Fluid 5ive Concert Preview, More Oh!No Festival Fallout, And More News & Notes!!

As promised, we're rounding out our weekend concert previews today with the remaining hard rock event tomorrow that didn't fit in yesterday's post, with some assorted stories and lots of fallout from a big event last month to fill things out. Here's what you should know on this Friday morning!

Local classic/hard rock cover quintet Fluid 5ive are advertised to return to The Rockstar Bar for one night only TOMORROW NIGHT! This will be Fluid 5ive's first show since playing at the same venue in May, and will also mark their first publically announced concert appearance since Smokehouse alum Liam Vaillancourt replaced Joseph Miller on guitar. How will the newly restored Fluid 5ive sound in their return, and what kinds of hard rock covers will accompany their growing profile, perhaps with some keyboard and saxophone input? Be at The Rockstar Bar tomorrow to find out! There is no announced cover charge for this concert, which has an advertised 8:00 PM start time (though I imagine the band proper wouldn't begin until 10:00 PM or so), and you must be 19 or older to attend. There's still no public video footage of Fluid 5ive online that I'm aware of, but this familiar veteran quintet should have a fun night of rock action in store tomorrow, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details!

Next up, it's time to finally close out our fallout from last month's Oh!No concert festival in Leeburn, as the remaining content from it has routinely fell through the cracks in recent weeks. First off, if you recall photos taken at Robbie Adamson's church by Sudbury photographer Mimi Abitbol that were shared by a couple of the touring bands, you'll be glad to know that her full photo album can be seen in full at this link! This is admittedly from her personal account, but the link is intentionally publically viewable, and where else did performers get her pictures from? Though not comprehensive of every act, Mimi got photos of Cross Dog, The Therapists, Lightmares, Beaver Slap, Forest City Aurora, Pointless, Winkstinger, and The Elements, while also capturing lots of shots of the countryside, the attendees, the organ bonfire, and all of the camaraderie therein. If you want lots of colour photos from Oh!No II, definitely give Mimi's a look, she got a ton of great shots!

You can also check out 7 more colour photos via Thunder Bay psychedelic/desert punk quintet The Franquilizers' Facebook page, and while the new photos are somewhat blurry, it's nice to get a few new angles! Finally from Oh!No 2018, let's dive into the remaining videos from Christopher Paci's YouTube channel, as we haven't even touched on his local performer clips from last month! Though Chris missed the majority of the local metal and hard rock bands, his camera was rolling for the last 5 local acts. These include a rare concert video of DJ Seith's new hip hop project Planet Rock (featuring a familiar Rob Base sample), and he and rapper St. James have solid chemistry! Though credited to just Bill Priddle, Chris also filmed his rock trio Pointless playing a song I can't immediately identify, but it doesn't have the drone/noise qualities you might expect, harbouring more of a slow indie rock bent. Surf rock quartet The Dynowaves were filmed in instrumental action on this video, which fits their locally unique genre perfectly, if needing more energy!

FYI, the woman dancing on stage is a now short-haired Louise Lamothe, who joined The Dynowaves after Bizotic broke up, but it appears not all of their songs have a trumpet part yet. Indie rock duo and Vol. successors Mik & Steve (with Pointless' David Peredun on guest drums) were filmed in this clip playing an apparent original, which sounds good for the genre, and Mikaela has some soul to her voice! Lastly, here's 1:44 of punk/metal quintet Jack Spades playing most of their song "Rise", and while not as close to the stage yet, their intense live set comes through well while it lasts, and watch for some bubbles! Give Jack Spades' video a look below, and see more above!



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:

• Defunct local hard rock quartet Eclipse's Facebook page was quietly re-activated in recent months, so they have been restored to our inactive band links! The band quietly dissolved after their Halloween party set last year, preceding this page and some of their related projects' pages being taken down at around the same time. At least Eclipse's page is back, whether or not we ever see them on stage again, so give it a look above!
• I have moved local progressive metal duo Kraken Mara to our inactive band links, as they haven't issued a public update since posting on their Facebook page one year ago on Tuesday, though their Reverbnation page's deletion may have been a prior tell anyway. Kraken Mara had big studio plans and clear talent, but with Brendan moving out of country again earlier this year, that can't help matters. Best of luck to him and Jake in the future!
• The Ten Foot Pole concert on Thursday, October 25th has been moved from The Harp Bar & Grill to the aforementioned Rockstar Bar, as per updates to the Facebook event page on Tuesday. A reason for the relocation wasn't announced, but The Harp is an atypical venue for a show of this style nowadays, given how their post-Madison's concerts have tended to be acoustic. The move shouldn't hurt for the electric punk action on display, so keep the new locale in mind for in three weeks!

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

Oh!No 2018 Video Showcase & Fallout, Part 1!

Here's our first of at least 2 (maybe 3) fallout/video posts from this past Saturday's Oh!No concert festival at Robbie Adamson's old church in nearby Leeburn, Ontario, and believe me, there's a lot to touch on! Co-promoter/AlgomA drummer Jamie Vincent gave a nice long thank you on the Facebook event page to everyone who made this year's festival possible (even Oosik Records were on site), so definitely give that a look! Jamie's write-up confirms a late lineup change, as drone/noise trio Pointless (featuring Oh!No sound engineers Bill Priddle and Dustin Goodall) did play a proper set after all, despite their prior removal from the schedule. Though they were bumped to the evening, they appear to have replaced Mister Tahti's advertised kickoff set, despite his attendance as a vendor on Saturday. Hopefully all's well across the board! Though curiously not part of a SooToday article (yet?), Donna Hopper was on hand for Oh!No II, posting 139 photos from the festival onto her photography Facebook page, so what should you know there?

