New Videos & More Sault Ontario Updates!!

For just the second time in our last ten posts, we have a post focused mostly on Sault Ontario news and updates (entirely in this case), so if our Canadian readers have felt neglected, this should help matters! Today, we have a new YouTube song posting and more assorted notes from recent days, but let's get things started with Haggith drummer and prolific local solo musician Mike Haggith, who posted a new concert video onto his YouTube channel yesterday, courtesy of his rare solo concert appearance at the fourth annual Sewer Swampstravaganza at The Oddfellows Hall on May 10th! Filmed by bandmate Daniel Horton, this is of Mike playing his creatively titled original "This Potato May Be Used As A Flotation Device" from his newest album "A Place Of Our Own", and it's well filmed from the center of the crowd, capturing one of Mike's more aggressive recent originals! Remember though, Mike used backing tracks that he played himself to fill in the non-vocal/guitar gaps. Check out Mike's new video below, and don't miss our likely review of "A Place Of Our Own" this month!

Next up, here's the latest from local experimental death metal duo This Is Your Band On Drugs! In their first Facebook page post since a teased "album" recording session on May 18th, singer/guitarist Chase Wigmore said that "I'm still being a carny. See ya guys in October", referencing his current job with a travelling fair. Hopefully that's going well for him, and we look forward to some new T.I.Y.B.O.D. activity in the fall! In the meantime however, the band's label Blood Shed Productions posted a YouTube copy of the band's original "Convictions" onto their YouTube channel on Saturday, as originally featured in this free download from last month. The production quality isn't fantastic, but the creative intensity still shines through, and while not for everyone, there's a clear audience for it! Check out "Convictions" below, and keep an eye out for more from This Is Your Band On Drugs this fall!



Finally for today, here's six assorted shorter news stories from the last while, and all are from Sault Ontario! As usual, these are in alphabetical order by band, venue, or series name:

• On Friday, local death metal notables The Bear Hunters updated fans on their Facebook page as to the current status of their planned debut CD "Eternal Hibernation", saying that production values will be raw and not overly polished, but cited that this can very much be an aesthetic choice. YouTube sample uploads were also teased, so keep an eye out, and don't miss them in Cochrane next weekend!
• A new local bar and concert venue named Dana's Bar & Grill just opened on Friday at 523 Queen Street East (beside Stone's Office Supply), and while a band range isn't known yet, Dana's can be seen as a spiritual successor to the closed Smack Daddy's, with both bars sharing many of the same staff. It does have a full restuarant and a retro theme, so check the above link and this SooToday article for more info, and we'll let you know if some hard rock shows get booked there!
• Read into this however you want, but defunct local classic metal quartet Late & Loud posted a status saying "Rumours of war" onto their Facebook page last night. Are the guys teasing another reunion, or is this just a random post with another intent? Stay tuned just in case!
• Due to fan demand, local cyber/goregrind solo project Malignant Neoplasm are now printing some limited CD copies of their newest demo "Music?", which can be seen in affiliated band pages, and are available on personal request on a "pay what you want" model. Message the band A.S.A.P. if you're interested, and stream "Music?" for free at this link!
• Local hard rock quartet The Suicide Kings are briefly featured in Local2's video coverage of last week's 21st annual Musicfest (a.k.a. Bratwurst, Beer, and Beethoven), where they're seen for short stretches at 1:22 and 1:59 of the video, which otherwise features an interview with MC Tim Murphy and showcases other performers & vendors. Not a huge look at the guys's set, but it's well filmed, so give it a look above!
• Also in the realm of Local2 videos (which their video host doesn't allow external embedding of on here), the newest episode of their music profile video series Tuned with Donna Hopper went up on Friday, and while it mostly features the recent Moka Only rap concert in the Soo, Donna does profile Monday's Pixo Control concert and next weekend's Public Animal\ show at The Rockstar Bar in the concert calendar segment. Give it a look (especially for hip hop fans) at this link!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for last month's poll results and this month's new poll tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (The Bottom Line), The Pixo Control Concert Preview, And More!!

We're still in our current upswing of Sault Michigan-centric news and notes, so this post includes a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for July in the E.U.P., related new video finds, and some more assorted notes, but we do have a Sault Ontario concert preview as well! With that said, here's what you need to know on this Sunday morning!

