The Return Of Mikey & His Uke, Realignment Project Updates, And A New Live Video!!

Before we begin this Thanksgiving post, I wanted to apologize for missing Bone Yard 225 frontman Greg "The Ranting Rockstar" Simpson's solo acoustic concert at The Dive Gastro Pub on "Think It Over Thursday". I profusely apologize for missing this show in last week's previews, but alas, The Dive only announced that Greg was even playing on 3:26 PM that day, and Greg still doesn't have a solo social media page dedicated to his Ranting Rockstar persona/gigs (even on his personal page, this didn't get an early plug). Hopefully the show was a hit, and I'd have happily covered it had it had even a day's notice! Now, here's some recent updates and videos from a few local acts, including a surprise return!

After a nearly two year long hiatus, Mikey & His Uke are back! We last heard from the local/Toronto punk supergroup project when Mikey Hawdon concluded his "Dookie" 30th anniversary series of Green Day covers in November 2024, but the BookcluB/Dos Amigos frontman surprised us by posting a brand new remotely-filmed cover of The Dandy Warhols' "Bohemian Like You" onto their YouTube channel last week. For their big return, Mikey sure got a stacked lineup of musicians from afar for this cover, including Bangles guitarist Vicki Peterson on vocals, Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen, Redd Kross bassist Steven McDonald, Poison drummer Rikki Rockett, and former Runaways bassist Jackie Fox (a 4 day champion on Jeopardy!) on backing vocals. As usual, Mikey starts off strumming his ukelele before dropping the pretense and playing rhythm guitar. The cover is very sound, and everyone performs well with some unique levels of staging!

The biggest variance here compared to past Mikey & His Uke covers is that three performers actually appear on camera together. Vicki starts off singing alone outside, then Jackie joins her, and when they go inside, Steve has moved from performing in a dark theatre to playing on the couch, where the ladies join him for the back half of the cover. Good stuff with some suitably huge star power, so check out the "Bohemian Like You" cover below, and Mikey & His Uke are back in our active band links! Here's hoping we're not waiting until 2028 for the next video!

Next up, here's the latest from local industrial metal solo act The Realignment Project's Facebook page, so what has Matt Hicks has been up to in the past couple of months? Much of that time was spent working on their second full length album, and in the most substantial teaser video from the sessions in that span, Matt posted this video on August 14th of a new song in progress via his tracking computer. He gave what appear to be lyrics for the song in the description, but what we hear is just the bass and drum tracks for the then-unfinished song. Sounds good to me for what it is! As of August 19th, the album was 75% done, and six days later, Matt posted this amusing video that shows an insight into his alleged "creative process". Vertical or not, I have a feeling that there is some real basis to the scenarios presented! Songwriting for the album was still ongoing on September 2nd, and by the 14th, he was tracking vocals for songs then in progress.

Never one to rest on his laurels, Matt announced on the 18th that he was already working on demos for T.R.P.'s third full-length album, and you can't knock the hustle! Back to album #2, post-production had begun by the 23rd, and five days later, he showed off some expansions to his home studio in this video soundtracked by a Motley Crue song. Last week, Matt confirmed their second album was done, and he confirmed on Friday that the album will be named "Signal Decay", with a release lined up for December. This is on par with the release timeframe for The Realignment Project's first full-length album "Long Cold Winter", which also came out two months after its sessions ended. In the interim, Matt posted this teaser video on Facebook featuring a groove metal-inspired instrumental section of one of the new songs. As usual, I'll hold comment pending our review of the full song and album next year.

Even with the focus on full albums as opposed to EPs in the past year, Matt works at such a busy and prolific pace, and it's good to see him getting "Signal Decay" done and prepped for release already! One assumes this is still through East London Recordings and will turn up on major streaming services, Bandcamp, and via ElasticStage print-on-demand physical copies like before. Give the teaser a watch below, and stay tuned for more soon!

Finally for today, here's a new video discovery from St. Ignace, Michigan metalcore band Heavy Lies The Crown! The band proper has been publically dormant for over three months, but I came across this during our profile on guitarist Jaxon Massaway's YouTube channel, and it presumably slipped my notice because it is a "Short" video (re: vertical, brief, and classed separately than regular videos, though it is embeddable here and isn't temporary like a Facebook "Story"). This comes from their set opening for Born Of Osiris at The Vernors Room at The Crofoot Ballroom in Pontiac in May 2024. It's a borderline drum-cam video (Jaxon was still HLTC's drummer here), but it's not super well positioned for that purpose, and you can only see Nathan, Christian, and Blaze (debuting with the band as a one-off DJ here) from behind, and Brandon isn't in frame at all. It's a promisingly heavy performance, just a poor angle, vertical, and way too short. Still, give it a look below!

