YouTube Channel Profile Series: Woodward Avenue Studios

After a road trip-accelerated delay, here is this month's YouTube Channel Profile in our second post today! This monthly feature looks at a randomly selected YouTube channel whose uploads are at least half devoted to local metal, hard rock, or punk musicians/concerts, and this month's selection gives us a prominent and extremely talented local metal band, albeit an earlier glimpse as their studio work before their current lineup fell into place. Here's what you should know on this sunny Thursday!

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Woodward Avenue Studios (http://youtube.com/woodwardavestudios)

Owner: Convergence guitarist and Woodward Avenue Studios owner Brendan Christie, also known from prior work in local bands like Late & Loud, Stillbroke, and The Hydra's Teeth, and as co-host of the Late & Legends podcast

Channel Timeline: Launched on January 12th, 2009; Current videos uploaded from November 2023 until October 2024

Channel Summary: Originally a personal use channel that predated his best known local band work, Brendan converted the channel into focusing on his current progressive metal band Convergence in 2023, with the channel branded after Woodward Avenue Studios since 2024. All videos prior to late 2023 have long since been taken down from the channel, and Brendan exclusively uploads "Shorts" videos here now rather than standard videos, so all are vertical and typically under a minute each. The vast majority of the twenty-four "Shorts" are focused around Convergence teasers, but their most recent video hypes up Woodward Avenue (formerly Yellow Room) Studios for other musicians' professional recording needs.

Why You Should Watch: The limitations of "Shorts" acknowledged, this channel is still worth watching for fans of Convergence for some of their most frequently updated video content! While the channel likely still serves a purpose given that it is branded after the studio, Brendan has since focused on uploading videos (both regular longform/horizontal ones and "Shorts") on the band's own YouTube channel, suggesting that Convergence are prioritizing the newer channel for official content. Note that "Shorts" on the new channel are often jokier for social media promotion than the Woodward channel got. Still, the older channel does have some of the last extant public content from their second EP, so fans won't want to overlook it!

 Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

 

Chimera Teaser: Possibly because it was forgotten in the culling of prior instrumental-era Convergence social media accounts, teasers for the band's early studio material make up most of the content on the Woodward Avenue channel. I wanted to highlight their very first "Short" here because it features an audio sample of "Chimera", an original song planned for their 2023 debut EP "One" that did not make the final cut for one reason or another. Convergence were represented here by Brendan and his brother-in-law Jake Valois, both on lead guitar. Visualized here via the song being tracked on Mixcraft 9 Pro Studio, this minute-long teaser is effective to sample what was a promising prog metal track, even if unreleased!

 

 

Glass Statues Short https://convergencessm.bandcamp.com/album/dead-and-dreaming #metal #metalcore: Ten of the "Shorts" on this channel are sub-minute long clips of songs from Convergence's first two EPs "One" and "Dead & Dreaming", and the latter is particularly notable because the band delisted it from streaming after relaunching as a full band with singer Stephen Gagnon-Ruscio and drummer David Peredun. The band has signalled plans to re-record songs from "Dead & Dreaming" for their forthcoming album, but this channel wasn't wiped, so if you want to hear that EP's initial instrumental versions, you have a partial way. I preferred "Glass Statues" out of the five songs on "Dead & Dreaming" thanks to its melodic structure and variance, even if the EP had heavier songs than this, and while a potential full-band version could still be ahead, it is nice to hear this again!

 

 

You are not flesh playthrough #metal #djent #guitar #metalcore #guitarist: Eight videos on the Woodward Avenue channel are of Brendan and/or Jake playing along to their studio material, including two Kraken Mara-era clips of them playing "Stratus" at the Bushplane Museum in 2021 (mainly to hype their endorsement of Halo Guitars). The most popular video on this channel is a playthrough video featuring Brendan playing "You Are Not Flesh" (the first unveiled song from their unfinished third instrumental EP "Gemini") in September 2024. Will this be reworked with vocals and live drums? Time will tell, but Brendan lays down the gauntlet here with professionalism and technicality in a promisingly heavy sample, and there's more to look at from Convergence's instrumental beginnings on this channel!

 

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I hope that you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! Then next installment (hopefully moreso on time) is scheduled for around June 26th, so look for that then, plus more news and notes soon, as well as this month's CD review! Thanks everyone!

Spades GT Updates From August 2025!!

Today's post takes us back to the world of local/Barrie crossover thrash quintet Spades GT, so what have they been up to since we last left off with them at the end of July? Well, the guys were getting ready for their set at the fifth annual Rye Fest, a yearly outdoor concert festival in Brantford (2 hours south of Barrie, 7 hours southeast of the Soo), as held by Rye Field Studios, where Spades shot performance and interview footage both in 2023 and last month. Spades GT were the ninth of fourteen bands at this all day event on August 9th, which was headlined by Peterborough "beatdown/core" quartet Seagrave, who were one of the scheduled touring bands for last year's cancelled Crucifest in Leeburn. Bizarrely, the guys did not post their usual vertical recap video to Facebook from Rye Fest, but I don't know whether that was an intentional decision, if their footage is just really delayed, or if they completely forgot.

