RamWagon Updates, New Videos, And Much More!!

We're back with some more news as we close in on Christmas, so what's in store for this Monday morning? New songs by two Sault Ontario solo singer/guitarists, and more assorted notes, but first, here's the latest from one of the most prominent new hard rock bands in Sault Michigan this year!

We'll start today with the latest from Sault Michigan hard rock cover quintet RamWagon, as they've officially added former Monkey's Uncle drummer Ron Suchey to their lineup, replacing Marcel Grengs. As announced on their Facebook page last week, Marcel left RamWagon to "pursue another drumming gig", though I don't know extra details at present, or if this will mean anything concerning his role in The Highest of Fives. Hopefully he's got some big plans though, and we'll hopefully keep you guys posted! Ron should be a good addition for RamWagon though, especially if you're familiar with his band work, and his addition reunites him with fellow Monkey's Uncle alum Nathan Switzer, so there should be pre-existing chemistry! The new lineup is projected to debut in January at the St. Ignace Kewadin Casino if the recent "tentative" schedule posting on their Facebook page is any indication, but given that they admitted it was tentative, we won't call them on here until we get extra confirmation (either from the band or Kewadin's entertainment page.) Stay tuned for updates though!

Next up, here's some new YouTube video uploads from prolific local solo musicians, starting with a new song from Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison's YouTube channel, as uploaded on Friday! Entitled "Tonight" and based around the conceit of holding a party & having a good time, this is a heavy original (if paced slowly) with Tym making grate use of his upper vocal register! I would have paced the song a bit faster and had more varied lyrics, but this is a solid new original, so give it a listen below!



Also, Ashes To Dust guitarist Alex Hemy uploaded a cover of Michael Buble's version of the Mariah Carey song "All I Want For Christmas Is You" onto his YouTube channel on Saturday! Staged far differently than his other solo covers (this time well dressed, and seated beside a Christmas tree), the multiple camera angles and transitions work really well, and he handles this version of the song well, if with slightly less of a Michael Buble sound, but if you're up for some seasonal covers, check out Alex's new video below!

And finally for today, here's three shorter assorted stories from the last little while! As usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist or venue name:

• As they've now hosted two distinct hard rock-featured concerts within the same year (let alone the same month), I've now added LopLops Lounge to our active Sault Ontario concert venue listings! This artistic and higher end lounge (right near The Grand Theater) has suddenly hit the SMS' attention via two recent Danger Cats concerts, and stay tuned soon for videos from one of them!
• Only a third of RedD Monkey will be playing at THIS SATURDAY'S Another Year, Another Santa 2013 concert at The Algonquin Pub, as the Facebook event page now only credits frontman Steve Mozarowski among the performers. A reason for Pete & Joe's absence hasn't been publically announced, and I don't know yet what form Steve's set will take as a result, but I'm curious to find out! Get more details above!
• Dafter, Michigan solo hard rock artist Ken "SweetKenny" Sutton's upcoming new album "Ink!" now has it's official album cover, featuring striking yellow & black "warning sign" stripes, so give it a look at this link, and stay tuned for updates on the CD!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes soon, along with some seasonal surprises! Thanks everyone!

A New Local Band, New Sewer Swampstravaganja Videos, And More!!

Here's another news post for this Monday evening! Our consecutive streak of new posts snapped yesterday due to my computer issues, but the news certainly hasn't quelled, and today, we have news on a possible hard rock connection to the Soo Greyhounds, and new videos from last night's Sewer Swampstravaganja concert, but first, how's about a new local band?

Yes, here's the newest metal project out of Sault Michigan, entitled Galactic Alignment! This is the newest metal project from local solo artist, former Slackjawed Rats frontman, and area guitar instructor Mike Libertoski, and he describes Galactic Alignment as "a jazz influenced technical-death-metal project". Mike only plans to play guitar full time in this band, and is looking for additional members to form a full lineup. 5 songs from a planned 6 song demo are currently posted on the band's Reverbnation page, with plans to add vocals in the near future once a singer is obtained. How do the demos sound? Really good and very technical, with fast riffs, unique time signatures, and solid drum tracks! Reminds me of a few progressive death metal and technical metal bands, but I do find that the songs are overall very similar in style. Maybe with vocals and refinement, things will sound more varied, but these are sill really promising demos, and show Mike Libertoski's talent really well! Check the above links for more on Galactic Alignment, and also become a fan of their new Facebook page!