New local hard rock quartet The Bottom Line will play their second announced concert set on Sunday, July 20th when they'll be among the performers at the annual Music & Art Dockside festival in nearby Hessel, Michigan that day! My source is the band's Facebook page on May 5th, as organizers have not announced a performer lineup yet that I know of. Though The Bottom Line didn't detail the festival when they announced their involvement, the Music & Art Dockside festival will be held at the Hessel Marina grounds & gazebo, and if past years are any indication, there will be live music, arts & crafts, and regional shopping and merchants to take in at this annual event, which hasn't previously been a spot for heavier local bands. Times for the festival will likely be from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM, this is an all ages event, and there's no announced admission costs. For more details, check the above links and the event page for last year's festival, and stay tuned in case we get confirmation of other performers!

We'll get back to more from The Bottom Line in a second, but first, here's a new Sault Ontario topic (I haven't forgotten this side of the border!), as local alternative hard rock trio The Pixo Control will play a special Monday night show TOMORROW when they make their way down to Cafe Natura! A healthy foods cafe and natural medicine store at 75 Elgin Street that largely attracts acoustic and folk performers, Cafe Natura has found success with it's target audiences since opening, so keep it in mind for this special show! Also, The Pixo Control teased a guest performer for this show on their Facebook page yesterday, possibly cellist Emma N-K (heard here), so keep an eye out! They will be the local openers for Halifax folk/alternative musician Jon McKiel (who The Pixo Control have covered live) and Nova Scotia indie/experimental duo Construction & Destruction, both of whom have a talented sound in their genres, so be sure to check both out via the above links!

The first Cafe Natura show we've fully covered on here, this ALL AGES event has an 8:00 PM start time and $10 cover charge, so visit the official Facebook event page for full details! It'll be interesting to hear how this show does, but folk and indie fans would be best served to come for Jon McKiel's unique originals alone, and the openers (Pixo Control included) should set the tone well also! Keep it in mind for tomorrow night, and here's The Pixo Control live at The Oddfellows Hall!



Next up, here's one last note relating to The Bottom Line, as guitarist Joe Jenkins has a YouTube channel featuring solo guitar performances of his in the past couple of months! These mostly are of jamming and riff ideas, though two videos are of titled songs ("That Wicked Side" and "Pitch Black", which is embedded below), and it's unclear yet whether these are/will become Bottom Line originals. A mixture of harder riffs and softer compositions are on Joe's channel, but the heavier ones sound like good candidates for band expansion, and while guitar solos aren't a high presence, Joe has clear ability and can definitely produce some heavy material, so check out "Pitch Black" below, and click here for more!



Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news stories from the last little while, and fitting our recent topic trends, all relate to bands or events outside of Canada! As usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist or station name:

• Sault Ontario goregrind label Blood Shed Productions have surprisingly announced the addition of a British one man goregrind project named Peppermint Green to their artist roster, making them obviously the first non-regional band with the Blood Shed. Their first song together can be streamed at this link, and label loyalists and grind fans will enjoy it, so give it a look if you want, and we'll see how the Blood Shed continues to spread in the coming months!
• Rock 101 DJ Scott Cook announced on their Facebook page yesterday that he'll be interviewing shock rock legend Alice Cooper on the air at around 9:30 AM tomorrow morning during "Scott & Brian in the Morning", obviously in advance of Alice's Kewadin Casino show on June 27th. Awesome news, so be sure to listen in if you can at 101.3 FM, as Alice is a legend who's been very good for local appearances! Tickets are still available!
• Courtesy of his upcoming solo album "This End Up!", Dafter solo artist Ken "SweetKenny" Sutton has posted a new track named "Rain" onto his Reverbnation page to stream, so give it a listen via the provided link! I won't give thoughts about it yet due to a likely review of the album this summer, but fans won't be disappointed!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and such this week! Thanks everyone!

Friday The 13th New Music On Werehold Records (Part 7)

As promised, our second half of our feature on Sault Michigan area label Werehold Records' newest Friday the 13th new music is now up on the site! Though this is the fifth time that Werehold have posted new music from their affiliated artists on Friday the 13th, this is just the second where we can't fit everything into one post of a reasonable length, so we saved the last four alphabetically for this second post. As a result, visit yesterday's post to hear new music from The 1,000,000,000s Who Died, the long awaited Awaken Eidolen, Drayton Fever, and East Branch! Moving further down the alphabet, let's first look at the newest song from Werehold's flagship band, Eckerman metal quartet Life's Eclipse, which is entitled "Firebreather", so what should you know? To be featured on an upcoming album named "Invasion", this is an instrumental metal track that has a nice heavy riff and solid groove & melody, plus extra guitar effects and keyboard parts for good measure, and it lives up to Life's Eclipse's past standards! Give "Firebreather" a listen below!