If you want to see new Brantford footage, head to Rye Field Studios' YouTube channel, as they have been featured in a bunch of new videos this year! Some are "Shots" videos that clip out individual songs from their 2023 set at Rye Field that you can watch in full at this link, but how about the brand new stuff from this summer? For this quick three song set, the guys were filmed playing two songs from their new album "United" (specifically the title track and "Demons"), before closing with "Hands", which opened their 2023 Rye Field performance. Lineup changes aside (James out, Matt and Sean in), this is otherwise formatted similarly to the 2023 video, including introductions by hosts/studio owners Ben Zander & Shane Briand, and high quality multi-cam footage of the guys in action. Thankfully, the lighting is much better and far less green than last time, though it does go black & white at parts.

For the record, "Demons" from this set also got clipped out for a separate "Shots" video earlier this month. If you like excellent quality performance videos of local bands (let alone horizontal ones), you should take to Spades GT's Rye Field encore with ease, so check out the intense and heavy performances for yourselves below, and hopefully Rye Fest videos surface!

The other new Spades content from Rye Field's YouTube channel is a brand new interview that was released at the end of July, so what should you know there? Conducted on July 5th prior to the "United" release party in Toronto, the interview does not feature drummer Tyler Reiner, who left early to make it to The Bovine to deal with soundcheck and prep for the concert proper. This interview was episode 20 of Ben & Shane's interview series The PodCouch, and it features J.D., Daniel, Matthew, and Sean talking about "United" and its underlying messages, the band's evolution since they last played at Rye Field, the genres and sounds on display on the album (Matt primarily wrote and sings on "Filthy Lie"), and hype for the release party and their then-upcoming shows. When addressing their return to Spiderfest in Meyersburg, Daniel noted that "we were in a band called Jack Spades" prior, a distinction that I haven't seen made in modern interviews.

The back half of the interview is mostly loose and casual banter, but I'd love to see more of Matt's arcade game collection! Solid interview that keeps fans updated on what Spades have been up to this summer, so give it a watch for yourselves below!

Let's close with some non-Rye Field content from Spades GT, starting with a new review from August 21st of "United" from Gustavo Scuderi of the Canadian metal website The Headbanging Moose. There, Gustavo gave the album a 3.5/5 rating, saying that it combines "hard-hitting riffs, driving rhythms, and compelling vocals to create a sound that’s both familiar and refreshingly contemporary", while praising the title track", "Filthy Lie", and "Wrecked" the most of the eight cuts. Note that this review credits Sean MacNab on bass even though he didn't join the group until a few weeks after the recording sessions wrapped (Daniel was seen tracking bass in one of the teaser videos from the sessions). Either way, it's a complimentary and detailed review that you can check out at this link! Two days later, the guys shared posters for their upcoming fall tour slate in Southern Ontario (sorry, no Sault Ste. Marie return yet).

The first of those shows saw Spades GT play their first Barrie show in "a while" (which equalled almost three months) at C.W. Coop's on September 6th, where they opened for Daniel's other band The Fast Life on a bill that featured their good friends in G.F.U. once again. That show did indeed feature a recap video, so we'll have more from that and other fall content from the former Jack Spades in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for that and more on the SMS soon! Thanks everyone!

A New Mike Haggith Full-Set Concert Video, Bullet Train's New Song, And More!!

On this rainy Monday night, let's dive into some new videos from recent months, including a new original song/lyric video, a brief clip from a big touring headliner in the spring, and leading off, a high quality concert video from this summer, so here's what you should know!

The full multi-camera video of local/Barrie alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith's set at this year's Northern Vibe Festival was posted to his YouTube channel yesterday! Like last year when he and The Big Finish Band rocked the Forest Stage on Poplardale Road in nearby Ophir, Mike had a single-camera live stream posted after the fact, while enlisting Justine Chalykoff of Chalykoff Studios to professionally film the entire set with multiple high quality cameras. While the final 2023 video wasn't uploaded to YouTube until May, the turnaround to get this year's full multi-cam video was only 2 months, which is great for fans of Mike's! Still no word on if the interview shot with Chalykoff Studios last year will ever be released though. Note that I won't go into a detailed blow-by-blow of the new Northern Vibe video, as I already did that when recapping the single-camera 2024 live stream in this post from September.

Just as a reminder, this was The Big Finish Band's first show with Elly McWatters on guitar for every song (Mike just sang here), and their all-original set only had three songs held over from Northern Vibe 2023. For extra minutia about the set, see the September post linked above, but Mike and crew played the debuting "Brand New Day", "Back Away Slowly", "An Act Of Strength", Mike's newer originals "I Really Hope This Gets To You" and "No Love", "Hot & Cold", "From The 55th Parallel", "Carousel", "The Nature Of The Times", "All The Best", and "Twist Of Fate" this year. Justine used even more cameras to capture Mike, Chris, Elly, Matt, and Brandan rocking out on the outdoor stage than last year, even utilizing a drumcam for the occasion, plus more fade transitions and mirror effects than before, so kudos for the extra work to spruce up the already solid performance footage here!

