The Din - "Technically Live" Album Review!!

It's now time for our 154th monthly CD review at The Sault Metal Scene, as we're taking a look at defunct local alternative/hard rock trio The Din's third live album "Technically Live"! Released on December 26th of last year (but only being looked at now due to our 6 month anti-bias buffer period since our last Din review), "Technically Live" is the much belated end result of their CD release party for their debut studio album "Give In To The Din", which took place on August 12th, 2016 at The W.W. Baldwin Auditorium at The Tech. Recorded live at the show by producer Daniel Schmidt of Pretoria Hill Productions, the tracks were remastered by frontman Mike Haggith for this posthumous release five+ years later. Mike is on vocals & bass here alongside guitarist Tammy Hill (ex-Steeletown Girls/Leaked) and drummer/backing vocalist Brandan Glew (ex-Revolution/Re:Born), who all also featured on the studio album itself.

"Technically Live" is on sale for $10 on CD at this link, while you can buy digital copies of it on a "name your price" model on their Bandcamp page, and/or stream it for free there, but consider buying it to support The Din's work, if belatedly! Now, similarly to our review of The Din's prior CD release party live album "Suburban Sendoff", I will not be re-reviewing the original songs here, as I have already done so in prior Din studio album reviews (not to mention what was carried over from Mike's prior projects), but I will compare them as live cuts and to The Din's studio versions. Also, I was in attendance for this show back in 2016, you can read my review of both The Din's & openers Gnaeus' sets at this link. Be advised that Mike did chop out a lot of the between song banter (and an original song outright), but you can hear much of that via Shaw TV's footage of their set.

With 15 songs running for about 58 minutes in length, let's kick this review off with both it's & the concert's opening spoken word track "Leamington, Ontario"! This did not make the cut for "Give In To The Din", but was previously released on their 2016 live acoustic album "The Din Does Laundry". The album-low 97 seconds long piece is the traditional lead-in to the next song, which definitely comes across deeply in the live element with Mike self-deprecating the band's setup. The extra oomph and passion in Mike's dialogue is welcomed, but I've never thought this stood on its own as its own track and should ideally be included as part of the song proper, "75", which was track #5 on the album, so they definitely did not play it in release order. Live, the song is faithful to the studio version aside from the intro being absorbed by "Leamington, Ontario", Brandan's more prominent backing vocals, and the usual concert asides and variances.

"75" remains a solid hard rocker as in its prior studio appearances, and it was a wise choice to lead off with! Next up that night was "Alleyways & Apartments", which is again played pretty faithfully, but the live spontaneity does lead to a livelier and faster rendition that I think suits it! The song proper is a mid-tempo alt-rocker with good melodies, so it's good to see that they're not already tinkering with the then-new songs! Mike does leave in credit to recording the song with Dustin Jones afterwards. Track #4 is the title track of "Give In To The Din", namely "In Search Of The Perfect Moment", and I honestly prefer the live take because I always found Mike's vocal register drop in the chorus suited the song better than in studio, where he sung at the higher register for all of it. The song is otherwise accurate to the studio version, but rougher around the edges as you might expect.

Had this led off the show instead, it also would have worked fine with it's up-tempo energy and forward momentum, and everyone performs well on it! The first of four covers (excepting former Haggith band/Mike solo holdovers) is next, specifically a rendition of The Foo Fighters' classic song "Learn To Fly". Fun to hear The Din's rendition again, but Mike does overdo with the chorus vocals a bit with that echo he does, and I do think the song would benefit from having two guitarists (Tammy's solid as ever but a rhythm track would help). Lively and familiar all the same, and Brandan gets some room to let loose! We return to the studio album tracks next with "Out Of My League", which is again, played very similarly to what you heard on "Give In To The Din", but looser and rawer given the live setting. Not a whole lot new to add, it's an entertaining melodic sing-along track that translates well live, as you might recall from their pre-pandemic gigs!

Next is "Remember", which was the acoustic ballad of sorts for "Give In To The Din", and while it is played similarly on "Technically Live", it has a fuller sound with more instrumental heft, and also includes an extended call-and-response section where Mike encourages fans to sing along with the "set me free" part near the end. I think the campfire vibes of "Remember" worked better in studio, as the expanded fuller version doesn't feel as cohesive, but your mileage may vary. After linking it to The Din's former "Cover of the Month" video series, we next get another outside cover, this time of The Barenaked Ladies' "The Old Apartment", which you may have previously heard in unplugged format on the physical run of "The Din Does Laundry". The Din always had this song down cold in concert, and while not as heavy, Mike's deep vocals and their ear for melodies keep it going!

I won't spend a lot of time on this, but the very next song at the CD release concert was not included on "Technically Live", namely "Of Cars & Criminals", despite previously appearing on Mike's then-newest solo record "The Warinside" and unplugged on "The Din Does Laundry". You can see/hear "Of Cars & Criminals" from that night via Shaw TV's OnStage episode at this link. No point reviewing it when it wasn't on the live album proper, but I don't hear any grievous errors to explain it being cut, so it may just have been a casualty of not being a studio track on any release of "Give In To The Din" & summarily being out of place in hindsight.

As you could see from Shaw TV's footage, "Of Cars & Criminals" bled right into the next song that did make the cut, namely "Flux". The live rendition is played a little faster and does sound a fair amount rougher than in studio, partly because Mike & Brandan's harmony vocals don't mesh the same, but the drum solo bridge is actually better live to me. This song remains a fun & melodic number in any event, and fans were receptive at The Tech! Next is another Foo Fighters cover, this time of "Times Like These", which also previously appeared in unplugged form on the physical release of "The Din Does Laundry". This version is immediately better than how they played it at The Gore Street Cafe, as Mike's singing the song at a normal register, unlike the deeper, slower way he handled it for that show/CD. The freewheeling nature helps make this a fun diversion, but again, rhythm guitar would help add to the melody and layering of this cover.