Without breaking down individual totals (the shots are in order), Donna was on hand for the three final local bands (Planet Rock, Pointless, and The Dynowaves) and every out of town act except closing rapper Garbageface, with each band getting at least 8 or 9 photos. As expected, Donna's photos are superb, and she got a lot of photos of the crowd enjoying the festival and the bands, so if you were there, see if you're featured! Though the lion's share of her photos are in black and white, they contrast well with the ending bonfire shots, which she left in colour, so the old organ burning is preserved as you saw it on Saturday! In the realm of public videos, we are far more blessed than we were for year 1, particularly because Christopher Paci was on hand for the majority of the day's events, filming at least one video of every out of town band and the same local bands that Donna photographed, plus Jack Spades and Mik & Steve. If you missed or want to relive the latter stages of Oh!No II, visit Chris' YouTube channel!

We'll go in descending order for Chris' twenty videos from last week, which capped off with a video of the aforementioned organ bonfire, which is a good watch to see the spectacle in motion, let alone in a rare portrait orientation video of his! Chris' last music clips were three videos of Peterborough doom rapper Garbageface performing his songs "Mouths", "Like The Goddamn Fucking Challenger Explosion" (he titled it, not me!), and "Mental Alchemy". The lighting's not ideal on these clips, but his communal and intense presence comes through as well as it did locally last year, and this looks like a fun way to end the festival! Fellow Peterborough talents Cross Dog preceded him, with the hardcore punk trio filmed twice by Chris, though I admittedly haven't had a lot of luck identifying them based on their studio albums. The stage lighting is dark compared to the surrounding church walls, but you get a nice central view of Cross Dog's ferocious live attack here!

Tracy's vocals are sometimes muffled, but the raucous fan response is clear, and it's great to see Mark and company bring Cross Dog back to the Algoma District after 5 years away! Give Chris' videos of theirs a look at this link and below, and hopefully we're not waiting another 5 years for the next one!

We'll close our first Oh!No fallout post with a video of Sudbury "party violence" quintet The Therapists, and their video is of their original song "Shotgun Anus". Again, they titled it, don't shoot the messenger! If you can't see them well with the lighting, photographer Mimi Abitbol got colour shots of them at the festival, which you can check out on the band's Facebook page. I guarantee this will be the only band you see locally this year featuring both an astronaut and... Jesus Christ?! Also, nice touch by singer Patrick Sauve to wear a vest covered in Shit Liver patches, given that they replaced Shit Liver on the Oh!No bill. If I had to describe The Therapists' sound, I'd go with hardcore punk, but that's definitely a generalization, they have more to say than just that stylistically, and they definitely have a good sense of humour. Again, the audio's somewhat muffled here, but The Therapists look like a fun live band, and hopefully they come out west again in the future, so give Chris' video a look below!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for more Oh!No concert fallout in the coming days, possibly tomorrow, as we'll look at the remaining out of town bands then! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Foam And Telephone & Address), And Archive Concert Photo Notes!!

For our first full news post of the month, we're splitting things down the middle for two specific topics: An easier way to check out some of our earliest concert photos, and first, LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for two summer shows at the same venue, so here's what you should know!

London sludge/punk trio Foam will make their local concert debut on Sunday, June 19th when they headline at The New American Pub! Citing many different genre influences, Foam's grungy, hard hitting, noise assault should get a solid response from fans in two weeks' time, so don't miss out! Local death metal duo Twistory (featuring ex-Pillory bandmates Josh Amendola & Robert Sartini) will make their New A debut as openers on June 19th, and while they still don't have an online page, fans have been receptive to their sets since debuting, so check out their attack as well! At least one more local opening band is to be announced, and we'll let you know when they're confirmed. Promoted by Six, Two, Oh., this 19+ concert will have a $5 cover charge and a 9:00 PM start time. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page, and don't miss the Grave Party show there the very next day!

Next up, local punk/grunge solo project Telephone & Address will also rock The New American Pub this summer, as they'll be opening for Hamilton blues duo Frankie & Jimmy on Wednesday, July 13th! A rare appearance by Chris Shoust's acoustic solo act at The New A, this will be Telephone & Address' first set since their Fortnight Festival appearance at The Gore Street Cafe, and with Chris' talented and experimental originals in full effect, he should set the tone well next month! Frankie & Jimmy's bluesy yet avant garde sound has a lot of creativity going for it, and they should leave a good impression when they make their local debut next month in the second stop of their Western Canada tour! Apparently promoted by Chris, this 19+ show has a listed 8:00 PM start time, but a cover charge isn't given on the Facebook event page (have money on hand just in case.) Fans of acoustic rock and experimental music should like this show, with Telephone & Address handling the punk side of things, so see above for more details!

