Defunct Local Band Profile Series: Bucksaw

It's now time for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile, as we continue our monthly spotlighting of inactive metal, hard rock, and punk acts for current readers! This month's randomly selected band was originally assumed to not have enough public information to warrant a solo profile, but I was happily proven wrong, so I will be pushing our announced profile on Sault Ontario's Nowhere Fast to next month with a second low-info band to fill things out. Now, here's what you should know on this fan-friendly E.U.P. outfit from the early 2010s!
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Bucksaw (later known as Dirtbag In A Dress & Mr. Fister)

Genre: Hard Rock/Metal

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan

Members: (Members not in their last full lineup in italics. This lineup information may be incomplete. Let me know if you can fill in any blanks!)

Jason VanLuven (Paradise Excuse, 415E, Chump Change), vocals/drums
Bill Ogston (Blind Baby), guitar
Barney Gravelle (Scofflaw, Broke on Sunday, Retro Troop), bass
Mark Bowen (Paradise Excuse, Broke on Sunday), vocals/guitar 
Ryan Franklin, vocals/guitar 
Mikey Bishop (Half A Man, Bludgeoned, Summon), drums

Audio/Video: No public video footage exists of Bucksaw under that name, but under their later names, there is a fair amount of material to check out from LemmaFest III & IV in 2013 and 2014. Yooperlites' own Erik Rintamaki filmed four videos of Dirtbag In A Dress for his YouTube channel at the earlier LemmaFest, while filmmaker Wayne Kozeyah shot Mr. Fister covering Black Sabbath and Thin Lizzy songs at this link, as part of their wider ranging video footage from both events. Quality's solid across the board, so fans will want to check thee out, including Erik's longest video of theirs below!



Info/Analysis: First coming onto our public radar with a set at the inaugural LemmaFest outside of Dondee Lanes in June 2011, Bucksaw would reprise that set at 2012's second installment, though if they had any substantive activity at other concert events, they weren't acknowledged well online. In 2013, the band changed their name to Dirtbag In A Dress and finally launched a Facebook page to promote themselves, frequently sharing YouTube videos heavily implied to be songs covered in their setlist. After sets at LemmaFest III and a publically advertised house party in Sugar Island the following month, public updates died down before Bill Ogston & Barney Gravelle (their only constant members) brought the group back under the Mr. Fister moniker for the final LemmaFest in 2014 alongside the returning Jason VanLuven. Public updates did not follow, and the band is presumed to have folded by year's end.

While updates beyond LemmaFest were minimal, especially concerning the Bucksaw years, this band was an entertaining covers-heavy outfit, and from what I understand, they got heavier after their name changes, while still inserting some more general and country covers for good measure. With a lineup full of familiar faces from E.U.P. rock bands, plus solid singing from Ryan, Jason, and Mark depending on era, Bucksaw/D.I.A.D./Mr. Fister had a good thing going, and were surely a welcome sight at each LemmaFest, but don't miss members in their current local projects!
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I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profile! Next month in this series, we will look at mid-2000s Sault Ontario alt-hard rock trio Nowhere Fast as promised, but to round things out, I randomly chose a second band with similarly little surviving information to round things out with. As such, we'll also be looking at local hard/progressive rock project The Mourning Glory! Look for all of this on or around June 10th, and stay tuned for more news and notes soon! Thanks everyone!

A New Local Hard Rock Band, Plus New LemmaFest Videos!!

In the last post of our sixth year of existence, we're 100% in Sault Michigan for tonight, as we have a "new" band to profile and add to our full coverage, plus lots of videos at their most recent show from them and other bands, so read on below for what you need to know, and check out this weekend's concert previews (including some late notice gigs and a band name change) in the post below this one!

We have a new area hard rock band to add to our active band links, and they are the Sault Michigan trio Division of Sanity! Active since the spring of 2012, it took us so long to add them on here partly because most of their posted material was acoustic, and I was looking for some more evidence that they'd play hard rock either in studio or live, and we got that via their set at LemmaFest at the Dondee last month, but we'll touch on that in a bit! Division of Sanity's current lineup features singer/guitarist Caine VanderMolen (a recent local solo musician), guitarist/bassist Myke Young, and drummer Gabe Nunez, while a drummer named Nick Morgan played with the band in 2012, and Power Slug drummer Bob Helsten guested on some of their demos in 2013. A $3 demo CD is available through the band (and presumably at their live shows too), but it's contents aren't clear online. Caine's solo gigs aside, Division of Sanity's first show (I think) was at the Soo's annual Arts & Music Festival last August, but they only began regular area concert sets this summer.