Next is Life's Eclipse frontman/Werehold owner Jason Mills' regional hard rock band Moss, whose Friday the 13th song is a rough version of their original "Trilobite". A mid-paced rocker, it's suitably heavy and has a solid rhythm, but it's also an instrumental. I will say that it's not as rough as the YouTube description implies, and fans of Moss and local hard rock should definitely take to this track, so check it out below!



Brimley electronic project Palaver also contributed a new song this year, named "3636", and while it's not a metal song, it is dark and has the vibe of a boss theme in a 16 bit video game, for what that's worth. As far as electronic music goes, Palaver deliver the goods, so check out their new Friday the 13th song above! Finally for this latest Friday the 13th is the newest song from Strongs "backwoods metal" trio Swampghas, and it's entitled "The Starving Rust". To be featured on their long gestating debut album "The Raco Tower Incident", this song is similar to some of the other songs from Friday, but it has a slower and more straightforward sound with less frills (and no vocals again either.) Existing Swampghas fans will have little to complain about, and Jason, J.R., and Doug are in usual form, so give their newest song a listen below!



Although this is the only Friday the 13th of 2014, Werehold fans may want to buckle their seats, as there are three Friday the 13ths next year, including two consecutive in February and March, so if Werehold Records keeps up the tradition, 2015 will be the biggest year yet! Look out then and before for more news and material from Werehold Records, and stay tuned for more local metal and hard rock news and notes soon as well! Thanks everyone!

Friday The 13th New Music On Werehold Records (Part 6)

For the fifth time since April 2012, Eckerman, Michigan label/studio Werehold Records have posted lots of brand new music onto their YouTube channel to coincide with Friday the 13th, so in this special feature post today, we'll look at the first half of the new songs! In fact, there's nine today for the first time since the inaugural Friday the 13th spree two years ago, courtesy of 8 acts (mostly of the local metal variety), including our long awaited first glimpse at a mysterious project, but we're going to break up our coverage of the new Werehold tracks into two posts due to the amount, with the other coming this weekend. We'll touch on the songs in alphabetical order by artist name, so Life's Eclipse, Moss, Palaver, and Swampghas' new songs will definitely be in the second half! Now, to the first four songs, one of which being a new song by Isle Royale extreme metal quartet The 1,000,000,000s Who Died entitled "Pile of Tongues", and while the band is still somewhat of a mystery, there's promise in this short instrumental track, especially guitar-wise! That said, the drums sound very artificial, and they can be a bit too relentless, but give it a look at this link!

Moving to local bands, we finally have our first public look at Awaken Eidolen, a band that Werehold Records has teased in postings since last summer, but revealed nothing else on until today, so what do we know now? Well, the name alludes to waking the dead, but we still don't have an online page, confirmed lineup, or home base for them yet, but their new song "The Urge" is definitely a metal track! An instrumental rocker, it's got a steady crunch to it that's reminiscent of some other Werehold projects, but perhaps more melodic. I'm digging it, and hopefully we'll learn more on Awaken Eidolen soon, so give "The Urge" a listen below!



Next is the only project to get two songs on this newest Friday the 13th spree, that being local thrash solo project Drayton Fever! Led by Half A Man alum Doug Reed, his new songs (ironically both 4:58 in length) are called "The Browning" & (as embedded below) "Beatnik", so how did these turn out? "The Browning" has more of a groove metal/Pantera vibe to it, while "The Beatnik" has more of a diverse spread, ranging from a grungy into to full thrash at it's peak. Doug's vocals are effectively harsh, and these songs definitely fit with past Drayton Fever originals in intensity, so check out "Beatnik" below and more above!



Lastly for today's Friday the 13th Werehold coverage is "XYZ", the new song from Strongs metal project East Branch! Led by Swampghas' J.R. Johnson, you largely only hear from East Branch on Friday the 13th, and this is their most unique track yet, consisting entirely of what sounds like sputtering machinery or repetitive drum beats. I'm sure there's a message here that I'm not getting, but it's a far cry from their past songs, which lean to a dark metal base. Interesting if nothing else, so give "XYZ" a listen below!