Your next chance to see Mike & The Big Finish Band will be this Friday when they play a half-time set at this year's The Soo's Got Talent semifinals (preview forthcoming), so whether you want a teaser of what to expect at Soo Blaster on Friday or just want to relive the action at Northern Vibe 2024, give their multi-camera full-set video a watch below!

Next up, local hard rock trio Bullet Train released their fourth original single "Wayside" to their YouTube channel as a lyric video on Wednesday! The song had previously had its exclusive premiere in the rotation of Unity X Radio, a Canadian internet radio station that has been playing Bullet Train's prior singles already. The band's longest song yet, "Wayside" continues with its inspiration on their take of current events, with social justice and recent protests coming under their microscope here. I won't go into specifics on all of that, but fans of Cory's prior local bands won't be thrown off by the hard rock sound here, if more complex and layered throughout, so give Bullet Train's new song a listen below!

Finally for today, here's a video from the Matthew Good concert at The Machine Shop in April that totally slipped us by at the time! This was filmed by Mike Blair for 705Live Sound Co.'s Facebook page, as 705Live were manning the soundboards on that night, and he had quite a neat spot from the balcony at this point of the concert, so you get a nice overhead view of The Machine Shop's interior layout and the sizable crowd (at least until Mike zoomed in!). The video features part of the bridge of the Matthew Good Band staple "Hello Time Bomb", and while there's not much to hear in the 19 seconds-long runtime, it's a neat watch, so check it out below!

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

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Agnosticism), Vanity First Updates, And New Videos!!

Let's tackle some recent news and notes from Sault Ontario on this rainy Sunday morning, including some new videos, recent updates on an album release, and leading off, here's a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!

Local folk punk/emo solo project Agnosticism will return to the stage with a headlining date at The Distraction on Saturday, May 25th! Led by young & prolific local guitarist Mikhal Muto, Agnosticism (whose only social media account is on Instagram) haven't played live that much in recent months, possibly owing to Mikhal's busy schedule in at least three other bands, but I believe this will be their first public show since releasing their new EP "A Letter Of Resignation" on major streaming services, so you could call this the de facto release party! That EP will be reviewed on the SMS this month, for the record. Mikhal will be joined here by two other solo artists, including 2022 Soo's Got Talent finalist and The Floor Between Us frontman Colin Gasparelli (who opened for Jackal Blood here in February) and Mikhal's Vanity First bandmate Andrew Beggs, who is credited as "Andrew Keith" for this concert. 

No word on if Andrew's solo set will essentially be a one man unplugged Vanity First set or if he'll employ a different sound, but come down to The Distraction on East Street to find out! This Memorial Day weekend concert has an early 6:00 PM start time, no age limit, and admission set at "$5 or pay what you can". This should be a good time for fans of folk punk and acoustic stylings, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details!

Next up, and speaking of Vanity First, let's cover some recent updates from Andrew and Mikhal's local punk band! For those of you who haven't bought their new album "Identity Crisis" on CD or vinyl, the guys posted the back cover of it on their Facebook page on April 25th, so you can glean some more information on the album that way. They credited "Studio 702" as where the album was recorded, and you can see the complete writing and singing credits as well. Notably, Mikhal was the producer of the album, and sang lead on "Off With The Heads", "When I Fall", and "Playboy Magazine", the latter of which being the only song co-written by drummer Keeghan McAllister. Of course, that album was launched at their release party at Soo Blaster on April 20th, and they continued posting content from that show to Facebook after the fact, including lots more black & white photos by Honest Job's Drew Armstrong.

Vanity welcomed a guest guitarist for at least part of their set on 4/20, namely Carmen Muto (second from the left), who is either Mikhal's brother or cousin, I am not 100% sure which. If you want to see how he factors in, both of the videos posted from the concert feature Carmen, and both are covers, including a (sadly) vertical clip of them covering NOFX's "Linoleum", and as embedded below, a shorter but horizontal clip of them covering "Suicide" by Choking Victim. Everyone sounds good on these covers, which did seem to go over well with assembled fans, and while Carmen was stiff up there, his guitar work did help fill things out! Before we move on entirely, Vanity First also posted a "Reel" on Friday featuring in-studio performance footage of them playing "Off With Their Heads" from the new album, and heavily filtered with strobing lights (an interesting choice given that the band has confirmed that Andrew is epileptic).

I don't like "Reels", as readers will be well aware, but the video is neat looking, and I hope that a horizontal/non-"Reel" version exists to capture the whole song, especially if Vanity First intend it to be a formal music video! In any event, I can't embed it here, so watch it (and more) above, give their live Choking Victim cover a watch below, and stay tuned for more from Vanity First when it rolls in!

We'll close today with a new video of local/Barrie alternative/hard rock musician Mike Haggith's set at last year's Northern Vibe Festival in Ophir, courtesy of his Facebook page on Wednesday! While a full live-stream of Mike & crew's set was filmed at the festival last year, this is pro-shot, multi-camera footage that was filmed by Justine Chalykoff of local filmmaking company Chalykoff Studios, who reportedly filmed Mike's whole set thusly. At the time, Mike promised that "a proper full-length video" was coming, not to mention a teaser clip of an interview that Mike and his solo band recorded with Justine, but neither has made its way online in full yet. At least we have one song from the concert proper from what Chalykoff Studios shot, and hopefully we'll get more from it and the interview (even with the bassist switch) in due course! Justine filmed Mike playing his and drummer Brandan Glew's old band The Din's song "Missing", which was their sixth of eleven songs that day.