Finally for today, I wanted to note on here that I've done something that I should have done a long time ago: Move old concert photos from our inactive Facebook group and inactive Photobucket page to our current Facebook page! I've meant to migrate them over for a while, but only got around to doing it yesterday, but to make it a little more special and more in line with our concert photography work since, I fixed the lighting or colour on the photos where needed, and straightened out camera angles where possible. These shows took place between 2007 & 2009, early in the SMS' run, and while I didn't have a camera at each of our earliest shows (November 2008's Wolven Ancestry/Woods of Ypres show is a notable absence), a good number are now on our current Facebook page to check out! One album contains a Bellevue Park Bandshell concert from August 2007 featuring Sindicate, Atrophia, and two other bands, as well as select photos from April 2008's Skid Row Battle of the Bands at The Speak Easy.

Other albums are dedicated to individual shows, and they include the Sandman/As It Stands show at The Canadian Nightclub in June 2008 (my first 19+ concert), the Helix/Stillbroke show there the following month, most bands from July 2008's Rock 2 Roll skatepark fundraiser at The Canadian (headlined by Ministry of Zen), and Gates of Winter's trilogy of Grand Theater shows in late 2008 prior to their ongoing stage hiatus (opening for The Womb in August, Inflict in September, and Fuck the Facts in November.) Those are all from our old Facebook group, while moved over from our Photobucket page, we now have January 2009's Ministry of Zen/Fingerbone concert at the old Coch's Corner, the Stillbroke show at The Verdi Hall that April, most bands from The YMCA Battle of the Bands at The Grand that April, the Cattle Decapitation show at The Oddfellows Hall that same month, May 2009's Who Made Who show at The Canadian, and Fitswitch's month-ending reunion show at Coch's Corner.

The quality of these photos ranges from OK to mediocre, but using a succession of cameras and not being as experienced with photography as I am now, I'm just glad I did get photos at some of them, and it was fun to reflect back on the SMS' early days while cleaning them all up! Check out all of our "new" Facebook concert photos as the above links, and if you can help ID any of the bands or details on the Bellevue Park show from 2007, let us know! That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes in the coming week! Thanks everyone!

Toystock 2014 Fallout, Coverage, And Media!!

As hinted over the past week, here at last is our first fallout post from the third annual Toystock fundraiser concert at The Canadian Nightclub this past Sunday! We'll start with some local news coverage, as SooToday's Donna Hopper was among the attendees at the annual Christmas Cheer benefit, posting this article later that night that both outlined the saga of the Kraft Dinner box and the concert at hand. Donna couldn't stay long though, with her photos split between Lorrie Lynn & The Sinners' set and Toystock attendees during and around Santa Claus' arrival. Solid pictures all around though (and in colour), so give them a look above! If you're looking for photos of more of the day's bands, local photographer Roy Iachetta will have you covered, as his Facebook page features a few dozen shots of every act (including Killabeatz) that you can see at this link and here, but I'll give the caveat that the photos are not in chronological order, and are spread out between the two albums linked above. Great photos though, and kudos to Roy for sticking around all day!

In terms of videos, Sault Online's Mike Caruso was also on hand all day to film each band, just like he does each year at Rotaryfest! Note that he didn't get a video of Killabeatz, but to be fair, his mini-sets weren't advertised in advance. His videos were largely uploaded to his YouTube channel over the past week, starting with this news piece that begins with a brief interview by Mike with Toystock co-promoter/Bone Yard frontman Greg Simpson, so what's discussed there? In the interview portion, Greg talks about the event's theme and purpose, how it began, and the charitable causes behind everything, and while it's short, it's informative! The rest of the video features abbreviated clips of all 10 of from Mike's full performance videos, so if you prefer to watch the full videos, this will admittedly be redundant save for the interview. Give it a look below!



To avoid an extremely long post, we won't feature all of the videos that Mike shot in this post, but we'll outline the first few chronologically so you know what happened in the early hours of Toystock III! I'll note off the bat though that Mike's videos are generally of each band's first song, they all look auto-brightened, and they all use multiple camera angles. They're well edited and capture the bands nicely, but on occasion, the audio quality jumps when the camera angle changes. Mike's videos led off with local country/bluegrass act The Stumpy Coldwater Trio covering The Steeldrivers' "Guitars, Whiskey, Guns, and Knives", Mike Case's Junior All Stars covering Hot Chelle Rae's "Tonight Tonight", Lorrie Lynn & The Sinners playing her original "Swear When I Pray", and first for hard rock videos, The Pixo Control playing their original song "Land of the Moles"! One of the guys' more familiar tracks, it was well performed here, and has a well-aged spirit to it, so give it a look below!



Mike's next Toystock videos were of country veterans Thin Ice covering Jason Aldean's "The Only Way That I Know", as well as his own version of all-female classic rockers Domina covering Pat Benatar's "All Fired Up", but we'll close things for today with his video of local alternative/hard rock cover quartet Lucky 13 covering The Cult's "Wild Flower". Definitely better in quality than our video of this song (and of "All Fired Up" too), though Ed's vocals could be a bit more forceful and loud in the mix. We'll recap Mourning Wood, Mannapool, and Bone Yard's videos, plus extra fallout in an upcoming post, so stay tuned for that, and now, here's Lucky 13 on Sunday!



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

Heart Concert Fallout, Including Videos & Local News Coverage!!

