this location!

And finally for tonight, a clarification on the demise of 97.9 Classic Rock: The Bear. Going forward from the announcement of it's likely end, I had been under the assumption that The Bear's sister stations in Glen Arbor and Cadillac would be shut down too. After all, reports had said that Northern Star Broadcasting (The Bear's parent company) wanted out of radio. Well, as it turns out, only the Newberry station (WIHC, our Bear station) died. The Bear is still (as best as I can tell) alive in Glen Arbor and Cadillac. A new version of their logo, seen on the lower right of this poster for an upcoming art event in Traverse City, only includes the two surviving Bear stations, with 97.9 now removed. Also, 105.1 out of Cheboygan, which is still listed on the banner image on The Bear's official website, became a mainstream rock station, Real Rock 105.1, late last year. Coincidentally, it's also a sponsor of this art event. Northern Star Broadcasting's website also only lists the Glen Arbor and Cadillac stations as ones it owns, so it looks like Northern Star isn't completely out of radio. They just left the Sault area, and because Sovereign Communications didn't buy 97.9, The Bear is only dead in the U.P. So if you want The Bear, you'll have to take a road trip down to the Lower Peninsula, sad to say. Still crossing my fingers that we'll get a new FM rock station here at some point, someone fill the gap!

Oh, and for what it's worth, Real Rock 105.1 carries a Rock 101-like format, AND it still airs The Bob & Tom Show! So if you're around the Mackinac Bridge area, turn your dials to 105.1! Good music and Bob & Tom, you're all set for that area! Sadly, it's too far for most Sault Ontario signals though.

That's all I have for today, expect lots more in the coming days! Hope this weekend's concerts went well, and buy tickets for the Garden of Bedlam fundraiser show!!!