No less than five cameras (four stationary, including the camera from the live-stream) filmed the guys in action last year, so you get a lot of great looks at the band and Forest Stage setup, especially notable given how the off-the-grid nature of Northern Vibe doesn't lend itself to plentiful video content compared to something like Rotaryfest. Note that the credits list Elly McWatters as a backing vocalist, but that appears to be a remnant of the full Chalykoff Studios video to come(?), as she only joined Mike for the last two originals. Excellent video, so give it a watch below, and hopefully there's more to come before Mike returns to Northern Vibe in July!

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

Spades GT's Late 2023 Video Content From Rye Field Studios!!

With no currently announced Friday night hard rock concerts in the area for the St. Patrick's Day weekend, and two Sunday nighters taking place on said holiday, I'm postponing this weekend's concert previews to tomorrow so that we're slightly closer to what has been announced. Stay tuned!

Instead, let's continue playing catch-up on local/Barrie crossover thrash band Spades GT's recent activity, and we're winding back to late 2023 for some performance and interview footage that they shot! These come from Rye Field Studios, a recording studio out of Brantford that also posts long-form content to their YouTube channel featuring bands that come in to their headquarters, particularly interviews and performance footage. The former Jack Spades aren't even the only band with local ties to be featured in Rye Field Studios content, as St. Thomas metalcore band Prosector (fronted by ex-State of Misery singer Steve Rhodes) got similarly covered in January, so give those a look if you've missed Steve locally! The first of Rye Field's videos featuring Spades GT was uploaded in September, before they ever made the 2 hour drive south to Brantford, and it has concert footage of them in Toronto in June!

The video (one of two compilation videos from Beer Bash 6, the other seen here) features the first five bands that played at Beer Bash 6, with Spades GT's segment beginning about 7 minutes in with introductions by Rye Field's Ben Zander & Shane Briand, who also host much of their YouTube content. Spades GT were introduced as "the first band" despite being the third seen in the 23 minute video, and they were filmed playing their newest album's title track "Sewer City Radio". Strong performance at a nice venue with great video quality (horizontal and multi-camera, at that), but the drum-cam of Tyler is pointed too far out from him. Check out Spades GT and much more from Beer Bash 6 above and below!

On December 8th, a 17+ minute in-studio performance video of Spades GT at Rye Field was posted to YouTube, but before that, two teaser videos were shared to preview the Spades content in the preceding couple of days. One video is a preview of the actual performance so I won't redundantly embed it here, but if they were going to crop it to vertical dimensions (presumably as a "Shorts" video), why not do that before the on-screen text is added? Embedded below is the other preview clip, which features J.D., Daniel, and Tyler (no sign of James) signing a Rye Field Studios banner on the wall there, that other musicians have apparently signed over time. Oddly, the song "Sewer City Radio" is playing in the background, albeit over speakers there and not added in post. Nice gesture to help Ben and Shane commemorate their in-studio sessions, if shot vertically too, so check it out below!

As for the proper in-studio performance (part of Rye Field's "Live In The Whiskey Pit" series), it leads off with Ben & Shane introducing Spades GT, then pertinent logos (the kids saying the studio's name caught me off guard), before we get to the band proper. As noted with on-screen text, Spades GT play "Hands", "Succubus", "Red", "Final Girl", and "Sewer City Radio" here, and at least three different cameras capture the band in action here, two facing the band at slightly different angles, as well as a drum cam that is better positioned than at Beer Bash 6. Very well performed, shot, and edited, so fans of Spades (Jack and/or GT) will be right at home, but the green lighting was overdone to me. Check it out below!

Finally, a 36 minute interview with Spades GT was posted to YouTube by Rye Field Studios on December 12th, so what are they asked about while sitting on "The PodCouch"? Ben and Shane start by asking the guys about how Beer Bash 6 went, followed by the origins of Spades GT. The Soo days and Tyler's old band Caym's shows up here are addressed, but much of it is about how the band came together in Barrie, including insights by James as to how far along songwriting for the "Sewer City Radio" album was when he joined. After briefly discussing the album and practicing, they ask about Anvil (whose drummer Robb Reiner is Tyler's dad) and Spades GT's experiences opening for Anvil last fall, including some notes on working with and hanging out with Anvil frontman Steve "Lips" Kudlow. Their then-upcoming concert plans, including their cancelled winter tour run with The Dayglo Abortions, come up next.

Ben & Shane (who has a great voice) ask about Spades GT's early favourite bands before getting into Tyler's drumming style, the advantages and disadvantages of the internet, their plans to work on new material in 2024, and even James' story about meeting Robert Plant(!), among other topics. This is a fun and laid back interview with great presentation from multiple cameras, and it's nice to hear James so much throughout (he's definitely the quietest member in social media promotions). However, it can be hard to hear some of the conversations with everyone talking over each other at points, especially when things go off the rails a bit. Check the whole interview with Rye Field Studios out for yourselves below!

