YouTube Channel Profile Series: John Mignacca.

For this month's YouTube Channel Profile, we're looking at just one randomly selected YouTube channel for the first time in nine months today, which seems like too long, but the joys of a random draw! As usual, this monthly feature series looks at 1-3 YouTube channels with at least 50% of their videos being relevant to local metal, hard rock, or punk bands and/or concerts, in order to spotlight their content and hopefully encourage readers to check them out and subscribe, and this month's (still updated) channel has lots of videos to check out, so here's what you should know!
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John Mignacca. (http://www.youtube.com/asitstands420)

Owner: Skeyes of Seven drummer, Dillinger producer, and former local concert promoter John Mignacca, also known from previous drumming work with bands like As It Stands & Out Of The Mouth Of Babes

Channel Timeline: Launched on August 9th, 2010; Videos posted from the following month through December 2014

Channel Summary: Originally intended to be a new official YouTube channel for defunct local hardcore quintet As It Stands, this channel first featured two A.I.S. studio tracks, a studio blog, and a loose rap jam between John and singer Justin Pregent. Since the band's last show in August 2012, John transitioned this channel into one for personal use, generally for solo drum covers (7 as of this writing), with other uploads including a solo electronic track, an improvised video of him drumming in a local music store, and a humorous clip of what appears to be his dog responding to an online video.

Why Should You Watch: Give John's channel a look for some solid late-era As It Stands material and for extended (and diverse) drum covers in particular, as he has wide ranging musical interests that come through in these uploads! However, there are no videos yet of John with Skeyes of Seven, there's only the one electronic song for Dillinger fans, and no A.I.S. material from before their 2010 reunion is included, but John does still actively use this channel. For reference, his original YouTube channel (which we profiled in this series in 2012) features two extra videos from his late 2000s band work.

Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

Rise Above - As It Stands (2010): The first two uploads on what was then As It Stands' channel were of studio recordings that the band held in mid-2010 at Stereo Soul Studios with producer Miguel Gauthier, shortly before he and the studio moved to California. Recorded not long after the band's reunion that summer, the songs are "One Last Chance" and (embedded below) "Rise Above", the only video on the channel to surpass 1,000 views. Featuring A.I.S.' classic & final lineup (including John alongside singer Justin Pregent, guitarists Garrett Masters & Albert Bourrier, and bassist Angelo Huckson), both of these songs demonstrate a heavier, tighter, and more intense As It Stands than had existed in the late 2000s, and with great production too! Fans can hear more select studio recordings on the band's online pages.



As It Stands - Studio Blog 2011: Though long-gestating plans for their third CD never saw their planned conclusion, As It Stands took a road trip to Mississauga in June 2011 to record tracks for the unreleased album (then considered an EP) at Metalworks Studio with producer Kevin Dietz, documenting the trip and assorted goings on with a cell phone camera for this vlog posting. The camera work isn't optimal at times given the vertical angle used for much of it, but you get strong audio of the guys recording their parts for the tracks (including their cover of Blink-182's "Stay Together For The Kids") and some fun moments including John getting acrobatic, a dancing chicken mascot, and even a stop at a beach. There was no third disc, but the studio blog gives a glimpse into what could have been!



The Rival Cycle - TREOS (Drum Cover): All of John's videos since 2013 have been of his own drum covers, including of a late As It Stands original (the curiously titled "Oh Herm, Herm Delish") as well as a diverse array of covers from the likes of A Day To Remember, Christina Grimmie, two different versions of Skrillex's "Avicci", and as embedded below, The Recieving End of Sirens' "The Rival Cycle". Specifically uploaded in January 2014, this is played on an electronic drumkit, but is solidly done like the others, with John clearly demonstrating his considerable drumming ability on each, but fans of his hardcore band work might not take to some of his cover choices.


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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! Through 100% random selection, our next profile on June 22nd will be on the YouTube channel #TrebleCharger (we're not starting to use hashtags here, that's it's title), which features song uploads from four of the local/Toronto indie/punk band's albums. Watch for that next month, and stay tuned for more news in the near future! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Garden Of Bedlam), Their Newest Video, And Lots More!!