Remember, we'll complete our look at Werehold Records' newest Friday the 13th posting event either tomorrow or Sunday with a look at Life's Eclipse, Moss, Palaver, and Swampghas' new songs, so be sure to come back to the SMS over the weekend for them and more news and notes from the area! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (LemmaFest), A New Local Band, And More!!

For the fifth time in our last six posts, we have a mostly Sault Michigan-centric assortment for you guys on this Friday morning (actually, 100% from across the river today), including a new preview video, a huge LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for next weekend, and leading things off, a new local band, so here's what you need to know!

We have a new local hard rock band to add to our links on the site, and they are a Sault Michigan quartet named The Bottom Line! Launched on April 7th, their lineup notably features Highest of Fives bandmates Mitch Goetz on vocals and Jack Slater on bass, alongside guitarist Joe Jenkins and drummer Will Storey, neither of which I'm familiar with from recent area bands. Self described as "high voltage rock", the guys will make their live debut next weekend (more on that in a second), but have also indicated that they'll be playing a gig in Hessel in July that we'll plug in an upcoming post, which I'll confirm is part of an annual festival there. No full videos or setlist hints have been posted yet of The Bottom Line, but their Facebook page does share some videos of Will drumming (one linked here), and he definitely is skilled at this instrument! Check out the other drum video below, and stay tuned for much more from The Bottom Line as we hear it!



As for The Bottom Line's first live concert appearance, you can see them on Saturday, June 21st (one week from tomorrow), as they're among the performers at this year's fourth annual LemmaFest, which finally got a formal lineup confirmation from promoters on Wednesday via their Facebook page! 8 individual acts are scheduled for this outdoor festival outside of Dondee Lanes, which is a bit small compared to previous years, and the lack of Scofflaw (who played each of the last 3 years) is surprising, but here's who's advertised! Three LemmaFest veterans are scheduled to return this year, including Munising metal quartet Infathom (featuring Sault-area native Dillion Semasky on vocals), local alternative/grunge trio Plastic (now with Aaron DePalma on drums in place of the departed Paul Burns, source here), and solo country/pop artist Caitlin LeBlanc (who played an unadvertised set in 2012), so all should fit in well this year! The new bands include the aforementioned Bottom Line as well as Division of Sanity, a young local rock band whose online music output is largely acoustic, but have indicated that they play metal songs also, so it will be interesting to see how they sound at LemmaFest!

The other 3 acts are somewhat more mysterious as of right now, and they include a solo artist named Mike Kowalski (genre and instruments unclear) and bands named Nightmare Grin and Mr. Fister, who currently lack online pages and a high amount of concrete info. I do know that Nightmare Grin's drummer is I.S.O.M. alum Bart Rennels (nice to see him in a new band!), and I've heard scattered rumours relating to both bands, but full lineups and genres are hopefully forthcoming in a public form, though as we've seen with bands like Great Bodily Harm and Power Slug, online pages aren't a guarantee. Time slots for this year's LemmaFest have yet to be announced, but the poster above looks realistic to the order, for what that's worth. In memory of the late Mike Lemma and Jon Hackworth (who sadly passed away in January), admission for this ALL AGES event will be $10, with the day's events beginning at 12:00 PM, and there will be prizes & draws, a pig roast, bowling specials, and more, with proceeds going to the Hackworth family.

For more details, visit the above links and the Facebook event page! This should be a great event, and even though the lineup is surprising due to the number of newer projects and lack of some familiar recent bands, they're all rocking out for a great cause, and hopefully Mike & Jon are looking on somewhere and enjoying this year's festival! Stay tuned for updates (particularly on Nightmare Grin & Mr. Fister), and don't miss LemmaFest IV next weekend!

Finally for today, we have one last note with a Bottom Line connection, as Mitch & Jack's other hard rock band The Highest of Fives released a new trailer for the second chapter of their ongoing short film "Bang!" to their YouTube channel yesterday! The first chunk of the trailer features a slow motion chase scene, and it ends with assorted out of context scenes from upcoming installments, plus a very brief audio clip at the end. It doesn't tell us much, but it does give a tease of what we'll see in part 2, so give the trailer a look below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for That;s all for today, but stay tuned for special features on a recent glut of video posts (also from the Sault Michigan area) in the coming days! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Power Slug), Weekend Concert Previews, And New Videos!!

