LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (The Devil's Sons, The Space Wizards, And Double Down), Plus More Recent Notes!!

Let's address some more LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS in this Sunday afternoon post, along with some shorter recent updates, so here's what you should know in chronological order!

Montreal psychedelic hard rock trio The Space Wizards will make their local debut on Wednesday, September 4th when they headline at Soo Blaster! Described as "another short notice show" by promoter Mikhal Muto when plugging it on the Sault Live Music Gig Announcements Facebook group yesterday (even though I only term "short/late notice" here as within the week prior), The Space Wizards are a relatively newer band who have been making increasing waves on tour with their fittingly spacey brand of classic-inspired hard rock, and hopefully they draw a solid crowd in two+ weeks despite the work/school night scheduling! Two local bands will open here, including hard rock quintet HeadFirst (fresh off of their Hilton Beach gig last night) and a mystery group named The Spaceship Opening. I have absolutely no information on them, but if we hear anything tangible in advance of the 4th, we will let you know!

Online ticket sales have not yet begun for this show (when they do, you'll find them here), but advance tickets will run for $15, and you may be able to get them at the venue or perhaps through Mikhal/the local openers. The door charge will jump to $20 for this 19+ concert, which begins at 9:00 PM. Add another intriguing concert with a touring headliner onto the increasingly busy slate for Mikhal's burgeoning slate of promoted concerts, so visit the above links for more details on this event!

Next up, local classic/hard rock cover quartets Double Down and Generations will be among the performers at The Tarentorus Sports Club at 56 Avery Road on Friday, September 20th for a special benefit concert! Entitled "Band Together To Rock Cancer", this event is in support of Mustang Heart guitarist Lorenzo Fabbri, who has been battling cancer throughout this year. I believe this is partially why the classic rock veterans haven't played live in 2024, even missing Rotaryfest, On this night, four bands familiar to the weekend nightclub cover circuit will join forces for the cause, with Double Down and Generations being joined by classic rock veterans RPM, while Mustang Heart will play their first show of the year as headliners, with Lorenzo's Stages bandmate Sam Spadafora and former Double Down guitarist Adam King joining them as special guests for the night

Taking place deep in the west end at the curling rink/multi-purpose hall off of Allens Side Road, tickets are $20 to attend and $15 if you can't come in person but want to support Lorenzo and family in his fight (either way, there will be a door prize). A cash bar and refreshments will also be on hand. Having lost my mother to cancer, I absolutely sympathize with what Lorenzo is going through right now, and hopefully there's a great turnout for this stacked lineup of talented veteran cover rock bands next month in his honour! Visit Mustang Heart's Facebook page for more details, and apologies again to Marci for how things were initially worded.

Also newly announced is another Mikhal Muto-promoted joint, as on Monday, September 30th, Edmonton punk/hard rock quintet The Devil's Sons will make their local debut when they headline at... The Whisky Barrel? Yes, the 113 Gore Street nightclub is going to try hosting a non-acoustic touring band next month, and Mikhal did acknowledge the venue's generosity in having this show there when plugging it on his personal Facebook page, so we'll have to see how things go! It's been too long since there was a venue on Gore that hosted bands this heavy, though in The Devil's Sons' case, they have an interesting hybrid sound that calls to mind a heavier Dropkick Murphys, so if you're up for some rollicking punk n' roll, don't bypass this show next month! While the show is not publically advertised on social media yet that I've seen, The Devil's Sons did confirm it in this poster on their Facebook page for their upcoming tour.

Local metal trio The BAG (don't miss them at Soo Blaster tonight!) will open in their Whisky Barrel debut, and hopefully their hard hitting originals and covers get things off on the right foot! This 19+ show will reportedly have FREE admission and an 8:00 PM start time, though we do await full public advertising for this show locally beyond personal Facebook accounts. It'll be interesting to see how this concert goes, so visit the above links for more on what to expect at The Whisky Barrel next month!

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:

 

• Sault Michigan hard/blues rock quartet Project 906 did indeed welcome back guest hand drummer Brian Duford for their three most recent gigs in Pickford, Cedarville, and Hessel, as per photos shared on their Facebook page after each concert. As best as I can tell, Brian has not quietly joined 906 full time, as he's not in this band photo promoting their Islander Bar show from August 10th, but the band's "#summerof906" is now over unless they have new bookings that weren't in the batch of concerts announced back in May. We'll let you know when we hear more!
• In their newest Facebook post ("Stories" aside), Sault Ontario classic/hard rock cover quartet Silent 9 posted a "Reel" last week of them covering Kenny Loggins' "Footloose" at a private Bass Lake event. As a "Reel", I can't embed it here, but it looks like there was a strong turnout under the tent to dance the night away! The band just played at Winnie's Hometown Festival in White River last night (you may have seen a Facebook "Story" or two from there), and they'll make their public return to the local nightclub circuit in three weeks, so look for more from them in the fall!
  
• I have moved local acoustic hard rock band Tattoos & Scars back to our inactive band links. Featuring Fort Creek bandmates Justin Grayson, Shane Biron, and Bill Brouillard, they had announced their return from a 4+ year hiatus on their Facebook page on August 8th of last year, but nothing has publically followed since. Fort Creek have been busy behind the scenes since they lost their rhythm section last fall, so it's entirely possible that Tattoos & Scars are just on the shelf until they get their sister band back up and running at early 2020s levels, but follow them on social media to see what Fort Creek are currently up to!
   

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

The Northwest/Gambit Concert Preview, Plus New Videos!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas (and Hanukkah) and got in lots of family time and presents underneath all of this snow! With the year winding down, here's a new news post on this Tuesday morning, and it mostly includes new videos, but leading off, here's a mid-week concert preview to check out, assuming you can swing it on a work night!