Another original is next, namely the fan favourite "Potato (Should've Known Better)", which is about identical to the studio version in arrangement and pacing. The big difference is the lack of effects on Mike's vocals for the chorus, and the rawer, straightforward vocals there are actually an improvement to me. Strong up-tempo hard rock number that fans of The Din and Mike's heavier local-era solo work should easily take to live or in studio! The final outside cover played at the release party is next, namely The Beatles' "With A Little Help From My Friends", which also appeared on the physical copies of "The Din Does Laundry". In fact, both of those live albums have the same outside covers, save for City & Colour's "Fragile Bird" instead of "Learn To Fly" on the acoustic one. This Beatles rendition sticks to melodic formula but is more raucous and has more rock-befitting mannerisms and banter throughout.

Again, I don't find that the vocal harmonies are 100% spot on, but this is a fun cover all the same, and takes less liberties than the acoustic version did! Originals comprise the three remaining slots of this album/setlist, starting with "The Rose", a true deep cut that was rarely played live by The Din afterwards. This rendition is rawer and harder-edged, so I do prefer it for energy's sake to the studio version, while the ending is abbreviated. Not my favourite song on "Give In...", but well written! Despite appearances, the abrupt ending is because it led straight into the penultimate song and final from the original studio album release, "A Drive Through The Peninsula", which is an album-long 8+ minutes on both CDs! This meandering song is the biggest surviving remnant of The Din's early-mid 2010s run as an acid jam collective, which works extra well live.

The core song is about the same aside from Mike singing the chorus in a more upbeat way at times, but you do get a false song ending early and a different flavour to the extended instrumental jam in the back half, which gives Tammy lots of room to shine in particular! The last 30 seconds of the track is applause and calls for an encore, leading to the live album & setlist's closer, "Differences", which was not on "Give In..." initially but a demo recording of it came out on last year's "Deluxe Edition". The then-new song had nothing to compare to at the time, but against the studio demo, this is much faster and heavier, almost punk-esque in how its approached! In my review of the deluxe edition, I conceded that maybe dropping "Differences" from "Give In..." was a good idea, but not if they'd recorded it in the same aggressive way that they played it here!

Band shoutouts and plugs break it up in between, so you can't cleanly substitute one for the other, but the much more raucous pacing and fuller live audio quality definitely end the show and live album on a high note, and if you wanted more out of "Differences", here you go!

So, what are my final thoughts on "Technically Live"? I'd say that it's an entertaining release that captures The Din at their local height, and the work Mike did to fix up the recordings for public consumption was worth the time and effort! While there was more editing done compared to their other electric live album "Suburban Sendoff, the final product does feel more like an album intended for retail, so you take the bad with the good. Given that this was a release party for a studio album, you would expect The Din to faithfully play each song, and they did just that with only minor variances for the most part. Mike's vocal & bass work, Tammy's lead guitar shreddery (is that a word?), and Brandan's drumming were all on point, and where there were big changes, they were usually to the song's benefit!

What would I have fixed? Well, Mike & Brandan's vocal harmonies often didn't jive that well, I'd still cram "Leamington, Ontario" & "75" together, I did miss "Of Cars & Criminals", and some of the live performances were a little rough compared to the studio copies, but in the latter case, that comes with the territory, and spontaneity and unpredictability arw something The Din always handled nicely in concert! This is well worth your time for fans of The Din & Mike's extensive solo catalog, so buy or stream "Technically Live" above, and I hope you guys liked this month's CD review! In May 2021, our busy concert review calendar will continue as I look at the new self-titled demo EP from young local punk quartet Vanity (First), so stay tuned for that in the weeks ahead, and for more news and notes on the site next week! Thanks everyone!

Local Metal Video Showcase!!

It feels like too long since we last had a proper news post on the SMS, but with all of the current restrictions, things have been moving at a snail's pace once again, alas. That said, today's video-heavy post has some new stuff to talk about, including a prolific local musician's recent exposure on a big web-series, new solo performance clips, and leading off, some new original songs from an upcoming album, so here's what you should know!

Let's start with the latest from prolific local extreme metal/folk punk solo musician Chase Wigmore, who has resurfaced after a very quiet fall with two new songs for another planned album on New Year's Eve! Uploaded to his YouTube channel, these are entitled "Angry & Jealous God", and as embedded below, the 13+ minutes long "In The Name Of The Master", which are both slated to be on a new album named "Sonic Apocalypse". I won't give my thoughts on the songs yet, pending a possible review if this album actually goes on sale (all since 2020 have just been free streams), but both of these songs are metal tracks with heavily processed harsh vocals. Note that Chase's other active solo project Awokest posted the album title on their Facebook page in November, but the YouTube songs are credited under Chase's own name, and there's obviously a lot of crossover between the two acts.

As for the above image, it was posted to Chase's Facebook page in November, and while I can't confirm if it is the "Sonic Apocalypse" cover art or not, note that it's not used with either YouTube video. It will be interesting to hear how this album (free or paid) shapes out, so hear both of the first two songs above & below, and stay tuned for updates!

Next up, here's some new solo guitar covers from former(?) Jack Spades/Stegadeth guitarist Tiffany Stocco's YouTube channel! Her first uploads in over a year, one features Tiffany tackling The Distillers' "City of Angels" (which won't surprise fans of her old tribute band Coral Fang), but embedded below is her rendition of Joan Jett & The Blackhearts' "I Hate Myself For Loving You". Both featuring Tiffany playing along with the original track in the background, these covers are well done and show solid respect to two well female rock icons, so check out Tiffany's new videos above & below!

Also, here's some new videos from former Sault Michigan progressive metal guitarist Mike Libertoski's YouTube channel! One is a 16 second clip of him shredding on an 8 string guitar (very proficiently at that), but embedded below is this black & white clip from last week of Mike demoing his TC Electronic Ditto Loop guitar pedal. You don't see him actually use it, given how the video is framed, but you can hear it. Effective performance that shows his talent and solid gear, so give it a look below, and follow his current White Lake metal band Bleak Life to hear what he's up to nowadays!

