Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Battle Of The Bands Updates, Fifth Way News, And Much More!!

Our busy stretch of news at the SMS continues today with this stacked news post, so what's on tap? Today, we've got updates on the upcoming battle of the bands, another local band's recent out of town battle success (with a video to show for it), updates on a prominent band with a Saultite's next local gigs, the latest fallout from the David Gold tribute concerts, and leading things off, details on a missing guitar, so here's what you need to know!

This past weekend, Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison was the victim of guitar theft during the band's weekend set at The Roosevelt Hotel. The stolen guitar is his Yamaha APX500 guitar that he primarily uses for his acoustic solo concerts, and it was taken from the Roosevelt Hotel's back parking lot over the weekend. A picture and information on this model of guitar can be seen at this location, and you're bound to remember Tym playing this black acoustic guitar at most (if not all) of his recent acoustic solo shows. If you happen to have any information as to its whereabouts, please contact Tym on Facebook at this location or the Roosevelt Hotel at the above link or by phone at (705) 253-1411. I hope that Tym can get his guitar back, as I know that guitars aren't cheap, and that guitar's important for his solo gigs. If you see a black acoustic Yamaha guitar anywhere, let Tym or The Rosie know A.S.A.P., and hopefully this story will have a happy ending!

Next up, here's the latest updates surrounding the Sault Humane Society Battle of the Bands THIS FRIDAY! Despite what I'd heard previously about replacement bands not being sought, a new band has been added to the battle lineup, bringing the list of bands back up to 10 competing acts. That band is local indie rock trio Cowboys & Indians, who feature notable musicians like The Crossed 's Jordan Flesher, ex-Soldiers of Misfortune bassist Alex White, and former Shore drummer Aaron Dunn in their lineup! Notably, both Jordan and Alex have won local battles with the bands mentioned above (including The Crossed's victory in the last Bon Soo battle in 2007), so do not sleep on them come Friday! They were quietly added to the Facebook event page for the battle recently, though note that new blues rock quartet The Moves are still listed for the battle despite bassist Nathan Bouliane confirming to me last week that they were dropping out. Also of note for this battle: tickets WILL be available at the door, so you can pay the $20 entrance fee at the door on Friday as well! Finally, I'll note that most of our battle of the bands profiles from our Battle of the Bands Rewind Mini-Series have been updated to reflect The Moves' withdrawl and Cowboys & Indians' addition (as members of both have been in numerous recent local battles), so check out each profile linked on your right for the updates! Stay tuned for a preview of this battle in the next few days!

Thirdly today, remember how Detroit hard rockers Fifth Way are returning to Sault Michigan next Saturday to open for The Gin Blossoms at Kewadin Casino? Well, they have a lot more on their plate than just that gig, as revealed in an article in The Soo Evening News (Sault Michigan's newspaper) on Sunday! The article features brief quotes from former area resident & guitarist Zak Stelmaszek, and also details the band's sound and local ticket/album availability, along with plans to possibly make their Gin Blossoms set an acoustic gig, and some nicely written info on the band's military connections with their new song "Sacrifice" and new bassist Mike McMann, a corporal in the U.S. Army. However, the article also details some new performances before the big show at The Dreammaker's Theater, including a planned performance the day before on Rock 101 (presumably during "Scott & Brian In The Morning") and a private gig at Lake Superior State University (Zak's alma mater) next Thursday as part of the school's Engineering Alumni Bash. Sounds like they've got a lot of great stuff planned next weekend for their stay in the area, and hopefully everything goes extremely well for Fifth Way next weekend! If updates come in, I'll have them here for sure!

Also in the news, here's some more fallout from the recent David Gold memorial concerts! Final Woods of Ypres drummer Rae Amitay penned a very nice article for Metal Review entitled "Song of Redemption - A Celebration of David Gold" that was posted earlier today, where she outlined her experiences at the memorial concerts, including her set with Woods guitarists Joel Violette & Bryan Belleau at the Ypres Metal Fest in Sault Ste. Marie. She came across as very grateful and moved to have been a part of the tribute weekend, and she gave some very nice press and props to her fellow musicians and the Gold family, so click here for her full article! Also, Gypsy Chief Goliath drummer Sean Hamilton posted two more videos of the Windsor stoner metal band from their set at the Toronto memorial show on April 5th onto his YouTube channel, including performances of their original "Black Samurai" and their Woods of Ypres cover "Suicide Cargoload (Drag That Weight)", so click the above links to see the new videos! Like the local videos from this camera, these are on a mounted camera, this time on the stage's right, but they sound fairly muffled. Good stuff though, so check out the new videos at the above links, and stay tuned for more David Gold & Woods of Ypres news shortly!

And finally, while local classic hard rockers Turner Up may no longer be in this weekend's Humane Society Battle of the Bands, most of the members recently had some battle success of their own! 4/5ths of Turner Up, as you may know, play more frequently locally in the local rock cover quintet Havadder, and this past weekend, they made the trip to Spanish, Ontario (almost 3 hours east of the Soo) to compete in a battle of the bands there for cash and opening slots at Spanish's Rock N' Roar Festival on August 18th, where winners would open for Foreigner frontman Lou Gramm, among other acts. I'm glad to say that Havadder were among the winners, and though they didn't take first place, they did place in the top five competing bands (they were the only local band that I know of), earning them $500 and an opening slot at the Rock N' Roar Festival's second night! Congratulations to the guys in Havadder for sure! Now, Havadder generally play a general rock style of music, and don't quite cross the hard rock/metal threshold like Turner Up do, but they do occasionally cover heavier bands, and proof of that is from this video from YouTube user nlabelle78 of their cover of Alice In Chains' "No Excuses"!

Filmed on Saturday at their set at the Four Seasons Waterfront Complex in Spanish, this is a solid cover with some nice vocal harmonies, though the lighting is very band-centric and dark otherwise, and the audio has some muffled patches. Sounds good though, and I'm glad to see Havadder get a huge opportunity like this! Check out their Alice In Chains cover in Spanish below, and keep an eye out for more metal & hard rock performances by bands of other genres as I find them!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for last month's poll results & this month's poll on your absolute favourite local metal concerts of 2011 tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

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