Local indie/punk quintet The Northwest will headline a special charity concert TOMORROW NIGHT at LopLops Lounge! Ending their eventful 2022 in style, this will be The Northwest's first LopLops appearance since the pandemic began, their first local gig since the Marianas Trench show in September, and their first show period since their Guerrilla Grooves date in North Bay in October. This should be a fine way for the guys to cap off the year with their increasing profile & strong originals, so don't miss out tomorrow night! Revived and renamed local punk supergroup The Gambit (née The Sick Sons) will play their first concert since their LopLops dates in December 2019, preceding a three year pandemic hiatus, name change, and reportedly adding a fifth band member (identity yet unclear). It's great to see The Sick Sons Gambit back at long last, and remember that drummer Clint Wilson is a Northwest alum himself!

Reportedly taking place during renovations at the Queen Street East nightclub, tomorrow's 19+ show has an 8:00 PM start time, and admission is $20 at the door or via advance tickets purchased through the Facebook event page. However, The Northwest are holding a charity drive for St. Vincent's Place tomorrow (something they hope to reprise next year), where non-perishable food or hygiene product donations will get you either $15 door entry or $5 back (LopLops will match each donation for $5 apiece). Wonderful idea, as even after Christmas, many are still needing help from the community! Visit the above links for more on this holiday season concert, and here's The Northwest live!

Next up, let's dive into some videos, starting with the latest Mikey & His Uke cover video, as uploaded to the project's YouTube channel on December 16th! It's not a seasonal song or a carol, but that's just as well given that I'm only covering it now. This time, Mikey and crew are tackling Rancid's "Daly City Train", with Mikey himself on guitar and (at first) ukelele once again. Vocals are split four ways here, courtesy of Slackers frontman Vic Ruggerio (also on accordion), Buck-O-Nine singer Jon Pebsworth, Bedouin Soundclash frontman Jay Malinowski, and Mighty Mighty Bosstones singer/ex-Jimmy Kimmel Live announcer Dicky Barrett. Jon's Buck-O-Nine bandmate Andy Plafoot handles bass, while ex-Goldfinger drummer Darren Pfieffer (a former bandmate of Mikey's in The Dookies) rounds out the lineup here. I'm not a massive Rancid fan, but everyone acquits themselves well on this rendition!

Having four different singers spreads the wealth and lets some strong names in on the action, and they each do Tim justice in their own ways, and the instrumental performers more than hold their own (even the accordion isn't out of place!) Solid stuff as usual, so if you love punk rock, don't bypass Mikey & His Uke's latest effort below!

Also today, here's a new videos from prolific local folk punk/extreme metal musician Chase Wigmore's Facebook page on Friday! This video sees him covering "No Children" by folk band The Mountain Goats, which Chase noted that he has covered in a video before, but allegedly didn't know what he was doing originally. The grainy monochrome quality of the video proper is at least livened up by rapidly changing backgrounds laid overtop of the original footage that seem to feature outdoor forest settings and animal skeletons in a living state. I'm not familiar with "No Children", but Chase gives it an ominous building quality with good vocal passion, so do check it out below, and more is coming soon!

Finally, here's a new acoustic version of a song from new local pop punk solo project Forever Will Be's YouTube channel two weeks ago! This is the unplugged version of "Downsides" from their debut album "Dead & Dishonest", and while I'll hold full comment on this song pending our review of the album (currently pencilled in for February), it translated well enough to this format, though the peppy, upbeat nature suits a full plugged-in band more. Check it out below, and stay tuned for more from Forever Will Be!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews on the site next! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Soundcheck & The Northwest), Ravencore Updates, And More!!

With some big news that I didn't want to fall by the wayside being announced today, I'm postponing this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post to tomorrow so we can dive into the news and notes, including a new music video, early details on a new local hard rock band, and leading off, LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for the holidays!

Local indie punk quintet The Northwest will end the year with a headlining concert at LopLops Lounge on Wednesday, December 28th! The post-Christmas gig will be their first live appearance since their North Bay show in October, their first on a local stage since opening for Marianas Trench in September, and their first at LopLops since the pandemic began, so in the latter case, this is definitely a long time coming, and their upbeat indie and punk originals should fit right in there at month's end! The opening band is The Gambit, who are actually the newly renamed and revived Sick Sons, the 2019-2020 punk supergroup whose last public act before last month was to cancel a planned headlining gig at LopLops in March 2020 (we all know why), though they never fully disbanded during their pandemic hiatus. A reason for their name change wasn't announced, but it is great to see The Sick Sons Gambit back after well over 2½ years!

It is worth noting that LopLops are undergoing some type of redesign, including a garage door installed on the front of the Queen Street East building and some extra interior changes, as per this SaultOnline article, though I have no clue how far along things will be come the 28th. If this is a sign towards LopLops re-opening on a pre-pandemic basis, then fantastic! This 8:00 PM and 19+ event has $20 advance tickets that you can buy through Eventbrite at the official Facebook event page (no word on in-person availability yet). The Wednesday timing isn't ideal, but if you the next day off still for the holidays, don't miss out on the punk action on the 28th, and see above for more details!

Next up, local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck will return to Shooters Downstairs Lounge on Saturday, December 31st as their New Year's Eve party headliners! While not yet confirmed by the venue's Facebook page (which hasn't even plugged Soundcheck's shows there this weekend), the band announced the event via this Facebook event page. 2022 is profoundly lucky to have New Year's Eve proper on a Saturday night, so Soundcheck's hard rocking array of covers should attract a sizeable audience of revelers sending out 2021 the right way! No word yet on what kind of seasonal frills to expect for the occasion, but there should be something extra beyond the band & a New Year's countdown. As such, while a cover charge hasn't been announced yet, bring cash just in case. This is obviously a 19+ event and it starts at 8:00 PM. Visit the above links for more details!