Finally, Sault Ontario/Thompson, Manitoba alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith has gotten some more good exposure in the Australian YouTube series Your Music Live, as hosted by Studio Live Today's Pete Johns, with songs of his surfacing in even more episodes! We did mention episodes #76-78 on the site last month, but Pete reviewed "From The 55th Parallel" (from "Bridges") third to last in episode #79 from December 17th, calling him "a heck of a creator" and the song "very cool indeed". Also, "Take Back The Moon" from 2020's "If Ever Comes The Day" was reviewed in the most recent episode (#82) from last week, which is embedded below. In this case, Mike's segment is near the middle of the episode, so jump to the 58 minute mark or so. Pete liked the song's great mix and even a choice rhyme as it relates to Australian slang, so fans will like how Mike's music is reaching a new audience! Give these a watch below, and also check out the other talented indie musicians from around the world!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more on the site this weekend! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Scarkazm), New Album Updates, And More!!

In what may be our final news post of 2021, I have lots of updates from a trio of December album releases from local bands (one brand new, two with new details), plus a new music video of sorts, but leading off, we have a concert preview/SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT to take stock of! Here's what you should know!

A relatively quiet New Year's concert weekend for heavier bands in the Soo area will still net a couple of gigs in Sault Michigan TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT, as Traverse City metal trio Scarkazm will end 2021 and ring in 2022 at The Rapids Lounge at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino! Apologies for the short notice on SATURDAY'S New Year's Day show, Kewadin never advertised it on their entertainment page for The Rapids Lounge, but Scarkazm confirmed that they are playing twice this weekend as usual via their Facebook event page for the latter. Venue advertising seems to focus on the New Year's Eve party trappings tomorrow, and given that December 31st is a Friday this year, that would normally bode well for partying to send the year out! Alas, we're not in a normal year, so if you do come out tomorrow (or SATURDAY), please use common sense and follow the casino's public health guidelines.

Last seen at The Rapids Lounge in October, Scarkazm's brand of original metal and covers should be a fine way to celebrate the holiday, so don't miss out on the party tomorrow or the more relatively standard concert on SATURDAY! Both shows have no cover charge, 21+ age limits, and 9:00 PM start times. Visit the above links for more details, and here's Scarkazm live!

Next up, we have another new local album release to take note of on the SMS, as defunct Sault Ontario hard rock/power pop trio The Din's third live album was released yesterday on their Bandcamp page! Entitled "Technically Live", this is the almost complete set that The Din played at The W.W. Baldwin Auditorium at The Tech on August 12th, 2016 as part of their release party for their debut studio album "Give In To The Din", and now that the album is out, I can confirm that the audio was a soundboard recording and not taken from Shaw TV's video of the concert. As previously teased in his live-streamed concert last month, the album features all nine songs from the original release of "Give In To The Din", plus the usual live "75" intro "Leamington, Ontario", the then-unreleased "Differences", and four outside covers. The live album does not feature frontman Mike Haggith's solo song "Of Cars & Criminals", which directly preceded "Flux" in the concert proper, but you can watch Shaw TV's footage of it at this link.

No word on why "Of Cars & Criminals" didn't make the cut, but an acoustic version was on their first live CD, 2016's "The Din Does Laundry". On Bandcamp, you can buy "Technically Live" on a "name your price" model (if you so desire, you can download it free), but CD copies will run you $10 on Kunaki, which has been Mike's go-to service for physical albums this year. As I just reviewed the deluxe edition of "Give In..." on the site in October, I can't review another Din album until April at the earliest due to my 6 month anti-bias buffer rule, but a review is in the cards for the second quarter of 2022! Buy or stream "Technically Live" at the above links!

Also, this is more cleaning up the obvious from two other new album releases from this month, as both defunct local punk band Room 206's newly re-released 1994 album "2 Innies & 1 Outie" and St. Ignace, Michigan metalcore quintet Heavy Lies The Crown's full-length self-titled album are available to buy in mp3 format, with expanded ways to hear them on streaming services too! I alluded to these in yesterday's review of the former on the SMS, but I haven't discussed these in a proper post yet. If you're too late to buy a vinyl copy of "2 Innies & 1 Outie" or don't buy/collect vinyl records, you can still hear the remaster on Spotify, YouTube, and Amazon Music, while digital download copies are for sale on Amazon for $9.49. Heavy Lies The Crown's new album was on Spotify from the get-go, and while it's not presently streamable on YouTube, it is also on Amazon for the same price!

Yes, you can stream the H.L.T.C. album on Amazon Music also, but that digital download version on the Amazon store is what unlocks it for our first album review of 2022! I don't historically review free stream-only albums, and if physical copies aren't imminent, there has to be at least the option to pay for downloadable files, rather than exploit a streaming service and hope for a good ad revenue return. As only one of the two has a full YouTube stream, here's Room 206's album opener "My Trip"!

Finally, here's a Christmas surprise from local independent label Blood Shed Productions' YouTube channel, namely a music video for 2012-2019 grindcore duo Rotopsy's fan favourite song "Cops N Moms"! The label's first upload in seven months, the video syncs up the typically (for them) song with assorted clips of Dylan & Tyler performing live at both concerts and jam sessions. Nothing is stated regarding a possible Rotopsy reunion, for the record, and the song proper is from 2014. Not badly edited, and this is definitely one of Rotopsy's more accessible tracks, so fans will wanna give it a watch below!

That's all for today, but barring any more late notice New Year's weekend shows, we'll end the year with our 2021 retrospective post, so look for that tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

A New Interview, A New Music Video, And More!!