In what will likely be our last non-poll/preview/review post for a few days (I'm clean out of back news stories right now), we have some assorted topics and randomness for you guys on this Wednesday morning, including more updates to our monthly CD reviews, some shorter news & notes, a new video from a local metal band, and leading off, a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for said band's next concert, so read on below for all that you need to know!

Local metal standouts Garden of Bedlam are returning to the stage near the end of the month! Three months since opening for Anvil, the guys will make their first Rockstar Bar appearance since May for a concert on Tuesday, October 30th, which will double as both a Halloween/Devil's Night concert and as an 18th birthday celebration for local music/skate shop The Rad Zone! Awesome to see them still thriving & rocking the Soo, and they're helping present this concert from their friends (and one employee) that should attract a sizeable crowd! Similarly to other Halloween-timeframe concerts in town, there will be a costume contest (and a door prize) with Rad Zone gift certificates at stake, so bring your best costume if you want in on some of the action! Like Garden of Bedlam's previous Rockstar Bar shows, there is no announced opening band, and there will be a 19+ age limit, a $5 cover charge, and a start time likely around 10:00 PM or later. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page!

It's great to see Garden of Bedlam finally back on the local stage, and this adds really nicely to a busy stretch of Halloween shows in town, which (for one weekend at least) will help alleviate the slow stretch of heavier concerts in Sault Ontario! Though it's odd that this isn't on Halloween weekend itself, hopefully Devil's Night is a blast, and I definitely hope to be at The Rockstar Bar on the 30th! Possibly to promote the new show, Garden of Bedlam posted this new drum-cam video onto their current YouTube channel yesterday, and it's of drummer Derek Turner playing "Everything Will Die" during a recent band rehearsal! Great quality, and you get some closer glimpses of Derek drumming than we ever tend to see, but part of me would like to see the full band's angle as well. We'll get our chance on Devil's Night, but before then, check out their new "Everything Will Die" drum-cam video below!



Also, here's three assorted shorter news stories from the last little while, and as always, these are in alphabetical order by band name:

• I've moved Bear Hunters guitarist Mitch Sirie's black metal solo project Eden Plague to our inactive band links due to his deletion of their Facebook page (and impending year's inactivity next week.) Mitch worked on this project for about a year from 2010-2011, and he had some heavy material, but he's focused more on his bands lately, including the yet-revealed Sorrow Fields, another solo project. I like his Eden Plague work, and hopefully Mitch revisits this stuff down the road!
• Eckerman, Michigan metal quartet Life's Eclipse posted another promising instrumental metal demo named "The Beaten, The Fallen, The Mercy" onto their mainman Jason Mills' SoundCloud page last week, so check it out at this location! Very heavy and technical, and it should add well to their newly planned "Dark Kingdom" album when finished, so give it a listen above!
• If you were curious on who the new local band/Dearly Beloved openers The Northern Tragedy were, they're a punk trio featuring Changing Waves bassist Terrence Gomes on drums & vocals alongside guitarist Mike Ivany & bassist Corry Rideout, and they're somewhat similar to Terrence's old Good Morning Gorilla work. Not metal, but their first video has catchy parts, so click here to check it out! Thanks to Terrence for the info! (Note that I don't know if The Northern Tragedy's existence means anything negative for Changing Waves' status.)

And finally for today, here's some more updates to the information and pictures used in our monthly CD reviews! Note that almost all of these include restored or replaced photos to make up for MySpace/Facebook link changes or photo deletions. On our review of Stillbroke's only EP "Never Enough", I edited references to their now-inactive status, the EP being out of print, their later name change to Borderline Divine, and indicating that the only song to survive into the Borderline Divine era was "No Reason". In our reviews of Woods of Ypres' 1st, 2nd, and 4th albums,  I've updated & detailed references to their then-lineups (including frontman David Gold's passing) along with the availability and release statuses of the albums, which are for the most part online-only at the moment. For our review of Detroit's "Brace For Impact" EP, I freshened up some references and reinforced their inactive status and this album's status as their last release, while on our review of Garden of Bedlam's first EP, I noted where you can hear it for free at present, as the band has posted it on some of their pages. Stay tuned for more updates to our monthly CD reviews at some point in the future!