Also today, let's answer an unanswered question from our Toystock coverage: Who are Ravencore? They still don't have an online band page that I'm aware of, but they actually got spotlighted on SooToday via this article by Darren Taylor this morning, confirming some of my suspicions from personal Facebook posts. As best as I can gather, their lineup features former Suicide Kings vocalist Mike Gaetano and guitarist Mitch Sirie (last seen together when that band reunited for the 2018 Rotaryfest) alongside ex-Gnaeus bassist Matt Fronzi and former Brutally Fatal/Revolution frontman Austin McCrae on drums. The article on SooToday actually primarily deals in Mike and his 10 year old son Gavin, who joined Ravencore on stage for their live debut at The Grand Gardens North last week, taking over on drums for a cover of Weezer's "Beverly Hills" that reportedly was well received!

A couple of brief, brief videos of Ravencore's set are on personal Facebook accounts, one seeing them cover Good Charlotte's "Lifestyles Of The Rich & Famous", but neither are publically shared. The article notes that Ravencore formed shortly before band applications for Toystock began, they have been working on original songs, and that they hope to record a debut album in the spring. The article has some minor mistakes (i.e. it wasn't 11 bands in 11 hours at Toystock), but it's a nice article especially for the sake of Mike's family, and hopefully we hear more from Ravencore ahead, especially if(?) they launch an online page of some kind!

Finally for today, here's a brand new video from Sault Michigan classical metal band Theatre of Night's YouTube channel! A rendition of "Silent Night", fans will have first heard it instrumentally on their debut album "Christmas Night" over a decade ago, but this new version features singer Rachel Mender and has recently been uploaded to streaming services like YouTube Music as "Silent Night V2". The video features Rachel, guitarist Steve Giles, and keyboardist Craig Harrison (no Luke or Erik) performing individually in close, low-lit monochrome, though the performances are sometimes layered over each other or included in inset windows. This is quite a good rendition of this classic carol if you like symphonic metal, and Rachel's voice is a nice fit as you'd expect, and with cool visuals to boot, so check it out for yourselves below!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post on the site next, guaranteed! Thanks everyone!

Local Metal Video Showcase!!

All video post on this Tuesday evening, including some recent concert videos from both the Soo and out of town, along with an apology for a recent missed show, but let's lead off with videos from two different bands at the same major venue in recent weeks!

Let's start with lots of videos from The Glorious Sons' headlining concert at The Sault Community Theatre Centre last month, and while I've only found YouTube videos from one source, they're thankfully from Christopher Paci's awesome YouTube channel, so you know he got a solid fill of content! Whether he's a big fan of theirs or whether he was adjusting for the lack of an opening band, I can't say, but Chris filmed eleven videos of the Kingston roots/hard rock quintet at the former Kiwanis Theatre, including (in performance order) "I Want Ya", "Mama", "My Poor Heart", "One Church Town",  this song that he couldn't title (the lyrics don't match anything on Google so it may be new), "Lean On Me Love", "Young King", "S.O.S. (Sawed Off Shotgun)", "Everything Is Alright", "Kill The Lights", and as embedded below, their set-closer "Amigo", which is typically extended to 8+ minutes in live appearances like this.

Chris was not in the closest seating section, but he had a good central view of the stage and fans ahead of him, which especially works to the benefit of "Amigo" with all of the clapping in time with the song mid-way through! The audio on heavier stretches can be scratchy, which is nothing new, but softer parts come through nicely, and fans of The Glorious Sons should take to all of these videos, which you can watch above & below!

Next up, here's the latest from young local hard rock quartet Raincourt, and first off, I do have to apologize for missing a concert of theirs, as they played a publically attendable concert at the aforementioned Sault Community Theatre Centre this past Wednesday! The humongous venue is explained by it being on the campus of White Pines Collegiate & Vocational School (which Raincourt's members currently attend), and White Pines has been hosting a Coffee House concert series there during the 2021-22 school year, with last week's being their semester-closing event, including a show for students only at 1:00 PM and a show open to everyone at 7:00 PM. The main attractions were The White Pines Concert Band and their Mustang Sally-esque school group The Pine Tones (who feature all of the guys from Raincourt), but other student artists performed, including Raincourt proper. I profusely apologize for missing this show, hopefully it was a huge hit!

If you missed this event, never fear, as a video of Raincourt (sans face masks!) covering The Beatles' "Come Together" was uploaded to their Facebook page on Friday. Solid cover from a nice and close angle, with Elijah showing some nice grit & swagger with his vocals and stage presence, and everyone has a strong handle on this classic rock favourite! Give it a watch below, and apologies again for missing the White Pines Coffee House show last week on here!

Also, local/Barrie punk/metal quintet Spades GT have launched their official YouTube channel and have posted three performance videos there to check out! Two were also uploaded to their Facebook page, including the jam session clip of "Crossroads" (albeit still with audio from the Jack Spades studio version dubbed overtop) and a brand new video from their set opening Anvil at The Rockpile in Toronto last month, where they played "Cenobites", a song that debuted with Jack Spades but isn't on an album yet. Embedded below is their full 28 minute return set in April opening for Random Killing at The Queens Nightclub in Barrie, and yes, it has the live original audio! In order, you'll see J.D., the Daniels, and Tyler play "They Live", "Rise", "Cenobites", "Crossroads", "Fear Corps", "Motorwolf", "Negative Headspace", a cover of Turbonegro's "All My Friends Are Dead", and finally, their own song "To The Left".