Lastly, kudos to Ben & Shane at Rye Field Studios for all of their work in promoting metal and punk bands in Southern Ontario, both from their YouTube videos and their actual recording studio work, so give much more from them a look above as well! That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews on the site next! Thanks everyone!

Details On Dustin Jones' Interview On Across The Tracks On The Borderline!!

Back in June, two veteran local punk musicians were separately interviewed for radio shows on local internet radio station The Borderline, and I do apologize for both being so late to be covered on the SMS! We'll start with the June 23rd interview with Jonesy Land frontman/Bookclub bassist Dustin Jones, marking his second long-form interview with the station, following an episode of Sev's Cellar three years ago. This time, Dustin featured on Borderline founder Adrian Vilaca's interview series Across The Tracks, which focuses on detailing original songs, and the episode runs for 53 minutes. Conducted in studio, it's clear from the off that they've known each other for years, which helps for the comfort level! The interview started with Dustin explaining why he launched the Jonesy Land project apart from his bands, as well as the overall lighter/reserved tone of the project's debut album "Zoom-Out".

Like in past episodes of Across The Tracks, Adrian asks about the origins and themes behind songs by the interview subject, and while he does not stick to the release order of the album, the songs in question are played after that segment wraps up (though they are rarely directly introduced by Adrian, so that can catch you off guard at times). "Father Time" comes up first, but "Ode To The Boys" is discussed next, and it's neat hearing some insight as to The Inner City Surfers' heyday! The song actually wasn't directly about his old bands, moreso old friends, but Dustin does also give some advice to current musicians to start their careers, especially with how easy self-promotion and networking is compared to when he was younger. The debut single "Old Man" is next to be outlined, though note that the interview predates the music video for the song. Next, they discuss his love for Sault Ste. Marie and the Algoma District.

That ties directly into their discussion of the Jonesy Land track "Superior Sons" and some of his surprising inspiration in that song's composition. Adrian next asks about Dustin's own Mission Control Studio and his experiences working with musicians who record there, leading into talk of "Keep Trying", which featured Shannon Moan on guest vocals. Dustin next talks about his views on the local music scene at present, as well as his experiences running a local songwriters competition with Greg MacLachlan pre-pandemic, while explaining how he's approaching music as he gets older, and how this album has a different edge than on his prior albums. This led into "Lonely Boy", before Adrian asks Dustin about fatherhood and his experiences with his kids, while also noting the experience he had making this album and some of the (largely) positive reaction that he received from listeners.

Given the talk about his family, this naturally led into "Shine On" (written for his daughter Jett), and the interview naturally wrapped up with "Summer's End", which was written for his late stepfather and written in the style of music that he loved. The interview ends with Dustin thanking Adrian for all he does locally, as well as plugging Jonesy Land, Mission Control Studios, and Tidal Records, though no sign of a dedicated band page for Jonesy Land yet. Fun interview that really explores the "Zoom-Out" album in depth and Dustin's maturity as a songwriter, and while the album proper is light on "punk" content, you can see how his life's experiences as a whole shaped things on the final product! I'm kinda surprised that he didn't talk about Bookclub though, as they are is current live band, past teasers about Jonesy Land playing shows again acknowledged. Check out this Across The Tracks episode at the links above!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews next, and that other June interview with a local punk icon on The Borderline will be covered in an upcoming SMS post! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Rotaryfest Stage 2) And More Updates!!

Strike while the iron's hot, as they say, so let's wrap up our LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS concerning this year's Rotaryfest lineups, as well as some shorter recent updates to round things out. Here's what you should know!

As promised, here's what you should know about Rotaryfest's Stage 2 lineup for 2023! After a two year pandemic hiatus, the Second Stage returned to the Clergue Park stage beside the Art Gallery of Algoma last year with a new two night format, featuring the 2015-2019 Saturday lineup of original indie/alternative-leaning bands supplemented by a Friday Night Blues lineup curated by the Sault Blues Society. That appears to have went over well, as it's happening again in 2023! Like last year, there's no heavier bands playing on Friday, July 15th, with the expanded five band roster (revealed in this SooToday article) including the returning Rusty McCarthy Band (in Rusty's fourth topline appearance on Stage 2) at 8:30 PM, blues/rockabilly quartet The Steeltown Playboys (who played the drive-in Rotaryfest in 2021) at 7:30 PM, reunited local progressive rock band The Hyperion Effect (new to any Rotaryfest stage) at 6:30 PM, ...

...2022 Stage 1 performers All The Tired Horses (featuring Treble Charger's Bill Priddle) at 5:30 PM, and blues rock veterans Smokehouse (also returning from Stage 2 last year) at 4:30 PM. Should be a fine way to embrace the blues and support the Sault Blues Society, so consider checking that out if you like the sounds of this lineup!