We'll cover some of their announced upcoming gigs next week, but how about Division of Sanity's sound? As you may have seen at LemmaFest, Division of Sanity's live form is a hard/modern rock, possibly most distinctive by Caine's deep raspy singing voice, which reminds me of John Mayer at times, though everything is softer and lighter on the band's older acoustic demos. It will be interesting to see how Division of Sanity progress, including on if some more of their hinted metal ties come to the forefront! Older demos of theirs can be streamed at the band's YouTube channel, their BandPage on Facebook, and on Caine's SoundCloud page (the latter of which featuring select covers), and while their sound varies, there's talent present throughout! Their YouTube channel also features some interesting vlogs from Caine from last year, as well as some other content we'll share in the coming weeks, but now, to the LemmaFest videos!

Filmed by Wayne Kozeyah and uploaded to the D.O.S. YouTube channel yesterday, the videos include their originals "Seasons", "Isn't What I Said", and (as embedded below) their self titled song, and while the guys could be a bit livelier on stage, these showcase what I assume is their optimal live sound, so check everything out above and below, and stay tuned for more on Division of Sanity in the near future!

Also from Wayne Kozeyah, he uploaded this video onto his YouTube channel on Tuesday, which features video footage of 4 of the bands at LemmaFest last month! Nothing was included here from Infathom, The Bottom Line, Caitlin LeBlanc, or Mike Kowalski's sets, but the other bands are all featured, so what's present? In order, the video starts with two covers that we've already seen from Wayne's camera(s), those being alt-rock trio Plastic covering Tom Jones' "It's Not Unusual" and The Misfits' "Return of the Fly" (as previously seen on their channel.) After Mr. Fister's cover of Black Sabbath's "Fairies Wear Boots" (also first seen here), we get a new cover from the Bucksaw successors' set, that being of Thin Lizzy's "Jailbreak" that to me actually outshines the Sabbath cover, and sounds tighter overall! The third portion features Division of Sanity's self-titled song featured above, but here, it features an overhead camera angle to capture more of the crowd than Mr. Fister's did, which is a double edged sword as it highlights how few fans were close to the stage.

The second Division of Sanity song that Wayne included here actually isn't linked above, rather a different original named "Glare", which has a faster edge to it than the other videos that Wayne shot of their set, so give that song a look too if you're new to this band! The video closes with footage of Nightmare Grin (complete with the same camera angles) covering Guns N' Roses' "You Could Be Mine" & Ugly Kid Joe's "Everything About You", complete with a highlighted fan dancing near the end. Nice to get higher quality footage of Ryan, Bart, and company here, and while the GNR cover is slightly out of Ryan's vocal range, there's a great spirit and energy on both covers, and it will be interesting to see what this band has in store next if they're not a one-off project! If this encompasses all of the bands that Wayne shot at LemmaFest, then he did a bang-up job with an awesome camera, and hopefully he keeps up the great filming work in the future, perhaps at LemmaFest 5? Check out the full 29 minute video below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for something big tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

New Videos From The Alice Cooper Concert & LemmaFest!!

In what could be our last news post of the month (though this month's CD review is still coming by tomorrow), we're 100% focused on Sault Michigan this morning, as new videos from two recent major events are now online, with one clarifying a new (or renamed) band's sound, if only for one song, so here's what you need to know! (Updated at 10:09 AM)

We'll start with the first new YouTube videos from Friday night's Alice Cooper concert at The Dreammaker's Theater at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino, as there's a lot more now online than you might realize! "MissOutDoors" was the first known YouTube user with videos from the show, and believe it or not, she uploaded 29 videos from the concert onto her channel on Saturday! However, I will note that of them, only 8 are longer than 2 minutes (and only three run for over 3 minutes), while another 8 videos are all under 1 minute, including two running for just 12 seconds. Despite the amount of incomplete & abbreviated videos, many do capture readily recognizable songs, such as "Feed My Frankenstein", "Welcome To My Nightmare", "Dirty Diamonds", and this surprising cover of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall", but be sure to check the above links to see all 29! MissOutDoors had a good central angle to capture everything, plus the on-stage theatrics that have became such a trademark of his sets, but it'd defeat the purpose to spoil them here!

