Hey guys, before I head to Manitoulin Island, I have more assorted news stories to share with you today! Some are backlogged from last weekend's inactivity, while others still are newer! Let us begin with a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!!! (And if you're here hoping for Kewadin Festival recaps and updates, you're out of luck, but I PROMISE to share what I know and have on Sunday!)
Sault Michigan hard rockers Free Refill have announced another upcoming concert, this time at an upcoming battle of the bands! The United Way of the Eastern U.P. are holding a battle of the bands on August 5th at The Strahl Theater at Sault Area High School on August 5th as a fundraiser to raise money for Kids Against Hunger! Free Refill announced their involvement on their MySpace page and Free Refill's Devin Anderson confirmed the news with me by e-mail, so there's one act for the battle! I can't confirm any other bands, but the lineup isn't finalized or complete, so if you're in Sault Michigan, there's still time to enter! Registration is $25, forms are available at the Facebook event page, or e-mail Chrystal Tharp at this location for details! If you're interested in attending, it's at 7:00 PM at the high school on August 5th, with an admission price of $5. Check the above links for more details! Best of luck to Free Refill, I wonder who else will join the bill?
Also, Devin gave me the news that apparently, they're playing at the Kewadin Casino 25th Anniversary Summer Festival at 1:00 PM tomorrow on the second stage! This would mean that they are replacing Electric Motor Fish on the bill for that day. I wonder what happened? No matter, great to see Free Refill again! I'll keep you all posted with more updates!
Next up, I promised you all continued Mike Cliffe coverage after I discussed him in the GarageBand Profile Mini-Series, and I'm making good on that! The veteran local experimental hard rock guitarist has uploaded three new songs onto his Reverbnation page! My favourite is called "Waiting For World Cup", and it's a hard charging instrumental that is seemingly inspired by this year's FIFA World Cup! I can't picture this song fitting with a soccer game, but it's well played and catchy! A bit too much dead air between the chugging riffs, but it's a solid song that would work especially well with backing instruments! Another new song is a collaboration with Utah indie/progressive outfit Higher Than Pope (Mike has a wider reach for his material than you may realize!) It's definitely not the heaviest thing in his catalog, it has sort of a techno influence with bouncy progression to it, and decent vocals! Not bad, though don't expect metal out of it. The other new song is a cover of The Mothers of Invention's "Any Way The Wind Blows", which is a nice experimental carefree cover of the original! Not personally a huge Frank Zappa fan, but Mike breathes some nice energy into this cover! Check out the new songs, and much, much more by clicking here! There's something for everyone in his catalog!
Thirdly today are some intriguing new YouTube uploads from Duane Roy, the Wawa-based author and metalhead who frequently attends major Sault-area concerts! You've likely seen his concert videos, but did you know that he also makes bootleg audio recordings too? Good quality ones, no less! Duane's uploaded ten audio recordings from local shows onto his YouTube channel, and lucky for us, five of them are metal! This includes Tesla performing their song "Gettin' Better" from their show at Kewadin Casino last month, Ace Frehley playing "Snowblind" at Kewadin Casino last fall, Alice Cooper singing "Is It My Body?" from his August 2007 show at Kewadin, The Scorpions performing their classic song "Holiday" at Kewadin in September 2007, and Kiss playing "I Love It Loud" from their Kewadin outdoor show in 2006! I'm really impressed by the audio quality here, I wonder what device he used? Particularly of interest to me are the Alice Cooper and Scorpions songs because we don't see a lot from their local concerts online! Check out the songs (really good quality all around) and more at the above links! I'll embed one here to show you guys, The Scorpions in Sault Ste. Marie playing their song "Holiday"!
And finally, I found a pretty cool discovery on Facebook the other day that I wanted to share with you guys! Former Fitswitch guitarist Kevin Powe, it turns out, is a very talented graphic designer! Of course, if you were in and around Fitswitch and the local music scene in the mid-2000s, this will be no surprise to you, but Kevin recently uploaded his graphic design portfolio onto Facebook to share! I don't typically share Facebook photo albums on personal pages, but there's too much cool stuff on here for me to not share! Kevin's designed logos for bands like Fitswitch, Frightlight, Faithless Sin, Time of Ruin, what is now No Arrow, and classic local bands like Tyrants of Euphoria (remember them?) and others! There's also album artwork and scans for Fitswitch albums, including a few that I've definitely never heard of! Lost in my searches, or never released? If real, I'd love to get my hands on them, hint hint! Also, you'll find assorted other logos, and best of all, loads of concert posters! Everything from classic Fitswitch shows, to Gates of Winter, Lion Ride, No Arrow, Caveman Morrison, Behemoth, The Downfall, and more!