Things have been relatively quiet around the SMS the last few days, but we have a new post to check out on this Tuesday morning, and a very video-heavy one at that! Sandwiching a music video from a prominent Sault Michigan group, we have two videos from Sault Ontario of wildly different lengths and purposes, so here's what you should know!

Local/Manitoba alt-hard rock solo musician Mike Haggith was the subject of a 50 minute interview that was live-streamed on YouTube last week! Conducted by Australian musician and internet host Pete Johns (of Studio Live Today and GarageBand Weekly), this is one of multiple videos posted onto Pete's YouTube channel from his "creator series" of extended interviews with musicians about their experiences writing and recording original music, especially if they use the GarageBand software. Entitled "Building Bridges Through Song", the remotely recorded interview features Mike answering questions primarily from Pete, but also some from live-stream viewers. Studio Live Today and Pete's social media sites are bigger than you may expect, with this channel alone having over 100,000 subscribers! The interview, which is very much geared towards musicians and the craft therein, features Mike discussing his musical origins, his sound, ...

...his inspirations for original songs, his day job, his new website, life in Canada/Thompson, the evolution of his recording process, his usage of GarageBand on his iPad, his feelings on having the best gear (or lack thereof), his work in making music & lyric videos, his proudest moment in music (hint: it's involves a band of his), how he got physical copies made for recent albums, and his advice for fellow upstart musicians. Very professionally done interview with nice touches to keep things visually interesting beyond seeing Pete and Mike where they were filming, including the text pop-ups for viewer comments and inset views of Mike's music video, website pages, and more where necessary! However, this interview is definitely something you'll take more away from if you are a musician who uses computer editing programs, rather than just being a casual fan.

This is some great exposure for Mike to an international audience, both via Pete being down under and his own wide subscriber base, and hopefully Mike's interview will lead to more Studio Live Today fans checking his music out! Give the whole thing a watch below, and we'll have more from Mike soon!

Next up, let's take a detour to Michigan, where local classical metal band Theatre of Night posted the second studio original from their upcoming second Christmas album on their YouTube channel on Friday, complete with its own music video (in colour!). This is for the Christmas carol "We Three Kings", and it features the band (including a new bassist to replace the departed Scott Andringa) playing in a dark, smoky room with a stage setup, intercut with a filmed version of the Nativity, source unclear. Assuming this album will be completed and sold, I'll hold comment for now, but if you like hearing Theatre of Night with vocals, you'll definitely wanna check this out! Video is nicely shot too, and Rachel plays to the camera pretty well, so give it a look below, and stay tuned for more on the new album and who the new bassist is!

To close, here's a new video from young Sault Ontario punk band Vanity's YouTube channel, featuring 12 seconds of them covering Green Day's "When I Come Around", albeit from a unique vantage point of an unseen cameraman filming them seemingly undetected during a jam session (2/3rds of the very short runtime is spent walking to and opening up a door to where Vanity are playing). Despite the length, it's a solid performance, so give it a watch/listen below, and look for more from their camp soon!

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

Where Are The New Albums? (December 2021 Update)

For our first post of December 2021, here's this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post, a monthly feature looking at upcoming and at least partially recorded albums from local metal, hard rock, and/or punk artists, in order to spotlight their current public progress and give updates as to when they might go on sale! This month's installment is down one album due to the successful release of Mike Haggith's "Bridges" (as reviewed in our last post before today), but two of our remaining five entries have updates, as noted with their titles in italics. Hopefully more are announced soon, but where are the new albums? Read on below to hopefully find out!

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Chase James Wigmore's new albums

Rumoured Songs: Unknown

Background: Ever the prolific artist and songwriter, local folk punk/extreme metal musician Chase Wigmore posted on his eponymous Facebook page in August 2020 to announce two more distinct acoustic albums and the long-gestating completion of his 33 part rock opera "A Story About A Kid Named Todd". In February & March, Chase released three more free albums to YouTube, including one of those acoustic albums (the black metal-infused "Ruins Of Life"), Awokest's new album "Beyonder", and his classical piano release "The Symphonic Organism". Most recently, Chase hyped up a progressive metal double album entitled "Living Divisions", and while he promised a paid digital release for it, the album was also exclusively posted to YouTube, at least initially.

Current Release Status: Your guess is as good as mine, but remember that Chase is very prolific and varied in his musical interests, and not every album of his has seen a formal paid release, either by finishing it's lifespan as a demo, or by being released online for free. In fact, he hasn't released one of his brand new albums for sale since "One Last Act Of Defiance" on Bandcamp in December 2019, though note that he posted a dozen back catalog albums from various projects of his onto his Bandcamp page this summer, so some of his more recent free albums could follow there. Stay tuned for updates from his camp when they roll in!
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The Din - "Technically Live"

Rumoured Songs: "Leamington, Ontario", "75", "Alleyways & Apartments", "In Search of the Perfect Moment", "Learn To Fly" (Foo Fighters cover), "Out Of My League", "Remember", The Old Apartment" (Barenaked Ladies cover), "Flux", "Times Like These" (Foo Fighters cover), "Potato (Should've Known Better)", "With A Little Help From My Friends" (Beatles cover), "The Rose", "A Drive Through The Peninsula", "Differences"

Background: In a surprise announcement on their Facebook page on August 12th, defunct local hard rock/power pop trio The Din revealed that they would release two posthumous albums later this year, including an expanded deluxe edition of their 2016 debut album "Give In To The Din" (which was released in October) and a live album of that CD's release concert  at The W.W. Baldwin Auditorium at The Tech exactly five years previous to that date. The source concert was filmed by Shaw TV for their OnStage series (sans outside covers), but it's not yet known whether the album will use the Shaw video footage for the audio or if they recorded from the soundboard too. Frontman Mike Haggith showcased a CD copy of "Technically Live" in his Facebook live-streamed concert from last month, which confirmed that the setlist will include four cover songs not aired by Shaw, but not his prior solo song "Of Cars & Criminals", despite also being played that night.