For today's post at the SMS, we're mostly focusing on previews of this weekend's local metal/hard rock concerts, including a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for TOMORROW across the river, but note that we'll be holding our preview of Sunday's Pixo Control show at Cafe Natura for our next post to give it proper emphasis closer to showtime, as it's a little early to preview it yet. We also have some cool new concert videos from a regional acoustic trio rounding things out, so read on for what you need to know! (Updated at 9:05 PM)

Sault Michigan hard rock cover trio Power Slug will return to The Savoy Bar & Nightclub TOMORROW NIGHT for a solo headlining show! Apologies for the short notice, the band (and Uncle Si) just announced the event on their Facebook page yesterday. Though the first live event ever announced on their Facebook page (and first I can 100% confirm in our area in a few months), this might not be too far off their last Savoy show, if the Midnight Oil cover filmed there was any time recently. Either way, there will be drink specials all night for Chris, Bob, and Chris' entertaining set of hard and modern rock covers, so don't miss your chance to chug your mug with Power Slug TOMORROW NIGHT! For reference, Fridays are also The Savoy's ladies night. You must be 21 to attend tomorrow's one night only show, there's no announced cover charge, and I assume Power Slug would be on by 10:00 PM. For more details, check the above links, and here's the band covering Thin Lizzy's "Jailbreak" at The Bird!

Moving to previously announced shows, Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison's weekly concert arrangement at The Harp Bar & Grill on Pine Street will enter it's 28th consecutive week when he headlines their weekly jam/open mic night TOMORROW! Note however that like in a few other recent weeks, Tym will likely not be playing a solo show on Saturday night due to The Harp's expected live broadcast of UFC 174, similarly to a few other preemptions from earlier this year. If you're up for some solo acoustic hard rock action (and perhaps open mic performers), be at the former Madison's Pub tomorrow to take in what should be some talented and proficient covers, as Tym has more than impressed this year at this venue! Admission should be free for this 19+ event, and a 10:00 PM start time is likely. Check the above links for more details, don't miss Tym's unplugged cover classics tomorrow night, and here he is at Mill Square last summer!



Also, Sault Ontario classic hard rock cover quintet The Thrill Junkies were scheduled to make their long awaited return to the concert stage (and first set with their new drummer Rick White) this Saturday at Runway Park as part of the second annual Algoma Ride For Autism festivities, but they have been forced to drop out of the event, as per bassist Justin Langlois in a recent Facebook conversation. All I'll confirm is that it's due to a medical emergency related to a band member, and unless the band says something publically, I won't elaborate further on that, but hopefully all turns out OK! In their place, local punk trio Redundant (also featuring Justin and Rick) will make their Runway Park debut in their first live concert in 4 months, and they're a fitting & convenient choice, so keep them in mind for some punk action on Saturday! Though there's no longer a known hard rock band on the lineup, this is still a great family event, featuring a motorcycle rally through town for autism awareness & research, family events and games, a barbeque, and more, so click here for full details for this FREE & ALL AGES event on Saturday at 10:00 AM, and hopefully we see The Thrill Junkies again soon!

Finally for today, remember Train Wreck, the acoustic trio from Brimley, Michigan that memorably covered Hellyeah & White Zombie at a private event last August? Well, as we alluded to on the site, they reemerged this past weekend for Brimley's annual Lupine Festival, but we didn't call it as a concert as I was waiting for more of a bead on their sound and genre. Well, it's official: Despite being acoustic, they have a very heavy side, and if they had an online page, they'd be in our band links now! Frontman Erik Rintamaki (also of Half A Man) posted 10 songs from their Lupine Fest set onto his YouTube channel on Sunday, and they include renditions of Sublime's "What I Got", White Zombie's "Thunder Kiss '65", The Stone Temple Pilots' "Plush", The Black Keys' "Lonely Boy", Everclear's "I Will Buy You A New Life", Slade's "Cum On Feel The Noize", Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Bad Moon Rising", Nirvana's "About A Girl", The Red Hot Chili Peppers' "The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie", and Guns N' Roses "Used To Love Her", so click each link to hear each song!

Note that while Erik and drummer Rafe Rosini both returned for this outdoor set, I believe they have a new guitarist to replace Mitchell Willis, identity yet unclear (in any event, he sings on some of the above songs.) These songs are all effectively turned into acoustic songs, with Erik's raspy vocals nice to hear again, and the other guitarist carries a softer vibe that works well, and it'll be interesting to see if Train Wreck turn up for some more area shows! Check out their Slade cover below, see more at the above links, and hopefully we'll hear more from Train Wreck soon!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for our Pixo Control preview and more from Sault Michigan in our next post! Thanks everyone!