Awesome to see some of these posters again, it's like a flashback to when bands like Coalesce, Soldiers of Misfortune, Hellbound, and much more were in their heydays! The Time of Ruin poster above is really awesome, but check out all of his work, cause Kevin's got HUGE graphic design talent, and I wish he'd get back into making posters and logos, cause his work really stands out! The posters we get nowadays, when we do get them, don't have a lot of graphical flair like Kevin's work did, and I never would have guessed this was all courtesy of a band member! Check out his portfolio at this location, you won't be disappointed! And if anyone out there knows if the Fitswitch album artwork posted there led to any albums besides "The Rust Angel E.P.", let me know!!
That's all for today, hope you guys enjoy your Friday! An auto-post is coming TOMORROW AFTERNOON with the first installment of our Defunct Local Band Profile series, where we discuss AtrophiA! Stay tuned, and I'll be back home on Sunday!
Good afternoon, everyone! I've piled up a few assorted updates to share with everyone today, enough to fill up a post! So let's get started!
Sault Ontario glam/punk band Dirty Virgin have parted ways with drummer Matt Hicks. No official word as to what happened, but still disappointing. As such, Dirty Virgin are looking for a replacement drummer! If you, or someone you know, would be interested in possibly joining Dirty Virgin, message the band at their official Facebook group! Looks like, from the various wanted posts band members have made, that they want someone around their age range (21-25), so keep that in mind. Hopefully there's an interested drummer out there, cause Dirty Virgin are a good band, and it's been too long since we last saw them live in Sault Ste. Marie (they last played together live in July, but the last actual "concert" was in March.) If you're not sure of their sound, check out some concert clips at this location, straight from bassist Lionel Quinton's YouTube channel!
Next up, I found some cool new videos from some local metal concerts of recent years! Typically, I only find videos on YouTube (which I've favourited and you can find at the SMS' YouTube channel!), but I've found some more videos that should be shared! One that I've found is from the Heaven and Hell concert from March 2007, posted by kluasklaus1 on Vimeo! I don't believe he's a local person, but there is one video from the Heaven and Hell show here, and you can check it out at this location!
The rest that I've found come from a man by the online handle of WawaDuane. He's posted videos from various local concerts he's attended in recent years, some metal, some not. On his YouTube channel, he has clips of Megadeth from the Heaven and Hell show and Kiss' July 2007 performance at Kewadin Casino to check out! But he's also uploaded more clips on other sites, and they're very much worth mentioning! His pages on Flickr and Photobucket have even more concert videos from shows like the ones featured on his YouTube account, but also from The Scorpions' concert at Kewadin Casino in September 2007, and Alice Cooper at the same venue from August of that year! Video quality on Duane's clips are better than the audio, but it's great to see videos of these shows! I just wasn't expecting them to be on photo websites! I'll show you guys one of the clips, here's The Scorpions peforming their classic "Big City Nights" right here in the Soo!
And finally, three short news stories, in order by band name!
By The Gods, the solo project from Lorax/Eyes Set Fire/Armistice guitarist Mitch Sirie, have uploaded some brand new tracks to their official MySpace page! This includes a new 12 minute instrumental, "Angel", and a preview of a heavier new song! I especially like the preview, though "Angel" is solid as well! Check them out!
In a MySpace status update, Woods of Ypres have announced that now is your last chance to pre-order "Woods IV: The Green Album", as it begins shipping THIS WEEK! Only pre-orders recieved this week or earlier will come with a second bonus disc! Get full pre-ordering details at this location! Here's hoping my pre-order went through!
More news to come very soon, hopefully I'll have a review of Stillbroke's debut E.P. "Never Enough" in the coming weeks, along with all the local metal news fit to post! Also, notice the new banner image? Ace Frehley at Kewadin Casino on Saturday night! Should be a great show! Stay tuned for more news, everyone!
Sault Michigan hard rockers Free Refill have announced another upcoming concert, this time at an upcoming battle of the bands! The United Way of the Eastern U.P. are holding a battle of the bands on August 5th at The Strahl Theater at Sault Area High School on August 5th as a fundraiser to raise money for Kids Against Hunger! Free Refill announced their involvement on their MySpace page and Free Refill's Devin Anderson confirmed the news with me by e-mail, so there's one act for the battle! I can't confirm any other bands, but the lineup isn't finalized or complete, so if you're in Sault Michigan, there's still time to enter! Registration is $25, forms are available at the Facebook event page, or e-mail Chrystal Tharp at this location for details! If you're interested in attending, it's at 7:00 PM at the high school on August 5th, with an admission price of $5. Check the above links for more details! Best of luck to Free Refill, I wonder who else will join the bill?
