Saturday, February 16, 2013

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Banned), Lion Ride's Last Original Songs, And Much More!!

Keeping with recent news updates, we have a bunch of stories to cover on this Saturday morning at the SMS, so what's on tap? Today, we've got news on studio material from a prominent local hard rock band, another newer act's newest lineup changes, and a glimpse at what would have been for an unreleased album, but first, here's LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for next month across the river!

Kinross hard rockers Banned have announced yet more upcoming concerts, as they'll return to Dondee Lanes in Sault Michigan over St. Patrick's Day weekend! As revealed on their Facebook page on Thursday, this will be Banned's first concert weekend at the local bowling alley/concert venue since their Dondee debuts last month, and they should have an entertaining set of hard rock and classic rock covers and originals in store on March 15th & 16th! Plus, if you're a partying type, this is a perfect weekend to have a drink or two (or more), so why not partake in that revelry with some hard rocking music as well? Both of these shows likely have no cover charge and a 21+ age limit, while 8:00 PM start times are advertised. Check the above links for more details! Hopefully Banned's possibly new lineup rocks out well over the St. Patty's Day weekend, and of course, don't miss them TONIGHT at Todd's Tavern in Moran!

Next up, here's a cool new posting from prominent defunct Sault Ontario/Toronto metal quintet Lion Ride! A year after their disappointing breakup, the band uploaded all four studio tracks from their unfinished second album to their YouTube channel on Wednesday to check out as part of one single upload! In order, the songs are their last 3 originals "Snail Trail", "Bang Bang, Bye Bye", "Stick It In", and their cover of The Pointer Sisters' "I'm So Excited", and these were all recorded in 2010 at BWC Studios in Toronto with producer Greg Dawson. Though we've heard most of these studio tracks already from MySpace & YouTube postings, this has the first publically available studio copy of "Bang Bang, Bye Bye" (barring soundtrack uses) that I know of, so this upload is notable on that basis alone! Note as well that the band's labelled the songs as their "final EP", but if there's an official paid release planned for the tracks, I haven't heard of it (nor am I sure if the used image was planned to be the album's cover.)

It's great to hear the studio copy of "Bang Bang, Bye Bye" in full finally, and it flows nicely with Lion Ride's other 2010 tracks, which would have been a great base for a studio album! It'd be interesting to see all of Lion Ride's studio tracks (including the "Awesome" EP, "Lazer Lover", and "My Baby's Bad") grouped together as a summative 12-track full length album from their local run, but given their breakup, that's a longshot idea at best. Check out all four of Lion Ride's last songs below, and cross your fingers that we'll get that farewell show (or any type of reunion) at some point down the road!



Thirdly, remember Sault Ontario hard rock notables Sailor's Tongue? We've heard very little from them since their return to the live concert stage at Rotaryfest last year, but they are still alive, and they're even working on new material! As posted on drummer Dean McKey's SoundCloud page over the past year (though the newest songs went up on Wednesday), the new songs are entitled "Shadow", "Out of the Woodwork", "Wired For No Sound", and "Float", and I believe they feature their current lineup, including singer/guitarist Kyle McKey, guitarist Liam Seymour, and bassist Jeff Brown alongside Dean on drums. According to a Facebook page comment reply in December, Sailor's Tongue are hoping to have a new record out this year, so I assume these new songs would go towards that. Assuming that's the end goal still, I won't give an in depth review of the tracks, but they remind me of Sailor's Tongue's earlier work, all showing a heavy groove and audible classic rock influences, punctuated with Kyle's unique clean singing tone!

I recommend checking out Sailor's Tongue's newest original songs at this location, and stay tuned for any possible updates from their camp, including hopefully a return to the stage sooner or later! They're a talented band for sure, and they hit some big heights way back when, and it'd be great to see the guys ascend the ladder in full in 2013 and beyond!

Finally for today, here's the latest news from newer Sault Ontario hard rock band Unbound! In the past week or so, the band quietly updated their lineup on their Facebook page, which was a likely necessity following the sudden passing of singer Justin Fratpietro last month, but how does the band look now? It's been confirmed that bassist Kevin D'Orazio has taken over lead vocal duties with Unbound going forward, while also trading his bass for the rhythm guitar (similarly to State of Misery's brief quintet run in 2011.) Though we've seen him do backup singing live, he's somewhat of an unproven commodity as a lead singer, but drummer Nick Kainula has spoken well of Kevin's vocals to me, so we'll have to see how he does in concert! As a result of Kevin's move to vocals & guitar, Unbound have also added Christopher "Nessy" Neveau as their new bassist, returning them to a quartet lineup. Christopher's likely best known for his mid-2012 guitar work with March Into Regression & With Blood Builds Character alongside Unbound lead guitarist Ray Cowan, and though I'm not familiar with his bass skills, hopefully he adds well to their new lineup!

Other news is forthcoming on Unbound's future, such as their live debut and any Justin Fratpietro tributes, so keep an eye out at the above links, and hopefully the guys make a huge splash in 2013 as I'm sure Justin would have wanted! That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news & notes soon, including this month's newest poll and last month's poll results on Monday! Thanks everyone!

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