Saturday, September 28, 2019

YouTube Channel Profile Series: The Karstens Official

Before I head off to the Michale Graves concert, here's this month's slightly overdue YouTube Channel Profile, as we continue our monthly spotlighting of YouTube channels whose content is at least half devoted to local metal, hard rock, or punk musicians and/or concerts! This month's randomly selected channel is all about a promising but social media-averse Sault Michigan band from the mid-2010s, so here's what you should know from them!
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 The Karstens Official (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbTQWrVzZaLy_T_jiOfNy4A)

Owner: A member of inactive Sault Michigan alternative metal quartet The Karstens, identity unclear (possibly Paul LeBlanc)

Channel Timeline: Launched on January 14th, 2017; Videos posted from that day through that August

Channel Summary: This is the official YouTube channel (and only public presence online) from The Karstens, who quietly ran locally in 2016 and 2017, but achieved some recognition at concert events in the E.U.P. during that time. The channel features two music videos, two live clips each from concerts in Brimley and Rudyard, a bass-only track for their original "Indian Money", and two short bonus videos shot when longer videos on this channel were filmed.

Why You Should Watch: Given that they had no other pages online to promote themselves, The Karstens' YouTube channel is absolutely essential viewing for fans of their run, especially as one of the few debuting metal or hard rock bands in the E.U.P. in the mid-2010s that weren't of the classic rock/bar variety. With an eclectic mix of solid originals and some very surprising covers, it's a shame that The Karstens didn't survive into 2018, but hopefully the guys are still musically active! For 2016 videos before this was launched, visit Wabaanimkii and racosun's channels.

Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

Sacrifice (The Karstens, Flipper Cover): Two of The Karstens' four live concert videos come from an apparent headlining concert at Pickles Bar & Grill in Brimley back in mid-2016, including a cover of The Animals' "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place", and as embedded below, Flipper's "Sacrifice". This video was originally posted onto Wabaanimkii's channel before being deleted and re-posted here in 2017. Hearing a local band cover these noise rock pioneers is really neat, and the performance has a nice groove, with the distinctively deep vocals being very effective! 

  
Dissatifaction (The Karstens): The first uploaded and most popular video on The Karstens' channel is a music video for their song "Dissatisfaction", which was filmed by Jayrwin LeBlanc in various outdoor locations in the area. Nice scenery and unique stage attire help this video stand out well, though they self-deprecatingly noted that the video was "recorded with a potato", which may explain the lo-fi audio quality. The song proper is more of a 1990s Cake-style song compared to their more aggressive, looser live performances, and only three band members appear for the duration, but it gets the job done! A 50 second long "behind the scenes" video was filmed during this shoot and posted to the channel not long afterward, as was a second music video for their song "Indian Money."

 
The Karstens at Rudyard Music Fest pt.1: The channel's last public activity (let alone the band's) came as a result of their set at the second annual Rudyard Musicians Festival in August 2017, with three videos being posted from this night. These include a visually shaky cover of The Stooges' "Down On The Street", a 30 second clip of another "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place" rendition to illustrate the disparity between monitor and P.A. vocals, and as embedded below, The Deli Creeps' "Binge & Grab." Karstens fans will know that they were huge fans of Buckethead and his related projects, as their multiple Deli Creeps covers would indicate. Well handled covers, the dark moody lighting actually helps the ambiance, and these are definitely worth a look for festivalgoers and fans alike!

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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! Next month, we'll look at two channels due to the first that I randomly selected only having two distinct kinds of videos from the same concert. As such, a second channel with only one video was added to fill things out. Look for our profiles of 1djminer's channel (featuring videos from the Three Days Grace concert here in 2008) and in a surprising coincidence that I did not plan, the aforementioned Wabaanimkii's channel, featuring a 2016 video of The Karstens! I use Random.org when picking channels in this series, this can happen, but stay tuned for much more soon. Thanks everyone!

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