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

News From Brendan Christie, Free Refill, Hollow, And John Mignacca!!

Here's some assorted news and notes for your Saturday, including some cool video finds online relating to a local drummer and a Sault Michigan band, some new material from a local solo artist, and leading things off, a concert relocation, so here's what you need to know!

Veteran local metal band Hollow will still have two shows over their one weekend reunion next week, and they won't have to go too far for a new spot for the Saturday concert! The band announced on the Facebook event page yesterday that their concert originally scheduled for August 6th (one week from today) has been moved from The Canadian Nightclub to Bossy's Pub & Grub, which is just seconds down the road. A move for the Saturday show was necessitated due to the flooding at The Canadian two weeks ago, but it's nice to see that they found a conveniently close new spot! We haven't talked much about Bossy's here, but since changing their name from Smack Daddy's Bar & Grill earlier this year, they've gotten more into concert booking, bringing bands like Redundant and Asylum Country there to rock Bossy's on weekends. Add Hollow to the list for this coming Saturday! No other changes have been reported, though the cover charge could be different, as I don't know what cover Bossy's usually has, if any. Get more details at the official Facebook event page! Nice spot for the moved show, but if that date doesn't work for you, remember that Hollow will still be at The Rockstar Bar on Friday night! I hope to be at the show at Bossy's (more convenient for me time and location-wise), and hopefully you guys can also come out for the big reunion shows! Check the above links for more!

Next up, Late & Loud guitarist Brendan Christie has posted three new solo instrumental songs onto his solo project's MySpace page! Unlike the softer "Foot Of This Hill", these are heavier leaning, so here's what you should know! One is called "The March", and it's a slow metal song that does feel like a march is in progress, with some nice driving rhythms and melodies mixed in! It could probably be built on more for a fuller song, but it's very promising! Also new to his page is part 1 of a solo song named "Quantum Mechanix", which is just 69 seconds long, but gives us a cool look at a slower cymbal-heavy metal number! I definitely wanna see where it leads, cause it starts well enough, but there's not a lot to go on with it yet. The other new song is a rough draft called "Shining Down", which feels the most like a complete song of the three, with nice tempo and heaviness changes, and a great guitar solo section! Brendan has some real talent, and it'd be interesting to see him package some of these songs into Late & Loud originals after they returned from their hiatus! Check the above links to give his newest original songs (and more) a listen!

We'll close today with videos, and first, here's some older videos I just came across yesterday of Sault Michigan hard rockers Free Refill! With a summer gig finally popping up for them at the Sugar Island Music Festival, I did some researching to see if they had anything else new online, and I found some videos on their website I'd never seen before! These are actually from the band's set at the annual Sidewalk Sales in Sault Michigan from August 2009, and though they've been on YouTube since shortly afterwards (courtesy of user amourdete's YouTube channel), I've only just seen them now! The videos all feature their former five-piece lineup (including ex-guitarist Tyler Wall), and they're of Free Refill covering Pearl Jam's "Even Flow", AC/DC's "Back In Black", and The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army". The band do a good job overall, though Mary Gilbert's vocals sound forced on "Back In Black". The video quality is odd... it looks clear, but there's odd "purple dot" pixelization that I can't really describe, but the audio works! Nice videos, and it's good to finally see them, as Free Refill footage isn't readily available online. Check the above links for more of these videos, and here's the band's cover of "Even Flow" from 2009's Sidewalk Sales!



And finally, here's a random recent video find featuring As It Stands drummer John Mignacca! This video comes courtesy of the YouTube channel of Dave Hunter, frontman of the local pop punk band For July & owner of idioRECORDS, the former label home of John's old band Out Of The Mouth Of Babes. The video, which was uploaded on Monday, is of John playing a pretty cool drum solo on For July's own drumkit, and it shows John's talents well! They should have him do solos at As It Stands shows more often! However, the video has lots of swearing despite it's 64 second length, so if you're easily offended, take note. Worth a look though to see John laying out a solid drum solo, so check the video out below!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes very soon, including my preview of Monday's Alcoholic White Trash show and much more! Thanks everyone!