As for the main lineup on Saturday, July 16th, eight acts will take the stage (down one from last year), and like on Stage 1, half of these bands are festival newcomers! Fresh off of their high profile album release, local alt-hard rock quintet Handsome Sandwich will headline Stage 2 at 8:30 PM in their second year on the bill, and it'll be good to see their momentum continue with a strong placement at Rotaryfest! Local progressive rock mainstays Machines Dream will co-headline at 7:30 PM, just over a month after the two bands perform at the Sault Community Theatre Centre for Soo Soundcheck. Counting their 2010 set as The Craig West Band, 2023 will mark Machines Dream's record sixth appearance on the Second Stage (seventh at Rotaryfest period counting 2021), so that'll be worth noting for fans! As well, it has since been revealed by Machines Dream that their original lineup is reuniting for gigs this summer, Rotaryfest included.

While not a metal band, Machines Dream are ultra talented, so don't miss them in July either! Young local indie rock band The Hollow Heads will return from last year for a set at 6:30 PM, while fellow Clusterfolk alums Distich will bring their folk/indie originals to Rotaryfest for the first time at 5:30 PM. Veteran local folk singer/songwriter M.D. Dunn will play his fourth Stage 2 set and first since 2018 at 4:30 PM, and the opening three acts are all Second Stage newcomers. Rising local folk musician Matthew James (who just moved here last year) gets the 3:30 PM slot, while veteran singer/guitarist Brian Tremblay will surprisingly make his first ever solo appearance at Rotaryfest at 2:30 PM. The opening band at 1:30 PM will actually be new local hard rock quartet Far From Fine (née Ravencore) in their first announced show of 2023, though you'll have seen 3/4ths of the band play Rotaryfest on both stages in the past.

As always, Stage 2 is FREE and ALL AGES, and this year's lineup has a nice balance of new faces and familiar standbys to take in, plus some heavier counterweights to bookend the proceedings! Weather permitting, this should be all be a fun time for local music fans, so visit the above links for more on Stage 2, Stage 1, and the rest of this year's Rotaryfest festivities!

We'll close today with some assorted recent updates, and as usul, these are in alphabetical order by artist name:

 

• In a clarification of their announced summer concert schedule, local southern hard rock trio Bone Yard (who are not playing Stage 1 this year) have confirmed that they will be subbing in for Soundcheck as hosts of the Thursday jam night at Jay's Piston Broke Pub in all three of the weekends that they're booked for this summer, now including June 29th and August 17th. Reasons for the switch were not announced, but if Soundcheck's okay with the breaks, hopefully fans and jammers will be too! In a comment reply in a personal Facebook share of the updated schedule, frontman Greg Simpson confirmed that they are not playing at Jay's next Saturday due to a private booking elsewhere.
• The aforementioned Far From Fine confirmed on their Facebook page yesterday that they are currently recording at Mission Control Studios, sharing a picture of drummer Austin "Mickey" McCrae laying a track down. This is presumably for the debut album that they have been teasing since the then-Ravencore mentioned said plans in this SooToday article after last year's Toystock. Definitely good to see and hear, so stay tuned for more from Far From Fine when it's announced!
• SooToday contributor Chris Belsito posted this article on May 18th in the wake of the latest Mikey & His Uke cover video (covering Nine Inch Nails' "Wish" with Tony Hawk on vocals), which confirms new details about the video. Tony's scenes were filmed in his San Diego hometown, and yes, that was Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor in a cameo! The man welding behind Mikey Hawdon in his scenes is actually Mikey's dad Ken, who is a steelworker, and Mikey has gotten to know Tony well through online chats around their four collaborations so far. Fun read, so check it out above!
  

 

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

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Tym Morrison), Vanity Updates, And New Cover Videos!!

I wasn't expecting to have a new post on the SMS today, but a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT came to my attention, so I wanted to get this up just in time before I missed the show entirely! To fill things out, we have a couple of new cover videos and big updates from a rising young punk band, so here's what you should know!

Local hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison will return to Reggie's Place on Queen Street East for a matinee concert TODAY! I profusely apologize for the short notice, this show was originally announced via its Facebook event page on February 27th, but it completely slipped us by at the time (note that the event page was through his personal account, not his proper solo project's Facebook group). Tym was last seen at the downtown Reggie's exactly one month ago, and if you're familiar with his unplugged classic and hard rock covers and very prolific setlist, you should expect lots of entertaining music from Tym TODAY! Yes, this is a matinee as usual for his Sunday gigs at Reggie's, and everything starts at 3:00 PM (again, I'm sorry for the late notice!) Expect a 19+ age limit and no cover charge, and while this will be Tym's first public show since vaccine passport rules were lifted, face masks are mandatory for one week longer, with that mandate lifting on March 21st.

While restrictions are loosening, please respect any posted health guidelines and recommendations at Reggie's to ensure that everyone has a safe time TODAY! See above for more details, and here's Tym live!

Next up, here's the latest from local punk quartet Vanity, who have quietly modified their name to Vanity First circa March 6th, as per updates across their online pages & channels. A reason for the name change was not announced, but it could be related to the Vanity name being extremely common, with eight bands on Bandcamp using the name Vanity alone, including two who give punk as a genre. Tags used on Facebook since seem to indicate that they might use Vanity as a shortform name still, and the name change does not apply to their demo EP from last month. I'm cool with the extended name, especially as it's more distinct! While still just Vanity, the guys had been teasing recording a song at Mission Control Studios with producer Dustin Jones last month, and they confirmed on Monday that the song in question is their existing original "Playboy Magazine", as featured on their demo.