That's all for today, but enjoy your Thanksgiving, turkey, and football on the Canadian side of the border, and we'll be back with more news and notes on the SMS later this week! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERS (Fefe Dobson & Greg Simpson), One More Weekend Concert Preview, And New Videos!!

On this Friday night, let's wrap up what might be the last mega busy concert weekend until Halloween season, with a couple of linked unpl... "uncorked" concerts ahead (one a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT), along with another big new show and some newly found live concert videos. With all of that now outlined, here's what you should know!

Just over a week after rocking The Dive, Bone Yard 225 frontman Greg Simpson will return to Beck's Bar for another acoustic matinee concert on SUNDAY! Apologies for the short notice, this show was only announced via Beck's weekly schedule announcement on their Facebook page on Monday, and remember that Greg doesn't have a social media page dedicated to his "Ranting Rockstar" persona/solo act where he can announce shows in advance. SUNDAY'S concert is effectively a re-booking of a briefly advertised show that Greg was supposed to play at Beck's this past Sunday, only to be replaced by Whiskey Hippy for unannounced reasons. Did Beck's err on the date, or did Greg legitimately withdraw/have to reschedule? Regardless, you have another block of "uncorked" southern and hard rock covers in store at the former Vibe Lounge to go along with the weekly euchre tournament!

The Ranting Rockstar will be on stage SUNDAY at 3:00 PM, this is a 19+ concert, and there is no announced cover charge. Visit the above links for more details, we'll have more from Greg this weekend in a bit, and for a preview, here he is live earlier this month!

Next up, local classic/hard rock cover quartet Silent 9 will play their second show of the fall on Friday, September 18th, when they open for Toronto pop rock musician Fefe Dobson in a FREE concert at The Roberta Bondar Pavilion! We'll have Wolf Fest details when someone firmly posts the lineup outside of "Stories". This show takes place during the third annual Vivid Art Festival (successor to the Summer Moon Festival), a yearly celebration of the arts and culture, and while full details are forthcoming, this concert is the main attraction this year. I could have swore that Fefe Dobson had played here previously, but you may recognize her for hit singles like "Bye Bye Boyfriend", "Don't Go (Girls & Boys)", and "Stuttering", and her early material frequently crossed the pop punk line, with many Avril Lavigne comparisons, for better or worse. If you watched MuchMusic frequently in the mid-late 2000s, this will be a huge throwback!

Also playing this date are Toronto pop rock duo Goodnight Sunrise, who you may recognize from last year's Poutine Feast and 2022's Northern Vibe Festival, and it'll be good to see them back in our area! Presented by Kiss 100.5 (a better fit than 104.3 The Fox when you consider her newer material), this is an ALL AGES and FREE concert at 7:00 PM in three weeks, and it should be a fun mix of pop and rock with (hopefully) agreeable temperatures, so visit the above links for more on this concert!

Next up, let's finish up this weekend's concert previews with a show that had lots of advance notice, as the aforementioned Greg Simpson will be joined by Alex & Warren for an "uncorked" concert with their southern/hard rock band Bone Yard 225 TOMORROW NIGHT at The Water Tower Pub! While all of their shows at this Great Northern Road venue are acoustic in spite of electric bands playing there often, this will cap off their summer season schedule ("end of summer" bash in Echo Bay next month acknowledged), and comes three weeks after their Algoma Tree Services gig, and almost three months after their last Water Tower Pub booking. Hopefully things go well for the guys tomorrow before Greg disembarks and heads west for his Beck's matinee on SUNDAY! If you're curious, the band who replaced Soundcheck tonight (due to them jumping to the full Jay's weekend) was North Channel Sound.

Tomorrow's show at The Water Tower Pub is at 8:00 PM with a 19+ age limit and no cover charge, and if you prefer seeing the guys in local nightclubs, this is your last (scheduled) chance for over a month, so don't bypass this one! See above for more details, and for a preview, I found three new videos of your local 225 at The Water Tower Pub in May 2024! These were shared in the comments of this photo on Bone Yard's Facebook page from earlier that day, and they were filmed by attendee Wanda Wanda. Alas, all three are short and (sadly) vertical, but they include the guys covering Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Simple Man" (with Alex on vocals), Pink Floyd's "Young Lust", and as embedded below, their staple cover of Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show's "The Cover Of 'Rolling Stone'", as it is the only video to exceed 46 seconds in length. Orientation and duration aside, these videos all suffer from deep/hazy blue lighting, but this isn't an isolated problem re: videos shot there.