Before our review of last night's Anciients/Havok concert goes up, we have our long awaited post with fallout from Friday night's Heart & Jason Bonham concert at The Essar Centre, including articles and media from local news websites and some new concert video footage, so without any further adieu, here's what you need to know!

In terms of coverage of the show, SooToday's Donna Hopper was in attendance to photograph and review the proceedings on Saturday night, with her article on the show (entitled "Part Zeppelin, all Heart"), which she definitely praised in the write-up! It also confirmed an attendance of around 3,000 people,and detailed much of their setlist, which included numerous originals, a Paul McCartney cover, and the promised Led Zeppelin cover set. As for the photos, there are 18 nice quality shots above (though sadly, none of the audience), and they also provide the interesting sight of Jason Bonham drumming simultaneously with existing Heart drummer Ben Smith (that's something you don't see every day!) Leading from Village Media related coverage of the show, another staffer was filming video footage from the other side of the stage for Local2, and you can view their highlights video at this link, though note that we can't embed videos from their video host on here. So, what lies within this video of the concert?

The 7 minute clip includes assorted segments of Heart playing their songs "Barracuda", "Heartless", and "What About Love", before concluding with clips of them covering Led Zeppelin songs like "The Battle of Evermore" and "Four Sticks". Very nice footage, and you can see how well Ann Wilson's voice has held up over the years on their classic songs, plus the Led Zeppelin material! I did notice "Barracuda" was slowed down a bit, but other than that, all's well if you're a Heart fan! Lastly for SooToday-related Heart fallout, editorial writer Mac Headrick reviewed the show as part of a new opinion piece named "It's Only Rock and Roll" that went up on the site on Sunday. Mac said that he liked the show, but he was more inclined to attend based on the Led Zeppelin tribute aspect of it, which he tied into a comparison of major concerts today in relation to the late 1960s & early 1970s, specifically Led Zeppelin's 1971 Toronto show and the Heart gig this past Friday, both of which he attended. Very interesting read, especially from someone who's lived and experienced both eras, so give that a look at the above links, plus Village Media's other Heart coverage!

We'll close this post with videos that we can embed on the SMS, including two videos of Heart originals by attendee Cami Hubbard, who posted these to her YouTube channel on Monday! Her first hard rock concert uploads since her (sadly now deleted) videos of her son Chris' band 415E's debut show last year, she filmed Heart playing "Heaven" and (as embedded below) "Crazy On You" at the concert, plus a preceding acoustic guitar solo by Nancy Wilson, so how'd these turn out? Cami had a good angle of the stage from the left hand side of the bowl, but the video can be fuzzy when zoomed in, and the lighting distorts many details through this camera. Nice encompassing view of the stage though, and everyone sounds great, so give the "Crazy On You" video a look below, and check out "Heaven" above!



The other new videos are courtesy of attendee hbogie123, who uploaded their videos from the Heart show to their YouTube channel yesterday. Far from the first Essar Centre concert videos shot for this channel (Kiss and various others came first), hbogie123 filmed four incomplete videos from Heart's set, including their cover of Paul McCartney & Wings' "Let Me Roll It" and Heart's own songs "Dreamboat Annie", "What About Love", and (as embedded below) "Even It Up", so how do these videos compare? Far closer to the stage from the floor seating, they got a nice central angle for the Wilson sisters on this camera, and the quality is nice when not impeded by fans walking in front! I just wish hbogie123 had gotten longer clips of the songs. Check out "Even It Up" below, and see much more above!



That's all for now, but hopefully some more videos turn up, including hopefully some more from the Led Zeppelin portion of the night! Keep an eye out, and stay tuned for our Anciients/Havok concert review later today! Thanks everyone!

Heavy Thursday Updates, MySpace Page Restorations, And Much More!!

Today at the SMS, we have some more assorted recent topics to touch on, including some random shorter recent items, new Facebook song postings, and some nice restorations on a popular social networking/band website, but first, here's the latest updates on a recently launched regular concert series!

It looks like plans to run the new Heavy Thursday series at The Roosevelt Hotel on a weekly basis have been scaled back. In a post on the series' Facebook group yesterday, promoter J.D. Pearce remarked that "there just aren't enough local acts" to cover the series weekly with three bands a night, but he does plan to continue Thursday bookings for local acts when available & when out of town bands play on a Thursday at The Rosie, so message him on Facebook or at the above links if you want in on a potential Thursday! The post leads me to think that there won't be a Heavy Thursday this week, but the next announced Thursday nighter at this venue will be on April 3rd with Babysitter and local openers, and we'll let you guys know if any are announced for this month. I did have a fear that this might happen with the new series, as the original Rosie metal nights started to be stretched thinner after they went weekly, with just one of the last 14 Dismembertainment promoted metal nights from July-October 2011 featuring more than two local bands.

Though the weekly convenience is awesome, I think the old series had better local lineup spreads and promotion when it was bi-weekly, so maybe J.D. could try promoting them on a regular bi-weekly or monthly basis? Either way, he's the right man to do a regular series right now in the Soo, and hopefully he's got some great cards up his sleeve for Thursdays at The Rosie as we enter the spring! Stay tuned for updates at the above links!