Current Release Status: In said live-stream, Mike and drummer Brandan Glew agreed on December 26th (Boxing Day) as the tentative release date, but given that Mike has physical copies ready to show off on camera, that is a good omen for that date holding! In any event, it's great to see The Din still have some life despite having broken up in 2017 (let alone the pandemic), and look for it's post-Christmas release!
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Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide's fourth album

Rumoured Songs: "Lost & Found", "All Broke Down", "No Control"

Background: Local Celtic punk veterans Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide began recording sessions by October 2018 at Dustin's own Mission Control Studios, as per their Facebook page. In January 2019, the band confirmed that they were indeed recording a fourth studio album (and first since 2012), which will presumably be released through Tidal Records, and will also be their first album with second guitarist Liam Seymour & drummer Chris Johns. While "All Broke Down" was initially cited as the first single in December 2018 (source here), the first two released singles were "Lost & Found" in March 2019 & "No Control" in December 2020. Credits on the above songs' music videos note that Kyle Whittaker at Strange Pumpkin Studios in St. Catharine's is mixing the album, as he has done for multiple Tidal/Mission Control releases. Dustin has posted a handful of solo songs on Tidal Records' YouTube channel in recent months, but it's not publically known whether or not they'll also be used as new Tide originals.

Current Release Status: When The Tide shared a teaser clip for "Lost & Found", they mentioned that the album was "coming soon", which doesn't tell us much, especially as the band has only posted one (now broken) update on Facebook in 2021. This may be partially due to fiddler Sheldon Jaaskelainen's recent out of town commitments, with 3/5ths of The Tide performing as Jonesy Land in recent months. Still, with recording sessions well along the way, and two music videos now public, it's likely that Dustin and company aren't early in the process, but we'll let you know when more comes out on the album!
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Handsome Sandwich - "Lettuce"

Rumoured Songs: "All or Nothing", "Bitter"

Background: After taking a year+ long hiatus during the pandemic, local "no genre" (but functionally alternative/hard rock) band Handsome Sandwich reunited this summer with a new lineup, with returning members Jesse Cook & Johnny Belanger now joined by singer Taylor Emlaw and bassist Mitch Sirie. Via their brand new Facebook page and YouTube channel, the band almost instantly began teasing a debut album (after previously being covers-only in their 2017-2020 run), posting two YouTube videos of them jamming new original songs planned for it. On June 25th, Handsome Sandwich revealed that the album will be titled "Lettuce", it will be recorded at Unsalted Audio with producer Dustin Goodall (pictured with the band and Bill Priddle), and that pre-production started on June 27th.

Current Release Status: No clue, especially given that we have no prior Handsome Sandwich albums to go off of, but the new look band has definitely hit the ground running since resuming activity this summer! Staying busy and creative when proper non-socially distanced concerts can't happen isn't a bad idea either, so stay tuned for updates from Handsome Sandwich's camp!
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The Uncanny Valley's debut album

Rumoured Songs: "The Uncanny Valley", "Glowin'", "Middle Man", “This Love is Psychedelic”, "Stuck In Rotation", “Sweet Like Sugar”

Background: The new classic hard rock band from 2019 Soo's Got Talent winner Adrian Sullivan, fans will have seen original material of theirs right from the start, as The Uncanny Valley debuted their own songs in their first live concert at The Canadian on New Year's Eve 2019. Live concert & jam session videos have followed on their Facebook page featuring their own material as well. After posting a teaser audio clip of "Sweet Like Sugar" in September 2020, they posted the full studio version of "Middle Man" in October, finally confirming there that they are working on their first album, though no other details have followed suit. The album will presumably feature new bassist Brendan Bertrand, who replaced Adam Fahrer in the band earlier this year.

Current Release Status: No clue, which isn't helped by The Uncanny Valley's age and relatively unfamiliar profile for many readers, not to mention the complications of the pandemic and their public hiatus since releasing "Middle Man", though their new lineup have played live a couple of times in the second half of 2021. That said, they are a talented group who seemed to be taking the right steps for the future, and hopefully more updates on The Uncanny Valley's debut album follow when ready! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I hope you guys liked this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post, and this series should return on or around January 2nd, 2022! Our next monthly feature post will likely be this month's Defunct Local Band Profile one week from tomorrow, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site in the coming days! Thanks everyone!

Our Recap Of Mike Haggith's November 2021 Live-Streamed Concert, Including Din Album Updates!!

After way too long of a delay, let's give a proper full-post recap to local/Thompson, Manitoba alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith's newest live-streamed concert, which took place on his Facebook page on Saturday, November 13th! This is another long one, running for over two hours & twenty minutes, so seats back, and tray tables must be in the upright position before takeoff! First thing I'll note is that this live-stream starts with very noisy background hiss through his new microphone, which is very unfortunate, and he gives up on it after 3 minutes. The episode proper is themed around Mike's old local power pop/hard rock band The Din to commemorate the recent release of the deluxe edition of their 2016 debut album "Give In To The Din", from which Mike planned to play the original nine-song album front to back, and he started with "In Search Of The Perfect Moment" (6:50).

After interacting with live viewers in the comment section, Mike next plays "Flux" (14:30), complete with a "drum solo" by Din drummer Brandan Glew in the comments section (how else would he play his solo from the studio track given the setup?). Mike calls up Brandan afterwards for a phone interview during the live-stream, which was a replacement option after attempts to have him pop up in a separate webcam feed didn't work out. Amidst lots of self-deprecation, joking remarks, and irreverence, Mike & Brandan reminisce on The Din's local run, including their original live album "The Din Does Laundry", why "Differences" didn't originally make the cut for "Give In...", and their release party for that album, which you'll be able to hear on the upcoming posthumous live album "Technically Live", and Mike even shows off a physical copy of it on camera, so is there anything to break from that?