Note that in the song introductions, J.D. first calls the band "Jack Spades" still (old habits die hard?), but later acknowledges that they used to be "Jack Spades SSM" before relocating. This set will be very familiar for local Jack Spades fans, as nothing here wasn't seen in their local sets in 2019, only the venue and two new faces will be different. Great video quality with multiple camera angles and a nice crooked angle of the stage and front row fans, and Daniel Rodbard & Tyler Reiner compliment J.D. & Daniel nicely here and on the new Toronto clip! More videos are teased to be forthcoming, but give all of these a look above & below!

Finally, here are three videos of new local acoustic hard rock duo Short & Sweet's opening set for Parabol at Soo Blaster this past weekend! Uploaded to frontman Cory Murchison's YouTube channel yesterday, these feature him and bandmate/fellow Skeyes of Seven alum Kyle Sweet covering Breaking Benjamin's "Forget It", Slipknot's "Vermilion Pt. 2", and as embedded below, a stripped down version of his old Sense of Truth song "Anything At All". Despite some jittery camera work, the videos are nicely angled and capture Cory and Kyle in a good element with some strong vocal & guitar work, and they'd definitely be added to our links if they got a Facebook page or something! Give these a watch above & below!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

The Glorious Sons & $onny Vybe$ Charity Show Concert Previews!!

Before we get into this weekend's remaining concert previews, just a heads up that Fort Creek will have opening acts for both of their shows at Reggie's Place this weekend, as per their Facebook page yesterday, including Short & Sweet/ex-Sense of Truth frontman Cory Murchison (credited as "Cory Daniel") tonight and the ever-prolific Tym Morrison tomorrow, fresh off of his Trading Post show tonight. Nice to see Fort Creek spread the wealth some more, and hopefully Cory & Tym set thing off on the right foot this weekend! Now, here's what you should know about two more big concerts this weekend, both with late updates to their lineups!

Local alternative hard rock/punk quartet Handsome Sandwich and newly confirmed alt-punk quintet These Magnificent Tentacles will be among the performers at the second mixed-genre benefit concert for late Manitoulin Island rapper/artist Zachary "$onny Vybe$" Cywink TOMORROW at The Rockstar Bar! A sequel to a very similar event held in October of last year that also featured Handsome Sandwich (who thankfully have been promoting tomorrow's show, unlike then), this event is again in memory of Zach, a talented MC and painter who lost a battle with drug addiction last summer, and while not from the Soo, had performed here and developed strong friendships in the local hip-hop community. Similarly to October, proceeds from tomorrow's concert will be split up between the Ontario Addictions Treatment Centre's local clinic and the Ngwaagan Gamig Recovery Centre in Wikwemikong on Manitoulin Island, so your attendance will help some extremely worthy causes!

While organizers Sooicide Records had published the performer lineup last year, I have not found anything to that effect from the same source this year, but this will be Handsome Sandwich's first gig in three weeks, and they definitely won't be alone in the non-rap contingent this year, as These Magnificent Tentacles confirmed their involvement on their Facebook page on May 18th. This will be the Tentacles' second show since publically confirming their expansion to a quintet on May 15th, in advance of their gig at a Dryer Fire open house last week, which I do profusely apologize for forgetting to include in last week's concert previews. We did cover it when first announced, at least, but hopefully they and The Dynowaves rocked the temp venue on Wilson Street to the maximum! As such, Brent Ellis & Steve Edwards appear to now be permanently focusing on guitar, with Brent still on lead vocals.

Now joining Brent & Steve in the band are Handsome Sandwich bassist Mitch Sirie (also of Exploring Detritus and, if still active, The Bear Hunters), as well as former Gnaeus bandmates Brad Irwin on the synthesizer and Brendan Garlick (nice to see him back in town) on drums. Fans of the original Gnaeus lineup should be amped for this half reunion alone, and hopefully this diverse quintet will prove a hit with the mostly rap crowd tomorrow at The Rockstar Bar, as I hope they did at Dryer Fire on the 21st (apologies again!) While a full performer lineup isn't out, Mitch (who's pulling double duty tomorrow) confirmed on his personal Facebook page on the 18th that rappers Conika, Ronin705, Bold Noize, and Fvksxvad would all be performing (only Conika was absent in October), while Comniption is credited as a co-host on the Facebook event page. Stay tuned to relevant sources for late lineup details!

The (second) $onny Vybe$ Charity Show has a 19+ age limit, 9:00 PM start time, and $8 advance tickets, which can be bought at this link for $8 (the door price jumps to $10), and Sooicide Records are asking attendees to also bring canned good donations for the St. Vincent Place Food Bank, though this isn't a mandatory appendage to admission fees. This should be a fun concert for some great causes, and if you like rap and rock, you'll get a nice sampling of both from this diverse lineup that will hopefully do Zachary and his family proud once again! Visit the above links for current & continuing details, and here's Handsome Sandwich jamming last year!

Finally for known hard rock concerts this weekend, let's head to The Sault Community Theatre Centre at White Pines Collegiate & Vocational School, as Kingston southern hard rock quintet The Glorious Sons will be headlining there THIS SUNDAY NIGHT! The third stop on The Glorious Sons' Unfinished Business Tour, this will be the two time Rock Album of the Year Juno Award winners' first headlining show of this scope in the Soo, though they reportedly played a local gig early in their run that I couldn't effectively source. As featured in this new Sault Star article by Brian Kelly featuring interview remarks by frontman Brett Emmons, The Sons will be familiar for their radio rock hits like "S.O.S. (Sawed Off Shotgun)", "Panic Attack", "Kill The Lights", and their newest "Hold Steady", but don't flee to Setlist.fm looking for their verbatim set on Sunday. They've been making a point of changing things up show-to-show for the past six years, so deep cuts are a given, which should please diehard fans of theirs!

