Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Newly Posted Audio Material, Bands Looking To Play Here, And More!!

Hey guys, it's time for our 41st and last post of July in what has been our busiest month in SMS history! Hard to believe that we've never posted 40 times in a month until now, but with some major concerts and happenings in the past four weeks, it makes sense! If we get 34 posts in August, we'll break our 2 month posting record from last spring, but who knows what August holds. For now, let's clear out some more backlogged news, including a bunch of new audio uploads, some bands hoping for new concerts in the area, updates to one of our monthly feature series, and more assorted news, so here's what you need to know! First, let's talk about some new media from Sault Michigan hard rock project The Hubbard-Menard Band, who have posted six new instrumental demo recordings onto their Facebook page in the past few weeks! These include songs named "Soo-Inside" (no relation to the local band Sue Inside), "One More Time Around", "415E", "The Zone", "All For You", and "Reach Around", so click each link to hear the new songs! That leaves 3 songs yet unrevealed for their planned debut CD, but a track listing posting on their Facebook page reveals that the remaining three songs will be titled "Whatever", "Heart of Stone", and "Right Here", while also confirming that the one song is spelled "Run Ragged", not "Run Ragid" as it was titled on the video. Also, the album's last track (which was previously untitled) will apparently be called "The Stranger In Me". I won't give detailed thoughts on the new songs yet (I'm still operating under the premise that I'll review this as a finished album), and I can't embed them here (Facebook needs to allow that), but old Nixxon Dixxon, Splitshot, and Trail's End fans should enjoy what Chris & Dave are working on here! I'm intrigued, especially for Dave's singing, and you know we'll keep tabs on The Hubbard-Menard Band and their CD plans as more updates come in! Next up, here's another new song from new Sault Ontario grunge band Haggith! Entitled "No Cure For Insanity", it's a composition by singer/guitarist Curtis McKenzie as uploaded to his YouTube channel earlier this month, and though the YouTube description doesn't indicate any Haggith connections, it's definitely either in or will be in their setlists. It's an energetic hard rock number with melodic and vibrant guitar work and effective singing, but it'd be nice to see the full band performing on this one. Still, it's definitely worth checking out, and hopefully we'll see it on Haggith's planned first album, which they've indicated is being aimed for a 2013 release. Check out "No Cure For Insanity" below! Thirdly today, here's a couple more bands looking for local concert bookings this year! Firstly, I recently received e-mails from Wayne Holden of Reversed Records, who's looking to secure a local booking for Vancouver speed metal notables West of Hell in early November, likely the 6th or 7th. You may remember them as headliners at a Dismembertainment-promoted Canadian Nightclub show in May, and anyone that was there knows that they stole the show with their brutal and entertaining set of originals! I sent him some contacts, but in case they don't help, can anyone out there help book West of Hell for another local concert date this fall? If you're interested, e-mail Wayne at this location! Also, from last word that I had, North Bay black metallers Empyrean Plague were still on the hunt for another local concert, following successful stops in Sault Ste. Marie last fall and at the Ypres Metal Fest. Frontman "Builder" Mike Burge has made postings on SMS pages this summer hinting at their desire for another local concert stop this year, and I know many of us would love to see Empyrean Plague back in town soon, so if you can help them get a local booking, message Mike at this location, and stay tuned for some more out of town bands looking for local bookings! Also today, here's three assorted shorter stories from the last little while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by band or website name:
  • Eckerman, Michigan metal quartet Life's Eclipse have uploaded their song "Not Dead But Dreaming" to the Werehold Records YouTube channel! We've featured it on here before, so I won't go into a lot of detail, but it's a great instrumental metal song, and this version's of a higher quality than earlier postings, so give it a look! Also note that the description mentions that the album this will be a part of, "Shadow Over Superior", is based on stories by the writer H.P. Lovecraft.
  • Local punk trio Redundant have been confirmed as the local openers for THIS FRIDAY'S Riding Shotgun/Project Mars concert at The Canadian Nightclub! The news was broken via the new local event page for the show, adding to a busy stretch of shows this weekend for Redundant, including the Shotgun Dolls show at The Rosie on Thursday, and an acoustic set at Coch's Corner on Saturday. Interesting choice to open, but the talent is there, so don't miss them, and stay tuned for my preview of this show later this week!
  • SooToday's current poll is on what events you wanna see more of at The Essar Center, and among the numerous choices are "Metal music" and "Rock music"! As of this writing, the leading votegetter is "All of the above!" with 665 votes (30%-ish of the total), with rock music in second with 448 votes & metal in a distant fourth with 105 votes. Make your voices heard while the poll is still up at the above link, and click here for the current results!
And finally for this month, here's some updates to our Defunct Local Band Profile Series entries, to make them more accurate and current! On both the AtrophiA and Bring The Fallen profiles, I noted the name change of Bring The Misery to March Into Regression for both bands' common members' other notable band work, and I did the same on the AtrophiA profile for ex-bassist Ryan Gray's work in Free Beer, who I'd labeled under their lesser used name M.O.B.. On the M7K profile, I updated project leader Mike Vincent's band history to reflect his recent band breakups and include a brief mention for his old band Devastation of the Heavens. On the Harsh Heads profile, I noted guitarist Bob Bromley Jr.'s work in the London punk band Gatgas, while also adding a brief note on our review of their posthumous CD, and I edited the State of Misery profile to allude to their last show and latest breakup (while adding With Blood Builds Character as a later band of Ray Cowan's.) There's more edits to note next month, but check the above links for all that's different and new in this batch! That's all for today, but I'll see you guys in August with more news, previews, feature posts, and more! Thanks everyone!

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