While the video is mirrored, he shows the back cover on camera long enough for us to get the full tracklist for the CD, which confirms that every original song played that night will make the cut, except Mike's solo song "Of Cars & Criminals" for unannounced reasons, but you can hear that very performance of it on Shaw TV's OnStage episode of this concert, plus The Din's acoustic version from "The Din Does Laundry". In it's place, four outside covers that Shaw did not include for copyright reasons ("Learn To Fly", "The Old Apartment", "Times Like These", and "With A Little Help From My Friends") will surprisingly make the cut, while the spoken word intro to "75" ("Leamington, Ontario") is included as a separate track to lead off the album. Afterwards, they discuss the fire alarm that went off at the release concert, before Mike plays his next Din song.

The track in question is "Alleyways & Apartments" (37:10), after which Mike & Brandan discuss recording that song at Mission Control Studios, a possible lost take that they could have put on the new deluxe edition CD, and this week's share contest to determine a cover song Mike has to cover next month. His next song is "Out Of My League" (47:30), followed by Mike shouting out The Din's primary studio producer Daniel Schmidt, and then playing "75" (1:01:05) after some lengthy discussion with Brandan about it's lifespan before The Din & "Leamington, Ontario". Kicking off the second half, Brandan helps set up the next song that he wrote, "Remember" (1:14:05), followed by the renamed "Potato (Should've Known Better)" (1:27:25) and "The Rose" (1:30:55) played in short succession. Next, Mike plugs his new album "Bridges" and conducts the draw for the winner of his other test pressing of it.

Ironically, the winner of the test pressing was Obsession frontwoman Valerie Powley, who also won the share contest to pick Mike's mandatory cover during this live-stream (more on that in a bit). After both guys promote Mike's recent and upcoming albums and teased some possible further unreleased content, they gave a tentative release date of December 26th (yes, Boxing Day) for "Technically Live", so keep that date in mind! Brandan signs off before Mike ends the "Give In To The Din" playthrough with an abbreviated version closer "A Drive Through The Peninsula" (2:04:20), and afterwards, Mike moves on to the share contest to pick his mandatory cover for this month, and the aforementioned Valerie Powley had the most engaged share of the October video, so she got to pick Mike's cover. Rather than a joke or troll song, she nominated Bryan Adams's "Cuts Like A Knife" (2:10:45).

I'm not a Bryan Adams fan, but Mike's unplugged take went over well! The last 6 minutes features Mike talking to commenters, promoting his current activities and new/upcoming albums, including his "Morning Jam" series of daily Facebook song recommendations and his still-yet-to-debut YouTube album review series. Entertaining (if very long) watch, especially for fans of The Din and Brandan's usual comment section input from Mike's prior live-streams, so definitely give the whole thing a watch below, and stay tuned for more from Mike when it rolls in! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (The Wyld Stallyns), Surprise New Album Announcements, And More!!

Bit of a surprise new post on this Friday, but if I wanted to cover a new LOCAL CONCERT ALERT before we were a week and under until it occurred, I had to get this out today. Along with this new event, we have the surprise announcement of new albums from an inactive group, and some assorted recent updates, so here's what you should know!

Local funk/hard rock cover quintet The Wyld Stallyns will headline a special fundraiser concert for the Entomica Insectarium at their current homebase at the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Center on Saturday, August 21st! Surprisingly only just announced on Wednesday given the scope and unique aspects of it, this is the first Bushplane Museum concert we've covered on the site since in over two years, but being attached to the Entomica bug lab is a new one for us. Entomica do great work in educating everyone about insects, and hopefully this "Let's 'Mis-Bee-Hive', Come Out & Jive" social will help the cause and entertain a local audience at this late(?) stage of the pandemic! The Wyld Stallyns (plural) will close the night at 11:00 PM as the only hard rock-leaning band on offer, but the lineup does have a mini-Rotaryfest feel to it, plus lots of food/drink vendors and kids entertainment, but who else can you expect next Saturday?

Veteran local entertainer Tim Murphy will do a host segment at 10:30 PM, heavily implied to be doing so in drag as Ms. Beehive (get it, "misbehave"?), which fits along with many of his other live stage and hosting work, so expect some humour here! Classic rock veterans Mustang Heart (who do cover hard rock on occasion) will take the stage at 9:30 PM, while local country musician Jeffrey Wright will hit the stage at 8:30 PM. If you're not familiar with Jeffrey, he only just launched his Facebook page last month, but he is a talented multimedia artist! The opening two acts get extended 90 minute timeslots, including Rotaryfest veterans The Northern Jazz Ensemble at 6:45 PM and the confusingly named Josh Norling Jazz Ensemble (led by the prolific Blues Harvest saxophonist) kicking things off at 5:00 PM. This is an all ages event with admission by a $5 minimum donation.

And as usual with the pandemic, please respect and follow any social distancing and public health guidelines being enforced at the Bushplane Museum/Entomica to ensure everyone's safety. Now that we're finally seeing some multi-band concerts in Sault Ontario at a scale reminiscent of what we saw locally before the pandemic, hopefully the "Let's 'Mis-Bee-Hive', Come Out & Jive" social fundraiser is a hit for all parties, and stay tuned for more in our next weekend concert previews! Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, including on all of the vendors!

Next up, have you been waiting for details on Mike Haggith's next solo album release and new original material? Well, here's a swerve, as his defunct local power pop/hard rock trio The Din have announced a couple of posthumous album releases for later this year! After a series of surprise teasers on Thursday (the fifth anniversary of it's release), the band announced on their Facebook page that they will be re-releasing their debut mainline album "Give In To The Din" in a deluxe edition with eighteen tracks! For reference, the original 2016 release only had nine songs, so are these all rough demos of what made the cut, or are these properly unreleased, perhaps including songs only heard in live recordings? Time will tell! The second album will be called "Technically Live", and it will comprise their full set from the "Give In To The Din" CD release party at the auditorium at The Tech (the former St. Mary's/Lakeway Collegiate site) from August 12th, 2016!