Despite earlier advertising hinting that she'd only be missing the US dates on this tour, it has since been confirmed that Kitchener rock musician J.J. Wilde will not be playing on the May stops, the Soo included, and no replacement openers have been announced. Co-presented by LopLops Lounge, Music Tourism, and Lisa Zed Productions, this show is sponsored by local top 40/adult contemporary station Kiss 100.5 and Sudbury's 92.7 Rock, who have been running advertising and contests for listeners both there and on the online stream. Hopefully efforts to strike a meaningful Soo connection on the former Q92 are paying off! This all ages concert has an 8:00 PM start time, and while tickets run for $85 in the floor seating or $79 in the balcony, definitely consider coming out for this one to encourage more name Canadian rock bands to stop in the Soo rather than keep on driving!

Luckily, tickets have been selling well for The Glorious Sons, with nothing left closer than the ninth row, which is a great sign, especially at these prices! Get yours at this link or at the in-person Station Mall box office. While I admittedly trend to slightly more aggressive rock bands, The Glorious Sons do have their heavy moments with their soulful, rootsy brand of original Canadian rock, and their ample familiar radio hits (including in the States) should provide lots of familiarity tomorrow, even despite their ever changing set! Visit the official Facebook event page and the above links for more details, and here's The Glorious Sons live!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and this month's YouTube Channel Profile in the coming days! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (The Glorious Sons), Plus New Videos!!

This post is coming a day later than I anticipated due to replacing my primary computer, but we're back in business with that big LOCAL CONCERT ALERT from last week for our Sault Ontario readers! Some new videos from a local solo artist cap things off, so here's what you should know!

Juno Award-nominated Kingston southern hard rock quintet The Glorious Sons will headline at The Sault Community Theatre Centre on Sunday, May 29th! While they have reportedly played in the Soo before (I admittedly could not source the date), this will definitely be The Sons' first show of this scope here, having become one of the most prominent domestic rock bands since the mid-2010s with hits like "S.O.S. "Sawed Off Shotgun" and "Panic Attack", which hit #1 on both the Canadian and American mainstream rock charts! With two gold albums and a lot of familiar songs if you listen to Canadian rock radio (more on that in a bit), fans of The Glorious Sons won't wanna miss their heartland-inspired brand of original rock & roll in under three months' time! While not listed with local advertising, Kitchener rock musician J.J. Wilde is opening throughout The Glorious Sons' Unfinished Business Tour this year, so I'd expect her here too.

Making her own local debut, J.J. won the Juno for Rock Album of the Year in 2021, and her skilled & diverse brand of rock music should be a fine compliment on this tour! A co-presentation of LopLops Lounge, Music Tourism, and Lisa Zed Productions, this is the second hard rock show at the former Kiwanis Theatre of May 2022, following the long delayed Queen: It's A Kinda Magic tribute one week prior. Intriguingly, the radio sponsors of this show (both owned by Rogers Media) are Kiss 100.5 (Sault Ontario's top 40/adult contemporary station) and Sudbury's 92.7 Rock (née Q92). One doesn't play The Glorious Sons from what I can tell, and the other isn't in the Soo, though 92.7 Rock is our closest Canadian FM rock station. From what I understand, this is largely an effort to try and expand Q92's audience via promoting a regional concert, and note that The Glorious Sons are not playing in Sudbury on this tour.

Given that Rock 101 in Sault Michigan doesn't really play The Glorious Sons from what I've heard, this would at least be a way to get the word out to a Northern Ontario audience via a station that does play them regularly, and seeing as Rogers owns two stations in the Soo, could this be an early toe in the water towards seeing if a Sault Ontario rock station on FM is viable as a third? I have tuned in to 92.7 Rock on trips a fair amount (it starts to come in around Spanish if you're driving east on Highway 17), and it is an entertaining station with lots of Canadian content and specialty programming that would definitely be a welcome local compliment! The same playlist and branding is used simultaneously for Timmins and North Bay's rock stations, FYI. If you want to tune in to 92.7 Rock without driving 3-4 hours east, 92.7 Rock has free streams on their website and TuneIn.

As for the concert proper, it has an 8:00 PM start time, no age limit, and tickets (on sale here) run for either $85 in the floor seating or $79 in the balcony. This may seem expensive, but support this show if you can to encourage more major touring bands to come here, as Canadian rock bands without substantial American radio airplay are sadly not guaranteed draws in this market. As of right now, face masks and proof of double vaccination are required to attend, but check back with the SCTC's website in case this changes for better or for worse. Visit the official Facebook event page and the above links for more details on what should be a huge concert!

Finally for today, here's some new videos from prolific local extreme metal/folk punk musician Chase Wigmore's Facebook page in the past week! None are tied to one of his various teased albums in the works (at least, not by name), but it's good to see that he has been keeping busy so far in March! One video from the 1st features Chase showcasing what happens when a single piano note is played in increasingly fast succession, to the point where it reaches "ludicrous speed" (unfortunately, Chase didn't let us see the note get to plaid!) On Friday, he uploaded a solo cover of Leadbelly's "Where Did You Sleep Last Night", which definitely owes more to the original than the Nirvana cover. The low framerate webcam quality and dark lighting are unfortunate, but Chase gives this blues standard a nice grit! Embedded below is a new original song-in-progress named "The Chaotic Rite", so what should you know here?