The proper studio version of "Playboy Magazine" will be released on Wednesday at 11:00 AM, and it will be Vanity First's Spotify debut, so keep that in mind in case it's not imminently posted elsewhere! The guys documented the sessions on their TikTok page, with videos including this slideshow of the guys recording in studio alongside a very chipper backing track and a female announcer (and a katana?!), plus this short clip of them recording backing vocals. Most recently, they posted this preview of the "Playboy Magazine" re-recording, so let those 15 seconds tide you over until Wednesday! The vocal recording clip aside, all were cross-posted on their Facebook page, but Vanity First have uploaded a couple of Facebook exclusive videos in the past week, including a black & white clip of guitarist Mikhal Muto covering the guitar solo from Megadeth's "Tornado of Souls". I love that song, and he did a good job with it, shame the video doesn't have the whole track!

Embedded below is Vanity's last video before announcing the name change, a multi-camera music video cover of Green Day's "When I Come Around" from March 4th featuring multiple angles of the guys performing in studio intercut with frontman Andrew Beggs singing the verses while walking to the right, destination unclear. I wouldn't have had the aspect ratio switch from landscape to portrait orientation for the Andrew walking scenes, and the colour of the clips is too inconsistent as cameras change, but the editing and performance are solid otherwise! Give all of Vanity First's updates a look above & below, and look for their new single on Wednesday!

Finally for today, here's a new cover video from prolific local folk punk/extreme metal musician Chase Wigmore's Facebook page on Wednesday, here featuring Chase tackling Black Sabbath's "N.I.B."! This video features heavy post-production filtering, adding a green tint and a mirrored background layer, with the performance proper being acoustic with reserved yet increasingly ominous vocals and lots of crazy fingerwork on the solo (alas, out of frame). Solid and creative stuff again from Chase, so give this cover a watch below, and visit Facebook to see his detailed response about what his musical background and influences were!

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

Oh!No 2017 Music Festival Fallout, Plus More New Video Finds!!

Here's another new post for your Wednesday morning, featuring a few familiar recent subjects for regular readers! This one is another video-heavy post, this time featuring a solo cover, a studio sample, and a concert performance from last year, but first, here's some of the first fallout from a major debuting festival earlier this month!

We'll start today with some of the first fallout from Saturday's Oh!No 2017 Music Festival in nearby Leeburn, and while we still wait for promoters Six, Two, Oh.'s teased footage of every band, the Facebook event page has became a hub of sorts for media from the concert, including a fair amount of photos showcasing Robbie's Church, the scenery around the venue, and many familiar faces either performing or attending. Fellow promoters Live705 were also on hand to do sound for the event, given that A Dire Setback were already playing that afternoon. Aside from two videos from Bear Hunters singer Nik Deubel focusing on Jack Spades' guitarist Daniel Horton's adventures with a canoe near the venue (which are amusing!), the only videos on the event page come from attendee Janette Wallace, including this video featuring the camping area and scenery around the church, and as embedded below, a video of funk/hard rock quartet The Elements' set from early in the day!

Filmed at a nice overhead angle (I like when venues are formatted with that option), I believe this is 24 seconds of an Elements original, but the video was uploaded in intentionally inverted colours as part of a contest, where the first person on Facebook to guess the band would win two tickets for the rest of the Oh!No Fest (congratulations to Abbey Lynn Ridley by way of Martin for winning!) Friendly tip, paste a screenshot of Janette's photos & video into Windows Paint and press Ctrl+Shift+I to see everything in proper colour, but The Elements sound good from what we hear, so give this video a look below, and see more from Oh!No 2017 above!



Next up, here's the third and final video of inactive local classic/hard rock cover quintet That's Chester from guitarist Gabe Tessaro's YouTube channel, this time from their farewell set at Rotaryfest last year! This clip is of their rendition of April Wine's "Roller", though the band will look slightly different than you may be used to, as original singer Richard Fullerton came back home for their set & handled solo vocals here, while Dan Belanger took over second guitar for their set in place of the late Eugene Orlando. Regular frontman Greg Simpson & fellow guest vocalist Jeannine Jefferson sat this particular cover out, but Greg rejoined the band at song's end to give a shoutout to Rich and Dan, and the two singers did share the stage during the set. This is a fun cover of the classic April Wine number, and Richard's back in his element with his old band, plus I like the visual of the filmer walking down the aisle between the seats to begin the footage, which you can see below!



Also today, here's a video that we missed back in July for acknowledgement on the SMS (apologies for that), and it's a preview video of a studio track from The Bear Hunters forthcoming second studio album "The Dead Testament"! Filmed at Mission Control Studios by producer Dustin Jones and shared to the studio's Facebook page, this is a 45 second sample of the studio version of "Servitude", via filming the tracking computer with cameos of the band (minus Josh) at the end, and they seem happy with the results! Of course, this isn't an optimal look at "Servitude" in audio quality or length, but it's great to see that work is progressing, so give it a look below!