Now, the latter isn't completely unheard material, as Shaw TV filmed The Din's set that night for the premiere episode of their OnStage series, where they played the entire "Give In To The Din" album, plus two non-album tracks (Mike's solo song "Of Cars & Criminals" & their unreleased original "Differences"), but a smattering of outside covers were not included in Shaw's broadcast. Will those be present on "Technically Live", and will the audio be proper soundboard recordings, or come from Shaw's cameras? Follow The Din on Facebook to get further updates as they roll in, and it's great to see Mike, Tammy, and Brandan have some more fuel in the tank!

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

• In their first Facebook page posting in 17 months, Sault Michigan hard rock quartet 415E shared a photo on July 20th of a drumkit & speakers with the caption "Time to jam". Them returning to activity at this stage of the pandemic makes sense, but guitarist Chris Hubbard & bassist Brett Blackwood debuted their very similar new band Rhythm & Brews at The Rapids Lounge earlier that same month, and that band hasn't posted online since July 3rd. Have Rhythm & Brews thrown in the towel already & reverted to the 415E name, or will both bands continue forward? Time will tell, but 415E are back in our active band links!
• Following my decision to drop the planned Defunct Local Band Profile on them earlier this week, I have removed mid-2000s all-female hard rock trio Apocrytha from our inactive band links due to a complete and utter lack of surviving public information on their official online accounts (re: just their MySpace page, whose photos all no longer work). Follow members' later bands like The Freshwater Sirens and The Danger Cats to hear what the ladies have been up to!
• Almost a year & a half after his prior search on the Musicians Wanted Facebook group, local guitarist, singer, and drummer Jayrald Micky is looking to join something and is "dying to jam and get back out there". He did note that he has stage experience, but I'm not familiar with public band work of his. Message him at this link or via his group post from Wednesday for more details!

 

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

Hair Scare Live Concert Videos, Plus Big Changes For KLT!!

Can you believe there's no weekend concert previews today? Still wrapping my head around that one. In today's pandemic-free news post, we're focusing solely on Michigan topics, so let's kick things off by belatedly looking at the final known public videos from The Hair Scare Live at The Dreammakers Theatre at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino on February 22nd! One more YouTube user posted footage from that night onto their channel, namely attendee Carter Barsalou, who filmed two of the bands that night, though if you want footage of Kix's set, there's a fair amount from other attendees online. One of Carter's videos is of headliner Tom Keifer tackling his old band Cinderella's classic song "Shake Me". This is a solid rendition that was well filmed from the floor, though attendee heads can take up a lot of space, and the camera zoom can be somewhat choppy. Nice to see one more video of Tom & crew, so check it out below!



Carter's other video from Kewadin Casino last month was of opening Los Angeles hair metal band Faster Pussycat covering The Supersuckers' "2003 song "Pretty Fucked Up" (they titled it, not me!) A surprisingly modern song to cover at a 1980s hair metal throwback concert, it still seems to have gone over well, and drinking songs never go out of style! Unfortunately, Carter filmed this one from a vertical angle, but in this concert-devoid quarantine we're in, this may be the last Dreammakers Theatre metal show we see for a while, so savour all of the footage we can get! Give it a look below as well!

Finally, I wanted to close today with some news that doesn't directly affect the local FM radio market, but given the reach of the station in question, it is relevant for a number of listeners. Since 1991, Kalkaska-based rock radio station KLT has aired a simulcasted feed in Petoskey at WKLZ 98.9 FM, which did often reach Sault Ste. Marie with a fringe reception, and from my experience, picked up better here than Rock 105 or the modern day Classic Rock: The Bear. Well, in December, then-owners Northern Radio of Michigan agreed to sell WKLZ to the Educational Media Foundation, who plan to turn 98.9 FM into a Northern Michigan affiliate of their contemporary Christian radio network K-Love (keep in mind, the E.U.P. and Sault Ontario already have six Christian stations on FM & AM.) If you are so inclined, click here for details on the WKLZ sale. That said, KLT isn't gone from this part of the state!

Last month, Northern Radio of Michigan (who already failed to close a sale of KLT to Blarney Stone Broadcasting in 2016) struck a deal to sell KLT to regional radio giants Midwestern Broadcasting, complete with new digs at their Traverse City headquarters, staffing changes (Omelette's back on in the mornings!), and a new simulcast signal to replace WKLZ. Now, their main WKLT signal at 97.5 will also broadcast in Boyne City at WBCM on 93.5 FM, which had previously served as a simulcast of Traverse City country station WTCM. The rebroadcaster signal swap is similar to what happened with The Bear's tip-of-the-mitt feed two years ago (moving from 97.7 FM in Cheboygan to 95.3 FM in Tuscarora Township), and like then, the new signal isn't a positive for Soo listeners. Boyne City is slightly south of Petoskey already, but according to Radio-Locator's predicted coverage maps, 93.5 FM has a weaker signal, and it's estimated fringe reception doesn't even make it to De Tour Village, which may complicate things for existing northern fans.

I was able to pull KLT on 93.5 FM this morning, albeit with very staticy reception, so it can be done with the right equipment and location. Honestly, KLT's coverage range is now very comparable to Rock 105 and The Bear in terms of it's E.U.P. reach, but the strongest signal from it's originating tower belongs to Rock 105, so I expect you'll have the best luck of pulling 105.1 FM locally going forward. In any event, KLT is still worth a listen for local fans who want a playlist that's more classic-oriented than Rock 101, so click here for much more on the KLT sale and other recent radio changes downstate, and stay tuned for more news and notes on the site soon! Thanks everyone!

Hair Scare Live Concert Video Showcase (Part 2!!)