A twelve minute+ video uploaded in black & white, this is an acoustic performance, but rather than hewing to his folk punk work, Chase is in full-on finger style, fast-as-hell mode here, so if you want to see Chase's pure guitar talent at work without any extreme genre trappings, this would be a good (if long) way to do it! Check out "The Chaotic Rite" for yourself below!

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

New Material From Three Local Solo Acts, Plus An Inactive Band Note!!

For your Wednesday afternoon reading, here is our first proper news post of May 2021, which is mostly devoted to the recent exploits from three very different local solo musicians, two relating to new albums of some kind. To cap things off, we do have a note on a band moved out of our active band links. With all of that said, here's what you should know!

 

Local punk solo project Slumshine have new stuff to talk about, including a couple of new songs! On April 19th, Brent posted a new original song named "Believe In Hugs" to Slumshine's Bandcamp page and via this Facebook slideshow video, marking the project's first released new material since their 2019 "SLMSHN" album. Then on Sunday, Slumshine posted another new song named "Slumlord" onto Facebook, and owing to it's longer length, that's embedded below. In fact, "Slumlord" is reportedly the title track for Slumshine's new EP, which will appaerently be released on Friday! If this is the same release as the previously teased "SllMSHN" (with two lowercase Ls to denote album #2), a physical run on cassette tapes would likely follow. With all of that said, I won't review the two new songs yet, pending our full review of the "Slumlord" EP, but the music on offer so far is thematically different from the first tape.

Notably, "Believe In Hugs" has electric instrumentation (live shows and the "SLMSHN" album were all acoustic), and both songs seem to have more of a spacey influence, but we'll see how the full EP sounds on Friday. Give "Slumlord" a listen below, and we'll have more on the EP proper soon!

Next up, here's some more new release action from a local solo project, as cybergrind act Malignant Neoplasm have released their own new album "Hugz" on their Bandcamp page on April 28th! The fact that both MxNx and Slumshine happen to have songs with a variant of "Hugs" in their names is purely coincidental. If you're familiar with Tyler's Blood Shed Productions output, you can expect more of his usual trademarks on "Hugz", including pig squeal vocals, a drum machine, divisive and provocative song titles, and often short runtimes (only four of the songs exceed 64 seconds in length, and one runs for just 12 seconds), but compared to C.T.W., there is more of a computerized post-production influence. This brand of noise rock almost defies criticism (you either like it or you don't), but Tyler's bold, in-your-face approach can never be denied, and they're undeniably heavy!

Give "Milky Blue Eyes" a listen below courtesy of this video from Blood Shed's YouTube channel, though as it'll be over in 38 seconds, buy or stream "Hugz" above to hear more if you're up for it! The album is available on a "name your price" model, as are prior Malignant Neoplasm releases.

Also today, here's a new original song from local hard rock solo artist Tym Morrison's YouTube channel! Entitled "Heaven or Hell", the song is lyrically about how you ultimately have the choice where you go in the afterlife, and like his other recent original song postings, this has an attached video featuring lots of photos and video clips relevant to the very religious lyrics. Running for over eight minutes, this delivers the metal goods for fans of Tym's, especially the solo late, though the mid-tempo pacing does help the song proper drag a bit. Give Tym's new song a listen below!

Finally, I have moved local punk quartet The Sick Sons to our inactive band links due to a year's inactivity. The former Filthy Dadicals have not issued a public statement since their planned LopLops Lounge concert with the aforementioned Slumshine in March of last year was cancelled due to the then-new pandemic. One of 2019's most promising new local bands, The Sick Sons united former 12 Gauge Ready, Bankshot, and Downshift alumni for four concerts in the second half of that year, notably opening for Random Killing and The Ripcordz in their first two shows, before playing LopLops alongside Tidal Records acts twice that December. Hopefully their hiatus since March 2020 is solely due to the pandemic, and that we'll see The Sick Sons back when things level out, as they are a solid band whose momentum crash wasn't their fault. Best of luck to Lucas, Steve, Dave, and Clint in any event!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for a new news post on Friday or Saturday featuring details on "Slumdog" and more! Thanks everyone!

More COVID-19 Concert Cancellations & Updates, Plus A Concert Preview!?

In what's fast becoming a new normal for The Sault Metal Scene (sigh), we might as well look at the latest on the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and it's effects on the local hard rock/punk concert calendar. The big news that broke today is that Kewadin Casino has postponed the Candlebox-headlined concert at The Dreammakers Theatre in Sault Michigan on April 18th, as per their Facebook page (the Little Texas show was also postponed.) As with the Black Label Society concert, you can hold already-purchased tickets to be honoured when the Candlebox show here is rescheduled, but refunds are available from Kewadin at point of purchase. This is definitely disappointing, but alas, it's not entirely unexpected, especially with the recent news that Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has issued an executive order to close all bars, nightclubs, and restaurants in the state through the end of March, as they work to contain the coronavirus (click here for details.)

Now, in terms of our concert calendar in the Eastern Upper Peninsula, this surprisingly doesn't affect that too much, as we didn't have any nightclub shows from local or touring hard rock bands listed there anymore, but this theoretically would interrupt local hard rock band Tarnished's "every Thursday" matinee run at Biggby Coffee, where they were expected to play at 12:00 PM this and next Thursday. I will tentatively remove those dates from our calendar too, but if Tarnished or Biggby confirm otherwise, I will add them back. I suppose they/Alex could play just for people picking up to-go/take-out orders (which will still be allowed in Michigan)... stranger things have happened! Also, I will leave Traverse City hard rock trio Scarkazm's April 10th weekend concerts at the St. Ignace Kewadin in our concert listings for now, as they take place after the March ban ends, but this situation is fluid and could get far more volatile, so stay tuned for updates on those and other April events as they roll in.