 
Finally for today, here's another new video from Sault Michigan classical metal band Theatre of Night's Facebook page back in August that we hadn't previously shared here, though this one predates their public unveiling of any Christmas tour plans. This is a solo vocal cover by keyboardist Craig Harrison of "Come As You Are" by the Christian folk artist Crowder, as filmed with a vertical camera angle in monochrome. This is another solo cover of Craig's where he holds the camera out himself and definitely looks like he's in the groove once again, and while I'm not familiar with the original song, Craig's singing's is on point and has emotion to it, so give this one a look as well!



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

New Videos, Inactive Sault Ontario Bands, And Miguel Gauthier Updates!!

Today's post mostly clears up some recent news and updates that have been waiting for a free moment to plug on here, so what's on tap? All relating to the Sault Ontario area, we have a recent solo cover video upload, a 2 year old video find of a local hardcore performance, and notes on some likely inactive local hard rock projects, but first, here's some info on what a prominent local music personality has been doing in the early 2010s!

Are you curious to know what former local producer and MBM frontman Miguel Gauthier has been up to since moving from the Soo to Los Angeles, California in October 2010? Well, we can find out in a recent SooToday article by Donna Hopper featuring interview comments and reflections on his local and more recent work! The article was actually posted last week, my apologies for it being lost in the shuffle until now. We touched on his move at the time, but in the article, we learn that Miguel chose to relocate to a bigger city with more opportunities 3 years ago, taking Stereo Soul Studios with him, but he has flourished since the move! Though nothing directly ties to metal of his recent output, he's done fashion photography & film work, music production & mixing, and work as a sound engineer for numerous TV and film projects (even on Dexter!), most recently winning a Best Fashion award at the La Jolla Fashion Film Festival for his short "Lovers Game". It sounds like Miguel's found his groove in California, and though his exceptional production is missed for local bands, it's great to see a Saultite doing so well with his career, and I wish him continued success!

Remember, when operating Stereo Soul Studios locally in the late 2000s, Miguel produced albums for bands like Woods of Ypres, Garden of Bedlam, Gates of Winter, and Stillbroke, along with doing studio work with As It Stands, Sense of Truth, and many other local bands. He's never forgotten his local output (even fondly looking back on his Gates of Winter work in the SooToday article), and many of his local projects are still on Stereo Soul Studios' website, so check everything out there, and read the full SooToday article at this link!

Next up, here's notes on two local metal/hard rock acts that we're now listing as inactive on our band links. One is the solo project of Hydra's Teeth/ex-Late & Loud guitarist Brendan Christie, who had maintained and recorded some very promising solo originals in the late 2000s, including planning at least one album. However, his band work has arguably been his focus in recent years, and there hasn't been any dedicated solo updates that I've seen since (at the latest) last fall, with his last MySpace page uploads being Hydra's Teeth demos. Brendan's solo work was really solid, and a nice precursor to Late & Loud, so hopefully he revisits that work in the future! The other likely inactive band is Durera (formerly The Diego Experience), the CASS Cafe-launched hard rock sextet that had been sporadically active since 2008. They last made a band-related update to their Facebook group in June of last year, and that (plus singer Keegan Gjos moving to Sudbury soon) leads me to think that they've also fallen inactive.

Durera had talent (as their Diego Experience-era videos on guitarist A.J. Biron's YouTube channel indicated), but they had room to grow from some earlier and younger sets in their CASS Cafe run. Hopefully the guys stay active in music, and best of luck to Mike, Keegan, A.J., Brent, Ben, and Ty in the future! Stay tuned for more notes on inactive and broken up bands as I hear them!

We'll close today with some new video finds, starting with a newly discovered clip of defunct local hardcore quartet Changing Waves! This comes from the Smeltzer reunion show at The Oddfellows Hall on August 12th, 2011 that they were among the openers for, and it was uploaded to YouTube by attendee Kate Fantham the very next day. You'd think this would have been on the site by now, but she actually forgot which band this was, so it's just labelled by the show's name on YouTube. Luckily, only two bands that night featured a singer who didn't play an instrument, so it was easy to figure out who they were! Featuring Changing Waves' classic & final lineup, I can't place the song off hand, but I don't think it was on their free demo. Kate likely filmed this on a cell phone camera (hence the dimensions), and the quality isn't great, with dark lighting, very staticy audio, and a 19 second audio cut-out 1:17 in. Still, Changing Waves do sound heavy from what I remember, and the crowd's definitely into it, so check out this new video discovery below!



Finally for today, Ashes To Dust guitarist Alex Hemy uploaded another solo performance video onto his YouTube channel on Wednesday, and it's a cover of 3 Doors Down's "Be Like That"! Like his Eagles cover from earlier this month (which is now unlisted for unknown reasons), this utilitzes multiple camera angles with Alex singing and playing guitar, and I think his clean vocals work better here, with his tone and pacing fitting this song better! Sure, it's not a heavy song, but we know Alex's track record, and he has the talent, so check out his newest solo cover video below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for our Airbourne preview and more news this weekend! Thanks everyone!