Audio-wise, the songs do sound muffled and they may be hard to make out on the shorter clips, but these are solid videos otherwise, if chopped up a ton beforehand. Alice and company sound on form from other recent gigs, he's held up well! Embedded below is the longest of MissOutDoors' videos (of a straitjacketed Alice singing "The Ballad of Dwight Fry"), but be sure to check out the other 28 above!



The other currently known YouTube videos of the show come courtesy of the YouTube channel of user nottheonlyboy, who has shot concert footage at other E.U.P. events, but as far as I can tell, never in the Soo until yesterday. His videos include "Hey Stoopid", "Poison", "Feed My Frankenstein" and, as embedded below, Alice singing his classics "Hello Hooray" & "House of Fire", though note that his footage of "Hello Hooray" is incomplete. Filmed at a similar angle to MissOutDoors' videos (if more to the left), the audio quality on nottheonlyboy's videos is much clearer and louder, and he got some nice zoomed in shots of the band in action, so Alice Cooper fans should really like these videos! Check them out above & below!



We'll close today with new videos from the fourth annual LemmaFest outside of the Dondee last week, including 26 minutes worth of local alternative/hard rock trio Plastic's set that day! Shot by local filmmaker Wayne Kozeyah and uploaded to frontman Zac Crook's YouTube channel yesterday, this is all of a very nice quality on a largely stationary camera near the stage, but does the music match up? Edited into highlights with dead air between songs clipped out, the songs include covers of The White Stripes' "Ball & Biscuit", Stevie Wonder's "Boogie On Reggae Woman", and Tom Jones' "It's Not Unusual", followed by their originals "Be My Angel" & "Butt Touchers" (I think?), and covers of The Misfits' "Return of the Fly" and the previously filmed cover of Thin Lizzy's "Cowboy Song", so click each link to go to the individual songs! Eclectic cover choices, but the guys effectively grunged them up like they did last year, and the excellent video quality doesn't hirt at all, despite some heads occasionally getting in the way! Awesome video, and a good sign for the future, so check it out below!



Finally, we have a video glimpse of the (sort of) new band named Mr. Fister that played at LemmaFest, so what do we now know? They definitely are either successors to or a renamed version of Dirtbag In A Dress (formerly Bucksaw), who were one of only two bands to play at the first three LemmaFests, and their lineup does indeed feature Blind Baby guitarist Bill Ogston, Scofflaw bassist Barney Gravelle, and Chump Change drummer Jason VanLuven (returning to replace Mikey Bishop.) Jason also appears to have taken over lead vocals from the departed Ryan Franklin, as seen in the video below, while Ryan wasn't replaced on rhythm guitar either. I have yet to see either a new page or an update to the old D.I.A.D. page to reflect Mr. Fister (including on if this was a one-off performance or not), but the aforementioned Wayne Kozeyah filmed the guys covering Black Sabbath's "Fairies Wear Boots", which he posted on his YouTube channel on Thursday, so how's this clip turn out?

Well shot from two different cameras (one overhead), the band sounds good on this cover, and while Jason's vocals take some adjusting to, they end up fitting well! I will nitpick about the overhead camera though, as it accentuates the lack of fans up front during this song, but other than that, this is a very solid rendition with nice guitar work, and it's nice to see the guys keeping some ties to all four LemmaFests via their participation last weekend! Check out Mr. Fister below, and I wonder if Wayne got any more videos, perhaps of Nightmare Grin?



That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news this week, plus our review of Mike Haggith's newest EP by tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Banned) & The LemmaFest 2014 Concert Preview!!

We'll close up this weekend's metal & hard rock concert previews with a well anticipated annual event in Sault Michigan today, including some extra info on some of the "mystery" bands, but first, here's a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for this August, with a related apology for a missed show from them!