Over in Sault Ontario, the provincial government was not issuing a ban for restaurants and nightclubs at this time, as the evidence does not support doing so right now, but Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams is now strongly recommending that they close. Click here & here for more on this subject. In any event. Gliss Restaurant on Spring Street have announced on Facebook that they are closing their regular business hours as of today due to COVID-19, but they will re-open for reservations booked there and will bring in staff accordingly. They did not give a timeline for when they'll be back in full, but this would appear to interrupt Tym Morrison's weekly matinees there on Fridays & Saturdays. Again, I suppose he could be brought in to play for reserved guests, but that's not truly a "public" concert, so I'll also de-list his March gigs there until otherwise stated. Unless given reason otherwise, his March 27th gig at The Roadhouse Bar & Grill will remain in our calendar for now.

Also, The Rockstar Bar's Martin Fiser noted on their Facebook group today that they will be closed through this weekend due to the coronavirus, and they may have to cancel events into April pending how the pandemic unfolds. SMS-wise, this would primarily impact next month's Just Heart & Lycanthro concerts, but it is too soon to make judgments on them.

The last surviving hard rock or punk concert left on our calendar for this weekend was The Sick Sons & Slumshine at LopLops Lounge on Friday, and that show has also been cancelled, as per it's Facebook event page. No word on if this will be rescheduled, but both bands are local, so watch their social media accounts for details either way.  As well, local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck have announced on Facebook that their planned Wawa road trip in two weeks (to play at a women's curling event that they were a part of before) has been cancelled, and they are "officially off for a few weeks", with updates pertaining to scheduled gigs to be announced. Soundcheck have only plugged their concerts on short notice (if at all) in 2020 so far, and accordingly, they were not listed in our current concert calendar anyway, but any heads-up to fans is welcomed! With all of this said, we surprisingly still have a concert to preview, so what should you know there?

The aforementioned Slumshine are still advertised to play their "Story Time With Slumshine" concert at Home Bakehouse Bed & Breakfast at 168 March Street THIS WEDNESDAY! The relatively unfamiliar venue has been gaining fans in recent months with their homemade baking and their requisite B&B operations, and they have confirmed that they are staying open to help serve the community, as of 3:09 PM (they don't have a real dine-in operation anyway.) Slumshine's planned acoustic punk originals will be joined by Brent telling short stories about them, VH1 Storytellers style, and he hinted that more "Story Time" shows are in the works. This special Wednesday evening concert has a 7:00 PM start time, a "pay what you can" entry model, and no age limit. Assuming this show isn't called off amid the coronavirus fears, this should be a unique but entertaining event at Home (2 minutes north of Gliss), and Slumshine's established unplugged punk attack should make and keep lots of fans!

If you're craving live punk music, this could be one of very few chances to see it for a while, assuming it goes on as scheduled, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details, here's Slumshine live, and if we hear anything regarding this show's status, we'll let you know!



Unless a short notice concert pops up that boldly tries to go on amidst the COVID-19 panic, we will have no concert previews this weekend, which is bizarre, but isolating and keeping the coronavirus contained is essential, and we can only hope that things improve in the near future for everyone's health and safety. That's what's important, concerts can wait until we figure things out. Stay safe, everyone, and we'll have more news on the site this week!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Woodhawk & The Sick Sons), The Return Of Black Cloud, And More!!

I have quite a backlog of stories to tackle right now, so let's keep things rolling on the SMS with a post half devoted to new songs and updates from a prominent independent label's camp, but first, here's a pair of LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for the spring at the same venue that you punk fans will want to take notice of!

New local punk supergroup The Sick Sons will make their 2020 debut and first ever headlining concert appearance on Friday, March 20th when they rock LopLops Lounge! Returning to the site of their December concerts opening for established local punk acts,  this will be their fifth live concert total and will be a quality tune-up gig before they help open A Dire Setback's CD release show at LopLops the following weekend. With a stacked lineup of name punk artists from the past 20 years, genre fans won't want to miss The Sick Sons next month! The opener will be masked local folk punk solo project Slumshine in his/their second concert of 2020, and this should be a good platform for Brent to get his material back out there after a few months off! Stay tuned for more on Slumshine in the near future. A 9:00 PM start time is in effect for this 19+ concert, which has a $5 cover charge. This should be a fine concert for punk fans to check out next month with many familiar faces, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details as they roll in!

Next up, Calgary stoner hard rock quartet Woodhawk will make their local concert debut on Tuesday, April 21st when they headline at LopLops themselves! An unusually heavy headliner for this venue, Woodhawk are touring in support of their new album "Violent Nature", and this should be a fine platform for their melodic yet riff-heavy brand of original rock, and they straddle a couple genre lines, so many different fans should take to their sound! Local support will include alt-punk trio A Dire Setback in their first announced show following their CD release party at LopLops next month, so will they have hard copies for sale three weeks later? In any event, momentum will be on their side! Adding to the hodgepodge of genres here, DJ Seith is advertised to kick things off with another set of his turntable mixes, so what vinyl will he be unveiling for the occasion? Be there to find out, if you can swing a Tuesday nighter in two months! This event is brought to you by the Oh!No Collective in their first announced concert booking of 2020.

A 19+ concert as usual for LopLops, doors open at 8:00 PM on April 21st, and admission is either $10 at the door or the "pay what you can" model. Nice mix of sounds in store for this concert, and Woodhawk definitely sound promising alone, so keep this weeknight concert in mind, and visit the official Facebook event page for more details!