Next up, here's some more new videos from Saturday night's Sewer Swampstravaganja all ages show at The Oddfellows Hall! Firstly, here's the latest video footage from classic metal quartet Sativa Rose, who of course had bassist Adam Veale's dad John present to film them in action! Videos of their originals from last night were uploaded onto John's YouTube channel yesterday, those of course being "Fall From Grace" and "Bellows Of The Beast"! Better video quality than what I shot, that's for sure, and John got a better angle of the band than I had too! These songs are really well written, and have a fast paced nature that really suits them! Very solid stuff, I can't wait to hear more original material from Sativa Rose! "Fall From Grace" is linked above, but because it's a much longer and (at times) more technical song, I've embedded "Bellows Of The Beast" below, so check it out! You'll be glad you did!



Also for new videos, these were honestly an accidental find as there's nothing indicating they're local videos in the titles, but they sure are! YouTube user Chantal Hopper was in attendance for this show, and posted four videos from it onto her YouTube channel yesterday as well! One is of another band, I'll have that in a future post, but three are from As It Stands' set, which I sadly misserd due to the Lion Ride show, so it's great to see footage of it online! The three videos are a 25 second clip of "Big People, Little Lock City", a 4 minute video of a mosh pit during one of their originals (I can't make out which one due to the audio quality), and the video I'm embedding below! This is an over 9 minute long video and it features their original song "Conception" and (surprisingly enough) what sounds like a cover of Blink-182's "Stay Together For The Kids"! Again, this is bad quality audio, so I could be wrong, but I believe I have the song's name right. The video quality's decent, and you get great angles of the crowd, but the audio is NOT very clear. It's very scratchy and sounds distorted at parts, but still, these are decent videos of their set, and hopefully we can hear more from As It Stands real soon! Check out the new video below, and stay tuned for the other new local metal video from Chantal's channel very soon! (Credit to Amanda Petrocco for the picture)



And finally, here's some news on the Soo Greyhounds' search for a new general manager! With the search to replace Dave Torrie underway, rumours have narrowed onto a few candidates and... what, you don't know why we're talking about hockey on the SMS? Well, here's why. Late last year, you may remember when I mentioned that former Foothill Road bassist Ron Pyette has since moved on to become a Stanley Cup winning scout for the Pittsburgh Penguins (he's also previously worked for Hockey Canada.) Well, wouldn't you know it, Ron is apparently the favourite to become the Greyhounds' new GM! Ron, who is obviously a Sault Ontario native, has been interviewed about the GM position in recent weeks, and an announcement on the new Greyhounds GM could be made as early as this Friday. For more details on the reports, check out recent articles on SooToday, The Sault Star, and Sault This Week. This would be cool to see if the reports have truth! He's a nice guy and he's done some good work as a scout in the hockey world, and I have a hunch he'd do well in the job if he gets it! Of course, check the above links for more, and click here for more on Foothill Road, who were a very entertaining local hard rock band from the mid 1990s! Good bass work too!

That's all for now, but I have more news and notes to come very soon, including tons of Woods of Ypres news, so stay tuned! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Mama Kin & Crush), Plus More Assorted News!!

Hey guys, I have more local metal news and notes today, including more word on what will happen to The Eastgate Hotel, the latest news on Mike Cliffe's solo projects, and whatever happened to a notable local musician, but first, here's two LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS!!!

I apologize for the short notice of these shows, I only first heard about them today in a Facebook e-mail from The Canadian Nightclub's Mary Lou Johnston, which alerted group members to these concerts. In the e-mail, Mary Lou hyped this weekend as a "tribute weekend" featuring two hard rock tribute bands, and it kicks off on Friday night with Toronto-based Aerosmith tribute band Mama Kin! You'll likely recognize them as one of the featured bands at last year's Hempfest, and if memory serves me correctly, they've played in town at least one other time before that. They have a very nice sound that sounds enough like Aerosmith to get fans excited, and they should do good on Friday! I should note that this show is NOT listed on their official website or on any other band pages that I've seen, and this isn't the first time that The Canadian Nightclub has announced a band that didn't personally mention coming, but there must be some truth to this if it's plugged in the e-mail! So take it with a grain of salt just in case, but until I hear otherwise, it's on and listed here! This concert will have a $5 cover, a 10:00 PM start time, and a 19+ age limit. Get more details at the links above, and Aerosmith fans won't wanna miss a thing on Friday!