Next up, some old deleted MySpace media is back on old profiles, so we can restore some bands we deleted from our band links! In the past month, the social networking/music website has began restoring photos and videos to old profiles that don't violate current requirements or terms of use (source here), so if you've missed some MySpace videos and photos that weren't elsewhere, check again, as they're probably back! Biography information, blog postings, page comments, games, and applications remain absent though. With this revelation, a lot of source videos & photos for our back coverage is at access again, and I can add most (but not all) of the bands we deleted from our band links last summer back to the site, as some now have enough videos and/or informative photos to constitute a "relevant" link for our purposes. With that said, I'm pleased to re-welcome 7/47, The Pisstanks, Riot! By Night, Route 69, Savage Roar, Shift, Twisted Manikin, When They Fall, and Wild Fate back to our band links based on their restored content!

The artists that we didn't bring back were Askew'd, Caedis Omnis, Cherubic Red, Ephidel, Steven Flint, Traynwreck, and Wrathborne, as none have videos or effectively captioned photos, so their restoration to the site would depend on MySpace bringing back old profile information. Huge thanks to MySpace employees for bringing back the videos and photos, this makes our work a lot easier, and I know it will benefit the new music-centric focus of the site, so go check your old MySpace links to see what's "new"!

Also today, local "derd rock" project The Issues posted a couple more new/old original songs onto their Facebook page on Saturday! Uploaded as Facebook videos again, one is a re-post from their MySpace page entitled "Candy Store", and it's a slower and more deliberate song based on a true story that has a surprising maturity going for it! While "Puppets on a String (Trixie)" & "Last Stand" have not made it to Facebook yet, another old 2009 demo named "Kick" did that we haven't heard before, and it has a groove metal sound that I believe features ex-singer Alan "Power" Wells from Winkstinger, so the extreme nature should be of note! I still like the variance shown on their material, and they can handle a bunch of different styles effectively, but it remains to be seen how Mullet and Vinyl do on newer material. Check out "Kick" below, and hear more at the above links!



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

• Did you happen to notice a post on As It Stands' Facebook page on January 28th that featured a photo album of a concert from earlier that month that they were listed as playing? Just in case anyone was confused, that show was in Edmonton and featured a hard rock band from there named As It Standz (with a "z"), so chalk that up to a tagging error. The local hardcore As It Stands haven't played live in a year & a half, and have issued no updates in over 4 months, but stay tuned just in case!
• In a note we haven't elaborated on outside of this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post, local punk/metal quintet Jack Spades' debut EP is being produced by AlgomA drummer/Bad Back frontman Jamie Vincent! That should be interesting for sure, so stay tuned for updates! (My source is Jack Spades' Facebook page.)
• Relocated local grindcore trio Shit Liver will finally play live in their new Southern Ontario homebase this Saturday in Niagara Falls as part of a breast cancer fundraiser (details here!) The date joins their Soo return date on May 4th at The Oddfellows Hall, as well as a return to the Touch of Death Festival in Cochrane in June. Nice to see the guys getting back into the live scheme of things again, and stay tuned as we hear more!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news this week, including hopefully something tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

Another Inactive Local Band, New Ashes To Dust Videos, And Much More!!

Six posts in six days, that's a good way to start off the month to me! News has still been slow-ish from many of the usual sources from early 2012, but there is still stuff to cover, and today, that includes a rare vocal cover by a local metal frontman, our first glimpse at a local band's new lineup, and some assorted news and notes, but first, here's notes on another likely inactive local band!

First, I've reluctantly opted to move another band to our inactive Sault Ontario band links, that being local experimental grunge trio SBD. While we're not at a year's inactivity threshold for them yet (their Soundclick page was last visibly updated in December), they haven't played live since the end of 2010, and frontman Dann Pichette's move to Terrace Bay earlier this year leaves a reunion unlikely for the immediate future, especially with the "D" in SBD being out of town. SBD left a quick impact on the local scene, especially at their 2010 peak, which saw them play a few notable local concerts (including the Downtown Showdown battle of the bands & RedD Monkey's first Green Christmas Party), as well as releasing two versions of their only album "Sonic Experiments", before activity slowed to just song postings in 2011, with the band dropping out of some announced concerts. However, I will note that Dann is already working on a new solo project out of Terrace Bay named The Dann Pichette Multi-Track Recording Extravaganza, whose own Soundclick page features some similar original material and at least one older SBD track.

I've been a fan of Dann's local music dating back to No Arrow's peak, so I'm disappointed to see SBD fade out locally. While a lot more experimental and varied than his & bassist Brad Griffith's No Arrow work, there was a lot of heavier & faster material mixed in with SBD's originals, and the guys seemed to have good chemistry & momentum during their live heyday! Hopefully everything works out in Terrace Bay for Dann personally & musically, best of luck to Shane, Brad, and Dann in the future, and stay tuned for more on the members' next local work if I hear it!

Next up, here's the latest videos from local hard rock quartet Ashes To Dust! Uploaded to their YouTube channel yesterday, these are from a recent set at Superior Heights Collegiate & Vocational School, and make up the first video footage of the band with with new second guitarist Liam Yeomans & with frontman Noah Morden on bass. The videos are of Ashes To Dust covering Blink-182's "Up All Night" (sans Liam) and The Foo Fighters' "The Pretender" (with Noah on vocals only), so click each link to check them out! Not the heaviest songs in their repertoire, but from what I've seen, their school sets aren't as heavy as ones elsewhere. They handle both songs well, and Noah seems like a capable bassist on stretches when he's playing it only, but the choruses on "The Pretender" don't fit his vocal style. Liam seems to be a good fit himself on guitar, and he helps fill out their sound, but I have to ask, why were all the extra guys on stage during "Up All Night"? Couldn't the sound have been worked on before A.T.D.'s set? Check out their cover of "The Pretender" below, and stay tuned for more Ashes To Dust news as I hear it!