Defunct Local Band Profile Series: A Shade Of Light & Route 69

With the 10th of the month now upon us, it's now time for this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles! This monthly feature series looks at one or two local metal or hard rock bands (all selected randomly) that, though no longer active or together, should get another look with a current audience! This month's bands include a Sault Michigan area solo project that, as they lacked a lot of surviving information, were supplemented by a Sault Ontario band, one we originally planned to look at 3 years ago in this series before their brief reunion, so it's nice for them to finally come up in the random selection again! Now, here's this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles! (Updated at 11:23 AM)
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A Shade of Light

Genre: Alternative/Progressive Rock

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan

Members: (This lineup information may be incomplete. Let me know at robertfigures@outlook.com if you have any additions or corrections!)

Juan Sarduy, vocals/guitar
 

Info/Analysis: Launched in June 2006, A Shade of Light was a hard rock project based out of Sault Michigan that was led by musician Juan Sarduy. Their MySpace page described their sound as sounding like "the gentle crack of rain that strikes the ground", cited influences from the likes of Iron Maiden and Coheed & Cambria, and described the project in a cryptic biography that alluded to escaping reality & entering a dream. An unplayable video on MySpace shows Juan playing live with an uncredited drummer, but no extra band members were confirmed before their page's last update in April 2008, and Juan would later move to Pennsylvania. A Shade of Light's 3 surviving demos show some unique promise, with their only song exceeding a minute in length ("What Do You Need") showcasing a progressive and melodic flourish that sounded like a good starting point for bigger things, though the songs are unrefined and lacking other instruments. It's hard to say how far this project could have went, but give this acoustic video of Juan a look below, and see one more acoustic video at this location!


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Route 69

Genre: Experimental/Progressive Rock

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
 
Members: (Members not in their last full lineup in italics. This lineup information may be incomplete. Let me know at robertfigures@outlook.com if you have any additions or corrections!)

Amanda Vespini, vocals
Jeremey Salatuk (Wishbone, Lucky 13, The Chosen), guitar
Josh Donofrio (Thin Ice, Leaves Off Trees, Mustang Sally), bass
Glen Thomas (Flat Stanley, The Peace Vibe, Wishbone), drums/bass
Ed Vowels (Lucky 13, Aftersight), vocals/guitar
Jeff Pennet (Big Iron, Marshal Law, Swamped), drums

Audio/Video: No known media from Route 69's run is known to exist at present online (at least, not in a publically viewable form), but Route 69's MySpace page had indicated that they were influenced by everyone from Alice In Chains, Pantera, and King's X to Blue Rodeo, Ted Nugent, and The Beatles. For reference sake, Route 69 likely share the most similarities with frontman Ed Vowels' more substantial local band work (including his and Jeremey Salatuk's current cover band Lucky 13), while the progressive elements can widely be seen in many of Glen Thomas' recent bands.
 
Info/Analysis: Self described by bassist Glen Thomas as "a wild card band" due to the members' diverse musical backgrounds, Route 69 began in 2005 as a side project cover band that played a number of gigs at Docks Riverfront Grill in the mid-2000s, though surviving information from the peak of their run is minimal at present. After falling inactive in 2007 with members moving on to more active projects, Glen & guitarist Jeremey Salatuk resurrected Route 69 in 2011 (notably with a female singer) with the goal of playing live again and recording original songs, though nothing substantial occurred publically in their second incarnation, and the band split up for good in mid-2012. While no public videos or songs survive from Route 69's run, their lineup was full of talented local veterans, and the combination of Ed's gritty hard rock base and Glen's progressive rock influences must have worked out well! Hopefully some media pops up of them down the road, and follow the members' more recent live bands!
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I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles! Next month in this series, we'll begin a new 1-1-1-1-1 cycle when selecting bands on each side of the border, meaning we'll stay in Sault Ontario, but for just the second time since last August, I'm projecting a single band profile due to what I'm forecasting to be enough info to supplant a single post in this series. The band in question (randomly selected as always) is Despised Eyes, a late 2000s metal band featuring future members of Skull After Betrayl, so look out for that on or around July 10th, and stay tuned for more news and notes later this week! Thanks everyone!