The other new show mentioned in Mary Lou's e-mail is one I can 100% confirm, and if you're a fan of Bon Jovi, pay attention! Three months after Keep The Faith's last show here, another Toronto-based Bon Jovi tribute band will make their way to Sault Ontario on Saturday night. This time, the tribute band will be Crush: The Best of Bon Jovi, in their first ever show in the Soo, and if you wanna hear some authentic Bon Jovi hits, these guys will do the job well! They hold their own compared to Keep The Faith, and cover enough of their 1980s output to keep you hair metal fans happy! Unlike Mama Kin, Crush DO plug this show on their official Facebook group, and even launched an event page to hype the show! They're not on MySpace, so that likely explains why I never came across this show until today, so my apologies! This concert will take place on Saturday night, and the same house rules apply here as they will on Friday: $5 cover, 10:00 PM start time, 19+ age limit. Check all of the above links for more information! This should be fun also, and though I'm not a huge Bon Jovi fan, these guys will deliver the goods! So there you go, a weekend full of tribute bands at The Canadian, consider hitting one or both!

Next up, it's official: The Eastgate Hotel will be demolished. All remaining offers to purchase the former local metal concert venue have either been voluntarily withdrawn or not accepted by City Council at yesterday's council meeting, and there are now just two options left. Either Algoma Insurance buys the property, demolishes the building, and uses the space for parking (their building's across the road), or the city itself will buy the property, demolish the building, and sell the vacant lot afterwards. City Council did accept Algoma Insurance's offer yesterday, but nothing is 100% final. I imagine this will probably give many of you guys some disappointing emotions, given The Eastgate's history as a concert venue through the mid 2000s. It hosted numerous metal concerts in it's heyday, and it's a shame that I wasn't around to enjoy it then. I never assumed that a buyer would magically pop up to bring it back to it's old state, but it'd have been nice to see it saved in some fashion. When info comes online about the next steps, I'll try and have it for you guys, but for now, check out SooToday's Carol Martin's coverage of this story by clicking here, and here for The Sault Star's article from Elaine Della-Mattia.

Fourth today is some interesting news and updates from two local musicians, those being local solo guitarist Mike Cliffe and noted local drummer Glen Thomas, a veteran of a few metal bands from the scene's past. You may remember checking out "Bad Regime", an original song that Mike and Glen recorded with Swedish singer Karin Beckerus that was released onto Mike's Reverbnation page. Well, Mike and Glen are continuing with their collaborative work, and a new instrumental song by them is now online! Entitled "Dog's Breakfast", it has a nice bouncy progressive feel to it, with some nice liberal use of varying time signatures and tempos! Good stuff, Mike's really shining on guitar here, and Glen's as good as ever on drums! Definitely check it out at the above link to Mike's page on Reverbnation!

Also note that Glen profiled his recent collaborations with Mike on his music blog, The Barking Eye, where he shared some insight into how they got together in this project, and what it takes to make these songs! Despite their local residences and long history in the scene, they've amazingly never met, and the recordings took place from their respective homes through track exchanges! Glen also clarifies that this is a fun project for people to check out only if they want to, but I think it deserves a bit more credit than that! Check out Glen's article on the Mike Cliffe/Glen Thomas project (and more) at this location!

Finally for today, I want you guys to check out this photo on your right. That's Ron Pyette, an amateur scout for the Pittsburgh Penguins, hoisting The Stanley Cup that the Penguins won in 2009. Now I know many of you like hockey, but why am I mentioning an NHL scout on The Sault Metal Scene? Well, maybe it's because Ron was the original bassist for local hard rock quartet Foothill Road! That's right, a notable local hard rock musician went on to work for an NHL team! I never clued in until the other day, when Ron e-mailed me to thank me for posting the Foothill Road albums on YouTube and for covering the band, and I noticed that his e-mail address ended in "@pittsburghpenguins.com". A bit of internet searching later, and yep, it's the same guy! Ron played on all three of Foothill Road's albums, and remained with the band through their 1996 break-up, later being replaced by Nancy Henrech in the successor band Cousin It. It's cool to see how far Ron's went in his career, even if it's not in music! Kudos to him and for the Cup win, and make sure to check out his work with Foothill Road at their MySpace page and at The Sault Metal Scene's YouTube channel!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more very soon, including our next poll, weekend concert previews, and much more! Thanks everyone!