Also, Devin gave me the news that apparently, they're playing at the Kewadin Casino 25th Anniversary Summer Festival at 1:00 PM tomorrow on the second stage! This would mean that they are replacing Electric Motor Fish on the bill for that day. I wonder what happened? No matter, great to see Free Refill again! I'll keep you all posted with more updates!
Next up, I promised you all continued Mike Cliffe coverage after I discussed him in the GarageBand Profile Mini-Series, and I'm making good on that! The veteran local experimental hard rock guitarist has uploaded three new songs onto his Reverbnation page! My favourite is called "Waiting For World Cup", and it's a hard charging instrumental that is seemingly inspired by this year's FIFA World Cup! I can't picture this song fitting with a soccer game, but it's well played and catchy! A bit too much dead air between the chugging riffs, but it's a solid song that would work especially well with backing instruments! Another new song is a collaboration with Utah indie/progressive outfit Higher Than Pope (Mike has a wider reach for his material than you may realize!) It's definitely not the heaviest thing in his catalog, it has sort of a techno influence with bouncy progression to it, and decent vocals! Not bad, though don't expect metal out of it. The other new song is a cover of The Mothers of Invention's "Any Way The Wind Blows", which is a nice experimental carefree cover of the original! Not personally a huge Frank Zappa fan, but Mike breathes some nice energy into this cover! Check out the new songs, and much, much more by clicking here! There's something for everyone in his catalog!
Thirdly today are some intriguing new YouTube uploads from Duane Roy, the Wawa-based author and metalhead who frequently attends major Sault-area concerts! You've likely seen his concert videos, but did you know that he also makes bootleg audio recordings too? Good quality ones, no less! Duane's uploaded ten audio recordings from local shows onto his YouTube channel, and lucky for us, five of them are metal! This includes Tesla performing their song "Gettin' Better" from their show at Kewadin Casino last month, Ace Frehley playing "Snowblind" at Kewadin Casino last fall, Alice Cooper singing "Is It My Body?" from his August 2007 show at Kewadin, The Scorpions performing their classic song "Holiday" at Kewadin in September 2007, and Kiss playing "I Love It Loud" from their Kewadin outdoor show in 2006! I'm really impressed by the audio quality here, I wonder what device he used? Particularly of interest to me are the Alice Cooper and Scorpions songs because we don't see a lot from their local concerts online! Check out the songs (really good quality all around) and more at the above links! I'll embed one here to show you guys, The Scorpions in Sault Ste. Marie playing their song "Holiday"!
And finally, I found a pretty cool discovery on Facebook the other day that I wanted to share with you guys! Former Fitswitch guitarist Kevin Powe, it turns out, is a very talented graphic designer! Of course, if you were in and around Fitswitch and the local music scene in the mid-2000s, this will be no surprise to you, but Kevin recently uploaded his graphic design portfolio onto Facebook to share! I don't typically share Facebook photo albums on personal pages, but there's too much cool stuff on here for me to not share! Kevin's designed logos for bands like Fitswitch, Frightlight, Faithless Sin, Time of Ruin, what is now No Arrow, and classic local bands like Tyrants of Euphoria (remember them?) and others! There's also album artwork and scans for Fitswitch albums, including a few that I've definitely never heard of! Lost in my searches, or never released? If real, I'd love to get my hands on them, hint hint! Also, you'll find assorted other logos, and best of all, loads of concert posters! Everything from classic Fitswitch shows, to Gates of Winter, Lion Ride, No Arrow, Caveman Morrison, Behemoth, The Downfall, and more!
Awesome to see some of these posters again, it's like a flashback to when bands like Coalesce, Soldiers of Misfortune, Hellbound, and much more were in their heydays! The Time of Ruin poster above is really awesome, but check out all of his work, cause Kevin's got HUGE graphic design talent, and I wish he'd get back into making posters and logos, cause his work really stands out! The posters we get nowadays, when we do get them, don't have a lot of graphical flair like Kevin's work did, and I never would have guessed this was all courtesy of a band member! Check out his portfolio at this location, you won't be disappointed! And if anyone out there knows if the Fitswitch album artwork posted there led to any albums besides "The Rust Angel E.P.", let me know!!
That's all for today, hope you guys enjoy your Friday! An auto-post is coming TOMORROW AFTERNOON with the first installment of our Defunct Local Band Profile series, where we discuss AtrophiA! Stay tuned, and I'll be back home on Sunday!