Also, here's something we briefly alluded to in this month's poll write-up last week, but haven't included in a formal post yet, as local experimental/death metal solo project Black Cloud are back! After quietly closing all of their social media accounts and deleting their "Abstract Sounds" demo from Bandcamp late last year, project leader Peytan Andreola reversed course by launching a new Facebook page on January 31st, with a new YouTube channel to match. Posts on Facebook have been minimal since, but Peytan revealed on Saturday that he's "close to finishing lyrics" for some sort of release called "Ambient Silence", while he is apparently planning to revisit songs from "Abstract Sounds", which could explain why it was taken off of Bandcamp. In any event, "Abstract Sounds" in it's original form can be streamed on the new YouTube channel. The other video there is actually a podcast interview with Peytan where he talks about Black Cloud's existing and future projects. This is a 27 minute interview, so be warned before listening.

You do get some interesting insights from this still relatively new project, but how much of this will see the light of day as described in the interview? Time will tell! Embedded below is Black Cloud's first new song post-return, as uploaded to their new label Blood Shed Productions' YouTube channel last week, and it's entitled "Spill The Blood (And For All I Care Let The Blood Spill In The Air)". More of a noise rock song with no growled vocals and almost too much percussion, there is definitely musical and production growth, and signing with Blood Shed makes perfect sense! Give Black Cloud's new song a listen below, and they're back in our active band links!



Finally, let's close with another new video posting on the aforementioned Blood Shed Productions YouTube channel, which has been posting new sampler material from assorted acts with releases in the works in 2020 as of late, including established rapper Miracle Man and an electronic project named Nothing Good. However, metalheads will be most interested in the new song from the label's flagship solo project Crucify the Whore, entitled "Whorticulture". Planned to be on a full length release called "P.C. Sells... But I Ain't Buying It", it gives 73 seconds of punishing grindcore, minimalistic as it may be, so fans will want to give it a listen below, and stay tuned for more!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's YouTube Channel Profile on the site next! Thanks everyone!

A New Album Release, News From The Blood Shed, And New Videos!!

It's been a reasonably quiet month, but we're back with a full post today, including lots of new video finds, so here's what you should know!

While we alluded to this album in our 2019 retrospective post, I forgot to do a proper write-up on it here (my apologies!), and that is local folk punk/experimental solo musician (The Ghost Of) Chase James Wigmore's new album "One Last Act Of Defiance"! Just two weeks after releasing his true debut studio album "Songs To Punch Yourself In The Face To", Chase quietly put out a follow-up album on his Bandcamp page on December 21st, and it features 7 newer original songs, though the material here is a return to his death and extreme metal side, despite being billed under his own name rather than Awokest. However, I wouldn't read into anything regarding that project's future, as Awokest have more of an industrial bent, and they posted online as recently as November. Digital copies of "One Last Act Of Defiance" are on sale for $7, physical details not yet known, and a free streaming copy was also uploaded to Chase's YouTube channel on New Year's Eve.

I'll hold comment on the album for now, pending a possible CD review in the future, but if you like Chase's brutal death metal work, you'll be right at home with this album! We just reviewed "Songs To Punch Yourself In The Face To" on the site last month, so with our 6 month anti-bias buffer between reviews of the same band, I wouldn't be able to review this one until the summer at the earliest, but it's definitely in the pile! Buy or stream it above!



Next up, let's tackle some more new videos from the last while, starting with new song postings on Chase's sometimes-label Blood Shed Productions' YouTube channel, which all feature the label's flagship goregrind solo project Crucify the Whore! Four videos have been uploaded there in the past month, including one prior upload that is back on the channel, and four new songs in three videos, all from upcoming C.T.W. album releases. One is planned for a solo disc of some kind, but the other two are from the sequel to C.T.W. and Chase's "A Couple of Degenerate Bastards" split CD, release details forthcoming. In fact, Tyler has already posted his half to their Bandcamp page, so fans of his short-running, pig-squealing, and ultra-minimalistic brand of grindcore will be eager to hear these songs! As usual, a number of song names could be seen as offensive, but one song from the split was posted on YouTube and has a name I can share here, namely the interestingly titled "Granny Bean-Flick For The World Wide Web".

These songs aren't going to convert non-believers to the C.T.W. gospel, so to speak, but Tyler's uncompromising original material will find an audience, and it's encouraging to see another split between him and Chase, validating the reception of the original with fans! Check out more above & below!



Also today, here's a new video from new local punk supergroup The Sick Sons, marking their first video upload on their Facebook page, and it's also of their first recorded original song! Filmed at LopLops Lounge on December 28th when they opened for The Cover Up (or You First & The Givee Givees), this 33 second clip featues their song "I Still Believe". Obviously, this isn't a complete look at the song, but from what we can hear, it has a strong and familiar sound to it for genre fans! The chorus singing is a little rough, but I am curious to hear this one in full, so give this snippet a watch below!



We'll close today with a Big Wreck cover that was shared on this Big Wreck fans Facebook group on January 12th. Posted by ex-Sense of Truth frontman Cory Murchison, this was filmed in his most recent band Skeyes of Seven's jam room a few years back, and it features Cory covering "That Song" alongside his bandmates Alain Fletcher and Kyle Sweet, plus Parabol/ex-Late Shift drummer Anthony Gagnon (if he was ever their official drummer, the band never publicized it.) This is solidly done and faithful to the original, so Big Wreck fans shouldn't object at all, but the camera placement is too high and off center, and you only ever see Al's arm in frame. Check it out below!



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