Kinross hard rock trio Banned will return to The Runway Bar in nearby Hessel, Michigan for a one-night-only gig on Saturday, August 9th! Announced on the band's Facebook page on May 27th, this will be their first Hessel appearance in 6 months, and their first non-Kewadin bar gig within our coverage range since drummer Don Traynor's surgery in the spring, so it's great to see the guys playing more like normal again! In fact, this was one of numerous new events confirmed last month, including shows outside of our coverage range this summer in Gould City & Engadine and a handful of private gigs, though we regrettably did miss one local public gig announced then, as Banned headlined a community dance in Pickford this past Saturday as part of S.P.E.A.K.S. Education's Summer Festival. Not sure how that slipped by our radar, but our deepest apologies for missing it! Hopefully it was a great event, it sounded like it was for an awesome cause! As for Banned's Hessel show on August 9th, that has no announced cover charge, a 9:00 PM start time, and a 21+ age limit. Check the above links for more details, and stay tuned for more from Banned!

Next up, here's our extended preview of the fourth annual LemmaFest, as the annual Sault Michigan concert festival will return for another highly anticipated installment outside of Dondee Lanes TOMORROW! The first year that LemmaFest falls on the third weekend of June rather than the fourth,  this year's event will honour both the late Mike Lemma as usual, but also fellow Sault resident Jon Hackworth (a.k.a. Hot Tub Johnny), who suddenly passed away in January, and festival proceeds will go towards his family & related expenses, which is an awesome gesture! Like previous years, there will be a pig roast, prize and cash draws, drink & bowling specials, and t-shirt & mug sales, while local filmmaker Wayne Kozeyah will be distributing final copies of his LemmaFest documentary short that he made at Lake Superior State over the past year, and hopefully an online copy turns up online soon as well! The band lineup this year features just 8 acts, with only 3 or 4 bands returning from past years, and with regular bands like Half A Man and 3 time LemmaFest veterans Scofflaw not back this year, but there's still some known faces!

A full timeslot schedule hasn't been announced, but the descending order on the above poster looks reasonable for when bands are playing, so we'll go up from the bottom! If accurate, this year's headliners are Munising metal quartet Infathom (featuring area resident Dillion Semasky on vocals) in their third LemmaFest appearance, and their modern metal attack should be welcomed once again tomorrow night! A new (and maybe one-off?) band named Nightmare Grin are scheduled right before them, and while I can't confirm their sound yet, their lineup does include former I.S.O.M. drummer Bart Rennels and RedStone Riot/ex-Elipzis bassist Ryan Harrison, so they have some solid talent that we haven't seen in the Soo in way too long! Newer local rock quartet Division of Sanity (who have teased metal material in online postings) are also scheduled for around 7:00 PM in what should be their biggest local concert yet, so we'll have to see how they sound live, as they have talent on the acoustic demos that I've heard!

The fourth-last band will be local alternative hard rock trio Plastic (who debuted at last year's LemmaFest) in their first show of the year and first live set with new drummer Aaron DePalma (replacing the departed Paul Burns), so look for them at around 5:30 PM! 2012 LemmaFest performer Caitlin LeBlanc will play a set of acoustic pop/folk songs right before them tomorrow, while a band named Mr. Fister are advertised for the third slot tomorrow, so who exactly are they? It looks like they're essentially the current version of the band previously known as Bucksaw and Dirtbag In A Dress that played at each of the last 3 LemmaFests, though it's unclear whether they're a renamed version or a separate successor band. According to personal Facebook posts, their lineup includes Bucksaw alumni Bill Ogston on guitar, Barney Gravelle (also of Scofflaw) on bass, and Jason VanLuven (returning to replace Mikey Bishop) on drums, with singer/guitarist Ryan Franklin not recently mentioned. Though there's some uncertainties on Mr. Fister's (current?) form, it's nice to see lots of ties to all of the past three LemmaFests via their involvement!

The opening two performers will be new local hard rock quartet The Bottom Line (featuring Highest of Fives bandmates Mitch Goetz and Jack Slater), while a local solo musician named Mike Kowalski (genre unknown) will kick off the day's events at noon or shortly after. This ALL AGES event goes down tomorrow from 12:00 PM until the evening, with a $10 admission, so visit the Facebook event page and the above links for more details! This should be another great installment of LemmaFest, and hopefully the Lemma and Hackworth families are given lots of rememberances and financial help respectively at this great annual event! LemmaFest is one of the most notable annual concert festivals across the river, so don't miss out TOMORROW at the Dondee, and for a preview, here's Infathom covering Papa Roach live last year!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news this weekend, plus this month's YouTube Channel Profile! Thanks everyone!