If you have to shoot vertically, this was at least optimal to get all three guys in frame, even if Warren is very much in the background. The audio quality isn't bad from what we hear, and these are well handled covers, but you should expect nothing less from Bone Yard after over 15 years. Give Wanda's videos a watch above and below, and apologies for missing them for this long! Videos explicitly posted in/shared to comments can be tricky!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for this month's YouTube Channel Profile next! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Generations & Greg Simpson) And New Videos!!

Today's post is half devoted to wrapping up our look at a local musician's recent original music output, but first, here's some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, one on SHORT NOTICE!

Despite the cancellation of his planned Beck's Bar matinee gig tomorrow, you can still see Bone Yard 225 frontman Greg "The Ranting Rockstar" Simpson live this weekend, as he will be rocking The Dive Gastro Pub with a solo acoustic concert TOMORROW NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, Greg only announced this gig via his personal Facebook page earlier this evening, and at press time, The Dive has not corroborated this booking. As per Greg's post about the "uncorked" concert TOMORROW, this concert will be indoors in "the naughty corner" rather than on the patio, but regardless, if you like Bone Yard's acoustic concerts and enjoyed Greg's past solo dates (at The Dive or otherwise), keep TOMORROW'S concert in mind for some more entertsaining southern and hard rock covers! The Ranting Rockstar takes the stage at the former Low & Slow TOMORROW at 9:30 PM with a 19+ age limit and no announced cover charge. See above for more details, and here's Greg live earlier this month!

Next up, local classic/hard rock cover quartet Generations will return to Gateway Casino for one night only (as usual there) on Saturday, September 12th! Drummer Tony Santoro newly announced this show on their Facebook group on Monday, and it marks their first show at the downtown casino since early August. Generations have been taking a few weeks off from the stage this month, aside from some fill-in gigs by Pierre and Tony, so if you've missed their, Valerie, and Joe's tried and tested batch of old school covers, go check them out next month (and this fall!) We already knew about their Reggie's Place gigs next weekend, so look for more in next week's round of weekend concert previews. The Gateway Casino show in three weeks is at 8:00 PM with a 19+ age limit and no cover charge. See above for more details, and look for more from Generations on the SMS next week!

Finally for this post, let's conclude our look at Tym Morrison's recent original solo music from his YouTube channel! Six songs (with videos) were left to look at after our all-Tym post, and in this case,  all six songs/videos here reference socio-political issues and opinions that may be seen as divisive, so I won't comment on the bulk of the lyrics or views here (this isn't that kind of site). Also, remember that Tym uses some AI-generated imagery in his videos, but he wrote and sang every part of the actual songs, give or take some spoken word sections from included videos. All uploaded 2-3 weeks ago, the oldest of the six videos is for "The Harvest", referencing the joyous harvests as seen in the Bible, but the video imagery gets heavier than the song, let's say. Musically, it showcases his guitar skills well, but it's deceptively laid back and mid-tempo. Next is "Save The World", which is about his view on vaccines, and that's all I'll say there.

The song itself is livelier and a little heavier with fuller guitar riffs but it can be a tad repetitive structurally. Lyrically, the next song ("The Right Side Of History") is very much on the same track for its messaging and video content. Musically, it is the heaviest of the three songs yet with strong guitar soloing and energetic, melodic singing, so fans of his older metal material will enjoy the instrumental aspect! "Declassified" focuses on Tym's take on political corruption and declassifying government documents, and this song has an Iced Earth vibe to it at points (if that's fair) with well programmed percussion and good melodies. "The Calm Before The Storm", is about child trafficking, and it goes from there. In terms of the music, it's an intense 1980s-inspired metal song that old Hollow and Carbon Black fans will like on that basis.

The last of the six songs is "COVID-19", and you can guess what that song is about from the title. Tym's vocals come off a little like early-1990s Dave Mustaine with how he approaches the verses here, and while not his fastest or most freewheeling original, it gets the job done as a composition. Tym's songwriting and vocal abilities are definitely present across these songs, but all deal with political, social, or public health content that I really don't want to get into here, so just keep that in mind whether you'd be inclined to agree with the viewpoints or not. Give them a listen/watch above if you want, and that's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the SMS this weekend as our backlog shrinks down! Thanks everyone!