Also today, here's something we don't share much: A vocal cover by a local metal singer! Yesterday, Valentine's Day Massacre singer Steve Rhodes uploaded this video to his new YouTube channel of him covering the Black Dahila Murder song "Deathmask Divine" (as recorded at his current London homebase), and it sounds pretty good! I'm not a huge BDM fan, but Steve's growling and screaming fit well for the song, though I'd have boosted the original audio more if possible, it's very quiet. We haven't heard much from The Valentine's Day Massacre since they all moved to London for college last month, but it's good to see new activity from any of the members, so check it out below, and if you like what you hear, give Steve some recommendations for new songs to cover!



And finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news stories from the last little while, and as always, these are in alphabetical order by band or site name:

• New Sault Michigan metal band The Eleventh Hour (formerly Angelic Genocide) have posted new band logos and art onto their Facebook page, all of which were done by clean singer Cathy Burgos. Not bad at all, so check them out above, and stay tuned for updates from them hopefully soon!
• In case you guys haven't noticed lately, Facebook recently made new mandatory changes to photo albums on Facebook pages, personal or otherwise, to flow better with the Timeline profile format. This affects any local bands with Facebook pages, and while I'm OK with the changes, I wish the default photo page would be albums and not in direct order of upload (and a video tab would be nice too.) Other than that, it's clean and well integrated, so keep it in mind!
• I recently added two new links to our Other Sault Michigan Metal Links section after we split them from the Sault Ontario links, and those are The Soo Evening News & The St. Ignace News! They are of course the regional newspapers in the Sault Michigan area, and both sporadically cover local metal/hard rock concerts and bands, and like Sault Ontario papers, articles do go up in print & online, so follow each to stay in the loop for local news and maybe some music talk!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for even more news and notes over the next while! Thanks everyone!

More Videos & Fallout From The David Gold Tribute Concerts!!

Anyone looking for some more news, videos, and fallout from this past weekend's David Gold memorial concerts? Look no further than this post, featuring local news coverage of the Ypres Metal Fest, new photos and videos from Saturday night, and tons of video footage from the Toronto memorial show on Thursday, so read on for all of the latest David Gold tributes, and check out this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles on Lorax & Hands of Betrayal in the post below this one!

SooToday's Donna Hopper posted her review & photos from Saturday's Ypres Metal Fest at The Canadian onto the popular local news site yesterday, and you can check the full article out at this location! Entitled "Sault metal-heads go for Gold", the review itself is short & sweet, but she called it a "stirring and, for many, cathartic show of respect", while calling the tributes to late Woods of Ypres frontman David Gold "fiercely intense, and at times appropriately poignant." Nicely summed up, and she got some great photos too! 34 in total, though all are in black & white, which is oddly fitting. Most of the photos (nine in total) are from Kittie's set, with Garden of Bedlam featured in six photos, Novembers Doom & Redundant in four each, The Bear Hunters & Empyrean Plague in three each, and Shit Liver and the ex-Woods of Ypres members in two each, along with the photo on your right of Woods of Ypres' last two lead guitarists (Bryan Belleau & Joel Violette) posing with David's mother & siblings. No photos of either The Valentine's Day Massacre or the three bands that played after Kittie were included, but no worries, as what we got is great, and fingers crossed that we see more quality photos, reviews, and fallout from the Ypres Metal Fest soon, so check the above links to see and read Donna's review & photos!

Next up, are you curious to see videos from the David Gold memorial concert/"Woods V" CD release party at The Annex Wreck Room in Toronto on Thursday? Then good news, as the Woods of Ypres covers from all 11 bands that night are now online in one 77 minute long YouTube video! Compiled and uploaded onto Toronto black metallers Eclipse Eternal's YouTube channel, the video features the six bands who didn't play in the Soo, along with five that did, but they're all definitely worth checking out! In order, the video features Hallows Die covering "The Northern Cold" (though with no guests), Mississauga black metal band Panzerfaust covering "A Meeting Place & Time", Oshawa black metal quartet Pagan Ritual covering "The Shams of Optimism", Eclipse Eternal covering "Crossing the 45th Parallel", Kittie's rendition of "Everything I Touch Turns To Gold (Then To Coal)", Toronto progressive metal act Sixes & Sevens' cover of "You Were The Light", members of Toronto death metal band Bolero covering "Allure of the Earth", Empyrean Plague's version of "Shedding The Deadwood", Ottawa classical duo Musk Ox (with Novembers Doom's Paul Kuhr) playing the Woods song they originally guested on, "You Are Here With Me (In This Sequence Of Dreams)", rounded out by Gypsy Chief Goliath's version of "Suicide Cargoload (Drag That Weight)" & Novembers Doom's cover of "Wet Leather".