We covered the first half of known public videos from The Hair Scare Live last Sunday, so why not wrap things up from that sold-out concert one week later? Most of today's videos will come via videos posted on or shared to The Hair Scare's Facebook group in the days following the event, but we will have a couple from YouTube to share in an upcoming post. Today's footage starts with Troy & Annette Chandler (of the Troy's Trail charity walk), who are ardent Hair Scare fans and combined to share 8 videos from the sold-out Dreammakers Theatre concert at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino on February 22nd onto the group. In descending order, let's start with Troy's video of headliner Tom Keifer and his solo band covering his old group Cinderella's classic song "Shake Me". Despite a vertical camera angle that's often half crowd heads, Tom and crew sound solid and energetic, so hair metal fans will want to check this one out!

Unfortunately, these videos can not be embedded on external websites due to their privacy settings, but don't blame the Chandlers, as the Hair Scare group video they didn't shoot is also blocked from external embedding, so it looks like this is a group setting. Very disappointing, but I'll link everything so you guys can watch them there! Next up, Troy filmed three videos of Maryland hair metal icons Kix playing three songs, including "Don't Close Your Eyes", "Blow My Fuse" (with lots of crowd involvement), and "Cold Blood". These videos were filmed in landscape mode, which improves the quality, but "Blow My Fuse" was unfortunately uploaded sideways. Aside from that, these capture Kix's retro glam metal stylings very well, both heavy and light sounds alike, so give these a look too! The Chandlers' only video of Los Angeles rockers Faster Pussycat was via Annette, who shared a clip of them playing their ballad "House of Pain".

Another vertical upload, you do see more of the stage this time, but based on Chris Paci's videos of their set, I think their upbeat metal songs suit them better. Judge for yourself at the above links! Attendee Mike Nicholson also filmed Faster Pussycat playing "House of Fire" in his own video on the Hair Scare group, which runs for only 40 seconds or so, and has a much sharper angle of the stage, not helped by the vertical angle and slightly rougher recording. The music sounds good while it lasts, and it's nice to have an alternate perspective! Back to Annette's uploads, she prefaced the concert clips with three pre-concert videos, specifically from The Hair Scare's live pre-show episode on Rock 101, which aired at 4:00 PM that day so as to not conflict with the concert. One clip is just of them sitting outside the theatre while host/MC Scott Cook is mingling with fans during a song, but the other two feature Scott interviewing members of the two opening bands.

The first 30-ish second-long video includes Faster Pussycat frontman Taime Downe and guitarist Sam Koltun talking about Sam joining the group last year, while the longer second clip sees them discuss their touring in Wisconsin (nearer to Rock 101's sister stations in the Western U.P.) and their trip to the Soo, but 80 seconds so in, Taime and Sam swap out for Kix frontman Steve Whiteman and bassist Mark Schenker, who talk about their own trip here, how they have maintained their sound, and their favourite newer bands, among other topics. It's not every day when you see public video footage of a Rock 101 broadcast, let alone not in their regular studio, but it's very neat to see Scott interviewing performers that night, and you can tell he's a huge fan of the music, which will be readily apparent to Hair Scare listeners on Saturday nights, of course. Kudos to Annette and Troy for all of the solid video footage during and before this concert, and check out theirs (and Mike's) videos at the above links!

We do have a couple more YouTube videos  to touch on this week, which I can absolutely embed here (as far as I know), so look for those in the coming days, and for other news and notes on the site soon! Thanks everyone!

Hair Scare Live Concert Video Showcase (Part 1!!)

March is here, so let's kick things off with an all-video post from a major recent concert, namely the Hair Scare Live event at The Dreammakers Theatre at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino on February 22nd! This special concert sold out, proving how big of a draw hair metal is locally, and having branding and co-hosting ties with the popular Rock 101 show never hurts in this regard! This was a Saturday nighter, same as the radio show's regular airtime, so Rock 101 and host Scott Cook got around that by broadcasting The Hair Scare at a special early start time of 4:00 PM that day, live from the casino. Smart move, and if you went to the concert, it meant double the glam metal action! There's a lot more to see from both YouTube and the Hair Scare Facebook group in the coming days, but for now, let's take a look at the always prolific Christopher Paci, who posted sixteen videos on his YouTube channel last week, so what can you see here?

Half of Chris' videos come from former Cinderella frontman Tom Keifer's headlining set (his first local appearance in nine years), and they include Tom and his solo band playing his original songs  "It's Not Enough", "Rise", and "Hype", as well as covers of Cinderella's "Somebody Save Me", "Nobody's Fool", and "Gypsy Road", plus a long video featuring two back-to-back Cinderella songs, namely "Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone)" & "Shake Me". Embedded below is Tom's first song, an original named "Touching the Divine". Chris has a good angle of the stage, if a little jittery, but the over-exposed stage lighting can be a drawback at points. Musically, Tom and crew sound good for hair metal fans, and he can still hit high notes pretty well! Fans seemed to like the new originals as well, which is good to see, though of course, bigger Cinderella hits seemed to get the best response. Check out all of Tom & crew's videos above & below!



Next up, Chris filmed Maryland hair metal veterans Kix playing five original songs, including "Midnight Dynamite", "Love Me With Your Top Down", "Don't Close Your Eyes", "Blow My Fuse", and as embedded below, "Girl Money". To my ears, Kix sound the closest to their 1980s sound of the three bands at The Hair Scare Live, and they deliver a strong melodic performance with energy, and what more could you ask for at a hair metal concert? Give Kix's videos a look above & below, and look for more on the site soon!



Finally, Chris got three videos of opening Los Angeles hair metal quintet Faster Pussycat playing "House of Pain", two songs in one video ("Bathroom Wall" & a cover of The Supersuckers' "Pretty Fucked Up"), and as embedded below, their set-opener "Jack the Bastard".  A little harder edged than the bands ahead, Faster Pussycat sound solid for genre fans to help kick things off on the 22nd, so check out these videos above & below as well!



Thanks again to Chris for his great work filming these once again, and while there are much more to come, that's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post next! Thanks everyone!