Uploaded on Sunday, the video is further from the stage than the local videos we've seen, but the quality's great! The covers we heard locally sound as solid as they did on Saturday, but the Toronto-exclusive black metal bands did great too! I'm particularly intrigued by Sixes & Sevens' cover, which put a Dream Theater-esque spin on the "Woods 4.5" title track. Pretty cool, and unexpected! The Musk Ox/Paul Kuhr collaboration is really touching too, and it'd have been awesome to hear their full set! Most of the songs also feature nice remembrances and comments about David too, so definitely check out the full 77 minute video of the Woods of Ypres covers in Toronto on Thursday below!



Also new from the Toronto concert as of this writing was an additional video of Musk Ox & Paul Kuhr's Woods of Ypres cover via YouTube user ELTONgaryhAZ, so click here to check it out! The audio quality and camera angle is good, but the video is noticeably shakier. Another video posted this morning was of Gypsy Chief Goliath's cover of "Suicide Cargoload" from Toronto by YouTube user saitti1, and though it can be blurry, it's of solid quality, so click here to watch it! While we're on the subject of other new David Gold tribute concert videos, the first two songs from Kittie's set at The Canadian Nightclub on Saturday were posted onto YouTube on Sunday by YouTube user silvervideo! She filmed Kittie playing their songs "I Failed You" and "My Plague", and luckily, she was in the front row and didn't have to contend with the huge crowd on the floor to get a good clear angle of Kittie! The audio can be muffled at parts, but it's a great video showing Kittie at their brutal best, so give it a look below, and if I hear of any more Kittie videos from the mass of fans during their set this past weekend, I'll be sure to have them here!



And finally for now, you remember how I said that I had my fingers crossed that someone shot video of the former Woods of Ypres members & Gypsy Chief Goliath frontman Alex Petrovich's cover of "Shards of Love (Hurt Forever)" on Saturday night? Well, my wish has been granted! A bandmate of Alex's filmed this video and uploaded it to his YouTube channel yesterday, though like the SooToday photos, it's in black & white. It's nicely done as I remember, though the second half's vocal patterns were often different than on the original song. Oddly though, the sounds of the fans on the floor singing along don't sound as loud and prominent as they did live on Saturday. Maybe you had to be there to really feel it, but the video doesn't do it justice. Still, it's awesome to see this video finally, and kudos to the uploader! Now, if only someone has a copy of the Rae Amitay-sung cover of "A Meeting Place & Time", that was really cool and deserves a wider audience. Check out Joel, Rae, Bryan, and Alex's cover of "Shards of Love" below!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for a new news post featuring recent non-David Gold tribute concert stories tomorrow, though we'll have much more from them as well soon too! And also, kudos to everyone for checking out our video of Kittie's Woods of Ypres cover on Saturday night, which already has over 1,000 views on YouTube! Thanks everyone!

Woods Of Ypres Videos & Updates From Their Current Tour!!

Its time to update you Woods of Ypres fans with another post all about our local blackened doom quartet! As their North American "Pain & Piss" continues, I thought it was fitting to devote this post to updates from said tour, including their latest tour vlogs & blogs, a new concert video, and come concert reviews & photos! With that said, let's begin today's post!

Woods of Ypres' two most recent tour vlogs are now online at frontman David Gold's YouTube channel, so here's what you should know! Part 2 details their run through the American midwest, including their pre-drive rehearsal in Philadelphia (the Madden brothers' hometown), the "convenient" site of their dinner/band meeting, some nice highway drive footage, the trials of filling their flat tire on the way to Detroit, the interesting basement of their Chicago venue, an opening band from the under-attended Des Moines, Iowa concert playing an "unexpected" instrument, and the wait to actually see it in action! This second part of the vlog has NO Woods of Ypres concert footage though, so keep that in mind, but it's entertaining (especially the end!) If you want new videos of Woods of Ypres on stage, that's what Part 3 starts with, so hopefully that works! This part also includes some highway footage, the incredible rain in Illinois, an opening band from the Des Moines show playing a song with "odd" lyrics, and some insight into the turnout for that show. Part 2 has more entertaining tour happenings, but Part 3 has more concert footage, so make note of what each one has, but both are worth your time! Check the above links for more, and Part 3, but here's Part 2 of the tour vlog!



Also for new videos is a new clip of the band performing a song, but not all from one show! This is of Woods of Ypres playing their "Woods I" original "The Sea Of Immeasurable Loss", which was absent from their setlists in the "Woods IV" release tour, but is back where it belongs now! The catch here is that they cull the footage from multiple sources, including their concerts in Delaware, New York, and Massachusetts, and the piano performance of the song that Joel Violette played from the first part of this tour vlog! I find the piano clips slow everything down a bit, especially when they're not live on stage, but it's still a quality video that has the band in top form on all three of the included concerts! Check the video out below for some classic Woods of Ypres!



Now onto the print and photo side of things from the tour, and first, remember when bassist Shane Madden had a tour diary on Decibel Magazine's website for their summer tour last year? He's back at it with what's now termed a "tour blog" for this tour, only now on the amusing metal news site Metal Sucks! In what he terms as "The Manifesto", part 1 of his tour blog details the first chunk of the "Pain & Piss" tour, including the long drives, assorted tour happenings and quotes, and more! It's oddly written compared to his diary on Decibel Magazine's site, but it's thoughtfully written at the same time, so give it a look at this location! Also, a review of the band's concert in Worcester, Massachusetts is now online on the metal website Metal Storm, so click here to check it out! Their set only gets brief comments, but it's called "solid" with "discordant yet pleasing" combos, and the reviewer seemed to enjoy them! Also check the review out for remarks on the other bands, including headliners November's Doom!

We'll close with new photos from their shows, and actually, there's 7 photos of Woods of Ypres (well, 3/4s of them) at the Metal Storm review linked above, so check them out! Nice quality, though they are all black and white, and drummer Evan Madden's not included in the photos. Good shots though! If you're craving colour photos, or pictures with Evan visible, I have you covered, as 130 PHOTOS from the Worcester show are now visible at this location! Taken for the metal website Return To The Pit, these photos are great as well, and there's plenty of each band member at many angles, so check them out! That's about all for today, but stay tuned for my review of TONIGHT'S Roosevelt Hotel metal night, and I will see you guys there very soon! Thanks everyone!

More Assorted News & And Updates From Woods Of Ypres!

Hey guys, here's the first of (likely) two posts today, as we cap off another busy month at the SMS! If predictions hold up, we'll finish the las two months with 74 combined posts, which is awesome! Thanks for swinging by over the spring! I do want to note that the second post today, which will debut the March Mayhem tournament semifinals, will probably be late due to prior commitments (vacation plans and such, I doubt I'll be around a computer this afternoon), so there will be an extra few hours of voting today for the quarterfinals. That said, here's the first post of the day, and it's another Woods of Ypres-centric post, including tons of new CD reviews, and some more news, so here's what you should know!

Firstly, this isn't exactly a new "video", but it does give an interesting new interpretation on a Woods of Ypres song! Last year, you may remember when SoundCloud user anomaly88 posted ambient slowed down versions of two "Woods IV" tracks, which you can still check out at this location. Well, I doubt this is the same person, but YouTube user NightShadeGrimm has made their own ambient remix of a "Woods IV" song, and it's now on their YouTube channel to check out! It's a slowed down ambient version of "You Are Here With Me" (In This Sequence Of Dreams", which has been mechanically slowed down by about 350% to produce a 7 minute ambient dirge! If you don't appreciate extremely slow and methodical ambiances, you probably won't appreciate what's been done here, but what NightShadeGrimm made has a haunting effect going for it! This may not be your cup of tea, but check out this new ambient Woods of Ypres track below!



Now to some brand new "Woods IV: The Green Album" reviews! I'm badly behind on these, so let's not waste too much time! Firstly, Daryl Adolph of Metal Temple gave "Woods IV" 9 out of 10 in a March 26th review, meaning "Almost Perfect" on their rating scale! He admitted not being impressed with Woods of Ypres initially a few years ago, but highly praised their doomy bleakness, stating that they're turning metal into "a true artistic form"! As well, Marcel H. from the metal e-zine Lords Of Metal reviewed "W4" earlier this month, opting not to score it. He praised it's sounds and instrumentation, but seemed to base the lack of a score on it's running time of 78 minutes, saying it dragged on and became monotonous. Constructive criticism which has merit, but the lack of a score seems wrong to me. Click here to see his review! On a more postive note, Sam Thor Rhodes from the website SoundShock gave "The Green Album" 7.5/10, calling it a good place to first experience doom metal, while also tying in a lot of the album's themes to war, which is an interesting view! His description of what you'll like if you like this album is amusing itself! Click here to read this review as well!

Continuing with "Woods IV" reviews, former Metal Edge editor Phil Freeman's review of the album is available to read at this location (among other sites.) He compares David Gold's voice to Brad Roberts of The Crash Test Dummies, and though he did have some criticisms, he called the obsessive gloom "hypnotic", recommending the CD for "those who are sick of fun." Interesting viewpoint! As well, "Guido" of the metal blog Dose of Metal reviewed "W4" briefly on April 5th in that week's Spotlight post, giving it 4 skulls out of 5! He admitted being fond of the depressing lyrics, praised the transition in sounds, and said he enjoyed it "as much as you can enjoy songs about suicide & loss." Check the above link for more from that review! Finally for today, Mathias Freiesleben from the German metal site PowerMetal.de gave "W4" 9/10 in this review from April 6th! It's in German, but a quick run through Google Translate will make it somewhat readable. It's positive in tone, but kinda long, especially when the translations come out jumbled like they did for me. Still, check it out and see what you can decipher!

Let's close with some assorted Woods of Ypres stories! I was hoping to include interviews here, but both the ones I was hoping to feature aren't loading for me, though I have more stuff to share! One is a very well written article on Woods of Ypres by the metal website Unseen Underground, which concisely details the band's history, evolution, and sound! Also including some nice interview excerpts from David Gold, check the above links to give it a look! I'll finish with some new Woods of Ypres concert photos from their most recent East Coast tour leg, including this extensive album from Woods of Ypres' set in Worcester, Massachusetts on March 17th by Return To The Pit, and these photos taken by blogger Phil M. Noir from their New York City show the previous day! The Return To The Pit photos are awesome & high in number, but Phil's have merit too even if the quality is lesser! Check the above links for all these, and more!

That's all for now, but stay tuned later today (at some point) for a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT and the newest SMS March Mayhem updates! Thanks everyone!